#We're not going to Moscow. It's Czechoslovakia.

[el-ffej]

RIP Joe Flaherty, of SCTV, Freaks and Geeks and a lot of other things.

I grew up on, and loved, SCTV, and he was a mainstay -- every bit as important as Dave Thomas, John Candy or Catherine O'Hara. Not just as Count Floyd and Big Jim McBob of Farm Film Report ("He blowed up real good!")**, but many other characters as well.

He did a lot of smaller parts as well; one I haven't seen mentioned -- and one of my my favorites -- was one of the two Czechoslovakian border guards in Stripes:

**Cannot describe how funny this bit was, unless you grew up watching local TV in the American Midwest (e.g. Iowa or Nebraska).

[freetheshit-outofyou]

"C'mon, it's Czechoslovakia. We zip in, we pick 'em up, we zip right out again. We're not going to Moscow. It's Czechoslovakia. It's like going into Wisconsin. Well I got the shit kicked out of me in Wisconsin once. Forget it!”

[nicklloydnow]

“Comparing 2024 to 1938, Timothy Snyder, a Yale University history professor specializing in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union said Ukraine was comparable to a Czechoslovakia "that has chosen to fight."

(…)

"If the Ukrainians give up, or if we give up Ukraine, then it's a different Russia making war in the future," Snyder said during a conference in the Estonian capital, Tallinn.

"It's a Russia making war with Ukrainian technology, Ukrainian soldiers, from a different geographical position," he added. "Then we're in 1939. We're in 1938 now. In effect, what the Ukrainians are letting us do is letting us extend 1938. They're helping us to stay out of 1939."

(…)

Kyiv has warned that, should Ukraine fall to Russian forces, other nations in Europe will be next on Russia's hit list.

"I would like you to come out on the streets and support Ukraine, support our efforts and support our fight because if Ukraine will not stand, Europe will not stand," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said shortly after Moscow's troops poured into Ukraine in February 2022. "If we will fall, you will fall."

Earlier this year, Russian President Vladimir Putin said "everything is possible" when discussing whether a wider war could break out between Russia and Western countries backing Ukraine.

The globe is "one step away from a full-scale World War III," Putin said in mid-March.

"I think hardly anyone is interested in this," he added during a media session.”

“Benjamin Haddad—a member of parliament for Macron's Renaissance party and considered a leading voice in French foreign policy discussions—told Newsweek on the sidelines of the Lennart Meri Conference in Estonia last week that NATO and the European Union need to "turn the tables" on Russian President Vladimir Putin after more than two years of full-scale war.

Macron is seeking to re-establish Western strategic ambiguity and knock Moscow off balance, with the deployment of NATO forces inside Ukraine in non-combat roles among his recent proposals. Though immediately dismissed by the U.S., the idea has won backers in Europe, particularly in nations that sit along Russian frontiers.

Momentum for deeper NATO commitments—including troop deployment—in Ukraine is "clearly" building, Haddad said. "It was interesting to see that in the first couple days, everyone said, 'It's an isolated position by France.'"

But since then, leading European figures expressed their support for the proposal—or at least for an open debate about it—Haddad noted. Among them are Czech President Petr Pavel, Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas, Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski and Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis.

(…)

"Right now, a lot of Ukrainian troops are stationed at the border with Belarus to prevent a potential invasion from the north," he said. "Western forces could be deployed along the frontier 'as a 'tripwire'—as you have troops in in the Baltic states or in Poland—to be able to liberate some of these Ukrainian troops to go to the front.

(…)

Russia has consistently warned its Western adversaries against providing any kind of aid to Ukraine while simultaneously framing its war on Kyiv as a direct confrontation with the U.S.-led "collective West."

This month, in response to a Ukrainian petition urging NATO to deploy forces, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said: "We have repeatedly said that direct intervention on the ground in this conflict by the military of NATO countries potentially carries enormous danger, so we consider this an extremely challenging provocation, nothing less, and, of course, we are watching this very carefully."

(…)

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is again pushing Western allies to do more to bolster Kyiv.

"It's a question of will," he told Reuters this week. "But everyone says a word that sounds the same in every language: everyone is scared of escalation. Everyone has gotten used to the fact that Ukrainians are dying—that's not escalation for people."

Haddad said the latest developments are concerning.

"It's been concerning for a while," he said. "We see a Russia that's ramping up aggression, that's turned its industry to complete war economy footage, and I think we've been lagging in our response, both in Europe in the United States."”

[vomitdodger]

C'mon, it's Czechoslovakia. We zip in, we pick 'em up, we zip right out again. We're not going to Moscow. It's Czechoslovakia. It's like going into Wisconsin.

Well I got the shit kicked out of me in Wisconsin once. Forget it!”

Share it when you get it.

[incorrectavengersquotes]

Natasha: Come on, it's Czechoslovakia. We zip in, we pick them up, we zip right out again. We're not going to Moscow. It's Czechoslovakia. It's like going to Wisconsin.

Clint: Well, I got the shit kicked out of me in Wisconsin once. Forget it.

[reelaroundthedavekan]

C'mon, it's Czechoslovakia. We zip in, we pick 'em up, we zip right out again. We're not going to Moscow. It's Czechoslovakia. It's like going into Wisconsin.

[sapphic-rae]

Natasha: Come on, it's Czechoslovakia. We zip in, we pick them up, we zip right out again. We're not going to Moscow. It's Czechoslovakia. It's like going to Wisconsin.

Clint: Well, I got the shit kicked out of me in Wisconsin once. Forget it.

[mulanandtao]

Natasha: Come on, it's Czechoslovakia. We zip in, we pick them up, we zip right out again. We're not going to Moscow. It's Czechoslovakia. It's like going to Wisconsin.

Clint: Well, I got the shit kicked out of me in Wisconsin once. Forget it.

[thosebitingdoxies]

Natasha: Come on, it's Czechoslovakia. We zip in, we pick them up, we zip right out again. We're not going to Moscow. It's Czechoslovakia. It's like going to Wisconsin.

Clint: Well, I got the shit kicked out of me in Wisconsin once. Forget it.

[rybsn]

Natasha: Come on, it's Czechoslovakia. We zip in, we pick them up, we zip right out again. We're not going to Moscow. It's Czechoslovakia. It's like going to Wisconsin.

Clint: Well, I got the shit kicked out of me in Wisconsin once. Forget it.

[padbaeamidla]

Natasha: Come on, it's Czechoslovakia. We zip in, we pick them up, we zip right out again. We're not going to Moscow. It's Czechoslovakia. It's like going to Wisconsin.

Clint: Well, I got the shit kicked out of me in Wisconsin once. Forget it.

[jackofallfandomsmasterofnone]

Natasha: Come on, it's Czechoslovakia. We zip in, we pick them up, we zip right out again. We're not going to Moscow. It's Czechoslovakia. It's like going to Wisconsin.

Clint: Well, I got the shit kicked out of me in Wisconsin once. Forget it.

[nanyoky]

Natasha: Come on, it's Czechoslovakia. We zip in, we pick them up, we zip right out again. We're not going to Moscow. It's Czechoslovakia. It's like going to Wisconsin.

Clint: Well, I got the shit kicked out of me in Wisconsin once. Forget it.

[kaseymanning]

Natasha: Come on, it's Czechoslovakia. We zip in, we pick them up, we zip right out again. We're not going to Moscow. It's Czechoslovakia. It's like going to Wisconsin.

Clint: Well, I got the shit kicked out of me in Wisconsin once. Forget it.

[ultrawholockedunicorn]

Natasha: Come on, it's Czechoslovakia. We zip in, we pick them up, we zip right out again. We're not going to Moscow. It's Czechoslovakia. It's like going to Wisconsin.

Clint: Well, I got the shit kicked out of me in Wisconsin once. Forget it.

[hmspogues]

Natasha: Come on, it's Czechoslovakia. We zip in, we pick them up, we zip right out again. We're not going to Moscow. It's Czechoslovakia. It's like going to Wisconsin.

Clint: Well, I got the shit kicked out of me in Wisconsin once. Forget it.