What's good (and bad ) about Russia?

[willedoo]

It's easy to be a bit cynical and see a hint of hypocrisy here. Regarding the current d*ck swinging contest between Russia and NATO, the British Foreign Secretary is out here at present for talks with her Australian counterpart. At a talk at the Lowy Institute, she said Ukraine was not a member of NATO and so could not expect direct action from the alliance in its defence. She seems to have overlooked the so called mutual defence organisation previously turning offensive and destroying Libya and Yugoslavia, two countries that had not threatened any NATO members.

 

So NATO can go outside their brief of defending member countries to attack countries posing no threat to them. They say they can do that on humanitarian grounds. Yet they won't come to the defence of a prospective member under attack. It's a bit fishy.

[Old Koreelah]

18 hours ago, willedoo said:

Russia was bankrupt and they had their own man in the Kremlin as president, in the form of a drunken, traitorous stooge. He gave the Americans everything they wanted. Then along came Putin. The first major thing he did was to take back Russia's resources (the lollies); no more 10% of profits which in reality equated to 10% of sweet F.A. after company write offs. Russia finally got their fair share of royalties and revenue...

Familiar story. Will Australia ever elect someone with the balls to insist foreign corporations actually pay tax?

[Jerry_Atrick]

[Marty_d]

Now we know why...

 

https://www.newyorker.com/humor/borowitz-report/putin-says-he-deserves-ukraine-as-consolation-for-losing-white-house?utm_source=nl&utm_brand=tny&utm_mailing=TNY_Borowitz_020222&utm_campaign=aud-dev&utm_medium=email&bxid=5bea16ee3f92a4046973a031&cndid=31732892&hasha=5a9c0746f92d107e154d883e568b7b9e&hashb=059346b55303c4a10b706993f970ddb62f706bf7&hashc=26b770f1f676e1265814898f8d7852b71ab68235a6e428825f8319a3bae3cb12&esrc=&mbid=mbid%3DCRMNYR012019&utm_term=TNY_Borowitz

[willedoo]

Sukhoi fondlers.

[willedoo]

Party faithful:

[nomadpete]

Why is there a pic of some bloke dressed as an angelic Luke Skywalker on her dress?

Edited February 6, 2022 by nomadpete

[old man emu]

21 minutes ago, nomadpete said:

Why is there a pic of some bloke dressed as an angelic Luke Skywalker on her dress?

Because some poverty-stricken peasant earned a few coins to indulge the whim of the super-rich.

[Jerry_Atrick]

And is that Sadam Hussain's cousin as the groom?

[willedoo]

7 hours ago, Jerry_Atrick said:

And is that Sadam Hussain's cousin as the groom?

Could be a sugar daddy but my guess is father of the bride. They all look a bit swarthy and Saddam-like. Must be from the south somewhere like North Ossetia, Chechnia or Dagestan. Having a wedding dress with Putin depicted as an angel is a different touch; no doubt the United Russia Party does well in the district. But I wonder what would go through the groom's mind later when he has to defrock the bride while looking at Vladimir's mug.

[pmccarthy]

Isn't the subtle message that Vlad is dead? And we can all toast to that.

[Marty_d]

15 hours ago, nomadpete said:

Why is there a pic of some bloke dressed as an angelic Luke Skywalker on her dress?

Luke wears a black gi these days.

[onetrack]

I couldn't believe it this afternoon, when I was coming home from my workshop - as I went to pull out onto a busy main road, a young woman roared past in a completely roadworthy, late 80's/early 90's, Lada Niva 1600!

 

And then to top it off, as I got up behind her and followed her, marvelling at this Soviet relic of the 1980's that's still running - I noticed she had a big red, back window decal, with the hammer and sickle, and "CCCP" in big letters across the hammer and sickle! Comrades, the great Soviet Union of old, is still alive and well in Australia!!  

[nomadpete]

I don't knock the little Lada Niva. If you pardon the comparison. They have something in common with the Leyland P76.

 

According to people that know, if you can get a good one, they are a great car.

 

Then again, I guess that is the very reason I don't see many of either on the road..... All the notsogood ones are gone. Good design, crappy factory QC.

[facthunter]

I think the mob that build them are a subsidiary of FIAT. or were back then. I reckon they were OK. Plenty of them worked in grim conditions. Nev

[Old Koreelah]

I have fond memories of my Niva, but it taught me a few things.

 

Lada built a huge assembly line in Togliatti (an industrial city on the Volga renamed for an Italian communist hero). That churned out huge numbers of Nivas. It was a quite advanced design, with suspension twenty years ahead of Toyota, constant 4WD, diff lock and strong, monocoque body. It even had a crank handle that worked. It was robust, went anywhere and was sold in many world markets.

 

The Soviets needed our wool but were short of foreign exchange, so bartered Ladas, tractors, motorcycles, etc. Nivas landed in Australia for peanuts, had good seat belts, etc fitted and sold for less than Japanese 4WDs.

 

What was wrong with it? The drive train was offset to the right to give LHD drivers plenty of room. Converted to the right, the steering gear, brake and clutch controls were hard to get at. Passenger had lots of room, but not the driver. Lada couldn’t seem to to address design defects like the Japanese, who are masters of learning what the market wants. Open the hinge-up glove box (just big enough for a pair of gloves) and eveything fell out! They never fixed it. 

 

[Yenn]

Back in the days of the Lada there were plenty of Britiish cars on Aussie roads. I don't think any of those makes survived and having driven a Vauxhall in the UK I can understand why. There may be one or two, such as Aston Martin, but are any of them owned by Brits?

[onetrack]

The early Vauxhalls that were built in the U.K. were an entirely satisfactory product. However, with the corporate shenanigans of the mid-1970's and early 1980's, U.K. manufacturing was scorned in favour of importing Opels from Germany, badged as Vauxhalls.

The Opel "connection" actually started a little earlier, when the U.K.'s dreadful period of the late 1960's/early 1970's, when constant labour unrest, U.K. Govt business nationalisation, and other "British industrial diseases" started to make manufacturing in the U.K. decidedly unattractive.

Add in the entry of the U.K. to the EU in 1973 and German manufacturing was the more favoured option by GM executives - whose leadership, forward-planning and good product abilities in that era, were going downhill rapidly.

The problem with Opel is that they started to build rubbishy cars in the early 1970's, and their products only got worse and worse, until the Opel name stood for little more than "complete junk".

The first Australian Commodores were simply Opel models transferred to Holden badging, and the earliest Commodores were so bad, GMH had to spend multi-millions strengthening and redesigning them.

 

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

[Marty_d]

I had the 4 cylinder Opel (1.9L I think) powered LH Torana.  It was a piece of shit, but I was 17 and didn't know any better.  The doors didn't lock and you could start it by turning the ignition with a screwdriver, so subsequently it got stolen.  Unfortunately the police found it undamaged, the thieves didn't even have the good manners to set it on fire.

[willedoo]

Troops massing around on the Ukraine border:

 

[old man emu]

They look so Tweet!

[facthunter]

Obviously Photoshopped. Russian women are supposed to look like Bulgarian Male  Weightlifters. Go to Russian Brides Online for true love, OME.  Nev

[willedoo]

I doubt they even are real cadets, most likely models dressed up. They don't look very airborne to me.

Edited February 13, 2022 by willedoo

[onetrack]

Don't be fooled - they're deadly killers. They'll suck you dry, and leave you gasping your last breaths.

[Old Koreelah]

There are worse ways to go…