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 International politics (China, Russia, UK, etc.) 
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Post Re: International politics (China, Russia, UK, etc.)
A good rule of thumb is the freedom side over the authoritarian/totalitarian side is the right one. A few years ago it would have been clear between Ukraine/NATO and Russia, however Zelenskyy is also making some authoritarian moves like banning political parties and controlling the media, and their biggest supporter the US has also been sliding in the wrong direction by clamping down on dissent and the party in power calling their political opponents terrorists. So at the least it becomes more blurry in that in department.

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Wed Sep 21, 2022 12:14 am
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Post Re: International politics (China, Russia, UK, etc.)
That sort of perspective is indicative of today's social justice warrior-type purity, whereby the good guys cannot have a single chink in their armour or else they're just as bad as the Hitlers of this world. Zelensky is doing what he needs to do in a time of war. I don't judge the man or his country for that. Without getting into the specifics of it, he merely banned a pro-Russian political party during an unprovoked invasion by Russia. It's hardly equivalent to invading a sovereign nation or, during peace time, controlling the media and assassinating opposition leaders (which is how Russia operates).

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Wed Sep 21, 2022 12:57 am
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Post Re: International politics (China, Russia, UK, etc.)
11 parties including the one with the second most seats in parliament apparently, and he merged the independent tv stations into state media, and I believe men under 60 can’t leave the country - but yes, can be argued martial law justifies it more.

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Wed Sep 21, 2022 2:09 am
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Post Re: International politics (China, Russia, UK, etc.)
Putin ordered partial mobilization leading to +300 thousand troops

The escalation continues...

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Wed Sep 21, 2022 4:22 am
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Post Re: International politics (China, Russia, UK, etc.)
That's a big sign that he's desperate. And worrying for the stability of the region because when a maniac like Putin is desperate he might do something unthinkable. But I suspect his latest nuclear threat against the west is squarely for domestic consumption to support and counter his latest decision. Mobilisation makes him look weak, and he needs to talk tough and reassure Russians that they're still strong, and this isn't really a big deal, and oh oh oh...remember all our problems are because of the west. This is from page 44 in the dictators playbook. Such an obvious move.

Anyway, a lot of Russian parents and siblings and children are going to hate him once this invasion ends, so he is absolutely desperate for a positive outcome. And mobilisation apparently takes months. These troops probably won't see action this year. Ukraine will push forward and hopefully recapture Luhansk and Donetsk.

There are also doubts over it being a partial mobilisation, which would make sense. This sort of announcement is typical among authoritarian countries so as to not cause panic, but in the actual decree there's no mention of caps or exceptions. I suspect they will call up whoever, which will cause widespread alarm across the country. I expect many Russians to flee, which will be a great look for the country - something Putin, with his comments, was eager to avoid.

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Wed Sep 21, 2022 4:55 am
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Post Re: International politics (China, Russia, UK, etc.)
Putin’s political power depends on him crushing Ukraine.

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Wed Sep 21, 2022 9:18 pm
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Post Re: International politics (China, Russia, UK, etc.)
And it's not looking good on that front, particularly with the news of mobilisation not going down well in Russia. There are protests on the streets, and some protestors are being given draft notices as punishment, which is just absurd. Why would you send people to the front that clearly won't care or be effective? I know it's more of a deterrent so they won't protest, but the penalty here is just stupid. If I was protesting and they sent me to do the very thing I was protesting against, once there I would find any way possible to sabotage the mission. Not what Russia needs right now. Pressure is on them from all sides. A few weeks back it looked like Russia might win this thing, the tide seemed to be turning slowly in their favour. Of course, they still might (things can change fast in international politics/conflict) but every way I look at it right now, Russia looks to be on the losing end. They've certainly had a string of bad news days. We'll see how it unfolds.

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Thu Sep 22, 2022 7:49 am
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Post Re: International politics (China, Russia, UK, etc.)
The argument that Zelenskyy/Ukraine is just as bad (or has many flaws, etc.) is silly. Are there media outlets there or reporters reporting false or misleading information? Obviously. Every side since the beginning of time reports information that makes them look strong to help keep moral and motivation high. A smaller country attacked unprovoked is going to be more prone to keep moral high within the country with controlled information.

This isn't to say it's not "wrong" to lie or mislead in time of war, but it's expected and has always been the case. This doesn't place Zelenskyy/Ukraine on the same level as Putin/Russia because only one of them is the aggressor here.

Keeping men in the country so they can fight isn't "good", but it is, unfortunately, a necessary decision to help keep Russia held back. They're on their own here in terms of boots on the ground and planes in the sky. You're going to take more extreme measures, make more difficult decisions, to fight back against a much larger adversary.

What is Putin/Russia fighting for? Trying to gain control of a sovereign nation because they feel threatened by the West? Trying to prove they're not to be messed with? Stupid. Zelenskyy/Ukraine is fighting for their families, their home, and their country due to a forced situation they didn't choose.

And these recent events make Putin and Russia look weaker and weaker. Threatening to use nukes because you're losing is about as big of a pussy move you could make. If you can't win with troops, a LOT more troops, give up and move on. If he gains control of the country, how the hell is he expecting to hold onto it? Threatening to nuke them if they fight back or protest? They'll obviously fight and push back. You do what you can to keep unwanted people out of your home, and you'll do what you can to kick them out. It's pretty simple. You're not going to let a burglar do as he pleases in your home.

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Thu Sep 22, 2022 2:50 pm
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Post Re: International politics (China, Russia, UK, etc.)
As I understand it the Russian separatist areas that are soon to hold referendum to join Russia have had non stop violence and civil war since 2014 with that area fighting against the government. Russia wanting to "free" that area and give them what they want, and their other stated goal of saying Ukraine is flirting with the nazis too much by using them in their army and they need to be cut down now, makes their actions at least a little bit easier to understand.

OTOH if that's not the real reason they're invading, and this is plain imperialism with Russia wanting to take over Ukraine's highly valuable resource position or retake the whole USSR by force, and the lack of a peace deal so far is because they won't settle for just these regions, then yes Russia is in the wrong here and risking WWIII by attacking another European country.

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Thu Sep 22, 2022 3:12 pm
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Post Re: International politics (China, Russia, UK, etc.)
You can read between the lines here. See through the propaganda reasoning regarding Nazis and liberation. That's clearly rubbish to justify their invasion. The real reason is Putin believes that Ukrainian land belongs to pre-Soviet Union Russia. The original Russia. Sergey Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, even said that these lands and these people belong to the motherland. It's all historical, just like the CCP and Taiwan. I wouldn't believe any modern justification for invasion - it's all about Putin quickly building his legacy before he dies. All dictators want to go out thinking they'll be the saviour of their people and their empire. Xi is doing exactly the same thing with Taiwan.

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Thu Sep 22, 2022 9:03 pm
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Post Re: International politics (China, Russia, UK, etc.)
If Putin is clever, and that remains to be seen, he would carry out these sham referendums in the four regions; Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson, and Zaporizhia, but only allow a majority 'YES - Join Russia' vote to the first two regions. It would buy instant legitimacy and give the west a little headache as opposed to if he just declared all four states as landslide wins for Russia. Luhansk and Donetsk were the main regions he wanted anyway, and Zaporizhia is only under partial Russia control. Most of the region is still in Ukrainian hands, including the main city of Zaporizhia. It would be a geopolitical fig leaf, so to speak, and Ukraine would feel victorious as Russian troops pull out of those two areas and settle in Donetsk and Luhansk.

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Thu Sep 22, 2022 10:21 pm
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Post Re: International politics (China, Russia, UK, etc.)
Italy goes MIGA

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Sun Sep 25, 2022 10:18 pm
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Post Re: International politics (China, Russia, UK, etc.)
This certainly seems to be a trend. Sweden have also shifted to the right. I think it's to tackle the immigration crisis which then leads to higher levels of crime. In the UK, for example, there's whole cities that are minority white now, and crime is massive but the UK is so afraid to actually deal with it for fear of backlash or hurting people's feelings.

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Sun Sep 25, 2022 10:35 pm
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Post Re: International politics (China, Russia, UK, etc.)
Europeans are much more crime-sensitive than Americans (average homicide rate is about 4-5 times lower). If immigration does cause an increase in crime, I'm not surprised to see it having such vast political consequences so quickly. It's much different compared to the US where I believe immigrants have lower crime rates than natives.


Mon Sep 26, 2022 4:11 pm
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Post Re: International politics (China, Russia, UK, etc.)
Too bad you have to be natural born to be US president or I’d support Giorgia Melloni for 2024


Mon Sep 26, 2022 4:38 pm
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Post Re: International politics (China, Russia, UK, etc.)
Sweden is definitely pissed at the immigration, not sure if it was as big a factor for Italy, although likely played some role. This is their 7th prime minister since 2011 so some of it may be that they tried the other options already. After rough few years of extreme covid lockdowns and then energy issues/inflation I can see why any change might look good.

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Mon Sep 26, 2022 4:51 pm
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Post Re: International politics (China, Russia, UK, etc.)
I remember when Americans used to hate fascism. Guess the right just has fully gone fascist now? Wild stuff.

A country of immigrants hating immigrants. The American way.

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Mon Sep 26, 2022 5:46 pm
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Post Re: International politics (China, Russia, UK, etc.)
I think it’s fair to say that fascists like a powerful state. So Republicans that thought the government overreached with lockdowns, are concerned about the government working with big tech to censor misinformation, and are worried about the FBI becoming too powerful and being used like Gestapo/Stasi = the fascists?

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Mon Sep 26, 2022 7:57 pm
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Post Re: International politics (China, Russia, UK, etc.)
Yeah man you nailed it. Plugged in as usual. The left known for giving people rights while the right strips people of rights. Brilliant stuff. You're a fucking genius my dude.

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shut the fuck up zwackerm, you're out of your fucking element

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Mon Sep 26, 2022 8:51 pm
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Post Re: International politics (China, Russia, UK, etc.)
I think a lot of Meloni's critics need to chill out and actually listen to her. Meloni joined a faction of the neo-fascist movement as a teenager, that doesn't mean she will be a fascist as prime minister - teenagers are told what to do by their parents. Her views are pretty positive if you ask me: she dislikes Putin, she is pro-Nato, pro-Ukraine, she wants tax cuts, she wants to renegotiate Italy's massive EU Covid recovery plan, and she wants to have Italy's president elected by popular vote (which it hasn't been for a long while). All those things seem pretty rational to me. She cares about family values, she accepts LGBT but doesn't like that it's become a cult that forces it upon kids, particularly the transgender weird stuff, she wants secure borders and will be hard on Islamist violence, and she feels over-migration doesn't work. These are all sound beliefs. Can anyone genuinely look at America with their huge immigration and "anything goes" mentality to gender/identity and tell me that it's working? How many hundreds of years will America wait for it to gel perfectly into functioning paradise? Everyone hates each other in America. Maybe largely sticking with your own isn't such a bad idea.

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Mon Sep 26, 2022 9:41 pm
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Post Re: International politics (China, Russia, UK, etc.)
Chippy wrote:
Yeah man you nailed it. Plugged in as usual. The left known for giving people rights while the right strips people of rights. Brilliant stuff. You're a fucking genius my dude.


On a global level there's been lots of examples of left wingers taking people's rights, ie communist authoritarian countries. Mao and Stalin are left wingers, even Hitler is kind of a combination of left wing economics and right wing social views, but we'll call him right wing I suppose.

In the US for most of its history the left were the more liberal ones whereas the conservatives were trying to control people with religion, hence why they earned the now increasingly outdated name liberals. Just because something is a trend for a long time though, doesn't mean it will last for eternity, weird reversals can happen. The claim would be that by some reason, it flipped, from the days where censorship was associated with religious conservatives being mad at Eminem lyrics, to modern day where the left are the ones acting like famous for censoring things, meanwhile by electing a shitposter style president in Trump, the Republicans became uniquely free speech centric by their standards. My prediction would be that eventually the Republicans start trying to control people's speech/behaviour in a traditional way again and the left rebels against it, it's simply the more natural combinations, the current events required a mass mental affliction and explosion of borderline personality disorder that is wokeness.

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Mon Sep 26, 2022 10:09 pm
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Post Re: International politics (China, Russia, UK, etc.)
The main right that Republicans want to take away is abortion, because it kills human beings, but Democrats want to take away the right to free speech, press, religion, to bear arms, to run your business without extensive regulation, to decide what to do with your own money, to choose what school to attend, to assemble (covid lockdowns), to use fossil fuels, have borders, eat meat, live in single family homes. own property (eviction moratorium) etc.


Mon Sep 26, 2022 10:47 pm
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Post Re: International politics (China, Russia, UK, etc.)
I really hope some day y'all will join reality, but I honestly don't give a shit anymore.

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Mon Sep 26, 2022 11:27 pm
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Post Re: International politics (China, Russia, UK, etc.)
Chippy wrote:
I really hope some day y'all will join reality.


Right back at you!

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Mon Sep 26, 2022 11:45 pm
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Post Re: International politics (China, Russia, UK, etc.)
I'm interested in what the economic sanctions imposed on Russia will be when it "officially" annexes those Ukrainian regions this week (I think an announcement by Putin is planned for Friday) because what is actually left to hurt Russia? All I can see that's left is to hurt China, Iran, et al. who are providing support for Russia, but that's a big move. But one I am sure would work since China doesn't want to lose any business with the world. But if they intend to directly hurt Russia, are there any ways left to actually do that? I guess we'll find out in the next week or so.

I still think it would be dumb for Putin to announce all four regions want to join Russia, but I feel he might just do that. He needs to at least insert a slither of realism. Enough to make world leaders doubt the illegitimacy of the referendums. Unless, as I suspect, he's unashamedly going for an all-out land grab because all he cares about legacy protection. That's the problem with the president-for-life dictator model. They have complete control mixed with legacy anxiety, which makes any dictator very dangerous as they get old. They don't care what destruction they cause because they don't have to live in the world they destroy - they only care about achievements they've accrued at the time of their passing. That's why next month's People's Congress worries me, because Xi will essentially be emperor for life, and then he'll really turn the screw.

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Tue Sep 27, 2022 9:21 am
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