Walter Ostanek

my shed is falling apart so i put a tarp on it for a roof, but the bloke nextdoor keeps flicking his fagends on top of it hasn't started a fire yet

Cross between Hasselhoff and my 67 year old brain-damaged uncle who still lives with his mum

If I may recommend the following series of fantastically researched videos that are mega worth a watch, like crack out a couple of six packs and strap in for an evening. I've had Ukes and Russians tell me that they learnt tonnes about their own history from watching these 1: The Orange and Maidan revolutions and the role played by oligarch factional bullshit and its relationship to russia[n meddling] (That fight in the Rada halfway through this vid, I remember Tony Hawks (of Round Ireland with a Fridge fame) taking the piss out of that at the time, on his shitty show on Auntie Beeb) 2: Girkin's fake revolution in Donbas, creeping direct russian involvement, plus good points on timescale manipulation in the media. Fuck, I was watching all this shit on Vice during the aphex soundcloud dump, and it's been absolutely nuts to get to know people as refugees who were there through all this at the time (also on this topic, I highly recommend reading "Hybrid Warriors" by Anna Arutunyan, who attempted to interview Girkin) (also, I lost my job at the time because of those post-MH17 sanctions lol) 3: The way the "NATO started it" argument went from semi-plausible to total-wank, plus why Mearsheimer et al are cunts 4: The way Iraq, and LaRouchian horseshoe-theory conspiracy nuttery, influenced Russian and far-right US thinking, and provided a lot of the ideological backdrop to the invasion The LaRouchian view of "colour revolutions" is absolutely central to this - Putin's utter incapability of grasping that the masses might have agency, and the LaRouchist denial of agency to the masses as a point of principle. Like, to debunk it, just talk to someone who was there FFS Christ, I didn't realise Glazyev was a LaRouchist until I saw this

In the glory days of Limewire there was a chill dnb track attributed to Squarepusher called "Sarah's World", much like kickass violin solo etc Anyone else know it? Anyone got it?

wye know eclipse thread?

Post lush vocoders that make you feel warm and fuzzy (not beastie boys) (spillover from Where's the OMD Love)

Do I really need to list examples? Start with the at least weekly threats of nuclear war against various states on primetime state TV (often made by sitting government figures). Or you could play a game where you google "Medvedev [country] tweet" to come up with a list of threats that the (drunken?) head of russia's security council has made to a broad swath of countries over the last couple of years. And to think that I used to admire the chap as fairly level-headed. It's not about ability, it's about intent, and knowing that they will do it when they gain the ability to. Because they say that they want to. And I don't think it will end in nuclear war, because their hybrid attacks have already demonstrably worked. That's why I find it funny that some people still care about these maps of the whole world peppered with US military bases. The material context has drastically changed. Hard power is heavily undermined in a world of troll farms and deniable PMCs. Imagine russia using twitter to conjure up an acute domestic political crisis in Lithuania and then have mysterious masked gunmen start appearing in out-of-the-way villages a la Donbas? Does Russia need to nuke anybody to take it over? Does NATO's Article 5 have any meaning at all in that situation? As for georgia, the oft-overlooked point is that they were quite cuntish to their autonomous regions prior to 2008, and those vague NATO invitations were stupid. Russia's meddling there was grim but somewhat understandable. It wouldn't, though. In exactly the same way as a Gaza ceasefire will not stop Israel from peppering civilian crowds with bullets in occupied territory whenever it pleases. Not sure how any of that leads towards a more desired outcome. In some parts of the world, the decline of US imperialism would be a great thing. And if anything, russia and china being in opposing camps seems like a higher risk of nuclear war... Agreed and this is what infuriates me to no end. Germany's Energiewende was one of the dumbest political decisions of this century. That's what got them hooked on russian gas, and drastically constrained the political agency of Europe as a whole. I hoped Nordstream would force Europe seriously onto a path of energy independence (not to say decarbonising), but (to a first approximation anyway) it hasn't. Although another aspect of that is Russian shenanigans in a swath of Sahel states, i.e. the neo-colonies France relied on for its nuclear power. Europe has collectively failed miserably to assert itself, part by russian design but part by truly pathetic short-sightedness Weird to imply it's being shoved down their neck when they really want it. Whether they should want it or not is another matter, hybrid warfare is demonstrating its uselessness. I also simply don't buy the line that Russia is scared of NATO given their aforementioned mastery of hybrid power, and additionally the fact that Putin very eagerly worked alongside NATO during the War on Islam Terror - something that has been weirdly airbrushed. There were "NATO Bases" on Russian soil in the 2000s... Putin invited them there!

bola "now playing" thread

I do find it funny how some of the domestic critics of yanqui imperialism are the least able to step outside of that imperalist mindset. Now I agree, the yanks are bumbling along not really knowing what their aim is. But, this isn't about America. The ukes would be fighting whether or not the yanks arm them. It'd just turn from a war into a huge insurgency. How do you think it went? Did Sleepy Joe forbid the Ze from surrendering? Do you recall the context of the negotiations - taking place just as the ukes discovered the first mass graves? When they realised what continued russian occupation of any part of the country meant for the people there? Now I will say that I wouldn't be surprised if Ze was hoodwinked by Bojo's grandiose Churchillian crap. I'm sure he made promises that he couldn't keep. They haven't - they've lost Crimea and Luhansk, but retain large chunks of Kherson, Zap and Donetsk. Russia has never occupied Zaporizhia city, and I dread to think what kind of Gaza-like apocalypse russia would unleash if they got their mitts on the place (or Kharkiv city). Except that that is Putin's own rhetoric. The threats of invasion and nuclear annihilation against Poland, the Baltics, Finland, Germany, the UK, even Ireland come from he himself - the autocratic leader of the Russian state, plus his apparatchiks who he controls (Drunk Dmitri almost comically so) and the talking heads of his state-controlled media. When imperialist nutjobs make threats, they should be believed. You can hardly accuse people of vilifying Putin as some brutal monster when he openly, willingly (in front of voluntary interviews!) paints himself as one. Have you forgotten when he victim-blamed Poland for Hitler's invasion in front of an audicence of millions of braindead yanks? Note that the political superstructure that Putin has created, comes with built-in off-ramps. At any time he chooses, he can blame his boyars, his advisers, his ultranationalist outriders, of deceiving him or misinforming him. He could very easily and (actually semi-plausibly) blame Girkin and Malofeyev for the entire unpleasantness since 2014 (he even has Girkin in prison already). He does have options to climb down and save his own skin. But he doesn't, because this is what he wants to happen. The Realist viewpoint might be a passive, pragmatic endorsement of imperialism, rather than an active, enthusiastic one, but it is an endorsement of imperialism all the same. A "sphere of influence" IS imperialism. It's the same logic behind the Bay of Pigs and the Monroe Doctrine. It's also funny how most of the more popular commentators within that tradition are also terminally captured by yank-o-centrism; they can't comprehend that Europe might be, or could be (or should be), its own independent geopolitical entity. And it's Europe that Ukrainians want to join, it's that that caused loads of them to first rise up in 2013. Most Ukrainians were against joining NATO when (and for a long time after) Russia first invaded in 2014.

holy shit that one is actually good DJ Detweiler DJ P.Eng DJ Mavic DJ Hypnodisc from Robot Wars DJ Harvey (MBE) DJ Peter Mansbridge

still not managed to see it but can't wait. who plays the pug in this version?

it doesn't even need an article because it's retina-burningly obvious, but here's one anyway discussing the use of the Baltimore bridge disaster by certain actors to whip up a geostrategic media frenzy:

used to love this lad, haven't listened for yonks