Not basketball. Not light-hearted. Not politics. And since we don't have a forum dedicated to "being human" I'm just putting this here.

[sturt]

With no additional comment, other than to say, if after giving it a few seconds of letting it sink in what you're looking at, this doesn't cause at least one tear to well up in the corner of just one of your eyes, then I encourage you to check your pulse immediately.

 

(Mods, feel free to move, of course, but honestly didn't see a good place to put this, so I went with the Hawksquawk "mainstream media." We are, after all, a community first at this point, and a basketball community a close second.)

 

 

 

[bleachkit]

54 minutes ago, sturt said:

With no additional comment, other than to say, if after giving it a few seconds of letting it sink in what you're looking at, this doesn't cause at least one tear to well up in the corner of just one of your eyes, then I encourage you to check your pulse immediately.

 

(Mods, feel free to move, of course, but honestly didn't see a good place to put this, so I went with the Hawksquawk "mainstream media." We are, after all, a community first at this point, and a basketball community a close second.)

 

 

 

Sadly, some Americans are siding with Vlad the conqueror in this conflict. Truly astonishing.

[sturt]

19 minutes ago, bleachkit said:

some

Glass half-full, there's more unanimity on this than most of us would have anticipated given some of the pro-Putin hype by some political media celebrities. I really don't want to let this thread get political, though, so that's as much as I'd want to give response.

The point really is the point. That photo might go down in history as even more compelling than the Vietnam one with the young girl running naked down the street crying amongst soldiers walking the same direction... or at least, in the same wing of the gallery. There's a lump in my throat every time I look at it, even still, and I've looked at it 20 times this morning probably.

 

[Spud2nique]

48 minutes ago, bleachkit said:

Sadly, some Americans

And our government. Who provides more for us economically,  the Ukraine or Russia?
 

It’s inhumane and I’ll leave it at that.

[Diesel]

For me, this is what hit my "too much" moment.

This should be a war crime. 

[thecampster]

This link is a great watch for those wanting a non biased history of the history behind the conflict and how Russian started living in the breakaway territories to start with.  10 minutes of your life that will be well spent in understanding this without a lot of US media bias.

 

 

[TheNorthCydeRises]

3 hours ago, sturt said:

With no additional comment, other than to say, if after giving it a few seconds of letting it sink in what you're looking at, this doesn't cause at least one tear to well up in the corner of just one of your eyes, then I encourage you to check your pulse immediately.

 

(Mods, feel free to move, of course, but honestly didn't see a good place to put this, so I went with the Hawksquawk "mainstream media." We are, after all, a community first at this point, and a basketball community a close second.)

 

 

 

 

What a powerful picture, that can be interpreted in many ways.

[Guest]

38 minutes ago, thecampster said:

This link is a great watch for those wanting a non biased history of the history behind the conflict and how Russian started living in the breakaway territories to start with.  10 minutes of your life that will be well spent in understanding this without a lot of US media bias.

 

 

Excellent synopsis.  Despite it not having "US media bias," it says pretty much the same thing the US media has been saying, along with most of the rest of the world media.  

[TheNorthCydeRises]

50 minutes ago, LongTimeFan said:

Excellent synopsis.  Despite it not having "US media bias," it says pretty much the same thing the US media has been saying, along with most of the rest of the world media.  

 

I think what Camp means, is that the US media is so politically leaning, that each of the Left and Right leaning media will throw their extra spin to the story.  The international news agencies tend to call it a little more down the middle, and simply stick with reporting the facts of the story, without all of the emotional political pundits that you see in this country throwing in their opinions and hypotheses.

Watching cable news these days is almost the equivalent of watching First Take and Undisputed.  Sometimes, all I want is the story, and the facts that are going on in real time.  I can do without "expert opinions" during this conflict.

[Spud2nique]

13 minutes ago, TheNorthCydeRises said:

I can do without "expert opinions" during this conflict.

So you don’t need Joy Behar in your life? 

[thecampster]

1 hour ago, TheNorthCydeRises said:

 

I think what Camp means, is that the US media is so politically leaning, that each of the Left and Right leaning media will throw their extra spin to the story.  The international news agencies tend to call it a little more down the middle, and simply stick with reporting the facts of the story, without all of the emotional political pundits that you see in this country throwing in their opinions and hypotheses.

Watching cable news these days is almost the equivalent of watching First Take and Undisputed.  Sometimes, all I want is the story, and the facts that are going on in real time.  I can do without "expert opinions" during this conflict.

I like that 95% of the story from the anchor was just fact spitting. Tell me facts, let me make up my own mind.

[terrell]

6 hours ago, bleachkit said:

Sadly, some Americans are siding with Vlad the conqueror in this conflict. Truly astonishing.

This...

[benhillboy]

I’ve been desensitized to violence so long ago.  I never choose sides, the carrying capacity of Earth demands that people die.  The how, who, what, when, and why is irrelevant in the grand scheme of the universe (aight I’m done with philosophy class lol).  
 

That said this image always stuck with me, from the Syrian conflict I think:

Clearly I’m a cold-hearted POS when it pertains to adults but this illicits the small bit of empathy I have.  Innocent children suffering (and having no understanding of why) ain’t it.

Edited February 27, 2022 by benhillboy

[Sothron]

Only the dead know peace. It disgusts me that a despot is allowed to invade and kill innocent people. 

[Plainview1981]

On 2/26/2022 at 11:13 AM, bleachkit said:

Sadly, some Americans are siding with Vlad the conqueror in this conflict. Truly astonishing.

Who are these people?

[thecampster]

7 hours ago, Plainview1981 said:

Who are these people?

Putting my Cyber Security Pro hat on, most of the people you are seeing online siding with VLAD are Russian Bots routed through VPN to trick US Social Media sites into believing the traffic is originated in the US.  There are always idiots who like to be counter to what the populace is saying but the majority of the people you are seeing online supporting him are hackers that are part of the GRU.

The Russians are one of the biggest disinformation groups on the dark web meddling in everything.  You can research this topic by looking up APT - Advanced Persistent Threat Goups on Mandiant to see the different groups working the dark web.

https://www.mandiant.com/resources/apt-groups

 

APT28

Also known as: Tsar Team
Suspected attribution: Russian government
 
Target sectors: The Caucasus, particularly Georgia, eastern European countries and militaries, North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and other European security organizations and defense firms
 
Overview: APT28 is a skilled team of developers and operators collecting intelligence on defense and geopolitical issues—intelligence that would be useful only to a government. This APT group compiles malware samples with Russian language settings during working hours (8 a.m. to 6 p.m.), consistent with the time zone of Russia’s major cities, including Moscow and St. Petersburg. This suggests that APT28 receives direct ongoing financial and other resources from a well-established organization, most likely the Russian government.
 
Associated malware: CHOPSTICK, SOURFACE
 
Attack vectors: Tools commonly used by APT28 include the SOURFACE downloader, its second-stage backdoor EVILTOSS and a modular family of implants dubbed CHOPSTICK. APT28 has employed RSA encryption to protect files and stolen information moved from the victim’s network to the controller. It has also made incremental and systematic changes to the SOURFACE downloader and its surrounding ecosystem since 2007, indicating a long-standing and dedicated development effort.

 

There are numerous ones, but this is the most high profile.

Edited February 28, 2022 by thecampster

[thecampster]

Interesting note on what's going on over there. Media outlets are reporting that the Ukranians are letting people out of jail who agree to fight for Ukraine, effectively commuting their sentences and arming them.

Think about how weird/wild that is....enemy of the state / prisoner of the state becomes defender of the state.

[kg01]

1 hour ago, thecampster said:

Putting my Cyber Security Pro hat on ....

I'm sorta curious about this, unrelated to the serious topic of this thread.  I'll shoot you a PM.

[Final_quest]

On 2/26/2022 at 3:05 PM, TheNorthCydeRises said:

 

I think what Camp means, is that the US media is so politically leaning, that each of the Left and Right leaning media will throw their extra spin to the story.  The international news agencies tend to call it a little more down the middle, and simply stick with reporting the facts of the story, without all of the emotional political pundits that you see in this country throwing in their opinions and hypotheses.

Watching cable news these days is almost the equivalent of watching First Take and Undisputed.  Sometimes, all I want is the story, and the facts that are going on in real time.  I can do without "expert opinions" during this conflict.

Exactly.  This event with Russia and the Ukraine has let me know that I prefer to stay uninformed than disinformed by grifters.  It's one thing for Stephen A Smith to get people riled up about the Knicks or Cowboys, but it's hard to get actual news on things that are important. 

I don't watch the knee jerk reaction takes.  My way of figuring this out is seeing what happens when the dust settles.  

[Guest]

The ultimate Chicago insult ...