ok what the fuck is happening in ukraine

yup, Shenzen port shutdown

I know someone posted something recently, but is there a link to a good Ukraine relief organization? Would Red Cross fund be good?

Found it:

https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/odr/where-to-donate-to-support-ukrainian-civilians-in-and-outside-ukraine/

From Lamothe's latest thread

Russia now has 100 percent of the forces it assembled prior to invading committed to the fight. It has under 90 percent of those forces available to them, after taking losses, senior U.S. defense official says.

— Dan Lamothe (@DanLamothe) March 14, 2022

In other words, now is the time to invade Russia! Who's with me!?

In the 'good news' column, the Russian communist whose story I posted above has been and gone from the police station. His lawyer told him that the "anonymous" complaint may have simply been faked by the police. The point is to show him that he's being watched.

I've been meaning to ask MT, to what extent do you agree with that youtuber's views? Not that you have to agree to find his work interesting, ofc. I watched the video about the decline of the Soviet Union and found it interesting, started the one about whether the Soviet Union pressured Eastern countries into becoming communist after WWII and that one seemed quite...extreme in its views, even within a western leftist perspective, tho I certainly don't have the historical knowledge to question any of it. Just kinda wondering how far dude's defense of the Soviet Union goes, what he thinks of Stalin, the tanks rolling into Prague, etc. Not easy to get the full picture when only like 5% of his videos are subtitled.

Anyway, certainly a trip to see the youtuber style, complete with mostly inscrutable-to-me local memes, applied to this level of theory (don't think Breadtube has anything near to it). And it's certainly done a number on my recommendations algorithm. And, of course, solidarity for him fighting the good fight right now!

So, I don't agree with him on all his views, in fact he's gone in on some Russians with negative views of the USSR, for ex: he uses very dodgy statistics about Soviet population figures after the Holodomor to help 'prove' it wasn't that bad. Kind of a polar opposite of the early cold war history of Richard Pipes and Conquest (both of whom I wouldn't trust either). He also proffers what seem to be flimsy excuses about other Soviet actions that we are familiar with in the West.

On the other hand, he does a great job of criticizing the period from the early 1980s onward, including the USSR failing its people, Yeltsin's Russia failing its people, and Putin's Russia failing its people. Spot the pattern here.

I find him to be a rare example of a good-faith post-Soviet communist. He may be wrong on aspects of the past and I'm fully against rehabilitating the bad parts of USSR history, but he genuinely believes what he says. It's refreshing to see that in Russia, a country whose politics have been dominated by weird fash or fash-adjacent people like Dugin, and a popular resurgence of the dumbass "Russophile" belief that Russia has a special destiny in the world. Would a communist corrective go far against this right-wing trend? I don't know, but I like to check in on him every now and then.

His more recent work last year on "Who's really boss in the Donbas," "The Imperialism of Putin," as well as his recent video about the war, are all on much more solid ground than some of his more ardent defenses of the USSR. I've checked the auto-translate-to-English subs on some of his other videos that I've recommended to other friends, and they seem to be passable, even if there are no hard English subs.

The closest English language communist with similar or more palatable beliefs might be Hakim, an Iraqi communist youtuber currently living in the UK. His own defenses of the USSR are also more...suspect...than his critiques of modern capitalism/imperialism, but his videos are in English at least.

Saw a tweet blaming Larry Summers US economic advisor for not allowing US to help Yeltsin enough financially enough back then , which tweeter suggested led to Yeltsin’s failing and then to Putin being able to take over

Not a Summers fan but that seems a bit simplistic

Unexpected effects!

Russia's invasion of Ukraine may change the future sound of guitar music. Here's why.

Traditional guitar amps (and some distortion pedals) use vacuum tubes to increase the power of the signal passing through, and to make the tone warm and crunchy. (1/12)

— David Meyer (@superglaze) March 14, 2022

Totally hadn't thought about that. I just went to my normal source for tubes for my stereo and almost every tube is sold out, which I've never even close to seen.

Ok, KT88s seem pretty scarce everywhere.

Embracing amp simulation technology is now our moral duty. Fortunately I've got like three Para Drivers and a Blonde so I am set

Couple of folks have asked about donations and support. FWIW, I've given to:

World Central Kitchen is feeding a lot of families right now and for some places it's the only one:
https://wck.org

The 24.02 Fund for local Ukrainian journalists.
https://2402.org/en/

Organizers of the New School Laurie Anderson-Zorn-Glass etc. Ukraine benefit concert (Friday 11) turned it into a free event, refunding tickets and suggesting donations to:

Save the Childrenhttps://support.savethechildren.org/site/Donation2?df_id=5751&mfc_pref=T&5751.donation=form1

International Rescue Committee https://help.rescue.org/donate/ukraine-acq

Razomhttps://razomforukraine.org/

From USA Today round-up, quoting "a senior U.S. Defense Department source":
The attack over the weekend on the Yavoriv military training base in western Ukraine consisted of dozens of cruise missiles launched by Russian bombers inside Russian airspace, the official said. The attack from a distance, the official said, showed that a no-fly zone over Ukraine sought by the battered nation would not necessarily prevent Russia from assaulting by air.

There were no U.S. troops, contractors or citizens at the base when the missiles struck, the official said. Florida National Guard troops had trained Ukrainian forces there, but left the base before the Russian invasion. At least 35 people died in the attack.
Russia, despite its advantages in warplanes, has not dominated Ukrainian airspace, the official said. Yeah but missiles.

Ok.

Macron decided to turn up to work in a pair of jeans and a French paratroopers hoodie to be more like Zelensky. pic.twitter.com/pYivvXwOga

— Sam Street (@samstreetwrites) March 14, 2022

how are the french so bad at jeans

though i can just barely see the shoes i think they are exactly the shoes i was imagining

"tactical boots"

levis from the levis outlet store are pretty tone deaf and not very practical for all the scrambling and wall scaling he needs to do

there's a vibe of "my job does not add value to the world and so i will wear something absurd today in a desperate attempt to feel something" that's relatable here imo

Zelensky speaks via video to Canada, addressing Justin Trudeau as his friend, and appealing to the Ukrainian diaspora.

Czech and Polish leaders visited Zelensky today, I think (or is Kyiv not safe enough for that?).

And Slovenian PM. Apparently they went rogue, in other words not an official delegation from the EU. I'm wondering about the particulars of the discussion. It's becoming clear that on the current path Poland is set to become a staging point for a years-long insurgency (inserting US/NATO-backed Ukrainian forces) -- I can't imagine that's a very cheerful prospect for Poland, as it puts the country directly in the crosshairs of Russia.

The parallels to WWII remain uncomfortable, but for better or worse there are a lot of major things that have changed since then that could mitigate the menace.

They could also be there to discuss the particulars of the ongoing peace talks. Zelenskiy sounds pretty resigned about the potential for NATO membership but might want to ensure that there is a committed bloc that will push for their future EU membership if the trade off with Russia allows for it.

It's been a small thing in context but it's been pretty great to see Ukrainian-founded/based MacPaw, whose CleanMyMac program I've used for years, keep doing what they've been doing and then some. Twitter feed's worth a look.

https://twitter.com/MacPaw

i actually needed some such software, thanks Ned!

Yer welcome! Yeah, great support and does the job.

Oh I use that! I didn't realise they were Ukrainian

MacPaw also publishes The Unarchiver (which I use all the time)

xpost Yup, very much so. Noticed that a few years ago and when everything went down I admit I was pretty concerned, but noticed they were on top of things and then some. Good on 'em.

Readdle is another Ukrainian software corp. They publish PDF Expert among other useful things
https://readdle.com

Also worth considering for xp donations: St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, which is facilitating evacuations and triage on the ground in Ukraine (The Cancer Letter, March 4, 2022). And others mentioned in this issue: https://cancerletter.com/the-cancer-letter/20220311_1/

And, uh, speaking of hospitals:
LVIV, Ukraine — Russian troops seized a hospital in Mariupol and took about 500 people hostage during another assault on the southern port city late Tuesday, regional leader Pavlo Kyrylenko said.

Russians troops drove 400 people from neighboring houses into Regional Intensive Care Hospital, Kyrylenko said on the messaging app Telegram. About 100 doctors and patients also are believed to be inside, he said.

The troops are using those inside the hospital as human shields and are not allowing anyone to leave, he said. Might be some more extensive accounts, but this is the latest post I've seen:https://www.marketwatch.com/story/russian-troops-take-500-hostages-at-hospital-ukrainian-official-says-01647391786

An anti-war piece that takes in the history of the region.

https://www.e-flux.com/journal/125/453868/the-case-against-the-russian-federation/

"...in Ukraine, the Russians operate as if they are dealing with Russia itself. Whatever works in Russia, they think, must work in Ukraine. Because, you know, it’s one and the same."

Yes!

As far as Kyiv being responsible for later Slav colonialism, it's a more difficult case to make. The Rus were responsible for a lot of extermination and conquest, but at the same time the physical and cultural boundaries were a lot more porous than those of the later Muscovite state and Russian empire. The Drevlians who St. Olha famously exterminated actually survived their mythical doom, same as many Finno-Ugric tribes in the northeast, future heartland of Muscovy. Pecheneg nomad peoples and customs were also incorporated - or had influence on - the culture of Kievan Rus. Even in later Muscovy, many nobles were openly proud of their Mongol ancestry (at least till the 1700's turn to Europe). And so on.

There's no font of pure ethnic Slav heritage from which the empire sprang; the identity was constructed, modified, or wholly re-shaped to fit the circumstances of the day.

There's still a lot to back up his point, though: you can see this brutality in Ivan the Terrible's treatment of Kazan and Novgorod, or the 1700's Russian Empire in Crimea, and later the 19th century policies of "Russianization." The less the Russian empire or the USSR acknowledged and respected its multi-ethnic composition, the more brutal its policies became. This repression often directly resulted in fervent nationalist movements all over the place. The cycle continues today.

Cameo on The Simpsons to follow:

Putin just said the west is trying to "cancel" Russia

— max seddon (@maxseddon) March 16, 2022

They've been on that tip for a while now. Considering both the NYT and the Atlantic managed to churn out concern troll-y pieces on campus cancel culture while this is going on ya can't blame Russia for thinking it's a troll that could work.

It's okay, Russia. You can just move to Florida and take pictures of yourself smoking cigars and eating steak.

I forget where I saw this (maybe even here) but someone made the point that American cultural hegemony is so widespread over the world that even "anti-American" Russian politicians are using vocabulary like "cancel culture."

Lotta stuff coming in on reddit and twitter supposedly from American volunteers complaining that they are not being given adequate equipment and/or training before being sent into battle. If true it's really mind boggling how ppl can willingly head into a fucking war zone and think the reality's gonna be as clean as Call of Duty or something.

In the heat of battle, but still making time to post on reddit?

I wonder who's really behind those posts

The story isn't that they're in the heat of battle fwiw.

This morning, before Zelensky addressed Congress:
caption: Fifteen flights of military shipment, including 90 tons of ammunition and Javelin missile systems for Ukraine armed forces arrive in Ukraine on February 11. (Eyepress/Reuters)
As Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky prepares to ask Congress for further military aid to his country, the US and its NATO allies are already sending several surface-to-air missiles systems to Ukraine to aid in its defense.

According to a senior US official, these additional systems include the Soviet-era SA-8, SA-10, SA-12 and SA-14 mobile air defense systems.

These systems have a lower altitude range than the S-300 system, which Ukraine has requested. However, they have a range higher than the Stinger shoulder-fired missiles previously supplied to Ukraine, giving them the capability to hit cruise missiles.

The systems have been sourced from NATO partner nations and are “on the way,” according to this senior US official. It is not clear at this time how these systems will be backfilled to the providing country. From CNN---so this is basically the same deal as Poland proposed, giving them older stuff, or of older design, and then getting newer stuff from US as replacement? Why give older stuff? Keeping the new for when/if Putin goes over the Polish border (Biden said even if "by accident," that's some kind of red line)?

Also this A.M., an interview w official who said US might send Switchblade drones, the larger of which can take out tanks. Host asked what distinction could be made between increasingly lethal drones and air-to-ground missiles already being sent, vs. no-fly zone enforcement by pilots---in terms of what's considered not too likely to "escalate." Other guy said that is the question being debated in Pentagon x White House.

Host asked what distinction could be made between increasingly lethal drones and air-to-ground missiles already being sent, vs. no-fly zone enforcement by pilots

It's straightforward enough. Enforcing a no-fly zone by definition is not something the Ukraine military does anyway. It is fighting a war and will shoot down any enemy aircraft without such nonsense as declaring a no-fly zone. The missiles the US and others supply will be used for this, but will be fired by Ukrainian forces. As soon as NATO forces begin enforcing a no-fly zone they would begin committing acts of war against Russia.

Yeah but what they're weighing/arguing about are what's considered likely to go over the line into escalation (also most likely kind x degree of escalation, I take it), even short of no-fly---is there something involving drones etc. that might tip the scales, be just as provocative?

Meanwhile, Vlad appears to be taking things well

I have translated and added subtitles to the latest video speech by Vladimir Putin from two hours ago. Please don’t let it go in vain - I want everyone to see what a speech of true fascism looks like.

No further comment needed, it’s all here, in his speech pic.twitter.com/QEzsG9BODX

— Michael Elgort 🤍❤️🤍🇺🇦✡️ (@just_whatever) March 16, 2022

Meantime about that one mayor

Ukraine released Melitopol Mayor Ivan Fedorov, kidnapped by Russian occupiers! It was a special operation, he is safe now, Deputy Head of the Presidential Office Kyrylo Tymoshenko said in a statement. "We don't leave our people in danger!" Tymoshenko said!

— Nika Melkozerova (@NikaMelkozerova) March 16, 2022

"I do not at all judge those who have a villa in Miami or on the French Riviera who can't do without foie gras, oysters, or the so-called gender freedoms"

Someone tell Vlad about Florida

Rough read but says a lot

https://www.wsj.com/articles/ukraine-russia-voznesensk-town-battle-11647444734