Russia is now bombing Ukraine

podcast w/big picture talk about ukraine and disinformation etc. 

https://omny.fm/shows/it-could-happen-here/an-update-on-ukraine

Robert sits down with researcher Aram Shambanian to ask the important question, 'Hey, what's going on in that giant bloody land war in Europe?'

yeah 'new' depths of depravity is probably the wrong way of putting it

(I meant in context with this invasion)

  On 4/5/2022 at 4:35 PM, Enthusiast said:

I would not buy into the idea that any senior person involved in that administration is in over their head or would have a crisis of conscience. They have all been working toward this point for years. The entire state from top to bottom is a criminal enterprise. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russia_under_Vladimir_Putin#FSB_influence

absolutely. Putin and all the oligarchs stole from Russia to get their wealth. they have been rigging the system to their advantage for decades. it's a total mafia state. speak ill of any in the rich boys club, and you're going to jail. anyone who lives there knows this. the only way to get things done there is through bribes. the surveillance of the citizens is out of control. everyone watching everyone to make sure they're in line. yes an average citizen can have a decent life, but eventually they will run up against someone trying to extort money out of them. this is all by design, thanks to the biggest criminal in the world running the show. and guys like Trump pander to this behavior. fuckin sickening. 

I have been listening to Gary Kasparov's new podcast for the past few weeks. The latest episode with Bill Browder is particularly good.

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/winter-is-here-with-garry-kasparov-and-uriel-epshtein/id1612842845

timothy snyder on the Why Is This Happening podcast 

[updated link - spotify] 

  On 4/5/2022 at 8:47 PM, Satans Little Helper said:

it's like listening to Michael Jackson tunes.

not this again, will people please stop dragging mj's name through the mud? he was accused on the basis of unsubstantiated allegations and worthless evidence, and yet the whole world is convinced otherwise. yes this is a thread about the war in ukraine, yes mj's been long dead and yes where did that come from but my point is that we need to start being more skeptical of unsubstantiated claims and learn how to evaluate evidence, which is very much on-topic imo - and the case of mj is a good example of how easy it is to manipulate public opinion.

i'm not saying he was necessarily innocent btw, i'm just saying the evidence didn't support the allegations. and last time i checked, there was a thing called presumption of innocence. that's all i'm saying. now please carry on. 

  On 4/6/2022 at 3:31 AM, trying to be less rude said:

timothy snyder on the Why Is This Happening podcast https://listen.stitcher.com/yvap/?af_dp=stitcher://episode/202059263&af_web_dp=https://www.stitcher.com/episode/202059263

this is really good. had to find the podcast elsewhere because there's errors at the site it's being hosted but found it on apple podcast. snyder is so smart. really adds a lot of context to what's happening. 

One of Russia's most faithful allies, Kazakhstan, refuses to recognize Donetks and Luhansk. This can get interesting. The Russian "peace keepers" were in Kazakhstan just a moment ago..

https://www.rferl.org/a/kazakhstan-ukraine-separatists-russia-recognition/31787134.html

  Quote

"We, at this point, do not recognize either the Luhansk People's Republic (LNR) or the Donetsk [People's] Republic (DNR)," Tileuberdi told RFE/RL on April 5. But he said Kazakhstan “does not join" Western efforts to sanction Russia over its invasion of Ukraine.

“It is important for us to prevent negative affects of the sanctions [imposed on Russia] on the development of our economy, and it is important that our territory is not used to evade those sanctions," Tileuberdi said.

  On 4/6/2022 at 12:55 AM, Enthusiast said:

I have been listening to Gary Kasparov's new podcast for the past few weeks. The latest episode with Bill Browder is particularly good.

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/winter-is-here-with-garry-kasparov-and-uriel-epshtein/id1612842845

 

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this is also really good and informative. so much info about sanctions and details. no better source really than this guy who helped write the magnitsky act. such crazy situation. 

I just wanted to chime in here and say that Germany managed to undertake some action against neo-nazis without invading a foreign country.

https://www.dw.com/en/germany-conducts-nationwide-raids-on-neo-nazi-groups/a-61374533

Here in Finland a neo-nazi organization (the Finnish chapter of Nordic Resistance Movement) was legally abolished by the government. There's still plenty of boneheads and other racist morons left, and PVL is still continuing in other, unofficial guises, but they've been juxtaposed with criminal organizations like outlaw biker gangs and the like, so it was a bit of a watershed moment.

drone footage from chernobyl appears ot show that russians did dig trenches... unless this is some other area near there that was disturbed for some reason? 

reddit comments so w/a grain of salt:

  Quote

At one point during the suppression of the #4 reactor, several hundred tons of sand were airdropped onto said reactor core to try and put out the fires. Eventually that sand was removed.

Guess where they buried it...

The clean up process involved 100,000 people working for years to basically bury all of the contaminated material from the reactor, as well as all of the contaminated topsoil, animals, and plants in the surrounding area. The Red Forest is quite possibly the second stupidest place they could have dug trenches. The only thing they could done worse was go inside the destroyed reactor itself.

 

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  On 4/6/2022 at 7:33 PM, ignatius said:

drone footage from chernobyl appears ot show that russians did dig trenches... unless this is some other area near there that was disturbed for some reason? 

reddit comments so w/a grain of salt:

 

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Russians reaping what they sowed?

  On 4/6/2022 at 6:43 PM, dcom said:

Here in Finland a neo-nazi organization (the Finnish chapter of Nordic Resistance Movement) was legally abolished by the government. There's still plenty of boneheads and other racist morons left, and PVL is still continuing in other, unofficial guises, but they've been juxtaposed with criminal organizations like outlaw biker gangs and the like, so it was a bit of a watershed moment.

How did you ever manage without inviting Russians invading to de-nazify? Truly astounding.

  On 4/6/2022 at 8:21 PM, chenGOD said:

How did you ever manage without inviting Russians invading to de-nazify? Truly astounding.

There was an attempt, and my childhood was very much part of it due to my parents having been Communists (they became more moderate, but stayed very much in the left later on); my first foreign language was Russian etc. (as I've explained elsewhere) - I was actively indoctrinated up until my early teens when I understood what was happening, and jumped ship. We had our own Russian invasion, too.

  On 4/6/2022 at 8:21 PM, chenGOD said:

How did you ever manage without inviting Russians invading to de-nazify? Truly astounding.

One of the demands for peace after the Continuation War between Finland and Soviet Union in 1944 was actually to ban all "fascist" organizations in Finland which included the White Guard militias, Lotta Svärd paramilitary auxiliary organization and Academic Karelia Society. The Soviets set up a supervisory commission in Finland to make sure of that. Also they made sure that Åland archipelago in the Baltic Sea stays demilitarized by setting up a consulate that still operates there, which is a bit questionable now.. Anyway, Åland is still demilitarized although there are Finnish border guards.

Fun fact: the demilitarization of Åland was originally included in the 1856 peace treaty after the Crimean War. How the circle closes..

https://www.newyorker.com/news/dispatch/collecting-bodies-in-bucha

  On 4/7/2022 at 12:41 AM, Enthusiast said:

https://www.newyorker.com/news/dispatch/collecting-bodies-in-bucha

 

jfc what a horror. 

Members who voted against:

ECR: Hoogeveen, Roos, Szydło

ID: Anderson, Annemans, Beck, Blaško, Buchheit, David, De Man, Fest, Haider, Krah, Kuhs, Mayer, Reil, Vandendriessche, Vilimsky, Zimniok

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PPE: Bernhuber, Braunsberger-Reinhold, Caspary, Doleschal, Ehler, Jahr, Lins, Mandl, Pieper, Polčák, Sagartz, Schmiedtbauer, Thaler, Walsmann, Weiss, Winzig

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The Left: Botenga, Demirel, Ernst, Konečná, MacManus, Michels, Pereira Sandra, Pimenta Lopes, Pineda, Rego, Scholz, Wallace

  On 4/7/2022 at 7:48 PM, zkom said:

 

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The UN just reminding us that it exists for a brief moment.

This is not a good development. 

  On 4/8/2022 at 3:14 AM, chenGOD said:

This is not a good development. 

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that's rough. 

the link to the article has links to other tweets from a guy who is tracking/posting and reporting from ukraine. 

this guy. 

and he says that this, the footage in that video, was a column of russians that were ambushed by ukraine forces.  

regardless, it won't play well and might make russian troops fight harder in some areas and not surrender. 

still, seems isolated killings of surrendered russians might be happening and not to play a "what about..." but it is a "small" crime compared to what the russians are doing and perhaps could be retaliation for what the russians have done. mass graves w/hundreds of corpses are being found in different places in ukraine. ad russia is actively removing ukrainians and taking them into russia.. or so it was reported. 

not excusing the killing of surrendered soldiers if that's the case.. but fuck.. i can't imagine what it must be like over there on the ground once the ukrainians hear news of russian atrocities. people's brains must be breaking. 

the video is being analyzed by people who do that kind of thing. 

edit: reports on the news now that estimated 5000 civilians killed. they just showed 6 civilian bodies that were found. one, a child, who had head woulds consistent with execution style shooting. 

apparently the russians forced civilians into basements and packed them trying to force them to learn the russian national anthem. all kinds of fucked up shit. like bringing them water into the basements while wearing clothes from the apartments upstairs.. one woman described how the russian was wearing sneakers from her apartment when he brought her water. wtf. 

Jfc 

https://abcnews.go.com/International/bucha-survivors-recount-senseless-horror-emerge-hiding/story?id=83904795

  Quote

Pavlyuk, 53, was one of the surviving residents of the besieged Ukrainian town, northwest of Kyiv, where gruesome evidence of killings and torture has come to light following the withdrawal of Russian forces. He told ABC News that when Russian troops came to his apartment building, they killed all the men who were younger than 50, including two of Pavlyuk's friends.

Russia is destroying Ukraine’s future. 

War is horror. That’s all there is to it really. It gets worse when you use anybody (not just well-trained military units - and I’m not excusing the horrible crimes committed by regular soldiers) to fight back, but war is horror.