PlaneCrashGuy said:

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Teslag said:

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The forced Ukrainian conscription videos are always fun when you read the comments. Almost every single time it's some old video, from various places around the world, showing something completely different. I remember one of them was a guy "jumping from his balcony to avoid conscription". Turns out it was a guy that had just murdered someone in south america and was trying to escape police.

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Its pretty gross to find humans forced into sacrifice on the front line "fun"

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Luckily, none of these videos show that...

The Hungarians don't want to participate in sending young men to certain death in the Biden-Nuland war. Weird.

Alright, we will try this again after ANOTHER BREAK. All of the same things that locked this thread down around the close of the first 100 pages were the exact same issues happening in the last 100 pages. So we will just repost our message from Page 96 right here again. In that message we did make the threat that if this gets locked again it likely does not get relaunched. We do think the subject is important to talk about, so we are going to launch this again because we beleive our community needs to have the opportunity to debate and discuss. Everyone needs to do their part is discussing and debating this topic in GOOD FAITH. The mod team will not be that gracious in our actions against all the usual worst offenders on this thread. This is your warning.

PAGE 96 MESSAGE

We understand the need for an ongoing thread about the Russia-Ukraine conflict from a foreign/public/financial policy perspective vs. the long running thread discussing military strategy/tactics within the combat zones.

Hopefully a two week lock on this thread has served as an appropriate warning and break for everyone that has contributed in the correct ways on this thread and those that crossed lines.

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Can we also get a limit on the number of tweets in a post? The excessively long posts comprising mostly of embedded tweets without significant poster opinion on each can make the board very difficult to read.

[Offending posters have been warned about this. We will be enforcing this on the thread as best we can. As well as trolling, troll policing, disrespectful and condescending engagement, strawman arguments, nicknaming, ad hominems, etc, etc. All the things that shut this down the first two times. If it starts up again with the same amount of regularity, all of you regular contributors will face extensive time-off. Post in good faith or don't post at all. -Staff]

Good luck with that. You know who continues to routinely gum up the conversation with multi tweet posts over on the other Ukraine thread.

Howdy fam. BRICS keep rolling along I see. The two individual parties winning the most in this conflict, by far.

And it was Xi to initiate the hug. Don't want to make a mountain out of a mole hill, but compared to how Xi treats all other global leaders/politicians, this seems big.
Is that what you call a dragonbear hug?😆😎 https://t.co/B6AVfuMPXZ

— SIMPLICIUS Ѱ (@simpatico771) May 17, 2024

Clearly happy to celebrate xidens ongoing proxy misadventure.

Michael initiated the hug with Fredo

WTF?

Quote:

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Putin keeps trying to warn the American Neocons that they are playing with World War III, which will be nuclear. They issued a Notice to Air Missions (NOTAM) that they will be firing missiles in a test just off the coast of northern California coast, thereby alerting pilots of Russian missile launches to LAND / IMPACT in the Oakland Air Route Traffic Control Center ((ARTCC). This will begin tomorrow and continue for 10 days. This is 300 miles offshore in international waters.

What Putin does not get is that our wonderful Neocons care nothing about the country, the people, and certainly not the economy. The Climate Change zealots in the White House agree with them and think reducing the population may be the only way to reach their NET ZERO target for CO2. He keeps warning is this what you really want? They do not back down and want war so bad they can taste it in their sleep.

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74OA said:

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Good luck with that. You know who continues to routinely gum up the conversation with multi tweet posts over on the other Ukraine thread.

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Is 'gum up the conversation' a euphemism for 'doesn't celebrate Zelensky/Nuland/Biden in the glorious war of the destruction of Ukraine appropriately like I do?'

Yes, this is 'weird.'

QUESTION: Is it weird that the Biden family's banks filed more than 170 Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) with authorities but the FBI never bothered to investigate why they kept getting suspicious wires from China, Ukraine, Russia, & Romania? pic.twitter.com/rukB2A52Cv

— @amuse (@amuse) May 17, 2024

If China Joe, the proxy war commander, is on the take from Beijing it all makes sense.

The airspace closure off California doesn't sound like it is military related:

Russian Rocket Booster, Not Military Exercise, Prompts Airspace Warning Off California

Warnings to avoid a “Russian Federation rocket firing impact area” sparked concerns about possible Russian activities near the U.S. mainland.

Story: https://t.co/wEv3BIx4ul

— The War Zone (@thewarzonewire) May 17, 2024

'The real problem with holding presidential elections in Ukraine right now is that Ukrainians might vote to end the war.'

So, we are propping up a totalitarian regime, for 'reasons.'

Quote:

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There's also a profound dishonesty at work here on the part of the Biden administration and the Zelensky government. For many years, Ukrainian elections pitted the pro-Russian eastern parts of the country against the European-leaning western parts, with the latter constantly accusing Moscow of meddling in the country's elections to keep Ukraine in Russia's orbit. Glance at a map of Ukraine's election results from 2004 or 2010, and it's easy to see the geographical-political divide in the country.

The Russian invasion has now taken many of those voters in the eastern parts of Ukraine out of the electoral equation. So why would Ukraine's current pro-Western leadership want to cancel elections until these pro-Russian areas are able to vote?

At the risk of sounding like a conspiracy theorist, allow me to suggest that maybe the insistence on "all Ukrainians" being able to vote is a cynical ploy to prevent elections from taking place in the near future. Maybe Zelensky knows that Ukrainians, if given the chance, would vote his regime out of office and pursue peace negotiations with Moscow that Zelensky's Western sponsors won't allow.

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More at the link, as they say. All on point.

Meanwhile in Germany:

Seven soldiers of the Ukrainian Armed Forces were expelled from exercises in Germany for wearing Nazi symbols.

"Their training was immediately terminated, and the servicemen were sent back to their homeland," stated in a report by the German Ministry of… pic.twitter.com/8jIdTc6ffo

— Russian Market (@runews) May 16, 2024

Such a deal though.

Unpossible.

I was told that Ukraine was willing to fight to the last man.

The truth is actually that western Ukraine and Eastern Ukraine have two very different allegiances. Western allies more with Europe

Eastern identifies more with Russia and has been a thorn in the side of western Ukraine ever since the US overthrew the Ukrainian government.

If they allowed peace talks then the two would split with the Eastern half willingly joining with Russia again as that is where most of their allegiances, family, and cultural ties lie.

But peace hurts the MIC's bottom line and takes away a money laundering playground.....so no peace.

Ever wonder why or how eastern Ukraine identified more with Russia?

Read about the Holomodor and Soviet repopulation.

Ags4DaWin said:

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Unpossible.

I was told that Ukraine was willing to fight to the last man.

The truth is actually that western Ukraine and Eastern Ukraine have two very different allegiances. Western allies more with Europe

Eastern identifies more with Russia and has been a thorn in the side of western Ukraine ever since the US overthrew the Ukrainian government.

If they allowed peace talks then the two would split with the Eastern half willingly joining with Russia again as that is where most of their allegiances, family, and cultural ties lie.

But peace hurts the MIC's bottom line and takes away a money laundering playground.....so no peace.

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Most of the "Russian" areas are already under Russia control. They could easily end this today along current lines if they wanted.

Teslag said:

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Ags4DaWin said:

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Unpossible.

I was told that Ukraine was willing to fight to the last man.

The truth is actually that western Ukraine and Eastern Ukraine have two very different allegiances. Western allies more with Europe

Eastern identifies more with Russia and has been a thorn in the side of western Ukraine ever since the US overthrew the Ukrainian government.

If they allowed peace talks then the two would split with the Eastern half willingly joining with Russia again as that is where most of their allegiances, family, and cultural ties lie.

But peace hurts the MIC's bottom line and takes away a money laundering playground.....so no peace.

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Most of the "Russian" areas are already under Russia control. They could easily end this today along current lines if they wanted.

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Bolded is the important part...

Quote:

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If this continues, the guaranteed buffer zone will be somewhere on the border with Poland. Or even within Poland itself.

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Oh boy. Medvedev still full of delusion after two years being completely unable to see what Russia is really is today. He still sees Russia as a world power.

AlaskanAg99 said:

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Ever wonder why or how eastern Ukraine identified more with Russia?

Read about the Holomodor and Soviet repopulation.

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While true, it's water under the bridge at this point. The reasoning is irrelevant. If those people now want to be with Russia, then that's what they want. To deter them away from that would mean the west then has to do their own version of re-educating and/or re-populating the region.

A pointless exercise and not worth the resources, time, death and destruction to do it.

pic.twitter.com/5uGOkbzL8E

— Declaration of Memes (@LibertyCappy) May 17, 2024

The war is also a demonstration of the critical importance of our 2nd amendment.

I heard it said on a podcast that Russia's taken more land during its recent push than Ukraine took during its summer offensive. Not entirely sure if its true and it is hard to quantify exactly, bur his point was that this is the most land that has changed hands at any point since the initial invasion. Can anyone definitely confirm or deny this?

I realize that Zelenskyy has to keep up the charade that he's getting Crimea back in order to keep the funds flowing, but everyone knows that is delusional.

YouBet said:

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I realize that Zelenskyy has to keep up the charade that he's getting Crimea back in order to keep the funds flowing, but everyone knows that is delusional.

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Not a charade or delusional at all. Think big picture. As long as Ukraine can deny Crimea's usefulness to Russia, Ukraine has a pile of poker chips to use as needed later.

benchmark said:

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YouBet said:

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I realize that Zelenskyy has to keep up the charade that he's getting Crimea back in order to keep the funds flowing, but everyone knows that is delusional.

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Not a charade or delusional at all. Think big picture. As long as Ukraine can deny Crimea's usefulness to Russia, Ukraine has a pile of poker chips to use as needed later.

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It's 100% delusional and most people who are pro-Ukrainian acknowledge it. Including former US, UK, and EU officials in roles such as Def Secretary, CIA, and MI6.

Crimea left Ukraine 10 years ago and it's not coming back. The big picture is that this is a stalemate at best or Russia gains additional land going forward (which could be inconsequential).

Continuing to claim that Ukraine can get Crimea back is simply negotiation posture to ensure continued funding from the West and to establish a stance with Russia when they get to the table later at some point.

The Russian Military-Civil Administration for Kharkov oblast is asking Ukrainian citizens to report "all available information, including personal data" [of the perpetrators] to them in cases of "you or your loved ones encountering inhumane and illegal treatment" by Ukrainian…

— Russians With Attitude (@RWApodcast) May 19, 2024

Russia seizes assets of Euro's (Italians/Germans?) in tit-for-tat move.

Weekly update/sitrep.

5.4% growth in GDP: sanctions fail streak continues...

nortex97 said:

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The Russian Military-Civil Administration for Kharkov oblast is asking Ukrainian citizens to report "all available information, including personal data" [of the perpetrators] to them in cases of "you or your loved ones encountering inhumane and illegal treatment" by Ukrainian…

— Russians With Attitude (@RWApodcast) May 19, 2024

Russia seizes assets of Euro's (Italians/Germans?) in tit-for-tat move.

Weekly update/sitrep.

5.4% growth in GDP: sanctions fail streak continues...

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Quote:

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Russia's gross domestic product (GDP) grew by 5.4% year-on-year in the first quarter of 2024, the state statistics agency Rosstat said in a preliminary report published on Friday.

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Pardon me if I am skeptical that the Russian government is telling the truth with their numbers.

They're not exactly the most reliable source.

Fair, and I take the same stance with both Russian and Kiev figures. The IMF says it will 'only' be 3.2 percent this year (at least, as of around a month ago).

Comparatively, we have absolutely been blasted by the economic impacts of this war, imho, factoring in inflation and the impact on Europe from the energy cost spike (which I guess we are encouraging now with further strikes on oil/gas infrastructure from both sides.) My personal opinion is that the primary 'global power' benefiting from the war, by managing their proxies on both sides, is China. I think this is supported by the data.

China exports components to the Global South and the US imports (with a 2-month lag) finished goods from the Global South. We claim we're doing something, while our trade deficit hits new records and China's exports to the Global South rise 2X. It's a scam, a goof, a fraud, a… https://t.co/RakaIUEWIt pic.twitter.com/dOGHO2zxqh

— David P. Goldman (@davidpgoldman) May 19, 2024

Meanwhile, Ukraine also is expending massive (relative) resources to take out...a minesweeper.

🔻As we can clearly see, the AFU is increasingly and extensively striking targets on the peninsula. After several waves of attacks on airfields and power facilities, the bay in Sevastopol became the target again.

It is no less important that about ten UAVs were present in the…

— Rybar Force (@rybar_force) May 19, 2024

Have mines sunk any Russian ships in this war (also an honest question, I have no idea)?

As was discovered in 1942 the best way to kick start your economy is to enter a war.

That assumes one wins said war. We don't have a real great track record of winning wars since 1945.

trapdoor spiders have more subtlety than this https://t.co/qDkwL2touw pic.twitter.com/SpwusU0vvh

— Mike Benz (@MikeBenzCyber) May 19, 2024

It's almost like 'winning' isn't part of the leadership's plan.

No one has even disputed we could win, it's always been a question of "at what cost" and "for what reason"

Its not our war

PlaneCrashGuy said:

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No one has even disputed we could win, it's always been a question of "at what cost" and "for what reason"

Its not our war

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Leave it to Biden and company to make it our war. I hope everyone on F16 who's kids are draft eligible are ok with Ukraine joining NATO.

There will never be another draft

Ags4DaWin said:

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As was discovered in 1942 the best way to kick start your economy is to enter a war.

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True. One of the components of GDP is government spending (even if it's deficit spending).

Ag with kids said:

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Ags4DaWin said:

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As was discovered in 1942 the best way to kick start your economy is to enter a war.

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True. One of the components of GDP is government spending (even if it's deficit spending).

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Sitrep. Lot's at the link as usual but this is probably the most significant graf;

Quote:

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That's right: Washington Post is now openly revealing Yermak as the shadow hand[url=https://archive.ph/5S3h6][/url]who secretly runs Ukraine. But more than that, by doing so they are calling into question Zelensky's true power and legitimacy, in effect undermining him. Why would WaPo at this exact time, merely days before Zelensky's presidency is supposed to run out, write things like this:

Quote:

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Yermak's closeness to the president and evident influence over him has drawn a barrage of accusations: that he has undemocratically consolidated power in the president's office; overseen an unneeded purge of top officials, including commander in chief Gen. Valery Zaluzhny; restricted access to Zelensky; and sought personal control over nearly every big wartime decision.

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And on the topic of legitimacy, they warn flat out:

Quote:

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Now, however, the legitimacy of the president and his top adviser are about to face even bigger challenges as Zelensky's five-year term officially expires on May 20. Ukraine's constitution prohibits elections under martial law. But as Zelensky stays in office, he will be vulnerable to charges that he has used the war to erode democracy seizing control over media, sidelining critics and rivals, and elevating Yermak, his unelected friend, above career civil servants and diplomats.

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Sounds right. Desperate efforts to strike deeper into Russia, and the myth of the MiG-31's being struck by ATACM's in the open, etc.

Team Xiden-Xi-Putin-Zelensky are all happy with oil prices moving on the propaganda around the war/strikes on Russian refineries and Ukrainian logistical infrastructure;

Russia: Slows down refining because they have excess capacity

The Pentagon: Ukraine totally did it guys.

Reuters even covered this, the Ukrainian drone campaign has been an annoyance at best and a positive boon to the Russians at worst by jacking up global oil prices. https://t.co/ldHqHQJA1B

— Armchair Warlord (@ArmchairW) May 20, 2024

Rybar has been doing a good job providing weekly updates that are balanced/short, imho.

Highlights of Russian Military Operation in Ukraine: highlights of the week May, 13-19, 2024

▪️Russian troops have again attacked enemy targets in Kharkiv. Four districts of the city came under fire, and one of the hits was at Kharkivsʹkyy Traktornyy Zavod.

▪️In turn, the… pic.twitter.com/YLRSafmLK8

— Rybar Force (@rybar_force) May 20, 2024

It really is amazing this 'plan' is being seriously considered/advocated: is Blinken really worse than Hillary Clinton as Secy. Of State? Probably, and he has a vastly worse boss in Biden, too.

There’s zero reason this precedent wouldn’t equally allow China to one day just seize all US assets & investments in China to pay to rebuild Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, you name it

Good thinking guys. Just rob everyone. Take the money. Don’t think even 3 seconds into the future https://t.co/JzbbmBCc72

— Mike Benz (@MikeBenzCyber) May 19, 2024

🇺🇸🇺🇦 So many Ukrainians have died because of this spawn of Satan, yet Nuland keeps pushing for escalation. pic.twitter.com/KJLYvcKcOJ

— DD Geopolitics (@DD_Geopolitics) May 20, 2024

I'm out of words for her at this point, at least those I can within TOS post on this site.

Forever war!