All purpose news and politics thread part VI: This Is Not The Time For Posing

[CaptainEurope]

Germany just sent 800 Panzerfaust to the Ukrainia. There were laughed at for sending Helmets first. The time for defensive weapons are over.
.

The time for defensive equipment alone is over. They will still need helmets.

A Ukranian friend in my town is collecting medical supplies. I found some antibiotics and painkillers I never took that are about to expire, I'll give them to him tomorrow.

[DanMad1977]

The time for defensive equipment alone is over. They will still need helmets.

A Ukranian friend in my town is collecting medical supplies. I found some antibiotics and painkillers I never took that are about to expire, I'll give them to him tomorrow.

Yep, we sent that too. I mean medical supplies, not Helmets. Still, we were laughed at for the helmet delivery.

If someone could give them airstrike, the convoy would be toast.

[JackDaw]

While I am concerned about what is happening in the Ukraine, I'm honestly more concerned what's going on in America right now. Specifically Texas.


Texas continues to remove LGBTQ suicide prevention resources from state websites

Texas has 'initiated investigations' into trans kids' families, lawsuit says

Really? Why…just because Texas is physically closer to you than Russia?

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Germany just sent 800 Panzerfaust to the Ukrainia. There were laughed at for sending Helmets first. The time for defensive weapons are over.

Russia could attack the US, thats true. But really no one thinks that will happen, ever. Russia would loose big time...oder destroy half the world with nuclear weapons.

I noticed that Putin doesn't look well anymore. It already started long before the war. Is he ill? And I mean physically.

Never mind any alleged physical ailments, I’m concerned about his mental state. I’m guessing Putin thought his invasion would’ve been a cakewalk and it been anything but so far, and with sanctions literally squeezing Russia drier and drier by the day, what will he do once frustration sets in?

[Gray Lensman]

Really? Why…just because Texas is physically closer to you than Russia?

Also because other Republican party controlled states are sure to duplicate those laws, I imagine. Depending on where they live, it might become a problem they have to live under.

[CaptainEurope]

One thing slowing the invasion down might be cognitive dissonance by the Russian soldiers on the ground. While the air strikes have been devastating, the tanks and troops on the ground seem to be less effective.
We know that some Russian soldiers texted their parents in confusion, saying they were told this was just an exercise, and suddenly they were invading Ukraine. They are told they are fighting drug addicted Nazi Mafia, but then entire villages tell them to go home, old men kneel in front of their tanks.

[JackDaw]

One thing that I hope is changed as soon as possible is the definition of war crimes.

Right now it’s defined too narrowly I think. So it’s okay for example to kill soldiers defending their country after a totally unprovoked invasion. Even okay to kill civilians if they are unfortunate enough to live close to something like military barracks, or a military hospital.

To qualify as a war crime under present legal definitions certain types of bombs have to be used, or the killing of civilians has to be totally, utterly reckless (if some civilians die in taking a legitimate military target, then no crime.)

I think the circumstances in which the original decision to start the war should influence what is defined as a crime. When a tyrant decides to invade a sovereign nation with a freely elected government….then all the evil that flows from that decision is a crime, because that initial decision itself should be regarded as illegal.

In this case Putins war crimes should include every Russian soldier that dies, every Ukrainian defender that dies, all the scarce resources destroyed…not just those killed by particularly vile weapons.

[DanMad1977]

Never mind any alleged physical ailments, I’m concerned about his mental state. I’m guessing Putin thought his invasion would’ve been a cakewalk and it been anything but so far, and with sanctions literally squeezing Russia drier and drier by the day, what will he do once frustration sets in?

The one comes with the other. Already mentally ill, supported with a physical illness leads to more mental problems, leads to an existential crisis, leads to...

[JackDaw]

Also because other Republican party controlled states are sure to duplicate those laws, I imagine. Depending on where they live, it might become a problem they have to live under.

But in the overall scheme of things is the evil that is flowing from this anywhere as bad as that from the Ukrainian/ Russian conflict?

It’s not as if Putin’s Russia is a bastion of human liberty in all other respects! If he extends his governments influence in wider and wider areas gay, trans rights will be profoundly damaged in vast territories…apart from an assortment of other evils.

[Xheight]

Never mind any alleged physical ailments, I’m concerned about his mental state. I’m guessing Putin thought his invasion would’ve been a cakewalk and it been anything but so far, and with sanctions literally squeezing Russia drier and drier by the day, what will he do once frustration sets in?

It is one thing to hope for a cakewalk and another to have a massive military at your back if it is not. Two Chechen wars later and then the Russian army stressed the political situation. Now while the things are different, NATO is not the IIPB, Putin really does not want to turn Kyiv in another Grozny. I think our reporting is underreporting the support that China is giving to Russia and an economic shift to the east and Asia has been a long time coming.

[Xheight]

Reminder:

Was there Russian meddling in the Brexit referendum? The Tories just didn't care

there is a huge difference between what is essentially advertising and actual defrauding of an election.

[thwhtGuardian]

The Texas laws are mainly about hormone treatments and surgery.

You'll find hypocrisy on both sides when it comes to questions of agency. Some on the left have correctly pushed against child marriages, working state by state to make it illegal in the United States, even if the children and the parents are both in agreement.

People are figuring things out about themselves at 40, but that doesn't suggest that fifteen year olds should be making permanent decisions.

It's an important point to consider what's the right side of history. Progressives were right about racial discrimination, and wrong about eugenics and prohibition. I do wonder what the understanding of human sexuality will be at the time history is decided, given how much things have changed very quickly.


Previous victories on civil rights took a long time.

This has been a fast moving societal change, which means there are still unresolved questions, especially in policies involving children.

There are exactly no unresolved issues...and anyone who says other wise is transphobic. Period.

So yes, Mets is in fact defending an executive order aimed at terrorizing trans kids, rooted in a transphobic misunderstanding of gender affirming care and showing there is no low that the conservative movement can stoop to that he won't try to find some way to defend.

Yeah, that's pretty much much it.

[Gray Lensman]

But in the overall scheme of things is the evil that is flowing from this anywhere as bad as that from the Ukrainian/ Russian conflict?

It’s not as if Putin’s Russia is a bastion of human liberty in all other respects! If he extends his governments influence in wider and wider areas gay, trans rights will be profoundly damaged in vast territories…apart from an assortment of other evils.

Well, to put it differently, many Americans see these laws, especially when coupled with the wave of voting restrictions, partisan takeovers of election officials, and gag orders on teachers as the right trying to transform America into Russia.

[CaptainEurope]

there is a huge difference between what is essentially advertising and actual defrauding of an election.

So now you are lying about what I said. Typical.

[Xheight]

In other Putin-related news:

important in that they want to use the power of government to eliminate someone they can't politically - now that sounds like the actions of an authoritarian state

‘Competitive authoritarianism’ is defined as a new form of hybrid regimes that have emerged. It may be argued that these regimes are ‘diminished forms’ of authoritarianism, as they rely on formal democratic institutions as means of obtaining and exercising political authority, but they still violate the basic principles of a democracy. Elections are regularly held in these states, and are to a great extent free of widespread fraud, but the regime still has the power to abuse resources, control the media and illegitimately intimidate its opposition.