L00b

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2022_annexation_referendums_in_Russian-occupied_Ukraine The referendums have resulted in annexation of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia Oblasts of Ukraine by Russia.[161][162] On 22 September, Deputy Chairman of the Russian Security Council Dmitry Medvedev said that any weapons in Moscow's arsenal, including strategic nuclear weapons, could be used to protect territories annexed to Russia from Ukraine. He also said that referendums organized by Russia-installed and separatist authorities would take place in large swathes of Russian-occupied Ukrainian territory and that there was "no turning back".[163] Medvedev said that Donbas republics and other territories "will be accepted into Russia" and mobilisation will also be used to protect the annexed territories.[163] Russian senator Konstantin Kosachev warned that after the referendums, "protecting people in this region will not be our right, but our duty. An attack on people and territories will be an attack on Russia. With all the consequences."[164] Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov did not rule out the use of nuclear weapons to defend annexed Ukrainian territories.[165] And then you claim that I am uninformed? You’re so full of ****, it’s coming out of your ears. As for my “warmongering”, we’ve been over this so many times already, but it’s worth reiterating, since you still appear as incapable of logic or coherence as ever: I’m not supporting the side doing that invading and annexing shown in yellow in your map, i.e. the side doing the warmongering indeed. I’m supporting the side defending itself from warmongering. 1 guess about where that leaves you and posts.

You brought both the death penalty and the repatriation of immigrants by RN frigates first, sunshine: I merely reminded you that until and unless the UK rescinds memberships of the ECHR and NATO, they are not realistic prospects. As you like to judge other posters so much, so I’ll have a go: you are reliably full of **** when you are caught out 🤣

And you can ask however many times again… If you don’t understand how your argument of “holding the west to account for weapons supplied to Ukraine (to repel Russian invaders) if Putin is held to account for the MH17 missile (used to kill foreign civilians)” fails because the facts underlying the respective situations make your argument a false equivalence (as already pointed out to you by another poster), I can’t really help you further I’m afraid. About as juvenile as your earlier “if NATO weapons are used to attack Russian territory then WW3”, when it’s perfectly and factually established that your ‘NATO weapons’ have been doing exactly that for months already 🙄 😘

ECHR and NATO memberships are independent of each other. Did you know it when you typed that? How entirely predictable 🙃 (exiting the ECHR would be vastly more beneficial for the sort of unbridled ultra-liberalisation pushed by the likes of the ERG and think tanks, but better that the masses don’t cop on too early and keep looking at it as that migrant thing…after Brexit and the ensuing crop of ever-dumber Tory hand puppets, there’s still a few more Xmases that needed to be voted for by the turkeys 😝)

Can you point me to civilians who have been killed in Russia by western-supplied weapons handled by Ukrainians? https://bitterwinter.org/donbass-did-ukraine-kill-14000-pro-russians/ Oh yeah? So, err…where’s that WW3 of yours, then? Let’s see you do at least a little of what you preach, eh?

You need to go full-fat Pyongyang first, to do any of that. Exit the ECHR (for the death penalty thing) and NATO (for the RN frigates into French territorial waters thing) for a start. Better get writing to your Obersturmbannfürher quick 😉🤣

MH17 was a civilian, non-Ukrainian airliner. Russia has been found guilty of supplying the missile and controlling the shooters at the time. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-63637625 Now, that restated for context, let’s see you expand on the logic behind that notion in bold.

Utter nonsense, as usual. That peaceful solution was signed by all the parties, as the Budapest Memorandum in 1994. Russia, a signatory, has been p***ing all over it for 8 years. The co-signatories, namely the US and the UK, did not get involved until Russia invaded last year. Only from afar, at that, by supplying weapons and aid, and taking in refugees. I’ve no doubt the conflict will eventually end around a table. Even WW2 did, both in Europe and in Asia. For the rest of it, nobody this side of the Russian border ever put a gun to Putin or the Russians’ heads before February 2022. Putin’s been free to get his war toys back in his box at any time since then. Now as you’re so concerned about saving lives, why don’t you get yourself over to the Kremlin and get working on Putin fast? Last I checked, it’s still his guys doing the invading, destructing, raping, murdering, kidnapping, (…) in Ukraine, not Ukrainians doing any of that in Russia.

‘Communism (Russia)’? Still? Really?!? Such revisionist, unadulterated nonsense from the usual Kool aid drinkers and tankies in here 🙄 https://www.factcheck.org/2022/02/russian-rhetoric-ahead-of-attack-against-ukraine-deny-deflect-mislead/

There’s no such thing as ‘NATO weapons’. But if you should consider western-supplied weapons as ‘NATO weapons’ for the sake of the argument, then they have been attacking Russian territory (Crimea, Donetsk, Donbas: all Russian territory by Russian law after the September 2022 annexation referenda), for months and months already. So, well…yeah, perfectly OK, thanks.

Even absent resupplies from Iran, North Korea and other proxies of China and India, Russia has more vastly more armaments and soldiers, current and still conscriptable, than Ukraine. Quantity is its own quality, in that respect, and we’ve seen quite clearly these last 2 months, that Russia is quite happy feeding the meat grinder to excess, so long as they gain a meter’s worth of rubble at a time. So, not supporting Ukraine with armaments, invariably means that Ukraine ultimately loses and undergoes ethnic cleansing. Are you OK with that outcome?

Where governments do ‘set pay rises’, these are indexed and so ratchet up in keeping with inflation over time, whereby there never is a large gap developing between inflation and pay levels, on the scale of that which exists between NHS nurses current-day pay level and where it should be at. Reportedly, 20% (https://londoneconomics.co.uk/blog/publication/a-decade-of-pay-erosion-the-destructive-effect-on-uk-nursing-staff-earnings-and-retention-october-2022/). In some countries, like here in Lux, that indexation extends to state pensions. In more turbulent times, like now, the level and frequency of indexations is negotiated and agreed between the government, unions and employer federations, wherein the government may play with some other levers (e.g. VAT exemptions, state subsidies, etc). (https://lequotidien.lu/a-la-une/prix-plafonnes-tva-index-la-tripartite-saccorde-pour-freiner-linflation/). It’s a good system, if politicians aren’t allowed to play political football with it, because it forces employers to factor indexation into their managerial matrix (and so manage for growth and productivity as well, rather than only maximum profit-taking as is frequently the case in the UK), regardless of whether employees are unionised or not. Of course, there’s nothing to stop you being a model employee with vital skills and superlative productivity, negotiating your own pay rises with your employer (or moving jobs) in the meantime (…and then getting that better pay indexed up just the same).

Does it? Aside from the retired Tornadoes, that are an absolute PITA to keep in the air, I’m not aware of any. Britain will likely end up training Ukrainian pilots, from Provosts to maybe up to 4th gen air superiority hardware (e.g. Typhoons), very likely the US also on its UK bases. But it doesn’t have any planes to give. The US will end up doing the supply, they have hundreds of long-paid for jets (F16s, A10s, F15s) mothballed in Arizona. Putin has been threatening ‘the West’, with special mentions for the UK and others at times, for close to a year with all sorts, up to including nuclear strikes, over the supply of weapons to Ukraine. Over Howitzers, then over HIMARs and Caesars, then over Bradleys, then over tanks, now over jets… That should tell you something.

Whatever made you think that I wasn’t “owning” it? 🤨

🤧 I’m calling it as I read it. In most of your posts in this thread, not just that one. It really isn’t hard at all to discern the fundamental facts in and amongst the propaganda on both sides of this conflict. Ukraine didn’t attack nor provoke Russia before February 2022, under any stretches of meaning. Russia has been engaging in a war of aggression against Ukraine for 8 years, lately letting its troops visit untold atrocities against that nation’s civilians. Ukraine has been fighting for its existence as a country since February 2022. Anything else is waffle. And when spouted by gaslit peaceniks, attention-seeking waffle.

Putin says no. https://www.rferl.org/a/russia-putin-war-negotiations/32190264.html

Here you go The Daddy: https://edition.cnn.com/2022/06/10/europe/russia-putin-empire-restoration-endgame-intl-cmd/index.html Links to Putin’s discourse and translation embedded in the article. It’s not the only validation by far (feel free to track down and look up Putin’s own lengthy essay on the topic, “On the Historical Unity of Russians and Ukrainians”, 2021). It’s not like we’re making this up. But, and of course, enough cognitive dissonance might get in the way.

He certainly is there, by current standards. The complete antithesis of May, Johnson, Truss and now Sunak, all of them locked in permanent electioneering mode and incapable of doing any governing in the common public interest. They certainly know enough people are dim enough. Or uninterested. Same difference in context: it keeps them in power.

Brief interlude with a bit of actual Conservatism in this Punch-and-Judy show of a thread: When was the last time you saw a statesman in action in British politics? Yeah, long time back since Bercow was Speaker. Feels like an eternity, actually.

Had heard good things about the VR-ified PS5 version and was distantly keeping tabs (it’s being gifted as a prize to callers on a local FM radio show atm)… ….and then I’ll have to give it a lengthy pass, as the PS5 (console-) buying saving pot is shortly to be blown on a grail cab that’s just come up on our local online classifieds, out of the blue: an original OutRun upright, mint, with just some graphics glitches! 🤯 😳🤗

Negligent actions are usually covered, reckless actions are usually not. Negligence is failing to act reasonably, and is determined by an objective test, assessing whether a professional acted below the standard expected from a reasonable person in the same circumstances. There’s a specific 3-part test for clinical negligence, that follows this principle. Recklessness, on the other hand, is loosely defined as having knowledge of the danger associated with one's actions but not caring about the results. Kinda like Conservative MPs, really 😆🤣

Professional indemnity insurance does not cover recklessness, it covers professional mistakes. It's needed if the public wants healthcare/legal/(etc.) professionals to exist and to cater to their needs, as an alternative to self-everything (good luck with that laryngoscopy by the kitchen sink!), because no human ever made 'zero mistake, ever'.

Looks pretty sophisticated for a 'weather balloon'

Meaning poor energetic performance, so worsening the electricity consumption. Here’s an idea: get the ministry of culture to run a campaign on the benefits of online TV sans boxes. Ticks the carbon policy box in several respects, besides weaning spongers off Sky 👍🏻 That will drive up the subscription rate upwards, however. Heh, silver lining and all that. I can see the popular attraction for poverty porn TV programs. Always wondered how channels were getting such audience figures for those 😏

Because you can’t eat a mobile and warm a dwelling with a Sky box? Just a thought (based on your sentence, note; as I doubt that those caught up in the situations of this thread actually have Sky or expensive mobiles). I mean, as an alternative to flocking to public libraries and hospitals, riding busses all day long on their bus pass, etc. for a bit of warmth… …oh!