Russia - threadbanned users in OP

How can some clown take a thread discussing significant slaughter of humans and barbarous acts and steer it into a conversation about a pop star... and his personal embarrassment 🤷‍♂️

I'd cringe seeing Bono pay for something in a shop or throwing a ball. That's the effect he has on me. But if he's gonna try and do good then I'm all for it. Let's hope it's not like that other charity they were involved in that paid about 1% out and spent more on goody bags for celebs.

As for Serbia, Jesus Christ. If this outcome with the Russians and the election in the Philippines and the **** in Hong Kong doesn't show that we're in a battle over more than left/right politics then I don't know what will. Russia is a country which builds its past upon lies and millions of dead bodies. In Hong Kong the past is being written over. In the Philippines (not sure what kind of TV coverage it's getting) I'm sure quite a few older people will recognise the name, yeah, it's the son.

It's like in The Sopranos (spoiler ahead) when there's a therapist who brings up the fact that sociopaths may not benefit from therapy except to use it to become better as in more efficient and better at justifying things but not address their actual issues. These **** are jingoistic to a laughable degree based on lies and bullshit and absolutely. Never. Admit. Anything. These are not the kinds of people we should be maintaining friendly relationships with. It's a deep cultural and psychological thing. If you've the choice between a slightly longer walk or being confronted by a mugger, most will choose the slightly longer walk. Best case scenario with the mugger is you win a fight. Unless it's in an advert in which case you can probably reason him down. Which still isn't any better for the good guy because that's time out of his day. We've tried treating Russia in a way that gave them free rein domestically and just kind of hope that they'll come around to "our" way because it's the right way. I personally believe on balance it is but hey, **** those guys. When dealing with thugs nicely the best way it can work out will be that they'll do very well out of it and others will see it as a way to get what they want.

In this case I think he was relying on some good auld begrudgery and was expecting support for his decision.

He's embarrassed, worried about his pride. But the sweetest thing will be Ukrainian victory, because the Ukrainians have the desire. And while the Russians are running to stand still, the Ukrainians will walk on. Putin will continue with his BS mysterious ways and his war, but magnificent Ukraine will get it's beautiful day, hopefully long before this coming New Year's day. I'm not betting on mad bad Vlad being able to stay as the head of Russia for long, and that will be even better than the real thing because most of us here have no ordinary love for Ukraine, until the end of the world. Most of the world is behind Ukraine, because sometimes you cannot make it on your own. I've no sympathy for Putin, but even he must be sorry he started this and he must be thinking he's stuck in the moment you cant get out of. He must be suffering from vertigo at this stage things have spun so far out of his control. While Putin turned Mariupol into a city of blinding lights, where the streets have no names there will be a final sunday bloody sunday, Ukrainians will rejoice and I will follow.

Yeah, I've always found "Buh ar nootrality" to be a **** pathetic shield. I can't think of any/many conflicts we should have jumped into but the way it's treated like some Americans go on about their fuckin guns right like it is and should be some inalienable thing written in stone, ugh. Maybe a chat for different day.

I sometimes wonder if the fatalism in Russia is deeper into Europe than I'd realised. Brits and Yanks could have easily left Europe to it in WWII. Get some big guarantees on colonies and the like (maybe Britain could have gotten some nice French islands around the place) and well, **** 'em. Not a whole lot of natural resources in Europe. But they didn't. They actually did the right thing. There were plenty of other considerations but when strategising I'm going to guess that that they started from the position of winning rather than negotiating a settlement. Now we're seeing again when there's an actual threat, just think back to the start when the yanks and Brits thought it'd be over quickly, the Europeans lads basically had their "We're not happy about this but I suppose Ukraine is under Russian control" speeches ready. They just want stability, don't rock the boat, give him what he wants. Oh, we're going to do sanctions that'll mean they'll have to go through an extra step to get paid, ohh, hardcore! It's kinda ironic, the anti-globalists should be loving that the media have shaped this the way they have, cutting trade ties, stopping international travel and migration, they love that ****. :P

But yeah, the EU is great most of the time and yeah, they thought they had themselves covered. Still, months in, they still seem to be looking for a sensible political solution to something that is in no way sensible and resembles politics of the past. And the western Europeans seem to think it's fine for the most part. I've got all kinds of issues with the yanks and Brits but honestly I doubt anyone here would be better off with a different superpower in our lifetimes.