To sell or not to sell?

tyelav13 said:
Before we all fall out with each other on the political side of things does anyone on here like Laverdas?
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Too tall , too heavy , a thirst only rivaled by Oliver Reed on a night out , heavy clutch , recalcitrant gearbox , fuel cap that leaks , handling like a pig on stilts , a throttle with a liking for travel only matched by the Royal Family , rock solid suspension , brakes that require the grip of a Manx chambermaid , but apart from all that , yeah I suppose they`re ok really.
 
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sfcpiet said:
The AFPAC convention in Orlando has revealed how Don the Con and his cronies stand to Mad Vlad and the situation in the Ukraine. Publicly supporting him, it doesn't get any more obvious.

Seems there's only a very few left in the GOP that remember what democracy stands for, Mit Romney is full of contempt for many of his fellow republicans... all chanting out what the orange moron up front dictates.

I would never have thought that such a large part of the US would show such openly fascist and racist traits, having been the defender (with a few glitches...) of democracy for almost a century. The US constitution is regarded one of the best and most democratic in the world, but these idiots are doing their best to destory it completely.

piet
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Sigh,,,,TDS can be cured.

I’ve travelled around the U.S. a bit. I don’t consider it as racist as many other regions on this earth. And, I’m having trouble squaring g the term “ fascist” to orange man, with his Jewish daughter, son in law, and grandkids. I don’t know. I think those ‘quick draw from the back pocket’ terms are so overused these days, it garners but a chuckle and a head shake from most with operational brain cells.
 
I feel a locked thread coming on🙄🙄
Such a shame that we can’t have a bit of current events discussion without it getting into snide jabs at one another.
Oh well
Guess I’ll head over to the battery thread or is it the tyre thread🙄
Both so interesting, it’s hard to choose….

If we can’t settle on who the bad guys are in this current debacle there’s not much hope is there.

Cheers
Tom
 
Steve G. said:
Sigh,,,,TDS can be cured.

I’ve travelled around the U.S. a bit. I don’t consider it as racist as many other regions on this earth. And, I’m having trouble squaring g the term “ fascist” to orange man, with his Jewish daughter, son in law, and grandkids. I don’t know. I think those ‘quick draw from the back pocket’ terms are so overused these days, it garners but a chuckle and a head shake from most with operational brain cells.
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I absolutely don't think so. The orange man toyed with democratic institutions and flouted the constitution as he called for the storm of the capitol. He belongs punished for that, a chuckle or a head shake - come on! The republicans should turn their backs on him ultimately - but they've no ass in their pants for that.

What worries me most is how little we humans have learned since we populated this planet.

jm2c
 
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lawrence said:
Fascism is a form of political organization, Steve. Racism may or may not be a part of it.
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Fascism is an ideology which dreams of a better idealised world, it has it's roots in 19th century romanticism.
The political organisation is authoritarianism in it's mild form, totalitarianism in it's......total form. Fascism if it wants to impose itself as a social organisation needs one of those two political forms. Like any ideology which imagines it knows what's good for all.

Paul
 
Steve G. - with all due respect, but not being part of a minority, you are free to travel around US and won't see and feel racism the way a black or mexican or chinese citizen of US feels every day I'd say

Guys - let's face it: Putin hasn't woken up one morning and decided to invade Ukrain. this is a loooong history and none of the parties involved (neither Nato nor independed countries nor Russia) are innocent. Think of the cold war when Russia tried to put atomar weapons right on the doorstep of USA. Same is what Nato does with our expansion into the east. However, also Russia ist not free of faults, intruding several other countries to bring them into their "federation". US also intruded several countriies besides Irak, some of which without the reasons told ever existing. It is a dirty business and it is mostly about money, oil, resources and power.

Putins goal since 20 years is the same: "Make Russia great again" (sounds familiar, eh?). We have answered all his attempts with sanctions and hindered him to grow to a level where he feels to be one of the third big players in the world, maybe even the second big one. Russia currently isn't under the first 3, which are China, US and EU from my perspective. He wants to change that order and has tried to do it economically, military wise and territory wise. Ukraine is "just another step" on the plan.

We have taken cheap resources from Russia and have failed to integrate them into an EU Strategy. Excluding Putin from G8 => making it G7 was one step I would have never done. He feels like with the back to the wall, which is a very dangerous situation.

I am NOT saying there is anything good in the invasion of Ukraine. I am just saying it is a consequence of 20 years failing politic on both sides
 
After the Soviet Union fell Russia could have become a proper liberal democracy, as I said earlier. A sad failure that didn't happen.
 
I have no particular view regarding Trump either one way or the other , although his appeal to a large section of the American electorate is obvious , being very "anti-politician" in the way he goes about his business , not being afraid to say what he thinks , rather than stopping to consider what he should say (which of course can lead to all sorts of problems , some with more serious consequences than others) .

I would imagine his tenure in the White House was regarded by most aides and officials in a similar way to having a bull loose in a china shop.

But I would suggest this partly explains his appeal - What you see with Trump is what you get , and it`s this unwillingness to conform to normal political niceties which appeals to working class/blue collar or whatever the term is Americans - He`s much more one of us than one of them.
None of this means he is right in what he says or thinks , just a possible reason for his popularity.

Back of a matchbox media headlines can also play a part in perpetuating stereotypes - reports over the last couple of days report Trump as calling Putin a very clever man and describing America as weak - more evidence of the Orange Man having lost the plot obviously.
But if you read beyond the headline you will see that Trump regards Zelensky as a hero , the invasion of the Ukraine as an atrocity , and the invasion being a result of Putin regarding Bidens America as weak , after the hasty withdrawal from Afghanistan for example .

Interesting that after Trump complaining that some member states of NATO were`nt pulling their weight , leaving the burden to be carried by the USA , that it is actually Putin that prompted Germany to commit 2% of their GDP to NATO , something that a long line of USA Presidents had failed to do

"If you repeat a lie often enough and loudly enough , people will start to believe it" (Joseph Goebbels) - Something which could easily be applied to Putin in his addresses to the Russian public , and also , if you believe Donald Trump , to certain sections of the media...
 
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Wasnt it Donny who announced the date for withdrawal from Afghanistan before leaving office leaving it as a present for the next bloke to deal with. Water under the bridge, way more urgent stuff happening now.
 
Vince said:
Wasnt it Donny who announced the date for withdrawal from Afghanistan before leaving office leaving it as a present for the next bloke to deal with. Water under the bridge, way more urgent stuff happening now.
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Trump made a deal directly with the Taliban , over and above the Afghan Government`s head , for a gradual reduction in US troops with an aim for complete withdrawal by May 2021.
USA kept to this timetable despite continued Taliban attacks.
When Biden (who was also keen to get out) came to power in Jan 2021 he extended Trumps withdrawal date to Aug 2021 , when final withdrawal took place.
Both Trump and Biden wanted to wash their hands of the whole thing .
Trump now has the luxury of saying this happened under Bidens watch , not his , and could argue that if he was still President he would have delayed the final withdrawal again , although there would have been no reason at that time.

Trump may or may or may not have a valid point regarding Putin regarding the withdrawal as one of the signs of lack of resolve on the part of the USA , these were only his opinions after all , and the ball may well be in his own court regarding this.

The point I was making was that sometimes the media will present a headline ,that in order to attract attention , will not always accurately reflect the content of the story that follows it .
I sometimes wonder if some of these headlines are just down to lazy journalism or a deliberate attempt to mislead the lazy reader who hasn`t the time or inclination to read the whole story , and will just glance at the headline without bothering to read the whole story , thereby reinforcing their own prejudices and promoting that papers or online sites particular agenda.
 
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To balance a bit: go to google and type in "Why US invaded" and stop there - you will see a list of the top 10 countries US invaded - for several reasons (fighting against Communism, against dictators, against druggs or just for oil ressources etc.). The list that shows up on my computer are Vietnam, Iraq (War I and II), Afghanistan, Lybia, Grenada, Panama, Philipines, Syria, Cuba, Afghanistan).

Do the same on Russia, and on mine it shows Ukraine, Georgia, Afghanistan, Crimea, Poland, Syria, Finland; I think the list can be extended to Aserbaidschan, Tschetschenia and some other countries.

Putin did invade Ukraine telling a story about a regime of Nazis controlling the country
Bush did invade Irak telling a story about weapons of mass distruction

Both were found to be liers.
Both invaded Syria for several reasons, one to support the local government, one to fight against them (and ISIS)

US invaded Cuba because they lost their bordell and place to gambel to free the people
Russia invaded Ukraine to free up the people

Hard to see differences, as for me there are to many similarities.

Again, I am NOT defending what Russia does. I am just saying that they are not the only one doing terrible things and lying in public.

Back to Ukraine: The only way to end this is to find a way out of this for Putin where he can keep his head high and sell it internally as a "win" or to make the russians remove him. The first one is a political solution on the back of Ukrain people and especially on Zelinskiy's back. The worst though is, it might not stop Putin but make him stronger.

The second one will take way more time and is dangerous in many other respects. A wounded animal with the back to the wall will try to kill as many around him before he dies as possible.

No matter how you put it, there is no way to win this...
 
rocketonarail said:
Too tall , too heavy , a thirst only rivaled by Oliver Reed on a night out , heavy clutch , recalcitrant gearbox , fuel cap that leaks , handling like a pig on stilts , a throttle with a liking for travel only matched by the Royal Family , rock solid suspension , brakes that require the grip of a Manx chambermaid , but apart from all that , yeah I suppose they`re ok really.
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I must have got a bad couple then as neither of them are like that 😂.
 
tyelav13 said:
I must have got a bad couple then as neither of them are like that 😂.
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I was only joking (well , mostly) , all the things I listed actually makes them fun to ride (except for that useless fuel cap every Italian manufacturer back in the `seventies seemed compelled to use)...
They are a late `sixties and `seventies motorcycle so you accept it for what it is...you could try to improve/sanitiize it but would painting lipstick on the Mona Lisa improve it ?
If you want the original , pure , raw , ballsy , uncompromising , awkward , sheer bloody-minded and stuff you if you don`t like it attitude the bikes have to offer then you leave it as the Laverda factory intended.
They are good at making a nice noise though , and making people jump when you start up...
 
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