WTF-Beta

@Mark said:

@Daniel

These look amazing. I bet they sound great.

https://tmraudio.com/products/cary-audio-design-cad-211fe-monoblock-tube-power-amplifiers

10k off 20k retail?!

Wow.

I might have paid $1,200 for mine.

@Mark said:

@Daniel Sweet amps!

I have a pair of Decware monoblocks that I use when I am in the mood for tubes. Not a great photo of them.

@mark Thanks! I like yours!

Link to video

Link to video

Bye, bye.

@wtg I'm not trying to be argumentative. I said I'd reconsider. Fair enough?

@wtg said:

wtg said:

@Daniel said:

There was a treaty signed by the US with Gorbachev

Could you post a link to that actual document? I have searched and am unable to find it.

Thanks.

I did a quick query to AI.

Did the US ever sign a treaty with Russia that specifically stated that NATO would not expand eastward? Or were there merely discussions with/assurances to Gorbachev from Western Europe and the US about limiting NATO expansion?

Here is the answer;

No. The United States did not sign a treaty with Russia—or the Soviet Union—prohibiting NATO from expanding eastward.

The treaty people often mean is the 1990 Treaty on the Final Settlement with Respect to Germany, signed by the United States, the Soviet Union, Britain, France, and the two German states. It set limits on military deployments in the former East Germany; it did not bar NATO from admitting countries elsewhere in Eastern Europe. The Soviet Union, not the Russian Federation, was the signatory on the Soviet side. <citation src="6,7"></citation>

There were, however, conversations and verbal assurances during German reunification negotiations. James Baker’s “not one inch eastward” phrase and similar remarks by other Western officials are documented. Their meaning and scope remain disputed: some argue they encouraged Gorbachev to expect NATO would not expand more broadly; others argue they concerned NATO’s military role in a reunified Germany, and were never a binding promise about future membership. <citation src="2,4,8"></citation>

So the most precise summary is: no treaty barring broader eastward expansion; yes, there were diplomatic discussions and assurances, but no written, legally binding commitment covering Eastern Europe as a whole. <citation src="4,6,8"></citation>

I'm not convinced.

@wtg said:

@Daniel said:

There was a treaty signed by the US with Gorbachev

Could you post a link to that actual document? I have searched and am unable to find it.

Thanks.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intermediate-Range_Nuclear_Forces_Treaty

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

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

I could be wrong, of course.

I'm certainly willing to consider the possibility.

As to the treaty documents- no.

I don't know where they are kept.

I'll reconsider.

But, yeah, I'm not reading the treaty documents.

That would take months, and I'm not an attorney.

Link to video

Link to video

This is so stupid.

Assertion- They survived the plane crash.

Argumentum ad nauseam

Maybe these random pieces of shoe leather and whatever else have nothing to do with the crash.

Maybe (and there is no evidence of it) they are part of the debris field.

Argumentum ad nauseam everywhere you look.

Then you get to their imagined survival.

This is a mystery. I'd like to know the answer- assuming for the sake of argument they survived the crash-

How many days or even hours did they survive on a remote atoll, exposed to the elements, with no food, and no drinking water?

Yes, they were heros. Yes, they should be honored.

Stop making money off the tragedy, and let them RIP.

@wtg said:

@Daniel said:

There was a treaty signed by the US with Gorbachev, and in it is the provision that NATO would not be expanded.

Not sure that's entirely accurate.

Some history.

https://www.geopolitika.it/en/the-western-guarantees-to-mikhail-gorbachev-and-nato-expansion-what-was-promised-what-was-implemented-and-what-was-broken/

That's not history. It's analysis, and it's very slanted. Do you have anything more concrete?

Well, I think Ukraine will go back to being Ukraine and Russia will go back to being Russia. No matter how or why it started, it won't last forever.

It's a quagmire like all wars.

I don't think we're going to agree.

Russia is at war with Ukraine. Russia doesn't occupy it.

My point was more, as in the video in my OP, what should the US do now?

I can't see how the US, and the EU, are doing anything to achieve peace.

On the contrary, our actions seem to be perpetuating the war.

I was an audiophile. I bought used (lol). I attempted to build a system. I had chosen and bought the amps. Then life happened. I sold my amps for what I paid. I didn't get to the point of choosing a source or speakers.

This is a close variant of my amps-

https://tmraudio.com/products/cary-audio-cad-300-se-signature-tube-mono-power-amplifier?srsltid=AU7gw4Uu_QuenUZ6qplc-lj8VDcO-nqGaJNIUzYkr_85PI_DlnUSUnvj

Mine had a black not silver face. The silver is distracting. JMHO.

Art.

I kind of wish I had them today although I couldn't do anything with them at the moment but display them (and I'd be good with that) and (the real reason it would have been impossible to keep them) because I led a nomadic life moving back and forth from Hawaii Island to Maui over the better part of 20 years (yes, going where the jobs were, as a person did to be able to live out there) and they weighed a ton. There's no way I could have kept them.

I just learned that Cary made (or makes?) a version of SET with integrated pre-amp. Um, yes, please. Lol.

My current system (and I like it a lot) is sub- $100 monitor speakers I connect to my phone with bluetooth.

It's quite amazing actually. The only problem (and it's kind of a big one in music listening terms) is I don't want them to be anywhere except my bedroom.

So they are on each side of my desk.

I can't face them unless I'm sitting at my desk.

I never sit at my desk to concentrate on music.

I have $99 Grado headphones with the largest ear covers they offer ($$ but highly recommend) if I really want to immerse myself in music listening.

I don't have much of an audiophile quality system (the Grado headphones are an exception) but I get what I want with both the little monitor speakers and the headphones-

a spectrum that is not "weighted". It's even.

This is my overriding criterion.

I couldn't listen to classical music or Delta blues any other way.

Not only that, but anything but an even spectrum makes my ears bleed.

I think I'm comparing and contrasting them.

Why did Russia invade Ukraine?

Russia invaded Ukraine because it was the last contiguous state that had not been, and would have been, made a member of NATO.

To recap-

There was a treaty signed by the US with Gorbachev, and in it is the provision that NATO would not be expanded.

Fast forward to the provision was violated in every way possible.

So, we get to Ukraine.

Russia was not going to, and didn't, accept this last possible violation of the treaty.

Or do you agree with the Russia = Hitler's Germany analogy?

The former is a fact.

The later is a fiction.

This gives new meaning to the expression- "poking the bear".

And still, why are we adding fuel to the fire by paying for the continuation of this war when a) we're perpetuating it by paying for it, b) a great many Americans are experiencing deprivation, and c) the US debt is skyrocketing?

Of course the Vietnamese could never have beaten the US in an actual war nor is that what happened.

To recap- Vietnam was a false flag. It was a war of aggression, as was the incursion into Cambodia.

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

"Later investigation revealed that the 4 August attack did not happen; no North Vietnamese vessels had been present. Shortly after the events, the National Security Agency, an agency of the US Defense Department, deliberately skewed intelligence to create the impression that an attack had been carried out.[5][6][7]"

So, leaving aside the history of France in Vietnam, Vietnam was invaded by the US. It's that simple.

Vietnam was not and never could have been an existential threat to the US.

If it had been, hypothetically, it would have had zero chance of winning an actual war with the US.

The only thing that happened (and the same with Aphganistan and Russia) is that Vietnam "won" back their countries through attrition.

As an aside, do you think the US had an actual intention to occupy Vietnam on a permanent basis? I don't.

So, we get to Ukraine.

Again, Russia won't occupy Ukraine. It might change the map. But that's different.

So, why is Ukraine attacking Russia as if Ukraine can "win" the war and set the terms for peace?

It's not going to happen.

Link to video

Please substitute Germany with "U.S." and follow everything else this lady said in answering these questions.

Then you get my opinion, said better than I could say it.

In particular, as I have posted here for years- Ukraine can not now, never could, and never will be able to win a war with Russia.

I'll add a caveat. I don't have a comment about the last part of this interview when it turns to the topic of immigrants who were apparently given temporary asylum in Germany, except to say that if this lady knows the law in Germany, then of course I think Germany should follow its laws.

Ringling

Yeah, good on Leslie Stahl. And Bari Weiss? Urgh.

Good for you!

Yes, they were aristocrats, weren't they?