Ukraine War: Berth El Buk

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(Thread IKs: weg, Toxic Mental)

Deki: May 12, 2008; It's Hammer Time!

Telsa Cola posted:

Rome was pretty not okay with the whole Christianity thing at first so the whole it was a roman goverment conspiracy is pretty insane.

I mean, the Romans did eventually take control of the whole thing, but that was more opportunism after Christianity had grown to be very popular.

# ? May 25, 2023 02:51

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# ? May 30, 2024 14:26

CAT INTERCEPTOR: Nov 9, 2004; Basically a male Margaret Thatcher

WAR CRIME GIGOLO posted:

Ukraine is now within spitting distance of the t0513 highway they have also liberated Yahidne and are actively sieging berkhivka.

We are looking at a major event in the next week or so. What I do notice is that the speed at which Ukraine is taking back territory surrounding bakhmut is getting faster as the last two days have progressed.

Wagner's once again complaining and Ukraine is in the outskirts of bakhmut with at least half a mile or so worth of city scape behind them.

Literally another mission accomplished by the Russian military. Wagner is definitely going all in on the fact that bakhmood is captured so that they can loving leave because they know what is about to happen is going to be devastating. This may be the moment that the Russian army's back is broken as the lines are going to start disintegrating over the next coming weeks. At least in this direction.

Big big loving news folks keep your calendars and your live UA maps open.

Been somewhat harder to follow esp with OSINT being more focused on Belgorod (quite resonably) - is there a map showing the curent situation?

# ? May 25, 2023 02:57

HonorableTB: Dec 22, 2006

I encourage the thread to research into Active Measures at least to the Wikipedia level. It will do a lot towards helping pick out Russian disinformation tactics

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_measures?wprov=sfla1

# ? May 25, 2023 03:06

lifetime supply of Pocky: Aug 19, 2003

XYZAB posted:

that's the power of JESUS

edit: if you can believe that a white dude in israel turned water into wine and sand into fish 2000 years ago and then came back to life after he was publicly executed or whatever the gently caress, your brain is already primed to believe the dumbest grifter poo poo anyone can throw at you. this is the common thread that binds them: blind faith. if you're looking for a cultural event that happened to make both sides' chuds think so much alike, you'll want to investigate the possibility that Jesus was a psyop invented by the Roman heads of state to control the uppity jewish population by replacing them with a docile idiot population. somewhere along the line it got a little bit out of control, and all bets have been off ever since. thanks for coming to my ted talk.

edit 2: look at me i'm in an anime avatar sandwich

I have that �Jesus was a Fabian psyop� book around here somewhere. It�s sorta entertaining, but it�s poo poo scholarship

# ? May 25, 2023 03:10

Pekinduck: May 10, 2008

Sashimi posted:

The biolabs line of bullshit goes back at least as far the 80s, when the Soviet Union tried to spread disinfo about HIV coming out of a lab.

I had a hippie professor in college who believed the HIV is a myth thing. I gently questioned him on it and he gave me a D- lol.

# ? May 25, 2023 03:14

FirstnameLastname: Jul 10, 2022

Sashimi posted:

The biolabs line of bullshit goes back at least as far the 80s, when the Soviet Union tried to spread disinfo about HIV coming out of a lab.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jan/27/south-african-intelligence-officers-spread-aids-black-communities

quote:

it also claims the group�s then leader had a racist, apocalyptic obsession with HIV/Aids. Keith Maxwell wrote about a plague he hoped would decimate black populations, cement white rule, and bring back conservative religious mores, according to papers collected by the film-makers.

Maxwell had no medical qualifications but ran clinics in poor, mostly black areas around Johannesburg while claiming to be a doctor. That gave him the opportunity for sinister experimentation, Jones says in the film, Cold Case Hammarskj�ld. The film-makers were investigating SAIMR because it claimed responsibility for the mysterious 1961 plane crash that killed Dag Hammarskj�ld, then UN secretary general.

�What easier way to get a guinea pig than [when] you live in an apartheid system?� Jones says in the film. �Black people have got no rights, they need medical treatment. There�s a white �philanthropist� coming in and saying, �You know, I�ll open up these clinics and I�ll treat you.� And meantime [he is] actually the wolf in sheep�s clothing

A sign advertising �Dokotela [doctor] Maxwell� still hangs from the side of an office in Putfontein where locals remember a respected man with a virtual monopoly on the area�s healthcare. He offered strange treatments. including putting patients through �tubes�, which he said allowed him to see inside their bodies. He also gave �false injections�, said Ibrahim Karolia, who ran a shop across the road.

Documents collected by the film-makers appear to show that Maxwell�s private views were very different from his public persona. The papers suggest a ghoulish delight in the advent of an epidemic. In one he writes: �[South Africa] may well have one man, one vote with a white majority by the year 2000. Religion in its conservative, traditional form will return. Abortion on demand, abuse of drugs, and the other excesses of the 1960s, 70s and 80s will have no place in the post-Aids world.�

Jones, the former SAIMR member, claims he did. �We were involved in Mozambique, spreading the Aids virus through medical conditions,� he says.

# ? May 25, 2023 03:19

HonorableTB: Dec 22, 2006

Interesting if true. Take with grain of salt

https://twitter.com/UKikaski/status/1661474151587016705?s=20

Arms supplies to Ukraine have increased in speed by 30%

https://www.defenseone.com/threats/2023/05/arms-ukraine-flow-30-faster-us-relearns-cold-war-skills/386704/

Interesting bit in there about USA sending 2 million artillery shells as part of the latest tranche of aid

HonorableTB fucked around with this message at 03:35 on May 25, 2023

# ? May 25, 2023 03:27

Ronwayne: Nov 20, 2007; That warm and fuzzy feeling.

Telsa Cola posted:

Rome was pretty not okay with the whole Christianity thing at first so the whole it was a roman goverment conspiracy is pretty insane.

Also it's 2023, while super religious crazy people are cringe in close second is internet atheists.

Thanks for listening to my Tedx talk

I will see you and raise you internet atheists that become internet super religious crazy people. Many such cases!

Imagine the sort of person who has a late life awakening and conversion due to Paradox map making games and wishes they could inflict a "Expel the Jews" decision on people in real life. This is the sort of person that turns into an online supporter of the russian government in its struggle against 'modernity'.

# ? May 25, 2023 03:30

HonorableTB: Dec 22, 2006

pop quiz for the thread: did you know that the united states did invade russia once with ground troops

# ? May 25, 2023 03:33

WAR CRIME GIGOLO: Oct 3, 2012; The Hague
tryna get me
for these glutes

HonorableTB posted:

pop quiz for the thread: did you know that the united states did invade russia once with ground troops

Remember Archangelsk.

Also remember the Brits using the Americans as cannon fodder in that lovely lovely little conflict.

What was funny was the US was insanely close to getting units WIPED OUT 100% dead by the red army by the end of that campaign.

# ? May 25, 2023 03:34

Ronwayne: Nov 20, 2007; That warm and fuzzy feeling.

Wasn't it a Minnasotan unit they dropped into Siberia or something?

# ? May 25, 2023 03:34

Ragtime All The Time: Apr 6, 2011

did Salvia Eric start a ukraine live stream show?

# ? May 25, 2023 03:35

HonorableTB: Dec 22, 2006

Ronwayne posted:

Wasn't it a Minnasotan unit they dropped into Siberia or something?

to be fair i would expect minnesotans to deal well with siberian climates

# ? May 25, 2023 03:35

Toxic Mental: Jun 1, 2019

The whole "wow ur fedora atheist cringe" thing hasn't really had any sway online since like 2013 and now we see poo poo like what is going on in Florida and Georgia with evangelicals mixing their religion into state politics and trying to interdict in funding to Ukraine, among a fuckton of other poo poo like Roe v Wade and LGBTQ harassment and suppression.

The atheists were right the whole time and I would bet you just about anything that the strongest opponents of funding Ukraine and NATO are people who would call themselves highly religious

# ? May 25, 2023 03:36

HonorableTB: Dec 22, 2006

The head of occupied Crimea said that the Crimean bridge was closed for exercises. Residents see smoke over the bridge.

# ? May 25, 2023 03:38

Ronwayne: Nov 20, 2007; That warm and fuzzy feeling.

HonorableTB posted:

to be fair i would expect minnesotans to deal well with siberian climates

You'd think so but Russian winter wrecked even the Swedes when they tried it under Charles XII. Climate change turning general winter into private mud is going to have some interesting repercussions in the future.

# ? May 25, 2023 03:39

Mulva: Sep 13, 2011; It's about time for my once per decade ban for being a consistently terrible poster.

XYZAB posted:

that's the power of JESUS

edit: if you can believe that a white dude in israel turned water into wine and sand into fish 2000 years ago and then came back to life after he was publicly executed or whatever the gently caress, your brain is already primed to believe the dumbest grifter poo poo anyone can throw at you. this is the common thread that binds them: blind faith. if you're looking for a cultural event that happened to make both sides' chuds think so much alike, you'll want to investigate the possibility that Jesus was a psyop invented by the Roman heads of state to control the uppity jewish population by replacing them with a docile idiot population. somewhere along the line it got a little bit out of control, and all bets have been off ever since. thanks for coming to my ted talk.

edit 2: look at me i'm in an anime avatar sandwich

I love the transition from "People that believe in Jesus are so loving stupid" immediately into the stupidest loving conspiracy theory nonsense. People are people, and I am endlessly entertained by that fact.

# ? May 25, 2023 03:40

WAR CRIME GIGOLO: Oct 3, 2012; The Hague
tryna get me
for these glutes

HonorableTB posted:

The head of occupied Crimea said that the Crimean bridge was closed for exercises. Residents see smoke over the bridge.

This is Russian propaganda. They send units to smoke up the bridge. It's fake at this point. "Exercises" or some bullshit. Legitimately.

Until we have full confirmation

# ? May 25, 2023 03:40

Barudak: May 7, 2007

Im sure smoke on a bridge is a good thing

# ? May 25, 2023 03:40

Deteriorata: Feb 6, 2005

Toxic Mental posted:

The whole "wow ur fedora atheist cringe" thing hasn't really had any sway online since like 2013 and now we see poo poo like what is going on in Florida and Georgia with evangelicals mixing their religion into state politics and trying to interdict in funding to Ukraine, among a fuckton of other poo poo like Roe v Wade and LGBTQ harassment and suppression.

The atheists were right the whole time and I would bet you just about anything that the strongest opponents of funding Ukraine and NATO are people who would call themselves highly religious

Reminder that Southern Evangelicals ≠ Christians.

# ? May 25, 2023 03:41

CommissarMega: Nov 18, 2008; THUNDERDOME LOSER

HonorableTB posted:

The head of occupied Crimea said that the Crimean bridge was closed for exercises. Residents see smoke over the bridge.

To be fair, he never said whose exercises.

# ? May 25, 2023 03:41

HonorableTB: Dec 22, 2006

New ISW dropped on the Kremlin's Pyrrhic victory in Bakhmut as a retrospective. I won't paste the whole thing but it's a good read and worth your time:

https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/kremlin%E2%80%99s-pyrrhic-victory-bakhmut-retrospective-battle-bakhmut

This is a great explainer for what happened with Bakhmut as it developed over time

ISW posted:

Russia declared victory in Bakhmut on May 21, 2023, after fighting for the city for nearly a year.[1] The battle marks the first claimed Russian victory over a large city since the capture of Severodonetsk and Lysychansk in the summer of 2022. The Battle for Bakhmut is still ongoing as Ukrainian forces regained the initiative and are counterattacking Bakhmut�s flanks north and south of the city. The Russian year-long drive began as part of a theoretically sensible but overly-ambitious operational effort but ended as a purely symbolic gesture that cost tens of thousands of Russian casualties.

The seizure of Bakhmut was originally intended to facilitate Russian offensives to encircle large Ukrainian forces in the east and specifically to take the large and fortified city of Slovyansk from multiple directions. Bakhmut was not a primary Russian objective during the early phases of the war, and the Russian military command aimed to secure Donetsk Oblast�s administrative borders by seizing major Ukrainian strongholds such as Slovyansk and Kramatorsk directly. The Ukrainian liberation of most of Kharkiv Oblast in September 2022 ended the immediate Russian threats to Slovyansk and, secondarily, Kramatorsk, whereupon Bakhmut became the main operational and political objective for the Kremlin. Bakhmut fit into the planned Russian winter offensive as one of several lines of advance that were supposed to end by securing the Luhansk and Donetsk oblast boundaries, but all the other attempted advances failed, once more depriving the battle for Bakhmut of hypothetical operational significance by March-April 2023. Moscow stubbornly clung to its efforts to seize Bakhmut regardless of the operational context and ultimately took the destroyed city at a hideous cost in manpower and materiel, then ceding the initiative in the Bakhmut area to Ukraine.[2]

The Russian military command initially sought to seize Bakhmut to support a wide encirclement of Ukrainian forces in Donbas in Spring 2022. Following the Russian withdrawal from Kyiv and the refocusing of Russian military efforts in the east in April 2022 the Russian military command aimed to encircle a large group of Ukrainian forces in western Luhansk and eastern Donetsk oblasts.[3] The Russian military command sought to conduct three simultaneous maneuvers that would collectively surround and seize the Slovyansk stronghold: a westward push through Severodonetsk-Lysychansk, a drive south from Izyum (southeastern Kharkiv Oblast), and an attack north from Bakhmut. The Russian military command sought to secure and advance along the E40 highway - which connects Izyum, Slovyansk, and the Bakhmut area - to quickly encircle Ukrainian forces in eastern Donetsk Oblast and advance towards the region�s western borders.[4] The Russian seizure of Bakhmut was a necessary but not sufficient condition for this massive encirclement to succeed. Russian forces captured Izyum in early April 2022 and the Severodonetsk-Lysychansk area in late June and early July 2022, and began launching localized attacks southeast and east of Bakhmut in May 2022.[5] ISW assessed at the time that Russian forces were unlikely to complete this wide encirclement as Russian forces would be unable to advance far enough or quickly enough to accomplish it, an assessment that proved accurate.[6]

Russia declared victory in Bakhmut on May 21, 2023, after fighting for the city for nearly a year.[1] The battle marks the first claimed Russian victory over a large city since the capture of Severodonetsk and Lysychansk in the summer of 2022. The Battle for Bakhmut is still ongoing as Ukrainian forces regained the initiative and are counterattacking Bakhmut�s flanks north and south of the city. The Russian year-long drive began as part of a theoretically sensible but overly-ambitious operational effort but ended as a purely symbolic gesture that cost tens of thousands of Russian casualties.

The seizure of Bakhmut was originally intended to facilitate Russian offensives to encircle large Ukrainian forces in the east and specifically to take the large and fortified city of Slovyansk from multiple directions. Bakhmut was not a primary Russian objective during the early phases of the war, and the Russian military command aimed to secure Donetsk Oblast�s administrative borders by seizing major Ukrainian strongholds such as Slovyansk and Kramatorsk directly. The Ukrainian liberation of most of Kharkiv Oblast in September 2022 ended the immediate Russian threats to Slovyansk and, secondarily, Kramatorsk, whereupon Bakhmut became the main operational and political objective for the Kremlin. Bakhmut fit into the planned Russian winter offensive as one of several lines of advance that were supposed to end by securing the Luhansk and Donetsk oblast boundaries, but all the other attempted advances failed, once more depriving the battle for Bakhmut of hypothetical operational significance by March-April 2023. Moscow stubbornly clung to its efforts to seize Bakhmut regardless of the operational context and ultimately took the destroyed city at a hideous cost in manpower and materiel, then ceding the initiative in the Bakhmut area to Ukraine.[2]

The Russian military command initially sought to seize Bakhmut to support a wide encirclement of Ukrainian forces in Donbas in Spring 2022. Following the Russian withdrawal from Kyiv and the refocusing of Russian military efforts in the east in April 2022 the Russian military command aimed to encircle a large group of Ukrainian forces in western Luhansk and eastern Donetsk oblasts.[3] The Russian military command sought to conduct three simultaneous maneuvers that would collectively surround and seize the Slovyansk stronghold: a westward push through Severodonetsk-Lysychansk, a drive south from Izyum (southeastern Kharkiv Oblast), and an attack north from Bakhmut. The Russian military command sought to secure and advance along the E40 highway - which connects Izyum, Slovyansk, and the Bakhmut area - to quickly encircle Ukrainian forces in eastern Donetsk Oblast and advance towards the region�s western borders.[4] The Russian seizure of Bakhmut was a necessary but not sufficient condition for this massive encirclement to succeed. Russian forces captured Izyum in early April 2022 and the Severodonetsk-Lysychansk area in late June and early July 2022, and began launching localized attacks southeast and east of Bakhmut in May 2022.[5] ISW assessed at the time that Russian forces were unlikely to complete this wide encirclement as Russian forces would be unable to advance far enough or quickly enough to accomplish it, an assessment that proved accurate.[6]

Russia reprioritized the Battle for Bakhmut in July-August 2022, following the culmination of Russian attacks on the Severodonetsk-Lysychansk line. Wagner forces began localized assaults around settlements east and southeast of Bakhmut, using Popasna and previously Russian occupied territories as springboards for further operations.[11] The Wagner Group also began to expand its forces by recruiting convicts, likely after Wagner financier Yevgeny Prigozhin promised Putin to maintain offensive operations during the period when Russian regular forces were unable to pursue further offensive operations across the theater.[12] It is possible that the Russian military command hoped to eventually resume the drive to the E40 highway after recruiting volunteers to compensate for dwindling reserves. Russian forces still held positions in the Izyum-Lyman area, which made an advance from north and south along the E40 to secure Slovyansk theoretically possible if highly unlikely due to Russia�s force composition and degraded offensive capabilities.

The successful Ukrainian counteroffensives in Kharkiv Oblast in September 2022 that liberated Izyum ended the prospect of a wide encirclement of Ukrainian forces in the east, thus depriving the attacks on Bakhmut of operational significance. Ukrainian forces liberated Izyum on September 10-11.[13] The loss of Izyum meant that Russian forces no longer threatened Ukrainian defenders in Slovyansk and could no longer hope to conduct a multi-directional offensive from Bakhmut, Izyum, and the east.[14] ISW assessed on September 11 that the loss of Izyum doomed the initial Russian campaign plan to attack Slovyansk from multiple directions and that even the seizure of Bakhmut would �no longer support any larger effort to accomplish the original objectives of this phase of the campaign since it would not be supported by an advance from Izyum in the north.�[15] ISW also assessed that Russian offensive operations against Bakhmut and around Donetsk City have �lost any real operational significance for Moscow and merely waste some of [Russia�s] extremely limited effective combat power.�

Wagner mercenaries nevertheless intensified their offensives on Bakhmut and fully committed to the Battle for Bakhmut in Fall 2022 likely to achieve informational and political rather than operational objectives. The Kremlin desperately needed any battlefield victory as Russian forces suffered a great military defeat in Kharkiv Oblast in September and in Lyman (about 43km north of Bakhmut) on October 1.[16] Putin had also faced significant backlash after declaring partial mobilization on September 21 and likely allowed Prigozhin to initiate the Wagner offensive on Bakhmut at least partly in response.[17] Prigozhin himself likely sought to capture Bakhmut in a timely manner in order to convince Putin to promote Wagner-affiliated officials within the Russian military command. Wagner forces began to intensify their offensives northeast, south, and southeast of Bakhmut following the appointment of Wagner-affiliated Army General Sergei Surovikin as the theater commander on October 8.[18] Prigozhin later claimed that he and Surovikin began operation �Bakhmut meatgrinder� to pin Ukrainian forces in Bakhmut shortly after Surovikin�s appointment.[19] The purpose of the efforts to pin Ukrainian forces in Bakhmut in Fall 2022 were unclear�there were no other significant Russian offensives underway, and Ukrainian counteroffensives culminated with the liberation of western Kherson Oblast.

Wagner mercenaries shifted their approach to seizing Bakhmut to a focus on encircling and trapping Ukrainian forces in Bakhmut City by expending a high proportion of their estimated 40,000 prisoner recruits in deadly human wave attacks.[20] At least 22,000 prisoners disappeared from Russian prisons between October and November 2022 alone - likely as a result of Wagner�s prisoner recruitment efforts.[21] A Russian opposition outlet concluded that 55 percent of the total reported Wagner fatalities in October occurred just on October 24 and October 27 � when Ukrainian forces resisted Wagner assaults on the eastern outskirts of the city.[22] The outlet concluded that the number of social media reports commemorating Wagner servicemen increased by more than 2.5 times as they were committed to suicidal drives on Bakhmut�s immediate outskirts.[23]

# ? May 25, 2023 03:43

Toxic Mental: Jun 1, 2019

Deteriorata posted:

Reminder that Southern Evangelicals ≠ Christians.

Tell that to them

# ? May 25, 2023 03:44

WAR CRIME GIGOLO: Oct 3, 2012; The Hague
tryna get me
for these glutes

There we go. This is roughly the map at this point. Light blue is areas of real infantry manuevers.

WAR CRIME GIGOLO fucked around with this message at 04:27 on May 25, 2023

# ? May 25, 2023 03:50

Pekinduck: May 10, 2008

Deteriorata posted:

Reminder that Southern Evangelicals ≠ Christians.

coulda fooled me!

# ? May 25, 2023 03:57

Deteriorata: Feb 6, 2005

Pekinduck posted:

coulda fooled me!

It's an error of generalization. Southern Evangelicals are a particular sect of Christians. The vast majority of Christians are not Southern Evangelicals.

It's like claiming that all automobiles are Fords.

# ? May 25, 2023 04:16

Karma Comedian: Feb 2, 2012

HonorableTB posted:

New ISW dropped on the Kremlin's Pyrrhic victory in Bakhmut as a retrospective. I won't paste the whole thing but it's a good read and worth your time:

https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/kremlin%E2%80%99s-pyrrhic-victory-bakhmut-retrospective-battle-bakhmut

This is a great explainer for what happened with Bakhmut as it developed over time

I meant to post this earlier but it got stuck in the drafts

Good read

# ? May 25, 2023 04:28

LRADIKAL: Jun 10, 2001; Fun Shoe

Deteriorata posted:

It's an error of generalization. Southern Evangelicals are a particular sect of Christians. The vast majority of Christians are not Southern Evangelicals.

It's like claiming that all automobiles are Fords.

Fords aren't the only automobile manufacturer who preaches pro life and hates gays and minorities.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_true_Scotsman obv

# ? May 25, 2023 04:40

EorayMel: May 30, 2015; WE GET IT. YOU LOVE GUN JESUS. Toujours des fusils Bullpup Fran�ais.

How long does Putin stay up past his bedtime wondering if his luck finally ran out and he knows there is a non-zero percent chance someone tries pushing him out a window over the war

# ? May 25, 2023 04:52

sebmojo: Oct 23, 2010; Legit Cyberpunk

WAR CRIME GIGOLO posted:

There we go. This is roughly the map at this point. Light blue is areas of real infantry manuevers.

Fixed ur img link

# ? May 25, 2023 04:58

Jimlit: Jun 30, 2005

EorayMel posted:

How long does Putin stay up past his bedtime wondering if his luck finally ran out and he knows there is a non-zero percent chance someone tries pushing him out a window over the war

It's like his primary driving force.

# ? May 25, 2023 05:03

Pekinduck: May 10, 2008

EorayMel posted:

How long does Putin stay up past his bedtime wondering if his luck finally ran out and he knows there is a non-zero percent chance someone tries pushing him out a window over the war

I've always wondered what its like to be Putin, one of Stalin's toadies or similar. Any instant everything could turn on you. Perhaps the power is worth it for those types?

# ? May 25, 2023 05:04

Lammasu: May 8, 2019; lawful Good Monster

Pekinduck posted:

I had a hippie professor in college who believed the HIV is a myth thing. I gently questioned him on it and he gave me a D- lol.

It is both tragic and hilarious that most of the AIDS denialists died of AIDS.

# ? May 25, 2023 05:05

WAR CRIME GIGOLO: Oct 3, 2012; The Hague
tryna get me
for these glutes

sebmojo posted:

Fixed ur img link

If you did the edit before my edit it was super tiny so I ran the original link and then timg'd it

# ? May 25, 2023 05:08

HonorableTB: Dec 22, 2006

Lammasu posted:

It is both tragic and hilarious that most of the AIDS denialists died of AIDS.

I don't view that as either tragic or hilarious so much as I view it as "well, what the gently caress did anyone expect?"

# ? May 25, 2023 05:13

Tree Bucket: Apr 1, 2016; R.I.P.idura leucophrys

Jimlit posted:

It's like his primary driving force.

No, putin believes in Russian greatness. Specifically, in grinding Russian greatness into a thin, gritty paste so that no one can threaten him with it.

# ? May 25, 2023 05:13

poverty goat: Feb 15, 2004

Deteriorata posted:

It's like claiming that all automobiles are Fords.

someone should remove all the endorsements of bigotry, misogyny, child abuse, domestic abuse, capital punishment, slavery, patriarchy, etc. from the bible once and for all if they don't want to be associated with it

# ? May 25, 2023 05:39

Sucrose: Dec 9, 2009

Pekinduck posted:

I've always wondered what its like to be Putin, one of Stalin's toadies or similar. Any instant everything could turn on you. Perhaps the power is worth it for those types?

I believe that people like Putin, Stalin, etc, are really very psychologically abnormal and don�t prioritize things the same way that most people do. Basically they�re the type of people who should least have power, but who are the most obsessed with getting it.

It�s also why I think that in pre-modern times hereditary monarchy wasn�t that bad of a system. Yeah, it meant the ruler is just some guy who won the birth lottery, but a lot of times if there�s only going to be one leader, then just some guy with an ordinary personality who�s been groomed to rule is a significant improvement as leader over the type of person who�s motivated to connive their way to the top and seize dictatorial power themselves.

Sucrose fucked around with this message at 06:04 on May 25, 2023

# ? May 25, 2023 05:49

Xlorp: Jan 23, 2008

HonorableTB posted:

The head of occupied Crimea said that the Crimean bridge was closed for exercises. Residents see smoke over the bridge.

I love it when a band breaks into "Smoke on the Water"

# ? May 25, 2023 05:51

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# ? May 30, 2024 14:26

OAquinas: Jan 27, 2008; Biden has sat immobile on the Iron Throne of America. He is the Master of Malarkey by the will of the gods, and master of a million votes by the might of his inexhaustible calamari.

Isn't smoking a bridge typically used to hide unit movements and/or obscure the bridge against attacks?

Though why they're just smoking a tiny part of it would be the question...testing?

# ? May 25, 2023 05:53

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