Ukraine

[Animalmother]

Maybe this is also racist but isn't the Russian government basically a criminal gang that took over a country? Much of their foreign revenue streams have evaporated in the past week and they must be losing billions. How long before Putin has to answer for that to a group of very unscrupulous people.

[arqueturus]

In reference to Todd's and other comments.

I'm sitting here with the horrifying thought of "What if Trump was in power when all this shit is happening?".

I know he isn't but bloody hell.

I'm not sure where this is going to go, Putin does appear to have made a massive error in doing this. I've made comment that Russia in many ways is more dangerous than the USSR because they have more economic threads into the globe than they ever did. Back then (early 80's) they were in a box and could largely be ignored other than the potential of global thermonuclear war. However, I think I overlooked that sanctions would work for precisely the same reason, a classic double edged sword. Russia's economy is no longer self contained, they are absolutely dependant on the global economy as the global economy depends on them.

The Russian people are suffering for Putin's madness and they'll either buy into his cause or realise that they never had it so good and things are rapidly going backwards.

[Achtung Englander]

[Lenny Solidus]

I'm sitting here with the horrifying thought of "What if Trump was in power when all this shit is happening?".

This is the big picture coming together. Trump planning to remove the US from NATO in a forced second term, him being a long term strategically placed Russian asset with debts to them in the millions if not far beyond. They served his win in 2016 and stole sensitive election data in 2020 when four US government agencies were compromised. Everything Trump ever did or should that be attempted makes much more sense now and it was not only to defraud the US as current claims stand, it was to open the floodgates for much worse to come on a near global scale as Putin and Trump attempted to play God together.

Trump is of course now severely compromised himself and with his use to Putin waning by the day Putin is going it alone all out for whatever semblance of power grabbing he can in an effort rebuild his beloved Soviet Union before he croaks - anything he can regain by force, no matter the cost or possible penalties.

[Achtung Englander]

How can Trump say Putin is a genius when the GOP itself is criticising Russia. I would not be surprised if the GOP ban Trump if he does not attempt a U-turn on supporting Russia. He could run as an independent but that would lead to a Democratic win.

How the Democrates became more patriotic than the Republicans is an indication of how fucked up the right wing in the US is right now.

Putin must be flabbergasted that he managed to reunite Europe and make NATO relevant again, while simultaneously turning Russia back to the Soviet days and on a path of bankruptcy.

The biggest deal and it is a really big deal, is that both Visa and Mastercard have stopped operations. Credit in Russia is now literally non-existant. The currency is worthless and with hard currency reserves depleating, the Russian central bank will have no option but to print more money (based on little or no fiduciary value) resulting with hyper-inflation. How this anger will be funneled now is anyone's guess - it could be funneled against Putin's mafia govt or Putin may use it to generate hatred to the West.

These next several weeks will be interesting.

[Alan]

GOP…. ban Trump?

More than likely they’ll campaign on sending troops into Ukraine to support Russia.

[Mantis]

There are a lot of pro-Putin right wing nut jobs within the Republican party. There is a cohort on their media who pretty much think he should be allowed to do what he wants because NATO has provoked him.

It is quite scary to think that if Trump had still been president then America would basically have stood and done nothing whilst Putin committed genocide.

The endgame for Ukraine is the same as what he's already done in Crimea and the separatists in the Donbas. Any dissenting civilians will be brutally suppressed and many will die as the population is cleansed. What he is doing with this invasion is just pure evil.

[Hatredsheart]

[eny]

I was about to post a link to that very video, refreshingly honest, and goes to show, ordinary people aren't the problem in this, it is the psychopaths and greed mongers.

The reason for this war? The same as many others: OIL. Russia has massive reserves it isn't profitable to access. ExxonMobil has the technology waiting to be used....but for sanctions. Great thread about it here:

[Solitaire]

Hi again, all - they cleared the gofundme faster than I was expecting, which is great. Any little bit will help, and I thank you in advance. Please don't feel any pressure whatsoever. If you have social media that you can share the link on, instead, that would be a help.

https://gofund.me/f4939bc7


Edit: jfc, I just discovered this article, dated on Saturday, about the city she lives in - although from her texts I gather that she is out in a village, on the outskirts, where her grandmother and lots of other elderly live. She's been baking bread for everyone...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/20 ... a-tserkva/

[Wrathbone]

Done. I hope she and her family get to safety ASAP.

[Solitaire]

Thanks guys. I haven't heard from her in over a day now but she's told me not to be concerned immediately, since the outages are quite frequent (naturally).

[Alan]

So sometimes I stick Morning Joe on when I’m at work and about 20mins ago they were interviewing someone called Irina who was talking about being stuck with her mother and grandmother and possibly trying to get out. I’m sure there are a million Irina's in Ukraine so almost certainly not your Irina but that was quite coincidental! I was on audio only so couldn’t guess visually and I didn’t catch where she was from.

I have next to no social media use but I’ve dropped the gofundme in a group I’m moderately active in so maybe get a few folk there but that’s the best I can do on that front I’m afraid. Worth a shot anyway.

[Raid]

I've stuck something in the pot. I do hope she and her family are alright.

I'm actually starting to get calls at work from people trying to help friends and family in Ukraine. I just had to console a young chap whose father is stuck there, and it's awful feeling so powerless. I can offer platitudes but in this case I wasn't able to actually help.

[Animalmother]

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-60659185
Another Russian general just got killed. I couldn't imagine 2 Nato generals being killed in the space of a week but I don't think the rank has the equivalent weight. The Russian's haven't acknowledged it yet but I'm sure that stuff takes a few days.