Russia and Ukraine

[Thumpalumpacus]

Thanks for both those, brotha.

[Fake Messiah]

Putin’s Desperate Hours

Today, after a delay likely related to Russia’s serial battlefield losses in Ukraine, Putin spent some two hours unloading a barrage of lies, grievances, and bizarre historical revisions in his attempt to justify the bloodletting he began a year ago. He also said Russia would suspend participation in a crucial nuclear-arms-control treaty with the United States. What does this all mean?

It means, more than anything, that Putin is desperate. He’s losing in Ukraine, where, according to a British estimate last week, roughly 200,000 Russian soldiers have been killed or wounded. Even Russia’s tough-guy Wagner mercenaries are getting cut to pieces: The National Security Council official John Kirby said in a briefing Friday that the Wagner Group—many of them convicted criminals—has taken 30,000 casualties, which is about half the entire group’s strength and a huge number even for a contractor force. (Note to Russian jailbirds: Your odds of staying alive are better in prison.)

Putin may be a dictator, but even dictators have to justify losses. The Russian president started his speech by going full Orwell, claiming that the West started the war and that Russia was obliged to take up arms to put a stop to it all. (He might as well have said, “Eurasia has always been at war with Oceania,” and he came close.) He also repeated his accusation that the U.S. and NATO “rapidly deployed their army bases and secret biological laboratories near the borders of our country,” but this section was omitted from the English text published on the official Kremlin website, perhaps because it’s a bonkers charge that has long been debunked. The line, however, doesn’t seem to have been ad-libbed; it’s in the Russian text posted on the Russian president’s official website.

Putin has put himself and his country in a desperate situation, and he has run out of options, including nuclear threats. This is not to say that the risk of nuclear conflict has evaporated. But after a year, it seems that the Russian president’s plan—if it can even be called that—is to consign more of his young men to the Ukrainian abattoir while hoping that the West somehow tires of the whole business. However, Biden’s visit to Kyiv and his pledge of “unwavering and unflagging commitment” had to be a “gut punch” to Putin, dashing any hopes that the Free World will give up on Ukraine.

https://www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/...rs/673150/

[Belacqua]

a barrage of lies

Jeffrey Goldberg, editor of the Atlantic Magazine, was one of the lead cheerleaders for the Iraq war. He disseminated more falsehoods than almost any other journalist. 

In a world which valued telling the truth, he would not be working in journalism.

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

a barrage of lies

Jeffrey Goldberg, editor of the Atlantic Magazine, was one of the lead cheerleaders for the Iraq war. He disseminated more falsehoods than almost any other journalist. 

In a world which valued telling the truth, he would not be working in journalism.

What does Goldberg's initial support (which he later reversed) for the Iraq war have to do with Putin's 'barrage of lies'?

Boru

[Belacqua]

Despite the gutter press's best efforts, support for war is dwindling among Americans.

So while Biden was abroad promising endless war, Trump made a high profile visit to East Palestine, Ohio -- the place where greedy capitalists managed to poison the Ohio River valley, possibly for a very long time. Biden and Buttigieg had a week to do something about this, but made it clear to everyone that they don't care much.

Trump doesn't really care either, but he said all the right things, and since politics works on image rather than truth, he made himself look like the working man's friend yet again.

Moron Democrats are going to hand it to him again.

[The Grand Nudger]

Tell me you're a magat without saying I'm a magat, lol. Now you're the one letting loose with a barrage of lies. Cut to the chase. Tell me why ukrainians should die because america bad.

[arewethereyet]

Trump's visit could have been made better if Melania would have shown up with her 'I really don't care, do you?' coat. Total PR stunt. Delivery of Trump water (which I wouldn't drink if I was dying of thirst) and basically calling the mayor fat.

[Silver]

Let them eat Big Macs!

[The Grand Nudger]

If we're going to spend time chasing biden squirrels every time putin takes a dump then at least pick something real. Like how biden is (predictably) worse on the border than trump. It's not as if we're short of options to criticize a us administration. Flat out making shit up would look desperate even if it weren't in service to such a nutty line on ukraine.

[Fake Messiah]

Today, people painted a giant Ukrainian flag on a road outside Russian embassy in London