Stay strong, be safe
Kharkiv Rubyist during the war: We are still here
51–60 of 106 posts
Re: Kharkiv Rubyist during the war: We are still here
#52> There is a rumor that Putin had recently made a personal order to damage as much of Kharkiv as possible, to retaliate for breaking the hope of being “pro-Russian.” And however absurd it might sound, I am close to believing it because there seems to be no other point in doing what they do now. I have the same impression, just old bitter fart and shadow of a man he once was, entrenched in his untouchable position, th…
How do you remove Russia’s permanent veto right if they have the permanent right to veto that?
Russia has a veto right only in the UN Security Council. For prosecution by the International Criminal Court (ICC) this is irrelevant. What matters is that Ukraine has accepted the ICC's jurisdiction over all alleged crimes committed on its territory since 20 February 2014.[1] The nationality of the perpetrator is irrelevant, and no one has immunity.
[1] https://www.icc-cpi.int/Pages/item.aspx?name=pr1146&ln=en
Re: Kharkiv Rubyist during the war: We are still here
#53Earlier quoted context omitted.
How do you remove Russia’s permanent veto right if they have the permanent right to veto that?
Russia has a veto right only in the UN Security Council. For prosecution by the International Criminal Court (ICC) this is irrelevant. What matters is that Ukraine has accepted the ICC's jurisdiction over all alleged crimes committed on its territory since 20 February 2014.[1] The nationality of the perpetrator is irrelevant, and no one has immunity. [1] https://www.icc-cpi.int/Pages/item.aspx?name=pr1146&ln=en
> the International Criminal Court (ICC)
The USA passed a law that its armed forces can invade the Hague if the ICC ever tried to charge the US.
It shows the farce of all of this - fresh from murdering Afghanis, Iraqis, Somalis, Syrians, and by proxy Yemeni, Palestinians etc., the US presses fir a "court" to try Russia in some sanctimonious exercise that it can not be a subject of.
Re: Kharkiv Rubyist during the war: We are still here
#54"(...) returned to Kharkiv to do something useful for the city. With no military experience and even no driving license, I do things on a very small scale" The sense of due duty to your community beyond your family and your own life. I am not really sure I would have the courage to do that. To Zverok: respect and good luck. To the rest: support Ukraine.
I think I would. I wouldn't fight for my country in an offensive war, it's an arbitrary construct that means little to me to but I would fight for my family, my friends and the people around me in a defensive war. This is what shines through when you see things about the Ukraine in the news, these people are fighting for everything - it's about the maximum level of motivation that a people could have.
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Re: Kharkiv Rubyist during the war: We are still here
#55Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think I would. I wouldn't fight for my country in an offensive war, it's an arbitrary construct that means little to me to but I would fight for my family, my friends and the people around me in a defensive war. This is what shines through when you see things about the Ukraine in the news, these people are fighting for everything - it's about the maximum level of motivation that a people could have.
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Seems that Russian forum trolling/disinformation spreading is about as sophisticated and effective as their offensive military capability.
Re: Kharkiv Rubyist during the war: We are still here
#56Earlier quoted context omitted.
It still seems illogical. Kharkiv had a huge Russian population. I had some friends from there who sighed "finally!" when they heard Putin started the invasion. They truly believed he would end the years-long conflict and finally they will live in peace on a territory more or less Russian. Today, there is no single Russian in Kharkiv who would support Putin or even believe what he says. He betrayed his own people.
The entire invasion is illogical. There was arguably some sense to Crimea - there is no sense in this invasion.
My knowledge of Russian bureaucrats comes mostly from watching Chernobyl on HBO, but I wouldn't be surprised if it isn't simply that Putin said he wanted Ukraine and nobody at the top could push back.
Re: Kharkiv Rubyist during the war: We are still here
#57Like every other day, I was shopping this morning at my local bakery in Warsaw, Poland. As I was packing my purchases, a woman next in line after me ordered coffee in Ukrainian. (We have it lucky. Polish and Ukrainian are mutually intelligible to some extent, which enables basic communication even without knowing each other's languages.) I said, to no one in particular, "Do widzenia, слава Україні" as I was leaving.…
On that topic, it's really interesting how presumably small things that nobody focuses on in particular can really make a difference (for good) for people in very dire circumstances (like the refugees are). For example over here in Bucharest (from where I'm from) I've started seeing lots and lots of Ukrainian mothers taking their kids for a walk in downtown Bucharest relying only on their mobile phone's map apps. Wha…
Not only that, also having to power up their devices, and something like internet is a key to entertainment and information for children. If they wouldn't have smartphones, they'd ask for directions, and also directions are already there as well. But with it, there's a whole lot more possible, without having to rely on external factors (except data connection perhaps, as well as having the map loaded up). It makes me wonder if an old smartphone is a good donation to a refugee.
Re: Kharkiv Rubyist during the war: We are still here
#58Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think I would. I wouldn't fight for my country in an offensive war, it's an arbitrary construct that means little to me to but I would fight for my family, my friends and the people around me in a defensive war. This is what shines through when you see things about the Ukraine in the news, these people are fighting for everything - it's about the maximum level of motivation that a people could have.
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:'D
You can do better than that!
Re: Kharkiv Rubyist during the war: We are still here
#59Earlier quoted context omitted.
GWB's great sin is he gave China, and Russia time. The 15 years USA spent running after imaginary boogeymen sowed the seeds of what we are dealing with today. There are many aspects to this folly, but most bad were: 1. Okaying what Russia, and China were doing 2. Wasting trillions on completely pointless war 3. Squandered overnight the enormous goodwill USA carried from successful 199X 4. Stalled the wheel of democra…
Yeah it seems like the globalist mindset that much of the west adopted blinded it to the geopolitical realities that still govern international relations. Remember the "Russian reset"[1]? It was a big red button that was supposed to reset Russian relations. Remember when Obama criticized Romney for saying the biggest threat in the future would be Russia? Obama laughed it off because "this isn't the cold war anymore."…
That's a confrontational mindset. In reality, there was a window post-1990 in which we (the US, Europe, China, Russia, India, Pakistan, and the most stable African countries) could have created the means to resolve global conflicts peacefully, or at least in a shared manner. The real victory of Desert Storm wasn't the military annihilation of a regional power in a matter of months, but the fact that it was achieved under a UN mandate. That practice should have become the norm.
The major crisis right after (Yugoslavia, the first post-WW2 war in Europe which we try so hard to forget every day) still had some UN legitimacy - NATO acted somewhat unilaterally but it was arguably as protection for a UN peacekeeping operation. The Russians had to follow suit - begrudgingly, but on shared terms.
Then 2001 happened and all that strenuous effort to keep powers together was just thrown out of the window, in pursue of simple and pure vengeance - the oldest and most tribalistic instinct for violence, the biblical an-eye-for-an-eye. Even then, there was still a chance to forgive it as a temporary aberration of a young country that had never been seriously attacked on its mainland before. Instead, the US literally decided to conquer Iraq on a whim in 2002/2003. At that point, anybody who had ever seriously considered cooperation had to change course, or lost massive amounts of political capital. Areas that were slowly moving towards softer stances (Iran, China, Russia, etc) predictably reacted by rushing back to the safety of oppositional competition. And now it's what it is.
Escalating competition further and further is not the answer, and will lead the world to darker and darker places.
Re: Kharkiv Rubyist during the war: We are still here
#60Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's interesting to me to hear you say that. I would say that about Trump but not GWB in hindsight. At that time I was of the opinion you share and I remember feeling that GWB was essentially everything that was bad in the world… but in hindsight I realize how narrowly scoped my vision was and the spectrum is so much bigger and in fact I now believe it's important to be willing to find common ground with conservative…
Too many people have let their vision become consumed by the fact that Trump was an insufferable asshole. A nuanced discussion can be had about his time in office and his actual actions, without giving undue weight to the shit that comes out of the man's mouth. Just as an example of something most democrats would applaud, he signed an executive order to keep federal unemployment assistance flowing, while congress was…
> The Democrats did the same exact thing with Russiagate. Both in terms of the accusation and pursuing it through legal channels, all based on fictional evidence to boot.
It’s incredible that this is still being parroted even after the Russian invasion. Go and read at the actual Muller report and Senate Intel report vol 5. The findings of the us senate and special counsel are that Russia hacked the 2016 election with the intent of helping Trump, and the Trump campaign worked willingly with them on this effort and lied about it to everyone.
Most notably, Trump’s campaign manager was sharing internal campaign data with a Russian Intel officer, who transmitted the data to the GRU. This is the collusion we had all claimed was happening, and it was found. Calling this a hoax at this point is willingly spreading Russian disinformation. This is the position of Vladimir Putin, that Russian interference in 2016 was a hoax. Think about that, as he bombs and targets civilians. Why are you still carrying their water for them on this front? What if, actually, after all these years, you are wrong about that? What evidence would it take to change your mind?
Let me ask you this, as you say the Russian scandal was based on fictional evidence, how many pages of the Mueller report and Senate Intel report have you personally actually read?
Here’s their bottom line:
It is our conclusion, based on the facts detailed in the Committee's Report, that the Russian intelligence services' assault on the integrity of the 2016 U.S. electoral process[,] and Trump and his associates' participation in and enabling of this Russian activity, represents one of the single most grave counterintelligence threats to American national security in the modern era.