Ukraine (19 Viewers)

[efil4stnias]

Excellent piece:

World War II Is All That Putin Has Left

The regime offers Russians little more than selective memories of Soviet-era military triumph.

www.theatlantic.com

Read her piece last night. it is great.

and really is all he has left ( WWII )

 

[Sailorsaint]

Belarus is stationing more and more troops on UKR border including special forces. They and Russia claim that Poland is going to attack them. Sound familiar?

I know they don’t want to initiate anything because they would get it handed to them. But, they are staging for something.

 

[DaveXA]

Belarus is stationing more and more troops on UKR border including special forces. They and Russia claim that Poland is going to attack them. Sound familiar?

I know they don’t want to initiate anything because they would get it handed to them. But, they are staging for something.

Belarus is gonna be in a world of hurt if they get involved. They have a lot of opposition in their own country. They will not like being drawn into the conflict by Russia.

 

[SaintJ]

Belarus is stationing more and more troops on UKR border including special forces. They and Russia claim that Poland is going to attack them. Sound familiar?

I know they don’t want to initiate anything because they would get it handed to them. But, they are staging for something.

My guess is that Lukashenko desperately does not want to get dragged into this, but he's got to do things for show to make Putin happy.

Putin's stretched pretty thin right now. If he makes Lukashenko send Belarussian troops into Ukraine, there would be a substantial chance of a civilian (not to say military as well) uprising and Putin is not in nearly the same position of strength to help prop up Lukashenko as he was last time.

 

[superchuck500]

Michael Weiss is a reliable and well-published free-lance journalist covering international affairs and wars. He has been reporting on Ukraine since the 2014 Russian invasion.

Is Putin Sick – Or Are We Meant to Think He Is?

An oligarch close to the Kremlin was recorded on a tape saying the president is ‘very ill with blood cancer.’ Is this true, idle speculation or disinformation designed to make an erratic and paranoid dictator vulnerable?

newlinesmag.com

 

[DaveXA]

Michael Weiss is a reliable and well-published free-lance journalist covering international affairs and wars. He has been reporting on Ukraine since the 2014 Russian invasion.

Is Putin Sick – Or Are We Meant to Think He Is?

An oligarch close to the Kremlin was recorded on a tape saying the president is ‘very ill with blood cancer.’ Is this true, idle speculation or disinformation designed to make an erratic and paranoid dictator vulnerable?

newlinesmag.com

I just hope his illness is not an excuse to keep the entire apparatus in place. I'd rather Putin and his cronies be completely overthrown than keep their deeply flawed system in place.

 

[superchuck500]

I just hope his illness is not an excuse to keep the entire apparatus in place. I'd rather Putin and his cronies be completely overthrown than keep their deeply flawed system in place.

I don't think there's any disagreement there. Russia deserves so much better - Russia has produced and continues to produce culture, scientists, athletes, etc. Russians deserve democracy. But they have never had it, going from Tsar to the Party, then to a transition to crony kleptocracy morphing into authoritarianism. If Putin is to end soon, will Putinism go with it? What will follow?

 

[Sailorsaint]

Michael Weiss is a reliable and well-published free-lance journalist covering international affairs and wars. He has been reporting on Ukraine since the 2014 Russian invasion.

Is Putin Sick – Or Are We Meant to Think He Is?

An oligarch close to the Kremlin was recorded on a tape saying the president is ‘very ill with blood cancer.’ Is this true, idle speculation or disinformation designed to make an erratic and paranoid dictator vulnerable?

newlinesmag.com

I liked this news article for two reasons. One, it may insert some doubt and hesitancy in the minds of those FSB agents that are in the field to "promote morale" amongst the Russian soldiers and Two, that Putin may actually be dying and, I hope, filled with pain.

 

[superchuck500]

Now the farmers captured a thermbaric MLRS.

 

[HoustonSaint68]

I don't think there's any disagreement there. Russia deserves so much better - Russia has produced and continues to produce culture, scientists, athletes, etc. Russians deserve democracy. But they have never had it, going from Tsar to the Party, then to a transition to crony kleptocracy morphing into authoritarianism. If Putin is to end soon, will Putinism go with it? What will follow?

I agree, but at this point it’s hard to imagine Russia remaining democratic in its current physical make-up. Maybe, someday, if the Asian parts separate into their own countries leaving a “European” Russia that can once and for all look west and dispense with grandiose notions of an empire.

But I don’t see it. The Russians truly are genius in so many ways - maybe a bad analogy, but almost every genius-level person I’ve met in my own life had a screw loose.

 

[superchuck500]

Interesting thread:

 

[J-Donk]

I agree, but at this point it’s hard to imagine Russia remaining democratic in its current physical make-up. Maybe, someday, if the Asian parts separate into their own countries leaving a “European” Russia that can once and for all look west and dispense with grandiose notions of an empire.

But I don’t see it. The Russians truly are genius in so many ways - maybe a bad analogy, but almost every genius-level person I’ve met in my own life had a screw loose.

A democratic Russia is a much smaller Russia. The Caucasus, Siberia, and Far East would all splinter off in potentially multitude of ways. You can't have a real democracy if you treat the vast portion of country as a colony.

 

[staphory]

I agree, but at this point it’s hard to imagine Russia remaining democratic in its current physical make-up. Maybe, someday, if the Asian parts separate into their own countries leaving a “European” Russia that can once and for all look west and dispense with grandiose notions of an empire.

But I don’t see it. The Russians truly are genius in so many ways - maybe a bad analogy, but almost every genius-level person I’ve met in my own life had a screw loose.

All they seem to know is some sort of authoritarian form of government. People tend to stick with what they know.

 

[buzd]

Michael Weiss is a reliable and well-published free-lance journalist covering international affairs and wars. He has been reporting on Ukraine since the 2014 Russian invasion.

Is Putin Sick – Or Are We Meant to Think He Is?

An oligarch close to the Kremlin was recorded on a tape saying the president is ‘very ill with blood cancer.’ Is this true, idle speculation or disinformation designed to make an erratic and paranoid dictator vulnerable?

newlinesmag.com

When the war in Ukraine becomes Weekend at Bernie's.

(There's a photoshop there, but I'm not doing it).

 

[SamAndreas]

"Russian warship: go blyat yourself!" Did I use that right?

I like how the de-tankinated turret lying on the ground looks kind of like a skull.

A skull is what I see too. A skull pin like what one would pin to their collar, or use as a hat pin, if they wanted a skull hat pin.



Ukrainian and Russian is not like English in that they have several words that serve that guttural purpose. Blyat in Latin script, or 'блять' as it would be written in Cyrillic script was used in order to make a pun of the German 'blitzkrieg' that usage was using a noun as if it were a verb. So it was not quite grammatically correct, they were forcing a pun so that is why they choose to use that word. Because the Latin scrip of it kind of looks like the German word 'blitz'. They added the z for that purpose as well.

What 'blyat' literally means is a woman who works in the worlds oldest profession, however it generally is used in slang to mean 'fork'. In slang it means 'fork' for non reproductive purpose, implied to be heterosexual sex with someone who is not your wife.

To say "go "blyat' yourself" would be verbifying a noun, which is not wrong but that noun is not the nearest noun, so the word that would be generally be used if someone is not trying to force a pun with it would be 'hui' in Latin script, or 'xyй'' in Cyrillic script. The literal meaning is that word is the male reproductive organ. The way say "go fork yourself" would be ‘Idi na hui’. 'Иди на хуй' for it to be written in Cyrillic scrip.

Another word that might be used is, and the one which is a true verb is 'ye-bat', or 'ebat'. Which in Cyrillic scrip would be spelled as 'e6atb.' But using that most correct word wouldn't flow out of the mouth as smoothly as 'hui' and for phrases flow is an important factor too.

Translating from Russian or Ukrainian to English is not very easy. The languages are of dissimilar language groups.

 

[Sailorsaint]

"Russian warship: go blyat yourself!" Did I use that right?

I like how the de-tankinated turret lying on the ground looks kind of like a skull.

It's very, very similar to the Death's Head insignia used by the German tankmen in WWII. Eerie.