Ukraine War

[Horn Under a Bad Sign 20,463]

 

[Shaddie 1,651]

4 minutes ago, Caponata said:

It was getting to the point if you questioned things like the "Ghost of Kiev" you were labeled a Putin supporter. 

So explain what you get by “questioning” it. If absolute truth is your thing then go over there and report to us. If you support Putin just say it.

[wildcat09 29,360]

11 minutes ago, Caponata said:

It was getting to the point if you questioned things like the "Ghost of Kiev" you were labeled a Putin supporter. 

I’m so sorry that someone on the internet was mean to you. Maybe you need to talk to a therapist about it?

[GhostOfTomJoad 9,342]

14 minutes ago, Horn Under a Bad Sign said:

 

Baller move. Bravo, Leo.

[TexArcher 37,989]

14 minutes ago, GhostOfTomJoad said:

Baller move. Bravo, Leo.

Hell yeah.

[Immaculate Vibes 114]

10 hours ago, Lobo said:

I truly believe you don't like a lot of what the establishment wing of the Republican Party did to get us here.  

And I think you're probably a super nice guy in real life and we'd have a good time knocking back beers and shooting the shit.

But I also have a slight suspicion you don't appreciate what Trump did to enable all of this.  And that's okay.  History is for forward-thinkers only. 

Trump enabled Putin attacking Ukraine? He played a part like all of the Presidents over the past 20+ years. I’m not one of these people saying if only Trump was in charge!!!
 

If you mean he enabled or contributed to all the divisiveness, then I would say he was a result of our divisiveness and he made it worse. 

[Immaculate Vibes 114]

8 hours ago, SKJ said:

Social cohesion... like focusing on freedoms over responsibility? 

Maybe the rest of what you wrote makes sense in some strange framework where money is more important than you think,  but we have a different root cause...

 

"We are losing what could be called our societal immunity,” argued Dov Seidman, founder of the How Institute for Society. “Societal immunity is the capacity for people to come together, do hard things and look out for one another in the face of existential threats, like a pandemic, or serious challenges to the cornerstones of their political and economic systems, like the legitimacy of elections or peaceful transfer of power.”
But societal immunity “is a function of trust,” added Seidman. (Disclosure: Seidman is a donor to my wife’s museum, Planet Word.) “When trust in institutions, leaders and each other is high, people — in a crisis — are more willing to sublimate their cherished rights and demonstrate their sense of shared responsibilities toward others, even others they disagree with on important issues and even if it means making sacrifices.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/08/opinion/spotify-joe-rogan-covid-free-speech.html

 

P.s. I can't remember which poster put this up first,  but it really is a great find,  and I thank you for it

I still feel like if we had a real existential crisis to our country we would unite. We all did for the two weeks to flatten the curve when we saw, in retrospect, fake videos of Chinese people keeling over in subway stations. Once we saw it wasn’t that then politics came into play. Ukraine being attacked is terrible but not an existential threat to us. Like I’ve said it’s not a core strategic interest. I guess people here disagree. China is very quiet. Never interrupt an enemy when he’s making a mistake. 
 

Imo the widespread loss of institutional trust can be traced to 3 events. The Iraq war, the Snowden revelations, and the global financial crisis with resulting bailout of the financial sector. It’s going to be really hard to get that back. 
 

 

[BehoId, The Underminer! 11,669]

1 hour ago, Caponata said:

It was getting to the point if you questioned things like the "Ghost of Kiev" you were labeled a Putin supporter. 

Certainly not on here. A certain very handsome poster called bullshit on Ghost of Kiev in literally the post immediately following his appearance. 
 

 

 

[Disco Strangler 1,879]

[Satchel 6,938]

11 hours ago, Longboard Horn said:

 

Trump’s former WH Press Sec’y, Stephanie Grisham said on The View today, that Trump, unlike Zelenskyy, would be “57 feet underground hiding.” She seems to know him pretty well.

[Make em eat Taco Bell 1,549]

US Intel reports 2,000 - 4,000 Russian dead in the first 2 weeks - a phenomal number considering the US lost 4,500 KIA in Iraq 2003-2011.

Russia is trending to lose a Vietnam level (about 60,000) of dead 1960-1975 in probably a fraction of the time.  

[Make em eat Taco Bell 1,549]

6 minutes ago, Satchel said:

Trump’s former WH Press Sec’y, Stephanie Grisham said on The View today, that Trump, unlike Zelenskyy, would be “57 feet underground hiding.” She seems to know him pretty well.

Russia could send a missile if indeed he's staying at the office.  Wise to go elsewhere. 

[Bullneck 19,186]

4 minutes ago, Make em eat Taco Bell said:

US Intel reports 2,000 - 4,000 Russian dead in the first 2 weeks - a phenomal number considering the US lost 4,500 KIA in Iraq 2003-2011.

Russia is trending to lose a Vietnam level (about 60,000) of dead 1960-1975 in probably a fraction of the time.  

I heard on MSNBC the Ukrainians are estimating 11,000 Russian dead.  Mindblowing if true, approaching WWI numbers.

[WhatTheBuck 28,794]

16 minutes ago, Satchel said:

Trump’s former WH Press Sec’y, Stephanie Grisham said on The View today, that Trump, unlike Zelenskyy, would be “57 feet underground hiding.” She seems to know him pretty well.

He wasn’t hiding! He was just inspecting the bunker! He was only down there for like 15-20 minutes!

And then three days later he unleashed the National Guard on peaceful protesters in Lafayette Square so he could stage a photo op in front of a church he doesn’t attend holding a Bible he’s never read.

Oh and by the way, Stephanie, aren’t you the only White House Press Secretary in history who actually never held a press conference? Fuck you. You’re a Trump lackey and you’re never going to wash that stink off of you even if you say critical things about him now. I’ve never watched The View but they could have put anyone out there and I wouldn’t have known if it was you or not BECAUSE YOU NEVER HELD A SINGLE PRESS CONFERENCE!  I have no idea what you look like.

[WhatTheBuck 28,794]

20 minutes ago, Bullneck said:

I heard on MSNBC the Ukrainians are estimating 11,000 Russian dead.  Mindblowing if true, approaching WWI numbers.

Are they sending them home in body bags or is Putin trying to hide the reality from their families?

[Bullneck 19,186]

23 minutes ago, WhatTheBuck said:

Are they sending them home in body bags or is Putin trying to hide the reality from their families?

They didn't say, but I'd have to think if those numbers were true the shit would hit the fan pretty quick in Russia.  My guess is Putin would want to slow play that as much as possible.

[Biff Tannen 45,695]

1 hour ago, Immaculate Vibes said:

Imo the widespread loss of institutional trust can be traced to 3 events. The Iraq war, the Snowden revelations, and the global financial crisis with resulting bailout of the financial sector. It’s going to be really hard to get that back. 

While these things certainly contributed, the absolute number one thing has to be social media and disinformation.  

[Brisketexan 105,180]

While these things certainly contributed, the absolute number one thing has to be social media and disinformation.  

Heavily fomented by whom? Russia.
With such disinformation being parroted perfectly by who on this board? Immaculate.
Not a coincidence.

[Dahobbs 17,627]

5 minutes ago, Biff Tannen said:

While these things certainly contributed, the absolute number one thing has to be social media and disinformation.  

Yeah,  @Immaculate Vibes and those like him are number 1. He is a shit bag murderer and deserves a javelin up his ass. 

[brakeman 28,401]

36 minutes ago, Bullneck said:

They didn't say, but I'd have to think if those numbers were true the shit would hit the fan pretty quick in Russia.  My guess is Putin would want to slow play that as much as possible.

 

 

I would bet everyone gets a ride.

“Sasha, he ran away.”

Also, “we kill nobody.”

Edited March 9, 2022 by brakeman
fuck vlad.

[Hugo Stiglitz 23,367]

33 minutes ago, Biff Tannen said:

While these things certainly contributed, the absolute number one thing has to be social media and disinformation.  

Arguably the government lying all the time and ZERO accountability contributed to our susceptibility to online disinformation. You look at other western democracies where people have a higher trust in government and they can handle things like a pandemic much better. 

Edited March 9, 2022 by Hugo Stiglitz

[brakeman 28,401]

 

[C-Man 27,239]

1 hour ago, brakeman said:

 

 

I would bet everyone gets a ride.

“Sasha, he ran away.”

Also, “we kill nobody.”

The cremations will continue until morale improves

[Hagbard Celine 10,897]

4 hours ago, Immaculate Vibes said:

the widespread loss of institutional trust

define "institutional"

[Caponata 151]

5 hours ago, wildcat09 said:

I’m so sorry that someone on the internet was mean to you. Maybe you need to talk to a therapist about it?

Nah just stop spreading misinformation it ends doing more harm than good. This is war not some feel good Marvel movie where you can just make up fantastical horseshit. Can you not see how these made up stories can do harm?

Edited March 9, 2022 by Caponata

[Hornius Emeritus 12,479]

35 minutes ago, Caponata said:

Nah just stop spreading misinformation it ends doing more harm than good. This is war not some feel good Marvel movie where you can just make up fantastical horseshit. Can you not see how these made up stories can do harm?

I admit that I haven't followed the Ghost of Kiev story very much, but my impression is that nobody knows if there is a Ghost of Kiev or not. Is that incorrect?

[Horn Under a Bad Sign 20,463]

Russia has suspended the sale of foreign currencies until September 9, the central bank said Wednesday. Between March 9 and September 9 "the banks will not be able to sell foreign currencies to citizens." (AFP) All ruble convertibility is over. 


Wow. Putin has destroyed the ruble. 

[NWBuck 8,576]

7 hours ago, Brisketexan said:

They’re paying them in the local currency….rubles. Grimace has enough money in his pockets, and he doesn’t even wear pants.

I could be off here, but I thought "ruble ruble ruble" was the vernacular of another McDonaldland citizen.

[Planet Houston 4,930]

2 hours ago, C-Man said:

The cremations will continue until morale improves

Gotta urn that trust. 

[Thatguy 8,761]

On 3/7/2022 at 10:40 PM, Immaculate Vibes said:

It really does to you? Interesting. 
 

The rise and fall of empires since the creation of credit and modern day banking has followed pretty predictable cycles. Ray Dalio has written a good bit about it. 
 

Basically after countries have been on top for a while they become complacent and lose their edge in social cohesion, innovation and education amongst over things that helped their rise to the top.
 

Over time it becomes more expensive to maintain their empire and lifestyle so they become heavily indebted and eventually print money when crises hit. This weakens the currency and causes a gradual hollowing out of the economy as capital moves to better returns on investment. Which weaken it more in a cycle. 
 

At home as more debt accumulates and the cycle matures, more financial  inequality is seen which leads to internal disorder and political extremism on both sides. Productivity gains slow and eventually people begin fighting over a smaller pie. Education and infrastructure are hollowed out. When problems get bad enough internally, they often look externally for conflict.

A large part of the debt comes from supporting military adventurism abroad which is seen as necessary to protect the empire. Then as rising competitors see weakness in the declining power they test it through their actions which further weakens the declining power. 
 

Tl;Dr We are a decadent society that has overspent, is now printing money, and funding large military adventures while neglecting maintenance of the advantages at home that helped us rise to the top. 
 

What does Randy Beamer have to do with this?

 

    This makes no sense. I read it a couple times just to see if I was missing something. What empire folded like this?

    Empires, throughout history, have folded after overextending themselves through war and/or occupation of foreign entities. It turns out people don't like to be subjugated/colonized. Who knew?

   The real lesson we should learn is what happens when we leave a dictatorship unchecked.

 

[SKJ 1,311]

7 hours ago, Immaculate Vibes said:

I still feel like if we had a real existential crisis to our country we would unite. We all did for the two weeks to flatten the curve when we saw, in retrospect, fake videos of Chinese people keeling over in subway stations. Once we saw it wasn’t that then politics came into play. Ukraine being attacked is terrible but not an existential threat to us. Like I’ve said it’s not a core strategic interest. I guess people here disagree. China is very quiet. Never interrupt an enemy when he’s making a mistake. 
 

Imo the widespread loss of institutional trust can be traced to 3 events. The Iraq war, the Snowden revelations, and the global financial crisis with resulting bailout of the financial sector. It’s going to be really hard to get that back. 
 

 

I'm glad you feel that way,  but I would guess around 35% of this country would rather be Russian assets than American 

In fact,  I would say the percentage could dwarf 40%.

The reason for this? According to some,  it's that some people want freedom for only one party, or type of American. 

Even if you think this is false,  the zealots of the right wing are still working on ways to poison this country with any number of extremist ideas in order to never have "the other side" get any credit for any good thing. 

You could have saved a person's life in extremely unusual circumstances,  and 35% would claim you had evil intent

[Bookman 4,639]

9 hours ago, WhatTheBuck said:

Oh and by the way, Stephanie, aren’t you the only White House Press Secretary in history who actually never held a press conference?

In all fairness to her, she thought "Press Secretary" meant that she'd be typing up documents for the Press, answering phone calls, getting them coffee, etc.

[PenelopeWitherspoon 19,129]

4 hours ago, Planet Houston said:

Gotta urn that trust. 

[WhatTheBuck 28,794]

26 minutes ago, Bookman said:

In all fairness to her, she thought "Press Secretary" meant that she'd be typing up documents for the Press, answering phone calls, getting them coffee, etc.

Did she think she would have the responsibility of flushing those documents down the toilet or did she assume that would be someone else’s job?

[WhatTheBuck 28,794]

On 3/7/2022 at 11:58 PM, mchookem said:

 

Can’t stop laughing at this. 

[Bullneck 19,186]

9 hours ago, brakeman said:

Practically Soylet Green level of work, there Russia.

If I were a Russian soldier I would find this kind of demoralizing.

[Caponata 151]

https://www-independent-co-uk.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/ukraine-russia-invasion-deaths-latest-b2030956.html

Ukraine says Russia has lost 12,000 troops. U.S. intelligence estimates 2,000 to 4,000. 

[gmr548 16,590]

https://www-independent-co-uk.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/ukraine-russia-invasion-deaths-latest-b2030956.html
Ukraine says Russia has lost 12,000 troops. U.S. intelligence estimates 2,000 to 4,000. 

They’re going to match or surpass a decade worth of US losses in Iraq in one month, for perspective.

[Tuco 5,076]

11 hours ago, brakeman said:

 

 

I would bet everyone gets a ride.

“Sasha, he ran away.”

Also, “we kill nobody.”

The Eastern Orthodox Church does not approve of cremation.  So, either that is meant for Ukrainians (to avoid mass grave sites of civilians) or Putin is risking pissing off families who lost their loved ones in battle. 

[Immaculate Vibes 114]

11 hours ago, Hugo Stiglitz said:

Arguably the government lying all the time and ZERO accountability contributed to our susceptibility to online disinformation. You look at other western democracies where people have a higher trust in government and they can handle things like a pandemic much better. 

Agreed.
 

Constant lying.
 

Nobody in power gets punished for anything. They even get rewarded. You can lead us into war under false pretenses. You can conduct illegal surveillance on citizens and lie about it under oath. You can crash the global economy and you’ll get bailed out and still get paid bonuses. On and on.

 

9 hours ago, Hagbard Celine said:

define "institutional"

Government, financial system, media 

 

11 hours ago, Dahobbs said:

Yeah,  @Immaculate Vibes and those like him are number 1. He is a shit bag murderer and deserves a javelin up his ass. 

Comments like this make me laugh. I literally save lives in my line of work. 
 

Even if you think everything I say is wrong and should be stricken from the site, the idea that there’s people here that take what one person posts so seriously that they make big life decisions based off them is ridiculous. 

[Anastasis 23,480]

19 minutes ago, Tuco said:

The Eastern Orthodox Church does not approve of cremation.  So, either that is meant for Ukrainians (to avoid mass grave sites of civilians) or Putin is risking pissing off families who lost their loved ones in battle. 

Well, outside of Pat. Kirill running shop out of Moscow, they don't particularly approve of dropping bombs on the (largely Orthodox) people of Ukraine either, and you see how that is going. It is an entirely different discussion, but the Russian Church has been the source of substantial tension within the larger Eastern Orthodox world since 2018 in particular.  And those tensions tie back directly to Ukraine.  Excommunications for errbody.    

https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/christian-orthodox-spiritual-leader-calls-end-ukraine-war-2022-02-27/

ISTANBUL, Feb 27 (Reuters) - Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, the spiritual head of some 300 million Orthodox Christians worldwide and based in Istanbul, called for an end to war in Ukraine on Sunday.

"We address another plea to end the war now. To immediately stop any act of violence, anything that spreads pain and death." Bartholomew said in a statement.

Bartholomew also called the war abominable and voiced solidarity and support with Ukrainian church, which was granted independence from Moscow, and "seriously suffering" Ukrainian people in his statement.

In 2019, Bartholomew granted autocephaly to the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, making it independent, in a historic split strongly opposed by Russia.

[tx 3 putt 77,237]

Plow those ashes back into the earth, free fertilizer 

[jimmyjazz 46,001]

How long does it take to cremate a body?  Seems like a fairly inefficient way to dispose of thousands of dead Russians.

[Francisco 2.0 32,395]

1 hour ago, Tuco said:

The Eastern Orthodox Church does not approve of cremation.  So, either that is meant for Ukrainians (to avoid mass grave sites of civilians) or Putin is risking pissing off families who lost their loved ones in battle. 

 

Putin:

 

[Dnaguy 12,016]

5 minutes ago, jimmyjazz said:

How long does it take to cremate a body?  Seems like a fairly inefficient way to dispose of thousands of dead Russians.

https://rockinvest-ua.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/eco-recycling-1.pdf
 

slide 11 has your answer.

 

 

[Longhorn_Fan68 33,881]

5 minutes ago, Dnaguy said:

https://rockinvest-ua.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/eco-recycling-1.pdf
 

slide 11 has your answer.

 

 

['stache 21,825]

Just now, Longhorn_Fan68 said:

I think those chambers are way to hot for a good cook. Hot and fast X 11. Would not eat.

[Grade of D as in David 13,253]

2 minutes ago, 'stache said:

I think those chambers are way to hot for a good cook. Hot and fast X 11. Would not eat.

What if they sprinkled on some liquid smoke?

[Longhorn_Fan68 33,881]

2 minutes ago, Grade of D as in David said:

What if they sprinkled on some liquid smoke?

[jimmyjazz 46,001]

10 minutes ago, Dnaguy said:

https://rockinvest-ua.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/eco-recycling-1.pdf
 

slide 11 has your answer.

So maybe 6 bodies per day?  (2100 per year)  They've lost that many soldiers in less than two weeks, and perhaps as much as 6X that amount.  Like I said, inefficient.