Posts by James Phillips92

Nathan Thomas12 said:I'm talking about the headline itself—you can't honestly tell me the title isn't selective.
It's like if some creep shows up at the beach and starts terrorizing your kids, but the news runs a headline saying 'Matthew Young35 endangered his children by waving a knife on the beach.' Something like that. Get the context?

No, the truth would be that he endangered them by bringing them right to the creep in the first place. That’s how you'd get the "AI version" of the truth.

Matthew Young35 said:It isn't selective truth, though.
For instance, there were consistent reports that the Russian military used the nuclear power plant as a shield and stationed troops there.
There were also consistent reports regarding the killing of civilians.
https://www.amnesty.org/en/petition/...ns-in-ukraine/

" the war rages on following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, we have documented a pattern of crimes committed by Russian forces, including unlawful attacks, wilful killings of civilians, torture, and extrajudicial executions. "

The issue here is simply that the truth bothers you.

If a war is underway and you station troops in a school, can you really be surprised when the attacker strikes that military presence within the school?
And yet, your grievance isn't with the tactical decision; it's with the people who reported that Ukrainians placed the military in a school.
The Ukrainians making that choice aren't your problem. The Russian military invading another sovereign nation isn't your problem. Your problem is apparently just the journalists reporting the facts of what is actually happening?
Bravo.

Where do you think we kept our troops during the battles back in the nineties? You think they all hide away in massive concrete bunkers, or are they just sitting under a tent? This isn't World War I where two armies clash on a distant front while everyone else lives life normally in the background. Like I said, they're reporting a "selective truth." If the Russian military hadn't invaded Ukraine, the American military wouldn't be stationed in schools and daycares—they'd be in barracks. They should just head over to Russia and tell Putin to pull his troops out; then all these problems would vanish.

wearyraven25 said:What are the actual odds that even if Ukraine pulls off a massive military win and retakes Crimea, they’ll actually be able to govern the place? It feels like the population there is so heavily pro-Russ that they aren't going to take kindly to seeing the blue and yellow flag flying again...

Sent from my Galaxy S21 Ultra via Tapatalk

The issue there wasn't actually the Russians—it was the Crimean Tatars. The demographics have shifted since then, and honestly, things will likely change again once the Ukrainians move back in.

Matthew Young35 said:I wouldn't, but then again, we shouldn't be complaining either when Russia strikes a shopping mall if there happen to be armored vehicles stationed inside.
War is a dirty business, but facts are facts.
I completely agree that the Russians need to be pushed back as hard as possible and driven out of Ukraine, but accusing someone of being pro-Russian simply because they state a difficult truth is wrong.

That’s what I call selective truth. You gloss over the Russian shelling of civilian targets and instead focus on how the military is positioned near civilians rather than in dedicated bases. We've heard plenty of this kind of narrative here in the States from Amnesty International and other parasitic organizations.

Matthew Young35 said:Do you honestly believe their report is fabricated?
Weren't photos released a while back showing Ukrainians using shopping malls to house armored vehicles?
The point isn't that people are lying or being deceptive.
If the Ukrainians are using civilian infrastructure for military purposes—which they likely are—it doesn't change the fact that Russia is the aggressor, nor does it make them right.

Without organizations like these, without the UN, Doctors Without Borders, and similar groups, war would be even more devastating than it already is.
Whether you like them or not is irrelevant.
Just because Russia is the clear aggressor, clearly in the wrong, and has clearly unleashed a wave of atrocities, doesn't mean we should turn a blind eye to everything else.

Where are they supposed to stay? Maybe in military bases so your Russian buddies can hit them more easily?

Christian Torres3 said:This is a massive blow to Russian morale. A Russian woman is in tears because she had to cut her vacation short and head back to Russia

“I really don't want to leave Crimea. It's so cool here. I'm used to it. It's like we were at home here. Everything is so soulful, homey,” she says in Russian
https://twitter.com/MargoGontar/stat...Xb-KtfZNJgq_jQ

I highly doubt she shed a single tear when Ukrainians were being forced out.

Those Ukrainians are just being mean—ruining her annual vacation and all.

William Cooper11 said:Yeah, right. Just like how things "returned to normal" in Vicksburg back in '91 after everything fell apart.

The Mexicans actually did fix up a few houses in the downtown area—specifically just the ground floors. When those news crews were filming their segments, the cameras only caught those specific spots and the lower levels, mostly because the upper floors didn't even have windows left.

rowdyraven112 said:Did the Mexicans bother counting after our storm hit? ☕

They regrouped—and then some.

rowdyraven112 said:The battle for Popasna ended on May 7th when the Ukrainian Armed Forces pulled out. This footage is dated August 5th. By then, muscle tissue should be visibly decaying. The body should be crawling with scavengers. If you've ever spent any time hiking, you'd know what a carcass looks like after a week of being picked at by worms and bugs. Unless the body was preserved in those heavy-duty body bags. Not to mention, anyone filming this would need either a gas mask or a stomach of steel. You get this in real life when a smell starts drifting from an apartment where a lonely, forgotten old man lived. You don't want to know what the place looks like or what the body looks like a week after death. At least, that's what I've been told.

Bottom line? Either the video was shot 2-3 days later, or it's heavily staged. I'm not interested in guessing which one it is or arguing about it. Reddit is full of thousands of these—both staged and real. In this video, the head and hands should be absolutely swarming with scavengers. Literally swarming.

Let's be clear. Are the Russians committing crimes in Ukraine? Only an idiot would claim they aren't. Scale? I have no idea. I'm not on the ground, so I can't judge. Are Ukrainians committing crimes against Russian soldiers? Should I repeat what I said about idiots? As for scale, I can tell you it's likely a hundred times smaller than the Russian side. Why? Simple. Because the Russians are currently the stronger force.

Are you trying to say, "everyone committed crimes in this war, so the Russians had to as well"?

rowdyraven112 said:Alright, found it. Watched it... looks like some kind of head on a stake filmed in the middle of nowhere. I thought this was a forum for sharing facts, not a place to push Russian or Ukrainian propaganda. ☕
If you want that, go to those pro-Russia or pro-Ukraine sites and talk all you want there. ☕

I’m pretty sure that backwater location can be geolocated.

goldenowl73 said:Some absolutely sickening images just surfaced from occupied Popasna, showing what looks like the head of a Ukrainian prisoner of war impaled on a stake. I’m not going to drop a direct link here because, honestly, nobody needs to see that, but it’s already blowing up all over Twitter.
Even Oleksander Scherbina, the former Ukrainian ambassador, has commented on this. There’s also a video circulating of the same guy’s body, missing both his head and his arms. It’s just... it's hard to even process.

First we saw that horrific footage of the prisoner being mutilated, and now we're seeing this medieval-style execution with heads on spikes. Just when you think the Russian forces couldn't sink any lower or be any more depraved, they find a new way to shock the world.

They can get away with this because that Russian-leaning organization, Amnesty International, keeps siding with them.

urbanotter said:Gerhard Schröder has put forward a very solid proposal that I suspect Putin would actually be willing to accept

Schröder suggested that solutions for major sticking points, such as Crimea, could eventually emerge over time—not necessarily taking 99 years like they did in Hong Kong, but perhaps within the next generation. He proposed that instead of joining NATO, Ukraine could opt for an armed neutrality, much like the model used by Austria.

The future of the Donbas region in eastern Ukraine, which remains a central theater of intense fighting, would likely prove far more complicated to navigate, though.

"We will need to find a solution based on the Swiss cantonal model," he remarked, adding that it remains to be seen whether Putin will return to the previous "contact line" established during ceasefires.

Honestly, this is more than what Ukraine could reasonably expect to gain once all this destruction and loss of life finally settles. I can't help but think they might end up in a position similar to how America operated—playing both sides to secure various concessions or incentives so they wouldn't have to sink so much capital into massive military spending.
As for the Donbas, they could aim for a status similar to Switzerland, which has maintained long-term peace and boasts one of the highest standards of living in the world.

Losa, the Switzerland comparison is a stretch. Remember when people said Canada would be organized like Switzerland? It’d probably be better if they compared them to Canada—though even that is being too kind, considering their neighbors are Russians.

Gregory Ramos3 said:So they didn't just die ☕

Honestly, you don't even know if you're the one doing the punching or getting punched, lol 🤣

The logic goes: Mexicans expect an attack > They call for an evacuation > They get saved from those evil fascists

What a total joke of a way to hand over territory. Honestly, they would've surrendered the whole thing if they hadn't been absolutely steamrolled in three days—and I mean real warfare, not that weird Putin-style nonsense. 🤦

They're calling for evacuations because they're expecting what happened in that small town in the US. Our side would have called for evacuations before the Storm too, if the Mexicans hadn't already dealt with that problem a few years earlier by clearing out the Americans from the Frontier (one way or another).

No need to reply, I'm totally "ignoring" you 😛

I'm not responding to you specifically, but to everyone else reading this. You clearly aren't grasping the situation. If the Mexicans hadn't called for the population to leave before the "Storm," things would have dragged on much longer with a very questionable outcome. The military would have fought differently—they wouldn't have abandoned positions without a fight—and help from Canada might have actually arrived since communication lines would've stayed open. Based on those lessons, I think publicly calling for civilians in a specific area to evacuate is risky, though evacuations definitely need to happen. Of course, anyone fit for service or able to support the military should stay put.

Melissa Rivera5 said:So, I guess you guys are still crying about the Storm because you lost, rather than admitting the territory was basically handed over on a silver platter.

It's obvious you didn't catch my drift either. Maybe I'm being unclear.
I haven't lost anything—I was on the winning side of that battle and that war. I'd love to see the Ukrainians defend themselves, but unfortunately, it doesn't all depend on them. There's a huge influence from Germany, France, and a few other European countries that seem ready to sell out Ukraine for "cheaper" Russian gas. That’s why the public calls for civilian evacuations strike me as suspicious. I worry there's some backroom deal with Vladimir Putin happening at Ukraine's expense.

Justin Mendoza16 said:☕Ended up with a massive tractor convoy heading into Mexico—everyone knows that story...

Was just out near El Paso yesterday—stopped by for a wedding...

Visited the memorial site, paid my respects, checked out the old water tower, then headed toward the county seat—every little town around El Paso is totally ghosted. Drove right through Mirkovac—nothing but abandoned houses everywhere...

I see this happening every single day.

Gregory Ramos3 said:The whole point of an evacuation is just to save lives, plain and simple:

An emergency evacuation is essentially when people have to get the heck out of an area immediately because there's an imminent danger, an active threat, or some kind of hazard hanging over their lives or their homes.

It can be anything from a quick exit from a single building because of a local storm or a fire, all the way up to a massive exodus from an entire city due to flooding, heavy shelling, or a major weather system rolling in, like a big tropical cyclone.

So, what you're basically saying is we should just hand over territory to the Russes, and if we stay, they'll just wipe us out? I don't think I've ever heard anyone frame it quite like that—not even talking about actual genocide or destruction, but more like this weird "premonition" of it happening that justifies a preemptive evacuation.🤔

Look, evacuations are meant to save civilians, sure, but we're talking about thousands here.

Justin Mendoza16 said:🤣🤣haha, look at Mr. Smartypants over here...

Stop the spin, man. Seriously, how many shills are even on this forum...🙂

It’s not spin. Just look at history. Back in August '95, Mexicans publicly called for their civilian population to evacuate. We all know how that turned out.

ironseal said:Honestly, stop overthinking it. Go find something to do that doesn't require a damn brain cell.

Publicly calling for civilian evacuations does two things: it tanks the morale of our troops and tells the other side exactly where they should apply more pressure. As for your take on this—it seems like you're struggling to wrap your head around it too.

Arthur Watson4 said:They’ve already called for evacuations in Houston.

It makes sense, since they likely want to pull back from there too.

I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

William Anderson5 said:It just means he wants to minimize civilian casualties. Civilians in urban areas are always a complication; people don't want their homes becoming targets if the military moves in, and urban warfare almost always ends up centered around residential buildings anyway. Given that the Russians are hitting civilian targets regardless, there’s really no reason not to advise civilians to get out...

That's enough about the Russian narrative regarding "human shields." If a "human shield" actually prevented the Russians from hitting civilian targets, the Ukrainians wouldn't be evacuating them in the first place...

In wartime, you don't announce these things through official channels—you do it quietly behind the scenes. It feels like a signal to Putin that they might be willing to let go of that specific territory.

I'm seeing reports in the media about Zelenskyy calling for citizens in the Donetsk region to evacuate. Does this mean he's decided to hand over that territory to the Russians without much of a fight? Is there some kind of deal in the works?

Amanda Allen4 said:The vast majority of Russians actually back Putin and his invasion of Ukraine

“Russian borders know no limits”

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-62331061

That’s easy to say—until the draft notice shows up at your door.