Botond173
4d ago
Given all the political realities at play, even an Ukrainian military collapse would not be likely to result in anything more than the loss of territorries East of the Dnieper.
Botond173
5d ago
The common narrative on all NAFO-adjacent and NAFO-sympathizing mainstream news outlets was that the Russians will not be able to replace their losses in armor, will run out of cruise missiles, their fortified positions will be pounded into dust because they're a paper bear, they're so dumb that they thought they can overrun Ukraine in 3 days with fewer than 200 thousand soldiers etc.
Botond173
5d ago
They never even reached the vicinity of Odessa. This cannot be taken seriously.
I don't fully understand why Russians are so obsessed with this particular city
Because of the legacy of Catherine the Great. We've discussed this on this forum before.
Botond173
5d ago
The Moral Majority indeed got a lot of attention. On the surface it could indeed appear that the Christian Right is influential. But the social reality was that the abortion rate, the rate of adolescent sex and alcohol consumption, violence, and teenage pregnancy were all peaking in the late '80s and early '90s. It was also the time when the distribution of porn in VHS format was becoming normal in the first place.
Botond173
5d ago
It's hardly realistic to assume that any Russian offensive in the future will even reach the Moldovan border.
Botond173
5d ago
I know what I've seen and heard. They claimed with absolute certainty that Ukraine will win decisively in a relatively short time.
Botond173
5d ago
The distance between Kherson and the Moldovan-Ukrainian border is more than 300 km though. A very likely target that is not.
Botond173
5d ago
Somehow invading Moldova from a separatist region which is geographically akin to a leather belt in appearance, is landlocked, and bordered by Ukraine on the other side would be the mother of all pro-gamer moves, I guess.
Botond173
5d ago
Who is denying Ukrainian asylum applications now in the West?
Currently nobody, I suppose, but I imagine the Ukrainian government is eager to force their hand.
Botond173
5d ago
Their armed forces in their entirety are bigger. The forces they can realistically deploy in the Ukraine aren't.
Botond173
5d ago
Yeah...lol. The current narrative, as far as I can tell, is that the next target of the orcs is Moldova of all places, because reasons.
Botond173
5d ago
Ukraine should institute an immediate draft where women who are not pregnant or rearing children are drafted into the frontlines
Or, if not to the frontlines, at least to auxiliary service or work in the defense industry. (Which is basically how single, childless British women were drafted during WW2.)
Botond173
5d ago
except his wife and daughters
Well, yes. That's the point. "Men had authority over women in return, similar to how parents protect their children but expect their children to obey them."
Botond173
5d ago
That women get a "free pass" from violent conflict is basic common sense, a conclusion reached by any society that isn't actively suicidal.
So not including Israel, I suppose.
Botond173
5d ago
I remember the time when Finnish (or Estonian or Latvian...I can't remember) authorities specifically stated at the time of the Russian partial mobilization that they will not give Russian refugee men asylum. Their foreign minister (as far as I can remember) declared that "coming to Europe is a privilege, not a right". Of course, being relatively old, I remembered the rhetoric of this exact same cabal at the time of the 2015 refugee crisis. I understood that only a pathologically evil cabal can be this shameless and brazen. It's mind-boggling, really.
Botond173
5d ago
In practice, the suspension means military age men now living abroad will be unable to renew expiring passports or obtain new ones or receive official documents such as marriage certificates.
So I guess these measures are designed to drive these men in particular to apply for asylum in their respective host country, with the expectation on the part of Ukrainian authorities that such applications will be rejected. After all, I can hardly imagine that such measures in themselves will be sufficient to make them return home and sign up for the draft. Am I correct?
Botond173
5d ago
So now Reuters is stating that Russia is a "larger, better-equipped enemy"? Really? This is where we're at, after more than 2 years? They actually have the cheek to say this? Every single liberal leftist normie-oriented talking head I ever encountered kept repeating for months that the orc invasion force is completely undersized for the task, their rapist orc cannon fodder is deserting en masse and running from their positions like rabbits, they ran out of artillery shells and missiles, have no food, no gear, no body armor, no tanks, what equipment they have is all a piece of crap etc.
Botond173
5d ago
Housing prices doubled in a year.
That had to result in immense social tension. Can you comment on this?
Botond173
5d ago
Agreed. Times have changed. I suppose there was an era when porn was largely seen as a mostly harmless pastime of adolescent boys, who were assumed to consume it only in moderation, partly because it was relatively complicated to obtain as compared to now. Not anymore.
Botond173
6d ago
Even in the 80s, being caught going into a porn store to rent a VHS was the height of embarrassment, made fun of on sitcoms etc. It’s not just that horniness is embarrassing. The level of cringe was much greater that, say, merely catching your friend picking someone up at the bar for a one-night stand. The idea that you watch porn instead of actually getting laid makes you - in the eyes of much of society - a loser.
I guess so, but again, there has been massive social change since then in that regard, including dating and so on. For example, the notion that the Sexual Revolution might have deleterious long-term social consequences was almost completely fringe back then, as opposed to today.
Botond173
6d ago
The fact that American fails at empire is a good thing, both for us and for the world.
America didn't always fail at military occupation though.
Botond173
6d ago
a centuries-long opioid epidemic (in which as many as 1/4 to 1/3 of urban young men were heavy addicts)
This is not the first time I got the impression that the Chinese Communists have had great success even in the West in greatly exaggerating the long-term consequences of the Opium Wars waged by Western imperialist devils. It makes sense on their part, as it's an integral part of their narrative on the so-called "century of humiliation". As far as I know, though, opium addiction was never anywhere near as widespread in China as the Communists later claimed. Opium dens obviously existed in urban areas, but the great majority of guests weren't addicts; in fact, addicts weren't tolerated there, as nobody was permitted to occupy tables for long. It's true that lots of peasants consumed opium as a painkiller, but considering their usual workload, this wasn't surprising. The claim that as many as 1/4 to 1/3 of urban young men were heavy addicts is, to me, highly suspect.
Even with the whole world against them, there is no way that 5 million Dutch and English in a country with a huge resource bounty and extensive arable land armed with literal nuclear weapons and modern technology, and bordered by countries that (unlike Israel’s foes) had no capable armed forces and definitely did not want a war with them, could not have held out indefinitely - even at a relatively high standard of living. But there was no will for it.
It's worth adding that, I guess, living in place that is basically a fortress surrounded by barbed wire, in a state of constant vigilance and paranoia, might seem entirely tolerable to some aging Boomer who's living in fear and thinking only in terms of security and certainty anyway, as long as the standard of living is sort of good, but for their children it's a vastly different story, especially if they're educated. Which is what you alluded to in an earlier comment of yours earlier in the thread indeed.
How is that, in effect, different from what Serbian, Macedonian and Turkish authorities were doing in 2015?
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