Russia Invades Ukraine. Again by captaincrunch

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Quote:
Originally posted by THG: Let's give it another two weeks, shall we?

What "it" are we giving another two weeks?

Two weeks until Ukraine launches it's offensive?
Two weeks until SECOND answers the question?

Please clarify.

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

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

Sunday, May 28, 2023 2:01 AM

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 SIGNYM:
So where is the nuclear threat? Something is missing. I know you're evading the question, and if you don't answer it in your next post I'm going to show people why.
Or just go back to your home under the bridge, where you came from.

SECOND: Russia's Medvedev Threatens Ukraine With Pre-Emptive Nuclear Strike. Signym, do you see the word "threat"?
Yes, SECOND, I see the WORD "threat" in the headline, but NOT IN YOUR QUOTE. So, where is MEDVEDEV's threat that you threaten us with?

Still no answer, but a lot of prevarication! Why is THAT, troll?

Quote:
The very first para of your link: "Russia will launch a pre-emptive nuclear strike should the West provide Ukraine with nuclear weapons, Dmitry Medvedev, the deputy chairman of Russia's Security Council, warned on Friday." Well, the answer is fucking simple: don't arm Ukraine with nuclear weapons! And the reason WHY SECOND refused to provide a full quote is bc he did what he likess to do: misquote/misinterpret/spin what others say to attempt to manipulate you.

Just as an aside, there is an informal distinction between sociopath and psychopath, altho it doesn't exist in the DSM. Psychopaths show a lot better impulse control and pre-planning. SECOND doesn't qualify as a psychopth bc he can't even keep his lies straight.

Dmitry Medvedev said that Ukraine's weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) are justification for a nuclear war with Ukraine. He is talking about upraising the existing war a couple of notches to full nuclear. Funny things start to happen when politicians talk about nonexistent WMDs. For example, President Bush said that Iraq's WMDs were the justification for war with Iraq. Iraq did not have real WMD's but that did not stop Bush from declaring Iraq did. Medvedev could do what Bush did. Medvedev does NOT need real, physical, actual, tangible WMDs in Ukraine to justify a nuclear war. All Medvedev needs is a Bushy feeling that WMDs are in Ukraine and that is sufficient to nuke Ukraine and all other countries Medvedev feels are providing Ukraine with WMDs.

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

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

Sunday, May 28, 2023 2:58 AM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

SECOND, it's embarrassing watching you squirm.

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

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

Sunday, May 28, 2023 7:32 AM

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, it's embarrassing watching you squirm.

Do you see yourself as a Supreme Court Judge splitting hairs? Allowing Ukraine nuclear weapons, a step no Western state has publicly proposed, would mean "a missile with a nuclear charge coming to them," Medvedev, who served as president from 2008 to 2012, was quoted as saying. https://www.jpost.com/breaking-news/article-744268

This is more of the same empty-mindedness the Russian government has been spouting since its first nukes. If Russians want to kill themselves, it would be better for them to quietly fire bullets into their own heads rather than Medvedev's overly elaborate death-by-cop scenario, where the Russians get another nation to kill Russia.

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

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

Sunday, May 28, 2023 7:56 AM

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

Former Russian officer and ardent nationalist Igor Girkin accused Wagner Group financier Yevgeny Prigozhin of planning a coup against the current Russian leadership. Girkin openly accused Prigozhin of planning to conduct a coup amid the upcoming Ukrainian counteroffensive and of continuously violating Russian censorship laws against the discreditation of the Russian army and military command.[19] Girkin warned of “mutiny” if Prigozhin is “allowed” to lead the Wagner Group. Girkin noted that Prigozhin ordered for the Wagner forces to withdraw to the Wagner bases deep inside of Russia on the eve of the Ukrainian counteroffensive. He also claimed that Wagner personnel had never taken oaths promising not to engage in combat against Russia or its military.[20] Prigozhin stated on May 27 that Wagner will decide later on if it will fight in Ukraine or in another country, which indicates that Prigozhin retains the ability to command his own army outside of the formal Russian military command structure.[21] Girkin also recently criticized the Russian military command for failing to address Prigozhin’s open and vulgar conflict with the Russian Ministry of Defense (MoD), even warning that Prigozhin will “devour” the Russian military officials who “bet” in his favor as he seeks to increase his political power.[22] A member of Girkin’s Angry Patriots Club claimed that the conflict between Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu and Prigozhin is developing into a conflict between the Russian military and Wagner forces but that Putin is not paying attention.[23] Girkin’s and his associates’ criticisms are largely consistent with Prigozhin’s continued prioritization of his own personal aims over those of the Russian Ministry of Defense and the broader operational situation near Bakhmut.[24] Prigozhin’s decision to withdraw his forces from Bakhmut and, apparently, from active combat on the eve of the Ukrainian counter-offensive is strategically questionable.

https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/russian-offensive-campai
gn-assessment-may-27-2023

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

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

Sunday, May 28, 2023 4:11 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

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

Sunday, May 28, 2023 4:31 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

From Simplicius the Thinker, vastly edited for brevity

Quote:
Latest Headlines Digest - The West's Tone Drastically Shifts

Sad Reality: The Ukraine War Is Now Going Russia’s Way
by Daniel Davis
Daniel L. Davis is a Senior Fellow for Defense Priorities and a former Lt. Col. in the U.S. Army who deployed into combat zones four times.
... As of November 2022, it was fair to say the Russian general staff had been outperformed by the Ukrainian general staff. Many pundits in the West concluded that Russian troops and leaders were deeply flawed and incapable of improving, believing that Russia would remain incapable tactically for the duration of the war...
Ukraine, on the other hand, chose to contest major cities and has now lost staggering numbers of troops – but they also lost the city itself in the end. The decision of the Ukrainian general staff to defend Bakhmut until the end may have grave implications for the rest of the war.
... I assess there is currently no likely path for Ukraine to achieve a military victory.
https://www.19fortyfive.com/2023/05/sad-reality-the-ukraine-war-is-now
-going-russias-way/

Two Weeks at the Front in Ukraine
Within weeks, the [Ukrainian] battalion faced annihilation: entire platoons had been wiped out in close-contact firefights, and some seventy men had been encircled and massacred. The dwindling survivors, one officer told me, “became useless because they were so tired.” In January, what was left of the battalion retreated from the village and established defensive positions in the tree lines and open farmland a mile to the west. “Wagner kicked our asses,” the officer said.
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/05/29/two-weeks-at-the-front-i
n-ukraine

All in all, the article paints a grisly picture of Ukrainian trench life; one sargeant intoned how ‘everyone is sick’, and apparently coming down with even tuberculosis is common. Others contract ‘ravenous bacteria’, including one soldier who had open sores for months and was being ‘eaten alive’ by fleas. And though the author maunders through the heartfelt account in search of some anchoring pensée which could sublimate the horror he witnessed into a message of hope or heroism or …meaning, of any kind for the poor Ukrainians he’s desperate to uplift—he instead finishes on a nihilistic note, drawing the parallel of a cemetery sprawled with countless Ukrainian flags; even under duress, he could find nothing optimistic to buoy the spirits of the AFU

36 Hours in Bakhmut: One Unit’s Desperate Battle to Hold Back the Russians
WSJ archive copy
Russian troops were assaulting one of the apartment blocks that his group of 16 draftees, many of whom had been enlisted days earlier and given no training, had been assigned to defend...O
ver the 36 hours he spent in brutal house-to-house combat in the eastern Ukrainian city, 11 of the 16 men from Malkovskiy’s group of draftees were either killed or captured, according to surviving
https://archive.is/zPFVT

https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1272,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,
fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fcd5e6b62-3dce-4902-bcfa-fc38ac2d66cc_648x680.jpeg

Ukraine is losing 10,000 drones a month to Russian electronic-warfare systems that send fake signals and screw with their navigation, researchers say
The RUSI [Royal United Services Instituter, a British military think-tank] report said that along the roughly 750 miles of the conflict's front line, Russia maintained a major electronic-warfare system roughly every 6 miles. These are set back about 4 miles from the front and focused mainly on neutralizing drones, the report said.
https://www.businessinsider.com/ukraine-losing-10000-drones-month-russ
ia-electronic-warfare-rusi-report-2023-5

Russia Is Adapting Arms and Tactics Ahead of Ukraine Offensive
Bloomberg archive
https://archive.is/IGxwI

Russia's aging, obsolete tanks are actually doing some serious damage in Ukraine, report says
https://www.yahoo.com/news/russias-aging-obsolete-tanks-actually-16080
0370.html

https://simplicius76.substack.com/p/latest-headlines-digest-the-wests

There's more...a LOT more... but I didn't want to take the time to condense all of it.

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

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

Sunday, May 28, 2023 7:36 PM

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

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:

From Simplicius the Thinker, vastly edited for brevity

https://simplicius76.substack.com/p/latest-headlines-digest-the-wests

There's more...a LOT more... but I didn't want to take the time to condense all of it.

You forgot to include Nuclear Weapons to Anyone Willing to Join Russia

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, claimed that nations who side with Russia in its war against Ukraine will be given nuclear weapons.

During an interview with Russian propagandist, Pavel Zarubin, filmed on Thursday, but released on Sunday on Ukrainska Pravda, Lukashenko claimed that any nations who joined the "Union State" pact between Russia and Belarus would be provided with nuclear weapons, calling the prospect a "unique chance to unite."

"It's very simple. Countries should join the union of Belarus with Russia, and that's it: there will be nuclear weapons for everyone."

https://www.newsweek.com/putin-ally-offers-nuclear-weapons-anyone-will
ing-join-russia-1803091

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

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

Sunday, May 28, 2023 7:57 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Quote:
Originally posted by THG: Let's give it another two weeks, shall we?

What "it" are we giving another two weeks?

Two weeks until Ukraine launches it's offensive?
Two weeks until SECOND answers the question?

Please clarify.

I wouldn't have thought it would be THAT hard, THUGR.

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

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

Sunday, May 28, 2023 8:13 PM

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

Defeat in its war against Ukraine would leave Russia “vindictive” and “brutal” and posing a threat to Nato countries, the outgoing head of the RAF said.

Air Chief Marshal Sir Mike Wigston told The Telegraph that Russia’s air force, surface navy and submarine force are a threat to Britain and Nato. He warned its threat could even get worse if the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, was ousted.

He said:

"When the Ukraine conflict is over and Ukraine has restored its borders, as it must, we will have a damaged, vindictive, and brutal Russia, whose means of harming us is through air attack, missile attack and subsurface attack."

Sir Mike is set to step down next month after four years at the top of the RAF.

He added:

"But it also demonstrates that this is more than about just one person. There is a whole structure and a hierarchy behind Putin.

So even if Putin was to disappear off the stage, there are countless others that could replace him that could be as equally as brutal and vicious to their own people and to neighbouring states."

https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2023/may/27/russia-ukraine-war-
live-us-and-eu-decry-moscows-plan-to-deploy-nuclear-weapons-in-belarus

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

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

Monday, May 29, 2023 6:08 AM

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

The UK Ministry of Defense (MoD) assessed that Russia is now demanding that Russian citizens make additional sacrifices to support the war effort.[56] The UK MoD reported that Russian state media and business groups have petitioned the Russian Ministry of Economy to authorize a six-day work week for workers without offering additional pay in order to satisfy the demands of the wartime industrial complex. The UK MoD added that Kremlin propagandist Margarita Simonyan noted that citizens should work for two extra hours in munitions factories after their daytime jobs.[57]

Russian occupation officials continue to forcibly deport Ukrainian children to Russia under the guise of summer camp programs. Ukrainian Luhansk Oblast Military Administration Head Artem Lusohor reported that Russian occupation authorities announced the creation of a vacation summer camp in Russia for Ukrainian children from Russian-occupied Shchastia Raion in Luhansk Oblast.[58] ISW has previously reported on Russian occupation authorities using children’s camps as a guise to forcibly deport Ukrainian children to Russia.[59]

https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/russian-offensive-campai
gn-assessment-may-28-2023

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

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

Monday, May 29, 2023 6:59 AM

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

Russian Reveille

Twenty-three years ago, respected Russian-American journalist Masha Gessen penned an op-ed in the New York Times describing the militarization of Russian life. She described rules and regulations to funnel boys into the service, the boosting of military spending by 50 percent, and military detachments “adopting” teen orphan boys and the sons of single-mother households.

In recent years, especially as his regime faces questions over the military’s relatively poor performance in Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin has explicitly injected patriotism and militarism into his country’s schools, the Economist reported. These efforts bolster the war effort in Ukraine today, prepare the next generation for war tomorrow, and foster a climate where questioning the war is forbidden.

“Schools have been ordered to conduct ‘patriotic’ classes parroting the Kremlin line on the war, and teachers who refuse have been fired,” wrote the Washington Post. “Textbooks are being purged of almost all references to Ukraine and its capital, Kyiv.”

Putin also recently reinstated military training and exercises in schools, Newsweek added. The city of St. Petersburg was compelled to buy “assault rifles and dummy grenades” for basic military training courses. A Moscow Times photo essay showed young students putting on gas masks, aiming pistols and rifles, climbing ropes, and caring for a colleague’s ankle.

Inculcating martial principles into generations of Russian youth has changed the country’s culture, argued Global Voices, describing the appearance of a “new archetype” of Russian citizen: “Homo militaris”. Told all their lives that Russia faces relentless enemies from the West and elsewhere, these Russians accept Putin’s propaganda and root for their heroes in their nation’s so-called “special military operation” in Ukraine.

But this segment of Russian society can’t convince skeptics that Putin’s plans are going swimmingly. The Russian army has been underperforming, and the Ukrainians have yet to even launch their expected spring counteroffensive. According to Reuters, Putin’s ally Yevgeny Prigozhin, the founder of the private mercenary Wagner Group, recently warned of revolution if Russian elites didn’t start taking the war seriously. He recently pulled out the militia fighters from Bakhmut and no one is quite sure why.

Meanwhile, Homo militaris certainly doesn’t appear to be volunteering to join the fight. As Al Jazeera reported, the Russian army needs more soldiers and conscripts – but draft dodging is a major problem despite the harsh punishments meted out to those who refuse to serve. Russian recruiters have consistently failed to hit their targets since the war began in February 2022, noted Worldcrunch.

More peace seems easier in comparison.

https://www.dailychatter.com/2023/05/29/russian-reveille/

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

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

Monday, May 29, 2023 9:20 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by second:

“Schools have been ordered to conduct ‘patriotic’ classes parroting the Kremlin line on the war, and teachers who refuse have been fired,” wrote the Washington Post. “Textbooks are being purged of almost all references to Ukraine and its capital, Kyiv.”

Sounds better than Drag Queen Story Hour.

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

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

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

Monday, May 29, 2023 11:21 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Quote:

SITREP 5/29/23: Kiev Rocked as New Satellite Photos Prove Patriot Destruction

Major things are in motion.

The night before last Russia launched a massive drone attack on all regions of Ukraine.

It's a good thing that Russia is running out of missiles!

Quote:
It has been called by at least one source as the single largest drone attack of the entire SMO thus far, causing many people to speculate that Russia must now be producing Geran-2 drones at exponential rates as they have been using them at tremendous volumes of late. Every region has been hit and something very anomalous occurred in the capital city of Kiev.

Every region has been hit and something very anomalous occurred in the capital city of Kiev.

A huge explosion shook homes in the region, that at least one source says registered as a magnitude 3.4 on the Richter scale, and some experts estimated to be equivalent to at least a 100 ton ammo explosion.

MORE AT https://simplicius76.substack.com/p/sitrep-52923-kiev-rocked-as-new-sa
tellite

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

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

Tuesday, May 30, 2023 12:22 AM

Good. Fuck Ukraine.

Sad Reality: The Ukraine War Is Now Going Russia’s Way

Recent evidence indicates the Russian side has made tactical and operational improvements that are having an impact on the ground in Ukraine.

https://www.19fortyfive.com/2023/05/sad-reality-the-ukraine-war-is-now
-going-russias-way/

Not sad. But it's reality.

REAL Americans do not support Ukraine.

The NeoCons and the Child Raping Democrats support Ukraine.

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

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

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

Tuesday, May 30, 2023 6:54 AM

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

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:

It's a good thing that Russia is running out of missiles!

Good thing there are millions of civilians for Russia to target but Ukrainians are not surrendering, possibly because they remember Russians slaughtering them by the millions the previous time Russia controlled Ukraine. Meanwhile, Biden is frightened by Russia:

Biden Is More Fearful Than the Ukrainians Are

The U.S. president has promised Ukraine “whatever it takes, as long as it takes.” But out of anxiety about escalation, Washington is making decisions that could prolong the war.

By Kori Schake

“The language of escalation is the language of excuse.” That’s how Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, dismisses anxiety that assistance to Ukraine could provoke Russia to either expand the war to NATO countries or cross the nuclear threshold. The country most concerned about Russia expanding its aggression beyond Ukraine is the country least likely to be the victim of it: the United States.

The Biden administration has been unequivocal in its policy declarations. The president has said, repeatedly and in public, that the U.S. will provide Ukraine “whatever it takes, as long as it takes.” The president wants the political benefits of heroically assisting the good of Ukraine against the evil of Russia, but his administration’s policy is much more hesitant than its bold declarations would suggest.

I spoke to Ukrainians both in and outside of government during a recent trip to Kyiv with the Renew Democracy Initiative. Those I met were keenly aware that Ukraine relies on U.S. weapons, U.S. financial assistance, and U.S. leadership to pull together international support, and they expressed gratitude for all that the United States is doing. Most know very well that Ukraine would have lost the war without the U.S. rallying support to keep its economy from collapsing, arm its soldiers, and provide essential intelligence to protect its leaders and blunt Russian attacks. Ukrainian government officials are careful to speak only of the United States as a whole, without singling out the Biden administration or delving into U.S. domestic politics.

Yet Ukraine’s foreign and defense ministers acknowledged that “the first answer the U.S. gives to any request is no.” That was America’s answer across the past three presidential administrations: no to javelin missiles, no to stinger missiles, no to NATO membership, no to F-16s, no to weapons that can reach Russian territory, no to tanks, no to Patriot air defenses, no to HIMARs, no to ATACMs, and—until this week—again no to F-16s, even if they aren’t U.S. F-16s.

The Biden administration has made three arguments against Ukrainian requests. The first and most condescending was, to quote the president, that “Ukraine doesn’t need F-16s now.” This came at a time when Russia’s strategy had shifted to long-range missile strikes on civilian populations and infrastructure that air dominance could better resist. Kyiv may now be well protected, but Kharkiv and other major cities continue to be at greater risk.

The Pentagon has further insisted that mastering the desired weapons systems would be prohibitively difficult and time-consuming. That argument weakened when Ukrainians, on a wartime footing, blew through the training curricula in a fraction of the time it took to train U.S. soldiers who had been in regular rotations on other systems. The Ukrainians have successfully sustained battlefield operability of an extensive array of internationally donated weapons systems.

The administration does make one argument against Ukrainian requests that should carry greater weight. Despite the president’s claims of unlimited assistance for as long as it takes, U.S. assistance isn’t endless, and Ukraine is asking for expensive items that are often in short supply. For example, having provided Ukraine with 20 HIMARs, the U.S. has only 410 remaining and 220 M270 MLRS (a tracked variant). That number may seem large, but not when you consider the intensity of fighting and the size of the U.S. forces that a war against China would entail. Nor are the costs inconsequential, even for the United States: An F-16 of the model Kyiv seeks costs about $15 million, and Ukraine wants 120 to protect its airspace. One reason the F-16 is Ukraine’s fighter of choice is that it exists in large supply in allied arsenals, not solely in the U.S. inventory.

The sweeping declaration that Washington will give Ukraine what it needs for as long as it takes is part of a pattern of presidential rhetorical largesse. It’s of a piece with committing U.S. troops to fight for Taiwan without providing the military budget to produce a war-winning military for that fight, or designing a national-security strategy that commits to allied solidarity while producing exclusionary economic policies that allies resent.

The escalation concern that looms largest for the Biden administration in Ukraine, understandably, is Russian nuclear use. Ukrainians remain admirably stalwart about this prospect, suggesting that a nuclear battlefield strike would not serve Russian objectives. To be more concerned about nuclear use than the likely victims of it are—or to push Ukraine toward untenable outcomes in the name of avoiding that risk—is to actually encourage nuclear threats. The United States can strengthen deterrence instead by publicly committing that if we see any sign that Russia is preparing to use a nuclear weapon, we’ll share the intelligence widely and provide Ukraine with weapons to preempt the attack. We can put Russia on notice that if it uses a nuclear weapon in Ukraine, we will send NATO radiological teams—NATO forces—there to assist Ukraine’s recovery, and we will ensure that any Russian involved in the decision or its execution ends up dead or in the Hague.

The true cost of the Biden administration’s focus on escalation may be one of prolonging the war. Former Defense Secretary Robert Gates has assessed that F-16s are “a decision that could have been made six months ago. Truth is, if they had begun training pilots on F-16s six months ago, then those pilots would be able to get into those airplanes this spring.” Our hesitance telegraphs to Russia that by continuing to assault Ukraine, it can wait us out—a lesson consistent with the course of the U.S. withdrawals from Iraq and Afghanistan.

For the leader of the free world to be more worried than the leaders of Poland, Denmark, France, Sweden, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom is not a great look. Those countries are already considering offering fighters or training to Ukraine—and are at greater risk of Russian retaliation than the United States is.

https://web.archive.org/web/20230529190518/https://www.theatlantic.com
/international/archive/2023/05/russia-ukraine-war-escalation-biden-us-risks/674220/

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

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

Tuesday, May 30, 2023 8:28 AM

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:

SITREP 5/29/23: Kiev Rocked as New Satellite Photos Prove Patriot Destruction

Major things are in motion.

The night before last Russia launched a massive drone attack on all regions of Ukraine.

It's a good thing that Russia is running out of missiles!

When not hitting civilians, Russia is also targeting nuclear reactors:

Staff at Ukraine's experimental nuclear site pick up pieces from Russian strikes

When the Associated Press visited this month, debris had been heaped in piles, and rocket parts sat near craters up to 2.5 meters (8 feet) deep. Staff say the site was struck some 100 times with rockets and bombs during the first months of the war, and attack remains a constant threat. Kharkiv, near the war's front line and the Russian border, is shelled almost daily from the neighboring Belgorod region of Russia.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/staff-at-ukraine-s-experimental-n
uclear-site-pick-up-pieces-from-russian-strikes/ar-AA1bS2pR

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

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

Tuesday, May 30, 2023 10:15 AM

Fuck Ukraine.

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

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

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

Tuesday, May 30, 2023 2:48 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

I guess, when you can't hit legitimate military targets, you go after civilians. Isn't that right, Zelenskiy?

Quote:
Major Drone Attack On Moscow Damages Several Apartment Buildings
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/major-drone-attack-damages-seve
ral-buildings-moscow

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

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

Tuesday, May 30, 2023 2:50 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Quote:
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:

Fuck Ukraine.

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

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

Indeed. If MSN ever publishes the truth, it's by accident. That's why I don't even bother reading it.

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

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

Tuesday, May 30, 2023 2:57 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

I had a funny thought this AM while I was waking up:

If you want to see how much Americans support Ukraine, try selling shares of it on Amazon. Yanno "Buy a share of Ukraine's war effort for $150" (which is so far the per-person cost of our aid to Ukraine).

In that context people would ask themselves... "I spend $150 and what do I get for it, compared to, say, other things I could spend $150 on Amazon?"

Some people would probably answer..."Well, I help preserve democracy in Europe" or "I help fight Russia", and they would plunk down $. But some (many?) would think ..."Well, nothing".

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

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

Tuesday, May 30, 2023 3:37 PM

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 had a funny thought this AM while I was waking up:

If you want to see how much Americans support Ukraine, try selling shares of it on Amazon. Yanno "Buy a share of Ukraine's war effort for $150" (which is so far the per-person cost of our aid to Ukraine).

In that context people would ask themselves... "I spend $150 and what do I get for it, compared to, say, other things I could spend $150 on Amazon?"

Some people would probably answer..."Well, I help preserve democracy in Europe" or "I help fight Russia", and they would plunk down $. But some (many?) would think ..."Well, nothing".

Nobody had a fundraiser for H-bombs, but the US spent more than $10 trillion on nukes and it is all thanks to Russia endlessly threatening to nuke the US. It is time to pay Russia back by way of Ukraine.

https://www.google.com/search?q=russia+threaten+to+nuke+US

https://www.google.com/search?q=how+much+spent+on+nuclear+weapons

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

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

Tuesday, May 30, 2023 4:44 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Quote:
Originally posted by THG:
Let's give it another two weeks, shall we?

T

WHAT are we waiting for, THUGR? Something is missing! This time you got a deadline but not an event.
Epic fail.

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

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

Tuesday, May 30, 2023 4:52 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
I had a funny thought this AM while I was waking up:

If you want to see how much Americans support Ukraine, try selling shares of it on Amazon. Yanno "Buy a share of Ukraine's war effort for $150" (which is so far the per-person cost of our aid to Ukraine).

In that context people would ask themselves... "I spend $150 and what do I get for it, compared to, say, other things I could spend $150 on Amazon?"

Some people would probably answer..."Well, I help preserve democracy in Europe" or "I help fight Russia", and they would plunk down $. But some (many?) would think ..."Well, nothing".
Nobody had a fundraiser for H-bombs, but the US spent more than $10 trillion on nukes and it is all thanks to Russia endlessly threatening to nuke the US. It is time to pay Russia back by way of Ukraine.

https://www.google.com/search?q=russia+threaten+to+nuke+US

https://www.google.com/search?q=how+much+spent+on+nuclear+weapons

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

Yeah, AFTER we flattened two cities with nuclear bombs.

Yanno, none of the conventional ~~explanations~~ excuses for our first use of nukes make sense to me. Japan was ready to surrender. It didn't "shorten the war". The only explanation that matches the magnitude of our war crime was basically a warning shot across Russia's bow, since they were storming across Siberia and China, ready to take Japan.

So we used Hiroshima and Nagasaki as examples of what we prepared to do to Russians, and the reason why we used two bombs was to make clear to the Russians that we had more than one
IMHO that was just one of our MANY war crimes, and the start of the nuclear arms race.
I don't post this for you SECOND, bc you're just a sociopath looking for a target to hate. I'm just correcting your revisionist history for the lurkers here.

The elusive horror of Hiroshima
https://www.nationalgeographic.co.uk/photography/2020/08/the-elusive-h
orror-of-hiroshima

Also

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

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

Tuesday, May 30, 2023 5:14 PM

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

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:

Yeah, AFTER we flattened two cities with nuclear bombs.

Yanno, none of the conventional ~~explanations~~ excuses for our first use of nukes make sense to me. Japan was ready to surrender. It didn't "shorten the war". The only explanation that matches the magnitude of our war crime was basically a warning shot across Russia's bow, since they were storming across Siberia and China, ready to take Japan.

So we used Hiroshima and Nagasaki as examples of what we prepared to do to Russians, and the reason why we used two bombs was to make clear to the Russians that we had more than one
IMHO that was just one of our MANY war crimes, and the start of the nuclear arms race.
I don't post this for you SECOND, bc you're just a sociopath looking for a target to hate. I'm just correcting your revisionist history for the lurkers here.

How many cities did the US fire bomb? Hundreds more than Hiroshima and Nagasaki, but how many articles claim those hundreds of other cities were war crimes? The point is that Russian politicians officially threatened to nuke the US during ten thousand different announcements and those threats have cost the US at least ten trillion dollars. Now is the time for Ukraine to make Russia pay for scaring Republican voters with Russian nukes.

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

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

Tuesday, May 30, 2023 5:43 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

If fire bombing is such a Big Deal, why do you keep harping on nukes? So shut up about nukes, already!

Once again, you mess up your own argument. Another epic fail from a sociopath who can't even keep his lines of hate straight.

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

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

Tuesday, May 30, 2023 6:06 PM

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

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
If fire bombing is such a Big Deal, why do you keep harping on nukes? So shut up about nukes, already!

Once again, you mess up your own argument. Another epic fail from a sociopath who can't even keep his lines of hate straight.

Signym, Russian politicians have made ten thousand official announcements threatening to destroy the US. Perhaps those politicians were thinking it is all a friendly joke, but that joke cost the US ten trillion dollars to build a system of Mutually Assured Destruction. The US doesn't have a sense of humor. A famous example was Khrushchev saying "We Will Bury You." Ha-ha, funny man, but the US did not understand the intended message was that the USSR would outlast and out-perform the US. It looked just like another death threat from the lips of a Russian politician to the ears of US Republican voters.

Ukraine knows for sure that Russia delivers death by directly killing millions of Ukrainians during Holodomor. Maybe the US did not misinterpret Khrushchev's "We Will Bury You."

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

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

Tuesday, May 30, 2023 7:46 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Seriously dood, stop harping about Russian nukes. They're not the ones who started this whole shit show, they're not the ones who put nukes on our borders, and they're not the ones who backed out of every agreement. Whatever happens, we're just reaping what we sowed.

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

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

Tuesday, May 30, 2023 8:28 PM

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

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Seriously dood, stop harping about Russian nukes. They're not the ones who started this whole shit show, they're not the ones who put nukes on our borders, and they're not the ones who backed out of every agreement. Whatever happens, we're just reaping what we sowed.

During the Holodormor, the Russians killed four million Ukrainians. Ukrainians still remember as does the US State Department and Defense Department. According to the Russians, Holodormor never happened, which makes the Russians seem even more unworthy to die happy than if they admitted to what happened.

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

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

Tuesday, May 30, 2023 8:34 PM

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

The true scale of Russian combat losses

Prigozhin's latest statements confirmed the actual scale of Russian combat losses in Ukraine.

Analysis of open sources confirms this as well. Biden announced in Hiroshima on May 21 that Russia lost 100,000 troops in the battle for Bakhmut. On May 24, Prigozhin confirmed the truth of Biden's words and, for the first time, named specific information about losses during the operations in Bakhmut: 10,000 former prisoners and 10,000 Wagner volunteer mercenaries. There were 20,000 Wagnerite KIA, plus the losses of Russian troops at Bakhmut in May-August 2022 until the Wagner took over. Casualties also include the wounded, and Russian sources talk about the ratio of injured and concussed to dead as 1:4 or 1:5. This adds up to about the same numbers as given by the Americans.

More at https://english.nv.ua/opinion/the-true-scale-of-russian-combat-losses-
50328379.html

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

Tuesday, May 30, 2023 10:51 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

SECOND CHANGES TOPIC...AGAIN.
Troll.

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

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

Wednesday, May 31, 2023 1:09 AM

Fuck Ukraine.

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

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

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

Wednesday, May 31, 2023 7:04 AM

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 CHANGES TOPIC...AGAIN.
Troll.

The topic is always the same: why do the US, UK, and the EU not stop Russia? (Russia has always been incompetent at warfare but has ever so slowly achieved conquests because nations are not pushing back with even one-tenth of their might against Russia.) Previously, Russia was stopped when the Soviet Union slowly collapsed. Then Russia was forced to withdraw from places it had invaded: Afghanistan, Eastern Europe, and the Baltic States. But now Russia is back to its old ways of invasion while the US, UK, and the EU are back to their old ways of dithering over what to do about it.

The Biden administration showed a "continued reluctance" to provide long-range precision weapons which was "the result of its reluctance or inability to clearly define the strategic outcome it seeks and its unwillingness to say it wants Ukraine to win."

"This has led to slow, incremental decision-making that only helps the Russians because the Kremlin knows that the (Biden) administration will continue to self-deter out of concern over possible Russian nuclear escalation."

https://www.newsweek.com/russia-ukraine-biden-atacms-missile-1803298

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

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

Wednesday, May 31, 2023 8:55 AM

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

How Putin’s taste for jail jargon changed Russia

Growing up in St Petersburg, Russia’s leader was fascinated with prison songs and sambo, a form of wrestling.

When Yevgeny Prigozhin, head of the Wagner mercenary company, bristled at Russia’s top brass, he did not mince his words.

“Scum”, “damn it” and “go to hell” were among the most quotable phrases from the video rant filled with homophobic slurs and prison slang that was released on Prigozhin’s Telegram channel on May 5.

The diatribe does not seem surprising given his background. In 1981, he was convicted of robbery and assault and served nine years in Soviet jails.

His knowledge of “fenya”, as jail jargon is known, proved important to the Kremlin’s faltering war effort in Ukraine last year when he toured dozens of Russian prisons to enlist tens of thousands of inmates.

But the problem with Prigozhin’s profanities – as well as the corrupting influence of fenya and the overtly romanticised lifestyle of career criminals on Russia’s politics, culture and daily life – lies much deeper.

It was Prigozhin’s boss, Russian President Vladimir Putin, who started peppering his speech with salty phrases and fenya idioms since the dawn of his rule 23 years ago.

Long before former US President Donald Trump built his political career on jingoistic, misogynistic and intolerant parlance, Putin did something similar in Russia – with much broader consequences.

“We’ll soak ’em in the outhouse,” Putin, a newly appointed prime minister in President Boris Yeltsin’s government, said in 1999 about the Russian bombing of Grozny, the capital of the then de facto separatist Chechnya region.

‘I Want Someone Like Putin’

Soviet-era dissident Vladimir Bukovsky, who spent years in gulags, pointed out that the phrase referred to the killing of snitches by drowning them in feces in giant prison outhouses.

But average Russians unfamiliar with fenya’s intricacies liked Putin’s phrase anyway.

Many more colourful, nearly obscene quotes, along with the scrupulously sculpted image of a macho man, paved the way to Putin’s first presidency in 2000.

Women were among his earliest supporters.

“‘Soak ’em in the outhouse’ was more about [Putin] becoming sexually attractive to the women whose men are drunks and who think that they need a strong hand to simply survive,” Nana Grinstein, a playwright whose family fled Russia after the all-out war began in Ukraine last year, told Al Jazeera.

She used an old Russian trope of comparing women to “necks” that support their men, the “heads” of families, and recalled “I Want Someone Like Putin”, a 2003 pop hit that describes a woman who kicks out her substance-abusing lover because she craves someone like the president.

“When these ‘necks’ turned towards Putin, then machismo worked both ways. For men, he became an example because ‘someone like Putin’ is wanted in the most open sexual way,” Grinstein said.

Other popular ‘Putinisms’

Throughout his years in office, Putin became known for language that reinforced his strongman image just as much as the photographs of him bare-chested, hunting, fishing, riding horses and doing judo did.

“He turned out to be a mighty man, raped 10 women. We all envy him,” Putin said in 2006 after Israeli President Moshe Katsav was accused of raping his female employees.

“They wore contraceptives [condoms],” Putin said in 2011 in response to opposition rallies whose participants wore white bands.

“No matter how one acts during the wedding night, the result has to be the same,” he said in 2013 about the European Union’s political consolidation.

“We, as martyrs, will go to paradise, and they will simply croak,” he said in 2018 about the possibility of a global nuclear war.

“Whether you like it or not – be patient, my beauty,” he said in 2022 about Ukraine’s reluctance to stick to the Minsk accords, a peace settlement in eastern Ukraine’s Donbas region.

‘We’re thieves-humanists’

Some people who knew Putin as a teenager growing up in Leningrad, now St Petersburg, said that his fascination with prison life stems from his studies of sambo, a form of wrestling.

Putin’s coach was Leonid Usvyatsov, who had served nearly 20 years in jails for rape and “machinations” with hard currency.

Putin “was connected to bandits via his senior coach Leonid Usvyatsov”, Putin’s former sambo partner Nikolay Vashchilin told the Russian service of Radio Freedom/Radio Free Europe.

Usvyatsov was shot dead in 1994 by other criminals.

“I’m dead, but mafia is immortal,” the epitaph on his tombstone says.

In the 1980s, Putin became a fan of an endemically Russian music genre that lionises jail and the criminal lifestyle.

Euphemistically called “chanson” after the French word for “song”, the genre fused Ukrainian-Jewish and Roma influences with the “cruel romance”, a 19th-century style of overtly melodramatic songs.

Putin’s childhood friend Sergey Roldugin reportedly recalled how in the 1980s they listened to Willy Tokaryev, an emigre chanson crooner.

Their favourite song was “Catch the Thief”, especially the lines: “We’re thieves-humanists. We’re all recidivists.”

Roldugin, a renowned cellist and a godfather to Putin’s eldest daughter, allegedly amassed more than $100m and funnelled the money to Putin’s inner circle, according to leaked documents from the Panamanian law firm Mossack Foncesca.

Despising weakness

A psychologist in neighbouring Ukraine pointed to three reasons why Putin favours fenya and the lifestyle associated with it.

Russian prison lords are “above the law, beyond the law”, says Svetlana Chunikhina, vice president of the Association of Political Psychologists, a group in Kyiv.

“For Putin, this is an ideal status. He created a state that does not follow international law, and he himself is not controlled by domestic laws,” she told Al Jazeera.

Secondly, Putin “despises weakness”, likes the prison cult of power, and makes average Russians and Moscow’s political satellites “weak” and “disorganised”, she said.

And thirdly, Putin hates the modern, Western understanding of personal freedom.

“The prison discourse that Putin turned into modern Russia’s daily political language is an ideal way to turn a nation into a jail,” Chunikhina said.

Mafia ties

To an expert on the former Soviet Union’s criminal underworld, Putin’s speech is a far cry from the actual lingo of “crowned thieves”, a caste of professional criminals.

“This is the speech of a man who thinks that this is the way career criminals talk,” Vera Mironova, who wrote the book Criminals, Nazis and Islamists: Competition for Power in Former Soviet Union Prisons, told Al Jazeera.

Although Putin lacks proficiency in real jail jargon, he still developed extensive ties to organised crime, Mironova said.

“Absolutely, 100 percent,” she said, citing the writings of Alexander Litvinenko, an officer with the Federal Security Service (FSB), Russia’s main intelligence agency, who defected to the United Kingdom in 2000.

Litvinenko, who specialised in organised crime, which blossomed in the 1990s in Russia, accused Putin, who headed the FSB in 1998 and 1999, and his colleagues of profiting from drugs trafficking and money laundering.

Litvinenko was killed by poisoning with radioactive polonium-210 in 2006.

Putin repeatedly called Litvinenko a “traitor”, and British authorities said the Russian president “probably” approved the assassination.

Populism?

Putin’s idioms changed the way Russian politicians and officials have been talking in public.

“Putin started the tradition of using jargon in modern official speeches,” Natalia Zelyanskaya and Konstantin Belousov of Orenburg State University in southwestern Russia wrote in their 2007 paper on “political linguistics”.

A Kremlin critic said Putin and his loyalists chose the down-to-earth verbal populism because they wanted to sound like average Russians.

“These people simply speak the language spoken by the public,” Sergey Bizyukin, who fled the western city of Ryazan for Israel, told Al Jazeera.

He said the trend was a delayed “side effect” of Soviet-era efforts to build a “classless society” when intellectualism was frowned upon and the government promoted oversimplified “art for the masses”.

As a result, in Putin’s Russia, “people with highly cultural speech are more of an exception than a norm,” he said.

The glorification of inmates is popular in many cultures – country singer Johnny Cash’s At Folsom Prison album went triple-platinum in the United States.

But the denizens of the Soviet Union and modern Russia have had a strange fascination with prison life and slang.

Tens of millions of people went through Soviet gulags, and Russia still has the world’s fifth-largest jail population with nearly 440,000 inmates in 2022.

“Crowned thieves” gained a privileged status in Stalinist prisons in exchange for intimidating, beating and killing “political” inmates.

“Crowned thieves” were also popularised in countless chanson songs.

Kremlin Palace shows

Musically, the result is “utter crap”, in the words of Alexander Gradsky, a Soviet rock music pioneer who recorded concept albums, wrote symphonic music and occasionally sang opera.

But his opinion does not matter when it comes to advertising revenues and jam-packed concert halls.

One of Russia’s most popular and commercially successful radio stations is Radio Chanson, which began its broadcasts in 2000, months after Putin’s first election victory.

Since 2002, Radio Chanson has conducted annual contests whose final shows are held in the Kremlin Palace, Russia’s most prestigious concert hall, and are broadcast live nationally.

“Only in Russia, the cult of power and the culture of chanson are not marginal, but, vice versa, form the rules of behaviour and dominant principles of successful socialisation,” art critic Alexander Smolin wrote in 2019.

His opinion piece titled Chanson as a Way of Social Degradation followed the stabbing of a taxi driver who refused to play Radio Chanson to a drunken passenger.

Smolin charged that Russians who listen to chanson “are grown as extras for wars, heavy labour in toxic industries and farming badlands”.

https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2023/5/31/how-putins-penchant-for-j
ail-jargon-changed-russia

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

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

Wednesday, May 31, 2023 10:25 AM

Fuck Ukraine.

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

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

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

Wednesday, May 31, 2023 1:14 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
SECOND CHANGES TOPIC...AGAIN.
Troll.

SECOND: The topic is always the same: why do the US, UK, and the EU not stop Russia?

Why should we?

You haven't managed to give one convincing reason.

What you do is post a "reason", and when you get your ass handed to you, you change the specific "reason" and then circle back to it a few posts down the line.

Example: Russia killed 62 million of its people.
I have looked at quite a few historians' online estimates of "deaths under Joseph Stalin" and NONE of them support that figure. Aside from which, that number is implausible bc it would have accounted for at least half of the extant Russian population. Don't you think that would have been demographically noticeable??

Example: Russia is an imperial power threatening USA, UK, and the core nations of the EU (France, Germany, Italy, Spain, etc)

Does Russia constitute a threat to the USA, UK, and the original core NATO countries?
NO, it doesn't. Russia has never invaded USA, Canada, UK, France, Spain, Italy, Portugal, the lowlands, etc, and Germany only defensively (WWII).
But the UK and France HAVE invaded Russia, and the USA and UK have a robust history of attempting to destroy Russia.
More importantly, it wasn't Russia that crept up to NATOs borders, it is the other way aaroud, despite clear promises from the west not to do so. Russia is simply looking to remove the nuclear and military threat that was aggressively moved up to its border.

Example: Russia threatens the USA with nukes all the time.
NO. Every step that Russia has taken has been a defensive response to USA attempted nuclear domination. The USSR/Russia has shown a willingness to sign AND ABIDE BY whatever nuclear treaties the USA was willing to negotiate. The USA, OTOH, has backed out of, or never ratified, almost every bilateral treaty.

Because of our hitory of not abiding by treaties (eg nuclear arms), breaking promises *NATO) and agreements (Minsk II), breaking contracts (SWIFT, gas payments), stealng money, and terrorist acts (Nordstream) Russia has decided, with good reason, that the USA and the collective west is NOT AGREEMENT CAPABLE.

*****
You HAVE posted multiple "reasons" that cancel each other out or are demonstrably wrong.

So far, the only thing you've proven is that nobody should listen to you, bc you post walls of lies.

Troll

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

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

Wednesday, May 31, 2023 1:55 PM

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 SIGNYM:
SECOND CHANGES TOPIC...AGAIN.
Troll.

SECOND: The topic is always the same: why do the US, UK, and the EU not stop Russia?

Why should we?

You haven't managed to give one convincing reason. You HAVE posted multiple "reasons" that cancel each other out or are demonstrably wrong.

So far, the only thing you've proven is that nobody should listen to you, bc you post walls of lies.

Troll

Think back to WWII. Japan invaded China in 1937 but not one Republican would vote for war with Japan. Germany invaded all of Europe in 1939 but not one Republican in Congress would vote for war with Germany. By 1942, Republicans even claimed that FDR had conspired to get the US into a war with Japan and Germany. The conspiracy theory was that FDR had tricked the USA into a War that was none of the USA's concern. Americans who vote for Republicans have always found reasons to not help when other countries are invaded and therefore it is no surprise when Americans who find Trump adequate would continue the long-standing Republican tradition of not helping when Russia invaded Ukraine.

Americans have never stopped believing that President Roosevelt let Pearl Harbor happen in order to draw the U.S. into World War II
https://www.npr.org/2016/12/06/504449867/no-fdr-did-not-know-the-japan
ese-were-going-to-bomb-pearl-harbor

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

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

Wednesday, May 31, 2023 2:14 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
SECOND CHANGES TOPIC...AGAIN.
Troll.

SECOND: The topic is always the same: why do the US, UK, and the EU not stop Russia?

SIGNY: Why should we?
You haven't managed to give one convincing reason. You HAVE posted multiple "reasons" that cancel each other out or are demonstrably wrong.
So far, the only thing you've proven is that nobody should listen to you, bc you post walls of lies.

Troll

SECOND: Think back to WWII. Japan invaded China in 1937 but not one Republican would vote for war with Japan. Germany invaded all of Europe in 1939 but not one Republican in Congress would vote for war with Germany. By 1942, Republicans even claimed that FDR had conspired to get the US into a war with Japan and Germany. The conspiracy theory was that FDR had tricked the USA into a War that was none of the USA's concern. Americans who vote for Republicans have always found reasons to not help when other countries are invaded and therefore it is no surprise when Americans who find Trump adequate would continue the long-standing Republican tradition of not helping when Russia invaded Ukraine.

See my previous edits

****

WTF does today have to do with WWII?? All you'retrying to do is recruit that gut feeling that WWII was a "JUST WAR!" and that Republicans would have kept us from fighting a "JUST WAR!"

First of all, if you look a the CAUSES of WWII, you'll see that:

The USA's embargo of Japan, and Japan's need for oil, led them to attack the USA in an attempt to break our stranglehold. So, in a way, we were part of the problem.

The WWI reparations payments that Germany owed was unspportable and led to economic collapse (people politely starving in their homes), hyperinflation, political chaos, and eventually nazism. Furthermore, whatever justice there was in fighting WWII in Europe, it was the SOVIETS that won. If you want to credit anyone, give credit where it's due: Russia. Our claims to being Europe's savior are 80% stolen valor.

So, what's your excuse for trying to tie today's situation to WWII? Yanno, other than trying to elicit a knee-jerk reaction?
The problem today, SECOND, IS US. If we're going to fix the problem, we have to start with us.
Troll

Please see the edits in my previous post.

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

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

Wednesday, May 31, 2023 2:42 PM

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 now you'retrying to recruit that gut feeling that WWII was a "JUST WAR!" and that Republicans would have kept us from fighting a "JUST WAR!"

First of all, if you look a the CAUSES of WWII, you'll see that:

The USA's embargo of Japan, and Japan's need for oil, led them to attack the USA in an attempt to break our stranglehold. So, in a way, we were part of the problem.

The WWI reparations payments that Germany owed was unspportable and led to economic collapse (people politely starving in their homes), hyperinflation, political chaos, and eventually nazism. Furthermore, whatever justice there was in fighting WWII in Europe, it was the SOVIETS that won. Our claims to being Europe's savior are 80% stolen valor.

So, what's your excuse for trying to tie today's situation to WWII? Yanno, other than trying to elicit a knee-jerk reaction?

The problem today, SECOND, IS US. If we're going to fix it, we have to start with us.

Please see the edits in my previous post.

There have always been people like you, Signym, even in the 1930's . If the movie Lincoln (2012) can be believed, there were Northerners just like you that believed there should not have been a Civil War and that the fighting would end when Lincoln, not the Confederates, stopped being a warmonger. There are always people who find it inconceivable that Confederates need killing for what they have done, and that Nazis must die for what they did, and that Russians must die screaming for murdering Ukrainians by the millions. Some people are either too superior for war or too confused to make a correct decision about which side should win.

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

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

Wednesday, May 31, 2023 2:48 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

SECOND, so now you're going all the way back to the CIVIL WAR to find an excuse for your warmongering?

Yanno, I could use Nazi Germany as an example and point out that there were a lot of Nazis there just like you. You've even got that whole "inferior race/people" thing going. The only thing missing is your swastika.

Jeez, what a troll.

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

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

Wednesday, May 31, 2023 2:57 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Because, when Kiev can't attack military targets, it targets civilians. They've been targeting civilians since 2014.

Quote:
Russia Evacuates Children From Border Villages As Ukrainian Shelling Escalates
Wednesday, May 31, 2023 - 11:40 AM

In what's now becoming an alarming pattern of cross-border escalation, multiple civilians were injured in Russia's Belgorod region, just kilometers from Ukraine, due to large-scale shelling on Wednesday, presumably from Ukrainian forces.

Local governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said at least four people had been injured. He described that situation in the border town of Shebekino has been "deteriorating" due to the "massive strike" from Ukrainian forces.

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/russia-evacuates-children-borde
r-villages-ukrainian-shelling-escalates

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

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

Wednesday, May 31, 2023 2:58 PM

THG

Poor comrade signym. She is completely reduced to lying. I wonder when she will return to her handler is Russia. Maybe she never came here. That's my bet. She never even came to the states.

T

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

Wednesday, May 31, 2023 3:38 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Quote:
Originally posted by THG:Poor comrade signym. She is completely reduced to lying. I wonder when she will return to her handler is Russia. Maybe she never came here. That's my bet. She never even came to the states.

I noticed that when SECOND gets his ass thoroughly handed to him, you step in with pure libel.
So prove it, stupid troll.

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

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

Wednesday, May 31, 2023 4:00 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
SECOND, so now you're going all the way back to the CIVIL WAR to find an excuse for your warmongering?

Yanno, I could use Nazi Germany as an example and point out that there were a lot of Nazis there just like you. You've even got that whole "inferior race/people" thing going. The only thing missing is your swastika.

Jeez, what a troll.

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

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

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

Thursday, June 1, 2023 5:51 AM

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

Signym is also spreading Russian propaganda on another thread at http://fireflyfans.net/mthread.aspx?bid=18&tid=64016&mid=11747
26#1174726

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
So I was thinking about why Germans put up with this shit. Their nation is occupoed by USA forces, their government doesn't get to make decisions, their media is controlled by the CIA, they've been forced to cross "red line" after red line supporting Ukraine (remember when they vowed to send only defensive equipment and shipped 5,000 helmets? HOW CUTE!). And - worse - their pipelines were blown u, and instead of demanding a full investigation, Chancellor Scholz meekly bowed his head to Bidens* ridiculous plan to shift blame, and Die Welt spread the ridiculous story that it was six folks and a boat.

NO MORE GAS HEATERS!
And, if you save up your meat ration you can look forward to having a big chicken-burger once every two weeks.

Why aren't there protests? Why isn't there a change of government?

I decided that Germany is just a long-term experiment in collective, generational guilt. There are probably all of five Germans who even remember WWII, and yet Germans are supposed to feel endless guilt far into the mists of time for something their grandparents did. (And Jews, with their endless victim complex, are just the one to make them pay... and pay.... and pay! If Germany owes reparations to anyone it's Russians. And yet Germans are still paying Jews! https://apnews.com/article/holocaust-survivor-compensation-fund-german
y-0d35aa1cba7756d1b9b6008e9d7841b7)

So now Germans feel guilty just for breathing.

Kinda sounds like the whole "white guilt" that's being foisted on white Americans.

Yanno, if you're prejudiced ... if you cut someonw out of a hiring list, or didn't give them a loan or rent an apartment JUST BECAUSE of their color, you should feel guilty for that. But for sure, don't feel guilty for something you didn't do.

Signym, comparing Germany to Russia shows that Russia is a grossly inferior country in the same way North Korea is inferior to South Korea. The funny thing is that North Korea was created by Russia as a project to show the superiority of the Russian way of life as it spreads around the world.

How would a Russian handle that comparative failure to thrive? By making up lies about Germany and bragging falsely about Russia.

https://www.nationmaster.com/country-info/compare/Germany/Russia/Econo
my
https://countryeconomy.com/countries/compare/russia/germany?sc=XE15
https://www.worlddata.info/country-comparison.php?country1=DEU&cou
ntry2=RUS

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

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

Thursday, June 1, 2023 5:57 AM

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, so now you're going all the way back to the CIVIL WAR to find an excuse for your warmongering?

Yanno, I could use Nazi Germany as an example and point out that there were a lot of Nazis there just like you. You've even got that whole "inferior race/people" thing going. The only thing missing is your swastika.

Jeez, what a troll.

The Kremlin’s communication problems are triggering awkward moments and fiery clashes between Russian state television’s biggest stars.

The Monday broadcast, too, featured a rare moment of brutal honesty on Russian state television, with one panelist offering up a particularly grim prophecy about Putin’s end game.

“What would victory look like? We can see it by looking at Bakhmut, the city where 70,000 people used to live, with children and kindergartens. It was simply wiped off the face of the earth. Everyone who could escape from there did just that,” former state Duma deputy Boris Nadezhdin said, appearing exasperated.

“If victory means conquering ruins without the people, I don’t know who needs this kind of victory... In some Russian cities, they are running out of men,” he added. “The sooner this horror comes to an end, the better it will be for Ukrainians and Russians alike.”

https://web.archive.org/web/20230531123505/https://www.thedailybeast.c
om/russian-state-media-sends-mixed-messages-about-putins-victory-plan-in-ukraine-war

Signym, a typical exchange on Russian TV: “During the last year and two months since the start of the special operation, I’ve traveled dozens of times throughout the country... Every time I am asked: ‘Why is it taking so long, why isn’t it more decisive? To put it harshly, why aren’t we destroying them like rats?,” host Andrey Norkin said.

It did not take very long for that comment to blow up in Norkin’s face.

“You know, when you say that your audience, your viewers are asking you why we aren't being more harsh, why aren’t we destroying all of them like rats, I would answer them with a question,” political analyst Viktor Olevich said, addressing the host. ‘“Are you ready for all of your children to die, to be pulverized in the trenches? Do you want for all of them to end up there?’”

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

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

Thursday, June 1, 2023 6:19 AM