G.I. Joe

So does he get a W2 income form from FSB for his taxes?   Or somehow paid w/o taxes?  It'd be great to see the tax returns of the tankies and see what fake companies paid them money for 'consulting'

Indeed...we're very lucky on both sides of the 49th Parallel to have such good neighbours.

Indeed...we're very lucky on both sides of the 49th Parallel to have such good neighbours.

This is a hard watch....

Note in the NATO response they did confirm NATO position - Crimea is Ukraine.  No telling when or how, but I expect eventually Ukraine sovereignty over Crimea will be restored.  What remains of the Russian federation remains to be seen.

Indeed...we're very lucky on both sides of the 49th Parallel to have such good neighbours.

Indeed...we're very lucky on both sides of the 49th Parallel to have such good neighbours.

Wonderful to hear, too many Americans take Canada for granted.  And conversely, many Canadians are foolishly afraid of our American cousins; some of my acquaintances worry that the US could get bored and invade Toronto, to which I reply "what are you on, crack?  The poutine is in Montreal!"

The UA likes Canadians too.  They are building igloos in homage :

 
Was it "crazy batsh**" as in the twitter link, or just a "rant", or was it full-on hitler-in-a-bunker nuts?  I say "rant" designed to send a number of signals, mostly directed at sustaining support from his people (e.g., the cultural stuff about LGBTQ, enumeration of myths and legends about an ancient and imaginary West, etc.) to reinforce their 'common enemy'.  He's still rational and still, to pattern, escalating.
Contrast that to the measured, but very, very direct messaging from Zelensky:
And of course, to directly blunt Putin's speech, the application to NATO.
 
 
 


 

And of course, Putin is transliterated Poutine in French...
I remember a news story right after the invasion about a restaurant chain in France called House of Poutine getting flooded with angry calls as a result of the confusion.

I can't speak for Japan. For Germany I think especially some US forum members seem to misunderstand the role the Allies played in bringing about the change in German culture.
To start with, I'm not sure how much of a cultural change there actually was between, say, 1930 to 1960. The Nazis were not elected because Germans believed in all this aryan superiority nonsense or were convinced of the need for war for Lebensraum. They were elected because Germany was among the countries hit hardest by the worldwide economic crisis and had stopped trusting in the democratic system that was known for petty power squabbles and being unable to keep public order. Under the Nazis the economical situation improved, there was work for everyone, people could even go on vacations. Some lost territory was "reintregated" ... as some historian put it: had Hitler died in mid '39 he'd be counted among the greatest German leaders today. Still, there was no enthusiasm for war whatsoever at that time. Also the society was not nearly as "nazified" as Hollywood wants to make us believe. On the countryside it was still pretty much the church who ruled daily life. There was antisemitism, yes, but only up to a point. Public violence was still frowned upon (well, don't look, don't tell and all). In short, the hardcore nazis were more of a minority, most were chameleons, conformists, people who adapted to the system and were most interested in living their lives without being bothered. Don't get me wrong, many thought that Hitler had some good points. Antisemitism and some sense of superiority was common sense at the at the time and the Germans hadn't forgotten the Versailles contracts and the humiliation. Of course after the victory over France many held Hitler high regard. But they were not hardcore ideological Nazis.
Having survived the war and the chaos in the years directly after, the Germans wanted to just get on with their lives.
Denazification didn't really happen, at least not by the Allies. The Nuremberg trials did make sure that noone could say afterwards he didn't know. While they were a powerful sign that regimes could be held accountable for their deeds, it also gave the common German a bunch of scapegoats. Denazification among the common population was effectively rather symbolic. Most importantly the whole civil service was left largely untouched - our third chancellor, Kiesinger, had been a somewhat higher ranking Nazi. At least that quickly enabled a functioning state (compare to Iraq...). The civil servants functioned in the new system just as well as in the old system.
Generally, people knew of the war and what had happened at that time (although many claimed otherwise). But it was not spoken about. Former Nazis rarely ended in court because most of the judges had already been judges under the Nazis. And because the Germans didn't want to be reminded of the time and their deeds, people who tried were generally being frowned upon or even seen as traitors.
This really only changed with the next generation who suddenly demanded to know what their parents had done. That is what brought about a slow(!) change in culture.
What was vastly more important than denazification was what became known as the economic miracle. The Germans profited from the new system, their lives became objectively better. This is also where the US come into play: The Marshall plan, while strictly speaking did not do that much in reality (in the and it was all paid for by Germany), was brilliant because those signs everywhere "built with the help of the Marshall plan" connected the new good life with the Allies and the West in general. Then there was France (under de Gaulle) who extended their hands in friendship, the Queen came for a visit and all that. And then of course we discovered that we can just go on vacations if we want to see other countries 😉

The point wasn't to suddenly vault into NATO. It was to blunt the effect of Putin's speech in media and elsewhere. Vlad rambled on in his weird way through a list of grievances and gnomic statements about nukes which gave Zelensky the opportunity to message with a clear statement of Ukrainian defiance and alliance with the West. Russians may not hear it but China, India and the rest of the world does. Smart.

Mainly not being American, while not being a jerk about that fact.

Very good post...I did want to expand on this point a little but couldn't find time to finish a reply this afternoon. Downplaying wartime atrocities is definitely an issue in Japan, and I would hesitate to imply that they have done as well as Germany at confronting the worst chapters in their history (who has, really?) But, a comparative survey of Japanese, South Korean, Chinese, Taiwanese and U.S. school textbooks found that the Japanese texts used in the vast majority of schools were the most neutral of the ones surveyed and did acknowledge war crimes and Japan's role as the aggressor:
Divided Memories: History Textbooks and the Wars in Asia
I don't have anything comparable to your personal experience, but I can say the two Japanese people I have discussed World War II with at any length readily acknowledged Japanese war crimes and found the revisionist textbooks abhorrent (admittedly a very small sample size, but it's the personal experience I've got...and there may be a generational effect in play).  Maybe it says something that I have interacted with a lot of other Japanese people without World War II coming up...but then again, casual conversations with Germans and Italians rarely veer straight into Hitler and Mussolini (this forum notwithstanding).
Personally, I think a big part of the difference is that Japan didn't have any real equivalent to the Nazi party. Without a readily identifiable mass political movement to anchor the discussion on, there's no equivalent to being able to draw a distinction between Nazi and German...I don't want to imply that coming to terms with the past has been easy for Germany in any way, but having that distinction to work with has no doubt helped in some ways. And that really does underscore what a missed opportunity the fall of the USSR was.

Yampil in UA hands.

I continue to think that the next Ukrainian master stroke will be a 72 hour air and drone campaign that systematically destroys these Russian guns, forcing the survivors into mainly ineffective 'shoot and scoot' mode. While the RUAF flails helplessly, flying from distant bases.
 

Another good quick summary assessment, in translation (from Czech) from ChrisO.  @The_Capt, I think you've said some of the same.
 
 

Agreed...but I spent a good chunk of my afternoon trying to to finish that post and getting sidetracked (yay, parenting!), and I have a bit of a stubborn streak.

Very good post...I did want to expand on this point a little but couldn't find time to finish a reply this afternoon. Downplaying wartime atrocities is definitely an issue in Japan, and I would hesitate to imply that they have done as well as Germany at confronting the worst chapters in their history (who has, really?) But, a comparative survey of Japanese, South Korean, Chinese, Taiwanese and U.S. school textbooks found that the Japanese texts used in the vast majority of schools were the most neutral of the ones surveyed and did acknowledge war crimes and Japan's role as the aggressor:
Divided Memories: History Textbooks and the Wars in Asia
I don't have anything comparable to your personal experience, but I can say the two Japanese people I have discussed World War II with at any length readily acknowledged Japanese war crimes and found the revisionist textbooks abhorrent (admittedly a very small sample size, but it's the personal experience I've got...and there may be a generational effect in play).  Maybe it says something that I have interacted with a lot of other Japanese people without World War II coming up...but then again, casual conversations with Germans and Italians rarely veer straight into Hitler and Mussolini (this forum notwithstanding).
Personally, I think a big part of the difference is that Japan didn't have any real equivalent to the Nazi party. Without a readily identifiable mass political movement to anchor the discussion on, there's no equivalent to being able to draw a distinction between Nazi and German...I don't want to imply that coming to terms with the past has been easy for Germany in any way, but having that distinction to work with has no doubt helped in some ways. And that really does underscore what a missed opportunity the fall of the USSR was.

It's not contempt, not at all, sorry if it comes off that way. I should probably have been an academic too.  (And here I am spending my nonwork time on bloody wargaming boards for 25+ years, so I don't mind intellectual rabbit holes or overthought puzzles).
....It's just a realisation as I go through life that (respecting Steve's admonition, I shall not post the relevant Dilbert cartoon) 'intelligence has far less practical application than you'd think.'

Like it wasn't obvious who is on the Light Side here
 
 

I'll give it a shot though I am not even remotely qualified.
First off to address a previously used example - Japan. My spouse is Japanese.  I studiously avoid discussion of ww2. The Japanese version is significantly different than what I understand to be Japan's actions in ww2.   Japan was demilitarized, but never forced to really teach generation after generation of the atrocities committed.  It is still a very xenophobic society, though it does a lot of good humanitarian work around the globe.
As previously noted, no one is going to occupy Russia.  No one is going to force them to face their history.    So how do I see this going down?
In 1991 Russia had a brief moment to have its own version of a Prague spring.  It chose a different path. They allowed a criminal mob to run their country while they fed off stories of their greatness.  Meanwhile the mob ransacked their country.  Ukraine has torn the cover off just how decrepit the nation has become, and western sanctions have removed any chance of trying to patchwork it.  Russia has in effect inflicted the Morgenthau plan on itself.  China is going to be too busy dealing with its own demographic iceberg.  Russia is on its own while its industry is collapsing.  There is nothing left to rebuild a military, hell they are gonna have a hard enough time just fulfilling their basic needs.  Western companies could care less about politics, they are all about risk and reward.  Russia blew that equation out in the spring.  Western investment won't be seen at scale for quite a long time. The country is huge and will have no airline transportation system to speak of.  Maybe they'll have enough industry to keep the rail lines going.  Russia has the potential to become a massive humanitarian disaster. 
Russia won't be Ukraine's problem after this war.  Well not as currently viewed.  It will likely however evolve into an anarchic criminal mess even worse than now so strict border controls will be necessary to safeguard Ukrainian society.
In the US we have this debate now on what has been called critical race theory.  Whichever side one stands on the issue, both agree it is an issue of how you teach history.  The US is a really young country, if we are still debating our history, it is folly to think we'll somehow reeducate Russians into a different view.  The Russians will have to do that themselves and it won't happen in any of our lifetimes.
In a sense they are already being demilitarized.  As Steve noted, the army is trashed and there is no rebuilding it.  They simply don't have the resources, knowledge or societal base to do it.  Russia will be the first 3rd world country with nukes. Hopefully we can simply buy them from them and let them sort out their mess without the risk of nuclear stupidity like we have now.

If Phillips Payson O'Brien ever writes a book on this war, I will definitely pre-order it and start reading the moment it arrives.

If Phillips Payson O'Brien ever writes a book on this war, I will definitely pre-order it and start reading the moment it arrives.

Sorry folks, try as I might I can’ delete those miskeyed posts what I wanted to say was:
 
LOL , “Airplane,” one of my most favorite movies of all time! I worked for the FAA for 20 years.

Ok, so again, what exactly are you saying.  It appears that it is that Russia has a history of genocide - both cultural and physical?  And that somehow justifies...something?  You seem to be in line with kraze's direction, or are you just FYI-ing?  I can pretty much read between the lines - not a lot of nuance here, so let me respond:
Ok, I am going to call you out on this because this is just dumb, and frankly a bad direction this thread has been going since you and few others got particularly vocal.
1.  You are being pointed and vague at the same time - you pull out weird "facts" but place no context nor really any conclusions.  This is the playbook of many extremist organizations - "I am not saying anything racists but here are some statistics about [insert whoever], just saying"
2.  The "facts" you do pull on are a) pulled from Twitter echo chambers, and b) taken in isolation.  For example, if we are going to reach back into the early 20th century, or 19th century, find me a European power that did not have a history of genocidal behaviour.  By your logic we need to scrub Belgium because of the Congo, Spain for South America, UK, France and the US for North America, and  more than a few other really bad examples of behaviour that Europeans outgrew - including the Ukrainians themselves - https://www.wilsoncenter.org/event/the-1919-pogroms-ukraine-and-poland-one-hundred-years-later.  Cherry picking facts and stringing them to somehow make you argument for you is a long standing tactic by extremist organizations.
3.  You dance around it but you are in fact setting up conditions and in effect lobbying for a Russian genocide - as a solution to a genocide.  That is beyond a bad idea - it is phenomenally immoral.  I am sure as you are a Twitter expert on genocide you know the pre-conditions really well.
- Treat an entire society as a homogenous group. "They are all the same, no exceptions"
- Reinforce narratives that re-frame that society as culpable and non-human - plenty of that going on here.  Main effort here is to assign blame on a society, which you have now frames as homogenous and less than human.
- Frame a problem that can only be solved through the removal of the now-subhuman, blamed, homogenous society.
- Pretend to pursue policies that attempt to find way to do this with less violence, largely to reinforce a veneer of legitimacy - "we should deport them all".
- Find reasons why that won't work "they will still want to invade us in 5-10 years, no matter what"
- Deductively lead yourselves to the Wannsee Conference solution set - but hey you tried.
WTF?!
Firstly none of what you, or anyone that seems to be promoting line this is supported by international or humanitarian law - we can (and should) hold a nation state responsible for warcrimes and illegal invasions.  We do not arrest every Russian who crosses a border after the war and charge them for it.
Second, this narrative is monumentally stupid to promote, knowing that it will never gain traction - in fact it will do the exact opposite with respect to western support to Ukraine.  It will sour support to Ukraine when they need it most.  Nor does this nonsense reflect what we have been seeing from the Ukrainian government itself.
Three, it is monumentally immoral because to go through with whatever the hell this "de-something" is, which according to kraze includes the complete destruction of the Russian state - without a safety net, very likely leading to humanitarian crisis - but "who cares:, denying democratic rights to anyone who sniffs of pro-Russian indefinitely, the erasing of a Russian culture (if there is one, oh ya I forgot a sub-strategy of setting up a genocide is to try and pretend that "they are not really a people"), and a punishing the Russian people individually for the rest of time by the sounds of it.  Why? Because the effects of the actions you are promoting are going to negatively impact children who have not even been born yet. It is why we do not do this, the effects ands stakes are that high.
Oh but Russia did this to Ukraine!!  Yes, they did, or at least tried.  And those directly responsible will be held to account.  Russia as a state must be made to pay reparations.  Further Russia will continue to suffer sanctions and the full extent of legal punishments until the make up for this useless war.  However, nothing supports the full spectrum punishment of the entirety of the Russian people for decades - that is not how this works.
Do you honestly think that the mainstream western public are going to join you on whatever revenge fantasy is being cooked up here?  One shot of a starving Russian child and all that good will will evaporate, because people in the West want Russia to pay, but not kids who can't vote, nor pay taxes - I will note that kraze or anyone else spewing this nonsense have offered zero ideas on how to avoid Russian children also being held accountable for actions they literally have no say in - oh, wait don't answer that, I have a pretty good idea what you want already.
I am past asking you guys to stop - I am asking you go somewhere else.  Internet is big and full of other places where you can sell this drivel.