Gorth

You could also argue it's good he didn't leave the decision making to the army, otherwise Russia might have ended up winning. As in winning fast, efficient and brutally before the sanctions even took hold the way they have now. Edit: And with a lot more headaches for the west than they have now, where it looks like Russia may gain something, but at a cost that far exceeds the gains.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1981_Spanish_coup_d'état_attempt Tl;dr; (@213374Ucorrect me if I'm wrong) It was a number of military rebellions around Spain, the most famous of which was Guardia Civil officers storming and seizing the Spanish parliament. Fed up with the chaos (economic and otherwise) that had resulted from the transition from Fascist rule to democracy, they missed to "good old days" where things were working, trains ran on time, the country wasn't being torn apart by social unrest etc.

That reminds me of one of those articles (or was it a youtube video?) linked to in the past, that mentioned Putins decisions were those of a KGB officer, not an army general. I.e. thinking about politics, leverage and symbolism rather the realities of warfare. Maybe he's still loyal to the oath he swore once... fighting tooth and nail for the USSR. Even if it hasn't existed for a long time now. Edit: Speaking of die hard leftovers of previous regimes, anyone else remember some interesting times when Franco supporters stormed the Spanish parliament in 1981?

Why do you think I live in Queensland? Who cares about sharks, blue-ringed octopus, box jelly fish, stonefish, lion fish etc... at least the water is warm I'm sure I can rebook my place in Valhalla and get a seat at the Mauritius equivalent

Welcome back to my childhood The North Sea is rarely above 17-18 degrees Celsius

Finished season 1 of Gleipnir. I guess it was something just up my alley, I really enjoyed it. No accounting for taste of course, I might be the only liking it The relatively peaceful collector group runs into a gang of no nonsense violent people, who will kill them for reasons of their own... sort of like because they can (they are the downtrodden of society suddenly tasting brotherhood and power). Things ends violently with mass poisoning and forest fires.... but voyeur guy tries to rat them out triggers a fail safe which pops off his head. The leader of the group decides to hand over Claire and Shuichi to Elena (Claire's sister) and her people. More backstory and introduction of characters that existed before the "current time", explaining some hows and whys and who know who in what way. Turns out there is a main antagonist (Kaito) too, even if introduced very late in the anime. All of the protagonists (Claire and Shuichi) as well as Claire's sister Elena and Kaito knew each other when younger. A bit of a plot point is a missing girl, Honoka... turns out she found one of the coins and her wish was to be someone else. A friend of the group, Aiko seemed to have everything, but committed suicide (not properly explained why in the anime imho) and Honoka wished to be her. Everyone seems to suspect something is odd with the new Aiko, but the guys agree to just pretend everything is normal... except for Kaito that is. He confronts "Aiko" at what he suspects is the grave of the real Aiko and strangles the Honoka/"Aiko", just to find out afterwards Honoka was innocent, only thing she did was assuming her identity. Elena not only murdered hers and Claire's parents, but it seems she also murdered Shuichi (the protagonist whose name I couldn't remember in previous posts) parents and tampered with his memory. Kaito apparently managed to collect 100 coins and is now almost omnipotent and Elena seems to be working for him. He also has a guardian angel, which eviscerates people and then there was the wayward ghost that shreds people who don't know her real name (looking like Honoka/Aiko). Sort of ends in a cliffhanger with Shuichi and Claire declaring themselves as one in more ways than one I guess (no, not sex, but more than just her climbing inside him through his zipper) and intend to put up a fight to end this deadly game...

A good read. A bit long, but very detailed and very interesting

Just some interesting comparisons and world maps... numbers are from late last year though, but still indicative of the world situation i think...

Anyone remember Macron pulling a Chamberlain? Peace in our time? After his meetings with Putin before the war... Looks like they found someone to take the fall https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-60938538 The head of French military intelligence, Gen Eric Vidaud, is losing his job after failing to predict Russia's war in Ukraine, reports say. Seven months after he took on the role, one report said he was blamed for "inadequate briefings" and a "lack of mastery of subjects". He also got the blame for Australia blindsiding France by dropping the order for French conventional submarines worth many billions of dollars and switching to US made nuclear submarines instead.

Continued from previous thread: Remember, discussing various aspects of the war is fine (keeping the standard forum guidelines in mind). Wishing death on individuals and groups if people or encouraging the same is still not an option, no matter how invested you may feel in the conflict... So far, the threads as a whole has been a positive surprise all things considered. Lets try to keep it at that?

Discussion about the ongoing war continued here:

Maybe explain to him the meaning of Ides of March too Edit: for those who are not into history, it's a reference to Shakespeare's Julius Caesar where a fortune teller warns Caesar of his impending demise “beware the Ides of March” and then goes and gets himself assassinated in the senate (senators not being happy about the dismantling of The Republic)... during the Ides of March

US intelligence services have been wrong before. Wouldn't be the first or the last time they missed the mark. It's not always an exact science.

Maybe some Russian generals suddenly consider front line duty around Kiev a much safer prospect, than hanging around in Moscow... https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-60936117 Pentagon spokesman John Kirby called the assessments "discomforting" because an uninformed Putin could result in a "less than faithful" effort at ending the conflict through peace negotiations. "The other thing is, you don't know how a leader like that is going to react to getting bad news," he said. Putin didn't even know that Russia had sent conscripts to the front... the generals and advisors all being too scared to bring any bad news. According to US intelligence services, Putin is only now waking up to the reality of the situation by checking other news sources.

Nah, that's the sound of peace dying. Democracy dies when you don't hold your own government to account for it's actions and question it's moves and motives. Despite rampant corruption and lack of transparency, Ukraine is still mostly democratic. Even the most democratic of countries tends to have special laws replacing peacetime laws when in a state of war.

I don’t. It might help that I got my own bed back now though

Got the keys to my place and got my furniture and stuff delivered. Now I just have to do the Sisyphus thing for a few weeks, carrying boxes from the garage and up the stairs

Probably none. Unlike Hunter Biden, Trump had no vested interest in Ukraine

Putin didn't think invading Ukraine was going to bite him in the ass (he might even have believed himself it wouldn't turn into a real war if Ukraine had acted like he expected). Starting a nuclear will. Even Putin will most likely realize, it means the end of any and all dreams of a USSR sized Russia if there is nothing left but radioactive rubble.

I'm not sure it would take that long. That is, as long as Putin is no longer there. A "palace coup" would shorten the time span considerably. I mentioned a few posts back, sometimes todays enemy is tomorrows friend. No, it wouldn't work with somebody like Navalny in power (a man that campaigned on shooting all Muslims on sight and non Slav's to be violently if necessary, deported from Holy Mother Russia, a Putin on steroids). But it does need to be someone with a strong popular backing. If Putin were to have an accident in a dark corridor in the Kremlin tonight, Russia would get plunged chaos and fracturing within a very short time and the clock would be set back to 1991. I.e. a nightmare scenario with oligarchs with their private mercenary armies and regional ex-army warlords, all with access to medium range and ICBM nukes. A point where I think the west failed badly strategically, besides constantly marginalizing Russia and fanning the paranoia (especially during the 90's), is the lack of focused support for Putin alternatives. Viable ones that is (see above comment about Navalny).

Just rehashing some old Tim stuff while waiting for more new Rammstein singles to be released... (warning: contains Tim Minchin)

Something tells me Will Smith has a temper issue... stuff that needs anger management courses rather than screening?

...trying to imagine Will Smith and Ricki Gervais in the same room...

The USA women's team is indeed world famous in football circles for their skills and achievements over a number of years

The BBC, always a bit late but eventually arrived at the conclusion many others arrived at, that eastern Ukraine is going to be "cleansed" Chechen style to create a new, Russia friendly demographic in the occupied areas... https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-60894142 Russia is housing an estimated 5,000 at a temporary camp in Bezimenne, east of Mariupol, seen in satellite images. Ukraine's Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said 40,000 had been moved from Ukraine to Russian-held territory without any coordination with Kyiv. A Mariupol refugee, now in Russia, said: "All of us were taken forcibly". Some Ukrainian officials describe Russia's actions as "deportations" to "filtration camps" - an echo of Russia's war in Chechnya, when thousands of Chechens were brutally interrogated in makeshift camps and many disappeared. Despite a hard domestic crack down on free speech and an attempt at total control of information, Russian anti special military action protesters still succeed at drawing attention to the death and suffering (Jeebus, that substitute for the word 'war' is going to linger for many years as a bad, bad meme) https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-europe-60900595 A Russian artist covered herself in fake blood and repeated the phrase “my heart bleeds” in a protest in St. Petersburg on Sunday. Yevgenia Isayeva stood on the steps of the municipal assembly for the anti-war demonstration before police came and took her away. She also put a canvas at her feet with an appeal to passers-by not to support the bloodshed in Ukraine. Click link for video of the performance. Quite graphic if only with special effect blood