Russia Invades Ukraine. Again by captaincrunch

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

Quote:
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:

More pirating on the menu today I see.

You reporting those downloads to the IRS?

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

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

6ix, you live in darkness and confusion. Your imagination will make rules and laws that don't actually exist. On the other hand, actual laws and rules are unknown to you, which makes life hard for you.

To point out one reason the Russians had huge casualties during WWII, all out of proportion to how many would have died if the leadership was competent, there is this one order repeated in the translation to the novel The People Immortal:

ORDER NO. 270, ISSUED BY THE STAVKA (THE SOVIET SUPREME COMMAND) ON 16 AUGUST 1941
This concludes as follows:

In the ranks of the Red Army, can we tolerate cowards who desert to the enemy and surrender, or commanders so cowardly that, at the slightest hitch, they tear off their badges of rank and desert to the rear? No! If we give free rein to such cowards and deserters, they will promptly bring about the disintegration of our army and the destruction of our Motherland. Cowards and deserters must be destroyed.

Can a commander be called a commander if he hides in a slit trench during a battle, if he does not keep his eyes on the battlefield, if he does not observe the course of the battle from the front line – yet still sees himself as a battalion or regimental commander? No! Such a man is not a battalion or regimental commander but an impostor. Should we give free rein to such impostors, they will soon make the army into nothing more than a massive bureaucracy. […]

I ORDER:

1. That commanders and political officers who, during combat, tear off their badges of rank and desert to the rear or surrender to the enemy are to be considered malicious deserters, their families also subject to arrest as relatives of a man who has violated his oath and betrayed his Motherland.

All higher commanders and commissars are required to shoot on the spot any such deserters from among command personnel.

2. Units and sub-units encircled by the enemy are to fight selflessly to the last, to take care of their equipment like the apple of their eye and to break through to our main forces from behind the enemy front line, defeating the Fascist dogs.

Should his unit be surrounded, every Red Army man, regardless of rank or position, is required to demand from a higher commander that he fight to the last in order to break through to our main forces, and should such a commander or Red Army unit prefer to surrender rather than strike a blow against the enemy, all possible means, both ground and air, should be used to destroy them. The families of Red Army men who allow themselves to be taken prisoner are to be deprived of all state benefits and assistance.

3. Divisional commanders and commissars are required to immediately remove from their posts any battalion or regimental commander who hides in a slit trench during a battle and is afraid to direct the course of the fighting from the battlefield. Such men should be demoted as impostors, transferred to the ranks, and, if necessary, shot on the spot. They should be replaced by brave and courageous men from the junior command staff or from the ranks of Red Army soldiers who have distinguished themselves.

This Order to be read aloud in all infantry companies, cavalry troops, artillery batteries, aircraft squadrons, command posts and HQs.

Stavka of the Red Army Supreme Command
Chairman of the State Defence Committee I. STALIN
Deputy Chairman of the State Defence Committee V. MOLOTOV
Marshal S. BUDYONNY
Marshal S. TIMOSHENKO
Marshal B. SHAPOSHNIKOV
Army General G. ZHUKOV

This order is the kind of thing that someone, actually Stalin and Molotov, would give if he misunderstood almost completely how an Army wins fights without squandering the lives of the soldiers. There is reason to believe that Putin is as ignorant as Stalin and Molotov were about good military tactics.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Tuesday, February 7, 2023 11:33 AM

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

More pirating on the menu today I see.

You reporting those downloads to the IRS?

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

Growing up in a Republic was nice... Shame we couldn't keep it.
6ix, you live in darkness and confusion. Your imagination will make rules and laws that don't actually exist. On the other hand, actual laws and rules are unknown to you, which makes life hard for you.

You're going to talk to me about laws when you're not only pirating stuff, but you're posting the links to pirated content on a public board that requires no signup to view, is based off of old http security tech, and is completely visible to a Google search?

If there were any moderators here, those links would be deleted immediately and you already would have been removed from this site years ago for multiple infractions.

Every time you post a link to pirated content on FFF.FANS, you risk putting Haken in a bad spot. I don't imagine that they'd ever go after Haken personally for any financial compensation (unless he stood his ground and told them to fuck off after the cease and desist letter makes it to his desk), but I would imagine that rather than do a deep dive into an old website that doesn't have the greatest search functionality it would be much easier for Haken to just shut the entire site down for good, rather than clean up your fucking mess that you've left all over the boards since you've been a member.

Stop posting pirated shit. Idiot.

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

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

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Tuesday, February 7, 2023 1:30 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Meanwhile... back in Ukraine (and back on topic) ... things go from bad to worse for Zelenskiy and "his" war.

A number of Z's backers and friends have resigned, died, or been sacked lately.

Z's spin-meister and friend from his early acting days, Oleskey Aristovich, was the first to go. He resigned after saying a Ukrainian defense missile diverted a Russian missile, causing it to land on an apartment building. https://www.tellerreport.com/news/2023-01-17-adviser-to-ukraine-s-pres
ident-resigns-after-comments-about-%22dnipro-missile%22.rkbAk0bNjs.html Ever since then, he's been singing out of tune, saying that Ukraine can't win the war. Since this is so unacceptable to the narrative ... and yet, he continues to live... in Ukraine... some people speculate that he's being protected by the CIA.

Next, Z's Interior Ministry ... yep, the top three people and nine others ... all died in a helicopter crash. https://www.foxnews.com/world/helicopter-crash-near-kyiv-leaves-18-dea
d-including-top-ukrainian-officials

Quote:
Interior Minister Denys Monastyrskyi, who oversaw Ukraine's police and emergency services, is the most senior official to die in Ukraine since Russia invaded nearly 11 months ago.
Monastyrskyi's deputy Yevhen Yenin and State Secretary of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Yurii Lubkovych were also among those killed in the crash in Brovary, according to Ihor Klymenko, the chief of Ukraine’s National Police.

Opinion is divided on whether this was a fortuitous accident or assasination.

Shortly after that, oligarch Kolomoisky - who funded Z's TV show "Servant of the People" and then bankrolled his run for President - was investigated for corruption, and his home was raided. As was Ex-Interior Mininster Arsen Avakov. Considering the levelof corruption in Ukraine, nearly EVERYONE is guilty. This isn't an anti-corruption campaign, simply a targeted prosecution for political purposes. In addition

Quote:
The raids, first reported by the Ukrainian media, come after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy last month pledged to eradicate corruption amid a high-profile graft scandal.

David Arakhamia, the leader of the Servant of the People faction in parliament, confirmed on Telegram that raids were carried out on the two men, as well as at the premises of the Tax Office, .

He added that the management team of the Customs Service would be dismissed and that Ukraine, which was plagued by deep-seated corruption before Russian troops invaded almost a year ago, would undergo a change.

https://www.rferl.org/a/ukraine-sbu-search-kolomoyskiy/32249253.html

Another high-profile dismissal is Oleskii Reznikov, Z's Defense Minister. Reznikov was tied to a scheme of overpaying (by a facctor of three) for food supplies for the troops. He managed to hang on by his fingernails for a week or two after the news came out, but was just replaced by the head of military intelligence, Major General Kyrylo Budanov.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/ukraine-defence-minist
er-russia-war-latest-news-b2276355.html

Budanov is seen as being closer to USA neocons, while Z is closer to the Eu elites like BoJo the Clown and Urusula van der Crazy. Overall, the effect is to isolate Zelenskiy from his former backers and cronies and place a USA-controlled minister closer to the center of power.

BTW I was just grabbing the first relevant links I could find, but feel free to look up these events on your own since they've been all over the news.

Either the USA State Dept/ DoD/ CIA has gotten tired of pouring money into an endless hole of corruption and seeing littlein return, or they're tired of Z and is nose candy thinking that he's in charge and they're actively planning to replace Z once he's served his purpose.

*****

Meanwhile, on the ground ...

The battle for Bakhmut continues. At this point, only one road remains into Bakhmut, and Z continues to pour men and materiel into the battle, despite USA military advising him to retreat. Analyses say that Kiev is throwing basically older, gimpy, untrained men into Russian artillery fire to "hold the line" while their fitter and better-trained troops are being held back (actively withdrawn?).

Russian strength up and down the contact line has Kiev guessing whether Russia will advance from the north, northease, east, southeast or south or... everywhere. I have read analyses that what Russia is doing is keeping pressure on all points, causing Kiev tocontatnly redeploy troops from here to there, alowing Russia to make incremental advances wherever Ukrainian defenses weaken.

Meanwhile, Kiev is literally dragooning males off the street, grabbing ethnic Hungarians in disproprotionate numbers (says Viktor Orban, Hungary's President) http://ronpaulinstitute.org/archives/featured-articles/2023/january/25
/zelenskyy-regime-to-forcibly-conscript-hungarians-in-transcarpathia/, has extended martial law by another 90 days, and has reduced the age at which males must register for military service to 16.

IMF predicts Russia GDP will return to growth in 2023. Unlike many nations in the west.

Yep, the plan is going well.

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

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Tuesday, February 7, 2023 2:03 PM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

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

More pirating on the menu today I see.

You reporting those downloads to the IRS?

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

Growing up in a Republic was nice... Shame we couldn't keep it.
6ix, you live in darkness and confusion. Your imagination will make rules and laws that don't actually exist. On the other hand, actual laws and rules are unknown to you, which makes life hard for you.
Every time you post a link to pirated content on FFF.FANS, you risk putting Haken in a bad spot. I don't imagine that they'd ever go after Haken personally for any financial compensation (unless he stood his ground and told them to fuck off after the cease and desist letter makes it to his desk), but I would imagine that rather than do a deep dive into an old website that doesn't have the greatest search functionality it would be much easier for Haken to just shut the entire site down for good, rather than clean up your fucking mess that you've left all over the boards since you've been a member.

Stop posting pirated shit. Idiot.

6ix, you misunderstand the law. You misunderstand even simpler things like "Responsibility". Who is going to teach you better? Certainly not the dimwits you live around. It is absolutely no surprise how much you, and your leader Trump, screwed up your own lives when you have a head crammed full of false or confused beliefs. This also is applicable to the Russians. It is no surprise that they have impoverished themselves with their ill schemes for running their economy. Partially to blame are the Marxists who have crammed false or confused beliefs into Russian heads for more than a century. The result is the Russians have an economy that performs poorly.

There is another reason Russia is poor compared to other nations. The government keeps threatening its citizens with death or imprisonment. The smartest citizens respond by emigrating. There has been a huge outflow of the smartest Russians for a century, leaving obviously dumb ones to take control and teach the next generation new lessons full of nonsense and foolishness. The smartest from that next generation will also leave Russia for better countries, leaving Russia even stupider. The remainder of the 21st Century will be worse for Russia because the smartest have already left during the Ukraine war. This will happen even if Russia wins.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Tuesday, February 7, 2023 2:18 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

SECOND, slinging mud to avoid the topic. As usual.

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

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Tuesday, February 7, 2023 2:32 PM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Meanwhile... back in Ukraine (and back on topic) ... things go from bad to worse for Zelenskiy and "his" war.

You should wait before burying Ukraine. It hasn't lost. The Russians' best move is to declare victory, evacuate all Russian speakers from areas it now controls, including Crimea, and go home. Then it can strive to become wealthy as the next Canada. Canada doesn't seem to feel threatened by the existence of the US directly on its border. Either Canada is crazy to trust the US to not invade Canada or Russia is crazy for feeling threatened by NATO. It is either one or the other. I suggest Putin see a therapist about his fears of NATO.

By the way, Signym, it is not mudslinging to call a crazy, irresponsible, violent ignoramus for being crazy, irresponsible, violent, and ignorant. Whether it is Putin, Trump or 6ix.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Tuesday, February 7, 2023 7:00 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
I don't believe the UN numbers, just like I don't believe OPCW, HRW, AI, or Medecins sans Frontieres.

While I'm at it, I don't believe the CIA, FBI, DOJ, Kiev, NED or AID either. OPCW has earned special emnity from the people of the Donbas for ignoring shelling by Kiev.

Quote:
Since 2014, about 9,000 civilians have been killed in the Donbass. Such data were presented at the press conference “Scorched memory of Donbass: war crimes of the Ukrainian army and new data on the massacres of the civilian population.”

According to the representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the self-proclaimed Lugansk People's Republic (LPR) Anna Soroka, more than 2,000 civilians, including 35 children, were killed during the conflict in the republic, 3,365 people were injured, including 88 minors.

The Commissioner for Human Rights in the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic (DPR), Daria Morozova, said that more than 5,000 people, including 91 minor children, became victims among the population of the DPR. About 8 thousand more people were injured of varying severity during this period.

https://www.thecitizen.co.tz/tanzania/news/international/how-many-live
s-has-the-war-in-donbass-taken--3724098

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

And this is why you're not worth talking to, beyond calling out every now and then. It's what I was talking to Six about: agreement of basic facts. Your response to reputable figures that you don't like (the UN - Russia, China and a whole load of Russia-friendly countries are in the UN) is... to post an article from a Tanzanian website that quotes pro-Russian officials. (Let's face it, you googled specifically for the "facts" that you wanted, and then picked the first result you could find that looked like a vaguely neutral and reputable source).

So you'll reject basically any source that reports something you don't want to hear, and you'll accept any source that gives you the "facts" you want? This is a recipe for being completely unmoored from reality. And this is, of course, what we see reflected in your posts.

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Tuesday, February 7, 2023 7:14 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Meanwhile... back in Ukraine (and back on topic) ... things go from bad to worse for Zelenskiy and "his" war.

A number of Z's backers and friends have resigned, died, or been sacked lately.

Z's spin-meister and friend from his early acting days, Oleskey Aristovich, was the first to go. He resigned after saying a Ukrainian defense missile diverted a Russian missile, causing it to land on an apartment building. https://www.tellerreport.com/news/2023-01-17-adviser-to-ukraine-s-pres
ident-resigns-after-comments-about-%22dnipro-missile%22.rkbAk0bNjs.html Ever since then, he's been singing out of tune, saying that Ukraine can't win the war. Since this is so unacceptable to the narrative ... and yet, he continues to live... in Ukraine... some people speculate that he's being protected by the CIA.

Next, Z's Interior Ministry ... yep, the top three people and nine others ... all died in a helicopter crash. https://www.foxnews.com/world/helicopter-crash-near-kyiv-leaves-18-dea
d-including-top-ukrainian-officials
Quote:
Interior Minister Denys Monastyrskyi, who oversaw Ukraine's police and emergency services, is the most senior official to die in Ukraine since Russia invaded nearly 11 months ago.
Monastyrskyi's deputy Yevhen Yenin and State Secretary of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Yurii Lubkovych were also among those killed in the crash in Brovary, according to Ihor Klymenko, the chief of Ukraine’s National Police.
Opinion is divided on whether this was a fortuitous accident or assasination.

Shortly after that, oligarch Kolomoisky - who funded Z's TV show "Servant of the People" and then bankrolled his run for President - was investigated for corruption, and his home was raided. As was Ex-Interior Mininster Arsen Avakov. Considering the levelof corruption in Ukraine, nearly EVERYONE is guilty. This isn't an anti-corruption campaign, simply a targeted prosecution for political purposes. In addition

Quote:
The raids, first reported by the Ukrainian media, come after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy last month pledged to eradicate corruption amid a high-profile graft scandal.

David Arakhamia, the leader of the Servant of the People faction in parliament, confirmed on Telegram that raids were carried out on the two men, as well as at the premises of the Tax Office, .

He added that the management team of the Customs Service would be dismissed and that Ukraine, which was plagued by deep-seated corruption before Russian troops invaded almost a year ago, would undergo a change.

https://www.rferl.org/a/ukraine-sbu-search-kolomoyskiy/32249253.html

Another high-profile dismissal is Oleskii Reznikov, Z's Defense Minister. Reznikov was tied to a scheme of overpaying (by a facctor of three) for food supplies for the troops. He managed to hang on by his fingernails for a week or two after the news came out, but was just replaced by the head of military intelligence, Major General Kyrylo Budanov.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/ukraine-defence-minist
er-russia-war-latest-news-b2276355.html

Budanov is seen as being closer to USA neocons, while Z is closer to the Eu elites like BoJo the Clown and Urusula van der Crazy. Overall, the effect is to isolate Zelenskiy from his former backers and cronies and place a USA-controlled minister closer to the center of power.

BTW I was just grabbing the first relevant links I could find, but feel free to look up these events on your own since they've been all over the news.

Either the USA State Dept/ DoD/ CIA has gotten tired of pouring money into an endless hole of corruption and seeing littlein return, or they're tired of Z and is nose candy thinking that he's in charge and they're actively planning to replace Z once he's served his purpose.

*****

Meanwhile, on the ground ...

The battle for Bakhmut continues. At this point, only one road remains into Bakhmut, and Z continues to pour men and materiel into the battle, despite USA military advising him to retreat. Analyses say that Kiev is throwing basically older, gimpy, untrained men into Russian artillery fire to "hold the line" while their fitter and better-trained troops are being held back (actively withdrawn?).

Russian strength up and down the contact line has Kiev guessing whether Russia will advance from the north, northease, east, southeast or south or... everywhere. I have read analyses that what Russia is doing is keeping pressure on all points, causing Kiev tocontatnly redeploy troops from here to there, alowing Russia to make incremental advances wherever Ukrainian defenses weaken.

Meanwhile, Kiev is literally dragooning males off the street, grabbing ethnic Hungarians in disproprotionate numbers (says Viktor Orban, Hungary's President) http://ronpaulinstitute.org/archives/featured-articles/2023/january/25
/zelenskyy-regime-to-forcibly-conscript-hungarians-in-transcarpathia/, has extended martial law by another 90 days, and has reduced the age at which males must register for military service to 16.

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

A lot of weasel words in this post: "Some people say..." (who?)

Quote:
IMF predicts Russia GDP will return to growth in 2023.

After falling heavily last year (4.1%), compared to the West.

Quote:
Unlike many nations in the west.

"Many" being just The UK (0.6%) and Sweden (0.1%) (whose economies both grew last year).

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Tuesday, February 7, 2023 7:17 PM

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

More pirating on the menu today I see.

You reporting those downloads to the IRS?

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

Growing up in a Republic was nice... Shame we couldn't keep it.
6ix, you live in darkness and confusion. Your imagination will make rules and laws that don't actually exist. On the other hand, actual laws and rules are unknown to you, which makes life hard for you.
Every time you post a link to pirated content on FFF.FANS, you risk putting Haken in a bad spot. I don't imagine that they'd ever go after Haken personally for any financial compensation (unless he stood his ground and told them to fuck off after the cease and desist letter makes it to his desk), but I would imagine that rather than do a deep dive into an old website that doesn't have the greatest search functionality it would be much easier for Haken to just shut the entire site down for good, rather than clean up your fucking mess that you've left all over the boards since you've been a member.

Stop posting pirated shit. Idiot.
6ix, you misunderstand the law.

No. YOU misunderstand the law.

And even though nobody is probably going to go after Haken for some dumb books that nobody cares about or some comic books that even less people care about, you're poking a big fucking bear when you post a link to a pirated version of Avatar 2. Disney doesn't fuck around and has wiped websites off the map that share their stuff illegally.

Quote:
You misunderstand even simpler things like "Responsibility".

Don't you dare talk to me about responsibility when it's no sweat off your nutsack if you put Haken in a position where he ends up shutting down this site because YOU cause him to get a cease and desist order for sharing pirated content all over the site.

Stop posting pirated shit here. I'm not asking you. I'm telling you.

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

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

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Tuesday, February 7, 2023 7:44 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

K2PO: If the USA and the west are doing so great, why is our living standard plummeting and why can't we keep up with Russian military production?

Maybe bc our GDP and CPI figures are as bogus as our figures of Russian casualties?

AFA not believing the UN: It has a strong pro-western bias built in since many of its organizations are dominated by western nations.

Since the UN has spun facts (if not outright lied) I take everything they say with a grain of salt. As I take EVERY statement from everyone with a grain of salt. Some, a bigger grain than others.

You, OTIH, "believe", which is always a mistake.

But, yanno, keep believing in your narrative. Just don't come crying to me when it crumbles

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

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Tuesday, February 7, 2023 10:18 PM

Quote:
As I take EVERY statement from everyone with a grain of salt. Some, a bigger grain than others.

But we can see clearly that you don't take information with a grain of salt when it comes to Russia. There, you believe what you're told, without any apparent hint of self-awareness. You posted pro-Russian separatist figures to refute UN figures. How do you know you can trust the pro-Russian figures? Is it not clear to you that they are aligned with Moscow and have an incentive to inflate civilian deaths?

I believe in healthy skepticism: No source is perfect. But not everyone is part of a propaganda agenda. There are some people and institutions trying to report the truth.

You believe in a kind of radical skepticism: Everyone has an agenda. Everyone is trying to deceive you. Be distrustful of everyone. Specks of golden truth can only be obtained by panning carefully in the many streams of lies.

Does that sum up your view?

Here's the problem. You are not remotely consistent. You are distrustful of information that challenges your worldview, but when information matches your worldview, you absorb it without question. As we saw with the Donbas civilian deaths example. This is human nature, btw. We are all guilty of this. But the difference between me and you: I sometimes accept information that challenges my worldview. Because I have respect for some sources. You have respect for no sources, so you NEVER accept information that challenges your worldview. This is why I say you are unmoored from reality.

Radical skepticism sounds wise, but it is the wisdom of the conspiracy theorist.

One last thing: you say you take the UN etc. with a big pinch of salt because of their history of lying. Now this is interesting. At some point it was pointed out to you by some outlets (probably many in your media ecosystem) that the UN could not be trusted because X, Y, Z. Here's my question to you: did you take these outlets' word with a pinch of salt? Do those outlets never lie? And if they do lie, what is their agenda, and does that not cast doubt on what they say about the UN?

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Wednesday, February 8, 2023 7:18 AM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

Putin Is Right: The War in Ukraine Is Partly America’s Fault

The U.S. was totally seduced by the money flowing out of Russia and helped Putin become all-powerful. The last year has shown us the consequences.

Vladimir Putin did not appear out of a vacuum to birth a gangster state, invade Ukraine, roil the planet in chaos, and order his hobgoblins on Russian television to incessantly threaten the world with mushroom clouds.

“Russia’s conquests and violence are the most natural and legitimate thing that has ever been done in history,” is one of the more recent soundbites from former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev.

The distressing question is whether there’s even a tinkle of truth to Putin’s bombast that the U.S. shoulders blame for Russia’s global aggression. Three decades of post-Cold War wheeling and dealing between Russia and the U.S. provide compelling evidence that Putin is right—but clearly not for the reasons spewed by him and his propagandists.

Nine years of news reports from Putin’s war in Ukraine—which exploded into a full land invasion almost 12 months ago—assorted armed mischiefs in Africa and assassinations of political opponents at home and abroad only continues to blur this historically larger and more damning canvas. It’s a portrait that illustrates the West’s three decades of collaboration to enrich Russian leaders, aid and abet their oligarchs, and use diplomatic guff such as “balance of power” to empower Putin.

Even before Putin strong-armed his way into the Kremlin throne room in 2000 , the former KGB agent who was assistant to St. Petersburg Mayor Anatoly Sobchak, instigated a new financial dance with the West that would revolutionize Russia’s finances.

Putin’s Money Spinner

It was a modern twist on the Bolshevik “quartermaster” system, which he perfected once he was in the presidential suite. The procedure involved a Russian enterprise entering into lucrative and opaque joint-venture contracts with Western energy, manufacturing, distribution or trading companies. The split was always 51/49, with the Russian entity given ham-fisted jurisdiction of the lion’s share and always through one of Putin’s hundreds of genuflecting oligarchs, all hiding the details of the transactions beneath secretive layers of completely legal offshore companies.

Investment bankers—who during the 1998 Ruble Without a Cause economic crash said they’d rather eat cabbages from Chernobyl than lend to Russia—liked the new tune coming from Putin’s mouth and leveraged the sound of his music to peddle more Russian shares and bonds.

"The macro picture looks all very great, but you have a problem with almost every stock you look at," Morgan Stanley Dean Witter emerging market specialist John-Paul Smith cautioned at the dawn of the Putin era. "Everything is tainted on an individual basis."

Putin’s quartermasters were just as aware of the dodgy consequences of these deals as they were the shared profits that enriched them and created the global oligarch class. Somehow lost or ignored in the cash pile, however, was how Putin was spending Russia’s cut: Militarization.

More at https://www.thedailybeast.com/putin-is-right-the-war-in-ukraine-is-par
tly-americas-fault

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Wednesday, February 8, 2023 8:40 AM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

Quote:
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:

No. YOU misunderstand the law.

And even though nobody is probably going to go after Haken for some dumb books that nobody cares about or some comic books that even less people care about, you're poking a big fucking bear when you post a link to a pirated version of Avatar 2. Disney doesn't fuck around and has wiped websites off the map that share their stuff illegally.

Don't you dare talk to me about responsibility when it's no sweat off your nutsack if you put Haken in a position where he ends up shutting down this site because YOU cause him to get a cease and desist order for sharing pirated content all over the site.

Stop posting pirated shit here. I'm not asking you. I'm telling you.

What would irritate 6ix the most? I know!

A) Searching for Avatar The Way of Water in All Categories
https://1337x.unblockit.bio/search/Avatar+the+way+of+water/1/ The "/" at the end is very important. Without the "/" there will be an error 404 Not Found

B) Free and reliable P2P Bittorrent client necessary to download Avatar The Way of Water:
https://www.qbittorrent.org/

C) The worst that can happen to the downloader is receiving a Notice of Action under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA)
What is the worst that can happen to fireflyfans.net? Nothing because it is not infringing on anyone's copyright by including Line A).
https://www.legalzoom.com/articles/what-to-do-if-you-get-a-copyright-i
nfringement-notice

6ix, I look forward to your foaming-at-the-mouth, howling-at-the-moon, unhinged-from-reality response. Please go as weird as your feverish imagination makes it possible.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Wednesday, February 8, 2023 9:02 AM

I'll just leave it in Haken's thread and be done with it. I've never had a dialogue with Haken in my life, and he's a man. He can deal with it as he sees fit.

I'm not babysitting the child at his website.

I'm sorry everybody if Second gets fireflyfans.net shut down because he is an irresponsible, selfish little prick.

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

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

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Wednesday, February 8, 2023 9:19 AM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

Quote:
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
I'll just leave it in Haken's thread and be done with it. I've never had a dialogue with Haken in my life, and he's a man. He can deal with it as he sees fit.

I'm not babysitting the child at his website.

I'm sorry everybody if Second gets fireflyfans.net shut down because he is an irresponsible, selfish little prick.

You forgot to say "Fuck U. . ." as you do habitually. I would bet that Haken has sympathy for Ukraine's plight, but not for yours, 6ix. Maybe you should protest this possible lack of empathy toward your neediness in life? Think of something dramatic, 6ix, because your craziness, ineffectiveness, and endless difficulties are almost as entertaining as Trump's. Trump and 6ix share an unworthy purpose in life -- to be the insane clowns throwing pies full of shaving cream and missing the targets.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Wednesday, February 8, 2023 9:26 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Quote:
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
I'll just leave it in Haken's thread and be done with it. I've never had a dialogue with Haken in my life, and he's a man. He can deal with it as he sees fit.

I'm not babysitting the child at his website.

I'm sorry everybody if Second gets fireflyfans.net shut down because he is an irresponsible, selfish little prick.
You forgot to say "Fuck U. . ." as you do habitually. I would bet that Haken has sympathy for Ukraine's plight, but not for yours, 6ix. Maybe you should protest this possible lack of empathy toward your neediness in life? Think of something dramatic, 6ix, because your craziness, ineffectiveness, and endless difficulties are almost as entertaining as Trump's. Trump and 6ix share an unworthy purpose in life -- to be the insane clowns throwing pies full of shaving cream and missing the targets.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

This has nothing to do with Ukraine.

You are going to get the site shut down because you are a little boy.

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

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

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Wednesday, February 8, 2023 1:28 PM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

Quote:
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:

This has nothing to do with Ukraine.

You are going to get the site shut down because you are a little boy.

I will test your theory of how reality works by posting this story. Start the countdown until the explosive shutdown of fff.net. Ticktock, ticktock, kaboom! :

How America Took Out The Nord Stream Pipeline
by Seymour Hersh, Feb 8, 2023

https://seymourhersh.substack.com/p/how-america-took-out-the-nord-stre
am

The U.S. Navy’s Diving and Salvage Center can be found in a location as obscure as its name—down what was once a country lane in rural Panama City, a now-booming resort city in the southwestern panhandle of Florida, 70 miles south of the Alabama border. The center’s complex is as nondescript as its location—a drab concrete post-World War II structure that has the look of a vocational high school on the west side of Chicago. A coin-operated laundromat and a dance school are across what is now a four-lane road.

The center has been training highly skilled deep-water divers for decades who, once assigned to American military units worldwide, are capable of technical diving to do the good—using C4 explosives to clear harbors and beaches of debris and unexploded ordinance—as well as the bad, like blowing up foreign oil rigs, fouling intake valves for undersea power plants, destroying locks on crucial shipping canals. The Panama City center, which boasts the second largest indoor pool in America, was the perfect place to recruit the best, and most taciturn, graduates of the diving school who successfully did last summer what they had been authorized to do 260 feet under the surface of the Baltic Sea.

Last June, the Navy divers, operating under the cover of a widely publicized mid-summer NATO exercise known as BALTOPS 22, planted the remotely triggered explosives that, three months later, destroyed three of the four Nord Stream pipelines, according to a source with direct knowledge of the operational planning.

Two of the pipelines, which were known collectively as Nord Stream 1, had been providing Germany and much of Western Europe with cheap Russian natural gas for more than a decade. A second pair of pipelines, called Nord Stream 2, had been built but were not yet operational. Now, with Russian troops massing on the Ukrainian border and the bloodiest war in Europe since 1945 looming, President Joseph Biden saw the pipelines as a vehicle for Vladimir Putin to weaponize natural gas for his political and territorial ambitions.

Asked for comment, Adrienne Watson, a White House spokesperson, said in an email, “This is false and complete fiction.” Tammy Thorp, a spokesperson for the Central Intelligence Agency, similarly wrote: “This claim is completely and utterly false.”

Biden’s decision to sabotage the pipelines came after more than nine months of highly secret back and forth debate inside Washington’s national security community about how to best achieve that goal. For much of that time, the issue was not whether to do the mission, but how to get it done with no overt clue as to who was responsible.

There was a vital bureaucratic reason for relying on the graduates of the center’s hardcore diving school in Panama City. The divers were Navy only, and not members of America’s Special Operations Command, whose covert operations must be reported to Congress and briefed in advance to the Senate and House leadership—the so-called Gang of Eight. The Biden Administration was doing everything possible to avoid leaks as the planning took place late in 2021 and into the first months of 2022.

President Biden and his foreign policy team—National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, Secretary of State Tony Blinken, and Victoria Nuland, the Undersecretary of State for Policy—had been vocal and consistent in their hostility to the two pipelines, which ran side by side for 750 miles under the Baltic Sea from two different ports in northeastern Russia near the Estonian border, passing close to the Danish island of Bornholm before ending in northern Germany.

The direct route, which bypassed any need to transit Ukraine, had been a boon for the German economy, which enjoyed an abundance of cheap Russian natural gas—enough to run its factories and heat its homes while enabling German distributors to sell excess gas, at a profit, throughout Western Europe. Action that could be traced to the administration would violate US promises to minimize direct conflict with Russia. Secrecy was essential.

From its earliest days, Nord Stream 1 was seen by Washington and its anti-Russian NATO partners as a threat to western dominance. The holding company behind it, Nord Stream AG, was incorporated in Switzerland in 2005 in partnership with Gazprom, a publicly traded Russian company producing enormous profits for shareholders which is dominated by oligarchs known to be in the thrall of Putin. Gazprom controlled 51 percent of the company, with four European energy firms—one in France, one in the Netherlands and two in Germany—sharing the remaining 49 percent of stock, and having the right to control downstream sales of the inexpensive natural gas to local distributors in Germany and Western Europe. Gazprom’s profits were shared with the Russian government, and state gas and oil revenues were estimated in some years to amount to as much as 45 percent of Russia’s annual budget.

America’s political fears were real: Putin would now have an additional and much-needed major source of income, and Germany and the rest of Western Europe would become addicted to low-cost natural gas supplied by Russia—while diminishing European reliance on America. In fact, that’s exactly what happened. Many Germans saw Nord Stream 1 as part of the deliverance of former Chancellor Willy Brandt’s famed Ostpolitik theory, which would enable postwar Germany to rehabilitate itself and other European nations destroyed in World War II by, among other initiatives, utilizing cheap Russian gas to fuel a prosperous Western European market and trading economy.

Nord Stream 1 was dangerous enough, in the view of NATO and Washington, but Nord Stream 2, whose construction was completed in September of 2021, would, if approved by German regulators, double the amount of cheap gas that would be available to Germany and Western Europe. The second pipeline also would provide enough gas for more than 50 percent of Germany’s annual consumption. Tensions were constantly escalating between Russia and NATO, backed by the aggressive foreign policy of the Biden Administration.

Opposition to Nord Stream 2 flared on the eve of the Biden inauguration in January 2021, when Senate Republicans, led by Ted Cruz of Texas, repeatedly raised the political threat of cheap Russian natural gas during the confirmation hearing of Blinken as Secretary of State. By then a unified Senate had successfully passed a law that, as Cruz told Blinken, “halted [the pipeline] in its tracks.” There would be enormous political and economic pressure from the German government, then headed by Angela Merkel, to get the second pipeline online.

Would Biden stand up to the Germans? Blinken said yes, but added that he had not discussed the specifics of the incoming President’s views. “I know his strong conviction that this is a bad idea, the Nord Stream 2,” he said. “I know that he would have us use every persuasive tool that we have to convince our friends and partners, including Germany, not to move forward with it.”

A few months later, as the construction of the second pipeline neared completion, Biden blinked. That May, in a stunning turnaround, the administration waived sanctions against Nord Stream AG, with a State Department official conceding that trying to stop the pipeline through sanctions and diplomacy had “always been a long shot.” Behind the scenes, administration officials reportedly urged Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, by then facing a threat of Russian invasion, not to criticize the move.

There were immediate consequences. Senate Republicans, led by Cruz, announced an immediate blockade of all of Biden’s foreign policy nominees and delayed passage of the annual defense bill for months, deep into the fall. Politico later depicted Biden’s turnabout on the second Russian pipeline as “the one decision, arguably more than the chaotic military withdrawal from Afghanistan, that has imperiled Biden’s agenda.”

The administration was floundering, despite getting a reprieve on the crisis in mid-November, when Germany’s energy regulators suspended approval of the second Nord Stream pipeline. Natural gas prices surged 8% within days, amid growing fears in Germany and Europe that the pipeline suspension and the growing possibility of a war between Russia and Ukraine would lead to a very much unwanted cold winter. It was not clear to Washington just where Olaf Scholz, Germany’s newly appointed chancellor, stood. Months earlier, after the fall of Afghanistan, Scholtz had publicly endorsed French President Emmanuel Macron’s call for a more autonomous European foreign policy in a speech in Prague—clearly suggesting less reliance on Washington and its mercurial actions.

Throughout all of this, Russian troops had been steadily and ominously building up on the borders of Ukraine, and by the end of December more than 100,000 soldiers were in position to strike from Belarus and Crimea. Alarm was growing in Washington, including an assessment from Blinken that those troop numbers could be “doubled in short order.”

The administration’s attention once again was focused on Nord Stream. As long as Europe remained dependent on the pipelines for cheap natural gas, Washington was afraid that countries like Germany would be reluctant to supply Ukraine with the money and weapons it needed to defeat Russia.

It was at this unsettled moment that Biden authorized Jake Sullivan to bring together an interagency group to come up with a plan.

All options were to be on the table. But only one would emerge.

PLANNING

In December of 2021, two months before the first Russian tanks rolled into Ukraine, Jake Sullivan convened a meeting of a newly formed task force—men and women from the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the CIA, and the State and Treasury Departments—and asked for recommendations about how to respond to Putin’s impending invasion.

It would be the first of a series of top-secret meetings, in a secure room on a top floor of the Old Executive Office Building, adjacent to the White House, that was also the home of the President’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board (PFIAB). There was the usual back and forth chatter that eventually led to a crucial preliminary question: Would the recommendation forwarded by the group to the President be reversible—such as another layer of sanctions and currency restrictions—or irreversible—that is, kinetic actions, which could not be undone?

What became clear to participants, according to the source with direct knowledge of the process, is that Sullivan intended for the group to come up with a plan for the destruction of the two Nord Stream pipelines—and that he was delivering on the desires of the President.
THE PLAYERS Left to right: Victoria Nuland, Anthony Blinken, and Jake Sullivan.

Over the next several meetings, the participants debated options for an attack. The Navy proposed using a newly commissioned submarine to assault the pipeline directly. The Air Force discussed dropping bombs with delayed fuses that could be set off remotely. The CIA argued that whatever was done, it would have to be covert. Everyone involved understood the stakes. “This is not kiddie stuff,” the source said. If the attack were traceable to the United States, “It’s an act of war.”

At the time, the CIA was directed by William Burns, a mild-mannered former ambassador to Russia who had served as deputy secretary of state in the Obama Administration. Burns quickly authorized an Agency working group whose ad hoc members included—by chance—someone who was familiar with the capabilities of the Navy’s deep-sea divers in Panama City. Over the next few weeks, members of the CIA’s working group began to craft a plan for a covert operation that would use deep-sea divers to trigger an explosion along the pipeline.

Something like this had been done before. In 1971, the American intelligence community learned from still undisclosed sources that two important units of the Russian Navy were communicating via an undersea cable buried in the Sea of Okhotsk, on Russia’s Far East Coast. The cable linked a regional Navy command to the mainland headquarters at Vladivostok.

A hand-picked team of Central Intelligence Agency and National Security Agency operatives was assembled somewhere in the Washington area, under deep cover, and worked out a plan, using Navy divers, modified submarines and a deep-submarine rescue vehicle, that succeeded, after much trial and error, in locating the Russian cable. The divers planted a sophisticated listening device on the cable that successfully intercepted the Russian traffic and recorded it on a taping system.

The NSA learned that senior Russian navy officers, convinced of the security of their communication link, chatted away with their peers without encryption. The recording device and its tape had to be replaced monthly and the project rolled on merrily for a decade until it was compromised by a forty-four-year-old civilian NSA technician named Ronald Pelton who was fluent in Russian. Pelton was betrayed by a Russian defector in 1985 and sentenced to prison. He was paid just $5,000 by the Russians for his revelations about the operation, along with $35,000 for other Russian operational data he provided that was never made public.

That underwater success, codenamed Ivy Bells, was innovative and risky, and produced invaluable intelligence about the Russian Navy's intentions and planning.

Still, the interagency group was initially skeptical of the CIA’s enthusiasm for a covert deep-sea attack. There were too many unanswered questions. The waters of the Baltic Sea were heavily patrolled by the Russian navy, and there were no oil rigs that could be used as cover for a diving operation. Would the divers have to go to Estonia, right across the border from Russia’s natural gas loading docks, to train for the mission? “It would be a goat fuck,” the Agency was told.

Throughout “all of this scheming,” the source said, “some working guys in the CIA and the State Department were saying, ‘Don’t do this. It’s stupid and will be a political nightmare if it comes out.’”

Nevertheless, in early 2022, the CIA working group reported back to Sullivan’s interagency group: “We have a way to blow up the pipelines.”

What came next was stunning. On February 7, less than three weeks before the seemingly inevitable Russian invasion of Ukraine, Biden met in his White House office with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who, after some wobbling, was now firmly on the American team. At the press briefing that followed, Biden defiantly said, “If Russia invades . . . there will be no longer a Nord Stream 2. We will bring an end to it.”

Twenty days earlier, Undersecretary Nuland had delivered essentially the same message at a State Department briefing, with little press coverage. “I want to be very clear to you today,” she said in response to a question. “If Russia invades Ukraine, one way or another Nord Stream 2 will not move forward.”

Several of those involved in planning the pipeline mission were dismayed by what they viewed as indirect references to the attack.

“It was like putting an atomic bomb on the ground in Tokyo and telling the Japanese that we are going to detonate it,” the source said. “The plan was for the options to be executed post invasion and not advertised publicly. Biden simply didn’t get it or ignored it.”

Biden’s and Nuland’s indiscretion, if that is what it was, might have frustrated some of the planners. But it also created an opportunity. According to the source, some of the senior officials of the CIA determined that blowing up the pipeline “no longer could be considered a covert option because the President just announced that we knew how to do it.”

The plan to blow up Nord Stream 1 and 2 was suddenly downgraded from a covert operation requiring that Congress be informed to one that was deemed as a highly classified intelligence operation with U.S. military support. Under the law, the source explained, “There was no longer a legal requirement to report the operation to Congress. All they had to do now is just do it—but it still had to be secret. The Russians have superlative surveillance of the Baltic Sea.”

The Agency working group members had no direct contact with the White House, and were eager to find out if the President meant what he’d said—that is, if the mission was now a go. The source recalled, “Bill Burns comes back and says, ‘Do it.’”

THE OPERATION

Norway was the perfect place to base the mission.

In the past few years of East-West crisis, the U.S. military has vastly expanded its presence inside Norway, whose western border runs 1,400 miles along the north Atlantic Ocean and merges above the Arctic Circle with Russia. The Pentagon has created high paying jobs and contracts, amid some local controversy, by investing hundreds of millions of dollars to upgrade and expand American Navy and Air Force facilities in Norway. The new works included, most importantly, an advanced synthetic aperture radar far up north that was capable of penetrating deep into Russia and came online just as the American intelligence community lost access to a series of long-range listening sites inside China.

A newly refurbished American submarine base, which had been under construction for years, had become operational and more American submarines were now able to work closely with their Norwegian colleagues to monitor and spy on a major Russian nuclear redoubt 250 miles to the east, on the Kola Peninsula. America also has vastly expanded a Norwegian air base in the north and delivered to the Norwegian air force a fleet of Boeing-built P8 Poseidon patrol planes to bolster its long-range spying on all things Russia.

In return, the Norwegian government angered liberals and some moderates in its parliament last November by passing the Supplementary Defense Cooperation Agreement (SDCA). Under the new deal, the U.S. legal system would have jurisdiction in certain “agreed areas” in the North over American soldiers accused of crimes off base, as well as over those Norwegian citizens accused or suspected of interfering with the work at the base.

Norway was one of the original signatories of the NATO Treaty in 1949, in the early days of the Cold War. Today, the supreme commander of NATO is Jens Stoltenberg, a committed anti-communist, who served as Norway’s prime minister for eight years before moving to his high NATO post, with American backing, in 2014. He was a hardliner on all things Putin and Russia who had cooperated with the American intelligence community since the Vietnam War. He has been trusted completely since. “He is the glove that fits the American hand,” the source said.

Back in Washington, planners knew they had to go to Norway. “They hated the Russians, and the Norwegian navy was full of superb sailors and divers who had generations of experience in highly profitable deep-sea oil and gas exploration,” the source said. They also could be trusted to keep the mission secret. (The Norwegians may have had other interests as well. The destruction of Nord Stream—if the Americans could pull it off—would allow Norway to sell vastly more of its own natural gas to Europe.)

Sometime in March, a few members of the team flew to Norway to meet with the Norwegian Secret Service and Navy. One of the key questions was where exactly in the Baltic Sea was the best place to plant the explosives. Nord Stream 1 and 2, each with two sets of pipelines, were separated much of the way by little more than a mile as they made their run to the port of Greifswald in the far northeast of Germany.

The Norwegian navy was quick to find the right spot, in the shallow waters of the Baltic sea a few miles off Denmark’s Bornholm Island. The pipelines ran more than a mile apart along a seafloor that was only 260 feet deep. That would be well within the range of the divers, who, operating from a Norwegian Alta class mine hunter, would dive with a mixture of oxygen, nitrogen and helium streaming from their tanks, and plant shaped C4 charges on the four pipelines with concrete protective covers. It would be tedious, time consuming and dangerous work, but the waters off Bornholm had another advantage: there were no major tidal currents, which would have made the task of diving much more difficult.

After a bit of research, the Americans were all in.

At this point, the Navy’s obscure deep-diving group in Panama City once again came into play. The deep-sea schools at Panama City, whose trainees participated in Ivy Bells, are seen as an unwanted backwater by the elite graduates of the Naval Academy in Annapolis, who typically seek the glory of being assigned as a Seal, fighter pilot, or submariner. If one must become a “Black Shoe”—that is, a member of the less desirable surface ship command—there is always at least duty on a destroyer, cruiser or amphibious ship. The least glamorous of all is mine warfare. Its divers never appear in Hollywood movies, or on the cover of popular magazines.

“The best divers with deep diving qualifications are a tight community, and only the very best are recruited for the operation and told to be prepared to be summoned to the CIA in Washington,” the source said.

The Norwegians and Americans had a location and the operatives, but there was another concern: any unusual underwater activity in the waters off Bornholm might draw the attention of the Swedish or Danish navies, which could report it.

Denmark had also been one of the original NATO signatories and was known in the intelligence community for its special ties to the United Kingdom. Sweden had applied for membership into NATO, and had demonstrated its great skill in managing its underwater sound and magnetic sensor systems that successfully tracked Russian submarines that would occasionally show up in remote waters of the Swedish archipelago and be forced to the surface.

The Norwegians joined the Americans in insisting that some senior officials in Denmark and Sweden had to be briefed in general terms about possible diving activity in the area. In that way, someone higher up could intervene and keep a report out of the chain of command, thus insulating the pipeline operation. “What they were told and what they knew were purposely different,” the source told me. (The Norwegian embassy, asked to comment on this story, did not respond.)

The Norwegians were key to solving other hurdles. The Russian navy was known to possess surveillance technology capable of spotting, and triggering, underwater mines. The American explosive devices needed to be camouflaged in a way that would make them appear to the Russian system as part of the natural background—something that required adapting to the specific salinity of the water. The Norwegians had a fix.

The Norwegians also had a solution to the crucial question of when the operation should take place. Every June, for the past 21 years, the American Sixth Fleet, whose flagship is based in Gaeta, Italy, south of Rome, has sponsored a major NATO exercise in the Baltic Sea involving scores of allied ships throughout the region. The current exercise, held in June, would be known as Baltic Operations 22, or BALTOPS 22. The Norwegians proposed this would be the ideal cover to plant the mines.

The Americans provided one vital element: they convinced the Sixth Fleet planners to add a research and development exercise to the program. The exercise, as made public by the Navy, involved the Sixth Fleet in collaboration with the Navy’s “research and warfare centers.” The at-sea event would be held off the coast of Bornholm Island and involve NATO teams of divers planting mines, with competing teams using the latest underwater technology to find and destroy them.

It was both a useful exercise and ingenious cover. The Panama City boys would do their thing and the C4 explosives would be in place by the end of BALTOPS22, with a 48-hour timer attached. All of the Americans and Norwegians would be long gone by the first explosion.

The days were counting down. “The clock was ticking, and we were nearing mission accomplished,” the source said.

And then: Washington had second thoughts. The bombs would still be planted during BALTOPS, but the White House worried that a two-day window for their detonation would be too close to the end of the exercise, and it would be obvious that America had been involved.

Instead, the White House had a new request: “Can the guys in the field come up with some way to blow the pipelines later on command?”

Some members of the planning team were angered and frustrated by the President’s seeming indecision. The Panama City divers had repeatedly practiced planting the C4 on pipelines, as they would during BALTOPS, but now the team in Norway had to come up with a way to give Biden what he wanted—the ability to issue a successful execution order at a time of his choosing.

Being tasked with an arbitrary, last-minute change was something the CIA was accustomed to managing. But it also renewed the concerns some shared over the necessity, and legality, of the entire operation.

The President’s secret orders also evoked the CIA’s dilemma in the Vietnam War days, when President Johnson, confronted by growing anti-Vietnam War sentiment, ordered the Agency to violate its charter—which specifically barred it from operating inside America—by spying on antiwar leaders to determine whether they were being controlled by Communist Russia.

The agency ultimately acquiesced, and throughout the 1970s it became clear just how far it had been willing to go. There were subsequent newspaper revelations in the aftermath of the Watergate scandals about the Agency’s spying on American citizens, its involvement in the assassination of foreign leaders and its undermining of the socialist government of Salvador Allende.

Those revelations led to a dramatic series of hearings in the mid-1970s in the Senate, led by Frank Church of Idaho, that made it clear that Richard Helms, the Agency director at the time, accepted that he had an obligation to do what the President wanted, even if it meant violating the law.

In unpublished, closed-door testimony, Helms ruefully explained that “you almost have an Immaculate Conception when you do something” under secret orders from a President. “Whether it’s right that you should have it, or wrong that you shall have it, [the CIA] works under different rules and ground rules than any other part of the government.” He was essentially telling the Senators that he, as head of the CIA, understood that he had been working for the Crown, and not the Constitution.

The Americans at work in Norway operated under the same dynamic, and dutifully began working on the new problem—how to remotely detonate the C4 explosives on Biden’s order. It was a much more demanding assignment than those in Washington understood. There was no way for the team in Norway to know when the President might push the button. Would it be in a few weeks, in many months or in half a year or longer?

The C4 attached to the pipelines would be triggered by a sonar buoy dropped by a plane on short notice, but the procedure involved the most advanced signal processing technology. Once in place, the delayed timing devices attached to any of the four pipelines could be accidentally triggered by the complex mix of ocean background noises throughout the heavily trafficked Baltic Sea—from near and distant ships, underwater drilling, seismic events, waves and even sea creatures. To avoid this, the sonar buoy, once in place, would emit a sequence of unique low frequency tonal sounds—much like those emitted by a flute or a piano—that would be recognized by the timing device and, after a pre-set hours of delay, trigger the explosives. (“You want a signal that is robust enough so that no other signal could accidentally send a pulse that detonated the explosives,” I was told by Dr. Theodore Postol, professor emeritus of science, technology and national security policy at MIT. Postol, who has served as the science adviser to the Pentagon’s Chief of Naval Operations, said the issue facing the group in Norway because of Biden’s delay was one of chance: “The longer the explosives are in the water the greater risk there would be of a random signal that would launch the bombs.”)

On September 26, 2022, a Norwegian Navy P8 surveillance plane made a seemingly routine flight and dropped a sonar buoy. The signal spread underwater, initially to Nord Stream 2 and then on to Nord Stream 1. A few hours later, the high-powered C4 explosives were triggered and three of the four pipelines were put out of commission. Within a few minutes, pools of methane gas that remained in the shuttered pipelines could be seen spreading on the water’s surface and the world learned that something irreversible had taken place.

FALLOUT

In the immediate aftermath of the pipeline bombing, the American media treated it like an unsolved mystery. Russia was repeatedly cited as a likely culprit, spurred on by calculated leaks from the White House—but without ever establishing a clear motive for such an act of self-sabotage, beyond simple retribution. A few months later, when it emerged that Russian authorities had been quietly getting estimates for the cost to repair the pipelines, the New York Times described the news as “complicating theories about who was behind” the attack. No major American newspaper dug into the earlier threats to the pipelines made by Biden and Undersecretary of State Nuland.

While it was never clear why Russia would seek to destroy its own lucrative pipeline, a more telling rationale for the President’s action came from Secretary of State Blinken.

Asked at a press conference last September about the consequences of the worsening energy crisis in Western Europe, Blinken described the moment as a potentially good one:

“It’s a tremendous opportunity to once and for all remove the dependence on Russian energy and thus to take away from Vladimir Putin the weaponization of energy as a means of advancing his imperial designs. That’s very significant and that offers tremendous strategic opportunity for the years to come, but meanwhile we’re determined to do everything we possibly can to make sure the consequences of all of this are not borne by citizens in our countries or, for that matter, around the world.”

More recently, Victoria Nuland expressed satisfaction at the demise of the newest of the pipelines. Testifying at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing in late January she told Senator Ted Cruz, “?Like you, I am, and I think the Administration is, very gratified to know that Nord Stream 2 is now, as you like to say, a hunk of metal at the bottom of the sea.”

The source had a much more streetwise view of Biden’s decision to sabotage more than 1500 miles of Gazprom pipeline as winter approached. “Well,” he said, speaking of the President, “I gotta admit the guy has a pair of balls. He said he was going to do it, and he did.”

Asked why he thought the Russians failed to respond, he said cynically, “Maybe they want the capability to do the same things the U.S. did.

“It was a beautiful cover story,” he went on. “Behind it was a covert operation that placed experts in the field and equipment that operated on a covert signal.

“The only flaw was the decision to do it.”

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Wednesday, February 8, 2023 2:07 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Huh. My money was on the UK.

By now it should be clear to Germans that Germany is a secondary target of the USA/UK. It's funny watching how Germany was pressured into givig Ukraine some of their Leopard tanks on the promise that their "friends and allies" would also chip in tanks, only to find that the USA is having problems coming up with Abrams tanks and the UK can't scratch up any Challenger tanks and France won't send Leclercs and many EU nations are suddenly finding it impossible to meet their Leopard tank commitments.

What did Norman Mailer say?

"I'd hate to be leading a parade and find there was nobody behind me"?

Talk about being stabbed in the back!

And the German political sphere would react except the Green Party, which used to be antiwar and now has an outsized control of German policy, was infiltrated and taken over by the CIA. And Schloz is a spinless doofus who may be hopping mad but can only wave his tiny fists and stamp his widdle feet. And then, only in private!

It's too funny!

Given that German living standards are plummeting, along with industrial output, this semi-naked aggression against Germany is setting up the current political parties for an implosion. I know tha CIA has tight control of German media, maybe the German govt will go for suppression, but Sahra Wagenknecht, a member of die Linke (far left party) is splitting with her party's globalist stance and now is as popular with AfD (right populist party) for her pro-German leftist stance. She could be a ral alternative. Or, she could be torpedoed, like other populist leaders (le Pen, etc)

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

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Wednesday, February 8, 2023 2:55 PM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Huh. My money was on the UK.

By now it should be clear to Germans that Germany is a secondary target of the USA/UK.

Maybe the Germans are aware that Ramzan Kadyrov, a key ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, has begun rattling off threats about attacking Poland after Ukraine.

Kadyrov, the head of Chechnya, suggested Monday that Russia should “denazify and demilitarize” Poland next.

“What if, after the successful completion of the NMD, Russia begins to denazify and demilitarize the next country? After all, after Ukraine, Poland is on the map! I will not hide that I personally have such an intention,” Kadyrov said on Telegram. “I personally have such an intention, and I have repeatedly stated that the fight against Satanism should continue throughout Europe and, first of all, on the territory of Poland.”

Kadyrov warned Tuesday that the time has come for the West to fall to its knees before Russia, predicting that the so-called “special military operation” in Ukraine, would be over by the end of 2023.

“The special [military] operation will be over before the end of this year. European countries will admit they have been wrong, the West will fall to its knees, and, as usual, European countries will have to cooperate with the Russian Federation in all spheres,” Kadyrov said, according to TASS. “There should not and will never be an alternative to that.”

https://www.thedailybeast.com/top-putin-ally-ramzan-kadyrov-says-he-wi
ll-not-hide-intention-to-invade-poland-anymore

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Wednesday, February 8, 2023 3:18 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Well, apparently Scholz was in on the plot.

I can't imagine him being in office long when Germans learn this. There will be a political crisis brewing and Scholz will be (rightly) seen as a traitor. Either there will be full-on repression or a political upheaval. Possibly both.

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

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Wednesday, February 8, 2023 3:38 PM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Well, apparently Scholz was in on the plot.

I can't imagine him being in office long when Germans learn this. There will be a political crisis brewing and Scholz will be (rightly) seen as a traitor. Either there will be full-on repression or a political upheaval. Possibly both.

The Nord Stream natural gas pipeline was owned by Russia, not Germany, so it is not like the German Prime Minister ordered German property destroyed.

Russia will sue the US government for damages. Since Justice is extremely swift because lawyers are famous for designing well-functioning systems that make rapid and fair decisions, surely Russia will be paid very soon.

None of the four Nord Stream pipes were currently operational, bringing the Nord Stream project to an effective standstill. In reaction to this, U.S. Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken stated that "... it’s a tremendous opportunity to once and for all remove the dependence on Russian energy and thus to take away from Vladimir Putin the weaponization of energy as a means of advancing his imperial designs. ..."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nord_Stream

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Wednesday, February 8, 2023 3:47 PM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

The Russian private paramilitary outfit, the Wagner Group, is reportedly employing increasingly predatory recruitment practices in Russia's prisons as its founder and chief financier, Yevgeny Prigozhin, faces difficulties in finding new hires.

Now, as reports and data indicate that Prigozhin is struggling to draw in new recruits, Russian prisoners are effectively being forced to join the Wagner Group. Convicts are being threatened with new criminal cases should they refuse, independent Russian news outlet Agentstvo reported on Wednesday.

Lawyer Yana Gelmel told the news outlet that Russian prisoners in colonies located in the Samara and Rostov regions, the Krasnodar Territory, and the regions of the North Caucasus, are being pressured to join the once-shadowy paramilitary unit.

"The operatives of the Ministry of Internal Affairs or the FSB arrive [to these prisons], promise to bring up [cases] that are 10-20 years old, for which the statute of limitations has already passed, [and] they scare that they will initiate cases against those who refuse to go to war," Gelmel said.

According to Agentstvo, she learned of the new recruitment practice from several of her sources in the penitentiary system across various Russian regions.

"They threaten to initiate cases against those who refuse to go to war," she said.

Gelmel noted that now, far fewer convicts are voluntarily agreeing to join the Wagner Group compared to the summer and autumn months of 2022 because convicts are learning about the high fatality rate in the war.

The news outlet cited Oksana Asaulenko, a human rights activist and the mother of a prisoner held in Russia's Perm Territory whose sentence is ending soon. She reportedly told the news outlet that her son was being threatened to join the Wagner Group.

The developments come as Prigozhin's recruitment drive in Russian prisons appears to be faltering.

https://www.newsweek.com/wagner-group-yevgeny-prigozhin-recruiting-tac
tics-1779815

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Wednesday, February 8, 2023 6:07 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Well, apparently Scholz was in on the plot.

I can't imagine him being in office long when Germans learn this. There will be a political crisis brewing and Scholz will be (rightly) seen as a traitor. Either there will be full-on repression or a political upheaval. Possibly both.
The Nord Stream natural gas pipeline was owned by Russia, not Germany, so it is not like the German Prime Minister ordered German property destroyed.

Russia will sue the US government for damages. Since Justice is extremely swift because lawyers are famous for designing well-functioning systems that make rapid and fair decisions, surely Russia will be paid very soon.

None of the four Nord Stream pipes were currently operational, bringing the Nord Stream project to an effective standstill. In reaction to this, U.S. Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken stated that "... it’s a tremendous opportunity to once and for all remove the dependence on Russian energy and thus to take away from Vladimir Putin the weaponization of energy as a means of advancing his imperial designs. ..."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nord_Stream

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

German industrial competitiveness and the German standard of living depends on cheap energy. I don't think forcing German industry and people to pay up to 5X more for energy will improve their standard of living. Forcing Germans to be "free' of Russia's nat gas may be IN OUR interest, but whether or not the Germans want to pay the price- literally- well, in a democracy isn't that for the GERMANS to decide?

Germans could quite justifiably see the secret agreement to blow up their standard of living as a betrayal.

As usual, you're obfuscating the issue.
Liar.

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

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Thursday, February 9, 2023 8:42 AM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

Ukraine intercepted Russian plans to destroy Moldova

February 9, 2023, 6:36 AM

BRUSSELS -- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Thursday that his country has intercepted plans by Russian secret services to destroy Moldova

Speaking to European Union leaders in Brussels, Zelenskyy said he recently told Moldovan President Maia Sandu about the alleged scheme.

“I have informed her that we have intercepted the plan of the destruction of Moldova by the Russian intelligence," Zelenskyy said through a translator.

Zelenskyy said the documents showed “who, when and how" the plan would "break the democracy of Moldova and establish control over Moldova."

Zelenskyy said the plan was very similar to the one devised by Russia to take over Ukraine. He added that he did not know whether Moscow ultimately ordered the plan to be carried out.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov charged last week that the West was considering turning Moldova into “another Ukraine.” He alleged that the West backed the 2020 election of the pro-Western Sandu, claiming that she is eager to take the country into NATO, merge Moldova with Romania and “practically is ready for anything.”

In December, Moldova’s national intelligence agency warned that Russia could launch a new offensive this year with the aim of creating a land corridor through southern Ukraine to Moldova’s Moscow-backed breakaway region of Transnistria.

Transnistria broke away after a 1992 civil war but is not recognized by most countries. It extends roughly 400 kilometers (250 miles) from the eastern bank of the Dniester River to the country’s border with Ukraine. Russia has about 1,500 troops nominally as “peacekeepers” in the breakaway region.

https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/zelenskyy-ukraine-inter
cepted-plans-destroy-moldova-97001285

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Thursday, February 9, 2023 8:47 AM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:

German industrial competitiveness and the German standard of living depends on cheap energy. I don't think forcing German industry and people to pay up to 5X more for energy will improve their standard of living. Forcing Germans to be "free' of Russia's nat gas may be IN OUR interest, but whether or not the Germans want to pay the price- literally- well, in a democracy isn't that for the GERMANS to decide?
Liar.

Let me check the truth of your statement: "Germany Natural Gas Border Price is at a current level of 35.37, up from 28.79 last month and down from 37.36 one year ago. This is a change of 22.85% from last month and -5.34% from one year ago." https://ycharts.com/indicators/germany_natural_gas_border_price

Before the war started, before the pipeline from Russia stopped flowing because Russia stopped pumping for "maintenance", before the pipeline was bombed, the price of natural gas was higher than it is now. There are other forces than bombing a pipeline that had already raised prices.

Germany Natural Gas Border Price
35.37 USD/MMBtu for Dec 2022

35.37 December 31,2022
28.79 November 30,2022
20.81 October 31,2022
55.18 September 30, 2022
69.98 August 31,2022
51.15 July 31, 2022
32.91 June 30, 2022
27.46 May 31, 2022
31.99 April 30,2022
41.73 March 31,2022
26.98 February 28,2022
27.89 January 31,2022
37.36 December 31,2021
https://ycharts.com/indicators/germany_natural_gas_border_price

Global price of Natural gas, EU US$/MMBtu

https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=ZQow

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Thursday, February 9, 2023 12:48 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Funny,but that graph contradicts the one you posted before, which had a longer timeline.
I see you're still posting from the psych ward.

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

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Thursday, February 9, 2023 1:01 PM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Funny,but that graph contradicts the one you posted before, which had a longer timeline.
I see you're still posting from the psych ward.

I presume you misunderstand the difference between Germany's price for natural gas and the average price all of the EU pays. One graph is for one price and the other is for the other price.

Here is a number for you: 20. I expect Signym to flippantly disregard 20, either saying the number is incorrect or that losing 20 of anything is of little consequence for almighty and powerful Russia.

Japan estimates that 20 of Putin's generals have been killed in the war, based on intelligence gathered by Tokyo in cooperation with the United States and Europe.

The former chief of staff of Japan's Ground Self-Defense Force described the tally as "unbelievably high," while speaking to Nikkei Asia, especially when compared with the U.S. which has seen almost no combat deaths of officers ranked that highly.

"The death of a general weakens troop morale," he said.

The news outlet reported that one theory for such high losses was that Ukraine located commanders by tracking signals from their cell phones, which were used due to communication shortcomings earlier in the war.

https://www.newsweek.com/russian-generals-killed-war-ukraine-japanese-
intelligence-1780131

Deaths in Russia's top brass unnerve India and China

Military inadequacies in Ukraine raise questions for security relationships

https://asia.nikkei.com/Spotlight/Comment/Deaths-in-Russia-s-top-brass
-unnerve-India-and-China

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Friday, February 10, 2023 8:25 AM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

The Institute for the Study of War (ISW), based in Washington, noted in its daily assessment of the conflict that on February 9, Dmitry Medvedev, Deputy Chairman of the Russian Security Council, visited a tank manufacturing plant in the Omsk Oblast and highlighted the need for Russia to ramp up production of modern tanks.

"Medvedev likely framed his calls for increased production as a response to Western military assistance to obscure the fact that substantial military equipment losses are driving the need for increased production," the ISW said.

Moscow has moved 50-year-old T-62 tanks from "deep storage" to be deployed for use by its Southern Grouping of Forces.

The ISW observed that Dutch open-source group Oryx reported Russian forces have, throughout the course of the war, lost 1,012 destroyed tanks in Ukraine, with an additional 546 tanks captured by Ukrainian forces.

These combined losses represent roughly half the tanks that Russian forces committed to Ukraine at the start of the invasion, the ISW said, citing Oryx data.

In a failed attempt to take the eastern Ukrainian city of Vuhledar, Russian forces are believed to have lost dozens of armored vehicles, the British ministry of defense assessed on Friday.

Last month, Denis Pushilin, Russia's leader in the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic, said that the capture of the Vuhledar region will be a game-changer for Russia's war efforts. "Taking control of this settlement will provide our troops with access to the Krasnoarmiysk (Pokrovsk) and Kurakhovskoye directions," he told state-run news agency RIA Novosti.

This month, "Russian troops likely fled and abandoned at least 30 mostly intact armored vehicles in a single incident after a failed assault," the ministry said in a daily assessment of the conflict.

https://www.newsweek.com/russia-loss-tanks-terminator-vuhledar-1780353

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Friday, February 10, 2023 12:19 PM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

Moldova's prime minister, Natalia Gavrilita, resigned on Friday, soon after her country confirmed reports that a Russian missile had entered its airspace.

"If a country can start an annexation war without any regard for international law, then in this sense, nobody is safe," Gavrilita said. "I think a lot of countries are worried."

In discussing her decision to step down during a news conference, Gavrilita cited a lack of support for enacting her planned reforms but did not reference the recent report out of Ukraine about a Russian missile crossing over Moldova's airspace on early Friday.

That report came from General Valeriy Zaluzhny, the commander-in-chief of Ukraine's armed forces, who announced that two Russian missiles were launched from the Black Sea and passed over the borders of Moldova and Romania before re-entering Ukraine.

Romania, a member of NATO, later said a Russian missile had not crossed over borders. However, Moldova said that one of Putin's missiles violated its airspace. As a result, Moldovan Foreign Minister Nicu Popescu summoned Russia's ambassador to Moldova over what he called an "unacceptable" incident.

https://www.newsweek.com/ukraine-loses-ally-after-warning-that-putin-p
lanned-destroy-moldova-1780423

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Friday, February 10, 2023 5:21 PM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

The Russian journalist who grabbed the world's attention last year when she protested against the war in Ukraine on live Russian state television, described her "extraordinary" escape to France on Friday.

Marina Ovsyannikova, who was facing 10 years in prison, fled Russia in October just before being sentenced.

The former editor at Channel One made global headlines in March when she barged onto the set of its flagship Vremya evening news program, holding a poster reading "No War."

She was assisted in her escape by the France-based Reporters Without Borders, using seven different vehicles and walking across the border into a forest at night.

"We had to navigate by the stars and it was a real challenge," she told a press conference at the RSF headquarters in Paris.

"We were hiding from the lights of border guards and tractors that were circulating but we finally succeeded and reached the border."

The 44-year-old mother of two, who had been under house arrest and had to cut through an electronic bracelet during her escape, said she had been reluctant to leave Russia.

"It was still my country, even if war criminals have taken power, but they didn't give me a choice — it was either prison or emigration," she said.

More at https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2023/02/10/russian-journalist-who-made-
anti-war-protest-on-tv-describes-escape-to-france-a80202

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Saturday, February 11, 2023 6:27 AM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

Russia State TV Says Eliminating U.S. Military Is Ultimate Goal

A Russian political scientist said on state television that the "denazification and demilitarization" of the U.S. is Russia's ultimate goal.

Speaking on the Russia 1 channel, Yevgeny Satanovsky, president of the Middle East Institute in Moscow, called for the "de-Americanization of Eurasia," including the withdrawal of military assets from NATO members close to the Russian border.

"I once talked about the de-Americanization of Eurasia," Satanovsky said on February 9. "The withdrawal to that security border—the NATO borders of 1997—about which was talked at the end of the year before last [2021], before the [special military operation] began."

He added: "No, this is no longer Russia's security. Today it is not security at all. Security is the absence of American military bases and nuclear weapons from Lisbon to Tokyo, to Okinawa."

Russia has claimed that a 1997 agreement between Russia and NATO prohibited the establishment of military bases in ex-Soviet nations, but analysts say this is a myth perpetuated by Kremlin propaganda. Since then, 14 nations have joined NATO, including many Baltic states that were formerly under communist rule.

Satanovsky continued, saying America "shouldn't be in Eurasia, and those bases shouldn't be there too. There shouldn't be a single point where these guys can start concentrating troops and creep up on our borders, concentrating nukes and bringing them to our borders. There shouldn't be any. That's the first goal."

Russian propaganda has used the Western defensive arming of Ukraine as justification for its claim that the battle was ultimately with NATO and the West. However, NATO has explicitly stated that claims it's at war with Russia are a "myth," including that NATO poses an aggressive threat to Moscow.

Satanovsky said that the removal of American arms from Europe and Asia was just one goal of the Russian state.

"Right now, I'm not talking about the denazification and demilitarization of the United States," he said. "But generally speaking, this is also a goal because the de-Americanization of world politics is an important task."

https://www.newsweek.com/russia-state-tv-eliminating-american-military
-ultimate-goal-1780330

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Saturday, February 11, 2023 6:42 AM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

Quote:
Satanovsky continued, saying America "shouldn't be in Eurasia, and those bases shouldn't be there too. There shouldn't be a single point where these guys can start concentrating troops and creep up on our borders, concentrating nukes and bringing them to our borders. There shouldn't be any. That's the first goal."

https://www.newsweek.com/russia-state-tv-eliminating-american-military
-ultimate-goal-1780330

What is odd about Russia's worry that NATO is creeping up to Russia's border with nukes is that nukes work very quickly when fired from 1,600 miles away. Distance means nothing:

The dates that Russian President Vladimir Putin is expected to launch an ‘unstoppable’ nuclear Satan-2 missile have been revealed. Its reach is capable of destroying the United Kingdom within six minutes, even from a distance of 1,600 miles.

Putin is readying the missile to shock the West, as he plans to test launch his 208-tonne hypersonic Satan-2 apocalypse missile within days.

The firing of the explosive, which is capable of carrying nuclear warheads, may coincide with the anniversary of the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which began on February 24, 2022.

Reportedly, military insiders say that they have been warned to expect the launch of the “unstoppable” Satan-2 missile between February 15 and 25.

It has also been suggested on the MilitaryRussia.ru Telegram channel that Putin could stage test launches of the Bulava or Yars, which is a development of the Topol missile.

Previously, the intercontinental ballistic missile was hailed by the Russian despot as being able to fly over the North or South Poles and strike any target in the world.

Speaking about the missile in March 2018, during his state-of-the-nation speech, Putin said: “No defense systems will be able to withstand it.”

News of the tests follows reports that Russia is massing 1,800 tanks, 700 aircraft, and a whopping 500,000 men for a new Ukraine assault in just 10 days, according to a Ukrainian official.

Foreign Policy has also reported that Putin is also gathering 2,700 artillery guns and 810 rocket launchers for a “new wave of attacks”.

An official added: “It’s much bigger than what took place in the first wave.”

https://www.independent.co.uk/world/putin-nuclear-satan2-russia-ukrain
e-b2279633.html

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Saturday, February 11, 2023 3:48 PM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

https://www.ft.com/content/d52bcb07-ba5f-4ffd-a919-53bcf9085690

Now that Europe is getting used to living without Russian gas why would they ever go back?

Russian president Vladimir Putin has “lost the energy war” and the worst of the European gas and power crisis has passed, according to Pierre Andurand, one of the world’s top-performing traders in the sector.

Andurand, whose energy focused hedge funds have enjoyed three bumper years of returns during the coronavirus pandemic, said he had closed out all his positions in natural gas markets because last year’s price surge to record levels was unlikely to be repeated, with Europe learning rapidly to live without Russian gas.

Deep cuts to Russian gas exports in retaliation for western support for Ukraine drove the European benchmark price above €300 a megawatt hour in August, more than 10 times its normal level. But in recent months it has tumbled back to about €50/MWh — still historically high but far more manageable for European economies mired in a cost of living crisis.

“I think Putin lost the energy war,” Andurand said in an interview with the Financial Times. “Very high natural gas and power prices in Europe were extremely bad for the world economy but now they have come back to a more reasonable level. If gas prices stay here there will be much less worry about inflation and interest rates rises. There’s no more fear of an energy crisis.

“Now that Europe is getting used to living without Russian gas why would they ever go back?” he added.

If correct, the French kick-boxing enthusiast’s call spells the end of one of the most lucrative hedge fund trades of recent years. Some managers made significant profits from rocketing European gas prices after Russia began squeezing supplies to Europe in 2021 before slashing exports after its full-scale invasion of Ukraine last February.

Andurand, whose firm Andurand Capital manages $1.4bn in assets, saw his Commodities Discretionary Enhanced fund gain some 650 per cent from the start of 2020 until the end of last year. The former Goldman Sachs and Vitol energy trader made his name by calling many of the big moves in oil and other energy commodities over the past two decades, including oil prices turning negative during the early stages of the coronavirus pandemic.

Andurand, whose fund is down 3 per cent so far in 2023, said Putin had erred in cutting gas exports to Europe last year, as although he succeeded in driving prices higher temporarily he had underestimated buyers’ ability to adapt.

“I think it was a massive miscalculation over who had the leverage by Putin, in the same way he miscalculated how Ukraine would fight back and the west would be united,” Andurand said.

“Russia has lost its biggest customer forever, and it will take at least a decade to bring enough pipelines [to redirect those gas sales] to Asia. Once Russia can only sell gas to China, Beijing will be in a position to decide the price.”

While Andurand argued the gas and power crisis was coming to an end, he still said there was the potential for big moves in the commodity for which he is best known. Oil prices, he said, had fallen too far in recent months and were set to rally as China’s economic rebound from the end of its zero-Covid policies accelerates.

Oil could hit $140 a barrel later in 2023, Andurand said, arguing that the market is taking too short-term a view, both because of losses suffered last year and also due to the growing dominance of multi-manager and quant hedge funds in it.

“The reopening of China is going to lead to a lot more oil demand growth than expected,” Andurand said, adding he had scaled back oil positions in the second half of last year as prices fell, but had upped his bets in mid-December.

“It might take a couple of months for the market to recognise the scale of the demand increase we’re seeing,” he added, arguing that Chinese-led global consumption could rise by as much as 4mn barrels a day this year compared with just over 1mn b/d average annual growth normally.

“That would mean really large inventory draws and the market will get very tight,” Andurand said, adding that $140 was “not a crazy high price” once adjusted for inflation as oil’s all-time peak of $147 a barrel was 15 years ago.

Oil briefly surged to $139 a barrel last year shortly after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, but has fallen back to $83 a barrel after it became clear the effect of western sanctions on the volume of Moscow’s oil exports had been limited.

Andurand said he was not counting on the recent tightening of western sanctions on Russia to boost the price as he predicted the measures were unlikely to remove too many barrels from the market, with Moscow choosing to sell its oil at a discount to attract new customers in Asia.

“I don’t want to bet on a large supply disruption from Russia as they have shown a willingness to move the barrels even if at very low prices,” Andurand said.

“My base case is we won’t have a major supply disruption from Russia and I’m focusing more on what China and Asia’s reopening means overall.”

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Saturday, February 11, 2023 5:51 PM

THG

Quote:
Originally posted by second:

Russia State TV Says Eliminating U.S. Military Is Ultimate Goal

Did they say when they were going to get started? They better start now because Ukraine has already destroyed at Leat half the Russian army. Another month or two and they won't have an army to fight with.

T

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Saturday, February 11, 2023 6:38 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Quote:
Whitney: Stuff You Should Know About Ukraine
Saturday, Feb 11, 2023 - 04:00 AM

Authored by Mike Whitney,

On February 16, 2022, a full week before Putin sent combat troops into Ukraine, the Ukrainian Army began the heavy bombardment of the area (in east Ukraine) occupied by mainly ethnic Russians.

Officials from the Observer Mission of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) were located in the vicinity at the time and kept a record of the shelling as it took place. What the OSCE discovered was that the bombardment dramatically intensified as the week went on until it reached a peak on February 19, when a total of 2,026 artillery strikes were recorded.

That's over 2000 artillery strikes in one day. On a civilian atea.

Quote:
Keep in mind, the Ukrainian Army was, in fact, shelling civilian areas along the Line of Contact that were occupied by other Ukrainians.

We want to emphasize that the officials from the OSCE were operating in their professional capacity gathering first-hand evidence of shelling in the area. What their data shows is that Ukrainian Forces were bombing and killing their own people. This has all been documented and has not been challenged.

So, the question we must all ask ourselves is this: Is the bombardment and slaughter of one’s own people an ‘act of war’?

We think it is. And if we are right, then we must logically assume that the war began before the Russian invasion (which was launched a full week later) We must also assume that Russia’s alleged “unprovoked aggression” was not unprovoked at all but was the appropriate humanitarian response to the deliberate killing of civilians. In order to argue that the Russian invasion was ‘not provoked’, we would have to say that firing over 4,000 artillery shells into towns and neighborhoods where women and children live, is not a provocation? Who will defend that point of view?

THUGR. SECOND. K2PO.

Quote:
No one, because it’s ~~absurd.~~

clear that THUR, SECOND, and K2PO are mental, emotional, and moral nobodies

Quote:
The killing of civilians in the Donbas was a clear provocation, a provocation that was aimed at goading Russia into a war. And –as we said earlier– the OSCE had monitors on the ground who provided full documentation of the shelling as it took place, which is as close to ironclad, eyewitness testimony as you’re going to get.

... it might not surprise you that most of the mainstream media completely omitted any coverage of the OSCE’s fact-finding activities in east Ukraine.

... The point we are trying to make is simple: The war in Ukraine was not launched by a tyrannical Russian leader (Putin) bent on rebuilding the Soviet Empire. ... In one [western] case, the storyline rests on speculation, conjecture and psychobabble; while in the other, the storyline is linked to actual events that took place on the ground and were catalogued by trained professionals in the field. In which version of events do you have more confidence?

THUGR, SECOND, and K2PO believe psychobabble and disinfo.

Quote:
And here’s something else that is typically excluded in the media’s selective coverage. Before Putin sent his tanks across the border into Ukraine, he invoked United Nations Article 51 which provides a legal justification for military intervention. Of course, the United States has done this numerous times to provide a fig leaf of legitimacy to its numerous military interventions. But, in this case, you can see where the so-called Responsibility To Protect (R2P) could actually be justified, after all, by most estimates, the Ukrainian army has killed over 14,000 ethnic Russians since the US-backed coup 8 years ago. If ever there was a situation in which a defensive military operation could be justified, this was it. But that still doesn’t fully explain why Putin invoked UN Article 51. For that, we turn to former weapons inspector Scott Ritter, who explained it like this:

Russian President Vladimir Putin, citing Article 51 as his authority, ordered what he called a 'special military operation'….
under Article 51, there can be no doubt as to the legitimacy of Russia’s contention that the Russian-speaking population of the Donbass had been subjected to a brutal eight-year-long bombardment that had killed thousands of people.… Moreover, Russia claims to have documentary proof that the Ukrainian Army was preparing for a massive military incursion into the Donbass which was pre-empted by the Russian-led 'special military operation.' [OSCE figures show an increase of government shelling of the area in the days before Russia moved in.]

..The bottom line is that Russia has set forth a cognizable claim under the doctrine of anticipatory collective self-defense, devised originally by the US and NATO, as it applies to Article 51 which is predicated on fact, not fiction.

While it might be in vogue for people, organizations, and governments in the West to embrace the knee-jerk conclusion that Russia’s military intervention constitutes a wanton violation of the United Nations Charter and, as such, constitutes an illegal war of aggression, the uncomfortable truth is that, of all the claims made regarding the legality of pre-emption under Article 51 of the United Nations Charter, Russia’s justification for invading Ukraine is on solid legal ground. (“Russia, Ukraine & the Law of War: Crime of Aggression”, Consortium News)

More at http://www.ronpaulinstitute.org/archives/featured-articles/2023/februa
ry/08/setting-the-record-straight-stuff-you-should-know-about-ukraine/

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

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Saturday, February 11, 2023 6:46 PM

THG

Comrade signym conveniently forgets Russia invaded Ukraine in 2014. Not in Feb. 2022. Too funny...

T

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Saturday, February 11, 2023 7:13 PM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:

More at http://www.ronpaulinstitute.org/archives/featured-articles/2023/februa
ry/08/setting-the-record-straight-stuff-you-should-know-about-ukraine/

"Bottom line: Russia did not start the war in Ukraine. That is a fake narrative. The responsibility lies with the Ukrainian Army and their leaders in Kiev." -- The Ron Paul Institute at the URL Signym extracted numerous quotes.

The bottom line is pants-on-fire false, Signym. And I know who Ron Paul is. The bottom line on him and his son, Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky, is too ugly to print.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Saturday, February 11, 2023 7:16 PM

You people are sad.

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

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

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Saturday, February 11, 2023 9:15 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

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

More at http://www.ronpaulinstitute.org/archives/featured-articles/2023/februa
ry/08/setting-the-record-straight-stuff-you-should-know-about-ukraine/
"Bottom line: Russia did not start the war in Ukraine. That is a fake narrative. The responsibility lies with the Ukrainian Army and their leaders in Kiev." -- The Ron Paul Institute at the URL Signym extracted numerous quotes.

The bottom line is pants-on-fire false, Signym. And I know who Ron Paul is. The bottom line on him and his son, Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky, is too ugly to print.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

.
WHAT is "too ugly to print", SECOND?

How about backing up your insinuations with some good old-fashioned libel?
Enquiring minds want to know!

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

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Saturday, February 11, 2023 9:37 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Quote:
Originally posted by THG:
Quote:
Originally posted by second:

Russia State TV Says Eliminating U.S. Military Is Ultimate Goal

Did they say when they were going to get started? They better start now because Ukraine has already destroyed at Leat half the Russian army. Another month or two and they won't have an army to fight with.

T
So, can we hold you to your prediction, THUGR? And what will you do when it doesn't come true? /snicker

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

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Saturday, February 11, 2023 9:40 PM

2 months, huh?

Tick Tock then, I guess!

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

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

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Sunday, February 12, 2023 7:22 AM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:

WHAT is "too ugly to print", SECOND?

How about backing up your insinuations with some good old-fashioned libel?
Inquiring minds want to know!

Ron Paul is a lying old man, not worth dissecting to reveal his lies. He has been working the political scene in Texas for decades. His smoother son has been lying, and getting elected to the US Senate in Kentucky. More interesting is why people in Texas and Kentucky (and in Russia) listen to and believe these kinds of people. Entire books and movies have been written about the fundamental weakness people have in believing falsehoods and allowing talented liars to take advantage of that weakness.

“The truth is not a requirement for what people believe. What people believe is what they want to believe, what they need to believe, what doesn't conflict with their more necessary load-bearing beliefs. Ultimately, what everybody around them believes.” - Aja Raden, Nothing Lasts Forever [2022] and the author of The Truth About Lies: The Illusion of Honesty and the Evolution of Deceit (2021). The 2022 movie on diamond rings/the De Beers Diamond Cartel is entertaining and so is the 2021 book about swindles and frauds.

Here is a particular story about a certain city and an old system of brand-new lies that are believed by Russians to be the truth:

Ukraine war: Belgorod locals live in fear but won't blame Putin

by Steve Rosenberg, BBC News, Belgorod

The sounds of war are becoming routine at this market a few miles inside Russia's border with Ukraine. I hear explosions in the distance. But no-one flinches.

Just meters away other stalls have been reduced to twisted metal. They were hit by a mortar a few days before.

At the time the market was shut, so no-one was hurt. But many stalls remain closed and there's only a handful of customers. Sandbags are stacked up outside some of the buildings.

In many parts of Russia this feels like a virtual war: a conflict being played out on television, far from home. But in Russia's Belgorod region war feels very real and very close.

Raisa Alexandrovna, who sells sweets here, has lost her sense of security.

"No-one's protecting us," Raisa tells me. "When people go home at night, they don't know if they'll still be in one piece in the morning."

Everyone I speak to at the market tells me they live in fear of Ukrainian shelling. But they omit to mention that it was their country that invaded Ukraine.

A number of stalls at the market have been hit by mortars

They confirm that, one year, ago, life here was quiet and peaceful. Yet, they decline to join the dots and blame the Kremlin for what has transpired.

"We had to start this military operation," Raisa insists. "It's the right thing. We just should have been better prepared for it. We should have drafted people into the army right away. So many of our young men are dying. There'll be no one left for our women to marry."

"But what about the Ukrainians who've been killed because of Russia's invasion?" I ask.

"Yes, people on both sides have been killed," replies Raisa. "But the minds of Ukrainians have been altered. A new generation has grown up there hating Russians. We need to re-educate them. Re-make them."

In the city of Belgorod, the regional capital, a giant letter 'Z' - the symbol of Russia's military operation - has been erected along a busy highway. In recent months there have been explosions, too, in Belgorod, including at the airport, an oil depot and an apparent strike on a power plant. Suddenly residents are having to think about where to take cover. Shelters have been opened in cellars and in basements of apartment blocks.

Belgorod is full of billboards and slogans supporting Russian soldiers

Conversations here run similar to those at the market, with most people telling me: yes, security only became a problem after the invasion, but, no, they don't blame the invasion itself. It's as if there's a psychological firewall preventing people from connecting the deteriorating security situation to the decision of their president.

If there is a firewall, patriotic messaging feeds it.

Staring down from billboards and advertising hoardings in Belgorod are the portraits of decorated Russian soldiers who've been fighting in Ukraine. The images and slogans encourage the public to rally round the flag.

"Thank you for your heroic deeds!" reads one poster.

"For the Motherland!" declares another.

"Everything for the front line! Everything for victory!"

"Believe in Yourself, but Live for Russia!"

In addition to the slogans on the street, there's also the propaganda on Russian state TV. From morning till night news bulletins and talk shows assure viewers that Russia is in the right; that Ukraine and the West are the aggressors and that in this conflict the very future of Russia is at stake.

In a Belgorod knitting shop, I get chatting to the owner. He clearly believes that, by criticising Russia, the West is pulling the wool over everyone's eyes.

"The West plays a negative role," he tells me. "It obviously wants to destroy Russia. We've seen that before. Under Adolf Hitler."

Outside the shop, law student Ksenya agrees.

"Ukraine is a Western puppet," Ksenya says, "and the West has always wanted to destroy Russia. Hitler wanted to grab our land. Who doesn't? We have such an enormous country."

Not everyone shares that view but few are willing to admit it in public.

"I don't believe I can influence the situation," says Ivan, further up the street. "I understand which country I'm living in and what the authorities have done to prevent ordinary people from expressing their opinions. Any such expression is dangerous."

Sandbags protect a number of buildings now throughout the Russian border town

References to Hitler are not accidental. You hear them all the time on Russian TV. To spark patriotic fervour and boost public support for the "special military operation," the Kremlin paints the war in Ukraine in similar colours as World War Two: as Russia fighting fascism, battling to defend the Motherland from foreign invaders.

The reality is very different. In 1941 Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union. In 2022 Vladimir Putin's Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

In wasteland outside Belgorod I see first-hand how connections to World War Two are being created. A group of armed men have agreed to meet me. They call themselves "Smersh" ("Death to Spies") after a notorious counter-intelligence unit created by Joseph Stalin in World War Two. They will not reveal their faces - or their names - but will talk briefly about their activities.

"At the moment we are training a territorial defence force for Belgorod region," one man says. "Some of those in training have experience in fighting. Some are former police and ex-military. They will defend Belgorod region if there is an attack on Russia. As for us, we will carry out any task the commander-in-chief may give us, in any town, anywhere in the world."

Ukrainians are Russians. They've just forgotten about it.

Among the men being trained is Evgeny Bakalo, a local writer and businessman. In Belgorod Evgeny has set up a support group for Ukrainians who've crossed into Russia to escape the war. Mr Bakalo's opinion of Ukraine chimes with the controversial views of President Putin.

"We're one people," he tells me. "Ukrainians are Russians. They've just forgotten about it."

A year of war and fierce Ukrainian resistance suggest the opposite: that now, more than at any other time in its post-Soviet history, the Ukrainian people value their sovereignty and independence and are determined not to be forced back into Moscow's orbit.

Meanwhile, Moscow continues to portray Ukrainian officials as neo-Nazis and Western governments as Nazi sympathisers: another reason for the Kremlin's frequent references to the 1940s.

Under President Putin, the national idea is constructed around World War Two - what most Russians refer to as the Great Patriotic War: both the Soviet Union's victory in that war, and the enormous human cost of that victory. It is a hugely emotive subject.

Olga's husband has volunteered to fight for Russia

Olga, who runs a church choir in Belgorod, tells me she is "very frightened" when the city is being shelled. When I suggest to her that this wouldn't be happening if the "special military operation" hadn't started, her immediate reaction is to reference World War Two.

"I return us to the Great Patriotic War," Olga tells me, "which was a time of great sacrifice. There are always sacrifices being made. When our men go off to fight they know they may be killed."

Olga's husband isn't at home. He's volunteered to fight in the "special military operation". She accepts the official view - the version of events that much of the world dismisses as the Kremlin's alternative reality.

"Russia didn't provoke this war," Olga tells me. "A Russian will give you the shirt off his back. Russia didn't attack Ukraine. Russians are peace-loving and generous."

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-64543618

Directions from Kharkiv, Ukraine to Belgorod, Russia (1 hr 29 min, 79.5 km)
https://goo.gl/maps/Ynt5fM4eGLgz7rv58

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Sunday, February 12, 2023 7:54 AM

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

WHAT is "too ugly to print", SECOND?

How about backing up your insinuations with some good old-fashioned libel?
Inquiring minds want to know!
Ron Paul is a lying old man, not worth dissecting to reveal his lies. He has been working the political scene in Texas for decades. His smoother son has been lying, and getting elected to the US Senate in Kentucky. More interesting is why people in Texas and Kentucky (and in Russia) listen to and believe these kinds of people. Entire books and movies have been written about the fundamental weakness people have in believing falsehoods and allowing talented liars to take advantage of that weakness.

“The truth is not a requirement for what people believe. What people believe is what they want to believe, what they need to believe, what doesn't conflict with their more necessary load-bearing beliefs.

Yup. That's Second in a nutshell.

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

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

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Sunday, February 12, 2023 10:07 AM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

Quote:
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:

Yup. That's Second in a nutshell.

In a nutshell: If your beliefs are true, you prosper. If your beliefs are false, you don’t. That includes not just you but entire families and entire nations. The Russians have many false beliefs and the Russians haven’t prospered. The Russians believe they have the greatest Army in the world, but that Army would have already won in Ukraine if that belief was true. The Russians still can win if their Army becomes truer to the Russians’ exaggerated beliefs about their Army. The Russian economy does not prosper. It is smaller than Canada's economy and Russians live in poverty compared to Canadians. If the world’s economy worked the way Russians incorrectly believe it works, Canadians would be far poorer than Russians because Canada is right next to the US, supposedly the main cause of all Russian problems.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Sunday, February 12, 2023 1:12 PM

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

Yup. That's Second in a nutshell.
In a nutshell: If your beliefs are true, you prosper.

That mean's they're true.

Thanks for confirming this.

Have fun at work tomorrow, honey. I'll let you know how my nap went.

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

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

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Sunday, February 12, 2023 1:15 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

"SECOND in a nutshell".
Well, that's where nuts are, innit?

*****
SECOND, yep, you resorted to good old-fashioned libel.

Since you lie about so many things why should I believe you about your "wealth"?
I think you're just some feckless twat posting from a psych ward.

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

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Sunday, February 12, 2023 3:32 PM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
"SECOND in a nutshell".
Well, that's where nuts are, innit?

*****
SECOND, yep, you resorted to good old-fashioned libel.

Since you lie about so many things why should I believe you about your "wealth"?
I think you're just some feckless twat posting from a psych ward.

If there is truth to the Russians' complaints about the US, then Canadians should be living in poverty compared to Russians. Are Canadians impoverished compared to Russians, Signym?

If there is truth in the Russians bragging about their Army, Russia would have already won in Ukraine. Has Russia won, Signym? Or does Russia need 6ix more months and then it will have won?

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Sunday, February 12, 2023 3:39 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
"SECOND in a nutshell".
Well, that's where nuts are, innit?

Only if you don't look in his drawers. You won't find any there.

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

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

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Sunday, February 12, 2023 3:45 PM