9 Comments

Ask Toomas to answer me this: is Zelensky a bad guy or a good guy and why? Is the government of Ukraine good or bad? Is it woefully corrupt? Was it, and now it's better? Or point me in the direction of something any of them have already written that answers the question. Pease and thankyee. Also don't say "well in our cups." You aren't in Westeros. :-)

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Spin, did you read the article we published yesterday by Christy Quirk, here? https://www.cosmopolitanglobalist.com/what-makes-ukrainians-special/ It answers a lot of your questions.

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I missed this response, thanks. I'll read it.

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Did Grandpa Ilves really have to flee Hitler AND Stalin, or is that a slight modification to make the story even more interesting?

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Sure he did. And my grandparents had to flee Hitler twice: once when he came to power in Germany, again when he overran France. Everyone during that period ran and ran and ran, crossing violated border after violated border. The few who survived were just lucky. Lucky in insane ways. Everyone has a story of insane luck--a border guard who couldn't understand what was written on a passport, in my grandfather's case, and didn't realize he should have been deported. Relatives who could help in the US ... always, it just came down to luck.

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J

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I had a feeling Vladislav was from Brighton Beach. What is going on now with Putin reminds me of the final Season of the US TV show "The Sopranos." When the show was actually on the air for the final season I was in college with someone from Brighton Beach(and knew well of Sheepshead Bay which also features in the show). He told me that in one of the episodes Tony Sopranos was giving a rival mafia soldier a "Brighton Beach" sandwich as it was called in that part of Brooklyn.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XPT-zh1sk74

Basically the parallel is the Putin is Phil Leotardo attempting to decapitate and take over leadership of the New Jersey Sopranos Crime Family. Phil is unsucessful and ends up in a bloody war between his Brooklyn crime family and the smaller and poorer Sopranos family. Finally in the end Phil's underboss Butch DeConcini turns on Phil and gives Tony the "ok" to eliminate Phil after which Tony finds the Phil's location from crooked FBI Agent Harris and Phil ends up dying at the hands of Tony's men.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RWG0o-m-K-Q

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_AC1FoIQVV0

The open question is who is Putin's version of Butch DeConcini.

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For three weeks in December of 1944—as Stalin’s army was retreating and Hitler’s was arriving.. wrong. The Nazi army arrived in 1941.. in 1944 the Soviets arrived.. (again).

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I got it reversed, you're right. I'll fix it.

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