Posts by Timothy Nelson5

Linda Collins3 said:The fact that the pipeline is offline isn't the point; the message for the future is what matters.
Look at how the far right has already taken power in Italy, and people are pushing back elsewhere too.
The USA's message would be: "Not on our watch." This is about prevention.

Russ doesn't need to blow up their own pipe; they can just turn off the valve, which is exactly what they've already done.

Then again, you could follow that same logic and claim the pipeline was sabotaged by:

1. Green terrorists
2. Ukraine
3. The American fracking lobby

By that line of reasoning, any of those three groups arguably have way more skin in the game and actual motivation than official US policy does. Maybe.

Well, look, the "far right" has already taken power in Italy, and people are complaining about it elsewhere too.

I don't see what that has anything to do with the Nord Stream sabotage.
Italy wasn't exactly reliant on gas from Russia anyway... they have their LNG terminals and plenty of gas in the Mediterranean, plus they're planning pipelines from North Africa...

says:
To my mind, it’s just blindingly obvious that Americans were the ones who mined those pipelines. It feels like a massive signal sent to Europeans, especially since economic discontent is starting to boil over there. But regardless of the motive, what I find particularly striking is how nobody on European news networks even dares to mention it as a possibility. Everyone seems terrified of Big Brother...

Blowing up a pipeline that wasn't even operational in the first place strikes me more as a desperate, short-sighted move rather than some masterfully crafted long-term strategy.

If anyone is acting out of pure desperation right now, it’s probably Putin.

In his own little delusions, he likely thought he could leverage energy against Europe. Now that he sees that hasn't worked, maybe he’s convinced himself that Europe is still just waiting for him to turn the valves back on when things get tough. So, he’s hoping this sabotage will trigger even more panic.

Nancy Gomez26 said:One would practically have to drop depth charges right next to the pipeline route. That way, you might actually damage it—not by the hands of those who benefit from sabotage, but by those claiming to "protect" it.

... though, I suppose if that ever actually happened... you know, someone blows up the pipeline while supposedly guarding it from saboteurs, and then people just shrug and call it an accident...

🙂

That's one way they could spin it, I guess...

Nicole James said:Who is going to handle the crackdown on protesters if they send all the police to the front lines?

I mean, okay, but then again—what's the actual point? If you're sending over a bunch of drunks, retirees, guys from Ingushetia and Dagestan carrying rusted-out AKs, telling them to buy their own sleeping bags and decent boots, and basically expecting them to just raid a car for first aid supplies... I guess it's all pretty pointless, isn't it?

Timothy Williams5 said:I don't think this was actually the case:

Security forces opened fire on protesters demonstrating against the Russian mobilization order in an attempt to disperse the crowd in Alaska. (video)
https://twitter.com/clashreport/stat...qdyauTEn5N2naA

This isn't some joke anymore.

People living out in those remote republics are starting to realize that Putin probably views them as nothing more than disposable assets.
And then there's the corruption... I mean, it'll likely result in nothing but the poorest folks being drafted, since they can't afford to grease the palms of the officials at the recruitment offices.

It could all spiral quite quickly into a massive ethnic uprising, or maybe just a general social revolt from the Russian working class. It's hard to say, really.

James Chavez91 said:What kind of "shoring up a position" are we talking about for a 70-year-old guy? Honestly, he should probably just put his teeth in a glass, hang out with the grandkids, maybe watch Spraic on TV in the evening, and—who knows—accidentally let one rip now and then...

I feel like anyone who can't even handle a little action without help should be banned from politics or any kind of public service.
The world would probably be a much better place if we just moved on from these ancient relics.

Nah.

It’s more like we should ban those old guys from holding office— but only if they don't have kids or grandkids to leave it all to!

Nancy Gomez26 said:You really think Germany is going to mobilize? 😁

No, I guess not. Not until they just deport them all to Russia, and then let Russia handle the mobilization there.

Once those first hundred people get deported, I suspect those Russian protests over in the European Union will finally die down.

🍿

slycobra5 said:It would be fascinating to find out—assuming such data even exists—exactly how many Russian soldiers have been kicked out of service due to liver cirrhosis and related health issues...

The losses from that side are actually much more significant because, frankly, people are just drunk.

I mean, how many clips can you watch where they act like complete idiots?
There was that one instance with four tanks wrecked in a minefield, and then some guy drives a fifth tank right past them and it just blows up... or a guy hits a mine, tries to maneuver, and just ends up driving straight into another one...

In a huge percentage of these situations where someone acts foolishly and ends up dead, I guess alcohol is the real culprit...

Roger Campbell3 said:Give me a break—that’s just bizarre..
My point was that the USA needs a much more aggressive approach..
If they had issued a real threat—something along the lines of "attack Ukraine and Moscow burns"—this wouldn't even be happening.
HIMARS are fine, but they aren't enough; they need more heavy weaponry..
The EU—specifically Germany and France—would probably hand everything over to Moscow on a silver platter if they could just keep getting cheap gas without anyone bothering them..
As long as Americans keep providing aid, another 300,000 Russians will roll in; right now, they need tools to wipe them out in the south..
Watching Joe Biden's reactions is practically a sedative—the old man is so senile he barely knows if he's arriving or leaving.
The Germans promised tanks, yet here we are, seeing absolutely nothing..
Biden could pressure Olaf Scholz, but it’s all a calculation—it suits them for the war to drag on, so they send just enough to keep things barely moving..
They don't care about the massive losses Ukraine will endure during a prolonged conflict..
And then, the second I wake up these "sleepy" types, the West immediately tries to deflect by questioning my origins—throwing out names like Smederevo or Nikšić like it matters..
I was actually in Ukraine back in December; my girlfriend is a Ukrainian woman, and if supporting them makes me an outsider, then so be it—I am behind them unconditionally..
Glory to Ukraine!

That’s essentially what Donald Trump told Putin once—"Touch Ukraine and I'll burn Moscow to the ground." There’s actually a transcript of that conversation out there somewhere.
Putin just laughed it off, I suppose, but during Trump's term, nothing ever actually happened on the ground in Ukraine.

Comparing them to Biden's reactions... you could practically fall asleep. The old man is so senile he probably can't even tell if he's walking in or out of a room.

Yeah...

☕

Rachel Richardson said:Why on earth would Ukraine agree to potentially lose territory after winning through military force?

We are talking about a phase where only agreements similar to the Erdut deal would be on the table...

I remember it like it was yesterday—after Operation Storm, they went after Harmon during a press conference. They were asking why we weren't negotiating over the Danube region, why we weren't pushing further militarily...
And Harmon just looked at them and said—I was just at the hospital visiting the wounded today, and there was one man who lost both his eyes and both his arms...

Not long ago, there was that footage of Zelenskyy in a hospital handing out medals to the wounded... I think one soldier had lost both arms...

How many more of them—the dead, the survivors, the traumatized—does it take before we finally reach some kind of conclusion?

I'm certainly not suggesting the war should just end, because then you're essentially handing a victory to a fascist aggressor... but I suppose we have to realize that eventually, people will need to sit down at a table and sign a truce, or some kind of acceptable peace treaty.

And honestly, I'm not even sure if the people in those regions, given the option of a fair, internationally supervised referendum, would actually choose to be part of Russia—that economically and morally broken despotism...

Kate Cook27 said:I’m mostly on board with this—except for the part about Russia. Wouldn't that just be a win for them? Honestly, regardless of how people vote, just having the option to join Russia would be a massive prize in itself. If we go down that road, wouldn't every other country start attacking its neighbors just to call for UN intervention and referendums if they lose ground on the battlefield? It feels like we'd basically be handing Putin a free pass.🤔

I suppose there would have been plenty of other conditions to consider as well. Maybe even more than we’re currently accounting for, I guess.
The prosecution of war criminals... I mean, all those leaders from the Donbas regions really ought to face an international tribunal, along with everyone responsible for the atrocities since the horrors in Bucha. Maybe even the top brass in Russia would be granted some kind of immunity at that stage, provided they actually foot the bill for reparations to Ukraine. I guess even if Putin stayed in power, Russia would still be stuck under sanctions, though perhaps they'd be slightly less suffocating than they are now.

Maybe this would give Russia a way to walk away with at least a shred of dignity intact. I guess. It’s a long shot, but perhaps there's some path forward where they don't have to lose face entirely. Or maybe not. Hard to say.

analogbear5 said:Crimea, Luhansk Oblast, and Donetsk—all under temporary UN administration until things actually settle down. We’d need a massive census to track everyone who fled or was kicked out of those occupied zones and get them back on the voter rolls. Then, after at least a year of campaigning, we run a referendum on the status. Whether it's Ukraine, independence, or Russia. Toss in some amnesty deals and stuff like that once an agreement is reached.

It’s not an entirely terrible proposal, I suppose, but....

The catch is that Russia would first have to face a total military collapse during new Ukrainian offensives—enough to liberate almost everything except for Crimea and a small slice of the Donbas near the Russian border.

Only then, maybe, would Russia even consider something like this.

analogbear70 said:This is a pretty ugly attack and a complete deflection of the argument. Every single post starts with the claim that Russia is the aggressor and that they don't deserve an inch of Ukrainian land, followed by more of this nonsense. I've been following the situation in Ukraine intensely for over ten years. It's tough living with an aggressor in your backyard, but you manage. You wait for better times to make a move. Even the old Republic of Ragusa survived under much worse conditions. Since the Maidan, we've needed more wisdom than anything else. None of that changes the fact that the aggressor is guilty. There's no point in talking at this level. I'm out. Thanks.

I really have to watch my step with what I say here.
If you actually saw me in my real life, you'd see how I just tear into all these agitators and provocateurs without a second thought.

Everyone’s acting all "surprised and offended..."

Talking at this level is just pointless. I'm out. Thanks.

🎉

Kenneth Cruz67 said:He really seems like your textbook bully, doesn't he?

I mean, when he promises he won't hit you but instead wants to love you and pamper you, I am almost certain he's totally bluffing!

But, when he threatens to absolutely wreck that woman like some wild guy from a small Midwestern town, well, I guess he isn't bluffing then.

But what happens when he’s at a bar and a group of guys stands up to him, telling him to leave the lady alone or face the consequences? How does a bully like that actually react?
- He threatens everyone, makes a scene, but eventually just retreats because, deep down, he's a coward...

Now that mobilization has started, the main line from those protesting is basically— "Nobody attacked Russia!" It feels like one of Putin's political adventures, I suppose. He shouldn't be solving his own problems by throwing people into a war that isn't even theirs.

analogbear70 said:I’ll say it again: if things had been handled more intelligently, this could have been avoided. That doesn't excuse the aggressor—Russia—but rather highlights the failure. The reality is that no one from the UN onwards (aside from the Chinese) is calling for a ceasefire, negotiations, or peace. It’s just weapons, weapons, weapons. Why wasn't equipment being sent to us? Why were we forced to wander the globe like beggars, pleading for help while being treated like an afterthought, all while Zelenskyy calls out the very leaders he needs? Why were we hit with embargos while everyone else looked the other way? We offered up a quarter of our territory before Operation Storm, which I believe ended up in court later. Even then, there was intense domestic opposition, and Feral was constantly critical, while the World media published nothing but half-truths about the downsides of our newly formed nation. None of that exists now. And yet, the Russians remain the aggressors; occupied lands deserve better.

Look, just stop feeding into that mindless propaganda you find on those racist forums. It’s honestly exhausting.

So, all of you supporters—the ones who worship at the altar of Putin and his whole neo-fascist ideology, those who basically make excuses for Russia’s fascist aggression against Ukraine—it looks like you've finally hit the "bargaining" stage of grief. I guess that's just how it goes..

You’ve already moved past the denial stage, I suppose. Now it's just one shock after another regarding the Russian Army's recent military blunders. It honestly felt like everyone was just waiting for that inevitable moment when the Russian forces would start retreating in a panic ahead of the decisive Ukrainian offensive. Maybe we all saw it coming, or maybe we were just too stunned to admit it. I don't know.

Now that you can't even convince yourselves anymore that the Russian military is some unstoppable force—all those claims about the Armata, the Su-57, or those supposed "unstoppable" Kinzhals... it’s all just nonsense, really—things have shifted. I mean, after what happened in Bucha and Izium, nobody can honestly look the other way regarding the criminal nature of this Russian aggression. It’s impossible to deny. And so, naturally, the excuses and the bullshit have started flowing in earnest.
- But honestly, everyone’s really just the same in the end. I mean, you look at the Ukrainians and see criminals too, targeting civilians, slaughtering children... it just goes around in circles, I guess. Maybe it's all just one big cycle of the same old violence. They’re forcing minorities into mobilization, the leadership there is straight-up Nazi, and Zelenskyy is basically auctioning off Ukraine piece by piece. It feels like Russia is just fighting a war against NATO mercenaries at this point... in Ukraine. I don't know. Maybe it's all just a setup.

That’s just what they call bargaining, I suppose. That's all it really is. It’s really just that stage of recovery where you have to face the loss—specifically, losing those sickly little illusions about Mother Russia. You know, that idea that she's this benevolent, all-encompassing force, somehow too kind for her own good, practically suffocating under the weight of her own desire to spread goodness to everyone else... I guess it's more like a delusion than anything else. Maybe. But we're getting there, I suppose.

Appeasing criminal, aggressive regimes has never actually brought peace in all of human history. I mean, looking back at how things usually go, it just seems like a losing game. Maybe we like to tell ourselves it works, but I guess history says otherwise. It’s always just a temporary pause before things get even worse.
Never. Not in a million years.

Terry Green3 said:I’d prefer a wall over millions of people being slaughtered on both sides. People seem to be joking around far too easily with this stuff.
We’ve all been hit by this "superman complex." The idea that Russians are just savages living in holes while we're untouchable and invincible. It's delusional.

This potential mobilization of a million Russians is a complete disaster. Anyone naive enough to think this won't bleed into the rest of Europe—that it'll stay contained within Ukraine—is kidding themselves.

Yeah.
The Moscow Wall.

Right across Red Square.

Maybe the pro-Western Russians head to Western Russia, while the Putin loyalists and those neo-fascist types drift off toward Eastern Russia... I guess.

🙂

Henry Sullivan4 said:I honestly believe we won't even make it to a second or third wave of mobilization because😉 ☕we'll all be too busy attending funerals🙂

For the first wave, I imagine Putin will scrape together some old T-62 tanks and those ancient towed artillery pieces, maybe even requisitioning trucks from local logistics companies... hell, they might even manage to give every soldier a rifle...

Then for the second wave, they'll likely just hand out rifles, ammo, a few grenades, and maybe some RPGs...

By the third wave, it might just be ammunition. They'll probably have to scavenge for rifles from the fallen on the front lines just to keep going...

🕺

James Chavez91 said:If we're going to hold our ground against Russia without giving an inch, then total isolation is the only logical conclusion. Everything. We'd have to cut off gas, oil—all of it. (That would also mean stopping trade with any middlemen trying to flip those same goods, which is already happening in some ways). Plus, a complete ban on anyone from Russia entering the US or the European Union. I mean, Lavrov was just walking around New York City yesterday, so... wait a second...

And honestly? To actually stop Putin, you need the Chinese. Sadly. I suspect if they decided to turn their backs on Russia, most of this would be solved.
Right now, that seems pretty unlikely, but I guess neither side wants to deal with nuclear Armageddon or the economic domino effect triggered by Putin's specific obsessions.
Time will tell if they eventually lose patience—but until then, we're stuck following the "recipe."

That process is already underway, I suppose, and it'll probably drag on for quite a while.

Ban anyone from Russia from entering the EU or the USA. But then again, Lavrov was walking around New York City just yesterday, so... hold on a second...

Does that mean we should ban dissidents too?

Lavrov is part of the diplomatic corps, carrying a diplomatic passport... so that complicates things...

Wars usually end with some kind of signed armistice after negotiations... and since this war isn't likely to wrap up with either Ukraine or Russia simply surrendering unconditionally, there will eventually have to be some diplomacy involved... maybe.

And if you want to actually stop Putin, you need the Chinese. Unfortunately. I think if they decided to turn their backs on Russia, it would solve everything.
Right now, that seems impossible, but I don't think they particularly enjoy the idea of nuclear Armageddon or the economic domino effect caused by Putin's obsessions.

The Chinese aren't going to keep propping up Russia forever... I doubt it.

Matthew Young35 said:Stalin managed to field armies numbering in the tens and millions, and he kept them fed.
Seventy years later, Russia can certainly manage that too.

Not really.

By the end of the war in Europe, Stalin had fewer than 5 million soldiers—some data suggests about 4.75 million.
Back at the start of 1944, the Red Army had roughly 6.2 million troops in Europe.

Just for context, the Western Allies had about 6.4 million troops in Europe by April 1945 across all fronts—that's over a million more than Stalin’s army.

Seventy years later, maybe Russia can do that today too.

That sounds like something for the naive.
They can't even properly supply a quarter of a million people, despite those supposedly massive stockpiles of everything under the sun.
From the very beginning of the invasion, their logistics have been a complete disaster. Once the Himars started leveling warehouses and other vital targets deep behind the lines, the Russians started losing even the basic supply routes needed to hold their current positions.

And what's the solution? Just throw more people at it?
They still don't have enough artillery, tanks, or armored vehicles. They lack ammo, they lack fuel... honestly, even food supplies are looking pretty shaky.

crimsongull28 said:The people who were arrested for protesting against the mobilization in Moscow just got hit with their own mobilization notices 😢 https://i.ibb.co/GM5sp9B/pozim-5.jpg

And honestly, what’s the actual point of mobilizing protesters like that?
I guess you could just send them off to cover lines on some distant front... maybe.