This is the News!

[The Mind of Wolfie Smith]

there has only been one story in ingerland town these last 12 days.
but it wasn't even a story.
the war in ukraine has been woefully under reported for a decade. and so here we are now. ditto belarus, hungary, poland, the fear in the baltics, the new terror in the balkans.
all just a day or so of a drive away.
ignorance is the mind killer, at the very least.

[JayzusB.Christ]

there has only been one story in ingerland town these last 12 days.
but it wasn't even a story.
the war in ukraine has been woefully under reported for a decade. and so here we are now. ditto belarus, hungary, poland, the fear in the baltics, the new terror in the balkans.
all just a day or so of a drive away.
ignorance is the mind killer, at the very least.

I get you now. We haven't been quite as swamped with dead monarch news over this way.

[sheridan]

putin mobilising 300,000 reservists and threatening nukes?
that's strange - the bbc had me thinking there that this all finished 12 days ago ...
och well.

The entire population of Russia is 144 million.  300,000 sounds like a good portion of that.  Though the question arises, 'why weren't they mobilised already'?  Don't think of them like UK reservists - these aren't TA who have been practicing in the woods every weekend for years.  These are the young, the old and the otherwise unfit for duty.  Headteachers in schools have been ordered to give lists of male pupils nearing their eighteenth birthdays.  Near-pension age men are being ordered into uniform.

[The Mind of Wolfie Smith]

... and there has genuinely been a huge spike in russia of internet searches into how to break one's own arm.

[sheridan]

1,300 held after anti-mobilisation protests in Moskow and 37 other Russian cities.

[sheridan]

Also increases in border traffic from Russia (i.e. Russians wanting to get out of Russia to avoid conscription).

[sheridan]

p.s. all this talk of Putin having the finger on the button - that doesn't launch missiles.  It sends a message to commanders in subs and at missile installations to launch missiles.  They can choose not to follow the order.  If memory serves we've avoided nuclear armageddon numerous times over the years because commanders chose not to follow orders which arose from technical malfunctions.

[IndigoPrime]

Not sure I'd want to put faith in a few people doing the right thing, in a country increasingly heading towards extremism, and where at least some people at the top are keen to bring back the glory days. That said, I'd hope even Putin wasn't mad enough to fling a nuke at Kiev. God knows what would kick off at that point.

(My guess: his actual cunning plan is to annexe a few more regions, claim that means the border has moved, and then state Ukraine is invading Russia, aided by the west/NATO. Then the sabre-rattling has a new context, even though the basis for his argument is of course still bullshit. Probably still won't stop helpful idiots – some on the British far left; chunks of the GoP; Tucker Carlson – cheering on Russia though.)

[Funt Solo]

But inside Russia, there is also speculation that the military mobilisation could be larger than formally announced.

The independent Novaya Gazeta newspaper, which moved its operations to Europe amid a post-war crackdown on media, reported that Vladimir Putin's decree contains an additional paragraph which has been classified and kept secret.

The newspaper alleges that the secret paragraph allows for a call-up of up to a million people, rather than the reported 300,000, citing an unnamed government source.

An interesting chunk of a longer BBC article on the Russian mobilization. Kafkaesque.

There's was also a note that protestors are being handed draft papers in jail.

[Funt Solo]

Irony central as Roger Waters accuses the Polish of being bricks in the wall for pushing back against his pro-Putin stance on the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Roger Waters, in case you're wondering, supports China's future annexation of Taiwan, and believes that the Ukrainians brought all of this on themselves.

[The Mind of Wolfie Smith]

dave gilmour, meanwhile, reconvened the (thankfully watersless) band and has been raising money and morale for ukraine. dave also has a ukrainian daughter-in-law. i kind of regret the 2005 reunion gig now - it's clear who has the soul and the vibe.

imho.

[JayzusB.Christ]

Turns out poor old Syd was one of the more sensible members of the band.

[Funt Solo]

BBC headline: "Can Warning Signs Stop a Mass Shooting?"

The answer is yes. The warning sign is "does your country offer everyone a high-powered, semi-automatic rifle"?

The article does not mention this - instead choosing to focus on issues other than a system designed to allow mass shootings.

[Jim_Campbell]

The article does not mention this - instead choosing to focus on issues other than a system designed to allow mass shootings.

Well, obviously, because only a woke, communist libtard would dare to suggest otherwise!

[The Legendary Shark]

I don't think the US system was "designed" to allow mass shootings. The system was designed to safeguard against the government becoming tyrannical by allowing its citizens to defend themselves against such an eventuality. However, weapons technology has evolved so dramatically in the meantime that keeping up the balance has led to insane levels of firepower.