Russia's invasion of Ukraine: Part 5

darkdriver said:Ukraine is struggling as a state because it's a breeding ground for kleptocracy and nepotism—kind of like almost every post-USSR wasteland out there, including Russia, which isn't any better just because they have massive natural resources.
I mean, wasn't Yulia Tymoshenko—who got grilled back in 2001 by Leonid Kuchma for corruption and, get this, smuggling Russian gas—one of the biggest faces of pro-Western politics? And one of her closest business associates was the former Ukrainian Prime Minister Pavlo Lazarenko, who ended up being convicted in the USA for corruption, money laundering, and fraud.

Btw, wasn't it similar in America before the big policy shifts, where they basically told retirees, "Hey, vote this way or you might lose your pensions"?
Just, you know, since we're talking about bribing people with veggies and stuff.

So, you think it's okay to blackmail people just to get them to show up at the polls? Seriously?
Whether it's about food or pensions, that kind of coercion is bottom-of-the-barrel behavior.

Maybe Tymoshenko was a face of pro-Western policy, but that wasn't even my point.
My point was that you can't use Belarus as a success story for survival—look how they turned out under Russian leadership. Ukraine is a total wreck without that guidance. In Belarus, everything seems perfect, like they're living in a land of milk and honey, simply because the Kremlin saved them from themselves.
I honestly don't get why Ukraine is still resisting. ☕

@Ego - 👍

Sandra Harris2 said:So, you think it's okay to blackmail people just to get them to show up at the polls? Seriously?
Whether it's about food or pensions, that kind of coercion is bottom-of-the-barrel behavior.

Maybe Tymoshenko was a face of pro-Western policy, but that wasn't even my point.
My point was that you can't use Belarus as a success story for survival—look how they turned out under Russian leadership. Ukraine is a total wreck without that guidance. In Belarus, everything seems perfect, like they're living in a land of milk and honey, simply because the Kremlin saved them from themselves.
I honestly don't get why Ukraine is still resisting. ☕

@Ego - 👍

You should probably go ask those big-shot American politicians if they think it's okay to use whatever leverage they can to force people to vote.
For the record, I haven't run for office once, anywhere.
It just strikes me as weird that you have such a huge problem with bribery and intimidation over in Donbas, but you don't seem to care when it happens in your own backyard.
If you could actually point to where I said Belarus was a model of success for anything, I'd really appreciate it.
I feel like I was pretty clear when I mentioned that almost all those post-Soviet backwaters are basically cut from the same cloth.

darkdriver said:Since when was Ukraine part of the United Kingdom and Morocco?

It isn't—but two of them are actually serving in the Ukrainian military: a younger Briton (who I think also holds dual citizenship) and a Moroccan. Not sure about the third Briton. Honestly, the peak absurdity was seeing that British guy on Russian TV while he was joining the Ukrainian forces—they were calling him some kind of "NATO mercenary."

https://www.euronews.com/next/2022/0...eaks-geneva-co

https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/r...-death-penalty

placidtiger142 said:Just got back from a homeowners association meeting over here in Germany. Some guy was saying natural gas prices jumped from maybe 1.8 cents or 1.08 cents up to almost 10 cents per kWh or whatever the hell they measure it by
.
Man, we are getting absolutely screwed this winter. It’s not even just about heating; we might not even have hot water because they’ll be cutting it off—maybe leaving us with two hours a day or some nonsense. And the extra bills? They're gonna be astronomical.

This doesn't look good at all. We don't even realize what's coming for us.

The idea that there will actually be enough gas and everything else is a total pipe dream. Honestly, props to anyone heating their place with wood. Everyone else is just asking for a massive beating.

Over in Swabia, they’re already starting to drop hints, but of course, they won't tell us the real truth or show the actual projections right now. They don't want to trigger a panic or total chaos, so they're just going to drip-feed the bad news bit by bit.

I'm certain as hell that fuel prices are going to hit at least $10 by the end of the year, if there's even any left to buy.

I wish I could be an optimist, but honestly, being optimistic right now is probably the worst thing you can do.

We need to seriously gear up for the worst. That way, if things don't work out, we aren't totally crushed, and if they do, at least we can survive the winter a little easier.

Being convinced that everything will be fine and that nothing will run out is incredibly dangerous in times like these...

I mean, let's be real, you guys were basically living the dream with those dirt-cheap gas prices back in the day, but since Germany was so heavily reliant on Russian gas, I'd say you can pretty much kiss that era goodbye now. 🙂

Right now in NYC: $0.15So, I'm looking at about 6 cents per kWh, though that’s actually being offset by a little 0.10 cent subsidy. Honestly, I really should dig through my old files and find some past utility bills to see what the rates looked like before this recent price hike hit, because even if things had doubled—which, let's be real, they definitely didn't—it would still mean we were sitting at around 3 cents per kWh back in the day.

Gregory Ramos3 said:I mean, let's be real, you guys were basically living the dream with those dirt-cheap gas prices back in the day, but since Germany was so heavily reliant on Russian gas, I'd say you can pretty much kiss that era goodbye now. 🙂

Right now in NYC: $0.15So, I'm looking at about 6 cents per kWh, though that’s actually being offset by a little 0.10 cent subsidy. Honestly, I really should dig through my old files and find some past utility bills to see what the rates looked like before this recent price hike hit, because even if things had doubled—which, let's be real, they definitely didn't—it would still mean we were sitting at around 3 cents per kWh back in the day.

I hear you, man, but honestly, now is not the time or the place for that smiley face. A nasty reality check is coming for all of us.

The number of happy little smileys on the internet is going to tank by 90% if this doesn't get fixed immediately.

And when I say immediately, I mean within the next few weeks at the latest.

Sent from my iPhone 13 using Reddit

darkdriver said:You should probably go ask those big-shot American politicians if they think it's okay to use whatever leverage they can to force people to vote.
For the record, I haven't run for office once, anywhere.
It just strikes me as weird that you have such a huge problem with bribery and intimidation over in Donbas, but you don't seem to care when it happens in your own backyard.
If you could actually point to where I said Belarus was a model of success for anything, I'd really appreciate it.
I feel like I was pretty clear when I mentioned that almost all those post-Soviet backwaters are basically cut from the same cloth.

Where did I say that's okay in America? Or that it's acceptable anywhere?
I brought up the Donbas elections because there are new elections being mentioned in that region—you were the one who dragged the US into this.

And brighthound13 (or whatever his handle is) was the one who brought up Belarus, so I was responding to him.

@placidtiger142
So that's how it plays out, old friend... looks like you'll have to pack up and move your whole life again. Trade Germany for Russia, I guess. At least there, you won't be sweating the price of natural gas.

Sandra Harris2 said:Where did I say that's okay in America? Or that it's acceptable anywhere?
I brought up the Donbas elections because there are new elections being mentioned in that region—you were the one who dragged the US into this.

And brighthound13 (or whatever his handle is) was the one who brought up Belarus, so I was responding to him.

Okay, my bad—mea culpa! But honestly, shouldn't you probably sweep the trash off your own porch first if you want any kind of credibility before pointing out how messy someone else's doorstep is, right?

placidtiger142 said:I hear you, man, but honestly, now is not the time or the place for that smiley face. A nasty reality check is coming for all of us.

The number of happy little smileys on the internet is going to tank by 90% if this doesn't get fixed immediately.

And when I say immediately, I mean within the next few weeks at the latest.

Sent from my iPhone 13 using Reddit

The solution is simple. Kick the Russians out of Ukraine by force, then hit them with sanctions until they start paying up for the war damages.

feralhawk45 said:What should America have done to avoid the war in '91?
When someone's entire platform is built on attacking you, denying your right to exist, and trying to force you back under their thumb... your only real option is to fight back. There is no "balancing" act in that scenario.

There wasn't anything they could have done.
A bit of a tangent here—my dad used to joke around with some Mexicans he was friendly with a few years before everything kicked off, making comments about when we'd finally go to war and bring back the old regime. He didn't get it at the time, but looking back, he realizes they weren't just joking—they knew what was coming, and he just didn't believe them.
War doesn't just get cooked up over a month or two; it’s planned for years. For 25 years now, Dugin has been writing in his works that Ukraine needs to be annexed because, in his view, it isn't a real country—it's just Russia and shouldn't exist. Russia has been prepping this war against Ukraine since the moment the USSR collapsed; they just weren't strong enough to pull it off then. Instead, they relied on a bunch of politicians who pushed Russian interests and blocked Ukraine from actually developing. I saw someone mention Yulia Tymoshenko earlier—I agree, she wasn't the best choice. Neither was Petro Poroshenko, though he did lose the 2019 election. That’s just democracy—you vote, if they don't do the job, you pick someone else. Viktor Yanukovych was the same way, but in my opinion, he was just too incompetent—he did the most damage to Ukraine. The saddest part is that Yanukovych is from Donbas. It’s the same deal with Zelenskyy—when the next elections roll around, the people will decide. If they're happy, they'll keep him; if not, they won't.

placidtiger142 said:I hear you, man, but honestly, now is not the time or the place for that smiley face. A nasty reality check is coming for all of us.

The number of happy little smileys on the internet is going to tank by 90% if this doesn't get fixed immediately.

And when I say immediately, I mean within the next few weeks at the latest.

Sent from my iPhone 13 using Reddit

Well, that's an easy fix—just have the aggressor pull out of Ukraine and everything will be resolved at light speed.
You're forgetting the 1973 oil embargo when the Middle East cut us off, leaving Europe and half the world scrambling for fuel, and miraculously, everyone survived.
The thing is, America's reliance on Middle Eastern oil dropped from 70% to 20% in just a few years; Russia is staring down that exact same fate.

The real culprit? It’s the folks who were handing out cheap credit left and right like candy...
The whole mess with the coronavirus and the war in Ukraine—it just acted as an accelerant for a situation that was already brewing.

Now, word on the street is they’re about to hike interest rates to basically "kill off" the massive consumer spending power that triggered this inflation spike in the first place.
And predictably, the ones getting hit hardest will be the regular people who locked in those long-term, low-interest loans back when money was easy.

So, according to the logic here, the way we "fix" this crisis is by making everyone a little bit poorer. Makes sense, right?
It’s just another band-aid solution that has absolutely nothing to do with Russia.

Russia is just the booster rocket for this crisis. This whole thing was going to happen regardless.

Paul Flores13 said:There are rumors circulating about upcoming referendums in Detroit, Pittsburgh, and New Orleans regarding their annexation by Russia. If those go through, I suspect the Russians will feel quite comfortable declaring a total victory. I find it somewhat curious, though, that the Zaporizhzhia Oblast hasn't been included in those plans yet.

Fake referendums and those little flower cottages.

The real question is, will it actually happen? Russia officially annexed it. So those Ukrainian territories just become part of Russia after those "referendums"? If that actually happens, it changes everything. An attack on that, an attack on the US.So, what's the plan then? Just wave nukes around and threaten everyone who tries to give that territory back to Ukraine?
So, what's the move? Are they actually going to pull the trigger and recognize the "independent state of Donbas"?

Honestly, I think Russia could pretty much claim victory after that.

What kind of pathetic "victory" are they even planning to claim? 🤔 Just look at how massive this failure is. Honestly, it doesn't get any more pathetic than this.

Kate Cook27 said:It isn't—but two of them are actually serving in the Ukrainian military: a younger Briton (who I think also holds dual citizenship) and a Moroccan. Not sure about the third Briton. Honestly, the peak absurdity was seeing that British guy on Russian TV while he was joining the Ukrainian forces—they were calling him some kind of "NATO mercenary."

https://www.euronews.com/next/2022/0...eaks-geneva-co

https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/r...-death-penalty

I mean, the whole concept of "homeland" is a bit more stretchable than a piece of Wrigley's gum, isn't it?
But seriously, will the US ever actually pay for one of our volunteers—regardless of which meridian or latitude on this giant rock they're fighting on, regardless of whose interests they're serving, whether they're coming home on a government flight or some other plane—and cover their medical bills using American taxpayers' money, just like they did for that other guy recently?
I don't really get why Ukraine didn't just handle his medical care?
And would someone heading off to fight on Yemen's side get the exact same treatment?
I'm just asking so the adventurers and war junkies out there actually know what they're signing up for.
It’d be pretty fair if our government put out some kind of interactive world map so people could see where they can and can't go to fight at our expense.

darkdriver said:Ukraine is struggling as a state because it's a breeding ground for kleptocracy and nepotism—kind of like almost every post-USSR wasteland out there, including Russia, which isn't any better just because they have massive natural resources.
I mean, wasn't Yulia Tymoshenko—who got grilled back in 2001 by Leonid Kuchma for corruption and, get this, smuggling Russian gas—one of the biggest faces of pro-Western politics? And one of her closest business associates was the former Ukrainian Prime Minister Pavlo Lazarenko, who ended up being convicted in the USA for corruption, money laundering, and fraud.

Btw, wasn't it similar in America before the big policy shifts, where they basically told retirees, "Hey, vote this way or you might lose your pensions"?
Just, you know, since we're talking about bribing people with veggies and stuff.

Finally, a post that feels grounded in reality. People either don't understand, or simply refuse to accept, that a nation is destroyed by internal corruption and theft rather than by external enemies. Golda Meir used to say that corruption is essentially the same thing as treason. If those pro-Western leaders in Ukraine had truly intended to build a lasting nation and act as genuine patriots, wouldn't Russia have lacked the strength to ever attack them? Instead, they attacked a state with broken institutions and a people who had already been hollowed out. The fact that Russia moved in with only about 200,000 people really shows just how fractured Ukraine actually was.

darkdriver said:Ukraine is struggling as a state because it's a breeding ground for kleptocracy and nepotism—kind of like almost every post-USSR wasteland out there, including Russia, which isn't any better just because they have massive natural resources.
I mean, wasn't Yulia Tymoshenko—who got grilled back in 2001 by Leonid Kuchma for corruption and, get this, smuggling Russian gas—one of the biggest faces of pro-Western politics? And one of her closest business associates was the former Ukrainian Prime Minister Pavlo Lazarenko, who ended up being convicted in the USA for corruption, money laundering, and fraud.

Btw, wasn't it similar in America before the big policy shifts, where they basically told retirees, "Hey, vote this way or you might lose your pensions"?
Just, you know, since we're talking about bribing people with veggies and stuff.

But since they're aiming for the European Union, they're slowly adopting those standards, which should eventually drag them out of all that leftover USSR garbage. 🙂

darkdriver said:I mean, the whole concept of "homeland" is a bit more stretchable than a piece of Wrigley's gum, isn't it?
But seriously, will the US ever actually pay for one of our volunteers—regardless of which meridian or latitude on this giant rock they're fighting on, regardless of whose interests they're serving, whether they're coming home on a government flight or some other plane—and cover their medical bills using American taxpayers' money, just like they did for that other guy recently?
I don't really get why Ukraine didn't just handle his medical care?
And would someone heading off to fight on Yemen's side get the exact same treatment?
I'm just asking so the adventurers and war junkies out there actually know what they're signing up for.
It’d be pretty fair if our government put out some kind of interactive world map so people could see where they can and can't go to fight at our expense.

I'm not sure, but the point here is that they are members of the Ukrainian military—they have official contracts, which is why at least two of them were on the front lines. It’s pretty absurd how Russian TV is painting them as mercenaries when they aren't. They didn't just show up in Ukraine after the invasion started; they were already there, already in the service. As for who pays whom, I haven't a clue. Who goes off to fight in some dozen different countries? I've never really followed that kind of thing.

Anthony Perez9 said:But since they're aiming for the European Union, they're slowly adopting those standards, which should eventually drag them out of all that leftover USSR garbage. 🙂

Totally.
RH is actually a perfect example of how adopting European Union standards can finally drag a country out of the absolute gutter of kleptocracy and cronyism.
Tell me I'm wrong.

brighthound13 said:Finally, a post that feels grounded in reality. People either don't understand, or simply refuse to accept, that a nation is destroyed by internal corruption and theft rather than by external enemies. Golda Meir used to say that corruption is essentially the same thing as treason. If those pro-Western leaders in Ukraine had truly intended to build a lasting nation and act as genuine patriots, wouldn't Russia have lacked the strength to ever attack them? Instead, they attacked a state with broken institutions and a people who had already been hollowed out. The fact that Russia moved in with only about 200,000 people really shows just how fractured Ukraine actually was.

Well, they didn't even need much strength; they managed to grab 90% of what they hold within the first ten days of the war, which caught everyone off guard.
But let's be real, we're talking about the second most powerful military on the planet. It's not like they're intimidating anyone militarily right now; if anything, it's obvious that the corruption within the Russian ranks is massive. That rot has taken a huge toll on their military effectiveness.
Honestly, if things keep going this way, a corrupt Russia might just fall apart from the inside.

darkdriver said:Totally.
RH is actually a perfect example of how adopting European Union standards can finally drag a country out of the absolute gutter of kleptocracy and cronyism.
Tell me I'm wrong.

Compared to the countries within the Russian sphere of influence, we’re practically living in science fiction.