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Chadderbox posted:So I wonder when the new Patriot missiles will be going in and what lucky country will be receiving them. Supposedly the Iskender system was designed in part to get past anti-ABM systems. quote:The Iskander ballistic missile is superior to its predecessor, the Oka. The Iskander-M system is equipped with two solid-propellant single-stage guided missiles, model 9M723K1. Each one is controlled throughout the entire flight path and fitted with an inseparable warhead. Each missile in the launch carrier vehicle can be independently targeted in a matter of seconds. The mobility of the Iskander launch platform makes a launch difficult to prevent.
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Nov 5, 2014 14:20
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kalstrams posted:Political advertisement, Estonian one. Something something giant Estonian prime minister (I think) fighting giant Finnish president in Tallin, if I remember the story. Isn't that an annual comedy show?
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Nov 5, 2014 14:45
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kalstrams posted:Political advertisement, Estonian one. Something something giant Estonian prime minister (I think) fighting giant Finnish president in Tallin, if I remember the story. It was a comedy sketch from a new year's program on national television. The same guys also made this one last year, the "state bus" where the state and it's services and departments show up in some village for a day. No subtitles for that one, unfortunately. I think those few bits sum it up pretty well: 2:05 - who killed this man? 2:20 - stand in this circle and wait for the court. That's probably a reference to one 'Anna-Maria Galojan' who stole money while in charge of some fund and then was sentenced to prison, but to everyone's surprise she did not show up to start her sentence in prison on the day she was supposed to, but took the first plane to UK where she is sucking some guy's dick to pay her lawyer bills and other bills while she fights in the UK courts against extradition by claiming to be repressed because of her politicial views. And that is a very long process. 3:10 - "Estonia is an e-state so this bus has a wifi network where all the people can use the state's e-services with their tablet computers and smart phones" 3:52 - appointment times for various departments. Suffice to say, the one from 11:00 to 13:15 means lunch while second longest is customs & tax department and the one with whole one minute being social services department. And near the end even a paramedic shows up to help deliver a baby. "Welp see you again next year". That's because in some areas there's one constable per six parishes and ambulances are in bigger cities so it takes a while for them to show up. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T38XNTn_DlE e: I'll write about Estonian political parties later, I should be working right now. jonnypeh fucked around with this message at 14:58 on Nov 5, 2014 |
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Nov 5, 2014 14:51
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My life has been a lie.
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Nov 5, 2014 16:03
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my dad posted:This is amazing. Funny fact: one of the guys behind this show, the famous comedian, is my friend and classmate from high school, we went to theatre school together. I know he will deny this fervently, but I'm the reason he became an actor. I'm telling this to everyone I meet, it's great! I love taking credit for someone else's success.
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Nov 5, 2014 16:13
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Poroshenko is getting Ukraine ready to become a Defense State: http://pressimus.com/Interpreter_Mag/press/4881
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Nov 5, 2014 18:40
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Kidnapped Ukrainian air force pilot Savchenko has named her kidnappers. http://www.rbc.ua/rus/news/politics/letchitsa-savchenko-nazvala-imena-eshche-dvuh-svoih-pohititeley--05112014170700 quote:Ukrainian aviatrix Nadezhda Savchenko called the names of two people involved in her abduction, including the chief of counterintelligence so-called Joint Army Southeast Vladimir Gromov. Told lawyer Nikolai Savchenko-runners at his Twitter.
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Nov 5, 2014 20:52
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OhYeah posted:Funny fact: one of the guys behind this show, the famous comedian, is my friend and classmate from high school, we went to theatre school together. I know he will deny this fervently, but I'm the reason he became an actor. I'm telling this to everyone I meet, it's great! I love taking credit for someone else's success. 
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Nov 5, 2014 21:29
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I love how Vladimir Putin's goal as President/Dictator of Russia seems to be to prove that Tom Clancy was loving psychic.
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Nov 5, 2014 21:55
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Rent-A-Cop posted:I love how Vladimir Putin's goal as President/Dictator of Russia seems to be to prove that Tom Clancy was loving psychic.
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Nov 5, 2014 21:56
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A Buttery Pastry posted:Are you also the reason Estonia is called "Nordic lands" in the video? Unfortunately I cannot reasonably take credit for that.
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Nov 5, 2014 22:30
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Alright, Estonian politics. My very subjective opinion. Surely I've forgot something, I'm sure my fellow Estonians will correct me if that's the case. First of all our president, the head of the state. Signs or rejects laws (if there's a good reason), has mostly representative functions. Pretty important fellow compared to the German president in Germany, but much less important than president of USA in USA.  Toomas Hendrik Ilves. Born in Stockholm, went to school in USA and graduated Columbia University and Pennsylvania University with degrees in psychology. Worked for radio Free Europe and was a diplomat and foreign minister. Relinquished his American citizenship in 1993 to assume Estonian. Pretty decent guy. Formerly affiliated with social democrats. The major players: Reform Party  Right now led by this guy:  Taavi Rõivas. He got the spot when our former PM Andrus Ansip got tired of it and decided to kill time in European parliament. I had some small hopes regarding him, that quite young as he is and so idealistic-looking he will make things better. My other post from today says how I was wrong. Pro free-market liberal party. Lots of pretty words on their website, "every person should be responsible for his/her own future and free in their choices, good economic climate for companies and entrepreneurial people will give the opportunity to support those who need help" and so on. However right now they're managing to run over the handicapped people's opinion with a train over the law that would regulate their ability to work. They've been in government most of the time since 1994 when they were founded, only having to choose their coalition partners because they get the most seats. Some study said that mostly people with secondary school education vote for them, they seem to me more like the party for whom the upper medium class of both Estonian and Russian nationalities would vote for. Currently in coalition with social democrats. I have never and will never vote for them. "Pro Patria Union"  ...or in Estonian literally the Fatherland Union, who are conservative and nationalist. But I would place them right in the centre along with the reform party. Their program also includes a lot of pretty words, same as the reform party. Prosperity, security, equality. Sure enough they made university education more free than before, but apparently students from impoverished families still need to afford housing and living. And the support that students get is nothing to write home about. They are no longer in the coalition with the reform party and are losing support. I'm fine with this. I voted for them a few times, then the minister of economy and communications managed to assign one of his rear end kissers (aged 25 or so) to head the domain reform project (that was in 2010-11 or so), who managed to accumulate a lot of questionable expenses. Nothing that would enrich himself or anything, just dumb poo poo. Meaning he was nowhere near qualified to run anything. The Centre party or should I say, "Edgar Savisaar". He runs that show. He is the worst of them all. As you can see from the picture, he is the type who would do anything to get votes. He has sung, he has a cafe, he personally cuts the ribbon on every single strip of road, park for walking dogs that has been constructed before elections. His party runs a tv channel and a newspaper out of the city budget for the benefit of his party. He secretly recorded his conversations with other people in 1990s.  Viewpoints generally same as previous two, except that they go for the Russian and old people votes. They are in power in Tallinn, which is really a kingdom inside the Republic of Estonia. Known for dubious dealings, hospital councils are full of 25-year old Russian girls who rake in thousands of euros of pay per month (I'm sure a cut goes towards the party), any time a new director is needed to head some new enterprise in Tallinn one of their own guys gets the job, should one of them gently caress up they'll just reshuffle them. One of his closest aide' friend was blown up by a bomb in that aide's car about 14 years ago. Well I could go on forever about the things they've done. They remind me of an organized crime gang, somebody else always takes the fall and goes to prison, except the guy at the top. edit: Almost forgot. the same guys who brought to you to that video of a giant Estonian prime minister and Finnish president also made this parody of Edgar Savisaar: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ckgzWK42UzM. Sadly the only subtitles in Estonian. It's glorious. Social Democrats What social democrats do, I'm sure everyone knows what they stand for. Of course today they did not criticize the reform party's choice of a foreign minister, meaning they would do anything not to offend their coalition partner who dumped the Fatherland Union in favor of SD. The head of the party is one Sven Mikser who was busted in 2002 or so for trying to rig a vote on television to benefit the centre party, when he was still a member there. He has since learned to think for himself, left their party and started the social democrats. Still I think rather highly of Jevgeni Ossinovski and have high hopes towards him, he is the current minister of education, also son of one of the richest men in Estonia, a Russian but married to an Estonian. Also intelligent. He has already gotten the Russian votes in our easternmost city where centre party used to dominate. They also have on board Abdul Turay, a black journalist from England who is not even that important, but who got elected into Tallinn city council due to the peculiarities of our electoral system, where the "vote baits" remain in their previous position in the government or even european parliament and the next ones in the list of their party get those positions. Still, I'd prefer that guy over many others. Minor players: Conservative People's Party of Estonia  - Estonian national independence party - right wing with "welfare of the people" in mind. They get very few votes. Headed by a former ambassador to Moscow who sang a few songs in 1980s. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ulnzLKQj1nE enjoyMade some more headlines when his son came out with the statement "if black show the door". The Green Party - do those guys still exist? Used to be in government maybe seven years ago. Estonian Free Party  They were founded just few weeks ago out of some citizen organizations. I will vote for them. Because in their program they say that they aim to break the deadlock where current parties are focused on maintaining their grip on power, and that they're unhappy with how the political culture is right now. I agree. The founding members (that I've heard of) are: Andreas Herkel - an intellectual, academician and a historian and more. Formerly from Fatherland Union, he got sick and tired of the bullshit. Jevgeni Kristafovitš - I think he is of Belorussian origin, a human rights activist and a liberal. A fine man in my book overall. and recently joined: Sergei Metlev - a member of several student organizations since high school, a Russian who is an outspoken critic of Russia and Russian propaganda, has volunteered as an assistant policeman for over two years so surely he knows more about life than ordinary politicians. People's Unity Party  Founded by a blonde cow Kristiina Ojuland who was a former member of the reform party, got elected through them to be a member of European parliament. She has been disgraced a few times, sacked once in 2005 when some secret documents disappeared from her ministry, she has been photographed carrying very expensive purses that one could afford with the pay she gets from European parliament and to top it all, she was busted trying to buy votes during the internal elections in the Reform party. She was expelled and tried to play the "they are all corrupt bastards who are trying to frame me"-card. I guess it worked, some people formed a party with her. That's not all I could write about the subject but this has to do for tonight. Next elections are in spring 2015 anyway. jonnypeh fucked around with this message at 22:40 on Nov 5, 2014 |
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Nov 5, 2014 22:33
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Hmm, very interesting to see that your right and left are together in coalition. Also, the most eastwards city you've mentioned is Narva, if my memory serves me well, right?
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Nov 5, 2014 22:53
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kalstrams posted:Hmm, very interesting to see that your right and left are together in coalition. Also, the most eastwards city you've mentioned is Narva, if my memory serves me well, right? The reform party is part of the centrist block in European parliament and apparently our left is more right than most of Europe's left.
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Nov 5, 2014 23:09
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TeodorMorozov posted:They are no longer a rebels. After last elections they are now legitimate army of Novorossiya. Have anything to say about the accusation that the vote totals exactly match the percentages, as though they were calculated retroactively? Or does that not impact "legitimacy"? I wonder if Ukraine's hoping to get in one last offensive before winter sets in. I doubt either Russia or Ukraine will want to do much campaigning in those conditions so it might be easier to hold on to gains. It's weird to think of war in such crude, WW2-style terms like "will armor be able to move through mud?"
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Nov 5, 2014 23:18
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Dolash posted:Have anything to say about the accusation that the vote totals exactly match the percentages, as though they were calculated retroactively? Or does that not impact "legitimacy"? Why do you bother? He comes around, posts some provocative one liner and then leaves for a while.
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Nov 5, 2014 23:23
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Dolash posted:Have anything to say about the accusation that the vote totals exactly match the percentages, as though they were calculated retroactively? Or does that not impact "legitimacy"? Actually, the assessment I'm leaning towards is that Russia aims for a winter offensive when the ground freezes to link up Transnistrian field army with the one building up to the east, in order to encircle Mariupol during the winter and cut off its supplies so that the city begs the honorable Russian-backed separatists to liberate them from winter starvation, preferably with USD. E: I'm having a Ukranian friend turn that railroad map into GIS layers for ease of use with a 'current front' and known buildup location layer, to compare the two and come to the Russian doctrinaire conclusion on how best to achieve the above through where and when. This whole Ukranian shitshow is about Black Sea energy control. Question is, how does Russia perceive its Turkish feelers as going? My Imaginary GF fucked around with this message at 23:35 on Nov 5, 2014 |
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Nov 5, 2014 23:32
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My Imaginary GF posted:Actually, the assessment I'm leaning towards is that Russia aims for a winter offensive when the ground freezes to link up Transnistrian field army with the one building up to the east, in order to encircle Mariupol during the winter and cut off its supplies so that the city begs the honorable Russian-backed separatists to liberate them from winter starvation, preferably with USD. Don't they only have 3000 "peacekeepers" in Transnistria, and wouldn't they have to go through Odessa to get to Mariupol?
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Nov 5, 2014 23:47
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Wouldn't Mykolaiv also be an important strategic target owing to its position and the large shipyards there? That's where the Admiral Kuznetsov was built, as well as other large Soviet Navy ships.
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Nov 6, 2014 00:09
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jonnypeh posted:
Thanks, one väliseestlane knows a lot more  . That Savisaar video is pro-click, is that a regular satire show? I recognise the main actor from 'Malev' - same crew?e: Ah yeah - found more: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i7V3BfyK0Qw clusterfuck fucked around with this message at 00:39 on Nov 6, 2014 |
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Nov 6, 2014 00:31
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clusterfuck posted:Thanks, one väliseestlane knows a lot more Yes it is regular, as in it airs every year on the eve of 31st of december. Ott Sepp and Märt Avandi were both in that movie. Here's some more Estonian humour (with subtitles in English). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-QIeng2lOo
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Nov 6, 2014 00:48
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Noice, I found some full episodes and my Estonian is good enough to follow most of it. I'll join in the name dropping and say I know someone who worked on Malev, great seeing Sepp and Avandi making more.
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Nov 6, 2014 01:23
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My Imaginary GF posted:Actually, the assessment I'm leaning towards is that Russia aims for a winter offensive when the ground freezes to link up Transnistrian field army with the one building up to the east, in order to encircle Mariupol during the winter and cut off its supplies so that the city begs the honorable Russian-backed separatists to liberate them from winter starvation, preferably with USD. I have it on fairly good authority from a friend involved with Kvint (greatest cognac!) that prinastrovia has no real "field army" of its own. They've slowly but steadily sold most of their heavy equipment over the years and there's almost nothing left of the old stuff, and as for the new stuff, they don't have enough of it to really matter. If by Transnistrian army you mean a larger Russian force is going to be based there on top of the guys they already have go in with militia support, that's very possible, but on their own the locals have close to zero ability to carry out offensive operations. I don't think the game is worth the hunt in this case, because A)Tiraspol is such a shithole that people leave it and go looking for a better life in Moldova , which is ridiculous. B) Romania will scream bloody murder if anyone even half-implies prinastrovia isn't going to be incorporated back into Moldova. Normally no one gives a poo poo what they think, but the EU could could rally behind them. I don't want us to get all Tom Clancy, but my impression is that prinistrovian forces and geography have a very small role to play, or no role at all until the very end. As for the energy angle, I don't see Exxon having a shooting war with Petrobras et al. over it, because the more serious sanctions get the more it screws them. That said, Exxon's Russian "partners" are more aggressive and already muscled their way into a bigger piece of the Sakhalin project than anyone wanted to give them, and this could be a long-term planto take the whole thing. I don't see it as being just about energy, though. This feels more like classic post-soviet bullshit, in that everyone stumbled into apparently huge opportunities by accident and then miscalculated and overplayed their hand but can't fold.
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Nov 6, 2014 03:37
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Dolash posted:Have anything to say about the accusation that the vote totals exactly match the percentages, as though they were calculated retroactively? Or does that not impact "legitimacy"? What I suppose to say about this accusation? Without any proofs this accusation is just another opinion. Ok, you have it. I have different one. My opinion based on opinion international observer team who was on the elections. They told that all was OK: democratic, legitimate and etc. Like it was in Kosovo trollface.jpg
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Nov 6, 2014 09:18
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TeodorMorozov posted:What I suppose to say about this accusation? Without any proofs this accusation is just another opinion. Ok, you have it. I have different one.  Oh right, those international observers
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Nov 6, 2014 09:22
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BattleMaster posted:
No he means the international observers on a team made up almost wholly of Stalinists and Fascists. Not "man that cop who gave me a speeding ticket is a fascist" fascists, but literal "proud to declare publicly their support for fascism" fascists. Also, dear Russian friend, the 'accusation' and the 'proof' are one and the same. In any election you *do not see* vote percentages and votes-cast line up mathematically. It doesn't happen because that sort of thing only happens in *pure math*.
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Nov 6, 2014 09:55
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BattleMaster posted:
A photoshop is the strong proof, you know But what do you say about video? Press conference Lyagina and international observers. 11.3.2014 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIhw2uuUzfg Let me guess - all of these people are professional actors and agents of FSB/KGB.
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Nov 6, 2014 11:01
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Cuntpunch posted:No he means the international observers on a team made up almost wholly of Stalinists and Fascists. Not "man that cop who gave me a speeding ticket is a fascist" fascists, but literal "proud to declare publicly their support for fascism" fascists.
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Nov 6, 2014 11:12
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When someone has 64% of the votes in an election, it's rounded. In reality, he may have gotten something like 63.857153314159...% of the votes but we don't care for that much precision and 64% is shorter and simpler. When it turns out it's 64.00000000000000000000% exactly, you start to wonder. What are the odds that votes would be distributed among exact percentiles of the total voting population? Unless you have exactly 100 voters, it's very unlikely to happen. And when the observers are not the OSCE, but a knock-off brand "ASCE" made up of fascists and loonies handpicked by the election's organizers, and when they're filmed saying there's no soldiers in the poll stations while you're seeing a rifleman in khaki fatigues just as the edge of the camera's field of view behind him, well... It's kind of like the elections aren't legitimate at all, and the so-called separatists are still a band of thugs who took power by force using Russian weapons and Russian soldiers.
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Nov 6, 2014 11:12
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The Dutch among you might want to catch me on RTL Late Night tonight where I'll be talking about Bellingcat's upcoming report on who provides the Buk that was seen on July 17th it was the Russians
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Nov 6, 2014 11:23
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Cat Mattress posted:When someone has 64% of the votes in an election, it's rounded. In reality, he may have gotten something like 63.857153314159...% of the votes but we don't care for that much precision and 64% is shorter and simpler. When it turns out it's 64.00000000000000000000% exactly, you start to wonder. What are the odds that votes would be distributed among exact percentiles of the total voting population? Unless you have exactly 100 voters, it's very unlikely to happen. It's actually %64.00152. Checkmate, westerners  .
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Nov 6, 2014 11:27
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TeodorMorozov posted:A photoshop is the strong proof, you know https://twitter.com/OSCE/status/529592179275333632 https://twitter.com/PaulaSlier_RT/status/529544138262609920 I'm so fuckin' good at photoshop that i hacked twitter and photoshopped it (the RT shill issued a retraction once someone pointed out that the "international" observers were an off-brand type with a slightly different name sent by the russians making them just unilateral observers. still took two days and she probably would have let it stand if no one pointed it out because it looks more official with a legit org's name attached instead of one created just for this event) Edit: I know I probably shouldn't be engaging this creature but it's oh so fun playing whack-a-mole with every post's lies BattleMaster fucked around with this message at 11:49 on Nov 6, 2014 |
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Nov 6, 2014 11:38
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Brown Moses posted:The Dutch among you might want to catch me on RTL Late Night tonight where I'll be talking about Bellingcat's upcoming report on who provides the Buk that was seen on July 17th it was the Russians Can't wait for this and I know you'll provide a link when it is available online. Meanwhile, Putin met with some historians today where he admitted the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact wasn't as bad as people like to make it seem to be. http://www.kremlin.ru/news/46951 quote:Vladimir Putin: So he on this account and its concentrated. What do you take offense to it? He is an Englishman, and you Russian people, you are interested in our, national history. This is normal. If there is distortion of some business, if there lies something in this book, then that is another matter. And if he's just exploring certain relationships at a certain time, and the other does not concern him ... He was not told about the relationship between, say, the United States and Germany at that time, he also does not investigate them. This is not the subject of study. He has another thing in this case. So there is nothing to be offended. You see, the reason why we made a peace deal with the Germans was because we needed time to build up our weapons. We invaded Poland with Germany just to make it look good to them.
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Nov 6, 2014 11:50
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BattleMaster posted:https://twitter.com/OSCE/status/529592179275333632 "You make this easy, flesh bag."(c) So you give a proof what this is not a photoshop. Good. Now what about video that I posted before?
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Nov 6, 2014 11:53
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TeodorMorozov posted:"You make this easy, flesh bag."(c) Those observers are obviously the aforementioned Edit: Not really sure what some random Russian dudes calling themselves a 4-letter abbreviation have to do with anything though BattleMaster fucked around with this message at 12:02 on Nov 6, 2014 |
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Nov 6, 2014 11:55
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Strange smoke hanging close to the ground in the Donetsk airport area.  https://twitter.com/MarQs__/status/530280073640042496
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Nov 6, 2014 12:07
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HUGE PUBES A PLUS posted:Can't wait for this and I know you'll provide a link when it is available online. Well  doesn't exist anymore and those Polish lands are in Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania now. Why only Russia keeps getting the flak for Molotov-Ribbentrop pact?
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Nov 6, 2014 12:16
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Putin acts like a rear end in a top hat on a crack binge but he's just a huge rear end in a top hat and it's really cool.
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Nov 6, 2014 12:20
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This happened too. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/w...ow-9842978.html quote:A well-known Russian actor and vocal critic of President Vladimir Putin has been found dead at his home in Moscow. 
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Nov 6, 2014 13:40
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I know you guys like the idea of not banning Russian trolls so that we can get the occasional glance into the Russian mindset. But it's making it very easy for me to dehumanize them.
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Nov 6, 2014 13:55
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