Russia - threadbanned users in OP

Totally agree with Alan Shatter on The Tonight Show this evening. Which is, that the West are playing this way too weak because of Putin's inferred threat of escalating to nuclear war. It's a bluff and we should call it.

None of this is new, but no one cared about it till this war studied.

And as if we didn't know how stupid many football fans are, quite a few Chelsea supporters are chanting at matches in support of Abramovich. They don't care. Between survival of Ukraine and some sh*tty trophy, they'd take the trophy.

Newcastle fans even worse.

Would love to see sport (see also formula 1) take a serious look at itself and where its money comes from but in the long term don't expect much change

Appearing at all good circuses - Tucker Carlson & his amazing facial expression of faux outrage

Thing is, rotten cronyism enforced by a corrupt police state completely rots all initiative and responsibility (what we’d regard as people getting paid to do a job- professionalism)- if the whole lot is rotten you’ll just be out for all you can get rather than any loftier aspirations. Far as I can see Russia is a completely dysfunctional state, top to bottom- basic supply chains don’t work as a westerner would assume. Without western technology and hand holding I think this country is going to completely disintegrate- coupled with a long ongoing and now accelerated brain drain and sharp population decline.

Nothing like a bit of noodles and bat to hit the spot after a hard day on the front line.

Watching this happening is akin to a geopolitical trolley problem i.e. do you stand by, provide arms, refuge, aid, intel but still witness tens of thousands die or do you go down a route which could potentially kill billions.

There's establishing a no fly zone but then there is enforcing a no fly zone. NATO shooting down Russian planes? Let's hazard a guess as to how that might ultimately end. Cool heads need to prevail.

A Russian drone violated Polish airspace today near Lviv. It was shot down by Ukraine. The concern is Russia is now actively seeking weapon transports from the west.

He'd probably do alright if he ran for POTUS (assuming Trump wasn't also in the race), but he'd be another Russian asset in the White House like Trump was, if only because of his ability to polarise and paralyse.

It's good that the mask fully fell from Putin's face in such a way that even a casual onlooker can see exactly what he is. There were/are loads of right wing agitators on the periphery of Western politics who'd like to rule as Putin does, including Carlson. Funny to see them (mostly) backtracking now, but it's a great wake up call as well. Anodyne democracy ain't so bad, if you can get it.

Running the tremendous risk of complimenting him, I think he had no redeeming ethical qualities but he was far more intelligent and extremely charismatic than Putin. Putin isn't in the same ballpark, if Hitler had access to modern weaponry the results would have been even more perverse.

The problem I have with them two is that is unlikely to be the mandate they were voted in on. Few extra bob in the social welfare, unicorn housing programmes, tax the super wealthy. Being an apologist for that cretin in the Kremlin? I highly doubt it.

I think US Intelligence who have been all the ball throughout are more credible than Alan Shatter tbh.

Yeah, I see your point, I've no problem with dissenting voices at all. It does make me uncomfortable that they are voting in the place of their constituents and embarrassing the country. There's no doubt they have the support of the small minority of hard liners, but they didn't get them over the line in the elections.

They should all be given phones with sim cards or some sort of GPS panic devices.

I have no doubt that traffickers will take advantage. Surely the tech tools are in place to mitigate against these pricks in 2022.