ALERT RUSSIA INVADES UKRAINE - Consolidated Thread

vector7

Dot Collector
China heavily escalating its gray zone (and overt) incursions into Taiwainese airspace in recent days, w/ multiple major USN elements in the region.

Turkey rationing power.

UAE being attacked with missiles.

Russia/Ukraine about to go off.

We are living in a Tom Clancy novel.

If China and Russia are smart, they will coordinate their military attacks.

Check mate for the West.
View: https://twitter.com/birdhillcap/status/1485615376083783682?s=20

Because they own the people running this country now...

The Biden family is entangled with and enriched by Chinese Communist Party corrupt officials. BOMBSHELL: Biden Family Scored $31 Million from Deals with Individuals with Direct Ties to the Highest Levels of Chinese Intelligence.
View: https://twitter.com/claudiatenney/status/1485641991585243140?s=20
 

mistaken1

Has No Life - Lives on TB
snip

Although the crisis has structural roots in the post-Cold War settlement, the proximate cause of this standoff is a series of political turns in 2020 and early 2021. After initially being open to dialogue, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s administration took a hard turn away from pursuing compromises with Moscow.​

Right after the commie coup in the US..... the obamanation went right back to work where he left off.
 

Seeker22

Has No Life - Lives on TB
Russia and China’s Plans For A New World Order

January 22 2022

For Moscow and Beijing, the Ukraine crisis is part of a struggle to reduce American power and make the world safe for autocrats

The western alliance has threatened the Kremlin with “massive” and “unprecedented” sanctions if Russia attacks Ukraine. But, as the Ukraine crisis reaches boiling point, western efforts to isolate and punish Russia are likely to be undermined by the support of China — Russia’s giant neighbour.

For Moscow and Beijing, the Ukraine crisis is part of a struggle to reduce American power and make the world safe for autocrats © Evgeniy Paulin, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool/AP Share on twitter (opens new window) Share on facebook (opens new window) Share on linkedin (opens new window) Gideon Rachman January 22 2022 817 Print this page Receive free Geopolitics updates We’ll send you a myFT Daily Digest email rounding up the latest Geopolitics news every morning. The western alliance has threatened the Kremlin with “massive” and “unprecedented” sanctions if Russia attacks Ukraine. But, as the Ukraine crisis reaches boiling point, western efforts to isolate and punish Russia are likely to be undermined by the support of China — Russia’s giant neighbour. When Vladimir Putin travels to Beijing for the beginning of the Winter Olympics on February 4, the Russian president will meet the leader who has become his most important ally — Xi Jinping of China. In a phone call between Putin and Xi in December, the Chinese leader supported Russia’s demand that Ukraine must never join Nato. A decade ago, such a relationship seemed unlikely: China and Russia were as much rivals as partners.

But after a period when both countries have sparred persistently with the US, Xi’s support for Putin reflects a growing identity between the interests and world views of Moscow and Beijing. According to the Chinese media, Xi told Putin that “certain international forces are arbitrarily interfering in the internal affairs of China and Russia, under the guise of democracy and human rights”. As Xi’s remarks to Putin made clear, the Russian and Chinese leaders are united by a belief that the US is plotting to undermine and overthrow their governments.

In the heyday of communism, Russia and China supported revolutionary forces around the world. But today Moscow and Beijing have embraced the rhetoric of counter-revolution. When unrest broke out in Kazakhstan recently, Putin accused the US of attempting to sponsor a “colour revolution” — a term given to protest movements that seek to change the government — in a country that borders both Russia and China. Senior Chinese ministers echoed those remarks.

Washington’s hidden hand

As Russia and China see it, the uprising in Kazakhstan fitted a pattern. The Kremlin has long argued that the US was the hidden hand behind Ukraine’s Maidan uprising of 2013-14, in which a pro-Russian leader was overthrown. China also insists that foreign forces — for which, read the US — were behind the huge Hong Kong protests of 2019, which were eventually ended by a crackdown ordered from Beijing. A convoy of Russian armoured vehicles moves along a highway in Crimea, January 18

Both Putin and Xi have also made it clear they believe that America’s ultimate goal is to overthrow the Russian and Chinese governments and that local pro-democracy forces are America’s Trojan horse. In 1917, President Woodrow Wilson of the US talked of “making the world safe for democracy”. In 2022, Putin and Xi are determined to make the world safe for autocracy.

The ambitions of Russia and China, however, are far from being wholly defensive. Both Putin and Xi have also made it clear they believe that America’s ultimate goal is to overthrow the Russian and Chinese governments and that local pro-democracy forces are America’s Trojan horse. In 1917, President Woodrow Wilson of the US talked of “making the world safe for democracy”.

In 2022, Putin and Xi are determined to make the world safe for autocracy. The ambitions of Russia and China, however, are far from being wholly defensive. Both Putin and Xi believe that their vulnerability to “colour revolutions” stems from fundamental flaws in the current world order — the combination of institutions, ideas and power structures that determines how global politics plays out. As a result, they share a determination to create a new world order that will better accommodate the interests of Russia and China — as defined by their current leaders.

Two features of the current world order that the Russians and the Chinese frequently object to are “unipolarity” and “universality”. Put more simply, they believe that the current arrangements give America too much power — and they are determined to change that.

“Unipolarity” means that, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the world was left with only one superpower — the US. Fyodor Lukyanov, a Russian foreign-policy thinker who is close to President Putin, believes that unipolarity “gave the United States the ability and possibility to do whatever it saw fit on the world stage”. He argues that the new age of American hegemony was ushered in by the Gulf war of 1991 — in which the US assembled a global coalition to drive Saddam Hussein’s Iraq out of Kuwait.

The Gulf war was followed by a succession of US-led military interventions around the world — including in Bosnia and Kosovo in the 1990s. Nato’s bombing of Belgrade, Serbia’s capital, in 1999, has long formed part of Russia’s argument that Nato is not a purely defensive alliance. The fact that Nato bombs also struck the Chinese embassy in Belgrade has not been forgotten in Beijing. Pro-democracy protesters react as police fire water cannon outside the government headquarters in Hong Kong on September 15 2019

After the 9/11 terror attacks on New York and Washington, Nato invoked Article 5 — its mutual-defence clause — and invaded Afghanistan. Once again, according to Lukyanov, America had demonstrated its willingness and ability to “forcefully transform the world”.

But America’s defeat in Afghanistan, symbolised by the chaotic withdrawal from Kabul in the summer of 2021, has given the Russians hope that the US-led world order is crumbling. Lukyanov argues that the fall of Kabul to the Taliban was “no less historical and symbolic than the fall of the Berlin Wall”.

Influential Chinese academics are thinking along similar lines. Yan Xuetong, dean of the school of international relations at Tsinghua University in Beijing (Xi’s alma mater), writes that “China believes that its rise to great-power status entitles it to a new role in world affairs — one that cannot be reconciled with unquestioned US dominance.”

Like Lukyanov, Yan believes that “the US-led world order is fading away . . . In its place will come a multipolar order”. President Xi himself has put it even more succinctly with his often repeated claim that “the east is rising and the west is declining”.

For Russia and China, the making of a new world order is not simply a matter of raw power. It is also a battle of ideas. While the western liberal tradition promotes the idea of universal human rights, Russian and Chinese thinkers make the argument that different cultural traditions and “civilisations” should be allowed to develop in different ways.

Vladislav Surkov, once an influential adviser to Putin, has decried Russia’s “repeated fruitless efforts to become a part of western civilisation”. Instead, according to Surkov, Russia should embrace the idea that it has “absorbed both east and west” and has a “hybrid mentality”. In a similar vein, pro-government thinkers in Beijing argue that a fusion of Confucianism and communism means that China will always be a country that stresses collective rather than individual rights. They claim that China’s success in containing Covid-19 reflects the superiority of the Chinese emphasis on collective action and group rights. President Vladimir Putin and Valdai Club research director Fyodor Lukyanov attend the plenary session of the 16th annual meeting titled “The Dawn of the East and the World Political Order” in 2019

https%3A%2F%2Fd1e00ek4ebabms.cloudfront.net%2Fproduction%2F5eb08432-2a61-4ebe-9818-164f6e35380b.jpg

Fyodor Lukyanov, right, a foreign-policy thinker close to Putin, believes the collapse of the USSR gave the US permission to do what it liked on the world stage © Mikhail Klimentyev/TASS

Beijing and Moscow argue that the current world order is characterised by an American attempt to impose western ideas about democracy and human rights on other countries, if necessary through military intervention. The new world order that Russia and China are demanding would instead be based on distinct spheres of influence. The US would accept Russian and Chinese domination of their neighbourhoods and would abandon its support for democracy or the colour revolutions that might threaten the Putin or Xi regimes.

The crisis over Ukraine is a struggle over the future world order because it turns on precisely these issues. For Putin, Ukraine is culturally and politically part of Russia’s sphere of influence. Russia’s security needs should give it the right to veto any Ukrainian desire to join Nato, the western alliance. Moscow also demands to act as the protector of Russian speakers. For the US, these demands violate some basic principles of the current world order — in particular, the right of an independent country to define its own foreign policy and strategic choices.

The Ukraine crisis is also about “world order” because it has clear global implications. The US knows that if Russia attacks Ukraine and establishes its own “sphere of influence”, a precedent will be set for China. During the Xi era, China has built military bases all over contested areas of the South China Sea. Beijing’s threats to invade Taiwan — a self-governing democratic island that China regards as a rebel province — have also become more overt and frequent. If Putin succeeds in invading Ukraine, the temptation for Xi to attack Taiwan will rise, as will the domestic pressure on the Chinese leader from excitable nationalists, sensing the end of the American era.

Russia and China clearly have similar complaints about the current world order. There are also some important differences between the approaches of Moscow and Beijing. Russia is currently more willing to take military risks than China. But its ultimate goals may be more limited. For the Russians, the use of military force in Syria, Ukraine and elsewhere is a way of repudiating the claim made by former US president Barack Obama that Russia is now no more than a regional power. Dmitri Trenin of the Carnegie Center in Moscow argues that, “For the country’s leaders, Russia is nothing if it is not a great power.”

But while Russia aspires to be one of the world’s great powers, China seems to be contemplating displacing the US as the world’s pre-eminent power. Elizabeth Economy, author of a new book called The World According to China, argues that Beijing is aiming for a “radically transformed international order” in which the US is in essence pushed out of the Pacific and becomes merely an Atlantic power. Since the Indo-Pacific is now the core of the global economy, that would essentially leave China as “number one”. Rush Doshi, a China scholar working in the White House, makes a similar argument in his book, The Long Game. Citing various Chinese sources, Doshi makes the case that China is now clearly aiming for American-style global hegemony.

https%3A%2F%2Fd1e00ek4ebabms.cloudfront.net%2Fproduction%2F61dc1f27-f8a7-4add-9330-4fc0ec144466.jpg

A view of the burning World Trade Center towers from Park Place Street and West Broadway Avenue during the deadly terrorist attacks of September 11 2001 The 9/11 terror attacks led to Nato invoking Article 5 and invading Afghanistan, showing US willingness to ‘forcefully transform the world’ © Jose Jimenez/Primera Hora/Getty Images

https%3A%2F%2Fd1e00ek4ebabms.cloudfront.net%2Fproduction%2F31f9dde5-1e50-4668-8fde-2704571f83ba.jpg

American soldiers hide behind a barricade during an explosion, prior to fighting with Taliban forces on November 26 2001 at the fortress near Mazar-e-Sharif, northern Afghanistan US forces battle the Taliban in 2001. America’s final defeat in Afghanistan last year has given Moscow hope the US-led world order is crumbling © Oleg Nikishin/Getty Images


A bid for global supremacy

The difference in the scale of the ambitions of China and Russia reflects the difference in their economic potential. Russia’s economy is now roughly the size of Italy’s. Moscow simply does not have the wealth to sustain a bid for global supremacy. By contrast, China is now, by some measures, the world’s largest economy. It is also the world’s largest manufacturer and exporter. Its population of 1.4bn people is roughly ten times that of Russia. As a result, it is realistic for China to aspire to be the most powerful country in the world.

But while the differences in the economic potential of Russia and China makes Xi ultimately more ambitious than Putin, in the short term it also makes him more cautious. There is something of a gambler’s desperation in Putin’s willingness to use military force to try to change the balance of power in Europe. Trenin argues that, having seen Nato expand into much of what was once the Soviet bloc, Putin sees Ukraine as his “last stand”.


As America has become more protectionist, China has also used its trading power to expand its global influence. This month has seen the launch of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, a vast new free-trade area in the Asia-Pacific that includes China and several American strategic allies, such as Japan and Australia — which the US is not taking part in. Granting or withholding access to the Chinese market gives Beijing a tool of influence that is simply not available to Moscow.

But will gradualism work? Or do Russia and China need some kind of dramatic moment to create the new world order that they seek?

History suggests that new governing systems for the world generally emerge after some kind of seismic political event, such as a major war.

Much of the security and institutional architecture of the current world order emerged as the second world war was closing or in its aftermath, when the UN, the World Bank and the IMF were set up and their headquarters were situated in the US. The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (Gatt) came into force in 1948. Nato was created in 1949. The US-Japan Security Treaty was signed in 1951. The European Coal and Steel Community, the forerunner of the EU, was also founded in 1951. After the end of the cold war, rival Soviet-backed institutions such as the Warsaw Pact collapsed and Nato and the EU expanded up to the borders of Russia. China joined the World Trade Organization in 2001, the successor to the Gatt.

The question now is whether Russia and China’s ambitions for a “new world order” will also need a war to come to fruition. A direct conflict with the US is simply too dangerous in the nuclear era and will not happen unless all sides miscalculate badly (which is always possible).

https%3A%2F%2Fd1e00ek4ebabms.cloudfront.net%2Fproduction%2Ff2c33b79-f3eb-44ed-bb0d-7d5065953c68.jpg

Iranian, Russia and Chinese warships during a joint military drill in the Indian ocean in January 2021 Iranian, Russia and Chinese warships on a military drill in the Indian Ocean last year. Will Russia and China’s ambitions for a ‘new world order’ need a war to come to fruition? © Iranian Army office/AFP/Getty Images

Russia and China may, however, feel that they will be able to achieve their ambitions through proxy wars. An unopposed Russian victory in Ukraine might signal that a new security order was emerging in Europe, involving a de facto Russian “sphere of influence”. A successful Chinese invasion of Taiwan would be widely read as a sign that the era of American dominance of the Pacific was over. At that point, many countries in the region that currently look to the US for their security, such as Japan and South Korea, might choose to accommodate themselves to a new China-dominated order.

Alternatively, a new world order might emerge through tacit acquiescence from Washington. That outcome does not seem likely with the Biden administration in power, unless there are some dramatic last-minute concessions from the US over Ukraine. But Donald Trump could return to the White House in 2024. At least rhetorically, he seems sympathetic to aspects of the Russian-Chinese world view. The former US president sometimes denigrated Nato and suggested that America’s allies in Asia were free-riders. His “America First” philosophy eschewed traditional language about an American mission to support freedom around the world. At times, Trump was also frank in expressing admiration for both Xi and Putin. And, as a self-proclaimed dealmaker, Trump is sympathetic to ideas of spheres of influence.

https%3A%2F%2Fd1e00ek4ebabms.cloudfront.net%2Fproduction%2F2008b701-1104-45c2-a92e-aa20c2672eb2.jpg

Vladimir Putin reviews a military honour guard with Chinese President Xi Jinping during a welcoming ceremony outside the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on June 8 2018 The ever closer Chinese-Russian alliance will ensure the threat to the US-led world order will not disappear any time soon © Greg Baker/AFP/Getty Images

Yet Russia and China do not seem inclined to sit back and wait for Trump to return to the White House. They know that even Trump’s Republican party includes many hawks, intent on confrontation with both Russia and China. In any case, a great deal can happen between now and the next presidential election in November 2024.

Russia’s impatience is clear from Putin’s willingness to force a crisis over Ukraine. The prospects for a new world order that is more congenial to Russia may depend on whether his Ukrainian gamble works. But even if Putin fails to achieve his goals in Ukraine, the threat to the US-led world order will not disappear. A rising China, led by an ambitious President Xi, will make sure of that.

https: //www.ft.com/content/d307ab6e-57b3-4007-9188-ec9717c60023

You'll need a heapin' helpin of New World Religion to go with that- here ya go:
AVvXsEgoXHoksYSnVtJGL4TpNNsLeCSq54kKL0ysNa-7KvjrmqWGA7g31ofWqsyMBC_mprMokMcL8ceIKAiX_8iuLXofEI9pQVykLGVzQEGrFYx8zB1u2PqqqlgW1Rut6t_vsQzCeHU5OH3uS6--kjjdEb9VfdlXDryGNB8AgmifkZClhWzjAaHYnCPEq7hyVQ=s994

Adjaye Associates have been selected as the winners of The Abrahamic Family House competition, in Abu Dhabi. The landmark project, on Saadiyat Island, is a space where 3 religions will come together with the implementation of a mosque, a synagogue, and a church. Sitting on a secular visitor pavilion, the project commissioned by the Higher Committee for Human Fraternity is a first of its kind.
 

mistaken1

Has No Life - Lives on TB

OldArcher

Has No Life - Lives on TB
Less than 5000 of the 100,000 German troops that surrendered at Stalingrad were released in 1954 by the Russians.

Correct. Russians have ALWAYS viewed prisoners as cheap labor- to be used, abused, and buried when no longer viable. Communism debases, devalues, and denigrates the human being. It should be illegal, and whenever, wherever, however found, treated only one way- with death.

OA
 
Last edited:

Seeker22

Has No Life - Lives on TB
He should be found....

I took an Oath to fight these types, so I don't consider this thread drift.

University Of Texas Accepts ‘Commie Cadet’ Who Posted Photos Praising Cuban Revolution, Communism
By Chrissy Clark
Aug 16, 2021 DailyWire.com

University-of-Texas.jpg

Correction: A previous version of this article stated that Spenser Rapone was hired by the University of Texas as a professor. It has been corrected to note that he is attending the university’s graduate program. The article has also been corrected to note that The New School is based in New York, and is not part of the university.

The University of Texas accepted a man known as the “commie cadet” as a graduate student in the university’s history department.

Spenser Rapone, also known as the “commie cadet,” was removed from the U.S. Army on an “other-than-honorable” discharge after he posted photos praising communism during a West Point graduation ceremony. Rapone has since started attending the University of Texas as a graduate student.

During a May 2016 graduation ceremony, Rapone was photographed opening his dress uniform to show a T-shirt with a red image of socialist icon Che Guevara. Guevara is a Marxist revolutionary who played a major role in the Cuban Revolution. In a second image, Rapone is seen raising his fist and showcasing the inside of his hate which reads, “Communism will win.”

Rapone echoed this sentiment on Twitter.
Communism will win
— Spenser Rapone (@SpenserRapone) January 2, 2017
According to Army Times, an investigation into Rapone’s online behavior uncovered that the former cadet used his online presence to advocate for a socialist revolution and disparage high-ranking military officers. Rapone was reprimanded for “conduct unbecoming of an officer.”

West Point released a statement after Rapone’s photos caused an uproar on social media. “In no way [do Rapone’s actions] reflect the values of the U.S. Military Academy or the U.S. Army.”

Speaking to The Associated Press, Rapone said that he considers himself a “revolutionary socialist.” He encouraged members of the armed forces to stop fighting on behalf of the United States, or as he calls the country, “the agents of imperialism.”

“I consider myself a revolutionary socialist,” Rapone said. “I would encourage all soldiers who have a conscience to lay down their arms and join me and so many others who are willing to stop serving the agents of imperialism and join us in a revolutionary movement.”

In an interview with Jacobin, Rapone said that he does not believe that the U.S. military fights for “freedom,” “truth,” or “justice.”

“I was always told growing up that the U.S. military protects the innocent, that we fight for freedom, truth, and justice,” Rapone said. “It didn’t take me long to realize that my experiences did not reflect that in the slightest… We were just persecuting and terrorizing some of the most exploited people on Earth with one of the most technologically advanced militaries in history.”

Rapone’s University of Texas biography states that he has a continued interest in socialism and conducts research on the subject. In particular, he researches “Ba’thism,” which is a fusion of socialism and Arab nationalism.

“[Rapone’s] research is primarily concerned with the question of the spirit and soul in modern thought,” his biography reads. “Specifically, he seeks to reconstruct and historically situate politico-theological ideologies such as Ba’thism and similar thought-forms in the Arab World and beyond.”

His biography fails to mention his military service or his “other-than-honorable” discharge.

Rapone’s interests are in “Modern Arab intellectual history, Modern Middle East and North Africa, metaphysics, consciousness, political theology, decolonization, [and] violence.”

University Of Texas Accepts ‘Commie Cadet’ Who Posted Photos Praising Cuban Revolution, Communism | The Daily Wire
 

OldArcher

Has No Life - Lives on TB
The drums of war are beating towards the crescendo of death of innocence, hope, and freedom. Goddamn all warmongers, for they’re too often chairborne ”warriors,” feasting upon the lives and flesh of patriots and innocents. There is NO glory in war, and those who have seen it, experienced it, do not covet it, nor yearn for it. The measure of a warrior, is how he or she fights to protect those who cannot fight, and is willing to spend their lives to acquire peace. Cowards like the current administration, have no concept of war, and what it takes to win one, rather than go on their backs, legs in the air, suing for whatever peace they can get. This country has lost it’s will to live, and readily accepts the treason of it’s leadership. One can but hope, and for those so inclined, pray, for intervention.

Me? If there are not 3% of the population like our ancestors, willing to fight and die for freedom, I’ll take an alien invasion. It’d be all good. Maybe there would be fewer traitors left when the dust finally settles. Until then, trust nobody but closest of family and friends.

As General Mattis said, “Be polite, be professional, but have a plan to kill everybody you meet.” “There are some assholes in the world that just need to be shot.” “Engage your brain before you engage your weapon.” These quotes are courtesy of www.politico.com. They are only a tiny part of a warrior’s heart. President Trump was ill advised, in firing General Mattis. We, as a nation, are poorer for that bad decision. Same thing with Admiral McRaven, former head of the Navy SEALs. Now, however, we have an administration of incompetent assholes, led by traitors.

It’s probably too late, but I still hope for strong men and women, to rise up, and lead this once great nation, back to the dreams of the Founders. Rise-up, and lead those eager to once again have hope and a future…

OA
 

joannita

Veteran Member
Hmmm... They are actually flirting with proper spacing in that first pic; much improved from a couple months ago. Those guys with funny green hats have been busy.
Yeah, my dad, a WWII vet, used to shake his head at the VN footage showing soldiers all bunched up...
 

Seeker22

Has No Life - Lives on TB
Who in God's name has to be told not to travel to Russia. Must be the same ones that have to be told not to eat Tide pods.

I was cleaning my double pane (double pain- I can't get them clean enough?!) windows this week and there was a tiny sticker written in about 4 pt. type on the screen- Warning: Children can fall through this screen. I wondered if they would fall harder if they were pushed? If we have been dumbed down this much, WWIII may be a respite and a relief.

philkar, if you think Tide Pods are good, ya ought to see the cotton candy in the attic! :D
Putin and Xi must be thanking their lucky stars for such a weak enemy. Ashamed of my country right about now...
 

Techwreck

Veteran Member
An illegitimate and corrupt president, with dementia, who is handled and instructed by people who want to tear our country down, collecting huge sums of money from chicom front companies, and now sending our troops overseas to fight for a country which has given him huge payoffs through his crack head son?

God help us is right.
 

Mark D

Now running for Emperor.

CaryC

Has No Life - Lives on TB
I was cleaning my double pane (double pain- I can't get them clean enough?!) windows this week and there was a tiny sticker written in about 4 pt. type on the screen- Warning: Children can fall through this screen. I wondered if they would fall harder if they were pushed? If we have been dumbed down this much, WWIII may be a respite and a relief.

philkar, if you think Tide Pods are good, ya ought to see the cotton candy in the attic! :D
Putin and Xi must be thanking their lucky stars for such a weak enemy. Ashamed of my country right about now...
BE AWARE the State dept also gave out a warning not to travel to Ukraine due to Russian aggression and covid.
 
Top