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Actually the title of the Yahoo article is intentionally misleading.

This Congresscritter is leaving and was considered the one “moderate” that the Democrats might get on the Intelligence Committee to support them.

What he did was basically announce there was nothing impeachable, thus squashing Dem hopes to get at least 1 Republican so they could call it bipartisan going into the Judiciary Committee.

The guy may be a dirtball, but what he did was crap on the Dems hopes leaving the impeachment joke the same partisan nonsense it has always been.

I don’t know your posting history and have probably never interacted with you, but I have been around a long time and even though I rarely post these days I still follow the election threads.

The thing is, conservatives get nothing but negative news from almost everywhere - the mainstream media, academia, the entertainment establishment, etc, etc. It is just non stop. People get tired of it. Sometimes it is just not the right moment to come off as overly negative. There is plenty of time for the election autopsy after the fact. If you want to be a “realist” I understand, but folks are frayed and are already tired of feeling society tearing down everything they believe in.

I’ve been there before. I am about as conservative as it gets but I love to debate/argue. I would often reply to posts I felt were overly conspiratorial or things that seemed “head in the sand” sounding. I think you just gotta be careful doing that. Time and place for everything as they say...

Cheers.

I am not sure being assigned watchtower duty qualifies as a war crime by itself. Perhaps if he shot escapees or something beyond guard duty? But just being a tower guard near the end of the war as a teenager. I dunno. I am guessing he is only being prosecuted because there are so few Germans left that can be traced directly to concentration camps.

I might be making your argument for you but I don't have trouble believing that. Near the end of the war, the Nazis were so desperate for soldiers that they were pressing teenagers and middle-aged men into service.

Indeed, and the standards for all units dropped significantly. I am just wondering if a teenager who claims he had heart disease would be allowed in any SS unit - even the SS deaths head concentration camp formations. Even so late in the war when he could have been assigned a civil defense posting if it was prior to the Volksstrums formation. Pressed into service, sure, recruited for an SS unit.....not so sure I believe him.

So yeah, I am arguing that a teenager who did guard tower duty and didn't participate any further isn't much of a war criminal in my book. On the other hand, I am not sure his story is believable either.

Had that occurred in 1941 the Soviet Union would likely have been defeated. Leningrad was reinforced and ordered to be held at all costs. Maybe beyond 42' it would not have been decisive, but in the original campaign it almost certainly was.

I think you are right about the rest. I've read similar historical accounts that match what you are saying about his disdain for the leadership of Leningrad. Still, had it fallen early enough in 1941 it is very likely the cream of Army Group North could have merged with Army Group Center for Operation Typhoon and taken Moscow.

People argue about this all the time, but the goal of the Continuation War from the Finish perspective seems to have only been to recapture lost territory. They provided their German allies some assistance around Leningrad, but could have done much more. Had they fully committed to helping encircle and choke out Leningrad, the entire war may have turned out differently.

After WW2, they cut a low profile to avoid being invaded and absorbed by the Soviets.

They did not go Nazi. They only fought the Continuation War with the aim of taking back the territory the USSR took from them when the Soviets invaded Finland. Had Finland gone full Nazi they would have advanced into the Soviet Union and helped fully cut off Leningrad. Had they done that Army Group North would have effectively won and been able to be diverted to the attack on Moscow or whatever other target the Germans decided upon.

Yes, our good friend and ally the Soviets attacked Finland and ultimately seized some of their territory (after embarrassing themselves for a few months to a much inferior opponent in terms of numbers). Not only that, the Fins had the perfect opportunity to help the German Army Group North cut off Leningrad completely during Barbarossa and declined to do so. Had they done that Leningrad probably would have fallen and Army Group North could have been largely funneled to either the center or south.

It is funny how the history we are taught almost never even makes mention of what a grotesque ally we made with the Soviet Union.

Ask most Americans what started WW2 and if they know anything about it at all they will say what our History books and various documentaries teach us - that it was started by the German invasion of Poland. So England and France declare war on Germany for the invasion of Poland - which not only did the Soviet Union do the very same thing, they actually seized MORE than half of Poland (along with the Baltics, etc). And on top of that, after the war ended, the USSR kept Poland as a satellite state. So we essentially go to war to save Poland, and ally ourselves with the USSR who militarily stole even more of Poland than Germany did. In some ways the whole thing is comical.

This is definitely true. Though to be fair, the bulk of the real fighting in WW2 was on the Eastern Front and the Soviets lost far, far more lives than any of the other allies did. If you just watched or read US history you would not realize how horrific the war in the East was (on both sides) compared to what happened in the West.

The Soviets were never held responsible for their mass starvation, murder, imprisonment and a death count that likely far exceeded what the Nazi's did. Perhaps it was indeed a proverbial marriage of necessity, but our ally, the Soviet Union, has never been held to account by us or almost anyone else. Their crimes almost certainly far eclipsed what the Nazi's managed to do.

By this logic millions of German citizens who knew exactly what was going on and willfully ignored it should have been arrested and prosecuted. Not thousands, millions.

Same logic would say every North Korean police officer, soldier, or anyone working for the state should be arrested and prosecuted once that government falls.

Was this guy even a Nazi? Millions of Germans never joined the party. This guy managed to get into the SS and sat in a guard tower. He was part of something monstrous and horrible, but prosecuting a 92 year old for watchtower duty 75 years after the fact seems a bit excessive.

The one thing that gives me pause is his explanation of how he got into the SS. It strikes me as odd that a teenager with a heart problem managed to get in to the SS, even for concentration camp duty (and presumably not a real Waffen SS unit). With a heart problem he would have been far more suited doing civil defense stuff. So perhaps he is lying and the prosecutors know it.

It’s a bit ridiculous at this point.

Sounds like this guy sat in a watchtower as a teen. They are going after him simply because there are so few actual Germans left alive that touched any of this stuff, even briefly.

He’s 92 and was a tower guard as a teenager. It’s really time the Germans put this self loathing stuff behind them.

I mean if he had direct involvement in mass murder, planned it, sorted the people, etc, etc, I could see making another example of a Nazi, but this guy hasn’t even got the culpability of people who worked on the railroads. It sounds like his biggest sin was that he managed to get into the SS. This alone strikes me as odd because even for concentration camp duty I have never heard of any unit of the SS taking people with heart problems. You would have thought he would have been funneled into the Volkssturm or some other national guard unit manning flak guns or similar duties.

No Senate Democrats will vote for Kavanaugh other than maybe Manchin, and that will only be if he isn’t the deciding vote.

Apologizing for the very speech that saved his nomination is questionable at best.

Ugh, apologies.

I mean I guess if he had to write it to win over a few votes, but the last thing conservatives need these days is to be apologizing for anything.

So he is essentially offering an apology to the very RINO’s who helped put him in this awful position.

Listening to Hannity right now and again, I get the feeling we don’t have the votes locked up yet.

My hunch is all 3 of Collins, Flake and Murkowski want to vote no, but are being pressured by our guys to get in line and vote for Kavanaugh.

Our folks sound mad, but not terribly confident.

At this point, how in the hell is it even possible our 3 RINO holdouts can’t declare how they are voting. That alone is a pretty big red flag. Hope we are able to pull at least 2 over the finish line.

It seems like they are still trying to convince Collins, Murkowski and Flake. I don’t think they have the votes right now. They may get them from those 3 awful RINO’s, but this press conference does not seem like much of a victory...yet.

I won’t be even remotely confident till we get on record how Flake, Collins and Murkowski vote.

I still do not trust them, I won’t trust them till they actually cast a vote in favor.

I am not that confident that this loathsome click won’t still vote no.

I wouldn’t be quite so sure yet.

McConnell probably would have filed cloture anyway simply to call any bluff Flake, Collins or the Alaskan cow had made. I mean he has to call a vote anyway right, why wait? He has to put everyone on record even if he knew he didn’t have the vote simply to put the red state Democrats on the spot.

The news is good, but I am not terribly confident in Flake, Collins or Murkowski.

Probably best to let the FBI investigate it since they are outlandish claims and Creepy Porn Lawyer will take it to the media anyway. If the FBI investigates it puts him in a box for a few days. They’ll find nothing to corroborate these preposterous allegations and when he does go to the media the FBI will have already looked into it. I suspect if the FBI does inquire he will just try to delay, delay, delay and the FBI report can note that Creepy Porn Lawyer and his client were not forthcoming.

Best Metal Album ever.

Yup, from beginning to end a great album including the lesser known tracks like Riding on the Wind and Devil's Child.

Also saw Priest in 1982 with Maiden as the opening act. My first concert actually. I was like 12. Saw both bands many times over the years since that time. While I am still a fan of JP, I thought their best work was almost everything before Turbo. After that, nothing really stood out that much for me. But I love all the old classics off British Steel, Point of Entry and back into the 70s. Same with Maiden really, I like the older stuff better. Killers is actually my favorite album - love Wrathchild, Murders in the Rue Morgue, etc.

This.

Mueller is attempting to bring down the Trump admin, he is not going to touch Hillary or anyone near her. Just look at who he has hired for a pretty strong hint at what they are doing.

The DOJ needs to appoint a special prosecutor for the emails, Uranium One, etc, and staff it with people that Hillary and company need to be afraid of. If Trump does nothing, eventually Mueller is going to come up with some nonsense charges against people very close to Trump (most likely his son) in order to try to impeach him. Trump needs leverage so Hillary's buddies have something to worry about, along with the fact that these things need investigating anyway.