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Faceplams: My friend's son just closed on a new construction 3-bedroom, 2-bath condo in Costa Rica.Originally Posted by elevenism
Bite me
My friend's son just closed on a new construction 3-bedroom, 2-bath condo in Costa Rica.
I was nobody. Nothing.
I hear Bolivia is nice.
Saul Williams fan.
Both Greece and Turkey are NATO members. Turkey has been violating Grecian airspace for years and Greece's Air Force is trying to stop them. The thing is that there is currently election period in Turkey, so there is a hate rhetoric where Erdogan is trying to turn all Turks against Greece just to show how tough he is, but not all Turks are the same. Our prime minister is doing all he can to find a diplomatic solution, but Erdogan is double-crossing things; on one hand, he is trying to be besties with Russia, but on the other hand he's trying to remain a NATO member. We've been having this heated atmosphere ever since '95, when a fight against Turkey in Imia cost the lives of three Greek generals, but nothing has happened since then. We hope that we'll find a diplomatic way to fix things and that we won't end up in a conflict.
I was nobody. Nothing.
Damn.
As much shit as i talk about the US, at least we don't have border disputes and conflicts with Canada or Mexico these days.
I hope to god there is no conflict, man.
I read articles about these things, and i worry about you.
Thank you for a perspective from an actual Greek who isn't a pro journalist, man.
On a lighter note:
Do you guys ever joke about Turkey being an actual turkey, like i do? "Turkey violates Greek airspace." (like a turkey flew over Greece).
"Turkey Seems Uneasy About American Thanksgiving season."
it's a dumb joke, but i'm goofy as hell.
Last edited by elevenism; 10-09-2022 at 06:56 AM.
Memb, Member, The Membest
Recently, like this or past year, that country's officials made it specific that it should be spelled Turkiye, with 'u' reading as in English 'bull'. That bit of information is pretty useless, but anyway here it is
Last edited by BenAkenobi; 10-09-2022 at 07:19 AM. Reason: bull
I was nobody. Nothing.
i think that's like the Mormons wanting to be called the LDS.Recently, like this or past year, that country's officials made it specific that it should be spelled Turkiye, with 'u' reading as English 'oo'. That bit of information is pretty useless, but anyway here it is
it's just not likely to happen in the english speaking world.
Also, we can't even agree on how to spell and pronounce the names of many Russian and Ukrainian cites.
But, yeah. For years, i've laughed at my own dumb sense of humor, reading headlines about Turkey.
"Turkey Aids US in Fight Against Al Queda"
What did the turkey do? provide intelligence? how did the US contingency understand what it was saying?
I hope you are well, brother. What i said to @wizfan , well, i feel the same for you.
Last edited by elevenism; 10-09-2022 at 07:23 AM.
Throbbing Member
@elevenism Actually it comes and goes, there was even a time in '99-'00 and during the very first years of Erdogan's leadership that things seemed to be getting well. Of all things, two consecutive earthquakes, one in Turkey and one in Greece, with many dead in both cases, actually brought the countries closer, as one helped the other recover missing people, gave medical aid etc. It even had a term, "Earthquake diplomacy". Sadly, these are ephemeral things in the grand scheme of politics. In the past five or so years it's the worst it has been since '95, which I ascribe to a combination of Erdogan's increasingly autocratic rule, his fear of losing power, Greece's decade+ of economic collapse, weakness and loss of prestige due to the debt crisis and the never-disappearing core of hardline militiarists in the Turkish government. It's such a crazy state of things because, overall, the Greek and Turkish people are getting along mostly fine.
I was nobody. Nothing.
well, FUCK. And i forgot that others from Greece post here; now i worry about you, too.
I definitely also appreciate your perspective, as well: reading an article.isn't the same as hearing from a Man of Greece.
My opinion of the Turkish gvmt, from a million miles away, is that they seem try and play play both sides, in EVERYTHING.
this perception of mine goes back to the early 2000s.
What you said about Greek and ....goddamnit this compterisfucking up give me justa minute
Edit: OK. @Alexandros , what you said about the friendliness between the Greek and Turkish PEOPLE is sad. This is the nature of politics, I suppose. WE are pawns, and the people in control play with our lives, knowing THEY'LL likely be ok.
It reminds me of something I've been thinking about quite a bit, as of late.
It was a 20/20 episode, or a PBS doc, or something like that, and I wanna say it was between 2000 and 2003.
In the show, they brought together like 20 young men and women, ten Russian and ten from the US, and had them spend a few days together.
At first, they were suspicious of each other, the two sides.
But after a few days of talking and activities, they were all friends, laughing and joking. Hell, a couple of them appeared, to ME, at least, to have possibly spent the night together.
There's this one scene that sticks out in my head, from the conclusion of the thing: it was this 18-20 year old Russian girl saying "I didn't understand at first. I thought you wanted to fight a war with us! But now I see that we're the same! We like the same music! None of us wants a war. We get along fine!"
The whole point, I think, was that "the cold war is over" and "we can all get along."
And now, here we are.
Last edited by elevenism; 10-09-2022 at 11:17 AM.
tempus est umbra in mente
@wizfan I thought I might dig Greece, and then I visited and got robbed at, well, almost gunpoint
I was nobody. Nothing.
You can get robbed at gunpoint pretty much anywhere, though, ain't it?
Like "Jinsai, I thought I'd dig LA, but then I got killed at Chicken and Waffles."
Edit: Sorry, man. I couldn't resist.
tempus est umbra in mente
yeah, it was kinda nuts, we were in a taxi, and then the guy randomly picked this other dude up to sit in the front passenger seat... and then they drove across this sorta highway across from our hotel, and there's a gun in the glovebox. He didn't pull it out and point it at us, but my mom just didn't get what was happening. She was all like "we don't owe you that much money! That's ludicrous!" and the taxi driver and his friend got irritated and the dude reaches for his gun and I just grabbed all the money she had in her purse and threw it at them.
It was super intense, and my mom had NO idea what was happening there. Like, mom, we're being fucking robbed. Figure it out. Fast. Or we're gonna fucking die.
Last edited by Jinsai; 10-09-2022 at 04:57 PM.
Bite me
@Jinsai Well, that’s an awesome story!
I knew a lot of Greeks in Detroit who never got over the burning of Smyrna.
Detroit author Jeffrey Eugenides wrote about it in “Middlesex.”
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burning_of_Smyrna
Last edited by allegro; 10-10-2022 at 01:39 AM.
tempus est umbra in mente
it was insane, and when I literally threw the money in the guy's face, he looked impressed... like kid, you've got some balls.
I think I was like 12 at the time. Then he guided us across an active freeway to our hotel
anyway... this is a huge detour from the thread! back to what we're actually talking about
Last edited by Jinsai; 10-09-2022 at 10:45 PM.
I was nobody. Nothing.
Well, fuck.
I guess Russia bombed the SHIT out of Ukraine in the wee hours, from Kiev to Lviv, and at least 5 more cities.
I think we're talking at least 100 strikes?
This happening just a few days after Surovikin, who has a reputation as ruthless, brutal, hawkish guy, was put in charge of the military (iirc)?
And the Chechnyan leader (can't think of his name) who suggested that Russia use low yield nukes...HE talked a bunch of shit, and Medvedev said some "this is the first wave" stuff.
Edit: Don't have time to get all quotes; I've a doctor's appointment, with Dr "no I won't call your referral in, the same one I've been giving you for years: come pay me money."
This fucker let me make a fucking 3 hour trip for my epilepsy appointment; the people at the desk said "it's fine, we'll just call the PCP, they ALWAYS give us a referral over the phone," but then he like...wouldn't? Sorry for drift.
Last edited by elevenism; 10-10-2022 at 09:20 AM.
tempus est umbra in mente
Jesus, I guess I gotta check the news. I can't believe he thinks he can just get away with this shit without consequences. Then again, they do have the nukes.
Bite me
Russia: 6257
U.S.: 5550
U.K.: 225
France: 290
That’s 6065 in the NATO Nuclear Alliance
Add India with the Agreement we signed with them under GW Bush (156):
That’s now 6221
If we add Israel? 90? That’s 6311
But the entire planet would be obliterated by that point.
tempus est umbra in mente
why does anyone need that many nukes...I don't get it. I mean, do you really need more than one or two nukes? If any one of these countries flies a nuke, that's enough and we're all gonna die. Like, 6000 nukes? WHY?
Bite me
No. As evidenced by the first, last and only time anyone has ever used any nukes. In 1945.
tempus est umbra in mente
and back then, we already had only two nuclear bombs, and we used both of em. Now we have thousands. If another world war breaks out, holy shit. We are super screwed. If the bombs start flying.... and if the world breaks out into the world now.... like if countries all over the world, one country is gonna start shooting the nukes to win the war, and they will get nuked back.
Millions of people will die, like hundreds of millions
Last edited by Jinsai; 10-10-2022 at 03:12 PM.
Bite me
And the nuclear fallout will last for thousands of years.
tempus est umbra in mente
yeah, if nuclear war breaks out, New York, Los Angeles, Houston, will all be wiped off the map. Probably Paris, Tokyo, Amsterdam... Every major city in the world will be destroyed, America will be reduced to rural bullshit, and who knows, that might get wiped out too
Active Member
It's a MAD MAD MAD MAD world...
Active Member
The nukes serve as a deterrent. They're not there to be actually used. It's a theory in international politics called "realism": because there's no international order, states will seek security first. And they'll get the ultimate security in deterring other states by amassing military power. That way, in theory, other states won't attack you, because the prize will be too high. But also, there's the so called "security dilemma", which ist used to describe the dynamic of states ammassing even more military power, once they realize other states are doing it, too. And so, that's basically why you have 6000+ nuclear weapons.
Saul Williams fan.
Holy fucking shit.(( Which city/region of Greece were you in?
Last edited by wizfan; 10-12-2022 at 08:19 AM.
Active Member
If we go to war with Russia, can we please put John Bolton on the front line?
Active Member
To quote Rage Against The Machine:
"There'll be no shelter here. The front line is everywhere."
tempus est umbra in mente
Yes, but you're dealing with Vladamir Putin, who is completely insane, and previously we had Donald Trump saying shit like "what's the point of having the bombs if you can't use em"
We can have irresponsible leaders who lost their minds and then we can go full-on The Dead Zone
Throbbing Member
Yeah, the problem with that theory is that it requires states to be rational actors. It all goes out the window when a leader becomes unhinged or when a state is backed into a corner and has nothing left to lose.
I was nobody. Nothing.
"You speak of mutually assured destruction? Nice story, tell it to Reader's Digest."
-Megadeth, Sweating Bullets
The only reason I bring this up is that NATO is about to stage fucking nuclear exercises a few hundred miles from Russia: Operation Steadfast Noon. (I assume the name is a play on the nuclear midnight clock or whatever it is)?
I've been mostly worried about a FINANCIAL crisis.
I get that these operations were supposedly planned a long time ago, but holy shit.
This...this feels like Cuban Missile Crisis territory.
Goddamn.
It's like, um...maybe DON'T do nuclear exercises near Russia this year, guys? I mean, you know, maybe not after Biden's talk of ARMAGEDDON, and Putin and Co's incessant nuclear threats?
Fucksake. Next week might be crazy...even crazier than Kanye's social media, or whatever is trending.
@Jinsai when you speak of being bombed back to the stone age, remember that even WE live like 50ish miles from where they supposedly build and dismantle all US nukes.
Why couldn't my great great grandparents have settled in some OTHER broke dick area, that wouldn't eventually have such a facility?
(Also, my brother and I were robbed at gunpoint for sneakers and Mavericks coats in far east dallas/garland in like 92. We just ran really fast.These days, I'd hand the shit over).
@allegro do you REALLY believe the numbers on US nukes? Why in the name of god would we be honest about that?
Last edited by elevenism; 10-12-2022 at 10:07 PM.
Active Member
Just think for a sec how cancelling those exercises would look. It would look like Putin's nuclear blackmailing worked! It would encourage him to go even further with it.
NATO cancelled quite a few exercises in the last few months to not provoke Russia.
Oh, and by the way: this war has never been about NATO, despite what Russian propagandists are saying now.
Also, look at the outcome from the latest voting by the UN: only four countries voted in Russia's favor. The vast majority voted against it. That's proof on how this conflict is not some kind of thing between Russia and the West
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