REAL WORLD EVENT DISCUSSIONS

Russia Invades Ukraine. Again

POSTED BY: CAPTAINCRUNCH
UPDATED: Thursday, October 31, 2024 13:46
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Thursday, January 12, 2023 5:46 AM

SECOND

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


The Startling Statistic That Shows Why Russia Is Struggling in Ukraine War

Comparing international military aid for Kyiv since the start of Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine with Russia's annual defense budget shows how Moscow is in a war not just with its neighbour, but also with its NATO allies, the Russian news agency Tass claimed.

The piece, published on Wednesday by the state news outlet, quotes Putin saying "the military potential and capabilities of practically all the main NATO countries are being actively used against Russia."
https://tass.ru/ekonomika/16772611

Meanwhile, Russia's defense minister, Sergei Shoigu, said that Moscow is fighting not so much with the Ukrainian military as with the "collective West," Tass reported in the article, which stated that the annual Russian military budget is $55.5 billion. The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) estimate of Russia's 2021 military budget published in April 2022 is $65.9 billion.

Drawing on calculations based on official statements by donors, as well as media data, Tass portrayed how Russia was at a considerable financial disadvantage on the battlefield.

It estimated that foreign countries and international organizations had given Kyiv assistance worth more than $150.8 billion, including military, humanitarian and financial support.

Here is The Startling Statistic Showing Why Russia Is Struggling in Ukraine War

"Thus, the total amount of Western assistance to Ukraine since the beginning of the special military operation has exceeded its [Russia’s military] budget for 2022 by 2.7 times," it said, using the official Moscow description for the war.
Almost a third of this, $48.5 billion, was in military assistance, it said.

Tass noted how the biggest donor was the U.S., which has so far allocated about $24.2 billion in military aid "both in cash and in the form of various weapons."

The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) said on December 16 that between January 24, 2022, and November 20, 2022, the U.S. had pledged $22.9 billion in military assistance. On December 21, President Joe Biden announced a further $1.85 billion in aid, including, for the first time, advanced Patriot air defense missile systems.

Tass noted that Ukraine was benefiting from HIMARS multiple launch rocket systems, Bradley infantry fighting vehicles (IFVs), self-propelled howitzers and RIM-7 Sea Sparrow surface-to-air missiles. The U.S. also provided $23.7 billion in financial and humanitarian assistance, Tass said.

The United Kingdom was the second-biggest donor, according to Tass, which said among its $3.6 billion in military assistance were Starstreak man-portable anti-aircraft missile systems and upgraded Brimstone 2 high-precision missiles.

According to a document published on December 12 by the British government's House of Commons Library, the U.K. has committed £2.3 billion ($2.8 billion) in military assistance to Ukraine and "has made a pledge to match that assistance in 2023."

Tass reported that in third place comes the European Union, which has given $3.28 billion in military aid and pledged $39.96 billion in other types of assistance.

Statista noted in December that EU institutions had given Ukraine $3.1 billion euros ($3.3 billion) in military aid between January 24 and November 20.

Meanwhile, Tass said that "despite Kyiv's numerous complaints about the refusal to supply it with weapons," Germany had approved $2.3 billion in military exports.

It added that Poland had supplied $2 billion worth of military aid to Kyiv and the Czech Republic, $2.1 billion. Statista noted that Berlin had given Kyiv 2.3 billion euros in such assistance, while the Czech Republic's contribution was 480 million euros.

Amid reports that Russia is running low on weapons and ammunition, Moscow and Kremlin-backed state media have repeatedly portrayed the war in Ukraine as a proxy fight between NATO and Russia.

One of Putin's closest allies, the Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev told a Russian media outlet on Tuesday that the war is "a military confrontation between Russia and NATO, and above all the United States and Britain."

William Astore, a retired lieutenant colonel and ex-professor of history at the U.S. Air Force Academy, said without the Western military aid, including artillery, anti-tank and anti-air missiles, refurbished tanks, armored personnel carriers and ammunition, "there is no way Ukraine could have fought the Russian Army largely to a standstill."

"Western military aid has created a stalemate in Ukraine," he told Newsweek. "Whether it will ultimately grant Ukraine a decisive edge depends on the willingness of the U.S. and NATO to continue supplying massive amounts of arms and ammo, together with the morale of Ukrainian forces and the willingness of Ukraine as a country to endure the brutal costs of war."

https://www.newsweek.com/russia-ukraine-war-statistic-tass-1773198

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

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Thursday, January 12, 2023 7:34 AM

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


Russia’s Coming Disintegration

The West made a grave mistake when it assumed the collapse of Soviet communism meant the end of Russian imperialism. The rupture of the Russian Federation will be the third phase of imperial collapse after the unravelling of the Soviet bloc and the disintegration of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s.

By Janusz Bugajski, January 12, 2023 4:05 AM CET

Janusz Bugajski is a senior fellow at the Jamestown Foundation. His new book, Failed State - A Guide to Russia's Rupture, has just been published.

We are currently witnessing an unfolding revolution in global security that Western policy makers are clearly unprepared for — the impending collapse of the Russian Federation.

Instead of planning contingencies for external spillovers and capitalizing on Russia’s de-imperialization, Western officials appear to be stuck in a bygone era, believing they can return to the post-Cold War status quo, with some even offering Moscow security guarantees to keep the country intact.

But Russia is a failed state. It’s been unable to transform itself into a nation-state, a civic state or even a stable imperial state. It is a federation in name only, as the central government pursues a policy of ethnic and linguistic homogenization and denies any powers to the country’s 83 republics and regions.

Hyper-centralization has exposed the country’s multiple weaknesses, including a contracting economy squeezed by international sanctions, military defeats in Ukraine that reveal the incompetence and corruption of its ruling elite, and disquiet in numerous regions over their shrinking budgets.

As Moscow turns inward, its capacity for foreign aggression will diminish. And as a rump state, under intense international sanctions and shorn of its resource base in Siberia, it will have severely reduced capabilities to attack neighbors. From the Arctic to the Black Sea, NATO’s eastern front will become more secure; while Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova will regain their occupied territories, and petition for European Union and NATO integration without fear of Russia’s reaction.

More at https://www.politico.eu/article/opinion-russia-benefits-disintegration/

Download the free book by Janusz Bugajski Failed State - A Guide to Russia's Rupture from the mirrors at https://libgen.unblockit.ink/search.php?req=Janusz+Bugajski



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

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Thursday, January 12, 2023 9:21 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


lol

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

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

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Friday, January 13, 2023 8:07 AM

SECOND

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


Quote:

Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
lol

After months of fighting, Russia's ministry of defense claims it has captured the eastern Ukrainian town of Soledar.

A spokesperson for the Ukrainian military, Serhiy Cherevaty, says that Russia's statements "do not correspond to reality. Battles are going on in Soledar."

This battle of words is happening right now:

January 13, 2023, 6:51 AM ET
https://www.npr.org/2023/01/13/1148477147/russia-soledar-ukraine

Maybe by tomorrow, or next week, we'll know what really happened. But whatever happened, Satellite photos show that Soledar is now rubble.

Soledar devastation revealed in satellite images
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-64250202

The Russians have proven once again what they are best at doing: reducing Ukraine to rubble. I do hope that Ukraine finally realizes that actually bringing this war to a permanent close will require more than beating the Russian Army. Winning requires destroying Russian real estate value. One example is destroying the Crimea Bridge over the Kerch Strait. Other examples would be destroying Putin's mansions and Russian munition factories.

Crimea’s Kerch Strait Bridge holds deep strategic, and symbolic, value.
President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia presided over the bridge’s opening, personally driving a truck across the link between Russia and Crimea — land seized from Ukraine in 2014.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/08/world/europe/crimea-kerch-strait-br
idge-explosion-explainer.html


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

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Friday, January 13, 2023 9:50 AM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.


Yanno SECOND, you whined more than once that the USA doesn't know how to fight a war. That figthing a war, to quote Patton, didn' mean dying for your country, it meant making the other SOB die for his country.

Well, apparently Russia DOES know how to fight wars, bc they're fighting a war of attrition.

But that's one of the great things about fighting a war of attrition on a static front:
not too much real estate gets destroyed. As long a Kiev is willing to keep pumping troops and weapons into the Soledar/Bakhmust agglomeration, all the Russia's shells will keep landing in the same spots over and over. Kiev and Kharkiv and other cities will be mostly spared.

I'm sure you;ll find a way to whine about that, too. In reality, your biggest whine is that Russia is winning.



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


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Friday, January 13, 2023 10:22 AM

THG


Quote:

Originally posted by SIGNYM:

Yanno SECOND, you whined more than once that the USA doesn't know how to fight a war. That figthing a war, to quote Patton, didn' mean dying for your country, it meant making the other SOB die for his country.

Well, apparently Russia DOES know how to fight wars, bc they're fighting a war of attrition.

But that's one of the great things about fighting a war of attrition on a static front:
not too much real estate gets destroyed. As long a Kiev is willing to keep pumping troops and weapons into the Soledar/Bakhmust agglomeration, all the Russia's shells will keep landing in the same spots over and over. Kiev and Kharkiv and other cities will be mostly spared.

I'm sure you;ll find a way to whine about that, too. In reality, your biggest whine is that Russia is winning.




Rifts in Russian military command seen amid Ukraine fighting
7h ago

The fighting for the salt mining town of Soledar and the nearby city of Bakhmut has highlighted a bitter rift between the Russian Defense Ministry leadership and Yevgeny Prigozhin, a rogue millionaire whose private military force known as the Wagner Group has played an increasingly visible role in Ukraine.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/rifts-in-russian-military-command
-seen-amid-ukraine-fighting/ar-AA16iDwB?ocid=msedgntp&cvid=3bcd050a27d74c5680db5037dfdc61d8




You keep talking bullshit comrade, it's what you're good at.

T


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Friday, January 13, 2023 10:29 AM

THG


Quote:

Originally posted by SIGNYM:

"Ukraine's Year of Victory"?

I don't know what SECOND gets out of posting other people's delusions. Does he think we're going to be delusional with him?

Hey, SECOND, did you know you sound like Hitler in his bunker, or Baghdad Bob?




Ukrainians Strike Back in Soledar Against Infamous Wagner Group Forcing Retreat

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/ukrainians-strike-back-in-soledar
-against-infamous-wagner-group-forcing-retreat/ar-AA16givC?ocid=msedgntp&cvid=3bcd050a27d74c5680db5037dfdc61d8




T

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Friday, January 13, 2023 10:36 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Quote:

Originally posted by second:
Quote:

Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
lol

A...



LOL

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

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

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Friday, January 13, 2023 11:06 AM

SECOND

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


Quote:

Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Yanno SECOND, you whined more than once that the USA doesn't know how to fight a war. That figthing a war, to quote Patton, didn' mean dying for your country, it meant making the other SOB die for his country.

Well, apparently Russia DOES know how to fight wars, bc they're fighting a war of attrition.

But that's one of the great things about fighting a war of attrition on a static front:
not too much real estate gets destroyed. As long a Kiev is willing to keep pumping troops and weapons into the Soledar/Bakhmust agglomeration, all the Russia's shells will keep landing in the same spots over and over. Kiev and Kharkiv and other cities will be mostly spared.

I'm sure you;ll find a way to whine about that, too. In reality, your biggest whine is that Russia is winning.

WWII showed that both Russia and Ukraine are incompetent. How do I know? The death toll:

Russia 26,600,000
Ukraine 6,850,000
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_II_casualties#Soviet_Union

For comparison:
Germany 5,700,000 while fighting on two fronts.
Doesn't look good, except in comparison to Ukraine and the even stupider Russia.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_II_casualties#Nazi_Germany

For further comparison
USA 671,801

And that was while fighting two separate wars on opposite sides of the world.

In Ukraine, two idiotic countries, one bigger and dumber than the other, are fighting. It is absolutely no surprise that incompetence rules over these two countries. Who will win? I don't know. Either Dumb or Dumber will be declared the Winner after they beat each other almost to death.

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

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Friday, January 13, 2023 11:56 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Quote:

Originally posted by second:
Quote:

Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Yanno SECOND, you whined more than once that the USA doesn't know how to fight a war. That figthing a war, to quote Patton, didn' mean dying for your country, it meant making the other SOB die for his country.

Well, apparently Russia DOES know how to fight wars, bc they're fighting a war of attrition.

But that's one of the great things about fighting a war of attrition on a static front:
not too much real estate gets destroyed. As long a Kiev is willing to keep pumping troops and weapons into the Soledar/Bakhmust agglomeration, all the Russia's shells will keep landing in the same spots over and over. Kiev and Kharkiv and other cities will be mostly spared.

I'm sure you;ll find a way to whine about that, too. In reality, your biggest whine is that Russia is winning.

WWII showed that both Russia and Ukraine are incompetent. How do I know? The death toll:

Russia 26,600,000
Ukraine 6,850,000
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_II_casualties#Soviet_Union

For comparison:
Germany 5,700,000 while fighting on two fronts.
Doesn't look good, except in comparison to Ukraine and the even stupider Russia.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_II_casualties#Nazi_Germany

For further comparison
USA 671,801

And that was while fighting two separate wars on opposite sides of the world.

In Ukraine, two idiotic countries, one bigger and dumber than the other, are fighting. It is absolutely no surprise that incompetence rules over these two countries. Who will win? I don't know. Either Dumb or Dumber will be declared the Winner after they beat each other almost to death.

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




Hey Ted.

Looks like Second doesn't support Ukraine either.



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

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

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Friday, January 13, 2023 12:19 PM

SECOND

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


Quote:

Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:

Hey Ted.

Looks like Second doesn't support Ukraine either.

6ix, you deserve the shit beaten out of you, the same as Russia. If Ukraine won't do it, nobody else is stepping forward. It is too bad Ukraine is almost as incompetent and stupid as Russia at war. Certainly, taking note of how many Germans died in vain during WWII compared to how few Americans, Germans are not helping because they are not notable warriors. Germans are much better at the careful planning, finicky paperwork, and record-keeping necessary for running a Holocaust than winning a war:

Why Olaf Scholz is reluctant to send battle tanks to Ukraine

by Guy Chazan, Ben Hall, Laura Pitel

Germany’s chancellor resists move for fear of provoking Vladimir Putin

Olaf Scholz is under growing international pressure to make a momentous decision: whether or not to give the green light for German battle tanks to be sent to Ukraine.

Berlin’s western allies have been turning the screws on the German leader as Kyiv pleads for more weapons to consolidate its gains against Russia and recapture occupied territory as the war approaches its first anniversary.

Public statements by leading German ministers in recent days suggest that the government’s position is shifting. But Scholz, who is the ultimate decision maker, has yet to indicate a change of heart.

The German chancellor wields huge influence not only because of the military and political ramifications of a decision by Europe’s most populous nation and largest economy to dispatch its own tanks to Ukraine. He also has authority to approve or veto the re-export of the German-made Leopard 2 tanks that are used by 13 armies across Europe.

Yet Scholz, known for his cautious style, has for months voiced hesitancy about supplying tanks even as the Green and liberal partners in his three-way coalition have grown bolder in their support for doing so.

“Germany should . . . not stand in the way if other countries decide to support Ukraine, regardless of whatever decision Germany itself makes,” Green economy minister Robert Habeck said on Thursday.

While Scholz last year promised a “sea change” in Germany’s defence and security policy in response to Vladimir Putin’s invasion of his neighbour, that shift has appeared slow to Kyiv and its most vocal allies in Europe including Poland and the Baltic nations.

“It’s always a similar pattern: First they say ‘no,’ then they fiercely defend their decision, only to say ‘yes’ in the end,” Ukraine’s foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba said this week. “We are still trying to understand why the German government is doing this to itself.”

Senior figures in Scholz’s Social Democratic party (SPD) deny that the chancellor is too hesitant. “I don’t see it as dithering,” Michael Roth, head of the Bundestag’s foreign affairs committee, told German radio on Friday. “He is proceeding cautiously, in a way that takes account of the fact that [German] society is split on this issue.” There were, he said, “no clear majorities” in favour of sending tanks to Ukraine.

The German leader has repeatedly voiced concern over his country being perceived as escalating the conflict and provoking Putin, who has hinted he could resort to nuclear weapons. Recent polls suggest a majority of Germans are opposed to supplying Ukraine with Leopard 2 tanks.

Scholz is not helped by the political baggage of his SPD, which has a long history of pacifism and a record of promoting closer ties with Russia. However, Rolf Mützenich, head of the party’s parliamentary group, said on Thursday that when it came to sending battle tanks to Ukraine, “there are no red lines”.

The German leader’s position on sending weapons to Ukraine has shifted since the start of the war. Initially he refused to send any heavy arms at all, saying his country would not “go it alone”. But then Berlin began to deliver armoured vehicles, self-propelled howitzers and air defence systems.

Last week he and Joe Biden, the US president, announced they would deliver infantry fighting vehicles: the US-made Bradley and German-made Marder. The move came a day after French president Emmanuel Macron said France would provide AMX-10 armoured vehicles — considered by some military analysts as “light tanks” — to Ukrainian forces.

In an apparent attempt to up the pressure on Berlin, Britain announced this week that it was working on plans to send a small number of Challenger 2 tanks to Kyiv.

Poland’s president Andrzej Duda also announced plans to send 14 Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine’s army “as part of the building of an international coalition” — a step that would only be possible with German approval. A spokesman for Scholz said on Thursday that Berlin had not yet received a formal request to re-export German-made tanks.

US officials remain more cautious. While they have said that they are discussing the prospect of sending tanks to Ukraine, such a move does not seem imminent. Some view German-made Leopards as a better option for Kyiv because they are lighter and easier to maintain than American-made Abrams.

Yet Scholz may only be able to act on tanks if he can do so in lock-step with the Americans. “He needs the cover of a nuclear power,” said Jana Puglierin, senior policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations. “A European consortium might not be enough for him.”

Scholz’s reluctance has both confounded and angered his critics. Roderich Kiesewetter, a member of the Bundestag foreign affairs committee from the opposition Christian Democrats (CDU), accused the chancellor of surrounding himself with “Russia romantics” who “want to sacrifice Ukraine”. Kiesewetter welcomed the statements from Warsaw and London and called on Berlin to “finally rethink its position” on tanks, adding: “We’ve been far too cautious.” 

Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann, the Free Democratic party (FDP) chair of the Bundestag’s defence committee and a prominent Russia hawk, suggested that the SPD leadership had misunderstood the meaning of pacifism. “If you see the aggression of Russia and you see how brutal the fighting against Ukraine is, it’s not un-pacifist if you try to protect yourself.”

The “terrible” destruction inflicted by German tanks on the Soviet Union — which included Ukraine — in the second world war still cast a long shadow in her country, she said. But history, she argued, could be used to make a positive case for sending tanks. “You could . . . say that German tanks, German soldiers were a nightmare for the Ukrainian people in the second world war, and now this materiel is not a nightmare any more — it’s to help Ukraine.”

Additional reporting by Felicia Schwartz in Washington
https://www.ft.com/content/9e0e5ed8-a924-469d-bea7-dc0de81f2c82

Fun Fact About Germany: The Holocaust was the machinelike murder of at least five million Soviet prisoners of war, Romany, Jehovah’s Witnesses, homosexuals, and approximately six million European Jews. My sisters are, and my parents were, Jehovah’s Witnesses.
https://www.nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/holocaust

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

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Friday, January 13, 2023 2:32 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Quote:

Originally posted by second:
Quote:

Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:

Hey Ted.

Looks like Second doesn't support Ukraine either.

6ix, you deserve the shit beaten out of you



Come and get it, pussy.

Oh... That's right. You don't know where I live, do you?

That's just another of the countless disadvantages you have to me.

If you ever figure that out, stop on by. I've got a warm welcome waiting for you.



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

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

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Friday, January 13, 2023 3:53 PM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.


Looks like you're really gotten under SECOND's skin, SIX. Poor bastard is reduced to near-threats. Again.

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


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Friday, January 13, 2023 4:47 PM

SECOND

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


Quote:

Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Looks like you're really gotten under SECOND's skin, SIX. Poor bastard is reduced to near-threats. Again.

I have to deal with people who steal from me. I handle that by turning their lives into smoking ruins. Why so brutal? Funny thing about them also being Trump voters. What is the connection? I am absolutely sure they believe in Trump because Trump didn't pay his taxes. He cheated every subcontractor he could. Cheated on his wives. Paid bribes to silence women. Been sued thousands of times and lost. He is exactly like his voters, except more so. What is not to like about Trump for people who are as bad as him, but with fewer opportunities to prove it? Not at all unexpected that his voters would have grave difficulties staying in the middle class just like Trump has difficulties that lawyers constantly work, for decades, keeping Trump out of.

In other news, Ukraine must pulverize Crimean real estate. Why? "Crimea is the most dangerous part of this war, without any question," Kimmage said. "For Zelensky, it's crystal clear that it needs to be back in Ukraine. For Putin, it's crystal clear that Crimea is Russian. So only one of them can win in this sense. And that just raises the stakes."

Giving up control of Crimea would not only be a black mark on Putin's military, but it would also unleash the wrath of Russian elites, according to Spoonts.

"The oligarch class owns lots of stuff in Crimea including hotels, resorts, boats, homes, and various other businesses," Spoonts said. "Russia has poured huge sums of money into the region in roads, bridges, ports and a grain terminal. They would lose all of that." That is why Ukraine should give the maximum effort to turning Crimea into smoking ruins. Nice guys that use gentlemanly methods don't win wars with either Russians or with Trumptards.

"Since the annexation of Crimea to Russia was so very popular with the Russian public in 2014, Putin's losing it either militarily or through negotiations could spell his doom," George Mason University Schar School of Policy and Government professor Mark N. Katz told Newsweek.

https://www.newsweek.com/putin-biggest-weak-spot-exposed-ukraine-ambit
ion-grows-1773741


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

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Friday, January 13, 2023 6:30 PM

SECOND

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


Pro-Russian slogans grow louder in former East Germany

Germany’s relationship with Russia has long been complicated, shaped by deep economic ties. Nowhere is that relationship more complex than in the former East Germany, which endured four decades of Soviet control.

Millions of people in Saxony and other eastern regions speak Russian and identify with Russia culturally. Eastern Germany’s heavy industries are also highly dependent on Russian gas and oil, making sanctions particularly painful in this part of the country. Reunification with West Germany in the 1990s only increased suspicion of the West in the minds of many East German citizens.

The war in Ukraine has become a lightning rod for those grievances – and a chance for many East Germans to show their true colours and oppose the German government’s backing of Ukraine. Support for the far-right Alternative for Germany party, which has been sympathetic to Russia during the conflict, has increased in recent months and is currently running at around 27 per cent in some opinion polls here, compared with 12 per cent in the western part of the country.

“We have long relationship with Russia so we also can see the Russian view that they have been provoked for a very long time,” said Torsten Kraft, a 60-year old pensioner in Dresden who supports the Monday demonstrators.

Mr. Kraft echoed Mr. Putin’s arguments that Russia went into Ukraine to help the Russian minority, and that the Kremlin has no designs beyond what it calls a special military operation. “The Ukraine is an artificially constructed country which was originally part of Russia,” he said. “Putin said he’s only going to help people who ask for help, so he’s not going to invade countries which are not asking for help.”

A new movement launched last year called Free Saxony is seeking to tap into the widespread disgruntlement by calling for the region, which includes Dresden and Leipzig, to separate from Germany.
(Maybe Putin can help? Ask him.)

More at https://www.theglobeandmail.com/world/article-pro-russian-slogans-grow
-louder-in-former-east-germany-as-ukrainian
/

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

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Friday, January 13, 2023 6:56 PM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.


Quote:

Originally posted by second:
Quote:

Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Looks like you're really gotten under SECOND's skin, SIX. Poor bastard is reduced to near-threats. Again.

I have to deal with people who steal from me. I handle that by turning their lives into smoking ruins.



Oh dear. THAT doesn't sound entirely legal, does it?

BTW I personally don't do any of that shit and neither does SIX, and neither does anyone I know.

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


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Friday, January 13, 2023 6:59 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Quote:

Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Quote:

Originally posted by second:
Quote:

Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Looks like you're really gotten under SECOND's skin, SIX. Poor bastard is reduced to near-threats. Again.

I have to deal with people who steal from me. I handle that by turning their lives into smoking ruins.



Oh dear. THAT doesn't sound entirely legal, does it?

BTW I personally don't do any of that shit and neither does SIX, and neither does anyone I know.



Yup. Absolute lunatic and garbage human being.

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

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

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Saturday, January 14, 2023 6:48 AM

SECOND

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


Quote:

Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:

Yup. Absolute lunatic and garbage human being.

You wrote a long comment on Friday that hinted at you once upon a time being out of your mind but now you are saner. You are not sane, just not so self-destructive: http://fireflyfans.net/mthread.aspx?bid=20&tid=65473&mid=11679
46#1167946


Putin Thinks the Ukraine War is ‘Unfair’
Peter Suciu

The late Sir Winston Churchill once suggested, “There is only one thing worse than fighting with allies and that is fighting without them.” This is no doubt a point that Russian President Vladimir Putin and his lackeys now understand all too well as it is essentially facing the most powerful military alliance in the world.

In an article for Tass this week, it was noted that Western military assistance to Kyiv is already 94.9% of Russia’s defense spending last year – $51.1 billion. It is easy to see why Moscow has taken the stance that it isn’t in a war with just its neighbor but with NATO.

The article stated, “As Russian President Vladimir Putin emphasized earlier… ‘the military potential and capabilities of virtually all major NATO countries are being actively used against Russia.’ Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu noted that Moscow is fighting not so much with the Ukrainian military as with the ‘collective West.'”

Tass further tried to emphasize that Russia was at a considerable financial disadvantage on the battlefield, as foreign aid to Ukraine has exceeded $150.8 billion, including military, humanitarian and financial support.
Sour Grapes For Putin on Ukraine

It is absolutely true that without that aid Kyiv would have been defeated long ago, a point noted by William Astore, a retired lieutenant colonel and ex-professor of history at the U.S. Air Force Academy, who told Newsweek this week, “there is no way Ukraine could have fought the Russian Army largely to a standstill.”

“Western military aid has created a stalemate in Ukraine,” added Astore. “Whether it will ultimately grant Ukraine a decisive edge depends on the willingness of the U.S. and NATO to continue supplying massive amounts of arms and ammo, together with the morale of Ukrainian forces and the willingness of Ukraine as a country to endure the brutal costs of war.”

For Russia, this fact is crystal clear – and likely especially frustrating.

It would be easy for Putin to cry foul that he wasn’t simply allowed to overrun his neighbor. That point has been noted by his supporters – and by those who are foes of America – that the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq would have been considerably different had Moscow, China, or another power provided aid to our adversaries.

Yet, that is exactly how the Cold War was fought.

It was a number of proxy wars, and in many ways, Ukraine is simply the latest example. However, Ukraine did ask for and received assistance from the West. This is what international alliances are about, and this is the West’s way of ensuring that Russia doesn’t take the path of the Soviet Union in demanding it has a “sphere of influence” over its neighbors.

Putin and his cronies can argue this is about Russian security, and those anti-Ukrainian factions in America can ponder “how would America feel if Mexico joined an alliance with China?” But the point remains that Kyiv didn’t want to be overrun and the Ukrainian people didn’t want to be ruled by Moscow.

Likewise, Mexico doesn’t need China’s protection as it has treaties that are honored by the United States.

Why NATO Expanded

Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania – as well as Poland, Romania, and Bulgaria – sought NATO membership, not for some future hope of a war with Russia, but because of past history that reminds them, they were all once either under the direct control of Moscow or in its sphere of influence.

This may have seemed a “threat” to Putin, but he has admitted that he sees the dissolution of the Soviet Union as “the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the 20th century.”

Finally, as the Brookings Institution noted last summer, Putin sought to portray the pre-invasion crisis that Moscow created with Ukraine as a NATO-Russia dispute, but that framing does not stand up to serious scrutiny. Russia retains the world’s largest nuclear arsenal and that serves as a serious deterrent to any invader.

It was Russia, under Putin’s leadership, that resulted in NATO taking a harder line – and why historically neutral nations such as Finland and Sweden are now seeking membership.

Putin may feel the situation isn’t fair, but if he wanted an easy victory he should have cheated in a game of Risk.

https://www.19fortyfive.com/2023/01/putin-thinks-the-ukraine-war-is-un
fair
/

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

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Saturday, January 14, 2023 6:59 AM

SECOND

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


Quote:

Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Quote:

Originally posted by second:
Quote:

Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Looks like you're really gotten under SECOND's skin, SIX. Poor bastard is reduced to near-threats. Again.

I have to deal with people who steal from me. I handle that by turning their lives into smoking ruins.



Oh dear. THAT doesn't sound entirely legal, does it?

BTW I personally don't do any of that shit and neither does SIX, and neither does anyone I know.

Why do I not believe Sigym's self-reported avoidance of badness? Because you defended too much monstrous behavior by Russians and by Trump. You denied that the bad behavior happened or claimed it was the Ukrainians' fault or the Democrats' fault or, well, you and 6ix always find a way. I personally don't believe you or 6ix when you make statements about your own behavior because I have actual experience with people who have opinions THE SAME AS YOURS. There is a link between their opinions and how difficult their lives have become because it is the same brain creating both their opinions and their difficulties.

Signym, you and 6ix are what I call Trumptards. I can't look into your life, Signym, but other Trumptards I know very well have, what is the polite way to say they are fucked up? These people really need some mental help, but they don't see themselves as crazy. What they want is a change in government or in Hollywood or in business. Then most of their problems will go away, they believe. I believe (make that I am certain) most of their problems are all their own fault because I have seen up-close how Trumptards live and work and raise a family. I have spent tens of thousands of hours listening to and watching them. What I see and hear totally fails to support their high opinion of themselves.

I also believe most of Russia's problems are all their fault. Russia has neighboring countries that prosper while Russia does not. Compare GNP per person and it becomes obvious that Russians are doing something ridiculously wasteful with their lives. Does Russia copy what its neighbors do? No. Instead, Russia blames the neighboring countries, and the UK and USA, for Russia's problems. Russians are very much like Trumptards in their way of being unaware of what they are doing wrong with their short lives.

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

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Saturday, January 14, 2023 8:16 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK


You are an idiot and a psychopath.

Nobody gives a shit about your opinion, Second.

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

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

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Saturday, January 14, 2023 12:23 PM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.


Quote:

Originally posted by second:
Quote:

Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Quote:

Originally posted by second:
Quote:

Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Looks like you're really gotten under SECOND's skin, SIX. Poor bastard is reduced to near-threats. Again.

I have to deal with people who steal from me. I handle that by turning their lives into smoking ruins.



Oh dear. THAT doesn't sound entirely legal, does it?

BTW I personally don't do any of that shit and neither does SIX, and neither does anyone I know.

Why do I not believe Sigym's self-reported avoidance of badness? Because you defended too much monstrous behavior by Russians and by Trump. You denied that the bad behavior happened or claimed it was the Ukrainians' fault or the Democrats' fault or, well, you and 6ix always find a way. I personally don't believe you or 6ix when you make statements about your own behavior because I have actual experience with people who have opinions THE SAME AS YOURS. There is a link between their opinions and how difficult their lives have become because it is the same brain creating both their opinions and their difficulties.

Signym, you and 6ix are what I call Trumptards. I can't look into your life, Signym, but other Trumptards I know very well have, what is the polite way to say they are fucked up? These people really need some mental help, but they don't see themselves as crazy. What they want is a change in government or in Hollywood or in business. Then most of their problems will go away, they believe. I believe (make that I am certain) most of their problems are all their own fault because I have seen up-close how Trumptards live and work and raise a family. I have spent tens of thousands of hours listening to and watching them. What I see and hear totally fails to support their high opinion of themselves.

I also believe most of Russia's problems are all their fault. Russia has neighboring countries that prosper while Russia does not. Compare GNP per person and it becomes obvious that Russians are doing something ridiculously wasteful with their lives. Does Russia copy what its neighbors do? No. Instead, Russia blames the neighboring countries, and the UK and USA, for Russia's problems. Russians are very much like Trumptards in their way of being unaware of what they are doing wrong with their short lives.

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



SECOND, you're WRONG about me, SIX, and the many people I know.

And you're a bad person who spends an awful lot of time mentally convicting people of imaginary crimes so you can blame them for what "they" "made" you do.

Now, back to the originally scheduled topic.


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


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Saturday, January 14, 2023 2:50 PM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.


Quote:

Emmanuel Todd On The Third World War

The French Le Figaro has an interview with the well known anthropologist Emmanuel Todd.

Emmanuel Todd: «La Troisième Guerre mondiale a commencé»

"The third world war has began" is his new thesis. Todd is quite famous for correctly predicting the devolution of the Soviet Union long before it happened. He was quite alone at that time.


I read a sci-fi book, "Young Rissa" which assumed the same thing. Also predicted the development of factory-dorms in the far east, and fascism at home. What it didn't predict was the rise of financialism.

But anyone whose mental model had good predictive power deserves to be considered. Never heard of the guy, but I'm going to look him up

Quote:

I once had a piece on Todd's later predictions for the U.S. and Europe which still seems spot on. I also quoted him in a piece on social decline as a national security issue.

Unfortunately the Figaro piece is paywalled. But Arnaud Bertrand has done us the favor of translating the gist. Here is his slightly edited thread:

Arnaud Bertrand @RnaudBertrand - 15:42 UTC · Jan 13, 2023

Emmanuel Todd, one of the greatest French intellectuals today, claims that the "Third World War has started."

Small ?? translating the most important points in this fascinating interview.

He says "it's obvious that the conflict, which started as a limited territorial war and is escalating to a global economic confrontation between the whole of the West on the one hand and Russia and China on the other hand, has become a world war."

He believes that "Putin made a big mistake early on, which is [that] on the eve of the war [everyone saw Ukraine] not as a fledgling democracy, but as a society in decay and a “failed state” in the making. [...] I think the Kremlin's calculation was that this decaying society would crumble at the first shock. But what we have discovered, on the contrary, is that a society in decomposition, if it is fed by external financial and military resources, can find in war a new type of balance, and even a horizon, a hope."

Unfortunately I could say the same of us. We're so internally divided it seems most people (on this board anyway) have a big blank spot in their brains when asked to think about our common interests, but nothing provides a sense of unity quite like finding an enemy. Just like nothing causes a baboon troop to coalesce like one of them screaming "Leopard! Leopard!"
I think this tendency is shamefully exploited by TPTB to distract us from our interests.

Quote:

He says he agrees with Mearsheimer's analysis of the conflict: "Mearsheimer tells us that Ukraine, whose army had been overtaken by NATO soldiers (American, British and Polish) since at least 2014, was therefore a de facto member of the NATO, and that the Russians had announced that they would never tolerate Ukraine in NATO. From their point of view, the Russians are therefore in a war that is defensive and preventive. Mearsheimer added that we would have no reason to rejoice in the eventual difficulties of the Russians because since this is an existential question for them, the harder it would be, the harder they would strike. The analysis seems to hold true."

He however has some criticism for Mearsheimer:

"Mearsheimer, like a good American, overestimates his country. He considers that, if for the Russians the war in Ukraine is existential, for the Americans it is basically only one 'game' of power among others. After Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan, what's one more debacle? The basic axiom of American geopolitics is: 'We can do whatever we want because we are sheltered, far away, between two oceans, nothing will ever happen to us'. Nothing would be existential for America.

Insufficient analysis which today leads Biden to proceed mindlessly. America is fragile. The resistance of the Russian economy is pushing the American imperial system towards the precipice. No one had expected that the Russian economy would hold up against the 'economic power' of NATO. I believe that the Russians themselves did not anticipate it.

If the Russian economy resisted the sanctions indefinitely and managed to exhaust the European economy, while it itself remained, backed by China, American monetary and financial controls of the world would collapse, and with them the possibility for United States to fund their huge trade deficit for nothing. This war has therefore become existential for the United States. No more than Russia, they cannot withdraw from the conflict, they cannot let go. This is why we are now in an endless war, in a confrontation whose outcome must be the collapse of one or the other."


That sounds pretty dire, but I'm not sure that it's true. I can imagine a bipolar world where the USA has more limited sphere of control. I'll have to think about that.

Quote:

He firmly believes the US is in decline but sees it as bad news for the autonomy of vassal states:

"I have just read a book by S. Jaishankar, Indian Minister of Foreign Affairs (The India Way), published just before the war, who sees American weakness, who knows that the confrontation between China and the US will have no winner but will give space to a country like India, and to many others. I add: but not to Europeans. Everywhere we see the weakening of the US, but not in Europe and Japan because one of the effects of the retraction of the imperial system is that the United States strengthens its hold on its initial protectorates. As the American system shrinks, it weighs ever more heavily on the local elites of the protectorates (and I include all of Europe here). The first to lose all national autonomy will be (or already are) the English and the Australians. The Internet has produced human interaction with the US in the Anglosphere of such intensity that its academic, media and artistic elites are, so to speak, annexed. On the European continent we are somewhat protected by our national languages, but the fall in our autonomy is considerable, and rapid. Let's remember the Iraq war, when Chirac, Schröder and Putin held joint anti-war press conferences."

He underlines the importance of skills and education: "The US is now twice as populated as Russia (2.2 times in student age groups). But in the US only 7% are studying engineering, while in Russia it is 25%. Which means that with 2.2 times fewer people studying, Russia trains 30% more engineers. The US fills the gap with foreign students, but they're mainly Indians and even more Chinese. This is not safe and is already decreasing. It is a dilemma of the American economy: it can only face competition from China by importing skilled Chinese labor."

On the ideological and cultural aspects of the war: "When we see the Russian Duma pass even more repressive legislation on 'LGBT propaganda', we feel superior. I can feel that as an ordinary Westerner. But from a geopolitical point of view, if we think in terms of soft power, it is a mistake. On 75% of the planet, the kinship organization was patrilineal and one can sense a strong understanding of Russian attitudes. For the collective non-West, Russia affirms a reassuring moral conservatism."

He continues: "The USSR had a certain form of soft power [but] communism basically horrified the whole Muslim world by its atheism and inspired nothing particular in India, outside of West Bengal and Kerala. However, today, Russia which repositioned itself as the archetype of the great power, not only anti-colonialist, but also patrilineal and conservative of traditional mores, can seduce much further. [For instance] it's obvious that Putin's Russia, having become morally conservative, has become sympathetic to the Saudis who I'm sure have a bit of a hard time with American debates over access for transgender women in the ladies' room.

Cultural compatibility might ease diplomacy between near-equals, but in the end I think it comes down to economic independence and military strength.

Quote:

Western media are tragically funny, they keep saying, 'Russia is isolated, Russia is isolated'. But when we look at the votes at the UN, we see that 75% of the world does not follow the West, which then seems very small.

With an anthropologist reading of this [divide between the West and the rest] we find that countries in the West often have a nuclear family structure with bilateral kinship systems, that is to say where male and female kinship are equivalent in the definition of the social status of the child. [Within the rest], with the bulk of the Afro-Euro-Asian mass, we find community and patrilineal family organizations. We then see that this conflict, described by our media as a conflict of political values, is at a deeper level a conflict of anthropological values. It is this unconscious aspect of the divide and this depth that make the confrontation dangerous."

There you go. Is he right on everything? I don't know, but Emmanuel Todd is certainly always a very singular and interesting thinker, with a vastly different analysis from the depressingly predictable bad takes that usually dominate French media.

Todd's thinking rhymes well with that of Radhika Desai and Michael Hudson as reproduced at Naked Capitalism. 

Economists Radhika Desai & Michael Hudson Explain Multipolarity, Decline of US Hegemony - Original here

Yves Smith introduces it:

Yves here. Some rousing weekend listening! Radhika Desai and Michael Hudson are launching a bi-weekly talk show, Geopolitical Economy Hour. The opening segment gives an overview, starting with the breakdown of US dominance and how it has been accelerated ironically by self-defeating efforts to preserve the system. It seems trivial at this point to observe that American defense of its hegemony has helped forge a strong Russia-China alliance. But will this partnership wind up dominating other countries, and stymie the development of a truly multipolar order?

Good food for thought



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


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Saturday, January 14, 2023 6:57 PM

THG


Quote:

Originally posted by SIGNYM:

Looks like you're really gotten under SECOND's skin, SIX. Poor bastard is reduced to near-threats. Again.




T




>

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Saturday, January 14, 2023 9:22 PM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.


THUGR, what does that have to do with SIX, or me, or ... anything?

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


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Sunday, January 15, 2023 7:16 AM

SECOND

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


Quote:

Originally posted by SIGNYM:
THUGR, what does that have to do with SIX, or me, or ... anything?

Could it be that Signym, 6ix, and Medvedev are lunatics unconscious of how crazy they are? This war in Ukraine, pro or con, was never about different values. It has always been about Russians being insane. Is this caused by leftover trauma and stress from WWII? Or leftover from the collapse of the Soviet Union? Or leftover from years of drunkenness in the case of 6ix and Russians? No one knows precisely why crazy people are that way. Here is Medvedev showing his craziness:

Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has accused Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida of shameful subservience to the United States and suggested he should ritually disembowel himself.

He was responding to a meeting on Friday between Kishida and Biden, after which the two leaders issued a joint statement saying, “We state unequivocally that any use of a nuclear weapon by Russia in Ukraine would be an act of hostility against humanity and unjustifiable in any way.”

Medvedev said the nuclear statement showed “paranoia” towards Russia and “betrayed the memory of hundreds of thousands of Japanese who were burned in the nuclear fire of Hiroshima and Nagasaki” – a reference to the atomic bombs that the United States dropped on Japan before its surrender at the end of World War II. Rather than demanding US repentance for this, Kishida had shown he was “just a service attendant for the Americans”. He said such shame could only be washed away by committing “seppuku” – a form of suicide by disembowelment, also known as “hara-kiri” – at a meeting of the Japanese cabinet after Kishida’s return.

Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Medvedev has warned repeatedly that Western meddling in the crisis could lead to nuclear war.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/1/14/russias-medvedev-says-japanes
e-pm-should-disembowel-himself


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

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Sunday, January 15, 2023 9:50 AM

SECOND

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


Zelenskiy / Official

Russia has launched another heavy missile attack on Ukrainian cities. Kyiv, Kharkiv, Odesa, Kryvy Rih, Dnipro, Vinnytsia, Ladyzhyn, Burshtyn, Khmelnytsky and other cities were targets of terrorists.

In the city of Dnipro, a residential building has been destroyed in this Russian attack.
It was possible to save dozens of injured people, and treatment is provided to them.
Debris clearance is still ongoing and will continue throughout the night. It's not yet known how many people are under the rubble.
Unfortunately, the death toll is growing every hour… My condolences to relatives and friends.

All services are now working in the sites hit by Russian missiles.
Out of more than thirty missiles launched towards Ukraine during the day, more than 20 were shot down. These are hundreds of saved lives. I thank our Air Force, our airmen and everyone who helps.
Unfortunately, energy infrastructure facilities have been also hit. In this regard, the most difficult situation is in Kharkiv region and Kyiv region.

Can Russian terror be stopped? Yes.
Is it possible to do it somehow differently than on the battlefield in Ukraine? Unfortunately no. This can and must be done on our land, in our sky, in our sea.
What is needed for this? The weapons that are in the warehouses of our partners and that our troops are so waiting for.
The whole world knows WHAT can stop and HOW it's possible to stop those who sow death.
And I thank everyone who helps us in this!

Eternal memory to all whose lives were taken by ruscism!
Glory to all who defend people!
Glory to Ukraine!

https://t.me/V_Zelenskiy_official/4771

https://t.me/s/V_Zelenskiy_official

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

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Sunday, January 15, 2023 12:35 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Quote:

Originally posted by second:
Quote:

Originally posted by SIGNYM:
THUGR, what does that have to do with SIX, or me, or ... anything?

Could it be that Signym, 6ix, and Medvedev are lunatics unconscious of how crazy they are?



hmmmmmmmmm...

http://fireflyfans.net/mthread.aspx?tid=65116

http://fireflyfans.net/mthread.aspx?tid=65471

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

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

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Sunday, January 15, 2023 4:22 PM

SECOND

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


Quote:

Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:

hmmmmmmmmm...

I have heard it a million times while talking to angry poor white trash in East Texas. The Texas Trumptards I know claim they aren't crazy. It is those rich Coastal Elites who are the real crazies. Oddly, the description of Trump is equally fitting for his Trumptards:

The President Is Acting Crazy, so Why Are We Shrugging It Off?

Donald Trump in defeat, it turns out, is even more whiny, dishonest, and self-absorbed than he was before his decisive loss to Biden a month ago.

More at https://web.archive.org/web/20201204123710/https://www.newyorker.com/n
ews/letter-from-trumps-washington/the-president-is-acting-crazy-so-why-are-we-shrugging-it-off


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

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Sunday, January 15, 2023 4:23 PM

SECOND

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


Ukraine's ambassador to Canada says she thinks there has been a breakthrough in the supply of weapons being shipped to her embattled country, as Canada prepares to send a major air defence system and other allies provide more arms.

"I would call it the ice breaking, because a lot of kind of the weapons that the government of our partners and allies are supplying us now, we have been asking [for] since February 24," Yulia Kovaliv said in an interview on Rosemary Barton Live airing Sunday.

A Russian missile attack on an apartment building in Dnipro, meanwhile, killed upwards of 23 people, as the death toll continues to climb Sunday.

The air defence system Canada is set to purchase is not yet in place. The head of Raytheon Technologies, one of the companies that produces NASAMS, has said it takes about two years to produce the system.

[There is no rush. The war will still be here in two years.]

But Defence Minister Anita Anand told Barton in a separate interview airing Sunday that Canada was targeting a shorter timeline, noting they had purchased both the system and munitions at the same time.

The delivery "will occur as soon as possible, may involve multiple shipments and will be delivered as soon as possible.... We are not contemplating years at this point," Anand said. She added that a close partnership with the United States was a key factor in the purchase.



More at https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/ukraine-arms-allied-shipments-air-def
ence-1.6714726


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

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Sunday, January 15, 2023 5:21 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Quote:

Originally posted by second:
Quote:

Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:

hmmmmmmmmm...

I have heard it a million times while talking to angry poor white trash in East Texas. The Texas Trumptards I know claim they aren't crazy. It is those rich Coastal Elites who are the real crazies. Oddly, the description of Trump is equally fitting for his Trumptards:



The difference between your opinions and my facts is that I bring receipts of your insane behavior to the table.

If you'd ever shut the fuck up for 5 seconds all anyone would hear from your side is crickets.



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

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

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Sunday, January 15, 2023 5:44 PM

THG


Quote:

Originally posted by second:
Quote:

Originally posted by SIGNYM:
THUGR, what does that have to do with SIX, or me, or ... anything?

Could it be that Signym, 6ix, and Medvedev are lunatics unconscious of how crazy they are? This war in Ukraine, pro or con, was never about different values. It has always been about Russians being insane. Is this caused by leftover trauma and stress from WWII? Or leftover from the collapse of the Soviet Union? Or leftover from years of drunkenness in the case of 6ix and Russians? No one knows precisely why crazy people are that way. Here is Medvedev showing his craziness:

Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has accused Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida of shameful subservience to the United States and suggested he should ritually disembowel himself.

He was responding to a meeting on Friday between Kishida and Biden, after which the two leaders issued a joint statement saying, “We state unequivocally that any use of a nuclear weapon by Russia in Ukraine would be an act of hostility against humanity and unjustifiable in any way.”

Medvedev said the nuclear statement showed “paranoia” towards Russia and “betrayed the memory of hundreds of thousands of Japanese who were burned in the nuclear fire of Hiroshima and Nagasaki” – a reference to the atomic bombs that the United States dropped on Japan before its surrender at the end of World War II. Rather than demanding US repentance for this, Kishida had shown he was “just a service attendant for the Americans”. He said such shame could only be washed away by committing “seppuku” – a form of suicide by disembowelment, also known as “hara-kiri” – at a meeting of the Japanese cabinet after Kishida’s return.

Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Medvedev has warned repeatedly that Western meddling in the crisis could lead to nuclear war.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/1/14/russias-medvedev-says-japanes
e-pm-should-disembowel-himself







I always felt Russias' problem is that they can't compete with the more successful countries. So, like China, they cheat, steal, to get ahead, to meet their needs.

I think if kiki didn't die of COVID she'd admit Russia does this.

T


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Sunday, January 15, 2023 6:21 PM

SECOND

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


Quote:

Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
Quote:

Originally posted by second:
Quote:

Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:

hmmmmmmmmm...

I have heard it a million times while talking to angry poor white trash in East Texas. The Texas Trumptards I know claim they aren't crazy. It is those rich Coastal Elites who are the real crazies. Oddly, the description of Trump is equally fitting for his Trumptards:



The difference between your opinions and my facts is that I bring receipts of your insane behavior to the table.

If you'd ever shut the fuck up for 5 seconds all anyone would hear from your side is crickets.

You sound exactly the same as the Russians. They accuse everybody of being Nazis who intend to destroy Russia. Then the Russians threaten to nuke everybody. The Russians' have deep emotional problems and a garish history of murdering political opponents. It is completely unsurprising that the Russians have never prospered compared to citizens of the EU. Also unsurprising that Trumptards can't prosper compared to their less mentally ill neighbors. I've seen Trumptards before there was a Trump. The Trumptards I know have always acted crazy since their teen years. So have certain Russians:

Lethal Politics

During World War II, while the Soviet Union had lost almost 20,000,000 in the war, the Party was killing even more of its citizens and foreigners - probably an additional 13,053,000. For each period, he defines, counts, and totals the sources of death. He shows that Soviet forced labor camps were the major engine of death, probably killing 39,464,000 prisoners overall.

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

All of this makes it completely predictable that mentally ill Russian soldiers would be killing Ukrainian civilians. Also completely predictable that American soldiers who would vote for Trump would have killed Iraqi civilians. Their fathers killed Vietnamese civilians. Like Father, Like Son. The craziness and the economic backwardness at the family level are passed down through the generations in America as in Russia.

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

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Sunday, January 15, 2023 7:57 PM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.


SECOND, you have a need to hate. So you keep inventing enemies.
Kinda sick, don't you think?

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


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Sunday, January 15, 2023 8:14 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Yes. It is pretty sick.

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

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

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Sunday, January 15, 2023 8:49 PM

SECOND

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


Quote:

Originally posted by SIGNYM:
SECOND, you have a need to hate. So you keep inventing enemies.
Kinda sick, don't you think?

Incorrect. Trumptards, just like Trump himself, have a burning need to claim superiority, despite obviously being inferior to all around them. Russians do exactly the same thing. They claim superiority despite the EU pitying the poor Russian fools who can't run the Russian economy worth a damn. And, to top it off, Russians have a long history of political killings, and tens of millions of graves, full of better Russians who the inferior Russians felt were their enemies. These political differences ended with mass murder. You can check it all out, if you weren't so lazy, stupid and useless:

Russophiles deny it, but the sad truth is that Russia has murdered approximately 62 million of its citizens.

Once the Russian state settled on murder as a quick solution to political conflicts, Russians were never the same.

R.J. Rummel, Lethal Politics - Soviet Genocide and Mass Murder since 1917 (Published 1990)

Chapters

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Sunday, January 15, 2023 8:51 PM

SECOND

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


Quote:

Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
Yes. It is pretty sick.

You are correct about Russians:

Former Russian Commander Warns of 'Civil War' That Will 'Kill' Russia

Former Russian commander Igor Ivanovich Strelkov, also known as Igor Girkin, recently warned of "civil war" in Russia that could result in "millions of casualties" as the country continues to fight in the ongoing war in Ukraine.

"There are all kinds of civil wars. There are civil wars that will kill our country in three days in winter. And it will be over in three days, but it will kill the country," Girkin said in a clip with subtitles that was posted to Twitter on Sunday by Anton Gerashchenko, adviser to the Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine.

In the clip, Girkin added that Moscow could "collapse into a civil war with millions of casualties, with a complete collapse and defragmentation."

Russia continues to fight in Ukraine despite struggles in obtaining military equipment, shortage in manpower, poor morale among troops, and what some predicted an internal division within military leaders.

On Saturday, Russian forces launched a missile strike that hit a building in an apartment complex in Dnipro, killing 29 people and injuring dozens of others, according to Valentyn Reznichenko, the region's governor.

Though Russian forces made some advances in capturing the Ukrainian city of Soledar, Ukrainian army leaders still have control over the situation in the western outskirts of the city, which is north of Bakhmut, Girkin said Wednesday on Telegram.

Meanwhile, warnings about a civil war breaking out in Moscow have been previously made by some of Russian President Vladimir Putin's critics.

Mark Feygin, a former deputy in the State Duma and human rights lawyer, told Newsweek last October that a comprehensive defeat for Putin in Ukraine could result in a "bloody" civil war with a range of factions and regions seeking power.

"What will be depends greatly on the way this war will conclude," Feygin said, adding that Ukraine could "crash" Putin's government without even taking back Crimea if Kyiv's troops are able to fully liberate the Kherson, Zaporizhia, Luhansk, and Donetsk oblasts.

"The easiest would be if elites inside Russia will make up their mind and choose a replacement for Putin, a replacement who could negotiate with the West, could provide some initial framework for concluding the logistics of that war, and then also work towards future elections," Feygin said.

This past November, some leaked emails from a whistleblower at Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) that were shared with Newsweek revealed how a possible civil war could break out among Putin's closest allies.

The agent, dubbed the Wind of Change, writes regular dispatches to Russian dissident exile Vladimir Osechkin, expressing the frustration and discontent inside the FSB over the ongoing war in Ukraine.

The emails detail inner turmoil and conflict within Moscow, predicting an "inevitable" civil war, and that the country will soon "descend into the abyss of terror" as people grow increasingly tired of the war.

Newsweek reached out to the Russia foreign affairs ministry for comment.

https://www.newsweek.com/former-russian-commander-warns-civil-war-that
-will-kill-russia-1773906


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

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Sunday, January 15, 2023 10:07 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Quote:

Originally posted by second:
Quote:

Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
Yes. It is pretty sick.

You are correct about Russians:



No. "It" is you. You are sub-human.

Your pronouns are It/Itself

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

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

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Monday, January 16, 2023 2:22 AM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.


Yanno, SECOND can't seem to stop posting about his obsessions. I suggest we just ignore him for a while.

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


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Monday, January 16, 2023 7:43 AM

SECOND

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


Quote:

Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Yanno, SECOND can't seem to stop posting about his obsessions. I suggest we just ignore him for a while.

That is very Russian of you. And very Trumptard. Those two kinds of humans have mental reset buttons that blank out their own past history whenever it is convenient. It is a paradox how little history Russians/Trumptards remember, except when the history is about their many enemies. I wonder why Russians/Trumptards make so many enemies? It is no wonder that Russians/Trumptards don't prosper compared to their neighbors. Making enemies is not the way to economic success.

The Russian paradox is clear: Can or should Russia be held liable and accountable for its unprovoked invasion of Ukraine? Over the long term, should the West punish Russia, possibly by isolating it? Are reparations from Russia for reconstruction that could run into the hundreds of billions of euros justified? And does the same logic apply to war crimes tribunals and bringing guilty parties to justice?

Or can Russia be excused from responsibility for destroying much of an independent state; committing war crimes and atrocities; and breaking treaties and international law on the basis that confrontation could bring a worse outcome? A defeated Russia could implode as it did in 1917 and 1991. But the consequences for the West could be even more dire than were posed by the USSR if it metastasized into greater economic, political and even military conflict.  

From a rules-based, legal and moral perspective, failure to hold Moscow fully accountable is patently wrong. Yet, forcing Russia to confront reparations and war crimes would require some form of surrender or a major regime change in Moscow.

The second critical paradox is reciprocity. Russia is obliterating Ukraine’s civilian infrastructure. Unsurprisingly, the West is silent about the parallels between these infrastructure attacks and the Allies’ strategic bombing campaigns against Nazi Germany and Japan. But the Allies did not start World War II.

Why should Ukraine not reciprocate by denying Russia any sanctuary from direct attack? The White House argues for caution and not escalating the war beyond Ukraine’s borders. But suppose the only way for Ukraine to counter Russia’s bombing campaign and end the war is to strike Russia’s homeland. 

The paradox is self-evident. Allow Russia to punish Ukrainian civilians as the means to force Kyiv to capitulate and end the war on Moscow’s terms. Or allow Ukraine to attack targets inside Russia not only with a handful of drones directed against military facilities but against its infrastructure, risking escalation. At this stage, there are no solutions for and even interest in unraveling these dual paradoxes.

More at https://thehill.com/opinion/international/3813411-the-ukraine-paradoxe
s-russia-reciprocity-and-reality
/

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

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Monday, January 16, 2023 9:05 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Quote:

Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Yanno, SECOND can't seem to stop posting about his obsessions. I suggest we just ignore him for a while.



Sounds good to me.

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

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

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Monday, January 16, 2023 9:46 AM

SECOND

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


Quote:

Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
Quote:

Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Yanno, SECOND can't seem to stop posting about his obsessions. I suggest we just ignore him for a while.



Sounds good to me.

Does that mean you will stop writing "Fuck Ukraine" over and over? Does it mean that Signym will stop quoting the crazy people who praise Russians as heroes for killing civilians? (According to the crazy people, it is not Russia, but Ukraine, that kills civilians. There was a story today where the Russians said it was Ukraine, not Russia, never Russia, that destroyed an apartment building or a maternity hospital or an orphanage or kindergarten in Ukraine because the Ukrainians wanted to make Russia look bad.)

Maybe Russia should sue Ukraine in the International Courts for defamation of Russia's reputation and character? I bet Russians think they could win $1 trillion in damages. Maybe $2 trillion. Come to think of it, Trump counter-sues people who accuse him of being a criminal. The same tactic should work just as well for Russia as it works for Trump.

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

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Monday, January 16, 2023 10:57 AM

THG


Quote:

Originally posted by SIGNYM:

Yanno, SECOND can't seem to stop posting about his obsessions. I suggest we just ignore him for a while.




Russia Russia Russia!!!

T





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Monday, January 16, 2023 11:10 AM

THG


Quote:

Originally posted by second:
Quote:

Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
Quote:

Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Yanno, SECOND can't seem to stop posting about his obsessions. I suggest we just ignore him for a while.



Sounds good to me.

Does that mean you will stop writing "Fuck Ukraine" over and over? Does it mean that Signym will stop quoting the crazy people who praise Russians as heroes for killing civilians? (According to the crazy people, it is not Russia, but Ukraine, that kills civilians. There was a story today where the Russians said it was Ukraine, not Russia, never Russia, that destroyed an apartment building or a maternity hospital or an orphanage or kindergarten in Ukraine because the Ukrainians wanted to make Russia look bad.)

Maybe Russia should sue Ukraine in the International Courts for defamation of Russia's reputation and character? I bet Russians think they could win $1 trillion in damages. Maybe $2 trillion. Come to think of it, Trump counter-sues people who accuse him of being a criminal. The same tactic should work just as well for Russia as it works for Trump.

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





Does it mean Polish Russian Collaborator Signym with stop posting about past atrocities? Does it mean she’ll stop suggesting these past barbarisms somehow justify Putins’ behavior now? Does she really believe by her doing so, she removes the name butcher, from Putins’ legacy?

I predict no.


T


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Monday, January 16, 2023 11:46 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Fuck Ukraine.

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

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

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Monday, January 16, 2023 12:04 PM

SECOND

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


Quote:

Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
Fuck Ukraine.

‘Russia’s Rambo,’ once a Putin favorite, says he’d now fight for Ukraine and feels ‘nothing but hatred’ for his home country.

He said a former colleague had gone to fight on the Russian side. “Would I shoot him? Without any doubt! Do I keep my options to go fight for Ukraine open? Absolutely! This is the only way for me. And if I were to go to this war, I would only fight for Ukraine.”

A few days later, the Russian Ministry of Justice classified the actor as a foreign agent.

Alexander Bastrykin, the head of Russia’s Investigative Committee, also ordered that a criminal case be opened against Smolyaninov.

Smolyaninov has been highly critical of the campaign in Ukraine.

https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/16/europe/russian-rambo-ukraine-intl/index
.html


Not all Russians are worthless, just the ones who support Putin's schemes. Similarly, not all Americans are worthless, just the ones who excuse Trump's shenanigans.

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

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Monday, January 16, 2023 12:48 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Fuck Ukraine.

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

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

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Monday, January 16, 2023 4:24 PM

SECOND

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


Quote:

Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
Fuck Ukraine.

CIA Director Bill Burns met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on a secret trip to Kyiv ahead of the Russian invasion last year to share news that appeared to surprise the Ukrainian leader: the Russians were plotting to assassinate him.

At that time, in January 2022, Zelenskyy had been dismissing the idea that Russians would carry out an unprovoked invasion of Ukraine and was suggesting America's public warnings were creating a "panic," noted Chris Whipple in his forthcoming book, "The Fight of His Life: Inside Joe Biden's White House."

It was unusual for the US to publicly disclose intelligence like this, suggesting Washington was confident in its assessment of Russia's intentions. But just weeks before Russia invaded, Zelenskyy expressed concerns that such warnings would have a negative impact on the Ukrainian economy — and emphasized that Kyiv was used to facing threats from Russia. 

"Burns had come to give him a reality check" and the CIA director shared that Russian Special Forces were coming for Zelenskyy, writes Whipple, adding that President Joe Biden told Burns "to share precise details of the Russian plots."

"This immediately got Zelensky's attention; he was taken aback, sobered by this news," Whipple wrote in the book, set for release on January 17.

Russia invaded Ukraine the next month, launching the largest military conflict in Europe since World War II. Since that time, Ukrainian officials have spoken about Zelenskyy surviving more than a dozen Russian assassination attempts. But Whipple, who interviewed Burns, gives readers a glimpse of how the stakes were laid out to Zelenskyy as he tried to push back on US warnings about an impending invasion.

"The intelligence was so detailed that it would help Zelensky's security forces thwart two separate Russian attempts on his life," he wrote.

As previously reported, Burns also shared a "blueprint of Putin's invasion plan" during that visit in Zelenskyy's office to help him prepare. Whipple wrote. He previewed Russian plans to attack Antonov Airport north of Kyiv and to use it as a staging area for an assault on Kyiv.

https://www.businessinsider.com/cia-director-warned-zelenskyy-russian-
plot-to-kill-before-invasion-2023-1


Free downloads of other books by Chris Whipple are at https://libgen.unblockit.ink/search.php?req=Chris+Whipple

https://www.amazon.com/Fight-His-Life-Inside-Bidens/dp/1982106433/

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

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Monday, January 16, 2023 4:59 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Fuck Ukraine.

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

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

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Tuesday, January 17, 2023 5:51 AM

SECOND

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


Russia Can't Take Key Ukrainian Region 'Quickly,' Occupation Leader Admits

The head of Russia's puppet administration in the partially occupied southern Ukrainian region of Zaporizhzhia has admitted that Moscow's forces will not be able to seize control of the rest of the region "quickly," blaming expected local resistance and Western activity.

Yevgeny Balitsky, a Ukrainian politician who became the acting governor of the Russian-occupied part of Zaporizhzhia in October 2022, told the pro-Kremlin Crimean television channel Krym-24 on Monday that Russian forces face a difficult task in seizing the rest of the Zaporizhzhia region.

"There is no way of taking Zaporizhzhia quickly," Balitsky said, as quoted by Russia's state-run Tass news agency. "Sweeping measures will have to be used. In the work for safe streets, we will have to clear vast areas of mines."

"We also see the methods the U.S. and the European coalitions have been employing to brainwash the people, who take up arms or who are simply mobilized."

"They have no understanding of either history or culture," Balitsky said of the Ukrainians
who reject and are resisting the Russian narrative that has underpinned Moscow's aggression against Ukraine since 2014.

More at https://www.newsweek.com/russia-ukrainian-region-quickly-occupation-le
ader-zaporizhzhia-yevgeny-balitsky-1774002


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

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Tuesday, January 17, 2023 8:16 AM

SECOND

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


In a moment of reading serendipity, I listened to a recording of Zelensky’s interview just as I was reading the Scottish historian James Crawford’s beguiling new travelogue/history/meditation The Edge of the Plain: How Borders Make and Break Our World. Crawford’s reporting and research took place almost entirely before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and he refers to it only in passing, but it’s hard not to think of the war, and the notion that life and territory could be inseparable, when you encounter a statement like “what is a border, if not a story? It is never simply a line, a marker, a wall, an edge. First, it is an idea […] It can only ever be made. It can only ever be told.”

The war in Ukraine is a war over territory that is also a war between stories. Russian President Vladimir Putin, having apparently emerged from a COVID-isolation deep dive into the Kremlin archives, puts forth a narrative that Ukraine and Russia share a common “historical and spiritual space” that renders modern, internationally recognized nation-state borders irrelevant.

The notion that Ukraine is an “artificial” country was already historically dubious, and ironically, Putin’s violation of Ukraine’s borders appears to have done more to solidify Ukraine’s national identity — its story, that is — than generations of Ukrainian nationalists have managed.

. . . It would be too simple to suggest the book merely condemns or dismisses borders. Those who imagine a world without borders may be pacifists in the John Lennon mold, but they’re just as likely to be imperialists.

Crawford quotes from Virgil’s Aeneid, in which Rome is designated by the god Jupiter himself as “an empire without limit” in either “space or time.” That borders are “artificial” is a concept that can be used by progressives to advocate for the rights of migrants, but also — as Putin has shown — by atavistic dictators to justify invading their neighbors.

More at https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2023/01/borders-migration-ukraine-
war-edge-plain-crawford-review.html


Download the free book from the mirrors at https://libgen.unblockit.ink/search.php?req=The+Edge+of+the+Plain

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

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