beautifulthailand99

Well, it seems like Ukraine will be getting its own convict Wagner-esque Dirlewanger Brigade. “Not all military commanders are ready to take convicts and prisoners, but we will not and do not plan to impose such mobilized people on anyone. Most likely, these will be separate units,” the official explained. https://mil.in.ua/en/news/ministry-of-justice-announces-upcoming-submission-of-a-draft-law-on-mobilization-of-convicts-to-the-parliament/

Well, Ukrainians aren't shedding any tears for him, that's for certain. To a degree the west is trolling Russia rather than a true concern for his death. https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2023/3/4/why-ukraine-is-wary-of-the-russian-opposition It seemed to make sense for Ukrainians to offer support for Navalny’s movement, at least tactical if not strategic, as it could potentially destabilise Putin’s regime and subvert its war machine. But the troubles of Navalny and his followers did not resonate with Ukrainians, as his past remarks, as well as the Navalnists’ arrogance and disdain, offered little hope that “the wonderful Russia of the future” would have any respect for Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. Even after the Russian authorities poisoned Navalny with a nerve agent and later imprisoned him on politically-motivated charges, few Ukrainians softened their stances.

The reports that Ukrainian AD effectiveness have been seriously degraded seem to be borne out on the battlefield. And why 2 Patriot systems would be co-located together to be taken out by one missile suggests incompetence. My guess is they wanted advanced AD near the front to combat the deadly FAB bombs being deployed by Russian planes behind their front and were spotted by drones/satellite and they are not effective against hypersonic Iskanders. The Patriots literally didn't see them coming. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13179327/Dramatic-moment-Russians-destroys-two-400m-Patriot-surface-air-missile-systems-one-hypersonic-Iskander-strike-costly-blow-Ukraine.html https://edition.cnn.com/2024/03/10/europe/russian-guided-bomb-ukraine-frontline-intl/index.html

These days here I honestly no longer know what is biting satire or batsh&t crazy. Or maybe the latter is the natural order of the world and after a period of rationality is reverting to type. Make Trump Great Again should be his real slogan. If he does win, what does that say about America as a great nation ?

One of the great lies of history. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_land_without_a_people_for_a_people_without_a_land

I think you meant to say Hamas aggressors but let the mask slip for a moment.

The problem with this mo for news items and their resultant discussions is with the absence of context and history (which appears to be banned) then a proper discussion can't be had. Couple that with the framing and selecting of the news items and their accompanying narrative it makes for a one-sided debate. It's a bit like the question when did you stop beating your wife ?

Aye certainly was, and included rape and massacres as part of their game play. Just Google the Tantura Massacre or watch the documentary movie. Hamas had demonic handmaidens to teach them their devilish ways.

Oh yes, that's for sure. Unhappy single mothers with ageing unhappy farangs looking for happiness in all the wrong places all swimming in a lake of cheap booze. It ain't pretty but it is relatively safe.

All British Jews should leave now, according to the world's oldest living journalist in Jerusalem, as does this Rabbi. Israel needs you. https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-771446 Yes, truly the Golden Age of British Jewry is well and truly over. I say this with a heavy heart because Britain has been good to me and my family. It provided a home when we had none, it gave us sustenance when we were hungry, it enabled us to obtain a first-class education – and we all gave back to the country willingly and abundantly, but sadly, it’s time to wake up and the smell the antisemitic coffee that lingers long in the nostrils. Sadly, my UK friends and family, it’s time to leave – close the door behind you. https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-777067 To our fellow Jews in the Diaspora, I speak from the heart, based on my personal experience. Please learn from the past, and wake up to reality. The current wave of antisemitism will not pass but will get even more virulent. I can hear you are calling me a fearmonger. Well, just as events exonerated me for frequently comparing the present with the 1930s, so you will recall my words in time to come. Therefore, only in Israel will you be safe from the ever-increasing antisemitism, so don’t get caught by surprise. Consider your children’s future. Relocate to Israel, the home for all Jews.

Crikey I didn't realise how much Ukrainians actually hated the man. Here's why. https://www.promoteukraine.org/appeal-of-ukrainian-civil-society-regarding-navalnys-installation-in-place-luxembourg/

Sorry, Budanov says no. That said, the combination of deprivations that the Putin regime subjected him to and his prolonged fastings certainly killed him in the end. RIP. Why Budanov unhelpfully challenges the Western dominant narrative at this juncture is anybody's guess. But I will have a go ! He doesn't want Navalny to be a martyr. Ever since Navalny's death, the Ukrainian leadership has been very busy reminding everyone that he wasn't a saint. They seem to view it as a problem that in the Western perception the important part is that you're anti Putin, not where you stand on the issue of Crimea. I guess that ultimately their worry is that the West would be too willing to deal with a nationalistic replacement if anything should ever happen to Putin - which is not entirely unreasonable, the whole "Putin's war" trope creates room for exactly that possibility. Also, from that post up thread that the Kyiv Independent wrote they tellingly quoted this ; We should also not forget that it is the very same Navalny who, following the unprovoked Russian invasion of Georgia in 2008, wrote that he would “really like to hit the rodents at the (Georgian) General Staff with a cruise missile” and advocated for providing military assistance to now Russian-occupied South Ossetia and Abkhazia, not to mention a “complete” Russian blockade of Georgia. https://www.kyivpost.com/post/28630 “I may disappoint you, but as far as we know, he indeed died as a result of a blood clot. And this has been more or less confirmed,” Budanov told journalists on the sidelines at the “Ukraine. Year of 2024” forum on Sunday. "This wasn't sourced from the internet, but, unfortunately, natural [causes],” he added.

A lot of Ukrainian patriot's hatred Navalny and celebrated when he died on social media, often with a picture of a sandwich. Mostly because in the past he asserted that Crimea was part of Russia and was a Russian nationalist, albeit an anti-Putin one. Indeed, Zelenskiy's wife turned down an invitation to the White House when it would mean sitting near his widow. Plus actor/comedian Zelesnkiy was turned down to appear at the Oscar's when Navalny's family got seats and an Oscar so it maybe a bit of a hissy fit from the Great One. https://kyivindependent.com/kate-tsurkan-the-problem-with-lionizing-navalny-and-snubbing-zelensky-at-oscars/ After all, this is the Navalny who, in 2012, called Ukrainians and Russians “the same people” and said that there is “no more kindred country for Russia than Ukraine.” Such a view is strikingly similar to the one of Putin, who has made false claims that modern Ukrainian statehood was created by the Bolsheviks, “tearing from (Russia) pieces of its own historical territory.” In 2014, Navalny sparked outrage after failing to unequivocally condemn the illegal Russian annexation of Crimea by famously saying that the peninsula is "de-facto Russian" and asking, "Is Crimea a sandwich or something you can take and give back? I don't think so." Oh and Budanov, unhelpfully for the western narrative, said he died of a blood clot not poisoning. https://www.kyivpost.com/post/28630 “I may disappoint you, but as far as we know, he indeed died as a result of a blood clot. And this has been more or less confirmed,” Budanov told journalists on the sidelines at the “Ukraine. Year of 2024” forum on Sunday. "This wasn't sourced from the internet, but, unfortunately, natural [causes],” he added.

BTW Joe Biden is a Catholic, is nearer to his Maker than most and the Pope is infallible. How do you think that works out ! https://www.irishtimes.com/ireland/social-affairs/2023/04/12/catholic-joe-biden-puts-stops-at-knock-and-mayo-cathedral-on-irish-itinerary/

He is without doubt the most progressive Pope ever who has forsaken his Papal Place for a simple 1-bedroom flat and chauffeured limousines for a simple car. That is why so many in the Vatican hierarchy hate him so much. https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/pope-denounces-hypocrisy-those-who-criticise-lgbt-blessings-2024-02-07/ LGBT blessings were authorised last month by a Vatican document called Fiducia Supplicans (Supplicating Trust), but that has met with significant resistance in the Catholic Church, particularly from African bishops. "Nobody gets scandalised if I give my blessings to a businessman who perhaps exploits people, and this is a very grave sin. But they get scandalised if I give them to a homosexual," Francis told Italian Catholic magazine Credere. "This is hypocrisy," he said. https://www.latimes.com/world/la-xpm-2013-mar-14-la-fg-pope-bergoglio-profile-20130314-story.html Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Buenos Aires, 76, is the first person from the Americas and the first Jesuit to be elected pope. The son of a railway worker, he rose to become regional superior of the Jesuit order in Argentina and then an archbishop, spending most of his career teaching priests and advocating for the poor through times of economic crisis in his home nation. “His own matter of life shows he takes his vow of poverty very seriously,” said the Rev. Drew Christiansen, visiting scholar in the theology department of Boston College. Even as a cardinal, the role he has had since 2001, Bergoglio eschewed many of the customary trappings and luxuries afforded to senior prelates, especially in Latin America, Christiansen recalled.

Probably not you, but we live in hope and it is Sunday. At least the Pope has majored on Amalek......

In the interview, the interviewer Lorenzo Buccella asks the Pope: “In Ukraine, some call for the courage of surrender, of the white flag. But others say that this would legitimize the stronger party. What do you think?” Pope Francis replied: “That is one interpretation. But I believe that the stronger one is the one who sees the situation, who thinks of the people, who has the courage of the white flag, to negotiate. And today, negotiations are possible with the help of international powers. The word ‘negotiate’ is a couragous word. When you see that you are defeated, that things are not going well, it is necessary to have the courage to negotiate. You may feel ashamed, but with how many deaths will it end? Negotiate in time; look for some country that can mediate. Today, for example in the war in Ukraine, there are many who want to mediate. Turkey has offered itself for this. And others. Do not be ashamed to negotiate before things get worse.” https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2024-03/pope-francis-ukraine-interview-rts-holy-see-response.html

That's the Bible for you. Putin would do well to truly read it rather than obscure Russian 'sages'. The Pope on the other hand has no other authority than his unshakeable belief in the scriptures. To smear him otherwise is literally in bad faith.

I am a fellow traveller of all spiritual people who do it with good grace and peace in their hearts.

Well that's good enough for me, possibly the greatest Pope in history and a true man of God who identifies with the suffering and the dispossessed. Jesus turned the God of Wrath and one people into a God of love and for the whole World. That is the underlying message of Christianity and why at its uncorrupted core is a revolutionary religion. I forgive all that think differently, for they know not what they do. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God. But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. “You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also. And if anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, hand over your coat as well.

It's a cheap place for cheap people, I know because I bought a condo there cheaply. But I never complain because I wanted cheap and got cheap.

I think you may have mistaken me for another poster, I now post carefully argued positions all back up by recent links from approved sources, not memes. I'm not going to out my previous employment, but it involved preparing detailed accurate briefs for very, very senior people whose attention to detail and facts was ferocious.

And of course when Russia constricts exports, the impact on prices in a tight market leads to an increase in diesel prices globally. In Europe farmers are protesting all over the place and fuel prices are part of that mix and no-one needs reminding that gas prices in the run-up to an election are critically important. Putin's stooge Trump will be making hay with them if they stay high. https://finance.yahoo.com/news/these-4-economic-variables-could-easily-flip-the-2024-election-for-biden-or-trump-moodys-164335231.html?guccounter=1 Different economic variables at play Any of those factors could flip the election results, but the price of fuel is at the top of the list with its outsized impact on voter perceptions. "All else equal, if gas prices surge back close to $4 per gallon, Trump will win," they write. The challenge for Biden is that he has limited options to push the needle one way or another. "Given the cross-currents in global oil demand and supply, it is very difficult to gauge the outlook for gas prices, and such an increase in prices cannot be ruled out," the economists note, but they currently project that prices will sit at around $3.50 a gallon on election day.

Seeing the world as it is rather than we would wish it to be is the sign of a realist, not a terrorist. Some here support Russia and probably Hamas, not me I support peace - however messy, as an alternative to death and destruction.

If I said that, others would say another fact free rant !