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

“The Ukrainians are defending the legal order established after the Second World War. They have performed the entire NATO mission of absorbing and reversing an attack by Russia with a tiny percentage of NATO military budgets and zero losses from NATO members. Ukrainians are making a war in the Pacific much less likely by demonstrating to China that offensive operations are harder than they seem. They have made nuclear war less likely by demonstrating that nuclear blackmail need not work. Ukraine is also fighting to restore its grain exports to Africa and Asia, where millions of people have been put at risk by Russia’s attack on the Ukrainian economy. Last but not least, Ukrainians are demonstrating that a democracy can defend itself.

(snip)

“This war will not end because of one sudden event, but nor will it go on indefinitely. When and how it ends depends largely on us, on what we do, on how much we help. Even if we did not care at all about Ukrainians (and we should), getting this war to end with a Ukrainian victory would be by far the best thing Americans could do for themselves. Indeed, I do not think that, in the history of US foreign relations, there has ever been a chance to secure so much for Americans with so little effort by Americans. I do hope we take that chance.”

https://angrybearblog.com/2023/09/ukraine-update

Read the full article here: https://snyder.substack.com/p/the-state-of-the-war

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

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Friday, September 8, 2023 9:17 AM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Quote:
0riginally posted by second:
“The Ukrainians are defending the legal order established after the Second World War.

By being inveigled into trying to ethnically cleanse their eastern oblasts and provoke Russia, thereby providing the west with an excuse for "sanctions from hell"?

Oh BTW I have news for you: If Russia miscalculated their first military approach, hoping to scare Kiev into negotiating, the collective west REALLY miscalcuated their sanctions! They really believed those sanctions would bring Russia to its knees, and just to make sure that Germany and other N EU nations couldn't negotaite their way around them, they blew up Nordstream. Well the sanctions haven't crippled Russia yet, but they HAVE bommeranged in the form of inflation and de-industrialization in the EU.

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They have performed the entire NATO mission of absorbing and reversing an attack by Russia with a tiny percentage of NATO military [bloated military] budgets

How many hundreds of billions of weapons in dollars/Euros has NATO sent to Ukraine since 2014? How many hundreds of billions of dollars/Euros has NATO send in direct cash assistance since 2014? What has happened to the European and UK economies as a result of sanctions ... oh, and blowing up Nordstream?
Try as I might, I can't find a total figure, and I don't have time to total it up, but I'll bet it's a over a trillion.

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and zero losses from NATO members.

Oh, baloney. There were NATO officials, officially from NATO, in those command centers that were blown up. NATO can't admit it, of course, bc they were there.

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Ukrainians are making a war in the Pacific much less likely by demonstrating to China that offensive operations are harder than they seem.

The only reason why this might be so is because the USA (and NATO) are currently occupied in Ukraine.

The prediction is that the collective west will cut Ukraine loose to focus on China, and we will do EVERYTHING possible to provoke war with China over Taiwan. Eventually, we will push hard enough on THEIR 'red lines', whether its flying our planes through their airspace or steaming our carrier groups though their waters or arming Taiwan with nuclear-capable missile installations, or regime-changing nations on China's border, or interfering again in Taiwanese elections. We'll do something to force China's hand.

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They have made nuclear war less likely by demonstrating that nuclear blackmail need not work.

China's nuclear policy, unlike Russia's, is 'no first use'.

Bet you didn't know that, did you?

That puts China in a vulnerable position. And of course, we'll never know whether China is fully committed to that policy until nuclear missiles are flying, but that also makes it MUCH less likely to portray China as a nuclear boogeyman. Unless, of course, you're OK with lying.

Quote:
Ukraine is also fighting to restore its grain exports to Africa and Asia

Again, I call bullshit

First of all, it's been heavily documented that Urkainian grain was almost completely absorbed BY EUROPE as ANIMAL FEED to keep food inflation lower than it might be otherwise, bc important elections are coming up* and inflation, which is already high there, is a politically sensitive topic. (*This year, Luxemburg Parliament, Polish Parliament, Swiss Federal, and Spanish general elections. Next year Finnish Presidential, Lithuanian Presidential, Belgian national Parliament, Austrian Natinal Parliament, and important regional parliaments in Germany). https://europeelects.eu/calendar/
Inflation in the EU region:
https://www.statista.com/statistics/225698/monthly-inflation-rate-in-e
u-countries/

Secondly, if the collective west was REALLY interested in the grain deal, they would have KEPT THEIR END OF THE BARGAIN, which was to reconnect Russia's agriculltural bank to the SWIFT, un-sanction Russian grain and fertilizer exports, and not use Odesse's ports and sea lanes for military purposes. All of these conditions are easily verified, but like the MINSK AGREEMENTS, the collective west had no intention whatsoever of keeping any of them. So, 'fuck it', said Russia.

Third, Russia is negotiating a separate grain export deal with Turkiye, and promised reduced cost or free gain the African nations. Pretty much cuts the EU out of the loop.

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here millions of people have been put at risk by Russia’s attack on the Ukrainian economy.

Already addressed.

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Last but not least, Ukrainians are demonstrating that a democracy can defend itself.

Except Ukraine is not a democracy, not even in the formal sense. Opposition parties and candidates have been banned and elections are suspended. People are being dragooned into fighting a war they don't want, and even males who fled Ukraine are going to be extradited back to Ukraine to improve raise the body count.

"Democracy"?

So far, this is a wall of bullshit.

Quote:
(snip) “This war will not end because of one sudden event, but nor will it go on indefinitely. When and how it ends depends largely on us on what we do, on how much we help.

It depends largely on Russia

Quote:
Even if we did not care at all about Ukrainians (and we should),

BUT WE DON'T. Otherwise we would have advised the Ukrainian government to sue for peace a long time ago instead of forcing them into our wet dream of some kind of half-assed "combined arms" offensive against heavily fortified Russian defenses in the south. But our interest has ALWAYS been Crimea and we are impelling Ukraine to fight for it, even if they have to roll over their own dead bodies and destroyed armored vehicles to do it.

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getting this war to end with a Ukrainian victory would be by far the best thing Americans could do for themselves.

Because... why? To demonstrate to the world that NATO is still a threat? That NATO is still relevant to our plans to destroy Russia or xfer our attentions to the Pacific?

Quote:
Indeed, I do not think that, in the history of US foreign relations, there has ever been a chance to secure so much for Americans with so little effort by Americans. I do hope we take that chance.”

This is a carefully-constructed load of manipulative hogwash. Nearly everything in it is counterfactual, and the parts that aren't are pure copium. Yep, angrybear, gonna flush you down the crapper!

https://angrybearblog.com/2023/09/ukraine-update
-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger

Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM

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Friday, September 8, 2023 9:29 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:

This is a carefully-constructed load of manipulative hogwash. Nearly everything in it is counterfactual, and the parts that aren't are pure copium. Yep, angrybear, gonna flush you down the crapper!

The state of the war, Thoughts from Kyiv

Timothy Snyder, Sep 7, 2023

Greetings from Kyiv. I have spent the last several days in Ukraine, here in the capital, and in the southerly regions of Odesa, Mykolaïv, and Kherson, trying to get a sense of the state of the war. I will write more about the experience, but I thought that it might be a good time to share my most general sense.

It is a crucial moment, partly because of what is happening, and partly because of our own sense of time. One and a half years is an awkward period for us. We might like to think that it can be brought to a rapid conclusion, with this or that offensive weapon. When the war does not quickly end, we jump to the idea that it is a “stalemate,” which is a situation that lasts forever. This is false, and serves as a kind of excuse not to figure out what is going on. This is a war that can be won, but only if we are patient enough to see the outlines and the opportunities.

Russia’s gains in this invasion were made almost entirely during its first few weeks, in February and March 2022. Those gains were largely possible thanks to the fact that Russia had seized the Crimean Peninsula in its earlier invasion of Ukraine in 2014. Over the course of 2022, Ukraine won the battles of Kyiv, Kharkiv, and Kherson, and took back about half of the territory Russia gained.

In the first half of 2023, Russia undertook an offensive that gained almost nothing but the city of Bakhmut. In the second half of this year Ukraine has undertaken a counter-offensive which has taken far more territory than did the Russian offensive, but which has not (yet) changed the overall strategic position (but could). In Russia, a military coup was attempted by Yevgeny Prigozhin, the leader of the mercenary group that took Bakhmut. He and Putin made a deal, after which Putin killed him. In a related development, Sergei Surovikin, probably the most capable Russian general, has been relieved of his command. Russia now has no meaningful offensive potential. Its strategy is to continue terror against civilians until Ukrainians can endure no longer. This, judging from my experience anyway, is not a tenable approach. On the other hand, Russia has had time to extensively fortify a long long of defense in the east and south, and to prepare for Ukrainian offensives. This makes Ukrainian offensives very difficult.

Ukraine did want to press forward last year, before the fortifications were built. It lacked the necessary weapons, and Elon Musk chose to cut Ukraine off from communications. That move likely extended the war. Because Musk’s decision was based on his internalization of Russian propaganda about nuclear war, and was accompanied by his repetition of that propaganda, he made a nuclear war more likely. If powerful men convey the message that just talking about nuclear war is enough to win conventional wars, then we will have more countries with nuclear weapons and more conventional wars that can escalate into nuclear ones. Ukraine has been resistant to this line of Russian fearmongering, fortunately for us all.

Ukraine did not have the arms it needed last year in part for the same reason: Americans allowed Russian propaganda to displace strategic calculation. By now, though, the American side has generally understood that Russia’s nuclear threat was a psychological operation meant to slow weapons deliveries. The United States and European partners have delivered arms to Ukraine, which has been absolutely indispensable. Historically speaking, though, the pace is slow. Fighter planes are coming, but a year late for the current offensive. So Ukrainians are now trying an offensive in conditions that American staff officers would find challenging. Americans take for granted economic superiority, prior destruction of logistics, and air supremacy, none of which describe the Ukrainian position. Ukrainians do not even have numerical superiority, let alone of the 3-1 or 5-1 variety that would be standard advice for an offensive.

The fighting this summer has been very hard and very costly for Ukraine, harder and costlier, I think, than it had to be. I visited wounded soldiers in a rehabilitation center earlier today; among the many feelings this aroused was some guilt that my people could have done more to protect these people. (If you want to protect them, consider a gift to Come Back Alive or United24 or Unite with Ukraine).

That said, Ukrainian territorial advances this summer have been sufficient to trigger a barrage of calls for a cease-fire from Kremlin-friendly voices. Given the way our media seems to work, these calls (rather than the events on the ground) sometimes seem to be the news. Pro-Kremlin op-eds smuggle in the assumption that Ukraine is not advancing, when in fact it is. The Kremlin allies make their case in terms of Ukrainian suffering, but never cite Ukrainians, nor the polling data that shows overwhelming support for the war.

There is zero reason to believe that the Kremlin would actually feel constrained by such an agreement in any place; it did not even begin to hold to the terms of the agreement after its last invasion, and in invading again Moscow has violated all of its agreements with Ukraine (while making clear that it does not consider Ukraine a state). Russian propagandists talking to Russian audiences do not hide that the goal is the destruction of the Ukrainian nation, and that a ceasefire would just be meant to buy time. Now that the nuclear bluff has largely worn itself out, Moscow has changed its approach, trying instead to make people believe that nothing is happening on the battlefield. Moscow’s hope is to motivate Ukraine’s allies to restrain Ukraine long enough for Russia to shift the balance of forces in its favor.

Ukraine is deploying its own long-range strike capability to destroy airplanes and logistics in Russian territory, which is a necessary condition for winning the war. This is an awkward development, since western partners don’t always think through how a war like this can be brought to an end. It ends when one side wins. The questions are who wins and under what conditions.

The American allies take the correct view that Ukraine to win must break through the Russian lines. But there are just not that many Ukrainians to throw into surges, and from a Ukrainian perspective those lives should be put at risk when the battlefield has been shaped. The notion of a breakthrough is also too narrowly defined. Even setting aside the value of life, which is what this war is all about, military history does show that battlefield victories are the final stage of a larger process that begins with logistics.

This war has brought an entirely new theory of what a defensive war means: fighting only on one’s own territory. This does not correspond to international law and has never made any sense. It is a bit like rooting for a basketball team but believing it should play without ever taking the ball past halfcourt, or rooting for a boxer but claiming he is not allowed to throw a punch after his opponent does. Had such a notion been in place in past wars, none of Ukraine’s partners would ever have won any of the wars they are proud of winning.

The voiced concern is that Russia could “escalate.” This argument is a triumph of Russian propaganda. None of Ukraine’s strikes across borders has done anything except reduce Russian capacity. None has led Russia to do things it was not already doing. The notion of “escalation” in this setting is a misunderstanding. In trying to undo Russian logistics, Ukraine is trying to end the war. Ukraine will not do in Russia most of the things Russia has done in Ukraine. It will not occupy or seize territory, it will not execute civilians, it will not build concentration camps and torture chambers. What it must be allowed to do, to have some chance of stopping those Russian practices in Ukraine, is to have the capacity to win the war. With every village that Ukraine takes back, we see the most important de-escalation: away from war crimes and genocide, towards something more like a normal life.

Victory will be difficult, but it is the relevant concept. I don’t know any Ukrainians at this point who have not lost a friend or a family member in this war. My friends now tend to have a certain dark circle around the eyes and a tendency to look into the middle distance. And yet the level of determination is very, very high. In the few days I have been here there have been missile attacks in or near both cities where I spent the night, a murderous Russian strike on a market, and a Russian attempt to cut off Ukrainian grain exports with missiles and drones. This is daily life — but it is Ukrainian daily life, not ours. The Ukrainians are doing all of the fighting; we are doing part of the funding. What Ukrainian resistance protects, though, extends far beyond Ukraine.

The Ukrainians are defending the legal order established after the Second World War. They have performed the entire NATO mission of absorbing and reversing an attack by Russia with a tiny percentage of NATO military budgets and zero losses from NATO members. Ukrainians are making a war in the Pacific much less likely by demonstrating to China that offensive operations are harder than they seem. They have made nuclear war less likely by demonstrating that nuclear blackmail need not work. Ukraine is also fighting to restore its grain exports to Africa and Asia, where millions of people have been put at risk by Russia’s attack on the Ukrainian economy. Last but not least, Ukrainians are demonstrating that a democracy can defend itself.

Ukrainians are delivering to us kinds of security that we could not attain on our own. I fear that we are taking these security gains for granted. (In my more cynical moments, I fear that some of us, perhaps even some presidential candidates, resent the Ukrainians precisely for helping us so much.)

This war will not end because of one sudden event, but nor will it go on indefinitely. When and how it ends depends largely on us, on what we do, on how much we help. Even if we did not care at all about Ukrainians (and we should), getting this war to end with a Ukrainian victory would be by far the best thing Americans could do for themselves. Indeed, I do not think that, in the history of US foreign relations, there has ever been a chance to secure so much for Americans with so little effort by Americans. I do hope we take that chance.

TS Kyiv 7 September

https://snyder.substack.com/p/the-state-of-the-war

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

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Friday, September 8, 2023 10:59 AM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:

This is a carefully-constructed load of manipulative hogwash. Nearly everything in it is counterfactual, and the parts that aren't are pure copium. Yep, angrybear, gonna flush you down the crapper!

SECOND; The state of the war, Thoughts from Kyiv

Timothy Snyder, Sep 7, 2023

Greetings from Kyiv. I have spent the last several days in Ukraine, here in the capital, and in the southerly regions of Odesa, Mykolaïv, and Kherson, trying to get a sense of the state of the war. I will write more about the experience, but I thought that it might be a good time to share my most general sense.

Oh goody. More maniuplative "man on the street" "observations".

Quote:
It is a crucial moment, partly because of what is happening, and partly because of our own sense of time. One and a half years is an awkward

AWKWARD?? This is an AWKAWRD time? It's 'awkward' bc the collecive west is running out of weapons it and money it can credibly funnel to Ukraine. The cupboard is bare, and the "allies" definitely don't want to become cannon fodder themselves.

Nobody could be that stupid as to believe this load of crap. Synder is a plant.

-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger

Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM

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Friday, September 8, 2023 11:15 AM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Quote:
US Intel Official: Media Misleading Americans About Ukraine’s Battlefield Success
Kyle Anzalone

In an interview with renowned reporter Seymour Hersh, https://seymourhersh.substack.com/p/why-putin-killed-prigozhin a US intelligence official scolded the media for misleading the American public about Ukraine’s battlefield failures during the Spring counteroffensive. The unnamed official additionally told Hersh he believes that Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the assassination of PMC Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin to deescalate tensions with NATO.

Responding to reports in recent weeks that Ukrainian forces were gaining momentum and recapturing territory, the official remarked, “Where are the reporters getting this stuff?” he asked. “There are stories talking about drunk Russian commanders while the Ukrainians are penetrating the three lines of Russian defense and will be able to work back to Mariupol.”

He continued, “The goal of Russia’s first line of defense was not to stop the Ukrainian offense, but to slow it down so if there was a Ukrainian advance, Russian commanders could bring in reserves to fortify the line.” The official added, “There is no evidence that Ukrainian forces have gotten past the first line. The American press is doing anything but honest reporting on the failure thus far of the offense.”

MORE AT https://news.antiwar.com/2023/09/07/us-intel-official-media-misleading
-americans-about-ukraines-battlefield-success/

-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger

Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM

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Friday, September 8, 2023 11:50 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:

Nobody could be that stupid as to believe this load of crap. Synder is a plant.

You misspelled Snyder so it is not surprising you could not find him or his books using Google:

https://www.google.com/search?q=Timothy+Snyder

Snyder is real and Signym is real crazy.

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

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Friday, September 8, 2023 12:50 PM

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

Prigozhin's March on Moscow
Ten lessons from a mutiny

by Timothy Snyder, Jun 25, 2023

How to understand Yevgeny Prigozhin's march on Moscow and its sudden end? Often there are plots without a coup; this seemed like a coup without a plot. Yet weird as the mercenary chief’s mutiny was, we can draw some conclusions from its course and from its conclusion.

1. Putin is not popular. All the opinion polling we have takes place in an environment where his power is seen as more or less inevitable and where answering the question the wrong way seems risky. But when Putin’s power was lifted, as when the city of Rostov-on-Don was seized by Wagner, no one seemed to mind. Reacting to Prigozhin's mutiny, some Russians were euphoric, and most seemed apathetic. What was not to be seen was anyone in any Russian city spontaneously expressing their personal support for Putin, let alone anyone taking any sort of personal risk on behalf of his regime.

The euphoria suggests to me that some Russians are ready to be ruled by a different exploitative regime. The apathy indicates that most Russians at this point just take for granted that they will be ruled by the gangster with the most guns, and will just go on with their daily lives regardless of who that gangster happens to be.

2. Prigozhin was a threat to Putin, because he does much the same things that Putin does, and leverages Putin's own assets. Both the Russian state itself and Prigozhin's mercenary firm Wagner are extractive regimes with large public relations and military arms.

The Putin regime exists, and the cities of Moscow and St. Petersburg are relatively wealthy, thanks to the colonial exploitation of hydrocarbon resources in Siberia. The wealth is held by a very few people, and the Russian population is treated to a regular spectacle of otherwise pointless war -- Ukraine, Syria, Ukraine again -- to distract attention from this basic state of affairs, and to convince them that there is some kind of external enemy that justifies it (hint: there really isn't).

Wagner functioned as a kind of intensification of the Russian state, doing the dirtiest work beyond Russia, not only in Syria and Ukraine but also in Africa. It was subsidized by the Russian state, but made its real money by extracting mineral resources on its own, especially in Africa. Unlike most of its other ventures, Wagner's war in Ukraine was a losing proposition. Prigozhin leveraged the desperation of Russia's propaganda for a victory by taking credit for victory at Bakhmut. That minor city was completely destroyed and abandoned by the time Wagner took it, at the cost of tens of thousands of Russian lives.

But because it was the only gain in Russia's horrifyingly costly but strategically senseless 2023 offensive, Bakhmut had to be portrayed by Putin's media as some kind of Stalingrad or Berlin. Prigozhin took advantage of this. He was able to direct the false glory to himself even as he then withdrew Wagner from Ukraine. Meanwhile he criticized the military commanders of the Russian Federation in increasingly vulgar terms, thereby preventing the Russian state (and Putin) from gaining much from the bloody spectacle of invaded Ukraine. In sum: Wagner was able to make the Putin regime work for it.

3. Prigozhin told the truth about the war. This has to be treated as a kind of self-serving accident: Prigozhin is a flamboyant and skilled liar and propagandist. But his pose in the days before his march on Moscow made the truth helpful to him. He wanted to occupy this position in Russian public opinion: the man who fought loyally for Russia and won Russia's only meaningful victory in 2023, in the teeth of the incompetence of the regime and the senselessness of the war itself.

I'm not sure enough attention has been paid to what Prigozhin said about Putin's motives for war: that it had nothing to do with NATO enlargement or Ukrainian aggression, and was simply a matter of wishing to dominate Ukraine, replace its regime with a Moscow-friendly politician (Viktor Medvedchuk), and then seize its resources and to satisfy the Russian elite. Given the way the Russian political system actually works, that has the ring of plausibility. Putin's various rationales are dramatically inconsistent with the way the Russian political system actually works.

4. Russia is far less secure than it was before invading Ukraine. This is a rather obvious point that many people aside from myself have been making, going all the way back the first invasion of 2014. There was never any reason to believe, from that point at the latest, that Putin cared about Russian national interests. If he had, he would never have begun a conflict that forced Russia to become subordinate to China, which is the only real threat on its borders. Any realist in Moscow concerned about the Russian state would seek to balance China and the West, rather than pursue a policy which had to alienate the West.

Putin was concerned that Ukraine might serve as a model. Unlike Russians, Ukrainians could vote and enjoyed freedom of speech and association. That was no threat to Russia, but it was to Putin's own power. Putin certainly saw Ukraine as an opportunity to generate a spectacle that would distract from his own regime's intense corruption, and to consolidate his own reputation as a leader who could gather in what he falsely portrayed as "Russian" lands. But none of this has anything to do with the security of Russia as a state or the wellbeing of Russians as a people.

The Putin of 2022 (much more than the Putin of 2014) seems to have believed his own propaganda, overestimating Russian power while dismissing the reality of the Ukrainian state and Ukrainian civil society -- something no realist would do. That meant that the second invasion failed, and that meant (as I wrote back in February 2022) that it would give an opportunity to a rival warlord. Prigozhin was that warlord and he took that opportunity. This might have all seemed abstract until he led his forces on a march to Moscow, downing six Russian helicopters and one plane, and stopping without ever having met meaningful resistance. To be sure, Wagner had many advantages, such as being seen as Russian by locals and knowing how local infrastructure worked. Nevertheless, Prigozhin's march shows that a small force would have little trouble reaching Moscow. That was not the case before most of the Russian armed forces were committed in Ukraine, where many of the best units essentially ceased to exist.

6 more lessons at https://snyder.substack.com/p/prigozhins-march-on-moscow

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

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Friday, September 8, 2023 1:25 PM

THG

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:

Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM

I see signym is confessing to living with a drunk. That explains where a lot of her anger comes from.

T

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Friday, September 8, 2023 2:07 PM

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

Elon Musk secretly ordered his engineers to turn off his company’s Starlink satellite communications network near the Crimean coast last year to disrupt a Ukrainian sneak attack on the Russian naval fleet, according to an excerpt adapted from Walter Isaacson’s new biography of the eccentric billionaire titled “Elon Musk.”

As Ukrainian submarine drones strapped with explosives approached the Russian fleet, they “lost connectivity and washed ashore harmlessly,” Isaacson writes.

Musk’s decision, which left Ukrainian officials begging him to turn the satellites back on, was driven by an acute fear that Russia would respond to a Ukrainian attack on Crimea with nuclear weapons, a fear driven home by Musk’s conversations with senior Russian officials, according to Isaacson, whose new book is set to be released by Simon & Schuster on September 12.

https://edition.cnn.com/2023/09/07/politics/elon-musk-biography-walter
-isaacson-ukraine-starlink/index.html

Here is Walter Isaacson's version:

Although he had readily supported Ukraine, he believed it was reckless for Ukraine to launch an attack on Crimea, which Russia had annexed in 2014....The [Russian] ambassador had explicitly told him that a Ukrainian attack on Crimea would lead to a nuclear response. Musk explained to me in great detail, as I stood behind the bleachers, the Russian laws and doctrines that decreed such a response.

Throughout the evening and into the night, he personally took charge of the situation. Allowing the use of Starlink for the attack, he concluded, could be a disaster for the world. So he secretly told his engineers to turn off coverage within 100 kilometers of the Crimean coast. As a result, when the Ukrainian drone subs got near the Russian fleet in Sevastopol, they lost connectivity and washed ashore harmlessly.

In Musk's version, he was asked to activate coverage around Crimea to support an "obvious" Ukrainian attack. In Isaacson's version, he deactivated coverage that already existed and didn't tell anyone. The attack went forward and failed.

There's a big difference between the two. Isaacson's version seems most likely to be the true one, which means Musk is lying to make himself look better. I'm surprised that more people haven't commented on this difference in their stories.

https://jabberwocking.com/did-elon-musk-deactivate-starlink-coverage-a
round-crimea/

Elon Musk forced a Ukrainian attack that had already been launched to fail, which is not the same thing as preventing the attack from happening.

Musk turned off StarLink coverage after the attack was launched without telling Ukraine so their resources are wasted and their plan exposed precisely aids the Russian cause.

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

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Friday, September 8, 2023 2:58 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:

Nobody could be that stupid as to believe this load of crap. Synder is a plant.

SECOND: You misspelled

typoed
Quote:
Snyder so it is not surprising you could not find him or his books using Google:

https://www.google.com/search?q=Timothy+Snyder

Snyder is real

Hey, plants are real people too! So now you micraggressed against plants everywhere, you bully!

-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger

Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM

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Friday, September 8, 2023 3:39 PM

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

Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM

I see signym is confessing to living with a drunk. That explains where a lot of her anger comes from.

T

Glad to see you're still alive, Ted.

I was worried about you.

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

How you do anything is how you do everything.

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Saturday, September 9, 2023 5:24 AM

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

Ammo sales from US are fueling the war in Ukraine

The planes were bound for Rzeszów, Poland. The ancient city sits at the foot of the Carpathian Mountains in southeastern Poland. It has a gleaming modern airport next to a major east-west freeway. From there, it’s barely 60 miles to the border with Ukraine.

It was an expensive journey. The trucking company’s bill for those 18 semis? $85,000. Chartering the two 747s? $625,000. Each.

But this shipment of .50-cal rounds was profitable for Battle Born Munitions, according to Brown.

The company purchased the 3 million rounds from Northrop Grumman at a bargain and resold them for more than double the price.

Retail prices for .50-caliber ammunition run roughly $5 per bullet. At that rate, the whole shipment would have been worth $15 million.

How many Russians will this kill? If 999 rounds miss out of every 1,000, that is 3,000 dead Russians, or $5,000 in ammo to kill one Russian. A competent gunner could aim much better, but how competent are the Ukrainians? As far as I can tell, not so competent. Even Imperial Stormtroopers from Star Wars are better marksmen.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/investigations/2023/09/07/war-in-u
kraine-private-ammunition-sales/70708811007/

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
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Saturday, September 9, 2023 5:29 AM

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

Russian President Vladimir Putin reiterated boilerplate rhetoric justifying the current war in Ukraine while commemorating a Soviet military victory during the Second World War on September 8. Putin claimed that soldiers of the Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics’ (DNR and LNR) militias inherited their courage and resilience from ancestors who fought to recapture Donbas in the Second World War and reamplified the narrative falsely portraying the current Ukrainian government as “Nazis.”[34] Putin’s September 8 speech is a continuation of the rhetoric from his September 5 speech invoking the memory of significant Soviet military victories to set ideological conditions for a prolonged war effort.[35]

https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/russian-offensive-campai
gn-assessment-september-8-2023

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
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Sunday, September 10, 2023 3:53 AM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

And I think there may a Russian offensive this winter that could bring the war to a quick close.

I'm seeing a lot of hopium and copium in western press, which makes me think they're deliberately trying to fool everyone. Yanno, like usual.

-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger

Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM

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Sunday, September 10, 2023 5:54 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:
And I think there may a Russian offensive this winter that could bring the war to a quick close.

I'm seeing a lot of hopium and copium in western press, which makes me think they're deliberately trying to fool everyone. Yanno, like usual.

Putin's general thinks the war will go on and on for years and years. No quick end, Signym. Just more and more war:

Russian General Admits Ukraine Just a 'Stepping Stone' to Invade Europe

A key Russian general whom Russian President Vladimir Putin promoted this week views the invasion of Ukraine as a mere "stepping stone" to further conflict with Europe.

Putin launched the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, sparking fears from many analysts that the Kremlin may have greater ambitions beyond taking control of its former Soviet neighbor. Russian commentators and lawmakers have often heightened those fears with their anti-North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) rhetoric throughout the war—routinely encouraging direct strikes on European and even American targets.

This week, Putin promoted Lieutenant General Andrey Mordvichev to the rank of Colonel-General. The military leader had already been serving in the role of commanding the Central Military District and Russian Central Grouping of Forces in Ukraine.

In a recent interview with Moscow's state-run Russia-1, a clip of which circulated widely on social media Saturday, Mordvichev said he believes Putin's war will last quite a long time and expand in the future.

"I think there's still plenty of time to spend. It is pointless to talk about a specified period. If we are talking about Eastern Europe, which we will have to, of course then it will be longer," the general said.

"Ukraine is only a stepping stone?" the interviewer then asked.

"Yes, absolutely. It is only the beginning," Mordvichev responded, who went on to say that the war "will not stop here."

Newsweek reached out to the Russian embassy via email for comment.

Ahead of the invasion of Ukraine, Putin laid out a vision to reconstitute the long-defunct Russian Empire's territories into a unified block. The Russian leader and his allies have repeatedly said they do not view Ukraine as independent from Russia, saying that the sovereign nation should be brought back under Moscow's control.

Some of Putin's allies have often floated the possibility of expanding the Kremlin's invasion into NATO countries, including Poland and several other Eastern European nations. Analysts have citied the Russian president's vision and the suggestions to expand the war from his various allies as worrying signs that Moscow could push its military efforts beyond Ukraine.

NATO leaders have defended their military and humanitarian aide to Ukraine, saying their aim is to prevent Putin from pushing his forces further west into Europe. Eastern European nations, such as Poland, have been some of Ukraine's loudest defenders as their leaders fear their borders could be next to be challenged by Putin's forces.

Russian leaders claim that their Ukraine invasion was defensive to prevent NATO's expansion, and to protect Russian-speakers in Ukraine from "genocide." They claim that Kyiv's government is led by Nazis, while also saying that Ukraine is too supportive of LGBTQ+ rights.

Many view the Nazi claim as particularly bizarre. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is Jewish, and is himself a native Russian-speaker. During his 2019 election campaign he drew criticism for his accent when he spoke Ukrainian. At the time when Zelensky won and took office, Ukraine's prime minister was also Jewish.

https://www.newsweek.com/russian-general-admits-ukraine-just-stepping-
stone-invade-europe-1825776

Putin Promotes General With Eye for Attacking Eastern Europe

LONGER AND LONGER
Shannon Vavra, National Security Reporter
Updated Sep. 08, 2023 1:04PM EDT /

Russian President Vladimir Putin promoted Lieutenant General Andrey Mordvichev to Colonel-General this week in a move that could provide alarming hints about the Kremlin’s plans for the future of the war in Ukraine. Mordvichev, who has been commanding the Central Military District and Russian Central Grouping of Forces in Ukraine, was recently quoted in an interview, which aired in late July, suggesting that Russia has plans to possibly expand the war in Ukraine to Eastern Europe. When asked about the length of the war in Ukraine, Mordvichev responded that he has an understanding that Russia has to attack Eastern Europe. “If we’re talking about Eastern Europe, which we’ll have to attack, it will be longer and longer,” Mordvichev said. When asked if Ukraine is “only an intermediate stage,” Mordvichev replied that Ukraine is just a stepping stone to other attacks. Putin likely promoted him to “reward loyalty and obedience to the senior Russian military command,” according to a report from the Institute for the Study of War. “Mordvichev may hold more of Putin’s favor than other military district commanders.”

https://www.thedailybeast.com/putin-promotes-general-andrey-mordvichev
-with-eye-for-attacking-eastern-europe

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
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Sunday, September 10, 2023 12:05 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
And I think there may a Russian offensive this winter that could bring the war to a quick close.

I'm seeing a lot of hopium and copium in western press, which makes me think they're deliberately trying to fool everyone. Yanno, like usual.

SECOND: "Putin's general thinks the war will go on and on for years and years. No quick end, Signym. Just more and more war:

Russian General Admits Ukraine Just a 'Stepping Stone' to Invade Europe

Translation: Russian General ALSO sees a near-term end to Ukraine as we know it

Quote:
A key Russian general whom Russian President Vladimir Putin promoted this week views the invasion of Ukraine as a mere "stepping stone" to further conflict with Europe.

Translation: Unless the collective west takes Russian border security SERIOUSLY, items which have been expressly stated since 2007 (NATO expansion, USA missile installations on Russia's western border) and most recently explicitly stated Dec 2021 (and ignored by the west) then expect more military action.

*****

After
* having had the promise not to expand NATO "one inch eastward" broken (1991)

* having Ukraine and Georgia invited into NATO in 2008

* seeing a coup engineered in Ukraine in 2014 (and other attempts in neighboring nations)

* watching the west arm Kiev while it ethnically cleansed its eastern oblasts,

* being diddled for 7 years with the Minsk agreements by Kiev, France, and Germany.

* having contract after contract broken (destruction blessed by EU courts) and its pipelines blown up,

* being the subject of "sanctions from hell",

* watching BoJo (and the west) press Zelensky into reneging on peace deal initialed in March 2022 ...

* being diddled on "The Grain Deal" which the west never intended to honor and

* watching the USA successively withdraw from nuclear treaties
...
Russia has learned that the collective west can't be trusted, is 'not agreement capable' AND ONLY RESPONDS TO MILITARY FORCE.

Yanno, tough luck for the EU who are led mostly by mush-brains, and tough luck for the us, the USA. But like with China, we brought this on ourselves by assuming we (NATO) could roll over Russia like we rolled over everyone else. We will be economically bleeding endlessly over this, and if we're not careful a lot of actual American blood will be spilled.

My only hope is that there still are some realists hiding in their offices somewhere in the vast USA military, political, foreign affairs, and spook agencies who will one day have a come to Jesus moment and see the error of our ways.

Russia didn't want to be our enemy, but we made it so. Maybe some time in the distant future, we can learn to let our hubris go and deal with other nations even-handedly instead of as vassals or enemies, or hollywoodesque "good guys" and "bad guys" (us being the main "good guy", of course!)

-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger

Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM

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Sunday, September 10, 2023 4:08 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:

Russia didn't want to be our enemy, but we made it so. Maybe some time in the distant future, we can learn to let our hubris go and deal with other nations even-handedly instead of as vassals or enemies, or hollywoodesque "good guys" and "bad guys" (us being the main "good guy", of course!)

Russia-Ukraine war: Vladimir Putin has a new opposition and it’s furious at defeat in Ukraine

A loose coalition of far-right ideologues and militant extremists are spreading a dangerous “stab-in-the-back” myth to explain Russia’s crushing defeats.

Alexey Kovalev

Sep 15, 2022 – 8.00am

A new Russian protest movement is coalescing, but it’s neither pro-democracy nor anti-war. Instead, it’s the most extreme of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s supporters, who have grown increasingly furious at the unfolding military disaster for Russia in the six-month-long war in Ukraine.

They want Putin to escalate the war, use more devastating weapons, and hit Ukrainian civilians even more mercilessly. And they’ve openly attacked the Russian military and political leadership for supposedly holding back Russia’s full might – even as they rarely mention Putin by name.

Vladimir Putin is under pressure to use more brutal force in Ukraine from right-wing nationalists.

Their push to escalate the war, including widespread demands to use nuclear weapons, is dangerous in itself. But by creating a fantasy world in which a supposedly all-powerful Russian army is being defeated by domestic enemies – instead of by superior Ukrainian soldiers fighting for their own land with modern tactics and Western weapons – the movement has potentially disturbing implications for a postwar and possibly post-Putin Russia.

In fact, the narrative sounds a lot like the Dolchstosslegende, the German “stab-in-the-back” conspiracy theory that blamed the country’s defeat in World War I on nefarious enemies at home, including Jews. This narrative of military defeat became an integral part of the propaganda that brought the Nazis to power.

The promoters of the Russian stab-in-the-back myth aren’t a single party, movement, or group. Rather, the protesters are a loose coalition – mostly active online – of far-right ideologues, militant extremists, veterans of the 2014 Donbas war, Wagner Group mercenaries, bloggers, war reporters running their own Telegram channels, and individual Russian state media staff.

Some are soldiers or mercenaries fighting in Ukraine, and their channels have doubled as recruitment tools. Others already had a modest following before the war by promoting different causes, some obscure but mostly nationalist or right-wing issues: restoring the Soviet Union’s rule over Eastern Europe, building a new Russian empire, or promoting “Russia for the Russians.”

Their loyalty to the Kremlin varies from veneration of and complete submission to Putin as a god-like historical figure to activism in right-wing opposition movements. But unlike the Kremlin’s mouthpieces on state television and in its troll factories, members of this amorphous war escalation camp are united in their scathing criticism of Russia’s military campaign in Ukraine.
Nuclear strike on Kyiv

Their demand comes down to this: They want more war crimes – no mercy, no remorse, no pretense to even caring about civilian deaths until Ukraine is completely subdued and the very idea of Ukrainian-ness erased forever. Frustrated by the astonishing, unexpected defeat on Ukraine’s Kharkiv front, many pro-war bloggers demanded a swift retribution without regard for civilian deaths.

Some recommended a nuclear strike on Kyiv, Ukraine’s capital, to decapitate the government; popular blogger Maxim Fomin (who blogs as Vladlen Tatarsky), called for a nuclear warning strike against Ukraine’s Snake Island. Others called for “total war” against Ukraine’s civilian infrastructure. When the Russian military appeared to oblige by launching missiles at several Ukrainian cities’ electricity grids overnight, an orgy of gloating ensued on Russian pro-war channels.

The level of hatred and derision toward everything Ukrainian in their blog posts is difficult to convey. Ukrainians are described as illegal squatters on Russian imperial lands or followers of the Nazi bandits supposedly governing in Kyiv. Their cities must be “hammered into the Stone Age” while massacres against civilians are gleefully referred to as “pig-butchering.” Even as they throw the Nazi slur at Ukrainians, these Russians’ views are not only genocidal in ways that recall the worst crimes of the 20th century but also, in some cases, openly fascist or neo-Nazi.

Although most of these bloggers are unknown in the West – except to a small, dedicated circle of Russia-watchers – a few of them have caught the attention of the international press. Since they routinely point out Russian military failures in hopes of goading the Kremlin into escalating, some have become highly informative sources of unvarnished news from the front. As I write, I see Western war experts’ Twitter accounts full of detailed maps produced by pro-war Russians documenting the unfolding rout of Russian positions in the Kharkiv Oblast almost in real time while Ukrainian sources are several days behind in their statements in an attempt to preserve operational secrecy.

The bloggers, who spout their diatribe mainly via Telegram and YouTube, also stand in sharp contrast to the bland, content-free triumphalism of Russia’s state-owned airwaves. The best-known individual among the critics is Igor Girkin, known by his nom de guerre, Strelkov. He is a retired Federal Security Service officer and a Russian Civil War re-enactment aficionado who has proudly acknowledged he “pulled the trigger of [the 2014 Donbas] war” when he led a band of armed Russians across the Ukrainian border, seized the city of Slovyansk, and held it for some six weeks.

Macabre performance

By all accounts, Strelkov is a violent extremist and quite possibly a war criminal for carrying out extrajudicial killings in the occupied Donbas in 2014. But he has become much-quoted in the Western press – and even profiled – as a critic of Putin’s war strategy since April, when he openly said Russia’s retreat from the Kyiv suburbs and parts of northeastern Ukraine had made a Russian defeat inevitable.

On his Telegram channel, which has some 500,000 subscribers, and in his livestreams on the Russian social media network VKontakte, Strelkov has called Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu a “plywood general” and Russian Security Council deputy chair Dmitry Medvedev a bumbling fool. The lack of a countrywide military mobilisation, he said, is a major criminal oversight. But he has mostly steered clear of criticising Putin directly – not out of respect but only “until the war is over,” as he hinted in a recent post. That may be a reason why there have been no apparent attempts to silence him.

Ironically, some of the least palatable figures in Russia are now the most consistent and insightful critics of the Kremlin’s strategy – if for all the wrong reasons. One of them is Igor Mangushev, a senior manager at the Internet Research Agency, the troll factory in St. Petersburg, Russia, that was responsible for disinformation campaigns and interference in Western elections.

One of the most unapologetically genocidal supporters of Russia’s war in Ukraine, Mangushev recently gave a macabre performance in a Moscow club where he presented a human skull he said he had taken from a Ukrainian soldier killed in the bloody siege of Mariupol.

“We will burn down your homes, murder your families, take your children, and raise them as Russians” is a fairly typical post on his Telegram channel. He also claims credit for inventing the letter Z as the symbol of Russia’s invasion. Yet Mangushev has no love lost for Russia’s military brass and decision-makers in the Kremlin, constantly attacking them for what he says is their indecision and bureaucratic slumber, which he sees as the main obstacle to the war effort.

Equally indignant is Yevgeny Rasskazov, also known as Topaz and a member of the far-right Rusich mercenary unit associated with the Wagner Group. On April 20, Rasskazov posted what appeared to be a celebration of Adolf Hitler’s birthday without naming the former Nazi leader directly. After the Russians’ loss of Balakliya, a city in eastern Kharkiv Oblast, during last week’s surprise Ukrainian offensive, he mocked the Russian defence ministry for attempting to present the defeat as a “tactical feint.” In a monologue, Rasskazov listed all the things that, in his view, the Russian war machine lacks: honesty in admitting a local defeat, a fully reformed defence ministry, more skilled commanders, and a well-oiled military with better coordination among different branches of the military.

In attempting to explain the Russian military’s increasingly desperate situation in Ukraine, the pro-war camp is developing its own “stab-in-the-back” myth that echoes the German intrawar version. Already, voices such the ultra-conservative pundit and RT commentator Egor Kholmogorov are openly accusing the Russian top command of criminal incompetence and demanding purges.
Treacherous elites

The movement’s anger at treacherous “elites” – as of yet unnamed but almost universally reviled – is palpable. Although still marginal, there is even a new emerging subculture associated with the movement; for example, Bands of Veterans by singer Pavel Plamenev is a modern rock version of a 1920s German song, We Are Geyer’s Black Company, which became part of the official Nazi songbook. In Plamenev’s version, a Russian Donbas veteran returns from the war filled with rage, urging his fellow soldiers to burn the palaces of the rich and pass their wives around among the looters.

In a worrying sign for the Kremlin, the new pro-war opposition is increasingly turning to the same indignant anti-corruption messages that fuelled the opposition movement headed by now-jailed Russian dissident Alexey Navalny.

Surprisingly, considering the Kremlin’s accelerated crackdown on criticism since the start of the invasion in February, there have been no high-profile arrests of pro-war bloggers or even signs of censorship so far. The Kremlin couldn’t have missed these outbursts; a special monitoring department in the presidential administration watches Russian social media platforms closely and files daily reports to Putin’s aides.

Nonetheless, there are signs that Moscow recognises the problem and will seek to rein in the angry nationalists who are fast becoming what political scientist Tatiana Stanovaya calls “the most significant challenge to the Kremlin” since it crushed Navalny’s movement.

Whether or not the Kremlin now cracks down, the pro-war movement’s toxic narrative will take on a life of its own – especially if and when Russia loses the war, which is now all but inevitable.

As the disconnect between official propaganda about an easy, successful “special operation” and the reality of crushing defeat becomes clear, many Russians will be looking for someone to blame. Here, the German example is instructive, where the combination of defeat, national humiliation, and economic collapse was the fertile soil for right-wing, extremist movements that blamed domestic enemies, assassinated liberal politicians, stirred antisemitic hate, and swore revenge on the victorious World War I Allies. This was the vicious brew that Hitler fed on as he rose to power.

Russia’s inevitable defeat, deep economic malaise, and loss of great-power status at the hands of a country whose existence the Kremlin didn’t even recognise will be fertile ground for extremists. That counts double should Putin’s regime fall and a struggle for the future course of Russia ensue. If the pro-war nationalists searching for enemies to blame are the only opposition left in Russia, the world may be going down a dark and dangerous track.

Alexey Kovalev is an investigative editor at Meduza

https://www.afr.com/world/europe/putin-has-a-new-opposition-and-it-s-f
urious-at-defeat-in-ukraine-20220913-p5bhm5

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

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Sunday, September 10, 2023 6:31 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:

Russia didn't want to be our enemy, but we made it so. Maybe some time in the distant future, we can learn to let our hubris go and deal with other nations even-handedly instead of as vassals or enemies, or hollywoodesque "good guys" and "bad guys" (us being the main "good guy", of course!)

SECOND:
"Russia-Ukraine war: Vladimir Putin has a new opposition and it’s furious at defeat in Ukraine

A loose coalition of far-right ideologues and militant extremists are spreading a dangerous “stab-in-the-back” myth to explain Russia’s crushing defeats." It

Somebody is either delusional or joking.

I'm going with delusional.

-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger

Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM

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Sunday, September 10, 2023 6:58 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:

Somebody is either delusional or joking.

I'm going with delusional.

Signym, instead of writing Putin/Russian fan fiction, please use your talent to write Firefly fan fiction. The Firefly and Russian actors are real, but the stories both tell are fake. Because the stories were believable, I was sad for the actors when Firefly was canceled by Fox. What would they do with their lives? When the Russian War gets canceled by Ukraine, I won't be sad for the dead Russians because the stories Putin and Signym were telling weren't believable.

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

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Sunday, September 10, 2023 10:56 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

You're insane, SECOND.
And you spend way too much time finding and blast-posting walls of gibberish.

-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger

Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM

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Sunday, September 10, 2023 11:32 PM

Nobody gave a shit about Ukraine when all of this started.

Nobody gives a shit about Ukraine now.

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

How you do anything is how you do everything.

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Monday, September 11, 2023 12:10 AM

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

Ukraine's former Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov has warned the West that Russia's intentions towards Ukraine are far more sinister than mere conquest.

According to Reznikov, negotiations with Moscow will not bring peace, as Vladimir Putin is determined to completely destroy Ukraine and "assimilate" its citizens into the Russian Federation.

Reznikov states that any "deal" with the Kremlin would not end the conflict. Russia demands the recognition of Ukraine's occupied territories as its own in exchange for ending the war.

However, this is merely a tactic to buy time, regroup, and ultimately "solve the Ukrainian problem" using new resources. Russia does not recognize the existence of Ukraine and its people; its goal is the annihilation of the Ukrainian state and the assimilation of Ukrainians.

Drawing parallels with the events leading up to World War II, Reznikov compares the international demands in 1938 for Czechoslovakia to cede Sudetenland to Nazi Germany.

He argues that Putin's actions follow a similar pattern, and history shows that such concessions do not stop aggressors.

The situation is further complicated by the lack of "meaningful diplomacy" with Moscow, as stated by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

Despite some recent successes, Ukraine's counteroffensive has not yet liberated a significant portion of southern Ukraine occupied by Russia since last year's full-scale invasion.

Some Western allies have suggested that Ukraine may need to make territorial concessions to Russia in exchange for peace and NATO membership, a proposal that has sparked outrage in Kiev.

https://www.dagens.com/news/disturbing-revelation-putins-goal-is-not-t
o-conquer-ukraine

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

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Monday, September 11, 2023 12:14 AM

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

Ukraine reports significant blow to Russia: 600 Russian forces killed and party headquarters destroyed

Jakob A. Overgaard

According to official statements, approximately 600 Russian military personnel were neutralized in a single day. This recent event has added to the growing number of casualties since the conflict began in February 2022, bringing the total to a staggering 268,140.

The Mayor of Melitopol, Ivan Fedorov, further disclosed that the United Russia Political Party's main office in Polohy, Ukraine, was obliterated in an assault that took place on Friday. This information was corroborated by the Kyiv Independent. Fedorov, communicating through the Telegram messaging platform, mentioned that locals depicted the Russians as being "evicted" from the headquarters during the tumultuous "pseudo-elections" period.

In a somber note, Fedorov hinted at the aftermath of the attack, stating, "Some were rushed to medical facilities, while others were taken directly to the morgue."

The Ukrainian armed forces' general staff has been actively monitoring and estimating the number of Russian casualties. Their recent estimate aligns with the government's claim of 600 Russian personnel losses on that fateful Friday.

The destruction of the United Russia Political Party's headquarters is seen as a symbolic blow to Russia's influence in the region. The exact reasons and circumstances surrounding the attack remain unclear, but it underscores the volatile nature of the ongoing conflict between the two nations.

https://www.dagens.com/news/ukraine-reports-significant-blow-to-russia
-600-russian-forces-killed-and-party-headquarters-destroyed

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

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Monday, September 11, 2023 1:39 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Ukraine's former Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov has warned the West that Russia's intentions towards Ukraine are far more sinister than mere conquest.

According to Reznikov, negotiations with Moscow will not bring peace, as Vladimir Putin is determined to completely destroy Ukraine and "assimilate" its citizens into the Russian Federation.

Reznikov states that any "deal" with the Kremlin would not end the conflict. Russia demands the recognition of Ukraine's occupied territories as its own in exchange for ending the war.

However, this is merely a tactic to buy time, regroup, and ultimately "solve the Ukrainian problem" using new resources. Russia does not recognize the existence of Ukraine and its people; its goal is the annihilation of the Ukrainian state and the assimilation of Ukrainians.

Drawing parallels with the events leading up to World War II, Reznikov compares the international demands in 1938 for Czechoslovakia to cede Sudetenland to Nazi Germany.

He argues that Putin's actions follow a similar pattern, and history shows that such concessions do not stop aggressors.

The situation is further complicated by the lack of "meaningful diplomacy" with Moscow, as stated by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

Despite some recent successes, Ukraine's counteroffensive has not yet liberated a significant portion of southern Ukraine occupied by Russia since last year's full-scale invasion.

Some Western allies have suggested that Ukraine may need to make territorial concessions to Russia in exchange for peace and NATO membership, a proposal that has sparked outrage in Kiev.

https://www.dagens.com/news/disturbing-revelation-putins-goal-is-not-t
o-conquer-ukraine

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

BORG!

Fuck Ukraine.

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

How you do anything is how you do everything.

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Monday, September 11, 2023 2:41 AM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Ukraine's former Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov has warned the West that Russia's intentions towards Ukraine are far more sinister than mere conquest.

According to Reznikov...

And we're supposed to believe Reznikov because he has such a stellar history of honesty?
HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

Quote:
SECOND: Ukraine reports ....

Aaaaand.... That's as far as I got with THAT one, too! Ukraine ALSO 'reports' that they killed something like 268,000 Russians. And yet, neither the BBC nor Meduza can find all of those death notices or graves. Must be invisible as well as dead!

Dood, get new material....

---------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger

Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM

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Monday, September 11, 2023 6:18 AM

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

What the West Still Gets Wrong About Russia’s Military

Moscow’s Overlooked Manpower Problem—and How Washington Can Exploit It

By Zoltan Barany, September 8, 2023
https://www.foreignaffairs.com/russian-federation/what-west-still-gets
-wrong-about-russias-military

In the spring of 2022, as the West watched Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine unfold, one of the greatest surprises was what it revealed about Russian military strength. When the assault began, many Western leaders and analysts assumed that Ukraine would be quickly overpowered by Russia’s vast army, powerful air force, and deep reserves of major weaponry. Instead, Russia’s ground forces proved to be disorganized, poorly trained, and lacking crucial supply lines, while Russian planes failed to gain control of Ukrainian airspace. It took weeks for the West to fully recognize these weaknesses and help Ukraine exploit them.

In recent months, there has been a similar misreading. In the weeks after Ukraine’s slow counteroffensive began in June, many commentators dwelled on the strength and depth of Russian defenses. Some expressed pessimism about Ukraine’s ability to break through them at all; others warned that Moscow could order a second mobilization, bringing hundreds of thousands of new troops into combat. Yet by late August, Ukraine was making solid gains, with Biden administration officials acknowledging “notable” progress, including against Russia’s second line of defenses.

This pattern is not new. For decades, Western analysts and policymakers have consistently overrated Moscow’s military strength. In part, this has been the result of a lack of reliable information. Although Russia (and the Soviet Union before it) has fought in many wars, there have been few examples of Moscow facing off against resolute and well-armed enemies, and Russian propaganda and repression by the Kremlin have effectively limited independent analysis inside Russia. But another factor may be even more important: in assessing Russia’s strength, U.S. and other Western experts have tended to focus on quantitative assessments of weapons systems—tanks, planes, and missiles—and raw manpower, rather than on the qualitative and psychological characteristics that often determine a military’s performance on the battlefield.

In fact, on many qualitative measures, Russian forces have been woefully lacking. Moscow lacks the kind of highly trained officer corps that has proved essential to the world’s best armies. Relying in part on conscription that is imposed unequally across the population, it suffers from low troop morale. Many of Russia’s best young minds have sought to avoid service altogether or have fled the country. And because of Russia’s autocratic system and pervasive corruption, it has proved difficult to bring the kinds of innovation, adaptability, and versatility that tend to produce the best outcomes on the battlefield.

Paradoxically, the West is acutely aware of qualitative issues when assessing other militaries. Take the cases of Kuwait, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia. Although their per capita defense outlays are among the highest in the world, few analysts would rank the effectiveness of their armed forces at a similar level: it has long been demonstrated that they lack sufficient training, morale, discipline, and experience in operating under demanding and adverse conditions. Yet because of Russia’s historic reputation as a superpower, analysts have tended to view its armed forces differently, concentrating on material strength while neglecting crucial intangibles such as the quality and experience of its troops—and, more specifically, the way that Russia has built up its manpower. As a result, the United States and its allies may be foreclosing more effective policy responses to the war or even inhibiting Ukraine’s warfighting strategy.

SUPERPOWER OR SUPER HYPE?

The overestimation of Moscow’s military goes back at least to the mid-twentieth century. Following World War II, experts often overrated Soviet forces, with major consequences for U.S. national security policy and, particularly, defense spending. Perhaps the best known example was the so-called missile gap controversy of the late 1950s and early 1960s. Along with influential Cold War commentators such as Joseph Alsop, then Senator John F. Kennedy argued that the Eisenhower administration had become complacent about keeping up with Russian missile programs. During Kennedy’s presidency, his military advisers, fueled by that debate, seriously overestimated the quantity and quality of Soviet intercontinental ballistic missiles and advocated for increased defense spending, leading the Soviet leadership to conclude that Kennedy was a dangerous extremist. Much the same happened two decades later, in the early years of the Reagan administration: inaccurate assessments of Soviet military advances by the U.S. intelligence community pushed Washington to reevaluate its defense policies and increase military outlays.

Nor did this pattern end after the Cold War. Most Western security experts fully appreciated the decline of the Russian military after the failure of the Soviet war in Afghanistan and the collapse of the Soviet Union. But Moscow’s defense reforms, especially once the armed forces were rebooted in 2008, were misjudged by most Western military analysts. Many concluded that Russia’s military had developed powerful new weapons, improved training, and become an effective fighting force that could pose a serious challenge to the world’s top armies.

Those miscalculations, combined with other assessments over the past decade, led directly to the West’s overvaluation of the Russian armed forces’ likelihood of success in Ukraine. By 2022, most analysts believed that by possessing one of the largest standing armies in the world and having equipped it with a variety of sophisticated weapons systems, Russia would inevitably have a natural advantage over Ukraine’s much smaller defense forces.

Western analysts have been too ready to take information from Russia at face value.

Four reasons go a long way to explaining these misjudgments. First, Western military observers have tended to rest their assumptions on flawed evidence. For instance, many seemed to interpret Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014 and its intervention in Syria in 2015 as demonstrations of the success of its post-2008 defense reforms. In Crimea, however, there was almost no fighting involved and some of the local population was pro-Russian; and in Syria, Russia’s air force could carry out major bombing campaigns in the virtual absence of air defenses. In other words, these conflicts said little about how Russian forces would perform in a conventional land war against a resolute and well-armed enemy. It was thus surprising to many of these same analysts that Putin’s army was unable to take Kyiv in 48 hours in 2022. They had not accounted for the fact that Russia now faced the very different situation of a city of three million people spread out over 330 square miles and split by a large river with tributaries, and whose population was overwhelmingly hostile.

Second, Western analysts have been too ready to take information coming out of Russia at face value. For example, Russian reports about its large-scale military exercises convinced many security experts that Moscow’s army had vastly improved its logistics, communications systems, air support of ground operations, and, more generally, joint operations between different branches of the armed forces. Skepticism should have been warranted: Russian defense analysts could hardly be expected to admit that their country’s military reform was a failure or that corruption was a pervasive cancer on the system of armaments acquisition. Yet when Putin began massing troops on Ukraine’s border in late 2021, many Western analysts feared an overwhelming onslaught. A third problem relates to the nature of contacts between Russian military and security experts and their colleagues in the United States and NATO in the years before the war. These Russian experts, who cultivated ties to the West, tended to be urbane, westernized, multilingual, and smart, but they also had close ties to the Kremlin and supported official Russian narratives. Meanwhile, throughout Putin’s 23-year reign, his regime has imposed decades-long prison sentences on local defense analysts who have said things or published articles objectionable to the censors even if they enjoyed no access to classified materials.

Finally, but no less important, U.S. military experts have long given too much focus to weapons systems and new technology in Putin’s Russia. Since 2010, the Russian Ministry of Defense has organized annual large-scale exercises with tens of thousands of soldiers, featuring interservice combined-arms maneuvers, showing off the military’s new weapons and equipment, from high-tech personal communications systems to the Zircon scramjet-powered antiship hypersonic cruise missile. Observing these staged events, many Western observers concluded that Russia was building a modern, professional, and effective army. Thus, when Russian forces invaded Ukraine, many assumed that they would quickly subdue the second-largest country in Europe. Few paid close attention to the actual composition, training, and preparedness of Russian troops themselves.

MOTLEY CREW

The inherent weaknesses in Russia’s armed forces have much to do with the way that its manpower is organized. In most volunteer-based armies, joining the military generally provides an avenue of social mobility, secure livelihood, and lifelong benefits. Successful recruitment is also highly dependent on the state of the general economy: booming markets tend to make it harder for military recruiters to attract new soldiers. By contrast, conscription is impervious to the vagaries of the economy but, especially in dictatorships such as Russia, is rarely implemented fairly. Sons of the political and business elites and even of upper-middle-class families normally manage to avoid mandatory military service.

The contemporary Russian army relies on a hybrid system of voluntary contractors (kontraktniki) and conscripted soldiers. Although the Russian government would have preferred long ago to transition to an all-volunteer force, which would offer a professional force made up of soldiers who actually wanted to serve, it cannot afford to use volunteers to reach its target of 900,000 to 1,000,000 military professionals—including officers, noncommissioned officers (NCOs), and soldiers. Since Moscow’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine began in February 2022, it has needed to step up both the recruitment of paid volunteers and the conscription of draft-age men to satisfy its manpower requirements.

Lacking a critical mass of professionally trained NCOs, Russia is unable to fight effectively.

In the late 2010s, following military reforms, the Russian government set out to hire half a million contract soldiers, which were to be complemented by about 250,000 conscripts. But that number of contractors could not be reached, because salaries, while initially competitive, were quickly eroded by inflation. As economic opportunities improved elsewhere in the Russian economy, military recruiters were pursuing not only fewer but also increasingly less desirable soldiers. By March 2020 the Russian military was made up of approximately 405,000 kontraktniki and 225,000 conscripted soldiers—many of whom were very poorly trained. These figures were unlikely to have significantly changed before the invasion.

The hybrid structure also contributes to one of the enduring weaknesses of the Russian armed forces: the dearth of professional noncommissioned officers. In the world’s best armies, NCOs often serve as the backbone and are responsible for training the troops, operating sophisticated weapons systems, maintaining morale and discipline, and providing a vital link between officers and soldiers. In Russia’s case, however, there are relatively few professional, well-trained NCOs, for which Russia tends to use contractors. Moreover, Russia’s senior officers tend to refuse to delegate authority, robbing their younger colleagues of the chances to develop initiative and leadership qualities. As became clear after the invasion of Ukraine began, without a critical mass of properly trained NCOs Russia was unable to fight effectively. Its soldiers lacked guidance and discipline, and the refusal to delegate authority meant that high-ranking officers—including generals—were actively leading troops to the front, suffering numerous casualties. At least nine Russian generals have been killed in the war so far, an extraordinary number in any modern conflict.

Putin and his generals seem to recognize that the manpower requirements for the current, slow-grinding war of attrition they are fighting in Ukraine can be satisfied only through radical measures. One such step was Putin’s decision in September 2022 to mobilize 300,000 conscripts, many of whom were sent to the front with little training. The Kremlin has also been recruiting soldiers from Kyrgyzstan and other neighboring countries. And it has expanded the age limit for men eligible for the draft. One wonders if these measures will offset the tens of thousands of casualties and the loss of hundreds of thousands of military-age men—including many of the country’s best educated—who have fled since the invasion began. And these constraints come on top of Russia’s already unfavorable demographic trends.

RURAL, POOR, AND OLD

In theory, the volunteer portion of Russia’s armed forces should be strong. As in many other armies, volunteers serve in the military either because they are patriotic and enjoy the military discipline and lifestyle or because they come from socioeconomically disadvantaged groups for whom military service holds benefits that might not otherwise be available. In Russia’s case, however, the latter group has predominated, with the result that participation in the armed forces is highly uneven across the country and that men from rural areas and remote regions are vastly overrepresented. Although there are few signs of the ongoing war in Moscow and St. Petersburg, in faraway and poorer regions of the country the war is an ever-present reality, and it is not uncommon for men in advanced middle age to sign up. As a consequence, a growing portion of the Russian army is well beyond typical fighting age.

Soldiers’ pay has also distorted the composition of the army. To maintain recruitment since the war in Ukraine began, the government has made participation in the armed forces far more lucrative than it was before the invasion. By early 2023, the state was offering up to $2,600 per month for those willing to enlist, a salary that is several times over what ordinary people earn in small-town Russia. These wages are complemented by comprehensive social assistance including housing subsidies, guaranteed placement at universities, and lifelong veteran benefits. In July 2023 Dmitry Medvedev, the deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council, announced that 185,000 new recruits had joined the military, although it was unclear if this number included conscripts as well as volunteers.

Meanwhile, Russia has begun a recruitment campaign in Kazakhstan, home to about three million ethnic Russians. But Kazakh leaders have not endorsed Putin’s war, and the country’s laws—like those of other Central Asian republics—forbid its citizens from joining foreign armies. Furthermore, given Kazakhstan’s oil wealth and dynamic economy, it is questionable how many Kazakh citizens would put their lives on the line even for a one-off payment of 495,000 rubles ($5,300) and a monthly salary of at least 190,000 rubles ($2,000). Russian recruiters have targeted men from other Central Asian republics as well, for whom these service contracts are likely to be more enticing. In September 2022, Russia’s rubber-stamp legislature, the Duma, also made it easier for people who serve in the army to obtain Russian citizenship, shortening the service requirement from three years to one year.

It also remains unclear how effective mercenaries have been to the Russian campaign in Ukraine. Following the death of its leader, Yevgeny Prigozhin, the Wagner paramilitary company appears to be no longer a factor in Ukraine, although it remains highly active in Africa, thus aggravating the Russian military’s manpower challenges in Ukraine. The state has now moved to bring other private armies, which have been technically illegal in Russia, under its control. There are several of them, all with close ties to the Kremlin. They ostensibly function as security companies for oligarchs’ oil and gas business empires, but most of them have been fighting in Ukraine. Although mercenaries might be more motivated and effective soldiers, as the Wagner example has shown, they are far less likely to be subordinate to the official military command.

EASY COME, EASY GO

But undisciplined mercenaries and aging volunteers are only part of Russia’s challenge. A significant portion of its current manpower—about one-third—comes from conscripts. New legislation now prohibits military-age men from leaving the country. Draft notices are now sent out electronically and recipients must report to their local recruitment office within 20 days or face harsh penalties (including suspension of one’s driver’s license, ineligibility for bank loans, and a ban on registering real estate). At the same time, eligibility for conscription has been expanded from men between 18 and 27 years of age to men between 18 and 30 years of age, and the Duma has extended the maximum age at which reservists can be mobilized to 55 in the case of junior officers and 70 for the most senior officers.

According to official Russian accounts, these measures have produced the desired results. Thus, the June 2023 call-up supposedly yielded 140,000 conscripts, and volunteers have signed 117,000 new contracts in the first six months of the year. But some analysts, including Russian experts in exile, have estimated that the real numbers are likely far lower, perhaps even less than half of these figures. One indication of the government’s desperation for manpower has been its large-scale use of prison inmates for combat duty—an approach that dates to the Stalin era. In September 2022, Putin opened the way for convicts to join the armed forces in return for commuting their sentences and other potential benefits. According to some estimates, at least 40,000 convicts joined the military in the second half of 2022 alone. Wagner has stated that of the 49,000 former inmates it employed in Ukraine, 20 percent had died on the battlefield. By all accounts, convicts are treated even more severely than regular soldiers, but those who fulfilled their contractual obligations have been allowed to leave as free men.

Another factor that has helped obscure Russia’s actual military strength has been the Kremlin’s apparent lack of concern for casualties. Soviet and Russian political elites have traditionally displayed high tolerance of casualties. Since September 2022, when Putin’s government announced the unrealistically low figure of 5,937 Russian combat deaths, the Kremlin has offered no new data on Russian casualties. Owing to the dearth and unreliability of Russian figures, several Western, Ukrainian, and independent Russian sources have provided their own numbers, which are, by definition, speculative. U.S. officials estimated Russian war dead at 50,000 in May 2023, while the Center for Strategic and International Studies calculated 60,000–70,000 in the first year of war alone. An independent Russian outlet, Mediazona, released what may be the most rigorous and reliable estimate—based largely on inheritance data—and its figures are remarkably close to those of the U.S. government. Mediazona found that approximately 47,000 Russian men had died in Ukraine and an additional 78,000 were wounded so severely that they would be unable to return to combat. In other words, Russia has thus far lost some 125,000 soldiers—nearly equal to the size of its original invading force, and far more men than it has lost in all its other wars since World War II.

Russia has lost far more men in Ukraine than in all its other wars since World War II.

The Russian military’s lackadaisical attitude toward casualties is demonstrated in its general neglect of combat medicine. In the West, major advances have been made in bringing together wounded soldiers and critical care quickly—the so-called golden hour. But in the case of Russia, army doctors have been woefully underequipped and are often able to offer little more than first aid. This helps account for the dramatically lower survival rate of Russian casualties: where Ukraine has a wounded-to-killed ratio of seven to one, for Russia it remains just three to one. Although Russian psychologists have estimated that more than 100,000 veterans will need professional help to cope with mental health disorders, the country maintains just ten veterans’ hospitals, of which only one, with 32 beds, focuses on psychological rehabilitation.

Likely just as damaging to the military’s overall morale is the unequal demographics of who is getting killed. A wildly disproportionate number of those dying have come from the country’s ethnic minorities and rural populations. According to independent news outlets, for every Muscovite who dies fighting this war, more than 87 die who come from Dagestan, Russia’s southernmost republic; 275 who come from Buryatia, a republic in the Russian Far East; and 350 who come from Tuva, home to an Asian minority and Russia’s poorest region. The Kremlin is well aware that its manpower reserves are far greater than Ukraine’s and that dead soldiers can quickly be replaced. As Kusti Salm, Estonia’s deputy defense minister, has put it, “In Russia the life of a soldier is worth nothing.… All lost soldiers can be replaced, and the number of losses will not shift the public opinion against the war.”

RUSSIAN WEAKNESS, WESTERN OPPORTUNITY

The Russian military’s performance in Ukraine has not met the expectations of Western analysts, but those expectations were not based on realistic assumptions. Those who assessed the Russian military holistically, however, would hardly have been shocked at the low morale, poor training, and general sloppiness of its soldiers (evidenced even in such seemingly minor and yet consequential lapses as underinflating their military vehicles’ tires). Underlying these specific issues are the deep-seated despotism that underscores Russian military politics and the pervasive corruption that has sapped the strength of its armed forces.

The enduring misperception among Western analysts and officials of Russia’s military strength has serious consequences. In the early phases of the current war, it may well have tempered the support in Western capitals that Ukraine has so desperately needed. Uncritical acceptance of reports and data emanating from Moscow encouraged many to believe in the inevitability of Russia’s eventual victory. Yet the effectiveness of Russia’s troops is unlikely to improve as the war grinds on. Putin’s upcoming meeting with Kim Jong Un to discuss the possibility of North Korea supplying Moscow with arms may be a sign that the Kremlin is not optimistic about its ability to arm its soldiers with the weapons they need. By recognizing and ignoring Russian propaganda and instead studying and identifying the actual vulnerabilities of Russia’s military, the United States and its allies may be able to develop new and better approaches that could allow them to help Ukraine prevail and to hasten the end of the war, just as the United States did with the Soviets’ war in Afghanistan.

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

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Monday, September 11, 2023 6:30 AM

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

Victory at What Price in Ukraine?

By David Lapp-Jost
September 09, 2023

How many Ukrainian lives is full-out victory over Putin and recovery of the Donbas and southern Ukraine worth? 100,000? 500,000? A million? It´s a more relevant question than most realize. Despite the flurry of Ukraine War coverage in Western media, a February 2023 Responsible Science Journal article on the war with insight into the true human cost until now went almost completely without notice. https://www.sgr.org.uk/sites/default/files/2023-05/SGR_RS5_2023_Parkin
son1.pdf

That article asked an obvious question that almost everyone else seemingly intentionally avoids “how many Ukrainians have died as a result of this war?” and the likely answer was 150,000 excess deaths – deaths above the normal expected rate -- only by February of this year. One might expect this question in every article about the war – how many people are dying? To improve human security in Ukraine and prevent future conflicts, we need to ask new questions, scrutinize war in new ways, and reflect on what it means to work for peace.

More at https://www.realcleardefense.com/articles/2023/09/09/victory_at_what_p
rice_in_ukraine_978456.html

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

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Monday, September 11, 2023 7:34 AM

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

Ukraine collects Russian bodies on 'road of death'

Russia and Ukraine have conducted regular exchanges of prisoners of war, as well as the bodies of dead soldiers, since the Kremlin launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022.

Wearing face masks, the Ukrainian soldiers poked sticks into the undergrowth along a deserted country road, searching for the bodies of Russian soldiers they hoped to exchange for their own comrades, living and dead.

They called it the "road of death" after the number of Russian soldiers killed there when Ukrainian forces retook the southeastern village of Blahodatne at the start of their counteroffensive in June.

Three months on, the frontline had shifted south and it was finally safe enough for the three-man team of Ukrainian soldiers to start their operation in this liberated part of Donetsk region.

"We're going to search," said Volodymyr, a 50-year-old marine, as artillery fire boomed in the distance. "Search with our eyes. And using smell."

The route was dotted with gutted vehicles and shattered buildings. At one point, they used a rope to tug a body to make sure it had not been booby-trapped by retreating Russian forces.

The group recovered nine bodies in their day-long search on Friday. Each was loaded onto the back of a truck and taken for forensic examination.

Volodymyr said Russian forces had been forced to retreat rapidly from Blahodatne and that the only other route out had been unusable because it was heavily mined.

"There was probably an exchange of fire. But they retreated very quickly," he said.

"They left the wounded and killed on the way and escaped to Urozhaine. But they didn't stay in Urozhaine for long either. There was intense fighting for Urozhaine," he said, referring to a nearby village that was later retaken.

Retreating forces and prisoner exchanges

"Here's what we do. We gather up their bodies. We arrange exchanges for our prisoners who are alive. And for bodies. Our boys," Vasylii, a 53-year-old volunteer, said. "You know, so that a mother can go and visit the cemetery."

https://www.jpost.com/international/internationalrussia-ukraine-war/ar
ticle-758505

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

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Monday, September 11, 2023 1:01 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

From your article, SECOND:

Quote:
With tens of thousands of Ukrainians since dead, this adds up to maybe four to five times the Russian losses, based on estimated Russian excess deaths. Hundreds of thousands of healthy young people have been injured and/or traumatized in an already-poor health care system. Millions are live as refugees in Europe, with only 1/3rd of the refugees wanting to return to Ukraine despite impoverishment and vulnerability to sex exploitation. Ukraine´s birthrate has plummeted. Realistically hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians have already died and next winter may well again be very hard, perhaps even harder. War is crucifying Ukraine, and Ukraine may also be losing.

Russians report Ukrainian battlefield deaths based on (they say) radio intercepts of field officers reporting in to their commanders. (Of course, they don't report on their own deaths) That doesn't account for behind-the-line deaths from longer-range weapons like drones, artillery, rockets, and missiles which can't necessarily be observed or intercepted. It also doesn't count soldiers who died in hopsital later. I haven't totaled up Kremlin MoD reports, so all I have are estimates but people have claimed 200,000-400,000 Ukrainian soldiers killed since the start of the war, with about 60,000 just from the start of the "counteroffensive".

Meanwhile, using Russian death and inheritance notices and other tools, Meduza and Mediazone says

Quote:
According to their analysis, 25,000 more inheritance cases were opened in 2022 for males aged 15 to 49 than expected. By May 27, 2023, the number of excess cases had shot up to 47,000.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-07-11/ukraine-war-has-killed-about-50
000-russians-data-suggests/102587006

NOT the 460,000 that "Kiev says"! It almost seems to me that Kiev is actually reversing the numbers .... their "Russians killed" is actually "Ukrainians dead", and vice versa.

Various (realistic) estimates from various battlefields report anywhere from 4-10:1 ratio of Ukrainian deaths to Russian deaths. Probably closer to 5:1, but whatever the ratio clearly Ukraine is losing far more soldiers than Russia, and won't be able to keep the war going indefinitely because they've already run out of traditional 155 mm shells and sooner or later will run out of soldiers.

-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger

Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM

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Tuesday, September 12, 2023 4:29 AM

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

Wartime Russians Fall Back on an Ancient Survival Strategy

Conformism and acquiescence have a long tradition in a culture of chaos and repression.

Alexey Kovalev | Sept 10, 2023

https://foreignpolicy.com/2023/09/10/russia-war-putin-prisposoblenches
tvo-conformism-adapt-support-culture-history/

One of the strangest aspects of the mutiny that took an army of Wagner Group mercenaries almost to the gates of Moscow in June was the deafening silence of the vast majority of Russians. Even Russian media propagandists and other establishment figures—normally not shy in their demonstrative support for President Vladimir Putin—were mostly invisible for the day and a half that the mutiny was underway. When Putin subsequently praised the population’s cohesion in support of his regime, nothing could have been further from the truth.

Almost complete silence in the face of the most dramatic challenge to Putin since he took power might be hard for non-Russians to imagine. Just think, for example, of Americans reacting to the storming of the U.S. Capitol by supporters of former U.S. President Donald Trump in January 2021: They were either up in arms or loudly cheering.

But few Russians—or those familiar with Russian history and culture—were even a tiny bit surprised by a population scrupulously avoiding taking sides, waiting who would come out on top. That’s because for centuries, Russians have been masters of survival in times of repression, upheaval, chaos, or uncertainty, which have permeated and even defined so much of the country’s history.

In fact, they have a special word for their survival strategy: prisposoblenchestvo, which roughly translates to “adaptability to one’s surroundings.” (It’s a mouthful, but the approximate pronunciation is pris-pah-sah-BLEN-chest-vah.)

There is no single word in English that can adequately convey all the word’s subtleties when it is used by Russians. Acquiescence, conformism, opportunism, lying low, and avoidance of conflict only reflect some of its many aspects. What’s more, the evocative word is used almost exclusively to capture Russians’ behavior in their own country’s social and political context. In today’s Russia, not sticking your neck out during a possible power grab by a now-dead mercenary is, in fact, the best possible response.

The prisposoblenets—the person doing the adapting—is a stock character in classic Russian literature, just like the adventurer in 19th-century American novels. In literature, the prisposoblenets is almost always an antagonist, a lickspittle or craven turncoat whose purpose as a plot device is to contrast the protagonist’s passionate rigor or noble self-sacrifice.

Such is, for example, Alexey Molchalin, a character in Alexander Griboyedov’s Woe From Wit, an early-19th-century play that has been a standard part of the Russian school curriculum since Soviet times. In Act IV, Molchalin lays out his worldview:

Make yourself agreeable to all bar none.
The master and the mistress where you lodge,
Your employer, with the key to your promotion,
His servant, so he’ll put your clothes in order,
The doorman, the footman, and the porter,
To keep them sweet, in case they bear a grudge,
The porter’s dog, to stop his yapping.

Yet if excessive agreeableness and avoidance of conflict is an object of derision for authors such as Griboyedov, their fellow Russians often treat it as an existential necessity. Indeed, the concept is deeply embedded in Russian history: Under the despotic rulers that have dominated Russian and Soviet history for centuries, prisposoblenchestvo was an essential survival tactic, even if it often meant a choice between the bad and the terrible.

Russian Orthodox Patriarch Sergius I, for example, struck a pact with Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin in 1927, pledging loyalty to the young Soviet state. Attempting to preserve what little was left of his flock and clergy under an aggressively atheist regime, Sergius succeeded in preventing the church and its adherents from being completely exterminated—but at the cost of total subservience to the state and a bitter schism between the domestic church and its exiled believers. Sergius saw submission as the only way to save a remnant of the church, but his critics accused him of prisposoblenchestvo to save his job, skin, and remaining influence.

Prisposoblenchestvo, both as a survival tactic and object of derision, transcends generations and regimes. Early Soviet ideologues were unnerved by the lack of resistance among large parts of the population, suspecting the masses of going with the flow to preserve their private interests instead of wholeheartedly embracing the revolutionary collective. Half a century later, Soviet dissident thinkers formulated the derogatory archetype of the Homo sovieticus, whose main traits are passivity, submissiveness to authority, and survival through mimicry.

During the Putin era, these attitudes helped buttress the social contract between an increasingly authoritarian regime and Russian citizens, whereby the latter were willing to agree with whatever the government was doing in exchange for modest prosperity.

The dark side of this long-established survival tactic is that when words, symbols, and behaviors are little more than a uniform to slip into in order to blend in more effectively, nihilism reigns. If nothing really means anything and everyone just goes along to preserve their interests or merely survive, the result is an atomized society. It is one reason why Russia consistently scores the lowest in polls about the trust in the government, media, and civil society organizations.

But Russians’ willingness to adapt and go along has also enabled the Russian state, economy, and war machine to go on running. Hundreds of thousands of professionals—some of whom might be opposed to the regime and the war in private but are prisposoblentsy in their jobs—keep Russia running. At the tech giant Yandex, some employees reportedly consider themselves “hostages” to the regime, even as they do its bidding. Officials at the Russian Central Bank, who are making sure that Russia can finance its war, found solace in the parallels to Nazi central bank chief Hjalmar Schacht, who similarly kept the German economy and war machine running. He was acquitted at the Nuremberg trials after claiming that he did not share the Nazi’s values and was only doing his job.

The “I was only doing my job” excuse is yet another form of prisposoblenchestvo. Andrey Arkhangelsky, a Russian journalist in exile, noted in 2012 that in the ethical vacuum of post-Soviet Russia, Russians came to think of professionalism as unconstrained by any moral qualms. In Putin’s system, the state eventually became the dominant actor in the economy again, so managers and workers naturally served the government’s needs first and foremost.

There are very few exceptions that prove the rule. Those few include Marina Ovsyannikova, a producer for Russian state propaganda’s flagship Channel One who defected live during a news broadcast in March 2022, and her colleague Dmitry Likin, who cited his inability to align his values with the immoral war he was expected to promote.

Ironically, the same prisposoblenchestvo that is the foundation of Russians’ acquiescence to Putin’s regime simultaneously hinders Putin’s attempts to mobilize his country for his grand vision of imperial restoration and reconquest of Ukraine. With the exception of a small but vocal pro-war minority, it’s likely that most Russians simply adopt whatever seems to be the socially acceptable position on the war at the moment, regardless of their actual views.

Thus, it is not uncommon to see polls with more than 70 percent of Russians supporting the war—and similar numbers supporting peace negotiations to end it. If Putin were to make a U-turn and announce a different policy tomorrow, most Russians would quickly adapt. In all likelihood, support for the new goals would be similarly high.

As the war drags on, Russians’ prisposoblenchestvo manifests in new ways. People who were initially anti-war have adapted to Russian military setbacks and the possibility of defeat in Ukraine with a new attitude: “My country, right or wrong.” The war might be bad, but losing it is worse—that’s the sentiment running through an informal reader survey by Meduza, an exiled Russian independent media outlet. But make no mistake: The grim determination to stick with their motherland, however many atrocities it commits against a neighboring nation, betrays yet another tactic of avoidance. For these formerly anti-invasion and now pro-war Russians, prisposoblenchestvo offers an escape from an uncomfortable moral dilemma.

Alexey Kovalev is a Berlin-based investigative journalist. Twitter: @Alexey__Kovalev
https://www.google.com/search?q=Alexey+Kovalev

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
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Tuesday, September 12, 2023 4:38 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:

Various (realistic) estimates from various battlefields report anywhere from 4-10:1 ratio of Ukrainian deaths to Russian deaths. Probably closer to 5:1, but whatever the ratio clearly Ukraine is losing far more soldiers than Russia, and won't be able to keep the war going indefinitely because they've already run out of traditional 155 mm shells and sooner or later will run out of soldiers.

The ratio of Ukrainian deaths to Russian deaths was 1,000,000 to 1 during Holodomor, which is why Ukrainians fight Russians, now.

Holodomor
https://www.google.com/search?q=Holodomor

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
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Tuesday, September 12, 2023 9:55 AM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

As usual, you lie like a rug, SECOND.

Ukrainians WEREN'T all that crazy about joining NATO in 2007 -2008, according to polls taken then. They WEREN'T burning with anti-Russian feeling. They voted overwhelmingly for Zelenskiy because he promised unification with eastern (Russian-speaking) oblasts and peace with Russia. (Unfortunately, like most politicians, he lied.*)

Ukrainaians DON'T carry your overwhelming historical grudges. THAT'S YOU.

Aside from YOU saying it, there are no quotes from modern reportage that even mentions the Holdomor. Do you read about soldiers dying with "Remember the Holdomor!" on their lips?

Nah.... That's YOUR INVENTION. Whatever anti-Russian feelings have been whipped up since 2007, they're modern, and a result of western NGOs/ State Dept working in Ukraine.

You seem to think that everyone carries deep historical grudge. YANNO, LIKE YOU, constantly going back to the Confederacy, or Catherine the Great, or some long-dead historical figure who is no longer available to counter your tropes, memes, and disinfo.

So, not in touch with the here - and -now, ARE YOU, SECOND? Whipping up false narratives to whip up hate, are you, SECOND?

Of course you are!

Most soldiers fighting in Ukraine are fighting for, like most drafted soldiers everywhere, for their individual survival and (sometimes) their immediate squad/platoon. Altho at this point, given the loss rate, I doubt there is much squad/platoon cohension: Veteran soldiers look at new recruits and consistently say "Most of them will be dead in a few days/weeks" so I doubt there is much bonding going on.

And, of course, surrender is highly frowned on, and any Azov-style commissars will willingly shoot you in the back if your squad/ platoon/ company turns around or refuses orders. Yanno, maybe fragging would come back in style, except they're afraid to issue ammo too early to frontline soldiers bc they're too afraid they'll disable thmeselves by shooting themselves in the foor/leg, or checking out entirely and committing suicide. (According to quotes)

Save your catoonish POV for others, SECOND. Except for THUGR (who IMHO is unable to think beyond how he was conditioned) everybody here knows you're a liar. And, over time, they get to see how deeply you're saturated with lies.

*Yanno, you lie so easily, so often, and in such self-contradictory fashion, why are you wasting your time here? Go RUN FOR OFFICE. You've got everything it takes to be a successful politician.
Except YOU prefer to be string-puller. Don't you, SECOND?

-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger

Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM

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Tuesday, September 12, 2023 10:24 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:
As usual, you lie like a rug, SECOND.

Ukrainaians DON'T carry your overwhelming historical grudges. THAT'S YOU.

Aside from YOU saying it, there are no quotes from modern reportage that even mentions the Holdomor. Do you read about soldiers dying with "Remember the Holdomor!" on their lips?

Nah.... That's YOUR INVENTION. Whatever anti-Russian feelings have been whipped up since 2007, they're modern, and a result of western NGOs/ State Dept working in Ukraine.

First thing, learn how to spell Ukrainian, Signym.

Second thing, the Russians deny Holodomor happened, claiming it is a myth to make Russia look bad. The Ukrainians are well aware of what Russia did and it motivates them in the same way as the holocaust motivates Israel.

Signmy, please google Putin Holodomor because Putin is the biggest denier of Holodomor in Russia. https://www.google.com/search?q=putin+holodomor

Or read "Why does Russia still deny the Holodomor?"
https://holodomormuseum.org.ua/en/news/why-does-russia-still-deny-the-
holodomor/

The Ukrainians will continue to fight the Russians because the alternative is four million or more deaths of Ukrainians, which is what happened the previous time Russia conquered Ukraine during Holodomor.

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

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Tuesday, September 12, 2023 11:52 AM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

I don't give a fuck if Russians claim the Holdomor never happened*

That's NOT on Ukrainian's minds right now, and hasn't been for 50 years.

Stop propagnadizing, and get right with reality, SECOND.

*BTW that's NOT what Russia claims. As usual, you lie like a rug about that, too.

-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger

Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM

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Tuesday, September 12, 2023 2:41 PM

Fuck Ukraine.

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

How you do anything is how you do everything.

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Tuesday, September 12, 2023 3:29 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:
I don't give a fuck if Russians claim the Holdomor never happened*

That's NOT on Ukrainian's minds right now, and hasn't been for 50 years.

Stop propagnadizing, and get right with reality, SECOND.

Sure, Signym. The Ukrainians are Nazis and that is why they fight Russians, not because Russians have murdered four million Ukrainians and would do it again if the Ukrainians surrender.

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

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Tuesday, September 12, 2023 4:08 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Ukrainians are fighting bc once they're drafted they don't have much of a choice. Meanwhile, Kiev is busy drumming into civilian heads that Russia wants to "wipe Ukraine off the map and invade the rest of Europe".

Not true, stop lying.

-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger

Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM

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Tuesday, September 12, 2023 6:36 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:
Ukrainians are fighting bc once they're drafted they don't have much of a choice. Meanwhile, Kiev is busy drumming into civilian heads that Russia wants to "wipe Ukraine off the map and invade the rest of Europe".

Not true, stop lying.

Don't forget, Finland and Sweden joined NATO because those countries have leaders who are Nazis, same as the Nazi leaders of Ukraine. Sadly, the poor people are being drafted into an alliance that THEY DO NOT WANT, an alliance against their good friends in Russia. The Swedes and Finns will have no choice but to fight Russia.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
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Tuesday, September 12, 2023 8:09 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Yanno, if you were to learn some ACTUAL HISTORY (as opposed the the propaganda reel running continuously in your head) you would have learned that far from being "civilized democratic states" that respected "European values" and "human rights", MOST European states have a barbarous history of grabbing each other's territory (including invading Russia), fighting over religion, and capturing foreign colonies. Sweden and Poland-Lithuania figure into that!

Also, you would have learned that many modern European nations have STRONG PRO-NAZI histories, and that includes France, Italy, Sweden, Finland, Ukraine, Hungary, and Franco's Spain.

But mainly, the cabal of manipulators are busy pumping fear of "Soviet conquest" into people's heads.

Why Finland allied itself with Nazi Germany
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/feb/23/why-finland-allied-itsel
f-with-nazi-germany

****

So, no, Russia is not going to "wipe Ukraine off the map". After all, they need a viable neutral buffer state. And, no, Russia is not going to go ravening
thru Europe. They just really, really want to get those NATO missiles off their border.

You're a waste of CO2, you troll.

-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger

Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM

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Tuesday, September 12, 2023 8:50 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:

But mainly, the cabal of manipulators are busy pumping fear of "Soviet conquest" into people's heads.

It is Russia that pumped fear into Europe. Signym, you should have warned the Russians to not say these things on TV:

Russia general says Ukraine just ‘stepping stone’ to invade Europe: ‘Won’t stop'
By Mallika Soni, Sep 10, 2023 10:34 PM IST
https://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/russiaukraine-war-russian-ge
neral-says-ukraine-just-stepping-stone-to-invade-europe-101694364931943.html

Russia threatens to nuke
https://www.google.com/search?q=Russia+threatens+to+nuke

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
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Tuesday, September 12, 2023 10:27 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:

But mainly, the cabal of manipulators are busy pumping fear of "Soviet conquest" into people's heads.

SECOND: It is Russia that pumped fear into Europe. Signym, you should have warned the Russians to not say these things on TV:

Russia general says Ukraine just ‘stepping stone’ to invade Europe: ‘Won’t stop'
By Mallika Soni, Sep 10, 2023 10:34 PM IST

EXCEPT THAT'S NOT WHAT HE SAID.
YOUR constant misquotes, out of context snippets, projection, and mind- reading ('what he really meant to say..') are just part of your neverending disinfo campaign.

He used the word CONFLICT. "Conflict" can mean anything from WWIII with nuclear weapons to a dispute. Stop fear-mongering.

https://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/russiaukraine-war-russian-ge
neral-says-ukraine-just-stepping-stone-to-invade-europe-101694364931943.html

Quote:
Russia threatens to nuke
https://www.google.com/search?q=Russia+threatens+to+nuke

What YOU NOW CALL NUCLEAR BLACKMAIL WE USED TO CALL DETERRENCE. And we both counted on it to keep each other in check.

That's your fear-mongering again. You sound as obsessed with Russia as Auraptor sounded about Saddam's so-called WMD.

-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger

Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM

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Tuesday, September 12, 2023 11:10 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:

What YOU NOW CALL NUCLEAR BLACKMAIL WE USED TO CALL DETERRENCE. And we both counted on it to keep each other in check.

That's your fear-mongering again. You sound as obsessed with Russia as Auraptor sounded about Saddam's so-called WMD.

A former key adviser to Russian President Vladimir Putin threatened Britain with nuclear strikes in an interview with the BBC on Wednesday, shortly after Moscow announced a widespread mobilization of troops.

“In Russia there’s partial mobilization and for your British listeners Vladimir Putin told you that he would be ready to use nuclear weapons against Western countries, including nuclear weapons against Great Britain,” Sergei Markov told the BBC.

“Your cities will be targeted,” said the former Russian lawmaker, who serves as a key public defender of the Kremlin to the international press.

“Everybody in the world now is thinking of nuclear war,” Markov said, claiming that a potential escalation would be due to the “crazy behavior” of US President Joe Biden, as well the former and current British prime ministers Boris Johnson and Liz Truss.

“Biden, Johnson and Truss are fully responsible for the war in Ukraine,” he claimed, nearly seven months after Russia invaded its neighbor.

“It was absolutely clear that Russia has no war against Ukraine, Russia has no reason to use technical nuclear weapons against Ukrainians,” Markov said.

“Ukrainians are our brothers but Ukraine is occupied by Western countries and it’s Western countries fighting against the Russian army using Ukrainian soldiers as slaves,” Markov said. “[This] was the main idea of Vladimir Putin’s [speech], that’s why we need to have this partial mobilization.”

“Russia does not want everybody in the world to die, but what Russia wants is to solve this war with Western countries conducted against Russia on Ukrainian territory, which Western countries in fact occupy,” Markov said.

In response to Markov’s threat, Foreign Officer minister Gillian Keegan said “talk of nuclear war is completely unhelpful.”

Signym, you are as crazy as Sergei Markov.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/former-putin-adviser-threatens-nuclear-s
trikes-on-uk-your-cities-will-be-targeted/

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

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Tuesday, September 12, 2023 11:21 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Yes, SECOND, what is he saying???

"We will strike you IF YOU DO SOMETHING CRAZY."

YOU DUMB SHIT, THAT'S CALLED DETERRENCE.

And "crazy" has been delineated by Russia over and over. It's not some sort of hidden hoop or secret "fail" that we have to live in fear of.

Gawd you're dumb. Why don't you do the world a favor and stop wasting so much oxygen on fear-mongering and bullshit? Yanno, do something useful with all the CO2 you're exhaling? At least make a positive difference in the world?

-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger

Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM

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Tuesday, September 12, 2023 11:27 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:
Yes, SECOND, what is he saying???

“Ukrainians are our brothers but Ukraine is occupied by Western countries and it’s Western countries fighting against the Russian army using Ukrainian soldiers as slaves,” Markov said. “[This] was the main idea of Vladimir Putin’s [speech], that’s why we need to have this partial mobilization.”

“Russia does not want everybody in the world to die, but what Russia wants is to solve this war with Western countries conducted against Russia on Ukrainian territory, which Western countries in fact occupy,” Markov said.

You didn't comprehend what Markov said, Signym, but now you have a second chance to read his words.

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

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Wednesday, September 13, 2023 1:32 AM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Yes, SECOND, what is he saying???
“Ukrainians are our brothers but Ukraine is occupied by Western countries and it’s Western countries fighting against the Russian army using Ukrainian soldiers as slaves,” Markov said. “[This] was the main idea of Vladimir Putin’s [speech], that’s why we need to have this partial mobilization.”

“Russia does not want everybody in the world to die, but what Russia wants is to solve this war with Western countries conducted against Russia on Ukrainian territory, which Western countries in fact occupy,” Markov said.

You didn't comprehend what Markov said, Signym, but now you have a second chance to read his words.

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

No, YOU misrepresent what he said

Is it not true the we- the collective west- are at war with Russia thru our Ukrainian proxy?
Was it not YOU who posted we need to regime change Russia, break it apart and take its resources?
Or how about YOU portraying Russians as cannibalistic savages who haven't advance past orc-like status in 2000 years?
Do you read THAT coming from Markov about you?

Up your "reading with comprehension" skills, moron.
And go fuck yourself.

-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger

Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM

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Wednesday, September 13, 2023 4:47 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:
No, YOU misrepresent what he said

Russians are sensitive artists, delicate souls, with feelings hurt by younger brother Ukrainians.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
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Wednesday, September 13, 2023 4:49 AM

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

Russian officials introduced a bill to the Russian State Duma that would punish Russian servicemen fighting within volunteer armed formations for losing or deliberately destroying military equipment or supplies.[55]

Chairperson of the Duma Defense Committee Andrei Kartapalov and other deputies submitted the bill, which stipulates that volunteers do not currently bear financial responsibility for the loss or deliberate destruction of military property unlike Russian regular military personnel, despite receiving military equipment from the Russian Ministry of Defense (MoD).

https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/russian-offensive-campai
gn-assessment-september-12-2023

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
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Wednesday, September 13, 2023 4:50 AM

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

Russian occupation officials continue to deport children from occupied areas of Ukraine to Russia under the guise of recreational programs.

A source affiliated with the Kherson Oblast occupation administration announced on September 12 that 37 children from the Skadovsk Raion of occupied Kherson Oblast went on a 21-day “recreational vacation” to the Kabardino-Balkaria Republic and will receive medical and psychological assistance at the “Rainbow” rehabilitation center.[59] The occupation source posted footage of the children accompanied by an individual in military uniform, suggesting that Russian security forces are overseeing such “trips.”

ISW continues to assess that any removals of children from their homeland during the course of military conflicts by the occupying power is inherently coercive, and therefore inherently deportation and a violation of international law.[60]

https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/russian-offensive-campai
gn-assessment-september-12-2023

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
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Wednesday, September 13, 2023 7:38 AM