It would be absolutely glorious if the Ukrainians are able to hold Putin off for long enough for the west to get significant anti aircraft and tank busters to them.
Maybe Russian military hardware isn't as modern and sophisticated as we've been led to believe.
Simple evidence of that. They attacked in the daylight. The British and American armies have not done that since Korea because at night their technological advantage is so much greater. Russia simply doesn't have that advantage.
More to it than technology, Western armies are trained to fight at night.
Is there still such a thing as fog of war this day and age Yokes, or is it more than guesswork and wishful hoping Russia under performed on Day 1?
On any other day, what Starmer did to the SCG and Labour’s Stop the War Putin apologists today would be massive news. No other leader of the party has had such a grip on it since Blair was at his peak (no, that is not me claiming Starmer is Blair 2).
The Marx Left are on the run now. Totally found out for their bonkers beliefs and weird theories of the world where they stand around Trafalgar Square under the hammer and sickle.
A retired neurologist told me that he thinks Putin has Parkinson's. Quite advance and he is taking *all* the drugs to suppress symptoms.
Oh dear, the similarities keep piling up.
It would certainly explain why he had to go *now* rather than wait until Nord Stream 2 was up and running, say.
No serious doctor would carry out the diagnosis of a medical condition by news media.
Some mushwit with the intellectual capacity of a Daily Mail journalist, maybe.
But not a scientist who wished to be taken even half-way seriously.
That's true most of the time, but I'm pretty sure there have been one or two cases where a medical condition has been spotted by someone watching TV that hadn't been noticed before.
Didn’t a doctor, after seeing Billy Connelly, advise him to get checked out for Parkinsons? I think I saw the Big Yin say that on an interview.
Edit - well I’ve somehow stuck two separate posts together.
United States government official We have been transparent with the world — we shared declassified intelligence about Russia’s plans and cyber attacks and false pretexts — so that there can be no confusion or cover up.
On any other day, what Starmer did to the SCG and Labour’s Stop the War Putin apologists today would be massive news. No other leader of the party has had such a grip on it since Blair was at his peak (no, that is not me claiming Starmer is Blair 2).
The Marx Left are on the run now. Totally found out for their bonkers beliefs and weird theories of the world where they stand around Trafalgar Square under the hammer and sickle.
Good riddance to bad rubbish.
Now to get rid of the far-right scum who have kidnapped the Conservative brand.
former CIA Director David Petraeus tells @MarkUrban01: “What was achieved today was less than I expected. We’ve all known Russian’s can overwhelm the Ukrainians…but it sounds as if that the Ukrainians have delayed them fairly impressively.” #Newsnight
The problem is that we know very little detail about what has actually happened.
The helicopter attack at the airport, for example. It sounds like a deep strike raid that failed. Complete with Ka-52s littering the country side... What actually was the end result?
I really really really hope that US/UK and other willing NATO partners with effective special forces are busily supplying Ukrainian army/insurgents with everything they need to get Putin bogged down in a terrible and unwinnable war.
This is a rare clear case of a good guy and a bad guy. Let us help the good guys and thereby fuck the bad guy
I suspect (I don't know) that there are advisors on the ground, and maybe even some US/UK special forces in Ukrainian clothes.
This morning Putin was pretty clear: anyone assisting Ukraine militarily was going to get nuked.
The entire civilized world ought to call his small dicked bluff.
You want to call the bluff of a madman with his finger on the nuclear button? The 4 horsemen are having a good laugh.
I doubt he really has his finger any closer to the nuclear button than Trump did.
Do you think that the bandits propping him up want a nuclear war?
My guess is he doesn't literally have a big red button, bond villain style, that he can use to activate the nuclear deterrent without his generals being able to refuse the order.
At least, I hope not...
In the Soviet era and afterwards, they professed to be horrified by the laxity of Western control of nuclear weapons in terms of release. After some early scares in the 60s with field commanders and nukes, they claimed they tightened up massively.
Well, I suppose they did invent Dead Hand. But I find it hard to believe Putin has absolute control over a "big red button" style device that gives him total, absolute and final command over Russia's entire nuclear arsenal. There must be some kind of failsafe.
I mean, just imagine if Yeltsin had stumbled home to the Kremlin, blind drunk, and accidentally pushed the big red button for nukes rather than the big red button for pizza delivery?
United States government official We have been transparent with the world — we shared declassified intelligence about Russia’s plans and cyber attacks and false pretexts — so that there can be no confusion or cover up.
Brexit gas clouded too many people's judgement. The EU position until a few hours ago was that Putin wouldn't invade so for some people that becomes some kind of unchallengable word of God. It wouldn't matter if there was a Russian tank rolling down Park Lane with Putin sticking his head out of the top, until the EU acknowledge it for some people it just doesn't exist because the EU can't possibly ever be wrong.
One of the downsides of having a Prime Minister and government so untrustworthy that that we know to go elsewhere for our 'facts'
A good thread that generally agrees with the PB consensus, as all good threads should. Putin has over-reached
"How does Putin's war not turn into a protracted insurgency, with infinite supplies of weapons flowing into Ukraine across the border from Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, and Romania - all countries protected by NATO? 1/x"
One small problem with this even though its known that the US has prepared to support an insurgency, The Russians just send a column from Belarus straight down towrds Lviv, which is where most Western assets supporting Ukraine are located, and cut off the borders from the main support transit route via South East Poland.
They have the forces sitting in Belarus and the Ukrainians do not have a big load of cover on the border there. Its fair to say that makes me curious why they haven't gone down that side yet. Lviv seems to be considered a safe haven outpost, far away by both Western agencies and Ukrainians. Put it under threat and its going interfere with Western plans
A good thread that generally agrees with the PB consensus, as all good threads should. Putin has over-reached
"How does Putin's war not turn into a protracted insurgency, with infinite supplies of weapons flowing into Ukraine across the border from Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, and Romania - all countries protected by NATO? 1/x"
It all depends on whether Ukrainians flee or fight - too early to tell.
My guess: fight. Look at the polls
Also, nothing provokes the fight instinct like unprovoked and brutal assault, especially if you have allies willing to help - which, crucially, the Ukrainians do, and their allies are big and powerful
A retired neurologist told me that he thinks Putin has Parkinson's. Quite advance and he is taking *all* the drugs to suppress symptoms.
Oh dear, the similarities keep piling up.
It would certainly explain why he had to go *now* rather than wait until Nord Stream 2 was up and running, say.
No serious doctor would carry out the diagnosis of a medical condition by news media.
Some mushwit with the intellectual capacity of a Daily Mail journalist, maybe.
But not a scientist who wished to be taken even half-way seriously.
Our own Foxy has given such opinions before.
See the case of Professor David Southall on wiki.
"In 2004, following more complaints from the MAMA campaign and Mr Clark, Professor Southall was found guilty of serious professional misconduct by the General Medical Council (GMC), after alleging to a police child protection officer that the husband of Sally Clark, a mother convicted of murdering two of her babies, was himself almost certainly responsible for murdering the couple's children. Professor Southall made the claim in confidence to a child protection officer of the Staffordshire police after watching a television documentary about the case as he was concerned about the safety of the surviving child"
It is not very sensible to look at a TV program, and conclude a diagnosis.
it’s not a diagnosis, rather a tentative but not in reasonable speculation about the possibility that Putin is ill.
A solemn chap on the BBC would give his view as the cameras paned along the collection on top of the Kremlin.
They were on top of Lenin’s tomb, which always was an unfortunate location…
They were on top of Lenin’s tomb, which was an unfortunate location For all of a sudden war broke out And they decided to change vocation
Was Russian government in old days thieving McMafia gangsters like today, or just the boring and pervy mandarins they appear to be
I really really really hope that US/UK and other willing NATO partners with effective special forces are busily supplying Ukrainian army/insurgents with everything they need to get Putin bogged down in a terrible and unwinnable war.
This is a rare clear case of a good guy and a bad guy. Let us help the good guys and thereby fuck the bad guy
But it's not the bad guys who are getting shot. They're conscripts. It seems a bit off to be celebrating the slaughter of a bunch of young Russians who have no choice.
I think these troops are the professionals. The conscripts are in the less technical units.
I really really really hope that US/UK and other willing NATO partners with effective special forces are busily supplying Ukrainian army/insurgents with everything they need to get Putin bogged down in a terrible and unwinnable war.
This is a rare clear case of a good guy and a bad guy. Let us help the good guys and thereby fuck the bad guy
I suspect (I don't know) that there are advisors on the ground, and maybe even some US/UK special forces in Ukrainian clothes.
This morning Putin was pretty clear: anyone assisting Ukraine militarily was going to get nuked.
The entire civilized world ought to call his small dicked bluff.
You want to call the bluff of a madman with his finger on the nuclear button? The 4 horsemen are having a good laugh.
I doubt he really has his finger any closer to the nuclear button than Trump did.
Do you think that the bandits propping him up want a nuclear war?
My guess is he doesn't literally have a big red button, bond villain style, that he can use to activate the nuclear deterrent without his generals being able to refuse the order.
At least, I hope not...
In the Soviet era and afterwards, they professed to be horrified by the laxity of Western control of nuclear weapons in terms of release. After some early scares in the 60s with field commanders and nukes, they claimed they tightened up massively.
Well, I suppose they did invent Dead Hand. But I find it hard to believe Putin has absolute control over a "big red button" style device that gives him total, absolute and final command over Russia's entire nuclear arsenal. There must be some kind of failsafe.
I mean, just imagine if Yeltsin had stumbled home to the Kremlin, blind drunk, and accidentally pushed the big red button for nukes rather than the big red button for pizza delivery?
The thing I remember* was that they really, really didn't like things like the "voting" system in Minutemen squadrons. The claim was that, at each level in Russia, it required multiple guys with keys and other stuff, all agreeing.
*From a BBC program in the late 90s with a lot of Russia participation.
Any assessment of Parkinsons for Putin has to take account of the massive plastic surgery he has had.
On "Day 1 wasn't that bad". I have this terrible feeling it would have been better if they'd taken Kiev today, rather than the huge bombardment that is about to commence.
I really really really hope that US/UK and other willing NATO partners with effective special forces are busily supplying Ukrainian army/insurgents with everything they need to get Putin bogged down in a terrible and unwinnable war.
This is a rare clear case of a good guy and a bad guy. Let us help the good guys and thereby fuck the bad guy
I suspect (I don't know) that there are advisors on the ground, and maybe even some US/UK special forces in Ukrainian clothes.
This morning Putin was pretty clear: anyone assisting Ukraine militarily was going to get nuked.
I doubt if Putin wishes to spend the rest of his life living underground and eating tinned pineapple. So, that's a hollow threat.
If he's terminally ill, perhaps he doesn't give a feck.
(((Dan Hodges))) @DPJHodges · 1m Some black days over the last couple of years. But this has been the worst. Lots of bold rhetoric. But Ukraine asked for air support. We said no. They asked for boots on the ground. We said no. And the reason? Because for all our tough talk, we're scared of Putin. And he knows.
A retired neurologist told me that he thinks Putin has Parkinson's. Quite advance and he is taking *all* the drugs to suppress symptoms.
Oh dear, the similarities keep piling up.
It would certainly explain why he had to go *now* rather than wait until Nord Stream 2 was up and running, say.
No serious doctor would carry out the diagnosis of a medical condition by news media.
Some mushwit with the intellectual capacity of a Daily Mail journalist, maybe.
But not a scientist who wished to be taken even half-way seriously.
That's true most of the time, but I'm pretty sure there have been one or two cases where a medical condition has been spotted by someone watching TV that hadn't been noticed before.
Physical conditions, yes.
I rather doubt whether anyone sensible would attempt a psychological/neurological diagnosis based on TV news bulletins.
As it happens, my mother died of Parkinson's, so it is something I know rather more about than I wish.
Putin’s had a bad day on many fronts. Politically, he’s Kim Jong-un. Militarily, Ukrainian Army has not collapsed, successfully regained airport, downed aircraft, destroyed armour with UK kit. Financially/economically troubled, anti-war protests at home. UK supports #Ukraine 🇺🇦
I really really really hope that US/UK and other willing NATO partners with effective special forces are busily supplying Ukrainian army/insurgents with everything they need to get Putin bogged down in a terrible and unwinnable war.
This is a rare clear case of a good guy and a bad guy. Let us help the good guys and thereby fuck the bad guy
But it's not the bad guys who are getting shot. They're conscripts. It seems a bit off to be celebrating the slaughter of a bunch of young Russians who have no choice.
Who gives a fuck what you think. You were unaware that 4 million Ukrainians died in a genocidal famine, you geriatric old twat
Well let's not forget it wasn't so long ago that you were praising Putin for leading the 'War on Woke'.
(((Dan Hodges))) @DPJHodges · 1m Some black days over the last couple of years. But this has been the worst. Lots of bold rhetoric. But Ukraine asked for air support. We said no. They asked for boots on the ground. We said no. And the reason? Because for all our tough talk, we're scared of Putin. And he knows.
A retired neurologist told me that he thinks Putin has Parkinson's. Quite advance and he is taking *all* the drugs to suppress symptoms.
Oh dear, the similarities keep piling up.
It would certainly explain why he had to go *now* rather than wait until Nord Stream 2 was up and running, say.
No serious doctor would carry out the diagnosis of a medical condition by news media.
Some mushwit with the intellectual capacity of a Daily Mail journalist, maybe.
But not a scientist who wished to be taken even half-way seriously.
That's true most of the time, but I'm pretty sure there have been one or two cases where a medical condition has been spotted by someone watching TV that hadn't been noticed before.
Wilko Johnson's misdiagnosis of pancreatic cancer was spotted by a surgeon in the audience at one of his gigs I believe.
I really really really hope that US/UK and other willing NATO partners with effective special forces are busily supplying Ukrainian army/insurgents with everything they need to get Putin bogged down in a terrible and unwinnable war.
This is a rare clear case of a good guy and a bad guy. Let us help the good guys and thereby fuck the bad guy
To be fair, I recall Johnson saying we wouldn’t be disclosing what exactly else we were sending.
Glad to hear Anti tank weapons seem to be working well. One (unconfirmed) report was approx 350 Russian soldiers killed.
I agree with geoffw. He's overplayed his hand. His people and troops aren't prepared for mass casualties. And he's united NATO. And most of the rest of the West too. The Chinese are less than fulsome too. Hopefully, he's finished Trump too. Though that may be overly positive.
The fact that we haven’t heard from the sinister ‘Mr Ed’ is perhaps telling.
Mr Ed wouldn’t support these Trump statements
Hmm. He is a perennial Trump apologist / supporter. And a Prize Whatabouter. He would no doubt drag up an an example of a Democrat supporting the Soviet Union in the 1960s.
A retired neurologist told me that he thinks Putin has Parkinson's. Quite advance and he is taking *all* the drugs to suppress symptoms.
Oh dear, the similarities keep piling up.
It would certainly explain why he had to go *now* rather than wait until Nord Stream 2 was up and running, say.
No serious doctor would carry out the diagnosis of a medical condition by news media.
Some mushwit with the intellectual capacity of a Daily Mail journalist, maybe.
But not a scientist who wished to be taken even half-way seriously.
That's true most of the time, but I'm pretty sure there have been one or two cases where a medical condition has been spotted by someone watching TV that hadn't been noticed before.
Wilko Johnson's misdiagnosis of pancreatic cancer was spotted by a surgeon in the audience at one of his gigs I believe.
I really really really hope that US/UK and other willing NATO partners with effective special forces are busily supplying Ukrainian army/insurgents with everything they need to get Putin bogged down in a terrible and unwinnable war.
This is a rare clear case of a good guy and a bad guy. Let us help the good guys and thereby fuck the bad guy
But it's not the bad guys who are getting shot. They're conscripts. It seems a bit off to be celebrating the slaughter of a bunch of young Russians who have no choice.
Who gives a fuck what you think. You were unaware that 4 million Ukrainians died in a genocidal famine, you geriatric old twat
And anyway, in the grand scheme of things it's best for everyone save the sorry bastards themselves that as many Russian soldiers get slaughtered in Ukraine as possible. Quite beside the fact that, war having been initiated by that fascistic despot in the Kremlin, we would ideally like Ukraine actually to win it, the price in bloodshed for the Russians should be ruinous in any event.
If they have a quick and easy win, Mad Vlad might be emboldened to have a pop at the Baltics, then NATO goes to war with Russia and we probably all end up getting heated to 1,000°C in half-a-second, once his conventional forces have been pulverised by the Americans.
I really really really hope that US/UK and other willing NATO partners with effective special forces are busily supplying Ukrainian army/insurgents with everything they need to get Putin bogged down in a terrible and unwinnable war.
This is a rare clear case of a good guy and a bad guy. Let us help the good guys and thereby fuck the bad guy
I suspect (I don't know) that there are advisors on the ground, and maybe even some US/UK special forces in Ukrainian clothes.
This morning Putin was pretty clear: anyone assisting Ukraine militarily was going to get nuked.
The entire civilized world ought to call his small dicked bluff.
You want to call the bluff of a madman with his finger on the nuclear button? The 4 horsemen are having a good laugh.
I doubt he really has his finger any closer to the nuclear button than Trump did.
Do you think that the bandits propping him up want a nuclear war?
My guess is he doesn't literally have a big red button, bond villain style, that he can use to activate the nuclear deterrent without his generals being able to refuse the order.
At least, I hope not...
In the Soviet era and afterwards, they professed to be horrified by the laxity of Western control of nuclear weapons in terms of release. After some early scares in the 60s with field commanders and nukes, they claimed they tightened up massively.
Well, I suppose they did invent Dead Hand. But I find it hard to believe Putin has absolute control over a "big red button" style device that gives him total, absolute and final command over Russia's entire nuclear arsenal. There must be some kind of failsafe.
I mean, just imagine if Yeltsin had stumbled home to the Kremlin, blind drunk, and accidentally pushed the big red button for nukes rather than the big red button for pizza delivery?
The thing I remember* was that they really, really didn't like things like the "voting" system in Minutemen squadrons. The claim was that, at each level in Russia, it required multiple guys with keys and other stuff, all agreeing.
*From a BBC program in the late 90s with a lot of Russia participation.
And of course there is this guy, who flat out refused to fire the nukes back in '83.
But it would be very interesting to know how many people in the Russian chain of command these days have to sign off on a nuclear strike, and just who those people are (and whether or not the officers have firing keys and can refuse the orders)...
I really really really hope that US/UK and other willing NATO partners with effective special forces are busily supplying Ukrainian army/insurgents with everything they need to get Putin bogged down in a terrible and unwinnable war.
This is a rare clear case of a good guy and a bad guy. Let us help the good guys and thereby fuck the bad guy
If the tanks go into Kyiv they are going to get Molotovs on their heads. And grannies taking one with them. Unfortunately, the best bet for the Ukrainians is to send as many Russian boys home in zinc-lined coffins as they can. Good news they have retaken that airfield though.
I know we are not supposed to say this but I do genuinely feel sorry for the Russian grunt soldiers. Particularly if that anecdote earlier today about the platoon being captured because they didn't realise they were actually supposed to shoot Ukrainians was true. I can quite imagine they had been told by their commanders that they were liberating their fellow countrymen and would be welcomed with open arms. I assume that by now they have been thoroughly disabused of that particular notion.
I feel the exact same sympathy. The average Russian GI has no interest in slaughtering Ukrainian women and children. Or even men. They are cousins. There is no beef.
It's like asking the USA to invade and conquer Canada. How many American soldiers would feel relaxed and happy about torching some town in British Colombia?
Anyone know how many other European countries have banned Aeroflot?
LONDON, Feb 24 (Reuters) - Russia's Aeroflot (AFLT.MM) was banned from flying to the United Kingdom on Thursday after President Vladimir Putin ordered an invasion of Ukraine.
I really really really hope that US/UK and other willing NATO partners with effective special forces are busily supplying Ukrainian army/insurgents with everything they need to get Putin bogged down in a terrible and unwinnable war.
This is a rare clear case of a good guy and a bad guy. Let us help the good guys and thereby fuck the bad guy
But it's not the bad guys who are getting shot. They're conscripts. It seems a bit off to be celebrating the slaughter of a bunch of young Russians who have no choice.
Who gives a fuck what you think. You were unaware that 4 million Ukrainians died in a genocidal famine, you geriatric old twat
Well let's not forget it wasn't so long ago that you were praising Putin for leading the 'War on Woke'.
If only if these indiscretions could be expunged by Leon disposing of the phone on which all those incriminating posts were made. A burner phone if you will.
(((Dan Hodges))) @DPJHodges · 1m Some black days over the last couple of years. But this has been the worst. Lots of bold rhetoric. But Ukraine asked for air support. We said no. They asked for boots on the ground. We said no. And the reason? Because for all our tough talk, we're scared of Putin. And he knows.
What seems utterly mad, in hindsight, is the combination of Ukraine giving up its nuclear weapons and not joining NATO. Any other permutation would have been okay and probably prevented this war.
A retired neurologist told me that he thinks Putin has Parkinson's. Quite advance and he is taking *all* the drugs to suppress symptoms.
Oh dear, the similarities keep piling up.
It would certainly explain why he had to go *now* rather than wait until Nord Stream 2 was up and running, say.
No serious doctor would carry out the diagnosis of a medical condition by news media.
Some mushwit with the intellectual capacity of a Daily Mail journalist, maybe.
But not a scientist who wished to be taken even half-way seriously.
That's true most of the time, but I'm pretty sure there have been one or two cases where a medical condition has been spotted by someone watching TV that hadn't been noticed before.
Wilko Johnson's misdiagnosis of pancreatic cancer was spotted by a surgeon in the audience at one of his gigs I believe.
I believe the tumour they removed was the size of a watermelon. It was probably poking through his shirt.
A retired neurologist told me that he thinks Putin has Parkinson's. Quite advance and he is taking *all* the drugs to suppress symptoms.
Oh dear, the similarities keep piling up.
It would certainly explain why he had to go *now* rather than wait until Nord Stream 2 was up and running, say.
No serious doctor would carry out the diagnosis of a medical condition by news media.
Some mushwit with the intellectual capacity of a Daily Mail journalist, maybe.
But not a scientist who wished to be taken even half-way seriously.
Our own Foxy has given such opinions before.
See the case of Professor David Southall on wiki.
"In 2004, following more complaints from the MAMA campaign and Mr Clark, Professor Southall was found guilty of serious professional misconduct by the General Medical Council (GMC), after alleging to a police child protection officer that the husband of Sally Clark, a mother convicted of murdering two of her babies, was himself almost certainly responsible for murdering the couple's children. Professor Southall made the claim in confidence to a child protection officer of the Staffordshire police after watching a television documentary about the case as he was concerned about the safety of the surviving child"
It is not very sensible to look at a TV program, and conclude a diagnosis.
it’s not a diagnosis, rather a tentative but not in reasonable speculation about the possibility that Putin is ill.
A solemn chap on the BBC would give his view as the cameras paned along the collection on top of the Kremlin.
They were on top of Lenin’s tomb, which always was an unfortunate location…
They were on top of Lenin’s tomb, which was an unfortunate location For all of a sudden war broke out And they decided to change vocation
Was Russian government in old days thieving McMafia gangsters like today, or just the boring and pervy mandarins they appear to be
The modern system of gangsterism in Russia had deep roots.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thief_in_law - at the end of Soviet times to get things done required working "on the left". Which meant working with the mafia. The military would even do this, to get building materials for projects for example. Yes, the parallel with Trump and contraction in New York in the 80s is amusing.
So when things changed, they were perfectly positioned to take a chunk of everything... and the most enterprising member of the security services integrated with them to form the Mafia State we see today.
A retired neurologist told me that he thinks Putin has Parkinson's. Quite advance and he is taking *all* the drugs to suppress symptoms.
Oh dear, the similarities keep piling up.
It would certainly explain why he had to go *now* rather than wait until Nord Stream 2 was up and running, say.
No serious doctor would carry out the diagnosis of a medical condition by news media.
Some mushwit with the intellectual capacity of a Daily Mail journalist, maybe.
But not a scientist who wished to be taken even half-way seriously.
That's true most of the time, but I'm pretty sure there have been one or two cases where a medical condition has been spotted by someone watching TV that hadn't been noticed before.
Physical conditions, yes.
I rather doubt whether anyone sensible would attempt a psychological/neurological diagnosis based on TV news bulletins.
As it happens, my mother died of Parkinson's, so it is something I know rather more about than I wish.
Speculation about a clearly fucking insane global danger by a retired neurologist isn't a diagnosis.
You're definitely one of those failing to be unequivocal. I'm pretty sure everybody noticed.
I really really really hope that US/UK and other willing NATO partners with effective special forces are busily supplying Ukrainian army/insurgents with everything they need to get Putin bogged down in a terrible and unwinnable war.
This is a rare clear case of a good guy and a bad guy. Let us help the good guys and thereby fuck the bad guy
To be fair, I recall Johnson saying we wouldn’t be disclosing what exactly else we were sending.
Glad to hear Anti tank weapons seem to be working well. One (unconfirmed) report was approx 350 Russian soldiers killed.
I agree with geoffw. He's overplayed his hand. His people and troops aren't prepared for mass casualties. And he's united NATO. And most of the rest of the West too. The Chinese are less than fulsome too. Hopefully, he's finished Trump too. Though that may be overly positive.
The fact that we haven’t heard from the sinister ‘Mr Ed’ is perhaps telling.
Mr Ed wouldn’t support these Trump statements
Hmm. He is a perennial Trump apologist / supporter. And a Prize Whatabouter. He would no doubt drag up an an example of a Democrat supporting the Soviet Union in the 1960s.
I thought Democrats were southern and rather right wing in 60’s. Like the one Wallace (?) wouldn’t let non whites into the school?
I suppose they could say, Kennedy didn’t much care for Russian nukes on Cuba so fair enough what Putin saying? Is that much of an argument Trump supporters could say?
Anyone know how many other European countries have banned Aeroflot?
LONDON, Feb 24 (Reuters) - Russia's Aeroflot (AFLT.MM) was banned from flying to the United Kingdom on Thursday after President Vladimir Putin ordered an invasion of Ukraine.
It's the private jets we want banned - carrying the daughters of his fellow plutocrats for yet another weekend on the white powder in London's posher clubs.
I really really really hope that US/UK and other willing NATO partners with effective special forces are busily supplying Ukrainian army/insurgents with everything they need to get Putin bogged down in a terrible and unwinnable war.
This is a rare clear case of a good guy and a bad guy. Let us help the good guys and thereby fuck the bad guy
But it's not the bad guys who are getting shot. They're conscripts. It seems a bit off to be celebrating the slaughter of a bunch of young Russians who have no choice.
Who gives a fuck what you think. You were unaware that 4 million Ukrainians died in a genocidal famine, you geriatric old twat
Well let's not forget it wasn't so long ago that you were praising Putin for leading the 'War on Woke'.
I think Leon was praising Putin's analysis, not Putin himself.
Putin does have some interesting insights, his speeches are well worth listening to.
I really really really hope that US/UK and other willing NATO partners with effective special forces are busily supplying Ukrainian army/insurgents with everything they need to get Putin bogged down in a terrible and unwinnable war.
This is a rare clear case of a good guy and a bad guy. Let us help the good guys and thereby fuck the bad guy
Putin’s had a bad day on many fronts. Politically, he’s Kim Jong-un. Militarily, Ukrainian Army has not collapsed, successfully regained airport, downed aircraft, destroyed armour with UK kit. Financially/economically troubled, anti-war protests at home. UK supports #Ukraine 🇺🇦
Make of this what you will. If true, that's probably also several hundred body bags already on the way back to Russia. If the Ukrainians are able to inflict casualties on that scale for any length of time, Putin is going to start to have trouble concealing it.
A retired neurologist told me that he thinks Putin has Parkinson's. Quite advance and he is taking *all* the drugs to suppress symptoms.
Oh dear, the similarities keep piling up.
It would certainly explain why he had to go *now* rather than wait until Nord Stream 2 was up and running, say.
No serious doctor would carry out the diagnosis of a medical condition by news media.
Some mushwit with the intellectual capacity of a Daily Mail journalist, maybe.
But not a scientist who wished to be taken even half-way seriously.
That's true most of the time, but I'm pretty sure there have been one or two cases where a medical condition has been spotted by someone watching TV that hadn't been noticed before.
Physical conditions, yes.
I rather doubt whether anyone sensible would attempt a psychological/neurological diagnosis based on TV news bulletins.
As it happens, my mother died of Parkinson's, so it is something I know rather more about than I wish.
Speculation about a clearly fucking insane global danger by a retired neurologist isn't a diagnosis.
You're definitely one of those failing to be unequivocal. I'm pretty sure everybody noticed.
Perhaps you could start a running list with all those people you consider too equivocal in their condemnation? I'm sure you'd have torch & pitchfork wielding mob in no time.
A retired neurologist told me that he thinks Putin has Parkinson's. Quite advance and he is taking *all* the drugs to suppress symptoms.
Oh dear, the similarities keep piling up.
It would certainly explain why he had to go *now* rather than wait until Nord Stream 2 was up and running, say.
No serious doctor would carry out the diagnosis of a medical condition by news media.
Some mushwit with the intellectual capacity of a Daily Mail journalist, maybe.
But not a scientist who wished to be taken even half-way seriously.
That's true most of the time, but I'm pretty sure there have been one or two cases where a medical condition has been spotted by someone watching TV that hadn't been noticed before.
Physical conditions, yes.
I rather doubt whether anyone sensible would attempt a psychological/neurological diagnosis based on TV news bulletins.
As it happens, my mother died of Parkinson's, so it is something I know rather more about than I wish.
Speculation about a clearly fucking insane global danger by a retired neurologist isn't a diagnosis.
You're definitely one of those failing to be unequivocal. I'm pretty sure everybody noticed.
Perhaps you could start a running list with all those people you consider too equivocal in their condemnation? I'm sure you'd have torch & pitchfork wielding mob in no time.
I really really really hope that US/UK and other willing NATO partners with effective special forces are busily supplying Ukrainian army/insurgents with everything they need to get Putin bogged down in a terrible and unwinnable war.
This is a rare clear case of a good guy and a bad guy. Let us help the good guys and thereby fuck the bad guy
If the tanks go into Kyiv they are going to get Molotovs on their heads. And grannies taking one with them. Unfortunately, the best bet for the Ukrainians is to send as many Russian boys home in zinc-lined coffins as they can. Good news they have retaken that airfield though.
I know we are not supposed to say this but I do genuinely feel sorry for the Russian grunt soldiers. Particularly if that anecdote earlier today about the platoon being captured because they didn't realise they were actually supposed to shoot Ukrainians was true. I can quite imagine they had been told by their commanders that they were liberating their fellow countrymen and would be welcomed with open arms. I assume that by now they have been thoroughly disabused of that particular notion.
I feel the exact same sympathy. The average Russian GI has no interest in slaughtering Ukrainian women and children. Or even men. They are cousins. There is no beef.
It's like asking the USA to invade and conquer Canada. How many American soldiers would feel relaxed and happy about torching some town in British Colombia?
On any other day, what Starmer did to the SCG and Labour’s Stop the War Putin apologists today would be massive news. No other leader of the party has had such a grip on it since Blair was at his peak (no, that is not me claiming Starmer is Blair 2).
The Marx Left are on the run now. Totally found out for their bonkers beliefs and weird theories of the world where they stand around Trafalgar Square under the hammer and sickle.
It would be nice to believe that, but they'll be back. People believed that Communism was discredited in 1956, 1989, 1991, etc. But it keeps coming back. Like Fascism, or religious fanaticism it seems to fulfil some kind of psychological need in the maladjuted, who are then exploited by psychopaths who know no peace.
A retired neurologist told me that he thinks Putin has Parkinson's. Quite advance and he is taking *all* the drugs to suppress symptoms.
Oh dear, the similarities keep piling up.
It would certainly explain why he had to go *now* rather than wait until Nord Stream 2 was up and running, say.
No serious doctor would carry out the diagnosis of a medical condition by news media.
Some mushwit with the intellectual capacity of a Daily Mail journalist, maybe.
But not a scientist who wished to be taken even half-way seriously.
That's true most of the time, but I'm pretty sure there have been one or two cases where a medical condition has been spotted by someone watching TV that hadn't been noticed before.
Physical conditions, yes.
I rather doubt whether anyone sensible would attempt a psychological/neurological diagnosis based on TV news bulletins.
As it happens, my mother died of Parkinson's, so it is something I know rather more about than I wish.
As I posted early, I know too much as well. My condolences. I think in the Paxman case it was more a case of 'perhaps you should come in and have some tests' rather than an actual diagnosis.
A retired neurologist told me that he thinks Putin has Parkinson's. Quite advance and he is taking *all* the drugs to suppress symptoms.
Oh dear, the similarities keep piling up.
It would certainly explain why he had to go *now* rather than wait until Nord Stream 2 was up and running, say.
No serious doctor would carry out the diagnosis of a medical condition by news media.
Some mushwit with the intellectual capacity of a Daily Mail journalist, maybe.
But not a scientist who wished to be taken even half-way seriously.
That's true most of the time, but I'm pretty sure there have been one or two cases where a medical condition has been spotted by someone watching TV that hadn't been noticed before.
Physical conditions, yes.
I rather doubt whether anyone sensible would attempt a psychological/neurological diagnosis based on TV news bulletins.
As it happens, my mother died of Parkinson's, so it is something I know rather more about than I wish.
Speculation about a clearly fucking insane global danger by a retired neurologist isn't a diagnosis.
You're definitely one of those failing to be unequivocal. I'm pretty sure everybody noticed.
Perhaps you could start a running list with all those people you consider too equivocal in their condemnation? I'm sure you'd have torch & pitchfork wielding mob in no time.
Putin’s had a bad day on many fronts. Politically, he’s Kim Jong-un. Militarily, Ukrainian Army has not collapsed, successfully regained airport, downed aircraft, destroyed armour with UK kit. Financially/economically troubled, anti-war protests at home. UK supports #Ukraine 🇺🇦
Make of this what you will. If true, that's probably also several hundred body bags already on the way back to Russia. If the Ukrainians are able to inflict casualties on that scale for any length of time, Putin is going to start to have trouble concealing it.
A retired neurologist told me that he thinks Putin has Parkinson's. Quite advance and he is taking *all* the drugs to suppress symptoms.
Oh dear, the similarities keep piling up.
It would certainly explain why he had to go *now* rather than wait until Nord Stream 2 was up and running, say.
No serious doctor would carry out the diagnosis of a medical condition by news media.
Some mushwit with the intellectual capacity of a Daily Mail journalist, maybe.
But not a scientist who wished to be taken even half-way seriously.
Our own Foxy has given such opinions before.
See the case of Professor David Southall on wiki.
"In 2004, following more complaints from the MAMA campaign and Mr Clark, Professor Southall was found guilty of serious professional misconduct by the General Medical Council (GMC), after alleging to a police child protection officer that the husband of Sally Clark, a mother convicted of murdering two of her babies, was himself almost certainly responsible for murdering the couple's children. Professor Southall made the claim in confidence to a child protection officer of the Staffordshire police after watching a television documentary about the case as he was concerned about the safety of the surviving child"
It is not very sensible to look at a TV program, and conclude a diagnosis.
it’s not a diagnosis, rather a tentative but not in reasonable speculation about the possibility that Putin is ill.
A solemn chap on the BBC would give his view as the cameras paned along the collection on top of the Kremlin.
They were on top of Lenin’s tomb, which always was an unfortunate location…
They were on top of Lenin’s tomb, which was an unfortunate location For all of a sudden war broke out And they decided to change vocation
Was Russian government in old days thieving McMafia gangsters like today, or just the boring and pervy mandarins they appear to be
The modern system of gangsterism in Russia had deep roots.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thief_in_law - at the end of Soviet times to get things done required working "on the left". Which meant working with the mafia. The military would even do this, to get building materials for projects for example. Yes, the parallel with Trump and contraction in New York in the 80s is amusing.
So when things changed, they were perfectly positioned to take a chunk of everything... and the most enterprising member of the security services integrated with them to form the Mafia State we see today.
Thanks for that, it is very interesting. Bitch Wars leapt out at me read through later 👍🏻
So that’s how a poverty stricken street thug and gangster, and KGB evil desk clerk got to know each other, become friends and make plans?
However it seems to me we should be very sorry for Russia everyday people, compared to us they had feudal serfdom, the authoritarian governments of nineteenth century replaced by mad Marxist murderers, and as we rejoice fall of Soviet Union they go straight into this Putin shit, never been free like us. Sad to think ☹️
I really really really hope that US/UK and other willing NATO partners with effective special forces are busily supplying Ukrainian army/insurgents with everything they need to get Putin bogged down in a terrible and unwinnable war.
This is a rare clear case of a good guy and a bad guy. Let us help the good guys and thereby fuck the bad guy
But it's not the bad guys who are getting shot. They're conscripts. It seems a bit off to be celebrating the slaughter of a bunch of young Russians who have no choice.
Who gives a fuck what you think. You were unaware that 4 million Ukrainians died in a genocidal famine, you geriatric old twat
Well let's not forget it wasn't so long ago that you were praising Putin for leading the 'War on Woke'.
I think Leon was praising Putin's analysis, not Putin himself.
Putin does have some interesting insights, his speeches are well worth listening to.
Well, interesting insights into his own deranged mindset. I read one of his "history" articles the other day, pure horseshit.
BERLIN, Feb 24 (Reuters) - Cutting off Russia from the SWIFT global interbank payment system should not be part of the second EU sanctions package against Russia that EU leaders will decide upon at a meeting on Thursday in Brussels, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said.
BERLIN, Feb 24 (Reuters) - Cutting off Russia from the SWIFT global interbank payment system should not be part of the second EU sanctions package against Russia that EU leaders will decide upon at a meeting on Thursday in Brussels, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said.
BERLIN, Feb 24 (Reuters) - Cutting off Russia from the SWIFT global interbank payment system should not be part of the second EU sanctions package against Russia that EU leaders will decide upon at a meeting on Thursday in Brussels, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said.
I really really really hope that US/UK and other willing NATO partners with effective special forces are busily supplying Ukrainian army/insurgents with everything they need to get Putin bogged down in a terrible and unwinnable war.
This is a rare clear case of a good guy and a bad guy. Let us help the good guys and thereby fuck the bad guy
But it's not the bad guys who are getting shot. They're conscripts. It seems a bit off to be celebrating the slaughter of a bunch of young Russians who have no choice.
Who gives a fuck what you think. You were unaware that 4 million Ukrainians died in a genocidal famine, you geriatric old twat
Well let's not forget it wasn't so long ago that you were praising Putin for leading the 'War on Woke'.
I think Leon was praising Putin's analysis, not Putin himself.
Putin does have some interesting insights, his speeches are well worth listening to.
We need to compare with previous from same pollster? I make that Tory stay put, Labour and Libdems advance in this poll compared with end of January. So more evidence of Libdem surge.
In other news, Sunak has to fill in Partygate questionnaire. 😕 He is currently in exactly same position as Boris. I hope he can afford the lawyers to get him off.
A good thread that generally agrees with the PB consensus, as all good threads should. Putin has over-reached
"How does Putin's war not turn into a protracted insurgency, with infinite supplies of weapons flowing into Ukraine across the border from Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, and Romania - all countries protected by NATO? 1/x"
One small problem with this even though its known that the US has prepared to support an insurgency, The Russians just send a column from Belarus straight down towrds Lviv, which is where most Western assets supporting Ukraine are located, and cut off the borders from the main support transit route via South East Poland.
They have the forces sitting in Belarus and the Ukrainians do not have a big load of cover on the border there. Its fair to say that makes me curious why they haven't gone down that side yet. Lviv seems to be considered a safe haven outpost, far away by both Western agencies and Ukrainians. Put it under threat and its going interfere with Western plans
It seems the main thrusts from Belarus to Kyiv, Belogrod to Kharkiv and the Donbas to the West have been slow. How much due to resistance, and how much due to planning for a city fight is unclear. The push from Crimea to Kherson and to the North Coast of the Sea of Azov has gained a lot more territory.
Possibly just how things develop, but it could well be that the primary objective is to have a land link with Crimea to the Donbas including the water supply to Crimea. This is an area with a bigger ethnic Russian minority where Putin expects to be made more welcome, rather than Western Ukraine and the Carpathians.
It's hard to assess casualties, but there do seem to be a lot of images of burning Ukranian vehicles and air defences, with few Russian ones on social media.
I presume the slogan 'the largest and most severe package of economic sanctions that Russia has ever seen' floated by BJ and now repeated verbatim by Cleverley on QT refers to sanctions applied by the UK, not in the whole wide world for evah and evah? Given the UK's previous efforts (described as mimsy by another panelist) perhaps not so impressive.
Cutting off Russia from the SWIFT global interbank payment system should not be part of the second EU sanctions package against Russia that EU leaders will decide upon at a meeting on Thursday in Brussels, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said.
"It is very important that we agree those measures that have been prepared - and keep everything else for a situation where it may be necessary to go beyond that," Scholz told reporters, responding to a question on SWIFT, as he arrived to an emergency summit set to discuss Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
One wonders when the appropriate time would be - after the whole of Kyiv has been flattened by Russian shelling? Or after Zelenskyy and his entire cabinet have all been executed by a Spetsnaz death squad, perhaps?
BERLIN, Feb 24 (Reuters) - Cutting off Russia from the SWIFT global interbank payment system should not be part of the second EU sanctions package against Russia that EU leaders will decide upon at a meeting on Thursday in Brussels, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said.
A retired neurologist told me that he thinks Putin has Parkinson's. Quite advance and he is taking *all* the drugs to suppress symptoms.
Oh dear, the similarities keep piling up.
It would certainly explain why he had to go *now* rather than wait until Nord Stream 2 was up and running, say.
No serious doctor would carry out the diagnosis of a medical condition by news media.
Some mushwit with the intellectual capacity of a Daily Mail journalist, maybe.
But not a scientist who wished to be taken even half-way seriously.
Our own Foxy has given such opinions before.
See the case of Professor David Southall on wiki.
"In 2004, following more complaints from the MAMA campaign and Mr Clark, Professor Southall was found guilty of serious professional misconduct by the General Medical Council (GMC), after alleging to a police child protection officer that the husband of Sally Clark, a mother convicted of murdering two of her babies, was himself almost certainly responsible for murdering the couple's children. Professor Southall made the claim in confidence to a child protection officer of the Staffordshire police after watching a television documentary about the case as he was concerned about the safety of the surviving child"
It is not very sensible to look at a TV program, and conclude a diagnosis.
it’s not a diagnosis, rather a tentative but not in reasonable speculation about the possibility that Putin is ill.
A solemn chap on the BBC would give his view as the cameras paned along the collection on top of the Kremlin.
They were on top of Lenin’s tomb, which always was an unfortunate location…
They were on top of Lenin’s tomb, which was an unfortunate location For all of a sudden war broke out And they decided to change vocation
Was Russian government in old days thieving McMafia gangsters like today, or just the boring and pervy mandarins they appear to be
The modern system of gangsterism in Russia had deep roots.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thief_in_law - at the end of Soviet times to get things done required working "on the left". Which meant working with the mafia. The military would even do this, to get building materials for projects for example. Yes, the parallel with Trump and contraction in New York in the 80s is amusing.
So when things changed, they were perfectly positioned to take a chunk of everything... and the most enterprising member of the security services integrated with them to form the Mafia State we see today.
Thanks for that, it is very interesting. Bitch Wars leapt out at me read through later 👍🏻
So that’s how a poverty stricken street thug and gangster, and KGB evil desk clerk got to know each other, become friends and make plans?
However it seems to me we should be very sorry for Russia everyday people, compared to us they had feudal serfdom, the authoritarian governments of nineteenth century replaced by mad Marxist murderers, and as we rejoice fall of Soviet Union they go straight into this Putin shit, never been free like us. Sad to think ☹️
The street thugs weren't poor. The KGB guys were privileged. The elite. Then the system began to crumble. They began to fall in status. And the street thugs now had even more money. Some took jobs with the street thugs. Others rapidly moved into their organisations where their skills and contacts became extremely marketable.
Yes, the contrast with how things turned out in the UK is one to make you think. Churchill and others noted it - that compared to so many other societies, in the UK, the elite ceded power remarkably easily.
On any other day, what Starmer did to the SCG and Labour’s Stop the War Putin apologists today would be massive news. No other leader of the party has had such a grip on it since Blair was at his peak (no, that is not me claiming Starmer is Blair 2).
The Marx Left are on the run now. Totally found out for their bonkers beliefs and weird theories of the world where they stand around Trafalgar Square under the hammer and sickle.
Marx as an economic and social analyst of existing capitalism will probably continue to be read for centuries, I think, including by capitalists like Piketty, because some of his critiques are pretty acute, and pretty good. Marx as a historical prophet and cultural theorist was an absolute catastrophe, and will rarely be taken seriously again outside a few rogue autocracies, I would expect.
BERLIN, Feb 24 (Reuters) - Cutting off Russia from the SWIFT global interbank payment system should not be part of the second EU sanctions package against Russia that EU leaders will decide upon at a meeting on Thursday in Brussels, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said.
SWIFT = dollar-denominated trade. Half of Europe wants gas and the USA wants the dollar to remain the global currency. So turning off SWIFT is far more costly than annoying some rich men overseas.
A good thread that generally agrees with the PB consensus, as all good threads should. Putin has over-reached
"How does Putin's war not turn into a protracted insurgency, with infinite supplies of weapons flowing into Ukraine across the border from Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, and Romania - all countries protected by NATO? 1/x"
One small problem with this even though its known that the US has prepared to support an insurgency, The Russians just send a column from Belarus straight down towrds Lviv, which is where most Western assets supporting Ukraine are located, and cut off the borders from the main support transit route via South East Poland.
They have the forces sitting in Belarus and the Ukrainians do not have a big load of cover on the border there. Its fair to say that makes me curious why they haven't gone down that side yet. Lviv seems to be considered a safe haven outpost, far away by both Western agencies and Ukrainians. Put it under threat and its going interfere with Western plans
“ makes me curious why they haven't gone down that side yet “
Is that also the corridor Russians want all those fleeing people to empty out through first before sealing it?
A good thread that generally agrees with the PB consensus, as all good threads should. Putin has over-reached
"How does Putin's war not turn into a protracted insurgency, with infinite supplies of weapons flowing into Ukraine across the border from Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, and Romania - all countries protected by NATO? 1/x"
One small problem with this even though its known that the US has prepared to support an insurgency, The Russians just send a column from Belarus straight down towrds Lviv, which is where most Western assets supporting Ukraine are located, and cut off the borders from the main support transit route via South East Poland.
They have the forces sitting in Belarus and the Ukrainians do not have a big load of cover on the border there. Its fair to say that makes me curious why they haven't gone down that side yet. Lviv seems to be considered a safe haven outpost, far away by both Western agencies and Ukrainians. Put it under threat and its going interfere with Western plans
“ makes me curious why they haven't gone down that side yet “
Is that also the corridor Russians want all those fleeing people to empty out through first before sealing it?
BERLIN, Feb 24 (Reuters) - Cutting off Russia from the SWIFT global interbank payment system should not be part of the second EU sanctions package against Russia that EU leaders will decide upon at a meeting on Thursday in Brussels, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said.
A good thread that generally agrees with the PB consensus, as all good threads should. Putin has over-reached
"How does Putin's war not turn into a protracted insurgency, with infinite supplies of weapons flowing into Ukraine across the border from Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, and Romania - all countries protected by NATO? 1/x"
One small problem with this even though its known that the US has prepared to support an insurgency, The Russians just send a column from Belarus straight down towrds Lviv, which is where most Western assets supporting Ukraine are located, and cut off the borders from the main support transit route via South East Poland.
They have the forces sitting in Belarus and the Ukrainians do not have a big load of cover on the border there. Its fair to say that makes me curious why they haven't gone down that side yet. Lviv seems to be considered a safe haven outpost, far away by both Western agencies and Ukrainians. Put it under threat and its going interfere with Western plans
“ makes me curious why they haven't gone down that side yet “
Is that also the corridor Russians want all those fleeing people to empty out through first before sealing it?
Possibly but given that's also the Ukrainian military retreat route to then regroup if they can break out of the encirclements. The other possibility as noted downthread is that they don't really care about it
Urban warfare, when the defenders know the ground, is the last place Putin’s troops want to be at this point, especially so close to the Russian border.
Polina Ivanova @polinaivanovva · 1h It feels an ominous night in Kyiv tonight. The city is pin-drop silent, a few lights are still on in some apartment blocks, as the city waits to see what happens next — and the forecasts from western intel are grim. Day 2.
I find the idea you need to be a shit to succeed in politics depressing, but also wrong.
In the UK, only Boris is a fully-fledged shit. Cameron, Blair, and Wilson were borderline, and for different reasons, Brown. Mostly, British PMs are non-shits. At least in the post-war period.
The US might be less lucky. Obviously Trump, and probably Clinton. But Biden no, nor Obama, nor the Bushes, nor Reagan, Carter or even Ford. Before that, though, a string of shits: Nixon, LBJ, JFK.
France seems to prefer shits. Macron is a shit. Sarkozy, Chirac, Mitterrand, d’Estaing - all shits. Hollande not. I don’t have a view on Pompidou, and I am torn about De Gaulle.
Hollande may not have been a shit. But he was also... well... shit.
I find the idea you need to be a shit to succeed in politics depressing, but also wrong.
In the UK, only Boris is a fully-fledged shit. Cameron, Blair, and Wilson were borderline, and for different reasons, Brown. Mostly, British PMs are non-shits. At least in the post-war period.
The US might be less lucky. Obviously Trump, and probably Clinton. But Biden no, nor Obama, nor the Bushes, nor Reagan, Carter or even Ford. Before that, though, a string of shits: Nixon, LBJ, JFK.
France seems to prefer shits. Macron is a shit. Sarkozy, Chirac, Mitterrand, d’Estaing - all shits. Hollande not. I don’t have a view on Pompidou, and I am torn about De Gaulle.
Hollande may not have been a shit. But he was also... well... shit.
Indeed, he also cheated on his wife too so was not exactly a saint either.
He was the worst French President of my lifetime. Chirac was quite effective in many ways, as was Mitterand, I would not say either were shits exactly though no saints either
Clear tonight that US and UK have led the (largely failed) attempt to go for the harshest measures against Russia but the EU rejected SWIFT proposal — contrary to uninformed twitter commentary from blue tick FBPE throughout the week. Something to remember.
Comments
Edit - well I’ve somehow stuck two separate posts together.
Now to get rid of the far-right scum who have kidnapped the Conservative brand.
https://twitter.com/MirrorBreaking_/status/1496981942914498561
That'll make the Russians think again. President Zelenskyy must be so relieved.
The helicopter attack at the airport, for example. It sounds like a deep strike raid that failed. Complete with Ka-52s littering the country side... What actually was the end result?
I mean, just imagine if Yeltsin had stumbled home to the Kremlin, blind drunk, and accidentally pushed the big red button for nukes rather than the big red button for pizza delivery?
They have the forces sitting in Belarus and the Ukrainians do not have a big load of cover on the border there. Its fair to say that makes me curious why they haven't gone down that side yet. Lviv seems to be considered a safe haven outpost, far away by both Western agencies and Ukrainians. Put it under threat and its going interfere with Western plans
Also, nothing provokes the fight instinct like unprovoked and brutal assault, especially if you have allies willing to help - which, crucially, the Ukrainians do, and their allies are big and powerful
which was an unfortunate location
For all of a sudden war broke out
And they decided to change vocation
Was Russian government in old days thieving McMafia gangsters like today, or just the boring and pervy mandarins they appear to be
I'd feel more comfortable if Russian forces weren't so near to Kiev I have to say.
*From a BBC program in the late 90s with a lot of Russia participation.
On "Day 1 wasn't that bad". I have this terrible feeling it would have been better if they'd taken Kiev today, rather than the huge bombardment that is about to commence.
Nevertheless, it’s not a walkover, and the sight of protesting Russian is truly cockle-warming.
(((Dan Hodges)))
@DPJHodges
·
1m
Some black days over the last couple of years. But this has been the worst. Lots of bold rhetoric. But Ukraine asked for air support. We said no. They asked for boots on the ground. We said no. And the reason? Because for all our tough talk, we're scared of Putin. And he knows.
https://twitter.com/DPJHodges?ref_src=twsrc^google|twcamp^serp|twgr^author
I rather doubt whether anyone sensible would attempt a psychological/neurological diagnosis based on TV news bulletins.
As it happens, my mother died of Parkinson's, so it is something I know rather more about than I wish.
Consensus was around 6ft 1.
https://twitter.com/DominicFarrell/status/1496984587079196676
Biden announced this evening however Nato forces are being sent to reinforce Eastern European nations that are in Nato
If they have a quick and easy win, Mad Vlad might be emboldened to have a pop at the Baltics, then NATO goes to war with Russia and we probably all end up getting heated to 1,000°C in half-a-second, once his conventional forces have been pulverised by the Americans.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanislav_Petrov
But it would be very interesting to know how many people in the Russian chain of command these days have to sign off on a nuclear strike, and just who those people are (and whether or not the officers have firing keys and can refuse the orders)...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bOR38552MJA
LONDON, Feb 24 (Reuters) - Russia's Aeroflot (AFLT.MM) was banned from flying to the United Kingdom on Thursday after President Vladimir Putin ordered an invasion of Ukraine.
https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/russias-aeroflot-banned-flying-uk-2022-02-24/
https://twitter.com/adam_tooze/status/1496983279479582726?s=21
https://twitter.com/CovertShores/status/1496958455277666310
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thief_in_law - at the end of Soviet times to get things done required working "on the left". Which meant working with the mafia. The military would even do this, to get building materials for projects for example. Yes, the parallel with Trump and contraction in New York in the 80s is amusing.
So when things changed, they were perfectly positioned to take a chunk of everything... and the most enterprising member of the security services integrated with them to form the Mafia State we see today.
You're definitely one of those failing to be unequivocal. I'm pretty sure everybody noticed.
I suppose they could say, Kennedy didn’t much care for Russian nukes on Cuba so fair enough what Putin saying? Is that much of an argument Trump supporters could say?
Putin does have some interesting insights, his speeches are well worth listening to.
Ukraine claims to have destroyed 30 Russian tanks, 130 armored vehicles, 5 planes & 6 helicopters in fighting today
https://twitter.com/ASLuhn/status/1496985259878936589
Make of this what you will. If true, that's probably also several hundred body bags already on the way back to Russia. If the Ukrainians are able to inflict casualties on that scale for any length of time, Putin is going to start to have trouble concealing it.
YBarddCwsc
Theuniondivvie
https://metro.co.uk/2022/02/24/russia-deploys-mobile-crematoriums-to-follow-troops-into-ukraine-16162585/amp/
So that’s how a poverty stricken street thug and gangster, and KGB evil desk clerk got to know each other, become friends and make plans?
However it seems to me we should be very sorry for Russia everyday people, compared to us they had feudal serfdom, the authoritarian governments of nineteenth century replaced by mad Marxist murderers, and as we rejoice fall of Soviet Union they go straight into this Putin shit, never been free like us. Sad to think ☹️
https://www.reuters.com/world/russia-should-not-be-cut-off-swift-moment-germanys-scholz-2022-02-24/
What more does Russia have to do?
We need to compare with previous from same pollster? I make that Tory stay put, Labour and Libdems advance in this poll compared with end of January.
So more evidence of Libdem surge.
In other news, Sunak has to fill in Partygate questionnaire. 😕
He is currently in exactly same position as Boris. I hope he can afford the lawyers to get him off.
Possibly just how things develop, but it could well be that the primary objective is to have a land link with Crimea to the Donbas including the water supply to Crimea. This is an area with a bigger ethnic Russian minority where Putin expects to be made more welcome, rather than Western Ukraine and the Carpathians.
It's hard to assess casualties, but there do seem to be a lot of images of burning Ukranian vehicles and air defences, with few Russian ones on social media.
https://twitter.com/Reuters/status/1496989655513899016
Cutting off Russia from the SWIFT global interbank payment system should not be part of the second EU sanctions package against Russia that EU leaders will decide upon at a meeting on Thursday in Brussels, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said.
"It is very important that we agree those measures that have been prepared - and keep everything else for a situation where it may be necessary to go beyond that," Scholz told reporters, responding to a question on SWIFT, as he arrived to an emergency summit set to discuss Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
One wonders when the appropriate time would be - after the whole of Kyiv has been flattened by Russian shelling? Or after Zelenskyy and his entire cabinet have all been executed by a Spetsnaz death squad, perhaps?
https://twitter.com/PMoelleken/status/1496941845812760577
Yes, the contrast with how things turned out in the UK is one to make you think. Churchill and others noted it - that compared to so many other societies, in the UK, the elite ceded power remarkably easily.
Everyone wants sanctions that don't affect them.
“This is a Russian warship. I propose you lay down arms and surrender to avoid bloodshed & unnecessary victims. Otherwise, you’ll be bombed.”
Zmiinyi defenders: “Russian warship, go fuck yourself.”
Zmiinyi defenders fought to the death and died to a man.
Is that also the corridor Russians want all those fleeing people to empty out through first before sealing it?
President Zelensky has warned in the last hour that Russian saboteurs have entered Kiev
But he's anti-woke.
https://twitter.com/peterjukes/status/1496995010633297923
Polina Ivanova
@polinaivanovva
·
1h
It feels an ominous night in Kyiv tonight. The city is pin-drop silent, a few lights are still on in some apartment blocks, as the city waits to see what happens next — and the forecasts from western intel are grim. Day 2.
The Star clearly not great at sombre, or terror, but caught my eye with £10 pint on the way.
A more ruthless leader (Kinnock?) may have just thrown them straight out.
He was the worst French President of my lifetime. Chirac was quite effective in many ways, as was Mitterand, I would not say either were shits exactly though no saints either
https://twitter.com/alexwickham/status/1496990202660855815