Random Rant Thread

[miscmisc]

Well. It almost seems like there is no air defense over there, doesn't it? Those aircrafts were clearly having a bloody good time with no disturbance to speak of.

I would think that if the Moskva were still floating around there, it would be impossible for the Ukrainian Air Force to do this.

So much for "the sinking of the Moskva was a morale booster, but nothing more than that" argument.

[miscmisc]

I've been posting mostly about the military situation in Ukraine instead of the media reporting. I mostly did the latter with the war in Syria (which is still ongoing, by the way), but to be honest, that exhausted me. What's the point of ranting here if that simply exhausts me?

But just because I've been gearing toward the military situation doesn't mean that there isn't cruiser-class shit tons of bullshit on the media, particularly on the Western (and Russian of course, in the opposite direction) media. It's in many ways worse than in Syria.

I don't have the energy to point everything out. There's just way too much bullshit. Like, this glorification and celebration of the Maidan, as if that's the event that has united Ukrainians, to this day.

It's such bullshit that the concept of bullshit is screaming out of fear. Do they have any idea why Zelensky won the election? Do those monolingual English-speaking assholes even know that he's a *Russian-speaking Jew*? OK, they probably do, if just the Jewish part, but sure as fuck don't know *what that means*. He beat the crap out of Poroshenko in the election. Do they even remember who Poroshenko is?

Zelensky won the election by a landslide because Ukrainians said NO to the Maidan and its aftermath. Zelensky was the *non-Maidan* candidate. That's how a Russian-speaking Jewish actor won the election.

And do those "reporters" ever even think of who backed Zelensky? Which Ukrainian oligarchs?

Ukraine is one of the most corrupt countries in the world, and its government institutions and commercial sectors are a huge blackbox to most outsiders. It's fascinating in many ways, especially since the Ukrainian media is significantly more vibrant than their Russian counterparts. It's just that the more they report stuff, the more confusing things get.

I've been interested in the country for a few decades now, and certainly still don't know how things work over there. I admit that I know a lot more about Russia than about Ukraine, and that's partially because it's *harder* to understand the political mechanism in Ukraine.

You simply cannot summarize Ukraine in one paragraph, yet that's basically all Western mainstream media outlets have been doing since the start of the war, or even before that. I understand this is a war, an unjust war started by Russia. Things become murky during a war, and it's foolish to demand objectivity from everyone.

But bullshit is bullshit. I almost don't read any articles on Ukraine these days, except the ones about the military situation, because I know most of them would make me feel either angry or sad.

[miscmisc]

To brutally summarize the *political* reason for why Zelensky's approval rate plummeted so low before the war, down to 20-25%, the "nationalist" Ukrainians found him too much of a Russia appeaser, and the Russian-speaking ones found him too much of a Russia hater. And objectively he got more hostile to Russia after taking the office than he said he was going to be as president, and it probably has a lot to do with the Ukrainian "deep state" (sorry, for the lack of a better word) and ultimately Washington D.C.

Of course *the* big reason was that the economy was shit, even a little shittier than the post-Maidan average, which has been significantly worse than the pre-Maidan average. That's what turned many of the Ukrainians who used to support the Maidan against it now, as they have seen *less* purchasing power and *less* social stability and *more* political catfights afterwards. They were disillusioned with the Maidan, the "revolution".

This is only one aspect, of many, of the Ukrainian pre-war political situation, which is very important for analyzing the post-war situation - let's hope we'll all be still alive to talk about that! - but I'm sure I've done much better job than the mainstream media in these two paragraphs.

[miscmisc]

Ukraine is absolutely united now, perhaps for the first time, thanks to Putin. But that doesn't mean all the divisions are gone. We will have to face them again after the war, in the reconstruction period.

[miscmisc]

The US and its flunkies want the war to go on, effectively stripping Zelensky and Ukraine of their agency, and it's the Ukrainians that do the dying. For now, anyway.

You have to understand no one is "sleep-waking" into a war. Any such rhetoric will be false.

Possibility of talks between Zelenskyy and Putin came to a halt after Johnson’s visit - UP sources
www.pravda.com.ua/eng/news/2022/05/5/7344206/

According Ukrainska Pravda sources close to Zelenskyy, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Boris Johnson, who appeared in the capital almost without warning, brought two simple messages.

The first is that Putin is a war criminal, he should be pressured, not negotiated with.

And the second is that even if Ukraine is ready to sign some agreements on guarantees with Putin, they are not.

[miscmisc]

Donald (Sr.) doesn't do any of these things - in fact, hate them AFAIK - so maybe there's a lot going on here.

[miscmisc]

You can tell whoever wrote this has no interest in objectivity when you see them bring up truly irrelevant shit like the area of a country - "a country 3.5 per cent its size". It's not even a "sign", but a giveaway to tell us that they are in the business not of reporting but of narrative-shaping.

I suppose Canada is pretty much equal to China and the US, then.

[miscmisc]

A couple of V-day Parade highlights:

"The aerial part of the parade has been canceled due to weather."

"you are fighting for our people in the Donbas"

OK, so officially now it's a battle for the Donbas, and that's it.

And, Putin's speech was boring. He didn't make any big announcement. It's remarkable that pretty much all the people that I never trust on Russia at all said that he would. That's how I knew that he wouldn't.

[miscmisc]

Yeah, I know, the pandemic is over, but Paxlovid relapse is very problematic if we want to truly get back to *normal.

* "normal" in the broadest possible sense, that is.

[miscmisc]

I was harassed for ridiculing people lionizing this dude. Will they apologize now, or make a mountain of excuses on his behalf? Definitely the latter.

And needless to say, here's my idiot man:

[miscmisc]

If you read only one article today, read this one. We are already in a huge crisis.

Sri Lanka is the first domino to fall in the face of a global debt crisis
The south Asian country is the first to buckle under economic pressures compounded by Russia’s war on Ukraine, but it won’t be the last
www.theguardian.com/world/2022/may/09/sri-lanka-is-the-first-domino-to-fall-in-the-face-of-a-global-debt-crisis

[miscmisc]

You might think this "senior military analyst" makes a lot of sense, but he really doesn't. New ships? New tank divisions? What kind of a war is he trying to fight there?

Russia still has tons of weapons and aircrafts and ammo and whatnot, and by "tons" I mean more than enough to take the Donbas with. What they are short of is infantry. Foot soldiers to go with the tanks. Their artillery has been terrorizing the Ukrainian positions, but they can't advance because there aren't enough troops to do the groundwork, especially since they are now very careful not to lose too many men unlike in the first several weeks of the war. It's generally good to be patient and careful, but that has slowed them down like crazy.

The general mobilization would instantly solve that problem. There are a huge number of Russians at home who know how to use AK-47 and RPG and even drive T-80, and they would be very useful. General mobilization doesn't mean you can't pick and choose the best men.

If what is on his mind is way bigger than taking the Donbas, well, then the general mobilization would not help except for national suicide, I agree.

[miscmisc]

Mind you, this is just a purely military argument. The political implications of the mobilization are a completely different matter.

[miscmisc]

And of course, the most damning thing about this war is that the defense/weapon industry/death merchants will make absolute fortunes out of it despite the fact that Russia will be so crippled by this war that they won't be any threat to anyone for the foreseeable future.

Except for what that industry hates the most in this universe - nukes.

[miscmisc]

Giant government bailout incoming, even though much of it might be stealth, on top of the war cost.

Sure, it's a good thing that the balance sheet of the Russian government is very very "healthy" - it's a product of the traumatizing horror of the Yeltsin days - but it's a fine example of the balanced budget that has improved virtually nothing in the society, or even in the military.