Russia Invades Ukraine. Again by captaincrunch

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Quote:
SignyM:
Punish Russia today because of.... Stalin????

Why are you hyperventilating about WWII? That's like hyperventilating about Confederate generals, for god's sake! You're just trying to drum up outrage by linking current events to past personalities, as if there was some sort of connection.

Seriously, dood. You pretend to be a realist but you're living in some other world.[
SECOND: The same bad old ideas keep repeating in history.

So, punish Russia because ... bad ideas were acted on in the past?

-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake

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Sunday, May 1, 2022 2:30 PM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
So, punish Russia because ... bad ideas were acted on in the past?

Signym, you are not trying at all to understand. Maybe this will help: Putin's war creates schism in Russian Orthodox Church

Russian Orthodox leader's support of war divides church

Last weekend, at a special midnight service in a packed church in Udine, in northeast Italy, a priest led his flock of Ukrainian, Russian and Eastern European immigrants through their usual Orthodox Easter traditions. But recently, he's also accompanying them on a much less familiar path, sparked by the war in Ukraine.

In March, this parish decided to split from its mother church in Moscow, joining instead the Istanbul-based Orthodox Church, whose leader has criticized the war – in stark contrast from the head of the Russian Orthodox Church.

"By separating from Moscow," Father Vladymir Melnichuk told "Sunday Morning," "we are adhering to the Christian vision of the world."

There are roughly 100 million Russian Orthodox – the largest church within Orthodox Christianity. Their leader is Patriarch Kirill, who has framed Russia's invasion of Ukraine in holy terms.

In a sermon in early March, Kirill railed against the influences of the Western world – its "excess consumption" and "gay pride parades." He said of the Ukraine war: "We're talking about human salvation."

Andrey Sinitsyn, who is from Moscow, agrees with his parish's split. "Patriarch Kirill is supporting the war, in fact," he said. "Patriarch Kirill got too close to the government."

Correspondent Seth Doane asked, "How is that as a churchgoer, someone who is a believer?"

"It's unacceptable," Sinitsyn replied. "The church should be independent."

Father Cyrill Hovorun was ordained by Kirill, and was his theological advisor until 2012. He said, "I believe that the church is the main supplier of the ideology, Putin's ideology. This war has a simple formula: War equals guns plus ideas, and the guns are, of course, supplied by the Kremlin and the ideas come from the church."

Critics say Kirill has promoted a doctrine in which Russia, Ukraine and Belarus are in fact one nation (a foundation for Putin's attempt to subjugate Ukraine under Moscow's rule) and has called on the public to support the Kremlin against enemies "both external and internal."

And, Father Cyril believes, Putin sees this war as a "sacred operation": "A mission from God to purge the world from, you know, impurity of the Western ideas and Western values."

"You're saying that the church has created the ideological underpinning for the war?" asked Doane.

"Well, actually, when I was working in the Moscow patriarchate, I was witnessing how this ideology was emerging, and I protested against that," he said.

In Soviet times, priests were pushed to keep the spy service informed, and it's widely believed that Kirill was in the KGB. But Father Cyril believes Kirill was never enthusiastic about it, which created friction with Putin. "And that's why we are talking about the marriage of convenience and not marriage by love," Cyril said. "They have to tolerate each other because they use their skills, their charisma and possibly these resources of each other – each for his own end."

Those resources are vast, said another former insider, Sergei Chapnin, who also worked for Kirill: "There are rough estimations that he's definitely a billionaire and, in fact, he's one of Putin's oligarchs – sorry to say that."

"You're calling the patriarch an oligarch?" asked Doane.

"Yeah," Chapnin replied. "He has financial interest in his cooperation with the state, just like other oligarchs."

Chapnin sees Russia's church as a state propaganda machine, spreading Putin's message as the defender of conservative values against a morally-corrupt West.

Chapnin also thinks the expansionist ambitions of Kirill even exceed those of Putin: "The main motivation for Patriarch Kirill is actually power and influence," he said. "But because of the war, he actually loses it."

Before the war, Ukraine had many Orthodox Churches loyal to Moscow. Now, hundreds of Ukrainian parishes have broken away in protest … something that's not so easy to do in Russia.

Still, this priest from a parish outside Moscow said he felt compelled to speak out. Father Ioann Burdin told us, "The responsibly of what is happening now lays on all of us." Burdin said that everyone approved it or stayed silent.

But when he spoke in a sermon of what he called this "fratricidal conflict," he was questioned by Russian police, fined, and warned of a criminal proceeding.

Doane asked, "You are seeing people in Russia leave the church because of this?"

"It's not a visible process; they do not leave in groups," Burdin said. "But without a doubt it's happening."

And just as this church in Udine, Italy illustrates, as Putin tries to alter political borders, the region's religious map is also changing.

Story produced by Anna Matranga. Editor: Emanuele Secci.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/putins-war-creates-schism-in-russian-orth
odox-church/

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Sunday, May 1, 2022 2:49 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
So, punish Russia because ... bad ideas were acted on in the past?
Signym, you are not trying at all to understand. Maybe this will help: Putin's war creates schism in Russian Orthodox Church

So what?
Are you saying you REALLY care about the Russian Orthodox Church?

-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake

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Sunday, May 1, 2022 3:12 PM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

Quote:
Originally posted by SignyM:

So what?
Are you saying you REALLY care about the Russian Orthodox Church?

I'll pretend that you skipped over the article rather than misunderstood a very simple article, but the point was that the church is breaking apart because the Patriarch, who happens to be on Putin's payroll, is promulgating a false ideology. Which ideas? These:

Critics say Kirill has promoted a doctrine in which Russia, Ukraine and Belarus are in fact one nation (a foundation for Putin's attempt to subjugate Ukraine under Moscow's rule) and has called on the public to support the Kremlin against enemies "both external and internal."

And, Father Cyril believes, Putin sees this war as a "sacred operation": "A mission from God to purge the world from, you know, impurity of the Western ideas and Western values."

"You're saying that the church has created the ideological underpinning for the war?" asked Doane.

"Well, actually, when I was working in the Moscow patriarchate, I was witnessing how this ideology was emerging, and I protested against that," he said.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Sunday, May 1, 2022 3:36 PM

The hypocrisy of the Leftist shows no bounds.

You do know what Biden* is up to, don't you Second?

--------------------------------------------------

Me: "Remember Covid?"

Useless Idiots: "What's Covid, durr? Russia, Ukraine, Putin, NATO *drool*. DURRRR!!!!"

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Sunday, May 1, 2022 3:54 PM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

Quote:
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
The hypocrisy of the Leftist shows no bounds.

You do know what Biden* is up to, don't you Second?

I think you use the word "hypocrite" to mean somebody doing something you don't like, but whatever you mean, nobody cares.

Meanwhile, in Ukraine, those lofty goals Putin keeps talking about? Putin is a hypocrite. His real goals are a giant robbery of Ukraine -- Russians stealing land, stealing food, stealing machinery:

Russians Plundered $5M Farm Vehicles from Ukraine - to Find They've Been Remotely Disabled

Posted by EditorDavid on Sunday May 01, 2022 @01:54PM from the to-Russia-with-love dept.

CNN cites a local source imagining the surprise of the looters of a Ukranian farm equipment dealership who'd transported some heavy machines over 700 miles to Russia. "They realized that they could not even turn them on, because the harvesters were locked remotely."

CNN adds that "The equipment now appears to be languishing at a farm near Grozny."
Over the past few weeks there's been a growing number of reports of Russian troops stealing farm equipment, grain and even building materials — beyond widespread looting of residences. But the removal of valuable agricultural equipment from a John Deere dealership in Melitopol speaks to an increasingly organized operation, one that even uses Russian military transport as part of the heist. CNN has learned that the equipment was removed from an Agrotek dealership in Melitopol, which has been occupied by Russian forces since early March. Altogether it's valued at nearly $5 million. The combine harvesters alone are worth $300,000 each....

The contact said the process began with the seizure of two combine harvesters, a tractor and a seeder. Over the next few weeks, everything else was removed: in all 27 pieces of farm machinery. One of the flat-bed trucks used, and caught on camera, had a white "Z" painted on it and appeared to be a military truck. The contact said there were rival groups of Russian troops: some would come in the morning and some in the evening.

Some of the machinery was taken to a nearby village, but some of it embarked on a long overland journey to Chechnya more than 700 miles away. The sophistication of the machinery, which are equipped with GPS, meant that its travel could be tracked....

The end result? "After a journey of more than 700 miles, the thieves were unable to use any of the equipment — because it had been locked remotely."

https://tech.slashdot.org/story/22/05/01/1750205/russians-plundered-5m
-farm-vehicles-from-ukraine---to-find-theyve-been-remotely-disabled

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Sunday, May 1, 2022 4:12 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Quote:
Originally posted by SignyM:

So what?
Are you saying you REALLY care about the Russian Orthodox Church?
I'll pretend that you skipped over the article rather than misunderstood a very simple article, but the point was that the church is breaking apart because the Patriarch, who happens to be on Putin's payroll, is promulgating a false ideology. Which ideas? These:

Critics say Kirill has promoted a doctrine in which Russia, Ukraine and Belarus are in fact one nation (a foundation for Putin's attempt to subjugate Ukraine under Moscow's rule) and has called on the public to support the Kremlin against enemies "both external and internal."

And, Father Cyril believes, Putin sees this war as a "sacred operation": "A mission from God to purge the world from, you know, impurity of the Western ideas and Western values."

"You're saying that the church has created the ideological underpinning for the war?" asked Doane.

"Well, actually, when I was working in the Moscow patriarchate, I was witnessing how this ideology was emerging, and I protested against that," he said.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

And....?

-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake

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Sunday, May 1, 2022 4:32 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Quote:
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
The hypocrisy of the Leftist shows no bounds.

You do know what Biden* is up to, don't you Second?
I think you use the word "hypocrite" to mean somebody doing something you don't like, but whatever you mean, nobody cares.

Nope.

Though it is true that I don't like hypocrites, that is not at all what I mean.

Keep focusing on Biden*'s plan to enrich Raytheon with US taxpayer dollars though while he* simultaneously turns our own government against free speech and Constitutional rights so hard he'll have Emperor Xi asking him for pointers.

You're such a dumb piece of shit dude.

Perfect tool for the Establishment.

--------------------------------------------------

Me: "Remember Covid?"

Useless Idiots: "What's Covid, durr? Russia, Ukraine, Putin, NATO *drool*. DURRRR!!!!"

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Monday, May 2, 2022 7:23 AM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

Quote:
Originally posted by SignyM:

And....?

The Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church is on Putin's payroll. Both men deny that, but why would they lie about something this important? That would be sinful! The Patriarch used his direct link to God to get God's blessing to take down Ukraine because it is an "immoral" country run by "Fascists" in God's Divine opinion. God told this to the Patriarch and the Patriarch told the world. Putin is now doing God's work by taking down Ukraine. God sends His Blessings to the Russian Army which will free the Ukrainian land to become Russian real estate, which can be used to pay the Patriarch so that he can prayerfully seek God's Divine opinion on invading other European countries for Putin's profit.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Monday, May 2, 2022 8:13 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Quote:
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
The hypocrisy of the Leftist shows no bounds.

You do know what Biden* is up to, don't you Second?
I think you use the word "hypocrite" to mean somebody doing something you don't like, but whatever you mean, nobody cares.

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Monday, May 2, 2022 8:30 AM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

Quote:
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:

Nope.

Though it is true that I don't like hypocrites, that is not at all what I mean.

Keep focusing on Biden*'s plan to enrich Raytheon with US taxpayer dollars though while he* simultaneously turns our own government against free speech and Constitutional rights so hard he'll have Emperor Xi asking him for pointers.

You're such a dumb piece of shit dude.

Perfect tool for the Establishment.

The typical Republican voter shares all your opinions about how Capitalism works, about what Democrats are, about Raytheon, free speech, taxes, gasoline prices, etc. and they have been voting for Republicans since Nixon in 1968. What happened to those Republican voters since 1968? All the ones I know have gotten poorer or died. Not a single one of these Republicans voters have I seen make the mental connection between their beliefs and their financial troubles, their family troubles, their health problems, etc. The Republicans voters I know blame the Democrats ("dumb piece of shit" - 6ix quote) when the Republican voters should blame themselves, their families and their politicians. I am doing fine because I don't do what Republican voters do to themselves.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Monday, May 2, 2022 8:53 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Quote:
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:

The hypocrisy of the Leftist shows no bounds.

You do know what Biden* is up to, don't you Second?
I think you use the word "hypocrite" to mean somebody doing something you don't like, but whatever you mean, nobody cares.

Not only funny but dead on Second.

T

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Monday, May 2, 2022 8:57 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Quote:
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:

Nope.

Though it is true that I don't like hypocrites, that is not at all what I mean.

Keep focusing on Biden*'s plan to enrich Raytheon with US taxpayer dollars though while he* simultaneously turns our own government against free speech and Constitutional rights so hard he'll have Emperor Xi asking him for pointers.

You're such a dumb piece of shit dude.

Perfect tool for the Establishment.
The typical Republican voter shares all your opinions about how Capitalism works, about what Democrats are, about Raytheon, free speech, taxes, gasoline prices, etc. and they have been voting for Republicans since Nixon in 1968. What happened to those Republican voters since 1968? All the ones I know have gotten poorer or died. Not a single one of these Republicans voters have I seen make the mental connection between their beliefs and their financial troubles, their family troubles, their health problems, etc. The Republicans voters I know blame the Democrats ("dumb piece of shit" - 6ix quote) when the Republican voters should blame themselves, their families and their politicians. I am doing fine because I don't do what Republican voters do to themselves.

That tired argument again, huh?

lol

Have fun at work today, honey.

--------------------------------------------------

Me: "Remember Covid?"

Useless Idiots: "What's Covid, durr? Russia, Ukraine, Putin, NATO *drool*. DURRRR!!!!"

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Monday, May 2, 2022 9:18 AM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Sunday said that the fact that Ukraine’s president is Jewish does not contradict Moscow’s claims that it launched the invasion to “denazify” the country, claiming that even Hitler “had Jewish blood.”

In an interview with Italian news channel Zona Bianca, Lavrov was asked how Russian President Vladimir Putin could claim he was trying to “denazify” Ukraine when Volodymyr Zelensky, the country’s democratically elected president, was Jewish.

“So what if Zelensky is Jewish. The fact does not negate the Nazi elements in Ukraine. I believe that Hitler also had Jewish blood,” Lavrov said, adding that “some of the worst antisemites are Jews.”

Persistent conspiracy theories that Nazi leader Adolf Hitler had some Jewish ancestry that may have motivated his antisemitism and the murder of six million Jews have been repeatedly debunked by historians.

Announcing the invasion, Putin said that the “special military operation” would seek the “denazification” of its sovereign neighbor. Russian media has repeatedly sought to portray Ukraine as being aligned with Nazism, without evidence to support such accusations.

The head of Israel’s Yad Vashem Holocaust museum, Dani Dayan, condemned Lavrov’s remarks, which came in the same week that Israel commemorates the Holocaust, calling his words “false, delusional and dangerous, and worthy of all condemnation.”

Lavrov said Zelensky still had the power to end the war if he “stopped giving criminal orders to his Nazi forces.”

More at https://www.timesofisrael.com/lavrov-so-what-if-zelensky-is-jewish-eve
n-hitler-had-jewish-blood/

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov is indubitably a psychopath.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Monday, May 2, 2022 9:52 AM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

Quote:
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:

That tired argument again, huh?

lol

Have fun at work today, honey.

Your life could be summed up with a song, The Statler Brothers - Flowers On the Wall

One commenter wrote: "This song is the best ever to describe depression. At least I thought so when I was in gutter counting stars."

The song describes many people and their insane lives: Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, Putin, Trump, the Russian Army, Trump voters, 6ix. Watching what they say and do, I can see why these people feel empty and seek something ill-planned to fill themselves with meaning.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Monday, May 2, 2022 4:14 PM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

Russia’s occupation of southern Ukraine brings back Soviet-style totalitarian rule

The Wall Street Journal reports:

Every day, convoys of cars and minivans trickle to a processing center on the edge of Zaporizhzhia, packed with civilians fleeing the areas of southern Ukraine under Russian occupation while they still can.

A swath of southern Ukraine, including almost all of its Kherson region and the majority of its Zaporizhzhia region, have been under Russian military rule since early March.

Russian occupation authorities are swiftly integrating these areas into Russia, appointing collaborationist administrations and introducing Russian documents, education programs and currency. On Saturday, Russian authorities disconnected most of the occupied areas in southern Ukraine from Ukrainian cellphone service and internet providers by cutting fiber-optic cables and turning off power at base stations so as to hide “truthful information about the course of the war,” the Ukrainian government said.

The biggest fear, especially among men, in areas under Russian control is that they will soon be forcibly drafted to fight other Ukrainians. That happened earlier this year to men up to the age of 65 in the parts of eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk and Luhansk regions that Moscow has controlled since 2014.

“If they conscript you, and your family is left behind as hostages, what can you do? This was one of the main reasons why we got out,” said Mykola Murashko, 46, who drove to Zaporizhzhia on Wednesday with his wife and children from the Russian-occupied town of Vasylivka.

Russian occupation authorities in southern Ukraine so far haven’t announced mobilization plans. But, signaling a comeback to Soviet-style totalitarian rule, they have started returning to central squares the monuments to Lenin that were dismantled by Kyiv after 2014. They have also removed and repainted Ukrainian symbols, flying Soviet flags alongside the Russian banner on public buildings.

“The pressure on people has become systemic in recent weeks,” said the Ukrainian governor of Zaporizhzhia region, Oleksandr Starukh. “It really is like the Soviet Union is back over there, and people are forced to live in fear.”

Signs of Russia consolidating its rule are everywhere. Russian rubles became legal tender in the biggest Russian-controlled city of Zaporizhzhia, Melitopol, on Sunday, according to the Russian-appointed caretaker mayor there. The city-run wedding hall of the port city of Berdyansk, also in Zaporizhzhia region, has begun issuing newlyweds with Russian Federation wedding certificates.

The message from Moscow is that the occupied areas of southern Ukraine, which form a land bridge to the Crimean Peninsula that Russia annexed in 2014, will remain under Russian control forever.

“It’s out of the question to return the Kherson region back to Nazi Ukraine…. Kyiv will no longer be able to force its ugly Nazi policies upon our land,” the Russian-appointed deputy head of the military-civil administration of Kherson region, Kirill Stremousov, told Russia’s state news agency RIA on Thursday.

In a recent appearance on Russian state TV, Mr. Stremousov, a blogger originally from Donetsk region best known before the war for campaigning against Covid-19 vaccines, acknowledged that many residents of Kherson still expect the Ukrainian state to return—and therefore refrain from collaborating with his administration.

Peaceful pro-Ukrainian protests in Kherson and other occupied cities, a frequent occurrence in March, have fizzled out in recent weeks. “At first, the Russian intelligence services allowed these protests so they could see the structure of activist networks,” said Gov. Starukh. “But then, they detained the real organizers—either to beat them up, or to pressure them to leave to Ukrainian-controlled territory.”

Some pro-Ukrainian activists have been forced to go on Russian-controlled TV in occupied areas to repent for having participated in protests, and to call for collaborating with Russian authorities. Those who did so were released. Hundreds of others remain in detention.

“Every night when you go to bed, you expect they will come to pick you up. People who don’t live in occupied territories can’t understand how it is,” said a business owner from the town of Tokmak, Vitaliy, who crossed into Zaporizhzhia city so that his family could leave the region.

In the city of Enerhodar, part of the Zaporizhzhia region, occupation authorities are going door-to-door trying force business owners to reopen stores, restaurants, hotels and nightclubs, said a local businessman, Ivan. “They detain everyone who has money and keep them in their basements,” he said. “I know I’ve lost my business anyway, so I am not going to reopen for them.”

With the Russian crackdown making peaceful protests impossible, armed struggle behind Russian lines shows signs of emerging.

More at https://www.wsj.com/articles/russias-occupation-of-southern-ukraine-ha
rdens-with-rubles-russian-schools-and-lenin-statues-11651403176?mod=djemalertNEWS

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Monday, May 2, 2022 5:06 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

I can't imagine how SECOND unerringly finds and posts total fabrications.

-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake

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Tuesday, May 3, 2022 7:29 AM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

Quote:
Originally posted by SignyM:
I can't imagine how SECOND unerringly finds and posts total fabrications.

U.S. official warned that Russia plans to annex large portions of eastern Ukraine later this month in a straight forward land theft.

Michael Carpenter, U.S. ambassador to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, said Monday that the U.S. believes the Kremlin also plans to recognize the southern city of Kherson as an independent republic. Neither move would be recognized by the United States or its allies, he said.

Carpenter cited information that Russia is planning to hold sham referendums in the so-called Donetsk and Luhansk people’s republics that would “try to add a veneer of democratic or electoral legitimacy” and attach the entities to Russia. He also said there were signs that Russia would engineer an independence vote in Kherson.

He noted that mayors and local legislators there have been abducted, that internet and cellphone service has been severed and that a Russian school curriculum is soon to be imposed.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/russia-plans-to-annex-large-parts
-of-eastern-ukraine-warns-u-s-official/ar-AAWRvSd

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Tuesday, May 3, 2022 7:43 AM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

Kremlin insiders reportedly have serious concerns about Putin’s war and the long-term damage it is inflicting upon the Russian Federation. Putin is certainly aware of the unrest in his inner circle. He knows that ugly things can happen to a leader who appears to be running the country off the rails, threatening the personal interests of powerful insiders. Some reports have surfaced that Putin replaced around 1,000 Kremlin staff out of concern for his personal safety.

The Russian dictator is on the horns of a serious dilemma — either bow to the gathering strength of the coalition against him and settle for negligible gains, or stay on the path of continuing escalation, hoping to pull off a stunning battlefield victory. Since a decisive victory is a rather remote possibility, Putin’s last desperate escalatory step may be to resort to the use of tactical nuclear weapons.

If he can’t figure a way out of the mess he created with his ego-driven war, it may be up to his old KGB cohorts to find a solution. It is quite possible that some among them will not allow him to take their country down with him.

https://thehill.com/opinion/international/3473803-vladimir-putin-is-on
-the-horns-of-a-life-or-death-dilemma/

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Tuesday, May 3, 2022 8:31 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Kremlin insiders reportedly have serious concerns about Putin’s war and the long-term damage it is inflicting upon the Russian Federation. Putin is certainly aware of the unrest in his inner circle. He knows that ugly things can happen to a leader who appears to be running the country off the rails

It appears that Biden* is completely unaware.

Quote:
, threatening the personal interests of powerful insiders.

Oh. Right... Biden* wouldn't imagine doing that. He just laughs at American Citizens while Trevor Noah makes jokes about how "things are really looking up".

He'll be fine.

--------------------------------------------------

Me: "Remember Covid?"

Useless Idiots: "What's Covid, durr? Russia, Ukraine, Putin, NATO *drool*. DURRRR!!!!"

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Tuesday, May 3, 2022 8:32 AM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

The Misdiagnosis of Vladimir Putin

Vladimir Putin is, by all accounts, a strongman who rules with an iron fist. He is unashamedly narcissistic, and this narcissism fuels his megalomaniacal obsessions, or so we have been led to believe. However, such insights from so-called experts leave a lot to be desired. In fact, such insights are both lazy and unhelpful. Designed to titillate rather than inform, such articles do little to answer the following question: what fuels Vladimir Putin's dangerous behavior?

The real reason Putin behaves the way he does has more to do with power than it has to do with narcissism, ego, or “toxic masculinity.” To be more specific, his behavior is the product of unbridled power. Surrounded by yes men, he appears to be suffering from hubris syndrome, a disorder that stems from the possession of unlimited, uncontested power and minimal constraint on its use.

In 2009, in a rather interesting paper, the academics David Owen and Jonathan Davidson asked an important question: “How may we usefully think about a leader who hubristically abuses power, damaging the lives of others?” Although some see it “as nothing more than the extreme manifestation of normal behavior along a spectrum of narcissism,” the matter could and should be “formulated differently.” Hubris syndrome, the authors warned, “can affect anyone endowed with power.”

The authors discussed business leaders, artists and religious gurus that have succumbed to hubris syndrome. The financial collapse of 2008, for instance, was instigated by international bankers who “displayed marked signs of hubris.” George W. Bush, a man who oversaw the disastrous invasion of Iraq, succumbed to hubris syndrome, according to the authors. Notable politicians who were consumed by hubris include Neville Chamberlain and Margaret Thatcher. The former “developed hubris syndrome in the summer of 1938 only a year after taking office.” Meanwhile, the latter “did not develop hubris syndrome until 1988, 9 years after becoming Prime Minister.” Vladimir Putin who has been the president of Russia since 2012, and previously from 2000 until 2008. In total, he has been the most powerful man in Russian for almost two decades.

In their paper, the aforementioned authors concluded by discussing the possibility of hubris syndrome having "an environmental onset, akin to a stressful experience.” It “disappears in response to environmental change.” For Putin, an “environmental change” would require him leaving office.

https://smallwarsjournal.com/jrnl/art/misdiagnosis-vladimir-putin

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Tuesday, May 3, 2022 10:11 AM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Quote:
Originally posted by second:
The Misdiagnosis of Vladimir Putin

Vladimir Putin is, by all accounts ... blah blah blah

By "all accounts" Saddam had WMD, Assad "gassed how own people", and Trump was peed on in Msocow hotel making him Putin's policy-slave.
But we now know those accounts were all fabricated.

SECOND, you have an unerring talent for spreading bullshit. So go help out our farmers; I hear there's a fertilizer shortage and you seem to have quite a bit.

-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake

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Tuesday, May 3, 2022 10:14 AM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Quote:
Originally posted by second:
The Misdiagnosis of Vladimir Putin

Vladimir Putin is, by all accounts ... blah blah blah

By "all accounts" Saddam had WMD, Assad "gassed how own people", and Trump was peed on in Msocow hotel making him Putin's policy-slave.
But we now know those accounts were all fabricated.

SECOND, you have an unerring talent fro spreading bullshot, and a lot of it. Go help out our farmers; I hear there's a fertilizer shortage and you seem to have quite a bit of it.

The full quote, which Signym cut off before it got to the point: Vladimir Putin is, by all accounts, a strongman who rules with an iron fist. Signym, make the argument that Putin is a weak man with fists of jello.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Tuesday, May 3, 2022 2:07 PM

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Tuesday, May 3, 2022 2:13 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by THG:
Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Quote:
SignyM:

Punish Russia today because of.... Stalin????

Why are you hyperventilating about WWII? That's like hyperventilating about Confederate generals, for god's sake! You're just trying to drum up outrage by linking current events to past personalities, as if there was some sort of connection.

Seriously, dood. You pretend to be a realist but you're living in some other world.[
SECOND: The same bad old ideas keep repeating in history.
So, punish Russia because ... bad ideas were acted on in the past?

T

Quote:
Signym

By "all accounts" Saddam had WMD, Assad "gassed how own people",

Can anyone notice the hypocrite comrade signym bringing up the past to support her opinion when it suits her, but if TWO does it she complains, suggests it stupid. Suggests it's disingenuous.

T

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Tuesday, May 3, 2022 2:34 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Yep, SECOND doubles down on spreading bullshit here.

What's your excuse, SECOND, for quoting "accounts" that have lied dozens of times in the past, about events large and small? Do you LIKE promoting liars?

Russia has a Security Council of strong-minded, competent, and diverse opinions. For example, Nabulina (sp?) head of Russia's Central Bank, and Glaziev (sp?) head of the new EAEU currency, just can't see eye to eye. Petrushev is a hard-liner and Peskov has a soft spot for Turkey. There are many in the Security Council who wanted to go hard into Ukraine but Lavrov, being a diplomat, preferred diplomacy. I don't have a lot of insight into Russia's Security Council but I know Putin doesn't run the country by himself.

-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake

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Tuesday, May 3, 2022 4:24 PM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

After a Russian tycoon criticized Putin’s war, retribution was swift

The New York Times reports:

Oleg Y. Tinkov was worth more than $9 billion in November, renowned as one of Russia’s few self-made business tycoons after building his fortune outside the energy and minerals industries that were the playgrounds of Russian kleptocracy.

Then, last month, Mr. Tinkov, the founder of one of Russia’s biggest banks, criticized the war in Ukraine in a post on Instagram. The next day, he said, President Vladimir V. Putin’s administration contacted his executives and threatened to nationalize his bank if it did not cut ties with him. Last week, he sold his 35 percent stake to a Russian mining billionaire in what he describes as a “desperate sale, a fire sale” that was forced on him by the Kremlin.

“I couldn’t discuss the price,” Mr. Tinkov said. “It was like a hostage — you take what you are offered. I couldn’t negotiate.”

Mr. Tinkov, 54, spoke to The New York Times by phone on Sunday, from a location he would not disclose, in his first interview since Mr. Putin invaded Ukraine. He said he had hired bodyguards after friends with contacts in the Russian security services told him he should fear for his life, and quipped that while he had survived leukemia, perhaps “the Kremlin will kill me.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/01/world/europe/oligarch-putin-oleg-ti
nkov.html

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Tuesday, May 3, 2022 4:46 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Quote:
SignyM:
Punish Russia today because of.... Stalin????
Why are you hyperventilating about WWII? That's like hyperventilating about Confederate generals, for god's sake! You're just trying to drum up outrage by linking current events to past personalities, as if there was some sort of connection.
Seriously, dood. You pretend to be a realist but you're living in some other world.[

SECOND: The same bad old ideas keep repeating in history.

SIGNY: So, punish Russia because ... bad ideas were acted on in the past?

SIGNY: By "all accounts" Saddam had WMD, Assad "gassed how own people",

THUGR: Can anyone notice the hypocrite comrade signym bringing up the past to support her opinion when it suits her, but if TWO does it she complains, suggests it stupid. Suggests it's disingenuous.

I don't believe in tarring people with what historical figures have done.

But the people who lied to you then are the people lying to you now.

Suggests you're too stupid to know when you're being lied to.

-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake

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Tuesday, May 3, 2022 4:57 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Quote:
Many western countries have also issued widespread sanctions on Russian oligarchs, including Tinkov, in hopes to pressure Putin into ending the invasion.

It appears that western sanctions were pretty broad-brush, targeting potential friends in the Russian oligarchy as well as enemies. I'm sure we don't have the full story.

-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake

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Tuesday, May 3, 2022 4:59 PM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

Russian state media and official discourse argue that Ukraine and its culture must be wiped out

The tradition of Russian hostility to Ukrainian aspirations comes in two strands. One simply denies the existence of Ukrainians as a people distinct from Russians. That was the line adopted by the Russian Empire for much of the 19th century, when it banned books in Ukrainian and the very term Ukraine, calling the region “Little Russia” instead. Another strand holds that while Ukrainians do in fact have their own identity and speak their own language, at least half the territory of present-day Ukraine really belongs to Russia and was unfairly pried away by the Soviet Union’s founder Vladimir Lenin.

That was the view of the Russian novelist and former political prisoner Alexander Solzhenitsyn, another Nobel laureate, who was exiled by the Soviets in 1974 and returned to Russia in 1994. He initially expressed understanding of Ukrainian suffering. “We should prove the greatness of our nation not by the sheer size of our territory and the number of peoples in our care, but by the greatness of our actions,” he wrote in his 1968 classic, “The Gulag Archipelago,” describing encounters with Ukrainian political prisoners.

But after Ukraine’s independence turned from a distant and unlikely prospect to reality, Solzhenitsyn adopted a different tone, one that Mr. Putin replicated in his essay last year. In a 2006 interview with Moskovskiye Novosti newspaper, Solzhenitsyn argued that southern and eastern Ukraine, the Crimea and Donbas have never belonged to historical Ukraine, and that the country was being dragged into NATO against the will of the inhabitants of these areas. “Under all these conditions, Russia can under no circumstances dare to betray the multimillion Russian population of Ukraine, renounce our unity with them,” he said.

Mr. Putin paid a visit to Solzhenitsyn in his country home in 2007, a year before the novelist’s death, and gave him one of Russia’s highest prizes. Some of the Kremlin’s policies, Mr. Putin said at the time, were inspired by the writer.

In 2014, Mr. Putin seized Crimea after Ukrainian protesters ousted Ukraine’s pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych, who had reversed the country’s longstanding policy toward integration with the European Union and sought a customs union with Russia. Mr. Putin also promoted the concept of Novorossiya, “New Russia,” for the regions of southern and eastern Ukraine that he said rightfully belong to Moscow.

The annexation of Crimea was almost universally applauded in Russia. Even the imprisoned Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who is now protesting vociferously against Mr. Putin’s war on Ukraine, said at the time that Crimea should remain part of Russia. “Crimea is not a sausage sandwich to be given back,” he told a radio interview.

Until the invasion began on Feb. 24, Kremlin statements challenged Ukraine’s right to govern what Mr. Putin described as historic Russian lands in so-called Novorossiya but grudgingly acknowledged the existence of a Ukrainian state. According to Russian propaganda, the problem was a Western-installed clique that supposedly seized power in 2014, and whose removal would be welcomed by ordinary Ukrainians yearning to resume their brotherly kinship with Russia.

Once the fierce Ukrainian resistance showed that hardly any Ukrainians greeted Russian soldiers as liberators, the tone shifted. Now Russian state media and official discourse argue that Ukraine and its culture must be simply wiped out—an idea that explains the killing spree in towns like Bucha during the Russian occupation.

A commentary published by Russia’s RIA state news agency on April 3 under the title “What Russia Must Do to Ukraine” argued that ordinary Ukrainians must be made to “atone for the guilt” of hostility to Moscow, the name Ukraine should be abolished once again and the country split into several pieces. Ukrainian elites should be physically liquidated and the remaining population re-educated and “de-Ukrainized.”

Russia’s former president and current deputy national security chief, Dmitry Medvedev, outlined a similar vision for the future of Ukraine days later, writing that after the Russian victory, the Ukrainian state will disappear just like the Nazi Third Reich. As for the Ukrainians’ deep sense of their own separate nationhood, Mr. Medvedev explained, “It’s a great fake fed by anti-Russian venom and an all-encompassing lie about their own identity. It never existed in history and doesn’t exist today.”

https://www.wsj.com/articles/russias-long-disdain-for-ukrainian-nation
hood-11651165024?mod=djemalertNEWS

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Tuesday, May 3, 2022 5:10 PM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

Quote:
Originally posted by SignyM:

I don't believe in tarring people with what historical figures have done.

But the people who lied to you then are the people lying to you now.

Suggests you're too stupid to know when you're being lied to.

Bernie Madoff went to jail for a Ponzi scheme. By your reckoning, Madoff was tarred for Charles Ponzi's bad reputation. Actually, Madoff was jailed because he and Ponzi had the same crooked ideas living inside their brains. There are many criminal ideas living inside the brains of Russia's top hierarchy, ideas that were taught in Russia for centuries.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Tuesday, May 3, 2022 5:23 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Quote:
SignyM:

I don't believe in tarring people with what historical figures have done.
But the people who lied to you then are the people lying to you now.
Suggests you're too stupid to know when you're being lied to.

SECOND: Bernie Madoff went to jail for a Ponzi scheme. By your reckoning, Madoff was tarred for Charles Ponzi's bad reputation.

It goes without saying (but it seems I have to say it to you!) that Bernie Madoff went to jail for what Bernie Madoff did, not what Ponzi did. There was a trial with evidence and everything. Jeez, you're stupid.

Quote:
SECOND: There are many criminal ideas living inside the brains of Russia's top hierarchy, ideas that were taught in Russia for centuries.

Unsuccessful mind-reading by SECOND, again.

If you're going to indict, indict on what someone DOES, not on what you think they think. And if you're going to indict, you better find some credible evidence, not bullshit that you've swallowed and vomited up again here.

You're a bigger idiot than THUGR bc he was born that way. You have to work at it.

Well, I have better things to do.

-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake

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Tuesday, May 3, 2022 6:05 PM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

Quote:
Originally posted by SignyM:

Well, I have better things to do.

You have nothing to do and I don't have to be a mind-reader to know it. Bernie Madoff was convicted because his sons turned him in and testified against him. Without them, and people who were rich, cheated by Madoff, and pressured the prosecutors to do something to Madoff, he would would have gotten away with all the money. The justice system is a piece of malfunctioning crap in the USA and has been since at least Vice-President Aaron Burr got away with treason and killing Alexander Hamilton because in this legal system justice is easily thwarted by highly paid defense attorneys far better skilled than prosecutors. For comparison, the International Criminal Court in The Hague will not get to a decision about Putin, unless it has about 20 years to litigate. Putin won't live that long.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Wednesday, May 4, 2022 12:59 AM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Oh, just checked in to see what bullshit SECOND posted while I was away busy doing my "nothing to do" and I see SECOND is wrong on both counts... AGAIN!

I see he's trying to deflect from his stupid point that Madoff was convicted bc of what Ponzi had done. But, in reality, Madoff was jailed because he made off (Get it? Made off?) with other people's money.

Being so consistently wrong... It must be SECOND'S special talent!

-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake

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Wednesday, May 4, 2022 1:14 AM

Nobody cares about Russia or Ukraine. Now all they think about is how bad they want to kill babies and how much they love killing babies.

Duh. Dur. Uggggg. pffffffft

--------------------------------------------------

Me: "Remember Covid?"

Useless Idiots: "What's Covid, durr? Russia, Ukraine, Putin, NATO *drool*. DURRRR!!!!"

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Wednesday, May 4, 2022 6:39 AM

SECOND, what does Signym do when it is negative news about Putin, she changes the subject. This is G's thread about Russia invading Ukraine. It has nothing to do with Bernie Madoff.

Once your point is made, she will make you repeat it over and over again. You really should not let her spin you about so. You are wicked smart compared to her.

T

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Wednesday, May 4, 2022 9:11 AM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

Quote:
Originally posted by SignyM:
Oh, just checked in to see what bullshit SECOND posted while I was away busy doing my "nothing to do" and I see SECOND is wrong on both counts... AGAIN!

I see he's trying to deflect from his stupid point that Madoff was convicted bc of what Ponzi had done. But, in reality, Madoff was jailed because he made off (Get it? Made off?) with other people's money.

Being so consistently wrong... It must be SECOND'S special talent!

Pope Francis warns pro-war Russian patriarch

"I spoke to him for 40 minutes via Zoom," the Pope told Italian daily Corriere della Sera in an interview published Tuesday. "The first 20 minutes he read to me, with a card in hand, all the justifications for war."

"I listened and told him: I don't understand anything about this," said the Pope. "Brother, we are not clerics of state, we cannot use the language of politics but that of Jesus."

"The Patriarch cannot transform himself into Putin's altar boy," the Pope said.

Francis said the conference call with Kirill took place on March 16, and that both he and the Patriarch had agreed to postpone a planned meeting on June 14 in Jerusalem.

"It would be our second face-to-face meeting, nothing to do with the war," the Pope said. "But now, he too agrees: let's stop, it could be an ambiguous signal."

In March Kirill Patriarch Kirill said that the conflict was an extension of a fundamental culture clash between the wider Russian world and Western liberal values, exemplified by expressions of gay pride.

Experts say that Kirill's comments offer important insights into Putin's larger spiritual vision of a return to a Russian Empire, in which the Orthodox religion plays a pivotal role.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/pope-francis-warns-pro-war-russia
n-patriarch-not-to-be-putin-s-altar-boy/ar-AAWUi4V

I wasn't invited into the Zoom meeting between the Pope and the Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church, but I know the Pope was opposed to killing women and children while on the other hand the Patriarch was very supportive of killing women and children to advance Russia's goals. "Can't make an omelette without breaking a few eggs" is the Patriarch's wisdom. The Pope would reply, "Don't make an omelette." For those who need explanations, Ukraine is the omelette Putin is eating. Killing women and children is breaking eggs.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Wednesday, May 4, 2022 10:27 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Quote:
Originally posted by SignyM:
Oh, just checked in to see what bullshit SECOND posted while I was away busy doing my "nothing to do" and I see SECOND is wrong on both counts... AGAIN!

I see he's trying to deflect from his stupid point that Madoff was convicted bc of what Ponzi had done. But, in reality, Madoff was jailed because he made off (Get it? Made off?) with other people's money.

Being so consistently wrong... It must be SECOND'S special talent!
Pope Francis warns pro-war Russian patriarch

"I spoke to him for 40 minutes via Zoom," the Pope told Italian daily Corriere della Sera in an interview published Tuesday. "The first 20 minutes he read to me, with a card in hand, all the justifications for war."

"I listened and told him: I don't understand anything about this," said the Pope. "Brother, we are not clerics of state, we cannot use the language of politics but that of Jesus."

"The Patriarch cannot transform himself into Putin's altar boy," the Pope said.

Francis said the conference call with Kirill took place on March 16, and that both he and the Patriarch had agreed to postpone a planned meeting on June 14 in Jerusalem.

"It would be our second face-to-face meeting, nothing to do with the war," the Pope said. "But now, he too agrees: let's stop, it could be an ambiguous signal."

In March Kirill Patriarch Kirill said that the conflict was an extension of a fundamental culture clash between the wider Russian world and Western liberal values, exemplified by expressions of gay pride.

Experts say that Kirill's comments offer important insights into Putin's larger spiritual vision of a return to a Russian Empire, in which the Orthodox religion plays a pivotal role.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/pope-francis-warns-pro-war-russia
n-patriarch-not-to-be-putin-s-altar-boy/ar-AAWUi4V

I wasn't invited into the Zoom meeting between the Pope and the Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church, but I know the Pope was opposed to killing women and children while on the other hand the Patriarch was very supportive of killing women and children to advance Russia's goals. "Can't make an omelette without breaking a few eggs" is the Patriarch's wisdom. The Pope would reply, "Don't make an omelette." For those who need explanations, Ukraine is the omelette Putin is eating. Killing women and children is breaking eggs.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

A great post Two. It shows the need for the separation of church and state. The need for duly elected officials to have the ability to contradict the head of state when needed.

T

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Wednesday, May 4, 2022 12:35 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Quote:
Pope Admits NATO Likely Provoked Putin's Invasion: "Barking At The Gates Of Russia"
Tuesday, May 03, 2022 - 08:45 AM

Pope Francis has said that he's ready to meet President Vladimir Putin in Moscow in hopes of brokering an end to the war in Ukraine, according to the Vatican news agencies. He said in an interview published Tuesday by the Italian daily Corriere della Sera, "I am not going to Kyiv for now; I feel that I must not go. First I must go to Moscow. First I must meet Putin. But I am also a priest, what can I do? I do what I can. If Putin would only open the door...".

The Roman Catholic leader's criticisms of Russia's actions in Ukraine were made clear throughout the interview, but among the more interesting and surprising lines came when he addressed the roots of the invasion and war which started on Feb.24. He told the newspaper that "the barking of NATO at the gates of Russia" is likely what motivated Putin to attack Ukraine.

Below is the relevant section of the interview, according to a machine translation from the Italian:

Pope Francis' concern is that Putin, for the moment, will not stop . He also tries to think about the roots of this behavior, about the reasons that push him to such a brutal war. Perhaps the "barking of NATO at Russia's door" prompted the head of the Kremlin to react badly and unleash the conflict. "I can’t say if it was provoked, but perhaps, yes."

Also interesting is that Francis came close to condemning the international weapons transfers now pouring into Ukraine, led by the US which has lately authorized an unprecedented billions in military aid to Ukraine's government.

"And now those who care about peace are faced with the great question of the supply of weapons by Western nations to the Ukrainian resistance," the Pope began with his thoughts on this question. He admitted the question is controversial even within the Catholic world.

"I can't answer, I'm too far away, to the question of whether it is right to supply the Ukrainians," he said, before taking a swipe at the weapons industry. "The clear thing is that weapons are being tested in that land. The Russians now know that tanks are of little use and are thinking of other things. Wars are fought for this: to test the weapons we have produced."

"This was the case in the Spanish Civil War before the Second World War. The arms trade is a scandal, few oppose it." He then invoked the case of the years'-long Saudi-US war on Yemen, describing that "Two or three years ago a ship loaded with weapons arrived in Genoa which had to be transferred to a large freighter to transport them to Yemen. The port workers did not want to do it. They said: let's think of the children of Yemen. It's a small thing, but a nice gesture. There should be so many like that."

Pope Francis' words have already provoked an angry reaction among some American Catholic clerics...

On the question of how quickly the war could wind down, Francis recalled an April 21 meeting with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban at the Vatican. Orban relayed that Putin told him of plans to end the war by May 9, which is the commemorative 'Victory Day' in Russia.

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/pope-admits-putins-invasion-lik
ely-motivated-barking-nato-gates-russia

-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake

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Wednesday, May 4, 2022 1:17 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Ukraine Says Communications With Trapped Fighters In Azovstal Has Gone Dark
https://www.zerohedge.com/military/ukraine-says-communications-trapped
-azov-fighters-azovstal-has-gone-dark

Russia Again Warns Any NATO Vehicle Entering Ukraine With Weapons Will Be Destroyed
https://www.zerohedge.com/military/russia-again-warns-any-nato-vehicle
-entering-ukraine-weapons-will-be-destroyed

Barrage Of Cruise Missiles Rock Western Ukraine, Plunging Lviv Into Darkness
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/barrage-cruise-missiles-rock-we
stern-city-lviv-sections-plunged-darkness

-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake

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Wednesday, May 4, 2022 1:24 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Quote:
SECOND, what does Signym do when it is negative news about Putin, she changes the subject. This is G's thread about Russia invading Ukraine. It has nothing to do with Bernie Madoff.

Once your point is made, she will make you repeat it over and over again. You really should not let her spin you about so. You are wicked smart compared to her.

I wasn't the one who brought up Madoff, it was SECOND. I'm the one who's always trying to drag it back on-topic...

Quote:
SignyM:
I don't believe in tarring people with what historical figures have done.
But the people who lied to you then are the people lying to you now.
Suggests you're too stupid to know when you're being lied to.

SECOND: Bernie Madoff went to jail for a Ponzi scheme.

SECOND, if you notice, is ALWAYS changing the subject, especially when he gets his ass handed to him. He posts about tzars, about Hitler, about Stalin, Confederate generals, "bad ideas" in the past, and when all else fails, he posts about TrumpTrumpTrumpTrump...

Your reading comprehension is abysmal.

-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake

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Wednesday, May 4, 2022 2:35 PM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

Russia "will lose" its war against Ukraine, panicked soldiers from a Kremlin-backed breakaway region in Georgia who fought for Russia in Ukraine said after they retreated from the front line.

The group of South Ossetian soldiers made the remarks to the region's president, Anatoly Bibilov, after returning from combat, complaining about a lack of weapons, intel, and command. An excerpt of their conversation was obtained by Russian independent media outlet MediaZona.

South Ossetia is a breakaway region in Georgia whose independence was recognized by Moscow in 2008.

An unknown number of residents have been deployed to fight for Russia in Ukraine. Two groups of soldiers, which include members of part of Russian military units in the region, and local contract soldiers, were deployed on March 16 and March 26, according to U.S.-based website Eurasianet.

In late March, some 300 soldiers from the breakaway region refused to fight in Ukraine amid deteriorating conditions and supply shortages, MediaZona reported.

The news outlet cited Bibilov as asking the group of soldiers who returned to the region whether they believed that Russia will ultimately lose the Ukraine war.

"Yes, we think they will lose," one soldier responded.

Others described unbearable conditions of service, broken equipment and lack of command on the front line.

The South Ossetian soldiers recalled the moment they were deployed to areas 800 kilometers (500 miles) away from where they were supposed to be.

They also told Bibilov that artillery fire missed targets by 2 kilometers (one-and-a-quarter miles), but officers in command brushed off complaints of incorrect coordinates, while troops faced constant shelling due to inadequate battlefield intel.

Bibilov at one point appeared to criticize the soldiers for requesting weapons.

"You probably don't know this, but a lot of guys have already come to me, asking to be sent [to the front], and they're not talking about money or 'Give us weapons,'" he told the group.

'Cannon Fodder'

One soldier claimed that 99 percent of the equipment they were given did not work, while another said three out of 10 tanks could not shoot.

"We warned: our machines don't work, don't send us there [to the front]. From another squadron, the guys said that their guns weren't able to shoot. They were ordered, 'Just go,'" the soldier recounted.

One soldier said, "We were deceived at every step...no one was scared here, we were just deceived at every turn."

Another said the soldiers left Ukraine because they did not want to be "cannon fodder."

Bibilov challenged the soldiers for saying that they believe Moscow will eventually be defeated by Ukraine.

"The Russians have seen a lot of wars, Napoleon reached Moscow and, in order not to surrender Moscow, the Russians burned their own city. Never think that the Russians will lose," Bibilov told the group.

"Time will pass and no one will discuss that there were no weapons, equipment, communications. There will be a victory," he added.

Newsweek has contacted Russia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs for comment.

Update 05/04/22, 6:29 a.m. ET: This article was updated with additional information.

https://www.newsweek.com/russia-lose-ukraine-war-south-ossetia-invasio
n-soldiers-refuse-fight-1703302

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Wednesday, May 4, 2022 5:01 PM

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Thursday, May 5, 2022 6:10 AM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

“Filtration camps”, a tool of terror used since the 1940s, have reappeared

On April 30th Sergei Lavrov, Russia’s foreign minister, said that more than 1m people had been “evacuated”. Many passed through Russian “filtration camps” on their way out of Ukraine. What are these detention centres?

The concept of fil’tratsiia or filtration emerged at the end of the second world war, as the Soviet Union and other Allied forces liberated prisoners from the Nazis. Some 2.4m Soviet citizens—mostly soldiers—survived concentration camps. But their release placed them in the cross-hairs of military commissars, who worried that those who had been taken prisoner or displaced by war had been exposed to liberal influences abroad. Forced repatriation resulted in an estimated 5m people being sent back to the Soviet Union. To counter anti-Soviet ideology, more than 4m of them were subjected to filtration, undergoing rigorous screening, interrogation and incarceration in holding stations set up by the secret police and intelligence agencies. Some 280,000 ended up in gulags. Five decades later, filtration reappeared in Chechnya, a predominantly Muslim region in the northern Caucasus. During the two wars of the 1990s Russian authorities arbitrarily detained civilians at checkpoints, sending thousands to camps in an effort to stamp out Chechen separatism, adherents of which the Kremlin demonised as terrorists and bandits. Widespread human-rights abuses including rape, extortion, beatings and torture were documented by human-rights groups. In many cases, detainees simply disappeared.

There are disturbing parallels in Ukraine. Before Russia’s invasion, American officials said that Russian forces were creating lists of people to be killed or sent to camps if Russia occupied parts of the country. Likely targets included Russian and Belarusian dissidents in exile, anti-corruption activists, members of religious and ethnic minorities and LGBT people. A satellite image captured in March by Maxar Technologies, an American firm, showed Russian-backed forces had begun building a temporary camp of regimented blue-and-white tents in the Russian-controlled village of Bezimenne near the port-city of Mariupol, in south-eastern Ukraine. According to witnesses, Ukrainians sent there were photographed and forced to turn over their mobile phones and identity documents before being interrogated and deported to Russia. The Kremlin describes these people as “refugees”. Rossiyskaya Gazeta, a pro-Kremlin newspaper, claims that 5,000 civilians were screened at Bezimenne to prevent “Ukrainian nationalists from infiltrating Russia”. But escapers tell a different story, comparing conditions to those of a ghetto or concentration camp. They claim to have witnessed torture and killings carried out by Russian security services to weed out “Ukrainian Nazis”.

According to the UN, the deportation or transfer of people from an occupied territory constitutes a war crime. Russia insists that the relocation of civilians by its armed forces is benign and voluntary. But filtration camps appear to be a tool of war, used to erase Ukrainian identity.

Editor’s note (May 1st 2022): This piece was updated to include Sergei Lavrov’s comments about the number people who have left Ukraine

https://web.archive.org/web/20220504074938/https://www.economist.com/t
he-economist-explains/2022/04/30/why-is-russia-setting-up-detention-centres-in-ukraine

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Thursday, May 5, 2022 6:19 AM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

Quote:
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
Nobody cares.

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu complained that the West is “stuffing Ukraine with weapons,” and Defense Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said the rail infrastructure attacks were meant to disrupt the delivery of Western weapons to Ukraine.

A senior U.S. defense official said there has been “no appreciable impact” on Ukraine’s effort to resupply its forces, despite the Russian attacks on infrastructure around the city of Lviv. The city has been a major gateway for NATO-supplied weapons, due to its proximity to the Polish border.

Meanwhile, air raid sirens sounded in cities across the country on Wednesday night, and attacks were reported near Kyiv, the capital; in Cherkasy and Dnipro in central Ukraine; and in Zaporizhzhia in the southeast. In Dnipro, authorities said a rail facility was hit. Videos on social media suggested a bridge there was attacked.

There was no immediate word on casualties or the extent of the damage.

Responding to the strikes in his nightly video address, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said: “All of these crimes will be answered, legally and quite practically – on the battlefield.”

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2022/05/05/ukraine-russia
-invasion-live-updates/9655028002/

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Thursday, May 5, 2022 6:28 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Quote:
Pope Admits NATO Likely Provoked Putin's Invasion: "Barking At The Gates Of Russia"
Tuesday, May 03, 2022 - 08:45 AM

Pope Francis has said that he's ready to meet President Vladimir Putin in Moscow in hopes of brokering an end to the war in Ukraine, according to the Vatican news agencies. He said in an interview published Tuesday by the Italian daily Corriere della Sera, "I am not going to Kyiv for now; I feel that I must not go. First I must go to Moscow. First I must meet Putin. But I am also a priest, what can I do? I do what I can. If Putin would only open the door...".

The Roman Catholic leader's criticisms of Russia's actions in Ukraine were made clear throughout the interview, but among the more interesting and surprising lines came when he addressed the roots of the invasion and war which started on Feb.24. He told the newspaper that "the barking of NATO at the gates of Russia" is likely what motivated Putin to attack Ukraine.

Below is the relevant section of the interview, according to a machine translation from the Italian:

Pope Francis' concern is that Putin, for the moment, will not stop . He also tries to think about the roots of this behavior, about the reasons that push him to such a brutal war. Perhaps the "barking of NATO at Russia's door" prompted the head of the Kremlin to react badly and unleash the conflict. "I can’t say if it was provoked, but perhaps, yes."

Also interesting is that Francis came close to condemning the international weapons transfers now pouring into Ukraine, led by the US which has lately authorized an unprecedented billions in military aid to Ukraine's government.

"And now those who care about peace are faced with the great question of the supply of weapons by Western nations to the Ukrainian resistance," the Pope began with his thoughts on this question. He admitted the question is controversial even within the Catholic world.

"I can't answer, I'm too far away, to the question of whether it is right to supply the Ukrainians," he said, before taking a swipe at the weapons industry. "The clear thing is that weapons are being tested in that land. The Russians now know that tanks are of little use and are thinking of other things. Wars are fought for this: to test the weapons we have produced."

"This was the case in the Spanish Civil War before the Second World War. The arms trade is a scandal, few oppose it." He then invoked the case of the years'-long Saudi-US war on Yemen, describing that "Two or three years ago a ship loaded with weapons arrived in Genoa which had to be transferred to a large freighter to transport them to Yemen. The port workers did not want to do it. They said: let's think of the children of Yemen. It's a small thing, but a nice gesture. There should be so many like that."

Pope Francis' words have already provoked an angry reaction among some American Catholic clerics...

On the question of how quickly the war could wind down, Francis recalled an April 21 meeting with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban at the Vatican. Orban relayed that Putin told him of plans to end the war by May 9, which is the commemorative 'Victory Day' in Russia.
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/pope-admits-putins-invasion-lik
ely-motivated-barking-nato-gates-russia

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Thursday, May 5, 2022 6:28 AM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

Brig. Gen. Joseph E. Hilbert, the commanding general in charge of joint training exercises between U.S. and Ukrainian troops in Germany, revealed what he believed is "the worst thing the Russians did" that ensured they would struggle to seize control in their invasion of Ukraine.

Specifically, Hilbert argued, the problem is that Russia telegraphed its intentions early — giving Ukraine "eight years to prepare" for the attack.

The invasion of Ukraine was launched on the pretense of Russia providing security to two so-called "independent republics" declared in the east of Ukraine by separatist rebels backed by the Kremlin.

https://www.rawstory.com/russia-ukraine-putin/

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Thursday, May 5, 2022 9:44 AM

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Useless Idiots: "What's Covid, durr? Russia, Ukraine, Putin, NATO *drool*. DURRRR!!!!"

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Thursday, May 5, 2022 3:48 PM