How should west respond to potential (likely) Russian invasion of Ukraine?

[Elixir]

It’s quite possible that Barbos doesn’t believe the shit Putin spews. It could be a cover. He could fear monitoring by the authorities and arrest.

Well, I would simply not post anything. Like you do.
Yes, I noticed that your gang ignores serious discussion.

Serious discussion? OK.

Tell us then about your plans to take Bakhmut and how they are going? Tell us why Russia attacked Kiev directly last year and then withdrew? That was seriously part of your plan? Or is your military that incompetent? Was it really your plan to take Kherson and then run back across the river? Or are your soldiers really just cowards?

How many years are you going to take to wrap this special military operation up? How many more Russians are going to die?

"You"! Barbos is just a guy discussing on an online forum. He's not Putin.

Your tone seems way too personal to make sense IMHO

barbos was looking forward to people freezing and suffering in Ukraine back in the fall. He has said some pretty dehumanizing things.

I still don't think he's Putin

No, just Russian.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

Serious discussion? OK.

Tell us then about your plans to take Bakhmut and how they are going? Tell us why Russia attacked Kiev directly last year and then withdrew? That was seriously part of your plan? Or is your military that incompetent? Was it really your plan to take Kherson and then run back across the river? Or are your soldiers really just cowards?

How many years are you going to take to wrap this special military operation up? How many more Russians are going to die?

"You"! Barbos is just a guy discussing on an online forum. He's not Putin.

Your tone seems way too personal to make sense IMHO

barbos was looking forward to people freezing and suffering in Ukraine back in the fall. He has said some pretty dehumanizing things.

I still don't think he's Putin

That's super. You complained about the personal tone. barbos was giddy about the suffering, so the tone is justified. He doesn't need to be Putin for that to be true.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

Anyway This was embarrassing to both Trump and Alfa-Bank and so Trump recruited his Justice department to have an investigator assigned to investigate the investigation into this Alfa-Bank computer connection, and Alfa-Bank started some lawsuits in Florida and Pennsylvania to try to uncover the identities of the computer scientists who discovered the mysterious internet traffic. Those computer scientists are only known publicly by the aliases "Max" and "Tea Leaves" and they were/are the focus of Attorney General William Barr's man John Durham and Alfa-Bank's high price lawyers for years now.

John Durham announced to the press in 2021 that he was looking to charge the two computer scientists with crimes including falsifying the data, and did present an indictment to a cyber security lawyer for "lying to the FBI." But come a couple years later, nothing has come of it. And when you think about it, the data is so abstruse that it really isn't worth trying to falsify. The data is fishy, but what is more fishy is millions of dollars shelled out by Alfa-Bank on lawyers and the significant resources dedicated by Trump to figure out who the scientists are and how they detected the link in the first place.

It is kind of a nothing burger story that still hasn't been resolved. The (anonymous) computer scientists insist the data is real (and reproduceable) and admit that it doesn't actually indicate much, but Trump aligned and Alfa-Bank aligned sources insist that it is fake and so important that they won't stop until they discover who those scientists are so that they can be punished and how they found that fake data ... so that Russia can avoid getting caught with their pants down again?

Their reaction to it says something. A misconfigured system that kept trying to talk to the wrong system wouldn't bother me, but if that's all it was they wouldn't be defending it like that.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

Europeans are delusional about pensions and retirement. The whole system is predicated on the fact that people with ill health forced to work is a danger to themselves and others. It's not a medal or reward for managing to hang in there. Since medical research and just healthy lifestyles allows people to live a healthy life far beyond just half a century ago. Not only being alive. But being healthy.

Europeans seem to think it's some sort of basic human right to fuck around in their 60'ies and live a jet set life. It's bizarre. Especially for (I think) all European countries where pensions are paid for by the state. All European countries is inexorably being pushed toward a situation where a low pension age causes economic crisis.

The IT boom following from the 1980's until now has made us, comparatively, mega wealthy to earlier generations. An hours work today generates as much purchasing powers as six hours in 1970. That's a crazy high difference. That means we're now accustomed to a much higher quality of life. To maintain that quality of life, we need to work longer. Basically, removing people from the workforce is much more expensive now than it was in the 1970'ies when the current rules were put in place.

The calculus is this, either we accept a worse standard of living and continue with these low pension ages, or we keep our standard of living and raise the age of pension.

Politicians all over Europe are trying to find ways to talk people into seeing reason. But we (European voters) have our head in the sand and just refuse to see reason.

Macron is just doing what needs to be done. The problem is that he's using draconic measures to do so. Article 49 of the French Constitution is a tool intended to be used to break a deadlock in the government. Not intended to force through unpopular measures. That's abusing the power. It can be compared to the US presidential executive order. Obama was allowed to use it to force through Obamacare. But it was a violation of the intent of the law.

Agreed. Getting people to accept an unpleasant reality is never easy.

 

[Jayjay]

Where is video of that cunt Rachel Maddow apologizing for AlfaBank story?
Where is BBC apologizing for staged chemical attacks in Syria?

Here:

Corrections and Clarifications - Archive 2021

The BBC's responses to editorial, technical and corporate issues.

www.bbc.co.uk

Mayday: The Canister on the Bed​

BBC Radio 4, Friday 20 November 2020

In a report on a chemical weapons investigation by the OPCW (Organisation for the Prevention of Chemical Weapons) in Douma, Syria, we said a whistleblower believed the attack had been staged. This was based on our interpretation of research and testimony from sources at the time of broadcast.

Since then, ‘Alex’ has told the BBC he challenged how the OPCW reached its conclusions because of his concerns over its methods and procedures. He says he has called for an open and transparent process to address these issues, but does not prejudge the outcome of any such ‘proper, independent and impartial investigation.’

BBC and most western news sources are actually held accountable for any inaccuracies and mistakes they make. That's exactly why they are more reliable than outright propaganda outlets that pass for "news" in Russia. Or some random youtube channels.

I don't see any apologies at all.
Let me remind you what happened.

Let me remind you that your claims have been debunked several times.

You were wrong about Bucha. Wrong about MH17. Wrong about Kramatorsk train station attack. Wrong about Mariupol maternitity hospital. Wrong about Russia's false flag attack in Olenivka prison. Wrong about sinking of Moskva. Wrong about Russians repelling Ukrainian attacks on Snake Island.

So, it's reasonable to assume you're just as wrong about whatever nonsense you believe about BBC's fake Syria stories.

BBC scum participated in staging fake chemical attack hospital video.
It was so bad that even 3 year old couldn't be fooled by their actors.

Evidence, please.

 

[Jayjay]

Granted, these could have been just malfunctions or friendly fire and not shot down by Ukraine. With Russian equipment you never know.

I was promised ~30. Also I don't see them proving it's 35 and not 27.

Take it up with them. I trust Oryx's and the rest of OSINT community's ability to distinguish the plane types from photos more than I do yours.

 

[Jayjay]

American planners were harrowed by ukrainian losses so they cancelled it.
Your propaganda lies to you.

I thought Americans were supposed to "fight to the last Ukrainian"? Did your propaganda (which you actually lifted from WW2 era nazis, which lifted it from WW1) lie to you?

 

[Jayjay]

The edit grace period is, what, 60 minutes? I was under a wrong impression of what happened for almost an hour, oh my!

There was no russian edits.

Yes, there were.

View attachment 43137
The one on the left is the original. The one from the right is what was disseminated in Russian channels.

This could have been done by intelligence services, or just enthusiastic volunteers. Whoever it was, they wanted to gloat about the leak, but knew that most Russians are easily gullible so they massaged the numbers a bit before doing so. It's not like you and your friends from the youtube comments section would ever do any fact checking.

Disseminated in russian channels does not mean russian government edited anything,

I didn't say so. I said it was a "Russian edit". It could have been the milbloggers just feeling patriotic and not wanting to confuse the sheep with too many facts before they forwarded the pictures to their own followers.

...these numbers are BS anyway. Even american side admits that.

Oh, like Blinken "admitted" to congress that US was behind Nordstream sabotage? Funny how all of these admissions evaporate into thin air when exposed to even slightest bit of scrutiny.

You need to provide actual evidence. Such as one I provided in the case of BBC participation in staged chemical attacks in Syria. Or AlfaBank-Trump story. Or staged city hall attack in Har'kov.

Considering that the city hall missile was on video, and your claims about it were utterly shown to be wrong, what should I think about your claims on Syria or Alfabank? That they are just as wrong?

What evidence do you need? The original leaked papers are most available on the internet. Including the picture I attached. It's in no way a controversial claim that someone edited the picture before spreading it to Russian-language channels, and it's reasonable to think it was Russians who did that.

 

[ZiprHead]

Europeans are delusional about pensions and retirement. The whole system is predicated on the fact that people with ill health forced to work is a danger to themselves and others. It's not a medal or reward for managing to hang in there. Since medical research and just healthy lifestyles allows people to live a healthy life far beyond just half a century ago. Not only being alive. But being healthy.

Europeans seem to think it's some sort of basic human right to fuck around in their 60'ies and live a jet set life. It's bizarre. Especially for (I think) all European countries where pensions are paid for by the state. All European countries is inexorably being pushed toward a situation where a low pension age causes economic crisis.

The IT boom following from the 1980's until now has made us, comparatively, mega wealthy to earlier generations. An hours work today generates as much purchasing powers as six hours in 1970. That's a crazy high difference. That means we're now accustomed to a much higher quality of life. To maintain that quality of life, we need to work longer. Basically, removing people from the workforce is much more expensive now than it was in the 1970'ies when the current rules were put in place.

The calculus is this, either we accept a worse standard of living and continue with these low pension ages, or we keep our standard of living and raise the age of pension.

Politicians all over Europe are trying to find ways to talk people into seeing reason. But we (European voters) have our head in the sand and just refuse to see reason.

Macron is just doing what needs to be done. The problem is that he's using draconic measures to do so. Article 49 of the French Constitution is a tool intended to be used to break a deadlock in the government. Not intended to force through unpopular measures. That's abusing the power. It can be compared to the US presidential executive order. Obama was allowed to use it to force through Obamacare. But it was a violation of the intent of the law.

Agreed. Getting people to accept an unpleasant reality is never easy.

Please don't continue this derail.

 

[T.G.G. Moogly]

It's rather revealing that Putin is cancelling all the public May festivities because of the threat from Ukrainian Nazis. That's some pretty rich stuff. What Pewstain doesn't want to see is a lot of families carrying banners with names of their dead sons through the streets. That was okay if they died in another war but not in Ukraine. Not good politically at the moment.

 

[SLD]

And he’s losing the war for you.

The White House assessed on May 1 that Russian forces have suffered 100,000 causalities—80,000 wounded and 20,000 killed—in fighting for Bakhmut since January 2023.

LOL, White House assessed, LOL
White House is a bunch of filthy liars.

So just FYI, BBC estimates total Russian casualties, including Wagner, at 58,000+ KIA and 205,000+ wounded.

Enjoy your WWII victory parade.

 

[Harry Bosch]

Serious discussion? OK.

Tell us then about your plans to take Bakhmut and how they are going? Tell us why Russia attacked Kiev directly last year and then withdrew? That was seriously part of your plan? Or is your military that incompetent? Was it really your plan to take Kherson and then run back across the river? Or are your soldiers really just cowards?

How many years are you going to take to wrap this special military operation up? How many more Russians are going to die?

"You"! Barbos is just a guy discussing on an online forum. He's not Putin.

Your tone seems way too personal to make sense IMHO

barbos was looking forward to people freezing and suffering in Ukraine back in the fall. He has said some pretty dehumanizing things.

I still don't think he's Putin

That's super. You complained about the personal tone. barbos was giddy about the suffering, so the tone is justified. He doesn't need to be Putin for that to be true.

I try to be respectful to Barbos, but it isn't easy. He hates Ukrainians. Doesn't think that they should live on their own land. Gets very giddy about civilians suffering. He has no problem with the military deliberately targeting civilians. He's a huge cheerleader for the Russian invasion, and refuses to serve in the military. I'm sick of old white men advocating for war but never having to serve themselves.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

And he’s losing the war for you.

The White House assessed on May 1 that Russian forces have suffered 100,000 causalities—80,000 wounded and 20,000 killed—in fighting for Bakhmut since January 2023.

LOL, White House assessed, LOL
White House is a bunch of filthy liars.

So just FYI, BBC estimates total Russian casualties, including Wagner, at 58,000+ KIA and 205,000+ wounded.

Enjoy your WWII victory parade.

It makes the US occupation of Iraq look well planned.

 

[Harry Bosch]

Uh oh. Russian TV analysts are not happy that China has been talking to Ukraine:

China's Xi Jinping is accused of betraying Putin by Russian state TV

Xi talked to Zelensky for 60 minutes the other day, enraging Russia. Zelensky has named an ambassador to Beijing. While China will send an "envoy for European affairs" to Kyiv. Don't know what an envoy for European affairs means, but it sounds positive to me.

 

[TV and credit cards]

Cry baby Putin complaining about some fireworks over the Kremlin.

 

[Elixir]

Poor baby Pootey …

I have a hard time understanding how
Russia attacks Kyiv with drones, cruise missiles and everything else they have, short of nukes, and that’s status quo. But some Ukranian sympathizer sets off a bottle rocket over Moscow and that’s ... ”escalation”?

No, fuck that nonsense. It’s not even escalation if they blow up the Kremlin and kidnap a few thousand Russian children; it’s just tit for tat. They should have at it!

 

[TomC]

Cry baby Putin complaining about some fireworks over the Kremlin.

Assuming it's real, I'm loving it. Bring the war home to comfortably safe Moscovites. Shopping in their malls and flipping light switches, like Ukrainians don't matter as much as dinners.

Sadly, I remember a shit ton of Americans doing the same thing during our Invasion of Iraq.
Tom

 

[Elixir]

My guess would be that it was done at Pootey’s direction, to provide excuse to try to assassinate Zelenskyy - since he has failed at everything else.

 

[Jayjay]

And he’s losing the war for you.

The White House assessed on May 1 that Russian forces have suffered 100,000 causalities—80,000 wounded and 20,000 killed—in fighting for Bakhmut since January 2023.

LOL, White House assessed, LOL
White House is a bunch of filthy liars.

Ok. Enlighten us. What are the real casualties? Do you have a source?

I believe leaked document says 7 ukrainians for 1 russian.

So I take it the answer to the question "do you have a source" is "no"?

One of the documents leaked by Teixeira leaked, the one I showed you here, listed Ukrainian KIA as 16k-17k, Russian KIA as 35k-43k. So roughly 2.5 Russians for every Ukrainian. These are US assessment, and wounded could turn it around if we assume Russia forces have a drasticallly lower killed-to-wounded ratio than Ukraine. Which is possible because Russia doesn't give a shit about its soldiers. They're just meat to the grinder.

This is clearly not good enough, because Russia has 4.5 times the population, but it's a far cry from the things you "believe" without evidence.

Whereas ukro-internet is choke full of videos of people being continuously "mobilized" from the streets.
Male population sits at homes in order to avoid being kidnapped from on the street.

CNN does not show it.

True, Ukraine has had to start forcibly mobilizing people. But only recently. And Russia has been doing it since the beginning. First in the "people's republics" and since last autumn also in Russia proper.

Ukraine's got very few advantages over Russia, but better morale is one. They've managed to do mostly with volunteers for most of the war, and people fighting for their families and country are much more effective than yokels who fight for money and looting rights.

 

[Jayjay]

We wonder who destroyed that pipeline. Who could it possibly be?

US destroyed it

Funny how Russian ships seem to be the only ones who were directly over the explosion site just a few days before.