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What is the most powerful flying bug?
This poll is closed.
🦋 15 3.71%
🦇 115 28.47%
🪰 12 2.97%
🐦 67 16.58%
dragonfly 94 23.27%
🦟 14 3.47%
🐝 87 21.53%
Total: 404 votes
[Edit Poll (moderators only)]

 
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Tankbuster
Oct 1, 2021

Endman posted:

I once read Mein Kampf on a bus because I had a history tutorial, and only after I stepped off the bus did I realise how much of a loving lunatic that must have made me look

the people on the bus thought you were struggling.

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Officer Sandvich
Feb 14, 2010
https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/may/04/i-love-my-country-but-i-cant-kill-ukrainian-men-evading-conscription

‘I love my country, but I can’t kill’: Ukrainian men evading conscription

quote:

....More than two years into Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion, Ukraine’s armed forces are short of soldiers. Russian troops in February captured the city of Avdiivka and in recent weeks they have been advancing further in the east of the country, besieging the town of Chasiv Yar. Ukrainian commanders acknowledge Moscow has more troops, but say the decisive factor is its superior artillery, as well as war planes, used to pound defences.

Nevertheless, the army is trying to find new people to replace those who have been killed or injured and to relieve exhausted soldiers propping up the frontline. In spring 2022 volunteers queued to joined up, but with the war stretching on indefinitely, there are few eager recruits.

[....]

With draft officers roaming the streets of Ukrainian towns and cities, some men of conscription age are hiding. Telegram channels have sprung up where users can report sightings of state representatives in order to avoid them. Posts are written in a simple meteorological code. The officers are dubbed “clouds” or “rain”. A typical exchange goes: “What is the weather like at Defenders of Ukraine metro station?” Answer: “Three clouds have covered a young guy.”

At the Kharkiv conscription centre, meanwhile, Anton explained he was a volunteer doing useful NGO work. The military official interviewing him was unimpressed. He told Anton he had to appear within three days before a medical commission, which would assess whether he was fit to join the army. If he didn’t turn up he faced a 5,100 hryvnia (£100) fine. “There was hate in his eyes. He was a Dalek. He emphasised Ukraine has been fighting Russia since 2014,” Anton’s friend Serhii said.

The official said that if Anton didn’t want to serve, he could swim across the Tisa river to Romania, one of several routes used by draft evaders. Or he could “tunnel” to the Russian city of Belgorod.

“It was a joke but not a joke,” Serhii said. Instead, Anton vanished. He moved to a village. Now he works remotely. “I love my country. But I can’t kill anyone and I don’t want to die,” Serhii said. He added: “Everyone is tired of war. And of this government. There’s an attitude of: ‘Go gently caress yourself.’”

Oleksandr – a 36-year-old IT manager – said he rarely went out. He avoided public transport, travelling only by car. He moved to a wealthy neighbourhood of Kyiv because draft officers preferred to operate in poorer districts, where it was easier to catch evaders, he said.

Some of the apartment owners in his block were members of parliament. “The military don’t visit here. Our compound is an island of survival. To be poor in Ukraine is to be dead,”
said Oleksandr’s wife, Nastia.

Nastia said she worried about her husband and suffered from panic attacks. “We’ve been married for 12 years. We are one organism. If he dies I will die too. Maybe I will kill myself,” she said.

The couple paid taxes, were “100% Ukrainian” and bought a prosthesis for a soldier who lost a leg. But they believed Ukraine should negotiate with Russia, even though Putin was a “madman”, they said. “I feel a slave. You have one life. If it’s a choice between life and flag I choose life,” Oleksandr said.

In October 2023 one of their friends, Myroslav, fled Ukraine on foot. He bought a map for $500 (£400), paying on a crypto site, and trekked for 24 hours to Hungary, across fields and through a forest.

Myroslav said he only took with him a small backpack. At one point he spotted a patrol and lay down in the grass for 40 minutes. He crawled through a hole in a border fence. Then he went to a Hungarian police station. Myroslav is now in Warsaw. “I didn’t want to fight. I’m afraid to die,” he said.

Others pay local smugglers to show them the route. The going rate is $5,000 to $15,000 per person. Another option is to pay a bribe to obtain a medical exemption certificate and to exit via normal channels.

About half of those who try to escape – 40,000 people, up to summer 2023 – get caught. Some drown. On Saturday the state border service said its guards found the bodies of two men who tried to swim across the Tisa river.

[....]

Dreylad
Jun 19, 2001

Homeless Friend posted:

many people say "nobody suffered consequences for being wrong on iraq" but they don't properly internalize the principle that nobody suffers consequences for being wrong, ever. This is how you still get people actually trusting ISW and all these yahoo outfits lol. Just mountains of wrong garbage that nobody cares to disprove, or even return to for a second look.

you can be wrong all the time. no one gives a poo poo. truly the dumbest thing people online and on social media have internalized that being right matters or is important

Nix Panicus
Feb 25, 2007

Don't they understand that Putin is going to double murder them if they don't go die for Ukraine?

OhFunny
Jun 26, 2013

EXTREMELY PISSED AT THE DNC
Bondholders to Push Ukraine to Resume Debt Payments After Hiatus


quote:

Ukraine’s lenders said Kyiv could wait to pay them back after Russian troops stormed into the country two years ago. Now, their patience is starting to run out.

A group of foreign bondholders including BlackRock and Pimco plans to press Ukraine to start paying interest on its debt again as soon as next year, according to people familiar with the matter.

The group, which holds around a fifth of Ukraine’s $20 billion of outstanding Eurobonds, recently formed a committee and hired lawyers at Weil Gotshal & Manges and bankers from PJT Partners to negotiate on its behalf.

The vultures are descending.

Nix Panicus
Feb 25, 2007


This indicates that they think Ukraine will make it to 2026 though, which is a huge vote of confidence entirely based on nothing

VoicesCanBe
Jul 1, 2023

"Cóż, wygląda na to, że zostaliśmy łaskawie oszczędzeni trudu decydowania o własnym losie. Jakże uprzejme z ich strony, że przearanżowali Europę bez kłopotu naszego zdania!"
I interpret this as the western capitalists finally accepting that the end is coming. They want to extract what they can from Ukraine before the Kiev regime finally collapses and the 1991 borders that we call Ukraine are fully subsumed within the Russian sphere of influence.

This may not happen in 2024 or even 2025, but at this point it is an inevitable outcome. There is nothing the West can do (short of nuclear annihilation) to reverse this outcome.

supersnowman
Oct 3, 2012

VoicesCanBe posted:

I interpret this as the western capitalists finally accepting that the end is coming. They want to extract what they can from Ukraine before the Kiev regime finally collapses and the 1991 borders that we call Ukraine are fully subsumed within the Russian sphere of influence.

This may not happen in 2024 or even 2025, but at this point it is an inevitable outcome. There is nothing the West can do (short of nuclear annihilation) to reverse this outcome.

Yeah, it seems they are trying to get some chips out before it all goes south.

Ghost Leviathan
Mar 2, 2017

Exploration is ill-advised.

Skaffen-Amtiskaw posted:

In Leicester Square last week, I saw a digital sign mention a new Russian restaurant opening, and I felt that was super odd. Like, I was expecting there to be baying mobs at the mere prospect of such a thing being even proposed.

Then I see tweets like this.

I do get the vibe that it's more limited to twitter mobs at this point as liberals can't even conceive of anything more than bitching on the internet about the dumbest possible things and everyone else has tuned out or moved on

Doc Hawkins
Jun 15, 2010

Dashing? But I'm not even moving!


Endman posted:

I once read Mein Kampf on a bus because I had a history tutorial, and only after I stepped off the bus did I realise how much of a loving lunatic that must have made me look

i once had the police talk to me for reading a book. it was the three musketeers (fuckin terrible), but a fancy edition with gilt pages and a little red ribbon. someone thought it was a bible and got frightened. i get tapped on the shoulder and turn around to face three cops, two with hands on their weapons. this was at obama's inauguration.

Smythe
Oct 12, 2003
wow interestibng actually one time i was reading the cspam triump codex on the bus & a super sexy babe (laker girl actually, in her cheerleader uniform & her ID card indicating her age of 27 years old on her security lanyard) was so impressed by it she did a fortnite maneuver and constructed a small enclosure right there on the bus and not only gave me an epic lap dance until i busted (hands free) but then also gave me $100 and tickets to Kobe's Mansion afterparty. well sadly it wasnt to be as they both perished on that fateful day (January 26, 2020, rest in peace)

Flournival Dixon
Jan 29, 2024
one time i was reading mason & dixon on the bus because my car got stolen and everyone on the bus was children and elderly people who didnt know how to read and someone took a photo of me and said i must support american imperialism and colonial genocide on twitter and then they got swatted by litbros and they died

Flournival Dixon has issued a correction as of 07:25 on May 5, 2024

Corky Romanovsky
Oct 1, 2006

Soiled Meat

Smythe posted:

wow interestibng actually one time i was reading the cspam triump codex on the bus & a super sexy babe (laker girl actually, in her cheerleader uniform & her ID card indicating her age of 27 years old on her security lanyard) was so impressed by it she did a fortnite maneuver and constructed a small enclosure right there on the bus and not only gave me an epic lap dance until i busted (hands free) but then also gave me $100 and tickets to Kobe's Mansion afterparty. well sadly it wasnt to be as they both perished on that fateful day (January 26, 2020, rest in peace)

:thisagain:

DaysBefore
Jan 24, 2019



To be poor in Ukraine is to be dead. Heartbreaking. Hope the Ukrainians surrender so the NATO proxy war can end. Of course that just means the IMF can launch it's Sack of Kiev. There is no good outcome for these poor people

DaysBefore
Jan 24, 2019


Smythe posted:

wow interestibng actually one time i was reading the cspam triump codex on the bus & a super sexy babe (laker girl actually, in her cheerleader uniform & her ID card indicating her age of 27 years old on her security lanyard) was so impressed by it she did a fortnite maneuver and constructed a small enclosure right there on the bus and not only gave me an epic lap dance until i busted (hands free) but then also gave me $100 and tickets to Kobe's Mansion afterparty. well sadly it wasnt to be as they both perished on that fateful day (January 26, 2020, rest in peace)

Nix Panicus
Feb 25, 2007

Smythe posted:

wow interestibng actually one time i was reading the cspam triump codex on the bus & a super sexy babe (laker girl actually, in her cheerleader uniform & her ID card indicating her age of 27 years old on her security lanyard) was so impressed by it she did a fortnite maneuver and constructed a small enclosure right there on the bus and not only gave me an epic lap dance until i busted (hands free) but then also gave me $100 and tickets to Kobe's Mansion afterparty. well sadly it wasnt to be as they both perished on that fateful day (January 26, 2020, rest in peace)

I was there, I saw it happen

Homeless Friend
Jul 16, 2007

Smythe posted:

havent been folliwng this war anymore but this clip of a troop guy for russia hoisint ghr stars and stripes made me laugh. the guy is like "first usa vs usa battle of ukraine war?" made me laugh. cool

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bjiTK01D3jg&t=450s

haha

i love that hes just a streamer but he's wearing camo, signifying we should listen to him lol

Truga
May 4, 2014
Lipstick Apathy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-aMAc8w_Wc

genericnick
Dec 26, 2012

Is there any updated map of where Ukrainian refugees went to between the EU and Russia? Though I guess that's not trivial since Russia would just hand you a Russian passport if you're from a bunch of eastern oblasts?

genericnick
Dec 26, 2012

Also, was looking up what the OHCHR was saying about civilain casualties and apparently they lost interest in October? Last update I could find:

quote:

Ukraine: civilian casualty update 24 September 2023 | OHCHR]Total civilian casualties

From 24 February 2022, which marked the start of the large-scale armed attack by the Russian Federation, to 24 September 2023, OHCHR recorded 27,449 civilian casualties in the country: 9,701 killed and 17,748 injured. This included:

22,188 casualties (7,550 killed and 14,638 injured) in territory controlled by the Government when casualties occurred:
In Donetsk and Luhansk regions: 10,611 casualties (4,287 killed and 6,324 injured); and
In other regions2: 11,577 casualties (3,263 killed and 8,314 injured).
5,261 casualties (2,151 killed and 3,110 injured) in territory occupied by the Russian Federation when casualties occurred:
In Donetsk and Luhansk regions: 3,620 casualties (805 killed and 2,815 injured); and
In other regions3: 1,641 casualties (1,346 killed and 295 injured).
Interesting plots:

and

So you have most confirmed civilian casualties in the early days when there was a lot of movement, but also 2023 wasn't as bad in terms of this number compared to 2014. Certainly possible that there are systematic errors here, but still, hadn't realized how bad 2014 was.

Homeless Friend
Jul 16, 2007
looks like they just said screw monthlies and roll it together quarterlies.

Truga
May 4, 2014
Lipstick Apathy
you might not like it but this is what peak genocide looks like

also, it paints a super bleak picture for ukrainian side, where their side of the frontline is completely filed in, while they're somewhat contesting luhansk and doneck at best

Ghost Leviathan
Mar 2, 2017

Exploration is ill-advised.

Smythe posted:

wow interestibng actually one time i was reading the cspam triump codex on the bus & a super sexy babe (laker girl actually, in her cheerleader uniform & her ID card indicating her age of 27 years old on her security lanyard) was so impressed by it she did a fortnite maneuver and constructed a small enclosure right there on the bus and not only gave me an epic lap dance until i busted (hands free) but then also gave me $100 and tickets to Kobe's Mansion afterparty. well sadly it wasnt to be as they both perished on that fateful day (January 26, 2020, rest in peace)

Is this a trump thread escapee

genericnick
Dec 26, 2012

Homeless Friend posted:

looks like they just said screw monthlies and roll it together quarterlies.



Interesting, though seems like civilian deaths aren't listed anymore.

ro5s
Dec 27, 2012

A happy little mouse!

why might the west have stopped pretending to care about civilian casualties in october :thunk:

genericnick
Dec 26, 2012

Lmao

quote:

The Report also does not take into account the provisions of United Nations
Generally Assembly Resolution 73/263 "Situation of human rights in the Autonomous
Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol, Ukraine” of December 22, 2018, which calls
upon all international organizations and specialized agencies of the United Nations system,
when referring to Crimea in their official documents, communications and publications to
refer to “the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol, Ukraine,
temporarily occupied by the Russian Federation”
, as well as the provisions of Ukrainian
legislation on the relevant qualification of the certain areas of Donetsk and Luhansk regions
(as stated in the verbal of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine № 411/23-110-373 of
April 11, 2018).

https://documents.un.org/doc/undoc/gen/g19/038/92/pdf/g1903892.pdf?token=8dyr8z2xTnZnyH75eP&fe=true

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Regarde Aduck
Oct 19, 2012

c l o u d k i t t e n
Grimey Drawer

Ghost Leviathan posted:

Is this a trump thread escapee

no that's Smythe

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