Gorth

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

The very idea that something can be beyond the control of The Party is probably very offensive to them.

I enjoyed Dark Matter and was really pissed off the last two seasons got cancelled (an arc of 5 seasons was originally planned when the project started)

Congrats on qualifying As for Italy... I can't find the link now, but the BBC pointed out some structural problems that has existed for several years now. Winning the UEFA Championship masked these problems for a while, but then they returned with a vengeance. The article looked at the lack of youth and grassroot work, how no Italian club teams have won anything for more than a decade and how insignificant the number of *young* players is in the system. Basically Italian football is dying of old age with no young stars to step in and step up to the plate

Just itching to get out of my hotel room. I can pick up the keys to my new place tomorrow afternoon, but the removal company can't deliver my furniture until the day after tomorrow. So, staying put for a few more days. To add insult to injury, the torrential rain is back and there is no going for a walk anywhere to relieve boredom

Yeah, World Cup, not World Series. This one has a lot of foreign teams in it

Some UK think tanks thoughts on the change of strategy... Russia's aim is slow and methodical capture of towns - military expert Dr Jack Watling, research fellow for land warfare at the London-based defence think tank the Royal United Services Institute, gives his latest assessment of Russia's movements inside Ukraine ... The Russians advanced along more axes than they could sustain in the first part of the conflict, and are now in a position where they can only resource one axis at a time. At the moment, their priority seems to be to defeat Ukrainian forces in the Donbas if they can. Once they finish in Mariupol, they're likely to reinforce the axis against Kharkiv to the north of the Donbas. And so the intent is very much a slow and methodical capture of towns one by one, he concludes. The link also has a map courtesy of the UK MoD dating 26/03 Short version, Ukraine didn't roll over and die when asked to, so now the strategy has changed to a slow (bloody and costly too) grind... https://www.bbc.com/news/live/world-europe-60890199 Also featuring a repeat story, that Zelensky is ready to consider the neutrality question, albeit not without a referendum.

The English players are currently discussing boycotting the WC because of Qatar's rather spotty human rights records... Nothing may come of it though, leaving it at discussing it.

This. So much this. If you feel entertained, enjoy it. Stop fretting about whether or not it meets some self imposed standards. Bring on the cheesiness and the nudity and the space opera worthy dialogue! Embrace it and wallow in it (I know I do)