Published by Scotties Playtime
I am an older gay guy in a long-term wonderful relationship. My spouse and I are in our 34th year together. I love politics and news. I enjoy civil discussions and have no taboo subjects. My pronouns are he / him / his and my email is scottiesplaytime@gmail.com
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Scottie's Playtime 
I have been listening to all of Beau’s videos lately, Scottie. I’ve also forwarded them to friends of mine. He’s usually spot-on with his commentary; I really admire his take on things. So sensible. Thanks so much for highlighting him. 🙂
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Interesting, Carmen, that you and I have such different outlooks on this guy. He may have good things to say, but I really dislike his good ole boy approach. To me, he just comes across as some guy simply offering his opinion To each his own, I guess.
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😁😀😉 I was answering Carmen’s comment in the bell notification and did not look ahead. I told her that while I loved Beau’s style he grates on some people. And then the next comment in the list was yours. Thank you for proving my point. It amazes me how people react differently to things or people. Ron and I do that sometimes, one of us will like someone and the other hates them. Ron normally is a great judge of character, so I tend to listen to him when he has bad feelings toward a person. One thing we disagree on is music and news podcasts. Ron likes a wide range of music and I am very restricted, I love news broadcasts / podcasts while Ron hates them. When I am alone in the car I listen to news podcast, when he is in the car alone he has all these music stations / Sirius up louder than I like. When we travel together if the radio is on it is on only one or two stations, we both agree to. Peace in the family right! Compromise is good for the soul or in my case the belly as I love Ron’s cooking.
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I’m with Ron and the music!! I get enough of the “other stuff” from the internet and newspapers and TV. And your blog. 😉
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Thank you, Carmen. He is my favorite YouTuber. I have learned a lot from listening to him. But he is not everyone’s cup of tea. While I love his style, some people find it grates on them.
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I KNOW!!! My husband can’t stand the guy. . . 😉
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Hello Carmen. That surprises me. Your husband and Beau seem so much alike. Both live on large tracks of land, are self-sufficient, like to do their own work, Like the outdoors, both do woodworking, do food farming, Beau raises animals. In so many ways from your posts I pictured the two as similar. I wonder why your husband doesn’t like him? I suspect for many it is the long scraggly beard that turns them off. Thanks.
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I think it is the beard – ha, ha. . But he does agree with him on most subjects. He won’t listen to him, though. I usually relay the topics on YouTube. 🙂
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Lindsey just showed why only the President is meant to do international relations. Having some wannabe in the government speaking publicly and encouraging international relations policy is analogous to some back seat passenger seeking to grab the steering wheel: It never ends well.
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oh, and imagine: Pushing America into a war with a near peer country just to look tough by the same people who couldn’t handle wearing a face mask.
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Hello Randy I have been thinking about this, and I am thinking it is time the US became involved. Look the reason Ukraine doesn’t have nuclear weapons to defend themselves is the US was one of a couple of countries that promised if they were attacked, we would come to help them. Yes we never said how. But back to that moral high ground I talked about it is time we put our spine into it. The Russians are now committing war crimes and genocide. Putin is throwing around threats to all the countries in the world to keep them out of this war. But the fact is we are already into it. This is like the beginning of the World War 2, the US and the world sent money and arms, before finally going in after too many died who might not have had to. We are already involved. But more important is the fact that Putin is using nuclear plants and the vague threat of using his nuclear weapons. Right now he is the little bratty kid holding a favorite toy over everyone’s head, he won’t let you play with it unless you do as he says. He is the kid with the best birthday parties you have to stay nice to even though he is a asshole because he wont invite you unless you do kind of thing. Right now Russia / Putin is holding the entire world hostage while he destroys a country and kills its people with the idea of installing it as a puppet to his will. He is demanding they put it in the constitution of the country that Russia controls Ukraine. Why would they do that when they cease to be a country if they do? If Putin gets away with holding that over the US, then North Korea will, then every country will struggle to get a nuke and do that same thing. Will we give in to Iran when they get nukes? So the world must see the precedent they are setting and stop it now. They need to stand up to Putin and say we will defend Ukraine’s borders and we won’t go into Russia, but you will get out and stop killing the people. We must or the world will forever be hostage to any country with nuclear weapons. Best wishes brother.
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Scottie, you just wrote a LOT of what I’ve been thinking to myself. I’m not as tuned into the ins and outs of what the U.S. can and can’t do as you are, but it sure seems to me that maybe it’s time to say the “rules” be damned and we’re going to put a STOP to this cruelty and killing of innocent people.
In my very inexperienced-in-war opinion, this is the only way we’re going to keep Russia from spreading its Putin-poison to the rest of the world.
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Hello Nan. Inertia is the problem. Since the first A Bomb was dropped the world was horrified by its use, but the idea was it was controlled by a moral nation like themselves. Well a lot has changed in both the US and other nations. But the idea that we must not use nuclear weapons got stronger, to the point it paralyzed the progressive countries that value life and it galvanized the despot countries to get them as the ultimate bargaining chip. That situation has caused a split of how the countries go to war and threaten each other, including the US. The US has no issue invading and conquering a country without nuclear weapons. Seriously we even tried to clumsily format a civil war in Venezuela under trump. But we are scared to even step up to stop the mass killing our people decry due to the enemy having the nuclear bargaining chip and we are afraid Putin will use them. Even though we have the 4 largest air forces out of 6 in the world ( it goes Us air force, US army air force, Russia, US navy air force, China, US marines air force. Those are the world’s 6 largest air forces. ) The smaller countries see the fear in the US, and they get even more scared and worried. Poland really went out on a limb to get the planes to Ukraine but were too scared to go the last step because the US was too scared.
Politicians have seen how the US people feel about war, and how the military industrial complex feels about war. We feed the military ungodly sums of money to build up the worlds biggest fighting force but we are terrified to use them in case some of them die. WTF. The US is all for the country doing something to stop this, except being inconvenienced at the gas pump and the grocery store. The same people that thought masks took away their god given freedom are the ones complaining it is not fair that we have to pay more because Ukrainians of all ages are dying in a slaughter. Politicians know the first body bags and coffins of US military will be used by the other side to attack the party in charge. Simply put the Republicans would the republican media arm called Fox to go after Biden like starving dogs. They salivate about it. Rather than care about the people dying. Biden took our best argument to stop Putin going into Ukraine off the table first thing to try to stop those attacks, the idea of the US going in militarily.
But as I said before, it comes a time you must call the bluff. If we are to have peace, we have to be willing to fight for it. All countries have seen that NATO and the individual countries will cower in fear at the threat of nuclear weapons. These countries have seen that countries with massively larger militaries that could flatten the enemy easily are lowering their eyes and turning away because of that threat. The world has seen how badly Russian military are at fighting. Ukraine civilians and military are so far stopping Russia. But that fear of the nuke makes them invincible. So unless we stand up to Russia now we will be faced with kissing the butt of every dictator that gets a nuclear weapon. North Korea for example, but there are many more. Iran comes to mind. Will we agree to the Iranian demands we leave the middle east to them because they have nukes?
Because of this double standard will we be forced to help a country that has nuclear weapons threaten another nation under the threat of them using nukes? If Israel which has nukes, attacks the Arab countries which do not, does the US help them on the threat that if we don’t they will use their nuclear weapons? See why we must stop the idea that nuclear weapons are something that can be held over the US head to get what the other country wants. We must stop the idea that any country can blackmail and extort the US over these weapons.
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Everything you wrote makes sense and certainly spells out what we’re up against.
BUT the question still remains … what do we need to do to stop Russia from taking over Ukraine … and then other countries if they succeed? Do you honestly believe using some kind of nuclear weapon is the solution? I agree that this type of weapon should not be held over our heads, but at the same time, can we “afford” to take that step? IOW, what do you think the U.S. should do?
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Hello Nan. Great question. To be clear I am not in favor of the allies using or even threatening nuclear weapons, even though I know we have very small tactical ones that a single person can easily carry, plant, set off. No that kind of indiscriminate killing belongs only in movies. I rank it up there was bad if not worse than cluster bombs that indiscriminately kills people.
What the world needs to do is make clear that the threat from the aggressor to use the nukes won’t keep us from doing what is right and needs to be done. The US / Nato has no reason to be afraid of Putin. We have no need to be provoking, belligerent, aggressive toward him, but we do need to stop showing we are timid. We are already supplying arms and tools along with tons of money to Ukraine, why is that different from giving Ukraine planes they can use? We are giving them tank destroying missiles, why not tank destroying planes? The artificial distinctions are because we are letting Putin decided what support we are allowed to give. I am not a chest thumper, but I do think the US as a superpower and wannabe worlds leader needs to stop showing fear.
But we do need to either secure the air space over Ukraine or we need to give the Ukrainians what they need to do it. Also we need to use our own or our allies Navys to stop any amphibious landings or from see bombardments from the black sea.
Also the oligarchs in Russia are now turning off the transponders of their super yachts. That is illegal by itself. The Nato allies need to use their Navys to search for and find then seize these ships.
You know Rick Scott a Republican Senator from Florida wants to make all the lower incomes even those in poverty or on SS. He says they need skin in the game. Well in this war the US needs skin in the game. We are treating this as a training exercise or practice. We are worried about possible deaths, possible blame but that is blinding us to the real deaths and blame that is happening right now. Russia is ignoring the rules of war. They are bombing hospitals; they are targeting evacuation corridors they agreed to when the people start using them. We are watching the apartment buildings where people are living being bombed into rubble with detachment because we are worried more people will die if we get involved? That tells those people we do not value their lives as much as future people’s lives? We don’t care as much that they die because we are afraid that if Putin uses a nuke, it will make some of us die.
On Putin’s threat to use nuclear weapons why don’t we turn it around. We threaten back, we let it be known that is he does that we will use the full power of our military to not only make the ruling people in Russia pay, and pay reparations for a long long time. We can quietly make sure Putin and his military / the oligarchs know the cost for that action will be their ending, and their pain and suffering will be long. We do not need to pound the table and shout, just make the point. Just let them know that is a total red line. Or we need to be honest that we are worried about looks more than Ukrainian lives. As I said Putin wont be the last one to use this threat if it works this time.
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You wrote … We threaten back. Sounds reasonable to me. Threats are not actions. Yes, they can trigger actions, but consider that Putin has been making “threats” practically since this action began … and all we seem to do is mumble, mumble about them … and then talk about sanctions.
As I’ve said before, I’m certainly no expert, but as an average citizen watching this unfold, it just seems there has GOT to be a better way!
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Hello Nan. Like you I am not an expert. I base my ideas on my life experience of dealing with the hateful anti-LGBTQ+ people and with the news I consume. The old saying is the people in charge prepare to fight and win the last war. They fail to plan for the next one. But the truth is right now those in charge grew up with duck and cover and the horrors of the cold war. It is paralyzing their thoughts. Their minds are overwhelmed with that one “what if” and cannot see the many other ones.
As you say there has to be a better way. But I think the myth of a fleet of Russian aircraft is a myth. I don’t think they put the money into it. That is why it is Putin’s red line.
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Hello Randy. Brother you so correct. And it is why the US has only one president at a time even after an election changes the president. The US even has a law called The Logan Act. It is a United States federal law that criminalizes negotiation by unauthorized American citizens with foreign governments having a dispute with the United States. The US also has a law against the assassination of foreign leaders. We do this because it is not something we want other governments to do against us. How can other governments trust the US if we are calling for their assassination? Plus the US used to have the moral high ground on war and issues like this. Now thanks to W. Bush not so much.
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