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OT: World Politics

Stinky said:
@MindzEye

what do you make of this take?

www.theguardian.com

For years, Putin didnât invade Ukraine. What made him finally snap in 2022? | Anatol Lieven

This war is Russia’s fault. But European nations rebuffing Russia during the noughties did not help, says Anatol Lieven of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft
www.theguardian.com www.theguardian.com

There are times I love The Guardian and others where I want to beat the contrarian fuckwaddles with whatever hard and heavy things I can find. This is one such time.
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Maybe the Euros didn’t take “Russian security concerns” seriously because they knew it was bullshit. This war was caused by Russian internal politics (the mafia state thing) and their incapacity to transition to a post-colonial reality.
 
lecoqsportif said:
Maybe the Euros didn’t take “Russian security concerns” seriously because they knew it was bullshit. This war was caused by Russian internal politics (the mafia state thing) and their incapacity to transition to a post-colonial reality.
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Why the fuck would the guardian give a platform for such garbage?
 
lecoqsportif said:
Just to finish the thought. Remember the G8? The G8! Russia was invited into the SuperFriends club and yet still couldn’t take yes for an answer.

Why? Because they can’t. An authoritarian mafia state can’t live up to those standards. Their dream is to normalize corruption on their scale and pacify and disengage the mushy middle. They want us to be like them.
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Yup. Thus the global election interference.
 
Stinky said:
@MindzEye

what do you make of this take?

www.theguardian.com

For years, Putin didnât invade Ukraine. What made him finally snap in 2022? | Anatol Lieven

This war is Russia’s fault. But European nations rebuffing Russia during the noughties did not help, says Anatol Lieven of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft
www.theguardian.com www.theguardian.com

There are times I love The Guardian and others where I want to beat the contrarian fuckwaddles with whatever hard and heavy things I can find. This is one such time.
Click to expand...

Simple answer is that Russia didn't invade fully until they felt capable of it but it was always a strategic goal if they couldn't turn Ukraine into a client state like Belarus

The "modernization" wasn't close to being even ready to lie about yet. So no invasion. Limited action like Crimea only
 
lecoqsportif said:
Just to finish the thought. Remember the G8? The G8! Russia was invited into the SuperFriends club and yet still couldn’t take yes for an answer.

Why? Because they can’t. An authoritarian mafia state can’t live up to those standards. Their dream is to normalize corruption on their scale and pacify and disengage the mushy middle. They want us to be like them.
Click to expand...


This has kind of been the perpetual condition of Russia for at least the past couple of hundred years. Out-of-step with the rest of Europe and/or the most advanced economies in the world, and absolutely fucking enraged that those countries don’t look up to Russia and want to be like them.

During the latter stages of Tsarist Russia, they were furious at the rest of Europe for moving away from being backwards feudal religiously conservative autocracies. Introducing constitutions, elections, human/worker’s rights, representative assemblies, religious toleration and curbs on the power of the monarch was anathema to them.

Then when they swung hard over to communism, Vladimir Lenin was convinced that Russia was at the vanguard of a global communist revolution, and that the rest of Europe and North America would swiftly follow Soviet Russia’s lead. And ended up furious and resentful when that didn’t happen.

And now we’ve kind of swung back to a weird neo-Tsarist Russia that’s furious once again that North America and Europe—in particular Imperial/Soviet Russia’s former colonies—don’t all want to be extremely socially conservative, white supremacist kleptocratic mafia states ruled by strongman authoritarian leaders that bow to Moscow as a sort of central authority and new Rome.
 
Wayward DP said:
a 1% risk is not the same as a 90% risk, but surely you know that.

are you now also a proponent of guns, guns, guns for all? and permitless concealed carry?
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you also know there is not a 90% chance of being shot in the sunshine state.

As for your second comment, no and and in any event Florida is not the only state with that law. Iirc Ilinois requires permits and it's a shooting gallery in Chicago most weekends.
 
TheCountofMonteCristo said:
you also know there is not a 90% chance of being shot in the sunshine state.

As for your second comment, no and and in any event Florida is not the only state with that law. Iirc Ilinois requires permits and it's a shooting gallery in Chicago most weekends.
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and despite Chicago, Illinois' per capita death rate from firearms has been lower than Florida's for 7 of the 8 years for which CDC data is available. may want to revisit that hypothesis.

so are you in favour of additional gun control then?
 
Wayward DP said:
thread:

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The bakhmut defence has always been about attrition. Tactically useless region for them but digging in hard and paying the price to bleed Russia dry was worth it. Ukraine knows that the only military asset Russia isn't in short supply of is young untrained blood.

Every shell, tank, etc spent on a useless offensive is one they can't use to defend the ukie offensive they're preparing for.
 
MindzEye said:
The bakhmut defence has always been about attrition. Tactically useless region for them but digging in hard and paying the price to bleed Russia dry was worth it. Ukraine knows that the only military asset Russia isn't in short supply of is young untrained blood.

Every shell, tank, etc spent on a useless offensive is one they can't use to defend the ukie offensive they're preparing for.
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yeah and with Gerasimov back in charge they seem to be doubling down on stupidity and useless death.

this reminds me of the summer lull before the big Ukie counteroffensives, where they just attrite Russian forces in the Donbas and then BOOM.

I'm waiting for the next BOOM, acknowledging it likely comes only after the spring thaw.
 
Wayward DP said:
and despite Chicago, Illinois' per capita death rate from firearms has been lower than Florida's for 7 of the 8 years for which CDC data is available. may want to revisit that hypothesis.

so are you in favour of additional gun control then?
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Show me a post of mine where I opposed it?

I don't agree with the demonization of legal gun owners.
 
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