The Russian Invasion of Ukraine

[CharlesPhipps]

Turkish President Erdogan spoke with Putin the other day and the later has clarified his peace demands:

No NATO membership
Demilitarization
Protection for Russian language
De-Nazification
Give up territory in Eastern Ukraine
Give up Crimea

So basically, "Everything we can to annex you in the future and annex half of you now."

[Riedquat]

Turkish President Erdogan spoke with Putin the other day and the later has clarified his peace demands:

No NATO membership
Demilitarization
Protection for Russian language
De-Nazification
Give up territory in Eastern Ukraine
Give up Crimea

So basically, "Everything we can to annex you in the future and annex half of you now."

Yeah, Russia's still blustering somewhat despite having made a complete and utter cock-up of their invasion and resorting to "if we hurt enough people then eventually they'll do what we want in order to get that stopped." The problem Russia's got is that it keeps dragging itself down thanks to Putin's sick crusade, and his egotism and narcissism is a big barrier in Russia doing what's best for Russia. Whilst a reverse of Russian fortunes is certainly not impossible continuing losses are inevitable, and for what? Recognition of Crimea, which they control anyway, some small areas in the East, and asking "please make it easier for us to attack next time" for a country whos population sure as hell won't accept Russian rule, so Russia will just keep bleeding itself it it tries. Let's forget the "denazification" joke, that ones entirely for domestic consumption and Putin's frankly pathetic attempts at justifying his actions (sign of an over-controlled country when you lose control of just how third rate your nonsense is). Protection for Russian speakers is all well and good but hardly merits the whole situation, and I imagine it's rather hard to find any pro-Russian Russian speakers in Ukraine any more anyway.

It boils down to you've got a piece of crap in charge who majorly screwed up but is too childish ("It's not my fault!") to do anything other than plough on, lacking the mental development necessary to admit a mistake and not keep digging a hole.

[CharlesPhipps]

Yeah, Russia's still blustering somewhat despite having made a complete and utter cock-up of their invasion and resorting to "if we hurt enough people then eventually they'll do what we want in order to get that stopped." The problem Russia's got is that it keeps dragging itself down thanks to Putin's sick crusade, and his egotism and narcissism is a big barrier in Russia doing what's best for Russia. Whilst a reverse of Russian fortunes is certainly not impossible continuing losses are inevitable, and for what? Recognition of Crimea, which they control anyway, some small areas in the East, and asking "please make it easier for us to attack next time" for a country whos population sure as hell won't accept Russian rule, so Russia will just keep bleeding itself it it tries. Let's forget the "denazification" joke, that ones entirely for domestic consumption and Putin's frankly pathetic attempts at justifying his actions (sign of an over-controlled country when you lose control of just how third rate your nonsense is). Protection for Russian speakers is all well and good but hardly merits the whole situation, and I imagine it's rather hard to find any pro-Russian Russian speakers in Ukraine any more anyway.

There's also the fact that Putin's handling of statesmanship has also utterly boned any negotiated peace because:

* He already HAD annexed Crimea and the West was unwilling to do anything about it.

* Zelensky was elected on a negotiated settlement over the breakaway regions. Which means Putin probably could have gotten them in a peace settlement.

* They WERENT trying to join NATO, only the EU and not even necessarily as a member. Putin invaded them anyway so now there's no reason NOT to join NATO if they'll let them in.

* The evacuation corridors were bombed when they were negotiated so Russia has shown it doesn't care about the peace agreements they make.

It boils down to you've got a piece of crap in charge who majorly screwed up but is too childish ("It's not my fault!") to do anything other than plough on, lacking the mental development necessary to admit a mistake and not keep digging a hole.

Both the Ukraine and Russia are around 10% of their lost military forces. Which is impressive as it means that the Ukraine are inflicting 3:1 casualties. It's just Russia is the far bigger bear and the Ukraine has conscripted all adult men in the country.

So, it's a war that can plough on for a long-long time yet. Especially if the Ukrainians are willing to fight to the bitter end and consider this a struggle for their survival--which Zelensky has successfully motivated them to do so.

[Frustration]

A falling population is an aging population, and to be frank, the elderly are expensive to keep around.

No, they're expensive to apply advanced modern medicine to. And death is always cheap.

Much of the world has applied the economic model of perpetual growth being desirable for generations; it can't be kept up indefinitely.

[Frustration]

Overpopulation is not that big of a problem. We still have plenty of resources for everyone

We've lost most of our arable topsoil to erosion, our agricultural production depends on expensive chemical modification fueled by fossil fuels, the climate is worsening, and the southern West Coast is running out of water.

The collapse is going to be very ugly. I'm lucky that I almost certainly won't live long enough to see it.

[Fuzzy Necromancer]

We throw out good food, we have houses sitting empty, the USA's biggest crop is lawn grass. We have plenty of stuff but it benefits powerful people to have workers threatened by starvation and homelessness.

Anyway, it's driving me up the wall that the Republican party is basically pro-Putin when they're not busy blaming Biden for being weak on Ukraine. Guess that's common for neo-Nazi movements though.

[CharlesPhipps]

We throw out good food, we have houses sitting empty, the USA's biggest crop is lawn grass. We have plenty of stuff but it benefits powerful people to have workers threatened by starvation and homelessness.

Anyway, it's driving me up the wall that the Republican party is basically pro-Putin when they're not busy blaming Biden for being weak on Ukraine. Guess that's common for neo-Nazi movements though.

They at least have the excuse Putin paid for them. Covid isn't paying them and they're pro it.

[ProfessorDetective]

We throw out good food, we have houses sitting empty, the USA's biggest crop is lawn grass. We have plenty of stuff but it benefits powerful people to have workers threatened by starvation and homelessness.

Anyway, it's driving me up the wall that the Republican party is basically pro-Putin when they're not busy blaming Biden for being weak on Ukraine. Guess that's common for neo-Nazi movements though.

They at least have the excuse Putin paid for them. Covid isn't paying them and they're pro it.

That's paying them in the blood of the not-thems.

[Draco Dracul]

It looks like Belarusian opposition to the Lukashenko government has been sabotaging
Railways.

https://twitter.com/TrentTelenko/status ... 4289752064

[CharlesPhipps]

The war is now effectively stalemated.

Which is a loss for Russia internationally and the ground level.