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I think I've shared this one before but who cares, it's worth a repeat:

There most certainly was a lot of this in the response, especially from and within countries who aren't battling Russia for geopolitical dominance. Power politics clearly plays into it as well, now especially, and it's also worthwhile to remember that humanitarian responses and power politics don't rule each other out. Given the vast amount of support that individuals from around the world have contributed in aid to Ukraine, it is heartening to see how much people care: there is an awful lot of good in humanity, sometimes bursting to come out. One interesting thing about Russia's possible mobilization is the timeframe. To put it in more concrete terms: supposing that there is a general mobilization in Russia on or around May 9th, the next question is: when will this have any effect on the frontlines? Not immediately, and not even all that soon.

Usually 2 identical statuses never stack even if coming from a passive... except if they are coded as stackable. Even weapon qualities have to be stated "stack up to 2" or they won't work when dual wielding 2 weapons of similar quality (yeah, even if the quality mod applies to different sources). Rings are coded with "stack up to 2" in general. Ring of Protection is an example. But ring of greater regeneration doesn't have this property, so isn't stackable.

Given the range of nuclear missiles and Sweden's proximity to Russia, there's essentially no way either Sweden or Finland will have nukes. (Of course, there are nukes very close to a NATO border right now, but on the other side, i.e. in Kaliningrad and in the north, close to Norway.) The Baltic countries have been NATO members for quite some time now, and we haven't seen any Russian "little green men" there. We have seen them elsewhere, in neighboring countries not in NATO. This kind of gives you the impression that while there is no respect for NATO in Russia, there is some apprehension -- there is no question that Putin would like to invade all of the Baltic nations if he could.

The US would spend the most on military with or without NATO, it means nothing. The US deploying to Sweden if we were part of NATO would be dependent on the political will of the country, the next Trump would definetly not act. The EU's military response is as much of an assurance as is NATO's. The world is the same as it has been in 2014, the only thing that has really changed is the view of Russian military competency for anyone that has been following the war, and some shock at the inhumanity of Russians, and astonishment that any Ukrainian can walk like a normal human being with balls that size. List of treaties unsigned or unratified by the United States - Wikipedia The only country in the world that hasn't ratified the Convention of Childrens Rights... So what you're saying is that Sweden should defund the US? I like it, and I wholeheartedly agree. Edit; Also they don't recognize the ICC.

I am being sick from playing the race card at every single opportunity... Yes in all of Europe there are lots of racist, but not everything is turning around them... Most of the time, the true reason, why is something happening is somewhere completely else... In case we would be speaking about Syria, there would be much more reason for the race card, because the Slovakia media completely failed about it, and the neonazis have stolen the narrative... And guess, who is paying Slovak neonazi parties? Russia... There are a lot of lawsuits now against them, because our secret service finally found some evidence about direct involvement of Russian embassy with neonazi disinformation in Slovakia... TLDR; behind every **** happening in Eastern Europe, you'll find a Russian ****...

In Finland support from Nato changed from one party publicly supporting it and 21% of population supporting joining to all put all parties publicly supporting joining to Nato and 65% of population supporting joining. Change is mainly caused by fact that Russia is willing to sacrifice so much for little gain which caused people lose faith to foundation of Finland's defense which is to make attack cost so much that there is no benefit for doing so, but such defense doesn't work against enemy which is willing to sacrifice all for nothing. Finland is also putting Sweden in difficult situation as big sunk of Sweden defense currently relies on co-operation with Finland and it seems that Swedish politicians fear that they will lose that co-operation if Finland joins in Nato and Sweden does not.

Soon...

No thats your interpretation and words The initial support for Ukraine was because Putin is a liar, a warmonger and he invaded a sovereign country on the border of the EU. And Ukraine has become the battleground to end the egregious Russian " lets recreate the Soviet borders " pipedream we have seen over the last 20 years Once it was revealed how inept the Russian military has been an additional objective was realized. The Russian invasion can be stopped by defeating them militarily, not just relying on sanctions to end Putins War, and the Ukrainians believe they can do this and then renegotiate\reclaim Crimea and Donbas But the initial Western response is still a humanitarian one because we do care about the lives of Ukrainians

At least we have finally moved past the fake care for heroic Ukraine and started to openly admit that it's all about power politics. This also explains much better the 'fight to the last Ukrainian' stance because the goal is to take Russia down, not avoid a long and destructive war and the escalation risks it entails. Progress, of sorts. Russia isn't going to stop because the whole point of the war is to compel Ukraine by cost imposition*. If the goal had been mainly to grab land, sending ultimatums and applying pressure on Ukraine for months or years before attacking would have been counterproductive. Of course Russians are insane/stupid and didn't think of this, but us galaxy brainers at Obsidian Entertainment forums see the picture clearly. A general mobilization would help Russia little. Doctrinally, Russia has abandoned mass mobilization and lacks the reserve units and officer/NCO corps required to effectively train a large number of conscripts into something resembling competent soldiers. They may extend conscription terms and perhaps recall freshly discharged recruits who still remember which end of an AK goes toward the enemy, but options are limited. *seems to have blown up in their face though, and now the costs imposed on Russia are considerable. Still, the war is being fought in Ukraine, and if Russians decide that all they can do is dig in and simply crank up the damage with standoff weapons and artillery, it'll become a test of endurance which Ukraine may not win. For example, Ukrainian air defenses may currently prevent effective Russian air support of ground operations. But they may not be able to prevent Russia from using its massive strategic bomber fleet to level cities with iron bombs. And then we would see what indiscriminately targeting civilians actually looks like. Hopefully it won't come to that, but the outlook isn't good.

I expect mobilization from Russia after 9th. I don't see any other options from them at this point (other than .. you know, stop invading)

Interesting. How do you reckon the situation in Scandinavia / the Nordic countries being different in case A) Finland is in NATO but Sweden is not vs. B) both Finland and Sweden being in NATO? The prevailing view here the north appears to be that situation A is, to put it mildly, not ideal. Sweden is a pain in the ass.

Yes indeed. Johnson's declaration that the UK considers it acceptable for Ukraine to strike inside Russia is a huge deal. I am hopeful Biden will be making a similar declarion soon. Even after Russia annexes Ukrainian territory and declares that Ukraine and the West must accept this "new geopolitical reality" (Lavrov's recent words), Ukraine has the right to continue to fight, and we in the West should continue to help them. And in that fight, Ukraine will have to strike inside Russia, because Russia's strategy is going to be to set up artillery and rocket launchers inside the Russian side of the border from where they fire at Ukrainian forces attempting to take back Russian controlled territory while insisting the Ukrainians cannot target those Russian weapons inside the Russian side of the border (and threatening nuclear escalation if such attacks happen).

Yes, exactly. The goal is to make it too painful for Russia to continue their invasion. Why should we handicap Ukraine when Russia is bombing their cities into rubble?

Johnson and probably few more politicians in the West has already announced, that it is OK to use their weapons against targets in Russia. There rumours of HIMARS being in Ukraine started to circulate around 15th April, but no "credible" source has confirmed this yet. So it is either top secret, or the people are again talking out of their asses... I see it as a 10-90 chance Hmm, I am really curious, how they want to manage all this new territory. They are already lacking the manpower to do proper fights, and according to our local analysts, Russia lost so many of the most elite forces of the Russian Army, that they are ****ed for generations, and the young Russians just do not want to join the mandatory conscription... Also there is one more thing almost no one is speaking about. A lot of fighters joined the Ukraine war from the easternmost ethnically non-russian parts of the Russia (in much bigger numbers than the ethnic Russians) and now, that the "boys" are getting back in caskets, there is growing a discontent at these regions. And last time, when some discontent grew to high, Chechnya happened. But at that time, the Russian army was at their highest. Not as crippled as they are today... And the other thing is, that some of the ex-soviet republics are starting to sense a weakness, and they might help with the rise of discontent here and there, just to get as far away from Russian influence as possible. The latest notable news from this area, is that Russia asked directly these countries to help them evade the sanctions. And Kazakhstan denied that option immediately. Anyway, here is google translate of the interview with our war/security analytic, about how much has Putin and his generals ****ed the Russian army in the last two months... https://brainee-hnonline-sk.translate.goog/spolocnost/svet/25239941-rusko-zmrzacilo-armadu-na-generacie-dopredu-prislo-o-elitne-sily-tvrdi-vojensky-analytik?_x_tr_sl=sk&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=wapp Saying that it is complex is probably the reason, that the people do not understand a lot about that conflict, and it is just because the Western Media completely ignore it... You cannot get a qualified opinion, when the sources are missing... In Slovakia, media do not care, because like 99% of our population, have no clue where Yemen lies, and it does not bring them any clicks, not even the fact, that our corrupt ex-government, which has been under the microscope of our media in the last 12 years, were allegedly illegally selling weapons to Saudi Arabia for use in this conflict, had sparked any interest in the media. It was just to away for the people to care... That is the same as with Uyghurs or Tibet... To far away to care to cancel Disney + or Alibaba account... And instead of trying to bring a little bit more awareness to the issue, so the people start to care little bit more, they just simply abandoned it... And I bet this is the same in most of the other countries... Chasing clicks is now for media much more important, that to bring the awareness to the masses... And the Russian trolls are taking advantage of this big time for years...

The US military budget is $813 billion, so at the moment this is just a minor (4%) budget surge. It's costing Russia a lot more to maintain this offensive.

Well Biden has sent to Congress a request for $33 billion for Ukraine. I doubt budget hawks in Congress will go for it, but Ukraine will, over time, get quite a lot of US aid. This is because in the US now there is consensus across the two parties (not seen since the early '80s) that this war offers a great opportunity to take down Russia as a geopolitical "problem" for the US in anticipation of the coming long-term geopolitical struggle against China.

I would not call it a lot of money for free, and I bet it would not be for free, but well, I can tell you what happened in Eastern Europe after the fall of Iron Curtain, all of the ex soldiers and martial arts athletes started their own Mafia style organizations, because no one cared enough to intervene. A lot of people died, and only now are some of these **** getting jailed, when people started to care... I think it happens also in western countries, if they do not have good quality social integration programs for veterans. They might get swayed onto the easy money path, because they feel everybody ****ed them over after they risked their lives for them

The rumoured guy (Nikolai Patrushev), who should be in charge while he is "away", is as big **** as Putin himself, so that would be no win... unless the other siloviks are less afraid of him than of Putin. Also there has been opened a bag with ****loads of rumours about may 9th... - Russia will attack Moldova - security experts say - Russia will start general mobilization - different security experts say - Russia will end the war - says Orban to the Pope And I bet there are circulating even more of them... and in other news Lavrov 1uped his game and accused Israel of openly supporting nazis in Ukraine...

Something like Marshal Plan needs to be done, unless you want to have on your eastern borders besides Russia, ****loads of Ukrainian people with balls bigger than whales, without a chance to integrate back to normal society... That would be a road to another disaster. It will cost a lot, but the other option would cost even more...

You will have a net gain of discipline unless you fight something that hits very slow and hard like Dorudugan. Otherwise for 99% of encounters you get hit enough that you have more than enough discipline to use Unbending forever. But for megabosses you have the potion of enlightenment, which is enough to keep Unbending up half the time with high intellect. With high deflection and regen you should be fine though it would take a very very long time to kill megabosses.

The rebuilding that will follow can make lots of people rich. Not necessarily us.. but you know, someone sure will fill their pockets.

That artillery battle hasn't been all one-sided, and the Ukrainian side is growing increasingly deadly with Western aid. U.S. HIMARS Rocket Artillery Going To Ukraine Would Be A Game Changer

Right now it would pass 52-48 by my guessing. Maybe even 54-46 depending on Romney. Mike Lee is the other wildcard but will likely vote "no" as long as the vote doesn't matter. It's unlikely the balance of power will change greatly in November but the House is almost certainly going to flip. So if they want to do it and the SCOTUS leak is correct the window to do it is rapidly closing.

I wouldn't be as cynical as that, although I don't think there's any reason for naivety, either. The US, for instance, has committed to an awful lot of aid. So, my sense is that aid to Ukraine will continue, genuine goodwill shall continue and there will be some rebuilding because of this. How much, of course, is impossible to say. In other news: rumours about Putin's forthcoming cancer operation gather pace to the extent that they are mentioned in reputable newspapers (which, however, point out that they are unconfirmed rumours). Of course we don't know if there's any truth in this. But if there is, it is going to be one heck of an operation, from a political point of view, and from the point of view of a potential -- shall we say -- health risk.

I mean, if we're going to start pointing fingers at countries doing business with unsavory international players and/or exploiting war as business opportunities, I'm pretty sure that's not going to go the way some folks would like. But let's do it because all that copium ain't gonna inhale itself. Off the top of my head, arms deals alone (that's not even considering commodities and services exports): France: Apartheid South Africa Videla's Argentina Various Gulf monarchies and Turkey Egypt Er... Russia, in circumvention of EU sanctions and until ~2020? Germany* (actually ahead of France in volume): Saudi (of course), UAE, Qatar... Egypt Pinochet's Chile South Africa (until '92) Indonesia Turkey Italy and Spain are basically more of the same. They just have a proportionally smaller arms industry. United States: LMFAO Starting to see the pattern yet? Daily reminder that: Saudi Arabia is currently engaged in a war on Yemen that's allegedly an actual genocide, but we don't care and don't talk about that because Houthis are too brown to matter anyway. Egypt is since 2013 a textbook dictatorship but we don't talk about that either because they pay well and it's an unfortunate product of the Arab spring revolutions that were sure to bring peace freedom and justice to my new empire. *Bonus: German-made ATGMs have been used to blow up German-made MBTs in Syria, can't make this **** up.

That is kind of weird because all sorts of healing stacks with each other and also passive item effects do stack in general. I guess being the exact same effect is the problem here (as it is with some other items/spells combo like Mask of the Weyc/Arcane Veil or Magnificent Escape/Escape). Interestingly enough stuff like two Rings of Overseeing stack just fine. But I guess that's "truly" passive or whatever, no idea.

I'm like 80+ hours into CP2077. Haven't managed to complete anything but the first round of main jobs. I'm enjoying it quite a bit. But it does seem to have the same problem as literally every other open world game out there -- there's this super urgent main plot to save the world or whatever but you can postpone it indefinitely to go rescue cats from trees with no repercussions. Just finished this side mission about some fool that hires me to do a hit on someone. Scripted shootout sequence after a scripted driving sequence that won't let you save at any point during it once you start. That's after one of the very few convesations in the whole game you can't spacebar through, btw. I read that I'm supposed to basically take my hands off the keyboard and watch the whole thing play itself so I can listen to some deep message about something over a chain of side missions. Yeah, nah. I shot the cop in the face after the script removed his godmode (long sigh) and took my eurodollars. Scripted quest design overriding the game's own rules and player agency can suck a ****.

This, incidentally, is part of the Russian imperial thinking: all area that has ever been part of Russia belongs to Russia, as far as Russia is concerned. Reading the literature on this is quite interesting. For instance, the former Finnish president Mauno Koivisto (good pals with George Bush the elder) wrote a book called Venäjän idea (The Concept/Idea of Russia) in 2001. In it, he points out this same thing and goes on to add, "Thus, for them, we are also part of Russia." And that was in 2001: no illusions even then.

Oh, not internationally, but locally. There are no dissenting opinions being put forward in a serious manner, but alot of mainstream and social media are trying to make a rushed decision here. The fact that the vast majority of people in Sweden vote for political parties that have been firmly anti-NATO has been changing their tune, despite the populace actually voting them in. At the very least we need to have an informed vote about it, similar to joining the EU, but it's hard for people to build informed opinions if nay-sayers are actively being screamed down. I really look forward to having the US decide wether or not Sweden can leave NATO if joining means that the voters flock to an Anti-NATO option, and I'm really looking forward to joining such bastions of democracy like Hungary, Albania and Turkey. Professor Linus Hagström was very critical of joining NATO back in 2015, still is, and he was raked for it.

"If we plant a nuke on a asteroid it'll break into two clean halves, right?"

Mostly low brow paperback stuff these days (Warhammer/40k novels) I haven’t read those for a couple of years, so some catching up to do, as the lore keeps evolving Ghoulslayer and Gitslayer to see what Gotrek is up to these days (the old world ended and sadly Felix too) Lords of Silence about the daily life of Deathguard legionnaires and leading into the preparation for Mortarion’s assault on the 500 worlds of Ultramar

Something a friend linked me: With an emphasis on shoujo-y characters instead of seinen-y action, it could be great. Unfortunately, my bet is that with actual adult characters, it would probably go the latter's way... (e): Princess Tutu, episode 8 finally. Probably my second favorite episode so far, and it seemed like we finally moved the story along in a way that wasn't essentially a repeat of an earlier episode. I don't hate repetition, but since I'm still not exactly in love with the show, it's more noticeable here that most of the episodes have been structured the exact same way over and over.

If you switch to another food, you could always pick thunderous blows to make up for the PEN loss?

Wesley Snipes could use the money and still looks fit, so I'm bummed he isn't still in the MCU in some fashion.

I don't think that's true. Nobody would hold it against Sweden if they stayed neutral.

I honestly don't want to join NATO, even less when there is no acceptance for dissenting opinions about it, you're automagically an anti-American onahole for Russia and Putin.

Speaking of insane self-healing, I recently rolled a SC Greatsword Devoted in BPM. The idea is somewhat similar. As a no rest run you use the glazed chops resting bonus (+30% healing received is major). You get Dawnstar's Blessing from Port Maje. Then you stack all of the regen items (ring of regeneration from Bootsuck Bog and Brass Citadel merchant, Three Trolls Stitched, the +healing done% boots from the tree event across the ravine, etc.). With the healing received bonuses you actually get net healing whenever enemies hit you with Unbending Trunk active (75% base heal percentage * 1.45 > 100%) and your insane base region will take care of damage over time that does not interact with Unbending. Basically you regenerate like a troll and gain discipline faster than you use it (10% whenever you take damage). This was sufficient to solo most encounters, but not those with Arcane Dampener unless I specifically specced for them (max resolve in particular) so it wasn't a true solo build. In practice I ran with a party and due to the insane regeneration just spammed Take the Hit constantly. There's a nice feedback loop between Take the Hit and the healing variant of Paladin's self-immolation, because you effectively cut in half the Paladin's degeneration which just instantly gets healed back. Aside from that my suggestion for your build would be to switch the food bonus to Glazed Chops. You lose 1 PL but I don't think it's critical. The loss of penetration might be problematic but since the point of this build is to grind enemies down it doesn't really matter if it takes a bit longer to kill them. The +healing received bonus on the other hand makes you much harder to kill and therefore less likely to die, which is a bigger concern than dealing damage more slowly.

Finland and Sweden exploring jointly applying for fast-track NATO membership: https://www.defensenews.com/global/europe/2022/05/01/finland-and-sweden-intensify-talks-on-joint-nato-application/

Article on stuff happening on the Russian side of the border with Ukraine: https://www.rferl.org/a/ukraine-shadow-war-russian-border-attacks/31827632.html US and allied lethal aid to Ukraine and impact on the battlefield: https://breakingdefense.com/2022/05/as-battle-for-ukraine-enters-a-new-phase-so-does-lethal-us-aid/ https://www.stripes.com/theaters/europe/2022-04-30/western-artillery-surging-into-ukraine-will-reshape-war-with-russia,-analysts-say-5850651.html

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-05-01/hungary-would-veto-eu-sanctions-on-russian-energy-minister-says Will win them friends.

Well it also goes to this notion that only the West cares about Russia's actions in Ukraine. That's just blatantly and demonstrably false. Furthermore, even in those small number of non-Western states that have taken a "soft" approach to their reactions, it is only the governments of those states and not the people. In India for example, as that one article I linked showed, the press and public opinion are very strongly for Ukraine and against Russia. But the government is reacting cautiously because of some strategic factors. Ditto in Indonesia, Brazil, etc. And the truth about China is that even they are only publicly standing with the Russians while privately expressing very different views to Russia including that they strongly support Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity. No country in the world has an incentive to not be supportive of Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity lest their squishyness on those principles come back to personally haunt them in the future. And the outright comical stuff these Russian government officials, including Putin and Lavrov, keep saying only goes to cement the fact that they themselves know how bad things are for them and how completely isolated they are in the world. That's what explains the crazy stuff they spout. It's shear desperation + bitterness in the untenable global position they find themselves in these days.

This is the same thing I mentioned previously from an article in a different source. Apparently, despite all their previous claims that they had no claims on any Ukrainian territory and only the Crimea because of "special circumstances" from the Soviet era, now the Russians are claiming that all territory in Ukraine that was part of "new Russia" during the 19th century Russian empire belongs to Russia. But the Russians are apparently running into an unforeseen obstacle: the local "Russian" separatist leaders in these areas are angry because what they wanted was independent statelets that they could rule over and exploit as warlords, and not simply to be used as pawns by Russia for Russia to take those lands.

Well just today there was a major article in the Wall Street Journal (unfortunately behind a paywall) quoting several top Russian officials including our favorite Russian jokester, Lavrov, claiming Russia now intends to carry out a broader global war against the US and the West in retailiation for the US and the West aiding Ukraine in their not-war with Russia. Lots of blather from the Russians about how this is all now a plot by the West to keep Russia down blah blah blah.

Yeah, my expectations are not high either. The actors at least were fine (Mount better than fine) in Discovery S2 and they managed to avoid the somewhat 'pod people' feel a lot of its cast had. But that's irrelevant if the rest of the problems with nuTrek aren't addressed. I did actually read the article Shady linked and there was one quote that stood out: "In short, it’s designed to appeal to people who, when asked what their favorite live-action Trek show is, unironically say The Orville." No, not that one, that just makes me smile because I'm exactly the sort of person who'd unironically say that The Orville is the best Trek series out there and feel incredibly smug while doing so. "Sadly, it’s trapped in the usual mix of faux-melodrama, clanging dialogue and dodgy plotting with the usual lapses in logic. Many writers are blind to their own flaws, which is why it’s so amusing that this is what Kurtzman and co. feel is a radical departure from their own work." That's the one. They either cannot fix the actual problems or worse, don't think the problems are problems.

What if the government would mandate to be always against what the government mandates? Let me guess, this came up?

It’s Florida… those math books probably contained commie blasphemy. Statements like x=y implying equality or similar socialist propaganda

you can tell whether your about to dig up a grub or larva. Larva have a deeper rumbling noise when they're under the ground whereas grubs have a lighter sound when in the ground.