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What is the most powerful flying bug? This poll is closed. |
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|---|---|---|---|
| 🦋 |
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15 | 3.71% |
| 🦇 |
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115 | 28.47% |
| 🪰 |
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12 | 2.97% |
| 🐦 |
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67 | 16.58% |
| dragonfly |
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94 | 23.27% |
| 🦟 |
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14 | 3.47% |
| 🐝 |
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87 | 21.53% |
| Total: | 404 votes | ||
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Turtle Watch posted:Finally found a good editorial on the war from the mainstream news: quote:Tolkien often outlined that the orcs served Melkor because he convinced them that humans and elves were a greater evil – orcs who have been captured by them were subject to horrifying deaths (e.g. they were eaten alive). One can say that Tolkien almost predicted the myth of the ‘crucified child’ (a Russian propaganda stunt spread a while back) 60 years ago. The same method was used to demonize the enemy and subdue the population into believing they are up against evil. quote:The government is totally indifferent to the affairs of its citizens, but the citizens themselves do not see this problem, as they are too busy hating one another.
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Feb 11, 2023 15:38
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lmao just constantly insisting that Russia has never been a member of any western alliance, particularly not the one JJR Tolkein participated in the threat from the east is always russia, obviously. stupid. idiot. what? no. germany is WEST of russia.
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Feb 11, 2023 15:46
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Somebody should ask the Tolkien-understanders what Jews and Poles are in this cosmology, with a straight face. I guess the Ukrainians writing in English are canny enough not to get baited.
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Feb 11, 2023 15:49
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Frosted Flake posted:I think the point is that Ukraine wants it to happen, and that alone is dangerous and will become more dangerous as things progress. James Blunt, not Ed Sheeran
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Feb 11, 2023 15:53
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The Ryber Telegram is saying the Ukrainian forces defending Krasna Hora have been encircled.
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Feb 11, 2023 15:56
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Oh no are they still ordering their troops to hold out to the last man? Grim as gently caress.
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Feb 11, 2023 16:04
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Weka posted:If you draw a line from Sevastopol to Lwow it goes almost through the middle of Moldova. I can't believe I've been staring at the goddamn map for a year and still thought Moldova was on the wesernmost border jesus christ
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Feb 11, 2023 16:05
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Regarde Aduck posted:Oh no are they still ordering their troops to hold out to the last man? Grim as gently caress. It is probably too difficult to extract those and other forces at this point and a general withdraw would probably be chaotic at this point as Russian forces are already too close to lines of withdrawal. Basically, the forces in Bakhmut are being treated as a sunk cost.
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Feb 11, 2023 16:08
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CODChimera posted:https://twitter.com/olliecarroll/status/1623977651986628608 https://twitter.com/JulianRoepcke/status/1623999122448547842?s=20 From a pro-Ukrainian account. Ukrainian radar misidentified Romanian jets as Russian missiles.
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Feb 11, 2023 16:19
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At least they didn't fire sams into Romania this time
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Feb 11, 2023 16:26
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Ardennes posted:
There's always the chance of a freak accident drawing in the West unwittingly tough, specially under the constant escalation trend we've seen over the past year.
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Feb 11, 2023 16:30
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Ardennes posted:It is probably too difficult to extract those and other forces at this point and a general withdraw would probably be chaotic at this point as Russian forces are already too close to lines of withdrawal. more like props for a propaganda stunt
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Feb 11, 2023 16:31
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https://twitter.com/MatthewBevan/status/1624368226548465671?t=_N4YJcYcYEVBooWWZvOwRg&s=19 Love that we're doing this again
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Feb 11, 2023 16:53
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Cerebral Bore posted:i feel like them tolkien nerds should read another book before trying to draw real world parallels, specifically the last ringbearer love to read autistic fanfiction.
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Feb 11, 2023 16:57
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Cerebral Bore posted:more like props for a propaganda stunt Yeah I guess, but the general strategy is simply to hold up Russian forces until new armies are created to push the south, take out the Kerch bridge, and force a complete Russian surrender (that’s the idea). I don’t know if it is just propaganda or Hail Mary type of logic.
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Feb 11, 2023 16:57
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Tankbuster posted:love to read autistic fanfiction. well yea, you're in this thread after all
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Feb 11, 2023 17:01
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hey now, don't be rude to frostedflake.
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Feb 11, 2023 17:03
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gradenko_2000 posted:James Blunt, not Ed Sheeran Yeah what I’m saying is we need a James Blunt for this generation
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Feb 11, 2023 17:05
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*the goblin king jareth (putin) ordered his minions (russians) to kidnap sarah's baby brother (ukraine) and now sarah (nato) must get him back by midnight by finding him at the center of the labyrinth (international rules and norms)
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Feb 11, 2023 17:11
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Ardennes posted:Yeah I guess, but the general strategy is simply to hold up Russian forces until new armies are created to push the south, take out the Kerch bridge, and force a complete Russian surrender (that’s the idea). I don’t know if it is just propaganda or Hail Mary type of logic. I think that was contingent on Russia not mobilizing, striking infrastructure, and reliant on continuous high level NATO aid. If you need that strategy outline for 2023 it seems almost as if they were expecting NATO to give them weapons to strike Moscow, or at least that they’d continue getting weapons uninterrupted while using those tu-141s or whatever. Mostly I think Ukraine greatly overestimates their value and the extent NATO is willing to go for them, and at the same time they need to prove their worth by owning the news cycle over and over again. This puts them in greater and greater peril as they’re now wholly dependant on outside forces even to make payroll. So, recapturing Crimea requires NATO giving them, with only the slightest exaggeration, an entirely new army. Getting that requires proving they can win. Doing so requires having successes consistently make western headlines. The problem with all of this is that the cost to NATO increases as Ukraine gets in more dire straits but at the same time their diminished capacity makes spectacular successes, which in turn causes the NAFO people and even normies to demand F-16s for Ukraine, more difficult. It’s much easier for NATO to send enough to cost Russia and drag things out, rather than enough for Ukraine to win. With the leopards, that seems to be the case.
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Feb 11, 2023 17:15
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All this talk about Moldova and somehow I missed the President of Moldova resigning??? (sorry if it was mentioned in the previous ~600 posts which I didn't read)
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Feb 11, 2023 17:35
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Futanari Damacy posted:All this talk about Moldova and somehow I missed the President of Moldova resigning??? (sorry if it was mentioned in the previous ~600 posts which I didn't read) presidents in europe are mostly figureheads. it would be more impactful if the government collapsed and the prime minister resigned, which is what happened
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Feb 11, 2023 17:38
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i say swears online posted:presidents in europe are mostly figureheads. it would be more impactful if the government collapsed and the prime minister resigned, which is what happened Good thing Natalia Gavrilița was Prime Minister, then! *taps head*
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Feb 11, 2023 17:45
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Futanari Damacy posted:All this talk about Moldova and somehow I missed the President of Moldova resigning??? (sorry if it was mentioned in the previous ~600 posts which I didn't read) Yeah it was posted before but mostly just background noise. There was some noise around Moldova and Romania at the start of the war, but it's just ignored because it's already asking a lot for people to care about Ukraine in the first place.
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Feb 11, 2023 17:59
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Dorin Recean, the former Moldovan Interior Minister, has been appointed as the new Prime Minister and given the mandate to form a new government. He had most recently served as a defense and security advisor to the president. Seem like a hardliner based on "order and discipline" comments. quote:Recean said he would “proceed immediately” with setting up a new government and that his main focus will be to introduce “order and discipline” in Moldova’s institutions, breathe new life into the economy and ensure peace and stability.
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Feb 11, 2023 18:00
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https://twitter.com/EuromaidanPress/status/1624377243509071875
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Feb 11, 2023 18:01
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strategic lmao
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Feb 11, 2023 18:02
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snake island kinda looks like a tiny crimea
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Feb 11, 2023 18:08
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Ardennes posted:Yeah I guess, but the general strategy is simply to hold up Russian forces until new armies are created to push the south, take out the Kerch bridge, and force a complete Russian surrender (that’s the idea). I don’t know if it is just propaganda or Hail Mary type of logic. i think the general strategy is to do whatever it takes to keep the western aid flowing, as ff mentioned, and whether that means achieving battlefield successes or setting up some dramatic last stand scenario to keep the attention of the shitlibs is less of a concern
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Feb 11, 2023 18:19
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i'll give my undying support to whichever side drops a cloudmaker on snake island, shattering it
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Feb 11, 2023 18:29
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Raskolnikov38 posted:i'll give my undying support to whichever side drops a cloudmaker on snake island, shattering it I've said it before and I'll say it again: if Ukraine's government survives this war, and so does that island, they're going to turn it into a tourist attraction.
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Feb 11, 2023 18:35
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Tomorrow it's already time to head back home from Grozny. Beautiful and calm city, great people. It couldn't be further away from what the English Wikipedia tells you about about Chechnya, though even in Moscow people's reactions to "Oh yeah, we're heading to Grozny" is "Stay safe!". I guess, the war is still the biggest association people have with it. After heading out of our hotel on Friday, one of the first things we saw was this tank being moved somewhere. It was right outside of the heavily guarded gates that lead to the central buildings of Kadyrov's personal residence complex. No photos from that side, once you've seen the people guarding the gate you'd rather not get into an argument about whether photography is allowed there. What's definitely allowed is buying more Kadyrov merch in the Ахмат - Сила! shop for patriots on Putin Street. However, because Friday is the weekend, we couldn't go in.  "Ахмат - сила!" - "Akhmat is strength!", after Akhmat Kadyrov - Ramzan's dad and first president of the Chechen Republic. This phrase pops up everywhere all over the town, and is used by people in everyday life. In fact, in situations where in Egypt people would say "inshallah", Chechens often seem to say "Ахмат - сила!" instead. The implication, of course, being slightly different - not "if God wills it", but "we have the strength of Akhmat, and can do it".   In the evening I went to a local public banya, in a nice, newly-renovated wooden house slightly outside of the centre. Officially the public area seats about 70-80 people. When I arrived and asked if there's space left, they laughed and said no, and welcomed me in anyways.  Imagine walking into a steamy room heated to about 100 degrees C, with about 100 of these people sitting in there in nothing but swimming trunks and banya hats, and you're the only clean shaven white guy. There was literally no way to make it more obvious that I'm just visiting here. This is where the heart of Chechnya opened up and I met people, and we truly got talking about topics. It really stood out how in the know people are about what's going on in the world, and especially in the Ukraine. Almost everybody has a brother or cousin currently fighting there, and almost all of those are volunteers. Chechnya exists completely outside of the Western media bubble, and even mostly outside of the federal Russian one, and the government makes no attempts to distance the population from the reality of the war. Even though, of course, some Western brands still enjoy some popularity here.  Over some glasses of cheese water (literally the water wrung out of cheese cloths during cheese production!), we discussed the world situation and the Chechen view on what's going on. Even among those who have fought in the Ukraine, opinions were split about the state of the Russian army, ranging from "only the machines they display on camera work, the rest are being maintained" to "everything is top-notch, modern, and logistically well-supplied". I guess this just means that the state of the army is still somewhat uneven, though it seems to have improved significantly over the last year. To my question of what people think about the Kadyrovs here, the answers were interesting. Ramzan Kadyrov is not revered like a God, but rather there is a sort of mutual respect between them and the population. One guy told me a story of how he spent 10 years living in Germany, until his mum got cancer and he, as the oldest man in the family, bore the responsibility for getting her treatment. At the same time, he had his first child - a daughter who was born with a heart defect. He ended up losing his job and all of his money while trying to juggle the medical problems, but after 1.5 years of fighting his mother died and he had a family left to fed, no job, and 3000 rubles. They decided to pack up, return home to Chechnya. Now, seven years later, he is a successful businessman with his own construction company and he and his family live well. He attributes this to the stability that the Kadyrovs bring to the region. Their authority is unquestioned, but there seems to be a societal contract through which they don't abuse their power. Using the wealth of the family, they run the social system of Chechnya and help families like his in difficult situations by providing them with housing, food and even investment in new businesses. Everyone knows that they live a life of riches and luxury, but nobody really minds: "Look at what things were like 20 years ago, and what they are like now!". At the same time, it is also understood that the system is not debatable - and this is enforced. If you're in Chechnya and wanting to change things, they'd prefer for you to just leave.  All in all, I enjoyed Grozny quite a lot. Everyone here keeps telling us that it's necessary to return in summer to get a full impression of all the activities in Grozny, and to visit the mountains. Well, why not!
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Feb 11, 2023 18:35
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https://twitter.com/ggreenwald/status/1624133292847947778
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Feb 11, 2023 18:36
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Who is Glenn Greenwald?
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Feb 11, 2023 18:39
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Majorian posted:I've said it before and I'll say it again: if Ukraine's government survives this war, and so does that island, they're going to turn it into a tourist attraction. put a statue of liberty sized statue of bandera on it
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Feb 11, 2023 18:42
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Fat-Lip-Sum-41.mp3 posted:Who is Glenn Greenwald? i dunno, but he can't be as big of a dipshit as brown moses
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Feb 11, 2023 18:43
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Moddishly - "No glenn posting"  Cerebral Bore posted:i dunno, but he can't be as big of a dipshit as brown moses 
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Feb 11, 2023 18:43
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Cerebral Bore posted:i dunno, but he can't be as big of a dipshit as brown moses The Brown Noise Moses
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Feb 11, 2023 18:46
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glenn is right
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Feb 11, 2023 18:48
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Sounds like he's right.
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Feb 11, 2023 18:51
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