Gorth

Part looking for a new place to live (my friends live north of the river and I feel a bit stuck living south of the river) and crossing t's and dotting i's on my citizenship application. Only thing holding me back is, if I move it's a hassle to change address on an application being processed.

One problem with this last bit... those are NATO members. Nothing short of military engagement from NATO's side will save NATO as an organisation, if it comes to that. Edit: If NATO doesn't respond with full military confrontation to an invasion of the Baltic countries, Putin will have dismantled NATO even faster than Napoleon did the Holy Roman Empire.

Gary Brooker... no more whiter shade of pale for us https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_Brooker

A nice little video by ArenaNet as preparation for the launch of End of Dragons in less than week now (something I'm looking really forward to). For those who don't know the game, what impressed me with this video is not the technical quality of the gfx or the voice acting or anything like that, but that they somehow managed to cut and paste snippets from so many old cutscenes, that are completely unrelated to the story being told in the video, together and slapping a new narrative on top of the mish mash of videos, that the story and video clips actually seems like they were made for each other. ArenaNet did something slightly similar back in 2013 with their first anniversary trailer:

I suspect China's "game" in this, is to see how much force the west is willing to commit. I.e. boots on the ground and airplanes involved fighting over Ukraine. If none, they might conclude Taiwan is ripe for the taking now while everybody else is busy looking at Ukraine and the response wasn't scary (by Chinese standards)

Ironically, Kiev was the Russian capital from 996 to 1108. Moscow didn't exist before 11147

Split the thread in two for the time being... For Ukraine stuff For non-Ukraine stuff

Started this as a new thread to relieve pressure on ye olde general politics thread. Please stick all things Ukraine in here for the time being. Like the US election thread, a temporary measure until things gets less heated... Now watching this space for the news of the upcoming death of legendary Russian war hero Navalny who did a combat drop over the western Russian city of Kiev, unfortunate that his parachute came undone on the way down.

Starting a new thread for all things non Ukraine related. Please use other thread for that. Similar to the US election days, to give other subjects a chance without being drowned in the topic-du-jour... Old thread:

You didn't see his latest live performance on TV? Red faced and frothing at the mouth? It's a very, very angry man. Sort of knew something was about to happen after the live charade that was the Russian security council meeting transmitted live on TV. The poor spy chief got called back several times to the podium to rephrase his free and uninfluenced opinion to the viewers until Putin was happy with his message.

Regarding Ukraine, a diplomatic solution had been worked out but the Minsk Accord was never implemented. Regarding Games Workshop, I'm personally a lot more interested in "Warhammer: The Old World", with a return to the familiar Warhammer world. Talk about screwing up a setting and an existing fan base (i.e. me!)

No, I'm old and wise... I recognize the subtle signals my nose sends me when my phone keeps falling back down and boinking my nose when I drift off while typing

It’s 2:20am here, so I’ll have to give this thread a break until tomorrow afternoon (Eastern Aussie time)

I don't really see nationalism (patriotism) as a "cause" for atrocities, but a means to commit such. The first war(s) probably started when the first field of arable land was cultivated and people started fighting over it (because the people cultivating it couldn't be picked up and carry it with them). Personally, I see the most significant cause wars as greed. The desire to accumulate as much wealth and resources as possible. Everything else, including nationalism are tools to mobilize as many people as possible to do the dying for you. It struck me as a very abstract and very absurd reason to kill your fellow man, that his home was located on the other side of some line, powerful people drew on a map. No, I'm not necessarily rational. Just thinking if a major tool for mobilizing people in large numbers to kill each other vigorously, faded away over time, maybe the world would be a better place. Edit: I know it wasn't exactly what @Gromnir said, but I guess we can blame the peasants after all....

Nope, not misrepresenting. Sadly Idealism is not a tradable currency, but we all have our flaws... as for national identities, the world did just "fine" without them before the 17th century. People still identified as something, but it seems to have been things less abstract and closer to home. Didn't prevent warlords from rounding up the peasants and equipping them with pitchforks and wooden sticks so they could go out and bash each others brains in for the glory of their clan chief/tribal leader/feudal lord/whatever. Nationalism just doesn't change anything for the better. If anything, it enables the same thing on a larger scale and with more enthusiasm.

How can we not love politicians??? Time to reveal a secret... I sometimes have wet dreams at night, featuring a naked Scott Morrison... his body all covered in glistening syrup... while tied, spread eagled, over a fire ant nest Ok, so maybe there isn't much love lost on politicians... I usually grade them a bit though internally. Politicians playing the sad nationalist violin is never to be trusted. They are usually kept up by unthinking masses (yes, there really is something about people getting the government they deserve). Long list... Putin (Russia), Xi (Mainland China), Trump (ex US president), Modi (India), Poroshenko (ex Ukrainian president) Bolsonaro (Brazil), Orban (Hungary) etc. On this list, Putin and Xi are by far the most dangerous, because they possess what appears to be a modicum of intelligence and nukes to back up their policy. Our very own Scott from Marketing has neither brains nor charisma. That being said, there are probably "good" politicians out there. The media just tend to be media and ignore them, for the same reason most news channels sell bad news, disasters and the next new crisis to keep ratings up. That somebody in Canberra decided to put up same sex marriage to be tested by a binding referendum was a nice touch. People just forget something like that two weeks after the referendum. I still remember a conservative government back in Denmark in the 80's that introduced harsh austerity measures (many years before the PIGS countries made it a buzz word) to save an economy in free fall and left a legacy of a nation which has been generally in the black ever since. They got much flak back then, especially from the The Socialist Party, Social Democrats and the Danish Communist Party, but guess what... in the decades after, people enjoyed economic stability without thinking much about why it is so (it was "affectionately" known as the Potato Diet, because people had to leave out the meat and just eat vegetables).

Oh look, I found a Rammstein song. Supposedly with a fan made animation making up the visuals of the video...

I feel sorry for Biden (seriously). It doesn't matter what he does, he's screwed. If he play hardball and the economy suffers as a result, he'll get slaughtered. If he doesn't, he'll hear no end of "weakest president evar!!!" and get slaughtered. It's a lose/lose situation. Edit: He does, not he do.

Russia could sell it to China as the equivalent of China uniting all Chinese under the control of the CCP?

And here I thought the Belgians were only good at making Chocolate and Beer Didn't know Belgium were the power behind the SWIFT system. But yeah, a collapse of the SWIFT system as a global thing could result in a loss of both money and trust in the system. So... better be nice to Belgium, or else! When all is said and done, I think Ukraine still wants to buy a bit of LPG from Russia when winter sets in (not to mention skim a nice profit from transit fees and LPG that mysteriously disappears in large quantities in transit). I don't see Biden arranging an air/truck/train bridge like Berlin post WWII to supply them with gas in enough quantities to keep frostbite away in October (maybe Hunter Biden is more interested in the Ukrainian energy sector than his dad is). Sadly, still lamenting that aforementioned nationalism keeps getting in the way of practical solutions, like actually implementing the signed Minsk Accord (way too late for that now). Putin is nothing if not logical. Like a computer. With all the compassion and empathy of a computer too. Like it or not, he has mostly been reactive rather than active. Sure, a bit of opportunism occasionally, like gaining influence with Shiite Muslims by intervening in Syria or organizing (badly) the odd hit on those guilty of high treason in his eyes.

It's infinitely harder to control a hostile, occupied population than a friendly population that welcomes you as "liberator". Doesn't mean it's impossible, just less likely. Biden probably guessed the same thing way back when he talked about degrees of punitive sanctions for "limited Russian invasion" vs. full scale invasion. Edit: Which upset the government in Kiev a lot

I.e. the ones with the most and biggest guns dictates where borders go... if the borders are good for "us" and bad for "them", they are good borders, regardless everything else. That kind of neo-colonialist attitude makes you part of the problem, not the solution. Me, I believe in self determination and often side with the "underdogs", whether the were the people of Donbass living under Ukrainian occupation or the people of Tibet living under Chinese occupation. Both are trying to stamp out the existing culture and replace it with there own. My preferred solution will always be let the people who live in an area have a say first. I'll concede the eradication of Aztec culture was not necessarily a bad thing, because the whole human sacrifice thing was a bit disturbing...

Partially correct, they were not Russian for 400 years, because for 80 years they were "Soviets" (not a big difference really, as the Soviet Union was de facto the old Zarist Russia). The area was originally known as Zaporizhian Sich until it was conquered by Russia (from The Ottoman Empire) in the 18th Century and the demographic slowly changed from Turkic people to Russians... Turkey has more of a legitimate claim on Donbass and Lugansk than Ukraine ever had. Just don't tell Erdogan.

Yeah, the same way they respected the borders of Tibet

Your language betrays your bias. Those people were never Ukrainians. They were Russians (ethnically, culturally and nationally) for 400 years before Ukraine existed. Did I mention nation states and nationalism being a bad thing?