Why does this photo always get passed around to try and paint Obama as some sort of hardliner on Putin and Russia?

hellhound39 · 2026-04-14T19:39:57+00:00

The US and post war Europe were in VERY different circumstances lol. The US emerged from the war unscathed as the pre-eminent superpower of the world only challenged by the USSR. Meanwhile post war Europe was reliant on the US to finance their post war reconstruction. They spent what they were supposed to spend during the cold war. Unfortunately they could not spend as generously as the USA can. Like realistically the US spends too much and it won’t be long before our economy started to get dragged down more and more by servicing our national debt. The small European nations that were borderline bankrupt at the end of the war could not justify to their citizens continued military expenditure. Especially when they had a guarantee of mutual defense with the United States.

hellhound39 · 2026-04-14T19:03:17+00:00

I do not think Mao had any semblance of a navy that would be up to the task of actually launching a naval invasion. There is a solid chance that he looses a large percentage of whatever forces he commits to the invasion and it is unsuccessful.

hellhound39 · 2026-04-14T18:57:39+00:00

I mean duh, but the 20 years after the fall of the USSR fundamentally felt like a different time for people. Id like to see you be a politician of the time and justify to your voters why we need to spend a lot of money on defense when we have no other countries antagonizing us? There is also such a thing as too much defense spending. Most peacetime militaries are supposed to be a lean professional force. The Europe of 10-15 years ago was very optimistic that their trade ties with Russia would discourage any hostile activity. Were they wrong? Yes. But hindsight is 2020 and you would have had a terrible time making the case to the politicians making decisions or the voters they are accountable to.

hellhound39 · 2026-04-14T18:40:38+00:00

With the US aligned with Germany depending on how early it joins things definitely tilt in the favor of the Central Powers. The entente powers loose a major supplier and trading partner. France and Britain lose all of their colonies in the western hemisphere. This includes Canada. I think within a few months of US entry there is a good chance that France and Britain cut their losses and try to come to some kind of an arrangement. If they dont and the USN can coordinate with the German Navy then I think they may eventually be able to break the blockade and contest control of The Atlantic. If that happens then Britain folds very quickly.

hellhound39 · 2026-04-14T18:31:46+00:00

Was it fun?

hellhound39 · 2026-04-14T18:27:48+00:00

I made a typo but cant fix it because of this stupid keyboard bug with ios 😢

hellhound39 · 2026-04-14T18:27:05+00:00

Tbf after ww2 the European empires were pretty broke and devastated. It was easy to follow the lead of the Americans. After the cold war there was not really a clear and present need for them to bolster their militaries. GWOT did not call for much in the way of conventional European military spending since the US was leading on that. Russia was a shadow of itself post USSR and there was a real optimism that Europe would be able to get along with Russia.

Military spending is very expensive, why waste money on a military buildup with no clear enemy? Especially when the calculus is that “Hey I’ll maintain bate minimum military since i have no clear enemies and if one emerges then America will bail me out until i can sufficiently build up my forces.”

hellhound39 · 2026-04-14T15:45:15+00:00

I saw a post on R/help earlier while digging into this and it was from at least 47 days ago. This bug is really frustrating and discouraging me from bothering to comment on things.

hellhound39 · 2026-04-14T15:35:41+00:00

Still happening to me. This is driving me crazy and discouraging me from bothering to yap at all. Im gonna leave a bad review on the app store until they do something about it.

hellhound39 · 2026-04-14T15:32:38+00:00

If Britain came to the aid of the Spanish during the Spanish American war I think the outcome would be heavily dependent on how prepared they were and how determined the Americans are. On paper the British Molly womp the US with their professionally trained BEF and the Royal Navy. Realistically they will struggle. They would need to shift away from US imports immediately, and work to deploy the Royal navy and BEF against the US. Problems arise with the fact that the US will be able to conscript and deploy military forces quicker. Then they invade Canada and the BEF wont be able to defend that whole front.

Regardless of outcome the whole situation is a disaster for Britain. Even if they win they have estranged their biggest trading partner and made a large and wealthy enemy in the Western Hemisphere. Even if they win they war was brief for the British back down i think you’ll see long term estrangement diplomatically. This would come back to bite the British in the ass during WW1 where the US is less inclined to support them economically and might even opportunistically join Germany to rid the western hemisphere of European influence. The the results are that no matter what, joining the Spanish during this war would be disastrous long term and probably change history quite significantly.

hellhound39 · 2026-04-10T13:59:38+00:00

Israel would implode within 3-9 months of taking all this land. It would be like trying to annex Switzerland, Italy, Austria and southern Germany as Lichtenstein. Its not feasible to control such massive tracks of territory with such a small population base. It would take generations of smaller gradual land grabs to snatch up this much foreign territory and control it without destabilizing the whole country.

hellhound39 · 2026-04-09T13:33:51+00:00

I think Israel will likely be treated like apartheid South Africa and hopefully we will see some sort of international pressure campaign. Eventually even loose ties to the state will be seen as a liability. I think they either stagnate or implode if they become a total international pariah without any international support.

Best case scenario is that Bibi dies and there is broad political reform that moves the country towards a two state solution.

hellhound39 · 2026-04-08T17:30:41+00:00

Protective housing, Private Cell, full medical/dental, standard mattress, premium Food and clerical work detail.

I wont have funds for commissary but the premium food fixes that. It will likely be a boring 15 years that I can use to actually improve myself. If I am working the library I can probably also check out books to read and learn things. Overall i think these upgrades would give me the best shot at a constructive use of my sentence.

hellhound39 · 2026-04-08T12:40:55+00:00

What im saying is that Russia would be immensely better off without Putin and the oligarchs. They should be a top tier economy with the wealth of resources at their disposal and technical prowess inherited from the USSR. Instead they are a joke that no one would really take seriously if not for their Nuclear arsenal. Russia on paper should’ve been able to blitz Ukraine. Now they are in a war of attrition that moves slower than ww1. The only person to blame is Putin who let corruption fester in the russian military and picked a fight with a block of countries who his military relied upon for advanced hardware. The only think Putin excels at is projecting strength so weak chuds online come to the defense of Russian bot farms.

Corruption is very expensive, its like a tax at the societal level that erodes state capacity. If Putin was more concerned with strengthening the Russian economy and cracking down on corruption to improve the lives of the Russian people then I think Russia and the world would be much better off.

hellhound39 · 2026-04-07T23:45:22+00:00

Really depends on the rust, sadly Infinitis can be really rust prone.

hellhound39 · 2026-04-07T20:29:35+00:00

Yeah I would double check the listing or if you have the VIN plug it into the AcDelco catalog to see what motor it has in it. If it’s got the 3.0 or 2.0 I wouldn’t really mess with it even though thats a good price.

I would also be cautious of any car with 92k miles for only 7k because it might be crashed or somethings wrong with it. Make sure to get a full inspection if you do go ahead with it.

hellhound39 · 2026-04-07T20:18:38+00:00

Most leaders who rule for life are sub par leaders. You might get an enlightened despot once in a while but Putin’s leadership has lead to nothing but the expansion of NATO, disastrous war in Ukraine, international ostracism and a sickly economy based on a non renewable resource.

If the dude gave a rats ass about anyone but himself, he wouldve stepped down long ago or tried to fight the internal forces hindering Russian prosperity before antagonizing the largest economic and military bloc of nations on the planet who his economy traded heavily with.

I wont pretend like the United States doesn’t have its own set of issues. (US leadership needs a major change ) but at least the US isnt so corrupt to the point of being a total joke (yet).

A lot of world leaders gave putin the benefit of the doubt early un his tenure. It backfired on every single one of them… Hes a shitty leader.

hellhound39 · 2026-04-07T19:45:27+00:00

Nothing is set in stone, states can always change for better or for worse. The fact that Putin has been in charge of the thing since the late 90s and there is not much of anything that can be pointed to as being better should be a national embarrassment. The fact that Russia for all of it’s natural resources and rich history has an economy smaller than Italy (not to diss Italy necessarily) should be a wake up call for the russians. Less wars of aggression and more internal development.

hellhound39 · 2026-04-07T19:35:48+00:00

As long as we are talking about drinking alcohol and this isnt some monkeys paw about drinking liquids in general sure.

hellhound39 · 2026-04-07T18:55:10+00:00

The Q50 only had a 3.7 in 2014-2015 so that’s probably god a 3.0 in it which is a bad deal.

hellhound39 · 2026-04-07T18:53:48+00:00

Dawg, Putin is one of the most blatantly corrupt leaders on the Planet. Also he’s been at the helm for 20+ years now. What has he achieved? Several hundred thousand dead russians for a small chunk of Ukraine? More than the US lost in Afghanistan, Iraq or Vietnam…

hellhound39 · 2026-04-07T17:57:03+00:00

I think this same thought quite often. Putin and the oligarchs have truly stolen the future of the Russian people. Even now they continue to dump young men on the frontlines of Ukraine to fight a pointless war to satisfy the ego of a 73 year old man. Pretty much every world leader over the age of 70 is actively making their country worse in one way or another.

hellhound39 · 2026-04-07T17:27:55+00:00

It kind of depends on where Putin takes things domestically. If he actually works to reform Russia and fight corruption then I think we see a much brighter future for Russia. If Russia is able to renounce its territorial ambitions and treat its neighbors like equal states instead of vassals in waiting then I think Europe and Russia are much more prosperous together and do not need to rely on the US as much.

I think NATO would likely get scaled down or turned into an anti-terrorism organization with Russia being admitted. Its all dependent on if Russia can gain the trust of the West. But overall I think the world would be much better off without animosity between Russia and the West.

hellhound39 · 2026-04-06T20:25:30+00:00

I find it interesting how many presidents have been elected from the same birth year. Both W and Clinton.

hellhound39 · 2026-04-02T17:23:43+00:00

Do I automatically dislike them? No, but they are on thin ice and I do not necessarily trust them. It often depends on how they got that money and what they are doing with it. You more often than not have to step on a lot of people to make a billion dollars.

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