Billy Ringo

South Africa warns Putin of threat of arrest should he attend BRICS Summit in person (Yahoo News)

on today's episode of Wild Kingdom from Mutual of Omaha..... Jim wrestles with the angry polecat

After a year of war and at least tens of thousands of deaths, this really shouldn't get to me as much as it does. But it is taking every ounce of my willpower to contain my rage right now. At this moment I want nothing less than the blood of every single Russian. I want Putin's head on a pike. This was not a military target. It wasn't a barracks, or a communication station, or even any sort of critical infrastructure. This was a residential building. This wasn't an act of war. This was an act of terrorism.
And I know this isn't the first time this has happened. It's just another example of a long pattern of Russian crimes. I know that events like this are behind every report I read of continued Russian missile attacks. Not to mention that mass graves have been found in every single liberated area, complete with clear signs of torture.
I understand in theory why we don't want Russia to collapse completely. But right now I just don't care. I want Russia to be destroyed.

There is a point on the circle where the far-left and far-right meet and this is pretty close to it.  The mechanics are the same, connect a whole bunch of phenomena, many of them that are in isolation of each other - e.g. homelessness and MKUltra.  Then tie them together with logic strings to create a unifying construct - in this case Western Satan.
The problem is that 1) many of these phenomena are in fact disconnected as there are no star chambers just people being mean to other people - the red scare violations of human rights is not in the same bin as lynchings.  2) the fact that anyone has access to these historical examples and can openly cite them is proof against a massive oppressive western regime that spans generations, and 3) completely misses all the good and right these western systems have done, worse dismisses it as social background radiation when in fact it was the main effort.
This method is a sort of reverse social contrasting because all one is seeing are the lynchings, CIA plots, cop shootings and homeless.  If one stares at that long enough it is easy to believe that is the core and not indeed the background radiation of macro-social evolution in the western world.  There are societies where these sorts of activities were far more central to maintaining order and control as has been noted.  They do not complain about police brutality and cite internet stories to back them up in North Korea because they are living in a truly brutal dictatorship.
I have worked defence and security my entire adult life - there is not massive conspiracy led by the far [insert villain] trying to control you through a weird Goldberg-esque complicated scheme. There is a government trying to keep 300+ million primates wired for fear response from killing each other.  While at the same time trying to keep the other 7.7 billion scared primates from either killing you, or each other too fast.  The good news is that this “sinister and highly corrupt system” has essentially worked.  We are better off now than we have ever been in history.  Do not believe me?  Google stuff like child mortality or literacy, or healthcare.  You wanna talk “big unfair prisons” do some research on the 19th century legal system.  
People are not “seeing the matrix” in spite of nasty government control, they are seeing it because of government protections - as imperfect as they may be.

Well,  not quite off topic. He's anti Ukraine involvement and we've commented on that with other figures,  and how this can affect the coming elections,  which could very directly affect Ukraines war effort. Whatever my personal opinion,  he's one less very prominent opponent (for now), which is a good thing for Ukraine. 
I meant it more in that international affairs framing, rather than USA domestic. 

Talk of ethnicity relating to russian territorial claims is disingenuous.  "Russia" is a collection of conquered peoples and territories.  There are some 21 Republics today and a recent analysis on what might happen when "Russia" disintegrates suggests that some 44 separate nations might be created, with many different languages and cultural cohesions normally associated with ethnicity.
Since 2014 the Moscow government has been energetically reprofiling Crimea, importing "russians" of various ethnicities but loyal to Moscow, and driving out disloyal groups like Tatars and Ukrainians.  I hope the pro-moscow progagandists don't have the gall to demand another referendum.
"Russia" should withdraw to the internationally recognised borders and this means Crimea is returned to Ukraine.  It really is this simple.

Strange huge green flash in the sky in southern-eastern part of Kyiv was spotted. Initially it's was reported about AD work (after the flash air raid alarm was announced), but later information has appeared this could be parts of NASA satellite, burned in atmosphere. 
Alot of memes have appeared immediately )


 

Tibet 1950
Sino-Indian 1962
Sino-Vietnamese War 1979
The others such as clashes with Soviet, India, Vietnamese post-WWII you'll no doubt ignore also. Won't even bother mentioning Korea ('50) or Vietnam ('60's) as you will no doubt believe they were/are freedom fighters.
You really need to allow yourself growth and accept nuance in your world view. It's not always US bad - other side good.

I think history has shown you are destined for disappointment.

Really? *A* clearance? I have family members much older than him, who sweated through the full SSBI or Full and TS/SCI process. It’s an 8-15 month trip. This wildly bigoted and troubled not-an-exemplary kid’s religion has nothing to do with the process.  Regardless, we all know (or with any science background, darn well should know ) 19–ish year old teenage brains have not matured. The last part of the brain to mature is the frontal cortex. Where good judgement, self-control, social skills, and decision-making skill come from. So yeah. Not arguing about the drinking or voting age, or recruitment age. I do think it’s playing with fire to put “scores” of 19-21 year olds fresh out of high school into positions with full access to SCIFs material and entry into the JWICS. With no ability or program to monitor the changes these 19 year olds go through on their way to actual biological maturity. What could go wrong? BTW, anyone think he never spouted off about his government conspiracy racist fantasies to anyone anywhere else?
Lastly, the US.military is sufficiently large to revise and assign this critical responsibility to an age appropriate rank and paygrade. The number of slots is “scores”, not “hundreds”. Do we really need to gamble like this? No. While of course it’s no silver bullet, it’s a LOT easier than trying to institute some sort of Total Big Brother real time microscope on every minute of people’s lives.
‘The part of the brain behind the forehead, called the prefrontal cortex, is one of the last parts to mature. This area is responsible for skills like planning, prioritizing, and making good decisions”... and… “The brain finishes developing and maturing in the mid-to-late 20s.” https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/publications/the-teen-brain-7-things-to-know

A warning. At the moment there is a video circulating social media  that show the gruesome beheading of an ukrainian prisoner of war with a knife. I have seen a lot but  this is one of the most traumatizing videos I have ever seen. DO NOT WATCH.
I have no idea how anyone can do such things to another living being. I wouldn't even do it  to my worst enemy. The culture that breeds such behavior is deeply sick. I really wish nato would do a lot more to end this bloodshed as quickly as possible. Not doing it hurts us a lot more than most are realising.
Worse, ordinary russians are celebrating this video.....

deleted, not worth the vacation

Sorry for off-topic, but this proposal keeps coming up on this thread so I feel I should address it from perspective of someone who lives in Taiwan.
Something most "put a bunch of marines of Taiwan" takes are missing is the voices of the Taiwanese people.
Even though most Taiwanese do not consider themselves Chinese, also most Taiwanese do not favor changing the status quo. The country is in a bizarre place because it's plainly evident to everyone - including China - that Taiwan is already an independent country with its own government, laws and military... but nobody can actually say that out loud. Any time other countries try to engage with Taiwan, politically or militarily, both that country and Taiwan gets punished. Which maybe doesn't faze the US, but they're the richest and most powerful country in the world! Taiwan is a small island located right next door to the second richest and second most powerful country in the world, who also happens to be their biggest trade partner - the ultimate frenemy.
Putting marines on Taiwan is just moving a chess piece for America, but for Taiwan it is a major change to the status quo, something that could affect the lives of everyone in the country - potentially for the worse. As a democratic country, there are a lot of different opinions on this, and with the presidential election coming up in 2024, no candidate wants to be shown as the one who let the Americans mess up the economy. This is probably why the meeting with Speaker McCarthy happened in California and not in Taiwan, because the Taiwanese government doesn't want to escalate tensions, especially not ahead of a political campaign.

My brother in law just died a needlessly horrible drawn out death, today. He fought for decades in a variety of ways to defend the USA. One person was directly responsible for how it went down. My sister is heartbroken, and enraged at what happened. I am in more than a foul mood. So my thoughts right now are colored in a certain way by this tragedy. Not particularly with distance, nuance and diplomacy. What happens when you are inside the box, not outside. My apologies if you don’t like them. I don’t either.
Lot of talk lately about Ukraine has GOT to produce big battlefield wins, now. Trying to put myself within Ukraine’s box:
1. Your country was suddenly invaded by one of the largest monsters in the world, ravaging your cities, raping and killing civilians. That is awful. We condemn it. You will collapse in three days.
2. We are NATO. We are a hugely powerful military alliance designed  to defend ourselves against that very same horrible monster.  Because we all fear trying to do so alone. Like you. Too bad you aren’t in NATO.
3. There won’t be any cavalry coming to your rescue, on land, sea, or air. But good luck, we support you brave people. Here are a lot of supplies and defensive short range weapons. You go fight the monster. We’ll cheer you on. 
4. OK, you have been doing a great job! Well done. Even with most of your cities and power grid regularly under missile and drone attack in the winter,  thousands of casualties, and smashed into rubble cities, you are still standing! Great job! Here are some more weapons, and one with a little longer range. It works really well so you can continue to not only survive but make some progress. Not too much progress though. Might be dangerous. So, no to your other requests for planes and long range weapons. We can’t risk getting attacked by the monster.. But we will open war crimes investigations into the massacres, rapes and civilian killings and targetings.
5. Hey, you haven’t won yet! We don’t think you can win although the monster has obviously already lost. You have really fracked up his army good. By the way, our patience is growing thin and you haven’t defeated one of the world’s largest military powers yet. After a whole year.  We are the richest group of countries ever on Earth.  We have awesome military capabilities beyond belief. And lots of nuclear weapons. If we lose interest and get tired, you probably will have to negotiate away big chunks of your country you fought and died for. If you only achieve a stalemate against the monster. Unless you defeat that monster, real soon now. Here’s a few older tanks we made a long time ago. And a handful of rusty old Soviet/Russian jets, some don’t work though. Please don’t complain. It’s ungrateful.
6. Oh, hey. Go out there as soon as the ground is firmed up and really tear apart the monster, the monster we are definitely not wanting to get any madder at us. No pressure, but if you don’t defeat the monster right now, you are pretty much up a creek because we’re tired and have real problems here in our nice undamaged, heated homes. By the way, we are worried about you defeating the monster. What will happen to the him? He might hurt us. But don’t forget, the monster has already lost.
7. I mean, yeah, the monster just threw a few hundred thousand troops at you and you survived and all. Well, most of you. But hey, they weren’t well-trained. And we all know the monster has already lost (as far as threatening us over here in NATO - yay).  So you better defeat this monster by yourself, Right now. We gave you a LOT of equipment so you should be able to do this on your own. We can’t get involved. But here are a few more old jets. Don’t work so good right now, but…
8. We just got Finland into NATO!  Mostly thanks to you!). Now we are even stronger, and NATO makes sure none of us have to try to defeat the monster on our own. Like you. Because we don’t think we could. We can’t give you more powerful offensive weapons because it would have taken you all last year to learn how to use them. And then you might have defeated the monster. And we are really really worried because that might be bad. For us. You understand. So go out there NOW and defeat the monster. Or we will probably have to reduce our support for you. Like, if things get really bad for you. Not winning. We might not be there. As much. Or something. Hard to tell. But go win. Now. OK? 

PS. I really am pleased at how the West has helped out. I just don’t think it’s been soon enough with enough of the right stuff to end it before the political rot sets in. So I’m ventilating how it might feel. While I am grieving.

Man that really highlights the issue at play here.  The US is more than a nation of 360-odd million.  It is an idea.  An idea that despite it flaws, contradictions and even occasional hypocrisy that the western world signed up for because it resonated.  We all took the idea and made it our own.  It was bigger than a political system.  It spoke to themes of liberty, representation, security, justice and equality.  We built a global order to oppose Communism around this big idea.  That is what this war is really about - the defence of that idea.  
Supporting Ukraine is simply the right thing to do.  It is about pushing back a genocidal bully and declaring to any and all that would think about trying this “Hey, this is our idea and we are going to defend it.  You are not attacking Ukraine, you are attacking our idea”.

I think a lot of this springs from a sort of ignorant entitlement mentality.  The world is just supposed to keep the US on top because it is the US.  This completely misses the sacrifices and decades of work it took to position it on top - and frankly everyone in the western world should be happy it worked out that way.  But no, the US should be able to simply “Let it be” and somehow the world will keep spinning the way it has - this is beyond ignorant and is heading to dumb.
Here is a crazy thought for all the Russian apologists, isolationist, Cro-Magnon-adventists who try and frame this war as anything than it is: Some wars are worth fighting, and this is one of them.
”Oh if we had only…[insert upside down theory]”. Well we did not. Russia invaded a nation that was minding its own business and is killing innocent people in a naked power grab.  I do not care if Russia wigged out because NATO - so freakin what?  We use our words not poorly aimed cruise missiles.  
This entire war is not the result of anyone’s foreign policy other than Russia and Putin.  Every nation that joined NATO did so of its own free will - you know, the thing we are supposed to be protecting?  Anyone who suggests that we should live in a world where we let regional dictators pull of nonsense like this war - “to avoid war” is deluded.  Or, as I suspect is in this case, is that kid in the class who is just clever enough to be contrary and get attention but has no real solutions to offer.

This is my first post here, so before I start, let me thank you all for the enormous amount of info and analysis found in this thread, I've read hundreds of pages of this discussion and I really learnt a lot.
So, finally a topic where perhaps I can contribute a tiny bit! Being 'lucky' to be a citizen of Hungary, I would say it's quite likely that Hungary will approve the NATO membership of Sweden as soon as Erdogan decides to do the same.
Quite interestingly, it seems that in addition to the usual stuff behind Orban's 'trouble making' in connection to the war in Ukraine (showing loyalty to Putin, trying to look internally as if Orban/Hungary would be a significant player in the EU, portraying Orban as a "rebel" against the west, etc.) there is some kind of 'Turkish connection' behind delaying the approval of the Finnish and Swedish NATO membership.
So even though for 8 months Hungary delayed the approvals with the exact same excuses for both countries, pretty much immediately after Erdogan announced publicly his support for the Finnish membership, the leader of the Fidesz (Orban's party) faction in the parliament announced that they will support the NATO membership of Finland during the vote in the parliament, and suddenly the schedule of the vote was moved to an earlier date than originally planned (which might happened to make sure that the actual formal voting would happen sooner than in Turkey, thereby avoiding the situation where Hungary approves formally as the last one among the NATO members). The announcement was made by the faction leader, because the latest excuse was that even though Orban and his cabinet supports the memberships of both countries, there is some disagreement (LOL) among the members of the the Fidesz faction because of some disrespectful statements from Finnish and Swedish politicians regarding Hungary in the past, and you know, in a democracy members of the parliament are free to vote according to their best judgement (LOL) and they need some additional time to carefully consider the situation to make the best decision possible...
Regarding Sweden the excuse remained the same, without any sort of clear expectations about what they should do to change our mind. Also there was no real explanation why the wise members of the Fidesz faction suddenly forgave the similar statements from the Finnish politicians.
As an interesting additional detail (even though obviously it is not possible to tell if there is a causal relationhip between the two topics) Erdogan announced around the same time that using the TANAP pipeline Turkey will do everything to help the gas import to Hungary.
I guess if Erdogan will lose the election in May without approving the membership of Sweden previously, the situation will probably change

History in the making.

Would it be possible to limit the name calling, "rural dimwits" "right wing looney's" and focus on the war in Ukraine? 
Thank you.

First time poster, long time lurker. Firstly I'd like to thank you all for providing me such an insightful and diverse range of opinions and resources throughout this conflict. Really, its been amazing and this has remained a solid go to place for information. Secondly I'd like to thank Steve and his crew for taking the time to moderate this thread (as well as the many hours playing the amazing games).
In regards to the Russian influence discussion I would just like to add that a large part of the damage Russia intends to inflict with this campaign is in having it be so obvious (and often low rent). They stir up one part of society, and they create the illusion that if we stop the influence campaign then the problems might magically go away. The problem is that these are very real perceived issues that are being inflamed here. The campaign itself being so obvious makes it that much harder to rationally address what is at stake here and I feel is a large part of the strategy.
Lets not forget that Putin is being an opportunist here. This is no direct strategy with a specific goal in mind. He's aiming to increase the probability that favorable circumstances shake loose on their own.

Would it be possible to limit the name calling, "rural dimwits" "right wing looney's" and focus on the war in Ukraine? 
Thank you.

So I really do not have a dog in this whole EU fight but what I am seeing on both sides of the discussion are classic symptoms of information operations.  Russia has not simply been “troll farming”, evidence points to a re-emergence of subversive warfare doctrines re-tooled for the 21st century.  This is basically a lot of effort aimed at finding and exploiting the fractures and divisions in a society, leveraging that to either create negative decision (undeciding things, like EU membership), null decision (paralysis by rendering something undecidable) or positive decision (reflexive control type stuff where decisions are made that are in the interest of the sponsor, not the targeted state).
The things to watch out for just unfolded in these last two pages.  Polarized information spheres - Cpl S is clearly in one where the narrative is the EU is ruling the UK like a monarch to the detriment of the “working man”.  While others are being given evidence the EU was beneficial etc.  in reality there is enough truth in both to sustain the spheres and keep them accelerating away from each other - we saw the exact same thing with NAFTA here in NA.  The actual truth is almost immaterial, and is usually pretty mundane - something which some have glanced off of.
And then there is the agency reflex - “well I was not influenced”. Well you probably were, how much and how far it influenced your decisions is variable and likely linked to how much you cared (although there is plenty of evidence of apathy reinforcement).  The reality is that if you were involved in a decisive issue you likely have been influenced to a degree.
Now how successful Russia has been is a major problem.  If they have not been the reflex will be to ignore and continue, which is good for the sponsor of the campaign.  Or if it is over subscribed it hijacks heathy discourse and makes a boogeyman where none exists, also good for the sponsor.
We have seen the results right here - sides yell at each other pretty much abandoning any and all facts.  Someone leaves in a huff, which is pretty much what subversive sponsors want because meaningful discourse and compromise do nothing for their effort.  Agency reflex/active denial and actual facts getting lost in the noise.
Finally, the other place to watch for these sorts of things is on issues that are not only highly divisive but hang in a fine balance.  Subversion rarely works in creating massive landslides, they are not designed to and the costs are too high.  On tight races where a few thousand votes can swing things (or conversely in an autocratic society, a few key decision making nodes) this is where subversive warfare really kicks in.
Now as to how well Russia influenced Brexit?  Who really knows.  We do know they were involved and put some effort as it is in their interests to split up the EU.  How successfully they pulled that off would take a lot of effort to figure out.  But in reality the fact that people are still divided and yelling past each other is a pretty good sign they are still getting something out of the whole affair.

Would it be possible to limit the name calling, "rural dimwits" "right wing looney's" and focus on the war in Ukraine? 
Thank you.

In my experience I have not seen another place on the internet with as much knowledge on military matters as this forum that is discussing this war. Steve also does a fantastic job of keeping obvious pro-Kremlin trolls out of this discussion making the environment much healthier than discussions on Reddit or Twitter. 
When the discussion becomes off topic, I just ignore it until it gets back to the war in Ukraine.

Would it be possible to limit the name calling, "rural dimwits" "right wing looney's" and focus on the war in Ukraine? 
Thank you.