My posts are always the

I can only comment and half of what I see, when I open, get the community message so can't engage.

Can "the quality of posts" be "up to us" if a faceless administration is censoring political speech?

@Flyingsaucesir not just political speech. IMO its racial discrimination. Most of my posts used to be about food, folk music, classical music, history or common sense.

@Flyingsaucesir Because the moderators are in India and pro-Trump.

@Flyingsaucesir I didn’t realise we were being censored, I just thought that the site was glitching from not having admin’s input.
I’ve had the problem with it going to the Community Message a few times, but it happened so fast I doubt anyone rejected my post.
Agreed it’s annoying though.

@puff That’s pooey, sorry to hear.

@FrayedBear Who are you trying to kid? Most of your posts have been mindless repetition of Russian talking points.

@FrayedBear, @girlwithsmiles With a few exceptions, the site was operating pretty much normally. Anyone could post, and there was healthy pushback against Trumputin propaganda. In fact, I think you could say that fact-based, pro-democracy arguments were winning. Many of the obnoxious trolls who spout toxic Russian and MAGA talking points were keeping their microcephalous pin heads down. (@FrayedBear and @puff are among the last holdouts.) But then we got into election season, and the site fell apart. I surmise that the administration didn't like the way things were headed, and so they pulled the plug.

@Flyingsaucesir Keep winning arguments, I comment on reality.

@puff The other day I heard some MAGA mouthpiece for Don the Con(vict) claim that "Trump has answered thousands of questions." This MAGA zombie, like you and Trump himself, is obviously under the false impression that a lie constitutes an answer (or a comment worth reading). But don't worry, your mindless bloviations have not been a complete waste of energy. They have served to illustrate how abysmally hollow is the head of the typical TrumPutin toadie. And that is something worth knowing, in this era of creeping fascism.

Here are some mental pictures we should all keep in mind: major cities in Europe and Asia bombed to rubble; 60 million people killed; Benito Mussolini's rotting carcass hanging from a lamp post; Adolf Hitler dead in his bunker; other leaders of the 3rd Reich on trial in Nuremberg, then hanging by the neck in a grey courtyard, under a drizzling black cloud; still other Nazis relentlessly hunted down and brought to justice, no matter where they were or how long it had been since they committed their crimes.

TrumPutin's day will come.

@Flyingsaucesir You know Russia hasn't got the armed forces to invade Europe, let alone the inclination?
You don't get the cold war is over, the USSR lost. It was a war of ideologies and we are shaping up to another cold war of ideologies if a hot war doesn't kill us. Before it was Communism Vs Capitalism, fairly clear cut. Communism, pure communism as the USSR was, lost.

This time it is also a battle of ideologies;
The US led "West" and it's hegemony in the world, its rule based order.....their rules. The hangover of colonialism
Vs
An emerging multipolar world based on law, the age of empires over with no one nation or group of nations dictating to all aka BRICS.

The powerful will fight to stay King Dick, to keep the status quo. But their societies are too corrupt and full of hubris.

Just my take on things and I see BRICS nations being successful in the long run. I also see the US led West going out with a bang unfortunately. Still unbelievable that we, "the good guys", are the ones enabling the IDF's slaughter of Palestine.

@puff Putin has already invaded Europe, genius. Ukraine is part of Europe.

The war is/will be between self-government and dictatorship. In the latter, the law is whatever benefits the autocrat and his cronies. Trump has aligned himself with the bad guys, the dictators. With any luck, he will soon end up like Hitler and Mussolini.

@Flyingsaucesir Oh is Ukraine part of Europe now? Not according to the EU or NATO, with Ukraine failing to meet either organisations standards. Though I suppose some texts also say Russia is part of Europe so perhaps that is what you mean?
Still funny how the Patriot Act was reaffirmed in a bipartisan fashion when Trump was last potus, giving him these powers where he just executive orders everything, bypassing Congress. It is outdated now, that Act, so why keep it back then when it was the perfect time to get rid of it, Trump the excuse/ justification?
Because Trump isn't fascist, nor the Democrat party nor the GOP. The whole system there is fascist, doesn't matter what figurehead is potus. The system wanted to keep the Patriot Act going, which built and legalises the surveillance state.

@Flyingsaucesir at least Trump & crew now admit that the Ukrainian & Russian genocide is due to American interference in other countries. Whilst Trump denounces it it is disgusting, not sad, that the ignoramus doesn't say the same about the Israeli Jews and genocide of Palestinians, Syrians, Lebanese & Iranians. Nor relate his Panamanian, Greenland & Canadian aspirations to having similar outcomes.

@Flyingsaucesir in reply to your "(@FrayedBear and @puff are among the last holdouts" comment:
unlike your acquiescence to USA, Israeli Jewish lies & deceit on Ukraine, Gaza, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Afghanistan, Mexico, Iran, Europe, Russia, Libya, Chile, Venezuela, Puerto Rico & Cuba.
And European cities in rubble :

But you do hold the record for the worst single acts of genocide perpetrated in the 20th century - Dresden, Nagasaki & Hiroshima. . . Hang your head in shame you have nothing to be proud about.

@Flyingsaucesir In response to your "who are you trying to kid" comment : - you call it tomaito , I call it a tomato, you call it Russian talking points I ask why are Russians not allowed to express their views or as in the case of many of my posts refute the WMD -bwords of mass deception, put forth by your government that you blindly lap up as truth.

@puff You claim insight into complicated issues, but you can't even get the simple stuff right! (See the screen shot below.)

Georgia is also part of Europe, and they were invaded by.....uh, let's see....oh,... Russia!

Chechnya is also part of Europe, and was also invaded by Russia.

Putin's Russia is a very poorly run country. The average Russian's income is less than that of the average Indian's.

Why is Russia so bad off? It doesn't have to be. It's rich in natural resources and human capital.

The reason Russia is lagging economically is that, like most dictatorships, it's also a kleptocracy. The dictator plunders his own country's wealth, leaving the vast majority of citizens to beg for and/or fight over scraps. (This is how an ex-mid-level KGB agent gets to become one of the richest men on the planet.)

In order to prove his legitimacy, the dictator tries to expand his territory through military invasion and illegal annexation of their neighbor's lands.

All Europeans have good reason to distrust Russia, and be prepared to repel an invasion by Russia as long as it is ruled by Putin or any other dictator.

@FrayedBear It's true that the bombing of Dresden, Hiroshima, and Nagasaki were terrible events. But they would never have occurred if the fascists Hitler and Mussolini had not started the war and tried to annex all of Europe, and if the Empire of Japan had not tried to do the same in eastern Asia. Germany, Italy, and Japan were the aggressors in WWII, and as such they were ultimately responsible for everything that happened in the war, including the bombing of Dresden, Berlin, Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and many other cities, and over 60 million dead before their time.

Now it's Vlad the Invader who is the aggressor, and Russia is ultimately responsible for every soldier and civilian killed, every hospital, school, and apartment building bombed, every person maimed or killed by a land mine for generations to come.

@Flyingsaucesir OK then lets assume, Russia is the enemy.
Read Burns email from 2008, "nyet means nyet". It was not Putin who was against Ukraine/ Georgia joining NATO, the whole Russian establishment was against it. Putin is not a dictator, the Kremlin run the country and Putin answers to them. What warmongers in the West fail to understand is Putin is the moderate in the Kremlin, he holds Russian warmongers back. Know thy enemy.
You will never win the war if you badly understand the enemy. The Russian people were not all in on this war with Ukraine, until some Einstein decided it would be a good idea to enter Kursk using German tanks. That unified the Russian Federation, no idea why (sigh).
You cannot say any country is poorly run when they are artificially swamped with sanctions/ tariffs etc. But these countries will navigate the next stock market crash better than most as they no longer are totally dependent on the $USD, there is some poetic, ironic justice in that.
You say Europe has good reason to fear Russia. Well Russia has genuine security fears of Europe using Ukraine to invade eg we had Napolean, we had the Crimea war and we had the Nazi's all invade Russia through the same area.
Putin gained power what, 1999, when Yeltsin was in power and Russia was a basket case. To deny he has been beneficial to Russia is to deny reality, blinded by "American exceptionalism" ideology.
The West fucked up in Ukraine and now there are a million dead. Not so big and tough as you thought you were hey imperial arm NATO? How are them Houthi's going? Genocide enablers, little time for the US anymore. Same as I have little time for Nazi's/ Israeli's, fascist genocidal societies both.

@Flyingsaucesir "You claim insight into complicated issues, but you can't even get the simple stuff right! (See the screen shot below.) "

Your reading comprehension needs work. I stated that Ukraine is not part of the European union nor is it in NATO. Ukraine may be geographically in Europe but so is Turkey, who also are not in the EU but are in NATO.

@Flyingsaucesir I am very familiar with Laos PDR (Saibai dee) so your concern for bombed cities is sobering I admit, but so is all the UXO we had to clear and the 10's of people, mainly kids, who still lose limbs every year either collecting scrap metal or plowing fields. There is UXO issues in Viet Nam, Cambodia, Iraq (depleted uranium there), Afghanistan and now Gaza etc. Ukraine will also have a huge UXO problem in the future with the UK and others sending depleted uranium shells there too.

What is the common theme of all except one of the UXO affected countries I have mentioned? Clue, it's not Russia, or China, or Iran or Venezuela or whatever other countries are in the US's bad books (excepting Ukraine).
Not many nations purposely wiped out a species, Bison, to ethnically cleanse their new colony ie the US is in no position to lecture anyone on this topic.

@puff Ukraine could very well be in the EU and NATO someday. Hopefully they will be. They were headed that way before Russia invaded in 2014. But the NATO charter does not allow a country at war to join. And matriculation into the EU is also a complicated and lengthy process which is made more even more complicated by active armed conflict.

Ukraine and western Russia, at least as far east as Moscow, are part of Europe, full stop. Your "some texts say..." indicates that you don't really know, which is consistent with your general lack of sophistication and appreciation for nuance.

@puff You may recall that Nixon's "secret" bombing of Cambodia was met with a tsunami of public outrage when the news broke. Hell, even before that, the country was split on whether we should have even been in Vietnam. Defense Secretary Macnamara lied that the war was winnable (as we eventually found out in the Pentagon Papers). But the Domino Theory had a lot of influence back then. And not without some good reason. The Communist manifesto specifically articulated violent overthrow and expansion beyond present boundaries as a central goal. Looking back, that we should have gotten involved in Vietnam's civil war is not at all surprising, given our experience in Korea. In that case, we prevented takeover of the whole peninsula by a bloody and despotic dictatorship, saving millions of people from abject poverty, sickness, and death. And we gained a staunch ally and good trading partner in the bargain. In stark contrast, and by any measure, North Korea is a shithole, thanks to the criminal Kim dynasty. We did well to stop them where we did. Who knew that Vietnam would be different? Thank goodness the regime there is a bit more benign. But back in the 50s, 60s, and 70s, who knew?

@puff You seem to think two wrongs makes a right. News flash: they don't. There is no justification for Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Period. It's just naked aggression in order to legitimize a creep's (or a cabal of creeps', as you suggest) hold on power. Russia's economy was shit before 2014, before sanctions were applied. Why? Because Putin and his cronies had been relentlessly looting the country ever since he took power in the 90s. Before Elon Musk, you know who was the richest man in the world? Vladimir Putin! And on an ex-mid-level-KGB agent's pension! Amazing, right? Well, not amazing when you realize the kinds of things that Vlad the Invader is willing to do to grab money and power.

@Flyingsaucesir "Ukraine could very well be in the EU and NATO someday. Hopefully they will be. They were headed that way before Russia invaded in 2014"

I think you will find that the democratically elected government that was overthrown via violent coup in 2014 was actually leaning towards accepting Russian investment rather than IMF, the reason for the coup. Russia took Crimea once the civil war broke out, which most countries now recognise as Russian territory, given legal legitimacy through referendum accepted by the Kremlin as per UN guidelines and international law.. NATO nations started arming the Kiev side during this same period, building biolabs and CIA outposts, with the Minsk agreement being a bad joke for the Ukranian population and all about arming Ukraine.
If you look at a map of Ukraine, the ethnic lines, language lines and voting lines, they pretty well match the current front lines in this war. It's the time for peace if there was ever one. The civil war resulted in the nation breaking into two, as ZNATO encouraged in Yugoslavia.
Ukraine needed some social programs and to clean up their corruption before the EU could accept them. The rest of Europe snobbishly looked down on Ukranian people as poor, outcast cousins as thy do most former Eastern Bloc countries. But NATO, an unelected defense pact, persuaded Ukraine that joining them was a back door into Europe. Admittedly for practical purposes, this has turned out to be true.

@puff Victor Yanukovich was a Russian puppet, installed in Kiev by the Kremlin, and the Orange Revolution was a reasonable popular reaction to that illegitimate regime. The people of Ukraine very understandably wanted to distance themselves from the corruption of Moscow, and join the ranks of free nations to their west. A major trade deal with western Europe was all set to be implemented when Yanukovich, under orders from the Kremlin, scuttled the deal and replaced it with something far inferior: a pact with Russia. The only coup in 2014 was the one where Russian soldiers sans insignia (little green men) illegally crossed into Ukraine to commit murder and sabotage. Zelenskyy was democratically elected in a fair election, and to this day, even after three years of brutal war, enjoys popular support among Ukrainians far above anything Vlad the Invader or Don the Con(vict) ever got on their best days.

@Flyingsaucesir "Zelenskyy was democratically elected in a fair election". Yes he was, but you forgot to mention on a platform of improving ties with Russia. Ever wondered why no sabotage occurs in the Donbass/ Crimea etc? With a civil war on and being in "enemy" held territory, you would think there would be resistance, like Hamas. It's almost as if the locals approve of their change of nation status.

@puff Any reasonable person would count getting out from under the yoke of Russian imperial despotism as an improvement in relations.

@Flyingsaucesir It's a shame they were made to choose, could have had both.
A shame countries are used as proxy's for expansionist empires confronting rivals, we agree on that.
We just differ what empire seeks expansion.

@puff It's not at all clear what Trumpty Dumpty means with his bloviations about annexing Greenland, Canada, and the Panama Canal. This imbecilic rhetoric certainly does not represent the sentiments of the American people writ large. Does the USA have a history of imperialism? Yes indeed, but that pretty much ended with Teddy Roosevelt. Since then, it's been mostly meddling in foreign politics, propping up puppet regimes in 3rd-world countries, ones that would be friendly to American business interests, principally, the fossil fuel industry. The FFI still has a death grip on our economy, but it's slipping. Like the tobacco industry before them, they can read the handwriting on the wall. They know they're dinosaurs, and are liable for trillions of dollars in damages. Their denial of science has worn thin of late, what with all the off-the-fucking-charts heat waves, floods, fires, droughts, etc. So they put their money behind a shameless science denier. And with his election, they have bought themselves a little more time, a few more super yachts and Russian sex dolls. But the age of imperialism is over. At least it was, until Russia invaded Ukraine. After WWII, did the USA annex Germany, Italy, or Japan? No. We helped them rebuild their shattered countries. And the 80-year peace that followed payed big dividends to those parties and many others to boot. Now that peace has been broken by a corruptly led Russia. And Russia, with the help of the fossil fuels industry, tax-averse billionaires, Christian nationalists, White supremacists, neo Nazis, numbskull conspiracy theorists, gun nuts, and loser incels, has now finally realized its long-held desire to install a Manchurian candidate in the Oval Office. Happily, it is not in our DNA to accept rule by a dictator or king. And while His Felonious Malignancy may relish his power and dream of keeping it, he is doomed to failure. Trump may have won the popular vote, but he did not win a majority of the votes that were cast. And, perhaps even more importantly, nearly 90 million eligible voters did not vote at all in the 2024 election. While Trump got around 77 million votes, about 167 million eligible voters did NOT vote for him. (Harris got 75 million votes; the Green, Libertarian, and Mickey Mouse Parties got about 3 million; and 89.7 million eligible voters did not vote.) His Felonious Malignancy is skating on extremely thin ice. It's already cracking under the weight of his fat orange arse.

@Flyingsaucesir I mostly agree with what you said, besides the "Russia the eternal bad guys" sentiment.
I would say the age of US imperialism went into warp drive after Sept the 11th 2001. The Patriot Act is what removes Congress from the role of approving war, removes a lot of those checks and balances which made the US Constitution/ Bill of rights so good. But the worse thing the Patriot Act did to America was allow a surveillance state to flourish, legalise torture etc etc.

I still wonder why the Patriot Act was overwhelmingly extended by bipartisan vote when Trump was last president, the perfect time for Congress to get rid of it with public support. Why I say the system is fascist there, rather than a particular party or personality.
Our politicians here like their jack boots too.

@puff Before Trump, America's worst president of my lifetime was George W. Bush. (I go back as far as Ike.) Even so, the USA did not annex any part of Iraq or Afghanistan. Nation building, however misguided, ill-conceived, ill-inspired, and ham-handed, is not necessarily imperialism. It might just be just a mixture of naked greed and stupidity.

You wonder why so many in Congress just go along to get along? It's simple. They like their cushy jobs,
they doubt their own abilities to educate their constituents, and they're cowards.

The Patriot Act should never have been signed into law in the first place.

@Flyingsaucesir I don' think history will be kind to Biden.

@puff Biden made some mistakes:

1. Following through with Trump's plan to exit Afghanistan; he should have re-negotiated, and included the Afghan government.
2. Not clamping down harder on illegal immigration sooner.
3. Continuing to supply Israel with offensive weapons when it became clear that Netanyahu didn't care how many civilians were killed in Gaza.
4. Not declaring his non-candidacy a year or more earlier than he did.
5. Not pushing Garland to prosecute Trump sooner, or not finding an Attorney General who would
6. Being too slow, overly cautious in arming Ukraine

On the other hand, he did some really good things:

1. Chips Act
2. Infrastructure investment
3. Green energy investment
4. Re-entering Paris Accord
5. Rebuilding relationships with allies
6. Arming Ukraine
7. Shepherding the country through the pandemic; supporting the scientists
8. Stimulating the economy just enough to lessen the pandemic damage, but not overheating the economy; avoiding a recession with a "soft landing"
9. Lowering inflation more and faster than any other developed country.
10. Being a sane, stable, intelligent presence in the White House and on the world stage
11. Not being Trump (i.e., a malignant narcissist, an ignoramus, a psychopath, an incompetent boob, etc.)

@Flyingsaucesir With your list of achievements, "Don't listen to what they say, watch what they do"
The thing with Biden, you have to include his time as VP, especially Ukraine.

The history of this Russian/ Ukraine war will tell how he enabled it as VP, Obama's "Ukranian" man.
All his "Green" credentials were undone by Blowing up Nord Stream and increased military activity eg pipelines from near Neighbours by far the most environmentally friendly way to transport hydrocarbons if they are that worried about climatic changes..
The USA did not weather covid well compared to other nations.
#10, are you for real? His mental deterioration was covered up by Democrats and the WH with a complicit media, until all were "shocked" at the debate.
Rebuilding relationships......maybe. But that was undone with the blind support of the IDF, a bipartisan effort from the states.
A major flaw of Democrats was the inability to criticise their own party. The GOP has the same flaw with Trump it seems.

@puff With all your talk of wanting peace, you are way too willing to give Putin, or the Kremlin cabal headed by Putin, a pass for the ultimate act of aggression, a genocidal military invasion of a sovereign nation. Let's be clear: there is NEVER an excuse for such an act.

Ukraine did not and does not pose a threat to Russia. Ukraine's only sin was/is aspiring to the freedom to choose their own leaders, and not have a puppet of the Kremlin forced upon them. And yet Putin ordered an invasion. And he has said in so many words that Ukraine as a nation does not exist, and that he intends erase Ukrainians as a people and to annex all of their territory to Russia. That's the very definition of genocide.

It's not unusual for neighboring countries to have disputes of one kind or another. And when there is tension, it's also normal for them to work it out peacefully. This is the norm that existed in Europe for the last 80 years. We call it the "rules based order." All the normal channels for peaceful resolution of disputes was open to Russia, yet they did not avail themselves of those peaceful alternatives. (How could they? There was no wrong to be corrected, no case to be brought to court.) Instead, Russia went directly to war. Russia's behavior is not unlike that of a schoolyard bully, who backs his smaller schoolmate into a corner and asks, "What did you say about my mother?" Of course, the little guy never said anything at all; he doesn't go around picking fights with anybody, much less someone ten times his size. That's exactly what's going on here, except in this case, the bully does not just want the smaller kid's lunch money; he wants to utterly destroy the little guy.

You imply, WITHOUT EVIDENCE, that Biden somehow provided an excuse for Russia's invasion of Ukraine. But there is in fact no legitimate excuse for Russia's behavior, and no evidence that Biden ever acted corruptly. You simply parrot Kremlin talking points. What does that make you? A minion, at best. Put that together with your hollow talk of peace, and that makes you a hypocritical minion.

@Flyingsaucesir You do understand 12000 died from 2014 until Russia "invaded"? If 12000 "Merican" speakers/ cultural heritage American Mexicans were target by the Mexican govt, installed after a coup enabled by a third country, with everything "Merican" banned including art, language and religion.......how would have America reacted?
You don't mention the Minsk's agreements
You don't mention NATO not expanding one inch Eastwards, the commitment given which allowed Germany to reunify.

"Ukraine did not and does not pose a threat to Russia".
Learn some history as many European conquers have invaded Russia through what is now Ukraine. From Vikings, Muslims/ Ottoman Empire, Napolean, the Brits and their Crimean war and the Nazi's. Plus the little fact Ukraine invaded Russia via Kursk, using German tanks the twits which just unified Russia behind Putin's stance that NATO in Ukraine was an existential threat to Russian Federation sovereignty.
If NATO had not enabled the destruction of Syria and Libya, I doubt the Russians would have invaded.
If NATO had not been arming Kiev rather than enforcing the Minsk agreement as they were meant to, I doubt Russia would have invaded.
If Russian heritage/ speaking Ukranians were not specifically targeted by Kiev, I doubt Russia would have invaded.
If NATO disbanded when the Warsaw Pact did, Ukraine would not be an issue.

Ukraine had peace in April 2022, a month after the invasion. But neutrality was unacceptable, not to Ukranians, to NATO. A third party defense pact could not accept neutrality as it had an unvoted for agenda to expand. NATO suck and are no force for peace.

Your big bully/ little guy analogy fits Israel/ Palestine far more accurately. As it does with USA Vs Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia, Yemen etc etc. Who is the bully in our world? Who weaponises currency?

@puff You can spout Russian talking points all day long, it won't change the fact that Russia is the aggressor here. The numbers and narrative you repeat are just fabrications. The truth is that authoritarian kleptocrats like Putin always try to justify their hold on power by scapegoating and persecuting some minority group, or conquering, annexing, and looting some other country. And as the dictator's military campaigns grind human lives into dust, their propagandists work overtime to cover up the crimes with lies just like the ones you repeat. But hey, if you have so little regard for your own dignity, that's your business. Just don't expect to swallow that bullshit you appear to find so tasty.

@Flyingsaucesir Where did I lie?
You dispute 12000 odd died between 2014 and 2022 in Ukraine?
You dispute the Minsk agreements were done in bad faith by Europe, the security guarantors of that agreement?
Do you dispute NATO agreed to not expand East when the idea of Germany reunifying came up?
Do you dispute that region has been used to invade Russia before?
Do you dispute the Istanbul Communique occurred?
Perhaps you dispute NATO destroyed Libya and blame Russia or China instead?

Or is all you can say is Putin's puppet crap?

@puff There you go again with your Russian disinformation.

Following the Putin puppet Yanukovich's ouster, Russia fomented insurrection in eastern Ukraine. The Minsk Agreements were good-faith attempts by Ukraine and Europe to end the fighting. Russia signed the ceasefire agreements, but then repeatedly violated them. Thousands were killed as a result of this Russian aggression. So yes, I dispute your absurd assertion that Europe and Ukraine acted in bad faith. Again, a little guy does not pick a fight with someone three times his size.

It's true that Napoleon, and later Hitler, passed through Ukraine to attack Russia. The lesson here is that autocrats or dictators are not to be trusted, ever. Now where do we find such people today? Well, in descending order of virulence, Russia (Putin); and Belarus (Lukashenko); and Hungary (Orban); and Turkey (Erdogan). In other words, the closer you get to Russia, the more autocratic the rulers, and the less free the people.

The Ukrainians very understandably wanted to avoid the fates of the Russian satellites Belarus and Hungary, so they tied a can to Yanukovich. And then Russia invaded, first with operatives in civilian clothing, then with soldiers without insignia on their uniforms (little green men), and finally with soldiers with Russian insignia.

So it is completely understandable that Ukraine should want to join the EU and NATO. Bloody dictators can march their armies west as well as east.

And it is likewise very understandable that the EU and NATO should seriously consider admitting Ukraine into their alliance. Dictators are like the farmer who says, "I don't want to own all the land, I just want the land that borders my land." If Putin is allowed to take any part of Ukraine now, his hunger will not be sated. He will gobble up the rest later. And then Poland and the Baltics will be on the menu. It's how dictators justify their existence.

@Flyingsaucesir We source our information differently
[wsws.org]
[thenation.com]

@Flyingsaucesir You want to talk of assurances/ treaties being broken? This the opening of the link below
"Relations between Ukraine and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) started in 1991 following Ukraine's independence after the dissolution of the Soviet Union."

But read on.

"Ukraine's Declaration of Sovereignty, adopted by parliament in 1990, declared it had the "intention of becoming a permanently neutral state that does not participate in military blocs and adheres to three nuclear free principles" (art. 9)."

and then

"The Constitution of Ukraine, adopted in 1996 and based upon the Declaration of Independence of 24 August 1991, contained the basic principles of non-coalition and future neutrality."

Ukraine joining/ engaging with NATO broke their own founding document, made in 1990 before the USSR fell. And confirmed 6 years later. Neutrality.
Ukraine does not exist today on the principals on which it was formed, allowing its formation and reaffirmed 6 years later. The Russians have a point, something to talk about. Negotiate. Diplomacy. This war should have never happened. Wouldn't have happened if NATO had no agenda to expand, defense pact with an agenda to expand even if that pisses other countries off when they site military hardware at their borders, also NATO agenda. NATO suck.
[en.wikipedia.org]

@Flyingsaucesir No Ukraine is not part of the Eu,though technically Europe in that it is on the European continent.
The Ukrainian war has nothing to do with self government as they already had that .
The US, UK and French hegemony is engineering the war for their own aims.
Follow the resource and money trail.
Europe raped the African nations of their wealth for years, this is now drying up as these nations seek independence, hell even join Brics sometimes.
Ukraine has valuable rare metals and uranium, Gaza has massive oil and gas reserves in it's territorial waters.
Thump is a loser, controlled by the hegemony, he will be burned as soon as his job is done.

@puff Before Russia invaded, Ukraine only aspired to be out from under Putin's thumb, and free to sign trade deals with the West. It was Russian aggression that really got the talk of joining NATO going. Ironic, isn't it? Not only has Putin's aggression highlighted the necessity of Ukraine being in the Atlantic alliance, but it also spurred two other countries, Sweden and Finland, to join after having remained neutral for so long. Double irony!!

@vocaloldfart Well, we agree that Trump is a loser, but that stuff about the US, UK, and France engineering the Ukraine conflict is bonkers. As conspiracy theories go, it's right up there with Q-Anon. Wow! But thanks, I can always use a good laugh

@Flyingsaucesir Yeah well done Finland, also breaking a neutrality agreement and they now have a militarised border.
What's NATO going to do regarding Trumpian plans for Greenland? Demark will invoke article 5 if Greenland gets unwanted attention.

@puff All Trump's blather about Greenland, Canada, and Panama is just theater. It's meant to be a distraction, so we take our eyes off his other hand, the one that he's got in the till, up to his fat orange elbow! Ya know he's fixin' to add like 8 trillion dollars to the national debt, right? Keep your eyes on that hand.

@Flyingsaucesir Ye who laughs last last loudest. Let,s see who laughs.

@puff thanks puff for the links. They look interesting.
Truth is like a diamond. Many bloody facets, we only see the facets that shine and attract our eye.
The other facets are just as vital to the gem and shine too when the gem is moved in the light.
Pity we only see what we want to see, failing to look at the whole truth.

@puff Perhaps Greenland can be bought now that they are having an election for independence.
Should this not happen, I cannot see NATO idly standing by while another member of Nato is being attacked by Thumps bully boys.
Also the Arctic circle is the playground and domain of the Russian military. I cannot see Russia allowing the US to get the natural resources and strategic asset. Us already has some military assets on the island, as yet not a major military stronghold.

@puff, @Flyingsaucesir you talk of Putin being such an aggressor?? Yet every word in your description of the despot fits the US to the letter. So tell the world who is the real aggressor??/ Putin's Rusia or Thumps U.S??
Let us not forget that the Jewish comedian was installed after a coup. He, Zelensky, is laughing now let's see later in the future who laughs the most???

@vocaloldfart The thing with the US buying Greenland, what with? Already in debt.

@vocaloldfart Zelenskyy was not "installed." He ran for office and won in a free and fair election. Before Trump and Vance ganged up on him in the Oval Office, his job approval back home was 57%. After the OO, it shot up to 68%.

I guess you could call the Orange Revolution a coup, but it went off relatively peacefully. And if the OR is a coup, then the American Revolution was one too.

I have never denied the USA's history of bad acts. But supporting Ukraine against Putin's Russia is not one of them. It's a noble project.

@Flyingsaucesir True that Hitler and co were the aggressors in WWII, but it was America who financed and supplied arms to Germany right up until the attack on Pearl Harbour. The US stopped Japans access to oil from the philipines)
Reading your RT columns daily , I suggest you try reading other news sources . @puff suggested 2 which give one slant on events, there are others. Solely relying on RT as you source and criticisms, is not doing your arguments any good, they are less than convincing.

@vocaloldfart I think you are confused. RT is a Kremlin propaganda organ. Not only do I not use it as a source of information, but what I'm saying runs completely counter to the bullshit they spew.

@Flyingsaucesir , @puff Biden's mother made a mistake when she opened her legs to Joe's father!

@Flyingsaucesir, @vocaloldfart @puff Well said Mr Putin - READ IN FULL: Putin’s statement on Trump’s Ukraine ceasefire proposal [rt.com]

I doubt that you'll go find it reported by the BBC, CNN or Fox News.

@puff China already owns the American debt.
As debt collectors they can foreclose.
The Us has to pay billions in interest. China, Russia and Iran have been buying gold Americas gold big time
The US now has nothing to back up it's dollar.
Tariffs are a very smart move to distract that America can only pay its bills with counterfeit/ faux money.
The population is very busy checking for immigrants to deport. political opponents to vilify, ethnic groups and races
The average American is smart, aren't they???

@puff, @Flyingsaucesir I take it you bothered to google the owners and producers of RT???
I did and got a different result . So tell me is Fox news American propaganda?
What about CNN or ABC?? are they Thumps propaganda rags??
Please enlighten me.

@vocaloldfart Fox "News" is certainly biased in favor of Trump, or at least has been up to very recently. That, however, could change at any time. If Trump's popularity plummets among his MAGA cult acolytes (the core of Fox's viewership), Fox will pivot to protect their almighty bottom line. You can take that to the bank.

@Flyingsaucesir So what is the difference between R.T and the US versions?
My personal opinion is that both country "news services" are the propaganda tools of their respective governments and their vested interested backers.
you cannot condemn and vilify R.T without applying the same standard to the US "news services"
Both nations cannot tolerate being honest and truthful to their public.
The truth is out there.....Somewhere past Pluto and leaving the solar system rapidly.

NPR/PBS only gets a small fraction of its funding from the government, is not under the editorial control of the government, and is staffed by real journalists, independent of the government, who make every effort to deliver unbiased reporting.

For instance, the PBS NewsHour always gives equal time to representatives of both sides of an issue. As a longtime viewer I have heard as many Democrats as Republicans, as many liberals as conservatives, express their views or make their arguments on that program. That has not changed in the 40+ years I have been watching.*

RT is none of these things. In fact, there is no truly independent journalism in Russia. That has all long since been shut down.

The Washington Post's owner, Jeff Bezos, recently chickened out of allowing the WP editors to publish their endorsement of Kamala Harris in the days leading up to the election. This was a sad and shocking display of cowardice, but even so, there is still good journalism going on there.

Journalism is a human endeavor, and as such it is bound to be marred by imperfections. We should view it on a sliding scale, ranging from mostly accurate and unbiased on the important issues at one end of the continuum, to inaccurate and very biased at the other end.

Putin's Russia does not value free speech, and does allow free expression of ideas. Its media exists near the biased end if the scale. That bias is always in favor of Putin and the Kremlin.

The USA has a diverse media ecosystem, with outlets that land all over the continuum. And any outlet's position on the continuum can change at any time, based on their latest editorial decisions. Fox has been pretty consistently in the tank for Trump/MAGA, but again, they can and do pivot to positions they think will protect or enhance their profits. The Washington Post has been pretty consistently unbiased, reporting the unvarnished facts. Bezos' recent display of cowardice is a troubling sign. We hope WaPo does not slide further.

*Note that since at least the late 1950s there has always been in most American media an implicit bias in favor of democratic values such as free speech, broad voting rights, egalitarianism, rule of law, due process, etc. This is good bias. There is no need to apologize for it.

Yeah it’s a confusing mess.

Thank you!! Saved me monments in life I can now apply elsewhere -LOLOLOLOL.

Which is censorship of the most immature irrational kind.

I have the same issue because of those cow fuckers in India moderating everything...

Hope springs eternal

you could always pray that things will get better
It may sooth your soul, but so far no prayer has ever been answered. It must work??? Billions of people pray every day, not one person has proved a result so far..
But go for it you may be one in 8 bullion.
Keep trying!

@vocaloldfart I never mentioned prayer; that's all you.

BTW, Hope and prayer are not the same thing though there is some overlap.

Hope is just a desire for a particular outcome, where that outcome appears to hang in the balance.

And prayer does not necessarily have to be directed at a deity. It could be directed at the sun, for instance. I'm not saying that praying to the sun is at all logical or reasonable, or that it could ever bring about a desired result. In other words, it would be on a par with praying to a god, i.e. a waste of time. But it is similar to hope, in that it's an expression of a desire for a particular outcome.

Why do we have this old saying, "Hope springs eternal?" Because people are always desiring particular outcomes. Bias is in our DNA.

So anyway good luck with that staying relevant thing. Keep trying!

Like the USA, Israeli Jews & the piano playing penis clown in Ukraine.

@FrayedBear I'll take Zelenskyy over Trumputin any day.

@Flyingsaucesir love the word amalgamation. I recently read that they're related through marriage. Could explain a lot.
Here in Australia far worse than the white vs aborigine problem is the aborigine vs aborigine clan & family problems.

@Flyingsaucesir Zelenskys Another Jew like Netanyahu.
google Zelensky and you will see that both zelenskys parents are Jewish (Kharzans the original zionists)
According to the Jewish religion , a child from a Jewish womb is Jewish!

@vocaloldfart Yeah, Zelenskyy is Jewish. So what? He's a good man, and a straight up hero. And his popularity in his own country is double that of Trump in the USA.

Netanyahu? He's a corrupt politician and war criminal. He's widely despised in his own country.

Trump only believes in Trump, but it doesn't take much to shake his faith. Hence the thin skin and bullying of soft targets. His best popularity numbers never got above 47%, and right now it's a good ten points lower. It's just his hard-core MAGA cult sycophants that think he's doing a good job. And even they will be leaving him in droves before it's over. Mark my words.

@vocaloldfart Yay Jews!!!!!

You reckon? Before the election it was all anti-Trump on here. One good thing, that's calmed down

@puff It wasn't "all anti-Trump" here, but nearly so. Having had their specious arguments and lies roundly refuted with simple recitation of the facts, the MAGA zombies largely fled the field. Count yourself among the defeated. You're the walking dead.

@puff it hasn’t calmed down. I just went through the first 30 posts and eight of them were inane Trump piñata and conservative bashers trash .

@richiegtt Why would it calm down, when His Felonious Malignancy is abandoning our ally Ukraine, putting US foreign policy on the side of the bad guys, gutting our intelligence and law enforcement agencies, and shutting down Social Security, Medicaid, ebola prevention, cancer research, and weather forecasting, among other things? What the Shithead in Chief is doing is, in many cases, illegal and unconstitutional. What possible reason could he have for installing a POS like Pete Kegsbreath at the head of the Pentagon, and firing all the top military JAG officers, other than that he intends to give some illegal orders and wants them to be obeyed? While he's gutting law enforcement, he's also letting dangerous criminals out of prison. And he's trying to squelch the free press with frivolous lawsuits, even going so far as to ban reputable news outlets from the White House press corps for committing the unconscionable act of calling the Gulf of Mexico the "Gulf of Mexico." How the fuck are we supposed to be calm, when this orange foolius is wrecking our country right in front of us? Ohhhh, this is going to get very, very interesting.

@richiegtt Who needs Russian tanks, ships, planes, ICBMs, or the Kremlin's elite cyber hacking battalion, the Internet Research Agency, when you have His Felonious Malignancy Don the Con(vict) Trump?

I am heavily censored . I could not give a brass rahzoo for US politics . None of my groups is at all political anywhere on the globe.
This discarding of members is deliberate for whatever reason the owner/ moderator have in mind.
you guess is as good as mine.

Perhaps they are trying to sell the site??

@vocaloldfart Actually, after reading the comments of other members regarding this subject, I am not so sure that I have been singled out for censorship. But I do find it suspicious that it became practically impossible to post right before the election. I can only speculate, but it seems like the owner was not happy with the general trend in the conversation, that it was too liberal for his/her/their taste. Of course, it could also be just a coincidence.

Shouldnt that be "I too have not managed to find a site which is anything like as good as this one WAS.

As good as this one WAS.

Try Reddit.

@Mooolah I think I looked at it once, but where and how do you find the good bits ?

No one's been able to message others for a year or two now.

I've pretty much moved to reddit. for a social discussion site. It's not perfect, but at least it's very active, with lots of members and four interesting subreddits, which are like the groups and forums here. I haven't visited any on there regarding religion or politics, but I am very active on the subreddits for karaoke, one of my hobbies, Dating Over 60, which is much like our Love And Relationships forum used to be, as well as the Online Dating: The Reality. I also like the two subreddits that are each focused on local news and politics, one for my metro area, and the other for my state. Reddit seems to be mostly liberals and lefties, not as many right wingers as there have been on here.

The mods are also not that strict most of the time, which I prefer. I very rarely post, would rather just comment, same as here, back when we could all post..

@TomMcGiverin See 'ya there.

@TomMcGiverin I'm there too but mostly for what's going on in Texas and the city I live in.

@michelle666gar Same here. I pretty much just participate in the four subreddits that interest me. The ones for karaoke, Dating Over 60, Des Moines, and Iowa..

I miss how you used to be able to post in the Politics forum on here. You contributed lots of good posts, but obviously whoever the site founder allowed to take over, has banned you from being able to post anymore there, along with about all the other members. I haven't tried to make any posts for years, so no idea if I'm banned from that or not, I don't really care to post myself.

@TomMcGiverin I have not been banned from posting anywhere, it is just that the site no longer has anyone overseeing its maintenance. And, the site has gotten VERY "buggy" over time. I do still manage to post once a great while on the main feed. It seems pretty much everyone is having the same problems with posting and their posts not staying up. It isn't just my posts.

As far as I can tell, nobody has been able to post in the Politics forum for almost two years now.

@TomMcGiverin yea, I went to check on that right after making my comment. It has been a while since anything appears to have been added to that forum.

Lol, I just tried to post in Tales from the Lockdown - which I am the Originator the question "has no one any tales?" & The great screen of death came up about community rules when I pushed the post button. We really have a twat running the site. One member, a psychologist, used to liken him to a teenage recluse living in his mother's basement spending most of his time masturbating.

@FrayedBear I can't post in my own "No more war" group, same message.

@puff I cannot post anything in any of my five groups.

@vocaloldfart Septic embargo on Australians. Never were friends of Ozzie's.