As someone who lived during a large chunk of the Cold War, let me add some personal perspective on this. You are absolutely right in that the Soviet Union and the West were in a war from WWII on. A spy war, an economic war and several hot proxy wars.

The US lost nearly all of those, but they did win the economic war, and in doing so broke the USSR economically and politically.

After the USSR fell, the Cold War was over. Done. Finito. To emphasize this, capitalism came pouring into all the former SSR’s and former Soviet citizens got to taste consumerism triggering chaos that took a full generation to hammer out. And then the 2010’s came along and Russia began using it’s natural resources to become more and more integrated with Europe.

To the point where some analysts were beginning to be worried that Russia might come to dominate the EU economically.

In fact, if Putin had waited another 5 years Europe would likely have become so dependant on Russian natural gas that they would literally have been unable to effectively protest any move Russia made, in fear of them turning off the tap. Russia was on the road to being THE dominant power in Europe, and Putin literally threw it ALL away chasing dreams of a renewed Russian Empire.

I have a truck that can drive on roads and rail tracks. I use the method most convenient at the time.

Quantity has a quality all its own

That… seems circular. The reason you have the right isn’t self-defence though, its national defence. The second amendment was put in place to provide a ready source for a “well armed and well regulated militia”, and that right has killed more people than it has saved. I guess the real issue is that I can’t understand you, or where you are coming from.

I’m in my 50s and live in rural Canada, back in the itty bitty town on the West Coast that I moved out of as a teen, desperate to find work in the city. Today I hunt, I fish, and my favorite gun is the .270 Winchester I inherited from my father after he passed on a decade ago. Gun ownership and carrying laws are vastly more restrictive here than they are in the US, but not once have felt that those restrictions impinge on either my rights or my ability to protect myself or my family.

You have hundreds, nay thousands of people, dying every year from what to me, seems like a stupidly easy cause to prevent. All because your nation seems unwilling to grasp the concept that a good number of people aren’t able to responsibly use the ability to project lethal force. No, you can’t stop gun crimes by regulating guns, any more than locks can prevent all burglaries, but you CAN make it harder for bad people to get guns. Just like a good lock makes it harder for someone to steal your stuff.

Anyway, it’s 2am here, and I apologize for subjecting you to this rant, but its a frustration I’ve wanted to get off my chest for awhile now. It’s pretty clear you and I will never see eye to eye on this, but it was nice to back and forth a bit on this. I know it means less than a pitcher of spit, but all the best to you and yours, and to your sister as well.

Worstdriver

https://thosenerdygirls.org/logical-fallacies-8/

Do read the whole article.

The problem is… you are assuming you are going to be attacked, and you assume you are going to be powerless unless you have a gun with you. Americans have been taught from infancy that the only true source of power and justice comes from the barrel of a gun. The lessons from the War of Independence and the Civil War have hammered home time and time again the belief that only naked, lethal force can guarantee safety and enact needed change.

Not governments, or agencies, or powers. Not religion, not dialogues, not negotiations. Only the ability and willingness to kill your fellow man can guarantee your safety and shape the world around you into what you want to see.

At times it has been your virtue, but it is also your curse.

The problem is that the things you talk about are all tools. Including guns. It’s just that the primary tool use of a gun is to kill. If I see someone openly carrying a gun they are saying, “I am ready to kill.” Carrying a knife? “I am ready to cut something.” Driving a car? “I am going somewhere”

Can those latter two things be used to kill? Of course. Anything can be used to kill, but that isn’t their primary function. The primary use of a gun, the reason why guns are made, is to kill things. And that makes all the difference.

But what about your #1 foreign supplier of oil? Canada.

I’m not American. Explain to me how that works please.

Contrast this to Trump blocking disaster relief for California and Puerto Rico when he was President.

No man is an island entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main; if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as any manner of thy friends or of thine own were; any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind. And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.

As a human being, I feel great empathy for the man and his family. I wish him nothing but the best in health and family life and am saddened to see his decline. But was someone 100% opposed to his politics I will fight endlessly to destroy both his works and his legacy even as he has worked to destroy democracy as we’ve come to know it.

"And with enough evaders,

Escaping from the game,

The rule becomes an empty shell

That rules in only name…"

• Leslie Fish, “Zero Game”

Not really. It’s an overall view of the progress to date. The liberation of Ukrainian territory is an continuous and ongoing process and it’s half done. The only super misleading part has been thinking that Russia would give up on its latest bout of imperialism so quickly. America is going to keep supplying Ukraine with weapons because by doing so they are absolutely wrecking their #1 enemy on the cheap.

Russia is fucked. Even if they beat Ukraine their invasion has caused NATO to expand its direct contact with Russia from over 1000km. Russian threw away decades of goodwill and cause economic cooperation with the West to completely die out. Russia was on the verge of being Europe’s OPEC and all of that potential to make their nation better has been utterly lost.

No one is going to trust Russia for at least another full generation.

This is since the invasion began, counting from Russia’s deepest gains into Ukrainian territory. So, this is everything that Ukraine has managed to do against the world’s second largest military. While currently there haven’t been any spectacular gains, the Ukraine has been steadily grinding the land back from the invaders and combined the amount now adds up to 50% retaken.

Meaning the job is half done, but also half finished.