We've been there nearly a fortnight.

Pro USA & Israel

Well thank the lord this has been discovered. I always new the revolution would start on the HoL.

I’m off to bed and can’t wait to turn on the Sunday news to see the effect this revelation has on the world and us all being set free from our shackles.

I’m assuming this will be revealed by the correct people and those responsible for all the madness in the world will go into hiding now the truth has been uncovered.

Now Zaha's got a bit of green grass ahead of him here... and finds Ambrose... not a bad effort!!!!

Iranian missile strike on American embassy in Iraq

[Tweet Link]

If confirmed here we f***ing go boys.

China full on invasion of Taiwan soon

The mountains are calling & I must go.

This is very eye opening. You can’t find a copy anywhere in msmedia. Before you give it an eye roll and a tut, this is a production by Oliver stone so it’s no cheap conspiracy spin off

[Link]

I've been very critical of both the western response to coronavirus and the western policy on Russia leading up to Putin's invasion of Ukraine. I stand by both those positions. My thought processes aren't influenced by media designed to affect me even if some think a balanced perspective is only arrived at by Russia propaganda.

Outcomes are little different to chess, the position we find ourselves in isn't the outcome of the last couple of moves but the result of decisions taken right from the beginning.

I've heard it said that I shouldn't focus upon the past because I should only see the present and in regards to Ukraine there is some relevance to that day to day view. However, when you are about to enter another cold war, where the threat of mass death lingers and our standard of living will take a significant dip I'm sorry....I just can't close one eye and be honest with myself.

It won't be the people making the decisions that will suffer, it will be people already struggling and this blanket failure to understand the larger position here just depresses me.

We are....in fact it's already done...pushing Russia into China's hands. People on this thread actually think sanctions and the victimisation of all things Russia is going to affect this world power to the extent that they overthrow Putin......I think that's a long shot and unlikely.

A government has never fallen over sanctions, these are not countries with medias that are allowed to take a radically different viewpoint (though the west is also heading down this route). Without an actual effective opposition all you do is increase support and give the hardliners more reason to hate you. Look at Cuba, what difference did it do other than punish the innocent poor, look at Iran and before them Iraqi, god knows how many infants and children those sanctions did in....Regardless this approach just doesn't work. You kill the poor children while just pretending to yourself that the regime is suffering. It's more a virtue signal to yourself than an actual reality.

Russia's economy will suffer in the short term, and ours will, to a lesser extent....they will redirect their economy entirely away from the west.

The biggest gainers from this will be China and the middle east.

All the gains of the past are being thrown away. There is no winning here. Our leaders have been making bad decisions for a long time. The observation has been made that the west doesn't have its nations as its highest priority but its billionaires. Policy is run through that lens. While in the regimes in China and Russia, their national interest comes first and the billionaires have to fall in line.

Look at what the western elites did in China....China was a sleeping giant that they awoke, they are the ones who built it up out of greed for themselves, not out of long time interest in what's best for the west. In Russia, the only reason you have Putin is because Yeltsin created the oligarchs to help him and that ended up robbing their national wealth and lowered their living standards, that was all backed by the west....Yeltsin was their guy. No one wants to tell you that Putin raised that standard of living back up...No one wants to tell you that Putin is still popular in Russia.

That's not an endorsement of those countries because they are both anti western, anti democratic and anti freedom (though it could have been different in Russia and we failed there).

Instead, it's an understanding that the west isn't run in the interests of its nations first....it's run by our elites for our elites in terms of their interests...there's little national interest anymore, if that aligns it's not out of priority. Then, whatever they decide they sell to us in infant like justifications.

We are currently being sold simplistic pictures of good and evil. I have a side and that side in the right of the Ukrainians to defend themselves, however that doesn't extend to ignoring the disaster of both how we got here and also the ruinous state of the west's self inflicted wounds.

The game of chess isn't the last one or two moves, the outcome is the result of all of them.

Edited by Stirlingsays (13 Mar 2022 6.29am)

'Who are you and how did you get in here? I'm a locksmith. And, I'm a locksmith.' (Leslie Nielsen)

Just a few points.
After the Roman Abramovich embargo, I wonder if any political parties have received Russian monies, either as donations to The Party, or for lobbying purposes. ? All information should be disclosed, as these 'dirty money' allegations have been prevalent for quite a few years.
I'd like to know of any political links to arms suppliers. Arms companies must be overjoyed that they can test their hardware in a military conflict against the Russians, and get loads of money for it.
I'm sure i'll think of some more later, but it's still early,....

"The facts have changed", Rishi Sunak