Random Rant Thread

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Many seem shocked that a shit load of Ukrainian marines in Mairupol surrendered to the Russians due to the lack of ammo and food - the actual figures are highly disputed - but how long has it been since I mentioned Mariupol in this thread for the first time? It's been a nonstop barrage since then. What's truly amazing is that it hasn't completely fallen yet.

And I told you that contrary to the popular labeling it was not going to be the new Aleppo, but the new Raqqa. I was right. It's worse than Aleppo on many different levels.

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How U.S. Intelligence Sees Russia's Behavior After Bucha
www.newsweek.com/how-us-intel-sees-russias-behavior-after-bucha-1697074

The official says that it is dangerous to attribute one or even several graves and scenes of civilian disaster to Russian barbarism rather than just being realistic about the depredations of war.

The official also worries that attributing the destructiveness only to Russian conduct, rather than to war itself, creates future dangers.

"If we blame all the damage on Putin, as if he commanded it and that it is due solely to Russian war crimes, we are going to walk away from Ukraine with some illusion in our heads that modern warfare can be fought more cleanly, that the Ukraine war is an anomaly solely created by Russia's behavior. This war is just demonstrating how destructive any war on this scale would be."

This is just common sense. Mosul, Fallujah, Raqqa etc. didn't happen because of some intrinsic "American barbarism" either.

I wouldn't stop you propagandizing against Russia. That country deserves it. But half of your brain ought to be calm and very keenly aware of this common sense.

War is bad. War kills tons of civilians no matter what. There's no such thing as a clean war. Even the "clean" US invasion of Panama ended up killing hundreds of civilians.

Hell, even in the "super-clean" US invasion of Grenada, which ended in barely 3 days, and where only 68 Grenadian/Cuban soldiers were killed, the US "accidentally" bombed a mental hospital and blew 20 innocent people into pieces.

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I say bitcoin is a joke precisely because I made profit off it. The way I managed to do it was in itself a huge giveaway.

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Is this man a real person?
 

"Tory MP Michael Fabricant"

Holy shit, lol.

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Admittedly I've been a bit of a Biden apologist, but to make one thing quite clear, his calling what Russia has done in the war in Ukraine "genocide" was utterly ridiculous. Very, very predictable, but still absolutely mindless.

I mean, then we should call a lot of other things - like most of the past wars - genocide too. What would we gain by diving into that wormhole?

It's not just semantics; Words have meanings, and they matter to the real world, the real *physical* world. You can't just arbitrarily change them to satisfy your emotional needs.

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Hahaha. So that EU/NATO think-tank racist spewed that nonsense on German TV, and that Twitter thread was a response to the criticism. Of course she simply doubled down on her racism in said Twitter thread. These people genuinely believe that race science, so you can't help it.

"They might look European, but they are NOT European!"

I, for one, am very sorry for being Asian. I don't even look European. My bad.

It's German TV, and no one pointed out that it's pretty much the Nazi race science in a nutshell? That's how they described Jews, and if you switch "European" to "Aryan" that's how they described the "lesser" peoples in Europe.

Oh, and that's also pretty much how they described Russians back then, so some things simply never change, I guess.

Crikey. You'd think a German, of all people, would try the hardest to avoid sounding in public like they are promoting good old race science. You don't get a brownie point just because you didn't use the word Untermenschen.

You know, it's true that people tend to throw the "racism" accusation too often at people who don't deserve that. I for one am careful when I use that word. But this is exactly the type of a person who deserves the accusation. Race science is in many ways the purest form of racism. It's exactly this kind of racism that can actually kill a large number of people.

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These are the same people who believe social science is science. Because otherwise they wouldn't have a "scientific" foundation to justify their prejudices in the polite society.

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No, it isn't embarrassing, because it could happen to anyone. This is what every major military force in the world has been worried about. I posted ages ago about the simulation where a number of US ships were easily sunk by Iranian boats and missiles.

I can assure you that NO ONE in the US military is giddy about this. If Ukraine can do this to the Russian navy with a couple of Neptun missiles, imagine what China can do to the US navy. Large battleships/carriers are easy targets these days, and the US has invested absolutely gargantuan fortunes in these mobile graveyards already.

So, no, it's not "embarrassing"; It's just devastating, and all the countries in the world are taking notes. I could be wrong, but I think this is just the new reality of warfare.

Anyway, the last time Russia lost its flagship in combat was in 1904 in the Russo-Japanese war. It's been nearly 120 years since then. This hurts their ego for sure. Moskva carried dozens and dozens of SAM's that were supposed to cover a large percentage of the airspace in the area, and now they are gone. A huge setback for Russia.

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I do get the impression that the Chechens spend more time and energy filming themselves for PR than on actual fighting, acting like a bunch of teenage TikTokers. Seem very cocky, but I haven't seen the evidence that they have been instrumental in successful operations yet.

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Russia is sending reinforcements from all over the place, including its "foreign" bases in Central Asia, stretched thin like crazy.

I'm not one to underestimate the Russian military, but this war seems totally unsustainable for Russia to me unless they score a major, major victory very quickly. And at this point I don't see that happening any time soon.

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I told you that the former USSR is a world of literature. So many characters like this.

Of course I'm aware of how my interest in the region resembles western orientalism. But I don't think I'm particularly condescending or patronizing to the countries and peoples, nor do I idolize them as some sort of People of Exotic Wisdom or fetishize them.

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It's good not to use the word carelessly, but what the fuck is that "they are brothers" business? That's certainly not why you shouldn't use the word, and does this man truly not understand how offensive it is to talk about "historical brotherhood" in the midst of their killing each other?

You start saying shit like that when a child who was born during the war is school-age in peace time.

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Finally the Chinese bureaucracy is showing small signs of changing the course, and finally I might be able to publish my several-months-old "China's zero Covid policy is about to end now" paper, which no one will read.

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Er, what? That clown that I saw on TV the other day? Whatever happened to the super-wealthy Indian dude?

Well, no wonder Johnson is staying.

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I think this "senior EU official" is correct. They aren't bullshitting for Germany and Co. They are telling the truth.

Sure, Russia can get hard currency through the sales.

But the real question is: What are they going to buy with it, from whom?

Like I said way back in the beginning, THAT is the painful part of the sanctions for Russia. The problem is that the foreign currency balances are effectively unusable. I assume both Blinken and the Ukrainian do know that while saying those things in public.

Or maybe they don't. The sanction mechanism, especially on this scale, is actually pretty complicated.