Russia tread

[Gorgon]

Google translate pidgin. The real lingua franca of the web. Be aware that prolonged exposure can lead to headaches.

[Walsingham]

I don't call a bunch of people not talking to each other, using their smartphones, in a bar, 'politeness'.

 

That's just a collective noun of dullards.

[Malcador]

Sounds like the situation here, though.   Seems they value efficiency though.

[Woldan]

Vladimir Putin decides to see how Russian people live. He disguises himself as a mere citizen and comes to a grocery store. He asks a seller:

- How much does the meat cost?
- 400 roubles ($13) for 1 KG.
- Why so expensive?
- Because our president is an a$$hole.

Next day, Putin comes to the same store as he is, in suit and with security.

- How much does the meat cost?
- 400 roubles / 1 KG.
- Why so expensive?
- I've told you yesterday, a$$hole!

[Walsingham]

*crickets*

[Woldan]

*crickets*

Don't make me post my knock-knock jokes. 

[obyknven]

EU propose Eurointegration to Ukraine

 

Ukraine send EU GTFO and join to USSR2.0 Eurasian Union.

http://ronpaulinstitute.org/archives/peace-and-prosperity/2013/november/22/ukraine-rejects-the-brussels-club,-opts-for-trade-over-empty-promises.aspx

 

This decision suddenly causing butthurt for US ambassador in Ukraine.

http://youtu.be/tptGt4FFWOQ

 

The United States joins the European Union in its disappointment with the decision of the Government of Ukraine to delay preparations for signature of an Association Agreement and Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Agreement with the EU. The EU has offered Ukraine an historic opportunity to cement a European future for its people and demonstrate to international financial institutions and investors its unwavering commitment to democratic reform.

 

 

Other news. 

The International Tribunal on the Law for the Sea ordered Russia free ship of Greenpeace.

http://m.greenpeace.org/international/en/base/press/releases/Greenpeace-International-welcomes-Tribunal-ruling-ordering-Russia-to-release-Arctic-30/

 

Hurray! It's victory! Greenpeace is Stronk!

But Russia send International Tribunal GTFO too.

http://en.ria.ru/russia/20131123/184906443/Russia-to-Ignore-Intl-Ruling-on-Greenpeace-Ship--Kremlin.html

[Walsingham]

The use of memes and links certainly makes for easier faster trolling.

 

I remember the days when trolling took skills.

[obyknven]

GLORY TO ARSTOTZKA!

 

 

 

 

 

Be Evil Empire is cool.

[ShadySands]

Ukraine ‘intends to sign’ deal with EU in apparent U-turn

[NOK222]

The people have spoken. 

 

EU: 1

USSR: 0

Edited December 12, 2013 by NKKKK

[Rostere]

I don't understand this whole argument. It's obvious he wanted to sign the EU deal all along, he was just held economic hostage by Russia. Ukraine does have legitimate concerns in that regard, you know.

[Gfted1]

Yeah, Im sure a natural gas "disruption" is imminent.

[obyknven]

Pukan, son. Nothing else in the world burns like that.

This story begin on kickstarter, where appeared  yet another game about Evil (very-very-very Evil) Ruskies.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/johnewarren/laika-believes-the-sun-at-night

 

Russians  notice this game too, and after prolonged laugh about idiotic plot (evil Ruskies hurt dog's blah-blah), some Russian artist paint caricature to this game.

 

Suddenly this funny pic burn pukans on the West and Joistiq write hate-article: "Russians and Neo-Stalinists chew apart The Sun at Night's Soviet past".

http://www.joystiq.com/2013/12/12/russians-and-neo-stalinists-chew-apart-the-sun-at-nights-soviet/ 

 

In this article everything is epic - author text an comments also. Now Russians laughing and copypaste idiotic quotes for teh lulz.

They Soviets killed twice as many of their own people in WW2 that Hitler did to Europe.

 

Um, the Soviets made the Nazi’s look like girlscouts. The Soviets were EVIL. And not just a little bit, I’m mean like SUPER-Evil.

 

Of course the communists from the Soviet era were mostly tyrants and oppressors, I’m not denying that.

 

Hard to take a people seriously trying to defend a nation that murdered some 20 million of its own people for simply disagreeing with the political system.

 

As for the discrimination thing, try asking a Russian Jew how they feel about Stalin sometime; the man had just as big a hate-on for the Jews as Hitler ever did, and killed nearly as many.

 

Also hilarious that groups want to forget/ignore (?) the 85,000,000 people killed in communist related genocides.

 

Also in artist blog Russians celebrating successful trolling.

http://translate.google.ru/translate?sl=ru&tl=en&js=n&prev=_t&hl=ru&ie=UTF-8&u=http%3A%2F%2Fegor-motygin.livejournal.com%2F121732.html

 

P.S. ... and musical pause now

http://youtu.be/zhSfLZyL2OU

[Tagaziel]

Oh, oby. I'm pretty sure a country that has murdered millions as part of social engineering and is busy ruining it's already laughable human rights ratings is in a position to criticize the U.S. 

 

I wonder why Putin continues the pretense of democracy. It'd be easier if he just declared himself Tsar and declared the Empire of Russia reborn.

[Walsingham]

Nothing cuter than holodomor denial followed by a musical riff.

[Zoraptor]

Meh, oby just needs to go look at the Mandate kickstarter, Glorious Russian Imperium in Spaaaaaaaace!

 

Have to admit I'm finding the coverage of Ukraine hilarious. Imagine if Putin turned up at an Occupy Wall Street protest to support them, the world's supply of hearing aids would be exhausted from deafness due to the squealing and outraeg!!! at the effrontery of it. Let alone all the reports implying it's a broad popular movement when it's a regional movement from groupings that lost the last election. Split the country in half, it's an artificial one anyway. East and south to Russia, west can become Grand Duchy of Never Actually Going to Get Into Europe And If You Think You Are You're Morons, You're Too Poor And Have Too Many People.

 

Oh, and Uncle Joe actually killed fewer people in Holodomor than Britain did in its Indian famines /lof

[Malcador]

Wow, that's a lot of dead.. - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_major_famines_in_India_during_British_rule

[Rostere]

East and south to Russia, west can become Grand Duchy of Never Actually Going to Get Into Europe And If You Think You Are You're Morons, You're Too Poor And Have Too Many People.

 

I don't think you understand the main point of the EU... The main reason to expand the EU is to create a larger, coherent, stable, free market to encourage trade and investment. The fact that people get to vote to the EP is just a minor detail. Ukraine being a large country would only speak in their favour from this perspective. From a business perspective, the fact that they're poor is not necessarily a bad one. If they're poor, this only means they can work for lower pay. They will get higher pay than they have now, and EU business interests can outsource stuff to "cheap" Ukrainian companies.

[Gfted1]

Wow, that's a lot of dead.. - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_major_famines_in_India_during_British_rule

Aye, it is. Is India crap at agriculture or something? Also, why was it England's fault, were they actively burning crops or not allowing people to grow stuff? From that sad barren picture in the link, maybe they held back irrigation technology?

[Malcador]

Well, with that many, could be bad luck, poor governance, a lot of things, I would imagine - will take some reading

[Kroney]

 

Wow, that's a lot of dead.. - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_major_famines_in_India_during_British_rule

Aye, it is. Is India crap at agriculture or something? Also, why was it England's fault, were they actively burning crops or not allowing people to grow stuff? From that sad barren picture in the link, maybe they held back irrigation technology?

 

 

Just pointing out that it also includes famines in Indian governed areas. The second thing I shall point out is that neither home nor colonial rule can affect the weather for good or bad.

 

Unless you're talking about Ireland of course, but that was well lol so no harm done.

Edited December 17, 2013 by Kroney

[obyknven]

 

Wow, that's a lot of dead.. - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_major_famines_in_India_during_British_rule

Aye, it is. Is India crap at agriculture or something? Also, why was it England's fault, were they actively burning crops or not allowing people to grow stuff? From that sad barren picture in the link, maybe they held back irrigation technology?

 

No, it's Stalin kill all these Indian, Irish, Chinese, Egyptian and many other citiezens of British Empire during famines.

http://www.lavidalocavore.org/showDiary.do?diaryId=2789

http://www.larouchepub.com/eiw/public/2008/2008_10-19/2008-17/pdf/22-25_3517.pdf

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2009/jun/08/british-empire-colonies-banks-reform

http://www.irishhistorylinks.net/History_Links/IrishFamineGenocide.html

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/victorians/famine_01.shtml

 

In sum around 50 - 90-millions people die for glory of British Empire per half of century. Add to this another nice genocides performed by Europeans ~ 9-millions Africans (slavetrade), 12-millions native Americans, 6-millions Jews and 28-millions Soviets (WW2) etc. After this Bloody dictator Stalin (who kill only 400,000 political opponents and lost 3-millions people during famine) looks like nice men. And obviously when Europeans try teach someone about humanism, human rights and democracy after this looks like hypocrisy.

[Zoraptor]

 

Aye, it is. Is India crap at agriculture or something? Also, why was it England's fault, were they actively burning crops or not allowing people to grow stuff? From that sad barren picture in the link, maybe they held back irrigation technology?

 

At least in some cases there were accusations very similar to those made against Stalin for Holodomor, eg continuing to export foodstuffs while areas starved, which was why I brought it up- and other accusations such as favouring cash crops for export (opium, mostly 19th century) over foodstuffs and over taxing farmers. Exactly how true or fair those accusations are (as Kroney said, nobody can control the weather, which was a common factor) is open to debate, but then you can have plenty of debate on Holodomor too in those regards.

[Tagaziel]

At least in some cases there were accusations very similar to those made against Stalin for Holodomor, eg continuing to export foodstuffs while areas starved, which was why I brought it up- and other accusations such as favouring cash crops for export (opium, mostly 19th century) over foodstuffs and over taxing farmers. Exactly how true or fair those accusations are (as Kroney said, nobody can control the weather, which was a common factor) is open to debate, but then you can have plenty of debate on Holodomor too in those regards.

Yes, and if they do fit the legal category of genocide, then it should be registered as such. The issue of the degree to which the Holodomor was intentional is debated, but the fact that it was caused and at least partially directed by the Soviet brass is, well, a fact.

 

I'd stay focused on topic, though, which concerns 20th century atrocities. The Mongols were some of the most brutal and even genocidal forces in history, with a massive body count, and can easily be used to dismiss more recent crimes. You already see oby's trying to dismiss Stalin's systematic terror and mass killings by both reducing the kill count and dismissing it by stating that at least he wasn't worse than the British Empire.

 

I'd argue that he was. For starters, Stalin's regime was a totalitarian one, equal or even worse than Hitler's. It instituted total terror, systematic ethnic and class cleansing through deportations or outright murder, a psychosis of fear throughout the Union, and so on and so forth. Hell, without Stalin's cooperation with Nazi Germany, World War II wouldn't have happened. Trying to argue the relative evilness of totalitarian regimes based on their kill counts is simply stupid.

 

Totalitarianism, colonialism, imperialism, all doctrines that reject fundamental human rights are evil and we should not try to differentiate their levels of villainy. What we can, however, is analyze their long term impact. In this case, while India suffered and that's undeniable, it also eventually became one of the world's fastest developing economies, like many other British Colonies. Nazi Germany's short adventure (12 years) led to a brutal confrontation with its World War I legacy and to the emergence of the modern German state, the hegemon of Europe. By comparison, Soviet Union and its various interpretations of communism eventually led to economical meltdowns, widespread destruction of society, retardation of development in all fields, and general misery. Hell, you have a case study in the form of West/East Germany, comparing how a model communist state fares in comparison with a fundamentally capitalist, democratic country.

 

Bottom line: We should judge on the merits alone, not their relative comparisons.