Russian invasion of Ukraine

[Saradain]

Doesn't mean it's a perma. You can get infractions for abusive private messages, which won't show up anywhere in their post history for obvious reasons.

We have hope. Who would believe he has anyone to privately message to here, and to say something so mean they get infracted?

Come now, several people got banned the same time without visible infractions, and many of them have a reputation of being stupid as bag of rocks or otherwise trolling.

Please. Let us have this hope.

[MCMLXXXII]

I've heard little birds talk these are permanent.
And it was pretty obvious it was some kind of cleansing. Different users with multiple infractions got banned all at once.

[zealo]

There's always the Brexit thread...


...just sayin'.

Not much of value going on in there in recent times, just Dribbles showing up time and time again and lying, and then getting his lies dunked on by the regulars there, all on a somewhat regular basis.

[alach]

The Lincoln Project took my advice surprisingly quickly. Hope this gains traction.



They are pretty good at getting the point across in under 2 min.

[Poopymonster]

The Lincoln Project took my advice surprisingly quickly. Hope this gains traction.



They are pretty good at getting the point across in under 2 min.

Very "Catching Fire" promo from the Hunger Games series.

[PhaelixWW]

Not much of value going on in there in recent times, just Dribbles showing up time and time again and lying, and then getting his lies dunked on by the regulars there, all on a somewhat regular basis.

I think you missed the point.

[D Luniz]

The Lincoln Project took my advice surprisingly quickly. Hope this gains traction.



They are pretty good at getting the point across in under 2 min.

Not completely accurate.
Donald wouldn't have Ukraine stand alone.
He'd tell them to kneel and lick Putin's boots then whine and try to have them put on a terrorist watch list cause they kept fighting.

[Dontrike]

Did you know that visiting Pennsylvania is election interference? Speaker Johnson thinks so.

House Speaker Mike Johnson is calling on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to fire his country's ambassador to the U.S. as Republicans criticize Zelenskyy's visit to an ammunition plant in Pennsylvania, a swing-state, as a political stunt.

The Republican speaker's demand Wednesday came as Zelenskyy addressed the United Nations in New York on the eve of his visit Washington, where he has plans to brief lawmakers on Capitol Hill about the war effort before meeting with President Joe Biden at the White House.

“The tour was clearly a partisan campaign event designed to help Democrats and is clearly election interference,” Johnson wrote in a letter to Zelenskyy.

Johnson, who is close to Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, said no Republicans were invited to the plant tour on Sunday, which he said was arranged by Ambassador Oksana Markarova.

An Army official said it was standard procedure to invite House and Senate members who represent the district where such industrial plants are located. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal discussions, said that in this case interested congressional members from the area attended.

Joining for the visit were the state’s Gov. Josh Shapiro, Sen. Bob Casey and the district's Rep. Matt Cartwright, all Democrats. The plant is located in Scranton, Biden's hometown.

The speaker's stern demand for the swift removal of Markarova, a well-received diplomat in Washington who has been a fixture on Capitol Hill since the outset of the war — even sitting as a guest in the House visitor's gallery during pivotal speeches — comes at a daunting time for Ukraine as Zelenskyy works to ensure U.S. support for the war effort in an election year.

While Biden and Democrats in Congress have largely stood with Ukraine since the Russian invasion in 2022, sending billions in U.S. aid to buy weaponry and support services, Republicans have split deeply. Trump has turned the GOP toward a new America First movement that generally prefers to limit U.S. involvement overseas, and he often speaks admirably of Russia and its president, Vladmir Putin.

Johnson said that support for ending Russia’s war against Ukraine “continues to be bipartisan, but our relationship is unnecessarily tested," noting comments from the Ukrainian government about the top of the Trump-Vance presidential ticket.

Trump in his own speech Wednesday lashed out at Zelenskyy and said the people of Ukraine are “dead” and the country itself “demolished,” raising fresh questions about the level of U.S. support the former president would provide to help Ukraine fight Russia if he returned to the White House.

Later Johnson, who said he won't be meeting Thursday with Zelenskyy at the Capitol, said the ambassador “crossed the line” and the situation requires “immediate attention and action.”

Zelenskyy visited the Scranton Army Ammunition Plant to thank the workers who are producing one of the most critically needed munitions for his country’s fight to fend off Russian ground forces.

The Scranton plant is one of the few facilities in the country to manufacture 155 mm artillery shells and has increased production over the past year. Ukraine has already received more than 3 million of them from the U.S.

“It is in places like this where you can truly feel that the democratic world can prevail,” Zelenskyy wrote on X.

“Thanks to people like these — in Ukraine, in America, and in all partner countries — who work tirelessly to ensure that life is protected.”

Zelenskyy is far from the first foreign leader to visit U.S. plants producing and selling arms to their country, in tours that did not incur Republican protests. The U.S.’s NATO partners in Europe increasingly have made a point of such visits to demonstrate the jobs and money that U.S. alliances bring home to Americans.

Zelenskyy also has met exclusively with Republicans on some past trips while in the U.S. In July, he visited Utah to speak at the National Governor’s Association and was welcomed by the state’s Republican Gov. Spencer Cox, the group’s outgoing chairman. During the visit Zelenskyy also met with Utah’s congressional delegation, all Republicans.

The Scranton visit sparked swift reprisals from the Republicans.

Rep. James Comer, the Republican chairman of the House Oversight Committee, announced Wednesday he was opening an investigation into whether the Biden-Harris administration used taxpayer-funded resources to fly Zelenskyy to Pennsylvania as a campaign event for Vice President Kamala Harris, who is the Democratic nominee for president.

"The Committee seeks to determine whether the Biden-Harris Administration attempted to use a foreign leader to benefit Vice President Harris’s presidential campaign and, if so, necessarily committed an abuse of power,” he wrote in letters to Biden, the White House counsel and others in the administration.

The Pentagon said the flight was funded by the Defense Department for senior officials from the departments of Defense and State “conducting official business related to U.S. security assistance to Ukraine.” The flight stopped at Newark Liberty International Airport, “where they linked up with President Zelensky before continuing to Wilkes-Barre International Airport in Pennsylvania,” the Pentagon said.

Senate Republicans, even those who had supported aid for Ukraine, roundly criticized Zelenskyy on Wednesday. “He really messed up,” said Sen. Markwayne Mullin, an Oklahoma Republican.

However, Sen. Roger Wicker, the top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee and a firm backer of Ukraine, suggested that Zelenskyy’s visit was not as partisan as it appeared. Wicker was planning to meet with the Ukrainian president at the Capitol on Thursday.

“If President Zelenskyy came to Mississippi, he would be accompanied by Republican officials because that’s who the people in their wisdom elected,” he said.

Everything is election interference to these pedophiles.

[Kaleredar]

Did you know that visiting Pennsylvania is election interference? Speaker Johnson thinks so.



Everything is election interference to these pedophiles.

And what about Trump, who is not president of the united states and who holds absolutely no position of authority currently, meeting with Zelensky? Surely the GOP talking heads must think that, too, is election interference, right?

[PhaelixWW]

And what about Trump, who is not president of the united states and who holds absolutely no position of authority currently, meeting with Zelensky? Surely the GOP talking heads must think that, too, is election interference, right?

Most of them think he won the election, so...

[Logwyn]

The US just dropped an 8 billion dollar aid package.

https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-...t-for-ukraine/

Is that why Russia keeps threatening nukes?

https://www.newsweek.com/russia-issu...europe-1960814

[Corvus]

Russia's decent into dystopia continues. A new law going through the duma makes discussing 'childless propaganda ' punishable by heavy fines. Of course it remains vague about what that means but just talking about wanting to be childless will now be a criminal act.

Not yet at the forced breeding stage but they are heading towards Gilead at a rate of knots.

[Iphie]

Russia's decent into dystopia continues. A new law going through the duma makes discussing 'childless propaganda ' punishable by heavy fines. Of course it remains vague about what that means but just talking about wanting to be childless will now be a criminal act.

Not yet at the forced breeding stage but they are heading towards Gilead at a rate of knots.

I can't find it right now but I read a few days ago they have plans for "breeding cities", like cities in Siberia for young couples to move to and just...breed..."hypermodern" citiesd of course, WITH indoor plumbing!

[Dontrike]

I can't find it right now but I read a few days ago they have plans for "breeding cities", like cities in Siberia for young couples to move to and just...breed..."hypermodern" citiesd of course, WITH indoor plumbing!

They think these children will be battle ready in the next year.

[Benggaul]

They think these children will be battle ready in the next year.

Well if memory serves they came up with "anti-tank dogs", so I guess technically if the children can walk/crawl...

I wouldn't put it past them given their other atrocities.

[Gabriel]

They think these children will be battle ready in the next year.

That's how it works in rts games.

[Dontrike]

Russia has reportedly lost over 650,000 troops over the past "three days."

Russia has lost 651,810 troops in Ukraine since the beginning of its full-scale invasion on Feb. 24, 2022, the General Staff of Ukraine's Armed Forces reported on Sept. 29.

This number includes 1,170 casualties Russian forces suffered just over the past day.

According to the report, Russia has also lost 8,869 tanks, 17,476 armored fighting vehicles, 25,495 vehicles and fuel tanks, 18,795 artillery systems, 1,204 multiple launch rocket systems, 962 air defense systems, 369 airplanes, 328 helicopters, 16,186 drones, 28 ships and boats, and one submarine.

[alach]

As a reminder, the russians started the invasion with less than half of that, thinking it would more than enough to do what they wanted.
They also seem to be losing more than a 1000 a day for the last month at least.
In no world is that sustainable.

[PhaelixWW]

In no world is that sustainable.

Quite apropos, Putin just signed the new fall draft order for 133k more conscripts.

Actually, this is quite standard, as conscripts are only supposed to serve for a year. They do two replacement drafts each year to offset outgoing conscripts, and the numbers here are pretty inline with pre-war drafts.

These conscripts also aren't supposed to end up in Ukraine, but, well, I'm not sure how many of us really believe that it never happens. Regardless, some conscripts have faced fighting in Kursk.

[Iphie]

These conscripts also aren't supposed to end up in Ukraine, but, well, I'm not sure how many of us really believe that it never happens. Regardless, some conscripts have faced fighting in Kursk.

Heck some got caught as POWs, exchanged and sent back to Kursk by the russians, I'm sure some are spending there second stint in captivity. (Can you imagine, getting captured, exchanged and sent back and then captured again?. I'd seriously consider defecting at that point.)