Russia-Ukraine war and related tensions Megathread

[Middle-aged Europe]

Solovyov is not pleased:

https://twitter.com/KCCOvilla88/status/1515632132592660485?s=20&t=1AuLHftW88...

Spoiler for Solovyov: Ultimately, it was Putin's fault.

[pppolitics]

Might not be directly relevant within the context of the war in Ukraine, but certainly long term shows the risks to losing some of your most advanced hardware in an offensive war.

https://twitter.com/marcogiann/status/1515615169841352705?s=20&t=rgXxHQd3JTB...

[...]

The systems were transported to the Government’s Defence, Science and Technology Laboratory (DSTL) at Porton Down, in Wiltshire, where boffins, joined by two experts from the US Air Force, have spent the ten days examining them.

The initial assessment was deemed so promising that the systems have now been flown to Nevada, USA, for more forensic examination.

[...]

What was sent over?

the entire aircraft?

[DINGO Joe]

Solovyov is not pleased:

https://twitter.com/KCCOvilla88/status/1515632132592660485?s=20&t=1AuLHftW88...

Spoiler for Solovyov: Ultimately, it was Putin's fault.

No, no, no certainly there have to be at least half a dozen Admirals and Generals who should be arrested/fall out of windows for this.

[pppolitics]

https://twitter.com/CNN/status/1515736854137647115

[DaleCooper]

https://twitter.com/CNN/status/1515736854137647115

I don't understand why any countries allow foreign propaganda to be broadcast to its citizens.

[Hindsight was 2020]

https://mobile.twitter.com/olehbatkovych/status/1515748800035528709

[ugabug]

https://twitter.com/KyivIndependent/status/1515751733611409414?ref_src=twsrc%5Et...

[Virginiá]

I don't understand why any countries allow foreign propaganda to be broadcast to its citizens.

If it is broadcast over the air and some of your people are literally buying antennas to listen in, there isn't much you can do other than going door to door to confiscate them.

[Storr]

I don't understand why any countries allow foreign propaganda to be broadcast to its citizens.

If it is broadcast over the air and some of your people are literally buying antennas to listen in, there isn't much you can do other than going door to door to confiscate them.

Even the Stasi wasn't able to completely stop citizens from listening to Radio Free Europe using that tactic.

[Middle-aged Europe]

I don't understand why any countries allow foreign propaganda to be broadcast to its citizens.

If it is broadcast over the air and some of your people are literally buying antennas to listen in, there isn't much you can do other than going door to door to confiscate them.

Even the Stasi wasn't able to completely stop citizens from listening to Radio Free Europe using that tactic.

Maybe more importantly, most East Germans received and watched West German television except for some remote regions near the Polish border... areas which in colloquial East German slang were dubbed "Valley of the Clueless" for that reason because people who lived there were unable to regularly watch West German TV news.

[NOVA Green]

https://twitter.com/CNN/status/1515736854137647115

I don't understand why any countries allow foreign propaganda to be broadcast to its citizens.

It also starts to become a really slippery slope and double-edged sword when Governments start banning content and political opinions expressed within their own borders.

Before the days of widespread use of "the Internet" (outside of academia, military circles, etc...) the US was a major exporter of Neo-Nazi literature to Germany via the USPS.

Although such content was banned in Germany, it was not illegal for US Citizens to send such propaganda materials.

During WW I, the US Gvt used repression to effectively completely destroy German Language newspapers in the US, regardless of the fact that a large majority of German-Americans did not support their Governments activities.

During WW II, in the guise of "protecting America" from the domestic Japanese-American population we had huge networks of "detention centers" throughout much of the Western US, with properties seized.

The Labor Movement Internationally in the early 20th Century was subject to extreme repression, within the US context the "Palmer Raids" seemed to particularly target Italian and Jewish-American immigrants.

In the late '40s and early '50s McCarthy and others targeted individuals who were members or perceived supporters of the CPUSA (US Communist Party) because their loyalties somehow became questionable.

Sure, privately owned companies are free to censor content that violates their ToS gig, but when Governments start banning political content at what point does it go from protection against "foreign propaganda" versus outright censorship and authoritarian style Government?

Definitely not a booster of authoritarian governments and dictatorships and support the fundamental concept of freedom of speech and association, but personally tend to skew towards the side of caution in terms of how and on what grounds governments ban political content with which they disagree.

[NOVA Green]

Looks like "Containment Doctrine" is getting dusted off the shelves and will likely become the "new norm" when it comes to NATO / EU and Russia following their elective "War of Choice" (aka Invasion and Occupation of huge parts of Ukraine even after the '14 sketch scene).

Long article, so please subscribe or use up one your monthly freebies if interested.

Tons more so extremely limited and selective quoting.

Nearly two months into Vladimir Putin’s brutal assault on Ukraine, the Biden administration and its European allies have begun planning for a far different world, in which they no longer try to coexist and cooperate with Russia, but actively seek to isolate and weaken it as a matter of long-term strategy.

At NATO and the European Union, and at the State Department, the Pentagon and allied ministries, blueprints are being drawn up to enshrine new policies across virtually every aspect of the West’s posture toward Moscow, from defense and finance to trade and international diplomacy.

But the nascent new strategy goes far beyond the Kremlin leader, as planners are continuing to revise seminal documents that are to be presented in the coming months. Biden’s first National Security Strategy, legally required last year but still uncompleted, is likely to be significantly altered from initial expectations it would concentrate almost exclusively on China and domestic renewal. The Pentagon’s new National Defense Strategy, sent last month in classified form to Congress, prioritizes what a brief Pentagon summary called “the Russia challenge in Europe,” as well as the China threat.

NATO’s first Strategic Concept document since 2010, when it sought a “true strategic partnership” with Russia, will be unveiled at the alliance summit in June. “Meaningful dialogue, as we strived for before, is not an option for Russia,” NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said at a news conference early this month.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/04/16/us-nato-isolate-russia/

[dead0man]

https://twitter.com/visegrad24/status/1515633540129558530?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7C...

[ugabug]

https://twitter.com/visegrad24/status/1515633540129558530?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7C...

Pilsudski is smiling in his grave.

[Frodo]

Looks like "Containment Doctrine" is getting dusted off the shelves and will likely become the "new norm" when it comes to NATO / EU and Russia following their elective "War of Choice" (aka Invasion and Occupation of huge parts of Ukraine even after the '14 sketch scene).

Long article, so please subscribe or use up one your monthly freebies if interested.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/04/16/us-nato-isolate-russia/

Or you could look at one of the free articles on msn.com instead:

U.S., allies plan for long-term isolation of Russia

[NOVA Green]

So although much of the attention regarding this horrendous war, including on Atlas, has tended to focus on the military front, geopolitics, economic implications, and Russian War Crimes against the civilian population of Ukraine, there has been relatively little coverage of the "cultural front".

Humans are not "simply One-Dimensional Men" (Marcuse reference in case people misunderstand my meaning), but rather are also impacted by cultural influences outside of the dry world of politics and economics.

Music and Art are means of expressing oneself, even outside of the straight-jackets of Nationalism, Organized Religion.

Previously I have covered several of the major Russian Hip-Hop artists, who are now effectively political exiles. I have also covered several Ukrainian artists, including a Hip-Hop artist and Rock artist.

Also, Pink Floyd's new single, which has a personal family connection with Ukraine.

Now the latest artist to join the list is Stepan Burban (27 y.o rapper from Lviv) who combines his latest song with images from Vlada Ralko (She is a well known Ukrainian Visual Artist).

When one of Ukraine’s most renowned visual artists left her home in Kyiv in the first days of the Russian invasion, she went to the Lviv Municipal Art Center. Vlada Ralko settled in among the hundreds of displaced people who sheltered at the facility last month.

Now it’s an art gallery again, showcasing the wartime work of artists from around Ukraine — including Ralko, who spent several weeks here in silence, churning out more than 100 drawings depicting the invasion.

During the same period, Stepan Burban, a 27-year-old rapper from Lviv, added to his soon-to-be released album a track that amounts to a call to arms for Ukrainians. He swapped out the planned cover art for one of Ralko’s recent drawings, showing a bomb landing on a crushed womb.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/04/17/lviv-ukraine-artists-trauma/

Here's the Hip-Hop last minute addition to the album song translated "Bouquet of Roses" with English subtitles.

It starts with a really slow somber hip-hop beat and then as the song nears the climax the pain with heavy dual male and female vocals, before it slows down.

[Middle-aged Europe]

https://twitter.com/visegrad24/status/1515633540129558530?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7C...

Pilsudski is smiling in his grave.

Problem A is that you can't create a nation, write a constitution "immediately". You can immediately agree to the intent to do so, but this doesn't lead to immediate NATO/EU membership either.

Problem B is that a "immediate" NATO membership of Ukraine also leads to an immediate invocation of Article 5 of the NATO treaty which means the United States and its allies would immediately be in a state of war with Russia.

[Mr. Smith]

https://twitter.com/CNN/status/1515736854137647115

I don't understand why any countries allow foreign propaganda to be broadcast to its citizens.

By that logic, BBC America ought not exist. And that would be a shame. No DW either for that matter. Both of which are still far more serious or useful than the domestic propaganda we have.

Conversely it would also mean most American TV would never get dubbed or subbed overseas anywhere.

[DaleCooper]

https://twitter.com/CNN/status/1515736854137647115

I don't understand why any countries allow foreign propaganda to be broadcast to its citizens.

By that logic, BBC America ought not exist. And that would be a shame. No DW either for that matter. Both of which are still far more serious or useful than the domestic propaganda we have.

Conversely it would also mean most American TV would never get dubbed or subbed overseas anywhere.

Yeah, that's all true I was being shortsighted.

[NOVA Green]

https://twitter.com/CNN/status/1515736854137647115

I don't understand why any countries allow foreign propaganda to be broadcast to its citizens.

By that logic, BBC America ought not exist. And that would be a shame. No DW either for that matter. Both of which are still far more serious or useful than the domestic propaganda we have.

Conversely it would also mean most American TV would never get dubbed or subbed overseas anywhere.

Similar note...

Way back in the early / mid '90s there were various "Pirate Radio" projects or "Micropower Radio" activities within the US, which I was loosely affiliated with.

Not under the control of any Government, we used "Pirate Radio", inspired by activities in the UK which went back to the Punk Movement of the late '70s, to build our own radio stations to broadcast to local communities without the exorbitant fees and permitting required by the FCC.

When I was in College we had a "Micropower Radio Station" which could reach (15) Miles, and I would usually run a two hour / week slot.

A few years later hanging out with a friend of mine in OR (Deliberately unnamed location), he was involved in a project involving Micropower broadcasting.

Landlord was somewhat cool, so him and his roomies didn't get evicted, despite the FCC going to his landlord, but simply rotating houses makes it much more difficult.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micropower_radio

Radio waves are virtually impossible to jam and doesn't take much more than a battery to power a small radio station, especially if you are running a Line-of-sight gig.

Hell, Pirate Radio even featured in a US Movie: "Pump Up the Volume" with really HOT Christian Slater playing a quasi "emo" (Sorry BRTD wrong def )...

Here's a clip of the Pirate DJ playing Leonard Cohen.

[Hindsight was 2020]

https://mobile.twitter.com/PhillipsPOBrien/status/1515800504378576897
https://mobile.twitter.com/PhillipsPOBrien/status/1515801289225084933

[The Dowager Mod]

https://twitter.com/NotWoofers/status/1515819102828388361

[Storr]

It definitely looks under tow to me.
https://twitter.com/NotWoofers/status/1515821878732111880?s=20&t=bU3GC6AsFWc...

https://twitter.com/NotWoofers/status/1515823256040873998?s=20&t=WPE6I5rdyK-...

[Buffalo Mayor Young Kim]

It definitely looks under tow to me.
https://twitter.com/NotWoofers/status/1515821878732111880?s=20&t=bU3GC6AsFWc...
https://twitter.com/NotWoofers/status/1515823256040873998?s=20&t=WPE6I5rdyK-...

To be fair, a sh**tstorm is a kind of storm.

[Storr]

Are the separatists just throwing dudes out there without any training?

https://twitter.com/LatinMilitaryAv/status/1515813022232625152?s=20&t=IuC61p...

https://twitter.com/NotWoofers/status/1515811367806189579?s=20&t=IuC61pQlQpO...