Russia Invades Ukraine. Again
POSTED BY: captaincrunch
UPDATED: Monday, September 14, 2026 22:30
VIEWED: 567839
PAGE 53 of 111
Quote:Then you will really hate this book, Signym, because it shows how Putin rewrites every bit of history to make Russians the heroes of their own fake stories:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
This report fails on thoroughness, transparency, and logic. Or maybe its a language problem. In any case, clear as mud. Very poorly written.
Oy!!
A few words from Memory Makers: The Politics of the Past in Putin’s Russia
By Jade McGlynn
The whole book can be downloaded for free from https://libgen.is//search.php?req=Jade+McGlynn
The future of cultural consciousness
According to the Russian media and government’s depictions of patriotism, cultural consciousness is attained through, and evidenced by, a true understanding of historical (allegorical) truth. Essentially, this idea can be reduced to the tautological formulation that Russians are defined by (and special because of) their unique understanding of their own history and culture but that you can only be Russian if you possess this consciousness of your culture (primarily history). Cultural consciousness is not a coherent ideology so much as a way of selling the core components of a worldview – that Russians needs a strong state, that Russia must develop along its own special path and that Russia is a great power with a mission to carry out in the world – in a way that also underpins the approved cultural memory.
Even the most cursory of inspections reveals that cultural consciousness offers a conceptualization of Russianness lacking in any concrete vision of Russia’s future beyond that of influence and power projection. Despite the media’s depictions of the template of coming-to-cultural-consciousness and the politicians’ heated orations equating Russianness with an embrace of historical justice, this is first and foremost a discourse of political legitimacy. As the Russian academic Igor’ Zevelev argues, it is about keeping the elites in power:
“In the end, from the broad assortment of ideas that appeared in intellectual discourse about Russia’s post-Soviet identity over the last twenty years, were chosen those [strands] which seemed the most suited to legitimizing the government and strengthening the independence, strength and influence of the Russian state.” – Zevelev 2014
The lack of a vision for the future reflects the cynicism inherent in the government’s efforts to subjugate discussions of Russian identity to their own immediate political requirements: Russian history, politics and identity are all instruments through which to legitimize the government and its rule. In place of ambitious plans or hopes for the future, there is, once again, this sense of nostalgic anticipation: looking forward to the future only for its similarities to the past. This also helps to deflect from the current lack of any attractive or viable political alternative to Vladimir Putin. Moreover, cultural consciousness provides a spur to action and a sense of purpose that can be realized outside of Russia’s borders, mobilizing and justifying Russian military action in Ukraine.
This sense of purpose, alongside the well-documented appeal of nostalgia, and the opportunity to present Russia as restoring at least some of a lost and idealized past, will likely encourage the Kremlin to continue to return to the emotive and symbolic potential of uses of history, from historical framing through memory wars to memory diplomacy. For this reason, the government and media’s uses of history will only become even more extreme as their war in Ukraine continues, especially if it continues to flounder. Consider, for example, the winter of 2019–20, when Putin responded to his flagging popularity ratings by engaging in a memory war over the causes of the Second World War with various Polish politicians (BBC 2019a) and by promising to inscribe into the new constitution the sanctity of the ‘true’ memory of the Great Patriotic War and Great Victory (Sokolov 2020), a promise he kept. Consider also the Moscow city authorities’ efforts in 2021 to distract from anti-governm
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A few words from War and Punishment: The Path to Russia's Invasion of Ukraine
By Mikhail Zygar
This book is not only about the present but also about the past — about the historical myths from which today’s politics has grown and which it is founded upon. I carefully and impartially read the historical sources and tried to trace the origins and development of the brutal Russian Empire that gave rise to the current war. This book is by no means an attempt to write the history of Ukraine. Rather, it is a “detective story through the eyes of the criminal,” a chronicle of how Russia has oppressed Ukraine for the past five centuries.
The whole book can be downloaded for free from https://libgen.is//search.php?req=Mikhail+Zygar
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
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The EU’s Membership Plan for Ukraine Could Easily Backfire
By Paul Hockenos | November 16, 2023, 9:33 AM
https://foreignpolicy.com/2023/11/16/ukraine-europe-eu-accession-expan
sion-russia-balkans-backfire/?tpcc=recirc_latest062921
The best way to expand Europeans’ peace and prosperity, according to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, is to lock all liberal-minded states from the Baltics to the Balkans into the institutions and structures of democratic Europe. “Enlargement is a vital policy for the European Union,” she said. “Completing our union is the call of history. … We all win.”
But the gambit could backfire if Brussels proves as uneven as it has in the Western Balkans, where the enlargement process has ground on for 20 years — and even triggered a backlash in countries that have become frustrated and disappointed as a result of unfulfilled promises despite many years of imperfect but hard-won reforms. These unfortunate countries not only remain outside of the EU, but some are run by national populists who are moving in the other direction and forging alliances with the EU’s geopolitical rivals, including Russia and Turkey. Given the complexities of integrating the likes of Ukraine and Moldova, it’s easy to imagine them experiencing the same treatment from the EU — and rousing the same kind of backlash in response.
In the early 2000s, the EU opened the enlargement process to all of the Western Balkan countries: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, North Macedonia, Montenegro, and Serbia. But two decades later, only Croatia has joined — the blame for which lies at the feet both of the aspiring countries and the EU itself. An array of internal issues and bilateral spats between the countries have obstructed them from fulfilling all of the obligations of membership, including standards of democracy, rule of law, and human rights. Serbia has long-standing rule of law and corruption issues that have become worse after initially getting better, and its fraught relationship with Kosovo complicates its status all the more. Likewise, Kosovo has Serbia blocking its way, as well as the fact that several EU states refuse to recognize its independence. Bosnia and Herzegovina is highly unstable, the postwar peace accords having divided a country that mostly observes the peace but can’t move forward with reform.
The fact that Albania, Montenegro, and North Macedonia are basically ready to go—and have been for years now—illustrates that much of the problem lies with the EU itself. In the wake of accepting Romania and Bulgaria (2007) and Croatia (2013), many member states expressed “enlargement fatigue” and felt that consolidation, not enlargement, was the order of the day—most vocally France, Denmark, and the Netherlands. Of course, in light of the nightmare of the EU’s trials with authoritarian Poland and Hungary, which threw wrenches in its workings, every EU country is wary of new members whose patchy democratic credentials might cause them to do the same. Nor is enlargement a popular stance: In France and Germany, just 35 percent and 42 percent of respondents, respectively, desire enlargement. In Austria, just 29 percent. Rubbing salt in the wounds, French President Emmanuel Macron has called for a European Political Community for like-minded non-EU states that fall short of membership benchmarks (and any interested EU countries)—a purgatory of sorts for loser nations.
The lack of a clear path or concrete timeline has brought momentum on demanding reforms to a standstill and, in some countries, even reversed it. Many of the Western Balkan countries now have potent political forces in their midst that dismiss the EU as hypocritical and its benchmarks as counterproductive. The loss of momentum toward membership has initiated a vicious cycle, argued a report by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a think tank based in Washington, D.C. It stated: “Stalled reform efforts contribute to slow economic growth, which in turn justifies skepticism within the European Union about futur
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Just so the original doesn't get buried in even more bullshit:
The report makes no sense as reported
Quote:So, to be clear... half of Russians want Russia to do both? Engage in war AND negotiate?
Originally posted by second:
Recent Russian opinion polls indicate that roughly half of Russians maintain support for the war in Ukraine and for Russia to engage in peace negotiations.
Quote:funded mostly by the USA..
The Levada Center – an independent Russian polling organization
Quote:Not to be nitpicky, but this conflicts with the first statement that a majority wants Russia to continue the war AND negotiate. So is this an either/ or? Or are there more than two choices? (Eg: fight and negotiate, fight don't negotiate, negotiate don't fight, don't know.) There's a missing 7%, so I expect there's at least a third choice and possibly a fourth.
– reported on October 31 that 55 percent of respondents to a recent poll believe that Russia should begin peace negotiations while 38 percent favor continuing to conduct the war.
If that's the case, and one choice is "fight and negotiate" (55%) while the other choice is "fight, don't negotiate" (38%) then the vast majority [93%] want Russia to continue fighting.
Quote:which numbers? They quote two sets
The Levada Center observed that while these numbers
Quote:Well, THAT is an unusual way to report the results! How can we tell how many people think the war is going "poorly"? WE CAN'T. Maybe 62% think it's going well, 20% think it's going "reasonably" and only 1% think it's going "poorly". Since whoever authored this report seems intent on hiding that "poorly" figure, my bet is that it doesnt tell the story that the author wants
slightly increased between September and October by four percent, they have largely remained consistent since July 2023.[14] The Levada Center added that support for Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine remained high with 76 percent of respondents stating that they support Russian military operations in Ukraine. The Levada Center reported that 62 percent of surveyed Russians believe that the full-scale invasion is progressing well, while 21 percent of respondents believe that the war is going reasonably or very poorly for Russia.[15]
Quote:Since most opinion polls give more than two choices (right direction, wrong direction, neutral, don't know) this report seems intent on hiding that "wrong direction" figure as well. Again, probably bc it doesn't tell the story that the author wants
The Levada Center reported on November 14 that two-thirds of respondents believe that Russia is headged in the right direction and of those who believe the opposite,
Quote:This report fails on thoroughness, transparency, and logic. Or maybe its a language problem. In any case, clear as mud. Very poorly written.
45 percent (of... 10%?) cited the war in Ukraine.[16] Opposition-leaning Russian research organization Russian Field reported similar numbers supporting negotiations on November 15, noting that 48 percent of respondents said that Russia should engage in peace negotiations and that 74 percent would support Russian President Vladimir Putin if he signed a peace agreement “tomorrow.”[17] Russian Field stated that 36 percent of respondents believe that the war is going well for Russia whereas 25 percent believe that the war is going poorly for Russia and that respondents who trust Telegram channels are twice as likely to believe that the war is going poorly for Russia as those who rely on Russian television.[18]
https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/russian-offensive-campai
gn-assessment-november-15-2023
Oy!!
*****
I don't intend to pick through more layers of bullshit, lies, misquotes, and half-truths, SECOND. This was yet another demonstration that the crap you post is, well, crap.
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"It may be danger
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Fuck Ukraine.
How long do you think you're going to live now that the US has moved on, Zelensky?
You'd better find the bunker Greta Thunburg and Fauci have been hiding out in and disappear forever.
Maybe Elvis and Tupac are there too and at least you'll have some music to listen to.
--------------------------------------------------
Political correctness is just tyranny, with a smiley face.
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Cluster munitions proving exceptionally effective in battle — Ukrainian officer
November 16, 2023, 12:30 PM
Cluster munitions used by Ukrainian forces are remarkably effective against enemy troops, Deputy Commander of the 3rd Assault Brigade, Maksym Zhorin, said in an interview with NV Radio on Nov. 15.
“Our artillerymen actually quite enjoy it when they are given a mission that involves using cluster munitions,” said Zhorin. “But the enemy does not enjoy them at all because it is truly very unpleasant. As a rule, after their deployment, it is rare for anyone to remain unscathed in the area of application. It is a significant advantage.”
He noted that cluster munitions allow for covering the entire area where an enemy infantry group or their light-armored vehicles disperse, inflicting substantial damage on Russian forces.
Ukraine began using cluster munitions provided by the United States at the end of July. The White House explained that the decision to transfer cluster munitions to Ukraine was dictated by battlefield conditions — on top of U.S. stockpile of conventional artillery shells running low.
The Ukrainian Defense Ministry emphasized that it would use cluster munitions only in areas of Russian military force concentration, outside of cities, to avoid risks to the civilian population.
https://english.nv.ua/nation/cluster-munitions-proving-exceptionally-e
ffective-in-battle-ukrainian-officer-50368952.html
File this story under: "Kill them. Kill them all."
https://www.quodb.com/search/Kill%20them.%20Kill%20them%20all
https://www.tigerdroppings.com/rant/movie-tv/kill-them-all/108925407/
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
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Decision to supply cluster munition was dictated by lack of 155 mm unitary munitions.
-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger
Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM
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Quote:Decision to supply tactical nukes to destroy the Crimean Bridge would be dictated by Ukraine's lack of tactical nukes. Nuking Russia is wrong but nuking the bridge Russia built in Ukraine is right.
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Decision to supply cluster munition was dictated by lack of 155 mm unitary munitions.
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
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A prominent Russian milblogger claimed on November 16 that Russian state media may have falsely convinced the Russian people that “everything is fine” in Russia’s war in Ukraine.[10] The milblogger claimed that he does not understand why Russian state media devotes so much time to promoting narratives about the “imminent collapse of Ukraine" and portrays the Russian war effort so positively that Russian viewers think that signing a military service contract is unnecessary. Another Russian milblogger who previously served throughout the front in Ukraine and correctly assessed Russia’s foundational problems in Kharkiv Oblast in spring 2022 criticized several unnamed Russian milbloggers for their recent overly positive reporting about Russian counterattacks on the east (left) bank of Kherson Oblast.[11] The milblogger claimed that the other milbloggers preemptively claimed that Russian forces repelled Ukrainian attacks on the east bank and criticized them for setting unrealistic expectations for Russian forces. The milblogger noted that such overoptimistic claims are forcing Russian servicemen to “catch up” to these Russian politicians’ and commanders’ unrealistic expectations of Russian battlefield successes. The milblogger’s complaint suggests that the situation in Kherson Oblast remains very ambiguous and is dynamic. The milblogger’s complaint mirrors recent reports that the Russian General Staff uses battlefield maps that differ from tactical reality and that local Russian commanders order Russian forces to conduct routine assaults to make gains that align with the Russian General Staff’s inaccurate maps.[12] Disjointed Kremlin efforts to consolidate control over the Russian information space and report overly optimistic news are likely creating these cycles of coalescence and backlash among Russian sources. The Russian information space may grow increasingly volatile as the rift between the Kremlin optimists and their critics expands.
https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/russian-offensive-campai
gn-assessment-november-16-2023
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
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Those wacky anonymous milblogers. What will they say next?
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Political correctness is just tyranny, with a smiley face.
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Quote:That Trump will be the next President.
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Those wacky anonymous milblogers. What will they say next?
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
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Quote:
Originally posted by second:Quote:That Trump will be the next President.
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Those wacky anonymous milblogers. What will they say next?
Your joke has no logic behind it since you were just putting your faith in what the people at understandingwar.com were telling you that some random anonymous Russian milbloggers were supposedly writing.
The joke here is that they would be telling you that Joe Biden* is going to keep his presidency* after next November.
Get better writers for your scripts.
--------------------------------------------------
Political correctness is just tyranny, with a smiley face.
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Quote:When you get caught in one stupid statement you make an even more abysmally stupid one, hoping that people will get distracted, argue you on it and forget your first stoopidity.
Originally posted by second:Quote:Decision to supply tactical nukes to destroy the Crimean Bridge would be dictated by Ukraine's lack of tactical nukes. Nuking Russia is wrong but nuking the bridge Russia built in Ukraine is right.
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Decision to supply cluster munition was dictated by lack of 155 mm unitary munitions.
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
Cue TRUMP! TRUMPTARDS! HOLDOMOR! in 3.... 2....
You're funny!!!
-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger
Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM
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Quote:16:43 ET, Thu, Nov 16, 2023 | Russia shows off devastating 'meteorite' missile in chilling threat to the West
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
When you get caught in one stupid statement you make an even more abysmally stupid one, hoping that people will get distracted, argue you on it and forget your first stoopidity.
Cue TRUMP! TRUMPTARDS! HOLDOMOR! in 3.... 2....
You're funny!!!
. . .
Russia denied the claims and said the launches had been successful.
https://www.the-express.com/news/world-news/118670/Russia-meteorite-mi
ssile-avangard-nuclear-weapon
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
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It's called deterrence, SECOND.
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"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger
Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM
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And now, back on topic:
Quote:
MSM Admits "Magical Thinking" Guided Its Reporting On Ukraine... Many [hundreds of -SIGNY] Thousands Of Deaths Later
Friday, Nov 17, 2023 - 11:40 AM
A very short while ago, any US politician or media pundit publicly calling for peace negotiations in Ukraine with Russia's Putin was branded 'pro-Kremlin' and somehow compromised. For example, mainstream media has sought to isolate and cancel thinkers like John Mearsheimer for his realism toward Moscow and the conflict, and urging immediate ceasefire which would require territorial concessions from Kiev. It was only in September that one prominent publication branded him "the world's most hated thinker."
But now, at a moment Ukraine's leadership itself has become more desperate while admitting its forces are facing almost insurmountable odds, the D.C. beltway consensus has clearly and drastically changed, and now it's apparently okay to admit the following...
"It's Time to End Magical Thinking About Russia's Defeat.
Putin has withstood the West's best efforts..."
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F_EqdLUaMAAMbKK
The WSJ piece actually calls for a longer-term strategy of confronting Russia, while also admitting that Washington's approach thus far has been based on "magical thinking".
How about... fraud? Lies? Brainwashing? Gaslighting the public?
The reality is that the war in Ukraine was part of America's (and the UK'S and EU's) long-term plan, in effect since 2000, to regime change Russia and steal its assets. It had nothing to do with freedom or democracy. In fact, the opposite.
-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger
Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM
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Quote:No, it is making a death threat. People who aren't receiving the respect/deference/land/loot they feel god promised them won't wait for god. Instead, they are making threats to take what they want violently. Russians want Ukraine. Trumptards want America. No surprise that Russia makes threats against the EU and America. Trumptards make threats, too, but they don't have nukes.
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
It's called deterrence, SECOND.
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
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Uh huh.
Last I checked, it wasn't Russia parking missiles on our border. It's the other way around.
Cue TRUMP!! TRUMPTARDS! HOLDOMOR!
-----------
"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 | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Quote:For the sake of their mental health, Russians are allowed to believe they can destroy the USA. The old M.A.D. doctrine, Mutually Assured Destruction, makes it easier for Russians to sleep at night. But it could be that Russia only survives because the USA is magnanimous. For example:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Uh huh.
Last I checked, it wasn't Russia parking missiles on our border. It's the other way around.
Cue TRUMP!! TRUMPTARDS! HOLDOMOR!
On August 30, 1945, Major General Lauris Norstad dispatched a document to his superior, General Leslie Groves, outlining a total of 15 “key Soviet cities” to be struck with U.S. atomic weapons, headed by the capital Moscow. This was followed by another 25 “leading Soviet cities” listed for annihilation, topping this latter group was Leningrad, almost destroyed during the Nazi siege finally lifted in late January 1944.
The above nuclear plans were being composed three days before the Second World War had even officially concluded (on September 2, 1945), and a mere two weeks following Japan’s surrender.
These initiatives, targeting the USSR for destruction, were actually developing at least as early as March 1944, at a time when Moscow was a vital wartime ally. Due to ongoing Soviet intelligence reports, Soviet leader Joseph Stalin was privy to America’s nuclear project most certainly by April 1942, but quite likely earlier.
https://www.peoplesworld.org/article/declassified-cold-war-nuclear-pla
ns-u-s-would-have-blown-up-half-the-world/
The USA has had plenty of time, talent, and money to complete a weapon far nastier, more aggressive, and tightly targeted at Russia than mere H-bombs, some weapon that doesn't kick up clouds of radioactive dust. The Russians might not be as magnanimously allowed to continue as they were after WWII. But Russians aren't going to get any warning from the USA ahead of time.
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
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Quote:Except at that point, we had used up our only two nuclear weapons. We didn't even have one left, let alone 40.
Originally posted by second:Quote:For the sake of their mental health, Russians are allowed to believe they can destroy the USA. The old M.A.D. doctrine, Mutually Assured Destruction, makes it easier for Russians to sleep at night. But it could be that Russia only survives because the USA is magnanimous. For example:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Uh huh.
Last I checked, it wasn't Russia parking missiles on our border. It's the other way around.
Cue TRUMP!! TRUMPTARDS! HOLDOMOR!
On August 30, 1945, Major General Lauris Norstad dispatched a document to his superior, General Leslie Groves, outlining a total of 15 “key Soviet cities” to be struck with U.S. atomic weapons, headed by the capital Moscow. This was followed by another 25 “leading Soviet cities” listed for annihilation, topping this latter group was Leningrad, almost destroyed during the Nazi siege finally lifted in late January 1944.
The above nuclear plans were being composed three days before the Second World War had even officially concluded (on September 2, 1945), and a mere two weeks following Japan’s surrender.
These initiatives, targeting the USSR for destruction, were actually developing at least as early as March 1944, at a time when Moscow was a vital wartime ally. Due to ongoing Soviet intelligence reports, Soviet leader Joseph Stalin was privy to America’s nuclear project most certainly by April 1942, but quite likely earlier.
https://www.peoplesworld.org/article/declassified-cold-war-nuclear-pla
ns-u-s-would-have-blown-up-half-the-world/
The USA has had plenty of time, talent, and money to complete a weapon far nastier, more aggressive, and tightly targeted at Russia than mere H-bombs, some weapon that doesn't kick up clouds of radioactive dust. The Russians might not be as magnanimously allowed to continue as they were after WWII. But Russians aren't going to get any warning from the USA ahead of time.
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
-----------
"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 | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Quote:At that point, the USA had an assembly line to build nukes until Japan surrendered.
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Except at that point, we had used up our only two nuclear weapons. We didn't even have one left, let alone 40.
Before the end of World War II, the United States was planning to detonate a third bomb — and more — on Japan. Signym and most Americans believe that dropping two atomic bombs on Japan was always the plan. But the historical evidence shows otherwise. Not a single document from before Japan’s surrender indicates that only two bombs were to be used. It wasn’t until after the war ended that new meaning was given to the bombs dropped over Hiroshima and Nagasaki. A surge of memoirs produced by those involved in the Manhattan Project asserted it was common knowledge that two atomic bombs would be enough.
But, before the attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, no one thought two bombs would end the war. Most certainly, not the two men in charge of the Manhattan Project. Three days after the Trinity Test, General Groves wrote to Oppenheimer that it would be necessary to drop Little Boy and Fat Man and possibly two more Fat Man bombs.
The pilot of the plane that dropped Little Boy, Colonel Paul Tibbets, told varied accounts. According to his earliest recollection, it would take five atomic bombs to force surrender. He had fifteen bombers and trained crews ready to go in case they needed to drop more atomic bombs during the war.
On August 13, 1945—four days after the bombing of Nagasaki—two military officials had a phone conversation about how many more bombs to detonate over Japan and when. According to the declassified conversation, there was a third bomb set to be dropped on August 19th. This "Third Shot" would have been a second Fat Man bomb, like the one dropped on Nagasaki. These officials also outlined a plan for the U.S. to drop as many as seven more bombs by the end of October.
https://outrider.org/nuclear-weapons/articles/third-shot
Signym, Moscow and Leningrad could have been next, and by next I mean in 1945. But little man Truman was scared of the power and responsibility. He choked.
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
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Russian President Vladimir Putin and Kremlin Spokesperson Dmitri Peskov dismiss criticisms of the Russian government and the war in Ukraine as unfounded and urged Russian citizens to self-censor. Putin stated at the International Cultural Forum in St. Petersburg on November 17 that “the head is not only a tool for speaking but is also for thinking before you say something.”[20] Putin commented that many educated, knowledgeable, and talented adults do not follow or understand what is happening, presumably in Ukraine, but acknowledged that “the mood in society and the opinion of a country’s people...is an objective factor that no one can escape.”[21] Peskov similarly stated in a video interview published on November 17 that there should be a level of censorship during wartime that would be unacceptable during peacetime.[22] Peskov stated that the line between criticizing the Russian military and discrediting the Russian forces is very thin and advised those who want to “indiscriminately” speculate about and criticize the Russian military to “think ten times” before doing so.[23]
Peskov also stated that he believes Putin will announce his presidential campaign and that he "does not doubt” that Putin will win the 2024 presidential elections.[24] Peskov also responded to a question about Russian leadership after Putin and the characteristics that Putin’s eventual successor should have, stating that Putin’s successor should be someone exactly like Putin.[25]
May I suggest Putin as Putin’s successor? If you have been following the TV show Foundation, the Emperor cloned himself so that he could always rule. That was very Russian. See Lenin's and Stalin's Mausoleum for how creepy Russians are. https://tv.apple.com/us/show/foundation/umc.cmc.5983fipzqbicvrve6jdfep
4x3
https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/russian-offensive-campai
gn-assessment-november-17-2023
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
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T 
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Russia Wants Female Prisoners to Give Birth as Population Fears Grow
Julia Davis, journalist and creator of the Russian Media Monitor, posted a photo Thursday on X (formerly Twitter) showing a billboard featuring a split image of a baby in the womb on one side and a young child wearing military fatigues and saluting.
The image reportedly translates to read: "Protect me today" and "I'll be able to defend you tomorrow."
"The link between Putin's current and potential wars and looming restrictions on abortion is far from subtle," Davis wrote.
In a piece published Thursday by The Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA), Davis documented how Russia's population dwindled by about 997,000 people between October 2020 and September 2021 — its largest ever peacetime decline.
She also noted that the Kremlin has attempted to combat the population decrease by forcibly bringing in Ukrainian refugees, women and some 700,000 children — of which war crime warrants were issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) against Putin and Maria Lvova-Belova, commissioner for Children's Rights in the Office of the President of the Russian Federation.
Meduza, an independent Russian- and English-language independent news outlet, reported on November 13 that the anti-abortion movement is being pushed by women like Natalya Moskvitina, who established the "Women For Life" organization.
She reportedly believes rape victims should give birth and that "true womanhood" is only possible through motherhood. She has also stated that women who have fewer than three children are part of a global evil.
The foundation, which has allegedly received grants and funding directly from the Kremlin, also openly instructs its volunteers to employ "manipulation" and deceit when talking with pregnant women.
https://www.newsweek.com/russia-wants-female-prisoners-give-birth-low-
birthrate-babies-1844810
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
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Meanwhile, Ukraine sends pregnant women to the front...
*****
Now for an ON TOPIC observation: I noticed on Military Summary channel while there are plenty of videos of Russia bombing, shelling, droning, and attacking Ukrainian positions all along thr front, there are few videos of Urainian troops doing anything. Yesterday IIRC there were two. I don't know what's going on, but it appears that Ukrainian soldiers have stopped fighting, except as infantry.
A Ukrainian pilot defected to Russia and took his SU 27 with him.
Penny Pritzker, wealthy wife of Governor Pritzker and part of the Chicago Dem machine, was delegated to oversee Ukraine reconstruction [pause for laughter] and went to Kiev to give Zelensky and Yermak these stark words:
Quote:
Imagine there may be no help
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/imagine-there-may-be-no-help-conc
lusions-of-us-special-representative-s-visit-to-ukraine/ar-AA1k1fU4
With Yermak apparently in discussion with Alex Soros, I wonder if the plan is to throw Ukraine into Soros' waiting arms, where he will strip Ukraine of its national assets and resources, and Russian assets in Ukraine, in return for a few dollars/ Euros more to keep Kiev officials warm and well fed this winter, where they will continue pretending that Ukraine can be revived.
I think Ukraine is toast*. I believe we will see mass desertion before the end of the year, when soldiers utterly run out of ammo.
* Altho, come to think of it, Ukraine's been toast for at least six months. With an economy, government and military 100% dependent on foreign donations and no tax receipts to speak of, Ukraine disappeared as a functioning nation and economy.
So, to quote Kissinger:
-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger
Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM
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Newsweek: Ukraine Sure Doesn't Look Like a Democracy Anymore
https://www.newsweek.com/ukraine-sure-doesnt-look-like-democracy-anymo
re-opinion-1844799
Even stupid people eventually figure that one out.
The rest of us knew that Ukraine was never actually a Democracy.
Hell... even the word Democracy itself when used like that is a misnomer.
America isn't a Democracy either. It's a Democratic Republic.
There's a BIG FUCKING DIFFERENCE between the two, but stupid people who watch CNN/MSNBC and read Newsweek for the "truth" have no idea.
--------------------------------------------------
Political correctness is just tyranny, with a smiley face.
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Russia frees killers from prison to go to war and kill in Ukraine
By Mary Ilyushina | November 18, 2023 at 2:00 a.m. EST
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/11/18/putin-pardon-criminals
-murderer-ukraine/
Vladislav Kanyus, a young man from Kemerovo in southwestern Siberia, brutally killed his ex-girlfriend Vera Pekhteleva, torturing, suffocating and stabbing her for hours.
He was sentenced in July 2022 to 17 years after a high-profile trial that reignited a national conversation in Russia about the lack of protections against domestic violence and law enforcement indifference to such cases. But then Pekhteleva’s bereaved mother, Oksana, received a photo of Kanyus — not in prison but in a military uniform surrounded by other Russian soldiers.
Her daughter’s murderer was pardoned by President Vladimir Putin in exchange for taking up arms in Ukraine.
“I thought I was going crazy, I keep zooming into this photo and staring into his face in disbelief,” Oksana Pekhteleva said, described the shock it brought to her family. “You know what the human psyche is like, the first stage is denial.”
To avoid calling another controversial mobilization and risk angering the public ahead of presidential elections next year, Russia’s military has relied increasingly on prison recruitment to bolster its ranks, a tactic pioneered by Yevgeniy Prigozhin, the late Wagner Group mercenary boss.
According to rights activists, the Russian Defense Ministry has enlisted as many as 100,000 people this year by scouring prison colonies and offering to chop off years from the sentences of people convicted of some of the country’s most gruesome crimes.
Just days after the Kanyus pardon made headlines came news that a former police officer convicted for his role in the 2006 murder of Anna Politkovskaya, a prominent journalist, was also pardoned by Putin after serving six months of military duty in Ukraine.
The ex-police officer, Sergei Khadzhikurbanov, was sentenced to 20 years in prison in 2014 as one of five men charged with organizing Politkovskaya’s murder. (Who ordered the killing was never determined.) Politkovskaya’s work, uncovering Russian abuses during the Chechen wars, had resulted in numerous threats and attacks before she was shot to death in the elevator of her Moscow apartment building.
Khadzhikurbanov’s lawyer told Russian media that his client recently signed another contract and will remain in the army.
Kanyus was secretly pardoned in April. Vera Pekhteleva’s family was not informed but suspected that he was out of prison when they received the photo of him holding a weapon.
By fall, Kanyus was posting photos of himself barbecuing on social media. About a week ago, Vera’s father got an official notice from the local prosecutor’s office informing them that Kanyus had indeed been pardoned and sent to the front line.
The Kremlin has expressed no regret when questioned about Putin’s decision to free murderers to reinforce the Russian ranks in Ukraine.
“Convicts, including those convicted of serious crimes, atone for crimes with blood on the battlefield, in assault brigades, under bullets, under shells,” Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, told reporters.
Alena Popova, a human rights activist who represents Pekhteleva’s family and has long lobbied for the introduction of a domestic abuse law in Russia’s criminal code, said she is concerned that freed convicts will bring a wave of violence back home, emboldened by their early release.
Popova and her team said they are being flooded by calls and messages from people who have already come in contact with, or fear seeing, their abusers or the killers of their loved ones. Most cases most don’t generate headlines, she said, because people are afraid to speak out.
Affected families fear repercussions because their abusers are fighting in what Putin has described as a “war for Russia’s future.” Any criticism of those taking part in hostilities could be viewed by the authorities as criticism of the war or of the military — which is now illegal in
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According to Meduza
Quote:
Records from Russia’s Federal Penitentiary Service indicate that Russian prisons contained a total of almost 349,000 people at the start of August. By September, that number had decreased by about 1,000 — a change consistent with a years-long trend of the number of prisoners gradually decreasing. Over the two months that followed, however, the prison population declined by more than 23,000, reaching 338,000 by early October and 325,000 by early November.
So that "up to 100,000" is probably a lot like Russian KIA figures: exaggerated to absurdity.
I don't have a problem with prisoners serving their sentences in the military. (Think French Foreign Legion, or any number of Hollywood movies )
I DO have a problem with releasing them into society where they might commit crimes again. It's hard enough returning normal people to society. So unless military service is some sort of reform process, I think this might ultimately be dangerous to society.
Another question is whether they will show the necessary discipline, or will they use their newfound freedom to commit crimes.
And finally, I'd be worried about their level of training. The Kremlin didn't have problems with Prighozin recruiting from prison, and, frankly, neither did I. But where they put their foot down... and there were many places where they could have .. was the number of casualties that those men suffered taking a city that Russia had no intention of taking.
-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger
Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM
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Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
According to MeduzaQuote:
Records from Russia’s Federal Penitentiary Service indicate that Russian prisons contained a total of almost 349,000 people at the start of August. By September, that number had decreased by about 1,000 — a change consistent with a years-long trend of the number of prisoners gradually decreasing. Over the two months that followed, however, the prison population declined by more than 23,000, reaching 338,000 by early October and 325,000 by early November.
So that "up to 100,000" is probably a lot like Russian KIA figures: exaggerated to absurdity.
I don't have a problem with prisoners serving their sentences in the military. (Think French Foreign Legion, or any number of Hollywood movies )
I DO have a problem with releasing them into society where they might commit crimes again. It's hard enough returning normal people to society. So unless military service is some sort of reform process, I think this might ultimately be dangerous to society.
Another question is whether they will show the necessary discipline, or will they use their newfound freedom to commit crimes.
And finally, I'd be worried about their level of training. The Kremlin didn't have problems with Prighozin recruiting from prison, and, frankly, neither did I. But where they put their foot down... and there were many places where they could have .. was the number of casualties that those men suffered taking a city that Russia had no intention of taking.
-----------
"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
Examining Prison
Releases in
Response to COVID:
Kelly Lyn Mitchell
Julia Laskorunsky
Natalie Bielenberg
Lucy Chin
Madison Wadsworth
July 2022
LESSONS LEARNED FOR REDUCING THE
EFFECTS OF MASS INCARCERATION
https://robinainstitute.umn.edu/sites/robinainstitute.umn.edu/files/20
22-07/Examining%20Prison%20Releases%20in%20Response%20to%20COVID%20-%20July%202022.pdf
Quote:
We estimate that a total of 80,658 people were released from prisons in 35
jurisdictions (34 states and the federal prison system) due to COVID-related
policies, which was equivalent to about 5-1/2% of the total state and federal
prison population in 2019
More than a million prisoners have been released during COVID-19, but it’s not enough
https://theconversation.com/more-than-a-million-prisoners-have-been-re
leased-during-covid-19-but-its-not-enough-170434
Yeah. Let them all out.
But just not in your neighborhood, right lady?
--------------------------------------------------
Political correctness is just tyranny, with a smiley face.
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Here is an article about Ukrainian Commanders being too incompetent to command
After Losing a Leg, One Ukrainian Army Officer Is Mad At His Commanders. But He’s Not Mad at His American-Made M-2 Fighting Vehicle.
The M-2 saves lives, Mykola Melnyk said.
David Axe | Nov 18, 2023,04:03pm EST
https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidaxe/2023/11/18/after-losing-a-leg-on
e-ukrainian-army-officer-is-mad-at-his-commanders-but-hes-not-mad-at-his-american-made-m-2-fighting-vehicle/
Mykola Melnyk was a lawyer in Ukraine when Russia invaded in 2014. Melnyk immediately abandoned his practice and volunteered to help the Ukrainian army to defend Avdiivka in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk Oblast.
Nine years later, Melnyk—now a 38-year-old senior lieutenant—joined the army’s new 47th Mechanized Brigade. The brigade that, on June 9, would lead the initial assaults of Ukraine’s long-planned 2023 counteroffensive.
Melynk’s counteroffensive was a short one. On day one, he stepped on a mine and lost a leg, barely surviving. Looking back on the counteroffensive’s chaotic early days, the lawyer-turned-infantryman has ... opinions.
Ukrainian military leaders underestimated the Russians’ determination to hold territory they’d captured, Melynk said in a wide-ranging interview with Censor. The same leaders changed units’ organization and equipment at the last minute, wrecking their cohesion, Melynk claimed. Ukrainian aviation didn’t show up to support the ground troops, he added.
https://censor.net/en/resonance/3453607/company_commander_of_the_47th_
brigade_mykola_melnyk_the_russians_knew_our_routes_of_advance_and_everything
But for all his criticism of the top brass and the air force, Melynk had only good things to say about the American-made M-2 Bradley infantry fighting vehicles his company rode into battle. “The Bradley withstood everything,” Melynk said.
The 47th Brigade is the main operator of the roughly 200 M-2A2ODS(SA) Bradleys that the United States pledged to Ukraine early this year.
Updated for better situational awareness (the “SA” in the designation) in the aftermath of the 1991 Operation Desert Storm (the “ODS”), the 28-ton, nine-person M-2 with its 25-millimeter autocannon and add-on reactive armor might be the best IFV in Ukrainian service, although Ukraine’s ex-Swedish CV90 could also claim that honorific.
Yes, the 47th Brigade has lost dozens of M-2s. But many of them might be recoverable and repairable. And more importantly, the 47th Brigade hasn’t lost dozens of M-2 crews. The Americans designed the vehicle to protect its occupants, after all. “A Bradley may be hit, but the crew survives,” Melynk said.
The same can’t be said of the BMP-2 IFV, Russia’s answer to the M-2. Hit a BMP-2, Melynk said, and “the entire crew dies.”
Melynk’s own M-2 ate a Russian shell during the assault on June 9. “The projectile hit under the right side,” the former lawyer recalled. “The armor withstood the fragments, but the shockwave tore the wiring in the vehicle.” The driver was concussed, but the M-2’s 600-horsepower diesel engine kept right on running. “We drove on.”
In Melynk’s experience, the M-2 is most vulnerable to attack from the air. Which makes sense, as the Bradley’s designers left the tops of the hull and turret lightly-protected in order to add protection—and weight—to the front and sides.
“The only case when the Bradley did not withstand impacts was from the work of helicopters,” Melynk said. He recalled a raid bv Russian air force Kamov Ka-52 attack helicopters that hit a 47th Brigade assault column. “One Bradley detonated.”
But Melynk stressed that, in other cases, the 47th Brigade’s M-2s rolled right through Ka-52 raids. “In principle, this is a very reliable vehicle,” he said.
The M-2 saves Ukrainian lives. After Melynk stepped on the mine that took his leg, an M-2 speeded in to evacuate him.
But the Bradley’s robustness doesn’t make it some wonderweapon. According to Melynk, some Ukrainian commanders genuinely believed Russian troops would simply give up the first time they saw
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The Case for Supporting Ukraine Is Crystal Clear
Note to Congress: Ukraine aid is not charity but serves critical U.S. interests.
By Michael McFaul, the director of Stanford University’s Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies. | November 16, 2023, 4:39 AM
https://foreignpolicy.com/2023/11/16/ukraine-russia-war-us-congress-ai
d-weapons/
Last year, the Ukrainians defeated Russia’s invading army on the battlefield, denying Russian President Vladimir Putin all of his core objectives for the war. He failed to de-militarize Ukraine, install a puppet government in Kyiv, bring Ukraine back into Russia’s fold, and stop NATO expansion. Today, Ukrainians are more committed to their nationhood than ever, and their democratically elected president, Volodymyr Zelensky, remains in power. Ukraine now has a stronger military and closer ties to NATO than ever before; Finland has joined the alliance, and Sweden is set to follow. In 2022, Ukraine’s armed forces won the Battle of Kyiv, the Battle of Kharkiv, and the Battle of Kherson, liberating more than 50 percent of the territory that Russia had occupied since launching its full-scale invasion.
Now, some of these successes could be reversed because of waning U.S. support. The false claim of a battlefield stalemate has brought about a new narrative that Americans should stop helping Ukraine because it cannot win. Alarmingly, the U.S. House of Representatives has delayed voting on the Biden administration’s request for supplemental military aid. Without new assistance from the United States, Ukraine will soon run out of arms, ammunition, and funds to fight effectively against the occupying Russian forces. Most urgently, the Ukrainian government needs air defense systems to protect its people and civilian infrastructure against Russian missiles and Iranian drones this winter. And Ukraine also needs additional weapons to defend and extend last year’s gains.
Putin clearly understands Ukraine’s precarious position in the U.S. Congress. Recently, he boasted that Ukraine would last only a week if the United States stopped providing military assistance. Putin is wrong: The Ukrainians have made it abundantly clear that they will continue to fight. Recall how, in February 2022, thousands of Ukrainians across the country prepared Molotov cocktails to defend against the Russian invaders. Putin’s statement, however, once again proves that he is not seeking to negotiate. Instead, he is waiting for the United States to quit on its Ukrainian partners so he can launch a new offensive to seize more of Ukraine and destroy its democracy. Without U.S. assistance, more Ukrainians will certainly die, and Ukraine may well lose more territory.
By delaying further assistance to Ukraine, House Speaker Mike Johnson and his supporters are acting against the United States’ own interests. Congress should approve new aid to Ukraine as fast as possible—not as a gesture of charity for Ukraine but as a hard-nosed and clear-headed investment in U.S. security objectives.
The moral argument for supporting Ukraine is clear. Despite the United States’ numerous past mistakes and current flaws, I still believe that it should be a force for good in the world. Russia’s war of colonial conquest is immoral and wrong. We cannot allow the world to return to a state of anarchy, where powerful countries can change borders at will. We cannot stand by as civilians are slaughtered, prisoners tortured, people raped, and children kidnapped. Withdrawing military assistance to Kyiv will not end the war but rather prolong it, leading to more deaths on both sides. The war in Ukraine is a democracy defending itself against a dictatorship. It is simply wrong to let an autocrat invade, occupy, annex, and destroy a country with a political system that Americans and so many others around the world deeply believe in. Global public opinion polls show that a majority of the world’s people prefer democracy to other forms of government. Unlike some other wars, there can be no confusion about right and wrong in this confli
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Fuck Ukraine.
--------------------------------------------------
Political correctness is just tyranny, with a smiley face.
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Russia is such a successful country compared to the EU.
Russia's Desperate Scramble To Stave Off Demographic Catastrophe
Nov 20, 2023 at 5:48 AM EST
https://www.newsweek.com/russia-population-demographic-catastrophe-abo
rtions-children-1845110
Valery Seleznyov, a member of the Russian State Duma, last week proposed releasing women convicted of minor charges from prisons so they can conceive.
"Russia really does have a demographic problem," the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill, said on November 12 as he called for a nationwide ban on "encouraging women to have abortions."
"It's a vast country, but there are not enough people. Not even mentioning the economy...We really need more people, this is obvious, everyone admits it," he said.
During a meeting with members of his Civic Chamber on November 3, Putin said Russia has an acute abortion problem.
In recent months, private clinics in Russian regions—including in the Chelyabinsk region in the Ural mountains and in Tatarstan in central Russia—have stopped offering abortions, according to authorities. The move is also being considered in Russia's Kaliningrad region.
Authorities have also started to restrict access to abortion pills and emergency contraception amid a surge in demand that followed the beginning of the war in Ukraine. In 2022, sales of abortion pills were up 60 percent, according to Nikolay Bespalov, development director of the RNC Pharma analytical company, the Associated Press reported.
Russia for decades has been experiencing a population decline, and this appears to have worsened amid the ongoing invasion of Ukraine, with high casualty rates and men fleeing the country to avoid being conscripted to fight.
As of January 1, 2023, 146.45 million people were estimated to be residing on the Russian territory, marking a decrease of approximately 530,000 from the previous year, according to Statista.
It is estimated that Russia's population will fall to about 132 million in the next two decades. The United Nations has predicted that in a worst-case scenario, by the start of the next century, Russia's population could almost halve to 83 million.
Newsweek has contacted Russia's Foreign Ministry via email for comment.
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
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Quote:
Originally posted by second:
The Case for Supporting Ukraine Is Crystal Clear
Note to Congress: Ukraine aid is not charity but serves critical U.S. interests.
By Michael McFaul, the director of Stanford University’s Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies. | November 16, 2023, 4:39 AM
https://foreignpolicy.com/2023/11/16/ukraine-russia-war-us-congress-ai
d-weapons/
Last year, the Ukrainians defeated Russia’s invading army on the battlefield, denying Russian President Vladimir Putin all of his core objectives for the war. He failed to de-militarize Ukraine, install a puppet government in Kyiv, bring Ukraine back into Russia’s fold, and stop NATO expansion. Today, Ukrainians are more committed to their nationhood than ever, and their democratically elected president, Volodymyr Zelensky, remains in power. Ukraine now has a stronger military and closer ties to NATO than ever before; Finland has joined the alliance, and Sweden is set to follow. In 2022, Ukraine’s armed forces won the Battle of Kyiv, the Battle of Kharkiv, and the Battle of Kherson, liberating more than 50 percent of the territory that Russia had occupied since launching its full-scale invasion.
Blah blah blah...
Even the headline is wrong. We have NO interest in Ukraine, critical or otherwise. And every sentence after that is a lie.
That's one thing I appreciate about fff.net: I can get a dose of crazy propaganda all in one place, instead of having to hunt for it all over the net.
-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger
Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM
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Demographics of the EU:
Birth rate
9.5 births per 1,000 (2020 est.)[2]
Death rate
10.7 deaths per 1,000 (2021 est.)[2]
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_the_European_Union
-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger
Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM
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Quote:Signym, I am assuming you don't realize that Europe is grotesquely over-populated (denser than India) while Russia is ridiculously underpopulated (and getting more underpopulated each time a Ukrainian kills another worthless Rusky ):
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Demographics of the EU:
Birth rate
9.5 births per 1,000 (2020 est.)[2]
Death rate
10.7 deaths per 1,000 (2021 est.)[2]
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_the_European_Union
Russian population density, people per square km, 9
European Population density, people per square km, 2021 - Country rankings: The average for 2021 based on 47 countries was 599 people per square km.
https://www.theglobaleconomy.com/rankings/population_density/Europe/
If you compare economies, Russia is the size of Canada, a country that can well afford to build more nukes than Russia or North Korea but Canada is not so stupid as to actually do it. And certainly, Canada is not stupid enough to threaten the world with a nuclear holocaust, something Russia and North Korea do every day because those stupid leaders think it is smart to make threats and call out red lines that must not be crossed or else nuclear holocaust.
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
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WTH does poppulation density have to do with anything? That just means there are more than enuf resources for everyone.
And, with apologies to our neighbors to the north, their economy is unbalanced: they only produce what the USA wants to import*, and their so-called GDP is overly driven by rampant real estate speculation.
* Their basic production like cement, fabrics, chemcicals etc is low, and they're way light on technology. They couldn't produce a rocket if their lives depended on it, for example and I haven't heard of any advances in material science, have you?
-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger
Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM
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There Are Only Two Options Left In Ukraine
Nearly two years after the Russian invasion, I traveled the country to pose a fundamental question to the Ukrainians I met: How does this end?
By Matt Gallagher, Published: Nov 20, 2023
https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/a45805515/ukraine-russian-invasi
on/
A Soul in Bakhmut
Victory is now much more than a word in Ukraine. It’s a conviction, an aim to be willed into existence. Even the bitter fighters, even the most dejected know it’s victory or death. But what it’s costing to get there transcends any quantifiable figure or metric. Numbers lose their meaning quickly, at any rate. Personal stories are the only measures that don’t fade.
And measures in wartime are whole lives.
Valerii Fedorchuk, a Ukrainian soldier who carries himself with both assurance and stirs of sadness, points toward the valley below us, where a row of ruined buildings scars the horizon. Heavy artillery rumbles from that direction, followed by plumes of smoke. Wherever the shells end up landing, it’s not where we stand, in the hills surrounding the Bakhmut front in eastern Ukraine. It’s a bright August afternoon and he’s taken me here to provide a panorama of the battlefield. Ukraine’s counteroffensive against entrenched Russian defenses is underway and moving. It’s going slower than many Western observers predicted or hoped, but it is moving. And every meter of land matters in a war that many of those same observers believed would be over in seventy-two hours last February, with the Kremlin in control of their proud, smaller neighbor.
That didn’t happen, in large part because of people like Fedorchuk. Fifty years-old, barrel-chested with a trim salt-and-pepper beard, his call sign of “Soul” neatly fits his disposition. He strikes me as the kind of father who, in peace time, would be at every one of his kid’s soccer games, encouraging yet not afraid to let the referee know when a foul is missed. He’s not in peace, though. And as an artilleryman with the 3rd Assault Brigade, he’s resolute in what must be done in the weeks, months, perhaps years to come. “Victory will be achieved when we kick the enemy out [of Ukraine] and make them realize we don’t need them, that they should stay where they belong.”
“Bakhmut used to be a beautiful city,” he continues. “Now it is like a cancer, how it looks, how it feels. And like any cancer, we must kill it to save the body. It is the result of the Russian world [coming into it]. Anything the Russian world touches turns to that.”
Outgoing rockets fired closer to our position answer the artillery. This machinery, this industrial violence, sounds with fantastical dissonance in the countryside it emerges from, green trees and yellow hills and indolent blue streams that belong in a painting. Such is life in the Donbas in 2023.
Like so many now serving in the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Fedorchuk never thought he’d become a soldier. Once a professional weightlifter, Fedorchuk was coaching college-aged athletes and running a human-rights nonprofit when Russia invaded last year. After some discussion, he and his family decided to leave their home in Irpin, a suburb of Kyiv, for the relative safety of western Ukraine. Days later, Irpin came under heavy shelling and temporary Russian occupation, leaving up to 300 of their neighbors and friends dead.
He spent the initial months of the war running supplies and aid from the Polish border to frontline villages. As Western attention waned, so did the amount of aid, causing him to wonder what more he could do. So he decided to enlist, in part to represent his family, he says. He has two sons and a younger brother with serious health issues. This matters in Ukrainian society, to have a brother or son or mother or sister in uniform. It matters a lot.
We walk through some reserve trenches dug in case the Russians mount another advance. Fedorchuk stresses they’ll never have to use them, but their presence suggests that someone somewhere has considered otherwise. They are deep and narrow and tight, which help
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I've been reading reports of Ukrainian "anti-retreat forces" for a while. Most recently read a report that Ukraine won't evacuate dead or wounded soldiers from the east (Russian) side of the Dneiper, and if you insist on being evacuated they'll take you back across the river and shoot you. But, that was an expat Russian saying that.
But, for the first time ever, I saw a documented video of Ukrainian shooting at Ukrainians on Military Summary Channel, and the pro-Ukrainian commenter didn't interpret this as "friendly fire" but bc a forward unit refused to advance into Avdiivka and the unit to the rear was firing on them with what looked like tank rounds.
He mentioned Ukrainian anti-retreat forces again today when he was mapping out the front line in Avdiivka.
****
One comment that I heard was that soldiers in the front line know how desperate the situation is, but that Kiev has done such a good job gaslighting its own people that those in cities far behind the front lines, like Lvov/Lviv and Kiev think everything's going OK. Especially since dollars and euros are flowing there. Coffee shops are open, and cabarets are booming.
It seems to me that women and university students have mostly been spared conscription. But that, given the uninvolvement of the more sheltered part of Ukie society, the most gung-ho forces and leaders (Azov, Aidar) are agitating for total conscription.
I'm not sure what the WH, Pentagon, and CIA think of that idea. On the one hand, I think the DNC and WH just want Ukraine to go away. OTOH they may still be hanging on to the idea that Ukraine can still pull a victory, or at least a negotiated end (as opposed to a surrender) out of the situation. There still are about 30,000 training outside of Ukraine, 30,000 or so stalwart nationalists/ neo-Nazis, and a fair number of APCs and artillery systems remaining. It's possible that between a conscription drive, trained soldiers coming back home, and nationalists/ neo-Nazis at home, Ukraine can gather enough soldiers for one last throw. The only stumble on that point is even tho they may have weapons they might be lacking munitions.
-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger
Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM
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lol. Looks like Second is posting full novels here instead of pirated links today, huh?
Fuck Ukraine.
--------------------------------------------------
Political correctness is just tyranny, with a smiley face.
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Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
lol. Looks like Second is posting full novels here instead of pirated links today, huh?
Fuck Ukraine.
--------------------------------------------------
Political correctness is just tyranny, with a smiley face.
I usually quit reading his bullshit after I stumble on some ridiculous lie, but this time I gritted my teeth and plowed thru a whole two paras. I gave up after wading thru that much 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
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Quote:Signym and 6ix, what the hell happened to you two to screw you up so completely? ( A long time ago I stopped believing your problems in the real world were caused by the world. Your problems are caused by your flaws. Redesigning the world to your preferred specifications would make everybody else's life worse, including your own.)
Originally posted by SIGNYM:Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
lol. Looks like Second is posting full novels here instead of pirated links today, huh?
Fuck Ukraine.
I usually quit reading his bullshit after I stumble on some ridiculous lie, but this time I gritted my teeth and plowed thru a whole two paras. I gave up after wading thru that much crap.
20 Days in Mariupol (full documentary) | FRONTLINE and The Associated Press
Ukrainian journalist Mstyslav Chernov and his colleagues risk their lives to document Russia's siege of Mariupol in this FRONTLINE/AP documentary.
Mariupol was the front line, but the people there were cut off and had such a limited perspective — at one point, people didn’t know who to blame for the bombing, Russia or Ukraine.
People would see the press sign on the helmet and would go, “Tell me the news.” You were like a walking radio station in the city, everybody would come and say, “Hey, what’s the news? Is Kyiv still there? What’s with Kherson — I have relatives there.”
At that moment I thought: If this is a bigger story of the city, a big theme of that story would be misinformation, misinterpretation, and isolation.
For me, it’s not only a military siege, but an information siege — and its effect on a modern society. That was an eye-opening experience. In just, let’s say, three, four days, when the city was cut off from all the telephone lines, from the internet, this society just collapsed. I’ve never seen anything like that. People started to panic, to loot. They started to get confused whose fault it is, who’s bombing them.
https://www.vox.com/2023/11/21/23955754/20-days-in-mariupol-documentar
y-russia-ukraine-war
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
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Never surprising when Russia denies doing what it is doing:
Russia denied on Monday accusations that it was sending migrants to the Finnish border. "We do not accept such accusations," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2023/11/20/russia-denies-sending-migran
ts-to-finland-border-a83157
Putin aims to "break" NATO. ISW publishes a new report
Story by MCZ | 10:22 AM EST, November 21, 2023
https://essanews.com/putin-aims-to-break-nato-isw-publishes-a-new-repo
rt,6965464879986817a
The Institute for the Study of War (ISW) implies in its report that Moscow's hybrid warfare tactics on the Finnish-Russian border may be part of a larger strategy. The think tank suggests that "the objective is to destabilize NATO member states near Russia's borders."
https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/russian-offensive-campai
gn-assessment-november-20-2023
The ISW points out that present tensions between Russia and Finland are predominantly caused by an artificially created migration crisis, likely contrived by Russia at the Finnish border.
In retaliation, Finland chose to shut its border crossings on November 17. Two days later, on November 19, it announced plans to construct fences along its border with Russia. These measures came in response to information from Finnish authorities on November 12 regarding an influx of asylum seekers at the country's eastern border.
ISW Recalls Poland Situation
The Finnish government has accused Russia of engineering this migration crisis. Migrants and refugees reaching the Finnish border are from third countries like Iraq, Syria, Turkey, and Somalia, crossing over from Russia.
The ISW highlights the parallels between the situation at the Finnish-Russian border and the migration crisis at the Polish-Belarusian border in 2021.
In November 2021, thousands of migrants from Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, and other countries flooded the Polish-Belarusian border, causing a significant humanitarian crisis. Many endured extreme cold weather conditions, living in makeshift camps in the Belarusian forests.
NATO Destabilization and Diversion from Ukraine
European Union officials have claimed that Russia and Belarus had orchestrated this crisis, using migrants as tools in their political pursuit against EU and NATO countries. The ISW underlined that the Kremlin took advantage of this fabricated crisis in 2021 to accuse NATO of aggression towards Belarus.
The think tank's report proposes that the current border dispute between Russia and Finland might be a "reflection of Moscow's strategy to destabilize NATO countries in the area and to "divert attention away from the conflict in Ukraine".
"Putin's intention of instigating a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 aimed to fracture NATO – a goal he persists," the ISW report states.
Russia Threatens Finland
Finland became a NATO member on April 4, 2023. On the same day, the Russian Foreign Ministry released a statement indicating that Russia would be "compelled to take retaliatory actions" against Finland.
The ISW report repeats, "The ISW consistently predicts that Putin's intent of instigating a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 was to fracture NATO – a target he persists".
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
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--------------------------------------------------
Political correctness is just tyranny, with a smiley face.
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Quote:I was thinking of a mechanical analogy to 6ix, Signym and the Russians. This is from real life: an axial compressor that is out of balance. It is moving gas but the noise and vibration is worrisome. If the compressor is not shutdown very soon, it will throw a blade, which will cause a cascading failure that destroys everything, including the compressor building. Where is the shutdown button for the Russians? Where is a skilled maintenance crew to disassemble the Russians and fix what is wrong?
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
--------------------------------------------------
Political correctness is just tyranny, with a smiley face.
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
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Quote:
Originally posted by second:Quote:I was thinking of a mechanical analogy to 6ix, Signym and the Russians. This is from real life: an axial compressor that is out of balance. It is moving gas but the noise and vibration is worrisome. If the compressor is not shutdown very soon, it will throw a blade, which will cause a cascading failure that destroys everything, including the compressor building. Where is the shutdown button for the Russians? Where is a skilled maintenance crew to disassemble the Russians and fix what is wrong?
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
--------------------------------------------------
Political correctness is just tyranny, with a smiley face.
Here's a biological analogy to Second.
You're a limp dick, impotent waste of carbon.
Oh wait. That's not an analogy. That's just you.
Go jump off a building and that will fix a lot of problems, including your own.
--------------------------------------------------
Political correctness is just tyranny, with a smiley face.
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SECOND, you should have watched Patrick Lancaster. He's a former American sailor turned reporter, who was able to work on the Russian side of the front line, and he interviewed people even as shooting was going on. He pretty much wandered the streets of Mariupol without a Russian "minder" (altho the soldiers might warn him away from a particular street where even I could hear shooting and small explosions) and, as a Russian speaker, he was able to interview people on the spot and gather their opinions and impressions.
I stay informed. YOU stay brainwashed.
-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger
Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM
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US National Security Council Spokesperson John Kirby reported on November 21 that Iran is supplying Russia with glide bombs and that Iran may be preparing to transfer short-range ballistic missiles to Russia.[9] ISW has observed Russian forces increasingly using glide bombs, particularly modified FAB-500, KAB-500, and RPK-500 aerial bombs equipped with glide bomb structures, in the Lyman and Kherson directions.[10] It is unclear whether Kirby meant that Iran is supplying Russia with glide bomb components or with fully constructed glide bombs. The Critical Threats Project (CTP)-ISW’s Iran Update reported on August 14 that Iran produces a variety of glide bombs domestically, such as the Ghaem glide bombs, Yasin long-range glide bombs, Sadid glide bombs, and Balaban glide bombs.[11] Iran commonly uses these bombs with its various drone platforms, likely including the Shahed-131/136 drones that Iran supplies to Russia. A Russian milblogger previously amplified claims that Russian Su-25 aircraft may be compatible with Iranian glide bombs.[12] Iran presented several glide bomb variants at the Russian Army-2023 Forum in Moscow in August 2023 and possibly during Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu’s visit to Tehran in September 2023.[13] Kirby added that Iran also continues to supply Russia with drones and artillery ammunition.[14] Ukrainian Main Military Intelligence Directorate (GUR) Deputy Chief Major General Vadym Skibitskyi stated on November 6 that Iran may continue to send small batches of Shahed-131/136 drones to Russia despite increased Russian efforts to produce Shahed drones domestically and Iran’s fulfillment of its first Shahed supply contracts with Russia.[15] CTP-ISW previously assessed that Iran and Russia may conclude a drone and missile sale agreement following the expiration of UN missile restrictions against Iranian missile and missile-related technology exports on October 18, 2023.[16]
https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/russian-offensive-campai
gn-assessment-november-22-2023
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
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Quote:
Originally posted by second:
US National Security Council Spokesperson John Kirby reported on November 21 that Iran is supplying Russia with glide bombs and that Iran may be preparing to transfer short-range ballistic missiles to Russia....
Oh, boo hoo. Big fucking deal.
We, Germany, France, Italy, Poland, Romania, UK, Norway, Denmark, Canada, Sweden, and Finland are supplying Ukraine with missiles, rockets, tanks and other armored vehicles, mines, shells including cluster munitions, etc We even "borrowed" shells from S KOREA and ISRAEL, and pretty much went across the world begging for shells.
What's your point?
-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger
Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM
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https://odysee.com/@Overthrown:6/video_2023-06-26_13-46-30:9
-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger
Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM
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Four signals telling Vladimir Putin to wind up Ukraine war | November 24, 2023 10:57:24 IST
https://www.firstpost.com/opinion/vantage-four-signals-telling-vladimi
r-putin-to-wind-up-ukraine-war-13425352.html
There are indications that he might be reconsidering his position.
During the G20 meeting, Putin’s statements hinted at a potential shift in his approach to the conflict. He acknowledged the tragic consequences of military actions and emphasised the need to halt the ongoing tragedy. Notably, Putin refrained from using the term “special military operation” and explicitly referred to the situation as a “war”. This linguistic choice raises questions about a possible softening of his stance.
As Putin faces the complexities of the war in Ukraine, several factors weigh on his decision-making. The 1) military landscape, 2) international support, 3) economic challenges and 4) domestic sentiment collectively shape a delicate situation. With an upcoming election and the possibility of public unrest, Putin may find himself at a crossroads, contemplating a shift toward peace to navigate the intricate web of geopolitical and domestic pressures.
The question of whether President Putin genuinely seeks an end to the war in Ukraine remains elusive. While various indicators suggest a potential shift in his position, the intricacies of geopolitics and internal challenges make predictions uncertain. As the global community closely monitors developments, the dynamics of the conflict continue to evolve, leaving room for speculation about Putin’s true intentions and the eventual resolution of the crisis.
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
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Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:Quote:
Originally posted by second:
US National Security Council Spokesperson John Kirby reported on November 21 that Iran is supplying Russia with glide bombs and that Iran may be preparing to transfer short-range ballistic missiles to Russia....
Oh, boo hoo. Big fucking deal.
We, Germany, France, Italy, Poland, Romania, UK, Norway, Denmark, Canada, Sweden, and Finland are supplying Ukraine with missiles, rockets, tanks and other armored vehicles, mines, shells including cluster munitions, etc We even "borrowed" shells from S KOREA and ISRAEL, and pretty much went across the world begging for shells.
What's your point
SIGNYM
No one likes Russia. How's that?
T
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The Russians have funny ideas about what makes a good soldier:
November 23, 2023
Denis Gorin, a resident of Russia’s Sakhalin region who was sentenced to 22 years in prison on charges of murder and cannibalism in 2018, has reportedly been released to fight in the war in Ukraine, the Telegram channel Sakhalin Against the War wrote on Wednesday.
According to a neighbor of Gorin who spoke to the RFE/RL affiliate Sibir.Realii, Gorin is currently in a hospital in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk with a moderate injury. “But I don’t think he’ll be free for long. His victims’ relatives all remember him,” the neighbor added.
In 2003, Gorin was convicted of premeditated murder and “subsequently desecrating the corpse of his victim.” He was sentenced to 10 years in prison but released on parole in 2010 for good behavior. That same year, according to court records, Gorin murdered an acquaintance before deciding to “remember the old days” by consuming pieces of his victim. Then, in 2012, Gorin and his brother stabbed a man 29 times outside of a store. Six years later, Gorin was sentenced to 22 years in prison for the stabbing. Documents from his trial indicate that he ate the flesh of that victim as well.
https://meduza.io/en/news/2023/11/23/russian-man-serving-22-year-priso
n-sentence-for-murder-and-cannibalism-reportedly-released-to-fight-in-war-against-ukraine
Russian Murderer and Cannibal Released to Fight in Ukraine – Reports
https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2023/11/23/russian-murderer-and-canniba
l-released-to-fight-in-ukraine-reports-a83199
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
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Quote:
Originally posted by THG:Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:Quote:
Originally posted by second:
US National Security Council Spokesperson John Kirby reported on November 21 that Iran is supplying Russia with glide bombs and that Iran may be preparing to transfer short-range ballistic missiles to Russia....
Oh, boo hoo. Big fucking deal.
We, Germany, France, Italy, Poland, Romania, UK, Norway, Denmark, Canada, Sweden, and Finland are supplying Ukraine with missiles, rockets, tanks and other armored vehicles, mines, shells including cluster munitions, etc We even "borrowed" shells from S KOREA and ISRAEL, and pretty much went across the world begging for shells.
What's your point
SIGNYM
No one likes Russia. How's that?
T
I'm completely fine with Russia.
Ask Second why he hates Jews so much, Ted.
--------------------------------------------------
Political correctness is just tyranny, with a smiley face.
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Quote:6ixStringJack, to accuse someone of trashy behavior they are not guilty of is a typical Trumptard gambit, which is one of a hundred reasons why your kind of angry poor white trash is despicable.
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
I'm completely fine with Russia.
Ask Second why he hates Jews so much, Ted.
Funny how the Russians do the same, endlessly making false accusations, constantly insisting their lies are "truth" and actual Truths are all lies. Even funnier, Trump lies all the time and accuses his accusers of being the real liars. I see why 6ix can write: "I'm completely fine with Russia." Trumptards are completely fine with liars.
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
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Quote:
Originally posted by second:
US National Security Council Spokesperson John Kirby reported on November 21 that Iran is supplying Russia with glide bombs and that Iran may be preparing to transfer short-range ballistic missiles to Russia....
SIGNY: Oh, boo hoo. Big fucking deal.
We, Germany, France, Italy, Poland, Romania, UK, Norway, Denmark, Canada, Sweden, and Finland are supplying Ukraine with missiles, rockets, tanks and other armored vehicles, mines, shells including cluster munitions, etc We even "borrowed" shells from S KOREA and ISRAEL, and pretty much went across the world begging for shells.
What's your point
THUGR: No one likes Russia. How's that?
Well, apparently Iran likes Russia. So does China, Brazil, India, Saui Arabia, Egypt, Syria ... in fact, most of the Mideast, most of the continent of Africa ... all together, 3-4 billion people.
That's a lot more than "nobody", THUGR.
-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger
Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM
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Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
I'm completely fine with Russia.
Ask Second why he hates Jews so much, Ted.[/b
SEVOND: 6ixStringJack, to accuse someone of trashy behavior they are not guilty of is a typical Trumptard gambit,
BWAHAHAHA!
Well then, YOU must be a TRUMPTARD!
Un-fucking-believable!
-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger
Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM
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Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
I'm completely fine with Russia.
Ask Second why he hates Jews so much, Ted.[/b
SEVOND: 6ixStringJack, to accuse someone of trashy behavior they are not guilty of is a typical Trumptard gambit,
BWAHAHAHA!
Well then, YOU must be a TRUMPTARD!
Un-fucking-believable!
--------------------------------------------------
Political correctness is just tyranny, with a smiley face.
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Two new weapons Russia deployed in the past month:
Kamikaze drones with night- vision capability. Good for neutralizing night time troop movement. Russians first used it on the banks of the Dnieper about a week ago to interdict the boats that Ukraine was using at night to land and supply troops on the east (Russian) bank of the Dneiper near Krynky. At first this was thought to be a limited-use local adaptation but was recently also used further north on the frontline.
RBK 500 guided cluster bomb. Instead of dozens of bomblets, this bomb has only 15, but propelled at high speed and with higher explosive warheads. It's not an anti-personnel cluster bomb (they say) but meant to take out tanks and other armored vehicles, fortifications and I've seen it used on treelines.
Weaponry is a grisly technology. But it looks like Russians are getting better and better at killing their enemy.
*****
Meanwhile, the future of Ukraine.
Kiev has seen a parade of high- ranking western officials in the past week or so: CIA Director Burns, Def Sec Austin, and Germany's Def Minister Pistorius.
What Burns talked about, we don't know. Austin reaffirned support but also announced the smallest aid package ever - $100 million, and probably talked about other things we don't know either, since it doesn't make sense to pay an unexpected vist to Kiev just to drip aid on them.
As far as Pistorius is concerned
Quote:
Visiting German Minister of Defence Boris Pistorius announced a fresh military support package for Ukraine worth 1.3 billion euros.
“This package includes four further IRIS-T SLM systems, 155mm shells, and anti-tank mines,” Pistorius said during a joint press conference with Ukrainian Defence Minister Rustem Umerov.
In 2024-2025, Germany will provide a total of 160,000 rounds of ammunition to Ukraine, Pistorius said, also pledging to support Kiev with air defence means.
MORE AT https://www.orissapost.com/germany-announces-fresh-military-aid-for-uk
raine/amp/
But the promised weapons, while expensive, won't help Ukraine much. The artillery shells in particular are way below Ukraine's usage. In additon, Germany's highest court ruled that the accounting trick used by the current government to shore up its finances, including aid to Ukraine and replenishment of Germany's own military stockpiles, is ILLEGAL. Does that leave German aid in limbo too?
There appear to be two schools of western thought on "What to do with Ukraine?"
One school of thought, exemplified by Richard Haas and probably Burns and Austin, seems to be giving Zelenskiy the bad news about foreign aid, and encouraging him to negotiate a cease fire with Russia. The other school of thought, exemplified by "Jungle Joseph" Borrell, Ursula van der Crazy, current and former NATO chiefs, seems to be "Give Ukraine everything we've got" and full speed ahead.
Zelenskiy is supposedly the decider. But, he know that negotiating for a cease- fire would be political suicide bc a) Russia would never accept a ceasefire and b) the more gung- ho elements in Ukraine (i.e. Nazis) are calling for 100% mobilization right now.
So Zelenskiy's hand will probaby forced for full mobilization and another "counteroffensive " some time in spring(?). If Ukraine holds together that long.
*****
53rd and 110th Ukrainian Brigades are self- evacuating from Adiivka. 54th Brigade refuses to advance. 32nd Brigade is pulled from the front line for reconstitution.
Ukrainian television interviewed Arakhamia, who was the head of Ukraine's negotiation delegation in March 2022. They asked him what Russia wanted and he said, neutrality for Ukraine and other small things. When asked why it wasn't signed he blamed Boris Johnson for coming to Kiev and telling Zelenskiy to keep fighting.
13:20 Military Summary Channel
http://www.orissapost.com/germany-announces-fresh-military-aid-for-ukr
aine/amp/
Apparently this is making a big splash in Ukraine and t
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Quote:To assume a cease-fire would hold, or that Russia would ever stop trying to undermine Ukraine’s sovereignty, misunderstands Moscow’s objectives and, with it, Russia’s way of war. Although U.S. and European analysts may think about warfare in terms of relative wins and losses on the battlefield, for Moscow, conflict is a much more flexible term. It is a spectrum of activity that includes many tools of state power — including religion, disinformation campaigns, energy supplies, assassinations, and grain exports — along with standard tools like artillery barrages.
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Ukrainian television interviewed Arakhamia, who was the head of Ukraine's negotiation delegation in March 2022. They asked him what Russia wanted and he said, neutrality for Ukraine and other small things. When asked why it wasn't signed he blamed Boris Johnson for coming to Kiev and telling Zelenskiy to keep fighting.
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
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The Russian Way of War
By Bob Seely | November 24, 2023
https://www.foreignaffairs.com/ukraine/russian-way-war
Putin began to move closer to voina — traditional war — by sending unmarked Russian troops into eastern Ukraine and Crimea. But this operation was still irregular, relying heavily on paramilitary groups and intelligence operatives. It had echoes of 1990s conflicts that Russian operatives had curated in Moldova and Georgia, if on a larger and more professional scale. In fact, the operational plan for Ukraine broadly followed a template written in 2013 by Valery Gerasimov, Russia’s chief of the general staff, which, in turn, closely resembled earlier KGB templates on staging coups.
The curated uprising succeeded completely in Crimea and partially in the eastern provinces of Donetsk and Luhansk, where Russian operatives, organized crime groups, and local thugs established two “people’s republics” that were ostensibly independent but were actually controlled by Moscow. Yet elsewhere in eastern Ukraine, including in cities such as Kharkiv and Dnipro, the coups failed. In the southern port city of Odessa, Russia’s efforts literally went up in flames: the 40-person core of Moscow’s cell was burned alive in a trade union building.
But despite its failure to engineer the political collapse of Ukraine, even this modest success enabled Russia to create a managed conflict — blocking any potential Ukrainian moves toward EU or NATO membership. Moscow then tried to parlay this partial gain into a wider political victory. So as the Kremlin pocketed Crimea, it dangled Donetsk and Luhansk as leverage in negotiations. The provinces could rejoin Ukraine, Moscow said, but only under conditions that would force Kyiv to effectively accept pro-Russian paramilitary forces and political parties on its soil. The resulting arrangement would have locked Ukraine into an ever-tighter relationship with Russia, slowly strangling the country’s genuine independence.
Kyiv saw through this gambit, and the peace talks flopped. By 2020, it was clear that Putin’s strategy was failing. Russia and Ukraine were still negotiating over the east, but Kyiv was simultaneously deepening its Western relationships. Russia remained in de facto control of the seized territory, but it had destroyed its “soft” power and degraded its international influence in the process. In his drive to subjugate Ukraine, Putin had created exactly the united Ukrainian identity he wanted to squelch. As one Kyiv resident told me, “We have such an expression: thanks to Putin, Yanukovych, for creating the Ukrainian nation.”
Despite the defeats, Putin remained obsessed with controlling Ukraine. And so, having exhausted his nonmilitary and paramilitary options, he ordered a major invasion of the country in February 2022. The third stage of the conflict began: outright voina.
Putin’s primary goal — swiftly suppressing Kyiv’s government — was akin to Soviet actions in Hungary in 1956 or Czechoslovakia in 1968, where Moscow sent in troops and tanks to suppress opposition and reassert its rule. But unlike in those two states, Russia’s military performed poorly. Indeed, Putin’s shambolic but brutal invasion was the very opposite of the integrated plans Russian doctrine endorses.
Much more at https://www.foreignaffairs.com/ukraine/russian-way-war
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
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Manpower becomes Ukraine’s latest challenge as it digs in for a long war
Kyiv seeks to persuade younger recruits with better endurance and higher skills to join up. Kyiv faces the challenge of how to maintain a flow of recruits into the armed forces without stirring social unrest
By Roman Olearchyk in Kyiv | November 25 2023
https://www.ft.com/content/25711074-5e1a-494a-9d7c-ccb535f671d5
Of the four men who lined up at an army recruitment centre in Kyiv one morning this month, only one was there voluntarily.
Oleksandr, a 34-year-old used-car dealer, said he could no longer watch from the sidelines after five acquaintances were killed in Europe’s biggest war since 1945. He built up a financial cushion for his wife and newborn child before deciding to fight. “It’s time,” he said.
The others had received mobilisation notices. Two said medical conditions had previously prevented them from serving: one cited brain damage from a freak accident, the other metal plates in his spine. The fourth — Yevhen, a 42-year-old sales manager with no military experience — said: “I’m not going to hide, but I honestly don’t know what I can contribute.”
The meagre queue was a far cry from the thousands of volunteers who lined up at recruitment centres following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February last year.
It underscored the challenge facing Ukraine, with a population of less than 40mn, nearly two years into a war against an enemy with more than three times the number of people: how to maintain a flow of recruits into the armed forces without stirring social unrest and how to build capacity to enable Kyiv to regain the battlefield initiative.
General Valeriy Zaluzhnyi, Ukraine’s top military commander, told The Economist earlier this month that to break the “stalemate” — a term that earned him a rebuke from the government — he needed not just new capabilities in artillery, mine clearance and electronic warfare but “to build up our reserves”.
“However, our capacity to train reserves on our own territory is also limited,” Zaluzhnyi wrote separately in an opinion article. “We cannot easily spare soldiers who are deployed to the front, [and] Russia can strike training centres. And there are gaps in our legislation that allow citizens to evade their responsibilities.”
Selective conscription has continued since February 2022 but has lost steam as the grim reality of a long, gruelling war sets in. According to a BBC investigation, nearly 20,000 Ukrainian men evaded call-up notices either by slipping out of the country in defiance of an exit ban or fraudulently acquiring permission to leave. In August, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy fired all the country’s regional army recruitment chiefs over the issuance of medical exemptions in return for bribes.
Ukrainian officials and western analysts say it is not just a question of numbers but of fitness, capability and skills. The average age of Ukrainians at the front and those trained by western allies has been 30-40, rather than more usual 18-24, said Jack Watling, senior fellow at the Royal United Services Institute, a UK think-tank.
The issue was not troop quantity but the “quality and capacity to command operations at scale”, he said.
Mobilisation early last year disproportionately pulled in older men with military experience, but younger men with more endurance and skills were now needed, he added.
“Ukraine needs infantry in top physical shape,” said Franz-Stefan Gady, a senior fellow at the International Institute for Strategic Studies. “The physical requirements for the infantry are demanding and have increased as this conflict has settled into small-scale infantry engagement fought on foot in trench systems.”
Ukraine keeps its troop and casualty numbers secret. Experts and local officials have suggested it had 1mn men and women under arms last year, including territorial defence, secret services and border guards — double the pre-February 2022 number. US officials estimate that about 70,000 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed and up to 12
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Does the US Actually Want Ukraine to Defeat Russia?
Nov 26, 2023 at 3:00 AM EST
A common refrain since February 2022 is that the U.S. is giving Ukraine enough military aid to survive, but not enough to win. In this telling, Washington, D.C. fears that a strategic Kremlin defeat in Ukraine could prompt chaos within Russian borders, perhaps the unseating of President Vladimir Putin, and a vicious regional struggle to fill a power vacuum littered with weapons of mass destruction. Anarchy would pose many new problems for the White House.
"The Ukrainians do see continued hesitancy and this mindset of worrying about escalation, not provoking the Russians in some sort of way," Daniel Vajdich — president of Yorktown Solutions and one of Ukraine's most prominent lobbyists in Washington, D.C. — told Newsweek.
"On the implementation side, there's a whole lot of continued caution that raises real questions in Kyiv about whether there is a desire for the Ukrainians to truly defeat the Russians. And the conclusion is 'no'."
"The Ukrainians believe that despite all the assistance, despite the fact that the administration is doing so much, there is still so much caution because there is not a desire for the Ukrainians to decisively defeat the Russians, thinking that this would really lead to internal turmoil and collapse in Russia."
Vajdich said this sentiment is strong in Kyiv. "It is an empirical fact that a lot of the assistance has not gotten to the Ukrainians as quickly as it could have," he said. "There are supply chain issues, there's no doubt about that. But there's also a portion of this assistance, both qualitatively and quantitatively, that could have gotten to the Ukrainians a lot earlier."
"It had a decisive impact in terms of the situation on the ground...the spring offensive this year would have been a spring offensive and not a July offensive, which made all the difference. It allowed the Russians to literally entrench themselves and fortify their defenses."
Kyiv has had to fight hard for every new NATO weapons system. The first American-made main battle tanks had arrived in Ukraine as of October, more than 18 months since Russian armored columns rolled across Ukrainian frontiers. Kyiv is still pushing for the longest-range version of the MGM-140 Army Tactical Missile System — known as the ATACMS, and U.S.-made F-16 fighter jets will not be expected to arrive until early 2024.
More at https://www.newsweek.com/us-want-ukraine-defeat-russia-putin-biden-zel
ensky-peace-talks-1846772
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
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Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Does the US Actually Want Ukraine to Defeat Russia?
Nov 26, 2023 at 3:00 AM EST
A common refrain since February 2022 is that the U.S. is giving Ukraine enough military aid to survive, but not enough to win. In this telling, Washington, D.C. fears that a strategic Kremlin defeat in Ukraine could prompt chaos within Russian borders, perhaps the unseating of President Vladimir Putin, and a vicious regional struggle to fill a power vacuum littered with weapons of mass destruction. Anarchy would pose many new problems for the White House.
Oh, bull!
SINCE FEB 2022 WE'VE BEEN TOLD THAT UKRAINE WAS WINNING! ALWAYS WINNING! OR COULD WIN, WITH ENOUGH WEAPONS!
You can't rewrite history THAT blatantly, SECOND.
The problem is, TBTB seriously "misunderestimated" Russia since 2014. And you're evidence of that bc you repeated every trope, every lie about defective Russia/ Russians. Just review your posts.
TPTB really thought that if they couldn't beat the Russkies militarily their "sanctions from hell" would FOR SURE do the trick. Bc Russia was just a gas station masquerading as a country.
Then they thought they had an ace in the hole with Prigozhin.
And then they really thought ... yes, really thought! ... that if the Russian army saw those magnificent Leopards and ATACMS and Storm Shadows coming at them they'd throw down their weapons and run.
And now you're just repeating the butt hurt story that we didn't really lose bc we weren't really trying. (Shades of Vietnam!)
Hate to tell you this, but we were really trying. And we lost, dood.
This is the THIRD* time you misunderestimated a people.
Try not to make that mistake again!
*N Vietnamese, Russians, and ...? If you ask, I'll tell you the third.
-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger
Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM
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Quote:Only the Russians, the Chinese, and the North Koreans have failures this huge in their history (Google "what is the biggest famine in history" https://www.google.com/search?q=what+is+the+biggest+famine+in+history ):
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Oh, bull!
SINCE FEB 2022 WE'VE BEEN TOLD THAT UKRAINE WAS WINNING! ALWAYS WINNING! OR COULD WIN, WITH ENOUGH WEAPONS!
You can't rewrite history THAT blatantly, SECOND.
The problem is, TBTB seriously "misunderestimated" Russia since 2014. And you're evidence of that bc you repeated every trope, every lie about defective Russia/ Russians. Just review your posts.
Five million Russians died during the Great Famine of 1921. Without Herbert Hoover, it would have been more. Side question: Why do bad things happen to stupid people? Hint: the stupidest don't know they are stupid. Instead, they know for sure they are the smartest.
Official website: https://to.pbs.org/3tKSle1
The little-known story of the American effort to relieve starvation in the new Soviet Russia in 1921, The Great Famine is a documentary about the worst natural disaster in Europe since the Black Plague in the Middle Ages. Five million Russians died. Half a world away, Americans responded with a massive two-year relief campaign, championed by Herbert Hoover, director of the American Relief Administration known as the ARA.
In July of 1921, Herbert Hoover, received a plea for international aid by Russian novelist Maxim Gorky. "Gloomy days have come for the country of Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky, Mendeleyev," Gorky warned. He made a similar request to other Western nations, but it was Hoover who responded immediately with a promise of support.
The first American relief ships arrived in Petrograd in September 1921, as the embers of the 1917 Russian revolution still smoldered. American relief workers were among the first outsiders to break through Russia's isolation and to witness and record the impact of the Bolshevik Revolution. They would be tested by a railroad system in disarray, a forbidding climate, a ruthless government suspicious of their motives, and the enormous scale of death and starvation.
The initial plan called for feeding one million children by delivering bread, rice, grits, sugar, corn and milk to the most hard hit regions. Almost immediately, Hoover encountered formidable obstacles. Vladimir Lenin's new communist government was skeptical of American aid and sabotaged the relief effort by planting spies in local American Relief Administration offices. When trains stuck on the tracks prevented food from being transported, Russian officials were uncooperative, resulting in delays that contributed to an estimated 50,000 deaths. New estimates in the fall of 1921 revealed that at least 16 million Russians would be impacted by the famine. Hoover's initial plan to feed just the children would not be sufficient.
That winter, cannibalism became widespread across Russia as the people continued to starve. In the U.S., Hoover managed to double the project's funding, arguing that by providing food famine relief, Americans could demonstrate the strength, kindness and efficiency of American society to a Communist culture.
After a spring thaw, hundreds of American relief workers — nicknamed "Hoover's boys" — were finally able to deliver food. In August 1922, a full five months after the initial shipments of corn were sent to Russia, American Relief Administration officials were still feeding almost 11 million Soviet citizens each day in 19,000 kitchens. By the end of the famine that fall, five million Russians had starved to death, but the toll would have been significantly higher without Hoover's unprecedented humanitarian commitment.
Known as "the Great Humanitarian" for his relief work during and after World War I, Hoover is said to have saved more lives than any person in history.
"Lenin's government never recognized America's
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OK Comrade.
http://fireflyfans.net/mthread.aspx?tid=65817
Say hi to your alter-ego Reaverfan for us.
--------------------------------------------------
Political correctness is just tyranny, with a smiley face.
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Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Oh, bull!
SINCE FEB 2022 WE'VE BEEN TOLD THAT UKRAINE WAS WINNING! ALWAYS WINNING! OR COULD WIN, WITH ENOUGH WEAPONS!
You can't rewrite history THAT blatantly, SECOND.
The problem is, TBTB seriously "misunderestimated" Russia since 2014. And you're evidence of that bc you repeated every trope, every lie about defective Russia/ Russians. Just review your posts.
SECOND:Quote:Side question: Why do bad things happen to stupid people? Hint: the stupidest don't know they are stupid. Instead, they know for sure they are the smartest.
Five million Russians died during the Great Famine of 1921. Without Herbert Hoover, it would have been more.
blah blah blah...
NEWS FLASH! Russians NOT starving this year!!
Sad to say, tho, an estimated 500,000 to a million Ukrainians were killed fighting a war for us.
Now THAT'S stupid!
-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger
Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM
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Quote:Russia did starve people this year by stopping the flow of grain as Russia did to recalcitrant citizens in the past. Nothing makes political opponents quit faster than starving them. Russia never forgot that fact and never stopped doing it, including turning off gas and electricity.
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
NEWS FLASH! Russians NOT starving this year!!
Sad to say, tho, an estimated 500,000 to a million Ukrainians were killed fighting a war for us.
Now THAT'S stupid!
Signym, why stop at 1 million? You could estimate 1.5 million dead. No, make that 1.65 million dead/wounded for the appearance of "accuracy" and "precision". Make it any old number you want, Signym. There is nothing stopping you!
'I Can't Believe Them': Young Russian Conscript's Father Suspects Son May Have Been Beaten To Death For Refusing To Fight In Ukraine (The Father can't say he is absolutely sure or else he will go to jail for besmirching the Russian Army's reputation. Russia is very legalistic about its Army.)
RadioFreeEurope RadioLiberty | November 26, 2023 20:37 GMT
More at https://www.rferl.org/a/russia-conscript-lazhyev-beaten-death-ukraine-
war/32700547.html
Andrei was repeatedly asked to sign a contract with the Defense Ministry despite his reluctance. By law in Russia, which has compulsory two-year military service, conscripts cannot be deployed to fight outside the country. That means that, in theory, those drafted into the military cannot be sent into combat in Ukraine. But there is loophole. Draftees can sign a contract with the Defense Ministry that would allow them to fight in Ukraine.
Widespread rumors that some draftees are physically coerced to sign up for combat service leads Nikolai to suspect his son was beaten in an attempt to get him to sign the contract.
When Andrei contacted him on September 21 to say he was in a field hospital, Nikolai said, his son said he was being pressured heavily to sign the contract.
"Every day. Contract, contract, contract," Nikolai recalled his son saying. "I told him: just don't sign. He didn't sign."
However, Nikolai said, "there is information that they were allegedly forced to sign contracts by beating them. And I cannot rule this out."
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
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General James L. Jones: West 'Too Cautious About Giving Ukraine Weapons That Could Strike Into Russia'
By Vazha Tavberidze | November 26, 2023 13:06 GMT
https://www.rferl.org/a/ukraine-russia-james-jones-interview-long-rang
e-weapons/32700251.html
RFE/RL: Many noticed that the ATACMS given to Ukraine are of older production with a shorter range than their modern equivalents? Will there be more, better, longer-range ones?
Jones: It goes back to a fear in [NATO] capitals that if you give the Ukrainians the weapons that can strike into Russia, they will do that and it might cause a wider war. I don't think that's correct, to be honest with you. My first war was in Vietnam, and I was always frustrated by the fact that we couldn't pursue the enemy into Laos or Cambodia or go north of the DMZ [demilitarized zone], and there were so many restrictions on us that we did have the impression that we're fighting with one hand tied behind our back. And I think that's a risky strategy that normally contributes to defeat of the side that has so many impositions on it. The fear, obviously, is that Vladimir Putin would escalate to a nuclear conflict, and everybody's concerned about that. But I do think that the important thing is to give the Ukrainians the panoply of weapons that they need and to certainly prevent Russia from advancing any further into Ukraine.
RFE/RL: So, should we expect more, better, longer range ATACMS? And what's that dependent upon?
Jones: I think the military advice here is that they want to give them longer ranges. I'm not sure where the political leadership is on that. But if you're going to fight a war, you need to fight a war to win it. And you need to have the equipment that you need to prevail. Otherwise, you're working toward a stalemate, and that's not very good for anybody.
RFE/RL: Let's look at this from General Zaluzhniy's perspective. You are a general, you have to conduct a counteroffensive, and you are asked by your partners on whom you are heavily dependent in your war efforts to go into it without air support. How does it feel?
Jones: Not good. You know, in my days in Vietnam, we always had adequate air power, whether [it was] gunships or Phantom jets. The North Vietnamese that we fought against did not have that, and they paid a heavy price militarily, regardless of how it worked out politically. And I think that Ukraine understands that without air power, the manpower bill goes up exponentially. So, you have to be very careful, because for Ukraine manpower is really important. And they can't afford the Putin doctrine, which is just throw men at the problem; he doesn't care.
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
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What part about FUCK UKRAINE do you not understand?
Quote:
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK (April 23, 2022):
Nobody cares.
Nothing has changed.
--------------------------------------------------
Political correctness is just tyranny, with a smiley face.
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Quote:6ix doesn't respond bravely or rationally to life's major challenges, just the minor ones. The results are that his house is cold in winter because 6ix can't afford to heat or insulate sufficiently since he doesn't have the money.
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
What part about FUCK UKRAINE do you not understand?Quote:
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK (April 23, 2022):
Nobody cares.
Nothing has changed.
It is not rational nor brave to let Russia do what it pleases to Europe, but what exactly are Russia's goals that need a rational response? Look to Russia's recent past of invading countries and then holding them prisoner, at least until the Soviet Union collapsed due to incompetence at running an empire. Now Russia is reanimating that glorious yet dead past because Putin thinks he is vastly more competent than recent Russian leaders. Putin compares himself favorably to Peter the Great and Catherine the Great, long-dead empire builders. Russia now threatens to nuke anybody that might stop the Russian Empire from reinflating itself. They never drop the nukes but the many threats, several every month, prove present-day Russia is a country with evil goals. Russia's historic past also proves that Russian goals are evil. It is not rational nor brave to let Russia achieve its murky goals of reliving past greatness because that past is filled with tens of millions of corpses that got in the way of Russia's Empire. There will be millions more as Russia continues toward its goal unless stopped abruptly in Ukraine when Russia is rudely awakened from its dreams of a renewed Empire.
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
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Quote:
Originally posted by second:Quote:6ix doesn't respond bravely or rationally to life's major challenges, just the minor ones. The results are that his house is cold in winter because 6ix can't afford to heat or insulate sufficiently since he doesn't have the money.
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
What part about FUCK UKRAINE do you not understand?Quote:
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK (April 23, 2022):
Nobody cares.
Nothing has changed.
I haven't worked since July of 2019 and I'm okay, but thanks for worrying.
Have fun at work today, honey.
I'll have a nap for you.
--------------------------------------------------
Political correctness is just tyranny, with a smiley face.
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Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
NEWS FLASH! Russians NOT starving this year!!
Sad to say, tho, an estimated 500,000 to a million Ukrainians were killed fighting a war for us.
Now THAT'S stupid!
SECOND: Russia did starve people this year by stopping the flow of grain a
... blah blah blah
NEWSFLASH! Russian grain exports at record high!
https://www.reuters.com/article/russia-grains-export-idUSKBN2YJ13A/
You keep "misunderestimating" Russia, just as you did N Vietnam. (And a there's a third people you've grossly misunderestimated. Want to know who?)
Failure to learn. Coddling your errors with lies and more lies.
Now THAT'S stupid.
-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger
Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM
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The West’s False Choice in Ukraine
The crossroads is not between war and compromise but between victory and defeat.
By Nona Mikhelidze, a senior fellow at the Istituto Affari Internazionali, and Nathalie Tocci, the director of the Istituto Affari Internazionali. | Nov 27, 2023, 3:46 AM
https://foreignpolicy.com/2023/11/27/ukraine-russia-war-west-negotiati
ons-stalemate-weapons-aid/
Gen. Valery Zaluzhny, commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, recently painted a somber picture of Russia’s war against Ukraine: A positional war teetering on the precipice of a stalemate, slowly tilting in Russia’s favor. Against this backdrop, talk of war fatigue is gaining momentum in Western capitals and the media, with growing calls for negotiations between Russia and Ukraine.
A year ago, Zaluzhny had underscored the need for specific weapons to achieve a breakthrough in the next Ukrainian counteroffensive. His prerequisites included air defense systems, fighter aircraft, main battle tanks, infantry fighting vehicles, howitzers, and long-range missiles to strike Russian facilities and supply lines well beyond the 50-mile range of previously delivered systems. “I know that I can beat this enemy,” Zaluzhny told the Economist then. “But I need resources!” But Western support, in both types and quantities of weapons, fell significantly short of his appeals.
Western reluctance to promptly furnish Ukraine with the required military equipment in sufficient numbers — exacerbated by ongoing shortages in artillery ammunition — inadvertently afforded Russia the time to strengthen its frontline through extensive construction of fortifications, trenches, and minefields. Notably, the United States held back on the delivery of Advanced Tactical Missile Systems until very recently, while German reluctance to provide Ukraine with Taurus missiles added another layer of hesitation. The results are evident on the ground: Whereas we cannot know whether greater and faster delivery of weapons would have led to a Ukrainian military breakthrough, we do know that, without it, the result of Ukraine’s counteroffensive in the land war has been marginal at best. In the Black Sea, on the other hand, Kyiv has achieved significant recent success.
Doubling down on the narrative that it has thwarted Ukraine’s counteroffensive, Russia has launched attacks in several sectors of the front, including near the city of Avdiivka and town of Vuhledar. While they are exacting a significant toll on Russian lives and military resources — October was the bloodiest month for Russia since February 2022 — Russian advances are paying off. The strategic value of Russia’s small territorial wins is questionable, but the benefits in the informational realm are clear: They give many observers the impression that the military initiative is back in Moscow’s hands. Alongside the lackluster Ukrainian counteroffensive, the fear that the tables are turning in Russia’s favor is adding to the war fatigue among Western nations and eliciting calls for negotiations.
The West has indeed reached the limits of its current strategy. In practice, if not in words, this strategy has centered on ensuring Ukraine’s survival without enabling it to achieve a decisive victory. Ukraine’s Western supporters are now at a crossroads.
Some believe that there are only two routes ahead: either the perpetuation of war — with the risk that it tilts in Russia’s favor — or negotiations that lead to some form of territorial compromise. Yet reality in Ukraine — and, above all, in Russia — suggests that the negotiation option is not available. Ukrainians believe that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s ambitions reach beyond the annexation of a few regions and instead extend to the genocidal subjugation and erasure of their country and identity. For Ukrainians, the stakes extend beyond affirming an abstract principle of territorial integrity; their concern is about the lives of their compatriots living under Russian occupation. Framing negotiations around a land-for-peace compromise is un
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‘Accidental Czar’: A Creative Take on the Putin Biography
In Weiss/Brown’s near-psychoanalytic account, Putin acts out of deep insecurities brought on by an inferiority complex coupled with a Napoleon complex; a suspicious, even paranoid nature; and a fraught xenophobia—especially of the West—inherited from his ancestors. In a sense, Putin encapsulates, in a diminutive package, the worst of Russian culture as imagined by thinkers at home and abroad.
And yet, we have no choice but to deal with him. As Weiss writes in his foreword,
“We need to understand his motivations, along with the heavy burden of history that helped shape them. We need to see the parts of a man who is in many ways ordinary, even if the problems he has created are often extraordinary.” Hence chapters with titles like “Superspy,” “Into the Abyss,” “O Happy Man!” and “Feet of Clay,” as well as the chilling story of how Putin’s future mother was almost dumped in a mass grave during the WWII-era Leningrad siege and was rescued at the last moment by his injured future father, who had just returned from combat. Putin was born seven years later; on such slender threads do the fates of nations hang.
One of the more fun parts of the book deals with Putin’s fixation—shared with many of his generation—on the impossibly heroic Stierlitz (Vyacheslav Tikhonov) from the Soviet TV serial “Seventeen Moments of Spring” (1973). Putin modeling himself on the imaginary spy seems banal and pathetic, a feeling enhanced by Brown’s splash (a page made up of only one large image) of the young Putin daydreaming of himself in his idol’s role: the gigantic figure, some 95% of the page, overwhelms the tiny Volodya at the bottom: a cutting portrait of misidentification if I ever saw one. The large image works precisely because the book, as noted, mostly uses multi-panel pages made up of smaller pictures, which makes the occasional deviation from the pattern stand out. In any case, Putin’s inflated sense of self is soon punctured by Maj. Gen. Oleg Kalugin, deputy head of the Leningrad KGB Office, who drily reports, “He was a nobody.”
There have already been a number of fine Putin biographies, most notably Clifford Gaddy’s and Fiona Hill’s “Mr. Putin: Operative in the Kremlin” (2015), Masha Gessen’s “The Man Without a Face: The Unlikely Rise of Vladimir Putin” (2013) and more recently Philip Short’s “Putin” (2022). It is not the remit of “Accidental Czar” to add anything new in terms of content, but rather to make its subject accessible to a different, wider readership. In this sense it succeeds, though those interested in much better comics works about contemporary Russia are directed to Victoria Lomasko’s “Other Russias” (2017) and Igort’s “The Ukrainian and Russian Notebooks” (2016).
https://www.russiamatters.org/analysis/accidental-czar-creative-take-p
utin-biography
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
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Quote:
Originally posted by second:
The West’s False Choice in Ukraine
The crossroads is not between war and compromise but between victory and defeat.
By Nona Mikhelidze, a senior fellow at the Istituto Affari Internazionali, and Nathalie Tocci, the director of the Istituto Affari Internazionali. |
Nov 27, 2023, 3:46 AM
https://foreignpolicy.com/2023/11/27/ukraine-russia-war-west-negotiati
ons-stalemate-weapons-aid/
Oh, anyone in Ukraine and the west thinks they have a choice, whether it's victory or compromise v defeat?
HAHAHAHA!!!
Hate to tell you this, but neither victory nor compromise are in the cards. It's gonna be utter, devastating defeat all the way, no matter what weapons the west supplies. Including nukes.
-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger
Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM
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Quote:You are not psychologically prepared for reality, are you? Your Russian future is going to be as disorienting and upsetting as discovering your "parents" are not your biological parents after their deaths or having all your children die before you, perhaps in a fire or a car crash. These things happen.
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Hate to tell you this, but neither victory nor compromise are in the cards. It's gonna be utter, devastating defeat all the way, no matter what weapons the west supplies. Including nukes.
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
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Quote:
Originally posted by second:Quote:You are not psychologically prepared for reality, are you? Your Russian future is going to be as disorienting and upsetting as discovering your "parents" are not your biological parents after their deaths or having all your children die before you, perhaps in a fire or a car crash. These things happen.
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Hate to tell you this, but neither victory nor compromise are in the cards. It's gonna be utter, devastating defeat all the way, no matter what weapons the west supplies. Including nukes.
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
You are a total piece of shit.
You don't deserve to breathe the same Oxygen that Sigs does.
Please die of old age.
--------------------------------------------------
Political correctness is just tyranny, with a smiley face.
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Quote:Planning on setting house fires, are you?
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Hate to tell you this, but neither victory nor compromise are in the cards. It's gonna be utter, devastating defeat all the way, no matter what weapons the west supplies. Including nukes.
SECOND: You are not psychologically prepared for reality, are you? Your Russian future is going to be as disorienting and upsetting as discovering your "parents" are not your biological parents after their deaths or having all your children die before you, perhaps in a fire or a car crash. These things happen.
If you don't deny it, I'll take that as a threat.
The person not prepared for reality is you. You've been weird ever since you started posting, and you've only gotten weirder since reality started diverging more and more from whatever narrative is stuffed up your belfry.
-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger
Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM
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Quote:I am on the side of Ukraine, the Democrats, and the University of Texas at Austin football team. 6ix and Signym have taken opposing positions.
Originally posted by SIGNYM:Quote:Planning on setting house fires, are you?
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Hate to tell you this, but neither victory nor compromise are in the cards. It's gonna be utter, devastating defeat all the way, no matter what weapons the west supplies. Including nukes.
SECOND: You are not psychologically prepared for reality, are you? Your Russian future is going to be as disorienting and upsetting as discovering your "parents" are not your biological parents after their deaths or having all your children die before you, perhaps in a fire or a car crash. These things happen.
If you don't deny it, I'll take that as a threat.
The person not prepared for reality is you. You've been weird ever since you started posting, and you've only gotten weirder since reality started diverging more and more from whatever narrative is stuffed up in your belfry.
I want Ukraine, Democrats, and UT to win. But if they lose, I won't. If 6ix and Signym die in a fire, it won't perturb me. By the way, UT has 11 wins and 1 loss (to Oklahoma in the Cotton Bowl)
https://texassports.com/sports/football/schedule/2023
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
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Quote:
Originally posted by second:Quote:I am on the side of Ukraine, the Democrats, and the University of Texas at Austin football team. 6ix and Signym have taken opposing positions.
Originally posted by SIGNYM:Quote:Planning on setting house fires, are you?
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Hate to tell you this, but neither victory nor compromise are in the cards. It's gonna be utter, devastating defeat all the way, no matter what weapons the west supplies. Including nukes.
SECOND: You are not psychologically prepared for reality, are you? Your Russian future is going to be as disorienting and upsetting as discovering your "parents" are not your biological parents after their deaths or having all your children die before you, perhaps in a fire or a car crash. These things happen.
If you don't deny it, I'll take that as a threat.
The person not prepared for reality is you. You've been weird ever since you started posting, and you've only gotten weirder since reality started diverging more and more from whatever narrative is stuffed up in your belfry.
I want Ukraine, Democrats, and UT to win. But if they lose, I won't. If 6ix and Signym die in a fire, it won't perturb me. By the way, UT has 11 wins and 1 loss (to Oklahoma in the Cotton Bowl)
https://texassports.com/sports/football/schedule/2023
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
You're on the side of domestic communists, domestic terrorists and the party of fascism.
Fuck sportsball.
And fuck you.
Meanwhile, I'll do just fine no matter who wins. Just like I always do.
And stop setting houses on fire. That's not cool man.
--------------------------------------------------
Political correctness is just tyranny, with a smiley face.
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Quote:SECOND, chickenshit. How to threaten people without being tagged. Well, you've been tagged anyway.
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Hate to tell you this, but neither victory nor compromise are in the cards. It's gonna be utter, devastating defeat all the way, no matter what weapons the west supplies. Including nukes.
SECOND: You are not psychologically prepared for reality, are you? Your Russian future is going to be as disorienting and upsetting as discovering your "parents" are not your biological parents after their deaths or having all your children die before you, perhaps in a fire or a car crash. These things happen.
SIGNY: Planning on setting house fires, are you?
If you don't deny it, I'll take that as a threat.
The person not prepared for reality is you. You've been weird ever since you started posting, and you've only gotten weirder since reality started diverging more and more from whatever narrative is stuffed up in your belfry.
SECOND: I am on the side of Ukraine, the Democrats, and the University of Texas at Austin football team. 6ix and Signym have taken opposing positions.
I want Ukraine, Democrats, and UT to win. But if they lose, I won't. If 6ix and Signym die in a fire, it won't perturb me. By the way, UT has 11 wins and 1 loss (to Oklahoma in the Cotton Bowl)
https://texassports.com/sports/football/schedule/2023
And you still can't face reality, can you?
Your head gonna explode when Russia wins?
BTW, I noticed that you're not FOR America.
Why not?
-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger
Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM
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Quote:Am I worried that Russia will invade the USA? No, but Russian TV said Russia would, today: Russian TV Mulls US States as Next Targets for Invasion
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
SECOND, chickenshit. How to threaten people without being tagged. Well, you've been tagged anyway.
And you still can't face reality, can you?
Your head gonna explode when Russia wins?
BTW, I noticed that you're not FOR America.
Why not?
By Isabel van Brugen | Nov 27, 2023
https://www.newsweek.com/russian-state-tv-us-states-alaska-california-
invasion-1847179
Kremlin propagandists mulled three U.S. states as targets for a potential Russian invasion during a segment that aired on state TV.
Vladimir Solovyov, one of the most well-known figures in Kremlin-backed media, and Margarita Simonyan, the editor-in-chief of state-controlled media organization RT, made the remarks on a show that airs on Russia-1. An excerpt was posted on X, formerly Twitter, by Anton Gerashchenko, an adviser to Ukraine's minister of internal affairs.
State TV propagandists routinely float the idea of either striking or seizing the territory of NATO members. The pair suggested Russia could invade the U.S. states of Alaska, California or Hawaii.
1) Alaska was once part of Russia. In 1867 it was sold to the U.S. for $7.2 million after then-U.S. President Andrew Johnson signed the Alaska Treaty.
2) In the early 19th century Russia established the outpost of Fort Ross in what is now Sonoma County, California, with Russian colonists living there between 1812 and 1841.
3) Russia founded three short-lived forts on the Hawaiian island of Kauai in 1817.
In January, a Siberian shaman predicted that Alaska and California would become part of Russia in 2023. "The United States of America and their people, of course, it's a pity," Russia's deputy head shaman Artur Tsybikov said in a video shared by Gerashchenko. "America may soon be divided into several parts, and several states will declare sovereignty. Most likely, Alaska and California will return to the Russian Federation," he said.
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
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Shut the fuck up, idiot.
--------------------------------------------------
Political correctness is just tyranny, with a smiley face.
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Quote:Unfortunately, I know thousands of Trumptards in Texas. Their lives are truly messed up, but none of them are aware they ruined themselves or that it is all their own fault, not the Democrats' fault. With Trumptards and Russians, I have never seen angrier losers more convinced they were rightful winners who got cheated out of their winnings. Maybe they are "special needs" children?
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Shut the fuck up, idiot.
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
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THIS IS WHAT WAS SAID;
Quote:
During a discussion about why Russia would want to seize Portugal, Solovyov quipped that Lisbon has never been Russian, and Simonyan added that Alaska was, at one point.
"And California was. But why do we need Lisbon?" another co-host asked.
Despite the this assertion, California was never part of Russia, although in the early 19th century Russia established the outpost of Fort Ross in what is now Sonoma County, California, with Russian colonists living there between 1812 and 1841.
"You don't need it, but I like it very much," responded Solovyov.
"I prefer California, too," said Simonyan.
"Why such a strange choice? Why the either/or?" asked Solvyov.
Simonyan responded: "You have to start somewhere. I'd even choose Hawaii over California. I've never been there."
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/russian-tv-mulls-us-states-as-nex
t-targets-for-invasion/ar-AA1kBKrU
THEY WERE JOKING.
-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger
Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM
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Quote:You're angry all the time, dood.
Originally posted by second:Quote:Unfortunately, I know thousands of Trumptards in Texas. Their lives are truly messed up, but none of them are aware they ruined themselves or that it is all their own fault, not the Democrats' fault. With Trumptards and Russians, I have never seen angrier losers more convinced they were rightful winners who got cheated out of their winnings. Maybe they are "special needs" children?
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Shut the fuck up, idiot.
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger
Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM
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Quote:
Originally posted by second:Quote:Unfortunately, I know thousands of Trumptards in Texas. Their lives are truly messed up, but none of them are aware they ruined themselves or that it is all their own fault, not the Democrats' fault. With Trumptards and Russians, I have never seen angrier losers more convinced they were rightful winners who got cheated out of their winnings. Maybe they are "special needs" children?
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Shut the fuck up, idiot.
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
You're a miserable little prick.
You suck the joy right out of any room that you walk into.
Everybody you know online hates you.
Everybody you know in real life hates you.
--------------------------------------------------
Political correctness is just tyranny, with a smiley face.
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Putin Ally Wants to Make NATO Member Part of Russia
Nov 27, 2023 at 9:25 AM EST
An ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin recently floated the idea of making a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) part of Russia amid the ongoing war in Ukraine.
During a recent airing of Russia 1, a state-run TV show in Moscow, host Vladimir Solovyov spoke about Lisbon, the capital of Portugal, and said "there's a reason" why the country should be apart of Moscow. Solovyov's translated comments were posted to X, formerly Twitter, on Monday morning by Anton Gerashchenko, an adviser to Ukraine's minister of internal affairs.
Portugal was one of the founding members of NATO as many Western countries have continued to warn Moscow against engaging with the military bloc's allies amid its conflict with Ukraine when Putin invaded the Eastern European country in February 2022.
"You don't need it but I like it very much," Solovyov said when he was questioned by his co-hosts and guests about why Russia would want Portugal. "You have to start somewhere, I'd even choose Hawaii. I'm not a military man, but, I reason the way I was taught by outstanding Soviet military commanders, you have to go for natural obstacles."
Solovyov added that "the Portuguese would live just fine as part of the Russian empire."
https://www.newsweek.com/putin-ally-wants-make-nato-member-part-russia
-1847123
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
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Russia’s attempt to artificially create a migrant crisis at the Finnish border appears to be failing due to Finnish authorities’ swift response. Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo stated on November 27 that the Finnish government will close the last border crossing with Russia “if necessary” and reported that the Finnish government is ready to take unspecified additional measures in response to Russia’s artificially generated migrant crisis.[20] Finland previously closed three checkpoints on the Finnish-Russian border on November 23, leaving only its northernmost border crossing open.[21] Several other Finnish government officials also signaled their support for closing the entire border with Russia.[22] A Russian insider source claimed that Russian Presidential Administration First Deputy Head Sergei Kiriyenko instructed Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs (MVD) Head Vladimir Kolokoltsev to gather migrants from the Middle East, Africa, and other regions to send them to the Finnish border.[23] The insider source complained that Finnish border authorities stopped most migrants from crossing into Finland and that Russian authorities must now settle the migrants in Russia.[24]
https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/russian-offensive-campai
gn-assessment-november-27-2023
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
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Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Russia’s attempt to artificially create a migrant crisis at the Finnish border appears to be failing due to Finnish authorities’ swift response. Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo stated on November 27 that the Finnish government will close the last border crossing with Russia “if necessary” and reported that the Finnish government is ready to take unspecified additional measures in response to Russia’s artificially generated migrant crisis.[20] Finland previously closed three checkpoints on the Finnish-Russian border on November 23, leaving only its northernmost border crossing open.[21] Several other Finnish government officials also signaled their support for closing the entire border with Russia.[22] A Russian insider source claimed that Russian Presidential Administration First Deputy Head Sergei Kiriyenko instructed Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs (MVD) Head Vladimir Kolokoltsev to gather migrants from the Middle East, Africa, and other regions to send them to the Finnish border.[23] The insider source complained that Finnish border authorities stopped most migrants from crossing into Finland and that Russian authorities must now settle the migrants in Russia.[24]
https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/russian-offensive-campai
gn-assessment-november-27-2023
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
Good for the Finns.
Stopping Putin from doing to them what Democrats do to their own People every day.
--------------------------------------------------
Political correctness is just tyranny, with a smiley face.
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Quote:
Originally posted by captaincrunch:
What an evil selfish prick Putin is. Does anyone but him benefit from this? And now? After 2 years of covid crap? Kill thousands and crash the world economy so he can redraw a MAP?!?? What fcking dinosaur. I look forward to watching this blow up in his face.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/23/world/europe/putin-speech-russia-uk
raine.html
Word by Word and Between the Lines: A Close Look at Putin’s Speech]
Are you still breathing?
T
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Quote:
Originally posted by captaincrunch:
What an evil selfish prick Putin is. Does anyone but him benefit from this? And now? After 2 years of covid crap? Kill thousands and crash the world economy so he can redraw a MAP?!?? What fcking dinosaur. I look forward to watching this blow up in his face.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/23/world/europe/putin-speech-russia-uk
raine.html
THUGR: Are you still breathing?
Sorry dood.
But even if "G" comes back, no matter how persuasively he spins the topic and shores up your hope, he was WRONG.
"This" is not going to blow up in Putin's face.
What it IS doing is blowing up in the EU's face, massively. Not only were the Ukrainians brain dead to fight our war for us, the EU was collectively brain dead to go along with it.
What you should be asking yourself is: "How did I get it so wrong?"
-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger
Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM
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Don’t Forget the People Russia Weaponizes in Finland Border Crisis
Nov 28, 2023
https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2023/11/28/dont-forget-the-people-russi
a-weaponizes-in-finland-border-crisis-a83243
After a weeks-long trickle, the number of people trying to enter Finland and Estonia illegally suddenly spiked this month, prompting Finland to close its eastern border entirely. Blame has been placed squarely on one country’s shoulders: Russia.
Last week, Estonian Defense Minister Hanno Pevkur described a “fully state-orchestrated” operation by Moscow, which he said was weaponizing immigration. Latvia’s Defense Minister, Andris Spruds, took it a step further, accusing President Vladimir Putin of acting as the “puppet master” behind it all.
The reasons why Moscow is doing this are clear. Amid soaring tensions with the West over Ukraine, it is delivering on its threat of retaliation against Finland for joining NATO, while Estonia is in the firing line for its staunch support of Kyiv. This looming instability on the EU’s eastern frontier will likely be felt in capitals across the continent, as well as in the European Parliament.
Russia’s strategy is to both overwhelm and destabilize its “unfriendly” neighbors. Pushing refugees and other vulnerable people to their borders heaps pressure on Finland and Estonia’s border forces, immigration systems and social services, straining their resources. Importantly, it could inflame social tensions. In Finland, where surging nativist sentiment has turned far-right politicians into power players in government, an influx of undocumented people from the Middle East and Africa could deepen polarization and political division — something Moscow would be eager to exploit.
This is not the first time Russia has resorted to such a harmful and unethical tactic. In 2016, Finnish officials accused Russian authorities of transporting 1,000 people to a border crossing in the Arctic, even providing hotel accommodation along the way. The event was widely considered Russia’s first, and most successful, hybrid attack of this kind on an EU member state to date — though Finnish politicians balked at calling it that at the time. Of course, despite its denials, Moscow is entirely to blame for this crisis. As it is impossible to enter Russia’s border zone without permission from the authorities, it is clearly no accident that hundreds of people have arrived at Finland’s doorstep on brand-new bicycles.
Such tactics speak volumes about how Russia’s leadership views people who already face discrimination and racist violence inside the country. Indeed, it shows their callous disregard for human life and well-being in general and readiness to treat people as pawns in a geopolitical game, though the bloodshed in Ukraine already made this clear.
Many people are duped into coming by smugglers promising quick and easy entry into the EU. Others are blinded by desperation, or simply unaware of what they are getting themselves into.
In what has been called “Europe’s forgotten migration crisis,” Belarus has been pushing people into Poland and Lithuania since 2020. Lithuanian authorities claim that Minsk sends people during the harsh winter months barefoot or without jackets to ramp up the pressure. Several have lost limbs to frostbite or died trying to cross into the EU.
And these are just the cases we know about. NGOs in Lithuania warn the cold, swampy border area is littered with the bodies of missing migrants. Their loved ones back home may never know what happened to them. There is now a risk these tragedies will be repeated.
More at https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2023/11/28/dont-forget-the-people-russi
a-weaponizes-in-finland-border-crisis-a83243
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
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More bullshit from SECOND.
You too, SECOND. YOU should be asking yourself "How did I get it so WRONG???"
-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger
Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM
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Quote:More bullshit from Putin:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
More bullshit from SECOND.
You too, SECOND. YOU should be asking yourself "How did I get it so WRONG???"
Russian President Vladimir Putin reiterated a two-part conception of Russian identity in a speech on November 28: a “Russian nation” – claimed to include Russians, Ukrainians, and Belarusians – at the center of Russian identity; and a wider “Russian world” including other non-East Slavic ethnicities in both modern Russia and the former territory of the Soviet Union and Russian Empire.
Putin made a lengthy speech on Russian identity at the World Russian People’s Council on November 28. Putin reiterated his previous false claims that the “Russian nation” and people are composed of ethnic Russians, Belarusians, and Ukrainians who were artificially and violently divided via policy miscalculations during and after the fall of the Soviet Union, arguing Russia (the state) should unify this “Russian nation.”[1] Three versions of the same speech
1) Full strength Russian http://kremlin.ru/events/president/news/72863
2) Official translation http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/news/72863
3) Google's translation https://kremlin-ru.translate.goog/events/president/news/72863?_x_tr_sc
h=http&_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=wapp&_x_tr_hist=true
Putin defined the concept of the Russkiy Mir as a union of people who feel a spiritual connection to the “Motherland,” consider themselves to be native Russian speakers, and are carriers of Russian history and culture regardless of their national or religious affiliation. Putin, however, pointed out that there cannot be Russia (as a state) or the Russkiy Mir without ethnic Russians and implied that current Russian citizens and “all other peoples who have lived and are living in [Russia]” make up Russia.
Putin geographically defined the Russkiy Mir as the Ancient Rus’ (Kyivan Rus), the Kingdom of Muscovy, the Russian Empire, the Soviet Union, and the contemporary Russian Federation, indicating that the Kremlin’s concept likely also includes “Russian compatriots” in Eastern Europe, the Caucasus, and Central Asia. Putin also expanded his definition of “Western Russophobia” to include claimed aggression against other ethnicities such as Tatars, Chechens, Yakuts, and Buryats, in addition to ethnic Russians. Putin also called on Russian federal subjects to strengthen and protect Russia’s cultural and religious diversity. Putin previously outlined similar definitions of “ethnically Russian people” in his “Historical Unity of Russians and Ukrainians” essay in July 2021.[2] http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/news/66181
Putin’s November 28 speech draws a clear distinction between Putin’s vision of the Russian nation as a “triune people” composed of Russians, Belarusians, and Ukrainians, while other regional identities in Russia make up Russia as a country and shared “Russian world.”
Putin’s articulation of a Russian nation (including Ukrainians and dominated by Moscow) reiterates longstanding Kremlin justifications for its invasion of Ukraine and aggression toward its neighbors, and Putin’s claim that “western Russophobia” affects all the ethnicities in the Russian state is likely intended to rally support among Russian citizens who are not ethnically Russian for Putin’s war.
https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/russian-offensive-campai
gn-assessment-november-28-2023
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
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Say, aren't you the one that constantly misrepresents (i.e. lies about) what others say?
Didn't your repost an article huffing and puffing about Russians "invading three American states" when it was clear THEY WERE JOKING?
Aren't you the one who keeps claiming that Putin "threatens" us with nukes when he's only repeating standard policy of DEFENSIVE use?
I'm sure if I read this speech this will be another one of your reposted lies.
Your credibility was lost a long time ago bc of your habit of reliably posting lies. You might want to post the truth once in a while and at least keep us guessing!
BTW, you are filled with hate, greed, arrogance, violence, cowardice, and lies.
I dunno, SECOND. What should we do with evil people, according to you?
-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger
Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM
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According to Dima (Military Summary Channel) the Ukrainian defenses are collapsing in Kherson (at Krynky), Zaparozhiy (Rabotyno), Donetsk (near Bakhmut and Avdiivka) and in the north (near Kupiansk).
Russia may uncork some big arrow offenses this winter where Ukrainian military is especially weak, and Ukraine may not even get a chance at the mass mobilization that they were planning.
Meanwhile, Zelenskiy and Zaluzhny are fighting each other for political survival, and somebody poisoned Budanov's wife.
And that's not counting Zaluzhny:schief of staff who was killed by a live grenade birthday giftand the generals who're getting sacked.
-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger
Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM
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Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Say, aren't you the one that constantly misrepresents (i.e. lies about) what others say?
Didn't your repost an article huffing and puffing about Russians "invading three American states" when it was clear THEY WERE JOKING?
Aren't you the one who keeps claiming that Putin "threatens" us with nukes when he's only repeating standard policy of DEFENSIVE use?
I'm sure if I read this speech this will be another one of your reposted lies.
Your credibility was lost a long time ago bc of your habit of reliably posting lies. You might want to post the truth once in a while and at least keep us guessing!
BTW, you are filled with hate, greed, arrogance, violence, cowardice, and lies.
I dunno, SECOND. What should we do with evil people, according to you?
Well, I read the speech and, as usual, SECOND posts a lotta crap.
It was
Quote:which is why the focus was on Russian identity.
the plenary session of the World Russian People’s Council.
Notable parts of the speech
Quote:
... they [the western globalists] say that Russia is a “prison of nations” and that Russians are a “nation of slaves.” We have heard this many times throughout the centuries. Now we have also heard that Russia apparently needs to be “decolonised.” But what do they really want? They want to dismember and plunder Russia. If they cannot do it by force, they sow discord.
"They" (globalists) do that here too. They sow discord and try to break national identity, including America's national identity.
Quote:
A free nation that understands its responsibility before current and future generations is the only source of power, sovereign power, which is called upon to serve all people, rather than someone’s private, corporate, class, or even foreign interests.
...
Justice means primarily decent living conditions, modern facilities for culture, healthcare and sports in all regions of the country. This means a qualified and well-paid job and high public prestige for workers, engineers, teachers, doctors, artists, cultural figures, entrepreneurs, every responsible specialist and master. Justice means equal, broad opportunities for study, for a start in life and self-fulfilment for youth.
There's a lot about sovereignty - something we would do well to promote- and much about supporting families and encouraging families to have children. Next year is the Year of the Family in Russia.
I don't know what SECOND is blathering on about. The speech and his post don't seem to have anything to do with each other.
-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger
Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM
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The NATO–Ukraine Council (NUC) met at the foreign minister-level for the first time on November 29 and discussed steps to increase weapons and ammunition production. NATO reported that it is developing a roadmap for full Ukrainian interoperability with NATO and reaffirmed its support for Ukraine’s democratic and security sector reforms “on its path toward future membership in NATO.”[27] Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba stated that the NUC discussed increasing the production of weapons and ammunition and noted on the sidelines of the NUC that the European Union (EU) has provided Ukraine with 300,000 artillery shells of the promised 1 million.[28]
https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/russian-offensive-campai
gn-assessment-november-29-2023
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
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