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What is the most powerful flying bug? This poll is closed. |
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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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CODChimera posted:why the actual gently caress do people, especially zelenskyy, keep talking about Israel in relation to Ukraine? its comparing bottle rockets to cruise missiles because they're both allowed to do terrorism against their western backers
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Aug 28, 2023 05:59
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CODChimera posted:why the actual gently caress do people, especially zelenskyy, keep talking about Israel in relation to Ukraine? its comparing bottle rockets to cruise missiles signaling where they stand, being pro-israel is a third rail in the west
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Aug 28, 2023 06:44
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 They call him Brother Yevgeny 🙏🙏🙏
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Aug 28, 2023 06:51
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Good news for Ukraine - Western establishment media (Financial Times) continue to pivot towards the West cutting its losses on Ukraine, and blaming Ukraine's lack of success for Ukrainian soldiers' "Soviet mentality". - Teaching inexperienced soldiers how to operate a tank on the front line in just six weeks was never going to be easy. - European trainers were full of praise for the “tremendous motivation” of the recruits, despite the stress of the brutal war they are fighting and the daily dangers to friends and family back home. - But they also said that the age and ability of the soldiers they are sent varies wildly, as Ukrainian commanders on the front line are often unwilling to spare their best men. One volunteer who turned up in Germany was 71 years old. - Ukrainian soldiers and their western trainers are acutely aware that Kyiv has failed to make the progress that it had hoped for in the highly anticipated counteroffensive against Vladimir Putin’s forces that began in June. - Officials from other western nations have in recent weeks voiced frustration at differences of opinion over strategy and tactics for countering Russia. That view was echoed by one of the German trainers in Klietz, who hid his identity with sunglasses and a neck gaiter. He said that he sometimes experienced friction with older Ukrainian commanders who were trained in Soviet times and sometimes “think they know better”. - Kyiv is eager for more combined arms training that involves exercises with tanks, armoured vehicles, artillery, infantry and drones to more closely replicate conditions that exist on the battlefield, but such exercises can be risky. He said that western nations understandably had low tolerance for accidents but that their approach “doesn’t mesh well with [Kyiv’s] requirements for trainees”. - There is also frustration about the weapons themselves that western nations are delivering. - The Leopard 1, which Berlin agreed to supply along with the Leopard 2, is widely seen as the inferior of the two models, although it is being refurbished before being sent to Ukraine. The tank has thin armour that can leave it vulnerable in areas with little cover such as the flat terrain in eastern and south-eastern Ukraine where some of the most intense fighting is taking place. - Many capitals are more comfortable relinquishing the often mothballed Leopard 1 than giving up precious stocks of a newer tank. - “The advantage of the Leopard 1 A5 is that we can deliver it in three-digit numbers by this year or next year,” Marlow said. “Quantity also plays a role.” https://www.ft.com/content/5bcb359e-f0ae-475d-9773-b89c0ebe0a1b Lost in translation: Germany’s challenges training Ukrainian soldiers Laura Pitel in Klietz 2 HOURS AGO Teaching inexperienced soldiers how to operate a tank on the front line in just six weeks was never going to be easy. But when German, Dutch and Danish officers gathered in a lush green patch of the North German countryside to train Ukrainian men, they were not expecting a shortage of competent interpreters to be the top issue. “Interpreters are challenge number one,” said Martin Bonn, a Dutch brigadier general who is deputy head of the multinational EU training mission launched last November to educate Ukrainians on a range of weapons and tactics. Kyiv and western capitals are providing translators, who often struggle with the necessary vocabulary. By the end of the year, 10,000 Ukrainian soldiers will have received training in Germany, part of a broader western drive to equip the Ukrainian armed forces with tanks, artillery and air defence systems that has seen 63,000 recruits dispatched by Kyiv to attend training camps in Europe and the US. “The big challenge is the translation of words used in a military or technical context . . . Words no one uses in everyday life,” Bonn said after Ukrainian soldiers took part in a tank shooting exercise at a military base near Klietz in northeastern Germany. European trainers were full of praise for the “tremendous motivation” of the recruits, despite the stress of the brutal war they are fighting and the daily dangers to friends and family back home. But they also said that the age and ability of the soldiers they are sent varies wildly, as Ukrainian commanders on the front line are often unwilling to spare their best men. One volunteer who turned up in Germany was 71 years old. Ukrainian soldiers expressed satisfaction with what they learned in Klietz about the Leopard 1 A5 tank, an older and less sophisticated version of the Leopard 2 that gained international fame at the start of this year as Germany resisted intense pressure from Ukraine and Nato allies to supply it to Kyiv. They stressed, however, that newer weapons were always preferable to older ones. Ukrainian soldiers and their western trainers are acutely aware that Kyiv has failed to make the progress that it had hoped for in the highly anticipated counteroffensive against Vladimir Putin’s forces that began in June. The tough terrain, Russia’s sophisticated electronic warfare and its use of drones are three of the problems confronting Ukrainian troops on the ground, said Bonn, the Dutch brigadier general. “This is very difficult,” he said. “We’re looking in ways to prepare the Ukrainians to operate in such an environment.” Officials from other western nations have in recent weeks voiced frustration at differences of opinion over strategy and tactics for countering Russia. That view was echoed by one of the German trainers in Klietz, who hid his identity with sunglasses and a neck gaiter. He said that he sometimes experienced friction with older Ukrainian commanders who were trained in Soviet times and sometimes “think they know better”. But western militaries — whose most recent combat experience in Iraq and Afghanistan differs hugely from the more traditional war being fought in Ukraine — also say that they are learning from the Ukrainian armed forces. Germany is not the only country to have struggled with translation issues during training programmes. A similar problem has reared its head in Denmark, where about eight Ukrainian pilots and dozens of support staff are being trained to fly F-16 fighters at Skrydstrup air base. Danish military officials said the training — which became all the more urgent after Copenhagen on Sunday made a joint pledge with the Netherlands to donate their fighter jets to Ukraine — was being held up by security clearance for the pilots. Language skills and health checks were further reasons for the hold-up, officials said. European commanders say they are in close contact with their Ukrainian counterparts, and seek to respond quickly to feedback and changing demands as Kyiv strives to sustain its stuttering counteroffensive. Still, Nick Reynolds, a research fellow for land warfare at Rusi, said that it was often difficult for western training to meet the expectations of both sides. Kyiv is eager for more combined arms training that involves exercises with tanks, armoured vehicles, artillery, infantry and drones to more closely replicate conditions that exist on the battlefield, but such exercises can be risky. He said that western nations understandably had low tolerance for accidents but that their approach “doesn’t mesh well with [Kyiv’s] requirements for trainees”. There is also frustration about the weapons themselves that western nations are delivering. Germany has become one of the world’s top suppliers of arms to Ukraine in absolute terms, but Chancellor Olaf Scholz has faced persistent accusations of foot-dragging. Europe’s largest nation eventually bowed to demands to supply Kyiv with Leopard tanks — in January. It is now in a debate about whether or not to agree to Kyiv’s request for Taurus cruise missiles, with Scholz fearful of the risk of escalation with Moscow. The Leopard 1, which Berlin agreed to supply along with the Leopard 2, is widely seen as the inferior of the two models, although it is being refurbished before being sent to Ukraine. The tank has thin armour that can leave it vulnerable in areas with little cover such as the flat terrain in eastern and south-eastern Ukraine where some of the most intense fighting is taking place. Yevhenii, an electrical engineer from eastern Ukraine who admits having only driven a tank for a “short time” before being sent to Klietz for training, defended the weapon. “It has several significant advantages over the Russian T72 tanks,” said the 32-year-old, who declined to give his surname. Lieutenant General Andreas Marlow, a self-described “tank man” who heads the German arm of the EU training mission, conceded that the Leopard 2 might have a “higher combat value”. But, speaking after what he described as the “very respectable” shooting display by the Ukrainian trainees, he also praised the 1960s-era model for its ease of operation and maintenance — and its availability. Many capitals are more comfortable relinquishing the often mothballed Leopard 1 than giving up precious stocks of a newer tank. “The advantage of the Leopard 1 A5 is that we can deliver it in three-digit numbers by this year or next year,” Marlow said. “Quantity also plays a role.”
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Aug 28, 2023 07:03
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fizzy posted:“The advantage of the Leopard 1 A5 is that we can deliver it in three-digit numbers by this year or next year,” Marlow said. “Quantity also plays a role.” https://www.pbs.org/kenburns/the-war/war-production In the three years following the Battle of Midway, the Japanese built six aircraft carriers. The U.S. built 17. American industry provided almost two-thirds of all the Allied military equipment produced during the war: 297,000 aircraft, 193,000 artillery pieces, 86,000 tanks and two million army trucks. In four years, American industrial production, already the world's largest, doubled in size.
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Aug 28, 2023 07:03
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Probably impossible to document right now, bit I'm wondering what top brass personnel changes or other strategic discussion changed the Russian strategy from wild swing at Kiev to battering down the hatches for entrenched warfare. Biggest operational morph since Condileeza Rice dumpsters the lax American occupation that was getting contractors killed in the Shi'ite Uprising in favor of an actual effective troop surge
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Aug 28, 2023 07:07
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Russia media and defence department is stating that Ukraine has lost nearly 5k soldiers over the last week as they ramp up their counter offensive. If true, that is a lot https://twitter.com/tassagency_en/status/1696024857509552538
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Aug 28, 2023 07:07
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Death By The Blues posted:Russia media and defence department is stating that Ukraine has lost nearly 5k soldiers over the last week as they ramp up their counter offensive. If true, that is a lot Good news for Ukraine - Russia has lost 261,310 troops in Ukraine since the beginning of its full-scale invasion on Feb. 24 last year, including 490 casualties Russian forces suffered just over the past day. https://kyivindependent.com/general-staff-russia-has-lost-261-310-troops-in-ukraine-since-feb-24-2022/ The General Staff of Ukraine's Armed Forces reported on Aug. 28 that Russia had lost 261,310 troops in Ukraine since the beginning of its full-scale invasion on Feb. 24 last year. This number includes 490 casualties Russian forces suffered just over the past day. According to the report, Russia has also lost 4,400 tanks, 8,562 armored fighting vehicles, 7,866 vehicles and fuel tanks, 5,425 artillery systems, 730 multiple launch rocket systems, 499 air defense systems, 315 airplanes, 316 helicopters, 4,383 drones, and 18 boats.
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Aug 28, 2023 07:09
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i hope they find them
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Aug 28, 2023 07:11
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Lostconfused posted:It's explained in this video, but I'm just posting it for the timestamp where one of FF's catch phrases comes up https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zinPbUZUHDE&t=2073s lecturer, seemingly incredulously?: 'whenever the soviets looked at this stuff, they would always count what is the force ratio, what they could call the correlation of forces. how many gun tubes have i got per kilometer of front versus how many does the enemy have. and i want to have of course overwhelming numbers.' quick, some body call up rand this guy might accidently be on to something. ukraine should try this idea out edit: this part is also obviously correct but the lecturers tone was confusing: 'you perhaps know that, for a communist, marxism is a science not an art. and therefore you've got to have tables and graphs. you look at karl marx and his three volumes of tables and graphs trying to prove his point. well, ook'
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Aug 28, 2023 07:13
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Probably Magic posted:Probably impossible to document right now, bit I'm wondering what top brass personnel changes or other strategic discussion changed the Russian strategy from wild swing at Kiev to battering down the hatches for entrenched warfare. Biggest operational morph since Condileeza Rice dumpsters the lax American occupation that was getting contractors killed in the Shi'ite Uprising in favor of an actual effective troop surge My guess, political objectives weren't achieved. Russia expected to have a repeat of the Georgian war. Western-aligned country bordering Russia escalates attacks against seperatist regions, Russia makes threats, threats are ignored. Russia sends in their army and parks a force right outside the capital, the other country opens peace negotiations. However, Nato spent the previous 8 years making sure that Ukraine wouldn't be a repeat of the Georgian war, to make sure that Ukraine would fight to the last Ukrainian for their sovereign right to shell Donbas.
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Aug 28, 2023 07:19
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Bad news for Ukraine - American establishment media (New York Times) is signalling that the American establishment is preparing to blame Ukraine's "underwhelming offensive" and "the inherent Russophilia among those untrustworthy Western Europeans" for America cutting its losses on Ukraine https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/27/world/europe/former-french-president-voice-russia.html A Former French President Gives a Voice to Obstinate Russian Sympathies By Roger Cohen Aug. 27, 2023 Updated 5:26 a.m. ET PARIS — Nicolas Sarkozy, the former French president, was once known as “Sarko the American” for his love of free markets, freewheeling debate and Elvis. Of late, however, he has appeared more like “Sarko the Russian,” even as President Vladimir V. Putin’s ruthlessness appears more evident than ever. In interviews coinciding with the publication of a memoir, Mr. Sarkozy, who was president from 2007 to 2012, said that reversing Russia’s annexation of Crimea was “illusory,” ruled out Ukraine joining the European Union or NATO because it must remain “neutral,” and insisted that Russia and France “need each other.” “People tell me Vladimir Putin isn’t the same man that I met. I don’t find that convincing. I’ve had tens of conversations with him. He is not irrational,” he told Le Figaro. “European interests aren’t aligned with American interests this time,” he added. His statements, to the newspaper as well as the TF1 television network, were unusual for a former president in that they are profoundly at odds with official French policy. They provoked outrage from the Ukrainian ambassador to France and condemnation from several French politicians, including President Emmanuel Macron. The remarks also underscored the strength of the lingering pockets of pro-Putin sympathy that persist in Europe. Those voices have been muffled since Europe forged a unified stand against Russia, through successive rounds of economic sanctions against Moscow and military aid to Kyiv. The possibility they may grow louder appears to have risen as Ukraine’s counteroffensive has proved underwhelming so far. “The fact the counteroffensive has not worked up to now means a very long war of uncertain outcome,” said Nicole Bacharan, a political scientist at Sciences Po, a university in Paris. “There is the risk of political and financial weariness among Western powers that would weaken Ukraine.” In France, Germany, Italy and elsewhere, not even the evident atrocities of the Russian onslaught against Ukraine have stripped away the affinity for Russia traditionally found on the far right and far left. This also extends at times to establishment politicians like Mr. Sarkozy, who feel some ideological kinship with Moscow, blame NATO expansion eastward for the war, or eye monetary gain. From Germany, where former Social Democrat Chancellor Gerhard Schröder is the most prominent Putin supporter, to Italy where a former prime minister, Giuseppe Conte of the anti-establishment Five Star Movement has spoken out against arms shipments to Ukraine, some politicians seem unswerving in their support for Mr. Putin. France, like Germany, has always had a significant number of Russophiles and admirers of Mr. Putin, whatever his amply illustrated readiness to eliminate opponents — most recently, it seems, his sometime sidekick turned upstart rival, Yevgeny V. Prigozhin, who led a brief mutiny two months ago. The sympathizers range from Mr. Sarkozy’s Gaullist center right, with its simmering resentment of American power in Europe and admiration for strong leaders, to Marine Le Pen’s far right, enamored of Mr. Putin’s stand for family, faith and fatherland against a supposedly decadent West. The extreme left, in a hangover from Soviet times, also has a lingering sympathy for Russia that the 18-month-long war has not eradicated. Still Mr. Sarkozy’s outspokenness was striking, as was his unequivocal pro-Russian tone and provocative timing. “Gaullist equidistance between the United States and Russia is an old story, but what Sarkozy said was shocking,” Ms. Bacharan said. “We are at war and democracies stand with Ukraine, while the autocracies of the world are with Mr. Putin.” The obstinacy of the French right’s emotional bond with Russia owes much to a recurrent Gallic great-power itch and to the resentment of the extent of American postwar dominance, evident in the current French-led quest for European “strategic autonomy.” Even President Macron, a centrist, said as recently as 2019 that “Russia is European, very profoundly so, and we believe in this Europe that stretches from Lisbon to Vladivostok.” With Mr. Putin, Russian rapprochement has also been about money. Ms. Le Pen’s far-right National Rally party took a Russian loan; former Prime Minister François Fillon joined the boards of two Russian firms (before quitting last year in protest at the war); and Mr. Sarkozy himself has been under investigation since 2021 over a €3 million, or about $3.2 million, contract with a Russian insurance company. This financial connection with Moscow has undermined Mr. Sarkozy’s credibility, but not made him less vocal. He urged Mr. Macron, with whom he regularly confers, to “renew dialogue” with Mr. Putin, called for the “ratification” of Crimea’s annexation through an internationally supervised referendum, and said referendums should also be organized in the eastern Donbas region to settle how land there is divided between Ukraine and Russia. Rather than occupied territory, the Donbas is clearly negotiable territory to Mr. Sarkozy; as for Crimea, it’s part of Russia. Dmitri Medvedev, the former Russian president and now virulent assailant of the West, hailed Mr. Sarkozy’s “good sense” in opposing those who provide missiles “to the Nazis of Kyiv.” Commenting on Mr. Sarkozy in the daily Libération, the journalist Serge July wrote: “Realism suggests that the meager results of the Ukrainian counteroffensive have suddenly redrawn the Russia map. Supporters who had remained discreet are finding their way back to the microphones. One recalls the words of Edgar Faure, a star of the Fourth Republic: ‘It’s not the weather vane that turns but the wind.’” If the West’s goal was to leverage major military gains through the Ukrainian counteroffensive into a favorable Ukrainian negotiating position with Moscow — as suggested earlier this year by senior officials in Washington and Europe — then that scenario looks distant for the moment. This, in turn, may place greater pressure over time on Western unity and resolve as the U.S. presidential election looms next year. Mr. Putin, having apparently shored up his 23-year-old rule through the killing of Mr. Prigozhin, may be playing for time. It was not for nothing that Brad Raffensperger, the Georgia secretary of state who clashed with Donald J. Trump over the former president’s demands that Mr. Raffensperger change the results of the 2020 election, was bizarrely included in a list of people banned from Russia that was published in May. As nods and winks to Mr. Trump go, this was pretty conspicuous. Mr. Macron responded to Mr. Sarkozy by saying their positions were different and that France “recognizes neither the annexation by Russian of Ukrainian territory, nor the results of parodies of elections that were organized.” Several French politicians expressed outrage at Mr. Sarkozy’s views. Over the course of the war, Mr. Macron’s position itself has evolved from outreach to Putin, in the form of numerous phone calls with him and a statement that Russia should not be “humiliated,” toward strong support of the Ukrainian cause and of Prime Minister Volodymyr Zelensky. There have been echoes of Mr. Sarkozy’s stance elsewhere in Europe, even if Western resolve in standing with Ukraine does not appear to have fundamentally shifted. Mr. Schröder, Germany’s former chancellor and, in retirement, a Russian gas lobbyist close to Mr. Putin, attended a Victory Day celebration at the Russian embassy in Berlin in May. Tino Chrupalla, the co-chairman of the far-right Alternative for Deutschland, or AfD, as it is known in Germany, was also present. A significant minority in Germany’s Social Democratic party retains some sympathy for Moscow. In June, Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who has overseen military aid to Ukraine worth billions of dollars and views the Russian invasion a historical “turning point” that obliges German to wean itself of its post-Nazi hesitation over the use of force, faced heckles of “warmonger” as he gave a speech to the party. This month, in a reversal, Mr. Scholz’s government retreated from making a legal commitment to spending two percent of GDP on defense annually, a NATO target it had previously embraced, Reuters reported. Disquiet over military rather than social spending is rising in Europe as the war in Ukraine grinds on. Many people in what was formerly East Germany, part of the Soviet imperium until shortly before German unification in 1990, look favorably on Moscow. A poll conducted in May found that 73 percent of West Germans backed sanctions against Russia, compared with 56 percent of those living in the East. The AfD has successfully exploited this division by calling itself the peace party. “I could not have imagined that German tanks would once again head in the direction of Russia,” said Karsten Hilse, one of the more voluble Russia sympathizers within the AfD, alluding to tanks provided to Ukraine. In Italy, the most vocal supporter of Mr. Putin was Silvio Berlusconi, the four-time prime minister who died a few months ago. Giorgia Meloni, who as prime minister leads a far-right government, has held to a pro-Ukrainian line, despite the sympathies of far-right movements throughout Europe for Mr. Putin. Mr. Conte, the former Italian prime minister, declared recently that “the military strategy is not working,” even as it takes a devastating financial toll. In France, Ségolène Royal, a prominent former socialist candidate for the presidency who has denounced Ukrainian claims of Russian atrocities as “propaganda,” announced this week that she intended to lead a united left-wing group in European Parliament elections next year. It was another small sign of a potential resurgence of pro-Russian sentiment. Mr. Putin has used frozen conflicts to his advantage in Georgia and elsewhere. If there is no victory for either side in Ukraine before the U.S. election in November 2024, “the outcome of the war will be decided in the United States,” Ms. Bacharan said. Reporting was contributed by Christopher F. Schuetze in Berlin, Juliette Guéron-Gabrielle in Paris and Gaia Pianigiani in Rome. Roger Cohen is the Paris bureau chief. He has worked for The Times for 33 years and has served as a foreign correspondent, foreign editor and an Opinion columnist. In 2023, he won a Pulitzer Prize and George Polk Award as part of Times teams covering the war in Ukraine. More about Roger Cohen
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Aug 28, 2023 07:35
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goddamn, spare a thought for the NATO trainer waiting to get his new recruits when a 71-year-old man shows up. Like there isn't gonna be a moment at the end where you're like "I'm impressed, he's a spry old fella and kept up with the young ones" 71 goddamn years old
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Aug 28, 2023 07:51
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military age males
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Aug 28, 2023 07:55
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some french politician will occasionally say something that slightly asserts french autonomy but they're quickly put in their place, its like clockwork
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Aug 28, 2023 08:03
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dk2m posted:britain as america's lackey continues to be amazing, they really sent a navy admiral to advise on a land war? because he can ask "simple questions"? lol https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Sea_Lord_and_Chief_of_the_Naval_Staff
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Aug 28, 2023 08:14
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Good news for Ukraine - Ukraine has liberated the village of Robotyne https://www.theguardian.com/world/l...f08590bcc98f467 Ukraine says it has liberated south-eastern village of Robotyne 1h ago 07.21 BST Ukraine said on Monday its troops had liberated the south-eastern settlement of Robotyne and were trying to advance further south in their counteroffensive against Russian forces, Reuters reports. “Robotyne has been liberated,” the deputy defence minister Hanna Maliar was quoted as saying by Ukraine’s military. The military said last week that its forces had raised the national flag in Robotyne, but also said at the time that they were still coming under fire in the settlement. Ukraine reported its troops had entered the strategically important village on 22 August, signalling a potentially significant advance in its counteroffensive against Russia. At the time, Maliar said Ukrainian soldiers were organising the evacuation of civilians, but were still coming under fire from Russian forces.
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Aug 28, 2023 08:21
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Good news for Ukraine - Ukraine has liberated Robotyne On 22 August 2023: quote:https://www.euronews.com/2023/08/22/robotyne-has-been-liberated-according-to-ukrainian-armys-47th-brigade And on 24 August 2023: quote:https://www.kyivpost.com/post/20867 And on 28 August 2023: quote:https://www.theguardian.com/world/l...f08590bcc98f467
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Aug 28, 2023 08:28
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Probably Magic posted:Probably impossible to document right now, bit I'm wondering what top brass personnel changes or other strategic discussion changed the Russian strategy from wild swing at Kiev to battering down the hatches for entrenched warfare. Biggest operational morph since Condileeza Rice dumpsters the lax American occupation that was getting contractors killed in the Shi'ite Uprising in favor of an actual effective troop surge It was literally just a switch from a political short victorious war strategy to an actual strategy when they realized it was an actual war and they couldn't just bring the nazis to heel
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Aug 28, 2023 08:33
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Deputy Defense Minister Maiar announces “Angband has been liberated”
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Aug 28, 2023 08:43
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Am I so out of touch? No, it's the non westerners who are wrong. quote:Imagine looking at Russia and seeing not a blood-soaked tyranny, but an ally. Imagine thinking of Vladimir Putin not as a villain, but as a role model. Imagine being so marinated in anti-Western sentiment that, when Russia breaks a treaty to invade a nation it had promised to defend, you convince yourself that NATO started it. quote:But Putin has for years presented himself as the champion of all those who resent Western cultural supremacy – including many Westerners. He appeals to authoritarians on the Right and the Left, portraying bourgeois democracy as soulless, effete and degenerate. "Anti imperialists" exposed as being inspired by Fanon and Lenin, their intellectual bankruptcy on full display. quote:Yet the premise is false. Colonialism was a net drain on the treasury of European states. Many British possessions were acquired in the teeth of government resistance following pressure from abolitionists who, having halted the Atlantic slave trade, wanted to stamp out the institution inland, too. Not to worry though, the British government actually never wanted an empire but was forced to by abolitionists.
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Aug 28, 2023 08:46
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quote:The idea that the West became rich through plunder, rather than through independent courts, free contract, private property and limited government, was sedulously spread across Asia, Africa and Latin America by Soviet propagandists. It found its way into the school textbooks published by newly independent states – the textbooks that educated many of today’s leaders in the Global South. drat soviet propagandists even convinced all the shirt companies to put sweatshops in malaysia and get all the minerals for the iphone from the congo? they're pure evil
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Aug 28, 2023 08:49
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tankies responsible for muh complete lack of agency over things i clearly benefit from for a long time
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Aug 28, 2023 08:50
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ModernMajorGeneral posted:Am I so out of touch? No, it's the non westerners who are wrong. Found the source, for those interested in reading the full article. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/08/26/anti-westernism-is-rampant-in-europe-and-beyond-love-of-put/
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Aug 28, 2023 08:54
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https://twitter.com/TheRealRhllor/status/1695965710223110296?t=bZiPZ6g4Cu8-6tlLLxQXpg&s=19 Slava Covidni
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Aug 28, 2023 09:01
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quote:Yet the premise is false. Colonialism was a net drain on the treasury of European states. lmao what an incredible thing to say guess since it was a net drain no one benefitted and it's just a mystery why Europeans did colonialism at all
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Aug 28, 2023 09:12
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my bony fealty posted:lmao what an incredible thing to say We did it out of the goodness of our hearts to civilise the backwards savages. Sure, a few of them had to die, but that's the price of teaching them how to become rich by having independent courts. (?????????)
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Aug 28, 2023 09:15
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fizzy posted:Bad news for Ukraine - Ukraine does not have self-sufficiency in free elections! no, not like that
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Aug 28, 2023 09:31
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quote:The trouble with performative wokery is that other countries are listening. Blaming Britain and America for all the world’s ills might be intended as a way to signal high-status views, but it has consequences. looked this guy up and he’s some sort of career politician in the UK and was part of the leave eu coalition lol. do you think he knows that the British offshore infrastructure is pretty much the only reason why Britain remains a viable economy? without criminal capital and tax evaders smuggling their money through the Cayman Islands, the pound will free fall. pretty cool western liberal system, running an entire country on nothing but hot money and financial speculation. definitely rule of law based there.
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Aug 28, 2023 09:33
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The only reason Britain hasn't collapsed into a heap of burning feces is that international money laundering machine called London. Take that away and the inflated GDP collapses like a drunk at 2am.
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Aug 28, 2023 09:35
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dk2m posted:looked this guy up and he’s some sort of career politician in the UK and was part of the leave eu coalition lol. he is one of the intelligent pro-brexit people that know exactly the point of the whole thing (tax dodging, regulation dodging etc) to get a small amount of people very rich, they are aware of the cognitive dissonance (lies)
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Aug 28, 2023 09:40
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Bad news for Ukraine - Der Spiegel's report on Ukrainian culpability for the Nord Stream pipeline explosion is slowly dripping into US mainstream media, priming the ground for the US and NATO to cut Ukraine loose on grounds of Ukraine causing economic damage to Europe https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/german-minister-hopes-indicted-sabotage-nord-stream-pipelines-102564265 German minister says she hopes someone is indicted for the sabotage of the Nord Stream pipelines ByThe Associated Press August 25, 2023, 10:51 PM “I hope that the (German) federal prosecutor will find enough clues to indict the perpetrators,” German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said in an interview with Der Spiegel magazine published Friday. ... Officials voiced caution in March over media reports that said a pro-Ukraine group was involved in the sabotage. German media reported then that five men and a woman used a yacht hired by a Ukrainian-owned company in Poland to carry out the attack, and that the vessel set off from the German port of Rostock. German federal prosecutors at the time declined to comment directly on that and other reports, but they confirmed that a boat was searched in January and said there was suspicion that it could have been used to transport explosives to blow up the pipelines. Der Spiegel and ZDF television reported Friday, without naming sources, that technical data leads investigators to believe that the the group on the yacht was in Ukraine before and after the attack. The federal prosecutor's office didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. ... Asked about the political consequences if a link between the perpetrators and Ukraine were to be confirmed, Faeser told Der Spiegel: “I'm not speculating.” She noted that prosecutors were conducting Germany's investigation and said she could only make assessments when it is concluded. The undersea explosions ruptured the Nord Stream 1 pipeline, which was Russia’s main natural gas supply route to Germany until Russia cut off supplies at the end of August. The blasts also damaged the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, which never entered service because Germany suspended its certification process shortly before Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.
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Aug 28, 2023 09:46
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https://www.reuters.com/article/us-offshore-wealth/super-rich-hold-32-trillion-in-offshore-havens-idUSBRE86L03U20120722quote:LONDON (Reuters) - Rich individuals and their families have as much as $32 trillion of hidden financial assets in offshore tax havens, representing up to $280 billion in lost income tax revenues, according to research published on Sunday. Britain controls about 20% of in and outflows of this offshore money, and the City of London corporation basically lobbies the government to keep the overseas jurisdictions away from prying eyes because they’re at the point now that messing with this has serious consequences to the balance of payments for Britain. London has even more opaque secrecy laws and goes far murkier than America, to the point where we actually stepped in once and had to shut down one of the biggest offshore bank accounts in London (Bank of Credit and Commerce International) as it crossed even our line. All of this criminal and tax evader money is what’s used to prop up the pound since it’s so liquid and London uses this to further speculate. it’s a disgrace because it allows corrupt elites around the world to extract capital and wealth from their countries and they know that it’ll be safe in the British system. the amount of harm this has done to Africa alone is a disaster. truly the western liberal system on full display.
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Aug 28, 2023 09:49
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so the cluster munitions that the US sent to Ukraine should be just about running out now right? I can't recall exactly but my understanding was the stuff that was sent to Ukraine was that which was located in EU storehouses and was surplus to the needs of the US military, amounting to roughly 200,000 units or something like that. The thought was it would tide them through the period of this offensive and then they would figure something out in the future for what Ukraine was going to use going forward.. ideally that would be an increase in production of conventional artillery shells that would occur at some point in time. When the shipments were announced the amount sent wasn't expected to last more than a couple months at most is what I remember. Maybe I'm wrong and there was more sent along sometime in the last month, I haven't been following the news as closely as I was at one time.. But if the US were pivoting away from Ukraine, not sending more cluster munitions into the conflict zone would be a good place to start.
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Aug 28, 2023 10:01
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Starsfan posted:so the cluster munitions that the US sent to Ukraine should be just about running out now right? of course, no way we will see them in africa soon
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Aug 28, 2023 10:48
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Probably Magic posted:Probably impossible to document right now, bit I'm wondering what top brass personnel changes or other strategic discussion changed the Russian strategy from wild swing at Kiev to battering down the hatches for entrenched warfare. Biggest operational morph since Condileeza Rice dumpsters the lax American occupation that was getting contractors killed in the Shi'ite Uprising in favor of an actual effective troop surge They made Surovikin the regional commander late last year, and Surovikin looked at what Shoigu & Gerasimov were doing and recognized it wasn't feasible. Unfortunately for Surovikin, giving up Kherson and setting up bands of defensive lines was politically unpopular and they replaced him - but by the time Surovikin was moved to air command the lines were already static and all the focus was coming down on the battle for Bakhmut. That's the simplest explanation for the staff changes the Russian army went through. The haters & losers were sidelined in favor of more effective commanders who got outmaneuvered in the political game.
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Aug 28, 2023 11:32
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I think you will find ukraine expertly and precisely used those shells in surgical strikes supporting highly mobile maneuvers and now the russians are crying and pooping
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Aug 28, 2023 11:40
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it seems like the best way for ukraine to wiggle out of trouble for the pipeline bombing is to keep shoveling bodies into the meat grinder until there is no one left to implicate
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Aug 28, 2023 11:48
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my bony fealty posted:lmao what an incredible thing to say It's really funny to see "colonialism wasn't profiatble" keep popping up, because even liberal western academics can recognize that the colonies were stimulating the development of industrialism in their home countries, even if the ledgers made it look like the government was losing money. It's pure reactionary cope that keeps popping up from half-read pseudointellectuals who are looking for neat factoids to fit into a bulleted list.
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Aug 28, 2023 11:49
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In all honesty, it seems like there is still back and forth fighting in Robotyne, and more or less, the lines are in the same position with minor differences as they have been for a week or so too. I would assume they are eventually going to have a final show at some point, but the situation is still mostly static.
Ardennes has issued a correction as of 11:51 on Aug 28, 2023 |
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Aug 28, 2023 11:49
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