Yeah, but he also killed the guy who killed Hitler, so it balances out.

Imagine if the US invaded Mexico and three years later Mexican drones were threatening Washington, DC. I’d call it a joke but it isn’t really funny with a real war.

This is something that will probably be lost in the churn of the news cycle because most people don’t understand it, but it’s actually really bad for the US government. The reason this country has been able to get by with such a large debt until now was that the interest was kept low by the fact that lending money to the US was seen as very safe. A change in that status quo could bring the whole house of cards crashing down with calamitous results.

Yeah, that’s all true, but on the other hand there’ll probably be a lot of money to be made for a while there, so who’s to say whether it’s bad or good overall.

Well, you could just change all the names and remove all explicit references to the original and then sell it. I was just looking at the new game Tempest Rising, which is extremely obvious about copying the plot and design of Command and Conquer, but it’s been changed just enough to avoid copyright.

I don’t think there’s much point in continuing this discussion. To a lot of the things you say I have no response other than “that is simply not true” and if we can’t agree on basic facts of reality then I don’t think any agreement is possible. To summarize my position: Russian allegations of genocide by Ukraine are baseless justification for revanchism about the fall of the USSR. Russian escalation of violence during the war has been wildly disproportionate to anything Ukraine has done. A lot of the specific accusations you list against Ukraine are simply false DARVO, with the potential exception of the inadvisable fighting positions around hospitals thing (Amnesty International published a very critical report on the subject, which I assumed you were aware of and thus I included three links from them in the hopes that you would take their opinions on Russian war crimes more seriously). I also don’t know what to say about the statement that Hamas is a moral military force other than to reiterate that it’s clear we’re not going to agree on this. Basically, I feel that you are reciting a lot of Russian propaganda and I fully expect that your response will be that I am reciting a lot of Western propaganda and I don’t see a reasonable way to reconcile these positions.

stated goal

Oh, great, we’re just accepting the stated goals of aggressors now? I guess I have to apologize for all the things I said about Israel and the US defending themselves from terrorists in Gaza and Iraq and definitely not doing genocide or trying to militarily secure access to oil. What a joke.

Cyprus

Is not a NATO member, and can’t be as long as the dispute with Turkey persists.

Leo2s

Arrived in small numbers in March 2023, after a year of fighting and months of begging. A far cry from the article’s lies about high-tech weapons in Ukraine from the beginning. A few dozen decent tanks and howitzers do not constitute a modern army, particularly with NATO’s emphasis on air power and missiles, both of which arrived very late and with strict limitations.

What are russian troops supposed to do? Not fire back?

Firstly, they’re supposed to not be there at all. If you start a war, and can end the war at any time by just leaving, you are responsible for what happens in that war. Second, yes morally and legally militaries are supposed to not blow up civilians on reports that there are enemies around. Was Israel justified in bombing schools and hospitals in Gaza if Hamas had fighters inside them? If not, why does Russia get a pass? Thirdly, yes they absolutely have targeted civilians deliberately.

https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2022/02/russian-military-commits-indiscriminate-attacks-during-the-invasion-of-ukraine/

https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2022/06/ukraine-deadly-mariupol-theatre-strike-a-clear-war-crime-by-russian-forces-new-investigation/

https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2024/11/russia-ukraine-latest-massive-missile-strike-on-critical-infrastructure-is-a-war-crime/

https://acleddata.com/2025/02/21/bombing-into-submission-russian-targeting-of-civilians-and-infrastructure-in-ukraine/

https://www.hrw.org/news/2023/08/04/ukraine-apparent-russian-cluster-munition-attack

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-60629851

Fourth, you didn’t address the point about mass graves, or the just blatant massacres.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/sep/16/some-hanged-themselves-the-work-to-find-answers-amid-iziums-mass-grave

https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2022/12/un-report-details-summary-executions-civilians-russian-troops-northern

What a bunch of nonsense.

The idea that Russia landed airborne troops in Kyiv without wanting to at the very least overthrow the Ukrainian government (just as the US likes to overthrow Latin American countries, which leftists rightly deride as imperialist, but many can’t seem to recognize when non-western countries do it) is laughable. It also ignores Putin’s clearly-stated belief that Ukraine has no legitimate existence as a separate country, a belief that he reiterated during his interview with Tucker Carlson instead of saying anything that Western supporters of Russia wanted him to say. It ALSO fails to mention reports from early in the invasion that Putin has personally rejected a peace deal because he wanted to go to war.

A couple other things that jumped out at me:

The idea that the war was over NATO membership is outright nonsense, since that goal HAD ALREADY BEEN ACHIEVED by the annexation of Crimea and support for separatist factions, since NATO membership requires territorial integrity.

The statement that the West gave Ukraine their most advanced weapons is a ridiculous lie to anyone watching Ukraine beg for years to get moderately updated tanks and jets, and mid-range ATACMs. In reality, the Biden administration had been withholding the best weapons specifically because they wanted the war to end like this and just didn’t want to admit it. The things people do are more important than what they say.

The article conveniently fails to mention any Russian war crimes, such as the repeated bombing of civilian infrastructure, including schools and hospitals (only a bad thing when Israel does it, apparently), the Bucha massacre, or reports of mass graves in occupied areas.

Agreed.

Cybertruck owners, though, they’re a different story.

That does seem to be the story of this war, doesn’t it? I bet all the major militaries are looking at stuff like this and investing in more drones for themselves, too.

Unfortunately for the residents of Moscow, all Russian AA weapons are currently in Ukraine.

It seems that we have progressed to the “find out” stage. I wonder if this will have any measurable effect on Putin’s support, though. Russians seem like heavy sleepers.

Both have the same ultimate cause, as well: politicians safe at home demanding immediate results no matter what it costs.

Putin thought he could defeat Ukraine in three days, and the result is two years and plus of war, tens of thousands of casualties that he will admit to, and US-made weapons now being fired into Russia. I don’t see him being the kind of 4D Chessmaster you seem to think he is.

it does seem excessively lurid to suggest, without direct evidence, that they have been raped in captivity for the past several months

But you’re just going to do it anyway?

“IDF said”

Three other competitors didn’t survive what were supposed to be non-lethal qualifier duels on the day before the finals. One player tragically died right after winning a duel to a random explosion from their Goblin Rocket Boots. Another Goblin malfunction killed a player who was an official spectator for the fights.

I am so glad I clicked through. This is great stuff.

I’m sorry, what? Are they defining “democratic” to mean that each government has a say, regardless of how democratic that government itself actually is?