Eastern Europe: Olivier's sphere of influence

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A Buttery Pastry: Sep 4, 2011; Delicious and Informative!

Thatim posted:

Was russia always such a dick? To be honest, I only started following the developments in EE since the Krim and MH17. If the country was a person, I would assume it was acting like this due to a lack of attention

Russia has two modes: Weak and unstable, or dick.

# ¿ Jul 27, 2016 14:24

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# ¿ May 10, 2024 19:49

A Buttery Pastry: Sep 4, 2011; Delicious and Informative!

Palpek posted:

Trump's real/perceived connections with Russia might be his actual Achilles heel. If it becomes a focus in the campaign it could turn the tide.

chitoryu12 posted:

As far as all the polls can tell, the tide was turned against Trump from the start. He's only further shot himself in the foot by being so extreme and crazy as to alienate virtually every relatively moderate Republican (and even some hard right conservatives who correctly think that the insane clown is totally unqualified for the presidency). If Trump actually becomes the president, something has gone seriously wrong with our country.

Yeah, turning the tide would imply Trump making ground again. I mean, the Clinton campaign is basically turning into a national Democrats campaign as opposed to a presidential one, because Trump's chances of winning are minuscule unless something major happens. Clinton isn't trying to simply win the presidency, she feels confident enough to push for getting a friendly senate to go with it.

# ¿ Aug 9, 2016 21:22

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Scaramouche posted:

He thinks (rightly) everyone is watching the Olympics again

Since Russia's athletes can't go to Rio, they might as well go on vacation.

# ¿ Aug 10, 2016 17:59

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Dwesa posted:

He is 63 and full of botox to make him appear younger, I guess we will see what happens soon.

Obviously there's always a chance he croaks early, but then there's also the possibility that he rules another three decades.

# ¿ Aug 15, 2016 17:09

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LeoMarr posted:

Would it be very difficult for an ISIS cell to dig up UED and utilize it?

Don't give them ideas. Now some ISIS cell is going to dig up that 22 ton bomb sitting under a barn in Belgium. That's enough to level the European Parliament and directly kill more people than died during the 9/11 attacks.

# ¿ Aug 27, 2016 07:04

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Young Freud posted:

Oh come on. First, its 10 tonnes (because the Grand Slam Blockbusters only got to 22,000 lbs, so its long tons and not short "tonnes"). Secondly, all thatshit ain't gonna be under no barn, its going to be offshore I. The North Sea (or whatever the Belgian. Coast is called).

I'm talking about a 50,000 lbs mine the British dug under the German lines during WW1, not WW2 ordnance.

# ¿ Aug 27, 2016 08:02

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cinci zoo sniper posted:

I wouldn't be surprised, there is Latvian party Union of the Greens and the Peasants.

Did the peasants grow the greens themselves?

# ¿ Sep 1, 2016 16:49

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Seriously though, to my ears a peasant + greens party seems a little strange, since I'd normally assume the two would be opposed politically on many fronts. What kind of policies do they support?

# ¿ Sep 1, 2016 17:05

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cinci zoo sniper posted:

They are a result of of merger between Centrist Party Of Latvia's Peasants Union and Latvia's Green Party. Former are agrarian centrists, latter are green conservatives. Resulting party, Union Of Greens And Peasants, is 3rd largest in the Latvia, and plays primarily off the Latvian sentiment for rural lifestyle. In Latvia it is common to think that small farms are better than Soviet kolkhozs, as seen by privatization of the latter upon independence, therefore the party's platform is support of individual farmers and opposition to industrial farming, which results in green conservative agrarianism.

Sadly, however, true to the nature of rural populations elsewhere, it also happens to be anti-minority right wing party, which also is eurosceptic as long as we are not talking about getting more money from EU, when they all suddenly start waving EU flags.

I see, that makes sense. How does this opposition to industrial farming play out in real life? Where does it fall between sticking to older farming methods, and adapting modern sustainable agricultural practices? Actually, what steinrokkan is talking about, with more environmentally and socially responsible/healthy approaches to agriculture born out of modern know-how vs. just reactive opposition to industrial agriculture.

# ¿ Sep 1, 2016 18:21

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Cat Mattress posted:

(agricultural exploitation manager)

Wow, is that a title people willingly choose?

But yeah, I suppose I wasn't taking the "peasant" part seriously enough, figuring it was just slightly archaic throwback rather than a deliberate attempt to distinguish themselves from industrial farmers.

# ¿ Sep 1, 2016 19:37

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steinrokkan posted:

Do the various translations of "peasant" to other languages have the same negative connotations? In Czech "roln�k" is a perfectly fine word with romantic undertones, and calling a food product "rolnick�" (peasant made) is the equivalent of "artisanal" or "rustic".

In short, I think the reaction to peasant in English may not be the same reaction a native speaker would have to the original term.

If you're remarking upon my reaction, it was more that I just assumed that peasant was used precisely because it has different connotations than farmer in the usual fashion, and not because they were literally pro-peasant. It'd say the Danish perception of peasant has about the same connotations as you point out, though the adjective form emphasizes the negative. (Meaning someone kinda crude, insular, uneducated, and so on.)

# ¿ Sep 1, 2016 19:53

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Von_Doom posted:

I thought that was a globally human tradition. It's not? I learned something new today. Thank you SA.

This seems like an oddly specific thing to expect to be a universal tradition.

# ¿ Sep 10, 2016 21:08

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Bip Roberts posted:

Most cultures don't care about esoteric flower based numerology.

Yeah, I'd go so far as to say that you should probably expect no symbolism associated with numbers to be universal. A lot of other symbolism too, but I can imagine there might at least be a few universal symbols.

# ¿ Sep 10, 2016 21:49

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Von_Doom posted:

Yeah one of my grandmothers went on a mini rant about that one day. Colours and type have meanings and if you mix types you have to be careful of the number in the mix. I'm a guy so I listed to almost none of that.

There's nothing about being a guy that justifies disrespecting your grandma. For shame.

# ¿ Sep 11, 2016 05:08

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Nenonen posted:

Swedish armed forces have been at full mode since last week. Swedish military has been having some training operations on the island of Gotland and while the full picture is still very hush hush, reportedly they have met mysterious Russians there first pretending to be tourists casually asking for directions, but then continuing to ask more specific questions like what unit they belonged to. What's interesting in this report is that they mention that the Russians moved around in car/cars with Russian license plates, so these are not exactly top secret super spies. Likewise there have allegedly been Russians snooping around in northern Sweden. During one international exercise last year one officer was approached in a pub, shown a photo of his family and presented a barrage of questions. As a result of all this Sweden has now decided to make the unit of 150 soldiers on Gotland permanent immediately instead of 2018, and Swedish commander has been openly saying that Russians are threatening Sweden's security (without telling how) while Russia ofc disapproves such false insinuations.

The last time Swedish military was panicking because of Russia was in 2014 when they were looking for a minisub in front of Stockholm, but no conclusive evidence was ever presented to the public of a foreign (Russian) presence. These current reports are much easier to take at face value. Is Russia updating her gameplan for a war in the Baltic? In the case of a Russia-NATO conflict Gotland would be vital for Swedish neutrality as well as for both Russian reinforcements to Kaliningrad and NATO reinforcements to the Baltic states. But intel tactics this brazen seem so out of touch, it's as if Russians were trying to intimidate Sweden rather than just gathering intel.

Time for Sweden and Finland to join NATO.

# ¿ Sep 21, 2016 17:07

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Pussy Cartel posted:

So wait, help me out here. If Russia's big fear is encirclement by NATO, why would it try to antagonize a country that's being courted by NATO and that has been playing nicer with NATO in recent years, and already feels really defensive towards Russia? That seems...counterproductive.

The trick is that they're going to attack before Sweden joins NATO.

# ¿ Sep 21, 2016 19:02

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Radio Prune posted:

As someone who doesn't know much about this stuff: what happens if the reserves run out?

The only reserves that matter are the ones that can carry a gun.

# ¿ Sep 22, 2016 05:17

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It's good thing he has that app, makes it much easier to report criminal police officers.

# ¿ Sep 28, 2016 20:18

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Punkin Spunkin posted:

That's gotta be one of the ugliest stupidest-looking bombs I've ever seen

kinda making me hungry for bread though

It'd look much more impressive if it wasn't so cold outside.

# ¿ Oct 2, 2016 20:27

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anilEhilated posted:

Yeah, and from what I heard the government stance is that it's a conspiracy by lesbians.

It's a well-known fact that lesbians are turned on by aborting male babies and would do it all the time if you let them.

# ¿ Oct 4, 2016 12:07

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cinci zoo sniper posted:

I'm the horse policeman pulling a not entirely hypothetical firearm.

Then you bring a longer pole.

# ¿ Oct 19, 2016 15:40

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mobby_6kl posted:

And when wintertime rolls around, the war pigs simply freeze to death.

You keep the pigs around to ward off Muslims...

# ¿ Oct 21, 2016 08:37

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Kurtofan posted:

part of me would immensively respect trump if he just told putin to get hosed after getting him to help get elected, though i understand putin might have big compromat files on President Elect Trump

Trump is just going to get the FBI to "prove" that anything Putin has is a fake.

# ¿ Nov 11, 2016 16:51

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OddObserver posted:

Could you elaborate?

Jesus Christ, Lamb of God and Light of the World, has become the king of Poland.

# ¿ Nov 20, 2016 16:34

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Actually, this seems kinda problematic. Jesus Christ is head of the Christian church, and thus the overlord of all Christians - including the heads of state of England, Denmark and Norway, and thus this is a direct attack on the sovereignty of those nations, demoting their rulers to mere dukes and duchesses under the sovereignty of the Polish king.

# ¿ Nov 20, 2016 16:59

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Kopijeger posted:

Isn't it more like demoting Jesus from Lord of All Creation to the mere monarch of a temporal state? I suspect most Christians would find that blasphemous. Besides, who are they to decide what role(s) Jesus will play`?

It's like how Queen Elizabeth is also Duchess of Edinburgh.

Cat Mattress posted:

So when do they integrate into the Holy See?

Why would they integrate with heretics?

# ¿ Nov 20, 2016 17:38

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JFairfax posted:

so is this going to the year when everything floods?

June 2017: Greenland melts, drowning Bangladesh and large parts of New York and Tokyo. The Netherlands are evacuated.
December 2017: The West Antarctic Ice Sheet collapses, having been undermined by rising sea levels.
January 2019: The East Antarctic Ice Sheet begins collapsing
...
Bastille Day 2031: The Admiral Kuznetsov arrives at the steamy jungle port of Reims, to celebrate the coronation of Marine I, Restaurateur de la Libert� Fran�aise and the anniversary of the Dutch Refugee Act. In attendance are their imperial majesties, Nikolai I of All Russia and Ivanka I of America, as well as the heads of state of various minor polities like the dukes and counts of Germany.

# ¿ Nov 22, 2016 07:02

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McGavin posted:

So is Denmark.

Nah, a third of Denmark still remains.

# ¿ Nov 22, 2016 21:49

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Kurtofan posted:

danish refugees will have to give up their belongings

We'd just be a lean and efficient city state, rather a tiny regular country, so no reason to flee at all. In terms of food production we would still be more than able to feed ourselves.

# ¿ Nov 22, 2016 22:04

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Young Freud posted:

Russia is beginning to realize that they backed the wrong horse. Steve Rosenberg of the BBC looked over the recent Russian newspapers and they've starting to sound more cautious about Trump. Trump's calls for increased fossil fuel production have the Russians worried about cutting into their own declining share of the market (and may continue sanctions to gently caress with them) and his staff picks are among the wing of the American conservatives that still views Russia as the enemy.

https://twitter.com/BBCSteveR/status/801325888273059840

Time for the Russians to leak evidence that the vote actually was rigged in Trump's favor, as some statisticians are apparently claiming there are indications of.

# ¿ Nov 23, 2016 16:55

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Pierogi posted:

Good for nothing failed Nate Bronze did a quick take on that and said it's nonsense.

Irrelevant if the Russians can produce evidence. :v:

# ¿ Nov 23, 2016 17:48

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Grouchio posted:

I hope that Putin will be cautious in dealing with Trump, for both Russia and the US' sake.

Lowered Sense of Danger Man vs. The Offense Avenger

# ¿ Nov 29, 2016 17:03

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Back Hack posted:

I'm finding this hard to believe considering Russia got hit by the one of the largest locusts swarms ever recorded not too long ago.

Because they had soooo much grain, just the most.

# ¿ Dec 1, 2016 19:18

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Ghost of Mussolini posted:

The UN/FAO is not fronting Russian claims. If you actually read the release firstly it notes that production and stocks have been increasing year on year. It also notes other factors such as more favorable weather. The whole release contains negative and positive statements about several different countries and its nothing more than a technical summary. If you really want to read more then knock yourselves out: http://www.fao.org/faostat/en/#home (also available in Russian http://www.fao.org/faostat/ru/#home )

Global warming is rewarding Russia for helping to spread its harbingers from their underground prisons.

# ¿ Dec 2, 2016 07:11

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Cat Mattress posted:

I don't disagree with the sentiment because gently caress PiSsy Poland, but it's not something Germany can actually decide alone, fortunately.

Just add "and the withheld funds will be distributed to the rest of the member states" to the proposal.

# ¿ Dec 2, 2016 16:27

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Who says they were aliens, could have been time traveling Soviet cosmonauts destroyed by capitalists saboteurs.

# ¿ Dec 8, 2016 18:12

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Nenonen posted:

For old times' sake:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dSKSd0x4a5U

I'm expecting them to form the ensemble again, after all what is an army without an official choir? Until such time, the Ministry of Interior's choir holds the monopoly (I wonder if the FSB has its own ensemble?).

Are we certain this was not part of some internal power struggle? There can be only one Red Army Choir!

# ¿ Dec 25, 2016 15:43

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Libluini posted:

Apparently Kissinger isn't satisfied with gifting South Vietnam to North Vietnam.

That is for sure the worst thing he ever did.

# ¿ Dec 28, 2016 14:06

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HUGE PUBES A PLUS posted:

Reevaluate their actions - I'm sure the Russians are reflecting on their mistakes right now.

Can't send him back, one of Obama's Muslim Brotherhood assassins is coming for him.

# ¿ Dec 29, 2016 21:31

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# ¿ May 10, 2024 19:49

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steinrokkan posted:

I'm very glad Obama's last actions are to empower Trump to abuse executive orders even more so than he's done for the past eight years. It's like he's purposefully trying to destroy his own legacy.

Trump is the ultimate troll, and Obama is having a meltdown.

# ¿ Dec 30, 2016 08:53

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