Russia is now bombing Ukraine

Suggestion for new Poutine name:

The Resistance Gravy

The Tsar Blood (for the italian Poutine)

  On 3/18/2022 at 12:03 AM, thefxbip said:

lol there is debates in Canada about changing the name of the dish because of Mad Vlad 

they should put an asterisk on the menu that says "this dish has nothing to do with Vlad Putin you fuckwit moron"

One restaurant had a Poutine called ''the Vladimir''.

They changed it.

  On 3/18/2022 at 12:19 AM, thefxbip said:

Suggestion for new Poutine name:

The Resistance Gravy

The Tsar Blood (for the italian Poutine)

Psaki Stew

Stinger Missile Cum

  On 3/18/2022 at 12:03 AM, thefxbip said:

lol there is debates in Canada about changing the name of the dish because of Mad Vlad 

To paraphrase Office Space - "Why should we have to change it, he's the one who sucks."

is Putain too obvious? I know we have some french speakers here...

  On 3/18/2022 at 2:44 AM, trying to be less rude said:

 

 

Expand  

That is actually quite beautiful.  Well done Arnold. 

Arnie for president of Russia!

IF he were able to run for US pres, I have no doubt he'd win in a landslide. that pesky rule about non-US born folks not allowed to become president, is such a massive thorn in poor Arnie's side. this clip, and a similar one he did after Jan. 6, are the closest he'll get to having a US president type moment. we really need more politicians that are able to speak as he's done here, not just constant mud slinging and chest thumping all the time. 

  On 3/18/2022 at 11:13 AM, Soloman Tump said:

  On 3/18/2022 at 2:44 AM, trying to be less rude said:

 

 

Expand  

That is actually quite beautiful.  Well done Arnold. 

Expand  

it's a good message overall. but... it's pretty Hollywood and it entertains mythmaking about nations/peoples, which to me is nothing but magical thinking. (Zelensky's address to US Congress employed a lot of this as well btw.)

you can argue separately about how national myths have value in uniting and organising people into functioning/interacting nations (and I'd agree), but they're still fantasies and they tend to show their failings inevitably - for example, when you decide that a neighbouring nation which you believe has always been a part of your nation should be forcibly re-absorbed. imo this is an historical human weakness that should be relegated to the past. though I wouldn't put odds on that ever happening, most people cling like barnacles to these old comforts and would view any kind of post-national thinking as a perversion or an attack, including Russians or anyone else for whom national myths are a central part of their psyche.

so, given the intended audience, this is an effective message and I can't be too critical. if it helps at all in reaching out to ordinary Russians and bolstering a viable anti-war movement in Russia, then I support it. it just jumps out at me how much bullshit we indulge in as a species around this sort of thing. I can't buy it when he uses sweeping characterisations like "the true heart of Russia" or whatever. what is that, exactly?  is it a 'true' Russian value to speak up against wars started by their leaders in their name? how many 'true' Russians spoke up to prevent any of the previous wars?

''Alexander Serdyuk has stopped talking to his mother. He is nervously watching war edge ever closer to his home in Lviv. She is 1,500 miles (2,400km) to the east in Russia, denying that any of it is actually happening.

“I can’t speak with her,” says the 34-year-old Russian who moved to Ukraine 10 years ago. “She doesn’t understand me. She says it’s just Nazis killing each other, and that we are responsible for all this.”

“She just doesn’t believe me,” he adds. “We used to speak with each other a lot, but now there’s just no point.”

It’s the same for Natasha Henova. She has already fled her home near Kharkiv with her young sons and husband, as the bombs crept ever closer to their village. When she called a cousin who lives near Moscow to update her, however, the conversation was almost as upsetting as the war itself.

“She is sympathetic but says that we are being lied to,” says Henova, a 35-year-old English language tutor. “She says it’s all America’s doing. I say OK, but why are Russians hitting us if it’s all about America? She says Ukrainians have been so cruel to people in the Donbas.

“She said Ukrainian soldiers must surrender. She even invited me to come to Russia to be with her. I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. I’m desperately struggling here to keep Ukraine independent and she invites me to go to Russia.”

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/mar/18/ukraine-russia-families-divided-over-war

Propaganda is a hell of a drug

I think he was afraid of him. I think that the man intimidated him. Because Putin is a scary man, just frankly, I think he was afraid of him…. I also think he admired him greatly. I think he wanted to be able to kill whoever spoke out against him. So I think it was a lot of that. In my experience with him, he loved the dictators, he loved the people who could kill anyone, including the press. - press secretary Stephanie Grisham about Donald Trump

  On 3/18/2022 at 5:12 PM, thefxbip said:

 

''Alexander Serdyuk has stopped talking to his mother. He is nervously watching war edge ever closer to his home in Lviv. She is 1,500 miles (2,400km) to the east in Russia, denying that any of it is actually happening.

“I can’t speak with her,” says the 34-year-old Russian who moved to Ukraine 10 years ago. “She doesn’t understand me. She says it’s just Nazis killing each other, and that we are responsible for all this.”

“She just doesn’t believe me,” he adds. “We used to speak with each other a lot, but now there’s just no point.”

It’s the same for Natasha Henova. She has already fled her home near Kharkiv with her young sons and husband, as the bombs crept ever closer to their village. When she called a cousin who lives near Moscow to update her, however, the conversation was almost as upsetting as the war itself.

“She is sympathetic but says that we are being lied to,” says Henova, a 35-year-old English language tutor. “She says it’s all America’s doing. I say OK, but why are Russians hitting us if it’s all about America? She says Ukrainians have been so cruel to people in the Donbas.

“She said Ukrainian soldiers must surrender. She even invited me to come to Russia to be with her. I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. I’m desperately struggling here to keep Ukraine independent and she invites me to go to Russia.”

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/mar/18/ukraine-russia-families-divided-over-war

Propaganda is a hell of a drug

Expand  

My co-worker and labmate is from Belarus.  He says he can't even talk to his parents anymore because they are saying much of the same things.  They used to speak a few times a week but he has given up even calling them at all recently.

Horny and lonely men from Scandinavia driving to Ukraine to picking up ladies and kids "To help and protect them"

fuckin disgusting Human trafficking

ukrainian government posts a picture of a man crying over his wife's body

what they failed to mention was that this was the result of a cluster bombing perpetrated by the ukrainian military against donetsk civilians.  they were trying to make it seem like it was a Russian attack.  extreme trigger warning, dead people and gore.

what appears to be azov holding civilians hostage, extremely disturbing if so.  either using civilians as human shields or the best case scenario is they are "protecting" the civilians from russians somehow by forcing them to lay on the ground with their hands up while they guard the room..?
https://t.me/mangopress/1446

facepalm me all you like @Enthusiast please explain why armed Azov battalion members are seemingly keeping watch over a house full of civilians

  On 3/19/2022 at 12:57 AM, ilqx hermolia xpli said:

facepalm me all you like @Enthusiast please explain why armed Azov battalion members are seemingly keeping watch over a house full of civilians

Well, it might be what it appears to be. Why would the Azov make a human shield? Russia is just bombing cities willy nilly anyway.

On the other hand, it would be easy to stage, just stick an Azov badge on some camo. You don't see any faces in the video. Everyone is dressed in spotlessly clean clothes - the guys in camo and all the people on the floor. The gloves, boots, gun, gun strap, all absolutely spotlessly clean. Everyone lying on the floor has a nice clean jumper and clean jeans or tracksuit. Hardly seems like its taking place in a war zone. It could be any room anywhere in the world. Why the creepy piano?

  On 3/19/2022 at 1:18 AM, zazen said:

Well, it might be what it appears to be. Why would the Azov make a human shield? Russia is just bombing cities willy nilly anyway.

On the other hand, it would be easy to stage, just stick an Azov badge on some camo. You don't see any faces in the video. Everyone is dressed in spotlessly clean clothes - the guys in camo and all the people on the floor. The gloves, boots, gun, gun strap, all absolutely spotlessly clean. Everyone lying on the floor has a nice clean jumper and clean jeans or tracksuit. Hardly seems like its taking place in a war zone. It could be any room anywhere in the world. Why the creepy piano?

neo-nazis act like neo-nazis

or

russia took a house hostage and made tons of civilians lay in there while their soldiers wore fake azov battalion patches so they could stage a video to spread on social media for some reason to make it look like azov battalion, a neo-nazi group known for posting dumb shit to social media in the past to show off how cool they are, like selfies in gyms which get them located and killed, was doing it instead, and neo-nazi battalions are the smear victim here, not the ukrainian people being held hostage in that house /s

idk I think I know which answer is more obvious

  On 3/18/2022 at 8:48 PM, ilqx hermolia xpli said:

ukrainian government posts a picture of a man crying over his wife's body

 

what they failed to mention was that this was the result of a cluster bombing perpetrated by the ukrainian military against donetsk civilians.  they were trying to make it seem like it was a Russian attack.  extreme trigger warning, dead people and gore.

 

Expand  

So that video is by Patrick Lancaster, he may be a Russian asset, he has appeared on RT and although he claims to raise money by crowdfunding, back in 2017 the BBC could only find traces of $6500 raised that way. On 22nd Feb, Patrick Lancaster filmed at the scene of a supposed Ukrainian IED attack, which Bellingcat analysed in depth and concluded was a staged event.

That said, here's a 2014 New York Times article in which Human Rights Watch conclude that Ukraine has used cluster bombs in Donetsk in the past.

The Guardian has both sides blaming each other for the rocket, and notes that Denis Pushilin (head of the Donetsk People’s Republic) says his troops shot the rocket out of the sky.

So thats contested. Why would Ukraine risk doing something like this at this stage? But I note that there's credible reports of Ukraine using cluster munitions in Donetsk in the past and so I'll keep an open mind on that one. Hopefully in time journalists and researchers will be able to find out what happened here.

edit: edited to remove snark

  On 3/19/2022 at 1:30 AM, ilqx hermolia xpli said:

neo-nazis act like neo-nazis

or

russia took a house hostage and made tons of civilians lay in there while their soldiers wore fake azov battalion patches so they could stage a video to spread on social media for some reason to make it look like azov battalion, a neo-nazi group known for posting dumb shit to social media in the past to show off how cool they are, like selfies in gyms which get them located and killed, was doing it instead, and neo-nazi battalions are the smear victim here, not the ukrainian people being held hostage in that house /s

idk I think I know which answer is more obvious

Expand  

You don't need to take a house hostage to make that video. You just need twenty friends, two uniforms, a gun, a piano and an Azov patch. I note that one of the hostages uncrosses and recrosses their legs in a way that seems fairly relaxed to me. But I'll admit that I might be reaching with that detail. Everything looks suspiciously clean to me though, and there's no outside reference to show where in the world these people are.

Can we agree that both sides (and the supporters of both sides) will be engaging in social media propaganda?

  On 3/19/2022 at 1:42 AM, zazen said:

You don't need to take a house hostage to make that video. You just need twenty friends, two uniforms, a gun, a piano and an Azov patch. I note that one of the hostages uncrosses and recrosses their legs in a way that seems fairly relaxed to me. But I'll admit that I might be reaching with that detail. Everything looks suspiciously clean to me though, and there's no outside reference to show where in the world these people are.

Can we agree that both sides (and the supporters of both sides) will be engaging in social media propaganda?

yes, both sides will probably be doing propaganda.  that is why it's so difficult to know what's actually going on.  it's made worse by anything anti-ukrainian-government being completely rejected on western social media.  apparently known nazis are spotless now and criticizing them and their NATO funding makes you a russian asset.