OT: The Avalounge: No Witty Title Available (mod warning in OP)

[Foppberg]

I'm with @dahrougem2 that all of this anti-Russian stuff is another form of cancel culture in disguise. I think the dumbest or ignorant thing is to group people based on genes, culture, religion, race, or background and then full on judge them within that group. Every person on this earth is individually different from one another even if they are all white, asian, or black. Punishing Russian athletes just because they're Russian could be quite xenophobic considering they have absolutely nothing to do with Putin's decision, even for the pro-Putin hockey players in the NHL. You think Ovechkin or Varlamov called Putin directly and told him, "hey Supreme Leader, I am not really liking Ukraine at the moment, can you invade them?" That's just rubbish even though I think on a moral level you should definitely voice a concern to who they're backing.

Just look at Russia right now, a percentage of their population actually came out and opposed the invasion with protests. It's not their fault the Russian police took a page out of the Canadian police and shutdown peaceful protests. Now there are things I do accept, for example on TNT yesterday the entire panel mentioned that if you're a USA or Canadian player in the KHL, you need to GTFO of that country ASAP. There are ways to pressure Russia on other fronts than banning their athletes. For example, leaving the KHL is one option, being like Poland and actually boycotting their game against Russia is another for the World Cup. I also don't mind if IIHF decides to ban Russia from U18, U20, and World Champions' as it was employed against South Africa and their racist constitution. But targeting individuals because they were born in a country with one person deciding to do a terrible act is crazy. Hasek probably means well, but his ideology is the same of what USA did to Japanese citizens during WWII with the prison camps.

EDIT: Actually, I dunno. Some random Russian couple with a small business in small town Colorado shouldn't be discriminated against, but squeezing Putin from possible angle? Yeah, I'm for that. Sucks that innocent players are part of the collateral damage but I mean, shouldn't have invaded a country and committed war crimes.

However the bolded is just silliness. It was far from peaceful, and not at all legal from the very beginning. I don't want to get into it too much, as this thread is already talking politics and with that comes instant "code orange" level of rigidness on how much the envelope can be pushed. Slide into my DMs if you really want to though

 

[Hennessy]

We've all had that friend (or been that person...ahem) who starts a stupid fight in a bar. That's not on us. What is, though, is how we react. Do we jump in, loyal to the end? Do we sit it out and take the friend home after? Or do we totally disavow the jerk?
Now imagine that the friend is actually your boss and always pays for all your rounds.
That's where the sycophantic Russian players are in this.
I've never liked how buddy-buddy some of them have been with Putin, who uses them to bolster his nationalism schtick. But it's not really on them to take responsibility for something that they have no control over. Ovie's slacktivism with his statements may ring hollow, but he's between a rock and a hard place and it was a lot better than him saying something like "Mother Russia tends to her wayward brood" or whatever.

 

[UncleRisto]

Sanctioning Russian sports and athletes is not some humanitarian breach, it's a sanction that should be placed just like several others.

 

[dmac7719]

Just look at Russia right now, a percentage of their population actually came out and opposed the invasion with protests. It's not their fault the Russian police took a page out of the Canadian police and shutdown peaceful protests.

What an extremely bad take. Imagine comparing these two situations as similar. Russian police were arresting people within hours of the protests starting. Canada police let the protests go on for close to 3 weeks, and even when the call was made by the federal government, they still gave the protesters a chance to leave. The "freedumb convoy" was affecting international trade with the US, and the Canadian government still didn't have the police step in.

 

[JLo217]

Whats happening in Kharkiv is brutal. :{

Every day just feels like we're closer to the end like every Bond movie.

 

[bromando]

Some of you seem to have more detailed insights than are being released in most mainstream reporting on Ukraine. Out of curiosity, where are you seeing the best reporting being done on the war? I know reporting isn't perfect during war time but would like to know of some good places to look for info.

 

[JLo217]

Some of you seem to have more detailed insights than are being released in most mainstream reporting on Ukraine. Out of curiosity, where are you seeing the best reporting being done on the war? I know reporting isn't perfect during war time but would like to know of some good places to look for info.

There are some good twitter threads. I have some personal connections in the military from when I was in where I get some info. I can PM a good balanced list if you want me too.

 

[bromando]

There are some good twitter threads. I have some personal connections in the military from when I was in where I get some info. I can PM a good balanced list if you want me too.

Yeah I'm a noob on Twitter so I really only see what surfaces to the top...not necessarily what is accurate or good. Frustrating because Twitter is so dominated by people who are good at getting likes and angry comments rather than people who can report well. Would appreciate a tip or two if you don't mind!

 

[Bonzai12]

I am getting a lot of information from my relatives in Moldova. They can hear the bomb strikes, even though they're maybe 100-200 miles away. It's very real for them, and they're terrified. We've had a lot of discussions that my family will be driving to Romania and staying there temporarily if Kyiv falls.

https://kyivindependent.com/ is a good local source. Sometimes tough to read the english translation of the site, but you'll get the gist of whats going on.

As with all news, I'm really over the whole US news streams that are slanted or have editorial spins to them. There's a bunch of armchair news reporting/opinions going on. I'm so over that #*$(@@.

 

[SirLoinOfCloth]

As with all news, I'm really over the whole US news streams that are slanted or have editorial spins to them. There's a bunch of armchair news reporting/opinions going on. I'm so over that #*$(@@.

Yup. I can't stand US media outlets for the most part. As a Brit I grew up with BBC, which I still use today although its lack of bias has been somewhat eroded over more recent years. I tend to go: BBC -> Associated Press -> Reuters.

 

[bromando]

I am getting a lot of information from my relatives in Moldova. They can hear the bomb strikes, even though they're maybe 100-200 miles away. It's very real for them, and they're terrified. We've had a lot of discussions that my family will be driving to Romania and staying there temporarily if Kyiv falls.

https://kyivindependent.com/ is a good local source. Sometimes tough to read the english translation of the site, but you'll get the gist of whats going on.

As with all news, I'm really over the whole US news streams that are slanted or have editorial spins to them. There's a bunch of armchair news reporting/opinions going on. I'm so over that #*$(@@.

Thanks. That has to be really hard for you and your family. I can only imagine the feeling of impending struggle that is sitting in the hearts of people in Moldova and other areas nearby. I'll check out that local source.

Agreed completely. You can't even do a "Oh I'll catch both sides of the argument by ready source X and source Y" because they're all so skewed. You're just reading opinions instead of reporting at that point.

 

[bromando]

Yup. I can't stand US media outlets for the most part. As a Brit I grew up with BBC, which I still use today although its lack of bias has been somewhat eroded over more recent years. I tend to go: BBC -> Associated Press -> Reuters.

I go to all of these as well but find them to be pretty surface level often times. BBC does a better job going in-depth and perhaps I'm just not digging on AP and Reuters enough.

 

[tshack]

Sanctioning Russian sports and athletes is not some humanitarian breach, it's a sanction that should be placed just like several others.

What does it mean to "sanction" an individual? I understand restricting teams from participating in certain leagues or tournaments, but I have no idea what people are saying when they bring this up on an individual level.

 

[Avsboy]

Why discriminate against Russians living in the West? Not their fault that Putin has done this, and there's nothing they can do.

 

[Freudian]

I'd take all war statistics from either side with a big grain of salt. Truth is the first casualty of war.

 

[UncleRisto]

What does it mean to "sanction" an individual? I understand restricting teams from participating in certain leagues or tournaments, but I have no idea what people are saying when they bring this up on an individual level.

Sanctions on states impact individuals from those states. Otherwise they aren't sanctions.

 

[SirLoinOfCloth]

The Ukraine president has signed and submitted a formal application to join the EU.
Ukraine talks yield no breakthrough as Russians close in

 

[PAZ]

Things like this make me realize how priviledged I am right now.

A Jollibees (Filipino fast food chain) just opened in Vancouver and it had a 4+ hour wait opening day.



On the flipside, people in Russia are queuing up to take money out of the ATM at the risk of not being able to access it in the near future.

 

[Balthazar]

The Ukraine president has signed and submitted a formal application to join the EU.
Ukraine talks yield no breakthrough as Russians close in

They can't accept.

 

[Bonzai12]

Anonymous is about to enter the war

 

[SirLoinOfCloth]

They can't accept.

It also takes years (usually) to do the due diligence, and to get the necessary unanimous agreement. I find it interesting not because it will happen imminently, but because by all accounts Russia may actually lose this war, and in the process they could be pushing Ukraine into the warm embrace of the EU. Which would be a double-whammy, the only thing worse would be for Ukraine to join NATO too.

 

[rmthomson21]

Anonymous is about to enter the war

But this is the contribution, not what happens on the 3rd - if it contributes even a percentage to the fear motivating a run on banks, that is this piece of media's job.

 

[Avs_19]

I can see the argument behind banning Russia as a nation from international competition. They often involve politics in sports and use it to push their agendas. It's also something that's important to the country so it can be viewed as another sanction as mentioned by @UncleRisto.

Banning individuals, suspending contracts, deporting players, etc is a bit too far and I disagree with that. It doesn't make a whole lot of sense to do that and I doubt it comes to that. Although, it sounds like the CHL might actually consider it, which would be ridiculous.

If a player is a vocal supporter who still proudly shows his support with his IG? If, hypothetically, there is someone like that then **** that guy. His sponsors might be ready to say **** him too based on what I read the other day. Again, just a hypothetical.

 

[Islay1989]

I can see the argument behind banning Russia as a nation from international competition. They often involve politics in sports and use it to push their agendas. It's also something that's important to the country so it can be viewed as another sanction as mentioned by @UncleRisto.

Banning individuals, suspending contracts, deporting players, etc is a bit too far and I disagree with that. It doesn't make a whole lot of sense to do that and I doubt it comes to that. Although, it sounds like the CHL might actually consider it, which would be ridiculous.

If a player is a vocal supporter who still proudly shows his support with his IG? If, hypothetically, there is someone like that then **** that guy. His sponsors might be ready to say **** him too based on what I read the other day. Again, just a hypothetical.

Well that hypothetical guy very un-hypothetically contributed massively in the save childern from Nazi Ukrainians campaign.

 

[henchman21]

And here's where we get locked...