The obvious strategic move is to decapitate Ukraine and install a puppet. — RogueAI

Exactly. — ssu

It's not obvious at all for anyone with more than a surface-level understanding of the political reality in Ukraine.

You can't just "decapitate" a country that has been preparing for war for a decade with western backing. And you don't just "install a puppet" for the same reason.

A puppet regime would probably last about a day, and all you would have achieved is to give the foreign backers total control over the country.

I think that's one way of dealing with a scandal: make it so absolutely bizarre and outlandish and give the room to the most eccentric conspiracies, you make it simply too crackpot for people to hold interest. Just remember what happened to the 9/11 truthers. — ssu

Some of the things I've heard can be described as "crackpot theories", but surely there's enough evidence to take the accusations of extreme child abuse seriously, at least? Or do you not think so?

One other thing that I'd like to draw people's attention to, and am interested in hearing people's thoughts on, are some of the wilder rumors and accusations surrounding the Epstein case.

I'm sure many of you are aware that there have been testimonies about Epstein and the elite that frequented his company that are so grotesque they defy belief. These testimonies go well beyond the abuse of adolescents and young women.

Given the amount and consistency of testimonies that have been given over time, I've always considered the possibility that what was suggested could be real, yet at the same time what was being described was so outlandish and repulsive that it was simply hard to believe.

The recent revelations contain various examples of coded language being used to disguise what people speculate are conversations about extreme child abuse. One of the more well-known examples are abnormal conversations about 'cheese pizza', which is commonly understood to be a reference to sexually explicit material containing minors (as I'm sure you understand if you take the first letters of each word).

Out of sensitivity for this platform and its members, I won't go into any details.

What I'm curious about is whether recent events have changed your opinion about the credibility of these claims.

So why was a military Column marching on Kiev at the beginning of the invasion?

And if the plan was to bed down in bunkers in the Dombass, why did a column march on Kiev? — Punshhh

To put pressure on the Kiev government, and to create multiple threats that create ambiguity over the precise objectives of the operation.

The troop deployments, force posture, behavior and casualty figures around Kiev can in no way be interpreted to imply that a capture of Kiev was a principal goal of the operation.

The Russian troop count was much too low in relation to the defenders, their force posture and behavior completely stand-offish, and casaulty figures that are a fraction of those we see during other phases of the war, during which actual intense fighting took place. In short, there isn't an iota of evidence that implies an all-out offensive to overrun the capital. None. Nothing. Zilch. Nada.

I recommend you use the search function to look up previous conversations that were had on this topic. It goes in depth, with sources and all.

The special military operation started with an assault on Kiev, the plan being to overthrow the governmental control quickly, control Kiev. — Punshhh

The plan went wrong and what we have now is the result of repeated failures by Russia to take control of Ukriane. — Punshhh

This is just a narrative, and it isn't actually supported by the facts as we know them, nor by military logic. Those facts have been repeated ad nauseam in this thread.

Not even the most lopsided interpretation of those facts and numbers will produce anything that comes close to supporting your view.

Now who is the evil mastermind in this story? Can you think of any names that fit the bill. — Punshhh

Genuinely, I have no idea. Epstein was obviously a fixer of some kind for very powerful interests. He called himself a representative of the Rothschilds, and Arianne de Rothschild was directly involved with him.

But the truth is that what has come to the surface is probably only the tip of the iceberg. If whoever is behind this managed to keep this scheme under the rug for ~50 years, there's no telling how deep this thing goes.

Rumors of powerful people involved with human trafficking and pedophile networks have circulated in Europe for decades as well.

My guess is that Epstein wasn't unique, just the one that got caught. Again: tip of the iceberg.

No, it'd be awful for a very simple reason:

States can be and often are wrong. This type of surveillance would give states an enormous amount of power to enforce their preferred flavor of wrong.

What Trump has done so far is small fry compared to what previous administrations got up to. They destroyed entire regions of the world on false grounds.

If Trump is stealing large amounts of cash from the evil empire, he's doing the entire world a favor. :lol:

I can just hear those sad violins playing as the poor Americans are left to wonder how they'll pay for all the bombs they like to throw on goatherds and rice farmers.

It also has nothing to do with authoritarianism. It's just good old fashioned corruption.

No clue where you got that idea. I just can't be arsed to educate you. :lol:

I don't mind interacting with people's original takes, but you're just making shit up on the spot and evidently know very little about geopolitics.

A bit rich coming from a person who jumped at the first opportunity to pin it on the Russians, don't you think?

And what a convenient way to muddy the waters: everything that's clear is in fact suspect! It has a nice Orwellian ring to it.

Anyway, you believe what you want to believe buddy.

It is well known that the Russian state will use blackmail and death threats to recruit agents in other countries. — Punshhh

It is well known that the CIA, MI6 and Mossad do the same. Your point?

When these connections were made, Russia was a friend of the west — Punshhh

And the US just so happened to be at the absolute peak of its power, while Russia was at its low point.

But I'm sure they'd never abuse that power to gain leverage over high-profile people.

The Americans are the good guys after all!

The US system has been irreconcilably broken for decades. The idea that Trump meaningfully changed anything is laughable.

The US didn't "get into bed with Russia" - nothing in the Epstein files implicates the Russian state (if anything they imply the Kremlin deliberately kept its distance), while there's mountains of evidence implicating the US, UK and Israeli security services, including direct links to Epstein and Maxwell.

Hungary nor the US is authoritarian. That's just a pure cope from people who are mad that the democratic process didn't produce the outcome they wanted.

Because some men are into Eastern European girls? There were girls from all over the world being trafficked there. Considering the scale of the whole operation, how is that in any way surprising?

The simple reason is that for every possible connection pointing to Russia, there's about a hundred that point to the USA, UK and Israel.

People who are jumping on the Russia story are desperately clutching at straws not to have to come to terms with the truth about the system they are living under. It's a coping mechanism.

Western countries are not authoritarian, they are democratic. The 'hidden authoritarianism' the OP is talking about is the corruption of the democratic system and not actual authoritarianism.

Calling it 'authoritarianism' is a misdirection, shifting the blame to people like Trump (who was democratically elected), and an attempt at perpetuating the myth that democracies would somehow be immune to corruption if it weren't for figures such as him.

The truth is of course that western democracies have arrived at the terminal end stage of corruption, and that this corruption was allowed to spread through ways inherent to the system; lobbies, power and wealth concentration, media manipulation, etc. etc.

Gee, I wonder why that might be.

Already retracting that Russian turd?

Like I said, the ties with the CIA, MI6 and Mossad are clear. Evidently you haven't seriously looked into any of this yourself or you would have known that their greasy fingerprints are all over this case, and you wouldn't have come with the ridiculous suggestion that "it was the Russians".

Judging by your comment I'm guessing you believe that clown in the White House runs the show? Never wondered who runs that circus and whether such parties may benefit from holding compromising material over the people you get to vote for?

What, you mean all the American billionaires and banks?

Blaming Russia is some peak cope.

The state in question would obviously be the United States of America, helped by its cronies: Israel and the UK.

How is that not obvious?

Russia, ... really? :lol:

In my view, ego is an expression of the, often completely legitimate, wants and needs of a person.

We all have wants and needs, and this is not something that ought to be overcome unless you want to travel down a path of complete self-negation (and end up mummified in a Tibetan cave somwhere for later generations to marvel over). One's wants and needs are not illusory at all, and it will have very real consequences if they are systematically neglected.

It is however important to understand, reflect over and control our wants and needs (and thus our ego). Past experiences, societal conditioning, etc. can distort one's mental landscape and cause all sorts of aberrations in that regard.

The association of the ego with something negative is not a healthy thing. It's a form of self-flagellation.

Problematic expressions of the ego can easily be traced back to unmet wants and needs, which is the actual problem - not the ego itself.

Even if they're not exactly the same, I'd say they're quite close.

A lot of meditation forms involve the repetition of mantras, which is quite similar to the citation of prayers and a way of influencing the subconscious, which can be very powerful in its effect if practiced with discipline.

Department of Justice | Epstein

Type 'Rothschild' in the search bar. 11,860 results.

Why is there so little attention given on this thread/forum to the Epstein case?

A clear picture is being painted of a decades-spanning extortion and blackmailing racket ran by Epstein and his wife, whose job it was to collect dirt on all sorts of high-profile people from all over the world. Both Jeffrey and Ghislaine have deep ties to the CIA, MI6 and Mossad, leading me to believe this was a state-run enterprise.

Another party that is curiously implicated seems to be the Rothschild family, which Epstein literally calls himself a representative of in one of the leaked e-mails.

If you want to understand who pulls the strings in your country (and perhaps in mine also, unfortunately), this is where you start looking.

I think authoritarianism is the wrong word. I think the right one is corruption - and yes, it is rampant.

You know you're describing MAGA, right? — Questioner

Yes. Are you aware that I'm describing you also?

We get this elaborate bullshit in lieu of a simple “yeah that guy shouldn’t have been shot.” — Mikie

Except, it wasn't just a simple "yeah that guy shouldn't have been shot" - it's moral grandstanding about fascism, calling people 'human garbage', instantly jobbing everyone who isn't chanting along with superficial lamentations into 'the other camp', etc.

People were probably too busy whipping each other up into this self-gratifying frenzy that they lost all sense of self-awareness. It's a rather indecent sight.

But definitely not you! — Mikie

Feel free to point it out wherever I do. Oh, and by using my actual words and not what you think I must "secretly" believe because I am somehow partisan in the US clownshow.

I apologise for wading into this thread.

It has made me far less optimistic about several posters. — AmadeusD

You have to appreciate it for what it is: some form of tribal ritual. You shouldn't expect anything constructive from people who are at the height of religious ecstasy.

Trump is being fetishized as the personification of pure evil, and by continually bewailing his existence one not only exculpates themselves from America's misdeeds but also puts themselves at the other end; that of pure good.

Both sides of the political aisle do this (and even people in other western countries who are part of the same system), but it's reaching a crescendo under Trump as America's global reputation is tanking and its corruption, historical and present, is plain for all to see.

Unfortunately, this sort of tribalism only extends the lifespan of the system.

Easy for me to tell the Sudanese not to take their domestic politics seriously though, despite the rapes and murders occurring outside their window. Because I’m above that petty stuff, and wicked smaht. — Mikie

The one redeeming quality of the Sudanese government is that it isn't clever enough to hide its incompetency and corruption, and therefore no one views it as a vessel for meaningful change.

Unfortunately, the same cannot be said of Washington. It's the perfect psychopath.

Trump perfectly encapsulates what US domestic politics is: an inflammatory clownshow meant to distract from anything that's actually important.

When things like Alex Pretti's death happen, all the more inflammatory it gets. The palpable outrage, the indignation - all such delicious psychological treats on which the American people are so very hooked - would I be wrong if I called it psychological masturbation?

In fairness, not a Trump supporter. But curiously goes far easier on him and his policies than a Biden or Obama. — Mikie

Oh, I don't think that's true. They're all clowns meant to sell you the lie. I had my reasons to reserve judgement on Trump, but his second term has left no doubts.

"Trump supporter" - I can't. :rofl:

Thankfully we all have objective observers like you and Risible Guy to set us straight. — Mikie

Nah. Anyone who takes US domestic politics seriously is beyond redemption. :lol:

But I see through all of that, [...] — Mikie

You're not seeing through anything. You're knee-deep in tribalism and that's what you're seeing reflected back at you. Everyone who doesn't chant along with you on your soapbox of shallow moral indignation must be "right wing" - cute.

I think you may need to calm down a little.

This theatrictal outrage over a single man murdered is just an emotional venting mechanism for people who are foaming at the mouth to use it as a justification in their own partisan hackery - something which your comment is positively overflowing with. You even accused me of partisanship! Which was pretty amusing.

I'm not sure if you've been paying attention the last several decades, but killing people under questionable circumstances is an absolute normalcy to the United States.

But I guess only when the killing gets emotionally relevant, it's time to get on our soapboxes.

Next time it’s a Trumper I’m sure you’ll feel the same way. — Mikie

Oh heavens no. I'd be sharing pictures of the Trumper standing in for Jesus. Guy did everything right to get himself unjustly shot - what unparalleled heroism.

:point:

The guy resisted arrest, obviously - a pretty fucking dumb thing to do. Getting maced was his queue to lie down and live another day, but alas. — Tzeentch

Guy was carrying too. Like how suicidal can you get? — Tzeentch

I never said it was morally justified. — Tzeentch

Need me to hand you a dictionary too, bubba?

You defend the actions of the ICE agents by pointing out that the victim did something wrong, [...] — Christoffer

Nope. Try again.

I get it, though. Ya'll are needing to vent your outrage on someone, so need to misconstrue the position of the first person who doesn't join in the handwringing.

Give a straight answer. — Christoffer

Give a straight answer to your strawmen? Get outta here buddy. :lol: