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http://empr.media/news/ukraine-war-updates-daily-briefings-march-28-2016/quote:(1) The situation in the war zone in eastern Ukraine remains tense: 50 times Russian armed forces opened fire upon Ukrainian positions with the use of forbidden by the Minsk agreements heavy arms.
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Mar 28, 2016 11:24
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bango skank posted:The recent Ukraine developments have me a little worried. I've got a friend who is flying back to visit family for a week at the end of April, how hard should I be trying to talk them out of it? Is your friend legible for draft? If yes, don't let him go there.
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Mar 28, 2016 12:05
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There's been speculation of course just who Savchenko will be traded for, but according to this article the prisoner exchange may include Russian arms dealer Victor Bout. That can't be true, because bout's serving a 25 year sentence in the US. http://belsat.eu/en/news/nadiya-savchenko-may-be-swapped-for-russian-arms-trader-bout/ quote:Ukrainian aviatrix Nadiya Savchenko may be exchanged for a group of Russians, including Victor Bout and Konstantin Yaroshenko, who are serving prison sentences in the U.S, news agency Interfax reported Tuesday with reference to unindentified sources. There is no way the United States is getting involved with this, especially trading Victor Bout of all people with Savchenko. I love how these articles get printed despite them being completely unsourced.
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Mar 29, 2016 11:08
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meanwhile in Poland (don't think this has been posted?) http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/mar/26/poland-approves-large-scale-logging-in-europes-last-primeval-forest quote:Poland has approved large-scale logging in Europe’s last primeval woodland in a bid to combat a beetle infestation despite protests from scientists, ecologists and the European Union. quote:But under the new plan, loggers will harvest more than 180,000 cubic metres (6.4m cubic feet) of wood from other areas of the forest over a decade, dwarfing previous plans to harvest 40,000 cubic metres over the same period.
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Mar 29, 2016 11:40
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In less serious news, the Chinese president is visiting the Czech Republic and it's a complete clusterfuck. Prague got turned into a regular circus - flags on strees, billboards in Chinese, inflatable terracotta army. Companies that trade with China have booked every single town square capable of holding a protest months before (without anything actually happening there) so human rights activists are going bonkers, they defaced a couple Chinese flags only to find them replaced over night and guarded by police. So they whip up Tibetan flags and start patrolling the roads the president is supposed to take. Next thing they see, buses unload couple thousand Chinese with proper flags who promptly push them out with the assistance of police; the 100% natural flagwaving crowd also strategically takes place in front of billboards that show the ex-president Havel with the Dalai Lama. Another bunch of protesters was being forced to remove their flag on the grounds of "threatening public health" and a bunch of them ended up arrested without any cause being stated and a couple fights break out when the Chinese claque rips flags out of protesters' hands. Police arrests a couple more protesters just for the heck of it and manages to grab one Chinese - apparently by accident. Meanwhile, the presidents meet up, do their thing, plant a PR(C?) tree and not notice any violence; the Castle is surrounded from all sides by the imported cheering crowd - it wouldn't do for the honored guest to look out of a window and not see a Chinese flag anywhere. Zeman's speaker calls human rights activists fascist and funded by the opposition; the opposition unfurls a Tibetan flag from a parliament window. Leave it to us to turn everything into a local political squabble. My favorite part is that yesterday afternoon one of the smaller TV stations apparently switched its programme and started broadcasting a Czech-Chinese cartoon - with Chinese subtitles. I guess the visitors were near a TV set at that moment. Anyhow, the biggest protests are scheduled for today, if things turn more violent, it's gonna be there. anilEhilated fucked around with this message at 11:54 on Mar 29, 2016 |
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Mar 29, 2016 11:50
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double nine posted:meanwhile in Poland (don't think this has been posted?) This is stupid because beetle infestations followed by recovery through all successional stages is completely natural. anilEhilated posted:In less serious news, the Chinese president is visiting the Czech Republic and it's a complete clusterfuck. YESSSSS, some good Realsatire and kowtowing hard enough to crack your spines, you funny country.
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Mar 29, 2016 11:56
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I CANNOT EJACULATE WITHOUT SEEING NATIVE AMERICANS BRUTALISED!
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Honestly, the best part about the whole thing is the behavior of police. It's just slowly coming out now so obviously it's not all reliable but you get to hear bits like them escorting the Chinese that rip the remaining Tibetan flags off buildings and columns - and arresting anyone nearby who doesn't belong to the crowd, including an old lady in dressing gown and slippers who just came out to get her mail. Or the billboard that's a threat to public health. Or watching the Chinese take and break videocameras and phones of people recording the whole mess. Political caricaturists will have material for years. e: Right, this just in: the well-in-advance booked protest on the Kampa is apparently being cancelled by policemen in riot gear cordoning the whole place off. See, the Chinese president is going to ride past... Same thing's apparently happening around about eight other announced protest grounds. People can't even get in. Funny thing, the neo-nazi demonstrations last week went through just fine. Here's the first summary of the whole mess in English-speaking media I found: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/afp/article-3512744/Protests-Chinas-Xi-arrives-Prague.html anilEhilated fucked around with this message at 12:24 on Mar 29, 2016 |
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Mar 29, 2016 11:58
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double nine posted:meanwhile in Poland (don't think this has been posted?) Truth be told I only skimmed this topic, but wasn't there an article in Polityka (decidedly not pro "good change") which kinda, sorta said that there's something to this years long mismanagement of Bialowieza forest and the beetle plague? It would be similar to the time where U.S. National Park Services put out any and all fires in National Sequoia Park, causing an imbalance in the ecosystem. Now they purposely set fire to parts of the park or just don't suppress the ones which occur naturally and the forest is healthier for it.
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Mar 29, 2016 12:03
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Pierogi posted:Truth be told I only skimmed this topic, but wasn't there an article in Polityka (decidedly not pro "good change") which kinda, sorta said that there's something to this years long mismanagement of Bialowieza forest and the beetle plague? It would be similar to the time where U.S. National Park Services put out any and all fires in National Sequoia Park, causing an imbalance in the ecosystem. Now they purposely set fire to parts of the park or just don't suppress the ones which occur naturally and the forest is healthier for it. Cutting down bark beetle infested trees has been the standard operating procedure for decades, and attitudes change slowly. Experience from Germany shows that unattended spruce forests infected by bark beetle regenerate naturally faster than forests where infested trees are removed and replaced with saplings. The reason is that the earth in infested areas is naturally saturated with spruce seeds, so a die-off of diseased trees triggers their growth in greater quantities than can be achieved using artificial means. In contrast, planting tree nurseries in infested areas suppresses the natural growth of already present seedlings. This is all new information, however, and only a couple years ago most people were convinced that spruce forests had low viability in Central European climate, and could only be protected against diseases through human intervention. And maybe it was even correct, back when forests were decimated by acid rains and other corrosive industrial agents. But nowadays forests have regained their natural vitality, and there's little need to protect them against part of their natural conditions.
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Mar 29, 2016 12:40
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Meanwhile bitter old men with burning hatred against environmentalists are keeping the old, misguided methods alive - and I'm not talking just about PiS, just last year the Czech state clown Zeman threw a hissy fit about not surrendering to "green fanatics" by approving a new forestry / national parks charter. http://zpravy.aktualne.cz/domaci/politika/proti-zelenym-fanatikum-zeman-nepodpori-zakon-o-parcich/r~ffaccd4c084a11e59db2002590604f2e/
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Mar 29, 2016 12:46
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steinrokkan posted:Meanwhile bitter old men with burning hatred against environmentalists are keeping the old, misguided methods alive - and I'm not talking just about PiS, just last year the Czech state clown Zeman threw a hissy fit about not surrendering to "green fanatics" by approving a new forestry / national parks charter. ... and since you can't guarantee there will forever be a progressive government that's why politicising conservation science more than you absolutely have to is bad, kids 
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Mar 29, 2016 13:45
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anilEhilated posted:Honestly, the best part about the whole thing is the behavior of police. It's just slowly coming out now so obviously it's not all reliable but you get to hear bits like them escorting the Chinese that rip the remaining Tibetan flags off buildings and columns - and arresting anyone nearby who doesn't belong to the crowd, including an old lady in dressing gown and slippers who just came out to get her mail. Or the billboard that's a threat to public health. Or watching the Chinese take and break videocameras and phones of people recording the whole mess. Makes our government seem neutral in comparison, though they all fled the Parliament when the Dalai Lama visited, even the foreign minister who used to lead a parliamentarian committee for Tibet.
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Mar 29, 2016 14:28
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I'll be at the Dutch House of Representatives on Thursday with the Atlantic Council presenting our work on Russia's war in Ukraine and MH17, for anyone who wants to tune in (if they broadcast that sort of thing) https://www.tweedekamer.nl/vergaderingen/commissievergaderingen/details?id=2016A01236
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Mar 29, 2016 14:42
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Lots of mess in Ukrainian politics and government today. After "resigning" about a month ago --- and then going on vacation for a month -- the Prosecutor General finally got canned by the parliament today, but not after sacking the well-reguarded Odesa oblast procesutor, and messing with a few key investigations over the last week. A new PM is likely this week, too --- probably current speaker Volodymyr Hroysman, a close associate of the president --- and the costs of putting together a coalition for that, likely including Tymoshenko's party are likely to be high.
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Mar 29, 2016 16:05
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What's democracy like in the czech republic? I can't see bussing in foreigners to beat up citizen protesting with police aid to suck up to china being good for a reelection campaign.
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Mar 29, 2016 16:19
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They already elected a senile alcoholic once so I doubt this would have any impact. Is this poo poo still going down somewhere? I'm considering going to check out this circus after work.
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Mar 29, 2016 16:29
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drilldo squirt posted:What's democracy like in the czech republic? I can't see bussing in foreigners to beat up citizen protesting with police aid to suck up to china being good for a reelection campaign. You overestimate how much eastern europeans care about that sort of thing.
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Mar 29, 2016 16:30
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drilldo squirt posted:What's democracy like in the czech republic? I can't see bussing in foreigners to beat up citizen protesting with police aid to suck up to china being good for a reelection campaign. I don't think anybody has been busing in foreigners, afaik just a bunch of Chinese expats from Prague organized a welcome gathering or something, and when they got into contact with anti-Chinese human rights activists, things went poorly. The police weren't sure what to do because they didn't want to start arresting Chinese people on day of their president's arrival, so they ended up taking the most aggressive protesters to the station and immediately released them without charges. According to one arrested journalist who was in the middle of the brawl, the cops were just kinda hapless and told him that they picked him up for his own safety, then they released him in time to catch his train home. Here's an interview for anybody willing to run it through a translator: http://zpravy.aktualne.cz/domaci/policie-me-zatkla-aby-me-chranila-rika-fotograf-ktereho-napa/r~1d7b39d2f59711e591da0025900fea04/ Also a vice-prime minister has refused meeting the president just a couple of minutes before their scheduled appointment, citing human rights concerns.
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Mar 29, 2016 16:39
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steinrokkan posted:then they released him in time to catch his train home.  Czechs confirmed as the chillest of Slavs.
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Mar 29, 2016 17:02
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Well, quickly reading through the article: The journalist in question got assaulted by the Chinese, who ripped the flag off his back and beat him with metal flagpoles; he got away with just a bruised face. Police then took him to protective custody. Then he recaps: he was photographing the protesters that were taking down Chinese flags and replacing them with Tibetan ones. Police arrived, started collecting flags and activists, then two buses of Chinese with their flags showed up. Activists got taken to the station, Chinese calm down, then three bypassers started shouting at the Chinese that they're communists and the Chinese assaulted them with their fists. Police stands there watching, apparently doesn't want to create a scandal by arresting the Chinese. Brawl escalates, photographer gets whacked over the head with a Chinese flag and his own flag is taken. The reporter gets taken by the police, who cite disobeying an order from the police, he protests, they haul him off to interrogation anyway. At the station he keeps asking what is he accused of, no answer, and eventually they let him out in time to catch his train. drilldo squirt posted:What's democracy like in the czech republic? I can't see bussing in foreigners to beat up citizen protesting with police aid to suck up to china being good for a reelection campaign. mobby_6kl posted:Is this poo poo still going down somewhere? I'm considering going to check out this circus after work. anilEhilated fucked around with this message at 17:11 on Mar 29, 2016 |
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Mar 29, 2016 17:08
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My wife is going to Kiev on her own this time (I really don't enjoy visiting) in May and I'm pretty worried. I know Kiev should be fine, but I wish she could go without seeing her family every single year 
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Mar 29, 2016 17:15
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Is it extended family or the place itself that you don't enjoy to visit, if I may ask?
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Mar 29, 2016 17:42
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Baronjutter posted:My wife is going to Kiev on her own this time (I really don't enjoy visiting) in May and I'm pretty worried. I know Kiev should be fine, but I wish she could go without seeing her family every single year The only thing you should be worried about is her getting seduced by a hunky Ukrainian man.
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Mar 29, 2016 18:34
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Sergiu64 posted:The only thing you should be worried about is her getting seduced by a hunky Ukrainian man. I got this, thanks
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Mar 29, 2016 19:03
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In a scandal that nicely connects northern and southern Eastern Europe, Croatian MiG 21 airplanes that went to Ukraine for upgrade were returned in even worse condition and ex minister of defense might shoot himself. In other * * * EX-YU EX-WAR NEWS * * * Bosnian Serb war leader Radovan Karadzic was sentenced to 40 years of prison by the Hague Tribunal. That seems fitting although there are groups that aren't satisfied because he wasn't convicted of everything he should've been. Bosnian Serbs of course aren't satisfied either and they named a student campus after him. Before his arrest in 2008 he spent years as a monk-like alternative healer.  Another bizarre moment was that the Tribunal's ex spokeswoman was arrested at the sentencing (released today). Ratko Mladić, Karadzic's general and accomplice should also receive his sentence soon, and so should Vojislav Šešelj, Serbian extremist politician. Šešelj has been released for health reasons which don't prevent him from organizing rallies and burning Croatian flags. He also announced that he won't accept or recognize the sentence so Serbia will probably have to extradite him forcefully. edited for easier reading Doctor Malaver fucked around with this message at 00:54 on Mar 30, 2016 |
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Mar 29, 2016 23:44
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It's for education, so our posterity never forgets. Russians ban Polish board game that simulates shopping Soviet style. http://qz.com/646871/russia-banned-a-polish-board-game-that-simulates-communist-era-shopping/ quote:The fraught relationship between Russia and Poland is playing out in an unexpected way: in a conflict over a board game. Russian authorities have decided that a popular Polish game that has been dubbed “Communist Monopoly” disseminates anti-Soviet content, and thus should not be sold in Russia’s stores.
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Mar 29, 2016 23:48
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Doctor Malaver posted:In a scandal that nicely connects northern and southern Eastern Europe, Croatian MiG 21 airplanes that went to Ukraine for upgrade were returned in even worse condition and ex minister of defense might shoot himself. I am 90% sure an older acquaintance of mine in the NE US used to work for Karadzic.  I imagine the response to the verdict looked a lot like an Irish wake.
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Mar 30, 2016 00:18
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HUGE PUBES A PLUS posted:It's for education, so our posterity never forgets. Russians ban Polish board game that simulates shopping Soviet style. Rospotrebnadozor say they didn't ban anything and couldn't possibly ban the game, because historical commentary is simply not in their area of expertise. Either they decided to backpedal it or there was some misunderstanding. https://meduza.io/feature/2016/03/25/antisovetskaya-monopoliya
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Mar 30, 2016 01:06
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The chief of the Polish diplomacy said to the press that Poland "abandoned negroeness" in diplomacy with the US. By this, he meant the servile attitude. Using the word "murzyńskość" wasn't his idea, to be fair, but Radosław Sikorski's, the former Foreign Affairs Minister in PO government. The difference is that he used it in a private conversation which, unknowingly for him, has been recorded and published. Waszczykowski did this speaking officially as the Minister of Foreign Affairs. (The word "Murzyn" is pretty similar to the word "Negro" in English. It used to be a word for a black person, but after 1989 it became slowly displaced. It's probably because its connotations were quite racist - its root word, "murzyć się" means pretty much "to get yourself dirty, especially with coal or tar".) Gantolandon fucked around with this message at 09:48 on Mar 30, 2016 |
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Mar 30, 2016 09:09
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GreyjoyBastard posted:I am 90% sure an older acquaintance of mine in the NE US used to work for Karadzic. While Karadzic was a war criminal or a spiritual healer?
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Mar 30, 2016 09:34
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Gantolandon posted:The chief of the Polish diplomacy said to the press that Poland "abandoned negroeness" in diplomacy with the US. By this, he meant the servile attitude.
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Mar 30, 2016 09:46
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Palpek posted:Holy hell. While PiS is some scary poo poo sometimes I just think they'll fail out of sheer incompetence and stupidity. That word isn't even a real thing, it sounds clunky as hell but I'm sure it was deliberately used to insult the US president, what a clusterfuck. Not likely, it's clearly a reference to the infamous recording with Sikorski. He just wanted to score political points against their hated enemies by reminding everyone about their blunder, but managed to make a much worse one in the process. PiS politics in a nutshell. But I agree, their bumbling incompetence and malice approaches Dick Dastardly level.
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Mar 30, 2016 09:56
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Palpek posted:Holy hell. While PiS is some scary poo poo sometimes I just think they'll fail out of sheer incompetence and stupidity. Ya think??
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Mar 30, 2016 10:26
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I mean that there's this vision of PiS copying Orban and Poland becoming a fascist state in a couple of years but these idiots just lack competence, intelligence and efficiency to even attempt their sick dream.
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Mar 30, 2016 10:55
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Palpek posted:I mean that there's this vision of PiS copying Orban and Poland becoming a fascist state in a couple of years but these idiots just lack competence, intelligence and efficiency to even attempt their sick dream. That's what happens when the party leader removes anyone for speaking up against him for any reason no matter how trivial. You get left with a bunch of hollow yes men who are actually quite incompetent. Duckman's ego doesn't allow for dissent so you have a party of idiots and sociopaths.
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Mar 30, 2016 11:10
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Palpek posted:I mean that there's this vision of PiS copying Orban and Poland becoming a fascist state in a couple of years but these idiots just lack competence, intelligence and efficiency to even attempt their sick dream. For everyone's sake, I hope you're right.
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Mar 30, 2016 15:29
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fishmech posted:For everyone's sake, I hope you're right. Even Orban doesn't fare too well, I think they had a massive protest recently in Hungary.
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Mar 30, 2016 15:50
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How is their economy, anyway?
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Mar 30, 2016 17:02
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US-backed "pro-democracy activists"- the same ones that spearheaded the "revolution" in February 2014- physically assault pensioners in Kiev for waving Soviet flags and protesting against the "democratic" US-backed regime. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ziyL7cLICCM Looks like Ukraine is finally enjoying its fabled "freedom" and "democracy"- the same one graciously bestowed upon the people of Indonesia in 1967, Guatemala in 1954, Iran in 1953, Chile in 1973, and many other nations- even today deeply grateful for their liberation from tyranny and dictatorship.
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Mar 31, 2016 09:16
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