Russia is now bombing Ukraine

[ignatius]

2 hours ago, chronical said:

As much as I appreciate on-the-ground footage this seems awfully scripted. Vice is weird.

yeah.. vice is weird and good to be reminded of that when viewing their reports.  Hamilton's Pharmacopeia is awesome though. why can't everyone just enjoy psychedelics instead of doing war?  

 

[EdamAnchorman]

1 hour ago, J3FF3R00 said:

Plus, his war chest is stuffed but countless corrupt billionaire oligarchs. That isn’t nothing. 

Yeah I wish I could remember the numbers, it was something like half his assets were frozen and the other half was his war chest, something like 400 billion IIRC?

I think it was Ignatius who linked that podcast series, it's a good listen:  https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/winter-is-here-with-garry-kasparov-and-uriel-epshtein/id1612842845

[ignatius]

5 minutes ago, randomsummer said:

Yeah I wish I could remember the numbers, it was something like half his assets were frozen and the other half was his war chest, something like 400 billion IIRC?

I think it was Ignatius who linked that podcast series, it's a good listen:  https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/winter-is-here-with-garry-kasparov-and-uriel-epshtein/id1612842845

i think it was closer to $630 billion at start of sanctions. 

[cichlisuite]

1 hour ago, trying to be less rude said:

you can say that they can do this but what we are seeing is the equipment they brought to the fight doesn't work.

it doesn't work, because it is being used wrong (no air superiority and no coordinated combined arms operation).

 

1 hour ago, trying to be less rude said:

the ukrainian military wasn't deployed when russia invaded. they strategically withheld letting anyone know how they would react. they waited to see what russia would do. zelensky thought he wouldn't do it. putin thought zelensky would flee and the ukrainians would not put up a fight. but zelensky stayed in kyiv and and that activated everybody. and now they are just getting started

ukranian army was deployed, just further back (not en masse on the borders), even the reservists were activated, they had time to do that.

there are indications the russians believed Ukranians would not fight, so they half-assed it, but even despite that, it just baffles me there was no contingency plan in case this crazy gamble went wrong. i mean, the two countries were basically at war several years prior. why would they make such conclusions? it's beyond sane reasoning.

the russian attack on Kiev could've been a feint to draw attention from, and prevent the concentration of Ukranian forces in Donbass. i doubt the russian army and putin ever envisaged to occupy entire Ukraine. the russian forces around and northeast of Kiev bogged down without supplies too soon to be able to do so, even if they truly expected Ukranians not to fight.

[ignatius]

 

[may be rude]

 

[ignatius]

4 hours ago, trying to be less rude said:

 

French President Emmanuel Macron says that Russia and Ukraine would have to come to a negotiated truce and that peace efforts would not be served by Russia's "humiliation".

https://news.yahoo.com/macron-warns-russias-humiliation-wont-190307741.html

i'm fine w/it though. i think these kinds of hacks reach some people in russia. perhaps some humiliation is fine. 

Edited May 10, 2022 by ignatius

[Satans Little Helper]

The humiliation is simply unavoidable. Which, sadly, is also an indication of the practical impossibility of a negotiated peace. Almost impossible, at least. Perhaps there will be some temporary band-aid until Putin will continu his colonial ambitions. (he doesn't recognise Ukraine as a sovereign state. and never will. and blames the west for these silly sovereign ambitions of this "non-sovereign part of russia") This suicide mission of putin will take a while, i'm afraid. Shame.

[ignatius]

22 minutes ago, Satans Little Helper said:

The humiliation is simply unavoidable. Which, sadly, is also an indication of the practical impossibility of a negotiated peace. Almost impossible, at least. Perhaps there will be some temporary band-aid until Putin will continu his colonial ambitions. (he doesn't recognise Ukraine as a sovereign state. and never will. and blames the west for these silly sovereign ambitions of this "non-sovereign part of russia") This suicide mission of putin will take a while, i'm afraid. Shame.

more putin health rumors spreading on line. something about cancer surgery. maybe we'll get lucky the universe will take care of him for us. 

[Satans Little Helper]

If true this would be the best option for peace negotiations, I'm afraid. But I don't expect the next putin to be any better, tbh. Could even end up worse.

[ignatius]

Quote

 

Russia's economy has plunged into its worst crisis for almost three decades as the country is battered by Western sanctions, a leaked copy of the Kremlin's own forecasts shows.

The Russian finance ministry is predicting a 12pc collapse in GDP this year, the biggest contraction since 1994 when it was shifting towards capitalism under Boris Yeltsin, the first post-Soviet president.

A collapse would wipe out around a decade of economic growth.

The leak will pile pressure on Vladimir Putin, who on Monday presided over a scaled-down version of Russia's annual Victory Day parade marking the end of the Second World War in Europe.

 

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/seize-300bn-frozen-russian-reserves-063734391.html

[zero]

1 hour ago, Satans Little Helper said:

If true this would be the best option for peace negotiations, I'm afraid. But I don't expect the next putin to be any better, tbh. Could even end up worse.

in order for this to end, Putin needs to go. meaning more than likely, ahem, taken out. if not by natural causes, then it would have to be done by other Russians, rather than another country. another country doing it would of course kick off all sorts of bad shit across the globe. but this begs the question, who on the Ruskie side can do it? doesn't seem as of now that will ever happen. and yeah, what about his replacement. the next Putin will no doubt be another member of the corrupt billionaire asshole club. there are no shortage of those guys bubbling around in his criminal empire.

but all this is wishful thinking. karma doesn't seem to be working any more. each day that goes on in Ukraine, more civilians get killed, more infrastructure is destroyed, all so a little man with a ginormous ego can get his land bridge across southern Ukraine. and oh yeah, de-nazify the country, and all that other warmongering BS. unfortunately I think Putin is not going anywhere, and therefore this drags on until maybe large swaths of the Russian population snap out of their brainwashing, and unite en masse to overthrow the Kremlin.

[cichlisuite]

well americans are sure eager to advertise their jason bournes on tv, but they don't dare to send one to russia i gather

[zero]

47 minutes ago, cichlisuite said:

well americans are sure eager to advertise their jason bournes on tv, but they don't dare to send one to russia i gather

? well yeah, I mean if Jason Bourne existed, then he definitely would be the guy to send over to get the job done.

 

[cichlisuite]

41 minutes ago, zero said:

? well yeah, I mean if Jason Bourne existed, then he definitely would be the guy to send over to get the job done.

the joke was, what if he exists (well not HIM per se, but a gov program and a guy like that) but that, through the show, they were trying to tell us they'd never dare to send him to kremlin, because african despots on yachts are the most a jason bourne can handle? only, he couldn't handle it, because he was shot and fell into the sea... so even african despots on yachts supposedly are too hard of a target for jason bourne, and a cia assassin capable of taking on putin is simply impossible

i'm sorry i dragged you into this mess... lol

i'll see myself out

[may be rude]

11 hours ago, ignatius said:

French President Emmanuel Macron says that Russia and Ukraine would have to come to a negotiated truce and that peace efforts would not be served by Russia's "humiliation".

https://news.yahoo.com/macron-warns-russias-humiliation-wont-190307741.html

i'm fine w/it though. i think these kinds of hacks reach some people in russia. perhaps some humiliation is fine. 

i appreciate macron's take. got to admit that this is pragmatism to keep an eye on the soonest acceptable peace agreement.

 

so that's purposed for a negotiated agreement resolution. messaging on walking evil serves the separate path of helping putin fall.

 

in this case the guy has an industry of info war. i think it is important to move the conversation forward and sometimes shameful liars force you to humiliate them because they are such persistent liars. 

 

yet macron's point seems logically true. 

 

i don't see how energy can go to legitimizing the bomber of children. it's pretty naked barbarism. 

 

but russia collapsing is not the greatest scenario. he may try to brutalize his people like gaddafi. but then i would like to think the russian military would kind of freeze. i feel like they're already basically there

 

maybe negotiated peace is the safest objective. but i don't know how much shaming putin affects negotiations. if anything i think it weakens putin's position. macron may be more concerned about participants in negotiations walking away or something like that?

Edited May 11, 2022 by trying to be less rude

[EdamAnchorman]

No matter what resolution may come to pass, they should be thinking about a way to minimize Putin's ability to spin that resolution in his internal propaganda machine.  Make it as hard as possible for him to paint himself as anything other than what he really is.  Would be great to force him to do something like an allocution, but he would probably never do anything like that.

[may be rude]

macron is probably talking about stuff like biden saying he lost legitimacy and he has to go. lol. now that i think of it, that's definitely what he was talking about. it's dangerous for heads of state to talk that way, and the safest objective by far is negotiated peace. alternative timelines get hairy. people have been saying putin needs to go and i think macron is worried about the international leadership focusing on that path too much. 

 

14 hours ago, randomsummer said:

No matter what resolution may come to pass, they should be thinking about a way to minimize Putin's ability to spin that resolution in his internal propaganda machine.  Make it as hard as possible for him to paint himself as anything other than what he really is.  Would be great to force him to do something like an allocution, but he would probably never do anything like that.

interesting. here again i will point out that sometimes people push things so far that the only remedy is to roundly call out all their shit and nail them to the wall. this kind of attitude needs to be adopted by all, in general, as the new mode of behavior in internet times

Edited May 12, 2022 by trying to be less rude

[Satans Little Helper]

49 minutes ago, trying to be less rude said:

macron is probably talking about stuff like biden saying he lost legitimacy and he has to go. lol. now that i think of it, that's definitely what he was talking about. it's dangerous for heads of state to talk that way, and the safest objective by far is negotiated peace. alternative timelines get hairy. people have been saying putin needs to go and i think macron is worried about the international leadership focusing on that path too much. 

Although I do think you’re on to something, Biden or any other head of (western) state , or government official even, openly saying putin has to go hasn’t got much to do with the humiliation macron was pointing to, imo.
Saying Putin needs to go will be considered as an intent for war, by the Russians (government, putin, etc). Or rather, a justification for Russia to continue their “defensive” effort on the “russian” territory that is being called ukraine. And indeed, another hurdle for a negotiated peace of some kind. But a completely different one. There’s nothing humiliating about that what will be perceived as an act of aggression. ( repeat: saying putin must go will be perceived as an act of aggression. It’s similar to Putin openly talking about removing Biden because he’s being a threat to international peace)

[zero]

1 hour ago, Satans Little Helper said:

Although I do think you’re on to something, Biden or any other head of (western) state , or government official even, openly saying putin has to go hasn’t got much to do with the humiliation macron was pointing to, imo.
Saying Putin needs to go will be considered as an intent for war, by the Russians (government, putin, etc). Or rather, a justification for Russia to continue their “defensive” effort on the “russian” territory that is being called ukraine. And indeed, another hurdle for a negotiated peace of some kind. But a completely different one. There’s nothing humiliating about that what will be perceived as an act of aggression. ( repeat: saying putin must go will be perceived as an act of aggression. It’s similar to Putin openly talking about removing Biden because he’s being a threat to international peace)

I agree with what you're saying in that hackers attempting to humiliate Putin and heads of state saying he must go are 2 completely separate animals. and yeah, any notion of "Putin must go" is soft speak for taking the guy out, which walks a super fine line right now in the level of global tension. IMO he must go. but I'm like a fkin guy on watmm, with no way to kick this shit up the ladder to actually make the shit happen

[dcom]

Quote

During this spring, an important discussion on Finland's possible NATO membership has taken place. Time has been needed to let Parliament and the whole society establish their stands on the matter. Time has been needed for close international contacts with NATO and its member countries, as well as with Sweden. We have wanted to give the discussion the space it required.

Now that the moment of decision-making is near, we state our equal views, also for information to the parliamentary groups and parties. NATO membership would strengthen Finland's security. As a member of NATO, Finland would strengthen the entire defence alliance. Finland must apply for NATO membership without delay. We hope that the national steps still needed to make this decision will be taken rapidly within the next few days.

Sauli Niinistö
President of the Republic of Finland

Sanna Marin
Prime Minister of Finland

Joint statement by the President of the Republic and Prime Minister of Finland on Finland's NATO membership (Finnish Government)

@zkom you were right, I concede.

[zkom]

5 hours ago, dcom said:

Joint statement by the President of the Republic and Prime Minister of Finland on Finland's NATO membership (Finnish Government)

@zkom you were right, I concede.

Finally I predicted something correctly, lol. Almost all of my pandemic predictions have gone to shit.

[cichlisuite]

Ukraine civilization in the Civilization game:

Leader: Zelenskyy
Unique ability: friendly units fighting in friendly territory have a +15% combat bonus, and each civilization who declared a Friendship will spawn one military unit near the Capital.

Unique units:
Agricultural Tractor (each own military unit within the Tractor's sphere of influence have a 20% chance of converting enemy units to your own)

[chenGOD]

3 hours ago, cichlisuite said:

Ukraine civilization in the Civilization game:

Leader: Zelenskyy
Unique ability: friendly units fighting in friendly territory have a +15% combat bonus, and each civilization who declared a Friendship will spawn one military unit near the Capital.

Unique units:
Agricultural Tractor (each own military unit within the Tractor's sphere of influence have a 20% chance of converting enemy units to your own)

I like this new DLC.

[hma]

Movie made from videos a Russian soldier had on his phone when he was captured, has eng subs: