Russia Invades Ukraine. Again by captaincrunch

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Quote:
Originally posted by second:
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.

Sorry but this is as far as I got into the article b4 givng up.

A few points:

The list was obtained from Ukrainian authorities? Knowing how often Ukrainian authorities have lied about ... well, everything (I could rattle off a dozen lies, starting with the number of Russian casualtiesand the ghost of Kiev all the way down to the "goat" of Kiev) is there any reason to believe that this "list" is genuine?

And why lead off with what, on the face of it, seems to be the LEAST credible example? Why would "Russia" bother with the head of an insignificant village N of Kiev?

Why wait ntil 9 months goes by before even repoting it? Did Kiev need 9 months to gestate this story?

Yanno, I could understand security sweeps if this was in a newly annexed oblast. I could understand if this was an important security or political person in Kiev, which Russia had apparently tried to bluff into negotiating. I could even understand if this was strategic area in front of a Russian offensive. But none of that applies! And, 61 random people across all of Ukraine? If they're as unimportant as the "head" of some podunk village in Ukraine, it hardly sounds efficient.

Something has been left out of the story, or something has been added to the story, but as written, so far, it doesn't make sense.

My guess, if this even happened at all, is that Russia-speaking Ukrainians are exacting retribution against those they believe are extremist (i.e. neo-Nazi) elements in Ukraine.

Meanwhile, Kiev DOES have an online kill list of PROMINENT people including prominent Russians, prominent leaders in Donetsk and Lugansk, western journalists, and even Elon Musk (!), and a few of those people have actually been killed.

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

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Thursday, December 29, 2022 2:17 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

And now, for the UN report...

I have no expectation of objectivity from the UN, its affiliates, or western-sponsored NGOs (including HRW, the Hague, OPCW, Medicins sans Fronteires etc)

The Hague held Milosevic in jail until he died of a treatable heart condition, before finding him innocent.

No "human rights court" has even taken the USA to task for targeting and killing millions of civilians in any of its "wars of choice" which, BTW, were never authorized by the UN.

USA and UK legal systems hounded important whistleblowers like Assange and Snowden on bogus charges.

OSCE was so one-sided about not reporting Kiev's shelling of civilians along the line of contact in Donetsk that Russian-speakers actually put up signs "OSCE GO HOME".

OPCW higher-up rewrote a Syrian chemical weapons report to say exactly opposite of what the field investigators found. The field investigators said the event was staged, the report was rewritten to say it was real. It was only after important whistleblowers came forward that the truth was known.

So, with that checkered history in mind, here are the relevant parts of the report, with comment:

Quote:
Last time the Commissioners were present at the Human Rights Council was in May this year. The Council then requested the Commission, in resolution S-34/1, to address events that took place in late February and March 2022 in the areas of Kyiv, Chernihiv, Kharkiv and Sumy, and to brief the Council on the progress of that inquiry as part of its oral update in September. Consequently, we have so far mainly focused on events in those four regions.

They will, of course, ignore the constant shelling of civilians in Donetsk City, which has so far resulted in appx 10,000 civilian dead (and counting) over 14 years.

Quote:
In Kharkiv city, explosive weapons devastated entire areas of the city.

There is a USA-educated Chilean reorting from Kharkiv, he said not.

Quote:
A number of the attacks we investigated had been carried out without distinguishing between civilians and combatants. This included some attacks with cluster munitions

This means using warheads armed with "flechettes" (small, sharp blades dispersed at high velocity which cuts any person in the vicinity, sometimes to ribbons) and "petal" mines ... small mines that look like leaves, not generaly powerful enough to kill, just strong enough to blow off a foot or a lower leg.

Yanno, if they had any excuse at all to blame Russia, they would in a heartbeat. But since they know, and everyone knows, that Kiev used these weapons they report it as "bubblegum got all over the dog" without pointing out who, exactly put the bubblegum there.

Quote:
or multi-launch rocket systems and airstrikes in populated areas.

Ignoring the fact that Kiev uses human shields. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/apr/02/ukrainian-children-used-
as-human-shields-near-kyiv-say-witness-reports

Quote:
As for violations against personal integrity, we were struck by the large number of executions in the areas that we visited. The Commission is currently investigating such deaths in 16 towns and settlements. We have received credible allegations regarding many more cases of executions, which we are documenting further.

Common elements of such crimes include the prior detention of the victims as well as visible signs of executions on bodies, such as hands tied behind backs, gunshot wounds to the head, and slit throats.

Yep, bubblegum got all over the dog.

Quote:
Some of the victims reported that after initial detention by Russian forces in Ukraine, they were transferred to the Russian Federation and held for weeks in prisons.

Out of how many?

Quote:
It [We] seeks to coordinate its efforts with the many entities carrying out investigations in order to avoid duplication and re-traumatization of victims.

So we won't re-examine anyone for injuries or re-investigate any reports or look for corroborating or conflicting evidence, we'll just take the initial reports at face value.

Quote:
The Commission has found that some Russian Federation soldiers committed such crimes.

Verified? How many?

Quote:
Children have also been killed and injured in indiscriminate attacks with explosive weapons. The exposure to repeated explosions, crimes, forced displacement and separation from family members deeply affected their well-being and mental health.

More bubblegum on the dog!

*****

Which brings me to SECOND's later screed about children being examined and requiring special treatment. You will notice that SECOND's screed doesn't say HOW MANY children. A dozen? A hundred? A thousand? Two?

The UN report basically confirms that SOME children will be severely traumatized or injured from war. Out of the however many number of civilians having been injured or traumatized by war, it's reasonable to expect that some will indeed need special treatment.

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

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Thursday, December 29, 2022 2:33 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

I just couldn't let this propaganda stand. Fuckit.

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

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Thursday, December 29, 2022 3:09 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
They will, of course, ignore the constant shelling of civilians in Donetsk City, which has so far resulted in appx 10,000 civilian dead (and counting) over 14 years.

Complete, made-up bullshit. Cite?

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Thursday, December 29, 2022 4:34 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Quote:
Originally posted by K2PO:
Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
They will, of course, ignore the constant shelling of civilians in Donetsk City, which has so far resulted in appx 10,000 civilian dead (and counting) over 14 years.

Complete, made-up bullshit. Cite?

Hello GSTRING/KRAPO/CAPON!

Look it up yourself, dimwit.

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

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Thursday, December 29, 2022 5:11 PM

Can't provide a cite for your made-up claim? What a surprise.

If anyone's interested in facts and not Siggy's propaganda, a link to the UN report on deaths in the Donbas since 2014 is below. 3404 civilians confirmed dead between 2014-21 including those killed by Russia. 2084 of the civilian killings happened in 2014. Just 25 in 2021.

Let me repeat, most of the civilian deaths happened in 2014, and if anyone remembers the original Russia Invades Ukraine thread it documented how the worst shelling incidents were perpetrated by Russia (not to mention the 298 civilians killed by Russia on MH17- these are included in the UN's figure).

https://ukraine.un.org/sites/default/files/2022-02/Conflict-related%20
civilian%20casualties
%20as%20of%2031%20December%202021%20%28rev%2027%20January
%202022%29%20corr%20EN_0.pdf

(had to chop the link up as it was distorting the post)

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Thursday, December 29, 2022 5:17 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:

Sorry but this is as far as I got into the article b4 givng up.

Giving up is why Russia's GDP per individual is tiny compared to EU countries.

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

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Thursday, December 29, 2022 5:46 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Quote:
Originally posted by K2PO:
Can't provide a cite for your made-up claim? What a surprise.

If anyone's interested in facts and not Siggy's propaganda, a link to the UN report on deaths in the Donbas since 2014 is below. 3404 civilians confirmed dead between 2014-21 including those killed by Russia. 2084 of the civilian killings happened in 2014. Just 25 in 2021.

Let me repeat, most of the civilian deaths happened in 2014, and if anyone remembers the original Russia Invades Ukraine thread it documented how the worst shelling incidents were perpetrated by Russia (not to mention the 298 civilians killed by Russia on MH17- these are included in the UN's figure).

https://ukraine.un.org/sites/default/files/2022-02/Conflict-related%20
civilian%20casualties
%20as%20of%2031%20December%202021%20%28rev%2027%20January
%202022%29%20corr%20EN_0.pdf

(had to chop the link up as it was distorting the post)

Just since February 24-

Quote:
IN the Donetsk People’s Republic, 4,400 civilians, including 132 children, have been killed since the conflict between Russia and Ukraine escalated back in February, according to reports from the DPR on Monday, December 26....

...During the aforementioned period, the ministry recorded 13,927 shells, of which 13,596 were fired with heavy weapons and more than 91,000 shells of various calibres were fired, including 32 missiles from Tochka-U missile launcher, 149 rockets from HIMARS, 255 rockets from BM-27 “Uragan” and 12,281 rockets from BM-21 “Grad” and 16,444 shells of 155 mm calibre.

The number of civilians killed in Russian-backed DPR has dramatically increased since the end of October.

On October 31, close to 500 people had been killed in Donetsk People’s Republic since February, when the war began in Ukraine.

“In 256 days of escalation, 492 civilians have been killed, including 23 children. Full details of civilians killed in the liberated territory during the SSO (special military operation) are being established,” the ministry said at the time.

It was stated that 3,677 civilians, including 232 children, were injured during this period.

While more than 8,000 residential buildings and 1,868 civilian infrastructure facilities were also damaged.

https://euroweeklynews.com/2022/12/26/four-thousand-civilians-killed-d
onetsk-peoples-republic/

Fuck you, sock puppet.

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

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Thursday, December 29, 2022 5:53 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

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

Sorry but this is as far as I got into the article b4 givng up.
Giving up is why Russia's GDP per individual is tiny compared to EU countries.

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

Not surprisingly, you're trying to change focus since your bullshit articles were exposed as the crap that they are.

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

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Thursday, December 29, 2022 5:58 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Since I have more important things to do than dispute trolls, just assume that everything that SECOND, and CAPN (and it various sock puppets) post is 100% disinfo.

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

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Thursday, December 29, 2022 6:23 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Just since February 24-
Quote:
IN the Donetsk People’s Republic, 4,400 civilians, including 132 children, have been killed since the conflict between Russia and Ukraine escalated back in February, according to reports from the DPR on Monday, December 26....

Lol, Sig, you haven't changed a bit. All of your "facts" come from spokespeople sponsored by Moscow.

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Thursday, December 29, 2022 6:41 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Quote:
Originally posted by K2PO:
Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Just since February 24-
Quote:
IN the Donetsk People’s Republic, 4,400 civilians, including 132 children, have been killed since the conflict between Russia and Ukraine escalated back in February, according to reports from the DPR on Monday, December 26....

Lol, Sig, you haven't changed a bit. All of your "facts" come from spokespeople sponsored by Moscow.

And all of yours come from proven liars.

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

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Friday, December 30, 2022 6:32 AM

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

Sudden Russian Death Syndrome

It’s not a great time to be an oligarch who’s unenthusiastic about Putin’s war in Ukraine.

By Elaine Godfrey

Here is a list of people you should not currently want to be: a Russian sausage tycoon, a Russian gas-industry executive, the editor in chief of a Russian tabloid, a Russian shipyard director, the head of a Russian ski resort, a Russian aviation official, or a Russian rail magnate. Anyone answering to such a description probably ought not stand near open windows, in almost any country, on almost every continent.

The meat millionaire and his also-deceased friend are the most recent additions to a macabre list of people who have succumbed to Sudden Russian Death Syndrome, a phenomenon that has claimed the lives of a flabbergastingly large number of businessmen, bureaucrats, oligarchs, and journalists. The catalog of these deaths—which includes alleged defenestrations, suspected poisonings, suspicious heart attacks, and supposed suicides—is remarkable for the variety of unnatural deaths contained within as well as its Russian-novel length.

(Here’s a list of Putin critics who've ended up dead
https://www.businessinsider.com/list-of-people-putin-is-suspected-of-a
ssassinating-2016-3 )

Some two dozen notable Russians have died in 2022 in mysterious ways, some gruesomely. The bodies of the gas-industry leaders Leonid Shulman and Alexander Tyulakov were found with suicide notes at the beginning of the year. Then, in the span of one month, three more Russian executives—Vasily Melnikov, Vladislav Avayev, and Sergey Protosenya—were found dead, in apparent murder-suicides, with their wives and children. In May, Russian authorities found the body of the Sochi resort owner Andrei Krukovsky at the bottom of a cliff; a week later, Aleksandr Subbotin, a manager of a Russian gas company, died in a home belonging to a Moscow shaman, after he was allegedly poisoned with toad venom.

The list goes on. In July, the energy executive Yuri Voronov was found floating in his suburban St. Petersburg swimming pool with a bullet wound in his head. Think Gatsby by the Neva. In August, the Latvia-born Putin critic Dan Rapoport apparently fell from the window of his Washington, D.C., apartment, a mile from the White House—right before Ravil Maganov, the chairman of a Russian oil company, fell six stories from a window in Moscow. Earlier this month, the IT-company director Grigory Kochenov toppled off a balcony. Ten days ago, in the French Riviera, a Russian real-estate tycoon took a fatal tumble down a flight of stairs.

To reiterate: All of these deaths occurred this year.

One could argue that, given Russia’s exceptionally low life expectancy and unchecked rate of alcoholism, at least some of these fatalities were natural or accidental. Just because you’re Russian doesn’t mean you can’t accidentally fall out of an upper-story window. Sometimes, people kill themselves—and the suicide rate among Russian men is one of the highest recorded in the world. For Edward Luttwak, a historian and military-strategy expert, that’s at least part of what’s happening: an outbreak of mass despair among Russia’s connected and privileged elite. “Imagine what happens to a globalized country when sanctions kick in,” he told me. “Some of them will commit suicide.” But the sheer proliferation of these untimely deaths warrants a closer look.

After all, this is what the Kremlin does. There is precedent for this phenomenon. In 2020, Russian agents poisoned—but failed to kill—the Putin critic Alexei Navalny with a nerve agent; a decade earlier, they succeeded in a similar attempt on the Russian-security-services defector Alexander Litvinenko. In 2004, when Viktor Yushchenko ran against a Kremlin-backed opponent for Ukraine’s presidency, he was poisoned with dioxin and left disfigured. Thirty years earlier, the Bulgarian secret service, reportedly with the help of the Soviet KGB, killed the dissident Georgi Markov by stabbing him on the Waterloo Bridge in London with a ricin-laced umbrella tip. Russian agents often “turn to the most exotic,” Luttwak told me. “People who do assassinations for commercial purposes look at [their methods] and laugh.”

Suicides are more difficult to decipher. For oligarchs who have failed to show sufficient loyalty to Putin, coaxed suicide is not an implausible scenario. “It is not uncommon to be told, ‘We can come to you or you can do the manly thing and commit suicide, take yourself off the chess board. At least you’ll have the agency of your own undoing,’” Michael Weiss, a journalist and the author of a forthcoming book on the GRU, the Russian military-intelligence agency, told me. Did Antov really fall out his window in India? Was he pushed by a Kremlin agent? Or did he get a call that threatened his family and made him feel he had no option but to leap? “All of these things are possible,” Weiss told me.

In the Kremlin’s Gothic murderverse, imagination is key.

“Things that mimic natural causes of death like a heart attack or a stroke, the Russians can be quite good at doing that,” Weiss said. The deaths range in their showiness, but they’re all part of the same overarching scheme: to perpetuate the idea that the Russian state is a deadly, all-powerful octopus, whose slimy tentacles can search out and seize any dissident, anywhere. As the Bond franchise had it, the world is not enough.

More at https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/12/russian-tycoon-pavel
-antov-dies-putin-ukraine/672601/

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

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Friday, December 30, 2022 6:45 AM

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

SHOTS FIRED

Conflict Between Putin’s Top War Allies Explodes in ‘Motherfucker!’ Fight

Yevgeny Prigozhin is backing up his mercenaries who were caught on tape calling the chief of the Russian Army a “motherf*cker.”

by Allison Quinn, Updated Dec. 27, 2022

Vladimir Putin’s most deranged hail mary in his war against Ukraine seems to have now officially blown up in his face, as the leader of the private army he’s used to send thousands of inmates into the battlefield is now openly threatening leaders of the official Russian military.

Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin offered a scathing response Tuesday to a video that surfaced days earlier in which Wagner mercenaries are seen cursing out Valery Gerasimov, Russia’s Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces.

“To the Chief of the General Staff: you are a fucking motherfucker. We have nothing to fight with, we have no rounds. The guys are dying for us there, and we’re fucking sitting here, not helping. We need rounds, we want to fuck everyone up. We are fighting against the entire Ukrainian army near Bakhmut. Where are you? It’s about time you help us. There’s nothing else to fucking call you except motherfucker!” one of the fighters said in the video.

While Russian media had suggested the men in the video might have actually been “Ukrainian nationalists” dressed up as Wagner fighters in a bid to undermine the war, Prigozhin quickly shot down that conspiracy theory.

“There are no Ukrainian nationalists in that notorious video,” Prigozhin said in an audio message shared on the official Telegram channel of his Concord Management’s press service.

He went on to confirm the men were fighters under his command—and backed up their message.

“The guys asked me to pass along, that when you’re sitting in a warm office, it’s hard to hear the problems on the frontline, but when you’re dragging the dead bodies of your friends every day, and seeing them for the last time, then supplies are very much needed. And you want everyone to stir and at least in some way to think about how it is for those on the frontline,” Prigozhin said.

“As for the problems that are unfortunately surfacing at every step… we will solve them, and force them to be solved,” he said.

Prigozhin’s comments are just his latest shots fired at top Russian defense officials over their handling of the war—and perhaps the starkest sign yet that the Kremlin has more to fear from infighting than it would ever have done from Ukraine if Putin had not launched his invasion.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/conflict-between-putins-top-war-allies-e
xplodes-in-motherfucker-fight

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

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Friday, December 30, 2022 6:46 AM

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

• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy visited the US last week to shore up support for Ukraine.

• Zelenskyy called McConnell one day before the visit, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported.

• Zelenskyy urged McConnell to support a measure that ultimately passed Congress, the outlet reported.

Following Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's historic visit to the US last week, Congress passed a provision to give Ukraine the assets that were seized from sanctioned Russian oligarchs.

A Post-Gazette investigation in May, bolstered by hundreds of secret U.S. Treasury records, revealed that at least eight Russian oligarchs and their companies had moved billions of dollars into U.S. banks, even after the institutions found that many of the transfers showed the hallmarks of money laundering.

https://www.post-gazette.com/news/politics-nation/2022/12/29/zelenskyy
-mitch-mcconnell-ukraine-putin-oligarchs/stories/202212280090

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

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Friday, December 30, 2022 10:05 AM

Fuck Zelensky. How dare he step on our shores.

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

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

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Friday, December 30, 2022 2:03 PM

THG

Quote:
Originally posted by second:

• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy visited the US last week to shore up support for Ukraine.

• Zelenskyy called McConnell one day before the visit, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported.

• Zelenskyy urged McConnell to support a measure that ultimately passed Congress, the outlet reported.

Following Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's historic visit to the US last week, Congress passed a provision to give Ukraine the assets that were seized from sanctioned Russian oligarchs.

A Post-Gazette investigation in May, bolstered by hundreds of secret U.S. Treasury records, revealed that at least eight Russian oligarchs and their companies had moved billions of dollars into U.S. banks, even after the institutions found that many of the transfers showed the hallmarks of money laundering.

https://www.post-gazette.com/news/politics-nation/2022/12/29/zelenskyy
-mitch-mcconnell-ukraine-putin-oligarchs/stories/202212280090

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

I'm guessing they thought the money was safer here than where Putin could get his hands on it.

T

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Friday, December 30, 2022 2:06 PM

THG

Quote:
Originally posted by second:

SHOTS FIRED

Conflict Between Putin’s Top War Allies Explodes in ‘Motherfucker!’ Fight

Yevgeny Prigozhin is backing up his mercenaries who were caught on tape calling the chief of the Russian Army a “motherf*cker.”

by Allison Quinn, Updated Dec. 27, 2022

Vladimir Putin’s most deranged hail mary in his war against Ukraine seems to have now officially blown up in his face, as the leader of the private army he’s used to send thousands of inmates into the battlefield is now openly threatening leaders of the official Russian military.

Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin offered a scathing response Tuesday to a video that surfaced days earlier in which Wagner mercenaries are seen cursing out Valery Gerasimov, Russia’s Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces.

“To the Chief of the General Staff: you are a fucking motherfucker. We have nothing to fight with, we have no rounds. The guys are dying for us there, and we’re fucking sitting here, not helping. We need rounds, we want to fuck everyone up. We are fighting against the entire Ukrainian army near Bakhmut. Where are you? It’s about time you help us. There’s nothing else to fucking call you except motherfucker!” one of the fighters said in the video.

While Russian media had suggested the men in the video might have actually been “Ukrainian nationalists” dressed up as Wagner fighters in a bid to undermine the war, Prigozhin quickly shot down that conspiracy theory.

“There are no Ukrainian nationalists in that notorious video,” Prigozhin said in an audio message shared on the official Telegram channel of his Concord Management’s press service.

He went on to confirm the men were fighters under his command—and backed up their message.

“The guys asked me to pass along, that when you’re sitting in a warm office, it’s hard to hear the problems on the frontline, but when you’re dragging the dead bodies of your friends every day, and seeing them for the last time, then supplies are very much needed. And you want everyone to stir and at least in some way to think about how it is for those on the frontline,” Prigozhin said.

“As for the problems that are unfortunately surfacing at every step… we will solve them, and force them to be solved,” he said.

Prigozhin’s comments are just his latest shots fired at top Russian defense officials over their handling of the war—and perhaps the starkest sign yet that the Kremlin has more to fear from infighting than it would ever have done from Ukraine if Putin had not launched his invasion.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/conflict-between-putins-top-war-allies-e
xplodes-in-motherfucker-fight

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

Yes yes yes, can_you_see_me_laughing comrade signym? Can_you? Is the sound of I told you so ringing in your ears?

T

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Friday, December 30, 2022 3:37 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
Fuck Zelensky. How dare he step on our shores.

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

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

If the goal is to destroy Russian power and strengthen Western democracy, Zelensky is proving great value for money.

Hero.

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Friday, December 30, 2022 4:38 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Quote:
Originally posted by K2PO:
Quote:
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
Fuck Zelensky. How dare he step on our shores.

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

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

If the goal is to destroy Russian power and strengthen Western democracy, Zelensky is proving great value for money.

Hero.

OMFG. You really believe that funding oligarchs and EU/MIC apparatchiks is "strengthening democracy"?

And by saying that this has been about destroying Russia all along, you're just confirming what Putin has been saying.

Oy!

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

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Friday, December 30, 2022 5:39 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Quote:
Originally posted by SECOND::
• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy visited the US last week to shore up support for Ukraine.
• Zelenskyy called McConnell one day before the visit, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported.
• Zelenskyy urged McConnell to support a measure that ultimately passed Congress, the outlet reported.

Following Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's historic visit to the US last week, Congress passed a provision to give Ukraine the assets that were seized from sanctioned Russian oligarchs.

A Post-Gazette investigation in May, bolstered by hundreds of secret U.S. Treasury records, revealed that at least eight Russian oligarchs and their companies had moved billions of dollars into U.S. banks, even after the institutions found that many of the transfers showed the hallmarks of money laundering.

https://www.post-gazette.com/news/politics-nation/2022/12/29/zelenskyy
-mitch-mcconnell-ukraine-putin-oligarchs/stories/202212280090

THUGR: I'm guessing they thought the money was safer here than where Putin could get his hands on it.

Oligarchs have only one loyalty: their money. You might want to remember that when thinking about our own oligarchs.

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

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Friday, December 30, 2022 5:59 PM

THG

Signym is putting all rich people into the same box. She is also trying to suggest that Americans and Europeans, aren't better off than the Russians because both have oligarchs. You surely are a simpleton comrade. One huge difference is the rule of law. Russia has none.

T

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Friday, December 30, 2022 7:14 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Quote:
Originally posted by THG:
Signym is putting all rich people into the same box. She is also trying to suggest that Americans and Europeans, aren't better off than the Russians because both have oligarchs. You surely are a simpleton comrade. One huge difference is the rule of law. Russia has none.

T

Again, OMFG

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

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Friday, December 30, 2022 8:17 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Apparently Russia sent a huge barrage of missiles (yanno, the ones they're running out of) into Ukraine again, knocking out most of the power to most of Ukraine.

Ukraine has resurrected a couple of steam locomotives from museums in order to keep supplies moving.

But in addition to targeting the electrical system, Russia also struck air defense systems.

In general I'd say that targeting air defenses is in preparation for a bombing offensive, which is a preparation for a ground offensive. But where, and how big depends on where the air defenses were attacked.

Now, apparently the trenches in Bakhmut, and elsewhere, are heavily fortified and resistant to artillery fire. (Apparently built to Soviet specs to resist, however much possible, nuclear explosions). Gravity bombs (the Russian version of "bunker busters") do exist but need to be dropped by heavy bombers. So if the air defenses were targeted near heavy line of contact fortifications that would probably mean a limited offensive.

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

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Friday, December 30, 2022 9:51 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
OMFG. You really believe that funding oligarchs and EU/MIC apparatchiks is "strengthening democracy"?

Always LOL at pro-Russians criticising Ukraine for being an oligarchy. Just LOL - you get why that's hilarious, don't you?

Understand Sig, Zelensky doesn't have to be a saint to be a hero. Ukraine doesn't have to be a perfect democracy to be a nation of heroes. It just has to be on the right side, resisting a imperialist invader that is much worse in every respect. Oligarchy. Corruption. Authoritarianism. Propaganda. Invading other countries. War crimes.

Take another look at the country you're supporting.

Quote:
And by saying that this has been about destroying Russia all along,

I've said for years that Russia is a malign actor that is bad for global peace and freedom. Now Western society has come around to agreeing with me. Part of the reason why - Ukraine's heroic defence. Not just defence, but pushing Russia back and reclaiming their land and exposing Russia's war crimes, like in Bucha, to the world.

So yes, Ukraine has heroically defied Russia since 2014, exposed Putin to the world for what he is, cut the Russian army down to size, strengthened NATO and bought time for the West to re-arm while Russia's army is mired in Ukraine.

We owe Ukraine much more than the relatively small amount of money and weapons we've given them.

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Friday, December 30, 2022 10:34 PM

This dumb brainfucked cunt just called Zelensky a hero.

You're a fucking Bushite loser.

Hope you got your Covid boosters.

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

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

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Friday, December 30, 2022 11:48 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
OMFG. You really believe that funding oligarchs and EU/MIC apparatchiks is "strengthening democracy"?

K2PO: Always LOL at pro-Russians criticising Ukraine for being an oligarchy. Just LOL - you get why that's hilarious, don't you?

Nope.

Quote:
K2PO: Understand Sig, Zelensky doesn't have to be a saint to be a hero. Ukraine doesn't have to be a perfect democracy to be a nation of heroes. It just has to be on the right side,
Whatever.

Quote:
K2PO: resisting a imperialist invader that is much worse in every respect. Oligarchy. Corruption. Authoritarianism. Propaganda. Invading other countries. War crimes.

Take another look at the country you're supporting.
The United States?

Quote:
SIGNY: And by saying that this has been about destroying Russia all along,

K2PO: I've said for years that Russia is a malign actor that is bad for global peace and freedom.
Seriously?

That, again, is about as far as I could get into your programmed blather.

YOU ARE WHAT YOU DO. That applies to nations and institutions too.

Not what you SAY you are, not what you CLAIM your morals ("values") are, or what you want to believe your goals are, but WHAT YOU DO.

If you start wars and kill millions, destroying nations and living standards, you are not a "force for peace", you're an oppressive, aggressive war monger. There's no "R2P" about it. If you censor discussion, or spy on your people, or bring false charges against some, you're not a democracy, you're authoritarian. There's no "diversity" about it.

If we REALLY wanted to "promote democracy" we wouldn't have funded terrorists in the ME and Central Asia. We wouldn't have destroyed so many DEMOCRATICALLY ELECTED governments around the world, including Ukraine's. I suspect that Ukrainians would prefer not to be fighting Russia to the last Ukrainian. We manipulated them thru their oligarchs and quislings, just as we provoked Russia into responding. Are these the actions of a peace and democracy-loving nation? Examine our record.

I'm not supporting Russia btw.

I think they've made many smart moves... trying to remove their oligarchs' fingers from the reins of power, making themselves financially and economically independent as possible. Investing in agriculture. Forming strategic partnerships abroad, and not throwing their partners under the bus or breaking contracts or treaties or agreements whenever it suits them. Protecting their borders.

Moves which we would do well to emulate.

I'm wouldn't recommend we do everything they do, but we need to be more realistic about what our interests and actions are, and not blinded with our own "do-gooder" rationalizations.

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

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Saturday, December 31, 2022 12:00 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
I suspect that Ukrainians would prefer not to be fighting Russia to the last Ukrainian.

And there it is...

Dipshit, Dumbfuck and Dildo, along with the other brainwashed fucking sheep in the US and abroad don't have a single personal dog in this race. It ain't them that's dying. It ain't their kids that are dying.

But they're happy to "Praise the Heroes" by putting a Ukranian flag on their Twitter Bio, or drive around with an "America supports Ukraine" bumper sticker while cheerleading the Ukrainian's as every single last one of them march onward to their deaths... just so they can feel safe from big bad Putin, "supported" by NATO, and funded by money that our corrupt NeoCon/NeoLib war machine politicians print out of thin air.

Meanwhile, they're jacking off all over each other while calling CRIMINAL ILLEGAL INVADERS by the thousands crossing our borders everyday "refugees", while none of the ACTUAL FUCKING REFUGEES in Ukraine are being invited here, because they are the ones who are destined to DIE to protect their fragile little world.

The fucking gall, referring to Zelensky as a hero. Anybody who utters those words doesn't even deserve to share oxygen with the rest of us.

Get fucked. Every last single one of you brainwashed pussy cowards.

You're too stupid to exist.

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

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

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Saturday, December 31, 2022 2:13 AM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

K2PO isn't stupid, SIX. He's not blinded by hate like SECOND or brainwashed like THUGR.

It's so easy to manipulate people into doing things that aren't in their best interests, isn't it?

Think back to Maidan 2014, when a trade agreement was presented as a "civilizational choice". What Ukrainians thought they were getting, was a chance at the good life: strolling down the boulevards and drinking lattes at nice coffee shops. Who DOESN'T want that kind of life?

But that was never K2PO's or neocons' intentions. They were planning on weaponizing Ukraine against Russia from the beginning. BEFORE the beginning. That's what K2PO implied, anyway. And look at the EU now: NOBODY is strolling anywhere or drinking lattes. They're all wrapped up in the cold and dark, facing energy shortages and recessions and other wartime miseries.

How did it come to this?

Masterful manipulation of the public.
Nefarious goals wrapped in platitudes.
Stampeding people thru panic

Conditioning, basically.

In reality, what Ukrainians needed to do was get the corrupt out of office bc they were sucking Ukraine's economic lifeblood. Not an easy task, when the corrupted run everything. But that's what they needed to do. And if the EU really wanted to "save the planet" they should have switched to nat gas while they worked out an alternate energy policy. Now, they're burning coal (!) bc they've cut off their own access to cleaner energy.

There's no magic to fixing what ails a nation, just hard work and persistent effort and keeping your eye on the ball of your real interests.

That's why I've so often asked: WHAT ARE AMERICA'S INTERESTS? Until we've hashed out the fundamentals, we'll be derailed time and time again by mirages and disinfo. It's hugely long conversation that will take at least a couple of decades to work through. But that's what democracy is all about, innit? So far, though, all I hear is *crickets*.

EDITED TO ADD: I've always tried to take a realistic view of us. If I see danger, I voice my concerns. My POV may be different than many, but I've ALWAYS been about America's -our- interests, as best I see them. Finding out what those are means close questioning and sharp insight. It's beyond the scope of any individual. I was really hoping to get into deep discussions about what people think and feel,and why, hoping to understand their POV. I was hoping that others would delve into my ideas and question - not my motives (which are genuinely patriotic) or my nationality (American, I assure you) but my assumptions, my logic, even my facts. Having people pare away at my own thoughts makes me a better thinker

But it seems few people want to pursue that.

Off my soaobox now, I've got real-world stuff to doand real-world responsibilities.

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

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Monday, January 2, 2023 5:25 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:

EDITED TO ADD: I've always tried to take a realistic view of us. If I see danger, I voice my concerns. My POV may be different than many, but I've ALWAYS been about America's -our- interests, as best I see them. Finding out what those are means close questioning and sharp insight. It's beyond the scope of any individual. I was really hoping to get into deep discussions about what people think and feel,and why, hoping to understand their POV. I was hoping that others would delve into my ideas and question - not my motives (which are genuinely patriotic) or my nationality (American, I assure you) but my assumptions, my logic, even my facts. Having people pare away at my own thoughts makes me a better thinker

But it seems few people want to pursue that.

Off my soap box now, I've got real-world stuff to doand real-world responsibilities.

Signym, what you are trying to do will only work when the people are in the same room. Here is a long article where important people have just such a heart-to-heart talk with a journalist:

The price of weapons assistance: Ukraine pays in blood to convince Western allies

Ukraine has been at war for almost ten months, but several large European states have been dragging their feet over aid. Is Ukraine not Europe? Or is Europe itself no longer Europe? Eesti Ekspress interviewed dozens of diplomats, high-level officials, and anonymous sources in Kyiv, Berlin, Warsaw, and Tallinn to find answers.

„No other country has undergone two revolutions for European values in the last few decades and is currently at war in their name,“ says Ihor Zhovka, Zelensky’s chief foreign advisor.

No other country holds greater conviction in European values when describing and defending them. Nevertheless, many European countries’ reactions to their cries for help at the beginning of the war were „ambiguous“, says Zhovka. Why? He chooses his words carefully.

„They lack the courage to make brave decisions.“

I’m sitting underground with Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Dmytro Kuleba. We’ve settled in amidst the green pipes and empty metal shelves of a basement-level boiler room, as drones are once again flying overhead. I ask whether Bohdan, Viktoria, and their unborn child would still be alive if Germany, France, and other countries had supplied air defense systems earlier.

„Certainly,“ Kuleba answers without a beat. „We’ve been asking for them since day one of the war.“

Why weren’t they delivered?

„I suppose they hoped the situation would change and there’d be no need to provide anything,“ Kuleba sighs. „Sure, it cost us the blood of our people, but I guess that’s the way humankind works.“

That being said, things have improved over the last few months.

„I can’t speak for everybody, but the dynamics are much better than before,“ says Zhovka. Germans sources confirm: Westerners were getting bored when nothing „exciting“ happened on the front in summer, but the Harkiv counterattack changed all that, luckily. Which is nice, of course. Still, it means Europe didn’t start helping Ukraine simply because it is a part of Europe – a region that was once the stronghold of humanism and solidarity. Europe had to be convinced. With blood.

Kuleba doesn’t overdramatize. He remains calm and thinks there’s nothing surprising about allies being unwilling to supply weapons to a side that was possibly facing imminent defeat.

Borscht is similarly one of the reasons why Europe delayed military aid for so long: generally, apart from the soup, next to nothing was known about Ukrainians. And, in fact, most believed the Ukrainian national dish was actually Russian, just like Ukraine itself.

„If anyone had said on February 24th that Ukraine could win this war, they’d have been a genius,“ says Olga Rudenko, editor-in-chief of Ukraine’s largest English-language outlet The Kyiv Independent. „Or at least a great statesman.“

„Lots of Western journalists visit nowadays,“ Rudenko tells me at another one of Kyiv’s amazing cafés. „It’s night-and-day from before.“ She has traveled extensively over the last few months but is still forced to spend the beginnings of presentations at European journalism conferences familiarizing participants with her homeland – knowledge of the population of 40 million is generally slim. When Russia attacked a Ukrainian nuclear power station in March, a German journalist called the news office and asked if they could hear and describe the explosions. No matter that the plant is located about 600 kilometers from Kyiv.

People didn’t visit. They weren’t interested. They settled for the notion that there existed an everlasting Russia and some smaller, temporary Russias around it.

„Europe still sees us not with our own eyes, but Russia’s,“ says Rudenko. Ukraine is somehow portrayed as both a failed state and an existential threat to Russia; Ukrainians are simultaneously Nazis and Russian kin.

„We’re often told we’re like a bridge between Russia and Europe,“ says Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze, who has worked on Ukrainian integration into Europe for decades and is currently the chair of the parliamentary committee on EU integration. „But we don’t want to be a bridge. We want to be ourselves.“

More at https://web.archive.org/web/20221219054207/https://ekspress.delfi.ee/a
rtikkel/120115508/the-price-of-weapons-assistance-ukraine-pays-in-blood-to-convince-western-allies

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

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Monday, January 2, 2023 8:07 AM

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

‘The only resource Russia has is men, and they are not afraid to waste them’

Boris Dralyuk, editor-in-chief of the Los Angeles Review of Books, interviewed by Klaus Stimeder:

Q: Mr. Dralyuk, we are going into the tenth month of Russia’s full invasion of Ukraine. What is your take on the situation?

I am no military strategist, but my sense is that the Russian Army’s chances of defeating the Ukrainian Army on the battlefield are nil. Thanks to its allies, the Ukrainian Army is better trained, more experienced, and far better supplied. Also, we must remember that the war, in which many Ukrainians but relatively few Russian nationals have fought, has been going on since 2014. The Russian Army – like everything in Russia – has been allowed to rot due to the corruption that pervades every Russian institution. Much of the money assigned to defense has lined the pockets of Putin’s cronies, and of those cronies’ cronies, and so on. The only resource Russia has is men, and they are not afraid to waste them.

So Ukrainians are now mowing down, at great expense and great psychological cost, untrained Russians, including, in the case of Wagner PMC, prisoners. These prisoners are essentially slaves of the Putin regime. What motivation do these Russian men have to fight? The promise of a reduced sentence? Fear of execution with a sledgehammer? Maybe a washing machine? While Ukrainians are defending their homeland, their children, their future. Ukrainian men and women are also dying on the front lines, but the number of Russians killed is staggering. All this is very much in the Russian tradition. There is nothing cheaper in Russia than human life. So what is the Russian Army doing instead of fighting with a modicum of honor and intelligence? Attacking civilians. Also a failing strategy. And also very much in the Russian tradition.

Q: You were born and raised in Soviet Ukraine but emigrated with your parents to the US in the early 1990s. What does the perception of the war in the US look like to you?

I am happy to say that I see near-universal support for Ukraine among the US populace. I have witnessed it in California, Florida, and Oklahoma. There are Ukrainian colors everywhere. There are, of course, isolationist voices on the right and the left and useful idiots with big platforms, but I do not see them having much influence on the state’s policies or on the minds of average Americans. Nothing is entirely black and white, but this is as close as we have come to a clear-cut case of good vs. evil.

Q: A considerable part of your body of work is translating the works of Russian authors, and non-Russian writers who write, or at least used to write, in Russian. According to the latest surveys, an ever-increasing number of Ukrainians are now rejecting the Russian language. Even in places such as your native city Odesa, where Russian has been the lingua franca for centuries, this change has become palpable in everyday life. What do you think about that?

I think it is inevitable. It is the price that the Russian language and Russian high culture must pay for the violence done by the Russian state and the Russian people. Russian high culture is not uniformly and unambiguously in defense of imperialism. Still, it has long served to cloak the extreme violence and inhumanity that characterizes Russian society and Russia's actions around the world. The true Russian tradition, say far too many well-intentioned people like Pope Francis, is that of Pushkin, Tolstoy, and Tchaikovsky. They then turn a blind eye to the violence perpetrated by successive Russian and Soviet tyrants, the mentality of the vast majority of Russian people, and the atrocious conditions of life in the country. Or they may admit that it is precisely due to the great suffering of the Russian people – and those around them – that we have Pushkin, Tolstoy, and Tchaikovsky. To a significant extent, that is true.

Representatives of Russian high culture responded in myriad ways to that suffering. Many of them, like Pushkin and Tolstoy, had the time to compose their masterpieces because they were supported by suffering serfs. The fact that Russian high culture is, in complex ways, a product of and a response to human suffering cannot be used to justify or glorify that suffering. I am convinced that Pushkin and Tolstoy will continue to be read, and Tchaikovsky will never disappear from the repertoire. But their work should not be used to excuse the past and, especially, the present and future actions of the Russian state and the Russian people.

Q: Within Ukraine, the culture war around the use of the Russian language is bourne out of a broader debate that often evolves around the question of "collective guilt." High-profile government advisors such as Mykhailo Podolyak and social media influencers like the political activist Maksym Eristavi have built a considerable following preaching the narrative that "All Russians are guilty," no matter where they live and what their attitude towards the war may be. What is your position on the concept of collective guilt?

I can only say that this war was unlikely to happen had the ground not been prepared by centuries of discrimination against Ukrainians. Not only in the form of official imperial oppression but also in the form of countless dehumanizing jokes and Ukrainophobic fantasies. The question of collective guilt is obviously complicated, but it is worth noting that, unlike Germans, Russians have never fully dealt with, much less atoned for, the crimes of the Soviet empire. An even more pressing question than that of collective guilt is: What now? Will Russians of every political stripe continue – to put it mildly – to look down on Ukrainians, to justify the destruction of their culture, and, let's be frank, to justify actual genocide by dismissing them?

More at https://www.derstandard.at/story/2000142188276/there-is-nothing-cheape
r-in-russia-than-human-life

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

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Monday, January 2, 2023 8:18 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by second:
‘The only resource Russia has is men, and they are not afraid to waste them’

The exact same could be said of Ukraine, yanno... if we weren't spending hundreds of billions giving them weapons as they march to their deaths.

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

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

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Monday, January 2, 2023 8:32 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:
Quote:
Originally posted by second:
‘The only resource Russia has is men, and they are not afraid to waste them’

The exact same could be said of Ukraine, yanno... if we weren't spending hundreds of billions giving them weapons as they march to their deaths.

Russia starved 4 million Ukrainians to death and will do it again in the 21st Century if Russia wins. That is why Ukrainians are fighting Russians. There is nothing more than that driving this war.

Read about the genocide of Ukrainians at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holodomor

Just in case you think Ukrainians are the only people Russians kill over political differences, Russia killed 62 million Soviet citizens during the 20th century. There is a nice little book that breaks the killing down year by year. For some reason the Russians always find a new excuse to kill their political adversaries:

R.J. Rummel, Lethal Politics - Soviet Genocide and Mass Murder since 1917 (Published 1990) I am pretty sure you won't read the book, although it is free. Here are the chapters:

Chapters

1 61,911,000 Victims: Utopianism Empowered, 1917-1987 page 1

2 3,284,000 Victims: The Civil War Period, 1917-1922 page 33

3 2,200,000 Victims: The NEP Period 1923-1928 page 61

4 11,440,000 Victims: The Collectivization Period, 1929-1935 page 81

5 4,345,000 Victims: The Great Terror Period 1936-1938 page 109

6 5,104,000 Victims: Pre-World War II Period 1939-June 1941 page 127

7 13,053,000 Victims: World War II Period, June 1941-1945 page 151

8 15,613,000 Victims: Postwar and Stalin’s Twilight Period, 1945-1953 page 191

9 6,872,000 Victims: Post-Stalin Period, 1954-1987 page 217

While there are estimates of the number of people killed by Soviet authorities during particular episodes or campaigns, until now, no one has tried to calculate the complete human toll of Soviet genocides and mass murders since the revolution of 1917. Here, R. J. Rummel lists and analyzes hundreds of published estimates, presenting them in the historical context in which they occurred. His shocking conclusion is that conservatively calculated, 61,911,000 people were systematically killed by the Communist regime from 1917 to 1987.

Buy the book at https://www.amazon.com/Lethal-Politics-Soviet-Genocide-Murder/dp/15600
08873/

Or download all R.J. Rummel books for free from the mirrors at https://libgen.unblockit.page/search.php?req=R.J.+Rummel

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

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Monday, January 2, 2023 9:36 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Quote:
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
Quote:
Originally posted by second:
‘The only resource Russia has is men, and they are not afraid to waste them’

The exact same could be said of Ukraine, yanno... if we weren't spending hundreds of billions giving them weapons as they march to their deaths.
Russia starved 4 million Ukrainians to death and will do it again in the 21st Century if Russia wins. That is why Ukrainians are fighting Russians. There is nothing more than that driving this war.

Liar.

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

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

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Monday, January 2, 2023 11:19 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:

Liar.

You and the Russians have a denial problem. Whatever happens, you and they deny it happened. But the Ukrainians don't have a problem remembering what happened. Ukrainians are hammering history into Russian heads and this history lesson hurts. You and the Russians are such recalcitrant pupils that the hammering must go on and on until you either change or die.

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

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Tuesday, January 3, 2023 7:50 AM

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

In a rare admission, Russia on Monday said 63 servicemen were killed when a temporary deployment point was struck in Makiivka in a part of eastern Ukraine held by pro-Moscow separatists since 2014.

Ukraine has taken responsibility for the strike and says the toll is much higher.

Russian military correspondents, who have gained influence in recent months, said hundreds could have been killed and accused Russia's top commanders of not learning from past mistakes.

There have also been reports that the servicemen were quartered next to a munitions depot that exploded in the strike and that some had been able to use their Russian mobile phones -- giving away their location to Ukrainian forces.

"What conclusions will be drawn? Who will be punished?" Mikhail Matveyev, a member of the Russian parliament representing Samara, wrote on social media.

The Telegram account Rybar, which has around a million followers, said it was "criminally naive" for the army to store ammunition next to sleeping quarters.

Putin has yet to react to the Makiivka strike, which comes during a holiday season before Orthodox Christmas which many Russians spend with their families.

Call for revenge

At the gathering in Samara, Kolotovkina, the wife of a general, said she had asked her husband to "avenge" the victims.

"We will crush the enemy together. We are left with no choice," she told mourners.

More at https://www.rfi.fr/en/international-news/20230103-grief-and-anger-in-r
ussia-over-soldiers-killed-by-ukraine-strike

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

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Tuesday, January 3, 2023 10:26 AM

CAPTAINCRUNCH

... stay crunchy...

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
I'm not supporting Russia btw.

You owe me a new iPhone, Boris! Great way to close out 2022!

btw, after almost a year the first post in this thread... prescient...

"What an evil selfish prick Putin is. Does anyone but him benefit from this? And now? After 2 years of covid crap? Kill thousands and crash the world economy so he can redraw a MAP?!?? What fcking dinosaur. I look forward to watching this blow up in his face."

I impress myself sometimes.

Each day that passes Putin shows how to bungle and completely fck up a "special operation." And - Bonus - each day he makes Russia look even worse. It will go down as the biggest disaster/screwup ever. What a human turd.

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Tuesday, January 3, 2023 10:28 AM

CAPTAINCRUNCH

... stay crunchy...

Quote:
Originally posted by K2PO:
Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
OMFG. You really believe that funding oligarchs and EU/MIC apparatchiks is "strengthening democracy"?

Always LOL at pro-Russians criticising Ukraine for being an oligarchy. Just LOL - you get why that's hilarious, don't you?

Understand Sig, Zelensky doesn't have to be a saint to be a hero. Ukraine doesn't have to be a perfect democracy to be a nation of heroes. It just has to be on the right side, resisting a imperialist invader that is much worse in every respect. Oligarchy. Corruption. Authoritarianism. Propaganda. Invading other countries. War crimes.

Take another look at the country you're supporting.

Quote:
And by saying that this has been about destroying Russia all along,

I've said for years that Russia is a malign actor that is bad for global peace and freedom. Now Western society has come around to agreeing with me. Part of the reason why - Ukraine's heroic defence. Not just defence, but pushing Russia back and reclaiming their land and exposing Russia's war crimes, like in Bucha, to the world.

So yes, Ukraine has heroically defied Russia since 2014, exposed Putin to the world for what he is, cut the Russian army down to size, strengthened NATO and bought time for the West to re-arm while Russia's army is mired in Ukraine.

We owe Ukraine much more than the relatively small amount of money and weapons we've given them.

Man! My sock puppet is cleaning house. Go, go, go!

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Tuesday, January 3, 2023 11:39 AM

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

Liar.
You and the Russians have a denial problem. Whatever happens, you and they deny it happened. But the Ukrainians don't have a problem remembering what happened. Ukrainians are hammering history into Russian heads and this history lesson hurts. You and the Russians are such recalcitrant pupils that the hammering must go on and on until you either change or die.

You first, Mudblood.

The problem for you now is that there's nothing you can ever do to change what ails you.

Don't do anything strenuous, for oh... I dunno... The rest of your short life.

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

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

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Tuesday, January 3, 2023 11:39 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by captaincrunch:
Man! My sock puppet is cleaning house. Go, go, go!

Nah.

Glad that you figured out how to transfer your old account to your new smartphone though.

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

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

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Tuesday, January 3, 2023 3:28 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Quote:
Zelensky Expands Crackdown On Ukrainian Media

President Volodymyr Zelensky has signed a new bill into law which strengthens government control over public access to news in Ukraine. Zelensky has already nationalized the country’s media under martial law powers invoked after Russia’s invasion last year, stoking criticism from press freedom groups.

Signed on December 29, the law expands the Ukrainian broadcast regulator’s powers over news agencies ”dramatically,” now including both print and online sources, according to the Kyiv Independent. The measure requires publications to obtain licenses to operate, and any media org without the proper paperwork can be shut down, the outlet reported, adding that the body handing out the permits will be under Zelensky’s control.

I

MORE AT
https://libertarianinstitute.org/news/zelensky-expands-crack-down-on-n
ews-media-in-ukraine/

I sometimes listen to Gonzalo Lira, an American -educated Chilean who vlogs from Karkhov. He hosts what he calls "roundtables" and while he isn't that interesting, his guests are quite often knowledgeable. And as a host, he keeps the conversation flowing, it never bogs down. I wonder how this will affect him.

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

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Wednesday, January 4, 2023 9:17 AM

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

Defending against Russian drones is expensive, but Ukraine sees the cost as worth it

They are lumbering and noisy and relatively easy to shoot from the sky. Over the New Year’s weekend, the Ukrainian military said it downed every single one of the 80-odd exploding drones that Russia sent the country’s way.

“Such results have never been achieved before,” a Ukrainian Air Force spokesman said on Tuesday.

But beneath that result lies a question: How long can Ukraine sustain its effort when many of its defensive measures cost far more than the drones do?

The Shahed-136 drones used by Russia and supplied by Iran are relatively cheap, while the array of weapons used to shoot them out of the sky are much more expensive, according to experts.

Artem Starosiek, the head of Molfar, a Ukrainian consultancy that supports the country’s war effort, estimated that it costs up to seven times more to use a missile to shoot down a drone than it does to launch one. The Iranian drones can cost as little as $20,000 to produce, while the cost of firing one of the surface-to-air missiles used by Ukraine can range from $140,000 for a Soviet-era S-300 to $500,000 for a U.S.-made NASAM, or National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile System.

That is an imbalance that could over time favor Russia, costing Ukraine and its allies dearly, some analysts say.

President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine said in a recent overnight speech that Russia is betting on the “exhaustion of our people, our air defense, our energy sector.”

Molfar said it estimated that, since September, Russia had fired around 600 drones at Ukraine. The campaign, which gathered pace just as Moscow sustained a series of battlefield losses, has caused rolling blackouts and outages just as the country’s harsh winter has started to bite, compounding the misery caused by Russia’s full-scale invasion.

Both sides have used drones not just for reconnaissance and attacks since Russia’s invasion began in February, the first time that they have been widely deployed in a European war.

Military authorities in Kyiv have said little about the details of their air defenses in line with the operational secrecy that has shrouded much of their war planning, or about the cost, making analysis difficult.

Ukraine’s forces have used antiaircraft guns and small-arms fire to down some drones, but increasingly, as the Russians have taken to launching assaults at night, Kyiv has also relied heavily on missiles fired from warplanes and the ground. Officials said that Ukraine has employed surface-to-air missiles known as NASAMs multiple times over the weekend to counter drones.

Michael Kofman, an expert on the Russian military at the CNA research institute, said that Ukrainians are using “a zoo of different air defense systems” to combat the threat, including Soviet-era and NATO missile systems, each with its own cost profile.

Some of Ukraine’s antiaircraft guns, like the Gepard 2 radar-directed mobile gun system, are inexpensive in comparison with other Soviet-era and European defense systems being deployed. And some of the American-made interceptor missiles are relatively expensive.

Even so, Mr. Starosiek said, the expense of downing the drones with missiles needed to be seen in context. It costs far less to shoot down a drone than to repair a damaged or destroyed power station, he noted. And then there is the human factor.

“People are still alive,” he said.

In a report issued on Nov. 7, Molfar said that 82 percent of the drones were being shot down, but that figure has since increased.

https://www.nytimes.com/live/2023/01/03/world/russia-ukraine-news#defe
nding-against-russian-drones-is-expensive-but-ukraine-sees-the-cost-as-worth-it

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

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Wednesday, January 4, 2023 12:07 PM

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

Top Putin Propagandist Urges Russians to Embrace Death: ‘We’ll Go to Heaven’

Vladimir Solovyov’s bizarre tirade comes amid fears of a new military call-up.

Kremlin mouthpiece Vladimir Solovyov is urging Russians to welcome death.

“Life is highly overrated,” the propagandist said in his program on state-run TV on Monday. “Why be afraid of what is inevitable? Moreover, we’ll go to heaven. Death is the end of one earthly path and the beginning of another.”

He went on to question why people would let their fear of death “influence their decisions.”

“It’s only worth living for something you can die for, that’s the way it should be,” Solovyov told viewers from his warm TV studio.

Nearly a year into the war, the Kremlin seems hell-bent on keeping it going at all costs—even if that means hundreds of thousands more will have to be summoned to face likely death on the battlefield in Ukraine.

An obscure group calling itself the “Soldiers’ Widows” seemed to appear out of nowhere this week to call on the Russian president to do just that.

In an open letter published on Telegram on Monday, the mysterious group urged Vladimir Putin to declare a general mobilization and block all military-age men from leaving the country.

“Now is not the time to get cold feet,” the group wrote, urging Putin to be more like Josef Stalin, who “didn’t think about any ratings or dissatisfaction of dissidents” in his quest for “victory.” (See the Quote Investigator for more about sending people to their deaths: https://quoteinvestigator.com/2010/05/21/death-statistic/ )

Video at https://www.thedailybeast.com/top-putin-propagandist-vladimir-solovyov
-urges-russians-to-embrace-death

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

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Wednesday, January 4, 2023 12:09 PM

Nobody believes that shit.

Get fucked, Daily Beast.

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

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

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Wednesday, January 4, 2023 7:29 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:
Nobody believes that shit.

Get fucked, Daily Beast.

There is a video and translation to English:

Quote:
“Life is highly overrated. Why be afraid of what is inevitable? Moreover, we will go to heaven!” — Solovyov. On the air of Russian television, the presenter said that Russians do not need to be afraid of death, because it is part of life.

https://twitter.com/svtv_news/status/1609912011948785666

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

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Thursday, January 5, 2023 6:28 AM

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

Russia Has a New Plane Problem

Russia's reported transfer of its strategic bombers thousands of miles away to the Far East after its airfields were attacked could pose problems for Moscow's aging air fleet fighting in Ukraine, British defense officials have said.

Although Kyiv did not directly claim responsibility, it welcomed and was blamed for drone attacks on the Dyagilevo and Engels air bases on December 5. The attacks reportedly killed three Russian soldiers and damaged at least one Tupolev Tu-22M3 bomber and possibly a Tupolev Tu-95MS.

The strikes were notable for how far inside Russian territory they reached. Engels air base in the Saratov region is 450 miles from Ukraine, and the Dyagilevo base in Ryazan, around 400 miles from the border.

On December 27, a day after Engels was struck again, Ukrainian Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council Oleksiy Danilov said that Moscow had moved its Tu-95MS and Tu-22M3 bombers to Primorsky Krai, over 3,700 miles away from the border with Ukraine. An estimated six Tu-95 aircraft have been moved out of Engels, according to open-source intelligence company Janes.

The British Ministry of Defense said on Thursday that Russia had "highly likely" responded by placing its LRA (long-range aviation) aircraft farther away from Ukraine.

While the aircraft can still fire air-launched cruise missiles into Ukraine because the weapons have a 3,100-mile range, in addition to the bombers' flight range, the U.K. Defense Ministry said that "operating from dispersal locations will add additional maintenance stress."

Their far-flung locations will also "further deplete the limited flying hours available on these aging aircraft," the daily assessment which emphasizes Russian losses and Ukrainian gains said. Newsweek has contacted the Russian Defense Ministry for comment.

It comes as Ukraine warned of further strikes deep into Russian territory and amid questions over how Russia has used its air force during the invasion. Kyrylo Budanov, Ukraine's chief military intelligence official, told ABC News that Vladimir Putin should brace for more attacks "deeper and deeper" inside Russia.

"Russia clearly has an issue with its air force as it hasn't used what would be a small percentage of its on-paper capability to support the Ukrainian war," Philip Ingram, a former British military intelligence officer told Newsweek.

"They should have gained air superiority at the beginning of their attack into Ukraine and maintained it," he said. "The fact they didn't points to an air force with the same planning and logistic issues as their ground forces" which have been "affected by corrupt supply chains and extremely poor reliability."

"This is probably true not just for tactical platforms but strategic platforms," he added, "Russia is likely running out of serviceable kit."

https://www.newsweek.com/russia-ukraine-plane-tupolev-ministry-defense
-1771447

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

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Thursday, January 5, 2023 9:28 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Quote:
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
Nobody believes that shit.

Get fucked, Daily Beast.
There is a video and translation to English:
Quote:
“Life is highly overrated. Why be afraid of what is inevitable? Moreover, we will go to heaven!” — Solovyov. On the air of Russian television, the presenter said that Russians do not need to be afraid of death, because it is part of life.
https://twitter.com/svtv_news/status/1609912011948785666

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

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

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

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Thursday, January 5, 2023 2:21 PM

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

Ukrainian citizen uprising is the war Russia didn’t see coming

BY TOM MOCKAITIS, OPINION CONTRIBUTOR - 01/05/23 12:30 PM ET

As Ukrainian forces advanced to liberate Kherson, resistance fighters carried out attacks and provided reconnaissance for the liberators. One group posted photos of Russian soldiers on its Telegram channel with the tagline “we’re watching you.” The group also hung a banner that boldly declared, “If the HIMARS [U.S. rockets] can’t reach you, a partisan will.”

Effective though it may be, partisan warfare comes with significant risks. Unable to come to grips with elusive guerrillas, the Russian military will take its frustration out on the local population accused (rightly or wrongly) of aiding the insurgents. Atrocities in Bucha, Mariupol and elsewhere may have been a deliberate strategy to cow civilians into submission.

The Russians are also conducting a brutal campaign of ethnic cleansing in occupied areas. At least 900,000 Ukrainians have been forcibly relocated, including 200,000 children.
(Vladimir Putin’s Ukrainian genocide is proceeding in plain view
https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/ukrainealert/vladimir-putins-ukr
ainian-genocide-is-proceeding-in-plain-view/ )

The Russian military has a well-deserved reputation for brutality. Putin crushed the Chechen insurgency using extreme violence that included torture and murdering civilians. A United Nations report found that Russians bombed civilians during the Syrian civil war.

Russia has adopted the same tactic in Ukraine. With the frontlines frozen, it has been targeting civilian infrastructure, especially the electrical grid. By denying them heat, electricity and water, Putin hopes to break the will of the Ukrainian people and compel them to sue for peace.

The tactic is not working. Ukrainian morale is high and will remain so if the West continues to supply the country with weapons. Popular resistance to occupation will continue.

https://thehill.com/opinion/international/3800333-ukrainian-citizen-up
rising-is-the-war-russia-didnt-see-coming/

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

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Thursday, January 5, 2023 3:25 PM