Ukraine conflict

In the old theory that everything comes down to economics, it certainly seems that China has economic motivation to invade Taiwan as well as ideological reasons. But Russia is conquering a poor country in Ukraine.

Russia $11,273 per capita
Ukraine $4,384 per capita
Moldova $4,792 per capita
Belarus  $7,032 per capita
Latvia $19,539 per capita
Lithuania  $22,412 per capita
Estonia $27,101 per capita


China $11,891 per capita
Taiwan $33,402 per capita

Quote: Pacomartin

Russia is conquering a poor country in Ukraine.Ukraine $4,384 per capita.

Ah, but you forgot their natural resources.

Ukraine has extremely rich and complementary mineral resources in high concentrations and close proximity to each other.

The country has abundant reserves of coal, iron ore, natural gas, manganese, salt, oil, graphite, sulfur, kaolin, titanium, nickel, magnesium, timber, and mercury.

Either the pee tape is real or Putin has some nasty info on Trump.
Thank goodness Putin no longer has President in his pocket
Hannity practically begged Trump to criticize Putin and Trump refused
Talk about weak

https://www.yahoo.com/news/got-along-trump-avoids-criticizing-035957515.html
No doubt Putin got a message to Trump, back me or else

Quote: terapined

Either the pee tape is real or Putin has some nasty info on Trump.
Thank goodness Putin no longer has President in his pocket
Hannity practically begged Trump to criticize Putin and Trump refused
Talk about weak

https://www.yahoo.com/news/got-along-trump-avoids-criticizing-035957515.html
No doubt Putin got a message to Trump, back me or else

Quote from your link.

“Putin is for Russia, and you see what happened,” Trump responded. “And that is all because they didn’t respect our leader. Look, there was nobody, and Putin will tell you this — if he was telling the truth, and I am sure he has told it to all of his inner sanctum — nobody was tougher on Russia than me.”

Quote: terapined

Either the pee tape is real or Putin has some nasty info on Trump.
Thank goodness Putin no longer has President in his pocket
Hannity practically begged Trump to criticize Putin and Trump refused
Talk about weak

https://www.yahoo.com/news/got-along-trump-avoids-criticizing-035957515.html
No doubt Putin got a message to Trump, back me or else

Remeber who Trump owes money to and who is the only lenders who will lend him money....

He can't risk upsetting Putin, he is already owned by Russia. They don't need a pee tape.

Quote: kenarman

Quote from your link.

“Putin is for Russia, and you see what happened,” Trump responded. “And that is all because they didn’t respect our leader. Look, there was nobody, and Putin will tell you this — if he was telling the truth, and I am sure he has told it to all of his inner sanctum — nobody was tougher on Russia than me.”

ROTFL
"I am sure he has told it" don't mean Jack. Meaningless conjecture
Trump thinks he was tough on Putin while unable to criticize Putin
It's the theater of the absurd
Reality is that Trump was the weakest President Putin has ever faced.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTeMwS9KFJA&t=1692s




Sam Harris interviews Garry Kasparov.

Sam Harris of course needs no introduction. Garry Kasparov may be more obscure other than those into chess history and certain political circles (he speaks about Western Values a lot over the last few years), he was the first Grandmaster that was defeated by AI in 1996.

Very excellent perspective from a highly intelligent mind who has experience under both Soviets and modern Russia (not much about chess comes up, for those only interested in his takes on that topic). In fact most of his career since the 2000s has been less about chess and more about speaking and writing of the dangers of Putin (and to some degree Russia in general). In fact his book "Winter is Coming", is highly recommended and in some ways ahead of its time for coming out 5ish years ago. He certainly caught on to Putin very early.

He is on the left, but is highly critical of the left and the right for going all of these years without removing Putin (as well as Syrian leaders) so he has fans and haters on both sides of the political aisles. He is often viewed as a Neo-Con, by those on the left that dislike him, but I view that as a positive, so the slur is meaningless to me.

Quote: Gandler

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTeMwS9KFJA&t=1692s




Sam Harris interviews Garry Kasparov.

Sam Harris of course needs no introduction. Garry Kasparov may be more obscure other than those into chess history and certain political circles (he speaks about Western Values a lot over the last few years), he was the first Grandmaster that was defeated by AI in 1996.

Very excellent perspective from a highly intelligent mind who has experience under both Soviets and modern Russia (not much about chess comes up, for those only interested in his takes on that topic). In fact most of his career since the 2000s has been less about chess and more about speaking and writing of the dangers of Putin (and to some degree Russia in general). In fact his book "Winter is Coming", is highly recommended and in some ways ahead of its time for coming out 5ish years ago. He certainly caught on to Putin very early.

He is on the left, but is highly critical of the left and the right for going all of these years without removing Putin (as well as Syrian leaders) so he has fans and haters on both sides of the political aisles. He is often viewed as a Neo-Con, by those on the left that dislike him, but I view that as a positive, so the slur is meaningless to me.

Who is Sam Harris
I never heard of the guy
Is he some kind of champion?
Do his accomplishments rival Gary?
I'm a huge Gary Kasparov fan. One of the greats in Chess and a former champion.

Quote: terapined

Quote: Gandler

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTeMwS9KFJA&t=1692s




Sam Harris interviews Garry Kasparov.

Sam Harris of course needs no introduction. Garry Kasparov may be more obscure other than those into chess history and certain political circles (he speaks about Western Values a lot over the last few years), he was the first Grandmaster that was defeated by AI in 1996.

Very excellent perspective from a highly intelligent mind who has experience under both Soviets and modern Russia (not much about chess comes up, for those only interested in his takes on that topic). In fact most of his career since the 2000s has been less about chess and more about speaking and writing of the dangers of Putin (and to some degree Russia in general). In fact his book "Winter is Coming", is highly recommended and in some ways ahead of its time for coming out 5ish years ago. He certainly caught on to Putin very early.

He is on the left, but is highly critical of the left and the right for going all of these years without removing Putin (as well as Syrian leaders) so he has fans and haters on both sides of the political aisles. He is often viewed as a Neo-Con, by those on the left that dislike him, but I view that as a positive, so the slur is meaningless to me.

Who is Sam Harris
I never heard of the guy
Is he some kind of champion?
Do his accomplishments rival Gary?
I'm a huge Gary Kasparov fan. One of the greats in Chess and a former champion.

Sam Harris is a neuroscientist and a writer.

He is probably most famous for being an atheist and being critical of religion (Him, Dawkins, Denney, and Hitchens were the "four new atheists" 4 horsemen that were often together etc....) In the early 2000s after 9/11 he started writing books about the dangers religion (with a focus on Islam and Christianity), which made him pretty famous (and infamous), and his books kind of made him mainstream, even if it was not his favorite issue to be popular for. The End of Faith, is probably is most well known book, which came out a couple years after 9/11 and was clearly inspired by it.

I am a fan of both, so I don't know who has more accomplishments. I would say Gary is a better chess player, but Sam probably has more influence on American politicts.

Most younger people don't know Gary, I only learned about him in the last few years on some political panel, and I did not even link him to his past chess self until some time later. I love both so its in no way meant to dimish either.... I was just saying many people do not know who he is, or even if they do, how his personal history makes him so relevant on the topic of Russia (if anything he may be known by some people in passing learning about computer history when he is used as a popular benchmark for certain AI). It's almost like two separate Gary's, when young people see him in passing or watch a speech by him, they don't associate him as, "that chess guy".

I know of both, but I have a unique crossover of interests where both overlap (generally on foreign policy where both Gary and Sam are right and excellent). But, I think it's fair to say Sam is probably more well known outside of chess circles. Gary may be more well known in passing in the sense that the AI match is mentioned in a lot of comp Sci and Psychology books usually in brief passing.

It's fair to say Sam has more academic accomplishments and Gary has more chess accomplishments, and I'll tie them for political influence (since Gary does more activism outside of America, even if less in America), that should be fair.

Quote: Gandler

Quote: terapined

Quote: Gandler

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTeMwS9KFJA&t=1692s




Sam Harris interviews Garry Kasparov.

Sam Harris of course needs no introduction. Garry Kasparov may be more obscure other than those into chess history and certain political circles (he speaks about Western Values a lot over the last few years), he was the first Grandmaster that was defeated by AI in 1996.

Very excellent perspective from a highly intelligent mind who has experience under both Soviets and modern Russia (not much about chess comes up, for those only interested in his takes on that topic). In fact most of his career since the 2000s has been less about chess and more about speaking and writing of the dangers of Putin (and to some degree Russia in general). In fact his book "Winter is Coming", is highly recommended and in some ways ahead of its time for coming out 5ish years ago. He certainly caught on to Putin very early.

He is on the left, but is highly critical of the left and the right for going all of these years without removing Putin (as well as Syrian leaders) so he has fans and haters on both sides of the political aisles. He is often viewed as a Neo-Con, by those on the left that dislike him, but I view that as a positive, so the slur is meaningless to me.

Who is Sam Harris
I never heard of the guy
Is he some kind of champion?
Do his accomplishments rival Gary?
I'm a huge Gary Kasparov fan. One of the greats in Chess and a former champion.

Sam Harris is a neuroscientist and a writer.

He is probably most famous for being an atheist and being critical of religion (Him, Dawkins, Denney, and Hitchens were the "four new atheists" 4 horsemen that were often together etc....) In the early 2000s after 9/11 he started writing books about the dangers religion (with a focus on Islam and Christianity), which made him pretty famous (and infamous), and his books kind of made him mainstream, even if it was not his favorite issue to be popular for. The End of Faith, is probably is most well known book, which came out a couple years after 9/11 and was clearly inspired by it.

I am a fan of both, so I don't know who has more accomplishments. I would say Gary is a better chess player, but Sam probably has more influence on American politicts.

Most younger people don't know Gary, I only learned about him in the last few years on some political panel, and I did not even link him to his past chess self until some time later. I love both so its in no way meant to dimish either.... I was just saying many people do not know who he is, or even if they do, how his personal history makes him so relevant on the topic of Russia (if anything he may be known by some people in passing learning about computer history when he is used as a popular benchmark for certain AI). It's almost like two separate Gary's, when young people see him in passing or watch a speech by him, they don't associate him as, "that chess guy".

I know of both, but I have a unique crossover of interests where both overlap (generally on foreign policy where both Gary and Sam are right and excellent). But, I think it's fair to say Sam is probably more well known outside of chess circles. Gary may be more well known in passing in the sense that the AI match is mentioned in a lot of comp Sci and Psychology books usually in brief passing.

It's fair to say Sam has more academic accomplishments and Gary has more chess accomplishments, and I'll tie them for political influence (since Gary does more activism outside of America, even if less in America), that should be fair.

Seriously I've never heard of Sam Harris
Just looked him up
Seriously, I'm not impressed.
Just another philosopher full of high minded BS
I can think for myself, thank you very much
That's why I never heard of him, I avoid his type like the plague
Take his think on "Free Will"
He doesn't believe in free will
And he gives a ton of BS reasons why.
Hogwash
I'm the very definition of free will :-)