xzar_monty

I wouldn't call them actors, just mothers whose views are in agreement with Russia's official policy -- and they were picked to be there precisely for that reason. If I am correct, then the question of people recognizing them is irrelevant. The important thing is to create a spectacle that gives the impression of there being proper discussion about this difficult and painful subject. Whether anyone believes it or not doesn't mean a thing. The regime really is as cynical as this. Another case in point would be the "votes" carried in the areas that Russia recently claimed as their own. Of course they knew that everybody knew that it was a hoax from start to finish. But that didn't matter one bit. The important thing was to create a spectacle and have some pieces of paper that indicate that such-and-such voting took place and the results were such-and-such. This is really next-level cynicism. Btw, it was the same almost a hundred years ago. One interesting thing you can see in the conviction documents concerning "enemies of the state" is that the charges changed according to how Stalin's policy changed. Reality was malleable. And the documents weren't even forged that carefully; you can easily see the earlier charges made against these people, sometimes they're simply crossed out and then new ones are written. It's astonishing: the important thing was to have a piece of paper that contained the right kind of accusation against these people (so that the killing seemed justified) but it didn't matter one bit if anyone could see that the paper was fake. I wonder if someone fluent in Russian can comment on the fact that Russian has two different words for truth, pravda and istina. I don't speak the language so I don't dare comment on this question, but I have heard talk about how pravda is a human-made and changeable truth whereas istina is the real, non-negotiable, objective truth.

This sort of thing is to be expected, of course, but it does look remarkably cynical anyway: Putin has met with the "mothers of soldiers" (an important term in Russia, as I'm sure everyone here will know), but these mothers were very carefully chosen. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/nov/25/putin-talks-to-mothers-of-soldiers-fighting-in-ukraine-in-staged-meeting Russia's dealings in Africa also look decidedly shady. Will be interesting to see whether they can recruit soldiers this way: https://www.businessinsider.com/russia-pressures-african-students-to-fight-in-ukraine-daily-beast-2022-11?r=US&IR=T

Would be great to hear your opinion once you've got a bit further in the game. So, what kind of character did you create? I am playing a slayer. Two criteria that I used: I wanted to play a frontliner because I am the boss and I want to lead from the front -- so it had to be a class with good attacking bonuses and a fair amount of hit points. I also wanted to play a class that has Persuasion as a class skill, because I am going to do the talking and I want to be good at it. This narrowed down the choices quite a bit, and from what was left, I thought slayer was a nice one.

But why be as deliberately snide as that? If you wish to advertise your intellectual superiority, isn't this a rather shabby place for that? To me, that tone is just juvenile, more than anything. Nothing wrong with disagreement, and many of the arguments you present are quite cogent, in my view, but why add this layer of self-congratulation on it? It's so unnecessary. The arguments themselves would be interesting, but to respond to them after all that other stuff...? Why?

A detail to catch the eye: The two folders close to Putin are in Ukrainian colours. Unlikely to be a coincidence, but as to what it means, I have no idea.

It's hard to think of watching the games in this tournament. Lamentably. I'm not counting on Brazil. They've got attacking prowess for sure, but as Argentina so aptly demonstrated, that doesn't amount to much if you can't defend properly -- although it has to be said that the Brazilian goalkeeper is up there with the very best, unlike the Argentinian one. When I played the game, I was good at long shots and free kicks and had a fair bit of technique with them(*), so I'm rooting for Xherdan Shaqiri of Switzerland who has demonstrated some serious skills with that stuff. I won't watch the game, though. (*) Obviously at a level that's utter rubbish compared to the World Cup, but good at the level I was at.

I remember seeing this in 1984 and thinking, what the heck. From what I remember, the "intro track" (i.e. beginning of the video with no music but some serious narrative) for the song Rock and Roll Children is just about the corniest thing you'll ever see, but the song is pretty good. And on a more serious note, here's a great song that not a lot of people will know. The acoustic intro is seriously out of this world -- just the chord voicings are extraordinary, let alone the melody line. Trying to play that stuff means instant entry into carpal tunnel syndrome land for a lot of people. I certainly can't play any of it.

For the media that I follow, this is true to a larger extent than I'd want it to be, but I still wouldn't use that blanket term "the media", because there were differences mostly related to what language the medium was using and where it was based. The English-speaking media certainly did not handle the incident well, from what I saw.

The utter silliness of that reminds me this equally silly song. The lyrics are pure gold. Highly recommended -- and do pay attention to the profundity of the message. (No way I can ever do the scream before the second chorus. I don't have pipes like that.) And yes, these guys haven't realized that all proper gear goes up to eleven.

Some possible answers in the Twitter thread you just posted. Could be a variant of the Stockholm syndrome; heck, maybe there's even a name for what these soldiers are engaged in, it's just that I don't know it. Your question, while seemingly relevant, is somewhat akin to the question of why someone in a violent relationship simply doesn't get up and leave, because surely that is an easy and sensible option. For someone looking from the outside in, this is how it is, but the view can be completely different from the inside: the person abused and exploited can be psychologically broken to such an extent that leaving would require resources far beyond that which they can muster. Incidentally, for anyone who's played Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous, the character of Ember personifies one kind of "twisted" survival strategy as a result of utter humiliation, abuse and violence. (That's not the only way you can see her, but surely that's one way.) Not only does Ember not leave, she sort of embraces the evil that's been done to her. Interpreted this way, Ember is a heartbreaking character.

I was listening to a presentation given by a retired high-ranking intelligence officer, and it contained a couple of interesting points concerning some of the reasons Russia decided to attack Ukraine. For instance, he pointed out that outside of Moscow and St. Petersburg, much of Russia still qualifies as a developing country; apparently one third of all Russians still only have an outhouse, when it comes to their toilet facilities. The rampant looting of washing machines and such testifies to the fact how backward much of Russia continues to be. Russia has nothing to contribute to the current technological advances in the world -- except raw materials. This has created an enormous reservoir of jealousy and bitterness towards "the West", and what makes Ukraine particularly annoying is the fact that Ukraine has managed to make a significant move towards becoming a more Western country -- even if corruption, for instance, still remains a huge problem and Ukraine is obviously nowhere near to qualifying for the EU. Ukraine is, for Russia, doubly culpable, for not only has it got closer to "the West", it has also simultaneously made a clear move away from what Russia regards as their trinity: Russia, Belarus, Ukraine. This is unforgivable. (Interestingly: Belarus would almost certainly make the same move if it could, i.e. if it wasn't ruled by Putin's puppet, with everything that that entails.) There are all sorts of strategic, economic, imperialistic and probably just personal (Putin) factors that also help to explain the war, but the former officer wanted to draw attention to these considerations, which are also significant. Also, there's this today:

If you propose that the government in countries such as South Africa, Germany, South Korea, Japan, France, the United States or Italy is "the biggest gang in a way" and thus an equal of the multitude of criminal gangs in Russia, then sure, we're not going to have a sensible conversation, since we're once again entering the territory of "there's essentially no difference between Russia and anything else".

So in which other countries has the non-democratically "elected" leader reached out to his country's mafia and multitude of criminal gangs to stress that they should desist from all their activities for as long as the tournament lasts, so as to create a veneer of propriety in his country?

What intrigues me most about Dio's singing is the tone of his voice. To me, he sounds resoundingly masculine, but once you try to sing along, you'll recognize that he actually sings pretty high much of time. Compare with, for instance, Vince Neil from Mötley Crüe who, shall we say, does not sound particularly strong in the maleness department.

The obviously unverified but very plausible-seeming story is that Putin made it extremely clear to everyone that everything should be fine and dandy during the World Cup, otherwise things would get very nasty indeed for anyone who didn't obey. (Hooray for the Iranian team and supporters, by the way!)

Here's a good example of a singer who can absolutely do it live. Saw him in concert only once. Geez he was good.

Meanwhile, a story from the West: if you provide inaccurate information that can potentially be very dangerous, it can have consequences. https://www.washingtonpost.com/media/2022/11/21/james-laporta-associated-press-poland-russia-missile/

Some more Russian spies in Sweden: https://www.aftonbladet.se/nyheter/a/69qE2z/gift-par-fran-ryssland-gripna-for-spionage-levde-dubbelliv

Apart from being terroristic, the current Russian regime is also inhuman towards its own. There is already ample evidence for it, so whether this story turns out to be exaggerated or not does not make much difference. But it is, yet again, an awful story. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/nov/21/russians-accused-of-burning-bodies-at-kherson-landfill Also, info on Russian equipment losses. Serious stuff:

It is a strong recommendation for member countries, so if they all publicly agree with it, then it starts to have at least some weight. Here is the NATO document. The relevant bit is #19.i.: https://www.nato-pa.int/download-file?filename=/sites/default/files/2022-11/RESOLUTION 479 - NATO POST MADRID .pdf

And yet again: https://tass.com/emergencies/1539571

Fair point! By the way, contrary to (other) fascist states, Russia has pursued a strict policy of demobilizing(*) and passivising its citizens, instead of getting them to rally in support of its leaders. The explicit aim has been to produce a total split between the people and the political sphere, and it has to be said that this has been extremely successful. For example, the people don't mind that there are no free or fair elections in the country, and haven't been for a long time. The people don't care that they have no say in what Russia does, politically speaking. Some people are active, of course, as they always are, but these people are treated with extreme harshness and even cruelty, and the vast majority of the population just doesn't care. Here's a very recent selection of brief interviews from the streets of Moscow. Given the size of the city, it is obvious that a selection like this could be produced even if it weren't the majority view, but my sense is that this really does reflect the general views of the city's young population. And for me, this is heartbreaking stuff to watch. Truly. (*) For decades. I'm not talking about the very recent mobilization.

Some of this stuff, if true, is very hard to understand -- in the sense of "how can it be that bad?".

Anne Applebaum is at it again. She is a good writer. https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2022/12/putin-russia-must-lose-ukraine-war-imperial-future/671891/?fbclid=IwAR34kCCmqJANvamBM5Zmh0lBsEF2RMBqsqu90zHLJdkyeK2aNypZ2wRxZ-Q

I am guessing this varies from one country to the next. There's plenty of it in the media over here, for instance. Probably not as much as it should, but still plenty. It's an awful situation, without any doubt. And it feels even more awful when you consider the unbelievable culturo-historical richness of the country.