Russia Invades Ukraine

[pipistrelle]

https: //twitter.com/vtchakarova/status/1502624752900399109?s=21

I'm suspecting Photoshop. I see railcars under the rocket. There are several sets of tandem axles.

I think it was intended as a joke. There’s another one of a tractor pulling a plane through the air.

[Slim Cognito]

https: //twitter.com/vtchakarova/status/1502624752900399109?s=21

I'm suspecting Photoshop. I see railcars under the rocket. There are several sets of tandem axles.

I also suspect which begs the question: What do you call propaganda when it helps your side?

[bill_g]

I think it was intended as a joke. There’s another one of a tractor pulling a plane through the air.

That one would be fun!

[bill_g]

I also suspect which begs the question: What do you call propaganda when it helps your side?

Inspirational

[Ben-Prime]

Hey, I have a friend who's been on a waiting list for a commission in the Ukrainian Farmer Space Force, dammit!

[RVInit]

Marie Yovanovitch with Stephen Colbert

[RVInit]

Searched for Fuck You Putin on Etsy and here is what you can get!

https://www.etsy.com/market/fuck_you_putin

[Slim Cognito]

Searched for Fuck You Putin on Etsy and here is what you can get!

https://www.etsy.com/market/fuck_you_putin

Ooooooohhhhhh! Somebody's going shopping tonight! (I especially like the Russian Warship T.)

[Volkonski]

[Volkonski]

[Volkonski]

[Frater I*I]

Problem is this time, it could mean the end of humanity...

I respect Vindman, and feel the pain for his countryman, but what he's suggesting means the end of humanity....


Putin will go into "watch the world burn" mode if we get involved....

[p0rtia]

Problem is this time, it could mean the end of humanity...

I respect Vindman, and feel the pain for his countryman, but what he's suggesting means the end of humanity....


Putin will go into "watch the world burn" mode if we get involved....

Respectfully, that's not what Vindman said and it's not his message. In fact, his message--in addition to pointing out that the US missed early chances to provide surface to air missiles to Ukraine because the US's bad intel (confirmed by the intel folks at the Senate Hearing earlier in the week) said that Kiev would fall in two days--it that the US MESSAGING sucks and is reactive to Putin's utter bullshit, allowing him to set the agenda. He advocates for an end to the US talking about what it won't do, which he says i like lighting a match to Putin's confidence that the US will not make any attempt on any front to stop him, ever.

Yes, he says US/NATO should be providing more surface to air missiles and other armaments right now, and yes he is tell you what he thinks the US/NATO did wrong 20 ten years ago and one year ago and one month ago, but he then states that what's done is done; he accepts "yes, no ground troops" and "yes, no no fly zone" for the reasons that have been repeated incessantly, and gives his opinion about what should be going on now, both on the military side and the messaging side.

He quotes Churchill: Eventually, the US will do the right thing, when all other options have been exhausted.

[New Turtle]

max seddon @maxseddon
In southern Ukraine, Russian forces reportedly introduced a curfew in three towns and banned weapons and "non-sanctioned" protests.

Rule-breakers will be "strictly punished" by "military law enforcement." And there's a call for informants. via @zn_ua

[AndyinPA]

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/ ... es-ukraine

Brent Renaud, an award-winning US film-maker whose work has appeared in the New York Times and other outlets, has been killed by Russian forces in the flashpoint town of Irpin, outside Kyiv. A US photographer, Juan Arredondo, was wounded.

Renaud, 51, was hit in the neck and died after coming under Russian fire while working on Sunday, according to local police officials and multiple Ukrainian sources.

Jane Ferguson, a reporter for PBS Newshour who was nearby when Renaud was killed, tweeted: “Just left roadside spot near Irpin where body of American journalist Brent Renaud lay under a blanket. Ukrainian medics could do nothing to help him by that stage. Outraged Ukrainian police officer: ‘Tell America, tell the world, what they did to a journalist.’”

Just left roadside spot near Irpin where body of American journalist Brent Renaud lay under a blanket. Ukranian medics could do nothing to help him by that stage. Outraged Ukranian police officer: “Tell America, tell the world, what they did to a journalist.”

[Atticus Finch]

If Zelensky is taken alived by the Russians there will be a military show trial similar to the Stalin's Show Trials in 1930s. He will be tried as a terrorist along with other high ranking Ukrainian political and military leaders.

This is Putin's way to show to the world that their government was illegal from the start and as such they are criminals and are not protected by the Geneva Convention regarding prisoners of war.

And of course the GOP will lead the cheering section.

I hope that I am wrong.

[Volkonski]

[John Thomas8]

[AndyinPA]

Scary video, but not surprising. I'm not sure how many people forget his background was firmly KGB. Maybe this has something to do with how "poorly" the invasion has gone so far.

[New Turtle]

Christopher Miller @ChristopherJM
President Zelensky walked to a hospital today to visit wounded Ukrainian soldiers and award them with state honors for their sacrifices.

10:04 AM · Mar 13, 2022

[p0rtia]

https://www.newyorker.com/news/q-and-a/ ... ine-stalin

A must read.

The Weakness of the Despot
An expert on Stalin discusses Putin, Russia, and the West.

[Russia is] a military-police dictatorship. Those are the people who are in power. In addition, it has a brilliant coterie of people who run macroeconomics. The central bank, the finance ministry, are all run on the highest professional level. That’s why Russia has this macroeconomic fortress, these foreign-currency reserves, the “rainy day” fund. It has reasonable inflation, a very balanced budget, very low state debt—twenty per cent of G.D.P., the lowest of any major economy. It had the best macroeconomic management.

So you have a military-police dictatorship in charge, with a macroeconomic team running your fiscal, military state. Those people are jockeying over who gets the upper hand. For macroeconomic stability, for economic growth, you need decent relations with the West. But, for the military security part of the regime, which is the dominant part, the West is your enemy, the West is trying to undermine you, it’s trying to overthrow your regime in some type of so-called color revolution. What happened is that the balance between those groups shifted more in favor of the military security people––let’s call it the thuggish part of the regime. And, of course, that’s where Putin himself comes from.

The oligarchs were never in power under Putin. He clipped their wings. They worked for him. If they didn’t work for him, they could lose their money. He rearranged the deck chairs. He gave out the money. He allowed expropriation by his own oligarchs, people who grew up with him, who did judo with him, who summered with him. The people who were in the K.G.B. with him in Leningrad back in the day, or in post-Soviet St. Petersburg––those people became oligarchs and expropriated the property to live the high life. Some of the early Yeltsin-era people were either expropriated, fled, or were forced out. Putin built a regime in which private property, once again, was dependent on the ruler. Everybody knew this. If they didn’t know, they learned the lesson the hard way.

[Chilidog]

1108FF13-3F76-473A-A985-7E555269F355.jpeg (237.72 KiB) Viewed 591 times

[busterbunker]

That New Yorker article was a good read, thanks. One important point is Putin does not equal Russia, just as POTUS does not equal USA. One thing mentioned only in passing is Russia's lag in the Industrial Revolution which is still evident to this day. Like in the photo above. This disparity is primarily self-afflicted and after Ukraine will only get worse. Which often leads to blind nationalism as a convenient recourse, particularly with older demographics. When their kids want their toys, they may throw bricks. Another factor in the fray are the Russian mobs, but that will never be reported. Some of those guys are pretty tough, but are only motivated by self-interest.

[Gregg]

I'm waiting for the part where something in the power structure breaks and people start getting lined up in front of walls.

[busterbunker]

I'm remembering the part where Gorbachev's birthmark was totally 666.