Jim Wright is the author of Stonekettle Station. He is retired military. He has the creds. He has the chops. He knows whereof he speaks. A few here won’t like what he has to say about Biden and Russia and Ukraine and the Republican Party. I suggest you read it anyway. I suggest you follow him instead of the armchair cowboys who tell you what you want to hear.
Symbols Matter
Published
Tidewater News and Opinion Forum 
A refreshing dose of reality. Thanks for sharing.
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Breezy writing, but accurate in my view.
Putin in in Bizarro World. The West threatened first. Two Oblasts are now four plus Crimea. Pissed he hasn’t won the war yet, he wants to flatten the country. There, that’ll show ‘em.
Ukrainians remember their Holocaust, the Holodomor, and that a Russian dictator murdered 4 million of them. Grandparents of todays Ukrainian soldiers included. Judging by the human rights atrocities in early occupied cities, I cannot imagine a warm and fuzzy towards Russians by any Ukrainian.
Russia will always try to expand rather than clean up their own acts at home.
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I suspect Jim’s breezy writing style comes from all those years in the military. There you speak lightly of what pisses you off the most. There you can’t afford to get angry. Anger is a luxury for civilians, not military professionals in combat zones where every brain cell needs to be focused on what’s going on around you, not just who you want to kill.
I have read that the lead in pewter cups is what drove Roman emperors mad and caused the downfall of Rome. I can’t help wondering if leaded gasoline or some other toxin we’ve never heard of has done the same to our world. Yes, Putin is nuts. So is Trump. Why on God’s green Earth would any sane person follow them? Actually admire them?
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RE: “I suggest you follow him instead of the armchair cowboys who tell you what you want to hear.”
No thanks. I’ll give Mr. Wright props for being a retired Warrant, but I don’t need him to interpret a Putin speech I can read for myself:
https://www.rev.com/blog/transcripts/putin-gives-annual-address-to-russia-transcript
I must also say that I don’t agree with his cavalier dismissal of Putin’s views as expressed in the speech. It seems to me that the wisdom of history teaches that one must listen to one’s enemies and take them seriously, whether or not you like their words. A chief in the Navy takes orders, like every other deckplate sailor. Perhaps this explains why Mr. Wright is immune to the wisdom of history.
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“Perhaps this explains why Mr. Wright is immune to the wisdom of history,” says the man who doesn’t understand Neville Chamberlain’s place in history.
And BTW, one of the things Jim Wright did in the military was to analyze enemy dialogue. Still, it’s refreshing to hear you suggest that Russia is our enemy. It’s like hearing Trump pontificating about how he “lost” by a whisker.
Baby steps. Baby steps.
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RE: “Still, it’s refreshing to hear you suggest that Russia is our enemy.”
I didn’t. That’s you making wrong assumptions again.
I don’t care what Mr. Wright did in the military. Based on the article he wrote, I don’t take him seriously.
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Yet the one’s you DO take seriously are pro-Putin, anti-Democracy folks. Not a plus for you. – IMO
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I watched those clips of Trump speaking, in your post and it still amazes me that the man can’t finish a sentence. Sure, we all do that sometimes, but he does it over and over in these two clips. And yet we could still see this fella in the White House again. Yeah, that’s another thing that amazes the hell out of me.
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I’m not sure if you stumbled upon a new MSNBC comedy series and this was an audition or not. Such Biden leg humping by Wright makes me think it was but we won’t be suffering watching it in our house. Have fun…
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The only joke around here is you. Go look in a mirror and laugh it up.
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You’ve been humping pin-ups of Trump for I forget how long.
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You really need to listen to what you are saying.
Referring to Jim Wright’s interpretation of Putin’s speech, you said:
“It seems to me that the wisdom of history teaches that one must listen to one’s ENEMIES and take them seriously, whether or not you like their words.”
If Putin’s speech wasn’t the speech of an enemy, why did you say that? What should Jim Wright have been listening to if not Putin’s speech?
I didn’t expect you to take truth seriously. You reacted exactly as I expected you to react.
It seems to me you should listen to the words of experts and “take them seriously, whether or not you like their words.”
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RE: “If Putin’s speech wasn’t the speech of an enemy, why did you say that?”
Wright obviously thinks Putin is an enemy, but refuses to listen to what Putin has to say. That’s why I say Wright is immune to the wisdom of history.
RE: “It seems to me you should listen to the words of experts and ‘take them seriously, whether or not you like their words.'”
Happily. After examining his words, Jim Wright doesn’t seem like much of an expert to me. Were he an expert, he might have provided an interpretation of Putin’s speech. Something insightful. Instead he dismissed the speech as unworthy of analysis.
Is this really what you want? You want people here to be persuaded by an analysis that an analyst never even gives?
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Oh, right. It is Jim Wright who thinks of Putin as an enemy, not you. Of course, not you!
Despite your opinion, the military thought Jim Wright was an expert. That was his job. That’s what they paid him to do. But of course, you are the “real expert,” aren’t you?
There was nothing to interpret. It was all the same old bullshit Putin spews on a regular basis, just like Trump and his rhetoric (now, he’s gonna merge the DOE and the DOJ and take care of those punks in the classroom!). Nobody is taking either of them seriously anymore. Even the people of Ukraine didn’t listen to Putin’s blathering.
People here are free to decide for themselves who is a valid analyst and who is not. Most will base their opinions on facts. Some will only accept what they want to hear.
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” Jim Wright doesn’t seem like much of an expert to me.”
So a retired military analyst isn’t an expert to you. You have said the same thing about other retired military folks who you disagree with. I call into question your judgement of who you believe to be more accurate. Retired military folks who have been there and done that. Or anonymous talking heads who use a pseudonym because they now they well get lambasted IRL if folks knew who they really were.
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…”but refuses to listen to what Putin has to say”
Why listen to a liar when you can judge him by his actions?
Wait. You believe EVERY SINGLE SOLITARY WORD Putin utters.
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…” that the wisdom of history teaches that one must listen to one’s ENEMIES and take them seriously,”…
I mentioned this idiom on another thread: Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it. Russia’s moves against Finland in the early 20th century were disastrous for Russia. Putin seems hellbent on going down the same path.. Good riddance to bad garbage, IMO.
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This is why Russia will lose and Ukraine will win.
Free people defending their homes versus brainwashed slaves who do not know why they have been thrown into a meat grinder. Listen to the end. She is well aware that she is supposedly a Nazi.
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SLAVA UKRAINE!
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