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I THINK Putin is ...

1.  Massing troops to theaten invasion to see what he can get at the table not to invade.
2.  Destabilizing Ukraine with asymmetric methods as usual.
3.  Encouraging separatists in Bombass etc.
4.  Planning some false flag operations here and there with LGM.
5.  Move slowly and appear threatening to get negotiated benefits.

I THINK Putin is ...

1.  Massing troops to theaten invasion to see what he can get at the table not to invade.
2.  Destabilizing Ukraine with asymmetric methods as usual.
3.  Encouraging separatists in Bombass etc.
4.  Planning some false flag operations here and there with LGM.
5.  Move slowly and appear threatening to get negotiated benefits.

And I think you are right.

Putin is a ruthless murderous thug. But whatever you think of him, he's A LOT smarter and more cunning than the idiots we have running this country. He knows he can't invade Ukraine and occupy the entire country. He's not dumb.

And when they took Crimea it's not exactly like they invaded. They were already there- they had a huge military presence at the Sevastopol base. And Crimea was a bit of a different situation. One that base is of the utmost strategic importance to them- it may just be the most important naval base they have- they were not going to risk losing it if a new government that came after the overthrow of the Ukrainian government was hostile to them. Also- Crimea was part of the Russian Empire/USSR for like 300+ hundred years up until about 60 years ago- and the majority of the people in Crimea were ethnic Russian and spoke Russian as a first language. Note I am not agreeing with Russia taking Crimea or condoning it- just pointing out the why and the circumstances that lead up to it. And it was an easy sell to the people that lived there- most of them were Russian. IF he invades Ukraine- that's not going to be an easy sell. He's going to be met with resistance- lots of it. Ukraine doesn't want them there. It's impossible to hold and occupy a foreign country that doesn't want you there. He knows this. He saw it when the USSR invaded Afghanistan. He saw it when the Americans invaded Afghanistan and Iraq. I don't think he's an idiot. I don't think he's going to make those same mistakes and get drawn into a long conflict trying to a hold a country that he can't which would piss off the entire West in the process and could lead to a massive war.

I learned a bit when I owned a piece of a restaurant about costs, the ideal was for food costs to be about a third of the menu cost.  Labor costs were of course high even paying a pittance, we still had two GMs on salary.   The service on the debt was a heavy burden.  It was very tough to be profitable, the core idea was to break even on food and make money on alcohol.  The servers of course made money on tips more than salary, but they had to share with the bar and the front end.

Then we lost our chef and it was downhill from there, he was really good.

I learned a bit when I owned a piece of a restaurant about costs, the ideal was for food costs to be about a third of the menu cost.  Labor costs were of course high even paying a pittance, we still had two GMs on salary.  The service on the debt was a heavy burden.  It was very tough to be profitable, the core idea was to break even on food and make money on alcohol.  The servers of course made money on tips more than salary, but they had to share with the bar and the front end.

Then we lost our chef and it was downhill from there, he was really good.

restaurant business is tough. imo the only way you can make any real money in the restaurant business is if you rip your customers off and you get them to gladly be ripped off with a smile on their face. you can only do that if you have a really good product and the place becomes a "hot-spot". Impossible to predict that sort of thing though.

there's a restaurant called Cafe Martorano's in Ft. Lauderdale - really excellent Italian-American spot, but the prices are literally insane. He is price gouging and ripping people off blind. But they pay it happily. But....the guy gets it and has got it for 30+ years and largely because it just became a celebrity hot-spot. Athletes, actors, rappers, singers- someone is always hanging out there. I've seen Dennis Rodman there, Shaq there, Dan Marino, Fat Joe - there's always someone there. And a lot of these guys fly the owner out to cook for them in their own homes. Like Shaq. Shaq ate there like damn near every night when he played for the Heat became friends with the owner and he flies him out to cook for him and his family.

Haven't been there in a minute, but 1 meatball with a little bit of ricotta cheese and some salad is around $30 I want to say. You take a girl there, two people with appetizers, entrees, desert, and couple drinks- easily over $300. For Italian-American food. That stuff isn't that expensive to make, believe me I know. And it's not like he has to pay an expert skilled pasta maker to hand make pasta- all their pasta is dried.

Not knocking him, the food is excellent but the prices are astronomical for what it is.

does anybody else find it astonishing that really the only anti-war voice in the news media right now on either basic tv news (ABC, NBC, CBS) or cable news (Fox, CNN, MSNBC) - is coming from Tucker Carlson and Fox News? Tucker was asking questions about Syria and whether we knew the "gas attacks" we used to justify more bombing in Syria were actually done by Bashar al-Assad (turns out they weren't), he was for leaving Afghanistan, and he's now asking why are our politicians and media so quick to beat the drums of war with a nuclear armed Russia.

This legitimately kind of blows my mind. News media is basically state tv- and they are always for more war. And I'm old enough to remember when Fox News was cheerleading and front-running the Iraq & Afghanistan wars, cheerleading for the destruction of Libya- and anyone even saying, hey wait a minute maybe we should re-think this and maybe not do this was an anti-american jihadist sympathizer. They were probably the most hardcore pro war of them all. To see their highest rated show make an anti-war turn is stunning to me.

Restaurant business is tough.  Almost impossible, really,  for local independents in major metro areas.  We owned our BBQ restaurant for about ten years while I was growing up.

Employee theft is a major expense as well, and it's often difficult to account for it on the balance sheet and income statements.

it is fickle. you can have good food, at a great price, and in a good location, and it still go wrong.

i imagine virtually everywhere has a place like this, but there's 1 spot in tuscaloosa that seems perfect for a good restaurant, and it's had some great ones (and bad ones) in that spot, but they never work out for some reason. it's near campus, but easy access in and out, should have plenty of students plus locals in and out. plenty large enough for good crowds on big event weekends, but not crazy huge. the food depends on what it is, but it's had some really good food in there for reasonable prices. i can't explain it, but they never seem to make it past 2 years before shutting down.

also....is anybody else as disheartened and sad by the complete downfall and decay of Howard Stern and Stephen Colbert? These guys used to be heros of mine. It's sad as hell to see what they have become. I guess getting old and taking those fat paydays will do that to a person.