Storm In A Teacup: Bad Russia! Naughty Russia!

Storm In A Teacup 02.24.22	Putin really launched an all out invasion like an hour ago :-/ RIP Ukraine
Dewinged 02.24.22	I am just worried about Jinjer and the unsurmountable number of quality Ukranian black metal bands that will be hit by this moron's decisions. But in all seriousness, shit looks grim af. This is not good.
rufinthefury 02.24.22	It's not looking good for Ukraine, they really never stood a chance but they are holding out for now. Rooting for the good guys, fuck Putin. What a stupid senseless war.
Colton 02.24.22	putin's really baiting the scene eh
deathofasalesman 02.24.22	what a timeline
DocSportello 02.24.22	actual ww3 tier move from Putin
deathofasalesman 02.24.22	to think if anyone tries to intervene rn, it could get real nasty
Dewinged 02.24.22	And if they don't too.
ToSmokMuzyki 02.24.22	lol who was that idiot complaining about 1914 being history again?
Sevengill 02.24.22	album should've been the one with "Russians" by Sting. Believe me when I say to you I hope the Russians love their children too.
DoofDoof 02.24.22	China and Taiwan will follow pretty quick after - don’t think either would provoke WW3, these aren’t the do or die pressure points for the west that’d kick that off The issue is if they get a taste for expansionism and have a bit more of a nibble… If China tries to make waves in the South Pacific or if Russia gets at all silly with a NATO state then things could get dicey
Muzz79 02.24.22	Awful
rufinthefury 02.24.22	@DoofDoof if China tries to take Taiwan that is a whole separate ball game that would actually lead to WW3. Ukraine is a de-nuke'd country that has geopolitical use as a buffer for Russia, but it's not all that important to our foreign policy. Taiwan, OTOH, makes pretty much all of our computer chips. We would fight to the bitter end for Taiwan or straight up destroy it rather than let it fall to China. I'm not too worried about China forcing a move on Taiwan unless they misjudge from our response here and think we'll be passive.
Storm In A Teacup 02.24.22	Ukraine has the 4th largest total of deposits of rare and valuable minerals on the Earth. I know people talk about the NATO buffer zone and how Putin views Ukraine’s history as part of Russia being the main reasons, but surely all of those bazillions worth of resources are also part of it.
rufinthefury 02.24.22	https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lyrvIYWsK_E Biden speaking now.
Storm In A Teacup 02.24.22	I saw the last two minutes of it.
rufinthefury 02.24.22	The gist of it is that we (the USA) are imposing a ton of new sanctions, and they're actually good. Targeting specific Russian Elites and their families, the banks, etc. and a shitload of countries are joining in too. No word on China and their thoughts yet. No boots on the ground in Ukraine nor fighting at all, but we are deploying to NATO allies as insurance.
DocSportello 02.24.22	I've been reading a lot of postmodern theory, and I can't help but worry that we're nearing an "implosion" point where the logic of deterrence breaks down. Obviously Baudrillard was unfairly maligned for his arguments about the Gulf War "not having taken place"; because here we are again. Last night, NPR was interviewing Ukrainians who were 50 meters from enemy lines; this morning, they're back to talking about general US concerns, with war in Ukraine a bit of a footnote
Storm In A Teacup 02.24.22	The worrying thing to me is how Putin threatened the rest of the world. He can suddenly determine that a threat to Russia that constitutes this “retaliation that no country has known in their history” could be something we are already doing like the United States supplying guns to Ukrainians (which we’ve been doing for awhile) as a reason to strike against the US.
DocSportello 02.24.22	That's worrying, too. That message was being relayed endlessly on late-night radio: nothing we've ever seen before. Scary words. And yeah, the US has now funneled more than half a billion dollars of weaponry and intelligence, and who knows what else, not to mention the present too-little-too-late sense of NATO unity, in which we're certainly enmeshed. We are technically at war. Proxy moves might go unpunished, since we, the US, are still engaged in a war of sanctions, words, and the deep web; but hey, Putin's been waiting for this moment for a long time. Nukes very well could detonate
Sevengill 02.24.22	this all basically lines up with what I've gotten from BBC/Al Jazeera/NPR/Washington Post. Putin has too much pride to waste his efforts to this point, and according to US intel there's no one capable of getting close enough to tell him "stop". so it seems like things will keep escalating until he physically runs out of resources, which is, presumably, the point of these sanctions. he's been sanction-proofing and stockpiling for years now, though, so...ugh.
DocSportello 02.24.22	It'll be interesting to see how this topic gets shaped by mainstream media, and at this point that includes those wacky new conservative channels. My fear is that it's used as a pretext to stoke artificial tensions between left/right at the most basic and banal levels, and meanwhile we're running out of time to "stop" the ascent of American fascism. And wouldn't that just, years out, seem to validate Putin's behavior?
Storm In A Teacup 02.24.22	i've looked at fox news a few times today and every time they are only obsessing over Biden not being strong enough over this and finding different ways to criticize him.
Purpl3Spartan 02.24.22	If ww3 could not happen, that’d be great Thanks Also will check band looks goooood
DocSportello 02.24.22	Geez, that would be Fox's move. If the media can't make a conscious decision to treat celebrities like celebrities and politicians like politicians, we're fucked.
SitarHero 02.24.22	Fox doesn't care what happens to Ukraine because most Americans probably can't find Ukraine on a map of Ukraine. But they do care about owning the libs, so this is a great opportunity for that.
Storm In A Teacup 02.24.22	it's actually worse than I made it sound. Fox is saying multiple times that this whole war would never have happened if it weren't for Biden and there is no coverage on the details of Ukraine and Russia. just that Trump would have never let this happen and Biden sucks lmaoo this is depressing.
MO 02.25.22	Well its sort of true though. Biden is such a weak leader and the democrats in general have had some of the worst foreign policy I've seen in all my years of following politics. They have been terrible internationally. Russia saw this as the opportune moment. Just like when they annexed the Crimea...again under a Biden co-fronted regime lmao
Supercoolguy64 02.25.22	It’s sad when people use this conflict as a means of shitting on the opposing party as if to imply this shit wouldn’t of happened regardless of who won the last election
DocSportello 02.25.22	Biden is a weak leader, sure, but what the fuck else is he supposed to do on Day 1 of WW3 when he's imposed legitimately robust sanctions on Russian elite and surely has been involved in covert efforts to assist the Ukrainian army? Putin literally threatened the West with nuclear retaliation if we intervene. So what else should Biden do? Take a heroic dose of amphetamine and prepare an angry speech? It's like I'd predicted, America can't help but resort to basic left vs right jabs in the face of reality counterfactual to the Suburban Dream.
DocSportello 02.25.22	"this whole war would never have happened if it weren't for Biden" This whole war has been going on for years, though! Any Ukrainian will tell you how they've been having to fight against Kremlin-installed politicians for a while now
Storm In A Teacup 02.25.22	I'm not sure many Americans even remember Crimea but I do and understand there has been a real war since at least 2014 and years before that Putin probably, somehow, managed to get thousands if not tens of thousands of Russians to migrate to Ukraine and basically invade through immigration.
Storm In A Teacup 02.25.22	That's a ton of money in covert operations.
DocSportello 02.25.22	It's impossible to tell where we go from here, but should Putin go full Hitler and send his army through, say, Estonia, then the US is actually obliged to fight. It's almost inevitable that we get dragged into the death pit. We're already funding it
LelandAB 02.25.22	I can't imagine Putin tries to push into NATO countries, unless he truly wants global war. He probably wants to rebuild some of the old SSR, even though his army isn't as strong as Hitler's, and Europe is much stronger and more united than it was in 1946.
DocSportello 02.25.22	What if some NATO countries simply defect under Russian pressure?
Purpl3Spartan 02.25.22	That sounds silly to me but what do I know
Purpl3Spartan 02.25.22	Kind of would defeat the point of NATO wouldn't it
DocSportello 02.25.22	Yes. But wartime logic doesn't follow rules, it creates its own. I don't know a ton about how NATO functions, but I also don't see why certain former Soviet states might not cave under certain conditions.
Dedes 02.25.22	I'm doubtful but admittedly they've been semipassive, or at least last I knew they were. I know Germany's response was simply to send a few thousand helps and some other general military aid. It's incredibly difficult however-putin is a sociopath who is maybe very really about his nuclear threats. But can things be let idle? Hell no. Putin will only further his expansionist. God what a toxic human m
Dewinged 02.25.22	Putin is not gonna expand further in Europe people, c'mon. He's gonna build a puppet govm't and retire like nothing happened. The future lies in what Ukrainian people do with that government.
loveisamixtape 02.25.22	watching the street cam in Kyiv where a missle was shot down, need to stop watching but cannot look away
Dedes 02.25.22	@dewinged What assures you of that? Granted Ukraine is already a great win-he has (well has had) access to Sevastopol which is a crucial port in the black sea. There is also the mineral sector. But beyond that I do believe Putin wants to expand beyond Ukrainian borders, even if going as far as an invasion of say, Poland, could be a death sentence. But Georgia? Maybe even the Baltic states? Perhaps.
DocSportello 02.25.22	The bottom line is he dreams of a premillennial Russia and now he's getting his dick wet
Dewinged 02.25.22	To the west? I don't think so, unless he is mad enough to go for Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia, but yeah Poland is out of the question. South east? Georgia, hmm, wouldn't go too far though, he would be soon clashing with Turkey, etc. Honestly I think he's just psyched about the whole Ukrainia joins NATO, NATO puts their troops in my footsteps, so instead I invade them and show them how strong we are. The problem is that Putin is a cold, calculating man, he wouldn't have taken this and the next decisions if he didn't know he could win, and that's what scares me the most.
DocSportello 02.25.22	"The problem is that Putin is a cold, calculating man, he wouldn't have taken this and the next decisions if he didn't know he could win, and that's what scares me the most." This is the big problem. And why it doesn't really matter what his military plans are. He's shown the world that the very idea of borders don't apply to him. He gets what he wants. And everybody who gets that the real borders aren't carved in space should be deeply concerned about the existence of such a powerful man
Dewinged 02.25.22	Not to mention he has access to one of the most powerful nuclear arsenals in the world. And be sure he will make good use of it before admitting defeat or retreating. He has to be taken out by his people, and they better do it soon.
DocSportello 02.25.22	Agreed. The Russian deep state need to stage a Julius Caesar before the people pull something worse
DocSportello 02.25.22	Zelensky is willing to die over this. So so is Putin.
Dedes 02.25.22	I'd rarely advocate for an assassination but by God if ever there were a time. The cold War itself was only stopped by the skin of one man's teeth. For the notion of nuclear warfare to re-emerge is frightening
SitarHero 02.25.22	Threats of nuclear war are vastly exaggerated. The great thing about nuclear deterrence is that everyone understands that once anyone starts lobbing nukes we are guaranteed Mutually Assured Destruction. Therr are rumors that Putins self isolation during covid has done a number on his mental health, which is concerning. But the only world leader credibly crazy enough to hit the button is probably Kim Jong Un.
SitarHero 02.25.22	Putins not threatening nuclear war so much as he is threatening total war.
parksungjoon 02.25.22	sitar you really need to stop posting about things you dont understand, its embarrassing
parksungjoon 02.25.22	same w that mong railing on about postmodernism
ToSmokMuzyki 02.25.22	all hail park expert in all things nazi and international diplomacy
Dedes 02.25.22	@sitar You could very well be right. No side has a real benefit to nuclear warfare. Still though he is very used to being a predator, most predators do unpredictable things when pushed into a corner. It could just be a deterence sure but it's a powerful one.
rabidfish 02.25.22	It's not war it's a military operation guys, relax, go back to your homes, everything is
SitarHero 02.25.22	LMAO Park I think you should follow your own advice. xD
Storm In A Teacup 02.25.22	Weird strategy of China, they targeted Australian warplanes and even lasered in on them to make it obvious. Australia has accused China of publicly trying to intimidate them
SitarHero 02.26.22	"most predators do unpredictable things when pushed into a corner. It could just be a deterence sure but it's a powerful one." He's not really in a corner yet, nor will he likely every be from a strategic standpoint. Russia is virtually immune to invasion because of how big and inhospitable it is, and no one is interested in trying. That's why Kim Jong Un is so much more of a threat to actually launch nukes; because there's likely no non-nuclear way he could resist an invasion. So Putin's nuclear sabre rattling—against the equally nuclear-powered NATO coalition—lies somewhere between unimpressive rhetoric and truly suicidal insanity, if he's actually serious about it. On the other hand he may have backed himself into a political corner, because his invasion already looks deeply unpopular in Russia and public opinion will likely only get worse if the invasion fails or if it goes on long enough for the Russian people to start feeling the effects of international sanctions.
Dedes 02.27.22	I'm not sure he's much interested in popularity so much as consolidating the power he already has. However he might have just ignited more instability in his own country which will be a great issue for himself to deal with.
SitarHero 02.27.22	I agree. I don't think he cares about popularity either, but the unpopularity of the invasion, and the increasing strain from the war and from economic sanctions on the Russian economy and the pockets of both the average Russian as well as Putin's oligarch buddies will possibly and hopefully lead to a growing movement to remove him from power.
Storm In A Teacup 02.27.22	Well they’ve seen lung collapse missle launcher tanks heading to Ukraine that destroy a 200 meter by 300 meter area and people around the area have their lungs eyes and bowels collapse. Putin is about to just start killing everyone I’m worried.
Storm In A Teacup 06.26.23	Doesn't even feel like 8 months let alone 16 months.