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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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DancingShade posted:A bunch of boneyard airframes 50 years old dumped at the polish border in a haphazard pile with a single badly photocopied "how to assemble" instruction manual in an A4 binder. To be fair, sourcing an American-made A4 binder would probably eat up a few hundred million of that.
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May 9, 2023 06:55
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https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2023/05/08/britain-ukraine-long-range-missile/quote:In a procurement notice posted May 2 by the British-led International Fund for Ukraine, a group of northern European countries that has set up a mechanism to send weapons to the battlefield, the United Kingdom’s Defense Ministry asked for “expressions of interest” in providing strike capabilities with a range of up to 300 kilometers, or nearly 200 miles. The notice asked for responses within three days.
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May 9, 2023 07:05
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Happy Victory Day everyone, a day to celebrate the victory of the Soviet Union over Nazism.
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May 9, 2023 08:03
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May 9, 2023 08:24
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stephenthinkpad posted:It's pretty obvious to me watching from the sideline, this is not a existential struggle to the west, but they have to keep saying that in front of the Ukrainians to encourage them cause maximum and long term damage to the Russia state. Yeah but from the inside, I'm not entirely sure that all of our important politicians actually realize this rather than truly believe in it. And even if they are in the know, what happens if elections happen and an opposition party which isn't in the know but truly believes the propaganda gets in? Especially in countries like the Baltics and Poland where they really have the potential to do some unilateral escalatory poo poo. And that's just the politicians. Regular people here are fully on board with this poo poo. Being a Marxist it's not like I've ever felt like I was normal or fit in politically, but seeing so many people around me go fully on board with this anti-Russian, pro-Ukrainian/pro-NATO narrative in existential terms, well, I agree with the others who have said it feels like going insane. I don't know how the ruling class is ever going to step away from this and put the genie back into the bottle. We've speculated earlier in the thread that at some point they'll just drop support and move on to China, and while tension with China has been ratcheting up over many years now (and again, you can see this reflected in attitudes of regular people), if I get to see regular people actually forget about this anti-Russia poo poo it'll be even more amazing to me than having seen it drummed up in the first place. Or well, having seen it drummed up for a second time, the first being Iraq. DancingShade posted:Sounds very risky for Russia with all that totally undefended unfortified border next to Ukraine they have. They fortified it actually. They dug a big anti-tank trench with earthworks behind it that goes all the way through into Russia proper to the Belorussian border iirc. Dutch newspaper interviewed a Dutch (ex?)general about this and he explained the idea of fieldworkds and preparing them in depth (Russia has constructed multiple lines of earthworks in occupied Ukrainian territory) etc etc, but then he also said he was "stumped" about why the Russians would continue the fieldworks into Russia proper and said it "doesn't make sense to do". Which is uhh, quite a thing to say. Orange Devil has issued a correction as of 08:33 on May 9, 2023 |
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May 9, 2023 08:24
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Truga posted:war citizen lol
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May 9, 2023 08:58
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gradenko_2000 posted:good news everyone the counteroffansive is a looming, zooming, hyperhussling super-investment opportunity! CODChimera posted:how is bakhmut still going on because the ukrainians keep shoveling more men into the grinder. and so do the russians i suppose, although their problem is more about getting enough shells to keep blowing up the ukrainians trying to reinforce untenable positions, as you can prolly guess from the epic prigozhin front lines rap vids, it seems to be taking quite a lot of dakka. you're not necessarily ever going to hear it ending, since they just left the motor on and forgot about it
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May 9, 2023 09:09
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Orange Devil posted:Dutch newspaper interviewed a Dutch (ex?)general about this and he explained the idea of fieldworkds and preparing them in depth (Russia has constructed multiple lines of earthworks in occupied Ukrainian territory) etc etc, but then he also said he was "stumped" about why the Russians would continue the fieldworks into Russia proper and said it "doesn't make sense to do". Which is uhh, quite a thing to say. Salute to this guy, whose destiny is to serve as one of the moron enemy generals that a main character defeats
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May 9, 2023 09:09
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Al-Saqr posted:sadly that will just be replaced with russian and chinese debt becuause we live in hell https://twitter.com/KyleTrainEmoji/status/1612925007444987906?s=20 https://twitter.com/therichardgh/status/1640300480839446533?s=20 mods give al-saqr a 6er for doubting xi jinping thought and attempting to neg putin instead of kissing him on the lips
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May 9, 2023 09:24
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Frosted Flake posted:e: What frustrates me is that my wife, peers, friends, believe that the harsher the penalty for something is, the more wrong it is, if you follow. So if you throw the book at people for posting, then posting is a serious crime good people don’t do and must be abhorred. paul_soccer12 posted:FF i genuinely think your cato wife is going to end up ruining your poo poo some day soon and i recommend sever. the wife strife seems to be escalating quicker and quicker each month and I think you will be thrown under the bus to protect her cato career. take my advice, from a friend. god bless. night of the life-long wife's report to the canadian CIA
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May 9, 2023 09:40
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Slim Jim Pickens posted:Salute to this guy, whose destiny is to serve as one of the moron enemy generals that a main character defeats general lars von de jong brouwer dekker walking through waterlogged streets in a pair of wooden clogs to get a fried potato and fish waffle from the local cafe when he is interrupted by prigozhin stepping from out from shadow with a cry of "MAN FILTH!"
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May 9, 2023 09:48
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Doing a colonialism by cancelling debt
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May 9, 2023 09:48
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Orange Devil posted:They fortified it actually. They dug a big anti-tank trench with earthworks behind it that goes all the way through into Russia proper to the Belorussian border iirc. Maybe I did it wrong but yeah. I was trying to joke that yeah obviousy Russia wouldn't have 2 border guards and a shack with rotary telephone at the nearby villages but defence in depth because they (correctly) see the general topic as a matter of national survival. The fact the Dutch guy you mentioned is confused... well, its been a long time since The West [tm] filled positions of authority based primarily off merit. Not just the Dutch, its the general rot. edit - wait I just remembered it was the Dutch who gave Ukraine their entire artillery park lol DancingShade has issued a correction as of 09:55 on May 9, 2023 |
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May 9, 2023 09:51
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V. Illych L. posted:there was a minor spat in our left-wing(!) newspaper over whether "slava ukraini" is a reasonable equivalent to "no pasaran" as far as anti-fascist slogans go lol
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May 9, 2023 10:03
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Prigozhin is back on his poo poo. https://twitter.com/NOELreports/status/1655855435323256834 Please Zelensky, launch the counteroffensive so there's something more to talk about than this clown.
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May 9, 2023 10:15
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PoontifexMacksimus posted:Doing a colonialism by cancelling debt If you took the most cynical reading, how would this work? Isn't the idea you keep them indebted to you buy offering them more Cancelling debt only buys you goodwill unless there's some backroom dealing going on with other assets?
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May 9, 2023 10:19
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is Prigozhin an Assassin or a Templar
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May 9, 2023 10:19
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1stGear posted:Prigozhin is back on his poo poo. Spoken like a guy who's planning to go base jumping without a parachute.
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May 9, 2023 10:22
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Z the IVth posted:If you took the most cynical reading, how would this work? Isn't the idea you keep them indebted to you buy offering them more Poontifex is being sarcastic the idea behind the "debt trap" is that once the indebted country can no longer pay their debt to debtor (i.e. China), then the debtor gets to either seize strategic assets as compensation for the unpaid debt or they get to demand that the country implement policies favorable to the debtor in exchange for "restructuring" the debt (i.e. extending the payment schedule) but in this case, China is forgiving the debt, and they're not extracting concessions while doing it, so no debt trap is being laid the ones that actually do this? the IMF and the World Bank
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May 9, 2023 10:23
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gradenko_2000 posted:is Prigozhin an Assassin or a Templar Prigozhin is, surprisingly, a wild mage.
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May 9, 2023 10:24
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gradenko_2000 posted:Poontifex is being sarcastic I get this but what's the benefit for China/Russia? I can't imagine it's plain contrarianism or out of the goodness of their hearts. Soft power?
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May 9, 2023 10:28
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Z the IVth posted:I get this but what's the benefit for China/Russia? I can't imagine it's plain contrarianism or out of the goodness of their hearts. Soft power? The US navy is for burning down unruly Third World Countries. The Chinese and Russian navies are for sinking the US navy. The material basis of those debt relations is very different.
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May 9, 2023 10:33
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air defence working hard, victory day parade only had 1 tank, Prigozhin getting more and more outrageous, ukraine counter offensive looming...
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May 9, 2023 10:39
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Z the IVth posted:I get this but what's the benefit for China/Russia? I can't imagine it's plain contrarianism or out of the goodness of their hearts. Soft power? China and Russia need markets, and access to markets, but those markets need to be developed if they're going to be accessible
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May 9, 2023 10:41
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what if the ukrainians and russians were just doing a wag the dog to get money and weapons from nato? just release a map every couple of days with arrows around a city no one's ever heard of and watch the dollars roll in
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May 9, 2023 10:48
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if I had 100 trillion dollars it’s something I would do to help people so it may be just becuase they are nice.
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May 9, 2023 11:15
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Majorian posted:Prigozhin is, surprisingly, a wild mage. he's clan nosferatu
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May 9, 2023 11:23
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V. Illych L. posted:there was a minor spat in our left-wing(!) newspaper over whether "slava ukraini" is a reasonable equivalent to "no pasaran" as far as anti-fascist slogans go I forsee great things for the new Patriotic Left!
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May 9, 2023 11:50
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Orange Devil posted:Yeah but from the inside, I'm not entirely sure that all of our important politicians actually realize this rather than truly believe in it. And even if they are in the know, what happens if elections happen and an opposition party which isn't in the know but truly believes the propaganda gets in? Especially in countries like the Baltics and Poland where they really have the potential to do some unilateral escalatory poo poo. In order to make it believable, the elite can't tell this secret to too many people. They are making the smaller EU countries like Finland and Sweden believe this is an existential struggle in order to sell it, and thus sell it to the Ukrainians. The Ukrainians need to feel it's possible to get NATO to come in, other wise they won't sacrifice their lives. You are right this is however a giant ship once you set sail, you can not turn it around and make the whole ship move to Taiwan. Like emotionally you can not do it. That's why the Realists think tanks has been saying this is a stupid strategy from the get go. You find a very cheap and cost effective way to kill Russians, but this decade is the wrong time to kill the Russians or the Russia state. The liberal hegemony can not walk away from a beautiful treat of killing the Russians at lloooooowww cost, they can not! even though the Chinese are visibly smiling on the side. quote:They fortified it actually. They dug a big anti-tank trench with earthworks behind it that goes all the way through into Russia proper to the Belorussian border iirc. Well this guy probably knows the war will stop at the current front line with barbwire for the next 4 decades, that's why he said the quiet part loud, why build trench works inside Russian proper. He knows those 300 NATO tanks is not going to roll into Russia.
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May 9, 2023 12:15
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DancingShade posted:edit - wait I just remembered it was the Dutch who gave Ukraine their entire artillery park lol I'm loving telling you the rhetoric here is *insane*.
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May 9, 2023 12:36
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Z the IVth posted:I get this but what's the benefit for China/Russia? I can't imagine it's plain contrarianism or out of the goodness of their hearts. Soft power? Pry these countries (aka, their natural resources, labour power and whatever industrial capacity exists) away from the clutches of the empire. You can't fight the US military, not really. But you can try to starve it. Moreover it means you keep access to those resources yourself, rather than the empire through its sanctions regime forcing you in isolation and having to become an autarky, which would be painful and add potentially decades to the timeschedule of achieving a modern socialist country that is prosperous, strong, democratic, culturally advanced and harmonious in 2049 for China. Orange Devil has issued a correction as of 12:43 on May 9, 2023 |
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May 9, 2023 12:39
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Nice Heer cut on the Estonian cop
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May 9, 2023 12:44
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i also find russias ideology of neoliberal capitalism distasteful
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May 9, 2023 12:45
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Orange Devil posted:You can't fight the US military, not really. But you can try to starve it. I mean nuclear armed powers really don't want to fight each other for obvious reasons, but I don't really think the US military as strong as many in Europe think. If the nukes weren't there, China, at least in a couple years would probably straight up win a fight. Obviously, the nukes are there and wars are disruptive to trade, so it makes more sense to push into former Western markets and let the US crumble from the inside out.
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May 9, 2023 12:56
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Even without the nukes, which is a rather huge thing to leave out, I do believe the US military continues to have the capacity to very seriously damage any other country on earth. If China and the US get stuck in a proxy-war in which they aren't directly attacking eachothers homeland with weapons nuclear or conventional, then yeah China can win... but at what cost? Prudent policy would always be to prepare for the eventuality if it comes to it, because the empire is run by rabid beasts, but to never deliberately seek that outcome.
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May 9, 2023 13:02
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Orange Devil posted:Even without the nukes, which is a rather huge thing to leave out, I do believe the US military continues to have the capacity to very seriously damage any other country on earth. If China and the US get stuck in a proxy-war in which they aren't directly attacking eachothers homeland with weapons nuclear or conventional, then yeah China can win... but at what cost? But it is important to recognize exactly how sharp the claws of those beasts are and as always somewhere in between what people hope and what people fear. I do think if the US was better lead or had leadership, the US military could be a viable threat, but at the same time, there are plenty of cracks out there and there are getting wider.
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May 9, 2023 13:15
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Z the IVth posted:If you took the most cynical reading, how would this work? Isn't the idea you keep them indebted to you buy offering them more China isn’t trying to impose austerity in the world by looking at US behavior in the interwar period and then post Breton Woods. The interwar ally debts from WW1 that piled up from the US lend lease program onto Britain and France forced them to them to then impose debt repayments from Germany. At the same time, the US didn’t send enough dollars to Europe as they were a protectionist economy that banned German exports, and therefore no real way for Germany to pay back in dollars. The private sector then stepped in via direct foreign investment which eventually stabilized it, until the stock market crash plunged Germany into hyperinflation as they defaulted on interest payments. Learning from this mistake after WW2, the American government directly spent billions into Germany and Japan, gave them back captured industry for free or cheap, spurred infrastructure and outright wrote off debts in order to make sure that they could become a formidable economy. This benefitted America tremendously, as American producers were able to export their goods to Europe. The IMF and World Bank didn’t regress back to the interwar style debt austerity program until much later, and only weaponized against left wing countries that we needed to make sure didn’t nationalize their natural resources as we depend on cheap commodity prices. China doesn’t really want to develop their markets by making them polarized, debt ridden neoliberal countries. There’s a recipe pioneered by the Americans via Germany and Japan that benefitted the entire world, and didn’t depend on total cynicism.
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May 9, 2023 14:05
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dk2m posts loving rock
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May 9, 2023 14:09
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Cuttlefush posted:dk2m posts loving rock ya
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May 9, 2023 14:16
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The goal of IMF and world bank is to create dependency to the west. Like for example, you get this loan but you have to privatize this and this state functions so international (western) companies will come in and control them; or you have to change your self-sustained food economic and focus on this single export oriented crop such as coffee bean which has a high price now but can easily controlled by international (western) buyers. Once your economic is transformed into export oriented, the coffee bean price will go down and you will be forever in debt with IMF and the west. The goad of China's BRI is not to create dependency , but secure continuous commodities supply, so when poo poo hits the fan, China will guaranteed to have resource or raw material to continue manufacturing. China isn't planning to get rip of her manufacturing industries any time soon, so securing energy and raw material long term contract at the source is important. China also care about the delivery of commodities, so they invest in a lot of ship building, shipping companies and oversea ports. The west has basically deindustrialized, so they don't want their hands on the actual raw material, they want to continue own the pricing mechanism of commodities. So they can buy commodities from one group of poor countries, dispatch the raw material to whatever new manufacturing countries they want to build up (Vietnam India) and make max profit at the retail end. I am not familiar with Russia's scale of operation in Africa, I can't comment on their debt forgiveness program.
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May 9, 2023 14:24
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