BruceVC

Its interesting the main objective in this article for Putin is not to win the war of attrition economically but to starve the people of Africa and ME so that increases immigration to the EU which puts economic pressure on the EU To quote from the article " In three vehemently anti-Western interviews given to Russian newspapers since the invasion, the previously publicity-shy Patrushev has declared that Europe is on the brink of “a deep economic and political crisis” with rising inflation and falling living standards already impacting the mood of Europeans, and that a fresh migrant crisis would create new security threats" "This posture suggests that the Kremlin believes it can outlast the West in weathering the impact of economic sanctions. Putin has little choice but to continue the war in hopes the Ukraine grain blockade will “lead to instability in the Middle East and provoke a new flood of refugees,” said Sergei Guriev, former chief economist at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development " "The world is gradually falling into an unprecedented food crisis. Tens of millions of people in Africa or in the Middle East will turn out to be on the brink of starvation — because of the West. In order to survive, they will flee to Europe. I’m not sure Europe will survive the crisis,” Patrushev told Russian state newspaper Rossiyskaya Gazeta in one of the interviews " Just when I think Putin cant do anything more reprehensible he comes up with something new So now the Ruskies are weaponizing starvation and famine. Black\brown people really dont have many friends in Russia

Nah, their would be no Western alliance or anti-Russian sentiment to the degree we seeing it if Putin hadn't invaded Ukraine. Its not hatred that has united the West but the constant attempts of Putin to ignore the sovereignty of former Soviet states and his attempts to recreate the Soviet borders and that objective has now led to an invasion on the border of the EU which automatically means the West will be " involved ". This is about safety and security for the West and its allies....its not about hatred that caused the initial Western response And its absolutely a war between 2 nations because its all caused by one thing, the invasion of Ukraine by Russia. Thats what caused it. The West is providing the financial and logistical support to Ukraine but their are no NATO forces in Ukraine or US soldiers and until that happens its not a war between NATO member states and Russia And something else, Putin has no agency or authority to tell any other country who they should or shouldn't politically or economically align with. Ukraine is an independent country and its important to accept and respect the fact that this means they get to decide their own future....Putin doesnt get to decide that

Well sometimes in life we are all faced with the acceptance of our realities that can be profoundly influenced by others ..and this can sometimes be a negative thing like Putins War for the sovereign country of Ukraine Now because this is an existential threat to the entire country, culture and freedom of Ukraine it is expected if you are a citizen to stand by your country where reasonable. Dont think of it as conscription, think of it like duty and possible sacrifice in support of your way of life ?

I agree with everything you mention here, great post and very informative But do you personally agree with it, I dont mean it from a Constitution perspective because sometimes we all obey the law and Constitution but that doesnt mean we necessarily agree with it. So do you personally support Conscription in Finland?

Just to clarify something, no one is suggesting we must want to die for our country. Very few people really want to die for any reason I am asking what would you do if your country was invaded like the Ukrainians are experiencing and this debate started around conscription. Conscription under these circumstances I support because Ukraine literally faces an existential threat. I dont automatically support conscription because sometimes its unhelpful if you consider Vietnam. So it all depends on the country and the conflict or the history of conflict. For example @Elerond do you support Finnish military service ? But conscription for Ukrainians doesn't mean you want to die, it means you stand by your country in these terrible times

https://platinumjubilee.gov.uk/ Its the British Queens 70th celebration of being the UK monarch, what an incredible life she has led and the Royal family makes a very important contribution towards the legacy of the UK and tourism. She is the first UK queen to be in that position for 70 years Its on for 3 days and I would encourage those who enjoy pomp and pageantry to try to watch parts of it ....their are really interesting troop parades. The British are masters of this type of celebration And for those who may think, "why would I care about a Colonial queens parade " I would just point out again that European Colonialism doesnt exist anymore and the majority of African counties are still part of the Commonwealth, where the Queen is the symbolic head, so its a celebration for all including former colonies My stepmom, sister and her fiancée are in London at the moment so they fortunate enough to be watching it live

And if Germany was invaded unprovoked and German cities were being destroyed and thousands of Germans citizens were being killed what would you do?

Thats good to know, now that she has gone back to Ukraine where in Ukraine is she going back to and will she be finishing her education in Ukraine? What is she studying ?

I appreciate the clarification, I often need examples when people make points for me to understand certain points being made and this post provides that nicely

Okay I see, I misunderstood your point. My bad

All guns? As in every gun ....you know thats never going to happen so why want something that is not possible ?

McDonald Index is a very interesting and applicable economic metric, it has some flaws to it but its a good way of measuring the strength of currencies and the spending power within a country

Im a little unsure about what you saying, I like what I think you saying but Im not sure I do understand your broader point? When you say " societies are the sum of the individuals " what exactly do you mean? Let me use an example, their is a high level of gun violence in the US. What does this tell us about the society of the US? Surly we dont generalize about the worst aspects and criminal elements of any society and say that is a reflection of the society We must separate bad behavior from good behavior and that should be the sum of the society because if most people really believed the US was a country of mass shootings or structural racism why would so many people want to immigrate their?

Thanks for the detail, I appreciate it and you have answered my questions nicely You guys are doing a good thing helping out like this

Same as us, the global inflation is really hurting everyone in SA in an unprecedented way and as usual it hurts the poor the most I can tell you one thing, it will have to be a deadly virus with a 60%+ fatality rate before we see the level of global lockdowns again that we went through over the last 2 years Is your petrol\gas expensive, I know Iran producers oil so I imagine this type of cost is less? In SA its the most expensive its been in living memory and we also have own petrol tax which is on hold at the moment

Wow, okay. I guess things arent that bad in Afghanistan if the Taliban can return ostensibly poor quality fuel?

I never played in Al-Qadim, it gets mostly positive feedback from those that experienced it

I hear you, war can be such an inconvenience to gaming...I hope my fellow gamers are okay

When a country is invaded like we seeing with Putins War their is lots of jobs you can be recruited to do that include patrol and information gathering, engineering, repurposing of vehicles, catering, hospital work, salvaging of destroyed cities. I have seen lots of this on CNN where they interview both men and women who are actively involved in the war effort but they not frontline soldiers and they all volunteers. They dont need to be conscripted and very few of them had any military experience I would expect this when your entire country faces an existential threat. How many Ukrainians have been sent to fight the Russians without ammunition, can you provide links because I am not aware of it ?

I consider the various D&D/AD&D worlds to be very different in many ways that include history, gods, races and geography But why Im so fond of Greyhawk is because it was the first AD&D world I DM in and then I moved to FR which is my overall favorite and still is But I loved the fact that Greyhawk had the locations of modules like Against the Giants and Queen of the Spiders, these were epic modules. ( here is link to the Queen, needless to say Lolth is smoking hot ) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queen_of_the_Spiders And then Greyhawk had these unique countries and regions that represented high fantasy like the Empire of Iuz which was a country where the dark god Iuz ruled on the earth https://greyhawkonline.com/greyhawkwiki/Iuz

I have a different view, I believe if your country is invaded you have both a patriotic and practical duty to defend your country in anyway you can. I know Ukrainians who are not in the army but are doing other work to assist the war effort so Im not suggesting everyone must become a soldier because we not all soldiers We all only have one country you born in and if that matters then when that country is invaded and their is a stated objective, like Putin mentioned, to raze the country to the ground you have to ask yourself what matters to you and what defines you as citizen. So I support the mandatory conscription and if I was Ukrainian and wanted to live in Ukraine I would definitely be part of the war effort in anyway possible But of course I understand why people immigrate and I dont question those reasons as long as its legal. But thats not the same as the Russian invasion of Ukraine

Some of my family in SA and UK have been following the events of Putins War. We donate money to NGO that support the Ukrainian refugees and we were talking about the millions of refugees and how East European countries have assisted in so many ways to ameliorate the reality of life for Ukrainians. You guys should be very proud of the general effort and assistance your countries have provided And not everyone can offer a room to take in refugees for a variety of practical and understandable reasons like space in a house, the costs and other reasons like having a stranger, that you may sympathize with, but you still dont know them A couple of questions were asked about taking in any Ukrainian and I thought I would get your input, these questions may sound strange but they part of the understanding of the logistics . So in no particular order of significance what language do you speak with each other, I assume English? did the student have family who stayed in Ukraine or were her family also refugees who paid for the food and other costs and if you paid was it expensive what did she use to do during the day, did she have friends and or other Ukrainians that she associated with And then did your family get on with her? I know it sounds weird but what was it like, did she use to talk about the war? Thanks

Mamie I was telling my UK family about how you took in that Ukrainian student , is she still staying with your family? I wanted to ask you some questions

My mom and stepdad have 2 pugs, I love pugs. They so cute, some people in my family dislike these dogs and think that they look like " fat hamsters "

https://thecradle.co/Article/columns/11133 @Darkpriest You will find this link interesting Here is a good read that discusses one of the attempts to create a non-aligned Western new world economic order but it also highlights its greatest failure because without a meaningful and powerful economy like China to support this type of initiative it will have limited success. To quote from the link " "Russia-China, though, is a much more complex matter. Extremely fearful of provoking US sanctions, Chinese banks are refraining – at least for the moment – to increase their deals with Russian banks, which brings us to the case of UnionPay: The Chinese bank card provider – increasingly popular, especially across Asia – declined from partnering with Sberbank even before Russia’s largest bank was excluded by the EU and the US from the global bank messaging platform SWIFT. UnionPay also canceled plans with other Russian banks to issue UnionPay cards linked with the Russian Mir payment system, profiting from the exit of Visa and Mastercard from the Russian market. This is still a careful balancing act for China. Earlier this year at the Boao Forum in Asia, President Xi Jinping was adamant in opposing the “wanton use of unilateral sanctions.” And over 80 percent of Chinese companies already established in Russia appeared to continue their business as usual. Yet in practical terms, there are serious problems. The Bank of China and the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) have restricted financing for Russian commodities. Even the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), absolutely essential for sustainable development projects, linked or not with BRI, decided to freeze all lending to Russia and Belarus in early March to “safeguard” its “financial integrity.” On the financial front, cautious Chinese banks, with enormous western exposure, are always balancing the fact that nearly 80 percent of global cross-border transactions are still in dollars and euros, and only two percent in yuan. So the Russian market is not exactly a priority "