BritDownUnder wrote: ↑29 Dec 2023, 22:17
I thought China was both the biggest miner and refiner of rare earths and not South America. The US even sends some of its rare earths from the mine in California for processing. There is a mine in Australia where some of the rare earths are sent to Malaysia for processing but I am open to any evidence of a South American rare earth source.
I think the People's Republic of Donetsk is a bit more complicated than that. Before the 1930s it was majority Ukrainian until a lot of them starved to death - a bit like parts of Turkey used to majority Armenian until they all got wiped out. Then some Russian intelligence officer got parachuted in as leader of the breakaway parliament as a safe pair of Putinite hands and then declared independence. Sorted!
The mention of Nazis reminds me a bit of Vivian off the "Young Ones" or some kind of student union childish politics but in post-Soviet politics it is a serious allegation with little burden of proof required.
Sorry huge quote - I blame shortness of time and smartphones in general but the far right in Ukraine is a real and serious issue:
It’s also a beautiful example of the irrational commentary that we should ignore the Ukraine’s far right - but blame the US far right for defunding the Ukraine!
I do so love consistency in these discussions especially when it’s honoured rather more in the breach than the observance.
BritDownUnder wrote: ↑
“I thought China was both the biggest miner and refiner of rare earths and not South America. The US even sends some of its rare earths from the mine in California for processing. There is a mine in Australia where some of the rare earths are sent to Malaysia for processing“
Default0ptions wrote: ↑29 Dec 2023, 08:50
I have no idea what *you* think Russia’s aims were
Russia's war aim was the total conquest of Ukraine, one way or another. It was to prevent any part of Ukraine joining the EU or NATO.
It's not possible to take what you write seriously when you write this kind of hysterical nonsense. But, then, you are far from alone in that regard on here.
Sorry, but you are utterly detached from reality. What I wrote was neither hysterical nor nonsense. It was a straightforward factual statement about recent history, entirely devoid of emotion.
This thread is indeed full of nonsense, but it isn't coming from me.
"We fail to mandate economic sanity because our brains are addled by....compassion." (Garrett Hardin)
Forever_Winter wrote: ↑29 Dec 2023, 18:46
UE's points are correct. Putin's SMO was basically a land grab and the install of a puppet government in Ukraine. If you don't get that, you are either a) a liar b) a bullshitter or c) a useful idiot.
If it's c) I hope you are getting paid for spouting your kind of nonsense ....
Nah. Do you see Russia lining up some candidates? I don’t think you bothered to either read or understand the rather clear objectives - which are now more or less achieved
The US, on the other hand, has had its interference in the Ukraine’s internal affairs publicly demonstrated by Victoria Nuland’s leaked ‘F**k the E.U.’ phone call back in the 2014.
Russia's war aim was the total conquest of Ukraine, one way or another. It was to prevent any part of Ukraine joining the EU or NATO.
It's not possible to take what you write seriously when you write this kind of hysterical nonsense. But, then, you are far from alone in that regard on here.
Sorry, but you are utterly detached from reality. What I wrote was neither hysterical nor nonsense. It was a straightforward factual statement about recent history, entirely devoid of emotion.
This thread is indeed full of nonsense, but it isn't coming from me.
Nonsense is a somewhat perjorative term. When (or indeed if) this conflict comes to an end without Ukraine regaining its 2014 borders you may have to recategorise your ideas of nonsense.
Default0ptions wrote: ↑30 Dec 2023, 10:29
Nonsense is a somewhat perjorative term. When (or indeed if) this conflict comes to an end without Ukraine regaining its 2014 borders you may have to recategorise your ideas of nonsense.
More nonsense. You are now flagrantly misquoting me, as well as posting idiotic crap that has nothing to do with me.
Also please note that this war is not over, and nobody yet knows what the final outcome will be. Not even you.
"We fail to mandate economic sanity because our brains are addled by....compassion." (Garrett Hardin)
Default0ptions wrote: ↑30 Dec 2023, 10:29
Nonsense is a somewhat perjorative term. When (or indeed if) this conflict comes to an end without Ukraine regaining its 2014 borders you may have to recategorise your ideas of nonsense.
More nonsense. You are now flagrantly misquoting me, as well as posting idiotic crap that has nothing to do with me.
Also please note that this war is not over, and nobody yet knows what the final outcome will be. Not even you.
It’s not my intention to misquote you. If you’ll post an instance of my misquoting you I will happily retract it.
You do seem to be very emotionally invested in your understanding of the whole situation though.
That’s usually a good sign that you’re running on feelings rather than facts - which is the whole point of the endless repetition of “Russia’s FULL SCALE INVASION” or “Russia’s BRUTAL WAR” propaganda in the news.
Do please contrast Kiev after 2 years of war with Russia and pretty much any recent picture of Gaza.
...is all you are going to get from me in this thread, from this point onwards. Feel free to comment as you like on my posts, but do not expect any replies. I have no idea whether you actually believe what you are posting, and I do not care. But I am certainly not learning anything, and it is really boring.
"We fail to mandate economic sanity because our brains are addled by....compassion." (Garrett Hardin)
...is all you are going to get from me in this thread, from this point onwards. Feel free to comment as you like on my posts, but do not expect any replies. I have no idea whether you actually believe what you are posting, and I do not care. But I am certainly not learning anything, and it is really boring.
So I guess you can’t actually post an instance of my flagrantly misquoting you then.
I do take some care to back up my comments on the Ukraine situation with links to sources, but you are of course free to dispute, disregard, disagree or just simply ignore these.
One thing I am pretty certain of is that if the Ukraine is forced by whatever means to settle for less than regaining its 2014 borders including Crimea which you keep asserting will happen - you will move the goalposts in your mind so that you will be able to count it as a ‘win’.
Ukraine is claiming that General Valery Gerasimov, the Russian military chief of staff, and currently the commander of all Russian forces in Ukraine was killed yesterday in a strike on Crimea.
Gerasimov was originally excluded from the planning for the Russian invasion, but was put in control when the original plan failed so spectacularly. If con firmed, this will be the biggest domestic political blow of the whole war for Putin. It won't help with the Russian military campaign either.
Edit
It seems this story is probably a rumour, it started out as a claim on a single Russian Telegram channel, and then was not actively denied by a mid level Ukrainian military source, and the rumour mill took it from there. There was a targeted atteck on Russian command post(s) in Crimea, and it is still possible that the general was a target. As yet, there is no follow up, not even a denial from Russia, which is usually the first response to a successful assassination. Ukraine is continueing missile and drone attacks on Crimea.
