kanisatha

And then there's this, which also came up as a story back in late February, and has been rumoured for some time. This may or may not be true, but is certainly very interesting to me: https://metro.co.uk/2022/04/03/putin-is-using-body-double-to-avoid-assassination-attempt-16396461/

Finland in NATO may get fast-tracked (as I predicted may happen): https://www.euractiv.com/section/politics/short_news/finnish-president-says-nato-referendum-no-longer-necessary/ https://www.airforcemag.com/finland-reassesses-nato-entry-in-wake-of-russia-ukraine-conflict/ https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/why-putin-faces-more-nato-arctic-after-ukraine-invasion-2022-04-04/

I'm sure there must be some 'let's play' videos out there you could check out.

Here's more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/apr/02/ukrainian-children-used-as-human-shields-near-kyiv-say-witness-reports Here's hoping someday soon we can identify these war criminals by name and face.

Yes exactly. Yesterday Reuters went to these villages and towns and took photos of everything, not just for news purposes but also for war crimes prosecutions. HRW, AI, and the ICC prosecutor's office are also on the ground documenting everything. The photos will tear your heart in two. Children burned to death in their mothers' arms. Young men and boys tied up and shot and buried in shallow mass graves, their hands and feet poking out of the earth. Bodies everywhere. And many bodies, along with streets, homes, and debris, boobytrapped with mines and bombs. In village after village after village. In Bucha alone 300 murdered civilians currently identified with more to come. These are not professional soldiers. These are cowardly psychopath rabble in uniform, the kind that would be groveling for their lives on their knees if they're ever confronted by NATO forces. https://www.hrw.org/news/2022/04/03/ukraine-apparent-war-crimes-russia-controlled-areas

Nice! And even in their denials, the Ukrainians should use the exact same words and phrasing the Russians use when they deny responsibility for attacks on Ukrainian civilian targets.

But the bottom line still remains, if it is the case that the Ukrainians did it, so what? Russia can attack and systematically destroy Ukraine, but Ukraine is not allowed to strike back at Russian territory?

All I can say is they have thus far been very aggressive in fixing bugs and issues with the game since release, and they have said a roadmap for feature updates is coming soon.

Here's my prediction for what comes in the next few weeks: referenda expressing the "popular" "democratic" will of the people will be conducted in Luhansk and Donetsk declaring their wish to join Russia by over 90% margins. Then Russia will pass laws to absorb these areas into Russia, and then declare their "special military operation" is actually about defending their territory and people from a vicious and unprovoked invasion by evil nazi Ukrainian aggressors. And, after this, similar referenda are coming in Russian-occupied parts of Georgia and Moldova too. And in those cases, a pretext may also be created for full invasions, Ukraine-style, to absorb the whole states into Russia, calculating that global costs (sanctions and condemnations) cannot get any worse so may as well reap as much benefit as possible.

Sounds great. But doesn't look like it is/will be available on Steam. Please do educate me on this if I'm wrong.

Titanium, Nickel, and some other such materials, plus food and fertilizer.

Yup. Was defeated 2 yes and 13 abstain. Then the France-Mexico alternative very explicitly labeling the humanitarian crisis the direct result of Russia's invasion passed in the GA with 140 yes votes.

The Russia-China meeting declaring a "new" world order is utterly hilarious. The two ministers with a straight face try to tell the world their new world order is about respecting the principles of sovereignty and territorial integrity of all states and "democratic relations" between states. Hahaha. What a joke. Apparently these principles only apply to states named Russia and China and *not* to states named Ukraine.

This is a very good point. Even in China, there are rules that the government has to follow, and even changing the rules has to be done through a well-established process involving many people beyond just the president. By contrast in Russia today, Putin is essentially ruling by fiat. Anything and everything can be changed, and changed in any way no matter how crazy or illogical, just by Putin alone deciding to change it. The Duma is completely a rubber stamp. So yeah similar to North Korea; also somewhat similar to Qaddafi's regime in Libya (which political science scholars never were able to classify as belonging to any category of regime type because it was essentially one man, who was not a king, arbitrarily deciding everything with no rules or processes).

Yup. And in this case they even actually crossed into Swedish airspace for a couple of minutes before being intercepted the Gripens. Initially the Swedes were very emphatic that the aircraft had deliberately crossed into their airspace, but now the government is walking that back, saying it's possible they "strayed." Also, for several months now there have been rumors from the Elmendorf wing F-22 pilots, posting anonymously, that Tu-22M bombers they've been intercepting off of Alaska have been carrying live nuclear missiles. The Air Force has "no comment."

Clearly a message to Sweden about even flirting with the idea of joining NATO. They of course knew the Flygvapnet would intercept.

For all my fellow ABBA fans, here's their newly released "lyric video" of the hit song "Chiquitita." It's one of my favorites, and looks and sounds awesome. They're going to be doing this for several of their hits. Next up after this one is "Waterloo."

Correct. Su-24 was always a tactical bomber capable of nuclear strike. In this case, however, looking at the actaul photos from the AP, it looks like they were armed with nuclear gravity bombs and not missiles (very hard to make out).

Yeah only two more Harrier squadrons left to transition. Totally agree on VMFA-214. Love the Black Sheep. F4U my second-most loved WWII fighter after the Spitfire. As for longest serving, dunno about that. B-52 has served a really long while and will continue to 2050.

I backed the game and have had it since the beginning of EA. But I am yet to play it as my MO is always to wait several months before I play a new game, so that most bugs and other issues will have been ironed out by then. Have never ever felt a need to play a game on Day 1.

On the current shift to negotiations: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/3/28/russia-ukraine-set-for-face-to-face-peace https://warontherocks.com/2022/03/the-work-to-come-russia-ukraine-and-the-west-at-the-negotiating-table/

I would say 'different reasons for different individuals,' including simply arrogance that they know better than anyone else. This is the bane of elites in the West on all issues these days, this arrogance that they know better and ordinary people should just shut up and accept and do whatever they the elites say.

Couldn't agree more with the both of you. Perfectly said.

Indeed. But it wasn't just Putin and his ilk who were convinced of this nonsense. Many Western observers--politicians, military leaders, media personalities, and even academics at elite universities--all spewed this nonsense again and again for years prior to February 24.

My sentiments exactly. And I'd also point out that I don't think it is at all a coincidence that the initials of this game's name are the same as Baldur's Gate.