Open Thread – Weekend 5 March 2022


Golden Autumn, Isaak Levitan, late 1800s

Subscribe
Notify of
guest

2.1K Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
srr
srr
March 7, 2022 10:43 am

Knuckle Dragger says:
March 7, 2022 at 8:55 am
Excellent link to Hitchens, Cassie. My highlight:

The countries of the West have egged Ukraine on into a confrontation with Russia which has predictably ended in Putin’s barbaric invasion. But while we stand and cheer at a safe distance, the Ukrainians are the ones who get shelled, bombed, besieged and driven from their homes. Is this honourable? Does sentimental praise for their bravery make up for it?

Yes of course that would be your pick and like Hitchens (who is no perfect god of morality), Ukraine’s, over 12 years of, barbaric killing of East Ukrainians is again strategically forgotten for the, ‘last impressions’, round up.

No, we can’t be left with the reminder that Putin did not go in for the mass, indiscriminate slaughter of the Ukrainians & their Western urgers, the way they barbarically burned civilians alive and continue to sing mocking songs about it to this day.

The world has far too many ‘Cackling Hillary’s’ never being called out for the heartless ghouls they are.

Roger
Roger
March 7, 2022 10:48 am

Russia claims…

Anything Russia claims should be received with scepticism.

A good rule to apply to everything regarding this conflict being circulated atm.

lotocoti
lotocoti
March 7, 2022 10:49 am

Every little bit helps.
I guess.

incoherent rambler
incoherent rambler
March 7, 2022 10:55 am

Russia claims to have uncovered US funded bio weapons labs in Ukraine. No link.

XXXXXXXX claims to have uncovered YYYYYYY funded bio weapons labs in ZZZZZZZ.

Substitute the XYZ as you please.

Struth
March 7, 2022 10:55 am

People are openly calling for Putin’s assassination on live TV.
No problems with that.
Kill Klaus.

custard
custard
March 7, 2022 10:58 am

Lab story is on beckernews dot com

Frank
Frank
March 7, 2022 11:00 am

lotocoti says:
March 7, 2022 at 10:49 am

Exhibitionists for peace. Quite which is the dominating operative principle is left to speculation.

Tom
Tom
March 7, 2022 11:04 am

Thankfully, S.K. Warne’s greatest wickets highlight reel runs 100+ hours, so there’s an almost endless supply of top-class filler to play while some chicks cricket tournament this morning is washed out — beautifully described by Benaud*, Lawry and Greig, whose commentary, like Warne’s bowling, is immortal.

*Someone in this morning’s tributes reckons Richie is a character in Thunderbirds. Spot on!

rickw
rickw
March 7, 2022 11:04 am

Do you think Canada is free?

Trudeau’s critique of Putin could have been easily mistaken for a moment of self reflection.

Anchor What
Anchor What
March 7, 2022 11:06 am

Daytime Sky: floods are an opportunity to bash Premier Perrotett.

Razey
Razey
March 7, 2022 11:06 am

rickwsays:
March 7, 2022 at 11:04 am
Do you think Canada is free?

Trudeau’s critique of Putin could have been easily mistaken for a moment of self reflection.

Psychopaths like Trudousche and Dickhead Dan are incapable of self reflection.

incoherent rambler
incoherent rambler
March 7, 2022 11:06 am

Reading Peter Smith’s latest article at Quadrant is compulsory.

H B Bear
H B Bear
March 7, 2022 11:13 am

Daytime Sky: floods are an opportunity to bash Premier Perrotett.

A bit unfair but it’ll do.

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
March 7, 2022 11:17 am

Russia claims to have uncovered US funded bio weapons labs in Ukraine.

They also claim that Ukraine was very near to building nukes.
On the other side of the coin lots of news sites are saying Vlad is about to use chemical wpns.
It’s the usual rubbish from both sides.

As to the nuke story, one commentator I saw said Ukraine leaks like a sieve so hiding such a program might be a tiny bit difficult.

My take from going through the various sources is that the Russians are having really serious logistics problems in the northern sectors. Lots of signs of bug outs, possibly due to fuel running out and inability to refuel. The Ukrainian territorials seem to be percolating through the forests on foot, and even a basic RPG will do for a fuel truck. There was even a vid of using IR equipped drones to drop RPG or mortar warheads onto stationary supply trucks at night, which is pretty elegant if true.

Conversely the Russians now appear to be preferentially using the Black Sea as a resupply and logistics conduit and appear to be concentrating on the southern sectors. Makes a lot of sense.

Several vids around of them bringing in all sorts of interesting vehicles, like civilian trucks and even garbage trucks. And many comments from military observers about the too-light logistics line behind the front line BTGs. The roads and weather don’t help.

One which was striking was a vid appearing to be of a Russian mech BTG being loaded on a train in Vladivostok. Didn’t try to verify it. If true it means they’re really seriously short of warm bodies. Even expedited a train would take a couple weeks to get anywhere useful.

In short the whole thing looks really messy, with Ukrainian internal lines of supply and communication being a significant advantage. That’s classical strategic doctrine, but it’s interesting to see it happen in real time rather than reading it in a book.

dopey
dopey
March 7, 2022 11:20 am

Stupid Spectator journalist…’ Mike Gatting staring at his shattered stumps in disbelief. ‘ The ball clipped the off-side bail.

Kneel
Kneel
March 7, 2022 11:23 am

“The delusion regarding the biggest democrat and curruptocrat money laundering country of corruption that there is so much proof of, from Hunter Biden to the Clintons etc, can be ignored only by people who willingly want to.
What I am noticing is that it is all happening again.
Whatever the MSM want you to look at and talk about, you do.”

Agreed.
But I don’t think it is “the people” so much as the MSM.
Taken over by oligarchs.
Who “stack” with “journalists” who are “in the bubble” themselves.
Pushed for time, they rely on Big Tech – if Google says it, it’s true; if it’s trending in Twitter, it’s a big issue.
“the people” see the same thing themselves, because they are pushed to”trust” google and co as well.

But Big tech is all in for the same corruption, and push the Soros/Clinton/Biden line, while de-platforming, deranking and otherwise silencing anyone who disagrees – even if that person happens to be a sitting US president (DJT). Small and independent media are said to be “alt-right” and “bad”, and are getting de-platformed as well – including cable TV!

The media, who are supposed to “keep the bastards honest” and be “of the people” are not doing their job (with a few notable exceptions, getting fewer and fewer as time passes). They are now a part of the problem. Many know, but not enough.

Zipster
Zipster
March 7, 2022 11:25 am

They have been trying and succeeding in cancelling the unvax’d, so why should we have any allegiance to the West. Cancelling us for exercising our freedom of choice & human rights means that the the so called ‘Free World’ no longer exists.

The Western empires have been thoroughly white-anted from within, with dystopian fantasies of woke cretinism.

Knuckle Dragger
Knuckle Dragger
March 7, 2022 11:25 am

The problem with frantically reposting mush and attributing it to the wrong people is that this, from the internet equivalent of a glossy pamphlet:

Of this capacity, the first block of 250 beds will be used for travellers who still need to quarantine, including travellers from overseas who have not been vaccinated with a TGA-approved vaccine. The second block of 250 beds will be used for Queenslanders who are directed into isolation because their accommodation is not suitable, or they may share a household with a vulnerable person.

This will allow us to downscale the number of hotels required for quarantine and isolation in South East Queensland, but we will continue to use accommodation in other parts of the state for isolation and quarantine as needed. It will also allow reduced pressure on the health system by reducing transmission and accommodating those who are COVID-19 Well who may otherwise occupy a hospital bed.

Is not this:

The Premier of Qld admits they will be used to not only hold the unjabbed but those who are a danger to the public, apparently disease spreaders… a bit like you know, Jews were 80 years ago.

Vicki
Vicki
March 7, 2022 11:27 am

https://youtu.be/X-NljdnASbA

Thought you guys might like this. Historian David Starkey with great passion points out that the Ukrainian defence shows feisty masculinity in the face of hopeless odds – a masculinity that is maligned these days.
He also argues that Mutter Merkel has made hopeless decisions in the shutting down of nuclear power plants etc leaving Germany dependant on Russian gas. Worth watching….

John H.
John H.
March 7, 2022 11:27 am

Bruce of Newcastlesays:
March 7, 2022 at 11:17 am
Russia claims to have uncovered US funded bio weapons labs in Ukraine.

They also claim that Ukraine was very near to building nukes.
On the other side of the coin lots of news sites are saying Vlad is about to use chemical wpns.
It’s the usual rubbish from both sides.

As to the nuke story, one commentator I saw said Ukraine leaks like a sieve so hiding such a program might be a tiny bit difficult.

My take from going through the various sources is that the Russians are having really serious logistics problems in the northern sectors. Lots of signs of bug outs, possibly due to fuel running out and inability to refuel.

That makes no sense to me. It’s not like they are rushing to Berlin so surely the logistics is manageable. If not that points to serious deficiencies in Russian land forces because they have had months to prepare for this.

Struth
March 7, 2022 11:28 am
Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
March 7, 2022 11:29 am

People are openly calling for Putin’s assassination on live TV.

Lindsay Graham is a fun guy. Last week he was saying Putin should be assassinated, then on Friday he said he didn’t really mean that. Now today he’s back into gung ho mode.

Lindsey Doubles Down on Call for Putin Assassination (5 Mar, Breitbart main page headline)

Take a chill pill Lindsay.

Knuckle Dragger
Knuckle Dragger
March 7, 2022 11:29 am

rsrsrsrrs:

No, we can’t be left with the reminder that Putin did not go in for the mass, indiscriminate slaughter of the Ukrainians

The Ukes played both sides to enormous benefit for themselves, and then threw the peasants into the fire when it went bad.

The End.

Roger
Roger
March 7, 2022 11:29 am

In short the whole thing looks really messy…

If this is what “going to plan” looks like it wasn’t a great plan.

The odds are in still in Russia’s favour but they’re going to have to grind it out.

Incidentally, Orthodox Lent begins today.

Rex Anger
Rex Anger
March 7, 2022 11:33 am

Some people who have their arse handed to them on a plate publicly, get quite emotional and assume things.

Good morning Cats. I see our ‘Hero’ of the Highways is shitting in his hands and clapping them together again today.

If only we had all not complied when the time came, Cats. Then he would not have been forced to punish us with his [S]truth.

I feel so DeStRoYeD and EmOtIoNaL because the little Gamma has allegedly handed [me] [my] arse on a plate publicly once again and feels a need to personally reinforce his ‘victory’ to himself…

(/sarc tag added for Shit Dribbler’s benefit)

Boambee John
Boambee John
March 7, 2022 11:35 am

lotocotisays:
March 7, 2022 at 10:49 am
Every little bit helps.
I guess.

As does every little tit?

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
March 7, 2022 11:44 am

That makes no sense to me. It’s not like they are rushing to Berlin so surely the logistics is manageable.

John, I would’ve thought so too. Russian generals and staff guys aren’t idiots. I’m just summarizing what I’ve been reading this morning on, I don’t know, a dozen or more sites? Ranging from violently pro Russian to violently pro Ukrainian. I’ve been trying to particularly search for centrist solid information though, not partisan stuff. Sifting a few wheat kernels from much chaff is extremely difficult in all the excitable excitement right now. Not helped that Russia has squelched a lot of reporting and Ukraine is turning out to be very good at propaganda.

Maybe the RGS went all-in on the Kiev airport paradrop and air-bridge reinforcement and supply. Which, since it seems to’ve failed, left the relieving columns stuck like a shag on a rock. Especially after the Ukrainians opened the spillways of the dams and flooded a lot of the countryside N of Kiev. That’s war though – not everything you plan works.

Roger
Roger
March 7, 2022 11:50 am

That’s war though – not everything you plan works.

Maybe the Russian generals should have heeded Ike, “plans are useless, but planning is indispensable”.

Struth
March 7, 2022 11:51 am

You clutch at straws, KD.
It’s been an embarrassing couple of days for you and also with Warnie dying of the jab…….and Marsh (maybe not of the jab, maybe, who’ll ever know…..? Which is the whole point isn’t it?……..I think people can read.

So you aside.

Just for those that I respect here, ………some who would rather I FOAD, tell big porkies about me in the hope the mud will stick.
I’m on welfare.
Sat on me arse wif me wife paying…etc…you all know the stuff.
So
Lost all work, both jobs, tour driving and music, on initial WEF coup/takeover.

No welfare.
Spent days scaling and filleting fish in inlaws business, and did seafood pickups from nearby areas, unloading trawlers etc.
Not much work but we got through.
No welfare.

When borders still remained closed but gigs started coming back on scene, I got back on well paying club and pub circuit, and got a job in the local area driving handicapped and “special kids” to school and back to fill in the weekdays.
Then both required jabs so lost them again.
Wasn’t sure I’d lost them until school season started, but of course, I had.

My father recently became the first person in SA to contract the deadly Japanese encephalitis and nearly died.
Being unjabbed but figuring they won’t be closing borders again until after the election, we drove down to help and be with family.
I got home as the flood waters rose again, and helped people where I could, (not allowed to sandbag if unjabbed)
(Council!)
Some of you may recall I said I had to go to Brissy.
That was working with the seafood.
I don’t earn much these days, but enough to keep me off welfare.
I call that being sat on my arse by socialism.
Never taken a test, never put on a mask, etc, I am fighting to get my old life back, not a basic shit job that the government allows the unjabbed to do.
Fair enough?

Struth
March 7, 2022 11:54 am

Do you ever do any work, comrade Choo Choo?

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
March 7, 2022 11:55 am

Every little bit helps.
I guess.

As does every little tit?

Yes.

(Footage of a protest in Paris yesterday, which is NSFW but rather fun.)

incoherent rambler
incoherent rambler
March 7, 2022 12:01 pm

Looks like a warm spring in Paris. Certainly no nip in the air.

srr
srr
March 7, 2022 12:03 pm

Struth says:
March 7, 2022 at 10:11 am
[…]
https://www.statedevelopment.qld.gov.au/industry/queenslands-quarantine-network/queensland-regional-accommodation-centre

The Centre forms part of Queensland’s Whole-of-Government Pandemic Plan and will play a critical role in the State’s isolation and quarantine network. It allows us to enhance existing quarantine and isolation arrangements and provide purpose built accommodation to safeguard Queenslanders against a range of public health scenarios
_________________________

Purpose Built to “isolate” people in a range of scenarios.

O.K., so Govt., not your doctor, decides you have to be “isolated” with people who actually have deadly, highly infectious diseases, in this “purpose built” camp, where it’s nearly impossible to actually isolate healthy people who ‘may have been in contact with’ the diseased, from the diseased.

So what really was The Purpose this Camp was Built For?

Look at it, would you want your children sent there to be “isolated” WITH highly contagious people suffering terrible & deadly diseases?

Zipster
Zipster
March 7, 2022 12:07 pm

The Centre forms part of Queensland’s Whole-of-Government Pandemic Plan

qld the only fascist gov in the world to make prescribing ivermectin for covid illegal.

this is a criminal act against the people.

srr
srr
March 7, 2022 12:12 pm

Struth says:
March 7, 2022 at 10:30 am
There is a great little video , quite quick, that will give you a great idea about who is in charge of NATO these days. Scroll down to the bottom video…this blog will not accept it.

One more weirdness of the Net ATM.

I did post that here when it was fairly new, but I’ve also been noticing that some things that’s I’ve posted elsewhere, later can’t even be copied or pasted.

It’s almost like things showing themselves to have too much cut through are being slowed in their spread, like a WWW version of Shadow Banning & Kettling.

Roger
Roger
March 7, 2022 12:12 pm

The Centre forms part of Queensland’s Whole-of-Government Pandemic Plan

Courier-Mail last week:

Queenslanders to Palaszczuk ‘Stop trying to control our lives’.

She closed Brisbane schools due to forecast stormy weather.

Struth
March 7, 2022 12:13 pm

And Palaschook actually said the very same thing over a year ago, on TV, and her words were to remove people from situations where they will be a danger to others, or something similar.

Plain as the nose on your face.

Of course the fact google would have put that into the forgettory real quick and you’d have to search for hours now to find it, gives our snivelling denialists the “it never was stated at all” out.
It was, and it is officially said on it’s website…..above, just in weasel words.
Ominous and evil words to those not in denial.

NOTHING TO SEE HERE!!!! AAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRHHHHHHHH.

H B Bear
H B Bear
March 7, 2022 12:16 pm

I thought they don’t pay any attention to BOM forecasts at the Pony Club. Or is that only the dam guys?

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
March 7, 2022 12:19 pm

Russian Ministry of Defense — “Ukraine’s SBU along with Azov have booby trapped a nuclear reactor at Kharkov institute of physics and plan to blow it up & accuse Russia of carrying out a missile strike onto it.”

I hope not, skittish Euro types would shut all their nuke plants down again. But since the RMoD has already claimed Ukraine has ebola, anthrax and nukes (almost) in only the last 24 hrs I’ll take a raincheck on this one.

The Ukrainians do probably realize, since Russia has several thousand nukes, that Russians causing a nuclear accident at a power station isn’t likely to be plausible. On the other hand assuming intelligence in homo sapiens sapiens isn’t exactly wise.

Knuckle Dragger
Knuckle Dragger
March 7, 2022 12:21 pm

You clutch at straws, KD.

Not at all. You claimed the Premier of Queensland said something she clearly didn’t, and morphed it into your usual Picture magazine-esque mayonnaise-covered of ‘this is something she would probably say’.

In other words – not weasel words – you put statements into other people’s mouths. And lied when you did it. And this continues your own admitted trend of saying things that are not true for what you called at the time ‘shock value’.

Said it before. This issue is too important – far too important – to be clouded by ineffecutal chest-thumpery.

You are Bosi, by another name.

Knuckle Dragger
Knuckle Dragger
March 7, 2022 12:25 pm

Roger:

Queenslanders to Palaszczuk ‘Stop trying to control our lives’

And they were bang on to say that, and Pallashay should be removed forthwith and given a job cleaning dunnies.

But I truly believe she is not constructing Auschwitz, Dachau, Treblinka and Bergen-Belsen 2.0 so the unvaccinated can be trucked in and gassed, which is what certain posters here would have people believe.

As an aside, I’m also not seeing a lot of standing, fighting or falling up there.

John H.
John H.
March 7, 2022 12:27 pm

In Mice, a Potential New Treatment Eradicates Ovarian And Colorectal Cancer in Days

The treatment involves tiny ‘drug factory’ beads that are implanted into the body and deliver a continuous, high dose of interleukin-2 (IL2) – a natural compound that enlists white blood cells in the fight against cancer.

IL2 is an immune messenger molecule that instructs T cells to get busy and kill something. It has long been used in cancer treatment but can cause huge problems because T cells indiscriminately beginning killing and damaging cells of our body. In this approach they have encapsulated cells producing IL2 that reside next to the tumour. Good trick.

I’m confident it will work in humans. It is another example of how much progress is being made in cancer therapy.

Oh come on
Oh come on
March 7, 2022 12:28 pm

Hall said he was unaware of Warne having heart issues, but said the cricketer had complained of chest pains to a friend.

“None of us here are aware of Shane having visited a doctor, though he had complained to a friend of some chest pains and shortness of breath,” Hall said.

Not going to stop asking, don’t care about the confected outrage – when did Warne last get a Covid vaxx and what was he given?

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
March 7, 2022 12:32 pm

Maj Gen Mick Ryan has just posted another of his good analytical threads. I feel chuffed since this one is on the better prospects and logistics that the Russians have in the south.

https://twitter.com/WarintheFuture/status/1500637716601458688

miltonf
miltonf
March 7, 2022 12:35 pm

do you ever shut up st ruth?

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
March 7, 2022 12:37 pm

German MPs push for return to conscription
By Jorg Luyken
March 7, 2022 — 10.51am

Berlin: Politicians from across the divide in Berlin have called for the re-introduction of compulsory service, as Germany reconsiders its relationship with its armed forces.

Bringing back compulsory military service would “do real good” for German society and help to bring people together, Carsten Linnemann, the deputy leader of the conservative CDU party, said.

The debate includes influential voices from the governing centre-left SPD who also are calling for a return of conscription among men and women aged over 18.

“What we’re witnessing at the moment is that peace is not a law of nature,” Linnemann told German broadcaster ZDF, adding that compulsory service would counteract polarisation in society with “too many people putting themselves before the state”.

As recently as 2011, all adult German men were expected to perform a year of compulsory military service, although they could opt for service in civil society based on moral grounds.

The law passed at that time to suspend national service made it clear that the freeze could be lifted in times of war or increased international tension.

There have been intermittent calls for compulsory service to be brought back in recent years. In recent days, as Germany confronts its pacifist approach to foreign policy in the wake of the conflict in Ukraine, calls for a debate on the issue have grown.

The CDU deputy leader in the Bundestag, Johann Wadephul, told Die Welt newspaper that military service would be “a chance to find a lot more recruits” and suggested that it could be linked to gaining points in a pension system or eased access to university places.

The SPD defence spokesman in the Bundestag, Wolfgang Hellmich, told a local newspaper last week that compulsory service helps to “promote a sense of community”.

“We urgently need to hold the debate on this, as it needs social consensus,” he said.

Other politicians have described the proposal as a distraction. “We need technology and weapons systems, not brains. Conscription is not an issue at this point in time,” said Florian Hahn, defence spokesman for the CDU in the Bundestag.

Eva Högl of the SPD, who is the Bundestag’s Bundeswehr commissioner, also described the proposal as “a theoretical discussion that isn’t helpful in the current situation”.

For years, the Bundeswehr has been plagued by damaging headlines about malfunctioning helicopters and misfiring assault rifles. A report published in January found that just 77 per cent of the German armed forces’ weapons systems were ready for operation.

Numbers Bob was unavailable for comment.

Rex Anger
Rex Anger
March 7, 2022 12:37 pm

Do you ever do any work, comrade Choo Choo?

Do you?

Or have you found that Socialism pays you so well (or just well enough) to sit on your arse, that you just no longer feel any urge to resist except by abusing people on one particular internet site?

The masks are going and gone in Queensland. The Contact Tracing is going and gone. And I seem to recall you boasting at length that rural Queensland is full of people who have no respect for vaccination requirements (or their enforcers) anyway. And amongst these holdouts you reputedly held two jobs (one self-employed).

So what happened, Struth? Was the lure of Newstart in return for a few desultory hours of volunteering at a local community centre too seductive for a man starting to feel his miles?

Was the climb into the Kenworth a too hard and thankless task for the monetary returns? Was the allure of learning Klaus Schwab’s latest nefarious scheme more attractive than learning some new songs and rejuvenating your set? Did your publican come up to you one night and tell you he paid for a troubadour, not a monologue?

Bluey
Bluey
March 7, 2022 12:44 pm

Bruce of Newcastlesays:
March 7, 2022 at 12:32 pm
Maj Gen Mick Ryan has just posted another of his good analytical threads. I feel chuffed since this one is on the better prospects and logistics that the Russians have in the south.

https://twitter.com/WarintheFuture/status/1500637716601458688

Interesting read. I had wondered a little if the push toward Kiev was a optional objective, while the main effort was focused on the coast and eastern side cut off the majority of Ukrainian forces and landlock the country.
Hard to tell one way or the other though, from the other side of the world.

Struth
March 7, 2022 12:45 pm

You’ll note how denialists will completely ignore facts as they are pressented to them and just keep dribbling emotional shit.
It’s actually fascinating.
The actual webpage regards well camp spells it out. Anyone with half a brain can read it and work it out, I bring it to the blog here, link to it, pick out the bit that said it, explain why big tech would have holed the TV interview I remember.
It’s all there.

And yet they see nothing.

It’s quite startling when you think about tit.

GreyRanga
GreyRanga
March 7, 2022 12:46 pm

Farmer Gezsays:
March 7, 2022 at 10:31 am
So many Nazis on offer.
-Nazi Regular
-Nazi Reduced
-Nazi Lite
-You won’t believe it’s Nazi

Gez you missed Garage Nazi’s, Asia is in desperate need to find some. Just ask that useless twat Mike Burgess.

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
March 7, 2022 12:48 pm

An interesting one from Ryan:

Major General (just retired!) Mick Ryan @WarintheFuture

Another good update on the situation in Ukraine from @DanLamothe based on sources in the Pentagon. It highlights how even the most sophisticated and capable intelligence collection agencies are not able to see everything. Wartime ‘fog and friction’ prevails.

Quote Tweet
Dan Lamothe @DanLamothe · 3h
A senior U.S. defense official just released an updated assessment of the war in Ukraine as of early Sunday evening in Washington. Basic updates:
Show this thread

11:32 AM · Mar 7, 2022 · Twitter Web App

Lamothe is a veteran WaPo reporter on the defense beat, so is probably closely hooked into the Pentagon bureaucracy. It’s therefore a pretty good tea-leaf indication of what Washington wants to tell the world.

GreyRanga
GreyRanga
March 7, 2022 12:49 pm

saying things that are not true

aka something my grandmother told me

Struth
March 7, 2022 12:49 pm

You’re not doing yourself any favours choo choo.
Either you are a relatively bright person who gets “triggered” and the emotion makes you fill your duds, or you’re not very bright and not aware you have a load.

Rex Anger
Rex Anger
March 7, 2022 12:50 pm

You’ll note how denialists will completely ignore facts as they are pressented to them and just keep dribbling emotional shit.

We see you do it daily. By the minute, even.

Go make Mrs Struth a cup of tea and stop projecting at us.

@ Mrs Struth, if you are reading this-

Control. Your. Woman.

Struth
March 7, 2022 12:52 pm

It’s quite startling when you think about tit.

Freudian slip!

Struth
March 7, 2022 12:54 pm

Here’s a fucking surrendering, compliant, submissive, “I need to keeps me union job so I can spend 24/7 on social media” jab taker talking about manhood.
FMD.

Razey
Razey
March 7, 2022 12:54 pm

Struthsays:
March 7, 2022 at 12:49 pm
You’re not doing yourself any favours choo choo.
Either you are a relatively bright person who gets “triggered” and the emotion makes you fill your duds, or you’re not very bright and not aware you have a load.

Dumb kunt isnt the sharpest tool in the shed. hehehe.

Rex Anger
Rex Anger
March 7, 2022 12:54 pm

You’re not doing yourself any favours choo choo.
Either you are a relatively bright person who gets “triggered” and the emotion makes you fill your duds, or you’re not very bright and not aware you have a load.

Struth darling,

If you want to make up mean things about people to strike at them personally and discredit them to your perceive audience, you must reasonably expect to receive it back.

It also helps if you do not risk confirming the strike in the dark was accurate by bucking like a stung horse in reply.

That job with Bowen Rail up in the nice part of Queensland remains open once you have decided to wash your hands…

Rex Anger
Rex Anger
March 7, 2022 12:56 pm

Here’s a fucking surrendering, compliant, submissive, “I need to keeps me union job so I can spend 24/7 on social media” jab taker talking about manhood.
FMD.

Oops.

Look it at scream, Cats.

Look at it scream.

Get a job and make a functional contribution to society before you speak down to me about mine, tax-eater…

(Gosh, that felt good. No wonder the Gamma does it. 🙂 )

incoherent rambler
incoherent rambler
March 7, 2022 12:58 pm

Jab Heil!
Anyone?
Anyone?
Jabbenenening Uber Alles?
Anyone?

What happened?

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
March 7, 2022 1:00 pm

Woo. These connections.

Bill Kristol. Nuff said.
TDS central. He even funded “Republican Voters Against Trump”.

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
March 7, 2022 1:00 pm

Founded, not funded, but he probably kicked in also.

Struth
March 7, 2022 1:03 pm

Does it occur to you that I’ve already made you look like a goose with the previous comments.
You are so totally destroyed all you have left is to make shit up that has already been destroyed.
You’re losing it sunshine, and it was fun for me to do it.

Now step away from the keyboard, slowly, and go and do something for your money, or is it yet another RDO?

As stated above, I’m not on and never have been on any welfare at any time of my life.
But what is it like?
Being an overpaid union comrade spending your days and nights on social media doing SFA must give you the same feeling of hopelessness, just at ten times the welfare cheque each fortnight of those who also do nothing, just without putting on a fluro shirt.

miltonf
miltonf
March 7, 2022 1:05 pm

I’m not sure what the US did to deserve the neo con trash but these poisonous parasites has seriously, probably irreversibly, damaged the place. They’re trying for a re run of 2003.

Zipster
Zipster
March 7, 2022 1:06 pm

Biden’s ever so woke administration trying to start WW3
NATO countries have ‘green light’ to send fighter jets to Ukraine, Blinken says

miltonf
miltonf
March 7, 2022 1:07 pm

I reckon they are trying to start WWIII

Knuckle Dragger
Knuckle Dragger
March 7, 2022 1:08 pm

The actual webpage regards well camp spells it out.

Does it spell this out? Because that’s what you said.

The Premier of Qld admits they will be used to not only hold the unjabbed but those who are a danger to the public, apparently disease spreaders… a bit like you know, Jews were 80 years ago.

No? No. Now you’re just hamster-wheeling.

flyingduk
flyingduk
March 7, 2022 1:08 pm

I’m confident it will work in humans. It is another example of how much progress is being made in cancer therapy.

If it cures cancer – it will go down the memory hole. If it MANAGES cancer, hopefully by way of lifelong, expensive medications, it will be approved.

flyingduk
flyingduk
March 7, 2022 1:10 pm

On another note, I had a meeting with the bank manager today (rare, as I borrow little) and, given my (former) occupation, the convo came around to vaccinations.

Seems said manager was concerned about repeated ‘racing heart’ episodes since the 2nd shot, despite her Dr saying ‘its nothing’.

I seem to have one of these discussions every few days now.

John H.
John H.
March 7, 2022 1:10 pm

Scott Morrison on Monday will unveil a plan for a new submarine base to be built on the east coast to support Australia’s nuclear-powered submarines.

Scott Morrison on Monday will unveil a plan for a new submarine base to be built on the east coast to support USA’s nuclear-powered submarines.

Fixed.

Knuckle Dragger
Knuckle Dragger
March 7, 2022 1:11 pm

Did your publican come up to you one night and tell you he paid for a troubadour, not a monologue?

Kapow.

Next up – seafood jokes.

John H.
John H.
March 7, 2022 1:13 pm

flyingduksays:
March 7, 2022 at 1:08 pm
I’m confident it will work in humans. It is another example of how much progress is being made in cancer therapy.

If it cures cancer – it will go down the memory hole. If it MANAGES cancer, hopefully by way of lifelong, expensive medications, it will be approved.

A friend of mine was at conference where an oncologist stated how the new drug would extend the lives of patients by 3-4 months. It cost $10,000 per month.

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
March 7, 2022 1:15 pm

I reckon they are trying to start WWIII

That or lose the mid-terms.
Democrats don’t do stuff by halves.

The recent woe about stratospheric gasoline prices on one hand, yet continued and increasing banning of oil and gas drilling on the other, shows where they’re coming from. The guys behind Biden believe in thermageddon but also know that the US people won’t tolerate what is supposedly required. Psaki has been finessing a fair number of questions on this lately, so she’s clearly on the far-left team.

Winston Smith
March 7, 2022 1:16 pm

Poor bastards.
Chopper downed by missile.

Knuckle Dragger
Knuckle Dragger
March 7, 2022 1:17 pm

Fair to say that good old prince Andrew has become that mad uncle that turns up and lives in your shed for six months out of every eighteen (The Hun):

Prince Charles will pay his brother’s huge sex abuse settlement because Prince Andrew is broke and can’t risk missing the payout deadline.

Most of the $12.5 million Prince Andrew needs to pay Australia-based Virginia Roberts Giuffre will come from Prince Charles, with The Queen also putting money into the settlement.

Prince Andrew will then pay both back when he and his ex-wife Sarah Ferguson sell their $30m Swiss chalet. The sale could take up to two months and he has to pay Ms Roberts Giuffre within 10 days.

If he doesn’t pay the money back, he will lose inheritance from The Queen, The Sun reports.

It’s believed Prince Charles pressured his brother to agree to the settlement after lawyers said Prince Andrew would give a witness statement to the sex abuse civil case in New York – risking even more damage to the monarchy.

No public money is believed to being used to fund the settlement.

miltonf
miltonf
March 7, 2022 1:17 pm

Psaki is a brain dead slag who was ‘inspired’ to go into politics after watching the west wing.

miltonf
miltonf
March 7, 2022 1:22 pm

Speaking of inspiring, the Windsors certainly aren’t but I’m still inclined to tolerate them when I think of our self appointed royalty here in Oz.

Struth
March 7, 2022 1:22 pm

Does it spell this out? Because that’s what you said.

The Premier of Qld admits they will be used to not only hold the unjabbed but those who are a danger to the public, apparently disease spreaders… a bit like you know, Jews were 80 years ago.

C’mon KD.
Stop it now.
The proof was supplied.

I give you a little more credit than Choo choo man, you’ve just been suffering denialism throughout this, and when you come good, I won’t have to take the piss anymore

shatterzzz
March 7, 2022 1:24 pm

Biking, in the rain, to the swimming pool this morning and cos of HUGHIE used the roads rather than the bike track (about half the distance/time) and passed Fairfield CentreLink with a queue of around 50 stood out in the rain (CL building is a stand-alone on the fringe of the CBD and no businesses with awnings nearby) .. then once at the pool realised that the majority of folk (95%) there are SE Asians of the vietcong variety and almost all well within working age .. able to swim but not work, apparently! ..
Fairfield .. great place to live as long as your not white and under OAP age …..!

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
March 7, 2022 1:26 pm

Chopper downed by missile.

Polish Piorun manpad, which can be used for very low altitude helis that Stingers can’t be used for. Down the throat shot at the last minute so the heli couldn’t drop flares, very dangerous.

Knuckle Dragger
Knuckle Dragger
March 7, 2022 1:26 pm

Sorry St. Ruth. Truth by assertion didn’t cut it for Liability Bob, and it won’t work now.

Anyway, I’m working on my thesis – ‘Why Wayne Harmes is Australia’s Hitler’.

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
March 7, 2022 1:27 pm

The Poles recently shipped 5000 of these missiles to Ukraine.
Poles don’t like Russians much, and I suspect it’s quite mutual.

Slim Cognito
Slim Cognito
March 7, 2022 1:27 pm

No public money is believed to being used to fund the settlement.

Hang on a minute. Isn’t it all public money? Do the Royals even have independent wealth? If so, what did they do to earn it?

miltonf
miltonf
March 7, 2022 1:28 pm

Shaterzzz I was staying at Lansvale back in 2017 and used to walk to Cabramatta Stn- I was warned not to do so at night. It’s not a nice area. Villawood is even less nice.

bons
bons
March 7, 2022 1:30 pm
miltonf
miltonf
March 7, 2022 1:30 pm

If so, what did they do to earn it?

no much- they are rentiers on steroids

bons
bons
March 7, 2022 1:31 pm

Brilliant, except the bloody link didn’t work

shatterzzz
March 7, 2022 1:38 pm

Shaterzzz I was staying at Lansvale back in 2017 and used to walk to Cabramatta Stn- I was warned not to do so at night. It’s not a nice area. Villawood is even less nice.

It’s all fairly quiet &, generally, safe during daylight but NO I wouldn’t recommend walking around after dark .. EVER!

Boambee John
Boambee John
March 7, 2022 1:40 pm

Bruce of Newcastlesays:
March 7, 2022 at 1:27 pm
The Poles recently shipped 5000 of these missiles to Ukraine.
Poles don’t like Russians much, and I suspect it’s quite mutual.

Joke from a Polish friend, back in the 1990s.

Poland was invaded simultaneously from the west by the Germans and the east by the Russians. Which invading army do the Poles fight first?

The Germans, of course. Business before pleasure.

Franx
Franx
March 7, 2022 1:40 pm

From the first para of what Struth cited at 10.11, it reads as if those Queenslanders who are unvaccinated and living in unsuitable accommodation or with someone vulnerable can be ‘directed’ into one of the 250 beds. Detention by any other name.

Winston Smith
March 7, 2022 1:40 pm

https://gab.com/BeachMilk/posts/107909339107354269
We are being wound up for something horrible…

miltonf
miltonf
March 7, 2022 1:42 pm

Actually Villawood is like something out of a dystopian novel- something JG Ballard would have written.

miltonf
miltonf
March 7, 2022 1:47 pm

Translation from German: “Due to violations of international law, we refuse to treat Russian patients. Ukrainian patients are welcome”.

What has our world become?

yes and the next step is combine Trump and his supporters with the Russians and unperson them all

John of Mel
John of Mel
March 7, 2022 1:47 pm

In regards to the lab story. This might be nothing, but the State Dep removed a few documents from their site recently.
Here is one, for example.
Could be just a blood testing lab for all we know, but the Department of Defense of USA acting as a donor looks a bit strange.
There are fourteen more documents like this (15 labs in total).

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
March 7, 2022 1:47 pm

ISW has their summary for 6 Mar up. One interesting thing from it are that the Russians are calling up their three battalions in Transdniestr, which are the reason why that dump has been “independent” of Moldova for thirty years. That suggests the Russians are now scraping critters up from under very old rocks.

The second interesting thing is most of the ISW stuff is derived from UGS intel. Nothing from the Russian side. Which says to me UGS is squawking like a parrot, but the RGS is saying absolutely nuffin. What that means I can only speculate on, so I won’t.

RUSSIAN OFFENSIVE CAMPAIGN ASSESSMENT, MARCH 6 (ISW, 6 Mar)

John of Mel
John of Mel
March 7, 2022 1:49 pm
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
March 7, 2022 1:57 pm

The Poles recently shipped 5000 of these missiles to Ukraine.
Poles don’t like Russians much, and I suspect it’s quite mutual.

Revenge for the Katyn Forest?

Winston Smith
March 7, 2022 1:59 pm

Knuckle Dragger:

So who was it that made the outrageous claim below?

This claim?

The Premier of Qld admits they will be used to not only hold the unjabbed but those who are a danger to the public, apparently disease spreaders… a bit like you know, Jews were 80 years ago.

I think it was some bloke living in regional Queensland. Barcaldeen, or somesuch.

You need to rethink that one, Knuckles.

Diogenes
Diogenes
March 7, 2022 2:02 pm

To get the base would be a fitting reprise of the city’s role in WWII, when it hosted 800+ US navy personnel attached to a submarine base at Capricorn Wharf, Teneriffe on a wide stretch of the river.

What about the one and only channel that needs regular dredging in and out that extends from the mouth of the river 80 or so km north to just off Maloolabah? Easily blocked and with satellites it is easy to see what is coming and going.

Newcastle, another contender can only get out at high tide and is easily blocked.

Rex Anger
Rex Anger
March 7, 2022 2:04 pm

Does it occur to you that I’ve already made you look like a goose with the previous comments.
You are so totally destroyed all you have left is to make shit up that has already been destroyed.
You’re losing it sunshine, and it was fun for me to do it.

Struth by assertion…

*Eye Roll*

Shy Ted
Shy Ted
March 7, 2022 2:06 pm

Good grief. She did say it. She didn’t say it. You’re a poopoohead. She did say it. Start at 1.40 for 20 seconds.

dopey
dopey
March 7, 2022 2:10 pm

Idiot journalist. Warnie’s 708 victims. Not wickets, victims! victims!

Roger
Roger
March 7, 2022 2:10 pm

Poles don’t like Russians much, and I suspect it’s quite mutual.

Which is why encouraging the Poles to off load their old MiGs to Ukraine in the current scenario is symbolically a much greater escalation than the dim bulb Blinken seems to realise. It was only two years ago that the Russian Duma called on Poland to apologise for starting WWII.

Does anybody at the State Department read modern Russian history? If only to “get a feel” for how Putin might react to certain measures he will see as provocations?

Knuckle Dragger
Knuckle Dragger
March 7, 2022 2:11 pm

There was mention this morning of a bit of over-the-top hero worship attributed to Shane Warne.

Agreed. Some unnamed punters in NewsCorp’s sportsroom reckon any suggestion Warne wasn’t top of the tree in every field of endeavour he ever attempted is unforgivable:

Indian great Sunil Gavaskar has made a tasteless comment about Shane Warne, labelling the cricket legend’s record against India as “pretty ordinary” just hours after after his tragic death.

Asked if Warne was the greatest spinner that he had seen, Gavaskar said he believed Test cricket’s greatest wicket-taker and former Sri Lanka bowler Muttiah Muralitharan, as well as India’s litany of spinners, ranked ahead of Warne.

“No, I wouldn’t say that no. For me the Indian spinners and Muttiah Muralitharan were better than Shane Warne,” he told India Today.

“Look at Shane Warne’s record against India,” Gavaskar said. “It was pretty ordinary.”

Firstly, it isn’t tasteless to suggest that a subcontinental bowler bowled better on the subcontinent than Warne. Gavaskar is in fact correct.

Secondly, Gavaskar is eminently qualified to comment on this, having been pretty handy with the stick himself. He’s also very well entitled to hold the opinion he does.

Thirdly, Murali’s a chucker but that has no bearing on the matter at hand.

Zipster
Zipster
March 7, 2022 2:11 pm

The second interesting thing is most of the ISW stuff is derived from UGS intel. Nothing from the Russian side. Which says to me UGS is squawking like a parrot, but the RGS is saying absolutely nuffin

they might get more attention if they broadcast in english
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQGqX5Ndpm4snE0NTjyOJnA/videos

Knuckle Dragger
Knuckle Dragger
March 7, 2022 2:21 pm

Winston:

You need to rethink that one, Knuckles.

From everything I see and read Winston, I’m not sure I do. Please do NOT confuse this with support for Pallashay. Here it is again:

The Premier of Qld admits they will be used to not only hold the unjabbed but those who are a danger to the public, apparently disease spreaders… a bit like you know, Jews were 80 years ago.

Read it again, from ‘not only the unjabbed…’ onwards. I’m not disputing that. It is very clear from both her actual words and her stupid (voted-in, I may add) government’s sparkly website that it is intended for unjabbed international arrivals by air and sea as well as student and fruit pickers coming in.

I am disputing the ‘whatever we like’ aspect. Even the clip Ted just put up focussed on the ‘unjabbed’ bit. Nothing else.

Happy to be corrected by any other source.

Dragnet
Dragnet
March 7, 2022 2:21 pm

I worked at Lansvale for a couple of years. One Friday lunchtime I decided to reward myself with a counter lunch and a couple of beers up the road at Villawood Hotel.
The.worst.pub.I.have.ever.been.to.

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
March 7, 2022 2:23 pm

I’m not sure I’d like all these arms flooding Western Ukraine if I shared a border with it.

Yeah, and both sides are dug in like diplomatic echidnas. Macron and Bennett have both tried mediation and have gone home empty handed. It’s a worry.

Thucydides trap, but back at the time Athens and Sparta didn’t have nukes.

Zipster
Zipster
March 7, 2022 2:27 pm

wife reckons the Z painted on everything is a symbol of the flaming sword of judgement.

and in the what could possibly go wrong file

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Sunday that the U.S. is considering a ban on Russian oil imports “in coordination” with European and NATO allies amid bipartisan calls for a full embargo while Russia continues its invasion of Ukraine.

Knuckle Dragger
Knuckle Dragger
March 7, 2022 2:29 pm

If it’s a slippery slope, just say it’s a slippery slope.

If you reckon Pallashay’s going to imprison whoever displeases her in Camp Woomba, fine. Just say that. If you have proof of her actually saying that, even better.

Just (please) don’t say she’s admitted to something when she hasn’t.

I’m not an English professor and I know full well that this will devolve further into ‘well that’s what she means because hiding in plain sight and plain-spikking English and we can work it out’ but that fact is that it’s:
a. Deceptive behaviour; and
b. Unnecessary, because there’s already a ton of evidence to bury these people with without making it up and turning the Bosi Button to eleventy doing it.

Zipster
Zipster
March 7, 2022 2:31 pm

Yeah, and both sides are dug in like diplomatic echidnas. Macron and Bennett have both tried mediation and have gone home empty handed. It’s a worry.

I am told Russia has issued a be prepared for conscription notice to its citizens.

Speedbox
March 7, 2022 2:32 pm

Roger says:
March 7, 2022 at 2:10 pm
Poles don’t like Russians much, and I suspect it’s quite mutual.

Does anybody at the State Department read modern Russian history? If only to “get a feel” for how Putin might react to certain measures he will see as provocations?

What? Are you mad? Of course not. The State Department are the font of all knowledge or, you should behave as we instruct. Either way, its what we say it is.
/sarc

Roger
Roger
March 7, 2022 2:34 pm

What about the one and only channel that needs regular dredging in and out that extends from the mouth of the river 80 or so km north to just off Maloolabah? Easily blocked and with satellites it is easy to see what is coming and going.

Certainly all that has to be taken into consideration. Working with the wish list they have the requirements will have to be balanced against each other and prioritised.

shatterzzz
March 7, 2022 2:38 pm

The Premier of Qld admits they will be used to not only hold the unjabbed but those who are a danger to the public, apparently disease spreaders… a bit like you know, Jews were 80 years ago.

I watched the video and can’t argue with the above .. she doesn’t specifically say, “a bit like you know, Jews were 80 years ago.” but as someone who also, tends to use multiple full stops when I’m adding additional dialogue to someone else’s quote(s) .. She didn’t say it out loud but ……..!

H B Bear
H B Bear
March 7, 2022 2:44 pm

Let’s just say I won’t be first in the queue for the showers at Camp Woomba during the Helldrivers AGM

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
March 7, 2022 2:44 pm

wife reckons the Z painted on everything is a symbol of the flaming sword of judgement.

There’re a few of them. I’ve seen Z’s and V’s, with some of the Z’s in triangles or squares. There’s a guide, but it comes from the Ukrainian side so take it with a dose of whatever you like taking a dose of.

Roger
Roger
March 7, 2022 2:45 pm

The State Department are the font of all knowledge or, you should behave as we instruct. Either way, its what we say it is.

I fear that somewhere in the State Department library the works of George Kennan sit, gathering dust.

shatterzzz
March 7, 2022 2:48 pm

Actually Villawood is like something out of a dystopian novel- something JG Ballard would have written.
Villawood is 1 000% an improvement on the old days before they bulldozed the majority of the Housing Commision enclave during the Bob Carr era .. you can, generally, get thru, unscathed, even in daylight .. nowadays .. LOL!

feelthebern
feelthebern
March 7, 2022 2:50 pm

The GOP controlled Arizona house legislature just voted on “emergency” legislation, meaning it comes into effect immediately, that effectively fillets the primary process.
Meaning the party officials can choose the candidates, not the primary process.
Plus a range of other measures that means the AZ mid terms are wide open again.

Post the 2020 election, so many of the Dana Perino’s of the world said Biden just had a better ground game.
What she neglected to say was shit like this in Arizona & Pennsylvania was the DNC ground game.

H B Bear
H B Bear
March 7, 2022 2:51 pm

I watched the video and can’t argue with the above .. she doesn’t specifically say …

Can someone link the video. That’s a hell of a dog whistle to be blowing, even for Pony Girl addressing Queenslanders.

Zipster
Zipster
March 7, 2022 2:51 pm

rime Minister Naftali Bennett reportedly came away from his meeting with Vladimir Putin with the impression that the Russian president was in a rational state of mind, bucking Western assessments that he may have become unhinged.

A source close to Bennett was quoted by Channel 13 news Sunday night as saying that Putin was “not conspiracy theorizing or irrational, nor is he suffering from rage attacks.”

bespoke
bespoke
March 7, 2022 2:51 pm

I still can’t get over the fact Gem is a MAFS fan.

Dover and Tom for sure but Gem?

shatterzzz
March 7, 2022 2:51 pm

And for those who follow it, the new season of .. OUTLANDER has started .. episode 1 out now!

shatterzzz
March 7, 2022 2:54 pm

Shy Tedsays:
March 7, 2022 at 2:06 pm

H B BEAR .. you’ll find the link attached to the above post …….

Roger
Roger
March 7, 2022 2:58 pm

Russian banks turn to China to sidestep cutoff from payments systems

As predicted.

Zipster
Zipster
March 7, 2022 2:59 pm

Oil Tops $130 a Barrel as Russian Attacks Escalate
Buyers are bidding up prompt crude deliveries to replace Russian barrels

Zipster
Zipster
March 7, 2022 3:00 pm
srr
srr
March 7, 2022 3:05 pm

I’ve prompted this to start at 7 minutes, listen to at least 12:39.

Listen & pay attention to everyone around you.
Shy away from recognising who he’s describing, at your personal peril.
Listen to the rest and you’ll know I’m not being hyperbolic.

KHARKIV
Who Is Zelensky? A Puppet—and Here’s Why

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j7NTLZDd4tc&t=4717s

Streamed live on Mar 6, 2022
Gonzalo Lira
65.6K subscribers

Cassie of Sydney
March 7, 2022 3:12 pm

I’m at work, surrounded mostly by lefties and one of those lefties sitting near me, reading The Guardian website, said out loud that NATO should bomb Belarus.

I kid you not.

Struth
March 7, 2022 3:12 pm

Happy to be corrected by any other source.

You were corrected by this source, and you don’t like it.

The second block of 250 beds will be used for Queenslanders who are directed into isolation because their accommodation is not suitable, or they may share a household with a vulnerable person.

Vicki
Vicki
March 7, 2022 3:13 pm

Seems said manager was concerned about repeated ‘racing heart’ episodes since the 2nd shot, despite her Dr saying ‘its nothing’.
I seem to have one of these discussions every few days now.

Just had lunch with grandson & quizzed him about “angina” that he experienced after his father recently experienced a bad head injury in a building accident. He is nineteen, and I feel that can’t be usual for that age – even in such a stressful situation. He assured me that he has not had a “booster” vax shot – so I am a little relieved about that. But it still concerns me – not so his immediate family.

miltonf
miltonf
March 7, 2022 3:20 pm

I worked at Lansvale for a couple of years. One Friday lunchtime I decided to reward myself with a counter lunch and a couple of beers up the road at Villawood Hotel.
The.worst.pub.I.have.ever.been.to.

even worse when you stay there! I call it the blood house

Struth
March 7, 2022 3:22 pm

The Premier of Qld admits they will be used to not only hold the unjabbed but those who are a danger to the public, apparently disease spreaders… a bit like you know, Jews were 80 years ago.

When I get to the word apparently, you definely know it is me talking.
When I say the word “unjabbed” you know it’s me not quoting her word for word.

You know I wasn’t quoting her word for word, but in true denialist fashion, you want to be obtuse when you know exactly what I said and what I meant.
It’s really quite pathetic and I’d like you to think of the damage you are doing and have done in the past by disputing reality publicly to sooth your own fears.

The fucking Premier stated two hundred and fifty beds are set aside for non travelling or returning from anywhere citizens who they deem a danger to others.

In other words, rip you out of your home for “safety’s sake”
Whadda fucking think this means, you great mushroom?

Fuck me, it’s hard.

Roger
Roger
March 7, 2022 3:25 pm

I’m at work, surrounded mostly by lefties and one of those lefties sitting near me, reading The Guardian website, said out loud that NATO should bomb Belarus.

Permit me a generalisation…lefties have always been naive to the point of stupidity when it comes to war.

I’m old enough to remember when they demanded the US unilaterally disarm its nuclear weapons in the face of the Soviet threat.

Political idealism doesn’t belong in the council of war. It’s a place for realists only.

Knuckle Dragger
Knuckle Dragger
March 7, 2022 3:30 pm

In other words, rip you out of your home for “safety’s sake”

Yeah. Righto. Sure. To the gas camps.

Fuck me, it’s hard.

That’s what she said.

Frank
Frank
March 7, 2022 3:34 pm

I’m at work, surrounded mostly by lefties and one of those lefties sitting near me, reading The Guardian website, said out loud that NATO should bomb Belarus.

Reading the Guardian is a bit like being a vegan, they usually can’t wait to tell you they do it. Generally it serves as a good indicator that further conversation should be limited to the weather.

miltonf
miltonf
March 7, 2022 3:38 pm

I reckon we should call the Grauniad the Trumbullian now- after all the Australian version of this abomination was secretly brought to you by a leader of the Lieboral party.

miltonf
miltonf
March 7, 2022 3:39 pm

Agree Frank- back in the days of the Grauniad Weekly it carried around like a badge

miltonf
miltonf
March 7, 2022 3:40 pm

Runnybum time!

calli
calli
March 7, 2022 3:41 pm

Had the pleasure of offering a differing opinion at Stitch n’ Bitch today – as usual.

Covid – Old and Busted (despite two on their machines in masks)

Ukraine vs Russia – the New Hotness

Naturally Ukraine was the victim. Fair enough, but I gave them a potted history of international dabbling in the place which at least gave pause to the general anger.

Not that it makes any difference. They won’t be trotting off to war to have various body parts blown off.

Speedbox
March 7, 2022 3:42 pm

Cassie of Sydney says:
March 7, 2022 at 3:12 pm
I’m at work, surrounded mostly by lefties and one of those lefties sitting near me, reading The Guardian website, said out loud that NATO should bomb Belarus.

Haha, that’s priceless. What a retard. No regard for the implications.

But, what Roger said.

miltonf
miltonf
March 7, 2022 3:43 pm

. They won’t be trotting off to war to have various body parts blown off.

no that’s for other people and other people’s sons

Winston Smith
March 7, 2022 3:44 pm

Knuckle Dragger:

From everything I see and read Winston, I’m not sure I do. Please do NOT confuse this with support for Pallashay. Here it is again:

The Premier of Qld admits they will be used to not only hold the unjabbed but those who are a danger to the public, apparently disease spreaders… a bit like you know, Jews were 80 years ago.

I think you may have misread/misremembered something said previously.
Please supply a link as I’m not in the habit of deliberately attributing to someone something another has said.

miltonf
miltonf
March 7, 2022 3:44 pm

I read here that the old thief got out of the draft because he allegedly had asthma

Bear Necessities
Bear Necessities
March 7, 2022 3:52 pm

Let me get this straight.

The US could bring down oil prices by producing more at home. Biden could go back to Trump era policies which should mean in that the pressure on oil prices should be generally down. They are not doing this due to Climate Change policies etc.

To bring oil prices down the US is talking to Saudi Arabia, Iran and Venezuela to get them to increase oil and gas production. This would strengthen these regimes and bring them greater worldwide legitamacy. You could say in some ways that these regimes are much harsher than Russia. Especially in the treatment of women and human rights.

Conclusion: WTF!

shatterzzz
March 7, 2022 3:58 pm

Taken me 3 weeks but I’ve gotten thru .. The SS Alibi of a Nation 1922-1945 by Gerald Reitlinger .. a comprehensive history of the SS .. only distraction that I found was that he spends more time on Himmler during the final 100 or so pages than the SS as an organization but otherwise very well researched & written .. well worth reading ..!

Coupla points that I hadn’t known/realised over my 50 + years of WW2 readings ..

The 1st should have been obvious but is rarely detailed in the overall scheme of things .. After the demise of Reynard Hedyrich his entire “empire” passed on to Heinrich Himmler and were absorbed into his police apparatus which now included the entire SD and all it’s subsidiaries, Abwehr and other domestic/foreign spy agencies, making, theoretically, Schellenberg, Canaris, Roeder, Mueller, Kaltenbrunner ect subordinate & answerable to Himmler so from mid 1942 thru to 1945 Himmler was now, Minister of the Interior, Chief of (all) Police, Reichsfuehrer of the SS, Commander-in-Chief of an army group, Commander of the Replacement Army and all the foreign armies in the Reich .. answerable only to Hitler having displaced Goering, in the pecking order, following the failure of the Luftwaffe to dominate the sky above England and the cancellation of “Operation Sea-Lion”.
From late 1942 onward Himmler recruited, approximately, 650 000 foreign-born citizens into his SS army(s).. mostly without Hitler’s knowledge …!
The 2nd point is “war crimes/criminals” .. this book was 1st published in 1956 so the after-affects of the War were still on-going .. a lot of us would have read about the “showcase” trials & sentencing of the, so-called, Nazi “big-wigs” at Nuremburg but not so much about the 2nd, 3rd & 4th tier Nazis criminals .. 90% of whom were never charged with anything but of the remaining 10% who were put before a judge very few paid much of a price .. most received sentences of under 5 years and were free in less than two .. the average sentence was 3 years .. In the vast majority of cases heard after 1948 the sentences ranged thru acquittal/parole/18 months imprisonment .. there weren’t many, hard-core, Nazis still serving time after 1952!
For example .. SS Brigadfuhrer Kurt Meyer sentenced to death 28 Dec 1945 for the murder of Canadian POWs, twice commuted and, eventually, released 7 September 1954.. exactly 10 years after his capture … or if you really want to know how easy it was to get away with murder look up this pair of prime movers in the deaths of over 300 000 Jewish “re-settled” from Hungary .. Edmund Veesenmayer and Admiral Horthy both set free by the US High Commissioner in Germany, Mr. McCloy after spinning the .. “following orders” spiel which was swallowed hook, line & sinker ..!
The page footnotes to this book mention dozens of these sort of “nothing”end results for military & civilian (PS) administrators who, realistically, should have been executed but instead got “slaps on the wrist lettuce leaf “ sentencing .. especially from the Americans trying to play the “benevolent dictator/uncle” role!
The most telling statistic is that an incredible number of these “former” Nazis were re-employed in government both state & federal because of a shortage of experienced administrators .. men who were known to have committed atrocities were rewarded, in many cases, with high level public service/police/military positions ..
So although Nuremburg went thru the motions of “justice” it may in reality only have been a “circus bent on revenge” performance for the war-weary populaces of the “winners” ..
all showmanship to cover the real scale of the atrocities buried under the old chestnut tree of, “I was only following orders” ..
The reality was that after September 1948 pursuing & prosecuting war criminals became a downgraded priority .. Major-General Heinz Lammerding who ordered the death of 99 French civilians was not arrested until 1953 but no one ( in the military offices running Germany) was overly interested in his prosecution so he was released without trial ……

feelthebern
feelthebern
March 7, 2022 4:02 pm

The Arizona emergency legislation went like this.
As the state house walked in, the emergency voting legislation was already at their seats.
Instead of the GOP legislators realising it was a scam & leaving the chamber immediately as no quorum means a vote can’t be held.
Instead, they didn’t read the bill & voted for it.
Now they are running around saying it was a mistake.
But also, it might take months to reverse the emergency legislation.
This is why the GOP might not win the mid-terms.

Zipster
Zipster
March 7, 2022 4:03 pm

Reading the Guardian is a bit like being a vegan, they usually can’t wait to tell you they do it. Generally it serves as a good indicator that further conversation should be limited to the weather.

even that’s a bad idea

feelthebern
feelthebern
March 7, 2022 4:04 pm

Seriously, the DNC isn’t the biggest enemy of the US.
It’s the fake GOP.

Zipster
Zipster
March 7, 2022 4:06 pm
jupes
jupes
March 7, 2022 4:07 pm

The Ukrainian military left their positions in a hurry, leaving the base with equipment, weapons and ammunition.

Obviously have been trained by the US.

feelthebern
feelthebern
March 7, 2022 4:11 pm

New Ukraine propaganda footage.
A group of refugees walking on a paved path, on flat ground having to climb over a freshly felled tree.
Camera just happens to be at that point.
One of the refugees collapses a few meters from the obstacle & remains on the ground.

Winston Smith
March 7, 2022 4:13 pm

Vicki:

Seems said manager was concerned about repeated ‘racing heart’ episodes since the 2nd shot, despite her Dr saying ‘its nothing’.
I seem to have one of these discussions every few days now.

Perhaps scarring on the interior surface of the heart which is disrupting the electrical pathways between the upper and lower chambers of the heart. Sometimes known as Ventricular Tachycardia.
Commonly caused by scarring from infection of the heart muscle and the fluid in the pericardial sac.
She needs an ECG and a cardiology consult soonest.*
People who suffer from VT which degenerates into Ventricular Fibrillation are the people who wake up dead.
*I’m not a doc, just an old bush nurse. Please consult a reputable doctor if symptoms persist.

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
March 7, 2022 4:15 pm

SAS comrades claim they reported Ben Roberts-Smith for alleged war crimes and bullying SIX years before he was publicly accused of murdering Taliban prisoners

Court heard top SAS official not receptive to claims of war crimes and bullying
Evidence builds against former war hero as comrade claims he was threatened
Threatening letter said witness ‘should change his statement’ or else ‘go down’

Daily Mail

Speedbox
March 7, 2022 4:17 pm

I’ve mentioned on the Cat a couple of times that my wife is Russian and that she works in one of those large ‘league’ type clubs. She has been a resident of this country for over 20 years and a citizen for nearly as long. But, she still has a very pronounced Russian accent when she speaks.

Over the past few days she has had a handful of ‘distasteful’ incidents with patrons. These are two:

Patron: Where are you from?
Mrs Speedbox: (knowing what he wanted but said) Adelaide
Patron: You don’t sound like you’re from Adelaide. Where were you born?
Mrs S: Russia
Patron: Oh, really. (accompanied by a sneer and then looking away)

Second incident:
Patron: (ordering coffee at counter) What’s your accent? Where were you from?
Mrs S: Russia
Patron: (turned on his heel and walked away. Apparently coffee no longer required)

WTF people! Don’t be so fvcking rude. Asking a complete stranger their original birth place (because you know they sound ‘eastern European’). And then following that with a turned up nose ‘cos you don’t like the answer.

My wife is showing great restraint but that dam will burst sooner or later.

(I did lightly suggest that she answer ‘Ukraine’ to test the change in response, but I got a withering look).

cohenite
March 7, 2022 4:18 pm

Roy Spencer put up this video of the latest tornado. It’s massive but doesn’t touch down consistently. As usual the storm chasers are nuts and one of them rips out a couple of gigantic farts at around the 2m 50 seconds point:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fiMKGnfoDN4

Zipster
Zipster
March 7, 2022 4:19 pm
Winston Smith
March 7, 2022 4:19 pm

Frank:

Reading the Guardian is a bit like being a vegan, they usually can’t wait to tell you they do it. Generally it serves as a good indicator that further conversation should be limited to the weather.

God, no!
Any talk about the weather will turn into AGW.
Best to just state bluntly “It’s obvious you read the Guardian. It’s an explanation for your political naivety and general stupidity.”

Zipster
Zipster
March 7, 2022 4:20 pm
calli
calli
March 7, 2022 4:20 pm

alleged war crimes and bullying

One of these things is not like the other.

calli
calli
March 7, 2022 4:25 pm

alleged serial killer and Monopoly cheat

alleged bank robber and litterer

alleged child molester and j-walker

Winston Smith
March 7, 2022 4:29 pm

Speedbox:

(I did lightly suggest that she answer ‘Ukraine’ to test the change in response, but I got a withering look).

🙂

flyingduk
flyingduk
March 7, 2022 4:33 pm

Chopper downed by missile. ….Polish Piorun manpad, which can be used for very low altitude helis that Stingers can’t be used for. Down the throat shot at the last minute so the heli couldn’t drop flares, very dangerous.

If thats TRULY a Hind v a MANPAD, its a decent effort, for they are quite resistant to same! …

Salvatore, Understaffed & Overworked Martyr to Govt Covid Stupidity

Cassie of Sydney says: March 7, 2022 at 3:12 pm

I’m at work, surrounded mostly by lefties and one of those lefties sitting near me, reading The Guardian website, said out loud that NATO should bomb Belarus.

Nobody at my workplace, except me, is aware there is a Ukraine war. Only one other person here has ever even heard of Ukraine & is able, upon hearing the word, state that “Ukraine” is a country (as opposed to a: disease, tv show, nearby town, type of flower, mechanical device used to lift heavy things, another utility service like electricity or plumbing)

P
P
March 7, 2022 4:38 pm

Jack Posobiec @JackPosobiec · 19m
Restore the Commonwealth

Quote Tweet Jack Posobiec @JackPosobiec · Dec 20, 2021
POSO: Restore the Commonwealth of Nations of Central and Eastern Europe
The Land Between the Three Seas

vid clip:
https://twitter.com/JackPosobiec/status/1500700673792483330

Bluey
Bluey
March 7, 2022 4:42 pm

Speedboxsays:
March 7, 2022 at 4:17 pm
I’ve mentioned on the Cat a couple of times that my wife is Russian and that she works in one of those large ‘league’ type clubs. She has been a resident of this country for over 20 years and a citizen for nearly as long. But, she still has a very pronounced Russian accent when she speaks.

Over the past few days she has had a handful of ‘distasteful’ incidents with patrons. These are two:

Patron: Where are you from?
Mrs Speedbox: (knowing what he wanted but said) Adelaide
Patron: You don’t sound like you’re from Adelaide. Where were you born?
Mrs S: Russia
Patron: Oh, really. (accompanied by a sneer and then looking away)

Second incident:
Patron: (ordering coffee at counter) What’s your accent? Where were you from?
Mrs S: Russia
Patron: (turned on his heel and walked away. Apparently coffee no longer required)

WTF people! Don’t be so fvcking rude. Asking a complete stranger their original birth place (because you know they sound ‘eastern European’). And then following that with a turned up nose ‘cos you don’t like the answer.

My wife is showing great restraint but that dam will burst sooner or later.

(I did lightly suggest that she answer ‘Ukraine’ to test the change in response, but I got a withering look).

I know a few Russians due to the area I live in and being involved in a couple of hobbies that attracts them. Been a few sprays directed their way. A lovely girl is very upset about it, her family is originally Ukrainian but the collapse of the SU meant they ended up Russian citizens. Of course mostly people can’t tell the difference in names or accents.

miltonf
miltonf
March 7, 2022 4:43 pm

WTF people! Don’t be so fvcking rude. Asking a complete stranger their original birth place (because you know they sound ‘eastern European’). And then following that with a turned up nose ‘cos you don’t like the answer.

abso-fucking-lutely unbelievable. What contemptable tenth rate trash. Of course a lot of cowardly bullies see this as their chance to bully. Fuck me dead.

Salvatore, Understaffed & Overworked Martyr to Govt Covid Stupidity

Announcing proudly that she’s Moldovan should confuse ’em.

Makka
Makka
March 7, 2022 4:48 pm

WTF people! Don’t be so fvcking rude. Asking a complete stranger their original birth place (because you know they sound ‘eastern European’). And then following that with a turned up nose ‘cos you don’t like the answer.

Speedy,
Most people don’t have a brain to bless themselves with, not that that is a help to your good wife. Russia bad, Ukraine good. Opinion formed with all the (low) info they need.

I had a convo at work today, a lowfo punter going on about the poor Ukrainians. I told him to spare some of his abundant sympathy for the many thousands of ethnic Russian men women and children shelled killed and driven from their homes in the Donbass these last 8 years by Ukraine nationalists sporting the swastika logo. What, you didn’t know about that sport? No, you wouldn’t because our western propaganda has ignored it on your behalf.

Brislurker
Brislurker
March 7, 2022 4:49 pm

Rabz another vote for the 60’s

calli
calli
March 7, 2022 4:53 pm

I want Disco.

You guys have no taste.

Morsie
Morsie
March 7, 2022 4:54 pm

If anyone is interested in a great podcast on the development of rock n roll I highly recommend “History of rock n roll in 500 songs”.He is achingly woke but the information and the scholarship is first class so you can get past his trigger warnings.

Morsie
Morsie
March 7, 2022 4:55 pm

If anyone is interested in a great podcast on the development of rock n roll I highly recommend “History of rock n roll in 500 songs” by Andrew Hickey.He is achingly woke but the information and the scholarship is first class so you can get past his trigger warnings.

Winston Smith
March 7, 2022 5:00 pm

MMT Policy (Modern Monetary Theory), the grand experiment, was tried following the pandemic-driven shutdown of the economy. It failed miserably.
As was predicted, again and again and again.

Razey
Razey
March 7, 2022 5:00 pm

I don’t see why we cant just Putin and the Clown together and fight it out themselves. The winner takes all. The Ukrainian might be in with a shot.

Bluey
Bluey
March 7, 2022 5:02 pm

callisays:
March 7, 2022 at 4:53 pm
I want Disco.

You guys have no taste.

O.o

Razey
Razey
March 7, 2022 5:03 pm

Winston Smithsays:
March 7, 2022 at 5:00 pm
MMT Policy (Modern Monetary Theory), the grand experiment, was tried following the pandemic-driven shutdown of the economy. It failed miserably.
As was predicted, again and again and again.

No, it was actually successful in making the rich, richer. That’s what it was designed to do.

Boambee John
Boambee John
March 7, 2022 5:03 pm

cohenite

For your edification, extracts from one of Homer’s comments at CL’s site (the Putin/Murdoch thread.

Dum dum, you do know AEMO has coal power constantly on because it is not dispatchable and solar plus wind power is switched off when supply exceeds demand.

incoherent rambler
incoherent rambler
March 7, 2022 5:10 pm

Gimme Mo o o ney! That’s what I want!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TC1Vfoq3PvU

The only suitable song for a supposed economics blog.

Lyrics for the lazy:
[Verse 1]
The best things in life are free
But you can give them to the birds and bees

[Chorus]
I need money
That’s what I want
That’s what I want
That’s what I want

[Verse 2]
Your love give me such a thrill
But your love don’t pay my bills

[Chorus]
I need money
That’s what I want
That’s what I want
That’s what I want

[Verse 3]
Money don’t get everything it’s true
What it don’t get I can’t use

[Chorus]
I need money
That’s what I want
That’s what I want
That’s what I want
[Outro]
Money
Lots of money
Whole lot of money
Uh huh
All I want
Woah Yeah
Give me Money
Oh, lots of money
All those lean greens, Yeah
I got that, uh, that’s what I mean
All that I want
Woah Yeah

Thefrollickingmole
Thefrollickingmole
March 7, 2022 5:13 pm

Boambee John.

I read that
Read it again to make sure I wasn’t misreading it
Read it once more to try and understand it.
Now my brain is bleeding and I have stupid stuck to me.

Not just wrong but 100% reverse correct

calli
calli
March 7, 2022 5:13 pm

And then there’s this.

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
March 7, 2022 5:13 pm

Ugh, read the MMT article then immediately read Homer’s comment on AEMO.
Makes my brain hurt. Lefty logic really has to be sipped cautiously not gulped.

Vicki
Vicki
March 7, 2022 5:13 pm

A salutary reflection on the polarising opinion on the Russia/Ukraine conflict by the redoubtable Peter Hitchins (Daily Mail March 7):

PETER HITCHENS: One glorious day in Sevastopol 12 years ago, I saw what was coming. That’s why I won’t join this carnival of hypocrisy

In the long-ago summer of 2010, I found myself in the beautiful harbour of Sevastopol, surveying the rival fleets of Russia and Ukraine as they rode at anchor in the lovely Crimean sunshine.
One great fortress was adorned with banners proclaiming ‘Glory to the Ukrainian Navy!’ Another frowning bastion across the water bore the words ‘Glory to the Russian Navy!’
In the streets of that elegant city, with its porticoes and statues and monuments to repeated wars, sailors from the two fleets mingled on the pavements.
The Russians looked like Russians, with their huge hats and Edwardian uniforms. The Ukrainians looked more like the US Navy on shore leave in San Diego.
It was almost funny to see. I hoped at that time that it would work out well. For the Ukrainians had begun to be silly.
In a country crammed with Russians, they were trying to make Russian a second-class language.
Russians who had lived there happily for decades were pressured to take Ukrainian citizenship and adopt Ukrainian versions of their Christian names.
The schools were promoting a national hero, Stepan Bandera, who Russians strongly disliked and regarded as a terrorist. And they were teaching history which often had an anti-Russian tinge. Quite a few people told me they felt put upon by these policies. Why couldn’t they just be left alone?
Until that point, Ukraine had been a reasonably harmonious country in its 20-odd years of existence. After that visit I saw big trouble coming, both in the Crimea and in the Don Basin, where I also travelled that year.
Far out among the abandoned slagheaps of the dying coalfields, I found the decaying semi-deserted town of Gorlovka, now in the midst of an unofficial war-zone, where it has been since 2014.
This town had been officially renamed Horlivka by Ukraine in its high-handed way, though hardly anybody I met there called it that. Gorlovka in those days still hosted the rather pleasant Cafe Barnsley, the last echo of the Soviet days when Gorlovka had been twinned with Barnsley in a gesture of Communist solidarity with Arthur Scargill’s miners.
I remember, that boiling hot, almost silent afternoon, enjoying a Russian beer there, while listening to music from a Russian station on the radio. I wrote rather vaguely at the time that the people of Crimea and Donbas were hoping for – and expecting – a Russian future.
I thought that if Ukraine wanted to be a rigid ethnic nationalist state, then some sort of peaceful deal with its Russian minority was going to be needed. Little did I know what passions I had touched on. I was amazed to find that I had done something wicked and subversive. The article was attacked as a ‘dismaying lapse’ by my old friend Edward Lucas, a fine journalist with whom I had spent happy times reporting the collapse of the Soviet Empire, way back in the 1980s.
I especially recall a joyous celebratory dinner with him and others in the decayed 1950s splendours of the Jalta Hotel on Wenceslas Square in Prague, on the freezing night when the Communist regime finally died there.
I replied to his rebuke by warning that ‘the conventional wisdom is mistaken, that the open-mouthed sycophantic coverage of such events as the ‘Orange Revolution’ has done us no favours, and that the future in this part of the world is far from settled and we should perhaps prepare for further turmoil rather than imagine that we have opened a Golden Road of peace and prosperity for ever’.
I asked: ‘Are the Anglosphere nations right to treat Russia as a perpetual threat and pariah long after its global ambitions have collapsed and its military power has rusted away? Its regime is miserable. But then so is that of China, with which we seek good relations.’
You see, I have been making this point for a very long time. But it never seems to do any good. In fact, I am accused of being a ‘Russian shill’ or even a traitor, of parroting Russian propaganda, or things of that kind. These insults make little impact on me personally because I know they are not true and I have, over the past 30 years been insulted by experts of all kinds. It is normal, if you do what I do.
But such behaviour makes it harder for the country to keep a level head. In the atmosphere of the last few days, I half-expect to be presented with a white feather on the street by a beautiful young woman, because I refuse to join in the war hysteria now gripping the country. And it is hysteria.
I have heard a respected MP calling for the deportation of all Russians from this country – all of them. I have heard crazy people calling for a ‘no-fly zone’ in Ukraine. If they got their way it would mean a terrible and immediate European war. I suspect they do not even know what they are calling for. Can you all please call off this carnival of hypocrisy?
I cannot join in it. I know too much. I know that our policy of Nato expansion – which we had promised not to do and which we knew infuriated Russians – played its part in bringing about this crisis.
I know that Ukraine’s current government, now treated as if it was almost holy, was brought into being by a mob putsch openly backed by the USA in 2014.
I know that the much-admired President Zelensky in February 2021 closed down three opposition TV stations on the grounds of ‘national security’. They went dark that night. I know that the opposition politician Viktor Medvedchuk was put under house arrest last year on a charge of treason. Isn’t this the sort of thing Putin does?
I know that Ukraine’s army has used severe force against Russian civilians in the Don Basin since 2014. The Russians have done dreadful things there, too, but there are plenty of people who will tell you that. The point is that this is not a contest of saints versus sinners, or of Mordor versus the Shire.
I also find it awkward that, when Britain and the USA rightly denounced Putin’s illegal invasion of a sovereign country, they seemed to have forgotten that we gave him the idea, by doing this in Iraq in 2003. Unlike them I can truly claim to have opposed both these actions.
I tire of being told that Nato is purely defensive alliance when we know it bombed Serbia in 1999, incidentally killing civilians, when Serbia had not attacked a Nato member.
I also don’t recall Libya attacking a Nato member before that ‘defensive’ alliance launched the air war on Tripoli which also killed civilians, children included, and turned that country into a cauldron of chaos, benefiting nobody.
And then there’s the other thing that sticks in my gullet. The countries of the West have egged Ukraine on into a confrontation with Russia which has predictably ended in Putin’s barbaric invasion. But while we stand and cheer at a safe distance, the Ukrainians are the ones who get shelled, bombed, besieged and driven from their homes. Is this honourable? Does sentimental praise for their bravery make up for it?
I would like to end with two quotations. The first is from the American Civil War General William Tecumseh Sherman who said: ‘I am sick and tired of war. Its glory is all moonshine. It is only those who have neither fired a shot nor heard the shrieks and groans of the wounded who cry aloud for blood, for vengeance, for desolation. War is hell.’
The other is from the ‘Benedictus’ in the Church of England’s 1662 Book of Common Prayer, which asks God ‘to give light to them that sit in darkness, and in the shadow of death, and to guide our feet into the way of peace’, which I fervently pray, for I am not sure that anything else will now do any good.

Vicki
Vicki
March 7, 2022 5:15 pm

I don’t see why we cant just Putin and the Clown together and fight it out themselves. The winner takes all. The Ukrainian might be in with a shot.

Zelensky may be younger and athletic, but Putin is a tough bastard.

local oaf
March 7, 2022 5:19 pm

Frank says:
March 7, 2022 at 3:34 pm

Reading the Guardian is a bit like being a vegan, they usually can’t wait to tell you they do it. Generally it serves as a good indicator that further conversation should be limited to the weather.

Look thoughtful, nod and say “you’re very wise”.

This usually shuts anyone up. They can’t disagree with you and to agree would be laughably arrogant, so they’re stumped!

bespoke
bespoke
March 7, 2022 5:20 pm

miltonf

no that’s for other people and other people’s sons.

Chicken hawks.

  1. One of Makka’s comments from 11:08 a.m. this morning deserves repeating: The idea that the LNP are our representatives for…

  2. I’m hoping the local modern aboriginals will burn the wretched things. It’d at least be amusing black comedy.

2.1K
0
Would love your thoughts, please comment.x
()
x