REAL WORLD EVENT DISCUSSIONS

Russia Invades Ukraine. Again

POSTED BY: CAPTAINCRUNCH
UPDATED: Thursday, October 31, 2024 13:46
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PAGE 55 of 149

Sunday, January 22, 2023 10:36 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:
Nobody cares.

Today is Unification Day:

The Ukrainian Day of Unity is a state holiday celebrated annually on January 22 since 1999, marking the day when the Ukrainian People’s Republic and the West Ukrainian People’s Republic signed the Unification Act in 1919, effectively merging both republics into a single country.

At the start of Moscow’s war, Ukrainian unity was revived.

“Every region is protecting each other. All of us no longer have strange cities, villages, or streets. Every city is a native city. Every village is a native village. Every street is a native street. Even if we have never been there in our life,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2023/1/22/ukraine-russia-live-
news-advance-towns-zaporizhia-region


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

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Sunday, January 22, 2023 11:42 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Fuck Ukraine.

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

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

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Sunday, January 22, 2023 12:17 PM

SECOND

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


Even if Ukraine chases every last Russian soldier from its land, Russia’s aggression will not end. Russia will continue to make claims to Ukraine’s territory, and will back them up with threats, intermittent missile launches and border skirmishes. There is no such thing as a decisive victory for the defender. A decisive victory implies the destruction of the attacker, lest it come back after a brief reprieve. Destroying Russia’s will or long-term capacity to take its land is something that, for Ukraine, is not an option. With an aggressor impervious to international or domestic pressure, tenuous peace, backed by a state-of-the-art anti-missile defence system and a world-class military on standby, may just be the best outcome Ukraine can hope to achieve.

More at https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/jan/22/vladimir-putin-u
kraine-west-russia-president


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

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Sunday, January 22, 2023 12:24 PM

THG


Quote:

Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Quote:

Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
Nobody cares.

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

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

Plush, it's bullshit.

Russia took Soledar, is flanking Bakhmut and advancing towards Zaparozhia. I don't know why you trust liars, THUGR.






Because I know the entire story comrade. Like the fact that the Russians are doing kamikaze runs that they cannot sustain. To gain a few feet of land they lose thousands of troops. Like I've said. They cannot keep it up and more and more supplies are entering Ukraine as I type.

tick tock

T


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Sunday, January 22, 2023 1:07 PM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.


Quote:

Originally posted by THG:
Quote:

Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Quote:

Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
Nobody cares.

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

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

Plush, it's bullshit.

Russia took Soledar, is flanking Bakhmut and advancing towards Zaparozhia. I don't know why you trust liars, THUGR.






Because I know the entire story comrade. Like the fact that the Russians are doing kamikaze runs that they cannot sustain. To gain a few feet of land they lose thousands of troops. Like I've said. They cannot keep it up and more and more supplies are entering Ukraine as I type.

tick tock

T


No, they'r not.

Your "whole story" is completely made up.

Russia pounds Ukie defenses with artillery. For months,if necessary. They cut supply lines with missiles and artillery. They don't go in until Ukie positions have been decimated. Even then, they go in cautiously.

They play to their strength, which is industrial war production, to save their infantry.

Everybody knows that.
Why do you believe liars?

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


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Sunday, January 22, 2023 1:30 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:

They play to their strength, which is industrial war production, to save their infantry.

Everybody knows that.
Why do you believe liars?

Even before the United States entered World War II in December 1941, America sent arms and equipment to the Soviet Union to help it defeat the Nazi invasion. Totaling $11.3 billion, or $180 billion in today’s currency, the Lend-Lease Act of the United States supplied needed goods to the Soviet Union from 1941 to 1945 in support of what Stalin described to Roosevelt as the “enormous and difficult fight against the common enemy — bloodthirsty Hitlerism.”

More at https://ru.usembassy.gov/world-war-ii-allies-u-s-lend-lease-to-the-sov
iet-union-1941-1945
/

Besides the United States being the real "industrial war production" machine for Russia during WWII, the US was directly attacking Germany's "industrial war production" machine that was 500 miles beyond the reach of Russia's artillery and bombers. Almost everything the US destroyed would have gone to Germany's Eastern Front, Signym. Did Stalin ever thank Roosevelt for saving his mustache from being shaved off by the Krauts?

The US doing for Russia what Russia couldn't do:
• 400,000 jeeps & trucks
• 14,000 airplanes
• 8,000 tractors
• 13,000 tanks
• 1.5 million blankets
• 15 million pairs of army boots
• 107,000 tons of cotton
• 2.7 million tons of petrol products
• 4.5 million tons of food



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

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Sunday, January 22, 2023 1:33 PM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.


SECOND, why do you think you're dealing with 1940s Russia? You're 80 years behind the times.
Get your head out of your ass and take a peek at reality.

Quote:

The Return of Industrial Warfare
Alex Vershinin


https://www.rusi.org/explore-our-research/publications/commentary/retu
rn-industrial-warfare
/

Before you get your knickers in a twist about the source "rusi", that is the. ROYAL (i.e. British) United Services Institute.


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


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Sunday, January 22, 2023 1:49 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, why do you think you're dealing with 1940s Russia? You're 80 years behind the times.
Get your head out of your ass and take a peek at reality.

Quote:

The Return of Industrial Warfare
Alex Vershinin


https://www.rusi.org/explore-our-research/publications/commentary/retu
rn-industrial-warfare
/

Before you get your knickers in a twist about the source "rusi", that is the. ROYAL (i.e. British) United Services Institute.

You haven't kept up with the times, Signym. Russia has a smaller economy today than Canada does and Canada is unafraid of the US invading because the Canadians don't keep threatening to nuke the world, unlike Russia, which has been making that same threat almost daily since it built its first nuke.

Country comparison Russia vs Canada
https://countryeconomy.com/countries/compare/russia/canada

United States $19,485,394,000,000
China $12,237,700,479,375
lapan $4,872,415,104,315
Germany $3,693,204,332,230
India $2,650,725,335,364
United Kingdom $2,637,866,340,434
France $2,582,501,307,216
Brazil $2,053,594,877,013
Italy $1,943,835,376,342
Canada $1,647,120,175,449
Russia $1,578,417,211,937 <***** Take a look, Signym.

https://www.worldometers.info/gdp/gdp-by-country/

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

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Sunday, January 22, 2023 2:12 PM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.


Apparently you have not bothered to even glance at Vershinin's sober military -economic analysis before you decided to splatter the board with more propaganda.

There have been many discussions about GDP, SECOND. Does Canada, or Italy, or Belgium have space programs? Do they feed a population of 150 million AND be a major food and commodity exporter? Do they field a million- man army? Have they developed and deployed cutting edge weaponry against which other nations are defenseless? Do they have full employment? Do they have trade and budgetary surpluses? Do they have a stable consumer base?

The reality, SECOND, is that GDP to as measured by the west is a myth. It includes, among other things, the money that homeowners WOULD HAVE BEEN PAID if they had rented out their homes, cappuccino shops, the price of gasoline, and fees charged for "financial services". In other words, it's bogus. If you look at ACTUAL PRODUCTION Russia is far ahead.

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


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Sunday, January 22, 2023 2:18 PM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.


Quote:

Why Are Western Establishment and pundits Losing Their Minds Over Ukraine?

21 January 2023 by Larry Johnson 133 Comments

The disconnect from reality that is being published and broadcast in the West is staggering. I suppose I should not be surprised that people who embrace transgenderism as normal and declare that men can be pregnant will eagerly embrace nonsense about Ukraine winning the war as reality. I want to draw your attention to two articles — Russia faces ‘incredible poverty’, warns ex-IMF chief (The Telegraph) and What 2023 will bring for the war in Ukraine (The Spectator).

Thank God that the “ex-IMF chief” is no longer in charge of the IMF. I am not sure if the man is really this stupid or a shill who will say anything to support the failing Western meme about Russia.

Russia’s people face “incredible poverty” following Western sanctions in response to Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine, according to the former chief economist of the International Monetary Fund.

Harvard professor Kenneth Rogoff said the country is headed towards being a new Cuba, Venezuela or “a giant Iran”.


Equating Russia’s economy with those of Cuba, Venezuela and Iran exposes Rogoff as an incompetent economist (Parents, don’t send you kids to Harvard). Let me present some facts:

Cuba GDP — 107.35 billion

Venezuela GDP — 482.36 billion

Iran GDP — 359.71 billion

Russia GDP — 1.78 trillion

If you have trouble with math let me help you out. Russia’s GDP is greater than Cuba, Venezuela and Iran combined (949.42 billion).

But GDP says nothing about the underlying strength of any economy. Iran and Venezuela share something in common with Russia — all three are major oil producers, but Russia surpasses them. In 2022, Russia’s oil output increased by 2% despite onerous international sanctions. That is because Russia is not dependent on selling oil to the United States and Europe. Countries outside the Western sphere of influence — China and India in particular — have stepped up their purchases of Russian oil.

But Russia has something that none of the other three pariah states possess — vast natural resources beyond oil that makes it a self-sufficient country. Russia is the richest country in the world in terms of natural resources:

The nation is a leading producer of coal, diamonds, aluminum, asbestos, gemstones, diamonds, lime, lead, gypsum, iron ore, bauxite, gallium, boron, mica, natural gas, potash, platinum, oil, rare earth metals, pig iron, peat, nitrogen, cadmium, arsenic, magnesium, molybdenum, phosphate, sulfur, titanium sponge, silicon, uranium, tellurium, vanadium, tungsten, cobalt, graphite, silver, vermiculite, selenium, rhenium, copper, and gold.



SECOND has endlessly bemoaned that it's not "fair" that Russia is so resource-rich.
Also, unlike China and Iran, they have ample supplies of water.

Quote:

These resources guarantee that Russia will not suffer the fate of Cuba, Venezuela or Iran. Russia is not dependent on trading with the United States and Europe. In fact, it appears that the United States and Europe need what Russia produces in order to keep their economies chugging along.
We ( the USA) COULD be nearly resource-independent if we put our minds to it. But TPTB decided they wanted to make more $$$ playing with the U$D.

Quote:

Here some video evidence that Russia today is light years away from the old Soviet Union:



What the failed economist Rogoff fails to grasp is that the decision of the West to try to sanction and destroy Russia is precipitating the collapse of the post-World War II financial era dominated by the United States. One indicator of that is Saudi Arabia’s decision to entertain accepting payments in other currencies:

Saudi Arabia opens to settling trade in other currencies than the US dollar Saudi Arabia is open to discussions about trade in currencies other than the US dollar, according to the kingdom’s finance minister Mohammed Al-Jadaan, informs Bloomberg.
https://moderndiplomacy.eu/2023/01/20/saudi-arabia-opens-to-settling-t
rade-in-other-currencies-than-the-us-dollar
/


Where do you think the USA will be without it's almighty reserve currency status?

Quote:

This is the start of a new world economic order. Maybe that is what haunts Rogoff.

Next up, Charles Lipson, who is “Peter B. Ritzma professor of political science emeritus at the University of Chicago, where he founded the Program on International Politics, Economics and Security, and a Spectator contributing writer.” Pretty impressive. Just more prima facie evidence supporting Andrei Martyanov’s scathing denunciation of “political science” as a fraudulent academic field. Lipson just wrote the following:

What’s happening on the battlefield itself? The fight has slowed over the past two months because of early winter weather. Now, as the ground freezes solid, Ukraine’s tanks and artillery are beginning to move again. The soft ground didn’t affect Russia, which relies on human-wave attacks by expendable soldiers and air attacks by Iranian-made drones. What has slowed them is the dwindling supply of precision weapons and conscripts. Putin can’t do much about the weapons, but he can do something about the manpower. He has secretly begun another round of mobilization, despite the political dangers. It’s one thing for him to round up men from outlying areas. It’s quite another to drag them off the streets in Moscow and St. Petersburg, the political heart of the country. Putin would only do that if he thinks losing the war would be even more dangerous. That is exactly the prospect he is facing if Ukraine continues its gains

GAINS??? They're losing territory and, worse, triple digit casualties every day.
Quote:

spring and summer, and especially if it threatens to retake Crimea.

Right now, Russia is continuing its unsuccessful — and extremely costly — effort to take the cities of Bakhmut and nearby Soledar, as part of their failing attempt to consolidate control of the Donbas. Meanwhile, Ukraine is slowly advancing on two cities further north: Kreminna and Svatove. Those cities and the highway connecting them represent the next steps eastward after Ukraine’s capture of Lyman in October.


Ignore the fact the Russia has stepped up its missile strikes on key infrastructure during the past two months. If Ukraine’s tanks are moving and the Russians are losing, according to Lipson, then why does Ukraine desperately need hundreds of tanks from the West? If Ukraine is winning and Russia is being defeated on the battlefield, why is the West not preparing its victory party? Cobbling together a failed NATO summit in Ramstein this past week is not a sign that the West is confident of Ukraine’s military prospects.

Poor Professor Lipson apparently is not keeping up with current events and does not realize that not only has Russia captured Soledar (and some American soldiers in the process) but it has tactically encircled Bakhmut and is making rapid advances in Zaporhyhia.

Lipson is repeating the propaganda from Kiev that Ukrainian attacks on Kreminna and Svatove are strategically important. Nothing could be further from the truth. Russia has now established fire control over the only lines of communication that provide supplies to the Ukrainian forces in Bakhmut. True to form, Russia is not divulging its plans, but the current movement of troops and artillery and air attacks strongly suggest that Russia is going to cut off Ukrainian forces east of the Dneiper River from resupply. Shades of Operation Uranus (i.e., the Soviet cauldron that encircled and destroyed the Nazi’s 6th Army at Stalingrad).

Let me conclude by posing a question — will the western cheerleaders for Ukraine ever admit that Ukraine is losing



It's more than "Ukraine" losing. NATO is losing.

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


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Sunday, January 22, 2023 2:31 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:
Oh, there have been many discussions about that, SECOND. Does Canada, or Italy, or Belgium have space programs? Do they feed a population of 150 million AND be a major food and commodity exporter? Do they field a million- man army? Have they developed and deployed cutting edge weaponry against which other nations are defenseless? Do they have full employment? Do they have trade and budgetary surpluses? Do they have a stable consumer base?

The reality, SECOND, is that GDP to as measured by the west is a myth. It includes, among other things, the money that homeowners WOULD HAVE BEEN OAUD if they had rented out their homes, cappuccino shops, the price of gasoline, and fees charged for "financial services". In other words, it's bogus. If you look at ACTUAL ORIDUCTION Russia is far ahead.

You are describing NORTH Korea, Russia's protege. According to North Korea, it could whip South Korea and all its allies. It's the NORTH Korean nukes that give the Kim family over-confidence enough to believe they will continue to rule over NORTH Korea, but not enough confidence to actually invade South Korea.

Some of that North Korean over-confidence has rubbed off on Putin, who isn't as smart as any of the Kims. That is why Putin is in trouble in Ukraine, Russia's equivalent to S. Korea. Russia is a country full of dummies getting beaten up by a smaller and almost as stupid country as Russia. The Ukrainians are good at dying but not so good at hitting targets. The Ukrainians must fire off around $1,000,000 in ammo for every Russian they kill. That is poor marksmanship by Ukrainians. If they don't get far better at targeting, Ukraine will lose.

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

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Sunday, January 22, 2023 2:56 PM

THG


Quote:

Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Quote:

Originally posted by THG:
Quote:

Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Quote:

Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
Nobody cares.

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

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

Plush, it's bullshit.

Russia took Soledar, is flanking Bakhmut and advancing towards Zaparozhia. I don't know why you trust liars, THUGR.






Because I know the entire story comrade. Like the fact that the Russians are doing kamikaze runs that they cannot sustain. To gain a few feet of land they lose thousands of troops. Like I've said. They cannot keep it up and more and more supplies are entering Ukraine as I type.

tick tock

T


No, they'r not.

Your "whole story" is completely made up.

Russia pounds Ukie defenses with artillery. For months,if necessary. They cut supply lines with missiles and artillery. They don't go in until Ukie positions have been decimated. Even then, they go in cautiously.

They play to their strength, which is industrial war production, to save their infantry.

Everybody knows that.
Why do you believe liars?






I posted this before comrade. It shows some of what lies ahead for Russia. Watch it this time. It ain't good.

T




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Sunday, January 22, 2023 3:32 PM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.


SECOND- Russia is like N Korea???
Phfwaaaaah!
You owe me a new phone!

THUGR: I smell a lot of "if" coming off that video.
1) America for the most part doesn't give a shit about Ukraine, and
2) Even if TPTB "support Ukraine" for whatever purpose (profit, money laundering, ideology, hegemony) with their whole heart and soul (assuming they have either) they won't be successful. Unless they go nuclear. And then, nobody wins

Sorry dood. That's reality.

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


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Sunday, January 22, 2023 6:14 PM

THG


Quote:

Originally posted by SIGNYM:

SECOND- Russia is like N Korea???
Phfwaaaaah!
You owe me a new phone!

THUGR: I smell a lot of "if" coming off that video.
1) America for the most part doesn't give a shit about Ukraine, and
2) Even if TPTB "support Ukraine" for whatever purpose (profit, money laundering, ideology, hegemony) with their whole heart and soul (assuming they have either) they won't be successful. Unless they go nuclear. And then, nobody wins

Sorry dood. That's reality.






Shit, I just posted this in another thread and then I see this. No choice but to post it hear comrade.

T




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Sunday, January 22, 2023 7:32 PM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.


Do you really give a fuck about how history is being rewritten?

And what does this have to do with the war in Ukraine and the number of weapons and soldiers each side can field?

I'm trying very hard to understand what options our neocons have in mind. They're trying to stand up a third Ukie army with a hodgepodge of western weapons. Which, AFAIK will be sitting ducks bc

a) they need to be part of a COMBINED arms operation (yanno, including planes, helicopters, artillery, air defenses, tanks... the whole schmeer) in order to be successful

b) the variety of training, maintenance and repair creates impossible logistics. I've heard these weapons described as "single use"... once they break down or are damaged they'll be left on the field.

Stories and videos of men being dragooned off the streets of Lviv. Anticipating Polish soldiers fighting in Ukie uniforms.

Supposedly our military is telling Z to give up on Bakhmut. Fighting trench warfare against the other side that can successfully attrit your side is suicide. Maybe our military is telling Z to become more maneuverable.

BUT THEN WHAT?

Build up your army, preserves your forces by giving up ground, train up for a few months and then...? Attack Crimea? Strike Moscow? Provoke Russians into striking NATO territory to create a pretext for using tactical nukes? I just can't create a winning scenario. Maybe I lack imagination.


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


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Sunday, January 22, 2023 7:53 PM

THG


Quote:

Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Do you really give a fuck about how history is being rewritten?

And what does this have to do with the war in Ukraine and the number of weapons and soldiers each side can field?

I'm trying very hard to understand what options our neocons have in mind. They're trying to stand up a third Ukie army with a hodgepodge of western weapons. Which, AFAIK will be sitting ducks bc

a) they need to be part of a COMBINED arms operation (yanno, including planes, helicopters, artillery, air defenses, tanks... the whole schmeer) in order to be successful

b) the variety of training, maintenance and repair creates impossible logistics. I've heard these weapons described as "single use"... once they break down or are damaged they'll be left on the field.

Stories and videos of men being dragooned off the streets of Lviv. Anticipating Polish soldiers fighting in Ukie uniforms.

Supposedly our military is telling Z to give up on Bakhmut. Fighting trench warfare against the other side that can successfully attrit your side is suicide. Maybe our military is telling Z to become more maneuverable.

BUT THEN WHAT?

Build up your army, preserves your forces by giving up ground, train up for a few months and then...? Attack Crimea? Strike Moscow? Provoke Russians into striking NATO territory to create a pretext for using tactical nukes? I just can't create a winning scenario. Maybe I lack imagination.










T

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Sunday, January 22, 2023 11:10 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- Russia is like N Korea???
Phfwaaaaah!
You owe me a new phone!

Does the world need North Korea? No.
Does the world need Russia?
The World Economy No Longer Needs Russia.
That is how Russia and North Korea are very alike.
http://www.fireflyfans.net/mthread.aspx?bid=18&tid=64887&mid=1
168341#1168341
or
https://foreignpolicy.com/2023/01/19/russia-ukraine-economy-europe-ene
rgy
/
Quote:

With alternative sources in place, Putin’s attempt at blackmailing Europe on energy has failed. . . .
Even Putin’s other commodities cards are all used up. His gambit to weaponize food abjectly collapsed when even his nominal allies turned on him. And in certain metals markets where Russia historically dominated, such as nickel, palladium, and titanium, blackmail-fearing buyers combined with higher prices have expedited reshoring and reinvigorated dormant public and private investment in critical mineral supply chain and mining projects. These are mostly in North and South America and Africa, home to many undertapped mineral reserves. In fact, in several crucial metals markets, such as cobalt and nickel, the combined output of new mines to be opened in the next two years adds up to more than enough supply to replace Russian metals within global supply chains permanently.



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

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Monday, January 23, 2023 2:14 PM

SECOND

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


Russia Could Collapse Into 'New States' After Ukrainian Victory

A Ukrainian victory could lead to the fall of the Russia Federation as we know it, according to one European economist.

Timothy Ash, an associate fellow at the international affairs think tank Chatham House, believes it's inevitable that Russian President Vladimir Putin and his army will be defeated by Ukraine. As the war head into its eleventh month, Ash said the real issue looming over Moscow's invasion is what will happen to Putin's Russia, and whether history will repeat itself.

In an op-ed published by the Kyiv Post on Saturday, Ash, who has advised various governments on Ukraine-Russia policy, said that he believes Russia will break off into new states — resulting in the exact opposite of what Putin had hoped to achieve when he launched the invasion into Ukraine almost a year ago.

"I see a decent chance that we see the end of Putin and, while not my base case, I think it's possible we see a collapse of the Federation into many new states — as with the USSR in 1991," Ash wrote.

Given that Russia is currently divided into a total of 89 regions — including 21 republics, 6 federal territories, 2 federal cities (Moscow and St. Petersburg), 49 regions, 1 autonomous region and 10 autonomous areas — Ash predicts that there could be the creation of 20 new states if the Russia Federation collapses.

"Putin started this war to create a Greater Russia, but the likely net effect will be a Lesser Russia," Ash said.

In 1991, the dissolution of the Soviet Union (USSR) resulted in the end of the country's existence as a sovereign state and brought an end to President Mikhail Gorbachev's time as the USSR's de facto leader. It was the 1991 collapse that gave Ukraine its independence, and from which the fraught relations between Russia and Ukraine have unfolded.

Ash is not the only expert who has opined that the war in Ukraine may end in the collapse of Russia.

In a January 7 op-ed for Foreign Policy, Alexander Motyl, a professor of political science at Rutgers University-Newark and a specialist on Ukraine and Russia, said that if Putin were to leave office, it is likely that a "vicious power struggle" would follow, and in turn, "a disintegration of centralized control and breakup of the federation."

"We don't know who will win, but we can confidently predict that the power struggle will weaken the regime and distract Russia from what remains of its war effort," Motyl wrote. "If Russia survives this turmoil, it's likely to become a weak client state of China. If it does not, the map of Eurasia could look very different."

Bruno Tertrais, a geopolitical adviser at the French think tank Institut Montaigne, also said a second collapse of the Soviet Union is likely to come from the war in Ukraine.

"Not only has [Putin] failed to unify the Russian world (russki mir), but his closest neighbors, thanks to the war, now seem to want to emancipate themselves," Tertrais wrote in December.

Janusz Bugajski, a senior fellow at the Jamestown Foundation, has warned that Western policymakers are gravely unprepared for an "impending" collapse of Russia.

"Instead of planning contingencies for external spillovers and capitalizing on Russia's de-imperialization, however, Western officials appear to be stuck in a bygone era, believing they can return to the post-Cold War status quo," he wrote in a January 12 op-ed for Politico.

He said in order for the West to avoid repeating the mistakes of the past, it must not presume that "the current empire is permanent."

https://www.newsweek.com/russia-could-collapse-new-states-ukrainian-vi
ctory-1775841


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

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Monday, January 23, 2023 4:20 PM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.


Quote:

America’s Insularity Is A Threat To Its Survival

22 January 2023 by Larry Johnson

I believe that a country’s history shapes how its citizens view themselves and view the world outside their borders. If you accept that as true I believe you can understand why the United States acts as it does in the world. The United States, until now, has faced one existential threat — the Civil War. I count it as existential because the union of the states was at risk and a victory by the Confederacy would have created a very different America.

The creation of the United States by defeating the British imperial power was followed by taking control, at times with force, of the land from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Oh yeah, we defeated Mexico in 1848 and claimed Mexico’s former lands as our own. My point is that at no time since the Civil War has America had to fend off a foreign military invasion. Protected by the oceans and weak neighbors to the south and north (i.e., Mexico and Canada), Americans never had the experience of foreign invaders wreaking havoc. Well, there was Pancho Villa, but he only launched some insignificant border raids and the United States declined to invade Mexico in retaliation.

With no enemies capable of invading America, we developed a sort of Messianic Complex. We went to Europe towards the end of the First World War to “save Europe.” That was followed by saving Europe from the Nazis (at least that’s the narrative taught in elementary and secondary schools). We never saw ourselves as imperial invaders. We simply were going “over there” to provide freedom. At least that is what we told ourselves. While many of the people of Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, Syria, Libya, Afghanistan and the Balkans would beg to differ, the American mindset in the aftermath of World War II is that our use of military force in foreign theaters had a noble purpose.

The American overseas military missionary adventures always required a villain. In Vietnam it was International Communism. In Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya and Syria it was international terrorism, with Iran regularly mentioned as the uber villain that needed to be stopped. Now we have a new, reconstituted villain — the Russians.

Russia, unlike the United States, has a long and bloody history of fending off invaders. That fact has conditioned the Russian people to be pretty prickly when they are confronted with a foreign threat. They dealt with Napoleon, the stumbled when attacked by the Ottoman Empire, the Brits and the French in the Crimea War, and defeated the Nazis. More recently, Russia beat back Islamic insurgents in Chechnya. This history makes Russia deadly serious when it believes it is threatened by foreign invaders.

Which brings me to the current war in Ukraine. The Western meme, fully embraced by the American public, is that Russia is a rapacious imperial power intent on destroying the freedom of the Ukrainian people. Russia, for its part, believes the West is intent on destroying the Russian Federation. Hell, it is not a belief, Western nations have spoken openly of eliminating Putin and breaking Russia into five separate countries.

Vladimir Putin’s attack on Ukraine showed the world that a resurgent Russia means, of necessity, an imperialist Russia. And it revived discussions about whether Russia needs to be “decolonized,” or perhaps “defederalized,” to bury its imperialist ambitions and subdue its military threat. A breakup of today’s Russia, similar to the dissolution of the Soviet Union, is seen as a possible, for some even the most desirable, outcome of a failed Ukraine invasion. Regrets are voiced that the US didn’t make it a goal in the 1990s, when post-Soviet Russia lay in ruins and struggled to hold onto one, tiny secessionist region: Chechnya.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/energy/is-breaking-up-russia-t
he-only-way-to-end-its-imperialism/2022/06/01/e1962c3e-e170-11ec-ae64-6b23e5155b62_story.html


Yep. We got to end that “Russian Imperialism.” This coming from the United States and Europe who actually have engaged in imperial conquests and attempts at conquest. Odd thing. Modern day Russia has not seized or controlled a single country in Latin America, Africa, or Asia. That is the history of the United States and Europe.

As the United States and Europe scramble to send more weapons and ammunition to Ukraine, Russian politicians are laying down a stark warning:

A “global tragedy” could be in store for humanity if the West keeps supplying weapons to Ukraine, Russia’s most senior lawmaker has warned. Vyacheslav Volodin, the speaker of the State Duma, also suggested that Moscow could retaliate with more powerful arms, should its territory be threatened. . . .

On Sunday, Volodin took to Telegram to point out that should the weapons provided by the US and fellow NATO member states be used to “strike civilian cities and to attempt to seize our territories, as they threaten [to do],” Moscow would respond with “more powerful weapons.”

The Russian lawmaker went on to argue that Western officials should be aware of their responsibility to avert such a scenario.

“Taking into consideration the technological superiority of Russian weapons, foreign politicians making such decisions need to understand: this could end up being a global tragedy that would destroy their countries,” Volodin warned.

https://www.rt.com/news/570282-russian-parliament-chair-warns-west/

I fear that many of my fellow countrymen view this as empty hyperbole on the part of an insignificant Russian politician. Corporate and political America continues to promote the belief that we are doing the right thing trying to defend “democracy” in Ukraine. Yet, we ignore the prevalence of neo-Nazi ideology as embodied by the followers of Stepan Bandera, President Zelensky’s elimination of opposition political parties and media and the attacks on the Russian Eastern Orthodox clergy. We just pretend that has not happened and, even if it has, it is of no concern to Russia.

The stubborn refusal of the political and media class in the United States to even acknowledge the possibility that Russia has legitimate security concerns has set the table for a devastating escalation in the war between Russia and the West. Volodin’s warning should not be ignored. But it is falling on deaf ears in Washington. The failure of the Biden Administration and his political cheerleaders to comprehend that Russia is not going to behave as an abused spouse. The days of pummeling, or trying to pummel, anyone who will not submit to our demands is over. We are likely to witness some event or series of events in the coming weeks and months when America’s imperial impotence will be exposed and Russia will be standing defiant and intact. That is likely to inflict a psychological break in the American belief that we are invincible and protected. Americans will forced to come to grips with a new reality — we are no longer an insular, protected nation.



I disagree. The USA has lost multiple wars abroad and not come to a sense of vulnerability. The only thing that will shock Americans out of their stupor is another 911 moment. But seeing that TPTB simply used that terror attack to promote another whole series of nation-destruction across the globe, Russia will probably try to avoid a galvanizing event on USA soil. More likely, they will play a war of attrition with the USA dollar (and what pathetic excuse we have for an economy,) instead. A long, slow grind.

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


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Monday, January 23, 2023 4:57 PM

THG


Quote:

Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Quote:


America’s Insularity Is A Threat To Its Survival

A “global tragedy” could be in store for humanity if the West keeps supplying weapons to Ukraine, Russia’s most senior lawmaker has warned. Vyacheslav Volodin, the speaker of the State Duma, also suggested that Moscow could retaliate with more powerful arms, should its territory be threatened. . . .

On Sunday, Volodin took to Telegram to point out that should the weapons provided by the US and fellow NATO member states be used to “strike civilian cities and to attempt to seize our territories, as they threaten [to do],” Moscow would respond with “more powerful weapons.”

The Russian lawmaker went on to argue that Western officials should be aware of their responsibility to avert such a scenario.

“Taking into consideration the technological superiority of Russian weapons, foreign politicians making such decisions need to understand: this could end up being a global tragedy that would destroy their countries,” Volodin warned.

https://www.rt.com/news/570282-russian-parliament-chair-warns-west/


The stubborn refusal of the political and media class in the United States to even acknowledge the possibility that Russia has legitimate security concerns has set the table for a devastating escalation in the war between Russia and the West. Volodin’s warning should not be ignored. But it is falling on deaf ears in Washington. The failure of the Biden Administration and his political cheerleaders to comprehend that Russia is not going to behave as an abused spouse. The days of pummeling, or trying to pummel, anyone who will not submit to our demands is over. We are likely to witness some event or series of events in the coming weeks and months when America’s imperial impotence will be exposed and Russia will be standing defiant and intact. That is likely to inflict a psychological break in the American belief that we are invincible and protected. Americans will forced to come to grips with a new reality — we are no longer an insular, protected nation.






T






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Tuesday, January 24, 2023 8:36 AM

SECOND

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


US and Western officials are urging Ukraine to shift its focus from the brutal, months-long fight in the eastern city of Bakhmut and prioritize instead a potential offensive in the south, using a different style of fighting that takes advantage of the billions of dollars in new military hardware recently committed by Western allies, US and Ukrainian officials tell CNN.

For nearly six months, Ukrainian forces have been going toe-to-toe with the Russians over roughly 36 miles of territory in Bakhmut, which lies between the separatist-held cities of Donetsk and Luhansk. Heavy shelling has left the city almost completely destroyed.

“It is a brutal and grinding fight,” a senior Western intelligence official said last week, with each side exchanging anywhere from 100-400 meters of land per day and exchanging several thousands of artillery rounds almost daily. “[Bakhmut] is less attractive militarily, in terms of any sort of infrastructure, than it might have been if it had not been this destroyed.”

Now, ahead of what is widely expected to be a brutal spring of fighting, there is a tactical opening, US and Western officials say. In recent weeks they have begun suggesting that Ukrainian forces cut their losses in Bakhmut, which they argue has little strategic significance for Ukraine, and focus instead on planning an offensive in the south.

That was part of a message delivered by three top Biden officials who traveled to Kyiv last week.

In a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, deputy national security adviser Jon Finer, Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman, and Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Colin Kahl, said the US wants to help Ukraine shift away from the sort of pitched battle of attrition playing out in Bakhmut and focus instead on a style of mechanized maneuver warfare that uses rapid, unanticipated movements against Russia, sources familiar with their discussion said.

More at https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/24/politics/ukraine-shift-tactics-bakhmut/
index.html


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

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Tuesday, January 24, 2023 9:09 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:

I disagree. The USA has lost multiple wars abroad and not come to a sense of vulnerability. The only thing that will shock Americans out of their stupor is another 911 moment. But seeing that TPTB simply used that terror attack to promote another whole series of nation-destruction across the globe, Russia will probably try to avoid a galvanizing event on USA soil. More likely, they will play a war of attrition with the USA dollar (and what pathetic excuse we have for an economy,) instead. A long, slow grind.

To Defend Civilization, Defeat Russia

by Tom Nichols

Ukraine needs any weapon its troops can learn to use, including tanks, to hold the line on the international order and the world’s safety.

January 23, 2023, 6:02 PM ET

Some NATO nations are wavering about sending tanks and other advanced weapons to Ukraine. I understand fears of escalation, but if Russia wins in Ukraine, the world will lose.

No Other Choice

I don’t often find myself agreeing with Senator Lindsey Graham, the South Carolina conservative who long ago rebranded himself as Donald Trump’s faithful valet and No. 1 fan. Last week, however, Graham lashed out in frustration at the dithering in Europe and America over sending more weapons to Ukraine. “I am tired of the shit show surrounding who is going to send tanks and when they’re gonna send them,” he said during a press conference in Kyiv, flanked by Democratic Senators Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut and Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island. “World order is at stake. [Vladimir] Putin is trying to rewrite the map of Europe by force of arms.”

Graham is right. Germany, for example, has been reluctant to send Leopard tanks to Ukraine; the Germans, for their part, would likely prefer to see the United States send American tanks first. But everyone in the West should be sending anything the Ukrainians can learn to use, because a lot more than mere order is at stake, and order, by itself, is not enough. As Rousseau wrote, “Tranquility is found also in dungeons,” but that does not make dungeons desirable places to live. Global civilization itself is on the line: the world built after the defeat of the Axis, in which, for all of our faults as nations and peoples, we strive to live in peace and cooperation—and, at the least, to not butcher one another. If Russia’s campaign of terror and other likely war crimes erases Ukraine, it will be a defeat of the first order for every institution of international life, be it the United Nations or the international postal union.

I suspect that many people in Europe and the United States are having a hard time getting their arms around the magnitude of this threat. We are all afflicted by normalcy bias, our inherent resistance to accept that large changes can upend our lives. I struggled with this in the early stages of the war; I thought Ukraine would probably lose quickly, and then when the Russians were repulsed by the heroic Ukrainian defenses, I hoped (in vain) that the fighting would fizzle out, that Putin would try to conserve what was left of his shattered military, and that the world’s institutions, damaged by yet another act of Russian barbarism, would somehow continue to limp along.

We’re long past such possibilities. Putin has made clear that he will soak the ground of East-Central Europe with blood—both of Ukrainians and of his own hapless mobiks, the recently mobilized draftees he’s sending into the military meat grinder—if that’s what it takes to subjugate Kyiv and end the Kremlin’s unexpected and ongoing humiliation. At this point, the fight in Ukraine is not about borders or flags but about what kind of world we’ve built over the past century, and whether that world can sustain itself in the face of limitless brutality. As the Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin said in Davos last week: “We don’t know when the war ends, but Ukraine has to win. I don’t see another choice.”

Neither do I, and it’s past time to send Ukraine even more and better weapons. (Or, as my colleague David Frum tweeted last June: “If there’s anything that Ukraine can use in any NATO warehouse from Vancouver to Vilnius, that’s a scandal. Empty every inventory.”) I say all this despite my concerns about escalation to a wider European and even global war. I still oppose direct U.S. and NATO intervention in this fight, and I have taken my share of criticism for that reticence. I do not fear that such measures will instantly provoke World War III. Rather, I reject proposals that I think could increase the odds of an accident or a miscalculation that could bring the superpowers into a nuclear standoff that none of them wants. (Putin, for all his bluster, has no interest in living out his last days eating dry rations in a dark fallout shelter, but that does not mean he is competent at assessing risks.)

Americans and their allies must face how far a Russian victory would extend beyond Ukraine. In a recent discussion with my old friend Andrew Michta (a scholar of European affairs who is now dean at the George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies, in Germany), he referred to the conflict in Ukraine as a “system-transforming” war, as Russian aggression dissolves the last illusions of a stable European order that were perhaps too quickly embraced in the immediate post–Cold War euphoria. Andrew has always been less sanguine about the post–World War II international order than old-school institutionalists like me, but he has a point: The pessimists after 1991 were right about Russia and its inability to live in peace with its neighbors. If Ukraine loses, dictators elsewhere will draw the lesson that the West has lost its will to defend its friends—and itself.

If Russia finally captures Ukraine by mass murder, torture, and nuclear threats, then everything the world has gained since the defeat of the Axis in 1945 and the end of the Cold War in 1991 will be in mortal peril. Putin will prove to himself and to every dictator on the planet that nothing has changed since Hitler, that lawless nations can achieve their aims by using force at will, by killing and raping innocent people and then literally grinding their ashes into the dirt. This is no longer about Russia’s neo-imperial dreams or Ukraine’s borders: This is a fight for the future of the international system and the safety of us all.


https://web.archive.org/web/20230123232111/https://www.theatlantic.com
/newsletters/archive/2023/01/ukraine-russia-weapons-nato-germany/672817
/

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

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Tuesday, January 24, 2023 9:57 AM

THG


Quote:

Originally posted by second:

US and Western officials are urging Ukraine to shift its focus from the brutal, months-long fight in the eastern city of Bakhmut and prioritize instead a potential offensive in the south, using a different style of fighting that takes advantage of the billions of dollars in new military hardware recently committed by Western allies, US and Ukrainian officials tell CNN.

For nearly six months, Ukrainian forces have been going toe-to-toe with the Russians over roughly 36 miles of territory in Bakhmut, which lies between the separatist-held cities of Donetsk and Luhansk. Heavy shelling has left the city almost completely destroyed.

“It is a brutal and grinding fight,” a senior Western intelligence official said last week, with each side exchanging anywhere from 100-400 meters of land per day and exchanging several thousands of artillery rounds almost daily. “[Bakhmut] is less attractive militarily, in terms of any sort of infrastructure, than it might have been if it had not been this destroyed.”

Now, ahead of what is widely expected to be a brutal spring of fighting, there is a tactical opening, US and Western officials say. In recent weeks they have begun suggesting that Ukrainian forces cut their losses in Bakhmut, which they argue has little strategic significance for Ukraine, and focus instead on planning an offensive in the south.

That was part of a message delivered by three top Biden officials who traveled to Kyiv last week.

In a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, deputy national security adviser Jon Finer, Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman, and Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Colin Kahl, said the US wants to help Ukraine shift away from the sort of pitched battle of attrition playing out in Bakhmut and focus instead on a style of mechanized maneuver warfare that uses rapid, unanticipated movements against Russia, sources familiar with their discussion said.

More at https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/24/politics/ukraine-shift-tactics-bakhmut/
index.html


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



Yes, this article is dead on. Russia can’t possibly defend across the entire front, so logic dictates it’s time to open it up. The supplies and weapons are pouring in in preparation for this.

tick tock

T


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Tuesday, January 24, 2023 10:09 AM

THG


Quote:

Originally posted by second:

If Russia finally captures Ukraine by mass murder, torture, and nuclear threats, then everything the world has gained since the defeat of the Axis in 1945 and the end of the Cold War in 1991 will be in mortal peril. Putin will prove to himself and to every dictator on the planet that nothing has changed since Hitler, that lawless nations can achieve their aims by using force at will, by killing and raping innocent people and then literally grinding their ashes into the dirt. This is no longer about Russia’s neo-imperial dreams or Ukraine’s borders: This is a fight for the future of the international system and the safety of us all.


https://web.archive.org/web/20230123232111/https://www.theatlantic.com
/newsletters/archive/2023/01/ukraine-russia-weapons-nato-germany/672817
/






Correct...

T


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Tuesday, January 24, 2023 1:28 PM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.


Quote:

Ukraine Rocked By Corruption Scandal, Wave Of Top Officials Resign: Sports Cars, Mansions & Luxury Vacations As People Suffered

Tuesday, Jan 24, 2023 - 08:50 AM

The Ukrainian government on Tuesday confirmed the resignation of multiple high ranking officials amid large-scale corruption allegations, in what's being called the biggest mass resignation and graft scandal since the Russian invasion began.

Some dozen officials have quit their posts after a huge political shake-up over allegations and probes into cases ranging from bribery, to mismanagement of aid funds for purchasing food, to embezzlement, to driving expensive cars while common people suffer under wartime conditions.

A top presidential adviser and four deputy ministers - among these two defense officials, along with five regional governors were forced out of their posts.

By who???

Quote:

And among the regional governors to step down included officials overseeing regions which have seen intense fighting, including the Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions, where Russian forces have lately reported gains.

Zelensky to Congress in Dec. visit: aid to Ukraine is an investment in democracy and "not charity". Via Reuters

In reference to the announcement by a senior government official, Oleg Nemchinov, international reports detail the following list:

Deputy Prosecutor General Oleskiy Symonenko

Deputy Minister for Development of Communities and Territories Ivan Lukeryu

Deputy Minister for Development of Communities and Territories Vyacheslav Negoda

Deputy Minister for Social Policy Vitaliy Muzychenk

And the regional governors of Dnipropetrovsk, Zaporizhzhia, Kyiv, Sumy and Kherson

And separately, "the defense ministry had earlier announced the resignation of deputy minister Vyacheslav Shapovalov, who was in charge of the army's logistical support, on the heels of accusations it was signing food contracts at inflated prices."

In this case regarding the food contracts, Shapovalov is accused of signing a deal with an unknown, shady firm. In his role as deputy defense minister, his is the most notable and visible resignation. Crucially he would have had no small part in overseeing the billions of dollars flowing from the pockets of US and European taxpayers as authorized defense aid.

He purchased military rations at inflated prices in what appears a scheme to line the pockets of contractors, and potentially involving kickbacks to himself.


MORE,WITH PICTURES AND LINKS,AT
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/ukraine-rocked-corruption-scand
al-wave-top-official-resignations-sports-cars-mansions


In addition, the Interior Minister and his top aide were killed in a helicopter crash, and Zelensky's former spin doctor and buddy Aristovich - fired one short week ago- is blabbing his head off that Ukraine isn't going to win.

Meanwhile the head of one of Z's security services, Budanov, claims that his agents were sent to negotiate with Russia in March merely to buy time for further military prep.

This goes along with Poroshenko's, Holland's and Merkel's admissions that the Minsk agreements were meant only to buy time for Ukraine's military buildup. Nobody had any intention of fulfilling the agreements, even as they pressed Russia +not a signatory) to enforce the peace


In other words, Ukraine and the collective west are not only "not agreement capable", they're not even negation capable.

Why should Russia negotiate?

It seems to me that thete is a huge internal conflict going on in Kiev. While CIA and State Dept neocons promoted Ukraine as a perfect tool to destabilize Russia, many (most?) Ukie officials saw the huge flow of weapons, supplies, and money as the perfect oppty to do what they've always done: grift.
Making Kiev an ineffective tool (just like Biden* is an effective tool).

I can't tell if this is "rats leaving a sinking ship", a genuine effort from above to reform Ukraine to focus and sharpen it's war effort, an exercise in blamestorming and fingerpointing for when their war falls apart, or a move to install Polish officials in the Kiev government (which has already been agreed to by law about six months ago. When Ukraine and Poland signed that agreement, I remember thinking HUH???).

Yanno, I'm sure many people in Ukraine understand the corrupt nature of their government and give it little political support.

JUST LIKE HALF OF AMERICA UNDERSTANDS THE FUNDAMENTALLY CORRUOT NATURE OF THE DNC. Unfortunately they have no idea how deep and wide and pervasive it is.

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


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Tuesday, January 24, 2023 2:27 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:

Yanno, I'm sure many people in Ukraine understand the corrupt nature of their government and give it little political support.

According to a 2021 report by Transparency International, Ukraine is the second most corrupt country in Europe after Russia. Globally, it ranked 122nd of 180 countries.

Presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said on Twitter on Tuesday that the changes within the government showed Zelensky was committed to fighting corruption.

https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/24/europe/ukraine-anti-corruption-zelensky
-intl/index.html


Ukraine is ranked 122 https://www.transparency.org/en/cpi/2021/index/ukr
Russia is ranked 136 https://www.transparency.org/en/cpi/2021/index/rus
A lower number is better.
https://www.transparency.org/en/cpi/2021

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

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Tuesday, January 24, 2023 4:24 PM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.


Quote:

Originally posted by second:
Quote:

Originally posted by SIGNYM:

Yanno, I'm sure many people in Ukraine understand the corrupt nature of their government and give it little political support.

According to a 2021 report by Transparency International, Ukraine is the second most corrupt country in Europe after Russia. Globally, it ranked 122nd of 180 countries.

Presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said on Twitter on Tuesday that the changes within the government showed Zelensky was committed to fighting corruption.

https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/24/europe/ukraine-anti-corruption-zelensky
-intl/index.html


Ukraine is ranked 122 https://www.transparency.org/en/cpi/2021/index/ukr
Russia is ranked 136 https://www.transparency.org/en/cpi/2021/index/rus
A lower number is better.
https://www.transparency.org/en/cpi/2021

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

Seems a little late, doesn't it? Especially since Z is corrupt as well.

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


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Tuesday, January 24, 2023 5:01 PM

THG


Quote:

Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Quote:

Originally posted by second:
Quote:

Originally posted by SIGNYM:

Yanno, I'm sure many people in Ukraine understand the corrupt nature of their government and give it little political support.

According to a 2021 report by Transparency International, Ukraine is the second most corrupt country in Europe after Russia. Globally, it ranked 122nd of 180 countries.

Presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said on Twitter on Tuesday that the changes within the government showed Zelensky was committed to fighting corruption.

https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/24/europe/ukraine-anti-corruption-zelensky
-intl/index.html


Ukraine is ranked 122 https://www.transparency.org/en/cpi/2021/index/ukr
Russia is ranked 136 https://www.transparency.org/en/cpi/2021/index/rus
A lower number is better.
https://www.transparency.org/en/cpi/2021

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly] Seems a little late, doesn't it? Especially since Z is corrupt as well.






Comrade signym quotes zerohedge and expects us to believe what they say. Too funny...

T


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Tuesday, January 24, 2023 5:29 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:

Seems a little late, doesn't it? Especially since Z is corrupt as well.

To me this is a battle between a dumb and corrupt country (Ukraine) and a dumber and even more corrupt country (Russia). Ukraine is trying hard to be a better country while Russia is not so much trying. Then there is the thing about Russia threatening to nuke the world, nearly every day since it first built an Atom Bomb and Russia solving political differences by murdering tens of millions of its citizens: Lethal Politics by R. J. Rummel
https://www.amazon.com/Lethal-Politics-Soviet-Genocide-Murder/dp/15600
08873
/

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

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Wednesday, January 25, 2023 4:24 AM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.


Quote:

Originally posted by second:
Quote:

Originally posted by SIGNYM:

Seems a little late, doesn't it? Especially since Z is corrupt as well.

To me this is a battle between a dumb and corrupt country (Ukraine) and a dumber and even more corrupt country (Russia).

Nah....

You've come up with abut three DOZEN "reasons" to "support Ukraine", and each one of them is as meaningless (to you) as the next. Just like you've come with the same kinds of rationalizations for hating Trump/Republicans/half of America/Americans in general.

You just need an outlet for your psychopathy isall.

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


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Wednesday, January 25, 2023 8:55 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:

Seems a little late, doesn't it? Especially since Z is corrupt as well.

To me this is a battle between a dumb and corrupt country (Ukraine) and a dumber and even more corrupt country (Russia).

Nah....

You've come up with abut three DOZEN "reasons" to "support Ukraine", and each one of them is as meaningless (to you) as the next. Just like you've come with the same kinds of rationalizations for hating Trump/Republicans/half of America/Americans in general.

You just need an outlet for your psychopathy is all.

You are not a serious person, Signym. Boiling down what is wrong with Trump to one thing: he doesn't pay his taxes. I have heard a thousand explanations for why this is not a problem ranging from he did pay but it is nobody's business to he is using the tax code as it was intended to he is innocent until proven guilty. It is still the one thing wrong: Trump didn't pay.

What is wrong with Russia is a little more complicated than what is wrong with Trump, but not much. It is all those people that died in Russian political disputes. Those dead bodies from mass starvation due to grotesque incompetence inside Russia. Those dead bodies from the ultra-stupid way Russia fights wars and the aftermath. The Russians protect their reputation in the same way Trump protects his: by continuously lying rather than, in the case of Trump, paying his taxes. The Russians only have to stop killing people and justifying the killing by telling elaborately false stories. But I have my doubts that either Russians or Trump can stop lying or behave better. Bad behavior is a long-standing habit for them. Hard to break habits.

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

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Wednesday, January 25, 2023 9:04 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Quote:

Originally posted by second:
You are not a serious person, Signym. Boiling down what is wrong with Trump to one thing: he doesn't pay his taxes. I have heard a thousand explanations for why this is not a problem ranging from he did pay but it is nobody's business to he is using the tax code as it was intended to he is innocent until proven guilty. It is still the one thing wrong: Trump didn't pay.



No dude. You're wrong. Some years he paid, some years he didn't. But the second the Media got their hands on them they realized that he did it all within the the bullshit IRS law.

Just like every other Millionaire and Billionaire in the country does.

And he got the Media to talk about THAT for about 3 days before they stopped talking about it.

If there's any criminals here, it's the Media. They should be talking about that 24/7 until those laws get changed.

But they won't.

So Trump and all of the other Millionaires and Billionaires will get away with paying almost nothing, and the IRS is going to be knocking down doors of people that don't pay their Social Security and Medicare portions of their $600+ 1099-K forms for ebay transactions when they had to sell me the shit they didn't need to pay for gas instead.

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

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

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Wednesday, January 25, 2023 9:16 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 6IXSTRINGJACK:

No dude. You're wrong. Some years he paid, some years he didn't. But the second the Media got their hands on them they realized that he did it all within the the bullshit IRS law.

Just like every other Millionaire and Billionaire in the country does.

And he got the Media to talk about THAT for about 3 days before they stopped talking about it.

If there's any criminals here, it's the Media. They should be talking about that 24/7 until those laws get changed.

But they won't.

So Trump and all of the other Millionaires and Billionaires will get away with paying almost nothing, and the IRS is going to be knocking down doors of people that don't pay their Social Security and Medicare portions of their $600+ 1099-K forms for ebay transactions when they had to sell me the shit they didn't need to pay for gas instead.

Go away, 6ix. You don't pay taxes, either, and justify it by lying about yourself and what you did. You fit perfectly into the paradigm of bad behavior/justify bad behavior with lies. It is very Russian of you.

There is another parallel between Russians and 6ix or typical Trumptards. The Russians are far poorer than citizens of the EU. Russians explain it by blaming the EU. 6ix is as poor as a Russian and explains it by blaming Democrats.

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

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Wednesday, January 25, 2023 10:01 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Quote:

Originally posted by second:
Quote:

Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:

No dude. You're wrong. Some years he paid, some years he didn't. But the second the Media got their hands on them they realized that he did it all within the the bullshit IRS law.

Just like every other Millionaire and Billionaire in the country does.

And he got the Media to talk about THAT for about 3 days before they stopped talking about it.

If there's any criminals here, it's the Media. They should be talking about that 24/7 until those laws get changed.

But they won't.

So Trump and all of the other Millionaires and Billionaires will get away with paying almost nothing, and the IRS is going to be knocking down doors of people that don't pay their Social Security and Medicare portions of their $600+ 1099-K forms for ebay transactions when they had to sell me the shit they didn't need to pay for gas instead.

Go away, 6ix. You don't pay taxes, either, and justify it by lying about yourself and what you did.



I do pay taxes. I pay sales taxes. I pay property taxes.

What did I do? Tell me. I hope you have Libel insurance.

Quote:

You fit perfectly into the paradigm of bad behavior/justify bad behavior with lies.


Did you report to the IRS all of the comic books, movies, TV shows and books that you illegally downloaded in 2022 so you can pay taxes on them, rich guy?

I've got all of those links archived too. I could forward those on to the IRS myself if you forgot, buddy.

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

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

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Wednesday, January 25, 2023 10:29 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:

I do pay taxes. I pay sales taxes. I pay property taxes.

What did I do? Tell me. I hope you have Libel insurance.

Did you report to the IRS all of the comic books, movies, TV shows and books that you illegally downloaded in 2022 so you can pay taxes on them, rich guy?

I've got all of those links archived too. I could forward those on to the IRS myself if you forgot, buddy.

6ix, you are a prickly little character with a giant ego. Did you learn to be that way from Trump or from Erdogan?

If Erdogan blocks Sweden and Finland, will NATO boot Turkey?

By James Stavridis

We have reached one of the most important moments in the seven-decade history of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization: Sweden and Finland are set to join the alliance, just as the Russian war on Ukraine reaches its first anniversary.

Yet Turkey — alone of all the members — is slowing this vital chance to bring Stockholm and Helsinki on board. It is time to stop this exercise in unilateral obstruction and simply say “yes.” Turkish reticence, led by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, is a gift to a heinous war criminal, Russian President Vladimir Putin.

In 2009, when I became supreme allied commander of NATO, the first capital I visited was . . . Ankara, Turkey. . . . And I met with Erdogan, who was then prime minister, several times. He struck me as a very hard-nosed individual, determined to pursue whatever course of action that he felt was the right one for his nation.

Turkey is taking this counterproductive stance over what it sees as the Nordic nations’ support for terrorist groups among Turkey’s Kurdish minority, in particular their refusal to extradite dozens of Kurds wanted by the government. I can understand that. The governments of all three nations should be in close consultation to make sure that nothing any alliance member does is disruptive to the internal security of another member. But Sweden in particular has already given many, many concessions to Turkey during the expansion process.

The great challenge to the alliance isn’t terrorism: It is the unconscionable invasion of Ukraine by Russia. Putin continues to shadowbox at NATO-member Estonia, which has a significant ethnic-Russian population. He repeatedly talks about his “nuclear options,” seeking to frighten Europe in general and NATO in particular.

At some point soon, some NATO members are going to begin asking, “If it is a choice between Sweden/Finland and Turkey, maybe we should look at our options.” That would be a mistake. Turkey boasts the second-largest army in NATO, has important facilities including Incirlik Air Base and hosts NATO’s overall land-warfare command in Izmir.

NATO needs Turkey to continue being an active and positive member. It also needs to add Finland and Sweden. No one wants to have to choose between them. It’s up to Erdogan to ensure that doesn’t have to happen.

More at https://www.japantimes.co.jp/opinion/2023/01/24/commentary/world-comme
ntary/turkey-nato-memebership
/

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

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Wednesday, January 25, 2023 10:56 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Quote:

Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
Quote:

Originally posted by second:
Quote:

Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:

No dude. You're wrong. Some years he paid, some years he didn't. But the second the Media got their hands on them they realized that he did it all within the the bullshit IRS law.

Just like every other Millionaire and Billionaire in the country does.

And he got the Media to talk about THAT for about 3 days before they stopped talking about it.

If there's any criminals here, it's the Media. They should be talking about that 24/7 until those laws get changed.

But they won't.

So Trump and all of the other Millionaires and Billionaires will get away with paying almost nothing, and the IRS is going to be knocking down doors of people that don't pay their Social Security and Medicare portions of their $600+ 1099-K forms for ebay transactions when they had to sell me the shit they didn't need to pay for gas instead.

Go away, 6ix. You don't pay taxes, either, and justify it by lying about yourself and what you did.



I do pay taxes. I pay sales taxes. I pay property taxes.

What did I do? Tell me. I hope you have Libel insurance.

Quote:

You fit perfectly into the paradigm of bad behavior/justify bad behavior with lies.


Did you report to the IRS all of the comic books, movies, TV shows and books that you illegally downloaded in 2022 so you can pay taxes on them, rich guy?

I've got all of those links archived too. I could forward those on to the IRS myself if you forgot, buddy.



Quote:

Originally posted by second:
6ix, you are a prickly little character with a giant ego.



You have chosen wisely.


As for the ego, it's not bragging if it's true.

I just fixed my car yesterday for pennies on the dollar and learned some new skills while I was at it. What did you do yesterday besides obsess over Trump and jerk off to Nuclear Fear Porn, weasel?

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

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

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Wednesday, January 25, 2023 3:05 PM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.


So, SECOND, are you giving up on the accusations that Trump is a megalomaniacal racist and rapist, who colluded* with Russia to weaken America, and who fomented an insurrection* on Jan6. He's no longer a Constitution destroyer who's very existence threatens the liberty of the United States? He didn't offer a "quid pro quo" to Ukraine? Given up on all your other accusations?

It's all about TAXES?

Dood, every wealthy person that I can name doesn't pay taxes. Buffet, Gates, Zuckerberg, Bezos, Brandon, Musk, Carlos "Slim", the Clintons... Every very wealthy person around the world doesn't pay taxes.

Now, can we get back to the topic?



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


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Wednesday, January 25, 2023 3:21 PM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.


Burns' secret visit to Kiev. (And BoJo's)
Aristovich sacked.
The entire Interior Ministry dead in a helicopter crash.
The Purge across Ukraine.
Abrams and Leopard tanks to Ukraine*.
Patriot missiles to Poland.
Poland standing up a 300,000-500,000 man army.

Some opinion that The Purge was designed to isolate Zelenskiy, giving the USA direct control of Ukraine.
The promised weapons will be too late to be used on the eastern front.
I suspect they'll get "stuck" in Poland. Given that Poland and Ukraine signed an agreement giving Poles the legal right to hold office in Ukraine, does that mean Poland will invade/defend western Ukraine on the legal, non-NATO pretext that they're part of the Ukraine army?



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


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Wednesday, January 25, 2023 6:04 PM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.


Quote:

German Foreign Minister Just Said The Quiet Part Out Loud On Ukraine

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock bluntly stated in fresh remarks that Western allies are fighting a war against Russia. The remarks came during a debate at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) on Tuesday amid discussions over sending Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine.

While Baerbock's words were largely ignored in mainstream media, a number of pundits on social media noted with alarm that the German foreign minister just essentially declared war on Russia.

German foreign minister declares war on Russia pic.twitter.com/C4cAqnZXhD
— Michael Tracey (@mtracey) January 25, 2023

Ironically other German officials have long sought to emphasize their country is not a party to the conflict, fearing uncontrollable escalation.

Contradicting this official stance, Baerbock said the quiet part out loud, and introduced the comments with: "And therefore I’ve said already in the last days – yes, we have to do more to defend Ukraine. Yes, we have to do more also on tanks."

And that's when she asserted: "But the most important and the crucial part is that we do it together and that we do not do the blame game in Europe, because we are fighting a war against Russia and not against each other.”



https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/german-foreign-minister-just-sa
id-quiet-part-out-loud-ukraine

MORE AT

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


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Wednesday, January 25, 2023 6:18 PM

SECOND

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


Russia needs to be humiliated in Ukraine
Anders Aslund, Opinion Contributor

Listening to various discussions here in Washington, D.C., (mostly off the record) I am amazed how many people fear a Ukrainian victory over Russia. None of the arguments I hear make sense. The West needs to give as many arms as it can to Ukraine to help it defeat Russia.

One argument I often hear is that the war cannot be allowed to spread. That’s right, but the war will spread unless Russia loses. If he can do so militarily, Russian President Vladimir Putin will march on to Moldova and then proceed from there, so the only way to contain his war is to support Ukraine fully.

Some have uttered versions of the phrase, “All wars end with negotiations. We must maintain relations with Putin.” That’s simply not true. Many wars end with capitulation (World War II, the war in Iraq), ceasefire (Korean war, Japan’s war with the USSR) or revolution (Russia in World War I). Putin should be treated, like Hitler or Saddam Hussein, as the international war criminal he is. Few called for negotiations with them.

Many treat the line of contact of Feb. 23, 2022, as a legitimate border, but it was not. Russia had maintained a low-intensity war since 2014, and it brought no peace. Putin maintained it as a starting point for his new war of aggression in 2022. All of Ukraine’s territories must be returned. We must not accept the gains from a war of conquest.

Many have accepted the Russian argument that Crimea is intrinsically Russian, but it is not. It was conquered by Catherine II in 1783, and the USSR passed it on to Ukraine in 1954. The Russian population in Crimea is a result of Soviet and Russian ethnic cleansing that must not be condoned. The Crimean Tartars and the Ottoman Empire have much longer claims to Crimea.

For 20 years starting in 1997, Russia leased the naval base in Sevastopol from Ukraine. At the time, 1997 stood out as the peak of friendship between Russia and Ukraine, but it turned out to be a serious mistake for Ukraine’s security. Russia’s lease facilitated Russia’s occupation of Crimea in February and March 2014. Legally, Sevastopol has all along been Ukrainian territory. In December 1991, the populations in Sevastopol and Crimea voted freely to belong to Ukraine.

Some suggest that Ukraine should give up some territory to Russia to calm Putin, but Putin wants the whole of Ukraine, so any concession to Putin would just lead to a new Russian assault on Ukraine. Russia must be defeated.

Absurdly, some even propose that Crimea or Donbas could become a “frozen conflict” to satisfy Putin, as if “frozen conflicts,” such as Transnistria, Abkhazia and South Ossetia, were desirable. The best outcome of this war is that all Russia’s “frozen conflicts” are resolved by Russian troops withdrawing.

The ultimate argument seems to involve the question: “What will Putin do?” The people who pose this question clearly don’t understand that the whole of Russia’s military force is engaged in Ukraine, and that it is being beaten. A defeated Putin cannot do much. The danger comes from Putin not being defeated. Putin is very unlikely to use nukes, because that would mean both he and his generals will die. Remember that Hitler never used his many chemical arms, because he could not see how they could help him. Instead, he committed suicide.

Some are afraid of Russia’s destabilization and want to keep Putin in power as a source of stability. But Putin has proven to be a source of international instability and kleptocratic despotism in Russia. Such a regime must not be supported. How can anybody favor Putin’s frightful suppression of the Russians? Putin belongs in prison.

Finally, many fear the dissolution of Russia, just as President George H.W. Bush feared the dissolution of the USSR and even went to Ukraine to agitate against Ukrainian nationalism in his 1991 “chicken Kiev” speech. We must not repeat his mistake. Let those nations that desire to leave Russia do so.

As the exiled Russian opposition politician Leonid Gozman argues, the ideal outcome is that Russia is defeated and has to capitulate, as Germany did in 1945. The problem with the 1991 collapse of the USSR was that it was too peaceful; Russians did not feel defeated. They did not understand why the USSR had collapsed.

Therefore, the Russian mood evolved, as in Weimar Germany in the interwar period. What Russia needs is a capitulation, a true humiliation, so that most Russians will understand that they must rethink and denounce Putin. An aggressive war criminal such as Putin must not be left in place. As President Biden rightly stated in his great March speech in Warsaw: “This man cannot remain in power.”


Therefore, the West should give Ukraine all the potent arms it needs (modern battle tanks, precise long-distance missiles and modern fighter jets) as soon as possible because the longer the war lasts, the worse the suffering will be.

Anders Aslund is the author of “Russia’s Crony Capitalism: The Path from Market Economy to Kleptocracy.”

https://thehill.com/opinion/international/3829758-russia-needs-to-be-h
umiliated-in-ukraine
/

Download Anders Aslund's books for free from the mirrors at https://libgen.unblockit.ink/search.php?req=Anders+Aslund

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

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Wednesday, January 25, 2023 6:26 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:
So, SECOND, are you giving up on the accusations that Trump is a megalomaniacal racist and rapist, who colluded* with Russia to weaken America, and who fomented an insurrection* on Jan6. He's no longer a Constitution destroyer who's very existence threatens the liberty of the United States? He didn't offer a "quid pro quo" to Ukraine? Given up on all your other accusations?

It's all about TAXES?

Dood, every wealthy person that I can name doesn't pay taxes. Buffet, Gates, Zuckerberg, Bezos, Brandon, Musk, Carlos "Slim", the Clintons... Every very wealthy person around the world doesn't pay taxes.

Now, can we get back to the topic?

Trump said he had not colluded with Russia. So did the Mueller Report, which said, instead, that Russia had interfered with the 2016 election. Mueller also said that Trump had obstructed justice but Mueller can't say the words "Trump obstructed" because, you know, there was a DOJ memo that says Mueller can't make that accusation about the President, but Trump did obstruct.

Mueller finds no collusion with Russia, leaves obstruction question open
https://www.americanbar.org/news/abanews/aba-news-archives/2019/03/mue
ller-concludes-investigation
/
Quote:

The special counsel found that Russia did interfere with the election, but “did not find that the Trump campaign, or anyone associated with it, conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in these efforts, despite multiple efforts from Russian-affiliated individuals to assist the Trump campaign.”

As far as obstruction, the Mueller report laid out facts on both sides but did not reach a conclusion. Barr’s letter said that “the Special Counsel states that ‘while this report does not conclude that the President committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him.’”

It is very simple, Signym, but you don't understand. I have NEVER known any Trumptard able to understand what is wrong with what Trump did. (Or understand why things go wrong in a Trumptard's life. Trumptards are oblivious to all the flashing red warning signs in life telling them to stop, turn around, go back. ) From that, the Trumptards conclude nothing is wrong, but what a lawyer would conclude is that Trumptards don't know the difference between right and wrong, no more than Putin knows he has done wrong.

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

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Wednesday, January 25, 2023 7:09 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Awwww... Don't want to keep up our conversation anymore?

Looks like I win again. Just like I always do.



You're lucky Sigs bailed you out.

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

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

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Thursday, January 26, 2023 8:33 AM

SECOND

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


Putin Is Stuck With a Ukrainian War That Is Bleeding His Country

By Matt Kelly, mkelly@virginia.edu

January 25, 2023

Q. Can Ukraine maintain Western support?

A. The theory among the Ukrainians, along with ardent supporters in the U.S., is that the technological advantages of Western-supplied military will be enough to break the Russian army.

There are many in the U.S. who aren’t sure about that proposition, but they’re willing to keep supplying because it’s a very effective way to bleed down the Russian army and take care of one of our greatest strategic threats in the world. As long as Ukraine believes that it can drive the Russians back, and as long as the U.S. and Western allies are willing to supply them, we may see continued attrition on the Russian side.

Russia’s technology has proved far more inferior to what the West expected at the beginning. Russia has resupplied with help from North Korea and Iran, but we’ve seen the limits of those weapons to make a difference on the battlefield. And those weapon systems are largely aimed at Ukraine’s civilian population, as opposed to Ukraine’s Western-supplied forces. Russia is not driving back Ukraine anywhere Ukraine is choosing to fight hard. The U.S. is continuing to arm Ukraine because it believes Ukraine has the ability to drive the Russians back.

Q. What does this mean for Putin inside the Kremlin?

A. No one knows for sure. In Russia, the four most important cabinet agencies are, in order, the secret police, the militaries, the extra-political mercenary military forces that operate with the approval of the Russian government, and the oil industry. As long as Putin controls the secret police, he will be fine. But once they feel they are losing control of the situation, things could get bad for Putin.

The military is internally divided. Most military commanders, all the way to the top, did not know they were going to invade Ukraine the day before the invasion. The secret police knew. The secret police have special forces that conduct semi-military operations, such as trying to overthrow the Ukrainian government. They didn’t have adequate support and planning from the Russian military and failed.

The Russian military lacks discipline, technology, strategy and the real trust of the Russian leadership. The military is internally divided over tactics, if not strategy. And it lives in fear of both the secret police and Putin. But it doesn’t have the operational capabilities to win the war. The only thing it can do is throw more bodies at the problem. Then add the militia groups that operate independently and are trying to prove their worth to Putin and the secret police as a way of elevating their status in the Russian system.

If the Russian army collapses on the ground, then the secret police have to figure out how to defend the Russian border. The U.S. will restrain Ukraine from crossing the Russian border. But can the Russian secret police and what’s left of the Russian army hold Crimea? Crimea is a massive territory and heavily fortified, but Ukraine continues to claim that it wants to retake the territory. That’s what I’m looking for. I personally don’t see Putin falling before the fall of Crimea, but if for some reason Crimea were to fall, I think that could be very destabilizing. It would prove not only that the Russian army wasn’t up to the task, but also that the Russian secret police weren’t up to the task of keeping Crimea.

https://news.virginia.edu/content/putin-stuck-ukrainian-war-bleeding-h
is-country


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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Thursday, January 26, 2023 9:25 AM

SECOND

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


Putin Is Losing the War in Ukraine, But Winning the Battle at Home
by Michael Wasiura

When Vladimir Putin ordered his armies into Ukraine on February 24, 2022, it was not to preempt Kyiv's then-distant prospects of NATO accession, nor, primarily, to take his place in history alongside Peter the Great.

It was to avoid the fate of Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko.

Both Putin and Lukashenko came to power after winning one more-or-less free-and-fair election, then both immediately set to work making sure that no one else could do the same. Despite Putin's nuclear arsenal, his Siberian gas, his veto in the U.N. Security Council, his capacity to project air power as far afield as Syria, and his cult-figure status among fringe members of the international right and left alike, the methods that the Russian and Belarusian presidents-for-life rely on for maintaining power at home are nearly identical.

In August 2020, after 26 years of dictatorial rule, Belarusians finally turned against their corrupt, Soviet-nostalgic, aging autocrat. Putin, who was appointed acting president of the Russian Federation on New Year's Eve, 1999, was desperate to prevent the Russian people from souring on their own autocrat in a similar way.

Plummeting Popularity Brings Desperation for 'Big Win'

In 2012, when Putin returned to the Kremlin's top spot following a four-year stint as Prime Minister to placeholder commander-in-chief Dmitry Medvedev, the man in control of the world's second-largest nuclear arsenal had a problem. Although he had claimed an official 64.35% of that year's vote against a handpicked field of symbolic opposition candidates, most of his constituents were already preparing for life in a Russia without Putin.

In October of that year, seven months after Putin's third election victory, the independent polling agency Levada Center began asking Russians if they would like to see their increasingly eternal head of state stay on as president past 2024, when his second pair of consecutive terms in office would come to an end.

Although his personal approval rating stood at 67%, only 34% of those surveyed hoped to see Putin ultimately serve a fifth term in the Kremlin. When the "2024" question was posed again in October 2013, the "yes" figure had slipped further, down to 33%.

Then Crimea changed everything.

In late February 2014, following the popular revolution which saw Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich flee Kyiv for refuge in Russia, Russian special forces soldiers dressed in uniforms devoid of insignia began showing up on the streets of Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula. After a hastily organized referendum which was seen as free, fair, and legitimate by precisely zero OECD member states, a March 18 Kremlin signing ceremony triumphantly welcomed the "Crimean Republic" as an official member of the Russian Federation.

When Levada posed the "2024" question again that November, 58% of Russians suddenly said they wanted to see Putin remain in office past the end of his fourth overall term.

More at https://www.newsweek.com/putin-losing-war-ukraine-winning-battle-home-
1776408


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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Thursday, January 26, 2023 9:29 AM

SECOND

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


Delayed Tank Delivery to Ukraine Misses Window of Russian Vulnerability

By Michael Wasiura in Odesa, Ukraine



The tanks are on their way to Kyiv. The U.K. has pledged to supply Ukraine with 14 of its Challenger 2 main battle tanks. Reporting suggests that the U.S. will provide around 31 Abrams M1 models. And, perhaps most significantly, on Wednesday the German government announced that it will approve third-country requests to re-export German-made Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine, with Berlin contributing 14 from its own arsenal.

The long-awaited German decision was celebrated in Kyiv. But while the new weapons system will eventually make a notable impact on the battlefield, Western hesitancy to approve the transfer means that the tanks will not be on the ground in time for Ukraine to use them at a moment when Russian forces are still exceptionally vulnerable.

"The Ukrainians were signaling an intention to conduct offensive operations over the winter, but the lack of Western security assistance has degraded their ability to do that," George Barros of the Institute For the Study of War told Newsweek.

This is not the first time that much-needed Western military assistance has arrived in Ukraine too late to be of maximum use.

"The successful Ukrainian counter offensives around Kharkiv in September and Kherson in November also shouldn't have started as late as they did," Barros explained. "In the case of Kherson, the Ukrainians only received the HIMARS systems in late June, and so they couldn't really begin the necessary shaping operations to degrade the bridges across the Dnipro River until July."

"An earlier provision of all the necessary military aid could have led to an earlier liberation of Kherson, but Western policy debates led to us giving Ukraine too little, and giving it too late," he added. "It's the hesitancy in some Western capitals to provide the necessary systems immediately, not the provision of the weapons themselves, which is acting to prolong this war."

It is a pattern that dates all the way back to Russia's poorly disguised "covert" invasion of the Ukrainian Donbas region in 2014. Rather than responding with lethal military aid then, Western governments were hesitant to risk provoking a Russian "escalation." The pattern has repeated itself with increased frequency since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion on February 24, 2022.

"The Russians always threaten unrealistic escalation, because that's part of how their information warfare works," Barros said. "It's designed to affect how we make our decisions, and, despite repeated experience, it still has an effect on us."

"Every time we talk about providing something new, Russia claims that this is their 'red line,'" he explained. "Then, after we eventually send Ukraine what they've been asking for, we realize that we should have sent them the aid months ago."


The drama over Germany's decision to grant third countries such as Poland permission to re-export German-made Leopard tanks is just one more episode in a story arc that has moved from Javelin anti-tank systems to HIMARS multiple rocket launchers to tanks, and which will now all but inevitably shift to ATACAMs long-range missiles and fixed-wing aircraft.

Still, even if the provision of Leopard 2 tanks would have had a greater battlefield effect if it had been announced months ago, this week's welcome news in Kyiv still falls into the category of "better late than never." As Russia reorients its domestic economy towards military production and continues to mobilize fresh manpower, Ukraine's optimal window for liberating still-occupied territory may be closing, but it has not yet closed.

"The Russians are setting conditions domestically to prepare for a long war," Barros said, "and so the sooner that Ukraine can expel Russian forces while those Russian forces are still relatively weak, the better."

"The Russian efforts to reinvigorate their military are going to take several more months," he added, "which means that Ukraine still has an opportunity to make significant pushes forward provided that they can get the kit they need in order to punch through Russian lines."

More at https://www.newsweek.com/delayed-tank-delivery-ukraine-misses-window-r
ussian-vulnerability-1776597


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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Thursday, January 26, 2023 9:43 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Quote:

Originally posted by second:
Putin Is Stuck With a Ukrainian War That Is Bleeding His Country



And Americans are stuck with Democrats who are bleeding their country.

Quote:

Q. Can Ukraine maintain Western support?



No. Fuck Ukraine.

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

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

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Thursday, January 26, 2023 10:11 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 second:
Putin Is Stuck With a Ukrainian War That Is Bleeding His Country



And Americans are stuck with Democrats who are bleeding their country.

Quote:

Q. Can Ukraine maintain Western support?



No. Fuck Ukraine.

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

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

Absolutely unsurprising when Trumptards act the way they do, 6ix. America is stuck with stingy Republicans who can't be trusted to pay FICA taxes, but the farsighted Democrats made it the law that those taxes would be automatically withheld from their paychecks. That makes it difficult for Republicans to cheat on it, unless their employer pays wages in cash, but they sure do whine about FICA, nevertheless. And Republicans don't pay child support unless their wages are garnished. Republicans whine about that, too. Republicans are cheapskates. And it takes the threat of being kicked out of their own house by Sheriffs to make Republicans pay their real estate taxes.

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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Thursday, January 26, 2023 10:26 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK


BLAH, BLAH, BLAH, BLAH...

More hypocritical drivel from Second that will just argue with his opposite arguments in another thread today, because he wrestles around with ideas in his head that are all mutually exclusive from each other and based purely in hypocrisy.

You're too fucking stupid to have a conversation with, bro.

Why don't you say something else really dumb to me today so I can shut your stupid ass down like I did yesterday and like I always ultimately end up doing?

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

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

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Thursday, January 26, 2023 11:42 AM

SECOND

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


Why did Russia fire an anti-ship missile at a Ukraine apartment block?

Russia blew up an apartment complex in central Ukraine last weekend, killing 40 people and injuring 80 more.

The strike was notable for its brutality, but also for the choice of weapon: an old, Soviet-style missile designed not to demolish buildings but to sink aircraft carriers.

Yuriy Ihnat, a Ukrainian military spokesman, told local media that the strike used a Kh-22 anti-ship missile. The supersonic munitions have a 2,000-pound warhead, and are designed to destroy aircraft-carrier groups at sea, Ihnat said.

Russia denied responsibility for the attack, repeating its assertion that it only strikes military targets — despite months of evidence to the contrary.

The strike is a sign that Russia is resorting to a "kitchen-sink approach," said Ian Williams, deputy director of the Missile Defense Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, in a call with Insider.

"We're seeing everything at the moment, we're just seeing a blend, we're seeing newer missiles, older missiles ... they really just want to hit something," Williams said.

He said the Kh-22 missiles are "basically being used as terror weapons," totally removed from their actual military purpose.

The Russians are using all kinds of projectiles to "flood the Ukrainian air space with a lot of crap, kind of confusing the air defenses a little bit, and overwhelming them," Williams said.

Ukraine's air defense, bolstered by Western equipment, has so far been notably successful in blunting Russia's attacks, other experts previously told Insider. But it can't stop everything.

The attack in Dnipro was not the first time Russia used a Kh-22 in a civilian attack, and will most likely be the last, Williams said.

Short-term thinking

Williams said using an anti-ship missile like this betrayed a "short-term approach" by Russia, which is degrading its ability to fend off other threats.

He said the Kh-22 missile is among "some of best things [the Russians] have to fend off the US Navy or a NATO naval force, yet they're using them up hitting apartments and warehouses."


"It's very short-term thinking. It's almost like: 'Throw whatever we can at them right now in whatever mode you want, and we'll deal with it later,'" he said.

https://www.businessinsider.com/why-did-russia-fire-anti-ship-missile-
ukrainian-apartment-complex-2023-1


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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Thursday, January 26, 2023 11:56 AM

SECOND

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


Putin Is Going To Flip: Will Ukraine Launch An Attack On Moscow?

Ukraine Suggests Attacks Could Hit Moscow, St. Petersburg – Following Russia’s full embrace of the bombardment of civilian and energy infrastructure by missile and drone attacks, one Ukrainian presidential adviser said this week that similar attacks on Russian cities could occur in the future.

Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelenskyy, said last week that the escalation of the war into Russian territory was bound to happen now.

https://www.19fortyfive.com/2023/01/putin-is-going-to-flip-will-ukrain
e-launch-an-attack-on-moscow
/

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

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