And also that Putin likely has no wider ambitions in contrast to what we are told by our media.
I wouldn't deduce from Putin not discussing his wider ambitions outwith Ukraine that he doesn't actually have them.
It's almost like somebody wrote an article that didn't just point out that he did have wider ambitions, it gave the underlying theoretical reasons for it.
After the story of the six year old girl in the taxi that led the BBC news and the brilliant report 'from our own cotrrespondent' you'd have to be pretty sick to continue supporting Netanyahu or Israel in any shape or form. Yesterday's pictures of the blown out ambulence with it's two paramedics dead inside just made it even more unbearable.
It was a major topic of conversation at an event I went to yesterday in Nice. It could turn into as iconic an image as the burning Vietnamese girl. It's difficult to knows how it's running across the rest of Europe.
Support for Israel on this is down to those who don't view Palestinians as proper 3d human beings.
That seems to be a UK thing. Perhaps it's the same thing as Brexit. This idea of British exceptionalism. The 'Zulu' mentality. Some of the posts on here are just alarming. Some of the brightest as wisest and most interesting people I've met are Arabs. They have a wisdom that goes back centuries. So many here just see them as the Indians in the cowboys and Indians that they grew up with
I can't claim similar exposure but yes I do detect a "them arabs are inferior to them Israelis" mindset underlying some of the commentary.
Understandably so.
Israel beats the Arabs in every war.
Israel is a reasonably successful, developed and democratic country whereas Arab countries tend not to be.
While, on a wider level, Jews have produced countless brilliant scientists, artists, writers, musicians, bankers, businessmen, politicians etc whereas Arabs haven't.
Its this 'overachievement' by Jews which drives most of the dislike and fear of them in the western world in addition to some respect and admiration.
Racism is often understandable but understanding it doesn't have to mean sharing it.
Yet racism can be tolerated when it involves hatred of Jews.
To the western world Arabs are little more than a source of continual geopolitical crisis.
Something which leads to oil price rises, terrorist attacks and refugees.
If the Arab world ever got its act together and sorted out its problems then few in the western world would think about them beyond considering them as a possible holiday destination.
The Arab world is the equivalent of an extended family living along a nearby street. Some seem okay but there's always problems at one house or another. Israel is a house on the same street but with a different family.
Historically the 'Arab world' produced some brilliant scientists and mathematicians. Not sure why, or possibly if, they ran out of steam about 500 years ago. Jews have done well because they were part of the West, and often needed to do 'better' than those around them to be recognised.
There was one key bit in there tbf. Is Putin only after Ukraine or would that be just the start?
Leon has deduced from the interview, by careful observation of his words and body language, that it's just Ukraine. He will go no further. Not fussed.
This has huge ramifications.
Well, VVP has 20% of Ukraine after 10 years of trying so he can want what the fuck he wants but there are no means to get it.
Our man in the Phnom Penh Premier Inn does extract a good point from Carlson/Putin that is worth restating. For VVP and almost all Russians, Ukraine (minus the Zakarpattia, Lviv and Chernivitsi oblasts) is part of the Russkiy Mir. It isn't just another country they have invaded for lols.
Now, the ultras can stranglewank on about how it legally is another country, blah, blah but that doesn't change the reality of how the Russians feel about it.
As it happens I'm not a big buyer of the notion that Ukraine is step one in Putin's plan to roll over Eastern Europe and remake the USSR. My view (for which I have no need of the Carlson interview) is that Ukraine in and of itself is an overreach and the plan, such as it is, extends no further than achieving a partition and buffer zone.
I've very little clue about what goes on in the heads of most Russians. For me it's more about the contents of Putin's bonce. And he obviously does see Ukraine as "special". Is spending all this money, killing and maiming so many people, destroying vast swathes of territory, worth it to make the biggest country on earth a tiny bit bigger? Can't see it myself. Funny sort of "victory" that is, even if he manages it.
But it's about him, not me. It's about how he sees Ukraine. And he's convinced himself he's "bringing it home". Plus, another key point in his calculus, he's not out there fighting. He's just sat in Moscow giving the orders, getting vicarious thrills. No different to our own keyboard warriors in this regard.
How do you get this detailed insight into Putin’s thoughts and desires? Do you just “sense it”?
There was one key bit in there tbf. Is Putin only after Ukraine or would that be just the start?
Leon has deduced from the interview, by careful observation of his words and body language, that it's just Ukraine. He will go no further. Not fussed.
This has huge ramifications.
Well, VVP has 20% of Ukraine after 10 years of trying so he can want what the fuck he wants but there are no means to get it.
Our man in the Phnom Penh Premier Inn does extract a good point from Carlson/Putin that is worth restating. For VVP and almost all Russians, Ukraine (minus the Zakarpattia, Lviv and Chernivitsi oblasts) is part of the Russkiy Mir. It isn't just another country they have invaded for lols.
Now, the ultras can stranglewank on about how it legally is another country, blah, blah but that doesn't change the reality of how the Russians feel about it.
Rather like saying a woman can "stranglewank" as much as she likes about how it legally is her body, "blah, blah", but it doesn't change the reality of how a lot of men think they should be allowed to rape her nevertheless.
It seems a funny way of looking at the world.
It’s sadly pragmatic
Russia is a very powerful country (enough of this economy of Spain bullshit). It has vast natural resources and a deep self belief. It comprises 130m people and many of them - especially the elite - really do see Ukraine as naturally part of Russia, in the same way we see the Lakes as part of England, its actually a key part of their self identity
And they have nuclear weapons, and they are prepared to fight for it
After the story of the six year old girl in the taxi that led the BBC news and the brilliant report 'from our own cotrrespondent' you'd have to be pretty sick to continue supporting Netanyahu or Israel in any shape or form. Yesterday's pictures of the blown out ambulence with it's two paramedics dead inside just made it even more unbearable.
It was a major topic of conversation at an event I went to yesterday in Nice. It could turn into as iconic an image as the burning Vietnamese girl. It's difficult to knows how it's running across the rest of Europe.
Support for Israel on this is down to those who don't view Palestinians as proper 3d human beings.
That seems to be a UK thing. Perhaps it's the same thing as Brexit. This idea of British exceptionalism. The 'Zulu' mentality. Some of the posts on here are just alarming. Some of the brightest as wisest and most interesting people I've met are Arabs. They have a wisdom that goes back centuries. So many here just see them as the Indians in the cowboys and Indians that they grew up with
I can't claim similar exposure but yes I do detect a "them arabs are inferior to them Israelis" mindset underlying some of the commentary.
I think there is a racism of low expectations towards Arabs by many in the Western media. They are not expected to exhibit civilised behaviour, while it is expected from Israel, hence the asymmetry of outrage at Hamas atrocities and the IDF ones.
{Edward Said has entered the chat}
Yes. You even get people explicitly saying that Israel should know how to behave, since they are a First World Country, with democracy and Eurovision. As opposed to the neighbours.
I think that is at least a touch disingenuous or perhaps even projecting. The reason people don't expect some of the Arab players to behave 'correctly' whilst at the same time they do expect such from Israel is because so many of the parties on the Arab side are either non Governmental or represent failed states (though why those states have failed and the part Western countries have played in those failures is another important debate)
We do not expect Hamas or Hezbollah to adhere to conventions (no matter how much we might wish they would) because that is not the nature of those groups. We are also unsurpised when Syria or Iraq struggle to adhere to the accepted behaviour of states given how slightly they even cling to notions of statehood and how fractured they are (again not least because of the actions of the West post WW1).
But we do expect the relatively stable countirs like Jordan and Egypt to adhere to the conventions as we perceve them as, to a greater or lesser extent, stable. We would be far more surprised and disapointed if Jordan were to behave as Israel does than if Syria were to do so. Both neighbouring Arab counties but with very different recent histories.
I don't consider this to be 'racism of low expectations'. Just an acceptance that the recent history and nature of these countries (by which I mean their artificially fragmented nature) makes it more likely they will fail in our expectations.
Its a scale where everyone puts their own prejudices (whether justified or not).
There was one key bit in there tbf. Is Putin only after Ukraine or would that be just the start?
Leon has deduced from the interview, by careful observation of his words and body language, that it's just Ukraine. He will go no further. Not fussed.
This has huge ramifications.
Well, VVP has 20% of Ukraine after 10 years of trying so he can want what the fuck he wants but there are no means to get it.
Our man in the Phnom Penh Premier Inn does extract a good point from Carlson/Putin that is worth restating. For VVP and almost all Russians, Ukraine (minus the Zakarpattia, Lviv and Chernivitsi oblasts) is part of the Russkiy Mir. It isn't just another country they have invaded for lols.
Now, the ultras can stranglewank on about how it legally is another country, blah, blah but that doesn't change the reality of how the Russians feel about it.
As it happens I'm not a big buyer of the notion that Ukraine is step one in Putin's plan to roll over Eastern Europe and remake the USSR. My view (for which I have no need of the Carlson interview) is that Ukraine in and of itself is an overreach and the plan, such as it is now, extends to achieving a partition and buffer zone.
I've very little clue about what goes on in the heads of most Russians. For me it's more about the contents of Putin's bonce. And he obviously does see Ukraine as "special". Is spending all this money, killing and maiming so many people, destroying vast swathes of territory, worth it to make the biggest country on earth a tiny bit bigger? Can't see it myself. Funny sort of "victory" that is, even if he manages it.
But it's about him, not me. It's about how he sees Ukraine. And he's convinced himself he's "bringing it home". Plus, another key point in his calculus, he's not out there fighting. He's just sat in Moscow giving the orders, getting vicarious thrills. No different to our own keyboard warriors in this regard.
So here is the interesting question. Does this ambition and, to a large extent, the war, die with Putin? Is this a very personal war or do his beliefs extend down the hierarchy of Russian command?
Now, the ultras can stranglewank on about how it legally is another country, blah, blah but that doesn't change the reality of how the Russians feel about it.
Plenty of irredentism about. That’s why it has its own section in the OED.
Yeah, but just try to find an NHS irredentist these days...
There was one key bit in there tbf. Is Putin only after Ukraine or would that be just the start?
Leon has deduced from the interview, by careful observation of his words and body language, that it's just Ukraine. He will go no further. Not fussed.
This has huge ramifications.
Well, VVP has 20% of Ukraine after 10 years of trying so he can want what the fuck he wants but there are no means to get it.
Our man in the Phnom Penh Premier Inn does extract a good point from Carlson/Putin that is worth restating. For VVP and almost all Russians, Ukraine (minus the Zakarpattia, Lviv and Chernivitsi oblasts) is part of the Russkiy Mir. It isn't just another country they have invaded for lols.
Now, the ultras can stranglewank on about how it legally is another country, blah, blah but that doesn't change the reality of how the Russians feel about it.
Rather like saying a woman can "stranglewank" as much as she likes about how it legally is her body, "blah, blah", but it doesn't change the reality of how a lot of men think they should be allowed to rape her nevertheless.
It seems a funny way of looking at the world.
It’s sadly pragmatic
Russia is a very powerful country (enough of this economy of Spain bullshit). It has vast natural resources and a deep self belief. It comprises 130m people and many of them - especially the elite - really do see Ukraine as naturally part of Russia, in the same way we see the Lakes as part of England, its actually a key part of their self identity
And they have nuclear weapons, and they are prepared to fight for it
And 40 odd million people who live there disagree with them. And they signed treaties saying the 40m are correct.
If Russia doesn’t learn that it can’t retake its empire by force, then there is no limit on what it might do in the longer term. It’s entirely in our self interest to stop them.
There was one key bit in there tbf. Is Putin only after Ukraine or would that be just the start?
Leon has deduced from the interview, by careful observation of his words and body language, that it's just Ukraine. He will go no further. Not fussed.
This has huge ramifications.
Well, VVP has 20% of Ukraine after 10 years of trying so he can want what the fuck he wants but there are no means to get it.
Our man in the Phnom Penh Premier Inn does extract a good point from Carlson/Putin that is worth restating. For VVP and almost all Russians, Ukraine (minus the Zakarpattia, Lviv and Chernivitsi oblasts) is part of the Russkiy Mir. It isn't just another country they have invaded for lols.
Now, the ultras can stranglewank on about how it legally is another country, blah, blah but that doesn't change the reality of how the Russians feel about it.
As it happens I'm not a big buyer of the notion that Ukraine is step one in Putin's plan to roll over Eastern Europe and remake the USSR. My view (for which I have no need of the Carlson interview) is that Ukraine in and of itself is an overreach and the plan, such as it is now, extends to achieving a partition and buffer zone.
I've very little clue about what goes on in the heads of most Russians. For me it's more about the contents of Putin's bonce. And he obviously does see Ukraine as "special". Is spending all this money, killing and maiming so many people, destroying vast swathes of territory, worth it to make the biggest country on earth a tiny bit bigger? Can't see it myself. Funny sort of "victory" that is, even if he manages it.
But it's about him, not me. It's about how he sees Ukraine. And he's convinced himself he's "bringing it home". Plus, another key point in his calculus, he's not out there fighting. He's just sat in Moscow giving the orders, getting vicarious thrills. No different to our own keyboard warriors in this regard.
So here is the interesting question. Does this ambition and, to a large extent, the war, die with Putin? Is this a very personal war or do his beliefs extend down the hierarchy of Russian command?
I don't think he'd have survived the last two years if there wasn't very general support among the government and military for the war in Ukraine.
Even with the Wagner Comedy Routine it was about prosecuting the war more viciously, not ending it.
There was one key bit in there tbf. Is Putin only after Ukraine or would that be just the start?
Leon has deduced from the interview, by careful observation of his words and body language, that it's just Ukraine. He will go no further. Not fussed.
This has huge ramifications.
Well, VVP has 20% of Ukraine after 10 years of trying so he can want what the fuck he wants but there are no means to get it.
Our man in the Phnom Penh Premier Inn does extract a good point from Carlson/Putin that is worth restating. For VVP and almost all Russians, Ukraine (minus the Zakarpattia, Lviv and Chernivitsi oblasts) is part of the Russkiy Mir. It isn't just another country they have invaded for lols.
Now, the ultras can stranglewank on about how it legally is another country, blah, blah but that doesn't change the reality of how the Russians feel about it.
As it happens I'm not a big buyer of the notion that Ukraine is step one in Putin's plan to roll over Eastern Europe and remake the USSR. My view (for which I have no need of the Carlson interview) is that Ukraine in and of itself is an overreach and the plan, such as it is now, extends to achieving a partition and buffer zone.
I've very little clue about what goes on in the heads of most Russians. For me it's more about the contents of Putin's bonce. And he obviously does see Ukraine as "special". Is spending all this money, killing and maiming so many people, destroying vast swathes of territory, worth it to make the biggest country on earth a tiny bit bigger? Can't see it myself. Funny sort of "victory" that is, even if he manages it.
But it's about him, not me. It's about how he sees Ukraine. And he's convinced himself he's "bringing it home". Plus, another key point in his calculus, he's not out there fighting. He's just sat in Moscow giving the orders, getting vicarious thrills. No different to our own keyboard warriors in this regard.
So here is the interesting question. Does this ambition and, to a large extent, the war, die with Putin? Is this a very personal war or do his beliefs extend down the hierarchy of Russian command?
Indeed. He may not be ill or dying - as far as one can tell - but he is old
After the story of the six year old girl in the taxi that led the BBC news and the brilliant report 'from our own cotrrespondent' you'd have to be pretty sick to continue supporting Netanyahu or Israel in any shape or form. Yesterday's pictures of the blown out ambulence with it's two paramedics dead inside just made it even more unbearable.
It was a major topic of conversation at an event I went to yesterday in Nice. It could turn into as iconic an image as the burning Vietnamese girl. It's difficult to knows how it's running across the rest of Europe.
Support for Israel on this is down to those who don't view Palestinians as proper 3d human beings.
That seems to be a UK thing. Perhaps it's the same thing as Brexit. This idea of British exceptionalism. The 'Zulu' mentality. Some of the posts on here are just alarming. Some of the brightest as wisest and most interesting people I've met are Arabs. They have a wisdom that goes back centuries. So many here just see them as the Indians in the cowboys and Indians that they grew up with
I can't claim similar exposure but yes I do detect a "them arabs are inferior to them Israelis" mindset underlying some of the commentary.
I think there is a racism of low expectations towards Arabs by many in the Western media. They are not expected to exhibit civilised behaviour, while it is expected from Israel, hence the asymmetry of outrage at Hamas atrocities and the IDF ones.
I meant something slightly different but, yes, there will be some of that in the mix too.
The basic divide is fairly simple I think, and doesn't come down to dehumanisation - but rather blame. No one can look at the scenes in Gaza and not be horrified. What divides people is who the blame for them ultimately falls on.
For those who broadly support Israel (though are often critical of Netanyahu and his goons' approach), the horror is a product of Hamas (and their backers) having a genocidal ideology which is prepared to ensure the slaughter their own people with the aim of engineering a conflict which puts Israel in Zugzwang.
By that I mean that by embedding themselves so deeply within civilian infrastructure in Gaza and using it to carry out attacks like 7 October, not to mention the endless rockets, they leave Israel with a horrible choice. Accepting a well-funded army intent on their destruction on their border, or a level of civilian Palestinian casualties that is both horrifying and diplomatically disastrous. Hamas' leaders have said as much - stating that the death of millions of Palestinians would be worth it if it destroys Israel.
Alternatively, if you're someone who is either openly 'anti-Zionist' or so queasy about the existence of Israel you'd rather it sort of went away without thinking about the consequences of that, then any military response by Israel was illegitimate from the start. Hence why protests began on 8 October.
Sadly, the views are so polarised and the extreme versions of them feed off each other that little can change them. As those with different views are often rooting them in entirely different sets of facts and understandings of the history of the conflict and what that means in the here and now.
And no one is prepared to admit that those who take a different view aren't heartless murderous so-and-so's but merely have a different understanding of blame and where all this ends up.
While labour flounders on Gaza and endorses anti semites as candidates, amazingly, the Tories and TSE’s Buddy, call me Dave, shows some leadership and how it can be done.
As Decrepiter John says, this should give labour some leeway to say something.
His apology really quite something. That’s obviously the price of keeping the nomination: complete mea culpa mea maxima culpa, otherwise you’re out.
Interesting test of whether proper heartfelt (or at least superficially heartfelt) apologies have a better impact than halfhearted ones.
He has to be removed as candidate.
How? The nominations have closed.
Labour would probably rather Galloway win now wouldn’t they? Otherwise they’re lumbered with this bloke representing them, although I guess they could just not give him the whip
There was one key bit in there tbf. Is Putin only after Ukraine or would that be just the start?
Leon has deduced from the interview, by careful observation of his words and body language, that it's just Ukraine. He will go no further. Not fussed.
This has huge ramifications.
Well, VVP has 20% of Ukraine after 10 years of trying so he can want what the fuck he wants but there are no means to get it.
Our man in the Phnom Penh Premier Inn does extract a good point from Carlson/Putin that is worth restating. For VVP and almost all Russians, Ukraine (minus the Zakarpattia, Lviv and Chernivitsi oblasts) is part of the Russkiy Mir. It isn't just another country they have invaded for lols.
Now, the ultras can stranglewank on about how it legally is another country, blah, blah but that doesn't change the reality of how the Russians feel about it.
As it happens I'm not a big buyer of the notion that Ukraine is step one in Putin's plan to roll over Eastern Europe and remake the USSR. My view (for which I have no need of the Carlson interview) is that Ukraine in and of itself is an overreach and the plan, such as it is now, extends to achieving a partition and buffer zone.
I've very little clue about what goes on in the heads of most Russians. For me it's more about the contents of Putin's bonce. And he obviously does see Ukraine as "special". Is spending all this money, killing and maiming so many people, destroying vast swathes of territory, worth it to make the biggest country on earth a tiny bit bigger? Can't see it myself. Funny sort of "victory" that is, even if he manages it.
But it's about him, not me. It's about how he sees Ukraine. And he's convinced himself he's "bringing it home". Plus, another key point in his calculus, he's not out there fighting. He's just sat in Moscow giving the orders, getting vicarious thrills. No different to our own keyboard warriors in this regard.
So here is the interesting question. Does this ambition and, to a large extent, the war, die with Putin? Is this a very personal war or do his beliefs extend down the hierarchy of Russian command?
That really depends on the lessons of the next few years.
Mr. Leon, Russia also has shit demographics and the economic destiny of becoming China's very junior partner.
They can believe Ukraine's a 'natural part of Russia' but that doesn't make it true, or reasonable.
Mr. Dancer, ancient history never was my strong point, but I'm pretty sure Bwana Hitler saw Austria, Bohemia & Moravia (today's Czech Republic), and Poland as a "natural part of Germany".
I often criticise the UK defence industry, the MOD etc. But sometimes they do pull off minor miracles. Here's one: field-expedient improvised surface-to-air launchers, known as "FrankenSAMs". Product of the UK. Used in Ukraine.
There was one key bit in there tbf. Is Putin only after Ukraine or would that be just the start?
Leon has deduced from the interview, by careful observation of his words and body language, that it's just Ukraine. He will go no further. Not fussed.
This has huge ramifications.
Well, VVP has 20% of Ukraine after 10 years of trying so he can want what the fuck he wants but there are no means to get it.
Our man in the Phnom Penh Premier Inn does extract a good point from Carlson/Putin that is worth restating. For VVP and almost all Russians, Ukraine (minus the Zakarpattia, Lviv and Chernivitsi oblasts) is part of the Russkiy Mir. It isn't just another country they have invaded for lols.
Now, the ultras can stranglewank on about how it legally is another country, blah, blah but that doesn't change the reality of how the Russians feel about it.
As it happens I'm not a big buyer of the notion that Ukraine is step one in Putin's plan to roll over Eastern Europe and remake the USSR. My view (for which I have no need of the Carlson interview) is that Ukraine in and of itself is an overreach and the plan, such as it is now, extends to achieving a partition and buffer zone.
I've very little clue about what goes on in the heads of most Russians. For me it's more about the contents of Putin's bonce. And he obviously does see Ukraine as "special". Is spending all this money, killing and maiming so many people, destroying vast swathes of territory, worth it to make the biggest country on earth a tiny bit bigger? Can't see it myself. Funny sort of "victory" that is, even if he manages it.
But it's about him, not me. It's about how he sees Ukraine. And he's convinced himself he's "bringing it home". Plus, another key point in his calculus, he's not out there fighting. He's just sat in Moscow giving the orders, getting vicarious thrills. No different to our own keyboard warriors in this regard.
So here is the interesting question. Does this ambition and, to a large extent, the war, die with Putin? Is this a very personal war or do his beliefs extend down the hierarchy of Russian command?
Indeed. He may not be ill or dying - as far as one can tell - but he is old
He's only 71. A mere stripping compared to Trump, Biden and Her Maj.
That said, I'm struggling to think of any Tsar who made it past Brezhnev's 76. And he was definitely senile by the end of it.
After the story of the six year old girl in the taxi that led the BBC news and the brilliant report 'from our own cotrrespondent' you'd have to be pretty sick to continue supporting Netanyahu or Israel in any shape or form. Yesterday's pictures of the blown out ambulence with it's two paramedics dead inside just made it even more unbearable.
It was a major topic of conversation at an event I went to yesterday in Nice. It could turn into as iconic an image as the burning Vietnamese girl. It's difficult to knows how it's running across the rest of Europe.
Support for Israel on this is down to those who don't view Palestinians as proper 3d human beings.
That seems to be a UK thing. Perhaps it's the same thing as Brexit. This idea of British exceptionalism. The 'Zulu' mentality. Some of the posts on here are just alarming. Some of the brightest as wisest and most interesting people I've met are Arabs. They have a wisdom that goes back centuries. So many here just see them as the Indians in the cowboys and Indians that they grew up with
I can't claim similar exposure but yes I do detect a "them arabs are inferior to them Israelis" mindset underlying some of the commentary.
Understandably so.
Israel beats the Arabs in every war.
Israel is a reasonably successful, developed and democratic country whereas Arab countries tend not to be.
While, on a wider level, Jews have produced countless brilliant scientists, artists, writers, musicians, bankers, businessmen, politicians etc whereas Arabs haven't.
Its this 'overachievement' by Jews which drives most of the dislike and fear of them in the western world in addition to some respect and admiration.
Racism is often understandable but understanding it doesn't have to mean sharing it.
Yet racism can be tolerated when it involves hatred of Jews.
To the western world Arabs are little more than a source of continual geopolitical crisis.
Something which leads to oil price rises, terrorist attacks and refugees.
If the Arab world ever got its act together and sorted out its problems then few in the western world would think about them beyond considering them as a possible holiday destination.
The Arab world is the equivalent of an extended family living along a nearby street. Some seem okay but there's always problems at one house or another. Israel is a house on the same street but with a different family.
Historically the 'Arab world' produced some brilliant scientists and mathematicians. Not sure why, or possibly if, they ran out of steam about 500 years ago. Jews have done well because they were part of the West, and often needed to do 'better' than those around them to be recognised.
I wonder if the Muslim conquests may have allowed more interaction between the Mediterranean, Arabian, Persian and Indian civilisations which in turn allowed more intellectual development.
But after that initial few centuries Islam was too much of a 'religion of the book' for further development and intellectual stability set in.
There was one key bit in there tbf. Is Putin only after Ukraine or would that be just the start?
Leon has deduced from the interview, by careful observation of his words and body language, that it's just Ukraine. He will go no further. Not fussed.
This has huge ramifications.
Well, VVP has 20% of Ukraine after 10 years of trying so he can want what the fuck he wants but there are no means to get it.
Our man in the Phnom Penh Premier Inn does extract a good point from Carlson/Putin that is worth restating. For VVP and almost all Russians, Ukraine (minus the Zakarpattia, Lviv and Chernivitsi oblasts) is part of the Russkiy Mir. It isn't just another country they have invaded for lols.
Now, the ultras can stranglewank on about how it legally is another country, blah, blah but that doesn't change the reality of how the Russians feel about it.
As it happens I'm not a big buyer of the notion that Ukraine is step one in Putin's plan to roll over Eastern Europe and remake the USSR. My view (for which I have no need of the Carlson interview) is that Ukraine in and of itself is an overreach and the plan, such as it is now, extends to achieving a partition and buffer zone.
I've very little clue about what goes on in the heads of most Russians. For me it's more about the contents of Putin's bonce. And he obviously does see Ukraine as "special". Is spending all this money, killing and maiming so many people, destroying vast swathes of territory, worth it to make the biggest country on earth a tiny bit bigger? Can't see it myself. Funny sort of "victory" that is, even if he manages it.
But it's about him, not me. It's about how he sees Ukraine. And he's convinced himself he's "bringing it home". Plus, another key point in his calculus, he's not out there fighting. He's just sat in Moscow giving the orders, getting vicarious thrills. No different to our own keyboard warriors in this regard.
So here is the interesting question. Does this ambition and, to a large extent, the war, die with Putin? Is this a very personal war or do his beliefs extend down the hierarchy of Russian command?
How many autocracies survive their founding autocrat? Odds aren't brilliant.
First he "scuttles his own flag ship" in the words of Rawnsley on Green New Deal scrapping and then his by-election candidate comes up with some conspiracy theory stuff after nominations closed.
Cheeses for sure but it's not just cheese. You can go to the biggest supermarket in France and they'll only sell melons for half the year. They have such a thing as 'out of season' which I don't remember in the UK for about 30 years
I quite like the idea of seasonal food. The looking forward to it. It somehow seems to taste nicer when you wait for it. It is odd that we enjoy looking forward to special food when it comes to Christmas, Easter, Halloween, Bonfire night, etc (some of which are seasonal and some aren't), yet we have to have everything else all year around. From my fruit crop I enjoy making summer pudding in the summer, Tarte Tatin in the Autumn, first crop of Rhubarb in March, etc, although I do freeze a lot of it. There is also the joy of making marmalade in January and sloe gin in the Autumn even if you are not consuming them then. To me we have lost something by being able to get raspberries, for instance, all year around.
Absolutely. For many years (ever since the year after we moved into our place in Lincolnshire), we have always stuck strictly to the principle of buying local UK produce except where it does not grow here normally (so we buy imported bananas, oranges etc but never strawberries, tomatoes and other soft fruits or veg). We adjust our diet accordingly throughout the year and eat seasonally, enjoying the arrival of new produce as it comes into season. It is helped by the fact we are now self sufficient in stuff like beans, potatoes and onions and of course we freeze fruit and veg where possible.
But I have not bought an imported tomato, strawbery or bean in more than a decade.
I absolutely agree with you about the festivals as well. They have so much more meaning when seasonal food is integral to them.
That's a great idea, although a bit arbitrary. Where we live in London produce from Northern France has less far to travel than that from Scotland. Mind you, Brexit checks on fruit and veg may mean that produce from outside the UK is no longer fresh when it reaches the supermarket shelves.
To emphasise the nature of the "Brother War", Zaluzhniy's replacement, Sirskiy, is a Russian.
He was generally viewed to have had a good war and managed to take the credit for Kiev and Kherson. His star was in the descendant after Bakhmut where, in a much memed phrase, he described the Russian forces as "semi-encircled" just before the city fell. He has also taken a lot of, much deserved, shit for stashing his son far beyond the reaches of the mobilisation effort in Australia.
However, his capacity for strident denial of reality (semi-encirclement) is very much up Green T-Shirt's street after the unhelpful pessimism of Zaluzhniy.
That interview. The relevant context is that the Trump neo-fascists are pro Russia and anti-NATO. 2 hours of fawning as a preface for Trump asking Putin to do what he likes to Europe.
But obviously, they have to vote for the guy with dementia because the other guy has dementia.
Trump also suggested it would be a good thing if Putin attacked NATO countries which weren't spending enough on defence.
It's that 'art of the deal' schtick again. Donald Trump the big big man who intimidates and runs rings round everybody by being incredibly smart and tough. Manhattan real estate, big ticket geopolitics, it makes no difference. Always 'winning'. Always 'beating' people. It's infantile but one of his most effective lines of appeal. Most of his supporters are quite simple people and they buy it.
I don't want to be 'pro-Trump', but one way of looking at this is that it is selling NATO to his followers. It sets out a vision. Obviously though it is flawed, because some countries are more at risk of attack than others, in many cases however there is a strategic interest in having them in the alliance, despite the relatively low GDP contibution, but that line of thinking is a bit too complex in this type of debate. As a general principle the 'NATO as a protectorate' idea is pretty sound and better than it being a fading legacy of the cold war with people being uncertain about what it is.
You're being far too generous. He's selling his one and only product - himself. As for what he'd do on NATO if he gets back, I honestly don't know. He might trash it or then again he might not. It's a risk (along with many others) that he alone brings and like all the others it skews heavily to the downside. Trump Risk we can call it. It merits its own category. If people want to avoid it (which is the rational choice) they know what to do.
I think that you are overplaying the idea that the current situation is 'safe' or 'stable'. I think that there is a sense of false reassurance that the democrats are 'sane, rational' as they seem to be a continuation of familiar times, against the 'madness and chaos' of Trump. But if you look at what went on in Afghanistan, Ukraine and Israel, it has been mad and chaotic - an unforced panic driven Saigon style evacuation, and then an endless part funded trench war with no end in sight, Israel seemingly out of control in Gaza. Trump by contrast avoided conflicts for 4 years. So it is difficult to see the risk being higher with Trump. There are a lot of reasons not to vote for him but I am not persuaded by the NATO argument. I think the vision amongst Trump advisors of NATO becoming a European protectorate with US involvement scaled back is one that is potentially positive in the sense that, whilst not ideal, it is durable and sustainable, unlike the current situation.
Well a partial agreement here in that the risk to NATO (as opposed to the outright appeasing of fellow 'strongmen') is not near the top of my list of reasons to fear the return of Donald Trump.
There was one key bit in there tbf. Is Putin only after Ukraine or would that be just the start?
Leon has deduced from the interview, by careful observation of his words and body language, that it's just Ukraine. He will go no further. Not fussed.
This has huge ramifications.
Well, VVP has 20% of Ukraine after 10 years of trying so he can want what the fuck he wants but there are no means to get it.
Our man in the Phnom Penh Premier Inn does extract a good point from Carlson/Putin that is worth restating. For VVP and almost all Russians, Ukraine (minus the Zakarpattia, Lviv and Chernivitsi oblasts) is part of the Russkiy Mir. It isn't just another country they have invaded for lols.
Now, the ultras can stranglewank on about how it legally is another country, blah, blah but that doesn't change the reality of how the Russians feel about it.
Rather like saying a woman can "stranglewank" as much as she likes about how it legally is her body, "blah, blah", but it doesn't change the reality of how a lot of men think they should be allowed to rape her nevertheless.
It seems a funny way of looking at the world.
It’s sadly pragmatic
Russia is a very powerful country (enough of this economy of Spain bullshit). It has vast natural resources and a deep self belief. It comprises 130m people and many of them - especially the elite - really do see Ukraine as naturally part of Russia, in the same way we see the Lakes as part of England, its actually a key part of their self identity
And they have nuclear weapons, and they are prepared to fight for it
And 40 odd million people who live there disagree with them. And they signed treaties saying the 40m are correct.
If Russia doesn’t learn that it can’t retake its empire by force, then there is no limit on what it might do in the longer term. It’s entirely in our self interest to stop them.
Nearer 30m now
Also, Putin and many Russians really don’t see it as part of empire. That’s the point. They think it was unnaturally cleaved from Russia by the commies then the break up of the USSR
And the best analogy I can think of is the lakes of England. Culturally integral to us - the romantic poets! - albeit on the edge of the country
They have that going on with Pushkin and Crimea and Odessa
How would we feel if the EU, during Brexit, dispossessed us of the English lakes?
I’m not trying to justify the evil invasion, merely illustrate the mindset
Mr. Leon, Russia also has shit demographics and the economic destiny of becoming China's very junior partner.
They can believe Ukraine's a 'natural part of Russia' but that doesn't make it true, or reasonable.
Mr. Dancer, ancient history never was my strong point, but I'm pretty sure Bwana Hitler saw Austria, Bohemia & Moravia (today's Czech Republic), and Poland as a "natural part of Germany".
If Ukraine is a natural part of Russia does that mean that Kaliningrad is not?
There was one key bit in there tbf. Is Putin only after Ukraine or would that be just the start?
Leon has deduced from the interview, by careful observation of his words and body language, that it's just Ukraine. He will go no further. Not fussed.
This has huge ramifications.
Well, VVP has 20% of Ukraine after 10 years of trying so he can want what the fuck he wants but there are no means to get it.
Our man in the Phnom Penh Premier Inn does extract a good point from Carlson/Putin that is worth restating. For VVP and almost all Russians, Ukraine (minus the Zakarpattia, Lviv and Chernivitsi oblasts) is part of the Russkiy Mir. It isn't just another country they have invaded for lols.
Now, the ultras can stranglewank on about how it legally is another country, blah, blah but that doesn't change the reality of how the Russians feel about it.
As it happens I'm not a big buyer of the notion that Ukraine is step one in Putin's plan to roll over Eastern Europe and remake the USSR. My view (for which I have no need of the Carlson interview) is that Ukraine in and of itself is an overreach and the plan, such as it is now, extends to achieving a partition and buffer zone.
I've very little clue about what goes on in the heads of most Russians. For me it's more about the contents of Putin's bonce. And he obviously does see Ukraine as "special". Is spending all this money, killing and maiming so many people, destroying vast swathes of territory, worth it to make the biggest country on earth a tiny bit bigger? Can't see it myself. Funny sort of "victory" that is, even if he manages it.
But it's about him, not me. It's about how he sees Ukraine. And he's convinced himself he's "bringing it home". Plus, another key point in his calculus, he's not out there fighting. He's just sat in Moscow giving the orders, getting vicarious thrills. No different to our own keyboard warriors in this regard.
So here is the interesting question. Does this ambition and, to a large extent, the war, die with Putin? Is this a very personal war or do his beliefs extend down the hierarchy of Russian command?
How many autocracies survive their founding autocrat? Odds aren't brilliant.
The Soviet Union was one though.
That said, the political system was very different and, I would judge, somewhat more resilient. Even allowing for Stalin's megalomania the Soviet Union had a much more collegiate leadership than Putin has allowed.
There was one key bit in there tbf. Is Putin only after Ukraine or would that be just the start?
Leon has deduced from the interview, by careful observation of his words and body language, that it's just Ukraine. He will go no further. Not fussed.
This has huge ramifications.
Well, VVP has 20% of Ukraine after 10 years of trying so he can want what the fuck he wants but there are no means to get it.
Our man in the Phnom Penh Premier Inn does extract a good point from Carlson/Putin that is worth restating. For VVP and almost all Russians, Ukraine (minus the Zakarpattia, Lviv and Chernivitsi oblasts) is part of the Russkiy Mir. It isn't just another country they have invaded for lols.
Now, the ultras can stranglewank on about how it legally is another country, blah, blah but that doesn't change the reality of how the Russians feel about it.
Rather like saying a woman can "stranglewank" as much as she likes about how it legally is her body, "blah, blah", but it doesn't change the reality of how a lot of men think they should be allowed to rape her nevertheless.
It seems a funny way of looking at the world.
It’s sadly pragmatic
Russia is a very powerful country (enough of this economy of Spain bullshit). It has vast natural resources and a deep self belief. It comprises 130m people and many of them - especially the elite - really do see Ukraine as naturally part of Russia, in the same way we see the Lakes as part of England, its actually a key part of their self identity
And they have nuclear weapons, and they are prepared to fight for it
Sure, my dear troll, I think we all knew the Russians "are prepared to fight".
Though probably they hadn't anticipated the fight would be so long, or so unsuccessful.
There was one key bit in there tbf. Is Putin only after Ukraine or would that be just the start?
Leon has deduced from the interview, by careful observation of his words and body language, that it's just Ukraine. He will go no further. Not fussed.
This has huge ramifications.
Well, VVP has 20% of Ukraine after 10 years of trying so he can want what the fuck he wants but there are no means to get it.
Our man in the Phnom Penh Premier Inn does extract a good point from Carlson/Putin that is worth restating. For VVP and almost all Russians, Ukraine (minus the Zakarpattia, Lviv and Chernivitsi oblasts) is part of the Russkiy Mir. It isn't just another country they have invaded for lols.
Now, the ultras can stranglewank on about how it legally is another country, blah, blah but that doesn't change the reality of how the Russians feel about it.
As it happens I'm not a big buyer of the notion that Ukraine is step one in Putin's plan to roll over Eastern Europe and remake the USSR. My view (for which I have no need of the Carlson interview) is that Ukraine in and of itself is an overreach and the plan, such as it is now, extends to achieving a partition and buffer zone.
I've very little clue about what goes on in the heads of most Russians. For me it's more about the contents of Putin's bonce. And he obviously does see Ukraine as "special". Is spending all this money, killing and maiming so many people, destroying vast swathes of territory, worth it to make the biggest country on earth a tiny bit bigger? Can't see it myself. Funny sort of "victory" that is, even if he manages it.
But it's about him, not me. It's about how he sees Ukraine. And he's convinced himself he's "bringing it home". Plus, another key point in his calculus, he's not out there fighting. He's just sat in Moscow giving the orders, getting vicarious thrills. No different to our own keyboard warriors in this regard.
So here is the interesting question. Does this ambition and, to a large extent, the war, die with Putin? Is this a very personal war or do his beliefs extend down the hierarchy of Russian command?
How many autocracies survive their founding autocrat? Odds aren't brilliant.
The Russian empire has been going quite a long time. I don’t expect it to end with Putin.
There was one key bit in there tbf. Is Putin only after Ukraine or would that be just the start?
Leon has deduced from the interview, by careful observation of his words and body language, that it's just Ukraine. He will go no further. Not fussed.
This has huge ramifications.
Well, VVP has 20% of Ukraine after 10 years of trying so he can want what the fuck he wants but there are no means to get it.
Our man in the Phnom Penh Premier Inn does extract a good point from Carlson/Putin that is worth restating. For VVP and almost all Russians, Ukraine (minus the Zakarpattia, Lviv and Chernivitsi oblasts) is part of the Russkiy Mir. It isn't just another country they have invaded for lols.
Now, the ultras can stranglewank on about how it legally is another country, blah, blah but that doesn't change the reality of how the Russians feel about it.
Rather like saying a woman can "stranglewank" as much as she likes about how it legally is her body, "blah, blah", but it doesn't change the reality of how a lot of men think they should be allowed to rape her nevertheless.
It seems a funny way of looking at the world.
It’s sadly pragmatic
Russia is a very powerful country (enough of this economy of Spain bullshit). It has vast natural resources and a deep self belief. It comprises 130m people and many of them - especially the elite - really do see Ukraine as naturally part of Russia, in the same way we see the Lakes as part of England, its actually a key part of their self identity
And they have nuclear weapons, and they are prepared to fight for it
And 40 odd million people who live there disagree with them. And they signed treaties saying the 40m are correct.
If Russia doesn’t learn that it can’t retake its empire by force, then there is no limit on what it might do in the longer term. It’s entirely in our self interest to stop them.
Nearer 30m now
Also, Putin and many Russians really don’t see it as part of empire. That’s the point. They think it was unnaturally cleaved from Russia by the commies then the break up of the USSR
And the best analogy I can think of is the lakes of England. Culturally integral to us - the romantic poets! - albeit on the edge of the country
They have that going on with Pushkin and Crimea and Odessa
How would we feel if the EU, during Brexit, dispossessed us of the English lakes?
I’m not trying to justify the evil invasion, merely illustrate the mindset
FAKE NEWS:
From 2 December 1991 onwards, Ukraine was globally recognized by other countries as an independent state.[5][6][7] Also on 2 December, the President of the Russian SFSR Boris Yeltsin recognized Ukraine as independent.[8][9][10][11] In a telegram of congratulations Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev sent to Kravchuk soon after the referendum, Gorbachev included his hopes for close Ukrainian cooperation and understanding in "the formation of a union of sovereign states".[12]
Ukraine was the second-most powerful republic in the Soviet Union both economically and politically (behind Russia), and its secession ended any realistic chance of Gorbachev keeping the USSR together. By December 1991 all former Soviet Republics except the RSFSR[13] and the Kazakh SSR[13] had formally seceded from the Union.[14] A week after his election, Kravchuk joined with Yeltsin and Belarusian leader Stanislav Shushkevich in signing the Belavezha Accords, which declared that the Soviet Union had ceased to exist.[15] The USSR officially dissolved on 26 December.[16]
There was one key bit in there tbf. Is Putin only after Ukraine or would that be just the start?
Leon has deduced from the interview, by careful observation of his words and body language, that it's just Ukraine. He will go no further. Not fussed.
This has huge ramifications.
Well, VVP has 20% of Ukraine after 10 years of trying so he can want what the fuck he wants but there are no means to get it.
Our man in the Phnom Penh Premier Inn does extract a good point from Carlson/Putin that is worth restating. For VVP and almost all Russians, Ukraine (minus the Zakarpattia, Lviv and Chernivitsi oblasts) is part of the Russkiy Mir. It isn't just another country they have invaded for lols.
Now, the ultras can stranglewank on about how it legally is another country, blah, blah but that doesn't change the reality of how the Russians feel about it.
Rather like saying a woman can "stranglewank" as much as she likes about how it legally is her body, "blah, blah", but it doesn't change the reality of how a lot of men think they should be allowed to rape her nevertheless.
It seems a funny way of looking at the world.
It’s sadly pragmatic
Russia is a very powerful country (enough of this economy of Spain bullshit). It has vast natural resources and a deep self belief. It comprises 130m people and many of them - especially the elite - really do see Ukraine as naturally part of Russia, in the same way we see the Lakes as part of England, its actually a key part of their self identity
And they have nuclear weapons, and they are prepared to fight for it
Sure, my dear troll, I think we all knew the Russians "are prepared to fight".
Though probably they hadn't anticipated the fight would be so long, or so unsuccessful.
So what?
It’s fucking hard to defeat a nuclear power if they are dead set on doing something on their own frontier
There was one key bit in there tbf. Is Putin only after Ukraine or would that be just the start?
Leon has deduced from the interview, by careful observation of his words and body language, that it's just Ukraine. He will go no further. Not fussed.
This has huge ramifications.
Well, VVP has 20% of Ukraine after 10 years of trying so he can want what the fuck he wants but there are no means to get it.
Our man in the Phnom Penh Premier Inn does extract a good point from Carlson/Putin that is worth restating. For VVP and almost all Russians, Ukraine (minus the Zakarpattia, Lviv and Chernivitsi oblasts) is part of the Russkiy Mir. It isn't just another country they have invaded for lols.
Now, the ultras can stranglewank on about how it legally is another country, blah, blah but that doesn't change the reality of how the Russians feel about it.
As it happens I'm not a big buyer of the notion that Ukraine is step one in Putin's plan to roll over Eastern Europe and remake the USSR. My view (for which I have no need of the Carlson interview) is that Ukraine in and of itself is an overreach and the plan, such as it is now, extends to achieving a partition and buffer zone.
I've very little clue about what goes on in the heads of most Russians. For me it's more about the contents of Putin's bonce. And he obviously does see Ukraine as "special". Is spending all this money, killing and maiming so many people, destroying vast swathes of territory, worth it to make the biggest country on earth a tiny bit bigger? Can't see it myself. Funny sort of "victory" that is, even if he manages it.
But it's about him, not me. It's about how he sees Ukraine. And he's convinced himself he's "bringing it home". Plus, another key point in his calculus, he's not out there fighting. He's just sat in Moscow giving the orders, getting vicarious thrills. No different to our own keyboard warriors in this regard.
So here is the interesting question. Does this ambition and, to a large extent, the war, die with Putin? Is this a very personal war or do his beliefs extend down the hierarchy of Russian command?
Good question. I don't know. If Zeihan is right the successors will be among the siloviki, which means there are only around 200 people who can succeed Putin. If they want it to continue, it will, and they are being selected for warmongering: the peaceniks dive out of windows for some unknown reason. Happy to be wrong on this, but I think the Ukraine War will survive the death of Putin.
Cheeses for sure but it's not just cheese. You can go to the biggest supermarket in France and they'll only sell melons for half the year. They have such a thing as 'out of season' which I don't remember in the UK for about 30 years
I quite like the idea of seasonal food. The looking forward to it. It somehow seems to taste nicer when you wait for it. It is odd that we enjoy looking forward to special food when it comes to Christmas, Easter, Halloween, Bonfire night, etc (some of which are seasonal and some aren't), yet we have to have everything else all year around. From my fruit crop I enjoy making summer pudding in the summer, Tarte Tatin in the Autumn, first crop of Rhubarb in March, etc, although I do freeze a lot of it. There is also the joy of making marmalade in January and sloe gin in the Autumn even if you are not consuming them then. To me we have lost something by being able to get raspberries, for instance, all year around.
It's one of the reasons I get a veg box delivery. Tends to be quite seasonal - or at least a very strong nod towards it. And helps stop me picking up the same veg at the shops all the time.
...the only problem being what to do with three bulbs of fennel every week, at this time of year!
I do appreciate having a wide choice of produce available at the supermarket year-round, but my tastes seem to be quite seasonal anyway - it simply wouldn't occur to me to have raspberries at the moment.
Lots of wild garlic has suddenly popped up near where I am in London. Smells amazing, and I'm now properly craving the stuff.
There was one key bit in there tbf. Is Putin only after Ukraine or would that be just the start?
Leon has deduced from the interview, by careful observation of his words and body language, that it's just Ukraine. He will go no further. Not fussed.
This has huge ramifications.
Well, VVP has 20% of Ukraine after 10 years of trying so he can want what the fuck he wants but there are no means to get it.
Our man in the Phnom Penh Premier Inn does extract a good point from Carlson/Putin that is worth restating. For VVP and almost all Russians, Ukraine (minus the Zakarpattia, Lviv and Chernivitsi oblasts) is part of the Russkiy Mir. It isn't just another country they have invaded for lols.
Now, the ultras can stranglewank on about how it legally is another country, blah, blah but that doesn't change the reality of how the Russians feel about it.
As it happens I'm not a big buyer of the notion that Ukraine is step one in Putin's plan to roll over Eastern Europe and remake the USSR. My view (for which I have no need of the Carlson interview) is that Ukraine in and of itself is an overreach and the plan, such as it is, extends no further than achieving a partition and buffer zone.
I've very little clue about what goes on in the heads of most Russians. For me it's more about the contents of Putin's bonce. And he obviously does see Ukraine as "special". Is spending all this money, killing and maiming so many people, destroying vast swathes of territory, worth it to make the biggest country on earth a tiny bit bigger? Can't see it myself. Funny sort of "victory" that is, even if he manages it.
But it's about him, not me. It's about how he sees Ukraine. And he's convinced himself he's "bringing it home". Plus, another key point in his calculus, he's not out there fighting. He's just sat in Moscow giving the orders, getting vicarious thrills. No different to our own keyboard warriors in this regard.
How do you get this detailed insight into Putin’s thoughts and desires? Do you just “sense it”?
Yep. We're in the same boat, you and I, on this matter of what Vlad Putin is all about, deep deep down inside.
I had in fact typed "sense" there - to kind of take the piss out of you - but then I changed it to "view" because I'm bored of doing that.
While labour flounders on Gaza and endorses anti semites as candidates, amazingly, the Tories and TSE’s Buddy, call me Dave, shows some leadership and how it can be done.
As Decrepiter John says, this should give labour some leeway to say something.
There was one key bit in there tbf. Is Putin only after Ukraine or would that be just the start?
Leon has deduced from the interview, by careful observation of his words and body language, that it's just Ukraine. He will go no further. Not fussed.
This has huge ramifications.
Well, VVP has 20% of Ukraine after 10 years of trying so he can want what the fuck he wants but there are no means to get it.
Our man in the Phnom Penh Premier Inn does extract a good point from Carlson/Putin that is worth restating. For VVP and almost all Russians, Ukraine (minus the Zakarpattia, Lviv and Chernivitsi oblasts) is part of the Russkiy Mir. It isn't just another country they have invaded for lols.
Now, the ultras can stranglewank on about how it legally is another country, blah, blah but that doesn't change the reality of how the Russians feel about it.
Rather like saying a woman can "stranglewank" as much as she likes about how it legally is her body, "blah, blah", but it doesn't change the reality of how a lot of men think they should be allowed to rape her nevertheless.
It seems a funny way of looking at the world.
It’s sadly pragmatic
Russia is a very powerful country (enough of this economy of Spain bullshit). It has vast natural resources and a deep self belief. It comprises 130m people and many of them - especially the elite - really do see Ukraine as naturally part of Russia, in the same way we see the Lakes as part of England, its actually a key part of their self identity
And they have nuclear weapons, and they are prepared to fight for it
And 40 odd million people who live there disagree with them. And they signed treaties saying the 40m are correct.
If Russia doesn’t learn that it can’t retake its empire by force, then there is no limit on what it might do in the longer term. It’s entirely in our self interest to stop them.
Nearer 30m now
Also, Putin and many Russians really don’t see it as part of empire. That’s the point. They think it was unnaturally cleaved from Russia by the commies then the break up of the USSR
And the best analogy I can think of is the lakes of England. Culturally integral to us - the romantic poets! - albeit on the edge of the country
They have that going on with Pushkin and Crimea and Odessa
How would we feel if the EU, during Brexit, dispossessed us of the English lakes?
I’m not trying to justify the evil invasion, merely illustrate the mindset
A better analogy would be Wales, though the Welsh actually speak English.
There was one key bit in there tbf. Is Putin only after Ukraine or would that be just the start?
Leon has deduced from the interview, by careful observation of his words and body language, that it's just Ukraine. He will go no further. Not fussed.
This has huge ramifications.
Well, VVP has 20% of Ukraine after 10 years of trying so he can want what the fuck he wants but there are no means to get it.
Our man in the Phnom Penh Premier Inn does extract a good point from Carlson/Putin that is worth restating. For VVP and almost all Russians, Ukraine (minus the Zakarpattia, Lviv and Chernivitsi oblasts) is part of the Russkiy Mir. It isn't just another country they have invaded for lols.
Now, the ultras can stranglewank on about how it legally is another country, blah, blah but that doesn't change the reality of how the Russians feel about it.
Rather like saying a woman can "stranglewank" as much as she likes about how it legally is her body, "blah, blah", but it doesn't change the reality of how a lot of men think they should be allowed to rape her nevertheless.
It seems a funny way of looking at the world.
It’s sadly pragmatic
Russia is a very powerful country (enough of this economy of Spain bullshit). It has vast natural resources and a deep self belief. It comprises 130m people and many of them - especially the elite - really do see Ukraine as naturally part of Russia, in the same way we see the Lakes as part of England, its actually a key part of their self identity
And they have nuclear weapons, and they are prepared to fight for it
And 40 odd million people who live there disagree with them. And they signed treaties saying the 40m are correct.
If Russia doesn’t learn that it can’t retake its empire by force, then there is no limit on what it might do in the longer term. It’s entirely in our self interest to stop them.
Nearer 30m now
Also, Putin and many Russians really don’t see it as part of empire. That’s the point. They think it was unnaturally cleaved from Russia by the commies then the break up of the USSR
And the best analogy I can think of is the lakes of England. Culturally integral to us - the romantic poets! - albeit on the edge of the country
They have that going on with Pushkin and Crimea and Odessa
How would we feel if the EU, during Brexit, dispossessed us of the English lakes?
I’m not trying to justify the evil invasion, merely illustrate the mindset
It’s a crap comparison, though. How would we feel if the Scots voted for independence might be slightly closer.
And then President HYUFD sent tanks in to retake Scotland.
I’m surprised Carlson didn’t get down and blow Putin .
And that’s the same for much of the GOP who are treasonous scum .
It's worth reminding ourselves - and the Americans - that this arsehole sprayed Novichok around Salisbury. Still surprised at how restrained the UK Gov was at the time.
British weapons have now killed thousand of Russian soldiers. We have had payback.
Putin feels the humiliation of day xxx of his 3 day war far
There was one key bit in there tbf. Is Putin only after Ukraine or would that be just the start?
Leon has deduced from the interview, by careful observation of his words and body language, that it's just Ukraine. He will go no further. Not fussed.
This has huge ramifications.
Well, VVP has 20% of Ukraine after 10 years of trying so he can want what the fuck he wants but there are no means to get it.
Our man in the Phnom Penh Premier Inn does extract a good point from Carlson/Putin that is worth restating. For VVP and almost all Russians, Ukraine (minus the Zakarpattia, Lviv and Chernivitsi oblasts) is part of the Russkiy Mir. It isn't just another country they have invaded for lols.
Now, the ultras can stranglewank on about how it legally is another country, blah, blah but that doesn't change the reality of how the Russians feel about it.
Rather like saying a woman can "stranglewank" as much as she likes about how it legally is her body, "blah, blah", but it doesn't change the reality of how a lot of men think they should be allowed to rape her nevertheless.
It seems a funny way of looking at the world.
It’s sadly pragmatic
Russia is a very powerful country (enough of this economy of Spain bullshit). It has vast natural resources and a deep self belief. It comprises 130m people and many of them - especially the elite - really do see Ukraine as naturally part of Russia, in the same way we see the Lakes as part of England, its actually a key part of their self identity
And they have nuclear weapons, and they are prepared to fight for it
If you believe the figure reported by the Russian government, Russia has a GDP of 1.8 Trillion USD
Poland is 0.67 Spain is 1.4 Germany is 4.25 U.K. is 3.1 US is 23.3
Having a pile of gently rusting weapons isn’t a substitute for real, economic power.
Russia has embraced the Resource Curse - dependency on natural resource revenue strangling the rest of the economy. This is because dictators love resource economy - a small number of places to control the money.
(Waugh, huh) Yeah! (What is it good for?) Absolutely nothing, uhuh (Waugh, huh) Yeah! (What is it good for?) Absolutely nothing Say it again, y'all! (Waugh, huh) Lookout! (What is it good for?) Absolutely nothing Listen to me, awwwww!
There was one key bit in there tbf. Is Putin only after Ukraine or would that be just the start?
Leon has deduced from the interview, by careful observation of his words and body language, that it's just Ukraine. He will go no further. Not fussed.
This has huge ramifications.
Well, VVP has 20% of Ukraine after 10 years of trying so he can want what the fuck he wants but there are no means to get it.
Our man in the Phnom Penh Premier Inn does extract a good point from Carlson/Putin that is worth restating. For VVP and almost all Russians, Ukraine (minus the Zakarpattia, Lviv and Chernivitsi oblasts) is part of the Russkiy Mir. It isn't just another country they have invaded for lols.
Now, the ultras can stranglewank on about how it legally is another country, blah, blah but that doesn't change the reality of how the Russians feel about it.
As it happens I'm not a big buyer of the notion that Ukraine is step one in Putin's plan to roll over Eastern Europe and remake the USSR. My view (for which I have no need of the Carlson interview) is that Ukraine in and of itself is an overreach and the plan, such as it is now, extends to achieving a partition and buffer zone.
I've very little clue about what goes on in the heads of most Russians. For me it's more about the contents of Putin's bonce. And he obviously does see Ukraine as "special". Is spending all this money, killing and maiming so many people, destroying vast swathes of territory, worth it to make the biggest country on earth a tiny bit bigger? Can't see it myself. Funny sort of "victory" that is, even if he manages it.
But it's about him, not me. It's about how he sees Ukraine. And he's convinced himself he's "bringing it home". Plus, another key point in his calculus, he's not out there fighting. He's just sat in Moscow giving the orders, getting vicarious thrills. No different to our own keyboard warriors in this regard.
So here is the interesting question. Does this ambition and, to a large extent, the war, die with Putin? Is this a very personal war or do his beliefs extend down the hierarchy of Russian command?
If Ukraine prevails over Russia, to get them out of their country, it will be by imposing a cost on Russia for is occupation that Russia isn't willing to pay. We're saying, I think, Russians are willing to pay a high price, but maybe higher for Putin than for Russians generally. They are paying a high price already.
There was one key bit in there tbf. Is Putin only after Ukraine or would that be just the start?
Leon has deduced from the interview, by careful observation of his words and body language, that it's just Ukraine. He will go no further. Not fussed.
This has huge ramifications.
Well, VVP has 20% of Ukraine after 10 years of trying so he can want what the fuck he wants but there are no means to get it.
Our man in the Phnom Penh Premier Inn does extract a good point from Carlson/Putin that is worth restating. For VVP and almost all Russians, Ukraine (minus the Zakarpattia, Lviv and Chernivitsi oblasts) is part of the Russkiy Mir. It isn't just another country they have invaded for lols.
Now, the ultras can stranglewank on about how it legally is another country, blah, blah but that doesn't change the reality of how the Russians feel about it.
Rather like saying a woman can "stranglewank" as much as she likes about how it legally is her body, "blah, blah", but it doesn't change the reality of how a lot of men think they should be allowed to rape her nevertheless.
It seems a funny way of looking at the world.
It’s sadly pragmatic
Russia is a very powerful country (enough of this economy of Spain bullshit). It has vast natural resources and a deep self belief. It comprises 130m people and many of them - especially the elite - really do see Ukraine as naturally part of Russia, in the same way we see the Lakes as part of England, its actually a key part of their self identity
And they have nuclear weapons, and they are prepared to fight for it
Sure, my dear troll, I think we all knew the Russians "are prepared to fight".
Though probably they hadn't anticipated the fight would be so long, or so unsuccessful.
So what?
It’s fucking hard to defeat a nuclear power if they are dead set on doing something on their own frontier
Sorry, dear troll, but I won't feed you any more than that little morsel. Particularly if that's the best you can do with it.
There was one key bit in there tbf. Is Putin only after Ukraine or would that be just the start?
Leon has deduced from the interview, by careful observation of his words and body language, that it's just Ukraine. He will go no further. Not fussed.
This has huge ramifications.
Well, VVP has 20% of Ukraine after 10 years of trying so he can want what the fuck he wants but there are no means to get it.
Our man in the Phnom Penh Premier Inn does extract a good point from Carlson/Putin that is worth restating. For VVP and almost all Russians, Ukraine (minus the Zakarpattia, Lviv and Chernivitsi oblasts) is part of the Russkiy Mir. It isn't just another country they have invaded for lols.
Now, the ultras can stranglewank on about how it legally is another country, blah, blah but that doesn't change the reality of how the Russians feel about it.
Rather like saying a woman can "stranglewank" as much as she likes about how it legally is her body, "blah, blah", but it doesn't change the reality of how a lot of men think they should be allowed to rape her nevertheless.
It seems a funny way of looking at the world.
It’s sadly pragmatic
Russia is a very powerful country (enough of this economy of Spain bullshit). It has vast natural resources and a deep self belief. It comprises 130m people and many of them - especially the elite - really do see Ukraine as naturally part of Russia, in the same way we see the Lakes as part of England, its actually a key part of their self identity
And they have nuclear weapons, and they are prepared to fight for it
Apply this logic elsewhere and you get unpalatable conclusions. The majority of Arabs plus the Iranian regime believe Israel should not exist and be a Muslim state. They have vast natural resources and in enough cases a religious conviction so deep, horrific violence is justified to achieve that. Those carrying out said violence's main backer may soon have nuclear weapons - and is itself backed by Russia.
Do we abandon Israel? We don't, despite often disagreeing with its conduct, as the consequences for its people would be a stain on history and have huge impacts on the wider world. 8 million Jews being forced to flee (again) or face murder and oppression is not something we can allow morally of and in itself, nor do so without the entire rules-based order collapsing.
Similar surely applies to Ukraine - where if abandoning millions of people to oppression and torture from those who brought them the Holodomor, then it's not a pragmatism I want any part of. Nor one which will ultimately prove pragmatic in the end given the consequences.
There was one key bit in there tbf. Is Putin only after Ukraine or would that be just the start?
Leon has deduced from the interview, by careful observation of his words and body language, that it's just Ukraine. He will go no further. Not fussed.
This has huge ramifications.
Well, VVP has 20% of Ukraine after 10 years of trying so he can want what the fuck he wants but there are no means to get it.
Our man in the Phnom Penh Premier Inn does extract a good point from Carlson/Putin that is worth restating. For VVP and almost all Russians, Ukraine (minus the Zakarpattia, Lviv and Chernivitsi oblasts) is part of the Russkiy Mir. It isn't just another country they have invaded for lols.
Now, the ultras can stranglewank on about how it legally is another country, blah, blah but that doesn't change the reality of how the Russians feel about it.
As it happens I'm not a big buyer of the notion that Ukraine is step one in Putin's plan to roll over Eastern Europe and remake the USSR. My view (for which I have no need of the Carlson interview) is that Ukraine in and of itself is an overreach and the plan, such as it is now, extends to achieving a partition and buffer zone.
I've very little clue about what goes on in the heads of most Russians. For me it's more about the contents of Putin's bonce. And he obviously does see Ukraine as "special". Is spending all this money, killing and maiming so many people, destroying vast swathes of territory, worth it to make the biggest country on earth a tiny bit bigger? Can't see it myself. Funny sort of "victory" that is, even if he manages it.
But it's about him, not me. It's about how he sees Ukraine. And he's convinced himself he's "bringing it home". Plus, another key point in his calculus, he's not out there fighting. He's just sat in Moscow giving the orders, getting vicarious thrills. No different to our own keyboard warriors in this regard.
So here is the interesting question. Does this ambition and, to a large extent, the war, die with Putin? Is this a very personal war or do his beliefs extend down the hierarchy of Russian command?
That is a key question and I really don't know. Does anybody outside the Kremlin know?
I guess Leon might have gleaned something relevant to this from the Carlson interview?
I’m surprised Carlson didn’t get down and blow Putin .
And that’s the same for much of the GOP who are treasonous scum .
It's worth reminding ourselves - and the Americans - that this arsehole sprayed Novichok around Salisbury. Still surprised at how restrained the UK Gov was at the time.
British weapons have now killed thousand of Russian soldiers. We have had payback.
Putin feels the humiliation of day xxx of his 3 day war far
There was one key bit in there tbf. Is Putin only after Ukraine or would that be just the start?
Leon has deduced from the interview, by careful observation of his words and body language, that it's just Ukraine. He will go no further. Not fussed.
This has huge ramifications.
Well, VVP has 20% of Ukraine after 10 years of trying so he can want what the fuck he wants but there are no means to get it.
Our man in the Phnom Penh Premier Inn does extract a good point from Carlson/Putin that is worth restating. For VVP and almost all Russians, Ukraine (minus the Zakarpattia, Lviv and Chernivitsi oblasts) is part of the Russkiy Mir. It isn't just another country they have invaded for lols.
Now, the ultras can stranglewank on about how it legally is another country, blah, blah but that doesn't change the reality of how the Russians feel about it.
Rather like saying a woman can "stranglewank" as much as she likes about how it legally is her body, "blah, blah", but it doesn't change the reality of how a lot of men think they should be allowed to rape her nevertheless.
It seems a funny way of looking at the world.
It’s sadly pragmatic
Russia is a very powerful country (enough of this economy of Spain bullshit). It has vast natural resources and a deep self belief. It comprises 130m people and many of them - especially the elite - really do see Ukraine as naturally part of Russia, in the same way we see the Lakes as part of England, its actually a key part of their self identity
And they have nuclear weapons, and they are prepared to fight for it
If you believe the figure reported by the Russian government, Russia has a GDP of 1.8 Trillion USD
Poland is 0.67 Spain is 1.4 Germany is 4.25 U.K. is 3.1 US is 23.3
Having a pile of gently rusting weapons isn’t a substitute for real, economic power.
Russia has embraced the Resource Curse - dependency on natural resource revenue strangling the rest of the economy. This is because dictators love resource economy - a small number of places to control the money.
If you’d watched the interview, which apparently none of you are capable of doing - so you are ironically dependent on me to tell you - you’d know that Putin is adamant that GDP by PPP is the better metric of military puissance
And Russia is fifth in the world by that metric, leapfrogging Germany this year and behind just China, USA, India and Japan
There was one key bit in there tbf. Is Putin only after Ukraine or would that be just the start?
Leon has deduced from the interview, by careful observation of his words and body language, that it's just Ukraine. He will go no further. Not fussed.
This has huge ramifications.
Well, VVP has 20% of Ukraine after 10 years of trying so he can want what the fuck he wants but there are no means to get it.
Our man in the Phnom Penh Premier Inn does extract a good point from Carlson/Putin that is worth restating. For VVP and almost all Russians, Ukraine (minus the Zakarpattia, Lviv and Chernivitsi oblasts) is part of the Russkiy Mir. It isn't just another country they have invaded for lols.
Now, the ultras can stranglewank on about how it legally is another country, blah, blah but that doesn't change the reality of how the Russians feel about it.
Rather like saying a woman can "stranglewank" as much as she likes about how it legally is her body, "blah, blah", but it doesn't change the reality of how a lot of men think they should be allowed to rape her nevertheless.
It seems a funny way of looking at the world.
It’s sadly pragmatic
Russia is a very powerful country (enough of this economy of Spain bullshit). It has vast natural resources and a deep self belief. It comprises 130m people and many of them - especially the elite - really do see Ukraine as naturally part of Russia, in the same way we see the Lakes as part of England, its actually a key part of their self identity
And they have nuclear weapons, and they are prepared to fight for it
And 40 odd million people who live there disagree with them. And they signed treaties saying the 40m are correct.
If Russia doesn’t learn that it can’t retake its empire by force, then there is no limit on what it might do in the longer term. It’s entirely in our self interest to stop them.
Nearer 30m now
Also, Putin and many Russians really don’t see it as part of empire. That’s the point. They think it was unnaturally cleaved from Russia by the commies then the break up of the USSR
And the best analogy I can think of is the lakes of England. Culturally integral to us - the romantic poets! - albeit on the edge of the country
They have that going on with Pushkin and Crimea and Odessa
How would we feel if the EU, during Brexit, dispossessed us of the English lakes?
I’m not trying to justify the evil invasion, merely illustrate the mindset
It’s a crap comparison, though. How would we feel if the Scots voted for independence might be slightly closer.
And then President HYUFD sent tanks in to retake Scotland.
For closer parallels:
Russia is England Ukraine is Ireland Crimea is Northern Ireland Belarus is Scotland Wales is the Caucasus.
Mr. Leon, Russia also has shit demographics and the economic destiny of becoming China's very junior partner.
They can believe Ukraine's a 'natural part of Russia' but that doesn't make it true, or reasonable.
Mr. Dancer, ancient history never was my strong point, but I'm pretty sure Bwana Hitler saw Austria, Bohemia & Moravia (today's Czech Republic), and Poland as a "natural part of Germany".
That was Maximum Greater Germany that not even the maddest Greater German Nationalists dreamed could be possible in 1930, say.
Hitler expanded his dreams as long as he kept on rolling double 6.
There was one key bit in there tbf. Is Putin only after Ukraine or would that be just the start?
Leon has deduced from the interview, by careful observation of his words and body language, that it's just Ukraine. He will go no further. Not fussed.
This has huge ramifications.
Well, VVP has 20% of Ukraine after 10 years of trying so he can want what the fuck he wants but there are no means to get it.
Our man in the Phnom Penh Premier Inn does extract a good point from Carlson/Putin that is worth restating. For VVP and almost all Russians, Ukraine (minus the Zakarpattia, Lviv and Chernivitsi oblasts) is part of the Russkiy Mir. It isn't just another country they have invaded for lols.
Now, the ultras can stranglewank on about how it legally is another country, blah, blah but that doesn't change the reality of how the Russians feel about it.
I'm not sure 'almost all' Russians feel that way. Those under 40 have grown up with an independent Ukraine. And Putin's justification for war was based on Nazis in Ukraine mistreating ethnic Russians.
There was one key bit in there tbf. Is Putin only after Ukraine or would that be just the start?
Leon has deduced from the interview, by careful observation of his words and body language, that it's just Ukraine. He will go no further. Not fussed.
This has huge ramifications.
Well, VVP has 20% of Ukraine after 10 years of trying so he can want what the fuck he wants but there are no means to get it.
Our man in the Phnom Penh Premier Inn does extract a good point from Carlson/Putin that is worth restating. For VVP and almost all Russians, Ukraine (minus the Zakarpattia, Lviv and Chernivitsi oblasts) is part of the Russkiy Mir. It isn't just another country they have invaded for lols.
Now, the ultras can stranglewank on about how it legally is another country, blah, blah but that doesn't change the reality of how the Russians feel about it.
Rather like saying a woman can "stranglewank" as much as she likes about how it legally is her body, "blah, blah", but it doesn't change the reality of how a lot of men think they should be allowed to rape her nevertheless.
It seems a funny way of looking at the world.
It’s sadly pragmatic
Russia is a very powerful country (enough of this economy of Spain bullshit). It has vast natural resources and a deep self belief. It comprises 130m people and many of them - especially the elite - really do see Ukraine as naturally part of Russia, in the same way we see the Lakes as part of England, its actually a key part of their self identity
And they have nuclear weapons, and they are prepared to fight for it
And 40 odd million people who live there disagree with them. And they signed treaties saying the 40m are correct.
If Russia doesn’t learn that it can’t retake its empire by force, then there is no limit on what it might do in the longer term. It’s entirely in our self interest to stop them.
Nearer 30m now
Also, Putin and many Russians really don’t see it as part of empire. That’s the point. They think it was unnaturally cleaved from Russia by the commies then the break up of the USSR
And the best analogy I can think of is the lakes of England. Culturally integral to us - the romantic poets! - albeit on the edge of the country
They have that going on with Pushkin and Crimea and Odessa
How would we feel if the EU, during Brexit, dispossessed us of the English lakes?
I’m not trying to justify the evil invasion, merely illustrate the mindset
A better analogy would be Wales, though the Welsh actually speak English.
There isn’t a perfect analogy. Both wales and Scotland are more alien to England than eastern and southern Ukraine is to some Russians. Enough Russians to make it matter
Maybe Northumberland but it lacks the cultural stuff. Cornwall?
While labour flounders on Gaza and endorses anti semites as candidates, amazingly, the Tories and TSE’s Buddy, call me Dave, shows some leadership and how it can be done.
As Decrepiter John says, this should give labour some leeway to say something.
While labour flounders on Gaza and endorses anti semites as candidates, amazingly, the Tories and TSE’s Buddy, call me Dave, shows some leadership and how it can be done.
As Decrepiter John says, this should give labour some leeway to say something.
Cheeses for sure but it's not just cheese. You can go to the biggest supermarket in France and they'll only sell melons for half the year. They have such a thing as 'out of season' which I don't remember in the UK for about 30 years
I quite like the idea of seasonal food. The looking forward to it. It somehow seems to taste nicer when you wait for it. It is odd that we enjoy looking forward to special food when it comes to Christmas, Easter, Halloween, Bonfire night, etc (some of which are seasonal and some aren't), yet we have to have everything else all year around. From my fruit crop I enjoy making summer pudding in the summer, Tarte Tatin in the Autumn, first crop of Rhubarb in March, etc, although I do freeze a lot of it. There is also the joy of making marmalade in January and sloe gin in the Autumn even if you are not consuming them then. To me we have lost something by being able to get raspberries, for instance, all year around.
Absolutely. For many years (ever since the year after we moved into our place in Lincolnshire), we have always stuck strictly to the principle of buying local UK produce except where it does not grow here normally (so we buy imported bananas, oranges etc but never strawberries, tomatoes and other soft fruits or veg). We adjust our diet accordingly throughout the year and eat seasonally, enjoying the arrival of new produce as it comes into season. It is helped by the fact we are now self sufficient in stuff like beans, potatoes and onions and of course we freeze fruit and veg where possible.
But I have not bought an imported tomato, strawbery or bean in more than a decade.
I absolutely agree with you about the festivals as well. They have so much more meaning when seasonal food is integral to them.
That's a great idea, although a bit arbitrary. Where we live in London produce from Northern France has less far to travel than that from Scotland. Mind you, Brexit checks on fruit and veg may mean that produce from outside the UK is no longer fresh when it reaches the supermarket shelves.
Both our local non-supermarket greengrocers have a much reduced range at the moment, to Mrs C's annoyance.
There was one key bit in there tbf. Is Putin only after Ukraine or would that be just the start?
Leon has deduced from the interview, by careful observation of his words and body language, that it's just Ukraine. He will go no further. Not fussed.
This has huge ramifications.
Well, VVP has 20% of Ukraine after 10 years of trying so he can want what the fuck he wants but there are no means to get it.
Our man in the Phnom Penh Premier Inn does extract a good point from Carlson/Putin that is worth restating. For VVP and almost all Russians, Ukraine (minus the Zakarpattia, Lviv and Chernivitsi oblasts) is part of the Russkiy Mir. It isn't just another country they have invaded for lols.
Now, the ultras can stranglewank on about how it legally is another country, blah, blah but that doesn't change the reality of how the Russians feel about it.
Rather like saying a woman can "stranglewank" as much as she likes about how it legally is her body, "blah, blah", but it doesn't change the reality of how a lot of men think they should be allowed to rape her nevertheless.
It seems a funny way of looking at the world.
It’s sadly pragmatic
Russia is a very powerful country (enough of this economy of Spain bullshit). It has vast natural resources and a deep self belief. It comprises 130m people and many of them - especially the elite - really do see Ukraine as naturally part of Russia, in the same way we see the Lakes as part of England, its actually a key part of their self identity
And they have nuclear weapons, and they are prepared to fight for it
And 40 odd million people who live there disagree with them. And they signed treaties saying the 40m are correct.
If Russia doesn’t learn that it can’t retake its empire by force, then there is no limit on what it might do in the longer term. It’s entirely in our self interest to stop them.
Nearer 30m now
Also, Putin and many Russians really don’t see it as part of empire. That’s the point. They think it was unnaturally cleaved from Russia by the commies then the break up of the USSR
And the best analogy I can think of is the lakes of England. Culturally integral to us - the romantic poets! - albeit on the edge of the country
They have that going on with Pushkin and Crimea and Odessa
How would we feel if the EU, during Brexit, dispossessed us of the English lakes?
I’m not trying to justify the evil invasion, merely illustrate the mindset
A better analogy would be Wales, though the Welsh actually speak English.
There isn’t a perfect analogy. Both wales and Scotland are more alien to England than eastern and southern Ukraine is to some Russians. Enough Russians to make it matter
Maybe Northumberland but it lacks the cultural stuff. Cornwall?
While labour flounders on Gaza and endorses anti semites as candidates, amazingly, the Tories and TSE’s Buddy, call me Dave, shows some leadership and how it can be done.
As Decrepiter John says, this should give labour some leeway to say something.
Starmer has skin in the game, his wife and his children are Jewish. He is a partisan, he needs to resign due to this conflict of interest.
There is nothing to say his replacement won't similarly make a symmetrical horlicks of Gaza too, going full-frontal Jezbollah.
Dave and Rishi have played the game brilliantly.
A bit Nazi, saying someone who marries someone Jewish can't lead a political party.
Of course I wasn't saying that. I believe Israel have the right to defend themselves. Encouraging Bibi to starve the Gazans into submission was a step too far. He has had a bad campaign. He has been equally hamstrung having to deal with Corbyn's anti- Semitic actions when leader.
He has called EVERYTHING about this conflict wrong because he is not impartial.
While labour flounders on Gaza and endorses anti semites as candidates, amazingly, the Tories and TSE’s Buddy, call me Dave, shows some leadership and how it can be done.
As Decrepiter John says, this should give labour some leeway to say something.
There was one key bit in there tbf. Is Putin only after Ukraine or would that be just the start?
Leon has deduced from the interview, by careful observation of his words and body language, that it's just Ukraine. He will go no further. Not fussed.
This has huge ramifications.
Well, VVP has 20% of Ukraine after 10 years of trying so he can want what the fuck he wants but there are no means to get it.
Our man in the Phnom Penh Premier Inn does extract a good point from Carlson/Putin that is worth restating. For VVP and almost all Russians, Ukraine (minus the Zakarpattia, Lviv and Chernivitsi oblasts) is part of the Russkiy Mir. It isn't just another country they have invaded for lols.
Now, the ultras can stranglewank on about how it legally is another country, blah, blah but that doesn't change the reality of how the Russians feel about it.
Rather like saying a woman can "stranglewank" as much as she likes about how it legally is her body, "blah, blah", but it doesn't change the reality of how a lot of men think they should be allowed to rape her nevertheless.
It seems a funny way of looking at the world.
It’s sadly pragmatic
Russia is a very powerful country (enough of this economy of Spain bullshit). It has vast natural resources and a deep self belief. It comprises 130m people and many of them - especially the elite - really do see Ukraine as naturally part of Russia, in the same way we see the Lakes as part of England, its actually a key part of their self identity
And they have nuclear weapons, and they are prepared to fight for it
And 40 odd million people who live there disagree with them. And they signed treaties saying the 40m are correct.
If Russia doesn’t learn that it can’t retake its empire by force, then there is no limit on what it might do in the longer term. It’s entirely in our self interest to stop them.
Nearer 30m now
Also, Putin and many Russians really don’t see it as part of empire. That’s the point. They think it was unnaturally cleaved from Russia by the commies then the break up of the USSR
And the best analogy I can think of is the lakes of England. Culturally integral to us - the romantic poets! - albeit on the edge of the country
They have that going on with Pushkin and Crimea and Odessa
How would we feel if the EU, during Brexit, dispossessed us of the English lakes?
I’m not trying to justify the evil invasion, merely illustrate the mindset
A better analogy would be Wales, though the Welsh actually speak English.
There isn’t a perfect analogy. Both wales and Scotland are more alien to England than eastern and southern Ukraine is to some Russians. Enough Russians to make it matter
Maybe Northumberland but it lacks the cultural stuff. Cornwall?
Bede, Lindisfarne, Gazza, etc.
Plus Ukrainian sounds like Russian spoken with a Geordie accent so I've think you've nailed it.
There was one key bit in there tbf. Is Putin only after Ukraine or would that be just the start?
Leon has deduced from the interview, by careful observation of his words and body language, that it's just Ukraine. He will go no further. Not fussed.
This has huge ramifications.
Well, VVP has 20% of Ukraine after 10 years of trying so he can want what the fuck he wants but there are no means to get it.
Our man in the Phnom Penh Premier Inn does extract a good point from Carlson/Putin that is worth restating. For VVP and almost all Russians, Ukraine (minus the Zakarpattia, Lviv and Chernivitsi oblasts) is part of the Russkiy Mir. It isn't just another country they have invaded for lols.
Now, the ultras can stranglewank on about how it legally is another country, blah, blah but that doesn't change the reality of how the Russians feel about it.
As it happens I'm not a big buyer of the notion that Ukraine is step one in Putin's plan to roll over Eastern Europe and remake the USSR. My view (for which I have no need of the Carlson interview) is that Ukraine in and of itself is an overreach and the plan, such as it is now, extends to achieving a partition and buffer zone.
I've very little clue about what goes on in the heads of most Russians. For me it's more about the contents of Putin's bonce. And he obviously does see Ukraine as "special". Is spending all this money, killing and maiming so many people, destroying vast swathes of territory, worth it to make the biggest country on earth a tiny bit bigger? Can't see it myself. Funny sort of "victory" that is, even if he manages it.
But it's about him, not me. It's about how he sees Ukraine. And he's convinced himself he's "bringing it home". Plus, another key point in his calculus, he's not out there fighting. He's just sat in Moscow giving the orders, getting vicarious thrills. No different to our own keyboard warriors in this regard.
So here is the interesting question. Does this ambition and, to a large extent, the war, die with Putin? Is this a very personal war or do his beliefs extend down the hierarchy of Russian command?
That is a key question and I really don't know. Does anybody outside the Kremlin know?
I guess Leon might have gleaned something relevant to this from the Carlson interview?
Don’t ask me. I only rely on what the BBC tells me to think
XL Bully owners in open rebellion on my local Facebook page. People posting photos of puppies, arranging meet-ups in parks, taking off muzzles, "our babies". There also seems to be a trend of people owning four or five.
I don't think this is over.
It will end with the government forcibly euthanising them
The owners, or the dogs? (Or both?)
both would be fine by me
A good piece by Dom Cummings' wife about how she changed her mind about XL Bullies. She was pro Bully and anti-ban, until her young and only child met one on the Tube. Unmuzzled
You really do have to see these monsters in the flesh to see how dangerous they are
I also didn't realise the stupid owner of those dogs in Jaywick has now said THIS:
"Oddly, in all the arguments for and against XL Bullys over the past week, the person I’ve found most sensible is Ashley Warren, owner of the killer dogs. ‘I did not know Bullys were aggressive, I didn’t believe all this stuff,’ he said. ‘But now I’ve learned the hard way. I honestly thought the ban was a stupid government plan to wipe out a breed which I had never seen anything but softness and love from. Now I think they need to be wiped out.’"
Get on with it
What would it take to wipe them out?
A massive expansion of council dog warden services? Extra police officers? Armed dog wardens? Drones to hunt them out in people's back gardens? Prison for their owners if they didn't comply?
Some PBer to offer to eat them (dogs, not owners)? Frankly, I wouldn't myself offer. Not vegan. All those (I suspect, in many cases) steroids and similar bodybuilding drugs.
There was one key bit in there tbf. Is Putin only after Ukraine or would that be just the start?
Leon has deduced from the interview, by careful observation of his words and body language, that it's just Ukraine. He will go no further. Not fussed.
This has huge ramifications.
Well, VVP has 20% of Ukraine after 10 years of trying so he can want what the fuck he wants but there are no means to get it.
Our man in the Phnom Penh Premier Inn does extract a good point from Carlson/Putin that is worth restating. For VVP and almost all Russians, Ukraine (minus the Zakarpattia, Lviv and Chernivitsi oblasts) is part of the Russkiy Mir. It isn't just another country they have invaded for lols.
Now, the ultras can stranglewank on about how it legally is another country, blah, blah but that doesn't change the reality of how the Russians feel about it.
Rather like saying a woman can "stranglewank" as much as she likes about how it legally is her body, "blah, blah", but it doesn't change the reality of how a lot of men think they should be allowed to rape her nevertheless.
It seems a funny way of looking at the world.
It’s sadly pragmatic
Russia is a very powerful country (enough of this economy of Spain bullshit). It has vast natural resources and a deep self belief. It comprises 130m people and many of them - especially the elite - really do see Ukraine as naturally part of Russia, in the same way we see the Lakes as part of England, its actually a key part of their self identity
And they have nuclear weapons, and they are prepared to fight for it
And 40 odd million people who live there disagree with them. And they signed treaties saying the 40m are correct.
If Russia doesn’t learn that it can’t retake its empire by force, then there is no limit on what it might do in the longer term. It’s entirely in our self interest to stop them.
Nearer 30m now
Also, Putin and many Russians really don’t see it as part of empire. That’s the point. They think it was unnaturally cleaved from Russia by the commies then the break up of the USSR
And the best analogy I can think of is the lakes of England. Culturally integral to us - the romantic poets! - albeit on the edge of the country
They have that going on with Pushkin and Crimea and Odessa
How would we feel if the EU, during Brexit, dispossessed us of the English lakes?
I’m not trying to justify the evil invasion, merely illustrate the mindset
A better analogy would be Wales, though the Welsh actually speak English.
There isn’t a perfect analogy. Both wales and Scotland are more alien to England than eastern and southern Ukraine is to some Russians. Enough Russians to make it matter
Maybe Northumberland but it lacks the cultural stuff. Cornwall?
Bede, Lindisfarne, Gazza, etc.
Plus Ukrainian sounds like Russian spoken with a Geordie accent so I've think you've nailed it.
Gazza lives on the South Coast these days.
No KFC, Stella and a fishing Rod in Rothbury these days. Nice place Rothbury.
While labour flounders on Gaza and endorses anti semites as candidates, amazingly, the Tories and TSE’s Buddy, call me Dave, shows some leadership and how it can be done.
As Decrepiter John says, this should give labour some leeway to say something.
Starmer has skin in the game, his wife and his children are Jewish. He is a partisan, he needs to resign due to this conflict of interest.
There is nothing to say his replacement won't similarly make a symmetrical horlicks of Gaza too, going full-frontal Jezbollah.
Dave and Rishi have played the game brilliantly.
A bit Nazi, saying someone who marries someone Jewish can't lead a political party.
There are mad anti semites on the left of Labour who say exactly this. “Zio wife”
And as we see today, this attitude can be found quite high up in the party
I’m quite looking forward to Labour being in power so we can finally attack them for the woke anti white anti semitic traitors that they are. Should be lolz
There was one key bit in there tbf. Is Putin only after Ukraine or would that be just the start?
Leon has deduced from the interview, by careful observation of his words and body language, that it's just Ukraine. He will go no further. Not fussed.
This has huge ramifications.
Well, VVP has 20% of Ukraine after 10 years of trying so he can want what the fuck he wants but there are no means to get it.
Our man in the Phnom Penh Premier Inn does extract a good point from Carlson/Putin that is worth restating. For VVP and almost all Russians, Ukraine (minus the Zakarpattia, Lviv and Chernivitsi oblasts) is part of the Russkiy Mir. It isn't just another country they have invaded for lols.
Now, the ultras can stranglewank on about how it legally is another country, blah, blah but that doesn't change the reality of how the Russians feel about it.
Rather like saying a woman can "stranglewank" as much as she likes about how it legally is her body, "blah, blah", but it doesn't change the reality of how a lot of men think they should be allowed to rape her nevertheless.
It seems a funny way of looking at the world.
It’s sadly pragmatic
Russia is a very powerful country (enough of this economy of Spain bullshit). It has vast natural resources and a deep self belief. It comprises 130m people and many of them - especially the elite - really do see Ukraine as naturally part of Russia, in the same way we see the Lakes as part of England, its actually a key part of their self identity
And they have nuclear weapons, and they are prepared to fight for it
And 40 odd million people who live there disagree with them. And they signed treaties saying the 40m are correct.
If Russia doesn’t learn that it can’t retake its empire by force, then there is no limit on what it might do in the longer term. It’s entirely in our self interest to stop them.
Nearer 30m now
Also, Putin and many Russians really don’t see it as part of empire. That’s the point. They think it was unnaturally cleaved from Russia by the commies then the break up of the USSR
And the best analogy I can think of is the lakes of England. Culturally integral to us - the romantic poets! - albeit on the edge of the country
They have that going on with Pushkin and Crimea and Odessa
How would we feel if the EU, during Brexit, dispossessed us of the English lakes?
I’m not trying to justify the evil invasion, merely illustrate the mindset
A better analogy would be Wales, though the Welsh actually speak English.
There isn’t a perfect analogy. Both wales and Scotland are more alien to England than eastern and southern Ukraine is to some Russians. Enough Russians to make it matter
Maybe Northumberland but it lacks the cultural stuff. Cornwall?
Bede, Lindisfarne, Gazza, etc.
Plus Ukrainian sounds like Russian spoken with a Geordie accent so I've think you've nailed it.
Good point. Jarrow monastery and the jarrow march. Northumberland is our analogy
And in a sense it was the cradle of Englishness the same way as Kievan Rus etc etc
There was one key bit in there tbf. Is Putin only after Ukraine or would that be just the start?
Leon has deduced from the interview, by careful observation of his words and body language, that it's just Ukraine. He will go no further. Not fussed.
This has huge ramifications.
Well, VVP has 20% of Ukraine after 10 years of trying so he can want what the fuck he wants but there are no means to get it.
Our man in the Phnom Penh Premier Inn does extract a good point from Carlson/Putin that is worth restating. For VVP and almost all Russians, Ukraine (minus the Zakarpattia, Lviv and Chernivitsi oblasts) is part of the Russkiy Mir. It isn't just another country they have invaded for lols.
Now, the ultras can stranglewank on about how it legally is another country, blah, blah but that doesn't change the reality of how the Russians feel about it.
Rather like saying a woman can "stranglewank" as much as she likes about how it legally is her body, "blah, blah", but it doesn't change the reality of how a lot of men think they should be allowed to rape her nevertheless.
It seems a funny way of looking at the world.
It’s sadly pragmatic
Russia is a very powerful country (enough of this economy of Spain bullshit). It has vast natural resources and a deep self belief. It comprises 130m people and many of them - especially the elite - really do see Ukraine as naturally part of Russia, in the same way we see the Lakes as part of England, its actually a key part of their self identity
And they have nuclear weapons, and they are prepared to fight for it
And 40 odd million people who live there disagree with them. And they signed treaties saying the 40m are correct.
If Russia doesn’t learn that it can’t retake its empire by force, then there is no limit on what it might do in the longer term. It’s entirely in our self interest to stop them.
Nearer 30m now
Also, Putin and many Russians really don’t see it as part of empire. That’s the point. They think it was unnaturally cleaved from Russia by the commies then the break up of the USSR
And the best analogy I can think of is the lakes of England. Culturally integral to us - the romantic poets! - albeit on the edge of the country
They have that going on with Pushkin and Crimea and Odessa
How would we feel if the EU, during Brexit, dispossessed us of the English lakes?
I’m not trying to justify the evil invasion, merely illustrate the mindset
A better analogy would be Wales, though the Welsh actually speak English.
There isn’t a perfect analogy. Both wales and Scotland are more alien to England than eastern and southern Ukraine is to some Russians. Enough Russians to make it matter
Maybe Northumberland but it lacks the cultural stuff. Cornwall?
Bede, Lindisfarne, Gazza, etc.
Plus Ukrainian sounds like Russian spoken with a Geordie accent so I've think you've nailed it.
Gazza lives on the South Coast these days.
No KFC, Stella and a fishing Rod in Rothbury these days. Nice place Rothbury.
Bede was Jarrow/Monkwearmouth, which is Co Durham.
And the mining/heavy industry is shared with Co Durham.
While labour flounders on Gaza and endorses anti semites as candidates, amazingly, the Tories and TSE’s Buddy, call me Dave, shows some leadership and how it can be done.
As Decrepiter John says, this should give labour some leeway to say something.
Starmer has skin in the game, his wife and his children are Jewish. He is a partisan, he needs to resign due to this conflict of interest.
There is nothing to say his replacement won't similarly make a symmetrical horlicks of Gaza too, going full-frontal Jezbollah.
Dave and Rishi have played the game brilliantly.
Something I have been wondering for a while.
Are you on drugs ?
I despise the Tories. Nonetheless Dave and Rishi have been superb in response to Gaza. Starmer and Labour are all over the place.
Israel have the right to defend themselves, but Bibi does not have a free hand to save his career by killing 2.2m Gazans. Starmer doesn't understand this. whilst Dave and Rishi do.
The thing about the Rochdale candidate is that he was speaking to Labour members, the Labour members heard his conspiracy theory about the Jews and selected him as their candidate. Selected him not despite but because of his cranky views.
I’m surprised Carlson didn’t get down and blow Putin .
And that’s the same for much of the GOP who are treasonous scum .
It's worth reminding ourselves - and the Americans - that this arsehole sprayed Novichok around Salisbury. Still surprised at how restrained the UK Gov was at the time.
British weapons have now killed thousand of Russian soldiers. We have had payback.
Putin feels the humiliation of day xxx of his 3 day war far
There was one key bit in there tbf. Is Putin only after Ukraine or would that be just the start?
Leon has deduced from the interview, by careful observation of his words and body language, that it's just Ukraine. He will go no further. Not fussed.
This has huge ramifications.
Well, VVP has 20% of Ukraine after 10 years of trying so he can want what the fuck he wants but there are no means to get it.
Our man in the Phnom Penh Premier Inn does extract a good point from Carlson/Putin that is worth restating. For VVP and almost all Russians, Ukraine (minus the Zakarpattia, Lviv and Chernivitsi oblasts) is part of the Russkiy Mir. It isn't just another country they have invaded for lols.
Now, the ultras can stranglewank on about how it legally is another country, blah, blah but that doesn't change the reality of how the Russians feel about it.
Rather like saying a woman can "stranglewank" as much as she likes about how it legally is her body, "blah, blah", but it doesn't change the reality of how a lot of men think they should be allowed to rape her nevertheless.
It seems a funny way of looking at the world.
It’s sadly pragmatic
Russia is a very powerful country (enough of this economy of Spain bullshit). It has vast natural resources and a deep self belief. It comprises 130m people and many of them - especially the elite - really do see Ukraine as naturally part of Russia, in the same way we see the Lakes as part of England, its actually a key part of their self identity
And they have nuclear weapons, and they are prepared to fight for it
If you believe the figure reported by the Russian government, Russia has a GDP of 1.8 Trillion USD
Poland is 0.67 Spain is 1.4 Germany is 4.25 U.K. is 3.1 US is 23.3
Having a pile of gently rusting weapons isn’t a substitute for real, economic power.
Russia has embraced the Resource Curse - dependency on natural resource revenue strangling the rest of the economy. This is because dictators love resource economy - a small number of places to control the money.
Those "gently rusting weapons" have killed hundreds of thousands of people. I am sympathetic to the thesis that the most prosperous country wins - amateurs discuss tactics, the professionals discuss logistics, and all that - but in the short-term burning off of a huge stockpile will work, and the Russian stockpile is huge. They aren't winning quickly (see previous posts) but they aren't losing either.
While labour flounders on Gaza and endorses anti semites as candidates, amazingly, the Tories and TSE’s Buddy, call me Dave, shows some leadership and how it can be done.
As Decrepiter John says, this should give labour some leeway to say something.
Starmer has skin in the game, his wife and his children are Jewish. He is a partisan, he needs to resign due to this conflict of interest.
There is nothing to say his replacement won't similarly make a symmetrical horlicks of Gaza too, going full-frontal Jezbollah.
Dave and Rishi have played the game brilliantly.
A bit Nazi, saying someone who marries someone Jewish can't lead a political party.
Of course I wasn't saying that. I believe Israel have the right to defend themselves. Encouraging Bibi to starve the Gazans into submission was a step too far. He has had a bad campaign. He has been equally hamstrung having to deal with Corbyn's anti- Semitic actions when leader.
He has called EVERYTHING about this conflict wrong because he is not impartial.
But wouldn't any other Labour leader also be hamstrung by the Corbynite legacy?
While labour flounders on Gaza and endorses anti semites as candidates, amazingly, the Tories and TSE’s Buddy, call me Dave, shows some leadership and how it can be done.
As Decrepiter John says, this should give labour some leeway to say something.
Starmer has skin in the game, his wife and his children are Jewish. He is a partisan, he needs to resign due to this conflict of interest.
There is nothing to say his replacement won't similarly make a symmetrical horlicks of Gaza too, going full-frontal Jezbollah.
Dave and Rishi have played the game brilliantly.
Something I have been wondering for a while.
Are you on drugs ?
I despise the Tories. Nonetheless Dave and Rishi have been superb in response to Gaza. Starmer and Labour are all over the place.
Israel have the right to defend themselves, but Bibi does not have a free hand to save his career by killing 2.2m Gazans. Starmer doesn't understand this. whilst Dave and Rishi do.
I assumed your comment I replied To was glib and snarky. Apologies for my misinterpretation. I actually pretty much agree with what you just said entirely. I have never voted Tory either and cannot see me ever doing so.
There was one key bit in there tbf. Is Putin only after Ukraine or would that be just the start?
Leon has deduced from the interview, by careful observation of his words and body language, that it's just Ukraine. He will go no further. Not fussed.
This has huge ramifications.
Well, VVP has 20% of Ukraine after 10 years of trying so he can want what the fuck he wants but there are no means to get it.
Our man in the Phnom Penh Premier Inn does extract a good point from Carlson/Putin that is worth restating. For VVP and almost all Russians, Ukraine (minus the Zakarpattia, Lviv and Chernivitsi oblasts) is part of the Russkiy Mir. It isn't just another country they have invaded for lols.
Now, the ultras can stranglewank on about how it legally is another country, blah, blah but that doesn't change the reality of how the Russians feel about it.
Rather like saying a woman can "stranglewank" as much as she likes about how it legally is her body, "blah, blah", but it doesn't change the reality of how a lot of men think they should be allowed to rape her nevertheless.
It seems a funny way of looking at the world.
It’s sadly pragmatic
Russia is a very powerful country (enough of this economy of Spain bullshit). It has vast natural resources and a deep self belief. It comprises 130m people and many of them - especially the elite - really do see Ukraine as naturally part of Russia, in the same way we see the Lakes as part of England, its actually a key part of their self identity
And they have nuclear weapons, and they are prepared to fight for it
And 40 odd million people who live there disagree with them. And they signed treaties saying the 40m are correct.
If Russia doesn’t learn that it can’t retake its empire by force, then there is no limit on what it might do in the longer term. It’s entirely in our self interest to stop them.
Nearer 30m now
Also, Putin and many Russians really don’t see it as part of empire. That’s the point. They think it was unnaturally cleaved from Russia by the commies then the break up of the USSR
And the best analogy I can think of is the lakes of England. Culturally integral to us - the romantic poets! - albeit on the edge of the country
They have that going on with Pushkin and Crimea and Odessa
How would we feel if the EU, during Brexit, dispossessed us of the English lakes?
I’m not trying to justify the evil invasion, merely illustrate the mindset
A better analogy would be Wales, though the Welsh actually speak English.
There isn’t a perfect analogy. Both wales and Scotland are more alien to England than eastern and southern Ukraine is to some Russians. Enough Russians to make it matter
Maybe Northumberland but it lacks the cultural stuff. Cornwall?
And eastern Wales and southern Scotland are less alien to English than Wales or Scotland as a whole.
If you want the equivalent of Northumberland it would by Novgorod not Kharkiv.
I’m surprised Carlson didn’t get down and blow Putin .
And that’s the same for much of the GOP who are treasonous scum .
It's worth reminding ourselves - and the Americans - that this arsehole sprayed Novichok around Salisbury. Still surprised at how restrained the UK Gov was at the time.
British weapons have now killed thousand of Russian soldiers. We have had payback.
Putin feels the humiliation of day xxx of his 3 day war far
There was one key bit in there tbf. Is Putin only after Ukraine or would that be just the start?
Leon has deduced from the interview, by careful observation of his words and body language, that it's just Ukraine. He will go no further. Not fussed.
This has huge ramifications.
Well, VVP has 20% of Ukraine after 10 years of trying so he can want what the fuck he wants but there are no means to get it.
Our man in the Phnom Penh Premier Inn does extract a good point from Carlson/Putin that is worth restating. For VVP and almost all Russians, Ukraine (minus the Zakarpattia, Lviv and Chernivitsi oblasts) is part of the Russkiy Mir. It isn't just another country they have invaded for lols.
Now, the ultras can stranglewank on about how it legally is another country, blah, blah but that doesn't change the reality of how the Russians feel about it.
Rather like saying a woman can "stranglewank" as much as she likes about how it legally is her body, "blah, blah", but it doesn't change the reality of how a lot of men think they should be allowed to rape her nevertheless.
It seems a funny way of looking at the world.
It’s sadly pragmatic
Russia is a very powerful country (enough of this economy of Spain bullshit). It has vast natural resources and a deep self belief. It comprises 130m people and many of them - especially the elite - really do see Ukraine as naturally part of Russia, in the same way we see the Lakes as part of England, its actually a key part of their self identity
And they have nuclear weapons, and they are prepared to fight for it
If you believe the figure reported by the Russian government, Russia has a GDP of 1.8 Trillion USD
Poland is 0.67 Spain is 1.4 Germany is 4.25 U.K. is 3.1 US is 23.3
Having a pile of gently rusting weapons isn’t a substitute for real, economic power.
Russia has embraced the Resource Curse - dependency on natural resource revenue strangling the rest of the economy. This is because dictators love resource economy - a small number of places to control the money.
If you’d watched the interview, which apparently none of you are capable of doing - so you are ironically dependent on me to tell you - you’d know that Putin is adamant that GDP by PPP is the better metric of military puissance
And Russia is fifth in the world by that metric, leapfrogging Germany this year and behind just China, USA, India and Japan
So Putin prefers a measure that makes his country look bigger. Next he’ll be counting undecideds in polls as all yes or all on according to his whim.
Meanwhile Russia still can’t get domestic tractor production sorted out.
There was one key bit in there tbf. Is Putin only after Ukraine or would that be just the start?
Leon has deduced from the interview, by careful observation of his words and body language, that it's just Ukraine. He will go no further. Not fussed.
This has huge ramifications.
Well, VVP has 20% of Ukraine after 10 years of trying so he can want what the fuck he wants but there are no means to get it.
Our man in the Phnom Penh Premier Inn does extract a good point from Carlson/Putin that is worth restating. For VVP and almost all Russians, Ukraine (minus the Zakarpattia, Lviv and Chernivitsi oblasts) is part of the Russkiy Mir. It isn't just another country they have invaded for lols.
Now, the ultras can stranglewank on about how it legally is another country, blah, blah but that doesn't change the reality of how the Russians feel about it.
Rather like saying a woman can "stranglewank" as much as she likes about how it legally is her body, "blah, blah", but it doesn't change the reality of how a lot of men think they should be allowed to rape her nevertheless.
It seems a funny way of looking at the world.
It’s sadly pragmatic
Russia is a very powerful country (enough of this economy of Spain bullshit). It has vast natural resources and a deep self belief. It comprises 130m people and many of them - especially the elite - really do see Ukraine as naturally part of Russia, in the same way we see the Lakes as part of England, its actually a key part of their self identity
And they have nuclear weapons, and they are prepared to fight for it
And 40 odd million people who live there disagree with them. And they signed treaties saying the 40m are correct.
If Russia doesn’t learn that it can’t retake its empire by force, then there is no limit on what it might do in the longer term. It’s entirely in our self interest to stop them.
Nearer 30m now
Also, Putin and many Russians really don’t see it as part of empire. That’s the point. They think it was unnaturally cleaved from Russia by the commies then the break up of the USSR
And the best analogy I can think of is the lakes of England. Culturally integral to us - the romantic poets! - albeit on the edge of the country
They have that going on with Pushkin and Crimea and Odessa
How would we feel if the EU, during Brexit, dispossessed us of the English lakes?
I’m not trying to justify the evil invasion, merely illustrate the mindset
A better analogy would be Wales, though the Welsh actually speak English.
There isn’t a perfect analogy. Both wales and Scotland are more alien to England than eastern and southern Ukraine is to some Russians. Enough Russians to make it matter
Maybe Northumberland but it lacks the cultural stuff. Cornwall?
Bede, Lindisfarne, Gazza, etc.
Plus Ukrainian sounds like Russian spoken with a Geordie accent so I've think you've nailed it.
Good point. Jarrow monastery and the jarrow march. Northumberland is our analogy
And in a sense it was the cradle of Englishness the same way as Kievan Rus etc etc
Jarra is, these days, in South Tyneside. Used to be in Durham,
While labour flounders on Gaza and endorses anti semites as candidates, amazingly, the Tories and TSE’s Buddy, call me Dave, shows some leadership and how it can be done.
As Decrepiter John says, this should give labour some leeway to say something.
Starmer has skin in the game, his wife and his children are Jewish. He is a partisan, he needs to resign due to this conflict of interest.
There is nothing to say his replacement won't similarly make a symmetrical horlicks of Gaza too, going full-frontal Jezbollah.
Dave and Rishi have played the game brilliantly.
A bit Nazi, saying someone who marries someone Jewish can't lead a political party.
Of course I wasn't saying that. I believe Israel have the right to defend themselves. Encouraging Bibi to starve the Gazans into submission was a step too far. He has had a bad campaign. He has been equally hamstrung having to deal with Corbyn's anti- Semitic actions when leader.
He has called EVERYTHING about this conflict wrong because he is not impartial.
Do you think he's over-compensating on this for the Jez period?
'As demand for oil and gas peaks, and competitor production from the Arabian Gulf comes on-stream in the coming year, Russia will be exposed.'
I don't know if rcs or someone else can explain this. More production from OPEC?
I don't know why anyone is taking the stories about Russian economic growth seriously. We don't know what the actual picture is. They are not releasing information in the way you would normally expect.
After the story of the six year old girl in the taxi that led the BBC news and the brilliant report 'from our own cotrrespondent' you'd have to be pretty sick to continue supporting Netanyahu or Israel in any shape or form. Yesterday's pictures of the blown out ambulence with it's two paramedics dead inside just made it even more unbearable.
It was a major topic of conversation at an event I went to yesterday in Nice. It could turn into as iconic an image as the burning Vietnamese girl. It's difficult to knows how it's running across the rest of Europe.
Support for Israel on this is down to those who don't view Palestinians as proper 3d human beings.
That seems to be a UK thing. Perhaps it's the same thing as Brexit. This idea of British exceptionalism. The 'Zulu' mentality. Some of the posts on here are just alarming. Some of the brightest as wisest and most interesting people I've met are Arabs. They have a wisdom that goes back centuries. So many here just see them as the Indians in the cowboys and Indians that they grew up with
I can't claim similar exposure but yes I do detect a "them arabs are inferior to them Israelis" mindset underlying some of the commentary.
Understandably so.
Israel beats the Arabs in every war.
Israel is a reasonably successful, developed and democratic country whereas Arab countries tend not to be.
While, on a wider level, Jews have produced countless brilliant scientists, artists, writers, musicians, bankers, businessmen, politicians etc whereas Arabs haven't.
Its this 'overachievement' by Jews which drives most of the dislike and fear of them in the western world in addition to some respect and admiration.
Yeah, where are the Arab achievements in chemistry, or algebra, or the exciting world of computer algorithms?
There was one key bit in there tbf. Is Putin only after Ukraine or would that be just the start?
Leon has deduced from the interview, by careful observation of his words and body language, that it's just Ukraine. He will go no further. Not fussed.
This has huge ramifications.
Well, VVP has 20% of Ukraine after 10 years of trying so he can want what the fuck he wants but there are no means to get it.
Our man in the Phnom Penh Premier Inn does extract a good point from Carlson/Putin that is worth restating. For VVP and almost all Russians, Ukraine (minus the Zakarpattia, Lviv and Chernivitsi oblasts) is part of the Russkiy Mir. It isn't just another country they have invaded for lols.
Now, the ultras can stranglewank on about how it legally is another country, blah, blah but that doesn't change the reality of how the Russians feel about it.
As it happens I'm not a big buyer of the notion that Ukraine is step one in Putin's plan to roll over Eastern Europe and remake the USSR. My view (for which I have no need of the Carlson interview) is that Ukraine in and of itself is an overreach and the plan, such as it is now, extends to achieving a partition and buffer zone.
I've very little clue about what goes on in the heads of most Russians. For me it's more about the contents of Putin's bonce. And he obviously does see Ukraine as "special". Is spending all this money, killing and maiming so many people, destroying vast swathes of territory, worth it to make the biggest country on earth a tiny bit bigger? Can't see it myself. Funny sort of "victory" that is, even if he manages it.
But it's about him, not me. It's about how he sees Ukraine. And he's convinced himself he's "bringing it home". Plus, another key point in his calculus, he's not out there fighting. He's just sat in Moscow giving the orders, getting vicarious thrills. No different to our own keyboard warriors in this regard.
So here is the interesting question. Does this ambition and, to a large extent, the war, die with Putin? Is this a very personal war or do his beliefs extend down the hierarchy of Russian command?
If Ukraine prevails over Russia, to get them out of their country, it will be by imposing a cost on Russia for is occupation that Russia isn't willing to pay. We're saying, I think, Russians are willing to pay a high price, but maybe higher for Putin than for Russians generally. They are paying a high price already.
Putin is waiting for Trump 2.0. No point in speculating what his wider ambitions are until then. Entirely possible Vlad will be given the green light for wider conflict then e.g. Baltics, maybe even Finland.
The Atlantic @TheAtlantic · 8h "The leader of one of America’s two major political parties has just signaled to the Kremlin that if elected, he would not only refuse to defend Europe, but he would gladly support Vladimir Putin," writes @RadioFreeTom
There was one key bit in there tbf. Is Putin only after Ukraine or would that be just the start?
Leon has deduced from the interview, by careful observation of his words and body language, that it's just Ukraine. He will go no further. Not fussed.
This has huge ramifications.
Well, VVP has 20% of Ukraine after 10 years of trying so he can want what the fuck he wants but there are no means to get it.
Our man in the Phnom Penh Premier Inn does extract a good point from Carlson/Putin that is worth restating. For VVP and almost all Russians, Ukraine (minus the Zakarpattia, Lviv and Chernivitsi oblasts) is part of the Russkiy Mir. It isn't just another country they have invaded for lols.
Now, the ultras can stranglewank on about how it legally is another country, blah, blah but that doesn't change the reality of how the Russians feel about it.
Rather like saying a woman can "stranglewank" as much as she likes about how it legally is her body, "blah, blah", but it doesn't change the reality of how a lot of men think they should be allowed to rape her nevertheless.
It seems a funny way of looking at the world.
It’s sadly pragmatic
Russia is a very powerful country (enough of this economy of Spain bullshit). It has vast natural resources and a deep self belief. It comprises 130m people and many of them - especially the elite - really do see Ukraine as naturally part of Russia, in the same way we see the Lakes as part of England, its actually a key part of their self identity
And they have nuclear weapons, and they are prepared to fight for it
And 40 odd million people who live there disagree with them. And they signed treaties saying the 40m are correct.
If Russia doesn’t learn that it can’t retake its empire by force, then there is no limit on what it might do in the longer term. It’s entirely in our self interest to stop them.
Nearer 30m now
Also, Putin and many Russians really don’t see it as part of empire. That’s the point. They think it was unnaturally cleaved from Russia by the commies then the break up of the USSR
And the best analogy I can think of is the lakes of England. Culturally integral to us - the romantic poets! - albeit on the edge of the country
They have that going on with Pushkin and Crimea and Odessa
How would we feel if the EU, during Brexit, dispossessed us of the English lakes?
I’m not trying to justify the evil invasion, merely illustrate the mindset
A better analogy would be Wales, though the Welsh actually speak English.
There isn’t a perfect analogy. Both wales and Scotland are more alien to England than eastern and southern Ukraine is to some Russians. Enough Russians to make it matter
Maybe Northumberland but it lacks the cultural stuff. Cornwall?
No recent genocides through famine, and no serious desire to be independent of a malign empire, though. If you're insisting on historical comparisons rather than analogy, then maybe Ireland should enter the chat.
Cheeses for sure but it's not just cheese. You can go to the biggest supermarket in France and they'll only sell melons for half the year. They have such a thing as 'out of season' which I don't remember in the UK for about 30 years
I quite like the idea of seasonal food. The looking forward to it. It somehow seems to taste nicer when you wait for it. It is odd that we enjoy looking forward to special food when it comes to Christmas, Easter, Halloween, Bonfire night, etc (some of which are seasonal and some aren't), yet we have to have everything else all year around. From my fruit crop I enjoy making summer pudding in the summer, Tarte Tatin in the Autumn, first crop of Rhubarb in March, etc, although I do freeze a lot of it. There is also the joy of making marmalade in January and sloe gin in the Autumn even if you are not consuming them then. To me we have lost something by being able to get raspberries, for instance, all year around.
Absolutely. For many years (ever since the year after we moved into our place in Lincolnshire), we have always stuck strictly to the principle of buying local UK produce except where it does not grow here normally (so we buy imported bananas, oranges etc but never strawberries, tomatoes and other soft fruits or veg). We adjust our diet accordingly throughout the year and eat seasonally, enjoying the arrival of new produce as it comes into season. It is helped by the fact we are now self sufficient in stuff like beans, potatoes and onions and of course we freeze fruit and veg where possible.
But I have not bought an imported tomato, strawbery or bean in more than a decade.
I absolutely agree with you about the festivals as well. They have so much more meaning when seasonal food is integral to them.
That's a great idea, although a bit arbitrary. Where we live in London produce from Northern France has less far to travel than that from Scotland. Mind you, Brexit checks on fruit and veg may mean that produce from outside the UK is no longer fresh when it reaches the supermarket shelves.
Both our local non-supermarket greengrocers have a much reduced range at the moment, to Mrs C's annoyance.
OKC that sounds a bit sexist to me, or is she just annoyed at what you bring home from the greengrocer and cook for her
Bring back Boris Johnson, Kwasi Kwarteng tells Rishi Sunak Ex-chancellor calls on Sunak to ‘swallow some pride’ and bring back ‘electoral force’ that is former PM
The NYT still has "Why age issue is hurting Biden" as a headline above this.
Yes, they are definitely gunning for Biden. Actual senior columnists saying Biden has to go
There is just one terse column from Paul Krugman trying to defend him, but it is feeble and doesn't persuade, and has been hidden away
There’s still very little the Democratic establishment can do at this point. The one who decides is Biden (absent a 25th amendment scenario that seems fanciful unless he really loses it). At this stage, it seems he is determined to run.
Yes, I'm not sure the NYT campaign will work, but it seems to me the editors have decided to try and boot him off, if they can, because he is so likely to lose to Trump
And, despite the opinions of @Nigelb and @edmundintokyo I believe the NYT is absolutely sincere in its dread and hatred of Trump, and want him defeated more than anything
Whilst their journalists hate his guts and want to see him nuked into orbit, the commercial team and the management grades would love to see him re-elected for another four years of chaos. Because, as they showed last time, that chaos sells newspapers.
There was one key bit in there tbf. Is Putin only after Ukraine or would that be just the start?
Leon has deduced from the interview, by careful observation of his words and body language, that it's just Ukraine. He will go no further. Not fussed.
This has huge ramifications.
Well, VVP has 20% of Ukraine after 10 years of trying so he can want what the fuck he wants but there are no means to get it.
Our man in the Phnom Penh Premier Inn does extract a good point from Carlson/Putin that is worth restating. For VVP and almost all Russians, Ukraine (minus the Zakarpattia, Lviv and Chernivitsi oblasts) is part of the Russkiy Mir. It isn't just another country they have invaded for lols.
Now, the ultras can stranglewank on about how it legally is another country, blah, blah but that doesn't change the reality of how the Russians feel about it.
Rather like saying a woman can "stranglewank" as much as she likes about how it legally is her body, "blah, blah", but it doesn't change the reality of how a lot of men think they should be allowed to rape her nevertheless.
It seems a funny way of looking at the world.
It’s sadly pragmatic
Russia is a very powerful country (enough of this economy of Spain bullshit). It has vast natural resources and a deep self belief. It comprises 130m people and many of them - especially the elite - really do see Ukraine as naturally part of Russia, in the same way we see the Lakes as part of England, its actually a key part of their self identity
And they have nuclear weapons, and they are prepared to fight for it
And 40 odd million people who live there disagree with them. And they signed treaties saying the 40m are correct.
If Russia doesn’t learn that it can’t retake its empire by force, then there is no limit on what it might do in the longer term. It’s entirely in our self interest to stop them.
Nearer 30m now
Also, Putin and many Russians really don’t see it as part of empire. That’s the point. They think it was unnaturally cleaved from Russia by the commies then the break up of the USSR
And the best analogy I can think of is the lakes of England. Culturally integral to us - the romantic poets! - albeit on the edge of the country
They have that going on with Pushkin and Crimea and Odessa
How would we feel if the EU, during Brexit, dispossessed us of the English lakes?
I’m not trying to justify the evil invasion, merely illustrate the mindset
A better analogy would be Wales, though the Welsh actually speak English.
There isn’t a perfect analogy. Both wales and Scotland are more alien to England than eastern and southern Ukraine is to some Russians. Enough Russians to make it matter
Maybe Northumberland but it lacks the cultural stuff. Cornwall?
Bede, Lindisfarne, Gazza, etc.
Plus Ukrainian sounds like Russian spoken with a Geordie accent so I've think you've nailed it.
Gazza lives on the South Coast these days.
No KFC, Stella and a fishing Rod in Rothbury these days. Nice place Rothbury.
Bede was Jarrow/Monkwearmouth, which is Co Durham.
And the mining/heavy industry is shared with Co Durham.
But you have the Reivers and the Border Ballads.
Was country Durham when we had an empire. Now S Tyneside and Sunderland respectively
Still bits of heavy industry. Mining long since gone.
I used to work in Jarra. Place closed. Was there 9 months. Got 3 months tax free pay off.
After the story of the six year old girl in the taxi that led the BBC news and the brilliant report 'from our own cotrrespondent' you'd have to be pretty sick to continue supporting Netanyahu or Israel in any shape or form. Yesterday's pictures of the blown out ambulence with it's two paramedics dead inside just made it even more unbearable.
It was a major topic of conversation at an event I went to yesterday in Nice. It could turn into as iconic an image as the burning Vietnamese girl. It's difficult to knows how it's running across the rest of Europe.
Support for Israel on this is down to those who don't view Palestinians as proper 3d human beings.
That seems to be a UK thing. Perhaps it's the same thing as Brexit. This idea of British exceptionalism. The 'Zulu' mentality. Some of the posts on here are just alarming. Some of the brightest as wisest and most interesting people I've met are Arabs. They have a wisdom that goes back centuries. So many here just see them as the Indians in the cowboys and Indians that they grew up with
I can't claim similar exposure but yes I do detect a "them arabs are inferior to them Israelis" mindset underlying some of the commentary.
Understandably so.
Israel beats the Arabs in every war.
Israel is a reasonably successful, developed and democratic country whereas Arab countries tend not to be.
While, on a wider level, Jews have produced countless brilliant scientists, artists, writers, musicians, bankers, businessmen, politicians etc whereas Arabs haven't.
Its this 'overachievement' by Jews which drives most of the dislike and fear of them in the western world in addition to some respect and admiration.
Yeah, where are the Arab achievements in chemistry, or algebra, or the exciting world of computer algorithms?
(That’s sarcasm BTW.)
You tell us.
And when they happened.
You'd have to google or wiki them because apart from Omar Khayyam they're not household names.
Or perhaps we could have a look at say Noble prize winners to compare more recent achievements.
We have come a long way in 60 years. Then it was valium.
"Kids are different today," I hear ev'ry mother say Mother needs something today to calm her down And though she's not really ill There's a little yellow pill She goes running for the shelter of a mother's little helper And it helps her on her way Gets her through her busy day https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-zxBNz3XbM
So you've got a prescription and that makes it legal Now find the excuses overwhelmingly feeble You go to the doctor, you need pills for sleeping Well if you can convince him, I guess that's not cheating See your daughter's depressed we'll get her straight on the Prozac But little do you know, she already takes crack
Bring back Boris Johnson, Kwasi Kwarteng tells Rishi Sunak Ex-chancellor calls on Sunak to ‘swallow some pride’ and bring back ‘electoral force’ that is former PM
In any case, “For Rochdale, For Gaza”? His campaign literature is Galloway on a Palestinian Flag FFS.
What does Gaza have to do with Wardleworth or Kirkholt?
An MP doesn’t no - and should not - be a glorified councillor or social worker
They are there to represent their constituents in the House of Commons.
If the locals feel strongly enough that their views need to be represented on an aspect of foreign policy then they are entitled to vote on that basis and not to have you whine about it.
Labour knew *exactly* what they were doing. This was not bad due diligence. It was entirely cynical. Their mistake was getting caught.
If you add together all the other tens of millions of snippets that are being shared, around the world, it will surely be the most watched - and probably most-discussed - political interview of all time
Lol.
Nobody has watched more than 15 minutes of it.
It was a disaster. Even you didn't sit through it.
I absolutely did. It’s fascinating - after the first hour of tedium. But very very few will do that. It’s more than 2 hours long
The stats are in, however, for those seeing SOME of it. Even on YouTube it’s in the top 5 political interviews ever, cumulatively, indeed arguably its number 2 after Narendra Modi talking to some actor
If you can find another POLITICAL interview that has that virality, knock yourself out and (seriously) well done, I can’t. And I’ve searched
And this is just YouTube: the main platform is X
I mean. You could argue that ‘well they have to watch all 2 hours 14 minutes of it before it has any impact’ but then that would be silly. And you’re not a silly man
But what is a 'view'?
Is it an individual watching the whole interview from start to finish? Or is it a Russian bot adding a value onto the counter to claim a view?
Or is it both?
There are probably only ten people in the whole world who have seen that interview from start to finish. Two of those are Tucker Carlson and Vladimir Putin. The other seven is the camera crew forced to film that pile of shite, and the final person is the CIA operative who drew short straw and had to write a report on the whole thing.
Personally I can"t be arsed to watch 2 hours of an interview with anyone. I watched a highlights video. I might have a longer version on in the background at some point. I don't think we can really see watching the whole thing all the wsy through as tbe yardstick of success for the initiative. But maybe I'm wrong.
That the interview occurred at all is newsworthy but we are in dog walking on its hindlegs territory. There does not seem to be much that has come out of it. Perhaps after Putin blamed Boris for sabotaging peace, Carlson should have asked if the same terms are still on the table. (Maybe he did, I've not watched it, but we'd have heard by now.)
Who gives a monkey's chuff. 2 hours of a mental murdering despot, being butt licked by a thick publicity hungry American crapbag, as he talks verbal diahorrea. I would not even deign to look at a headline about it, by morons for morons.
That’s not quite the words I would choose, but on this occasion your assessment is entirely accurate
There was one key bit in there tbf. Is Putin only after Ukraine or would that be just the start?
Leon has deduced from the interview, by careful observation of his words and body language, that it's just Ukraine. He will go no further. Not fussed.
This has huge ramifications.
Well, VVP has 20% of Ukraine after 10 years of trying so he can want what the fuck he wants but there are no means to get it.
Our man in the Phnom Penh Premier Inn does extract a good point from Carlson/Putin that is worth restating. For VVP and almost all Russians, Ukraine (minus the Zakarpattia, Lviv and Chernivitsi oblasts) is part of the Russkiy Mir. It isn't just another country they have invaded for lols.
Now, the ultras can stranglewank on about how it legally is another country, blah, blah but that doesn't change the reality of how the Russians feel about it.
Well, into every life, a little rain must fall. Russians will just have to come to terms with the Ukrainians don’t want them.
After the story of the six year old girl in the taxi that led the BBC news and the brilliant report 'from our own cotrrespondent' you'd have to be pretty sick to continue supporting Netanyahu or Israel in any shape or form. Yesterday's pictures of the blown out ambulence with it's two paramedics dead inside just made it even more unbearable.
It was a major topic of conversation at an event I went to yesterday in Nice. It could turn into as iconic an image as the burning Vietnamese girl. It's difficult to knows how it's running across the rest of Europe.
Support for Israel on this is down to those who don't view Palestinians as proper 3d human beings.
That seems to be a UK thing. Perhaps it's the same thing as Brexit. This idea of British exceptionalism. The 'Zulu' mentality. Some of the posts on here are just alarming. Some of the brightest as wisest and most interesting people I've met are Arabs. They have a wisdom that goes back centuries. So many here just see them as the Indians in the cowboys and Indians that they grew up with
I can't claim similar exposure but yes I do detect a "them arabs are inferior to them Israelis" mindset underlying some of the commentary.
Understandably so.
Israel beats the Arabs in every war.
Israel is a reasonably successful, developed and democratic country whereas Arab countries tend not to be.
While, on a wider level, Jews have produced countless brilliant scientists, artists, writers, musicians, bankers, businessmen, politicians etc whereas Arabs haven't.
Its this 'overachievement' by Jews which drives most of the dislike and fear of them in the western world in addition to some respect and admiration.
Yeah, where are the Arab achievements in chemistry, or algebra, or the exciting world of computer algorithms?
(That’s sarcasm BTW.)
You tell us.
And when they happened.
You'd have to google or wiki them because apart from Omar Khayyam they're not household names.
Or perhaps we could have a look at say Noble prize winners to compare more recent achievements.
Not a very long list:
The 1999 Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to Ahmed Zewail "for his studies of the transition states of chemical reactions using femtosecond spectroscopy"
The 2023 Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to Moungi Bawendi "for the discovery and development of quantum dots"
The 1988 Nobel Prize in Literature was given to Naguib Mahfouz "who, through works rich in nuance—now clear-sightedly realistic, now evocatively ambiguous—has formed an Arabian narrative art that applies to all mankind"
Plus four more for the Peace prize - Anwar Sadat's was certainly deserved.
Jews have been awarded all six of the Nobel Foundation's awards:[3]
Chemistry: 36 (19% of total) Economics: 38 (41% of total) Literature: 16 (13% of total) Peace: 9 (8% of total) Physics: 56 (25% of total) Physiology or Medicine: 59 (26% of total)
Bring back Boris Johnson, Kwasi Kwarteng tells Rishi Sunak Ex-chancellor calls on Sunak to ‘swallow some pride’ and bring back ‘electoral force’ that is former PM
I often criticise the UK defence industry, the MOD etc. But sometimes they do pull off minor miracles. Here's one: field-expedient improvised surface-to-air launchers, known as "FrankenSAMs". Product of the UK. Used in Ukraine.
It’s amazing what an actual war can do for military technology and improvisation.
We have hundreds of AAMs, and it’s difficult to adapt them for Ukranian planes, and they’re expensive to keep flying and don’t want to lose them, so lets turn the AAMs into SAMs and put them on the back of a truck. Instant fixed air defences for key targets.
See also the hobby drones carrying grenades, the drones used to spot artillery strikes, and dozens of other improvised equipment deployed in this war.
Comments
https://www1.politicalbetting.com/index.php/archives/2022/05/02/why-ukraine-was-particularly-vulnerable/
"Da" 92.3%
"Nyet" 7.7%
They can believe Ukraine's a 'natural part of Russia' but that doesn't make it true, or reasonable.
And they signed treaties saying the 40m are correct.
If Russia doesn’t learn that it can’t retake its empire by force, then there is no limit on what it might do in the longer term.
It’s entirely in our self interest to stop them.
Even with the Wagner Comedy Routine it was about prosecuting the war more viciously, not ending it.
For those who broadly support Israel (though are often critical of Netanyahu and his goons' approach), the horror is a product of Hamas (and their backers) having a genocidal ideology which is prepared to ensure the slaughter their own people with the aim of engineering a conflict which puts Israel in Zugzwang.
By that I mean that by embedding themselves so deeply within civilian infrastructure in Gaza and using it to carry out attacks like 7 October, not to mention the endless rockets, they leave Israel with a horrible choice. Accepting a well-funded army intent on their destruction on their border, or a level of civilian Palestinian casualties that is both horrifying and diplomatically disastrous. Hamas' leaders have said as much - stating that the death of millions of Palestinians would be worth it if it destroys Israel.
Alternatively, if you're someone who is either openly 'anti-Zionist' or so queasy about the existence of Israel you'd rather it sort of went away without thinking about the consequences of that, then any military response by Israel was illegitimate from the start. Hence why protests began on 8 October.
Sadly, the views are so polarised and the extreme versions of them feed off each other that little can change them. As those with different views are often rooting them in entirely different sets of facts and understandings of the history of the conflict and what that means in the here and now.
And no one is prepared to admit that those who take a different view aren't heartless murderous so-and-so's but merely have a different understanding of blame and where all this ends up.
As Decrepiter John says, this should give labour some leeway to say something.
https://x.com/skynews/status/1756422757259076065?s=61
That said, I'm struggling to think of any Tsar who made it past Brezhnev's 76. And he was definitely senile by the end of it.
But after that initial few centuries Islam was too much of a 'religion of the book' for further development and intellectual stability set in.
Bet he’s got his fingers crossed
First he "scuttles his own flag ship" in the words of Rawnsley on Green New Deal scrapping and then his by-election candidate comes up with some conspiracy theory stuff after nominations closed.
He was generally viewed to have had a good war and managed to take the credit for Kiev and Kherson. His star was in the descendant after Bakhmut where, in a much memed phrase, he described the Russian forces as "semi-encircled" just before the city fell. He has also taken a lot of, much deserved, shit for stashing his son far beyond the reaches of the mobilisation effort in Australia.
However, his capacity for strident denial of reality (semi-encirclement) is very much up Green T-Shirt's street after the unhelpful pessimism of Zaluzhniy.
Also, Putin and many Russians really don’t see it as part of empire. That’s the point. They think it was unnaturally cleaved from Russia by the commies then the break up of the USSR
And the best analogy I can think of is the lakes of England. Culturally integral to us - the romantic poets! - albeit on the edge of the country
They have that going on with Pushkin and Crimea and Odessa
How would we feel if the EU, during Brexit, dispossessed us of the English lakes?
I’m not trying to justify the evil invasion, merely illustrate the mindset
Doesn't Putin insist that any stranger undergoes a very thorough medical examination before being allowed near him ?
If so then Tucker really has bent over for Putin.
That said, the political system was very different and, I would judge, somewhat more resilient. Even allowing for Stalin's megalomania the Soviet Union had a much more collegiate leadership than Putin has allowed.
Great to be here doorknocking and helping out @CllrAzharAli, who'll make a fabulous MP for Rochdale.
https://x.com/paulwaugh/status/1753765511794454634?s=46&t=CW4pL-mMpTqsJXCdjW0Z6Q
Though probably they hadn't anticipated the fight would be so long, or so unsuccessful.
So what?
I don’t expect it to end with Putin.
From 2 December 1991 onwards, Ukraine was globally recognized by other countries as an independent state.[5][6][7] Also on 2 December, the President of the Russian SFSR Boris Yeltsin recognized Ukraine as independent.[8][9][10][11] In a telegram of congratulations Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev sent to Kravchuk soon after the referendum, Gorbachev included his hopes for close Ukrainian cooperation and understanding in "the formation of a union of sovereign states".[12]
Ukraine was the second-most powerful republic in the Soviet Union both economically and politically (behind Russia), and its secession ended any realistic chance of Gorbachev keeping the USSR together. By December 1991 all former Soviet Republics except the RSFSR[13] and the Kazakh SSR[13] had formally seceded from the Union.[14] A week after his election, Kravchuk joined with Yeltsin and Belarusian leader Stanislav Shushkevich in signing the Belavezha Accords, which declared that the Soviet Union had ceased to exist.[15] The USSR officially dissolved on 26 December.[16]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1991_Ukrainian_independence_referendum
I do appreciate having a wide choice of produce available at the supermarket year-round, but my tastes seem to be quite seasonal anyway - it simply wouldn't occur to me to have raspberries at the moment.
Lots of wild garlic has suddenly popped up near where I am in London. Smells amazing, and I'm now properly craving the stuff.
I had in fact typed "sense" there - to kind of take the piss out of you - but then I changed it to "view" because I'm bored of doing that.
There is nothing to say his replacement won't similarly make a symmetrical horlicks of Gaza too, going full-frontal Jezbollah.
Dave and Rishi have played the game brilliantly.
How would we feel if the Scots voted for independence might be slightly closer.
And then President HYUFD sent tanks in to retake Scotland.
Poland is 0.67
Spain is 1.4
Germany is 4.25
U.K. is 3.1
US is 23.3
Having a pile of gently rusting weapons isn’t a substitute for real, economic power.
Russia has embraced the Resource Curse - dependency on natural resource revenue strangling the rest of the economy. This is because dictators love resource economy - a small number of places to control the money.
(What is it good for?) Absolutely nothing, uhuh
(Waugh, huh) Yeah!
(What is it good for?) Absolutely nothing
Say it again, y'all!
(Waugh, huh) Lookout!
(What is it good for?) Absolutely nothing
Listen to me, awwwww!
With thanks to Edwin Starr
Do we abandon Israel? We don't, despite often disagreeing with its conduct, as the consequences for its people would be a stain on history and have huge impacts on the wider world. 8 million Jews being forced to flee (again) or face murder and oppression is not something we can allow morally of and in itself, nor do so without the entire rules-based order collapsing.
Similar surely applies to Ukraine - where if abandoning millions of people to oppression and torture from those who brought them the Holodomor, then it's not a pragmatism I want any part of. Nor one which will ultimately prove pragmatic in the end given the consequences.
I guess Leon might have gleaned something relevant to this from the Carlson interview?
This is turning into a circus.
And Russia is fifth in the world by that metric, leapfrogging Germany this year and behind just China, USA, India and Japan
Russia is England
Ukraine is Ireland
Crimea is Northern Ireland
Belarus is Scotland
Wales is the Caucasus.
Hitler expanded his dreams as long as he kept on rolling double 6.
Maybe Northumberland but it lacks the cultural stuff. Cornwall?
Are we back to “not real Britains”?
Was when Ms Badenoch was trade secretary, though, so not I/C PO.
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/feb/11/kemi-badenoch-failed-to-raise-horizon-scandal-when-she-met-fujitsu-at-davos
UK EURef 2016:
LEAVE 52%
REMAIN 48%
or
Ukrainian Independence 1991:
DA 92%
NYET 8%
He has called EVERYTHING about this conflict wrong because he is not impartial.
Are you on drugs ?
Plus Ukrainian sounds like Russian spoken with a Geordie accent so I've think you've nailed it.
No KFC, Stella and a fishing Rod in Rothbury these days. Nice place Rothbury.
And as we see today, this attitude can be found quite high up in the party
I’m quite looking forward to Labour being in power so we can finally attack them for the woke anti white anti semitic traitors that they are. Should be lolz
Talking Pictures TV.
Watched Vault of Death on there the other night.
https://x.com/dailymirror/status/1756632765984887251?s=61
And in a sense it was the cradle of Englishness the same way as Kievan Rus etc etc
And the mining/heavy industry is shared with Co Durham.
But you have the Reivers and the Border Ballads.
Israel have the right to defend themselves, but Bibi does not have a free hand to save his career by killing 2.2m Gazans. Starmer doesn't understand this. whilst Dave and Rishi do.
https://x.com/guidofawkes/status/1756638206026543337?s=46&t=CW4pL-mMpTqsJXCdjW0Z6Q
If you want the equivalent of Northumberland it would by Novgorod not Kharkiv.
Meanwhile Russia still can’t get domestic tractor production sorted out.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-68249043
'As demand for oil and gas peaks, and competitor production from the Arabian Gulf comes on-stream in the coming year, Russia will be exposed.'
I don't know if rcs or someone else can explain this. More production from OPEC?
I don't know why anyone is taking the stories about Russian economic growth seriously. We don't know what the actual picture is. They are not releasing information in the way you would normally expect.
(That’s sarcasm BTW.)
The Atlantic
@TheAtlantic
·
8h
"The leader of one of America’s two major political parties has just signaled to the Kremlin that if elected, he would not only refuse to defend Europe, but he would gladly support Vladimir Putin," writes
@RadioFreeTom
https://twitter.com/TheAtlantic/status/1756526787176095775
If you're insisting on historical comparisons rather than analogy, then maybe Ireland should enter the chat.
Ex-chancellor calls on Sunak to ‘swallow some pride’ and bring back ‘electoral force’ that is former PM
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2024/feb/11/bring-back-boris-johnson-kwasi-kwarteng-tells-rishi-sunak
Kwarteng attempting to stir the pot. I wonder what role he thinks should be offered to Boris?
Still bits of heavy industry. Mining long since gone.
I used to work in Jarra. Place closed. Was there 9 months. Got 3 months tax free pay off.
Cashback.
And when they happened.
You'd have to google or wiki them because apart from Omar Khayyam they're not household names.
Or perhaps we could have a look at say Noble prize winners to compare more recent achievements.
So you've got a prescription and that makes it legal
Now find the excuses overwhelmingly feeble
You go to the doctor, you need pills for sleeping
Well if you can convince him, I guess that's not cheating
See your daughter's depressed we'll get her straight on the Prozac
But little do you know, she already takes crack
From Lily Allen in 2008
But in all honesty, who cares what an about to be ex MP thinks?
They are there to represent their constituents in the House of Commons.
If the locals feel strongly enough that their views need to be represented on an aspect of foreign policy then they are entitled to vote on that basis and not to have you whine about it.
Labour knew *exactly* what they were doing. This was not bad due diligence. It was entirely cynical. Their mistake was getting caught.
https://x.com/mikegapes/status/1756643877295919360?s=61
A. Octopus Prime!
The 1999 Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to Ahmed Zewail "for his studies of the transition states of chemical reactions using femtosecond spectroscopy"
The 2023 Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to Moungi Bawendi "for the discovery and development of quantum dots"
The 1988 Nobel Prize in Literature was given to Naguib Mahfouz "who, through works rich in nuance—now clear-sightedly realistic, now evocatively ambiguous—has formed an Arabian narrative art that applies to all mankind"
Plus four more for the Peace prize - Anwar Sadat's was certainly deserved.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Muslim_Nobel_laureates
Compared with:
Jews have been awarded all six of the Nobel Foundation's awards:[3]
Chemistry: 36 (19% of total)
Economics: 38 (41% of total)
Literature: 16 (13% of total)
Peace: 9 (8% of total)
Physics: 56 (25% of total)
Physiology or Medicine: 59 (26% of total)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Jewish_Nobel_laureates
We have hundreds of AAMs, and it’s difficult to adapt them for Ukranian planes, and they’re expensive to keep flying and don’t want to lose them, so lets turn the AAMs into SAMs and put them on the back of a truck. Instant fixed air defences for key targets.
See also the hobby drones carrying grenades, the drones used to spot artillery strikes, and dozens of other improvised equipment deployed in this war.