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Wandering the information superhighway, he came upon the last refuge of civilization, PoFo, the only forum on the internet ...

Please introduce yourself here.
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By Globe360Plus
#15246227
Hello. Just roaming these august halls, getting a feel for the place. Thank you for having me.
By ness31
#15246232
Aloha
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By Globe360Plus
#15246240
Saeko wrote:Hi. What is your opinion of Comrade Stalin, the Gentle Father of Nations?

He was the architect of Soviet totalitarianism, a very cruel and ruthless controller, he destroyed the remnants of individual freedom for his own people, he severely failed to promote individual prosperity, and he created a mighty military-industrial complex at the cost of the suffering of millions of Russian men, women and children. These are not my words, but the words of history.
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By ckaihatsu
#15246265
Globe360Plus wrote:
He was the architect of Soviet totalitarianism, a very cruel and ruthless controller, he destroyed the remnants of individual freedom for his own people, he severely failed to promote individual prosperity, and he created a mighty military-industrial complex at the cost of the suffering of millions of Russian men, women and children. These are not my words, but the words of history.



Also:



The nuclear arms race was an arms race competition for supremacy in nuclear warfare between the United States, the Soviet Union, and their respective allies during the Cold War. During this same period, in addition to the American and Soviet nuclear stockpiles, other countries developed nuclear weapons, though none engaged in warhead production on nearly the same scale as the two superpowers.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_arms_race



And:



In the United States, during the Cold War, the missile gap was the perceived superiority of the number and power of the USSR's missiles in comparison with those of the U.S. (a lack of military parity). The gap in the ballistic missile arsenals did not exist except in exaggerated estimates, made by the Gaither Committee in 1957 and in United States Air Force (USAF) figures. Even the contradictory CIA figures for the USSR's weaponry, which showed a clear advantage for the US, were far above the actual count. Like the bomber gap of only a few years earlier, it was soon demonstrated that the gap was entirely fictional.

John F. Kennedy is credited with inventing the term in 1958 as part of the ongoing election campaign in which a primary plank of his rhetoric was that the Eisenhower administration was weak on defense. It was later learned that Kennedy was apprised of the actual situation during the campaign, which has led scholars to question what Kennedy knew and when he knew it. There has been some speculation that he was aware of the illusory nature of the missile gap from the start and that he was using it solely as a political tool, an example of policy by press release.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Missile_gap
By late
#15246269
ckaihatsu wrote:


missile gap




Kennedy knew.

JFK is part of the national mythology, so most tiptoe around this.

But the plain truth is he played a pivotal role in creating the missile race, which was insane.

And for Globe; hello and welcome..
User avatar
By Robert Urbanek
#15246277
Pardon the litmus test question regarding Stalin. I think you will find that the conversations on this forum are generally more civil than those on other forums.
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By ckaihatsu
#15246280
Robert Urbanek wrote:
Pardon the litmus test question regarding Stalin. I think you will find that the conversations on this forum are generally more civil than those on other forums.



'Litmus test', *hell*.

Nation-states (like the USSR) have both *internal* and *external* (geopolitical) politics -- so someone like myself can be *for* a backwards-yet-scrappy, up-and-coming nascent nation-state like the USSR in the '20s and '30s (GOSPLAN), while *also* being critical of how that country was *run*, the same as anyone else ('Stalinism').


Political Spectrum, Simplified

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Political Spectrum, Simplified UPDATE

Spoiler: show
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User avatar
By Globe360Plus
#15246299
Robert Urbanek wrote:Pardon the litmus test question regarding Stalin. I think you will find that the conversations on this forum are generally more civil than those on other forums.

No worries. Nice to meet ya.
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By Globe360Plus
#15246300
Nice to meet all of you. I see this is a welcoming community and I thank you for that. :) :up:
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By ckaihatsu
#15246301
Globe360Plus wrote:
Nice to meet all of you. I see this is a welcoming community and I thank you for that. :) :up:



Yeah, hey, w'sup.
User avatar
By Robert Urbanek
#15246302
ckaihatsu wrote:'Litmus test', *hell*.

Nation-states (like the USSR) have both *internal* and *external* (geopolitical) politics -- so someone like myself can be *for* a backwards-yet-scrappy, up-and-coming nascent nation-state like the USSR in the '20s and '30s (GOSPLAN), while *also* being critical of how that country was *run*, the same as anyone else ('Stalinism').


Political Spectrum, Simplified

Spoiler: show
Image



Political Spectrum, Simplified UPDATE

Spoiler: show
Image


I thought the Stalin question may have been posed to determine if the new member was a Putin-financed Russian troll who, presumably, would have praised Stalin as a hero.
User avatar
By ckaihatsu
#15246303
Robert Urbanek wrote:
I thought the Stalin question may have been posed to determine if the new member was a Putin-financed Russian troll who, presumably, would have praised Stalin as a hero.



Fair enough. Carry on. (grin)

(Though any such nationalist sentiment would most likely be retro-*tsarist*, like Putin's *own* political sentiment.)
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