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OT: World Politics

MindzEye said:
This is an extremely widespread take. There was talk a few years ago of jumping directly to William for a bit
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They'll never get rid of it because the monarchy is an industry. It drives a lot of tourism to the UK. But I don't see why a former colony such as Canada needs to hang on to it. We don't make a dime off of the monarchy and every time one of the royals visits here it costs us money to provide them with security.
 
LeafGm said:
Liz’s eventual passing will definitely cause a lot of people/countries to re-evaluate why we’re still involved with the silly institution that is the British monarchy.

It’s one thing when you have the inertia of having in place a generally well-liked monarch that has been reigning for the entire living memory of the overwhelming majority of the population. It’s another when that suddenly changes and countries have to take the active step of formally recognizing a new (and not well-liked) monarch.

In Canada though, I bet we keep it in place, since no party has much appetite for spending political capital on constitutional wrangling.

Especially when that also re-opens the can of worms that is Quebec’s refusal to formally approve the constitution. Which won’t change under a separatist Quebec Premier that looks for wedge issues between English & French Canada wherever he can possibly find them.
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Lots of countries have monarchs that don't cost the taxpayers the kind of money that the House of Windsor costs the UK. But those monarchs no longer live in publicly funded castles and they have day jobs. They fulfill a largely ceremonial constitutional role and it's basically a part-time gig for which they receive a modest stipend and a handful of staff. And outside of their own countries they are basically unknown.
 
MindzEye said:
Looks like the Ukies moved the sticks about 50km in Kharkiv yesterday alone. That's about as much territory regained in a day as the Russians took in donbas in 3 months of attempted advance
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sounds like they are now at or near Kupyansk. reports of battles in the villages about 10km on the outskirts.

Shevchenkove is apparently flying the Ukrainian flag, as is Balakliya. Massive rout of the Russian forces in Kharkiv. If they take Kupyansk, Russians in Izyum are screwed. They may be screwed anyways. Really feels like a massive shift in momentum as there were reports of another Ukrainian breakthrough in Kherson this morning.
 
McKay is about as biased as they come, but he's been pretty accurate and he was posting this last night:



Izyum appears fucked either way, north or south.
 
MindzEye said:
McKay is about as biased as they come, but he's been pretty accurate and he was posting this last night:



Izyum appears fucked either way, north or south.
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pretty sure MacKay just parrots official Ukrainian channels. but this does seem to be the general consensus. 50+ km advance.
 
Any way you slice it, this invasion has been a debacle for the Russians. The US was in Vietnam (in large numbers) for about a decade and lost just over 58,000 soldiers. By contrast the Russians, who have only been in the Ukraine since February, have already lost 50,000 soldiers. It's not exactly Stalingrad level, but it's still pretty fucking bad and demonstrates two things: one, that the Russian armed forces are really, really bad at doing army stuff, and second, that the people in charge of all those Russian soldiers have demonstrated that they really don't give a shit how many of them have to die. There seems to be no effort being made to do anything other than send more bodies into the meat grinder. Eventually, those foot soldiers are going to catch on to this (if they haven't already) and the whole thing is going to collapse.
 
A few things...

- Kupyansk is massive important because it's the rail terminal for that region of Ukraine and has direct rail links to border towns in Russia. Control or Kupyansk controls a rail line on the east side of the river system there, and Izyum is one of the best control points of the highway and rail system on the west side.

- This would open up significant additional logistical capacity to move troops and equipment throughout the entire Kharkiv oblast. Russia had been able to control the territory east of Kharkiv this long largely because of holding Kupyansk.

- Kupyansk is a great jump off point to take a run at transit hubs north of Severodonetsk. If they can retake Starobilsk, Russia will be denied their last bit of rail access in the region

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That junction between two lines to the east of Kharkiv is Kupyansk and that region with multiple connections to the south is Izyum. That lonely line running direct from Russia to Luhansk runs through Starobilsk, as well as all of the highways that spread through out that particular frontier of Ukraine.
 
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Deckie007 said:
It's really a disgrace the British monarchy is still on our money
Would really prefer something else.
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I guess at this point, the $20 bill and our coins are the only legal tender left that has the British monarch’s face on them instead of a Canadian’s.

No time like the present to change that.
 
anne25 said:
I seem to recall that long before it was fashionable he was noted for his stance on organic gardening and farming and other environmental issues. If memory serves, he was mocked for his stance.
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I have admired him for this. People do not have to be perfect to contribute good to the world.
 
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