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I remember someone in the previous thread posted a graph with popular support in the EU for intervention, which was 58% if I remember correctly, and showed the number to be in the 70% range for Sweden. Would anybody still have that? I'm having trouble finding it. EDIT: nevermind, I literally found it right now.
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Sep 9, 2014 13:11
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John Dough posted:Either remove them, or screen them and only leave those that actually add something. That costs time you may not have, though. Seriously Brown Moses do this. Comments are a great driver of traffic for news sites, removing them will hit your traffic. An even better solution would be a separate forum, where each new article has a topic created. The people who are paid to spam comments, don't seem to be interested in them i.e. they don't get paid to post on them. Would mean though you have all the mess of running a small forum on top of admining the main site.
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Sep 9, 2014 13:31
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Deltasquid posted:I remember someone in the previous thread posted a graph with popular support in the EU for intervention, which was 58% if I remember correctly, and showed the number to be in the 70% range for Sweden. Would anybody still have that? I'm having trouble finding it. Heh, well, at least one Swedish king (Charles XII) did hold the title of "protector of Ukraine". Edit: notable because he was a co-signer of the Ukrainian Constitution of 1710 (the Pylyp Orlyk Constitution) OddObserver fucked around with this message at 14:08 on Sep 9, 2014 |
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Sep 9, 2014 13:42
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I was on the BBC World Service talking about MH17, it's at 4:45 here.
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Sep 9, 2014 13:51
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Brown Moses posted:I was on the BBC World Service talking about MH17, it's at 4:45 here. This is very cool. I'm wondering why more news sites are not reporting this story because it has major implications regarding the whole crisis in Ukraine. The whole body of evidence, as you said, pretty much points in one direction: the Russians.
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Sep 9, 2014 14:11
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OhYeah posted:This is very cool. I'm wondering why more news sites are not reporting this story because it has major implications regarding the whole crisis in Ukraine. The whole body of evidence, as you said, pretty much points in one direction: the Russians. Supposedly Ukrainian and Dutch sites have been covering it a lot, and I'm doing a piece for Sky News main bulletin tonight that's supposedly going to be very whiz-bang, plus I've done another interview with BBC and CBC news today. In fact, literally as I type this post, the second BBC interview was posted online, here's a copy on Soundcloud.
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Sep 9, 2014 14:30
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OhYeah posted:This is very cool. I'm wondering why more news sites are not reporting this story because it has major implications regarding the whole crisis in Ukraine. The whole body of evidence, as you said, pretty much points in one direction: the Russians. This whole situation is starting to remind me quite a bit of the Cuban Missile Crisis, where the United States government put pressure on news organizations not to release certain details of what they knew because they didn't want the situation to go public and thus lose control over the narrative. Once that happened, panic could ensue and there could be a strong push for a more aggressive response than the Kennedy administration wanted. There's the cynical line of, "We want to protect our business interests with and in Russia", but I wonder if there isn't a line of thought that once you acknowledge what is actually going on, you have to do something aggressive in response or risk losing face. And once you open that door, things have a way of getting out of hand. Just like 1962, neither side wants to set events in motion that could lead to a big conflict, but how do you act tough without forcing Putin to retaliate in kind? Until you have a good answer to that question, perhaps its better to sit on the information (as I'm certain intelligence agencies have definitive evidence Russia was involved in the downing of the Malaysia flight) rather than risk initiating a cycle of retaliation with no clear exit point. Sober stuff.
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Sep 9, 2014 14:30
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Four days ago the leaders at Moscow were saying they would sue Ukraine in international courts to recoup the costs the war has placed on its people for $1 billion dollars. Seems that it has been put into motion today. http://thespeaker.co/russia-suing-ukraine-1-billion-war-damages/ Someone even made a picture to symbolize this occasion. 
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Sep 9, 2014 14:58
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BouncingBuckyBalls posted:Four days ago the leaders at Moscow were saying they would sue Ukraine in international courts to recoup the costs the war has placed on its people for $1 billion dollars. Seems that it has been put into motion today. Doesn't that open the door for Ukraine to present evidence of Russian incursion/invasion in a public forum? And not just any forum, but one the Russian government has explicitly endorsed by filing a suit there? Is it possible to counter sue, and what happens if the facts go against Russia? This seems a strange step to take when Russia is winning the battle on the ground. Is this just a bargaining chip in whatever future negotiations there are to be had?
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Sep 9, 2014 15:03
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Lucy Heartfilia posted:http://spon.de/aejPc Ponamarev - is an intellectual. Fat chance!
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Sep 9, 2014 15:04
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Brown Moses, please do not remove the comments section 0(or remove everything critical from it.) It paints you as being on the defensive or as someone who doesn't want to hear criticism.
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Sep 9, 2014 15:05
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double nine posted:... I don't get it It is a lame pun on the definite article "the". PhilippAchtel posted:This seems a strange step to take when Russia is winning the battle on the ground. Is this just a bargaining chip in whatever future negotiations there are to be had? I get the feeling that Putin does not have a strong sense of irony and does not care if the world knows.
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Sep 9, 2014 15:06
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TeodorMorozov posted:Ponamarev - is an intellectual. quote:From musicians over intellectuals to even a member of the Duma
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Sep 9, 2014 15:21
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Brown Moses posted:I'm seriously considered just removing the comments section, it adds nothing to the posts, just a place where people can argue with each other and make idiotic counterpoints against the post that never pan out, mainly because they've not bothered to look at it properly Tell them if they want to have a serious discussion about the validity of the images they can go to the SomethingAwful forums 
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Sep 9, 2014 15:40
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Bip Roberts posted:Tell them if they want to have a serious discussion about the validity of the images they can go to the SomethingAwful forums Brown Moses should replace the comments section of his site with an inline browser window of D&D.
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Sep 9, 2014 15:55
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Gunktacular posted:Brown Moses should replace the comments section of his site with an inline browser window of D&D. But can the paid shills bill the FSB for the  ?
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Sep 9, 2014 15:57
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Cliff Racer posted:Brown Moses, please do not remove the comments section 0(or remove everything critical from it.) It paints you as being on the defensive or as someone who doesn't want to hear criticism. Keeping your options open if BM starts reporting on Israel?
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Sep 9, 2014 16:00
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PhilippAchtel posted:This whole situation is starting to remind me quite a bit of the Cuban Missile Crisis, where the United States government put pressure on news organizations not to release certain details of what they knew because they didn't want the situation to go public and thus lose control over the narrative. Once that happened, panic could ensue and there could be a strong push for a more aggressive response than the Kennedy administration wanted. On the one hand, foreign policy is an astoundingly complicated process involving hundreds of moving parts, and the argument has historically been to keep it out of politics because it's possible to properly educate the public about the realities of the facts on the ground. On the other hand, the bodies responsible for conducting foreign policy have made a seemingly endless series of decisions based on false or faulty information which has mired every region they have touched in warfare, dictatorships and corruption. At this point in history it seems like the body of experts simply no longer deserves our unthinking trust, and we certainly can't do much worse by conducting a foreign policy based on transparency and morality rather than closed door realpolitik. And if that sets us at odds with a dictator, so be it.
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Sep 9, 2014 16:04
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A few articles concerning events unfolding in Eastern Europe and Russia. NYT - U.S. Delegation Is to Visit Moscow to Review Claims of a Missile Violation quote:“Russia is far from being involved in any large-scale conflicts,” he said at a youth camp outside Moscow. “We don’t want that and don’t plan on it. But naturally, we should always be ready to repel any aggression towards Russia. WaPo - What would happen if Russia closed its airspace to Western airlines? quote:With new European Union sanctions looming over Russia, the country has announced that it considered blocking international flights through its airspace. Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev referred to Western airlines in general, but in reality such restrictions would mainly hit European airlines which offer direct flights to Asia. The necessity to "bypass our airspace ... could drive many struggling airlines into bankruptcy," Medvedev was quoted as saying Monday in the Russian business newspaper Vedomosti. WaPo - Canadian navy ship buzzed by 3 Russian jets This is a short one so I'll post the whole thing here: quote:By Associated Press September 9 at 2:51 AM I don't think Russia's going to be backing down any time soon.
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Sep 9, 2014 16:25
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Wierre posted:While international monitoring did agree that the Hungarian elections were legal, they did report that it was unfair and unbalanced. Especially that Fidesz rewrote the constitution and the election process, making it completely to be in their favour. I still can't stomac the fact that Fidesz got 40% of the total votes which gave them 2/3 majority in the parliament. How does that work? Yes, the elections were legal but everything else was slanted. Fidesz wrote into the new constitution a greater emphasis on single member districts ie FPTP (first pass the post) and like most FPTP systems, a strong plurality can easily give you a majority or super-majority. Hungary isn't a full FPTP system but it is now much more of one and the more parties that split the vote, the easier it is for Fidesz to hold its districts since it just needs more than any other party. Unfortunately, a two party system isn't going to be possible because of Jobbik and the center-left will never cooperate on a electoral level, so Fidesz will have control until the party or Orban completely meltdown/revolution. Of course, the issue is that Hungary is has been in the EU 10 years at this point and if anything is less democratic than since 1989, being a member of the EU doesn't necessarily mean you're much of a democracy, or have freedom of the press. quote:
I think a quite bit has change among the European hard right/far-right since 2000 though, in that time Putin has consolidate power and has become a model and big supporter for reactionary parties across Europe. In that sense, Russian and Soviet for these groups (which control 2/3rds of the vote in Hungary) have become separated in rhetoric from what I have seen, although in a sense it still takes a fair amount of double-think. That said, I do a fair amount of support is genuine at this point looking at polls regarding Putin/Russia specifically. Also, to be fair, the Soviet Union and Putin's Russia genuinely very much are different things even if they are both expansionist, Putin's regime on a ideological level is a nationalist grab bag of a lot of different strains of thought.
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Sep 9, 2014 16:31
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Thanqol posted:On the one hand, foreign policy is an astoundingly complicated process involving hundreds of moving parts, and the argument has historically been to keep it out of politics because it's possible to properly educate the public about the realities of the facts on the ground. I'll the the first to admit that there are no end of examples of astounding incompetence in foreign affairs in the last few decades, I can't help but wonder if transparency, for all the good it does, might not close the doors to some useful avenues of diplomacy. To take the Cuban Missile Crisis as an example again, a key provision of the negotiated scale down in tensions between the US and the USSR was a reciprocal withdraw of missile sites in Turkey, but it was explicitly noted that the USSR was not to advertise the linkage between that withdraw and the withdraw of nuclear missiles from Cuba. The deal was premised on secrecy, as that was the only way for both sides to back down without looking defeated. In an age of wikilinks and social media, who's to say such a deal would be even possible today? Particularly with the divisive nature of domestic politics in the States and Putin's reputation as a hard-liner in Russia, I don't know if a Cold War II scenario is as rosy as it might seem to those trumpeting it in this thread.
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Sep 9, 2014 16:41
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Ardennes posted:Yes, the elections were legal but everything else was slanted. Fidesz wrote into the new constitution a greater emphasis on single member districts ie FPTP (first pass the post) and like most FPTP systems, a strong plurality can easily give you a majority or super-majority. Hungary isn't a full FPTP system but it is now much more of one and the more parties that split the vote, the easier it is for Fidesz to hold its districts since it just needs more than any other party. Unfortunately, a two party system isn't going to be possible because of Jobbik and the center-left will never cooperate on a electoral level, so Fidesz will have control until the party or Orban completely meltdown/revolution. Of course, the issue is that Hungary is has been in the EU 10 years at this point and if anything is less democratic than since 1989, being a member of the EU doesn't necessarily mean you're much of a democracy, or have freedom of the press. To a large extent Orbán is a perfect example of Caesarism: he smashed the previous constitution on a wave of immense popular support, and he can still rely on a fairly decisive plurality of voters. He doesn't need to outright manipulate elections -- yet, anyway -- though he's implemented constitutional tricks to fortify his rule and looks to be importing the forms of 'political engineering' that are popular in the former Soviet countries, where democracy is manipulated and subverted in various ways but you don't necessarily have actual ballot-stuffing and the like. The usual example is the trick where the government sets up fake opposition parties to siphon popular support away from the real opposition. Something similar did happen in the last Hungarian elections, though it didn't end up being especially successful. (Of course there is also some merit to the idea that Jobbik fills this role.) The role of the EU in all this is unfortunate. For the last four years liberals in Hungary have been hoping against hope for EU and other European institutions to do something to stop Orbán's onslaught on liberal democracy, but barely anything has been forthcoming other than a slap on the wrist from the Venice Commission. The EU has carried on throwing money at Hungary, and this is increasingly -- I think rightly -- being seen as, if anything, actively harmful to the prospects of Hungarian democracy because it supports the transformation of Hungarian politics and civil society generally into a struggle for patronage. Unfortunately the EU's lack of meaningful response has seriously undermined whatever credibility it had left, which in turn is demoralising what remains of the liberals and the left, and strengthening the hand of the Orbánites and the far right. The left and centre are so fractured now that Jobbik has established itself as the real second party and if there is a two-party system it's going to be between Fidesz and Jobbik. Which is frankly a nightmarish prospect in the sense that you now have a choice between what's effectively a cult of personality dallying with fascism, and a party that's just outright fascist. Some choice!
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Sep 9, 2014 16:52
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Zohar posted:To a large extent Orbán is a perfect example of Caesarism: he smashed the previous constitution on a wave of immense popular support, and he can still rely on a fairly decisive plurality of voters. He doesn't need to outright manipulate elections -- yet, anyway -- though he's implemented constitutional tricks to fortify his rule and looks to be importing the forms of 'political engineering' that are popular in the former Soviet countries, where democracy is manipulated and subverted in various ways but you don't necessarily have actual ballot-stuffing and the like. The usual example is the trick where the government sets up fake opposition parties to siphon popular support away from the real opposition. Something similar did happen in the last Hungarian elections, though it didn't end up being especially successful. (Of course there is also some merit to the idea that Jobbik fills this role.) Yeah more or less that is the way I have heard it going so far, Hungary at this point is a "managed democracy", there are elections but the result is predictable and the constitution is so tweaked that Orban has completely gamed the system. The EU itself has shown that it doesn't have teeth even when it comes to countries it (or especially so), part of the reason I absolutely expected it to do less than the minimum regarding Ukraine. That said, I think Hungary will remain in a zombie-like state and while the center-left may make some gains, the vote will be split in such a way that Fidesz will remain untouched. I don't know if Jobbik will overcome the center-left itself or simply the opposition vote will remain split between them making Orban PM for life. Personally though, it is hard for me not to see many comparisons between Putin and Orban: both used the unpopular economic liberal policies of a previous administration to gain power while retaining them in power, then gutted civil society and used a grab bag of nationalist rhetoric to gain power. I don't think Orban is going to be invading Romania or Slovakia soon, but you can see Trianon-centric rhetoric still plays a big part in the body politic.
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Sep 9, 2014 17:22
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Leave the comments section but hellban IPs from Russia in commenting
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Sep 9, 2014 17:24
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This is supposed to be link to article where Russia sues Ukraine for $1b to cover damage caused to Russian citizens, but as the site is down I have no idea and I'm too lazy to check cache. Edit: Site is up, and it's Zhirinovsky behind it. 
cinci zoo sniper fucked around with this message at 17:27 on Sep 9, 2014 |
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Sep 9, 2014 17:24
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hostile apostle posted:hellban IPs from Russia
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Sep 9, 2014 17:56
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Rent-A-Cop posted:This is always a good policy in running anything online. I wish CS:GO servers were configured like this to be honest.
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Sep 9, 2014 18:05
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OhYeah posted:I wish CS:GO servers were configured like this to be honest.
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Sep 9, 2014 18:08
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Track and pattern poster IPs, especially duplicate sources. You've got a whole additional article there. Also, invest in several backups and some really good hosting security- you're probably going to get attacked, if you haven't been already.
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Sep 9, 2014 18:16
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I'll be on Sky News in the UK in their 7-9pm broadcast literally calling Russia murderers and liars.
Brown Moses fucked around with this message at 18:20 on Sep 9, 2014 |
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Sep 9, 2014 18:17
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Brown Moses posted:I'll be on Sky News in the UK in their 7-9pm broadcast literally calling Russia murderers and liars. Great. Don't forget to check your milk caps for syringe marks in the morning.
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Sep 9, 2014 18:22
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Brown Moses posted:I'll be on Sky News in the UK in their 7-9pm broadcast literally calling Russia murderers and liars. Good!
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Sep 9, 2014 18:33
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As much as we joke, I have to wonder if there isn't someone out there interested in knocking off effective journalists and analysts who embarrass their country abroad. Comparing the West and Russia's treatment of journalists makes for a shocking difference, so the will seems to be there. Can we honestly say that Brown Moses being murdered would provoke a reaction that blowing up a whole airliner of people didn't? It might help re-muddy the waters around several issues if critical analysis is removed.
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Sep 9, 2014 18:39
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Lucy Heartfilia posted:From musicians over intellectuals to even a member of the Duma You drat right, members of the Duma are not intellectuals at all. Repression of Ponomarev is for good sake, only because he brings more problem to American taxpayers than for russians 
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Sep 9, 2014 18:47
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Jim Inhofe remains a moron, manmade global climate change remains a fact, sky remains blue. Regarding Russia's violation of the INF Treaty by testing a ground-launched cruise missile:quote:Not only did Russia violate the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, signed by President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev in 1987, it did so while negotiating with the Obama administration over New START, a 2010 arms reduction treaty. The White House was at best naïve to Russian duplicity; at worst it was complicit. quote:It is time to find other ways to mitigate this new threat. If the motivation behind Russia's INF Treaty violation is to achieve military and strategic advantage through the development of new nuclear capabilities, we have three lines of effort to pursue. First, we should expand U.S. homeland missile defense capabilities, particularly to address the threat posed by Russia's air- and sea-launched cruise missiles. Second, we should reinstate funding to modernize U.S. nuclear weapons, which have suffered delays caused by funding shortfalls over the past three years, and perhaps even develop new nuclear systems to counter the GLCM. Finally, we should consult with NATO and other allies about increasing regional missile defenses, especially to contend with the new Russian GLCM. The Department of Defense should also conduct a reassessment of America's nuclear posture to ensure our force is survivable against Russia's new shorter-range nuclear threats and nuclear strategy. Right, Jim - that'll make the Russians back down. There's no way that'll just fan the flames of their paranoia and cause them to match your proposed nuclear surge. Because that's the way they've always behaved in the past, isn't it? e: Tom Collina of the Arms Control Association (where I used to intern!) had a great piece up on this topic back in March. It was in response to a proposed resolution from Marco Rubio that was basically identical to Inhofe's: (emphasis mine) quote:Rubio’s approach, if adopted, would be punitive and unhelpful. The resolution says the United States should not “engage in further reductions” of its nuclear forces “generally” or engage in arms reduction negotiations with Russia “specifically” until any weapons causing the INF violation are eliminated. Majorian fucked around with this message at 19:09 on Sep 9, 2014 |
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Sep 9, 2014 19:04
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Brown Moses posted:I'll be on Sky News in the UK in their 7-9pm broadcast literally calling Russia murderers and liars. Please actually do this because to this point, a lot of British media has been interviewing Russian cranks.
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Sep 9, 2014 19:23
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Dolash posted:As much as we joke, I have to wonder if there isn't someone out there interested in knocking off effective journalists and analysts who embarrass their country abroad. Comparing the West and Russia's treatment of journalists makes for a shocking difference, so the will seems to be there. Can we honestly say that Brown Moses being murdered would provoke a reaction that blowing up a whole airliner of people didn't? It might help re-muddy the waters around several issues if critical analysis is removed. I think only Russian journalists are considered fair game unless the rules have changed.
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Sep 9, 2014 19:27
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Supposedly Russia Today just attacked me, part of which was falsely claiming I was on the dole, anyone happen to see it?
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Sep 9, 2014 19:27
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Brown Moses posted:Supposedly Russia Today just attacked me, part of which was falsely claiming I was on the dole, anyone happen to see it? Well seeing as they're smearing you this quickly it means you're certainly onto something heavy.
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Sep 9, 2014 19:53
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Just implement an upvote/downvote system on your comment section, that'll keep the trolls down at least
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