Russia Invades Ukraine. Again by captaincrunch

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Free Julan Assange

-----------
"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

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

Wednesday, October 4, 2023 12:04 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Quote:
Britain All Out of Arms to Give to Ukraine: Report

Britain has run out of military equipment to give to Ukraine, a U.K. military official claimed, as Kyiv’s fight against Russia shows no sign of ending anytime soon. The anonymous official commented on reports that Ben Wallace—who resigned as Britain’s defense minister last month—had asked Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to spend around $2.8 billion more on supporting Ukraine. According to The Telegraph, the senior military source did not think the onus should be on Britain to spend the “billions” Wallace requested. “We’ve given away just about as much as we can afford,” the official was quoted as saying. “We will continue to source equipment to provide for Ukraine, but what they need now is things like air [defense] assets and artillery ammunition and we’ve run dry on all that.” On Monday, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said fatigue over the “absurd sponsorship of the Kyiv regime” would grow.

https://news.yahoo.com/britain-arms-ukraine-report-120543427.html

-----------
"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

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

Wednesday, October 4, 2023 4:42 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:
Free Julan Assange

Julian Assange is a front for a hostile non-state intelligence service and a fugitive Russian asset whose voluminous disclosures put US-aligned personnel in harm's way. In a bipartisan report, the Senate Intelligence Committee concluded that Assange at WikiLeaks had "actively sought, and played a key role in the Russian influence campaign" to swing the 2016 US election, and "very likely knew" that Russia was behind it. -- Report of the Select Committee on Intelligence United States Senate on Russian Active Measures Campaigns and Interference in the 2016 U.S. Election
Volume 5: Counterintelligence Threats and Vulnerabilities
https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/sites/default/files/documents/repo
rt_volume5.pdf

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

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

Wednesday, October 4, 2023 5:43 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Free Julan Assange
Julian Assange is a front for a hostile non-state intelligence service and a fugitive Russian asset whose voluminous disclosures put US-aligned personnel in harm's way. In a bipartisan report, the Senate Intelligence Committee

Now THAT'S an oxymoron! The Senate Intelligence [sic] Committee also was convinced... convinced, I tell you!... that Saddam had WMD! I wrote to Diane Feinstein who was then its chair about bogus WMD and I got back a smarmy form letter that said "Well, we know things that you don't know." It seems mostly what they "know is disinfo fed to them.

Quote:
concluded that Assange at WikiLeaks had "actively sought, and played a key role in the Russian influence campaign" to swing the 2016 US election, and "very likely knew" that Russia was behind it. -- Report of the Select Committee on Intelligence United States Senate on Russian Active Measures Campaigns and Interference in the 2016 U.S. Election
Volume 5: Counterintelligence Threats and Vulnerabilities
https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/sites/default/files/documents/repo
rt_volume5.pdf

Looney tunes from 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

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

Wednesday, October 4, 2023 5:46 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Quote:
Defense Stocks Fall As Paralyzed House With No Speaker Puts US Ukraine Aid At Risk

Oh no!! What happens to the portfolios of revolving-door generals and Senators?

Quick! More $$$ for Ukraine!!

-----------
"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

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

Wednesday, October 4, 2023 8:48 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:

Now THAT'S an oxymoron! The Senate Intelligence [sic] Committee also was convinced... convinced, I tell you!... that Saddam had WMD! I wrote to Diane Feinstein who was then its chair about bogus WMD and I got back a smarmy form letter that said "Well, we know things that you don't know." It seems mostly what they "know is disinfo fed to them.

Looney tunes from SECOND.

Signym, you didn't realize that it is easy to check that you lied. The Senate concluded the opposite of what you claim. You are such a liar, Signym.

Quote:
Today’s reports are the culmination of efforts that began in March 2003, when, as Vice Chairman, Senator Rockefeller initially requested an investigation into the origin of the fraudulent Niger documents. In June 2003, he was joined by all Democrats on the Committee in pushing for a full investigation into prewar intelligence, which was eventually expanded by the Committee in February 2004 to include the five phase II tasks.

The Committee released its first report on July 9, 2004, which focused primarily on the Intelligence Community’s prewar assessments of Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction programs and links to terrorism. Those findings helped lay the foundation for some of the intelligence reforms enacted into law in late 2004.

In September 2006, the Committee completed and publicly released two sections of Phase II: The Use by the Intelligence Community of Information Provided by the Iraqi National Congress; and Postwar Findings About Iraq’s WMD Programs and Links to Terrorism and How They Compare with Prewar Assessments.

In May 2007, the Committee released the third section of Phase II: Prewar Intelligence Assessments About Postwar Iraq.

Separately, in early 2007, the Pentagon Inspector General released its own report on the intelligence activities conducted by the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Policy and also concluded that those activities were inappropriate.

https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/press/senate-intelligence-committe
e-unveils-final-phase-ii-reports-prewar-iraq-intelligence

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

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

Wednesday, October 4, 2023 10:06 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Quote:
Defense Stocks Fall As Paralyzed House With No Speaker Puts US Ukraine Aid At Risk

Oh no!! What happens to the portfolios of revolving-door generals and Senators?

Quick! More $$$ for Ukraine!!

BINGO!

And the fact that there are half a country full of dumbfucks like Ted and Second is the reason they get away with it.

If voting was a right only granted to 100 IQ and above, our country would be doing a lot better than it currently is.

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

Political correctness is just tyranny, with a smiley face.

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

Thursday, October 5, 2023 12:23 AM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

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

Now THAT'S an oxymoron! The Senate Intelligence [sic] Committee also was convinced... convinced, I tell you!... that Saddam had WMD! I wrote to Diane Feinstein who was then its chair about bogus WMD and I got back a smarmy form letter that said "Well, we know things that you don't know." It seems mostly what they "know is disinfo fed to them.

Looney tunes from SECOND.
Signym, you didn't realize that it is easy to check that you lied. The Senate concluded the opposite of what you claim. You are such a liar, Signym.
Quote:
Today’s reports are the culmination of efforts that began in March 2003, when, as Vice Chairman, Senator Rockefeller initially requested an investigation into the origin of the fraudulent Niger documents. In June 2003, he was joined by all Democrats on the Committee in pushing for a full investigation into prewar intelligence, which was eventually expanded by the Committee in February 2004 to include the five phase II tasks.

The Committee released its first report on July 9, 2004, which focused primarily on the Intelligence Community’s prewar assessments of Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction programs and links to terrorism. Those findings helped lay the foundation for some of the intelligence reforms enacted into law in late 2004.

In September 2006, the Committee completed and publicly released two sections of Phase II: The Use by the Intelligence Community of Information Provided by the Iraqi National Congress; and Postwar Findings About Iraq’s WMD Programs and Links to Terrorism and How They Compare with Prewar Assessments.

In May 2007, the Committee released the third section of Phase II: Prewar Intelligence Assessments About Postwar Iraq.

Separately, in early 2007, the Pentagon Inspector General released its own report on the intelligence activities conducted by the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Policy and also concluded that those activities were inappropriate.
https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/press/senate-intelligence-committe
e-unveils-final-phase-ii-reports-prewar-iraq-intelligence

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

I wrote BEFORE the invasion, dimwit. And I was writing to Feinstein as MY SENATOR, asking her to vote against it.
She answered as a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/about/committee-members-107th-cong
ress-2001-2002 and insinuated that she knew "things". I was disgusted by her smarmy answer that only revealed what an idiot she was, and wrote off the Senate "Intelligence" Committee as a bunch of self-entitled morons who couldn't tell real intelligence from disinformation.

And you're a maroon 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

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

Thursday, October 5, 2023 12:42 AM

It's The Atlantic, so of course they say that Slovakia and Poland are full of evil people now, but...

Ukraine Is Losing Eastern European Allies

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/ukraine-is-losing-eastern-europea
n-allies/ar-AA1hG7zM

Fuck Ukraine.

And just like I said from the very beginning of all of this...

NOBODY GIVES A SHIT ABOUT UKRAINE.

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

Political correctness is just tyranny, with a smiley face.

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

Thursday, October 5, 2023 6:14 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:

I wrote BEFORE the invasion, dimwit. And I was writing to Feinstein as MY SENATOR, asking her to vote against it.
She answered as a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/about/committee-members-107th-cong
ress-2001-2002 and insinuated that she knew "things". I was disgusted by her smarmy answer that only revealed what an idiot she was, and wrote off the Senate "Intelligence" Committee as a bunch of self-entitled morons who couldn't tell real intelligence from disinformation.

And you're a maroon too.

Put it this way: Like a perfectly calm bureaucrat, Vice-President Cheney swears on his honor that there are many WMDs in Iraq but claims the only conclusive way to gather irrefutable proof is to invade Iraq. What do Senator Feinstein and the Senate Intelligence Committee then do? Take several years of committee meetings to gather more proof to confirm what Cheney says? Or hope cool, calm Cheney isn't taking advantage of their trust in bureaucrats to con them?

When absolutely no WMDs were found, the Senate Intelligence Committee gathered more proof over several years to confirm that Cheney was always a lying sack of shit, not the caring bureaucrat he was pretending to be.

Similarly, the Senate took several years to confirm that Russia did interfere with the 2016 election, that Assange/WikiLeaks helped the Russians, and Trump was an easily agitated lying sack of shit who went steps further than Cheney dared by obstructing the slow investigation of the 2016 election. Cheney didn't have the cajones to do as Trump did. Trump is The Man, not some bureaucrat interested in technical details. He deserves to be the next President, for sure, because he is an extremely manly man with an ugly temper and ruddy face, unlike the pasty-faced Dick Cheney with heart disease, a man afraid to shout because he might have a coronary if he did.

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

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

Thursday, October 5, 2023 6:34 AM

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

"I'm here until Berlin": Russia's war video sends chilling message

Russia has launched a new advertising campaign for the war against Ukraine. The ad for its 'special military operation,' states that Russian soldiers will receive free land in Odessa after capturing it.

The actor says, 'I'm here until victory, until Berlin, just as my grandpa told me.'

In the comments, Russians are writing, 'So we have to take Berlin too! Great!'

https://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/world/i-m-here-until-berlin-russia-s-wa
r-video-sends-chilling-message/ar-AA1hGp6x

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

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

Thursday, October 5, 2023 7:19 AM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:

I wrote BEFORE the invasion, dimwit. And I was writing to Feinstein as MY SENATOR, asking her to vote against it.
She answered as a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/about/committee-members-107th-cong
ress-2001-2002 and insinuated that she knew "things". I was disgusted by her smarmy answer that only revealed what an idiot she was, and wrote off the Senate "Intelligence" Committee as a bunch of self-entitled morons who couldn't tell real intelligence from disinformation.

And you're a maroon too.

SECOND: Put it this way:

Put it this way: Are you gonna APOLOGIZE for calling me a liar? You should, you know. But I know you won't bc you're a lying dumbshit with no honor.

Quote:
SECOND: Like a perfectly calm bureaucrat, Vice-President Cheney swears on his honor that there are many WMDs in Iraq but claims the only conclusive way to gather irrefutable proof is to invade Iraq. What do Senator Feinstein and the Senate Intelligence Committee then do? Take several years of committee meetings to gather more proof to confirm what Cheney says? Or hope cool, calm Cheney isn't taking advantage of their trust in bureaucrats to con them?

"Because Cheney said so"?
You're too stupid to live. No wonder you volunteered for Vietnam!

There was the "intelligence" scare that Iraq was going to buy yellowcake from Niger. But the document was PROVEN to be a forgery within a week.

There was the "intelligence" scare that Saddam was buying aluminum tubes to use in uranium centrifuges. But a mechanical engineer looked at the specs and realized that they were to weak to use in centrifuges, and that they probably were rocket bodies.

There was the "intelligence" claim that Iraq was [somehow] involved in 9-11. That was easily debunked.

Then the "intelligence" claim that Iraq, while not directly involved in 9-11, was running a terrorist training camp. That was further embellished with the scare scenario that a dedicated Iraqi terrorist could sneak a dirty bomb through one of our ports. There was no evidence.

So, what would be your response to the NEXT thing that "intelligence" says, with their history of having been publicly and embrassingly debunked on everything else so far?

Just swallow whatever swill they dumped out that day?

On top of that, Hans Blix and UNMOVIC (which BTW included Americans) were right there, in Iraq, investigating that very claim. Not in the basement at Langley, concocting ridiculous claims on provably wrong "evidence".

The RIGHT thing to do would have been to wait another few months, because the inspection team was close to reaching a conclusion, instead of relying on provably wrong hoaxes from "intelligence".

As a civilian disconnected from The Blob, EVEN I could tell it wa a put up job. So Feinstein and the Senate Intelligence [sic] Committee were either really, really stupid, or lying sacks of shit.

Quote:
Similarly, the Senate took several years to confirm that Russia did interfere with the 2016 election, that Assange/WikiLeaks helped the Russians,

Again, contradicted by all available evidence.

And the rest of your post is just more invective and lies.

You obviously can't tell truth from lies. No wonder you volunteered for Vietnam! And you didn't learn from that mistake. You just keep lying to yourself and everyone else, mired in your own crap.

-----------
"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

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

Thursday, October 5, 2023 7:44 AM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Politico: Nazi Yaroslav Hunka may have volunteered for the Waffen SS Galizia Division, (which was a Nazi enforcer in Romania and Poland, not fighting Russians) but he fought for the right reasons with a pure heart.

Yanno, "It's complicated" and not all Nazis were ... er, Nazis.

https://www.politico.eu/article/fight-against-ussr-nazi-waffen-ss-troo
per-yaroslav-hunka-world-war-ii-soviet-union-germany/

*****

So now we're Nazi apologists, eh? Nazis weren't so bad? We weren't really fighting Nazis in Europe? The Soviet Union wasn't really our ally?

That's the latest spin: We're losing in Ukraine, but we can always rewrite history!

-----------
"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

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

Thursday, October 5, 2023 7:56 AM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Speaking of rewriting history in realtime:

Quote:
THIS IS NOT ABOUT NATO

'This is not about NATO expansion!"... the Western public has been told over and over again of the war in Ukraine, now in its 20th month. "Never about NATO... Nothing to do with NATO" - has been the constant refrain from US officials and media "authorities". Below is a video compilation by Matt Orfalea showing Western media personalities and analysts claiming that the war in Ukraine had nothing to do with NATO expansion... but then oops... only this last month NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg clearly and repeatedly acknowledged that Putin made the decision to invade Ukraine because of fears of NATO expansionism in a speech before the EU Parliament’s foreign affairs committee.

For a trip down memory lane, and more importantly so this epic compilation of clips highlighting the MSM drumbeat of lies doesn't get memory-holed, watch the below compilation by Matt Orfalea

-----------
"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

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

Thursday, October 5, 2023 8:22 AM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

And finally:

Quote:
Now, in a desperate plea to reengage the public on the putative ‘threat’ that Russia poses in defeating Ukraine, the globalist scriptwriters have rolled out a new narrative: saving Ukraine means saving Taiwan from China.

https://simplicius76.substack.com/p/sitrep-10423-the-beginning-of-a-lo
ng

DOODS! TAIWAN IS PART OF CHINA!

That would be like saying "Saving Texas from the United States".

Lying sacks of shit will apparently stop at nothing...

-----------
"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

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

Thursday, October 5, 2023 9:55 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:

I wrote BEFORE the invasion, dimwit. And I was writing to Feinstein as MY SENATOR, asking her to vote against it.
She answered as a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/about/committee-members-107th-cong
ress-2001-2002 and insinuated that she knew "things". I was disgusted by her smarmy answer that only revealed what an idiot she was, and wrote off the Senate "Intelligence" Committee as a bunch of self-entitled morons who couldn't tell real intelligence from disinformation.

And you're a maroon too.

Let's back up to where you wrote

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:

Now THAT'S an oxymoron! The Senate Intelligence [sic] Committee also was convinced... convinced, I tell you!... that Saddam had WMD! I wrote to Diane Feinstein who was then its chair about bogus WMD and I got back a smarmy form letter that said "Well, we know things that you don't know." It seems mostly what they "know is disinfo fed to them.

Signym, that is NOT how Congress works. Instead, you should have threatened Senator Feinstein that if she is proven wrong about the existence of WMDs in Iraq and about Iraq being behind 9/11, there will be consequences for Feinstein. But you didn't threaten because you are inconsequential and threats from you are without weight. Maybe if you sent a death threat you would get a reaction from the FBI, but nothing from Feinstein. There are no real consequences emanating from weightless people like you toward Congressional decision-makers. Never have been, never will be, other than writing malicious gossip at fireflyfans.net, for anything Congressmen get wrong. Why would any Senator pay attention to a letter from Signym? Feinstein never read your letter and never did pay any mind to you. A temporary staffer in the Senator's office wrote back with some empty reassurances that meant nothing at all. Someday, an A.I. will write those letters to constituents. No human will see what you wrote.

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

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

Thursday, October 5, 2023 10:17 AM

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

Russia scrambles to cover ballooning cost of Ukraine war

By Max Seddon and Anastasia Stognei in Riga, October 4th.

Vladimir Putin’s cabinet is turning to increasingly irregular revenue-raising measures to fund a rapid rise in defence spending, which has tripled since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

The Russian government has said it aims to spend a staggering Rbs10.8tn ($108bn) on defence next year, three times the amount allocated in 2021, the last year before the invasion, and 70 per cent more than was planned for this year.

To cobble together that sum, the cabinet is relying to a greater extent on irregular revenues stemming from one-off taxes and levies, including “voluntary donations” western businesses have to pay when leaving Russia.

The defence budget “will allow us to completely support the tasks of the special military operation”, finance minister Anton Siluanov said on Tuesday, using the Kremlin’s euphemism for the war in Ukraine. The military spending increase, he said, was “essential to achieve our main goal: making sure we win”.

Russia’s record Rbs36.6tn budget for next year will take defence spending to 6 per cent of gross domestic product, exceeding social welfare for the first time, and require the Kremlin to tap considerably more sources of revenue than previously.

“Putin has two priorities: war and power,” said Konstantin Sonin, an economist and professor at the University of Chicago. “That’s why the budget process now works in such a way that policymakers first make sure the junta gets what it needs for the war and then address the rest of the budget?.?.?.?And to do all that, they constantly look for new sources to scrape money together.”

As part of the funding plans for 2024, irregular budget revenues will leap to Rbs2.52tn, the highest level ever. By contrast, this year, such revenues amounted to just Rbs745bn.

The bulk of next year’s one-off revenues are Rbs800bn worth of social contributions that Russian companies were supposed to pay in 2022, but were postponed until 2024.

Another Rbs2bn is expected to come from new export duties tied to exchange rates, the western companies’ “voluntary donations” when leaving Russia, tax increases and subsidy cuts for energy producers, and a rise in utility tariffs.

Those measures come after Russia raised Rbs300bn this year from a windfall tax on “excessive profits” made by commodities companies, particularly the metals sector, more tax increases in the energy sector, and Rbs114bn from western companies. That “voluntary donation” will increase next year from 10 per cent to 15 per cent of the value of the sale of their Russian business.

Another source of revenue will come from excise taxes for alcohol and tobacco, which will triple in 2024. Some of the new income will bypass the budget entirely, meaning that overall irregular state revenues could be even higher.

Still, analysts are sceptical that the Kremlin will secure all the extra revenue it says it needs.

“There is a possibility that Russia will not receive about Rbs1tn of the expected revenues because the budget is based on an overly optimistic economic forecast,” said Sofya Donets, a former central bank official and chief economist at Renaissance Capital.

In that case, the Russian government was likely to slap more one-off levies as it has done in the past, she added.

Spending cuts in areas other than defence were a “last resort”, Donets said, adding that Moscow could also tap excess revenues from energy sales, which currently have to be saved rather than spent.

Russia’s war spending goes beyond what is earmarked for defence in the budget breakdown.

Half of the national security and law enforcement budget was also war-related, as it included payments to Russian security forces as well as a modernisation programme for the defence industry, said Pavel Luzin, a non-resident senior fellow at the Center for European Policy Analysis.

Adding to Russia’s financing challenges are the billions of roubles needed to “rebuild” and annex the territories in south-eastern Ukraine which it has occupied since the beginning of the war.

The search for new funds has raised alarm bells among Russia’s oligarchs, who are already feeling the squeeze from western sanctions and government attempts to shore up the rouble.

“Our priorities are having a sovereign economy and improving our citizens’ welfare but only within central Moscow and on TV,” oligarch Oleg Deripaska wrote last week. He said a new floating export tax would wipe out most of the profits of companies in Siberia. “They must want to drive everyone completely nuts by the new year.”

https://www.ft.com/content/1e5d63a6-d5f8-4206-81fc-4ff324789ac3

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

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

Thursday, October 5, 2023 11:28 AM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:

I wrote BEFORE the invasion, dimwit. And I was writing to Feinstein as MY SENATOR, asking her to vote against it.
She answered as a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/about/committee-members-107th-cong
ress-2001-2002 and insinuated that she knew "things". I was disgusted by her smarmy answer that only revealed what an idiot she was, and wrote off the Senate "Intelligence" Committee as a bunch of self-entitled morons who couldn't tell real intelligence from disinformation.

And you're a maroon too.

SECOND: Let's back up to where you wrote ...blah blah blah

No, lets back up th where I posted that I written to Diane Feinstein and you wrote

Quote:
Signym, you didn't realize that it is easy to check that you lied. The Senate concluded the opposite of what you claim. You are such a liar, Signym.

Am I gonna get an apology and an admission that you were WRONG?
Of course not. Because you're a liar and without honor.

Quote:
SECOND:
Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:

Now THAT'S an oxymoron! The Senate Intelligence [sic] Committee also was convinced... convinced, I tell you!... that Saddam had WMD! I wrote to Diane Feinstein who was then its chair about bogus WMD and I got back a smarmy form letter that said "Well, we know things that you don't know." It seems mostly what they "know is disinfo fed to them.

SECOND Signym, that is NOT how Congress works. Instead, you should have threatened Senator Feinstein that if she is proven wrong about the existence of WMDs in Iraq and about Iraq being behind 9/11, there will be consequences for Feinstein. But you didn't threaten because you are inconsequential ... blah blah blah

So, you admit we're an oligarchy.

Yanno, son, you may think you're hot stuff. Maybe in Houston a few people know your name. Asssuming that you're not lying about that too. But in DC??? You have to be a billionaire to get anyone's attention. In the eyes of the eite, you're just an ant scurrying around.

-----------
"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

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

Thursday, October 5, 2023 11:59 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:

Quote:
SECOND Signym, that is NOT how Congress works. Instead, you should have threatened Senator Feinstein that if she is proven wrong about the existence of WMDs in Iraq and about Iraq being behind 9/11, there will be consequences for Feinstein. But you didn't threaten because you are inconsequential ... blah blah blah

So, you admit we're an oligarchy.

Yanno, son, you may think you're hot stuff. Maybe in Houston a few people know your name. Asssuming that you're not lying about that too. But in DC??? You have to be a billionaire to get anyone's attention. In the eyes of the eite, you're just an ant scurrying around.

Look who clarified the situation in Ukraine:

Oct 5 (Reuters) - President Vladimir Putin on Thursday reiterated his position that Russia did not start the war in Ukraine but launched what it calls a "special military operation" to try to stop it.

In his yearly speech to the Valdai Discussion Club, being held in Sochi, Putin said Russia, the world's largest country by area, had no need to take territory from Ukraine.

He said the conflict was not therefore imperial or territorial but about the global order, and that the West, which had lost its hegemonic power and always needed an enemy, had lost touch with reality.

https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/putin-repeats-assertion-that-russ
ia-did-not-start-war-ukraine-2023-10-05/

Putin is a deep philosopher of science, as are you, Signym, revealing Extraordinary Truths with Clarity that average people would completely miss without his and your exacting explanations of reality. Kidding. Whenever Putin makes a speech, he blows black smoke to hide reality.

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

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

Thursday, October 5, 2023 12:19 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Look who clarified the situation in Ukraine:

Oct 5 (Reuters) - President Vladimir Putin on Thursday reiterated his position that Russia did not start the war in Ukraine but launched what it calls a "special military operation" to try to stop it.

This is truth. It doesn't matter who spoke it, unless you're a propagandized idiot with below average intelligence.

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

Political correctness is just tyranny, with a smiley face.

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

Thursday, October 5, 2023 12:37 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

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

Quote:
SECOND Signym, that is NOT how Congress works. Instead, you should have threatened Senator Feinstein that if she is proven wrong about the existence of WMDs in Iraq and about Iraq being behind 9/11, there will be consequences for Feinstein. But you didn't threaten because you are inconsequential ... blah blah blah

So, you admit we're an oligarchy.

Yanno, son, you may think you're hot stuff. Maybe in Houston a few people know your name. Asssuming that you're not lying about that too. But in DC??? You have to be a billionaire to get anyone's attention. In the eyes of the eite, you're just an ant scurrying around.
Look who clarified the situation in Ukraine:

Oct 5 (Reuters) - President Vladimir Putin on Thursday reiterated his position that Russia did not start the war in Ukraine but launched what it calls a "special military operation" to try to stop it.

In his yearly speech to the Valdai Discussion Club, being held in Sochi, Putin said Russia, the world's largest country by area, had no need to take territory from Ukraine.

He said the conflict was not therefore imperial or territorial but about the global order, and that the West, which had lost its hegemonic power and always needed an enemy, had lost touch with reality.

https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/putin-repeats-assertion-that-russ
ia-did-not-start-war-ukraine-2023-10-05/

Putin is a deep philosopher of science, as are you, Signym, revealing Extraordinary Truths with Clarity that average people would completely miss without his and your exacting explanations of reality. Kidding. Whenever Putin makes a speech, he blows black smoke to hide reality.

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

And STILL, no apology!
Why am I not surprised?

-----------
"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

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

Thursday, October 5, 2023 12:37 PM

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

Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Look who clarified the situation in Ukraine:

Oct 5 (Reuters) - President Vladimir Putin on Thursday reiterated his position that Russia did not start the war in Ukraine but launched what it calls a "special military operation" to try to stop it.

This is truth. It doesn't matter who spoke it, unless you're a propagandized idiot with below average intelligence.

Putin also said the conflict was not imperial or territorial. Unfortunately for the story he is telling, Putin declared a week ago that Ukrainian territory had become Russian territory. He already forgot what he said.

Putin declares ‘four new regions of Russia’. Putin is a comedian of the absurd.

https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2023-09-29/putin-says-russi
an-held-regions-in-ukraine-endorse-their-choice-to-join-moscow

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

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

Thursday, October 5, 2023 1:02 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Yanno, I've been hearing over and over again that Kiev has its Rabotyne-area troops running thru minefields with barely any support (maybe some artillery) and that they've been doing this for over a couple of months. Losing a lot of soldiers along the way.

And I just couldn't imagine how you get virtually untrained troops to go on suicide missions when they've just seen the previous platoons get obliterated.

Maybe this is the answer...

Quote:
Clayton Morris and I do a deep dive on the war in Ukraine. After chatting with one of my DEA buddies it appears that Ukraine is doping some (all?) of its frontline troops with Crystal Meth.

MORE AT
https://sonar21.com/this-mornings-disruption-and-my-chats-with-clayton
-morris-and-rasheed-mohammed/

-----------
"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

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

Thursday, October 5, 2023 8:34 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:

Maybe this is the answer...

Quote:
Clayton Morris and I do a deep dive on the war in Ukraine. After chatting with one of my DEA buddies it appears that Ukraine is doping some (all?) of its frontline troops with Crystal Meth.

Signym, what a load of bullshit from you.

On the other hand, this actually happened:

American and European leaders worked together to fashion post-war European security, economic, and political institutions that were mutually beneficial to all — including America. Many of these leaders had very visceral reasons to succeed at this monumentally difficult task: They had lived through or fought in two world wars. America falsely believed that “what happened in Europe doesn’t affect us,” only to be drawn into World War I and suffer almost 260,000 U.S. killed and wounded. And again, when an aggressive dictator went unanswered for too long: World War II, in which millions of civilians and hundreds of thousands of those fighting were killed or wounded in Europe alone — including approximately 552,000 Americans.

https://themessenger.com/opinion/ukraine-aid-congress-foreign-policy-l
eadership-putin-war-nato-funding

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

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

Thursday, October 5, 2023 9:12 PM

Fuck you, warmonger.

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

Political correctness is just tyranny, with a smiley face.

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

Thursday, October 5, 2023 9:17 PM

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

"The USA and the EU are working on legal procedures to transfer $300 billion of frozen Russian assets to Ukraine," President's Office head Andriy Yermak said on Oct. 5.
https://news.yahoo.com/yermak-west-working-legal-procedure-093314350.h
tml

US Secretary of State during a conversation at the University of Texas at Austin on Wednesday, 4 October: "My own view is you broke it, you bought it. And so the Russians having broken it, they ought to pay for it. And one way to do that would be through the use of these assets. We have to make sure that there is a legal basis to do that. And as I said, since most of the assets are in Europe, Europeans also have to be convinced that there’s a basis to do it."
https://www.state.gov/secretary-antony-j-blinken-during-a-conversation
-at-the-university-of-texas-at-austin-moderated-by-former-u-s-ambassador-to-nato-kay-bailey-hutchison/

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

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

Thursday, October 5, 2023 10:51 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by second:
"The USA and the EU are working on legal procedures to transfer $300 billion of frozen Russian assets to Ukraine," President's Office head Andriy Yermak said on Oct. 5.
https://news.yahoo.com/yermak-west-working-legal-procedure-093314350.h
tml

US Secretary of State during a conversation at the University of Texas at Austin on Wednesday, 4 October: "My own view is you broke it, you bought it. And so the Russians having broken it, they ought to pay for it. And one way to do that would be through the use of these assets. We have to make sure that there is a legal basis to do that. And as I said, since most of the assets are in Europe, Europeans also have to be convinced that there’s a basis to do it."
https://www.state.gov/secretary-antony-j-blinken-during-a-conversation
-at-the-university-of-texas-at-austin-moderated-by-former-u-s-ambassador-to-nato-kay-bailey-hutchison/

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

That's outright stealing.

Legal or not, that's an act of war.

You fucking NeoCons are really itching to start something your pussy asses can't finish, aren't you?

Fuck Ukraine. It's just a puppet state of the US Uniparty anyhow. Let it burn to the ground.

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

Political correctness is just tyranny, with a smiley face.

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

Thursday, October 5, 2023 11:51 PM

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

Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:

That's outright stealing.

Legal or not, that's an act of war.

You fucking NeoCons are really itching to start something your pussy asses can't finish, aren't you?

Fuck Ukraine. It's just a puppet state of the US Uniparty anyhow. Let it burn to the ground.

6ix, you have not a scintilla of practical wisdom.

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

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

Friday, October 6, 2023 12:57 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:

That's outright stealing.

Legal or not, that's an act of war.

You fucking NeoCons are really itching to start something your pussy asses can't finish, aren't you?

Fuck Ukraine. It's just a puppet state of the US Uniparty anyhow. Let it burn to the ground.
6ix, you have not a scintilla of practical wisdom.

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

Oh wow. We're so impressed, dude! Somebody found thesaurus.com.

Why don't you regale us with another apocryphal story about your make-believe family and how awesome they are while you're at it?

Go eat a dick, scrub.

I can't even have a conversation with the likes of you because no matter how hard I tried I couldn't even pretend to be on your level of stupidity. We might as well be speaking different languages without a translator handy. We're barely even in the same species.

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

Political correctness is just tyranny, with a smiley face.

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

Friday, October 6, 2023 7:13 AM

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

Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:

We're barely even in the same species.

We are not the same species, Mr Wombat.

Russia's Crimean Red Line Has Been Erased by Ukraine

Claims about the territory’s spiritual status have been revealed to be fiction.
By Casey Michel, October 4, 2023.

In December 2014, Russian President Vladimir Putin stood in the middle of the Kremlin’s St. George’s Hall, delivering his annual address to the country’s Federal Assembly. Nine months removed from his formal annexation of Crimea, the Russian president unspooled a historical overview of Crimea’s supposed importance to the Russian body politic.

Crimea, as Putin claimed, was far more than simply a wayward chunk of rightfully Russian land. Rather, the peninsula was the “spiritual source” of the entire Russian nation—a province that presented “invaluable civilizational and even sacral importance” for all Russians. The language mirrored Putin’s annexation announcement that March, when he’d claimed that “in [Russians’] hearts and minds, Crimea has always been an inseparable part of Russia.” As Putin saw it, Crimea stood as the Temple Mount of Russia—as a Russian “holy land.” And this was, Putin assured his listeners in December, “exactly how we will treat it from now on and forever.”

At the time, few in Russia appeared to disagree. Nor, likewise, did those in the West, who largely rolled over in the face of Russia’s initial invasion in 2014. Suckered by Russian propaganda surrounding the peninsula’s supposedly pro-Russian tilt and convinced that any Ukrainian assault on Crimea could spark potential military escalation, Western voices largely shied away from backing any attempts at returning the peninsula to Kyiv’s control. This was seen perhaps most spectacularly last month, when news emerged that Tesla CEO Elon Musk had undercut Ukrainian efforts to target the peninsula because of concerns any attack “could lead to a nuclear war.”

Those concerns were perhaps understandable, insofar as Russian officials have continually rattled a nuclear saber about protecting Crimea from any Ukrainian reclamation efforts. But now, as Ukraine unleashes near-daily assaults on the peninsula, the notion that Crimea presents some kind of Temple Mount—or even any kind of red line—for Russians has crumbled.

In the face of continued drone attacks, long-range missile fires, sabotage operations, and annihilation of military assets across Crimea, Russians have hardly treated the Ukrainian peninsula as some kind of sacred land. Rather than rushing to protect Crimea, Russians have instead begun fleeing the region en masse. Rather than seeing Russians lining up to enlist to aid the Kremlin’s defense of the peninsula, Moscow continues mooting the potential of a second, and far broader, forced mobilization. And rather than resulting in any kind of nuclear conflagration, Russians’ subdued reaction to the continued bombardment of Crimea has dissolved Putin’s claims that the peninsula is some kind of special, sacrosanct land. As McGill University professor Maria Popova recently posted on X (formerly known as Twitter), “Crimea isn’t special, let alone a red line.”

Indeed, with few even noticing, Ukraine’s continued shelling and strikes on the peninsula have illustrated one clear lesson: The idea that Crimea is some kind of holy land that Russians will race to defend—an idea that far too many in the West previously swallowed—is dead. And in that death, a wealth of new opportunities has opened up for Kyiv and for the Western partners who are suddenly realizing Crimea is hardly the sacral land Putin once claimed.

For those familiar with the region’s history, the notion that Crimea was always some kind of “spiritual center” for the Russian nation, or that it was perpetually inseparable from Moscow, was always a rickety proposition. While there were historical links tethering the peninsula to the imperial center in Moscow—not least the peninsula’s outsized role in the eponymous Crimean War of the 1850s or World War II—Crimea is hardly some central node of Russian identity that Putin and his claque have claimed.

Just glance through the peninsula’s broader ethno-nationalist history. While tsarist forces first seized the province in 1783, Crimea was hardly a central destination for Russian settler-colonial efforts. Indeed, it wasn’t until World War II that Crimea was even majority ethnic Russian—and even then, only as a result of gargantuan Stalinist ethnic cleansing efforts, forcibly displacing tens of thousands of Crimean Tatars from their historic homeland.

Or look at the peninsula’s political preferences. While the Kremlin’s 1954 decision to transfer control of Crimea to Soviet Ukraine has seen overwrought attention in recent years, far less attention has been given to Crimeans’ actual voices and votes. For instance, in 1991 Crimeans joined every other Ukrainian province in voting for independence from Moscow. And in the intervening years, while Crimean leadership continually agitated for increased autonomy from Kyiv, Crimean residents never once voted for a return to the Kremlin’s embrace.

Not that that’s necessarily surprising. As polling in the months leading up to Russia’s 2014 invasion indicated, Crimeans’ desire for Russian annexation was a minority—and clearly declining—position. One survey of Crimeans, conducted by the International Republican Institute in mid-2013, found that less than a quarter of Crimeans wanted outright annexation. Likewise, the same poll found that the majority of Crimean residents identified primarily as something other than Russian, whether that be Ukrainian, Tatar, or simply Crimean.

All of which is to say: Contrary to Putin and his propagandists’ claims, Crimea was hardly some hotbed of pro-Kremlin sentiment, agitating for a return to Russian control. Such a reality is borne out in contemporaneous reportage, which highlighted how Russian militias had to force Crimean deputies to vote for annexation. (As notorious Russian war criminal Igor Girkin, one of the key figures in Russia’s 2014 invasion, recalled, he and other pro-Russian militia figures “didn’t see any support [for annexation] from any organ of government power” in Crimea.) Little surprise, then, that instead of any kind of free and fair vote on annexation, Moscow resorted to a ballot-by-bayonet referendum, with Moscow announcing that a ludicrous 97 percent of Crimeans backed Russian sovereignty over the peninsula.

Now, almost a decade after Putin first claimed Crimea as Russia’s alone, Ukraine’s efforts to bombard the peninsula into submission have begun in earnest. As the Economist recently wrote, “War has arrived in Crimea.” While last year’s strike against the primary Crimean bridge gained numerous headlines, the past few weeks have ramped up assaults on Crimean military assets to an unprecedented degree. There have been fires at local ammunition holdings; cruise missile strikes on naval assets in Sevastopol, which hammered ships and submarines alike; drones targeting Russia’s air defense infrastructure; and plenty more—and much of this in just the past few weeks. Moreover, a spectacular salvo of Ukrainian long-range fires obliterated the central command of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet—an attack that was caught on tape and decapitated much of Moscow’s naval command in the region.

Yet, even amid all of this mounting violence wracking the peninsula, the response from Russians has been largely muted (or at least as muted as an ongoing genocidal campaign of conquest can be). Part of this stems from Putin’s domestic desires to downplay Russian losses in Ukraine, attempting to maintain an air of both invincibility and inevitability about Russian military prowess. But part of that is also because Russians themselves have displayed an ongoing apathy regarding the assaults on Crimea. Rather than resulting in the kind of Pearl Harbor-style response that many Westerners feared, Russians have largely shrugged their shoulders. Instead of sparking a new onrush of military sign-ups, Moscow has struggled to meet basic enlistment targets, all while Kyiv continues to compile new weaponry to expand its arsenal dedicated to reclaiming Crimea. And instead of spiraling into nuclear exchanges, any likelihood of Moscow resorting to nuclear response has dissipated—undone both by pressure from Moscow’s allies (especially Beijing) but also by Kyiv calling Moscow’s bluff.

Thankfully, it does appear that Western policymakers are finally starting to digest this new reality. Whereas Western officials, such as U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, previously warned that Crimea presented a “red line” for Putin, concerns out of Washington, London, and Brussels to the latest attacks in recent weeks have been largely nonexistent. If anything, Kyiv’s successful bombings have convinced Western partners to increase support; amid Ukraine’s escalating bombardment, the United States signaled that it would finally supply Ukraine with long-range missiles—so-called ATACMS—that would allow Kyiv to expand its array of targets in Crimea.

More broadly, the disintegration of the notion that Crimea presents any kind of red line for Putin is of a piece with supposed Russian red lines elsewhere, all of which have likewise crumbled. And with the disappearance of this Crimean “red line”—as well the dismantling of the idea that Crimea is some kind of holy land for Russians—there is no reason remaining for Western governments not to do everything in their power to back Ukrainian efforts at retaking every inch of Ukrainian territory, including Crimea.

After all, it was in the Crimean Peninsula that Moscow’s irredentist invasion first began in 2014. Given that Putin’s promises that Russians would rally to the peninsula’s defense have proved hollow, undone by Putin’s own hubris, it is only fitting that Crimea is where Russia’s revanchist efforts should end.

https://foreignpolicy.com/2023/10/04/crimea-russia-ukraine-red-line/

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

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

Friday, October 6, 2023 7:24 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 outlined on Thursday when his country would use nuclear weapons. The Russian leader escalated his nuclear rhetoric at an annual meeting of the Valdai Discussion Club in Sochi, declaring that Moscow has successfully tested the nuclear-powered, nuclear-capable Burevestnik cruise missile—a claim Kremlin officials had denied just days earlier.

https://www.newsweek.com/putin-russia-nuclear-weapons-war-1832586

Russian President Vladimir Putin has given a new "bizarre explanation" for Wagner Group financier Yevgeny Prigozhin's death, which pins the blame on Prigozhin himself.

Putin was particularly quiet in the days following Prigozhin's death, and the ISW previously assessed that the Kremlin was "almost certainly" to blame. Wagner-associated Telegram channels also claimed that Prigozhin's plane had been hit by Russian anti-air defenses.

https://www.newsweek.com/putin-has-bizarre-explanation-yevgeny-prigozh
ins-death-isw-1832556

If Putin does use a tactical nuke in Ukraine, he will blame the US for nuking Ukraine, for this is the Russian way.

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

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

Friday, October 6, 2023 7:57 AM

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

This Is How Ukraine War Could End, According to Putin's Exiled Foe

"It is not possible to preserve Putin and stop the war," said Russian opposition figure Mikhail Khodorkovsky.

Once Russia's richest man when he headed the energy company Yukos, Khodorkovsky was jailed for a decade on what was considered politically motivated charges after he criticized corruption. He was pardoned by Putin in 2013.

His book How to Slay a Dragon, released later this month in the U.S., describes how a revolution is required to usher in democracy and break the cycle of Russia's history of autocracy.

https://www.newsweek.com/putin-khodorkovsky-russia-ukraine-war-1832403

Download his free books from the mirrors at https://libgen.is//search.php?req=Mikhail+Khodorkovsky

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

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

Saturday, October 7, 2023 8:40 AM

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

Compromises on territory, legal order, and world peace: The fate of international law lies on Ukraine’s borders

By Maksym Vishchyk and Jeremy Pizzi | October 6, 2023

Contemporary international law does not accept anything less than an agreement respecting Ukrainian territorial integrity within its 1991 borders. Any form of territorial concessions in the present environment would be legally void and contrary to duties imposed on States to deny manifest attacks on the international legal regime. Most of all, such concessions would deliver a fatal and final blow to the contemporary world order, while inevitably paving the way to further armed conflict in Ukraine and beyond. It risks being a catalyst for rapacious aggressors who seek to satiate their insatiable appetites on smaller countries and on the international community as a whole.

International law will not accept anything less than a treaty respecting Ukrainian territorial integrity in its entirety. Allowing otherwise will send the international order back to when aggressive war was legal and territorial conquest was legitimate. It will send a clear signal to (potential) aggressors suggesting that they may attack States that are less mighty militarily or politically, subjugate them, and despite international law prohibitions, enjoy the fruits of their unlawful conquest and the crimes committed along the way.

To prevent this and in furtherance of the prohibition of aggression, international law also imposes several duties on the international community and third States that make the grant of territorial concessions by Ukraine even more untenable. They include the obligations to refrain from any explicit or implicit recognition of a situation created by an act of aggression or rendering aid or assistance to maintain such a situation, as well as the duty to enact measures and/or collective action to bring the violation to an end. As discussed below, these duties are the foundation of the contemporary world order, guaranteeing that the preservation of world peace and security remains a matter of community interest for all States, without leaving the victim of aggression facing its consequences alone.

More at https://www.justsecurity.org/89216/compromises-on-territory-legal-orde
r-and-world-peace-the-fate-of-international-law-lies-on-ukraines-borders/

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

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

Saturday, October 7, 2023 9:22 AM

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

The West Armed Ukraine for a Caricature of Modern War

By Phillips Payson O’Brien | October 5, 2023

An outdated view of warfare helps explain why the U.S. was slow to supply long-range missiles.

The United States is finally getting around to supplying Ukraine with some of the long-range weaponry that the Ukrainians have been requesting for months. For far too long, Ukraine’s Western allies have largely been arming that country to fight a caricature of modern war, not the real thing.

The results of that decision are evident on maps that, more than 500 days after Russia’s invasion, show only small, incremental changes in the front line. The Ukrainians started a much anticipated counteroffensive almost four months ago and have pushed the Russians back in a few places in the Zaporizhzhia region but have not achieved a full-scale armored breakthrough. By contrast, Ukrainian missile strikes behind enemy lines have produced noteworthy successes in recent months—most notably in forcing Russia to withdraw major elements of the Black Sea Fleet from its base in the port of Sevastopol in occupied Crimea.

When Russia prepared to invade Ukraine in February 2022, many military analysts imagined tank-led columns advancing rapidly and overwhelming the Ukrainian army—a vision of war that has continued to shape Western policy now that Ukraine is trying to reclaim territory. The U.S. and other NATO countries have provided armored vehicles and combined-arms-warfare training, mainly to help Ukraine make direct attacks on Russian front lines. But making a decisive breakthrough at the front, always difficult, has become extremely challenging. The Russians, for their part, spent five months attacking the small Ukrainian city of Bakhmut, taking a tiny parcel of ground at an enormous cost in casualties. Defensive weaponry has made even the best tanks and vehicles vulnerable to damage from a variety of cheaper, more numerous types of equipment. If vehicles mass together in preparation for an attack, they can be destroyed or at least slowed down in many different ways—with mines, artillery, handheld rocket launchers, or, in more and more cases, drones.

The one successful breakthrough exploitation of the past 16 months happened when Ukraine was able to attack a very lightly defended part of the Russian line in the Kharkiv region. This underscores how forward advance is possible only if Ukraine can identify weak points—or create them by striking military installations and logistics deep behind the front, so that Russia cannot move personnel, weaponry, and supplies to the front. This is why Ukrainian officials have been so insistent on obtaining the U.S.-made Army Tactical Missile System, or ATACMS (pronounced “attack-ems”). This ammunition, which can be fired from the vehicle-mounted High Mobility Artillery Rocket System, has a much longer range—up to about 190 miles—than conventional artillery and even the Western-supplied Multiple Launch Rocket System that Ukrainian forces used to great effect in the first year of the war. Unfortunately, the U.S. has offered Ukraine only a limited diet of long-range weapons. As I argued earlier this year, the West’s approach to military aid was preparing Ukrainian forces to fight the hardest possible campaign.

Only when the United Kingdom supplied Storm Shadow cruise missiles, which typically are fired from aircraft and have a range of more than 150 miles, and France followed with SCALP missiles (its version of the same weapons system) could Ukraine begin hitting high-value targets—bridges, supply depots, anti-aircraft systems—deep in Russian-occupied areas, including Crimea. The most consequential attacks have been on the Russian navy base in Sevastopol. Using just a handful of the British and French missiles, the Ukrainians have destroyed two major Russian warships, including a new Kilo-class submarine that the Russians have used to fire on Ukraine, and seriously damaged the headquarters of the Black Sea Fleet itself. Yet the U.K. and France have a modest supply of the missiles. Ukraine has already fired approximately 100 of them, by some estimates, and needs to be very particular about when and where it uses any others.

In retrospect, Russia’s most successful campaign of the war has been what could be called its “great escalation bluff.” Perhaps because the Russians realize how vulnerable they are to long-range fire, they have always implied that giving Ukraine greater reach could lead to a broadening of hostilities, even a nuclear response. As the muted reaction to the attacks on Sevastopol in September has shown, this rhetoric was empty—a desperate ploy to dissuade the West from properly arming Ukraine.

That this ploy succeeded is a shame, and Western nations should stop falling for it.

Although Ukraine will now get ATACMS ammunition, the system—along with the F-16 fighters that Ukrainian pilots will likely be flying sometime in the first half of 2024—will arrive too late for the summer counteroffensive. Having missed a major opportunity to help Ukraine make more significant advances, the Biden administration should not make the same mistake again. The U.S. has many other potentially useful kinds of equipment in stock, such as the AGM-158 Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile, which is relatively difficult for enemy forces to detect. The U.S. has thousands of early-generation JASSMs in stock and should provide them if requested. Germany has the well-designed Taurus missile system. Taken together, all of these weapons would have given Ukraine a formidable arsenal to take apart Russia’s entire logistics system in occupied territory in Ukraine, devastate the Sevastopol base, and isolate Crimea as a supply route. That would have weakened the Russians at the front far more than any direct assaults at prepared positions with armored vehicles.

Helping Ukraine win the war as quickly as possible is imperative. It’s also the best way to limit future destruction and casualties. Yet the combination of Russian nuclear threats and the West’s outdated visions of major tank breakthroughs has put Ukraine in a difficult position. Because frontal assaults are so dangerous and vehicles are so vulnerable to attack, the Ukrainians have been proceeding on foot, undertaking an infantry-based campaign that could continue all autumn and even into the winter. The more that Western allies prioritize long-range weapons, the more Ukraine can wear down Russian resistance and take back its own territory.

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/10/america-ukraine-long
-range-weapons/675542/

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

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

Sunday, October 8, 2023 3:08 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:

We're barely even in the same species.
We are not the same species, Mr Wombat.

I really need to tell you something...

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

Political correctness is just tyranny, with a smiley face.

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

Sunday, October 8, 2023 3:42 AM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

So, scrolling up thru your posts just on this page, SECOND, I see that you post a lot of fiction!

I thought this was... yanno... supposed to be about the real world.

"Helping Ukraine win the war as quickly as possible" - Not possible.

"...legally void and contrary to duties imposed on States" - Since when has the USA followed international law?

"... a revolution is required to usher in democracy and break the cycle of Russia's history of autocracy." - Not gonna happen any time soon. And, Russia is already a democracy.

"If Putin does use a tactical nuke in Ukraine.." - Why would Russia bother, since they're winning? (Besides, that's not what Putin said. He told western leaders, essentially ... you can run to Patagonia or New Zealand and try to hide but our missiles will find you.

[everything about Crimea]

"American and European leaders worked together to fashion post-war European security, economic, and political institutions that were mutually beneficial to all" - Except Russia. Oh, and the rest of the world.

"Signym, you didn't realize that it is easy to check that you lied." - NOPE! That was you.

"... analysts are sceptical that the Kremlin will secure all the extra revenue it says it needs." - Well! AHEM! Russia's current debt (2022) is 17%. The USA's is almost 130%. Read it and weep.

"Julian Assange is a front for a hostile non-state intelligence service and a fugitive Russian asset" - NO, he isn't.

How anyone can pack their head so full of crap ... or would even want to... is beyond me.

-----------
"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

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

Sunday, October 8, 2023 7:48 AM

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

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

Sunday, October 8, 2023 8:24 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:

"Julian Assange is a front for a hostile non-state intelligence service and a fugitive Russian asset" - NO, he isn't.

How anyone can pack their head so full of crap ... or would even want to... is beyond me.

Julian Assange is in legal trouble because he has flamboyantly lived out his character defects instead of correcting himself. Here is one defect out of many defects: In some of the messages, obtained by The Atlantic, WikiLeaks reportedly offered damaging information on Hillary Clinton in exchange for Donald Trump Jr.’s help appointing Assange as U.S. ambassador to Australia if the elder Trump won the election. A lawyer for Donald Trump Jr. has said the president’s son did not know the specifics of the material being offered, and Donald Trump Jr. has not been charged by U.S. law enforcement officials in the matter.

There is plenty more about Assange at https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/the-charges-against-julian-assange-
explained

Russia deserves all the troubles it has because its leaders are highly defective and aren't ashamed to display their defects. There have been many history books written about Russian defects in character displayed by the top men. Historians industriously make the connections between the fate of a country and the worst ideas implanted in the minds of leaders by their country's culture.

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

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

Sunday, October 8, 2023 8:44 AM

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

Russia has nearly exhausted stockpile of up to 15 million shells; Ukraine to surpass Russian shell usage by year-end

October 7, 2023

"Our numbers are increasing: we can now use about 10,000 shells a day. The Russians still use about 15,000. But there is actually parity ahead. In terms of the number of shells . . . " But Russia may increase its production of shells to about 2 million a year, Reuters reported earlier.

https://english.nv.ua/nation/seven-thousand-a-day-artillery-shell-limi
t-is-looming-over-russia-50358916.html

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

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

Sunday, October 8, 2023 12:05 PM

Child rapist Zelensky is pissing himself after the Hamas attack.

If he was worried that the Ukraine grift well had run dry before, he knows he's fucked right now.

He served his purpose. It's late in 2023, but my bet is he's murdered sometime next year.

And meanwhile, the Military Industrial Complex "found" another way to keep funneling OUR money into the machine without missing a beat.

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

Political correctness is just tyranny, with a smiley face.

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

Sunday, October 8, 2023 12:41 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

More fiction from SECOND

"Julian Assange is in legal trouble because he has flamboyantly lived out his character defects instead of correcting himself. Here is one defect out of many defects: In some of the messages, obtained by The Atlantic, WikiLeaks reportedly offered damaging information on Hillary Clinton in exchange for Donald Trump Jr.’s help appointing Assange as U.S. ambassador to Australia if the elder Trump won the election"

- That's not what we're charging him with. Say, do you even know WHAT our charges against Assange are?

"Russia has nearly exhausted stockpile of up to 15 million shells; Ukraine to surpass Russian shell usage by year-end"

- Do you have any idea HOW MANY times people have published this, only to be proven lying, or stupid? Russia's offensive will begin by "shaping the battlefield" (They've already blown the bridges across the Oskol River, trapping 20,000 Ukrainian soldiers between the river to their backs and the frontline to the east.) There will be deep strikes far behind the front line, destroying ammo dumps, warehouses, port facilites, concentrations of troops, command centers, transportation nodes etc (Happening now. Russia recently blew up, among other things, a command center and an ammo dump with 63,000 TONS of munitions.)
Once supplies and logistics are degraded far behind the line and the Ukrainian army is exhausted to its core, Russia's offensive will begin in earnest with a hail of artillery and drone strikes at the front line. Then you'll see just how much Russia HASN'T "run out" of artillery shells.

-----------
"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

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

Monday, October 9, 2023 6:38 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:
More fiction from SECOND

"Julian Assange is in legal trouble because he has flamboyantly lived out his character defects instead of correcting himself. Here is one defect out of many defects: In some of the messages, obtained by The Atlantic, WikiLeaks reportedly offered damaging information on Hillary Clinton in exchange for Donald Trump Jr.’s help appointing Assange as U.S. ambassador to Australia if the elder Trump won the election"

- That's not what we're charging him with. Say, do you even know WHAT our charges against Assange are?

"Russia has nearly exhausted stockpile of up to 15 million shells; Ukraine to surpass Russian shell usage by year-end"

- Do you have any idea HOW MANY times people have published this, only to be proven lying, or stupid? Russia's offensive will begin by "shaping the battlefield" (They've already blown the bridges across the Oskol River, trapping 20,000 Ukrainian soldiers between the river to their backs and the frontline to the east.) There will be deep strikes far behind the front line, destroying ammo dumps, warehouses, port facilites, concentrations of troops, command centers, transportation nodes etc (Happening now. Russia recently blew up, among other things, a command center and an ammo dump with 63,000 TONS of munitions.)
Once supplies and logistics are degraded far behind the line and the Ukrainian army is exhausted to its core, Russia's offensive will begin in earnest with a hail of artillery and drone strikes at the front line. Then you'll see just how much Russia HASN'T "run out" of artillery shells.

Julian Assange is currently being held at Belmarsh, a high security prison in the UK, on the basis of a US extradition request on charges that stem directly from the publication of disclosed documents as part of his work with Wikileaks.
https://www.amnesty.org/en/petition/julian-assange-usa-justice/

Assange has imprisoned himself. He could force the USA to put him on trial and get himself released when he wins, but he is too fearful to try the obvious escape path from prison. Similarly, Putin has chained himself to Ukraine because he is too fearful to withdraw. Unlike Assange, Putin doesn't have to depend on the vagaries of a jury decision. Putin decides when Putin can go free. If only Putin would stop fighting, declare victory, and go home, but he doesn't, so he remains at war. If only Assange would stop fighting extradition, but he doesn't, and so he remains in prison.

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

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

Monday, October 9, 2023 6:54 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 6ixStringJack:
Child rapist Zelensky is pissing himself after the Hamas attack.

If he was worried that the Ukraine grift well had run dry before, he knows he's fucked right now.

He served his purpose. It's late in 2023, but my bet is he's murdered sometime next year.

And meanwhile, the Military Industrial Complex "found" another way to keep funneling OUR money into the machine without missing a beat.

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

Political correctness is just tyranny, with a smiley face.

6ix, Trumptards like you are so crazy that it shortens your lives. Because the USA is the best country in the world for retards to live a long life, you defective people stay alive far longer than anywhere else in the world, but eventually your 24/7/365 craziness catches up with you and causes your end. Expected yet tragic when a Trumptard like Rush Limbaugh, the cigar connoisseur who denied smoking causes cancer, died of lung cancer. But he lived long enough for Trump to award Rush with the Medal of Freedom for being the craziest personality on talk radio.

Why the world has been footing the bill for Putin’s war
Boosted oil revenues as a result of the Ukraine conflict have helped fund the Kremlin’s invasion

By Kirill Rogov | Oct 8, 2023

The author is director of Re: Russia. Expertise, Analysis and Policy Network and a visiting fellow at the Institute for Human Sciences in Vienna

Despite the supply of western weaponry, the Ukrainian counteroffensive has not yielded the expected results. The Russian military machine has partially weathered the crisis in command, and the political situation remains relatively stable. The result is that the conflict has entered a protracted phase. But why has Russia been so resilient to sanctions, how has it borne the costs of the invasion, and for how much longer will Vladimir Putin continue to fight?

The Kremlin is at a tipping point in the economics of this war. This week the finance ministry disclosed that it aims to spend Rbs10.8tn ($108bn) on defence next year, three times the amount allocated in 2021, and equivalent to 6 per cent of Russia’s GDP. But the actual amount will inevitably be higher due to hidden items and is likely to be about 7 per cent ($126bn). Forbes Ukraine calculated Russia’s main war expenses at around $170bn over the past year and a half, although this excluded some regular defence expenditure. Such estimates are undoubtedly imprecise but fall within the same range, indicating the war has cost the Kremlin $100bn to $120bn per year.

However, this has not significantly impacted the economy — at least, not yet. Because it is the buyers of Russian oil, rather than the Russian state, who have been paying for the conflict. Over the past decade, Russia’s average annual income from all exports has been around $430bn at an average Brent crude price of $67 per barrel during this period. However, an abnormal price increase in 2022 driven by the Ukraine invasion and the resulting sanctions pushed exports up to $590bn and this year the figure is estimated to be around $460bn. The additional income of $200bn above the decade average roughly covers the costs of the war so far.

Of course, not all this money went directly to the military budget, but most of it did. The benefits to Putin of this export income bump are significant. There was no need to redistribute much money from other parts of the state, which would create political tension. The Russian government estimates the fiscal stimulus of its 2022-23 budget to be equivalent to 10 per cent of GDP — allowing it to offset the effect of the sanctions and constraining their effect.

This could be about to change. Up until now, an annual export income revenue of $430bn has allowed Putin to invest comfortably in infrastructure and maintain sufficient social spending. Within the past decade, 2015 and 2020 proved to be lean years when external income amounted to just $330bn to $340bn, during the average oil price of $47 per barrel.

However, at a time of conflict, returning to average export revenues — while spending $120bn to $150bn on the war — will pose significant challenges for the regime. If export revenues were to dip to $350bn, Putin would be unlikely to continue the war given the dual burden of military expenditure and high social spending to maintain domestic stability.

Incidentally, the narrative that Putin cannot stop this war without losing face is not correct: it is likely that he will cease hostilities if he senses he is losing legitimacy. Even if the president declares a voluntary withdrawal from the territories occupied by Moscow since last February, the majority of Russians will feel immense relief. The faction of war zealots will be easily suppressed.

From a financial perspective, however, recent years have shown that Saudi Arabia and Russia can manipulate prices when OPEC loyalty is maintained, securing additional gains. Meanwhile, sanctions on both exports and imports become ineffective when oil prices rise and the premium from circumventing them covers the risks and additional costs.

These realities make a prolonged stand-off in Ukraine more likely. And it is crucial to remember that achieving a ceasefire or a “bad” peace that maintains the status quo accomplishes nothing. The Kremlin will simply redirect its resources towards preparing for a new war, which, like the current conflict, will be funded by the rest of the world.

Our current energy transition scenarios were mostly developed in the late 2010s. However, we are in a new era of heightened geopolitical tensions and risks. Therefore, the emerging “chokepoints” and deficits of the transition must now be viewed through a new lens: they provide dictatorships with a disproportionate lever of influence.

Unless we rethink these transition arrangements, with some urgency, democracies will continue to foot the bill for the wars that autocracies wage against them.

https://www.ft.com/content/8593ee84-1671-42fd-aaf4-80ddd7be16dc

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

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

Monday, October 9, 2023 7:37 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Child rapist Zelensky is pissing himself after the Hamas attack.

If he was worried that the Ukraine grift well had run dry before, he knows he's fucked right now.

He served his purpose. It's late in 2023, but my bet is he's murdered sometime next year.

And meanwhile, the Military Industrial Complex "found" another way to keep funneling OUR money into the machine without missing a beat.

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

Political correctness is just tyranny, with a smiley face.
6ix, Trumptards like you are so crazy that it shortens your lives. Because the USA is the best country in the world for retards to live a long life, you defective people stay alive far longer than anywhere else in the world, but eventually your 24/7/365 craziness catches up with you and causes your end. Expected yet tragic when a Trumptard like Rush Limbaugh, the cigar connoisseur who denied smoking causes cancer, died of lung cancer. But he lived long enough for Trump to award Rush with the Medal of Freedom for being the craziest personality on talk radio.

Yeah. We've heard all your judgements and lies before, cunt.

We'll just save more of the I Told You Sos from the neverending bag. You've quite the extensive collection of them now. Whatever do you do with all of them?

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

Political correctness is just tyranny, with a smiley face.

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

Monday, October 9, 2023 7:47 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 6ixStringJack:

Yeah. We've heard all your judgements and lies before, cunt.

We'll just save more of the I Told You Sos from the neverending bag. You've quite the extensive collection of them now. Whatever do you do with all of them?

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

Political correctness is just tyranny, with a smiley face.

6ix, Trumptards are as stupid and crazy as Russians and North Koreans. The Russians blame their relative poverty compared to the EU on the West rather than themselves. The Trumptards blame the Democrats rather than themselves. The North Koreans blame their poverty on South Korea rather than themselves. Crazy and stupid people blame anybody except themselves for their woeful lives.

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

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

Monday, October 9, 2023 8:53 AM

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

Negotiating With Russia Is Still a Bad Idea

The rationale for forcing Ukraine to stop fighting keeps changing with the facts on the ground.

By Raphael S. Cohen, the director of the Strategy and Doctrine Program at the Rand Corporation’s Project Air Force, and Gian Gentile, the deputy director of the Rand Corporation’s Army Research Division | October 9, 2023, 6:00 AM

Since the very outset of Russia’s war against Ukraine, there have been calls for the United States to negotiate with Russia. As the war has dragged on, the rationale for negotiations has morphed with each phase: Ukraine can’t possibly win, so the West needs to negotiate; Ukraine has guaranteed its survival but can’t hope for much more, so it’s time to talk; Ukraine is winning too fast, so let’s give Russian President Vladimir Putin an off-ramp in case he wants to blow up the world; the war is becoming too expensive, so send in the diplomats.

The latest version of the argument that Washington should negotiate an end to the war—or, more precisely, pressure Ukraine to capitulate—goes something like this: Americans, particularly those leaning toward the Republican Party, are growing wary of sending aid to Ukraine. On Capitol Hill, Republicans prevented Ukraine aid from being included in the continuing resolution passed on Sept. 30 that kept the U.S. government open. On the battlefield, the Ukrainian counteroffensive is proving to be a tougher and slower slog than many had hoped, and even Kyiv’s supporters now acknowledge that any victory will be at least one year away.

In the meantime, casualties have, by some counts, surpassed half a million killed and injured soldiers. Given these darkening clouds on both the political and military fronts, why not try to cut some sort of deal, potentially saving tens of thousands of lives and many billions of dollars?

Once you scratch below the surface, however, the case for negotiating with Russia quickly falls apart. Let’s start with the supposed shift in U.S. public opinion. Yes, some polls show declining support for Ukraine. The real question, though, concerns the reasons why some Americans appear to have changed their mind. Some may indeed be concerned about the cost, but analyses also suggest that the decline, particularly among Republicans, reflects general misgivings about U.S. President Joe Biden and his policies as an election season gets underway, rather than Ukraine’s cause on its own merits.

A Reagan Institute survey from June, for example, confirms this hypothesis. When pollsters told skeptical respondents that the United States “has spent roughly $24 billion on military aid to Ukraine, which is roughly 3% of the US military’s own budget” and that “Ukraine remains in control of roughly 83% of its territory and US intelligence believes the war has severely degraded Russia’s military power and its ability to threaten NATO allies,” this information raised support for Ukraine by 18 percent among self-identified Republicans and 12 percent among Democrats. Dwindling support for Ukraine may be more about bad messaging and lack of information than actual policy.

Support for Ukraine on Capitol Hill tells a similarly nuanced story. True, a group of Republicans in the House of Representatives managed to keep additional Ukraine aid out of the bill that kept the government open. The Senate, however, is more mixed. Indeed, even at the height of the recent budget battle, a bipartisan group of Senate leaders—including Minority Leader Mitch McConnell—issued a joint statement supporting Ukraine and endorsing continuing support. Moreover, earlier that same week, the House approved $300 million in Ukraine aid while also voting down two other attempts to restrict sending aid to Ukraine by wide margins, including about half of the Republican members.

So even if there are divisions among legislators, it is not at all clear whether Congress would support negotiating with Russia. Indeed, while there are elements in the House that have pushed to stop Ukraine aid, multiple Republican senators have hammered the Biden administration from the other direction, arguing that it should be more aggressive and forthcoming about sending weapons to Ukraine.

Indeed, if one looks at the field of Republican presidential contenders, about as many criticize the Biden administration for not aiding Ukraine more aggressively as are in favor of negotiations. From a purely political perspective, there is no consensus policy that would unite the different factions on Capitol Hill.

The military rationale for negotiations is no more compelling. True, the Ukrainian counteroffensive has yet to yield the same dramatic breakthroughs that the battles of Kyiv, Kharkiv, or Kherson produced for Ukraine last year. Historians will debate whether the West’s decision to slow-roll weapon systems in the hopes of forestalling escalation was worth the corresponding time it gave the Russian army to entrench its positions. These setbacks notwithstanding, the counteroffensive—in the assessment of former U.S. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley, as well as outside analyses—is making progress, albeit slowly.

Moreover, there are signs that Russia is fraying on the domestic front. After the Russian ruble temporarily stabilized following its post-invasion collapse, the currency has continued its long slide. The oil-rich country is now facing a fuel shortage and rationing supplies. Russia is now spending, by its own figures, roughly a third of its national budget on defense. Polling—notoriously difficult to do accurately in authoritarian countries, where information is tightly controlled and opposition punished—indicates that the Russian public is feeling the strain. And more members of the Russian elite are either ending up dead or seriously ill by mysterious circumstances. No one knows when the proverbial dam will break, but the pressure certainly seems to be mounting.

Finally, let’s turn to the supposed moral impetus for negotiations. There is no question that the human toll of the war is horrific, and every loss of life is a tragedy. But Washington must remember that it’s the Ukrainians who are fighting and dying. Most Ukrainians have friends or relatives who have been injured and killed in the war, and they are not giving in. Some 84 percent of Ukrainians—an overwhelming majority by any standard—favor fighting on. The figure has barely budged since a year ago.

The notion that the West must somehow save Ukrainians from themselves by pushing for negotiations is as misguided as it is arrogant and self-righteous. And it makes false assumptions about Russia, ignoring its explicit and oft-repeated war aims. Russian officials and other public figures regularly call for the repeated annihilation of Ukraine as a sovereign country, and according to a United Nations Human Rights Council investigation, “the rhetoric transmitted in Russian state and other media may constitute incitement to genocide.” Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev similarly promised that the war would “continue until the complete destruction” of the Ukrainian government and that “there will be more new regions within Russia.” Russian military recruitment videos try to lure recruits with the promises of real estate in Kyiv and Odesa once a victorious Russia conquers the country.

There is also no indication that Russia’s appetites will be sated with control over Ukraine. Col.-Gen. Andrey Mordvichev, the commander of Russia’s Central Military District and the Russian Central Grouping of Forces in Ukraine, recently argued that the Ukraine war “will not stop here.” Whether Russia has the capability to press the offensive forward is a different question, but defeating Russia in Ukraine is best guarantee that Russia will never be able to realize its ambitions.

Ultimately, the case against negotiating with Russia has not changed for the past year and a half: There still is no bargaining space for a potential deal. Ukraine wants its country back, just as it wants accountability for Russian war crimes and reparations for the damage inflicted. Russia is still not budging on any of these issues. To the contrary, Putin celebrated the one-year anniversary of the annexation of Ukraine’s four eastern provinces by lauding them for having “made their choice—to be with their Fatherland.” Accountability for Russian war crimes seems similarly unlikely, considering that Putin personally faces an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court for war crimes. Gloomy predictions for the Russian economy make reparations similarly implausible, even if there were political will.

Publicly pushing Ukraine to make a peace deal will not only fail but also demonstrate the fragility of U.S. resolve. That would be a dangerous message to send, particularly in a world filled with aggressive, revisionist, authoritarian regimes. There are good reasons why other democracies in the crosshairs of larger neighbors—from Taiwan to the Baltic states—view the successful defense of Ukraine as vital for their own security.

The United States cannot unilaterally end a war that it is only indirectly involved in just because it seems politically convenient to do so. That may be a bitter pill for some to swallow, but pressuring Ukraine to capitulate would be far worse.

https://foreignpolicy.com/2023/10/09/ukraine-russia-war-negotiations-p
eace-deal-military-aid/

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

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

Monday, October 9, 2023 11:16 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:

Yeah. We've heard all your judgements and lies before, cunt.

We'll just save more of the I Told You Sos from the neverending bag. You've quite the extensive collection of them now. Whatever do you do with all of them?

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

Political correctness is just tyranny, with a smiley face.
6ix, Trumptards are as stupid and crazy as Russians and North Koreans. The Russians blame their relative poverty compared to the EU on the West rather than themselves. The Trumptards blame the Democrats rather than themselves. The North Koreans blame their poverty on South Korea rather than themselves. Crazy and stupid people blame anybody except themselves for their woeful lives.

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

We've heard all this dumb shit out of you before, and it's not anymore true now that you've said it for the 1000th time.

You're an idiot, a sociopath, a serial liar and you're always wrong about everything.

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

Political correctness is just tyranny, with a smiley face.

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

Monday, October 9, 2023 1:58 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

More fiction via SECOND:

Quote:
Negotiating With Russia Is Still a Bad Idea

Negotiating with Russia is a good idea, if you negotiate in good faith. But since the collective west doesn't negotiate in good faith, Russia won't negotiate with us.

-----------
"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

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

Monday, October 9, 2023 2:01 PM