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A 50% return in fewer than three months? – politicalbetting.com

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  • Sean_FSean_F Posts: 37,141

    kinabalu said:

    kinabalu said:

    Roger said:

    kinabalu said:

    Roger said:

    Taz said:

    Labours problem with their pro slaughter stance on Gaza, as some of their core vote perceives it.

    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2024/feb/10/labour-mps-facing-wave-of-independent-challengers-over-stance-on-gaza

    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 were three great Islamic States in 1700. The Ottomans, the Moghuls and Persia. The Moghul State rapidly fell apart, for reasons I don’t understand. The Ottomans and Persia remained potent well into the 18th century, before entering their decline.

    Why they failed to modernise successfully is the big question.
  • StillWatersStillWaters Posts: 8,095

    kamski said:



    Probably Carlson is happy with the extra publicity. He might not care that lots of it is bad publicity, but it hasn't done his claim to be a journalist much good.

    But has the interview persuaded anyone that Putin is the good guy here? I doubt it. In that sense it fell flat.

    And in real life I haven't seen any interest whatsoever, have you?

    Even on here there is only a meta-argument about how big a deal the interview was, rather than any discussion of the interview itself.

    The reality, of course, is that most of these things change minds very rarely.

    MAGA isn't going to do anything other than continue to think Trump-Putin are the best thing since sliced bread.
    Democrats will continue to oppose Trump-Putin.

    Maybe, just maybe, a few non-MAGA Republicans will think, "That Putin fellow is a bit unhinged. He spent thirty minutes talking about something called the Kievan Rus and Novgorod." It might sway them a little against.

    I mean, excepting Europa Universalis fanatics, who here has heard of Kievan Rus and Novgorod?


    🙋‍♂️

    Me sir! Pick me!
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 49,586
    A
    Sandpit said:

    viewcode said:

    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.

    "Ukraine's ASRAAM Franken-SAM", The Armourer's Bench, YouTube, 4mins, see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EFPFFuAwt-U

    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.
    There’s also the whole “doctrine say no” issue

    Plenty of people, before the war were arguing that exactly this kind of thing should be done. Most tests of air launched missile are actually ground launched - some of the launchers we are seeing are derived from those test launchers.

    Same with drones.
  • HarperHarper Posts: 197
    Leon said:

    glw said:

    Eabhal said:

    nico679 said:

    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
    Leon said:

    Chris said:

    Dura_Ace said:

    kinabalu said:


    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
    Agreed. Western gdp is artificially inflated by financial trickery. Look at russia debt to gdp compared to America. Its like the guy who appears much richer than you but puts half his spending on his credit card. Also i would wager the citixens of moscow are likely better off than those of Barnsley.
  • HarperHarper Posts: 197
    This is Andrew Tates view of what Putin said.

    For all of the conservatives disappointed in the Putin interview.

    Think twice.

    We expected Putin to save us, to tell the truths which would ignite nationalism and sensibilities in the west.

    THINK.

    TWICE.

    Putin highlighted repeatedly the west will never be his ally or treat him fairly.

    He understands this deeply.

    Why would Putin want to fix the America border crisis?

    Why would Putin want to end the Ukraine war which is inflating and destroying European nations?

    He’s not afraid and he’s not going to lose that war.

    Why would Putin want to fix the west and inspire patriotism which boosts morale and the western armed forces?

    Understand.

    He knows all the things we wanted to hear and he’s said them 100 times to Russian state media.

    He didn’t say them to the west for a reason.

    Putin isn’t here to save us patriotic westerners.

    Putin wants to save Russia.

    The west is toast and he’s fine with that because he’s made it very clear we are forever rivals.

    He has new friends. New currencies.

    New trading partners.

    He gave everyone a boring history lesson that nobody wanted to hear as a flex.

    He did that on purpose.

    To disappoint and bore us.

    “Ask your leaders” he told Tucker over 10 times.

    I’m not here to save the sensible citizens left in the west.

    I’m here to save Russia.

    We are his enemy and we are making mistakes.

    Putin is smart.

    “Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake.

    Napoleon Bonaparte”
    3:56 PM · Feb 10, 2024
    ·
    4.1M
    Views

    https://x.com/Cobratate/status/1756346416308408704?s=20
  • Sean_FSean_F Posts: 37,141
    Harper said:

    Leon said:

    glw said:

    Eabhal said:

    nico679 said:

    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
    Leon said:

    Chris said:

    Dura_Ace said:

    kinabalu said:


    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
    Agreed. Western gdp is artificially inflated by financial trickery. Look at russia debt to gdp compared to America. Its like the guy who appears much richer than you but puts half his spending on his credit card. Also i would wager the citixens of moscow are likely better off than those of Barnsley.
    Unlikely.
  • another_richardanother_richard Posts: 26,470
    edited February 11
    Harper said:

    Leon said:

    glw said:

    Eabhal said:

    nico679 said:

    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
    Leon said:

    Chris said:

    Dura_Ace said:

    kinabalu said:


    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
    Agreed. Western gdp is artificially inflated by financial trickery. Look at russia debt to gdp compared to America. Its like the guy who appears much richer than you but puts half his spending on his credit card. Also i would wager the citixens of moscow are likely better off than those of Barnsley.
    A flat in a Moscow tower block.

    Now that would give something for a Monty Python Yorkshireman to boast about.

    Edit: That's probably a shared flat in a Moscow Tower block.
  • OldKingColeOldKingCole Posts: 33,344
    kjh said:

    kjh said:

    Roger said:

    This is a bigger victory than Waterloo.

    Michelin-star chef prefers to serve British cheese instead of French

    French chef Claude Bosi says 'evolution' of British cheese has been 'amazing' compared to 25 years ago when there was 'hardly any choice'


    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/02/10/michelin-star-chef-british-cheese-french-claude-bosi/

    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 ;)
    Would that I were get out of the house without help. Or drive myself.
  • SandpitSandpit Posts: 54,314
    edited February 11
    Okay, this is funny. Crowd trouble at a golf tournament in Phoenix, AZ, as 200k fans turned up and there was nowhere for them to sit, because earlier rain had turned most of the embankments into mudslides. They had to close the bars to get fans to leave.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/golf/2024/02/11/waste-management-open-chaos-fans-fighting-beer-phoenix/
  • HarperHarper Posts: 197
    Rumours that Zelensky is about to flee the country.

    UKRAINE: Ukrainian opposition leader Viktor Medvedchuk revealed that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is preparing to flee the country after acquiring a luxury apartment in Dubai worth nearly $17 million.

    https://x.com/peacemaket71/status/1756580471910121913?s=20
  • SandpitSandpit Posts: 54,314
    Harper said:

    Leon said:

    glw said:

    Eabhal said:

    nico679 said:

    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
    Leon said:

    Chris said:

    Dura_Ace said:

    kinabalu said:


    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
    Agreed. Western gdp is artificially inflated by financial trickery. Look at russia debt to gdp compared to America. Its like the guy who appears much richer than you but puts half his spending on his credit card. Also i would wager the citixens of moscow are likely better off than those of Barnsley.
    Most of the actual rich in Moscow, got the hell out of there two years ago. The Putin sycophants are still there of course, but anyone with money and means has left for Dubai or Singapore.

    https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-06-14/world-s-wealthy-flock-to-uae-as-war-spurs-russian-capital-flight
  • HarperHarper Posts: 197
    Sean_F said:

    Harper said:

    Leon said:

    glw said:

    Eabhal said:

    nico679 said:

    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
    Leon said:

    Chris said:

    Dura_Ace said:

    kinabalu said:


    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
    Agreed. Western gdp is artificially inflated by financial trickery. Look at russia debt to gdp compared to America. Its like the guy who appears much richer than you but puts half his spending on his credit card. Also i would wager the citixens of moscow are likely better off than those of Barnsley.
    Unlikely.
    This from quora.

    Without doubt, Moscow is one of the largest and richest megalopolises in the world. It is a financial center of Russia, the biggest and resource-richest country. As a person, who lives in Russia, I could definitely say that Moscow is a desirable place for every Russian citizen, because the level of life varies x10-x100 times, depending on the Russian region that we are comparing with the capital.
  • kinabalukinabalu Posts: 41,947
    Leon said:

    kinabalu said:

    kinabalu said:

    Dura_Ace said:

    kinabalu said:


    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
    Yes yes. Whatever. Yet our sense/view of Putin, the man, the mission, isn't really at odds, is it.

    So there you go. I'd just say I'm a touch more efficient in arriving at it.

    You're the pimped up old Chevvy, furiously revving and kangarooing along, I'm a Lexus saloon.
  • Harper said:

    Rumours that Zelensky is about to flee the country.

    UKRAINE: Ukrainian opposition leader Viktor Medvedchuk revealed that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is preparing to flee the country after acquiring a luxury apartment in Dubai worth nearly $17 million.

    https://x.com/peacemaket71/status/1756580471910121913?s=20

    Is that all you've got ?

    Putin's mate says ...
  • HarperHarper Posts: 197
    And this

    Since I have lived in Moscow for a long time, I can say that Moscow has become a real European city.

    First of all, it has a terrific infrastructure. There are a few cities in the world which have such an intelligent and effective way of transport system.

    Secondly, Moscow is one of the most popular tourists’ destinations. There are a lot of museums, exhibitions, theatres, parks that everyone should visit.

    Also, there are a lot of types of entertainment there. You can go to a fancy restaurant or visit a modern art exhibition. Take a code to go and walk around a park.

    And want is most important, one can feel themselves absolutely safe.

    Come and visit Moscow!
  • ydoethurydoethur Posts: 71,154
    Harper said:

    Sean_F said:

    Harper said:

    Leon said:

    glw said:

    Eabhal said:

    nico679 said:

    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
    Leon said:

    Chris said:

    Dura_Ace said:

    kinabalu said:


    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
    Agreed. Western gdp is artificially inflated by financial trickery. Look at russia debt to gdp compared to America. Its like the guy who appears much richer than you but puts half his spending on his credit card. Also i would wager the citixens of moscow are likely better off than those of Barnsley.
    Unlikely.
    This from quora.

    Without doubt, Moscow is one of the largest and richest megalopolises in the world. It is a financial center of Russia, the biggest and resource-richest country. As a person, who lives in Russia, I could definitely say that Moscow is a desirable place for every Russian citizen, because the level of life varies x10-x100 times, depending on the Russian region that we are comparing with the capital.
    Well, there we have it…
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 49,586
    Harper said:

    Leon said:

    glw said:

    Eabhal said:

    nico679 said:

    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
    Leon said:

    Chris said:

    Dura_Ace said:

    kinabalu said:


    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
    Agreed. Western gdp is artificially inflated by financial trickery. Look at russia debt to gdp compared to America. Its like the guy who appears much richer than you but puts half his spending on his credit card. Also i would wager the citixens of moscow are likely better off than those of Barnsley.
    Sometimes it’s who agrees with you that is the biggest sign.
  • Sandpit said:

    Okay, this is funny. Crowd trouble at a golf tournament in Phoenix, AZ, as 200k fans turned up and there was nowhere for them to sit, because earlier rain had turned most of the embankments into mudslides.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/golf/2024/02/11/waste-management-open-chaos-fans-fighting-beer-phoenix/

    Chaos marred the third round of the Waste Management Open in Phoenix as the gates were shut and alcohol sales halted with social media videos going viral of drunkenness, arrests and at least fight breaking out.

    Sounds like plenty of work being created for the sponsor.
  • HarperHarper Posts: 197
    ydoethur said:

    Harper said:

    Sean_F said:

    Harper said:

    Leon said:

    glw said:

    Eabhal said:

    nico679 said:

    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
    Leon said:

    Chris said:

    Dura_Ace said:

    kinabalu said:


    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
    Agreed. Western gdp is artificially inflated by financial trickery. Look at russia debt to gdp compared to America. Its like the guy who appears much richer than you but puts half his spending on his credit card. Also i would wager the citixens of moscow are likely better off than those of Barnsley.
    Unlikely.
    This from quora.

    Without doubt, Moscow is one of the largest and richest megalopolises in the world. It is a financial center of Russia, the biggest and resource-richest country. As a person, who lives in Russia, I could definitely say that Moscow is a desirable place for every Russian citizen, because the level of life varies x10-x100 times, depending on the Russian region that we are comparing with the capital.
    Well, there we have it…
    I said it was from quora. That was someone else speaking.
  • ydoethurydoethur Posts: 71,154
    Harper said:

    Rumours that Zelensky is about to flee the country.

    UKRAINE: Ukrainian opposition leader Viktor Medvedchuk revealed that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is preparing to flee the country after acquiring a luxury apartment in Dubai worth nearly $17 million.

    https://x.com/peacemaket71/status/1756580471910121913?s=20

    he does, of course, live in Russia. On account of having fled the country, well, being handed over to Moscow after being imprisoned for treason. If that’s the same thing.
  • LeonLeon Posts: 54,677

    .

    kinabalu said:

    Roger said:

    kinabalu said:

    Roger said:

    Taz said:

    Labours problem with their pro slaughter stance on Gaza, as some of their core vote perceives it.

    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2024/feb/10/labour-mps-facing-wave-of-independent-challengers-over-stance-on-gaza

    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.)
    The Muslim world is largely an intellectual dead zone


    ‘The reading rate of an Arab individual is a quarter of a page a year compared with 11 books in the US and seven books in the UK, according to a study conducted by the Supreme Council of Culture in Egypt.’



    https://en.unesco.org/creativity/policy-monitoring-platform/arab-reading-challenge#:~:text=The reading rate of an,Council of Culture in Egypt.
  • FF43FF43 Posts: 17,208
    Harper said:

    This is Andrew Tates view of what Putin said.

    For all of the conservatives disappointed in the Putin interview.

    Think twice.

    We expected Putin to save us, to tell the truths which would ignite nationalism and sensibilities in the west.

    THINK.

    TWICE.

    Putin highlighted repeatedly the west will never be his ally or treat him fairly.

    He understands this deeply.

    Why would Putin want to fix the America border crisis?

    Why would Putin want to end the Ukraine war which is inflating and destroying European nations?

    He’s not afraid and he’s not going to lose that war.

    Why would Putin want to fix the west and inspire patriotism which boosts morale and the western armed forces?

    Understand.

    He knows all the things we wanted to hear and he’s said them 100 times to Russian state media.

    He didn’t say them to the west for a reason.

    Putin isn’t here to save us patriotic westerners.

    Putin wants to save Russia.

    The west is toast and he’s fine with that because he’s made it very clear we are forever rivals.

    He has new friends. New currencies.

    New trading partners.

    He gave everyone a boring history lesson that nobody wanted to hear as a flex.

    He did that on purpose.

    To disappoint and bore us.

    “Ask your leaders” he told Tucker over 10 times.

    I’m not here to save the sensible citizens left in the west.

    I’m here to save Russia.

    We are his enemy and we are making mistakes.

    Putin is smart.

    “Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake.

    Napoleon Bonaparte”
    3:56 PM · Feb 10, 2024
    ·
    4.1M
    Views

    https://x.com/Cobratate/status/1756346416308408704?s=20

    Great! So someone charged with rape, human trafficking and organised crime offences is our go-to for pontifications on all things Putin.
  • Harper said:

    Sean_F said:

    Harper said:

    Leon said:

    glw said:

    Eabhal said:

    nico679 said:

    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
    Leon said:

    Chris said:

    Dura_Ace said:

    kinabalu said:


    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
    Agreed. Western gdp is artificially inflated by financial trickery. Look at russia debt to gdp compared to America. Its like the guy who appears much richer than you but puts half his spending on his credit card. Also i would wager the citixens of moscow are likely better off than those of Barnsley.
    Unlikely.
    This from quora.

    Without doubt, Moscow is one of the largest and richest megalopolises in the world. It is a financial center of Russia, the biggest and resource-richest country. As a person, who lives in Russia, I could definitely say that Moscow is a desirable place for every Russian citizen, because the level of life varies x10-x100 times, depending on the Russian region that we are comparing with the capital.
    So Moscow is a shithole but the rest of Russia is 10x to 100x worse ???

    How desirable the country is.
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 49,586
    Harper said:

    ydoethur said:

    Harper said:

    Sean_F said:

    Harper said:

    Leon said:

    glw said:

    Eabhal said:

    nico679 said:

    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
    Leon said:

    Chris said:

    Dura_Ace said:

    kinabalu said:


    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
    Agreed. Western gdp is artificially inflated by financial trickery. Look at russia debt to gdp compared to America. Its like the guy who appears much richer than you but puts half his spending on his credit card. Also i would wager the citixens of moscow are likely better off than those of Barnsley.
    Unlikely.
    This from quora.

    Without doubt, Moscow is one of the largest and richest megalopolises in the world. It is a financial center of Russia, the biggest and resource-richest country. As a person, who lives in Russia, I could definitely say that Moscow is a desirable place for every Russian citizen, because the level of life varies x10-x100 times, depending on the Russian region that we are comparing with the capital.
    Well, there we have it…
    I said it was from quora. That was someone else speaking.
    I’ve been to Moscow.

    Outside the usual rich bit (pretty much every capital city round the world has a bit as expensive and nice as Knightsbridge), it falls off very rapidly.

    Most people in Moscow live worse than most people in Poland, I would say.

    Outside Moscow… Slough and Bedford are better. Literally.
  • ydoethur said:

    Harper said:

    Sean_F said:

    Harper said:

    Leon said:

    glw said:

    Eabhal said:

    nico679 said:

    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
    Leon said:

    Chris said:

    Dura_Ace said:

    kinabalu said:


    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
    Agreed. Western gdp is artificially inflated by financial trickery. Look at russia debt to gdp compared to America. Its like the guy who appears much richer than you but puts half his spending on his credit card. Also i would wager the citixens of moscow are likely better off than those of Barnsley.
    Unlikely.
    This from quora.

    Without doubt, Moscow is one of the largest and richest megalopolises in the world. It is a financial center of Russia, the biggest and resource-richest country. As a person, who lives in Russia, I could definitely say that Moscow is a desirable place for every Russian citizen, because the level of life varies x10-x100 times, depending on the Russian region that we are comparing with the capital.
    Well, there we have it…
    Let's countdown...
  • Am now watching videos on that channel linked to earlier about the coming US civil war. Am starting to see how Leon sees the world…
  • LeonLeon Posts: 54,677

    Harper said:

    Leon said:

    glw said:

    Eabhal said:

    nico679 said:

    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
    Leon said:

    Chris said:

    Dura_Ace said:

    kinabalu said:


    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
    Agreed. Western gdp is artificially inflated by financial trickery. Look at russia debt to gdp compared to America. Its like the guy who appears much richer than you but puts half his spending on his credit card. Also i would wager the citixens of moscow are likely better off than those of Barnsley.
    Sometimes it’s who agrees with you that is the biggest sign.
    Agreed
  • GhedebravGhedebrav Posts: 3,860

    Harper said:

    Rumours that Zelensky is about to flee the country.

    UKRAINE: Ukrainian opposition leader Viktor Medvedchuk revealed that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is preparing to flee the country after acquiring a luxury apartment in Dubai worth nearly $17 million.

    https://x.com/peacemaket71/status/1756580471910121913?s=20

    Is that all you've got ?

    Putin's mate says ...
    I think we need to check the sock drawer.
  • MexicanpeteMexicanpete Posts: 28,190
    edited February 11
    ...
    Harper said:

    Rumours that Zelensky is about to flee the country.

    UKRAINE: Ukrainian opposition leader Viktor Medvedchuk revealed that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is preparing to flee the country after acquiring a luxury apartment in Dubai worth nearly $17 million.

    https://x.com/peacemaket71/status/1756580471910121913?s=20

    Would he want all those enabled by Putin shills living next door to him in Dubai?

    190 is a good score for a Saturday troll, but that post was as close to Putin propaganda as those who don't last to double figures manage.
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 49,586
    A
    Ghedebrav said:

    Harper said:

    Rumours that Zelensky is about to flee the country.

    UKRAINE: Ukrainian opposition leader Viktor Medvedchuk revealed that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is preparing to flee the country after acquiring a luxury apartment in Dubai worth nearly $17 million.

    https://x.com/peacemaket71/status/1756580471910121913?s=20

    Is that all you've got ?

    Putin's mate says ...
    I think we need to check the sock drawer.
    I thought they’d stolen all the socks already, along with the toilets?
  • SandpitSandpit Posts: 54,314
    edited February 11

    Sandpit said:

    Okay, this is funny. Crowd trouble at a golf tournament in Phoenix, AZ, as 200k fans turned up and there was nowhere for them to sit, because earlier rain had turned most of the embankments into mudslides.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/golf/2024/02/11/waste-management-open-chaos-fans-fighting-beer-phoenix/

    Chaos marred the third round of the Waste Management Open in Phoenix as the gates were shut and alcohol sales halted with social media videos going viral of drunkenness, arrests and at least fight breaking out.

    Sounds like plenty of work being created for the sponsor.
    Ha yes. It seems that this particular tournament is the party of the golf tour in the US, with loads of people in fancy dress and drinking in the morning. The first couple of days had crap weather so the crowds stayed away, only for everyone to turn up on Day 3 and overwhelm the facilities. It’s also Superb Owl weekend, when millions of Americans take Monday off work.
  • CarnyxCarnyx Posts: 42,639

    .

    kinabalu said:

    Roger said:

    kinabalu said:

    Roger said:

    Taz said:

    Labours problem with their pro slaughter stance on Gaza, as some of their core vote perceives it.

    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2024/feb/10/labour-mps-facing-wave-of-independent-challengers-over-stance-on-gaza

    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.
    Al-Khwarizmi off the top of my head. Al-Jabr. You might like to consider what English words stem from those, when you are not busy trying to count without the zero and in Roman (or, still worse, Greek) numerals.
  • HarperHarper Posts: 197
    Leon said:

    Harper said:

    Leon said:

    glw said:

    Eabhal said:

    nico679 said:

    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
    Leon said:

    Chris said:

    Dura_Ace said:

    kinabalu said:


    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
    Agreed. Western gdp is artificially inflated by financial trickery. Look at russia debt to gdp compared to America. Its like the guy who appears much richer than you but puts half his spending on his credit card. Also i would wager the citixens of moscow are likely better off than those of Barnsley.
    Sometimes it’s who agrees with you that is the biggest sign.
    Agreed
    Who knows. Maybr Leon is in the pay of the russians. Stranger things have happened.
  • Harper said:

    ydoethur said:

    Harper said:

    Sean_F said:

    Harper said:

    Leon said:

    glw said:

    Eabhal said:

    nico679 said:

    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
    Leon said:

    Chris said:

    Dura_Ace said:

    kinabalu said:


    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
    Agreed. Western gdp is artificially inflated by financial trickery. Look at russia debt to gdp compared to America. Its like the guy who appears much richer than you but puts half his spending on his credit card. Also i would wager the citixens of moscow are likely better off than those of Barnsley.
    Unlikely.
    This from quora.

    Without doubt, Moscow is one of the largest and richest megalopolises in the world. It is a financial center of Russia, the biggest and resource-richest country. As a person, who lives in Russia, I could definitely say that Moscow is a desirable place for every Russian citizen, because the level of life varies x10-x100 times, depending on the Russian region that we are comparing with the capital.
    Well, there we have it…
    I said it was from quora. That was someone else speaking.
    I’ve been to Moscow.

    Outside the usual rich bit (pretty much every capital city round the world has a bit as expensive and nice as Knightsbridge), it falls off very rapidly.

    Most people in Moscow live worse than most people in Poland, I would say.

    Outside Moscow… Slough and Bedford are better. Literally.
    Bedford, yes, but are you sure about Slough?
  • LeonLeon Posts: 54,677

    Harper said:

    Sean_F said:

    Harper said:

    Leon said:

    glw said:

    Eabhal said:

    nico679 said:

    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
    Leon said:

    Chris said:

    Dura_Ace said:

    kinabalu said:


    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
    Agreed. Western gdp is artificially inflated by financial trickery. Look at russia debt to gdp compared to America. Its like the guy who appears much richer than you but puts half his spending on his credit card. Also i would wager the citixens of moscow are likely better off than those of Barnsley.
    Unlikely.
    This from quora.

    Without doubt, Moscow is one of the largest and richest megalopolises in the world. It is a financial center of Russia, the biggest and resource-richest country. As a person, who lives in Russia, I could definitely say that Moscow is a desirable place for every Russian citizen, because the level of life varies x10-x100 times, depending on the Russian region that we are comparing with the capital.
    So Moscow is a shithole but the rest of Russia is 10x to 100x worse ???

    How desirable the country is.
    Moscow is not a shithole, not any more, not even for the median citizen

    It compares with a mid range Eastern European country, but with a fantastically rich elite - and the restaurants and culture - that come with that, which you do not find in Slovakia, say

    Also, phenomenally lovely women, something one can’t say about slough or Bedford, tbh
  • HarperHarper Posts: 197

    Am now watching videos on that channel linked to earlier about the coming US civil war. Am starting to see how Leon sees the world…

    If you asked maga whether they would rather have biden or putin as president they would say Putin.
  • LeonLeon Posts: 54,677

    ...

    Harper said:

    Rumours that Zelensky is about to flee the country.

    UKRAINE: Ukrainian opposition leader Viktor Medvedchuk revealed that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is preparing to flee the country after acquiring a luxury apartment in Dubai worth nearly $17 million.

    https://x.com/peacemaket71/status/1756580471910121913?s=20

    Would he want all those enabled by Putin shills living next door to him in Dubai?

    190 is a good score for a Saturday troll, but that post was as close to Putin propaganda as those who don't last to double figures manage.
    It is possible Harper is not a troll and is an actual Russian - as he freely admits - posting from Russia -as he says

    Let’s not bully him off the site, fuck sake at least he’s not another accountant or lawyer
  • MexicanpeteMexicanpete Posts: 28,190
    edited February 11
    Harper said:

    Leon said:

    Harper said:

    Leon said:

    glw said:

    Eabhal said:

    nico679 said:

    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
    Leon said:

    Chris said:

    Dura_Ace said:

    kinabalu said:


    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
    Agreed. Western gdp is artificially inflated by financial trickery. Look at russia debt to gdp compared to America. Its like the guy who appears much richer than you but puts half his spending on his credit card. Also i would wager the citixens of moscow are likely better off than those of Barnsley.
    Sometimes it’s who agrees with you that is the biggest sign.
    Agreed
    Who knows. Maybr Leon is in the pay of the russians. Stranger things have happened.
    Maybe. He's probably done a couple of gigs for the Evening Standard.

    P.S. You are a different @Harper to yesterday aren't you? He was much more convincing.
  • DavidLDavidL Posts: 53,706
    Harper said:

    Am now watching videos on that channel linked to earlier about the coming US civil war. Am starting to see how Leon sees the world…

    If you asked maga whether they would rather have biden or putin as president they would say Putin.
    Which is why they are traitors to their own country (as well as being pig ignorant).
  • Harper said:

    Am now watching videos on that channel linked to earlier about the coming US civil war. Am starting to see how Leon sees the world…

    If you asked maga whether they would rather have biden or putin as president they would say Putin.
    Two things are true:
    America is utterly broken
    The answer is not Trump

    MAGA is whipping up the anti-state fervour which will push them over into civil war. Whilst that is a Bad Thing the answer is not to maintain a broken status quo.

    That the idiot DNC do not see this is insane.
  • CarnyxCarnyx Posts: 42,639
    edited February 11

    A

    Sandpit said:

    viewcode said:

    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.

    "Ukraine's ASRAAM Franken-SAM", The Armourer's Bench, YouTube, 4mins, see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EFPFFuAwt-U

    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.
    There’s also the whole “doctrine say no” issue

    Plenty of people, before the war were arguing that exactly this kind of thing should be done. Most tests of air launched missile are actually ground launched - some of the launchers we are seeing are derived from those test launchers.

    Same with drones.
    TBF the US Army put the Sidewinder air to air missile on tracked launchers (Chaparral) within a decade or so of operational capability in the air. About 1970 or so.
  • This thread has just been impeached!

  • HarperHarper Posts: 197
    Leon said:

    Harper said:

    Sean_F said:

    Harper said:

    Leon said:

    glw said:

    Eabhal said:

    nico679 said:

    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
    Leon said:

    Chris said:

    Dura_Ace said:

    kinabalu said:


    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
    Agreed. Western gdp is artificially inflated by financial trickery. Look at russia debt to gdp compared to America. Its like the guy who appears much richer than you but puts half his spending on his credit card. Also i would wager the citixens of moscow are likely better off than those of Barnsley.
    Unlikely.
    This from quora.

    Without doubt, Moscow is one of the largest and richest megalopolises in the world. It is a financial center of Russia, the biggest and resource-richest country. As a person, who lives in Russia, I could definitely say that Moscow is a desirable place for every Russian citizen, because the level of life varies x10-x100 times, depending on the Russian region that we are comparing with the capital.
    So Moscow is a shithole but the rest of Russia is 10x to 100x worse ???

    How desirable the country is.
    Moscow is not a shithole, not any more, not even for the median citizen

    It compares with a mid range Eastern European country, but with a fantastically rich elite - and the restaurants and culture - that come with that, which you do not find in Slovakia, say

    Also, phenomenally lovely women, something one can’t say about slough or Bedford, tbh
    Yes Russian women are gorgeous though quite mercenary. I honestly think we should import masses of russian women if we want to.improve uk economic performance. Men will work their asses off for those beauties.
  • LeonLeon Posts: 54,677
    @harper I am defending you

    Please do not say anything about vaccines, no one cares, and don’t go over the top with the stupid Zelensky rumours

    Otherwise Poyehali!
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 49,586

    Harper said:

    ydoethur said:

    Harper said:

    Sean_F said:

    Harper said:

    Leon said:

    glw said:

    Eabhal said:

    nico679 said:

    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
    Leon said:

    Chris said:

    Dura_Ace said:

    kinabalu said:


    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
    Agreed. Western gdp is artificially inflated by financial trickery. Look at russia debt to gdp compared to America. Its like the guy who appears much richer than you but puts half his spending on his credit card. Also i would wager the citixens of moscow are likely better off than those of Barnsley.
    Unlikely.
    This from quora.

    Without doubt, Moscow is one of the largest and richest megalopolises in the world. It is a financial center of Russia, the biggest and resource-richest country. As a person, who lives in Russia, I could definitely say that Moscow is a desirable place for every Russian citizen, because the level of life varies x10-x100 times, depending on the Russian region that we are comparing with the capital.
    Well, there we have it…
    I said it was from quora. That was someone else speaking.
    I’ve been to Moscow.

    Outside the usual rich bit (pretty much every capital city round the world has a bit as expensive and nice as Knightsbridge), it falls off very rapidly.

    Most people in Moscow live worse than most people in Poland, I would say.

    Outside Moscow… Slough and Bedford are better. Literally.
    Bedford, yes, but are you sure about Slough?
    Yes.

    It was a moment. I was in this small town - stepmother had stopped to get petrol - and I looked around. Then actually said inside my head “This is worse than Slough. Holy Shitsnacks!”

    It was a combination of collapsed First World and fucked up Third World.

    It was as if a bunch of nutters had tried to improve the place, based on a bad postcard of somewhere nice. Only done with no money or sense. And failed half a century ago and left to rot.

    Then we drove through a number of other places just like it.
  • MexicanpeteMexicanpete Posts: 28,190
    Leon said:

    ...

    Harper said:

    Rumours that Zelensky is about to flee the country.

    UKRAINE: Ukrainian opposition leader Viktor Medvedchuk revealed that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is preparing to flee the country after acquiring a luxury apartment in Dubai worth nearly $17 million.

    https://x.com/peacemaket71/status/1756580471910121913?s=20

    Would he want all those enabled by Putin shills living next door to him in Dubai?

    190 is a good score for a Saturday troll, but that post was as close to Putin propaganda as those who don't last to double figures manage.
    It is possible Harper is not a troll and is an actual Russian - as he freely admits - posting from Russia -as he says

    Let’s not bully him off the site, fuck sake at least he’s not another accountant or lawyer
    If he steers clear of anti-vax bollocks I am sure he is welcome.

    I just hope he doesn't try to hijack every thread with nonsense. Now that would be intolerable.
  • HarperHarper Posts: 197
    Leon said:

    @harper I am defending you

    Please do not say anything about vaccines, no one cares, and don’t go over the top with the stupid Zelensky rumours

    Otherwise Poyehali!

    Thanks Leon. You are one of the most interesting people on this site. There a bromance has started lol.
  • MexicanpeteMexicanpete Posts: 28,190
    kinabalu said:

    MJW said:

    Taz said:

    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.

    https://x.com/skynews/status/1756422757259076065?s=61

    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?
    Yes
  • Carnyx said:

    .

    kinabalu said:

    Roger said:

    kinabalu said:

    Roger said:

    Taz said:

    Labours problem with their pro slaughter stance on Gaza, as some of their core vote perceives it.

    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2024/feb/10/labour-mps-facing-wave-of-independent-challengers-over-stance-on-gaza

    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.
    Al-Khwarizmi off the top of my head. Al-Jabr. You might like to consider what English words stem from those, when you are not busy trying to count without the zero and in Roman (or, still worse, Greek) numerals.
    I believe 'arab numerals' originated in India.

    As I said a couple of hours back I wonder if it was the Muslim conquests which allowed much greater movement and synthesis of ideas from Spain to India than what had happened previously.

    But once the initial flow had subsided (though that took a few centuries) there was a decline into 'people of the book' intellectual rigidity.
  • malcolmgmalcolmg Posts: 43,209
    Leon said:

    Eabhal said:

    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
    still legal in Scotland given we are led by Useless and his useless crew.
  • malcolmgmalcolmg Posts: 43,209
    kinabalu said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    Foxy said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    rcs1000 said:

    Leon said:

    rcs1000 said:

    Leon said:

    Where is @rcs1000? is he hiding away in furtive shame?

    The Tucker Putin interview has had 187 MILLION impressions on Twitter, just on Carlson's channel

    https://x.com/TuckerCarlson/status/1755734526678925682?s=20

    And another 12m on Carlson's YoutTube

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fOCWBhuDdDo

    Another 10m on Russian YouTube

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIbL_MXK8Tg

    And elswhere, endlessly - 3m on Telegraph YouTube, on and on

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rKigbrcGNg

    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

    And that’s not the main platform. X is



    Laughable.
    Ok let’s just add up YouTube

    Carlson’s Youtube

    https://youtu.be/fOCWBhuDdDo?si=CLqzV057bBTF1Hi0

    12m

    Russian YouTube

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIbL_MXK8Tg

    10m

    Russel brand’s take

    https://youtu.be/TpeSVOwys6M?si=GsBl1aP5xUiRmj-s

    2m

    Telegraph

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rKigbrcGNg

    3m


    Arabic

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cBh0KycV92Y&pp=ygUNY2FybHNvbiBwdXRpbg==

    1m

    Live reaction

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJr7sxEWpbc&pp=ygUNY2FybHNvbiBwdXRpbg==

    2.9m


    Fox now

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4boi-mCDUCQ&pp=ygUNY2FybHNvbiBwdXRpbg==

    1m

    Times radio

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gd9qktZnVJQ&pp=ygUNY2FybHNvbiBwdXRpbg==

    1.2m


    Some weird Russian thing


    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0vQ5wZfQQw&pp=ygUNY2FybHNvbiBwdXRpbg==

    Nearly 1m

    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.
    On the platform formerly known as Twitter, a "view" simply means it has appeared on a user's timeline or in search results or other places. It does not mean that the user has watched a single second of it. Also, it counts each time a tweet is shown to a user, so if a user sees the tweet five times without watching any of it, that is five views. There is no way of knowing how many people have actually watched any of the interview on Twitter.

    I count as at least one "view" of this interview on Twitter. It could be said that I've watched the first 10 seconds of it since Twitter starts playing videos automatically, but I didn't turn the sound on so I have no idea what Carlson was saying.
    However we do know what equals a view on Youtube - it is at least 30 seconds of engagement with the actual video

    Tucker Putin has racked up at least thirty million views on YouTube, cumulatively

    There may well be a reason why the engagement would be a lot less than that on TwiX but it seems clear Carlson has got many tens of million of people (possibly over a hundred millon) to see at least SOME of his interview with Putler
    Tell you what, why don't we cut a deal?

    We all agree that Carlson-Putin was the most important political interview in the universe ever and had more views than the number of people on the planet.

    In return, you agree never to mention it again.
    It is the most boring topic since @Leons last monomania.

    A bloodthirsty lying dictator being interviewed by a far right conspiracy theorist does not an interesting interview make. It's just clickbait for the gullible. No wonder he is so obsessed.
    Yes, of course, that's why no one is talking about it. It's basically just me. And every single news outlet on the planet. And Boris Johnson. And Justin Trudeau. And the white House Press Secretary. And Zelensky. And and and
    As a matter of interest, did you learn anything from the interview? If so, what?
    Yes, lots of stuff

    But, if I talk about it, I'll be accused of talking about it, to prove that people are talking about it, by the PB geniuses, so what can I do?
    In other words, nothing.
    OK, it seems you really want to know, so here is what I took away


    1. Putin is properly smart

    2. He is highly informed: he knows America's GDP growth, he knows the GDP by PPP of the top seven countries, he knows trade patterns

    3. HE is not dying, he doesn't even look ill

    4. He is an autodidact, and particularly obsessed with Russian history, and he has a vast but very boring knowledge of it, which he is unable to express excitingly

    4. He GENUINELY believes Ukraine does not have a right to exist, and he's thought about it a lot - eg I didn;t know the etymology of Ukraine comes from "borderland" - but he's right, it does, and it's part of his argument

    5. He does his research: he knew Carlson had applied for the CIA - a moment which threw Carlson

    6. I get the sense his territorial ambitions do not extend beyond Ukraine, but, he is a lying tyrant, so don't hold me to that

    7. He fears and loathes America, fears its strength, loathes its hypocrisy - as he sees it

    8. He is coldly irreligious

    9. He seems to be a personal friend of Elon Musk - calls him "Elon" - but I could be wrong

    10. He is quite up to speed on AI, and a bit scared of it

    11. He is an absolute old fashioned Russian nationalist, in the Solzhenitsyn sense, he genuinely believes the stuff about the Russian soul, deep and Dostoevskyan (he actually cites Dostoevsky at one point)

    12. He doesn't want an all out war, but mainly cause he would lose, or we'd all be dead, he's probably go for it if he could win

    13. He is SCARED of China, they are not friends or allies, he pretends they are, but the body language says Fear, to me

    There is more, lots more, but that's what I saw, for starters
    Gosh. You're like George Bush. You saw into his soul.
    More like he is steamboats and sees the bottom of the glass.
  • malcolmgmalcolmg Posts: 43,209
    Eabhal said:

    nico679 said:

    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.
    Lots of bits of white paper being waved from Westminster
  • malcolmgmalcolmg Posts: 43,209
    Leon said:

    kinabalu said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    Foxy said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    rcs1000 said:

    Leon said:

    rcs1000 said:

    Leon said:

    Where is @rcs1000? is he hiding away in furtive shame?

    The Tucker Putin interview has had 187 MILLION impressions on Twitter, just on Carlson's channel

    https://x.com/TuckerCarlson/status/1755734526678925682?s=20

    And another 12m on Carlson's YoutTube

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fOCWBhuDdDo

    Another 10m on Russian YouTube

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIbL_MXK8Tg

    And elswhere, endlessly - 3m on Telegraph YouTube, on and on

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rKigbrcGNg

    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

    And that’s not the main platform. X is



    Laughable.
    Ok let’s just add up YouTube

    Carlson’s Youtube

    https://youtu.be/fOCWBhuDdDo?si=CLqzV057bBTF1Hi0

    12m

    Russian YouTube

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIbL_MXK8Tg

    10m

    Russel brand’s take

    https://youtu.be/TpeSVOwys6M?si=GsBl1aP5xUiRmj-s

    2m

    Telegraph

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rKigbrcGNg

    3m


    Arabic

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cBh0KycV92Y&pp=ygUNY2FybHNvbiBwdXRpbg==

    1m

    Live reaction

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJr7sxEWpbc&pp=ygUNY2FybHNvbiBwdXRpbg==

    2.9m


    Fox now

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4boi-mCDUCQ&pp=ygUNY2FybHNvbiBwdXRpbg==

    1m

    Times radio

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gd9qktZnVJQ&pp=ygUNY2FybHNvbiBwdXRpbg==

    1.2m


    Some weird Russian thing


    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0vQ5wZfQQw&pp=ygUNY2FybHNvbiBwdXRpbg==

    Nearly 1m

    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.
    On the platform formerly known as Twitter, a "view" simply means it has appeared on a user's timeline or in search results or other places. It does not mean that the user has watched a single second of it. Also, it counts each time a tweet is shown to a user, so if a user sees the tweet five times without watching any of it, that is five views. There is no way of knowing how many people have actually watched any of the interview on Twitter.

    I count as at least one "view" of this interview on Twitter. It could be said that I've watched the first 10 seconds of it since Twitter starts playing videos automatically, but I didn't turn the sound on so I have no idea what Carlson was saying.
    However we do know what equals a view on Youtube - it is at least 30 seconds of engagement with the actual video

    Tucker Putin has racked up at least thirty million views on YouTube, cumulatively

    There may well be a reason why the engagement would be a lot less than that on TwiX but it seems clear Carlson has got many tens of million of people (possibly over a hundred millon) to see at least SOME of his interview with Putler
    Tell you what, why don't we cut a deal?

    We all agree that Carlson-Putin was the most important political interview in the universe ever and had more views than the number of people on the planet.

    In return, you agree never to mention it again.
    It is the most boring topic since @Leons last monomania.

    A bloodthirsty lying dictator being interviewed by a far right conspiracy theorist does not an interesting interview make. It's just clickbait for the gullible. No wonder he is so obsessed.
    Yes, of course, that's why no one is talking about it. It's basically just me. And every single news outlet on the planet. And Boris Johnson. And Justin Trudeau. And the white House Press Secretary. And Zelensky. And and and
    As a matter of interest, did you learn anything from the interview? If so, what?
    Yes, lots of stuff

    But, if I talk about it, I'll be accused of talking about it, to prove that people are talking about it, by the PB geniuses, so what can I do?
    In other words, nothing.
    OK, it seems you really want to know, so here is what I took away


    1. Putin is properly smart

    2. He is highly informed: he knows America's GDP growth, he knows the GDP by PPP of the top seven countries, he knows trade patterns

    3. HE is not dying, he doesn't even look ill

    4. He is an autodidact, and particularly obsessed with Russian history, and he has a vast but very boring knowledge of it, which he is unable to express excitingly

    4. He GENUINELY believes Ukraine does not have a right to exist, and he's thought about it a lot - eg I didn;t know the etymology of Ukraine comes from "borderland" - but he's right, it does, and it's part of his argument

    5. He does his research: he knew Carlson had applied for the CIA - a moment which threw Carlson

    6. I get the sense his territorial ambitions do not extend beyond Ukraine, but, he is a lying tyrant, so don't hold me to that

    7. He fears and loathes America, fears its strength, loathes its hypocrisy - as he sees it

    8. He is coldly irreligious

    9. He seems to be a personal friend of Elon Musk - calls him "Elon" - but I could be wrong

    10. He is quite up to speed on AI, and a bit scared of it

    11. He is an absolute old fashioned Russian nationalist, in the Solzhenitsyn sense, he genuinely believes the stuff about the Russian soul, deep and Dostoevskyan (he actually cites Dostoevsky at one point)

    12. He doesn't want an all out war, but mainly cause he would lose, or we'd all be dead, he's probably go for it if he could win

    13. He is SCARED of China, they are not friends or allies, he pretends they are, but the body language says Fear, to me

    There is more, lots more, but that's what I saw, for starters
    Gosh. You're like George Bush. You saw into his soul.
    I was asked what I saw; that's what I saw

    I may be delusional, but that is what I saw. The interview is two hours long, and intense. And goes deep into all these subjects, any interviewee (unless they are a brilliant actor, or stupid, or deeply autistic, and none of these apply, I do not think) will reveal quite a lot in those circs

    Of course you could watch it and decide for yourself. But you prefer to watch the BBC and have them package it neatly for you, so you know what to think and believe
    Your aliens were more believable, have a lie down.
  • malcolmgmalcolmg Posts: 43,209
    Taz said:

    Anyhoo, you're all forgetting Neale Hanvey and the dark heart of Scottish nationalism.

    An MP who was suspended from the SNP during the election campaign for using anti-Semitic language on social media is to be readmitted to the party.

    Neale Hanvey was elected MP for Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath despite being suspended from the SNP on polling day.

    He had apologised "unreservedly" for making posts on social media which he said were "clearly unacceptable".

    Mr Hanvey will rejoin the SNP group in May on the condition he completes an education course at a Holocaust centre.


    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-51723096

    Amazing, especially given his views on Gender are the polar opposite of the majority of SNP politicians.
    Considering he is an ALBA MP now, even more amazing.
  • StillWatersStillWaters Posts: 8,095
    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    Foxy said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    rcs1000 said:

    Leon said:

    rcs1000 said:

    Leon said:

    Where is @rcs1000? is he hiding away in furtive shame?

    The Tucker Putin interview has had 187 MILLION impressions on Twitter, just on Carlson's channel

    https://x.com/TuckerCarlson/status/1755734526678925682?s=20

    And another 12m on Carlson's YoutTube

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fOCWBhuDdDo

    Another 10m on Russian YouTube

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIbL_MXK8Tg

    And elswhere, endlessly - 3m on Telegraph YouTube, on and on

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rKigbrcGNg

    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

    And that’s not the main platform. X is



    Laughable.
    Ok let’s just add up YouTube

    Carlson’s Youtube

    https://youtu.be/fOCWBhuDdDo?si=CLqzV057bBTF1Hi0

    12m

    Russian YouTube

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIbL_MXK8Tg

    10m

    Russel brand’s take

    https://youtu.be/TpeSVOwys6M?si=GsBl1aP5xUiRmj-s

    2m

    Telegraph

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rKigbrcGNg

    3m


    Arabic

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cBh0KycV92Y&pp=ygUNY2FybHNvbiBwdXRpbg==

    1m

    Live reaction

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJr7sxEWpbc&pp=ygUNY2FybHNvbiBwdXRpbg==

    2.9m


    Fox now

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4boi-mCDUCQ&pp=ygUNY2FybHNvbiBwdXRpbg==

    1m

    Times radio

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gd9qktZnVJQ&pp=ygUNY2FybHNvbiBwdXRpbg==

    1.2m


    Some weird Russian thing


    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0vQ5wZfQQw&pp=ygUNY2FybHNvbiBwdXRpbg==

    Nearly 1m

    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.
    On the platform formerly known as Twitter, a "view" simply means it has appeared on a user's timeline or in search results or other places. It does not mean that the user has watched a single second of it. Also, it counts each time a tweet is shown to a user, so if a user sees the tweet five times without watching any of it, that is five views. There is no way of knowing how many people have actually watched any of the interview on Twitter.

    I count as at least one "view" of this interview on Twitter. It could be said that I've watched the first 10 seconds of it since Twitter starts playing videos automatically, but I didn't turn the sound on so I have no idea what Carlson was saying.
    However we do know what equals a view on Youtube - it is at least 30 seconds of engagement with the actual video

    Tucker Putin has racked up at least thirty million views on YouTube, cumulatively

    There may well be a reason why the engagement would be a lot less than that on TwiX but it seems clear Carlson has got many tens of million of people (possibly over a hundred millon) to see at least SOME of his interview with Putler
    Tell you what, why don't we cut a deal?

    We all agree that Carlson-Putin was the most important political interview in the universe ever and had more views than the number of people on the planet.

    In return, you agree never to mention it again.
    It is the most boring topic since @Leons last monomania.

    A bloodthirsty lying dictator being interviewed by a far right conspiracy theorist does not an interesting interview make. It's just clickbait for the gullible. No wonder he is so obsessed.
    Yes, of course, that's why no one is talking about it. It's basically just me. And every single news outlet on the planet. And Boris Johnson. And Justin Trudeau. And the white House Press Secretary. And Zelensky. And and and
    As a matter of interest, did you learn anything from the interview? If so, what?
    Yes, lots of stuff

    But, if I talk about it, I'll be accused of talking about it, to prove that people are talking about it, by the PB geniuses, so what can I do?
    In other words, nothing.
    OK, it seems you really want to know, so here is what I took away


    1. Putin is properly smart

    2. He is highly informed: he knows America's GDP growth, he knows the GDP by PPP of the top seven countries, he knows trade patterns

    3. HE is not dying, he doesn't even look ill

    4. He is an autodidact, and particularly obsessed with Russian history, and he has a vast but very boring knowledge of it, which he is unable to express excitingly

    4. He GENUINELY believes Ukraine does not have a right to exist, and he's thought about it a lot - eg I didn;t know the etymology of Ukraine comes from "borderland" - but he's right, it does, and it's part of his argument

    5. He does his research: he knew Carlson had applied for the CIA - a moment which threw Carlson

    6. I get the sense his territorial ambitions do not extend beyond Ukraine, but, he is a lying tyrant, so don't hold me to that

    7. He fears and loathes America, fears its strength, loathes its hypocrisy - as he sees it


    8. He is coldly irreligious

    9. He seems to be a personal friend of Elon Musk - calls him "Elon" - but I could be wrong

    10. He is quite up to speed on AI, and a bit scared of it

    11. He is an absolute old fashioned Russian nationalist, in the Solzhenitsyn sense, he genuinely believes the stuff about the Russian soul, deep and Dostoevskyan (he actually cites Dostoevsky at one point)

    12. He doesn't want an all out war, but mainly cause he would lose, or we'd all be dead, he's probably go for it if he could win

    13. He is SCARED of China, they are not friends or allies, he pretends they are, but the body language says Fear, to me

    There is more, lots more, but that's what I saw, for starters

    Of your 14 points (you have 2x #4)

    I knew without watching the interview: 11

    I didn’t know, but not interesting: 1

    You are wrong in your assessment: 1

    Not convinced (suspect Putin is playing an angle) but potentially interesting: 1
  • malcolmgmalcolmg Posts: 43,209
    Nigelb said:

    Leon said:

    Chris said:

    Dura_Ace said:

    kinabalu said:


    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.
    Most of Russia is like Europe in teh 18th/19th century. Easy for the bad guys in Moscow/St Petersburg to want to rule the world but at some point those peasants will get fed up of cabbage and outside toilets and show them the lamp posts.
  • malcolmgmalcolmg Posts: 43,209
    Harper said:

    Leon said:

    glw said:

    Eabhal said:

    nico679 said:

    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
    Leon said:

    Chris said:

    Dura_Ace said:

    kinabalu said:


    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
    Agreed. Western gdp is artificially inflated by financial trickery. Look at russia debt to gdp compared to America. Its like the guy who appears much richer than you but puts half his spending on his credit card. Also i would wager the citixens of moscow are likely better off than those of Barnsley.
    True, they are down to selling quarter cabbages now so really showing Barnsley how it is done. How do you quarter a sausage again Ruski.
  • malcolmgmalcolmg Posts: 43,209

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    Foxy said:

    Leon said:

    Leon said:

    rcs1000 said:

    Leon said:

    rcs1000 said:

    Leon said:

    Where is @rcs1000? is he hiding away in furtive shame?

    The Tucker Putin interview has had 187 MILLION impressions on Twitter, just on Carlson's channel

    https://x.com/TuckerCarlson/status/1755734526678925682?s=20

    And another 12m on Carlson's YoutTube

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fOCWBhuDdDo

    Another 10m on Russian YouTube

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIbL_MXK8Tg

    And elswhere, endlessly - 3m on Telegraph YouTube, on and on

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rKigbrcGNg

    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

    And that’s not the main platform. X is



    Laughable.
    Ok let’s just add up YouTube

    Carlson’s Youtube

    https://youtu.be/fOCWBhuDdDo?si=CLqzV057bBTF1Hi0

    12m

    Russian YouTube

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIbL_MXK8Tg

    10m

    Russel brand’s take

    https://youtu.be/TpeSVOwys6M?si=GsBl1aP5xUiRmj-s

    2m

    Telegraph

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rKigbrcGNg

    3m


    Arabic

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cBh0KycV92Y&pp=ygUNY2FybHNvbiBwdXRpbg==

    1m

    Live reaction

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJr7sxEWpbc&pp=ygUNY2FybHNvbiBwdXRpbg==

    2.9m


    Fox now

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4boi-mCDUCQ&pp=ygUNY2FybHNvbiBwdXRpbg==

    1m

    Times radio

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gd9qktZnVJQ&pp=ygUNY2FybHNvbiBwdXRpbg==

    1.2m


    Some weird Russian thing


    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0vQ5wZfQQw&pp=ygUNY2FybHNvbiBwdXRpbg==

    Nearly 1m

    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.
    On the platform formerly known as Twitter, a "view" simply means it has appeared on a user's timeline or in search results or other places. It does not mean that the user has watched a single second of it. Also, it counts each time a tweet is shown to a user, so if a user sees the tweet five times without watching any of it, that is five views. There is no way of knowing how many people have actually watched any of the interview on Twitter.

    I count as at least one "view" of this interview on Twitter. It could be said that I've watched the first 10 seconds of it since Twitter starts playing videos automatically, but I didn't turn the sound on so I have no idea what Carlson was saying.
    However we do know what equals a view on Youtube - it is at least 30 seconds of engagement with the actual video

    Tucker Putin has racked up at least thirty million views on YouTube, cumulatively

    There may well be a reason why the engagement would be a lot less than that on TwiX but it seems clear Carlson has got many tens of million of people (possibly over a hundred millon) to see at least SOME of his interview with Putler
    Tell you what, why don't we cut a deal?

    We all agree that Carlson-Putin was the most important political interview in the universe ever and had more views than the number of people on the planet.

    In return, you agree never to mention it again.
    It is the most boring topic since @Leons last monomania.

    A bloodthirsty lying dictator being interviewed by a far right conspiracy theorist does not an interesting interview make. It's just clickbait for the gullible. No wonder he is so obsessed.
    Yes, of course, that's why no one is talking about it. It's basically just me. And every single news outlet on the planet. And Boris Johnson. And Justin Trudeau. And the white House Press Secretary. And Zelensky. And and and
    As a matter of interest, did you learn anything from the interview? If so, what?
    Yes, lots of stuff

    But, if I talk about it, I'll be accused of talking about it, to prove that people are talking about it, by the PB geniuses, so what can I do?
    In other words, nothing.
    OK, it seems you really want to know, so here is what I took away


    1. Putin is properly smart

    2. He is highly informed: he knows America's GDP growth, he knows the GDP by PPP of the top seven countries, he knows trade patterns

    3. HE is not dying, he doesn't even look ill

    4. He is an autodidact, and particularly obsessed with Russian history, and he has a vast but very boring knowledge of it, which he is unable to express excitingly

    4. He GENUINELY believes Ukraine does not have a right to exist, and he's thought about it a lot - eg I didn;t know the etymology of Ukraine comes from "borderland" - but he's right, it does, and it's part of his argument

    5. He does his research: he knew Carlson had applied for the CIA - a moment which threw Carlson

    6. I get the sense his territorial ambitions do not extend beyond Ukraine, but, he is a lying tyrant, so don't hold me to that

    7. He fears and loathes America, fears its strength, loathes its hypocrisy - as he sees it


    8. He is coldly irreligious

    9. He seems to be a personal friend of Elon Musk - calls him "Elon" - but I could be wrong

    10. He is quite up to speed on AI, and a bit scared of it

    11. He is an absolute old fashioned Russian nationalist, in the Solzhenitsyn sense, he genuinely believes the stuff about the Russian soul, deep and Dostoevskyan (he actually cites Dostoevsky at one point)

    12. He doesn't want an all out war, but mainly cause he would lose, or we'd all be dead, he's probably go for it if he could win

    13. He is SCARED of China, they are not friends or allies, he pretends they are, but the body language says Fear, to me

    There is more, lots more, but that's what I saw, for starters

    Of your 14 points (you have 2x #4)

    I knew without watching the interview: 11

    I didn’t know, but not interesting: 1

    You are wrong in your assessment: 1

    Not convinced (suspect Putin is playing an angle) but potentially interesting: 1
    You could hav ejust said it was verbal diahorrea.
  • malcolmgmalcolmg Posts: 43,209

    Leon said:

    ...

    Harper said:

    Rumours that Zelensky is about to flee the country.

    UKRAINE: Ukrainian opposition leader Viktor Medvedchuk revealed that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is preparing to flee the country after acquiring a luxury apartment in Dubai worth nearly $17 million.

    https://x.com/peacemaket71/status/1756580471910121913?s=20

    Would he want all those enabled by Putin shills living next door to him in Dubai?

    190 is a good score for a Saturday troll, but that post was as close to Putin propaganda as those who don't last to double figures manage.
    It is possible Harper is not a troll and is an actual Russian - as he freely admits - posting from Russia -as he says

    Let’s not bully him off the site, fuck sake at least he’s not another accountant or lawyer
    If he steers clear of anti-vax bollocks I am sure he is welcome.

    I just hope he doesn't try to hijack every thread with nonsense. Now that would be intolerable.
    Leon desperately needs a pal, even a Russian will do.
This discussion has been closed.