It really is quite difficult to build an ugly wooden boat.
The power of the web: Anyone can post anything on the web
The weakness of the web: Anyone can post anything on the web.
How to surrender.
without freedom of speech, we wouldn't know who the idiots are.
The ISW Russian offensive campaign assessment, November 28.
https://www.understandingwar.org/bac...nt-november-28
Key Takeaways
- The Russian-claimed capture of several small villages around Bakhmut on November 27 and 28 does not portend an imminent Russian encirclement of Bakhmut.
- Recent Russian force deployments to Belarus in November 2022 are likely part of a Russian effort to augment Russian training capacity and conduct an information operation.
- Russian milbloggers widely criticized the Russian Ministry of Defense’s (MoD) decision to place severe customs limits on the import of dual-use goods, indicating a continued and pervasive discontent with the Russian MoD’s conduct of the war in Ukraine.
- Russian forces are likely preparing to launch a new wave of missile strikes across Ukraine in the coming week, but such preparations are likely intended to sustain the recent pace of strikes rather than increase it.
- Russian forces continued efforts to defend against Ukrainian counteroffensive operations around Svatove as Russian sources reported that Ukrainian troops continued counteroffensive west of Kreminna.
- Russian forces made incremental gains south of Bakhmut.
- Russian forces continued to strengthen fortified positions and establish security measures in eastern Kherson Oblast.
- Ukrainian forces continued to strike Russian military assets and along critical logistics lines in southern Ukraine.
- Russian forces continue to face issues with adequate training and equipment and challenges with morale and discipline as Russian military failures have significant domestic social impacts.
- Russian occupation authorities continued efforts to facilitate the integration of educational systems in occupied Ukraine into the Russian system.
[QUOTE=sandtown;6763373
And that is the actual carp - just ask that Whitlam guy[/QUOTE]
Whitlam left office in 1975- forty seven years ago. He died in 2014. You ask him.
I'm just going to park this here.
without freedom of speech, we wouldn't know who the idiots are.
Not so horrified they protest, even for brethren Slav's.
Theres a lot of fear in Russia. I suspect your average Ivan believes Putin could go, but would be replaced by someone equally ruthless. If you go to jail for protest you'll stay there Putin or no Putin.
I have little to no sympathy. They gave their power away lightly.
It's all fun and games until Darth Vader comes.
How could you say that? There was posts here complaining about the regimes violent clamp down on protesters in Moscow and other cities, did you not see that on your news, or has the Murdoch press been hiding that also?
How is tens of thousands of draft age men leaving Russia "not a protest"?
Fear yes, when you can be disappeared with little to no consequence.
You have the good fortune to live in a place where you can voice your opinion freely, are the North Koreans spineless too?
Fleeing Russia could be a protest or it could be simply self interest on the part of somebody who doesn't want to go fight - that is the fleeing person might care, or not, what happens to their country, Ukraine, or the world as long as they are safe right now. If most of these men, once out of Russia, spend part of their time speaking out against the regime and the war or otherwise working to promote peace, then that would be more of a protest. If they just fine ways of getting jobs and living under the radar, then it looks to me more like self interest.
"Where you live in the world should not determine whether you live in the world." - Bono
"Live in such a way that you would not be ashamed to sell your parrot to the town gossip." - Will Rogers
"Those are my principles, and if you don't like them... well, I have others." - Groucho Marx
Huh?
Nitpick?
Japan were bombed into capitulation. Whatever other niche theories are out there, it is an accepted historical truth. Sure there was more than one thing happening at the time, it was a world war, and the bombs may well have been the final (very big) straw - but they were, beyond doubt, material in the decision.
The Chechen resistance faded away after Grozny, likewise the Syrian after Aleppo. They were 'bombed' by artillery. Were sieges the 'bombing citizens' of the mediaeval world? The statement that bombing or otherwise killing and making life unbearable for citizens does not bring victory, is not true. Infact, I would guess that in the sweep of history, where a citizenry has been killed/bombed/starved and yet ultimately prevailed is possibly the exception. That is not a nitpick.
To say that when attacking citizens has worked but doesn't count because of the specifics of the means used, is nitpicking. Carving out exceptions in order to not shatter your beliefs is called cognitive dissonance.
Last edited by gypsie; 11-29-2022 at 10:12 PM.
It's all fun and games until Darth Vader comes.
In a country of 140 million? the fact that a few thousand protest is not particularly inspiring. Statistically about 4,000,000 Russians believe the world is flat (based on an average of 3% globally). I'm sure you get where I'm going with that.
Running for your life can be a protest, I suppose, in retrospect. But protesting is not what they are doing.
Russia and NK are not apples with apples. In the 1990's and early 2000's, the Russians also lived in a country where they could express themselves freely, but they gave it away like it was of no consequence. Its hard to sympathise with that.
Do you think the Chinese live in a freer country?
Thats how I can say it.
Last edited by gypsie; 11-30-2022 at 12:15 AM.
It's all fun and games until Darth Vader comes.
without freedom of speech, we wouldn't know who the idiots are.
Diana Johnstone saw it all coming eight years back . . .
If this does not lead you to ask some serious questions, then you are likely situated somewhere beyond the event horizon.
https://peaceandplanetnews.org/ukraine-iron-curtain/
![]()
The world does not function around what you find inspiring.
No, not at all. On a percentage basis per capita its the same in Australia.Statistically about 4,000,000 Russians believe the world is flat (based on an average of 3% globally). I'm sure you get where I'm going with that.
Again, your own view. Some people would say a bunch of Hong Kongers with umbrellas is not a protest either.Running for your life can be a protest, I suppose, in retrospect. But protesting is not what they are doing.
No, so why judge an entire nation from your Australian perspective?Russia and NK are not apples with apples.
Was you there? What exactly did they have that you believe they knew they would lose? How did you know they would have something to lose and why? Did you try to warn anyone, did you protest?In the 1990's and early 2000's, the Russians also lived in a country where they could express themselves freely, but they gave it away like it was of no consequence.
Life in retrospect is always easy. How many of your previous governments would you not vote into power, knowing what you know now?Its hard to sympathise with that.
Freer compared to Russia? No.Do you think the Chinese live in a freer country?
Its a point of view, does not mean its right.Thats how I can say it.
Not every Russian speaker is going to post a video on youtube in English. There is protest out there, you may just be unaware if its in a language you do not understand.
Putting yourself first before the needs of the State is a form of protest.If they just fine ways of getting jobs and living under the radar, then it looks to me more like self interest.
The ISW Russian offensive campaign assessment, November 29.
https://www.understandingwar.org/bac...nt-november-29
Key Takeaways
- Russian forces made marginal gains around Bakhmut on November 29, but Russian forces remain unlikely to have advanced at the tempo that Russian sources claimed.
- The United Kingdom Ministry of Defense (MoD) reported that Russian forces have likely stopped deploying battalion tactical groups (BTGs) in the past three months, supporting ISW’s prior assessments.
- Russian forces continued to defend against Ukrainian counteroffensive operations around Svatove as Ukrainian forces continued counteroffensive operations around Svatove and Kreminna.
- Russian forces continued limited ground attacks west of Kreminna to regain lost positions.
- Russian forces conducted ground attacks near Siversk and Avdiivka, and in western Donetsk Oblast.
- Russian forces continued strengthening defensive positions in eastern Kherson Oblast as Ukrainian forces continued striking Russian force concentrations in southern Ukraine.
- Russian forces continued to struggle with outdated equipment and domestic personnel shortages amid official actions indicative of a probable second wave of mobilization.
- An independent investigation found that Russia may have transported thousands of Ukrainian prisoners from penal colonies in occupied Ukraine to Russia following the withdrawal from the west bank of Kherson Oblast.
Please.
https://peaceandplanetnews.org/ukraine-iron-curtain/
ROTFLMAONATO leaders are currently acting out a deliberate charade in Europe, designed to reconstruct an Iron Curtain between Russia and the West.
With astonishing unanimity, NATO leaders feign surprise at events they planned months in advance. Events that they deliberately triggered are being misrepresented as sudden, astonishing, unjustified “Russian aggression.” The United States and the European Union undertook an aggressive provocation in Ukraine that they knew would force Russia to react defensively, one way or another.
As Victoria Nuland boasted in Washington, since the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, the United States has spent $5 billion to gain political influence in Ukraine (this is called “promoting democracy&rdquo.They could not be sure exactly how Russian president Vladimir Putin would react when he saw that the United States was manipulating political conflict in Ukraine to install a pro-Western government intent on joining NATO. This was not a mere matter of a “sphere of influence” in Russia’s “near abroad,” but a matter of life and death to the Russian Navy, as well as a grave national security threat on Russia’s border.
A trap was thereby set for Putin. He was damned if he did, and damned if he didn’t. He could underreact, and betray Russia’s basic national interests, allowing NATO to advance its hostile forces to an ideal attack position.
The people of Ukraine have wanted to jump in NATO ever since the Soviet Union imploded, as a matter of Ukrainian survival.
NATO is a mutual defence treaty, not some sort of independent political entity.
And the member nations of NATO (or "the West") have roughly zero interest in "reconstructing an Iron Curtain between Russia and the West". It would better serve our/NATO's/EU's/ interests, as well as the interests of any nations not run by certifiable nut jobs, to integrate Russia into the body politic rather than isolating it.
Yes, we did a crappy job of integrating Russia into the polity of nations, but to ascribe Russia's own failings and greed to any other than themselves is incorrect, to say the least. That fault lies with them selves. Nobody but Russia installed a fascist nutter (patently obvious at the time), and nobody, but Russia allowed him to effective make the Dumas a rubber stamp, and to effectively convert the government into a dictatorship.
The West failed Russia in bringing her out of the void, and failed Ukraine in protecting her from Russia. Now the piper is due his pay.
You would not enjoy Nietzsche, sir. He is fundamentally unsound. — P.G. Wodehouse (Carry On, Jeeves)
Surrender hotline.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-63782764
without freedom of speech, we wouldn't know who the idiots are.
That's what you get for interacting with trolls. Once you've shredded all their arguments, they're like "Yeah, but we all know you're a liar anyway so whatever. My arguments still stand." and walk away looking for a new victim. It's all such a waste of perfectly good electrons.
Last edited by AdB; 11-30-2022 at 08:18 AM.