Russia Invades Ukraine. Again by captaincrunch

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Notice that it seems to be happening HERE, TOO?

Glad to see you wrapped it up with this question, because I was about to say "And now, on our shores!"

Brought to you by Lockheed Martin.
Brought to you by Raytheon.
Brought to you by Boeing.
Brought to you by General Dynamics.
Brought to you by Pfizer.

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Growing up in a Republic was nice... Shame we couldn't keep it.

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Monday, December 26, 2022 7:41 PM

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

The entire world is pleased that Russia, not EU, not US, not NATO, will decide who wins (Maybe)

Russia's Lavrov: Either Ukraine fulfills Moscow's proposals or our army will decide

By Ronald Popeski and Lidia Kelly

Dec 27 (Reuters) - Moscow's proposals for settlement in Ukraine are well known to Kyiv and either Ukraine fulfills them for their own good or the Russian army will decide the issue, TASS agency quoted Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov as saying.

"Our proposals for the demilitarization and denazification of the territories controlled by the regime, the elimination of threats to Russia's security emanating from there, including our new lands, are well known to the enemy," the state news agency quoted Lavrov as saying late on Monday.

"The point is simple: Fulfill them for your own good. Otherwise, the issue will be decided by the Russian army."

Moscow has been calling its invasion in Ukraine a "special military operation" to "demilitarise" and "denazify" its neighbour. Kyiv and its Western allies call it an imperial-style aggression to grab land.

In September, Moscow proclaimed it had annexed four provinces of Ukraine - Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson - after holding so-called referendums that were rejected as bogus and illegal by Kyiv and its allies.

On Sunday, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Moscow was open to negotiations and blamed Kyiv and its Western backers for a lack of talks, a stance Washington has previously dismissed as posturing amid persistent Russian attacks.

Lavrov told TASS that when it comes to how long the conflict will last, "the ball is in the regime's court and Washington behind it."

There is no end in sight to the war, which has entered its 11th month and which has killed thousands, displaced millions and turned cities into rubble.

Kyiv has ruled out conceding any land to Russia in return for peace, and publicly demands Russia relinquish all territory. Moscow has insisted it is pursing "demilitarisation" and "denazification" but in reality its aims have not been fully defined.

Additional reporting by Oleksandr Kozhukhar in Kyiv; Writing by Lidia Kelly and Ron Popeski; Editing by Sandra Maler

https://www.reuters.com/world/russias-lavrov-either-ukraine-fulfils-mo
scows-proposals-or-our-army-will-decide-2022-12-26/

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

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Monday, December 26, 2022 7:49 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by THG:
Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Quote:
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:

For my 2022 taxes, I'm adding Voldemort Zelensky as a dependent on my 1040.

Pfwaahhh!!!

You owe me a new smartphone!!

Let’s be clear ok. The Democrats had a history making mid-term election. Trump has legal problems too numerous to list. The House Republicans can’t get their act together enough to elect a House Majority leader. And if they do, not only will he not have the power to get anything done. He’s going to be led around by the nose by the Republican looneys. That is going to be very entertaining and helpful to the Democrats in 2024.

Now, Biden wins again. He is signing a just passed 1.7 trillion-dollar Federal spending bill. A bill the house Republicans threatened the Senate Republicans not to pass. It includes 45 billion in aid to Ukraine and our NATO allies. 777.2 billion in nondefense discretionary spending. 858 billion in defense spending.

It includes The Electoral Count Reform Act. $47.5 billion for the National Institutes of Health, $9.2 billion for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and $950 million for the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority. It has a $13.4 billion increase for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. It has a boost of $28.5 billion for child nutrition programs.

New Section 8 Housing Choice Vouchers they say would support over 11,000 additional low-income households, as well as a boost to maximum Pell Grant award.

Eight amendments adopted include proposals aimed at allowing proceeds from assets seized from sanctioned Russian oligarchs to be put toward Ukraine aid . Plus a measure aimed at strengthening protections for breastfeeding workers and another dealing with compensation for 9/11 victims.

Biden just keeps winning guys, so again I say let’s be clear. All the news is, has been, and is going to continue to be, happy news for me, not so much for you.

Quote:
Originally posted by THG:
You are a troll comrade signym. There is no debate about it. You are a troll. And so is comrade Jackass.

If you knew how to read anything other than headlines from CNN you'd know that this wasn't true.

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

Ukraine is the Economist's Country of the Year.

You couldn't even understand how funny that is to a guy who lived off of $7,200 in 2022.

Seriously, Second... Thanks for starting my Christmas off with a belly laugh and a smile.

Each year The Economist picks a “country of the year”. The award goes not to the biggest, the richest or the happiest, but to the one that improved the most that year.

I would certainly hope that they improved.

They've now gotten $113 Billion in gifts from US Taxpayers in 2022 alone. And this last $45 Billion gift comes at the cost of 19 Million Americans losing Medicaid in April of 2023.

It would be like giving Rookie of the Year status to a guy who was shot up with horse steroids all year by his coach while the media turned a blind eye to that and the corked bat that Sammy Sosa gave him, all while the stadium they played in crumbled around them and they couldn't afford to repair it because his salary ate up all the revenue.

Fuck Ukraine.

#Rootin4Putin

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Growing up in a Republic was nice... Shame we couldn't keep it.
It is states controlled by Republicans that will be kicking people off of Medicaid. Those states hated the idea that Covid was a public health emergency ("PHE" in the legal jargon) and hated that Congress forbid kicking people out of Medicaid during the PHE. That you would think this Medicaid eligibility (more legal jargon: "continuous enrollment requirement") was about lack of money, then blame Ukraine rather than Republican state officials administering Medicaid, is so very you, 6ix.

https://www.kff.org/medicaid/issue-brief/10-things-to-know-about-the-u
nwinding-of-the-medicaid-continuous-enrollment-requirement/

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

Don't look at me. I didn't vote for it...

But Every Single Democrat Did.

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Growing up in a Republic was nice... Shame we couldn't keep it.
When Medicaid became law, the states would administrate the program, doing the tedious paperwork that Republicans in Congress insisted be added to the law to exclude what Republicans think are "undesirables" from Medicaid. In the states controlled by Republicans, such as Texas, Republican state officials do what they can to exclude "undesirables", but in the original legislation there was an escape clause to thwart Republicans: the Federal government could, temporarily, override the local Republicans during a PHE (public health emergency). Local Republicans have always wanted to kick "undesirables" from Medicaid, but they also want to blame it on Ukraine or Democrats, not themselves and their own mean-spiritedness.

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

Nope. You can't explain this one away.

Democrats own this one. They had the power. They didn't need to open the doors for any states to cut people off of Medicaid in April of next year, but every single one of them voted for that this week.

19 Million American's will be thrown off of Medicaid in order to fund over $900 BILLION in military spending, including the $45 Billion going to Ukraine that alone could end world hunger for an entire year.

Merry Christmas, America!

Volodymyr Zelenskyy is the Grinch who stole your children's medical insurance in April.

Merry Christmas, Citizens of Earth!

Fuck your hunger. Democrats would rather watch you starve to death and team up with NeoCons to feed the war machine instead.

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

Growing up in a Republic was nice... Shame we couldn't keep it.

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Monday, December 26, 2022 8:03 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Quote:
Originally posted by second:
The entire world is pleased that Russia, not EU, not US, not NATO, will decide who wins (Maybe)

Am I the only one to notice that every time SECOND gets his ass handed to him about one of his crap-posts, he splatters the board with a different kind of stink?

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

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Monday, December 26, 2022 8:18 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Quote:
Originally posted by second:
The entire world is pleased that Russia, not EU, not US, not NATO, will decide who wins (Maybe)

Am I the only one to notice that every time SECOND gets his ass handed to him about one of his crap-posts, he splatters the board with a different kind of stink?

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

Nope.

It's also why most of my threads only get one or two posts on them and Ted's and Seconds get hundreds of posts.

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

Growing up in a Republic was nice... Shame we couldn't keep it.

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Monday, December 26, 2022 9:55 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Quote:
Originally posted by second:
The entire world is pleased that Russia, not EU, not US, not NATO, will decide who wins (Maybe)

SIGNY: Am I the only one to notice that every time SECOND gets his ass handed to him about one of his crap-posts, he splatters the board with a different kind of stink?

SIX: Nope.
It's also why most of my threads only get one or two posts on them and Ted's and Seconds get hundreds of posts.

Well, I think a lot of ppl also basically agree with you, so no comment necessary.

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

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Tuesday, December 27, 2022 7:26 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 entire world is pleased that Russia, not EU, not US, not NATO, will decide who wins (Maybe)

Am I the only one to notice that every time SECOND gets his ass handed to him about one of his crap-posts, he splatters the board with a different kind of stink?

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

The very first time I commented at fireflyfans was in 2013 to something Signym wrote here:
http://fireflyfans.net/mthread.aspx?bid=18&tid=56323&mid=94921
8#949218

Signym was an absurdity in 2013 as Signym continues to be, as Russians continue to be:

It is unbearable to read, but necessary to face: “Russian troops raped and tortured children in Ukraine, U.N. panel says.” (Article here. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/russian-troops-raped-tortured-child
ren-ukraine-un-panel-says-rcna49168 ) Is it any wonder that Ukrainians want to repel this evil invasion? And that they don’t want to leave any of their people to the mercy of such invaders and occupiers?

Every day, Russian propagandists call the Ukrainians “Nazis.” So do their echoers in the West. This is what psychologists call, I believe, “projection.”

• Also unbearable to read — unbearable to watch — but necessary to face: “Caught on Camera, Traced by Phone: The Russian Military Unit That Killed Dozens in Bucha” (here https://www.nytimes.com/video/world/europe/100000008299178/ukraine-buc
ha-russia-massacre-video.html?smid=url-share ). There is no denying the nature of Russian forces in Ukraine — except to the extent that there are always people who deny war crimes and crimes against humanity, from the Holocaust to individual massacres.

• Earlier this year, some 1,200 people gathered in the Mariupol theater, to take refuge from Russian bombing. These included children, of course. A large sign indicating children was “daubed in Russian in front of the theatre,” as the BBC says. ( https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-64075088 ) Then the Russians bombed the theater. “Ukrainian authorities believe 300 people were killed but an AP investigation said the number was closer to 600. Many of the bodies were found in the basement.”

Now, of course, the Russians are destroying what remained of the theater (as the above-linked BBC report says). Why? The better to cover up war crimes, clearly.

More about Russians at https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/so-much-in-the-world-depends-on-
you/

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

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Tuesday, December 27, 2022 9:14 AM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Second, you have been lying since you started posting here. How you manage such a continuous stream of bullshit is beyond me, but somehow you keep shitting it out.

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

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Tuesday, December 27, 2022 9:32 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:

Quote:
Originally posted by second:
The entire world is pleased that Russia, not EU, not US, not NATO, will decide who wins (Maybe)

SIGNY: Am I the only one to notice that every time SECOND gets his ass handed to him about one of his crap-posts, he splatters the board with a different kind of stink?

SIX: Nope.
It's also why most of my threads only get one or two posts on them and Ted's and Seconds get hundreds of posts.

Well, I think a lot of ppl also basically agree with you, so no comment necessary.

No comrade, and that’s because TWO cleans your clock with every post. You, Jack and kiki before she crawled back under her rock, or died, never post facts. Your posts are always mired in emotion and propaganda. SECOND always posts facts. You see, SECOND likes to be right. None of us is always right, but you three never are.

T

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Tuesday, December 27, 2022 9:57 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:
Second, you have been lying since you started posting here. How you manage such a continuous stream of bullshit is beyond me, but somehow you keep shitting it out.

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

Signym, I was expecting you to go down the list, below, and claim the Russians did none of the things they did. But you surprised me with your self-restraint by only using the word "shit" twice in your reply. You are maturing, Signym!

It is unbearable to read, but necessary to face: “Russian troops raped and tortured children in Ukraine, U.N. panel says.” (Article here. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/russian-troops-raped-tortured-child
ren-ukraine-un-panel-says-rcna49168 ) Is it any wonder that Ukrainians want to repel this evil invasion? And that they don’t want to leave any of their people to the mercy of such invaders and occupiers?

Every day, Russian propagandists call the Ukrainians “Nazis.” So do their echoers in the West. This is what psychologists call, I believe, “projection.”

• Also unbearable to read — unbearable to watch — but necessary to face: “Caught on Camera, Traced by Phone: The Russian Military Unit That Killed Dozens in Bucha” (here https://www.nytimes.com/video/world/europe/100000008299178/ukraine-buc
ha-russia-massacre-video.html?smid=url-share ). There is no denying the nature of Russian forces in Ukraine — except to the extent that there are always people who deny war crimes and crimes against humanity, from the Holocaust to individual massacres.

• Earlier this year, some 1,200 people gathered in the Mariupol theater, to take refuge from Russian bombing. These included children, of course. A large sign indicating children was “daubed in Russian in front of the theatre,” as the BBC says. ( https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-64075088 ) Then the Russians bombed the theater. “Ukrainian authorities believe 300 people were killed but an AP investigation said the number was closer to 600. Many of the bodies were found in the basement.”

Now, of course, the Russians are destroying what remained of the theater (as the above-linked BBC report says). Why? The better to cover up war crimes, clearly.

More about Russians at https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/so-much-in-the-world-depends-on-
you/

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

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Tuesday, December 27, 2022 10:03 AM

Well comrade signym, there goes second posting more of those pesky facts that so upset you.

T

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Tuesday, December 27, 2022 10:49 AM

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

Exposing the Russian Military Unit Behind a Massacre in Bucha

Dec 22, 2022
We spent months in Ukraine, investigating who killed dozens of civilians along one street in Bucha, a normally quiet town on the outskirts of Kyiv. Our visual investigation unmasks the military unit responsible, using exclusive phone records, documents, interviews and thousands of hours of video.

Read the story here: https://bit.ly/3jk1Jma

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

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Tuesday, December 27, 2022 11:31 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:

Quote:
Originally posted by second:
The entire world is pleased that Russia, not EU, not US, not NATO, will decide who wins (Maybe)

SIGNY: Am I the only one to notice that every time SECOND gets his ass handed to him about one of his crap-posts, he splatters the board with a different kind of stink?

SIX: Nope.
It's also why most of my threads only get one or two posts on them and Ted's and Seconds get hundreds of posts.

Well, I think a lot of ppl also basically agree with you, so no comment necessary.

Yeah. That's exactly it.

Posting argumentatively is a lot more fun, and when something is posted with irrefutable proof (and usually proof of something they don't want to admit is true), it never gets any rebuttals.

I have an extremely long post history here where my threads get either one single post with no interaction, or I've shut it down in the low single digits.

Conversely, look at all of these bullshit Russia threads with hundreds and hundreds of posts, or the Trump Tick Tock threads that are as old as 6 years that will never have the resolution they want so they'll just continue on until Trump dies of old age or Haken turns the lights out.

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

Growing up in a Republic was nice... Shame we couldn't keep it.

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Tuesday, December 27, 2022 11:38 AM

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

Cold Blood

(Funny how petty he is about ordering the death of critics when Putin has more important tasks.)

A Russian critic of Putin died after falling out of a hotel window in India

The death was reported only days after another Russian died at the same Odisha hotel

By Niharika Sharma

Pavel Antov, a Russian politician who criticized president Vladimir Putin for the invasion of Ukraine, has been found dead in India’s eastern state of Odisha.

Antov, a multi-billionaire, fell out of a hotel window on the third floor on Dec. 24. The incident happened two days after another Russian tourist, Vladimir Bidenov, who’s been traveling with Antov, died of a heart attack at the same hotel.

Odia language media reports claim that Antov, who was a member of a legislative region of Vladimir, was on a holiday. The reports also referred to his death as “suicide.” However, in a media statement given to a Russian news agency, Russia’s consul general Alexei Idamki merely said Antov “fell” out a window.

“We are closely following the investigation and receiving all the information from the Odisha police,” the envoy was quoted as saying by TASS news agency.

Soon after the news of Antov’s death broke, speculation began on social media.

https://web.archive.org/web/20221227162725/https://qz.com/vladimir-put
in-critic-found-dead-at-a-hotel-in-india-1849930585

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

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Tuesday, December 27, 2022 11:39 AM

CAPTAINCRUNCH

... stay crunchy...

Quote:
Originally posted by K2PO:
Merry Xmas and slava Ukraini everyone!

Same to you...ummm... K2PO? Hmmm... is this really KPO? Or maybe Kiki trying to be clever...

Riddle for you: "Candy" nickname, eaten by wolves at the death, CYA super Frankie.

So - I'm sure like most of us you are incredibly impressed by the Russia military. I mean, just, wow! Speed, focus, the strategerie of constantly regrouping backwards... it's almost like they do this for a living. Seriously - can you imagine how bad things would be if they weren't winning?

Best to you in 2023!

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Tuesday, December 27, 2022 11:47 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:

Posting argumentatively is a lot more fun, and when something is posted with irrefutable proof (and usually proof of something they don't want to admit is true), it never gets any rebuttals.

I have an extremely long post history here where my threads get either one single post with no interaction, or I've shut it down in the low single digits.

Conversely, look at all of these bullshit Russia threads with hundreds and hundreds of posts, or the Trump Tick Tock threads that are as old as 6 years that will never have the resolution they want so they'll just continue on until Trump dies of old age or Haken turns the lights out.

Let me check if 6ix has posted anything else paranoid today. Yes, 6ix did, which indicates that he will never lose an argument on the internet, mostly because he is too nutty to understand how paranoid he is.

Quote:
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
Looks like America's Box Office is pulling some Arizona 2022 Mid-Terms shenanigans.

China has already reported Avatar 2's figures up through the 26th, yet the entire weekend box office for all movies hasn't gotten an official tally. Not even for Friday or Saturday, and it's Tuesday morning.

Avatar 2's supposed projected take for the Holiday weekend has now inexplicably climbed from $56 Million up to $64 Million, which is $2.5 Million more than it was projected to make before going into the brutal cold weekend.

I'm wondering if you can even take these numbers seriously anymore. Didn't Disney just recently get caught inflating numbers for something else and angering share holders?

http://fireflyfans.net/mthread.aspx?bid=18&tid=64470&mid=11671
31#1167131

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

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Tuesday, December 27, 2022 12:00 PM

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

Posting argumentatively is a lot more fun, and when something is posted with irrefutable proof (and usually proof of something they don't want to admit is true), it never gets any rebuttals.

I have an extremely long post history here where my threads get either one single post with no interaction, or I've shut it down in the low single digits.

Conversely, look at all of these bullshit Russia threads with hundreds and hundreds of posts, or the Trump Tick Tock threads that are as old as 6 years that will never have the resolution they want so they'll just continue on until Trump dies of old age or Haken turns the lights out.
Let me check if 6ix has posted anything else paranoid today. Yes, 6ix did, which indicates that he will never lose an argument on the internet, mostly because he is too nutty to understand how paranoid he is.
Quote:
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
Looks like America's Box Office is pulling some Arizona 2022 Mid-Terms shenanigans.

China has already reported Avatar 2's figures up through the 26th, yet the entire weekend box office for all movies hasn't gotten an official tally. Not even for Friday or Saturday, and it's Tuesday morning.

Avatar 2's supposed projected take for the Holiday weekend has now inexplicably climbed from $56 Million up to $64 Million, which is $2.5 Million more than it was projected to make before going into the brutal cold weekend.

I'm wondering if you can even take these numbers seriously anymore. Didn't Disney just recently get caught inflating numbers for something else and angering share holders?
http://fireflyfans.net/mthread.aspx?bid=18&tid=64470&mid=11671
31#1167131

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

Paranoid? lol

Why would I be paranoid about that? I don't own Disney stock. I have no dog in that race.

Just pointing out that Covid-riddled China has been able to report the movie's earnings up until yesterday already and the US can't even put Friday's numbers up by Tuesday morning (which is something that has NEVER happened before), after they've been silently bumping up their weekend projections they made before they knew what a clusterfuck storm was coming in the background with no explanations why.

We know why. Disney has been putting out flop after flop all year, in between one or two flicks that just barely limped across the finish line and broke even. Their stock is down more than 55% from it's March of 2021 high already, and admitting Avatar 2 is a flop will ruin them.

Disney Stock Price Drop:
$197.16 March 12th, 2021
$87.45 December 27th, 2022

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

Growing up in a Republic was nice... Shame we couldn't keep it.

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Tuesday, December 27, 2022 12:13 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Quote:
Originally posted by captaincrunch:
Quote:
Originally posted by K2PO:
Merry Xmas and slava Ukraini everyone!

Same to you...ummm... K2PO? Hmmm... is this really KPO? Or maybe Kiki trying to be clever...

Riddle for you: "Candy" nickname, eaten by wolves at the death, CYA super Frankie.

So - I'm sure like most of us you are incredibly impressed by the Russia military. I mean, just, wow! Speed, focus, the strategerie of constantly regrouping backwards... it's almost like they do this for a living. Seriously - can you imagine how bad things would be if they weren't winning?

Best to you in 2023!

Posting to your sock puppet?

heh heh heh...

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

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Tuesday, December 27, 2022 12:15 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Quote:
Originally posted by THG:
Well comrade signym, there goes second posting more of those pesky facts that so upset you.

I went to the link, and then to the ACTUAL report, which appears as a link "findings"..

Yanno, I'm a little busy today so why don't you do what I did? Go to the actual report... it's just two links away... and read it for yourself.

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

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Tuesday, December 27, 2022 12:33 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Quote:
Originally posted by captaincrunch:
Quote:
Originally posted by K2PO:
Merry Xmas and slava Ukraini everyone!

Same to you...ummm... K2PO? Hmmm... is this really KPO? Or maybe Kiki trying to be clever...

Riddle for you: "Candy" nickname, eaten by wolves at the death, CYA super Frankie.

So - I'm sure like most of us you are incredibly impressed by the Russia military. I mean, just, wow! Speed, focus, the strategerie of constantly regrouping backwards... it's almost like they do this for a living. Seriously - can you imagine how bad things would be if they weren't winning?

Best to you in 2023!
Posting to your sock puppet?

heh heh heh...

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

Oh. That's nice. He found somebody smart enough to get his data off of his old smartphone and still has his regular account.

Those are hard to come by in these parts now.

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

Growing up in a Republic was nice... Shame we couldn't keep it.

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Tuesday, December 27, 2022 12:54 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Quote:
Originally posted by second:

The entire world is pleased that Russia, not EU, not US, not NATO, will decide who wins (Maybe)

Am I the only one to notice that every time SECOND gets his ass handed to him about one of his crap-posts, he splatters the board with a different kind of stink?

The very first time I commented at fireflyfans was in 2013 to something Signym wrote here:
http://fireflyfans.net/mthread.aspx?bid=18&tid=56323&mid=94921
8#949218

Signym was an absurdity in 2013 as Signym continues to be, as Russians continue to be:

It is unbearable to read, but necessary to face: “Russian troops raped and tortured children in Ukraine, U.N. panel says.” (Article here. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/russian-troops-raped-tortured-child
ren-ukraine-un-panel-says-rcna49168 ) Is it any wonder that Ukrainians want to repel this evil invasion? And that they don’t want to leave any of their people to the mercy of such invaders and occupiers?

Every day, Russian propagandists call the Ukrainians “Nazis.” So do their echoers in the West. This is what psychologists call, I believe, “projection.”

• Also unbearable to read — unbearable to watch — but necessary to face: “Caught on Camera, Traced by Phone: The Russian Military Unit That Killed Dozens in Bucha” (here https://www.nytimes.com/video/world/europe/100000008299178/ukraine-buc
ha-russia-massacre-video.html?smid=url-share ). There is no denying the nature of Russian forces in Ukraine — except to the extent that there are always people who deny war crimes and crimes against humanity, from the Holocaust to individual massacres.

• Earlier this year, some 1,200 people gathered in the Mariupol theater, to take refuge from Russian bombing. These included children, of course. A large sign indicating children was “daubed in Russian in front of the theatre,” as the BBC says. ( https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-64075088 ) Then the Russians bombed the theater. “Ukrainian authorities believe 300 people were killed but an AP investigation said the number was closer to 600. Many of the bodies were found in the basement.”

Now, of course, the Russians are destroying what remained of the theater (as the above-linked BBC report says). Why? The better to cover up war crimes, clearly.

More about Russians at https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/so-much-in-the-world-depends-on-
you/

U.S. officials are calling out Russia for renewing false allegations the U.S. is funding bio-weapons labs in Ukraine. Despite this, Fox News host Tucker Carlson has been amplifying Russia’s claims.

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Tuesday, December 27, 2022 1:13 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:
Quote:
Originally posted by THG:
Well comrade signym, there goes second posting more of those pesky facts that so upset you.
I went to the link, and then to the ACTUAL report, which appears as a link "findings"..

Yanno, I'm a little busy today so why don't you do what I did? Go to the actual report... it's just two links away... and read it for yourself.

This what you mean, Signym? Sexual and gender-based violence

Investigating cases related to sexual and gender-based violence present specific challenges. The Commission has found that some Russian Federation soldiers committed such crimes. These acts amounted to different types of violations of rights, including sexual violence, torture, and cruel and inhuman treatment. There are examples of cases where relatives were forced to witness the crimes. In the cases we have investigated, the age of victims of sexual and gendered-based violence ranged from four to 82 years.

The Commission has documented cases in which children have been raped, tortured, and unlawfully confined.

https://www.ohchr.org/en/statements/2022/09/update-chair-independent-i
nternational-commission-inquiry-ukraine-51st-session

Signym, don't worry because Putin has already denied it happened. And not just Putin. Every Russian has denied it happened. They would go to Jail for 10 years should they do otherwise.
A Look at the Laws of War — and How Russia is Violating Them
https://www.usip.org/publications/2022/09/look-laws-war-and-how-russia
-violating-them

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

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Tuesday, December 27, 2022 1:28 PM

I know the trolls that are left here think I post in response to them. It’s true I take great pleasure in that for years Signym and Kiki posted about the greatness of Russia, and the weakness of American, only to now eat shit, tons of it. That’s due in part because America is currently leading the way in dismantling Russia. Either Kiki’s sudden disappearance is due to her death, or she just ran for the hills when the Ukrainian war started and Russia began getting its ass kick. Or, when she saw that the Russians were raping children and even she couldn’t condone that. Knowing her these years I don’t give her that much credit. She’d have to post so.

At any rate. I post because I believe many X Browncoats still follow things at FireFlyFans from afar. And there are way too many clicks happening for that not to be the case. Therefore, I want to follow through until Trump is documented here thoroughly as having paid the price for all his criminal acts. As well as Russia losing the war it started. And as a country being utterly destroyed for generations because of it.

The good news folks is it is happening at a rapid rate now.

T

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Tuesday, December 27, 2022 1:31 PM

Yep, some do that here. To no avail though.

T

War And Lies: Trump Republicans Confronted With Past Putin Praise On TV. Many Republican leaders have praised Vladimir Putin and misled Americans about the facts of his record as a dictator.

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Tuesday, December 27, 2022 2:33 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by THG:
Either Kiki’s sudden disappearance is due to her death, or she just ran for the hills when the Ukrainian war started and Russia began getting its ass kick.

I've wondered if Putin's flagrant aggression in Ukraine was too much for her. I always sensed she didn't sit 100% comfortably in the Trump-Putin-neo-fascist axis.

Or was she an anti-vaxxer...?

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Tuesday, December 27, 2022 2:42 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Posting to your sock puppet?

heh heh heh...

Curious where this belief came from. Do you even remember? Can't fathom the existence of multiple people who disagrees with you? Or have you done some cunning internet detective work?

Come on Sig, time for your Poirot moment. The big reveal. Gather round FF kids. This should be good.

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Tuesday, December 27, 2022 3:20 PM

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

Stepan Gronk @StepanGronk tweeted a video at https://twitter.com/StepanGronk/status/1607547020180606980

Be sure to turn on the sound.

What is the video about? The Description:

The atmosphere of the front line at #Bakhmut. Incessant fighting hour after hour, day after day, month after month. #Ukraine simply refuses to concede no matter what #Russia throws at her - tying down & slaughtering #Prigozhin's slaves in droves.
#BakhmutHolds
7:20 PM · Dec 26, 2022

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

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Tuesday, December 27, 2022 3:21 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by K2PO:
Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Posting to your sock puppet?

heh heh heh...

Curious where this belief came from. Do you even remember? Can't fathom the existence of multiple people who disagrees with you? Or have you done some cunning internet detective work?

Come on Sig, time for your Poirot moment. The big reveal. Gather round FF kids. This should be good.

If you want to pretend like you're not both the same person, you need to do a lot better than you're doing.

Even a dumb AI wouldn't have any problems figuring you out, Cap'n.

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

Growing up in a Republic was nice... Shame we couldn't keep it.

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Tuesday, December 27, 2022 3:21 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by THG:
Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Quote:
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:

For my 2022 taxes, I'm adding Voldemort Zelensky as a dependent on my 1040.

Pfwaahhh!!!

You owe me a new smartphone!!

Let’s be clear ok. The Democrats had a history making mid-term election. Trump has legal problems too numerous to list. The House Republicans can’t get their act together enough to elect a House Majority leader. And if they do, not only will he not have the power to get anything done. He’s going to be led around by the nose by the Republican looneys. That is going to be very entertaining and helpful to the Democrats in 2024.

Now, Biden wins again. He is signing a just passed 1.7 trillion-dollar Federal spending bill. A bill the house Republicans threatened the Senate Republicans not to pass. It includes 45 billion in aid to Ukraine and our NATO allies. 777.2 billion in nondefense discretionary spending. 858 billion in defense spending.

It includes The Electoral Count Reform Act. $47.5 billion for the National Institutes of Health, $9.2 billion for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and $950 million for the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority. It has a $13.4 billion increase for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. It has a boost of $28.5 billion for child nutrition programs.

New Section 8 Housing Choice Vouchers they say would support over 11,000 additional low-income households, as well as a boost to maximum Pell Grant award.

Eight amendments adopted include proposals aimed at allowing proceeds from assets seized from sanctioned Russian oligarchs to be put toward Ukraine aid . Plus a measure aimed at strengthening protections for breastfeeding workers and another dealing with compensation for 9/11 victims.

Biden just keeps winning guys, so again I say let’s be clear. All the news is, has been, and is going to continue to be, happy news for me, not so much for you.

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Tuesday, December 27, 2022 4:50 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
Even a dumb AI wouldn't have any problems figuring you out, Cap'n.

And what was it that tipped you off?

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Tuesday, December 27, 2022 4:56 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by captaincrunch:
Quote:
Originally posted by K2PO:
Merry Xmas and slava Ukraini everyone!

Same to you...ummm... K2PO? Hmmm... is this really KPO? Or maybe Kiki trying to be clever...

Riddle for you: "Candy" nickname, eaten by wolves at the death, CYA super Frankie.

So - I'm sure like most of us you are incredibly impressed by the Russia military. I mean, just, wow! Speed, focus, the strategerie of constantly regrouping backwards... it's almost like they do this for a living. Seriously - can you imagine how bad things would be if they weren't winning?

Best to you in 2023!

Best to you Cap. Yep, here's to the Russian military having a 2023 similar to their 2022.

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Tuesday, December 27, 2022 5:26 PM

K2PO

BROWNCOAT ID#:51908 SINCE: 2022.11.15 15:28 LAST HERE: 2022.11.15 15:28 CREDITS: 20

Her only posts exist in this thread.

T

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Tuesday, December 27, 2022 6:41 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by K2PO:
Quote:
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
Even a dumb AI wouldn't have any problems figuring you out, Cap'n.

And what was it that tipped you off?

The fact that you're the one of three Democrats left on this board who is even sentient enough to ask that question.

Be careful dude. Ted thinks you're a girl and I think he's taking a shine to you.

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

Growing up in a Republic was nice... Shame we couldn't keep it.

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Tuesday, December 27, 2022 6:48 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by THG:
K2PO

BROWNCOAT ID#:51908 SINCE: 2022.11.15 15:28 LAST HERE: 2022.11.15 15:28 CREDITS: 20

Her only posts exist in this thread.

T

What's you're point, Simp?

She's a he. He's a Cap'n.

Meanwhile, IT posted this to me on the evening of the 23rd:

Quote:
Originally posted by K2PO:
I'm barely even paying attention to you now, Six, I certainly haven't been for the last two years.

Sure, by all means give yourself another "win" on your score chart of vanquished internet enemies.

So no... This isn't some new member.

And aside from YOU, the only other person here who has claimed to be ignoring my posts and for the most part successfully not replying to them was Cap'n. Wish would claim she was going to, but I'd get her replying to me in less than a day. If Second has ever made that promise to me, he's broken it repeatedly as well... But with rare exception I haven't read more than 10% of any of his posts for years unless something seriously grabbed my attention.

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

Growing up in a Republic was nice... Shame we couldn't keep it.

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Tuesday, December 27, 2022 7:22 PM

Existential War About The End Of Democracy: Malcolm Nance Deconstructs Russia-Ukraine War

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Tuesday, December 27, 2022 7:27 PM

Fuck Ukraine

#Rootin4Putin

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

Growing up in a Republic was nice... Shame we couldn't keep it.

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Tuesday, December 27, 2022 8:14 PM

CAPTAINCRUNCH

... stay crunchy...

Quote:
Originally posted by THG:
K2PO

BROWNCOAT ID#:51908 SINCE: 2022.11.15 15:28 LAST HERE: 2022.11.15 15:28 CREDITS: 20

Her only posts exist in this thread.

T

Good for you, T. “K2PO” didn’t sound like KPO, and didn’t even try to solve the riddle. So who was it? Who tried to fool us? Who fucking cares. What a sad place.

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Tuesday, December 27, 2022 8:28 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by CAPTAINCRUNCH:
Quote:
Originally posted by THG:
K2PO

BROWNCOAT ID#:51908 SINCE: 2022.11.15 15:28 LAST HERE: 2022.11.15 15:28 CREDITS: 20

Her only posts exist in this thread.

T

Good for you, T. “K2PO” didn’t sound like KPO, and didn’t even try to solve the riddle. So who was it? Who tried to fool us? Who fucking cares. What a sad place.

Hello G. Good to see you.

T

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Tuesday, December 27, 2022 8:34 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by CAPTAINCRUNCH:
and didn’t even try to solve the riddle.

That was something I was supposed to solve? And something only KPO would know? You might be over-estimating KPO's memory...

Nice idea though.

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Tuesday, December 27, 2022 9:58 PM

SOCKPUPPET

They're having a conversation with themselves.

We can do that too.

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Wednesday, December 28, 2022 6:51 AM

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

Russians hunt down and murder influential Ukrainians to neutralize resistance

'We will find you:' Russians hunt down Ukrainians on lists

By ERIKA KINETZ https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-europe-3ae1bccfb0ef34dbe363f
7c289ce7934

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Three days after the first Russian bombs struck Ukraine, Andrii Kuprash, the head of a village north of Kyiv, walked into a forest near his home and began to dig. He didn’t stop until he had carved out a shallow pit, big enough for a man like him. It was his just-in-case, a place to lie low if he needed.

He covered it with branches and went back home.

A week later, Kuprash got a call around 8 a.m. from an unknown number. A man speaking Russian asked if he was the village head. Something was amiss.

“No, you’ve got the wrong number,” Kuprash lied. “We will find you anyway,” the man responded. “It’s better to cooperate with us.’” Kuprash grabbed some camping kit and his warmest coat and headed for his hole in the woods.

Kuprash — and others The Associated Press spoke with — had been quietly warned that they were targets for advancing Russian forces. Word went round in circles of influential Ukrainians: Don’t sleep in your own home. Get rid of your phone. Get out of Ukraine.

The hunt was on.

In a deliberate, widespread campaign, Russian forces systematically targeted influential Ukrainians, nationally and locally, to neutralize resistance through detention, torture and executions, an Associated Press investigation has found. The strategy appears to violate the laws of war and could help build a case for genocide.

Russian troops hunted Ukrainians by name, using lists prepared with the help of their intelligence services. In the crosshairs were government officials, journalists, activists, veterans, religious leaders and lawyers.

The AP documented a sample of 61 cases across Ukraine, drawing on Russian lists of names obtained by Ukrainian authorities, photographic evidence of abuse, Russian media accounts and interviews with dozens of victims, family and friends, and Ukrainian officials and activists.

Some victims were held at detention sites, where they were interrogated, beaten and subjected to electric shocks, survivors said. Some ended up in Russia. Others died.

In three cases, Russians tortured people into informing on others. In three other cases, Russians seized family members, including a child, to exert pressure. The pattern was similar across the country, according to testimonies AP collected from occupied and formerly occupied territories around Kyiv, Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Chernihiv and Donetsk regions.

“Clearly what you have here is the playbook of an authoritarian regime that wants to immediately decapitate the area and eliminate the leadership,” said Stephen Rapp, a former U.S. ambassador-at-large for war crimes issues who is advising Ukraine on prosecutions.

The lists are part of growing evidence that shows much of the violence in Ukraine was planned rather than random. Russia has used brutality as a strategy of war, conceived and implemented within the command structures of its military and intelligence services. The Associated Press has also documented patterns of violence against civilians, including lethal “cleansing operations” along a front of the war commanded by a Russian general implicated in war crimes in Syria.

Led by the Federal Security Service (FSB), Russian intelligence spent months compiling hit lists before the Feb. 24 invasion, according to leaked U.S. intelligence and U.K. national security analysts.

Ukrainian intelligence indicates that the division of Russia’s spy agency tasked with planning the subjugation and occupation of Ukraine — the Ninth Directorate of the FSB’s Fifth Service — scaled up sharply in the summer of 2021. Agents categorized influential Ukrainians as either potential collaborators or unreliable elements to be intimidated or killed, according to the Royal United Services Institute, a prominent defense think tank in London.

“This political strategy of targeted killings was directed from a very high level within the Kremlin,” said Jack Watling, a senior research fellow at RUSI.

___

This story is part of an AP/FRONTLINE investigation that includes the War Crimes Watch Ukraine tracker and the documentary “Putin’s Attack on Ukraine: Documenting War Crimes,” on PBS.

___

Those pre-war lists were just the beginning.

Russian leaders who had expected to sweep into Ukraine and seize control of a docile population quickly discovered they were wrong. One list begat another as Russia expanded its dragnet to ever-wider swaths of Ukrainian society, incorporating additional names from collaborators and seized government records and torturing captives into giving up other people.

AP obtained copies of five lists of 31 people Russians were hunting in Mykolaiv and Kherson regions. They offer a highly localized accounting — eight soldiers, seven veterans, seven apparent civilians and nine people accused of helping the Ukrainian military or intelligence services.

One man accused of having anti-Russian views and carrying out anti-Russian propaganda was on the list. So was a man who helped his son evacuate to Ukrainian territory in a motorboat. The lists, which were undated, included full names, as well as some nicknames, dates of birth and addresses.

The Kremlin declined to respond to AP’s requests for comment, though a spokesman earlier called leaked U.S. intelligence about kill lists “absolute fiction.”

It is not currently possible to document the full scale of abductions. The Center for Civil Liberties, a Ukrainian NGO that won the Nobel Peace Prize this year, has amassed more than 770 cases of civilian captives since Russia’s February invasion.

Oleksandra Matviichuk the head of the group, emphasizes that these are the tip of the iceberg. Matviichuk recorded similar targeting of local elites by Russian-backed forces in Crimea and Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region dating back to 2014.

But this time, as she documented more cases, she realized something had changed. Suddenly and surprisingly, even people who weren’t influential leaders were being taken.

“Everybody can be a target. It shocked me,” she said. “We were prepared for political persecution...We weren’t prepared for terror.”

___
DIG YOUR GRAVE

While Kuprash hid in his hole in the woods, more than a dozen Russian soldiers ransacked his house and held a knife to the throat of his 15-year-old son. They threatened to tear out his guts if he didn’t give up his dad.

Father and son had set up a code: Call me “Tato” — dad — if everything is OK. Call me “Andrii” if there is trouble.

Surrounded by soldiers, his son went out to the garden and hollered “Andrii! Andrii! Andrii!” as loud as his voice would carry.

Three weeks later, Russians again came for Kuprash at his home. A commander sat him down at his kitchen table and, at gunpoint, promised him “a great life” in exchange for information about Ukrainian positions, as well as names of Ukrainian veterans and patriots. Kuprash insisted he didn’t have access to that information.

Dozens of locals from Babyntsi village had gathered outside. Kuprash thought maybe the crowd had saved him.

Next time, he wouldn’t be so lucky.

On March 30, three Russian vehicles pulled up to the town hall.

“Who’s the village head?” the soldiers demanded.

“I am,” Kuprash said, stepping forward.

“Andrii?” they asked.

“Yes.”

“We found you,” one soldier said. “You are dead.”

The soldiers hit Kuprash in the head with a rifle, threw him in the back of the car and drove towards a cemetery in the forest. One of the Russians pulled out a long knife and held it against Kuprash’s throat.

“This knife killed nine people. You’ll be the tenth,” he said.

They accused him of sending Russian troop positions to Ukrainian authorities, which Kuprash told AP he had been doing. Under the laws of war, Russians could detain spotters like Kuprash in humane conditions, but never disappear or torture them, human rights lawyers say.

Kuprash kept insisting he was a civilian. He thought of his children. “I said goodbye in my mind,” he said.

When they got to the forest cemetery, dozens of Russian soldiers forced Kuprash to strip and shoved him around in a circle, jeering and insulting him, he said. The commander pointed at another man being beaten near a tree, who he said had fingered Kuprash as the head of the local Territorial Defense, a volunteer military group. Kuprash denied it.

The Russians handed Kuprash a shovel. As he hunched over in his underwear, they ordered him to dig himself a grave in the frozen earth.

___
THE ROAD TO RUSSIA

Ukrainians hunted by Russia didn’t all stay in Ukraine, like Kuprash. Some were sucked into an opaque network of filtration and detention centers that extended from occupied territories into Russia itself.

Oleksii Dibrovskyi’s journey began on March 25, when a Russian soldier pulled out his gun and held it to his mother’s head.

“What is more precious to you: Your phone or your mother’s life?” the soldier demanded.

Dibrovskyi, a deputy of the Polohy City Council, in Zaporizhzhia region, looked at his mother and handed over his phone and password.

On his phone was a screenshot of Google maps with a Russian checkpoint circled in red. Dibrovskyi told AP that he had been sending information about Russian troop positions to the Ukrainian military.

The Russians wanted the names of other spotters. They told him their friends had died because of people like him.

Soldiers hauled Dibrovskyi to a basement, then to a garage, and then to a detention center near a military airport. They stuck a gun in his mouth and shot their rifles close to his ears. He said he was blindfolded and beaten so badly he urinated on himself.

One morning near the end of March, his captors led him to an old Soviet-style metal safe and told him to get in.

The space inside the safe was so small Dibrovskyi couldn’t sit. He curled his body into the shape of a question mark. The door swung shut.

Total blackness.

Dibrovskyi struggled to breathe.

Inside the safe, Dibrovskyi began to sweat. As the hours passed, condensation formed on the walls and he pressed his lips to the droplets, desperate with thirst. Vivid pictures emerged from the darkness: Water. White light, like bright souls descending. “I thought angels were taking me to the sky,” he said.

A few weeks later, he said, he was taken to a filtration center in Olenivka, in Russian-controlled Donetsk region, where men curled their knees to their chests so they could squash in two to a bed.

The logic Russians used to sort people at the filtration center was never fully clear to Dibrovskyi. Those who made it through were searched, interrogated, photographed, fingerprinted and allowed to leave.

Dibrovskyi didn’t make it.

On April 14, he was herded on a Russian KAMAZ truck with 90 other people who had failed filtration. They drove through the night. In the morning, they boarded an airplane.

When they arrived at Pre-Trial Detention Center Number One, in Kursk, Russia, Dibrovskyi and the others squatted down and folded their hands behind their heads. They were videotaped, searched for tattoos, and stripped. Once naked, the beatings began.

“It was like a storm. It was endless. I was naked, beaten from left, right side, on back and my ears, legs -- constant beatings,” he said. “They kicked us. Many boys had their genitals hurt.”

Some men were unable to sit after the beatings, and others got broken ribs. A man boxed Dibrovskyi’s ears so hard he fainted. He got a wound on his forehead from kneeling and pressing his head to the cold, humid ground. Every morning, they had to belt out the Russian national anthem.

“After torture, I was given paper and a pen. I was told to write down what they say,” Dibrovskyi said. “I realized only later what I had signed.”

His captors had tried to trick him into being a Russian spy.

___
THE FUTURE IS HISTORY

Russia’s targeting of local leaders like Dibrovskyi and Kuprash is not new. The security forces of the Soviet Union had a long history of drawing up lists of “subversives” in Russia and beyond to be detained, disappeared, sent to labor camps or executed.

Andrei Soldatov, an investigative journalist and expert on Russian security services, said old techniques included kill lists that Stalin’s secret service used to pacify Western Ukraine during World War II.

“It’s the bloodiest example of pacifying a territory by Stalin’s secret service,” he said. “It’s still taught at the academy of the secret service for how to pacify people when they are hostile.”

Excising the parts of society that shape and guide a nation can have long-term impacts. When the Soviet Union occupied Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia in World War II, they murdered or deported tens of thousands of people.

“The sort of people who were selected for this were those who were community leaders, teachers, clergymen — anyone with a political background,” Janis Kažocinš, the national security advisor to the president of Latvia, told AP. “Society doesn’t have any compass any longer. It’s been deprived of its leaders.”

Data suggests that Russia has been doing the same thing in Ukraine. Regional authorities in Zaporizhzhia and Kherson as well as the United Nations all found that local leaders were disproportionately targeted in the early months of the invasion.

For example, local authorities, activists, journalists and religious leaders accounted for 40 percent of the 508 cases of arbitrary detention and enforced disappearances the United Nations Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine recorded between February and early December. In Kherson alone, nearly a third of the 230 civilian abductions regional authorities had registered by July involved local authorities and government employees.

Evidence of targeting could help prosecutors argue that Russia intends to destroy Ukrainian society in whole or in part.

“This is where the investigation of genocide should start,” said Wayne Jordash, director of Global Rights Compliance, a law firm and NGO, who helps lead the work of the Atrocity Crimes Advisory Group, a multinational effort to support Ukrainian war crimes prosecutors. “It’s how the Russians intended to take over and extinguish identity.”

On the day Russia invaded Ukraine, Jordash got a call from a person with access to British intelligence who warned him that the Russians had lists of Ukrainian politicians and his wife — Svitlana Zalishchuk, a former member of parliament — was not safe. They left.

As Ukraine claws back more territory from Russia, the accounting of the disappeared grows. Russian forces set up at least nine detention centers in Kherson city, where people were tortured, said Jordash, who is now back in Ukraine. Ukrainian prosecutors estimated from meticulous lists the Russians left behind that more than 800 people from the largest center alone had been taken into Russian-held territory or killed, Jordash said.

Finding them and bringing them home is not easy. One of Kherson’s disappeared was Serhii Tsyhipa, a blogger, activist and military veteran. He vanished March 12 and reappeared six weeks later on pro-Russian television, thin and hollow-eyed, regurgitating Russian propaganda. Ukrainian police analyzed the video and told AP he was clearly under duress.

Tsyhipa’s family has spoken with lawyers, NGOs, international organizations, Ukrainian intelligence and journalists. Nothing has brought him home.

His wife Olena takes herbal pills to manage the constant anxiety. “I need strength,” she said. “My brain is constantly working on how to help or free him.”

___
‘PLEASE COME, MOMMY’

Some people who knew they were being hunted went into hiding, conjuring memories of World War II. Others risked everything to slip away.

When Russia invaded Ukraine, Lidiia, an editor-in-chief, shut the small newspaper she ran and spent two weeks huddled with her two daughters in a basement outside Mariupol. She read them the Russian version of The Wizard of Oz. As they listened to the fury of artillery above, her children kept asking her to repeat the part when the wicked witch Gingema sends a hurricane to the city.

Lidiia did not want her full name or image published because family members in Russian-held territory remain at risk.

She managed to get a ride to her sister’s house in Donetsk, a city in eastern Ukraine that has been under de-facto Russian control since 2014.

At the last checkpoint before her sister’s home, they were routed to a filtration point where their phones were searched. They were fingerprinted, photographed and questioned for three hours. Lidiia was allowed through. Somehow, they hadn’t noticed she was a journalist.

A few weeks later, she got a call from another journalist who told her the administration of the Donetsk People’s Republic – Russia’s name for a swath of Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region -- was looking for her.

That night at 6:30 p.m., Lidiia missed a call from an unknown number on the messaging app Viber. Four minutes later, a message popped up, written in formal Russian, from a woman named Nataliya: “Good evening...I’m an employee of the head of the administration of the Republic. I need to talk to you about resuming the publication of the newspaper. I’d be very grateful if you call me back.”

“My first thought was: ‘Where to run?’” Lidiia said.

Lidiia called Nataliya back and told her that she couldn’t work because she had to take care of her kids.

“If you need work, we will always help you,” Nataliya assured Lidiia.

A week later, Lidiia’s husband, who had stayed behind, called. “Tomorrow they will come talk to you,” he said in an odd voice. Later, she learned that armed state security officials from the so-called Donetsk People’s Republic had come to their home looking for her and forced him to call her.

“I understood it was dangerous,” she said. “I was getting ready for the worst -- for arrest, or to be forced psychologically because of my children…I was afraid I’d be forced to collaborate.”

Lidiia scrambled to gather the paperwork she needed to leave: a certificate that she’d cleared filtration, new identity papers for her children. Each day, she waited for a knock on the door.

The frontline of the war lay to the west, cutting her off from Kyiv. She realized there was only one route out: East, through Russia.

She booked tickets — 350 euros ($373) for her, 125 euros for each child — on a bus that would take them on a three-day journey through Russia, across Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and finally to Kyiv.

On May 24, Lidiia and her girls crammed on a bus with 50 people. When they reached the Russian border, her children passed through passport control first. Then it was Lidiia’s turn.

The man who checked her documents saw that she had worked for a newspaper in Ukraine.

“You have to wait here,” he told her. “Someone will come for you.”

Now Lidiia’s children were in Russia, and she was in Ukraine.

Another busload of people arrived, and she was afraid she’d lose her girls in the chaos. She strained to keep her eyes on her children as they sat, alone, in enemy territory.

“I was waving at them so they wouldn’t be afraid, to let them know I was still there,” she said.

Her children kept trying to call her, but they couldn’t get a connection with their Ukrainian SIM card. Her younger daughter began to cry.

They sent messages: “Please come, mommy.”

“Mom, where you are? She is crying.”

The messages were never delivered.

Lidiia’s head buzzed with panic. “What will happen to my kids if I am detained and cannot leave?” she asked herself. “Should I look for an orphanage for my kids?”

Lidiia was escorted to a room by a man she said worked for the FSB. “He asked if she wanted to smoke. She told him she didn’t want cigarettes, she wanted her kids.

They walked her children back from the other side of passport control. She put her bags and her daughters on a bench in a waiting room filled with strangers and followed him into an interrogation room.

He asked her who she worked for. A newspaper, she said.

“Ah,” the man said, stretching his arms wide. “One day and one night won’t be enough for us to talk to you.”

___
THE ONES WHO GOT AWAY

Kuprash, Dibrovskyi and Lidiia are among the lucky: They survived.

Kuprash can’t be sure why the commander changed his mind about life and death. What he does know is that after the grave he dug was about a foot deep, the commander threw his clothes back at him and told him to have a cigarette.

They headed back towards the village. The commander cursed Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Kuprash kept his mouth shut and prayed.

They stopped in front of the town hall. Kuprash climbed off.

“Live,” the commander said. He turned and drove away.

On the morning of April 18, Dibrovskyi was taken from his cell. He said his retinas were scanned and his skull measured with a device he didn’t recognize. Samples were taken of his nails, hair and blood.

His wounds were photographed, and he was forced to make a video saying that he had been treated well and his injuries were from a fall.

Dibrovskyi and other prisoners were flown from Kursk to a detention center in Russian-held Crimea, stopping in Belgorod, Voronezh, Rostov and Taganrog to collect more prisoners along the way, he said.

Early the next morning, Dibrovskyi waited as 59 names were called out. His was last, the 60th name. They all climbed onto KAMAZ trucks and headed north.

Around 3 p.m., Dibrovskyi saw a Ukrainian flag. He began to cry. One by one, Russian prisoners were exchanged for Ukrainians.

Dibrovskyi spent ten days in the hospital. His wrists, arms and head bore signs of torture, medical records show. He couldn’t sleep.

Dibrovskyi called his wife from his hospital bed. She didn’t recognize him.

“Alosha, is it you?” she said.

They sat together in silence on the phone, unable to speak.

Still stuck at the Russian border, Lidiia went through two rounds of interrogation. When she finally explained – falsely but in excruciating detail -- that she was headed for her aunt’s house in Moscow, the man handed back her passport and said, “OK, that’s it.”

“Am I free?” Lidiia asked. She couldn’t believe it. She walked out of the room and whisked her waiting children back to the bus.

For an hour, things seemed fine. Then Lidiia realized with a shock of dread that she’d left her documents back at the border.

Lidiia began to weep. “My stress resistance ended there,” she said. “I realized at that moment anything could happen to me.”

The driver called her a taxi. She left her girls on the bus with a woman who promised to look after them. Lidiia left one of her phones behind, stocked with contact numbers of relatives to call in case she didn’t make it back.

She headed back to the border.

When Lidiia returned, documents in hand, the bus erupted with applause.

“As we crossed the border to Europe – that’s it,” Lidiia said. “The spirit of freedom.”

Lidiia left just in time. In July, Russians conducted another purge of her city and arrested people, she said.

“I was also on their lists. They asked other people about me,” she said. “The fact that I left earlier probably saved me.”

___

Associated Press reporters Solomiia Hera, Adam Pemble and Zoya Shu contributed to this report.

___

Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine: https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-europe-3ae1bccfb0ef34dbe363f
7c289ce7934

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

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Wednesday, December 28, 2022 8:44 AM

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

For Andrei Soldatov and his friends, February 24 marked the end of Russia as they knew it.

Soldatov said he had begun to question his own identity. “The things we held dear, like the memory of the Second World War, for instance, became completely compromised,” he said, referring to Putin’s baseless claim that Russian forces are “denazifying” Ukraine.

“It’s part of the Russian national identity that the Russian army helped to win the war (against Hitler’s Germany) and now it feels absolutely wrong because this message was used by Putin. You start questioning the history,” he said, adding that the favorable reaction by some parts of the Russian society to the invasion prompted him to research pre-war rhetoric in Germany.

Speaking about Russians as “us” had begun to feel wrong because he deeply disagreed with Russia’s actions, he said. But saying “Russians” didn’t seem right either. “Because of course, I’m Russian, I also have some partial responsibility for what is going on and I do not want to hide from it.”

More at https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/28/europe/russian-opposition-ukraine-war-i
ntl-cmd/index.html

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

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Wednesday, December 28, 2022 9:10 AM

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

Berzina said that the expectation of some in the West – that “once people start feeling as though their leaders are doing wrong, that there is an immediate wave of protests on the streets and call for government change that actually has an effect” – does not reflect the reality of life in Russia.

“The Putin regime has done a very good job of either forcing out or imprisoning all viable alternatives that are of the more democratic fashion and then on the other side you have fear of going out into the streets if there’s no clear path forward,” she said.

Olga, the woman who lives in Moscow and has regularly attended protests against the war, has also lost hope.

“Almost all opposition leaders and opinion leaders are now either in prison or abroad. People have a huge potential for political action, but there is no leader and no power base,” she said, adding that civilians will not come out against the armed police, the National Guard, and other security forces.

“It is probably difficult for people from democratic countries to understand the realities of life in a powerful autocracy,” she said. “It’s a terrifying feeling of one’s own insignificance and helplessness in front of a gigantic machine of death and madness.”

More at https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/28/europe/russian-opposition-ukraine-war-i
ntl-cmd/index.html

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

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Wednesday, December 28, 2022 9:15 AM

*yawn*

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Growing up in a Republic was nice... Shame we couldn't keep it.

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Wednesday, December 28, 2022 11:09 AM

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

Key Takeaways DECEMBER 27

• Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov stated that the Kremlin will continue to pursue a military solution to the war until the US accepts its demands and forces Ukraine to do the same.

• Lavrov stated that Russia is unable to work on any agreements with the West due to its supposed provocative actions.

• The Kremlin will likely continue information operations to seek to compel the West to offer preemptive concessions and pressure Ukraine to negotiate.

• The Kremlin is increasingly integrating select milbloggers into its information campaigns, likely in an effort to regain a dominant narrative within the information space.

• Ukrainian forces have likely made more gains in northeast Ukraine than ISW has previously assessed.

• Russian forces may be nearing culmination in the Bakhmut area amid continuing Russian offensive operations there and in the Avdiivka-Donetsk City area.

• Russian forces are maintaining their fortification efforts in southern Ukraine.

• The Kremlin is continuing its efforts to publicly punish deserters and saboteurs.

• Russian officials are intensifying efforts to deport children from occupied territories to Russia.

https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/russian-offensive-campai
gn-assessment-december-27

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

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Wednesday, December 28, 2022 11:52 AM

Sure they are.

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Growing up in a Republic was nice... Shame we couldn't keep it.

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Wednesday, December 28, 2022 1:24 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:
Sure they are.

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Growing up in a Republic was nice... Shame we couldn't keep it.

Ukrainian children have undergone medical examinations by Russia. 70 percent were told they are in need of "special medical care" and need to be relocated to Russia for treatment. These deportations lure children's families to Russia to take their children back home after medical treatment. But Russian officials prevent families returning to Ukraine, forcing them to stay in Russia. Russian officials are conducting a deliberate depopulation campaign in occupied Ukrainian territories.

https://www.newsweek.com/russia-deporting-ukraine-children-deliberate-
depopulation-effort-isw-1762550

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

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Wednesday, December 28, 2022 8:53 PM

Man. I wish Mexico would do that to Mexicans.

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Growing up in a Republic was nice... Shame we couldn't keep it.

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Thursday, December 29, 2022 6:51 AM