So, USA's setting up another false flag war, but one that will bite us all in the ass

Well the far right is falling in line and believes that Russia is the good guy in all of this. Between the former president praising Putin and Tucker Carlson repeating Russian propaganda, Republicans are going all in on Russia. I think it’s a combination of the right automatically taking whatever side President Biden is on and how deeply entrenched Russian influence has on the conservative media echo chamber. Regardless President Regan wouldn’t even recognize his own party today.

<A Ukrainian has entered the chat>

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Originally Posted by Silke

Well the far right is falling in line and believes that Russia is the good guy in all of this. Between the former president praising Putin and Tucker Carlson repeating Russian propaganda, Republicans are going all in on Russia. I think it’s a combination of the right automatically taking whatever side President Biden is on and how deeply entrenched Russian influence has on the conservative media echo chamber. Regardless President Regan wouldn’t even recognize his own party today.

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Ronnie Raygun would be spinning in his grave to see the GOP so blatantly kissing a Russian president's ass.

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Originally Posted by Silke

Well the far right is falling in line and believes that Russia is the good guy in all of this. Between the former president praising Putin and Tucker Carlson repeating Russian propaganda, Republicans are going all in on Russia. I think it’s a combination of the right automatically taking whatever side President Biden is on and how deeply entrenched Russian influence has on the conservative media echo chamber. Regardless President Regan wouldn’t even recognize his own party today.

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Thanks to horseshoe theory the far left is gobbling Putin's cock as much as the right is.

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Originally Posted by Ninetoes

Thanks to horseshoe theory the far left is gobbling Putin's cock as much as the right is.

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I must have missed all the tweets from members of the far left praising Putin's genius or generally being sympathetic to Russia.

Tankie Twitter is chock full of folks defending Putin, saying the US is a provacetuer and the ukrainians are Nazis so its ok for Putin to do it. Not just tankie twitter, good chunk of folks who voted for Bernie or third party too.

Again its the FAR left, leftists, moderates and centrists are all Fuck Putin

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Originally Posted by Delores Mulva

Oh, oops! Forgot: link for BBC article about the slow, steady invasion: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-60468237

Germany just pulled the plug on the pipeline, and every other Western nation is lining up to bury Russia economically, so hope it was worth it, Vlad.

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Did they? I have to say I'm sort of surprised. I guess we'll see when next winter comes, if the issue is still ongoing then. But if they did then obviously Putin should have waited a little longer so Europe could get properly reliant on the pipeline, rather than doing something before Europe had changed their fuel economy around it. Wonder if thats a relatively rare miscalculation on his part, or something about the apparent prognosis for the US midterms affects his planning? I'm not sure why it would, but...

Or maybe he just has alternate plans to just sell the gas to China instead and thus doesnt care about the pipeline/sanctions so much anymore? Anyone know how easy it would be to switch to China, in terms of existing infrastructure or time to create it?

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Originally Posted by Ninetoes

Tankie Twitter is chock full of folks defending Putin, saying the US is a provacetuer and the ukrainians are Nazis so its ok for Putin to do it. Not just tankie twitter, good chunk of folks who voted for Bernie or third party too.

Again its the FAR left, leftists, moderates and centrists are all Fuck Putin

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I only heard the term “tankie” for the first time a few weeks ago so I get the reference.

I won’t defend the FAR left because I think they’re pretty out there. But, and I’ve said this before, they’re much easier to ignore. They’re nowhere near as organized and loud as the far right.

Anyway, Ninetoes, you’re Ukrainian? Thoughts and insights?

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Originally Posted by Delores Mulva

You tried. Besides, you need to take time to arm yourself against the tyrant Trudeau and prepare for hyperinflation. No time to post!

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But what do I do when the tyrant gives up his power? Do I still have to arm myself? Can I arm myself against inflation? Can I arm a bear?

Can bears fight inflation?

(also: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world...ergencies-act/ )

EDIT - for further context: https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-the-emergencies-act-nine-days-that-didnt-really-shake-the-world-all/

Spoiler for context:

But things were taken to another level after the police went in – the largest such operation in Canadian history, the most closely observed (hundreds of cellphone cameras documenting every move) and by all reasonable accounts one of the most restrained in its use of force.

In two days of close-quarters engagement, after literally hundreds of separate encounters between cops and protesters, the list of controversial incidents amounts to these: two people fell near a police horse as it went by; a guy got kneed in the back a couple of times as a police officer tried to subdue him; a few people got pepper-sprayed.

For anyone with any experience of even routine crowd-control operations, let alone one tasked with clearing out a deeply entrenched group of half-crazed anti-vaxxers, this was an almost miraculously clean rap sheet. Ground through the propaganda mills of the American right (and its Canadian subsidiaries), however, it emerged as Tiananmen, Hitler’s Germany and Guernica rolled up into one.

But it was the decision that preceded the police operation, the federal government’s invocation of the Emergencies Act, that excited the most controversy.

...

One part of the operation that seems unambiguously to have required the Emergencies Act: putting all those officers from police forces across the country under one command, without having to go through the formalities of swearing them all in, a task that apparently would have taken days.

But suppose the critics are right: The police had all the powers they needed but didn’t use them. That, surely, is the point: They didn’t use them. For three solid weeks. They didn’t use the powers they had under the authority of the City of Ottawa. They didn’t use the powers they had under the authority of the Province of Ontario. Perhaps the point of invoking the federal Emergencies Act was not the emergencies part, but the federal part.

...

At any rate, the argument that the police already had all the “new” powers granted them under the act is hard to square with the opposition’s other main line of attack: that by invoking the act the government had opened a dark and repressive new chapter in the country’s history; that martial law had been imposed; that Parliamentary democracy had been replaced by an authoritarian dictatorship to rival China’s.

This was just remarkably silly – and looks even sillier now that the emergency is officially over. It was only declared on Feb. 14. To stay in effect beyond seven days required the support of a majority of MPs in a Parliament in which the government holds a minority. Even had it remained in effect after that, it would have expired automatically in 30 days – sooner, still, if a majority of MPs had voted to revoke it, as they could have at any time before then. The whole thing was subject to the Charter and is already facing two separate court challenges.

There’s no doubt that the powers police had at their command for the nine days the emergency was in effect were extraordinary. The potential for abuse was obvious. Actual instances of abuse, however, were hard to come by.

TL;DR - country whose motto is "peace, order, and good government" restores peace and order through good government.

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Originally Posted by Silverblade-T-E

so when is Russia really gonna invade Ukraine, hm?

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Right now, by its own admission.

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Originally Posted by Ninetoes

Tankie Twitter is chock full of folks defending Putin, saying the US is a provacetuer and the ukrainians are Nazis so its ok for Putin to do it. Not just tankie twitter, good chunk of folks who voted for Bernie or third party too.

Again its the FAR left, leftists, moderates and centrists are all Fuck Putin

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To be clear, I really don't give a shit what some rando whack job suffering from withdrawal paranoid delusions says on Twitter. I consider the relevant far left to be people like AOC and Bernie or media personalities like Thom Hartman. None of those folks are praising Putin. There are some on the far right that most certainly are in full support Putin mode, some in government. The fact that people like Tucker even exist and still has a large following is terrifying.

To be fair, though, if I had to place Silverblade on the scale I would place him on the far left and he seems to more pro-Putin here than anything else so there is that.

First time I've seen "tankie" used outside of Reddit.

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Originally Posted by Zarbonius

But what do I do when the tyrant gives up his power?

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Don't you care about imaginary people from Chilliwack? WON'T SOMEONE CARE ABOUT THE IMAGINARY PEOPLE FROM CHILLIWACK?!?

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Originally Posted by PPatty

Right now, by its own admission.

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Emphasis on "right now", as the invasion has started. Troops crossing the border from Russia, Crimea, and Belarus. If they're just heading to the area with the internal fighting to "peacekeep", they're sure taking the scenic route.

BBC live feed: https://www.bbc.com/news/live/world-europe-60454795
CNN live feed: https://www.cnn.com/europe/live-news...2726026b5bde2a

"It's a false flag against the Nazis that are killing people in Eastern Ukraine"

Chernobyl power plant captured by Russian forces -Ukrainian official

https://www.reuters.com/world/europe...al-2022-02-24/

People think that Russia is headed by evil geniuses. This war is a foolish idea for Russia. It's a more foolish idea for us, and it's sad that Ukraine is going to be the subject of it. Russia is beginning its own version of Iraq, and it has nothing of value to gain unless Ukraine has been secretly developing Metal Gear. I strongly doubt that.

We really don't need to do anything. Nothing. The US doesn't need to do anything.

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Originally Posted by Star-Demon

We really don't need to do anything. Nothing.

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something something evil to triumph something something good men to do nothing.


...Anyway.



The US does not "need" to do anything. Nobody "needs" to do anything. But purely from a self-interest / utilitarian standpoint, it would be fucking idiotic to do nothing.


I mean, unless you think war and instability in Europe and Asia due to a militarily aggressive Russia would be good for the American economy (or that of any 1st world country)? (Narrator: it would not)

The US cannot stop Russia from engaging itself in prolonged occupations and insurgencies just because it feels butthurt in a ForeverWar. We most certainly cannot afford a ForeverWar against Russia or China.

Russia is fighting over nothing. This is a complete waste of their resources, a complete crash of their political capital, and their selectorate are already sweating spinal fluid because they know an invasion will have global consequences. Why waste our own?

You want a war? Go fight it yourself - forever. My generation fought two generation's-long wars and now we're fucking tired and aging and broke with nothing to fucking show for it. This is exactly what Russia is getting itself into right now.

War is horrible. If the USA was in better shape, I'd advocate for intervention, and I'd likely be criticized for forwarding american self-righteousness in its imagined role as World Police. After Iraq and Afghanistan and the 2010s and now the horrific 2020's, I'm saying we don't have much more blundering left in us. It's obvious we can't do this.

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Originally Posted by Star-Demon

The US cannot stop Russia from engaging itself in prolonged occupations and insurgencies just because it feels butthurt in a ForeverWar. We most certainly cannot afford a ForeverWar against Russia or China.

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You are assuming direct military conflict is the only option. It is not. It is not even a good option.

But there is a loooooooooooooooooooooooooooot of room between "nothing" and "direct military conflict".


Also, I *am* your generation.

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Originally Posted by Zarbonius

You are assuming direct military conflict is the only option. It is not. It is not even a good option.

But there is a loooooooooooooooooooooooooooot of room between "nothing" and "direct military conflict".


Also, I *am* your generation.

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kick Russia out of SWIFT as a first move, and shore up Europes natural gas - destroy the oligarchs wealth and Russia's leverage, the oligarchs will make him stop.