Re: The Bigger, Badder, Even More Serious Thread

[Pettytyrant101]

{{ US, UK, France and just tonight Germany are all supplying weapons to Ukraine, mainly anti-tank and stringer missiles. }}

[halfwise]

Russia knows it can't stand up against NATO. Member states have been openly selling weapons to Ukraine, if NATO is just an escort then it's skirting the line as skillfully as Putin does.

Russia's main power now is in cyber warfare - and honestly that's more effective than any nuclear bomb. And it's asymmetric: we don't have anything that compares to the capabilities of Russia and China together. The question is what red line needs to be crossed for Putin to start using it.

[halfwise]

He's really accepted the mantle of leader and rose to meet the occasion.

Holy crap, Russia's being disconnected from SWIFT!  That means Europe is willing to suffer in solidarity.

https://www.reuters.com/markets/europe/cutting-russia-off-swift-matter-days-euro-zone-central-banker-2022-02-26/

[Mrs Figg]

What a brave man. The malice directed against him is massive yet he remains. I really hope he can somehow survive, someone protect him.

[Mrs Figg]

aaaaaaand relax. 5 minutes of cute kittens to lower our blood pressure. Take out minds off war and destruction.

[halfwise]

I don't understand how a totally different species can so thoroughly commandeer our cuteness response.  We are supposed to react like this to human kids - and you put some hair and squeaky voices on them and yes, human kids are pretty damn cute .  But you'd toss'em all away for a kitten.  Maybe not your own kids, but I dunno.

Newborn babies evoke nothing in me. Zilch.  But stick a day old kitten in my lap and I'd shoot down death commandos to protect it.  Makes no damn sense.

[Mrs Figg]

Yep me too, I find human babies fat screaming blobs, but kitties make me go ga-ga.

[Pettytyrant101]

{{ Well here's a surprise, odious Jacob Reece-Mogg had 44.5 million invested in Russian bank Sberbank. Right up till 23 days ago when he sold the lot. Isn't using security briefings for financial gain illegal? Insider trading and all that?

Mind you its hardly surprising, his father did cowrite this book- }}

[Mrs Figg]

reptiles the lot of them, its time to get our knitting out and sit under Madame Guillotine. I have a list.

[halfwise]

A nice history lesson. I haven't seen this woman before, she's damn good.

[halfwise]

the famous speech from the Kenyan ambassador to the UN putting Putin in his place.

[Forest Shepherd]

I don't understand how a totally different species can so thoroughly commandeer our cuteness response.  We are supposed to react like this to human kids - and you put some hair and squeaky voices on them and yes, human kids are pretty damn cute .  But you'd toss'em all away for a kitten.  Maybe not your own kids, but I dunno.

Newborn babies evoke nothing in me. Zilch.  But stick a day old kitten in my lap and I'd shoot down death commandos to protect it.  Makes no damn sense.

Have a little baby of your own and you'd grapple death commandos with your own hands to protect him.

[halfwise]

I don't doubt it. But give me a choice between a kitten and someone else's baby and it's the kitten that would pull my heartstrings. The baby I'd protect out of a sense of duty, but the kitten gets more of the automated response.

[Mrs Figg]

I don't doubt it.  But give me a choice between a kitten and someone else's baby and it's the kitten that would pull my heartstrings.  The baby I'd protect out of a sense of duty, but the kitten gets more of the automated response.

yes I agree, I would protect the baby because I know it would be the morally right thing to do, but I would want to protect the kitten and it would give me more pleasure to do so, and strangely it would trigger my maternal instincts, human babies have never done that for me. But animal babies do it every time. No mater which other species, I prefer them to humans. I prefer baby spiders to humans.

 maybe that's not normal, but that's my gut instinct.

[halfwise]

Once they grow into kids the cute response comes out, especially for little girls who are somehow more kittenish. Even up to teenagers - but once they stop being ding-a-lings they're on their own.

[Amarië]

I think kittens only have the "oh look I'm tiny and new, protect me and forgive all the weird stuff I do" aspect. Babies triggers some warnings as well. "Are these my genes? No, not my genes and not my responsibility. DO NOT GET ATTACHED UNLESS YOU REALLY REALLY HAVE TO!!!"

Moms still suffer from the heavy dose of hypnotic drugs the brain gives a new parent, so we do weird things like smell the baby's head and go "ooooh that lovely baby smell" and so on...

[halfwise]

good point. We instinctively know what a pain in the butt our own kind can be. with kittens, after the first week all you have to do is shove some soft food in their general direction and wipe up here and there and your job for the day is done.

[Mrs Figg]

yep definitely dangerous. with kitties you know what's up, with humans you have no idea.

[halfwise]

A rather discomfiting interview with a Russian expert. She doesn't think Putin will blink; his goal is to ensure the modern form of Ukraine no longer exists, whatever the cost.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/world-war-iii-already-184545712.html

[Mrs Figg]

Putin must have children and grandkids, I cant imagine him destroying the earth for them as well. But he may have gone insane in which case all bets are off.

[Mrs Figg]

Just sent some cash to this fund raiser to help the Ukraine free press.

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2022/mar/01/thousands-donate-to-campaign-to-save-ukrainian-media

https://www.gofundme.com/f/keep-ukraines-media-going?utm_source=customer&utm_medium=copy_link_all&utm_campaign=m_pd+share-sheet

[Pettytyrant101]

{{ I think no matter what happens now its clear Putin has put himself in a position where he has to win. Anything less will be a personal failure he wont be able to endure, and a political one he wont survive. And the more desperate he becomes to win this quickly the more indiscriminate his attacks and bombardments become and the more likely if he fails he will not also lose his position and authority but be in court for human rights abuses. Unfortunately for Ukraine better for Putin he flatten and crush the entire country than be seen to fail to take it.
But he might find out, just as the West did in Iraq and Afghanistan, that taking a country with overwhelming might is one thing, holding onto one that doesn't want you there quite another thing. }}

[halfwise]

As other commentators have pointed out, you just need to look at what he helped to do Aleppo on behalf of Syria.  And the world largely looked the other way then, which is part of why he's in Ukraine now.

[Mrs Figg]

Looks like he might be forcing martial law in Russia. That look bad for the Russian people trying to demonstrate.

[Mrs Figg]

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/zmMZocKUQUU?feature=share