POTUS 45.64: Governance By Unhinged Twitter Rants

[ScoobyDoo]

It is pretty amazing how we keep forcing the President of the United States to hire wackos.

Donald J. Trump
@realDonaldTrump

Wacko John Bolton’s “exceedingly tedious”(New York Times) book is made up of lies & fake stories. Said all good about me, in print, until the day I fired him. A disgruntled boring fool who only wanted to go to war. Never had a clue, was ostracized & happily dumped. What a dope!

He should be able to hire his own people.

[theprofromdover]

1960 called. It said, bite me. <-- the real miracle on ice. 1980 was a cheap knock-off.

fyp.

[Kepler]

fyp.

Bill Cleary can eat a bag of dicks. Read and learn.

In 1948, the Czechoslovak Communist Party carried out a coup, bringing to power a repressive regime that followed dictates established in Moscow. With the encouragement of the Soviet leadership, Czechoslovakia’s Communists censored the press, imprisoned those who spoke against the government and prohibited travel outside of the Eastern Bloc. The Soviets sent “advisers” to Prague to train the Czechoslovak government in the art of the communist show trial, which ginned up public support for executions of (real and imagined) high-profile dissidents. Czechoslovakia established foreign and economic policy that followed the Soviets’ explicit orders. And no leader in Prague retained power without Moscow’s support.

In the 1940s, Czechoslovakia had been a hockey powerhouse. Czechoslovakian players actually helped the Soviet Union found its hockey program, but the Soviets quickly gained the upper hand. In 1950, the new Czechoslovak Communist regime imprisoned the national hockey team on trumped up charges, setting the squad back years. Meanwhile, the Russians improved dramatically. They quickly joined the ranks of the leading teams in the world, and by the early 1960s had become the dominant power in the sport.

The Czechoslovak Communist regime promulgated propaganda espousing the greatness of the Soviet economic and political system — propaganda that also played up the genius of Soviet sports. As the Czechoslovak hockey team improved but failed to beat the Soviets — all while the government marched to the Soviet tune — the public wondered whether the fix was in.

Then came the “Prague Spring.” In 1968 a new Czechoslovak government took power. It instantly asserted greater independence from Moscow and instituted reforms that permitted greater freedom of expression, travel and the press. Because many Czechoslovaks believed (inaccurately) that Moscow’s control had prevented them from defeating the Soviet hockey team, they looked to a victory over the USSR for proof that the reforms were genuine and far-reaching.

When the two squads faced off in the 1968 Olympics, the Soviets had won the past five world titles, were unbeaten in their previous 38 world championship games and had defeated Czechoslovakia in every major tournament since 1961. But this time, in a stunning upset, Czechoslovakia won 5-4. In the game’s iconic moment, Czechoslovakia’s melodramatic team captain Jozef Golonka dove onto the ice to celebrate, leading to hockey folklore that he was trying to hear if Russia had cut off oil to Czechoslovakia as punishment.

Although the Soviets went on to take the gold medal, for Czechoslovaks the win over the Russians catalyzed a new sense of possibility. Tens of thousands of fans took to the streets to celebrate the team.

The jubilance was short-lived. Displeased with Czechoslovak political reforms, Moscow ordered a return to communist orthodoxy and then announced that Prague’s efforts to reverse course were insufficient. Unwilling to lose control over their satellite, in August 1968 the Soviets sent 500,000 troops to end Czechoslovakia’s “counterrevolution.” Soviet troops remained for more than 20 years.

Jan Havel, a star on the 1968 hockey team, expressed (perhaps hyperbolically) what many in Czechoslovakia felt: “The tanks rolled in in ’68 … because the nation was united behind hockey and behind beating the Russians and the Soviets got scared.” Czechoslovakia hockey legend Josef Horesovsky later reflected that the events surrounding hockey “added to the mood that the Soviets didn’t have so much control over us,” which provided the principal impetus for the invasion.

Hockey served as a proxy battlefield. As Russian tanks overran Czechoslovakia, “5-4” graffiti appeared everywhere, offering a reminder of the outcome of the Olympic match. A few months later, the entire Czechoslovak nation — even people with little interest in the sport — viewed the 1969 World Hockey Championships as a way to fight back against the Soviets. When their team defeated Russia twice in the tournament, a half-million Czechoslovaks poured into the streets to celebrate and to protest the occupation.

In a context in which the seemingly all-powerful Soviet Union and the Communist Party denied the people of Czechoslovakia freedom, hockey had become the venue for them to continue their fight against those who oppressed them. In challenging the Soviets on the ice, Czechoslovakia’s hockey players became the embodiment of the country’s desire to defy the superpower that sought to crush them.

That's a Miracle. Not some cake eater BU dilettantes taking time off from raping Muffy over the ottoman to preen in front of a home crowd and teevee and beat a Russian team so bored it slept through all 3 periods.

[Slap Shot]

Ok then.

[Jimjamesak]

1980 is definitely overrated, and 1960 is underrated especially considering how good the Canadians still were at that time, but the Czechs? They were Soviet Light. Same system, smaller population, slightly different results.

[Kepler]

1980 is definitely overrated, and 1960 is underrated especially considering how good the Canadians still were at that time, but the Czechs? They were Soviet Light. Same system, smaller population, slightly different results.

The geopolitics of the 68 was so much more important. It was freedom vs slavery, and David vs Goliath. 1980 was just two different flavors of enslavement and Gargantua vs Pantagruel.

[burd]

Bill Cleary can eat a bag of dicks. Read and learn.



That's a Miracle. Not some cake eater BU dilettantes taking time off from raping Muffy over the ottoman to preen in front of a home crowd and teevee and beat a Russian team so bored it slept through all 3 periods.

Yeah. Even a completely ignorant 15-year-old hick in flyover country could appreciate how special that win was at the time.

[Jimjamesak]

The geopolitics of the 68 was so much more important. It was freedom vs slavery, and David vs Goliath. 1980 was just two different flavors of enslavement and Gargantua vs Pantagruel.

One government sponsored team playing another government sponsored team was freedom vs slavery? Ok...

[Slap Shot]

1980 is overrated? 1980 would be the equivalent of a Div 1 All-Star team beating the Dream Team if the Dream Team had played together for years instead of weeks. On top of that there was the geopolitical climate, the US economy...

It's ok to argue 1968 was monumental without making silly arguments to prop it up.

[Handyman]

He hates all things Bahstahn so naturally he would hate The Miracle.

[Rogie21]

Returning to the thread title...

POLITICO @politico · 6h
In an Oval Office interview Thursday, President Donald Trump called mail-in voting the biggest threat to his reelection and warned his party in blunt terms not to abandon him https://politico.com/news/2020/06/1

and, defying public health officials by cramming 19,000 into an indoor arena with no requirement to wear mask in a city experiencing a surge of Covid cases

...both perfectly demonstrating Bolton’s assertion: “There isn’t any guiding principle I could discern besides What’s good for Donald Trump’s re-election.”

And Obama’s, too: “It has been an absolutely chaotic disaster when that mindset — of ‘what’s in it for me’ and ‘to heck with everybody else’ — when that mindset is operationalized in our government.”

[WeAreNDHockey]

deviating from the title again.......
I always thought the 1980 Olympic team was d amne d with faint praise occasionally. 11 skaters went to the NHL from the team (among the 20 guys who actually played at Lake Placid) and they managed nearly 6000 NHL games and scored over 3200 points collectively. This was still also in a time when the NHL was reluctant to employ NCAA players, no matter what was on their resumes. And while the Soviet team was full of players who could have played in the NHL it isn't like every one of them would have or all who were good enough would have been all-stars. The American team was also a true team, having played together for a year and dozens of games. It was not a typical "all-star" team that was put together and had 3 weeks of practice.

[Handyman]

Melania decided to tweet about Juneteenth...it did not go well.

https://mobile.twitter.com/FLOTUS/st...48647860785153

The replies are fun...and a few are kind of scary.

[mookie1995]

deviating from the title again.......
I always thought the 1980 Olympic team was d amne d with faint praise occasionally. 11 skaters went to the NHL from the team (among the 20 guys who actually played at Lake Placid) and they managed nearly 6000 NHL games and scored over 3200 points collectively. This was still also in a time when the NHL was reluctant to employ NCAA players, no matter what was on their resumes. And while the Soviet team was full of players who could have played in the NHL it isn't like every one of them would have or all who were good enough would have been all-stars. The American team was also a true team, having played together for a year and dozens of games. It was not a typical "all-star" team that was put together and had 3 weeks of practice.

....not ONE SINGLE black player on that team.

and they were all MEN

[Slap Shot]

deviating from the title again.......
I always thought the 1980 Olympic team was d amne d with faint praise occasionally. 11 skaters went to the NHL from the team (among the 20 guys who actually played at Lake Placid) and they managed nearly 6000 NHL games and scored over 3200 points collectively. This was still also in a time when the NHL was reluctant to employ NCAA players, no matter what was on their resumes. And while the Soviet team was full of players who could have played in the NHL it isn't like every one of them would have or all who were good enough would have been all-stars. The American team was also a true team, having played together for a year and dozens of games. It was not a typical "all-star" team that was put together and had 3 weeks of practice.

Their average age was about 21 (their youngest team in Olympic history) vs 26+ for the Soviets and no US player had played a single NHL minute before those Olympics. In the four Olympics since 1960 Soviet teams were 27–1–1 and outscored their opponents 175–44 with no losses since 1968. The same Soviet team beat the NHL All-Stars 6-0 in 1979. I suppose the US sandbagged the game at MSG too? ffs now we're trying to cancel The Miracle?

Yeah that statement is hyperbole but good Lord people.