Working Out Some Issues in Ukraine

[Brantly B.]

War's in the East, fellas. Let's keep it there.

[Mongrel]

We okay with me reposting the list of news & commentator resources for people to be able to do their own reading & research, so it's not buried down the Bad Posts Place? I'll just append it to this post if that's cool.

[Grath]

[Mongrel]

price gouging

That whole thread is absolute madness

6/ Incidentally, don't think that the soldier's death would clear the debt. The debt collectors will come after his relatives, friends and even his employer or employees. One collector in Rostov-on-Don threatened to blow up a kindergarten if an employee didn’t repay his loan.

[Mongrel]

As a comment from another Russian-speaker clarifies, there are multiple versions of national descriptors in Russian. Here these guys are using "Rossiyane", which only refers to citizenship, rather than "Russki" which would refer to nationality. So when the subtitles say "Russian" it does not imply that these guys have suddenly started thinking of themselves as not Russian.

[beatbandito]

As a comment from another Russian-speaker clarifies, there are multiple versions of national descriptors in Russian. Here these guys are using "Rossiyane", which only refers to citizenship, rather than "Russki" which would refer to nationality. So when the subtitles say "Russian" it does not imply that these guys have suddenly started thinking of themselves as not Russian.

If there are two different common use words for "Russian" used by people inside the country, I feel like that points to there already being a culture of not considering themselves, or them not being considered "Russian".

[Grath]

Looks like the collapse of Russia's front line is gaining momentum, and Russia's losing more of what little functional gear they have in the process.

[Mongrel]

Looks like the collapse of Russia's front line is gaining momentum, and Russia's losing more of what little functional gear they have in the process.

There's a lot going on, but one thing many people have observed is that the Ukrainians are really leaning into the Cossack part of their heritage, moving fast and being in many places at the "same" time, while the Russians are mostly garrisoned in fixed locations.

The other thing is that the former elite of the elite of the conventional Russian army has been really hit hard over the past few weeks. The 1st Guards Tank Army up north and some of the top VDV airborne units as well as another famous Guards rifleman division in Kherson. These were the very best troops Russia had way back at the beginning of the war (with some of the best equipment), and if they've been slowly shredded or have simply lost all morale (or both), there's very little conscripts and draftees can do to replace that.

As a comment from another Russian-speaker clarifies, there are multiple versions of national descriptors in Russian. Here these guys are using "Rossiyane", which only refers to citizenship, rather than "Russki" which would refer to nationality. So when the subtitles say "Russian" it does not imply that these guys have suddenly started thinking of themselves as not Russian.

If there are two different common use words for "Russian" used by people inside the country, I feel like that points to there already being a culture of not considering themselves, or them not being considered "Russian".

This may well be the origin! But it may not! I literally have no idea about the etymology in this particular pair of Russian words and language is a funny thing sometimes. If I had to make a wild guess, I'd come to the same conclusion as you, but that's just me guessing.

As far as these Donbas guys go, the video gives us a bit of both. Some Russians (the Russian officers) clearly didn't think of these guys as anything at all, but some very clearly did (the Russian soldiers who had the decency to ignore their orders not to tell these guys they were pulling out).

[Grath]

A theory from someone with knowledge of oilfields on the Nordstream pipeline explosions being the result of overdue maintenance and incompetent handling, and why it's unlikely that they were a result of military sabotage.
tl;dr issues increasing in frequency from 'yearly' in July 2020 to 'monthly' by early 2022 followed by a complete shutdown which could cause an extremely dangerous blockage; there were multiple explosions, but they were 17 hours apart - no military is going to want to wait around for 17 hours between blowing up pipelines in a busy shipping lane where they could get caught; and there's been documented cases of Russian pipelines developing issues like the one theorized, complete with improper repair attempts resulting in an explosion.

[KingRoyal]

I'll admit, my first blush was "Maybe the US did it for... reasons?" but my second thought after sitting on it for a bit was that like the oil industry has notoriously poor engineering standards and freedom to be as reckless as they please with their pipelines, so the most likely scenario is just fucked up because pipelines through the sea are difficult

Though the logical conclusion of that is that Germany and Russia just caused an extreme natural disaster because Germany fell for the bait and ended all their nuclear plants

[Grath]

[Mongrel]

This is 100% the best outcome for all involved. If anyone was ever worried, this is and always has been infinitely more satisfying to me than any possible "orcs get blowed up" video.

Apparently the Ukrainian surrender hotline is working out pretty well. The bounty of $50k USD for surrendering an intact armoured vehicle doesn't hurt either - doubly so when so many of the Kontraktniki are there to try and pay off whatever debts they had. Had a conversation recently with someone who didn't know they had payday lending etc. in Russia (they do and not only is it legal, it's as much as 1% per day).

[beatbandito]

Had a conversation recently with someone who didn't know they had payday lending etc. in Russia (they do and not only is it legal, it's as much as 1% per day).

Those rates aren't just a Russia thing. And even the states with "strong rate caps" to "stop the payday loan trap" like NY have that cap on 25% interest(edit: this is APR. The NY attorney general leaflet I found made it sound like 25% of the total amount borrowed max, even if overdue and in collections). On a loan that is due in 2 weeks. And that's only the ones that actually call them payday loans, and not just short term loans, that have way less regulation.

[Yoji]

In other news... um, I heard by way of a late night funnyman that some Ukrainians are responding to the threat of a Russian nuclear attack by organizing an orgy.

[beatbandito]

THE CIA THOUGHT PUTIN WOULD QUICKLY CONQUER UKRAINE. WHY DID THEY GET IT SO WRONG?

Secret U.S. operations inside Ukraine are being conducted under a presidential covert action finding, current and former officials said. The finding indicates that the president has quietly notified certain congressional leaders about the administration’s decision to conduct a broad program of clandestine operations inside the country. One former special forces officer said that Biden amended a preexisting finding, originally approved during the Obama administration, that was designed to counter malign foreign influence activities. A former CIA officer told The Intercept that Biden’s use of the preexisting finding has frustrated some intelligence officials, who believe that U.S. involvement in the Ukraine conflict differs so much from the spirit of the finding that it should merit a new one. A CIA spokesperson declined to comment about whether there is a presidential covert action finding for operations in Ukraine.

[Mongrel]

Had a conversation recently with someone who didn't know they had payday lending etc. in Russia (they do and not only is it legal, it's as much as 1% per day).

Those rates aren't just a Russia thing. And even the states with "strong rate caps" to "stop the payday loan trap" like NY have that cap on 25% interest(edit: this is APR. The NY attorney general leaflet I found made it sound like 25% of the total amount borrowed max, even if overdue and in collections). On a loan that is due in 2 weeks. And that's only the ones that actually call them payday loans, and not just short term loans, that have way less regulation.

Yeah, not surprised.

Up here I'm really happy they've been struggling financially for years (they've tried to expand into low-grade non-payday loans). Partially because we're similar to the strong rate cap states, but also because payday loans are just a really dogshit business model anyway; even if your debt collectors have more leeway - or even the full backing of the state! - you can't collect on money that simply doesn't exist.

[Mongrel]

In other news... um, I heard by way of a late night funnyman that some Ukrainians are responding to the threat of a Russian nuclear attack by organizing an orgy.

Yeah, the more serious preparations have been taking place for a while now (if anyone has good state-run preparations for radiation, it's the caretakers of Chernobyl and the owners of Europe's largest nuclear plant), so the possibility of a nuclear attack on Ukraine has 100% reached the point where it's

[atog]

[Mongrel]

Appreciate that detour though Warsaw.

[atog]

Appreciate that detour though Warsaw.

*pipeline passes beneath the brewery neighbourhood* *complicated system of exchanges whereby Pilsner Urquell is bled off and replaced by a similar volume of Ursa or Ciechan*