xzar_monty

Fair enough. No argument there. From my point of view, I'd say that the question is not so much one of paying attention (although I don't deny you have point) but of an impression created by that which is repeatedly stressed. In other words, when we are discussing what is happening in Ukraine and you, thread after thread and comment after comment, bring up examples of what others have done elsewhere while not exactly commenting on what is happening now (except in terms of military strategy, whenever that is discussed), then this by itself, by force of repetition, begins to create an impression of glossing over what Russia is doing and of perhaps ultimately siding with Russia. It's fairly close to being equivalent to someone who, let's say on a Pink Floyd forum, repeatedly points out that Roger Waters sings this or that out of tune and doesn't really have much of a range, David Gilmour relies a tad too heavily on a fairly limited number of what can be called tricks -- and by all this, ultimately gives the impression that he actually doesn't like Pink Floyd at all, even if his mere presence on the forum sort of suggests that he surely must. So there's this. Clearly I'm not the only one to have received this impression, and it might not be completely unhelpful to you to recognize that this sort of thing can happen.

This video may not be groundbreaking, but it does make me happy. It is important to remember that living under Russian occupation is not just a formal change of local authorities. It means subjugation, torture, and arbitrary killings of civilians.

It's not asinine, and it was not intended in the sense you took it. But I'm not the one to argue this point further. What I find particularly interesting about your line of argumentation is that you are quick to bring up things that other parties have done wrong (many of which I don't dispute, as they're fairly indisputable), and this, indeed, remains the essence of what you do, in many ways. I may be wrong with this next point because I haven't read all the threads on the topic, nor even all the comments in the threads I have read, but I don't think you've come even close to admitting that or agreeing with the idea that Russia is currently doing something wrong. So, a direct question: is Russia's war perfectly fine, in your opinion? It seems to be, by implication, and by your insistence on bringing up what has been done elsewhere.

It ought to be unnecessary to refer to the subject of the thread and stress that we are, indeed, talking about the Ukraine conflict, but clearly it isn't. It ought to be unnecessary to point out that my anger towards Russia's actions in Ukraine is not lack of anger towards other actions elsewhere, but clearly it isn't. EDIT: Isn't there a bit of an irony in the fact that substantial swaths of the Russian army essentially spent the past three or four days screaming, "I need a ride, not ammunition!"

We're not ignorant of this; I'm pretty sure that goes for most of us taking part in this discussion. However, we're talking about the Ukraine conflict in this thread, and commenting on what Russia does is not a comment upon what other nations or organizations have done elsewhere. I find it very odd that there are forum members who appear to take it that way.

Better prepare for more and more Bucha-like atrocities: https://khpg.org/en/1608811136 Let's hope that's not what it is, but I can't see any basis for hope.

That's the interesting thing. That's what I was saying in my comment about AI-generated music above. What makes it interesting is that it's so easily recognizable from the whole of the work but rather difficult to pin down precisely. So, the sense of "this doesn't work" is right there, but giving a satisfactory answer as to why is not that easy.

Hang on... so you've gone over to the dark side and started playing turn-based games?

As soon as Russia encounters difficulties on the battlefield, it will take revenge on the civilian population. This has been apparent both in this war and in its previous wars. The Russian army is quite good at killing unarmed people with all kinds of weapons.

That's some very odd thinking. How can Russia have any legit targets as its entire operation lacks all legitimacy?

@Mamoulian War: Yeah, but what is that thing burning in Belgorod?

To what extent is this stalemate caused by the nuclear reactor, though? This is a genuine question, because I really don't know, but if I had to guess, I'd say the reactor is a fairly important point.

My first comment would be to oppose dichotomies like this that appear, interestingly enough, to become more and more prevalent all the time. It's not as if those are the only two options. Surely? I remain very interested. I have listened to some AI-created neoclassical music, and some of it has been quite impressive, even. The strange and somewhat alienating constant has been the obvious soullessnes of the music; there's something that the AI still fails to grasp, in terms of construction, and this shows quite quickly and clearly. But I'm sure this will change. I am an expert in verbal art (prose, drama, poetry), and my current verdict on AI in that field would be "essentially all rubbish"; I know much less but still quite a lot about music, and my current verdict would be "fascinating but lacking"; I know quite a lot less about visual art, and there my current verdict would be "sometimes very cool, but I haven't seen anything that would really impress me -- I certainly wouldn't want any of that stuff at home". @BruceVCsays that "Famous and beloved art needs the creativity and imagination of a human brain and psyche", but this is not true. The appearence of these things will do just as well (remember the Turing test?). Let's see where we are in twenty years.

Just read a fascinating interview by an academic who's studying Russia, energy and Russian energy politics. One of the takeaways was the (fairly obvious) fact how geography and resources also shape Russia's politics, and to what extent: the production of gas and oil takes place in the periphery, and because the main source of the nation's wealth is fossil energy, the people in power only need to control fairly small areas of land far away from where people actually live. It is also not uncommon for countries that rely on oil and gas but don't have any sort of democratic history to become more and more undemocratic, as time goes on. "The Russian economy has never been based on the idea that a person, a village or a city is productive, and that the country will do well if it taxes them wisely", as the person said. "The sanctions now imposed upon Russia must be so strong that Russian economy is damaged as badly as possible. This is the only way to create a situation where Russians can reassess their violent history and penchant for martyrdom(*), and thus search for a new alternative." Whether anything like this will happen is anyone's guess, of course. (*) For me, this martyrdom stuff has probably been the most baffling aspect of the war. Russia is the wailing killer, the weeping rapist, the crying destroyer. "Why is everyone so mean to me, what have I done?" it asks while shelling hospitals, raping babies and murdering civilians.

...also proving that some predictions haven't aged well, to put it mildly. For example: https://foreignpolicy.com/2022/01/21/weapons-ukraine-russia-invasion-military/

There's an interesting precedent to your last point, which is true, by the way. The point, I mean. (There's a bit of a bitter paradox here: I am fully in support of the Scandinavian model of the welfare state, because it works extremely well and solves an awful lot of problems, but one problem that it itself creates is the fact that a certain number of people will turn into fat apathetic whiners, to put it in less than kind terms. I suppose there's a kind of a Gaussian distribution of temperamental variation in this regard, and some people, when they are provided with enough support, will not do anything themselves and will eventually lose all capacity for proper effort. I don't think this problem of the welfare state can be solved. The opposite problem is true in a situation where support is not provided at all: it tends to produce tough people with good initiative, but there is a certain class of people who'd need a certain amount of support to get going and realise their potential, and these people will simply be crushed in a situation where support is not available. I don't think this problem can be solved, either.) Anyway, the precedent: during WW2, psychiatric breakdowns were most common among the Allies. It was the Brits and the Americans who broke down, sometimes terminally. The Germans had the Nazi ideology to rely on, the Russians knew that life is terrible, and the Japanese had their code of honor which provided suicide as a respectable means of escape: these three groups suffered far less psychiatric problems and psychophysiological meltdowns than the Allies did.

The implosion / collapse can be rapid, if the system is flawed and corrupt enough. I am almost certain that Russia qualifies, but obviously it doesn't follow that a rapid collapse is forthcoming. The Russian people could also do a Romania / Ceaucescu here, but again, there's no way to know whether this'll happen. If there is a "treatment by lead" by someone else in the regime, or close to it, it's anyone's guess what happens next... (Well, it is anyway, I suppose.) I do think that a lot of people around the world are at least surprised by the rapidity with which Russia has surrendered its positions, and happy about it, too. Let's see how this continues. Also, an interesting article in the Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/sep/10/ukraines-publicised-southern-offensive-was-disinformation-campaign

Yep. It's a very interesting wake-up call from the naive days in which these sciences began. Mind you, they can only be called naive in retrospect; the methodology just wasn't there in the beginning, nor were the means to develop it. It's going to be very interesting to see how everything develops in the future. (Like a physicist friend of mine once pointed out: there was no way the Romans could have known how the lead in their pipes, cups etc. hurt them. A deadly poison that works slowly was essentially impossible to detect.)

I can't help it if your interpretation has very little to do with what I wrote.

If, for instance, Russian morale collapses in a big way, there may be some dramatic developments reaching all the way up to the top. Not expecting this to happen, but it might.

Apparently someone has been smoking in Belgorod last night, or, conceivably, there has been some kind of attack on the Russian city, because there have been explosions and half the place is / was without electricity. This does not look meaningless, in terms of Russian morale, at least.

Oh, absolutely, no question (re: McDonalds). Also, no question that Gazprom is more important by a couple of orders of magnitude. Which is precisely why the video taunt looks so inane; it is frankly baffling to see such a huge entity stoop to that level. As I said, companies just don't do stuff like this, normally. I have no doubt that there's an awful lot of outright hostility etc. in the business world, just like in the political world, but most of the time you tend to see some rules of diplomacy apply.

Lavrov, by the way, has been remarkably quiet for quite some time now -- or perhaps the media hasn't bothered to quote him. I am not trying to insinuate anything about his health, but given how vocal he was in the earlier parts of the war, he has essentially disappeared from view. Could be a perspective thing, though.

All the time? Really? Ok, point me to three (3) Western companies whose PR departments have taken the trouble to make a sort-of promotional video whose sole purpose is to mock the (supposed / possible) plight of its former customers. I'd love to see the videos, too. The US instructing its chip makers not to sell is not what I was talking about, nor was harsh words around a negotiation table. There's nothing unusual about that, I agree.

Does Ukraine have proper rasputitsa in the fall? I really don't know. There are areas where it happens both in the spring and in the fall, but I am not sure about Ukraine. Of course, it is much more common in the spring.