Go ahead Joe, poke the bear, show the libs what "harm reduction" got them, I fucking dare you.
I know it's not the right thing to hope for because war in general and this war in particular would be an absolute fucking nightmare, but man part of me wants to see the US lose one on this scale. Just want to see the American empire fall and I know that won't happen without some explosion of violence so might as well be this one I guess? idk, I just know that no matter what I'll be rooting against the US :amerikkka:
I sincerely think we're seeing the collapse of the US empire and reigniting of inter-nation conflict as the role of global hegemon goes back up for grabs. The US military getting its ass handed to it by non-traditional, insurgent forces doesn't mean anything because those forces cannot by definition pose a threat of real geopolitical competition and the point of the US fighting them anyway was to justify military spending, not to actually 'win' any war or anything. Russia has a real potential to dictate terms on a victory unlike ISIS. Either way, if the US loses or just decides to back down it signals to other nations that the US is no longer the adult in the room with the finger on the button and opens up the possibility of open conflict between the larger powers, something we haven't really seen since WWII (the last time there was a geopolitical power void as the British fell and the Americans rose). My prediction is still that the US decides to do nothing and just goes home at the end of the day (either due to lack of enthusiasm or just because we're so in decline we don't actually have the ability to do anything about it) and that causes a split in the NATO powers where individual nations realize they need to act independently without the US leading the way (a process already underway and started by the Trump admin). Calling my shot that Russia invading Ukraine will the US's suez canal crisis where it's put on display for the globe that the US just doesn't have it anymore and then other nations realize it's their shot to take the throne. We won't know until after the fact though, that's the bitch of history
yeah but we havent lost almost our entire military before always a time for firsts
no but not for biological reasons they just take their volcel oath that seriously
no but thats what we have breeders for
gotta just make all lgbt people super mutants. problem solved
question:
how do we get those big green pit bull looking dogs that super mutants have in fallout 4?
"They irradiated their own planet?!?! You'd better fix those translators fast. The sooner we start talking to these savages, the better off we'll be. "
:quark:
I'd assume we'd get disarmed upon losing one on this scale lol. But it'll be a proxy in reality, probably won't go much further immediately but then the arming of the nazis over there will lead to extreme destabilization in like 5 years etc etc etc womp womp mission accomplished
Good old Status Quo Joe prefers his Russia fractured, even if it kills
ushim
The elder Red dragon that's been terrorizing the Ahzra-Thurzad duchy is asleep in the chasm below you after enjoying a most sumptuous feast composed of several fig trees, a herd of sheep with a young shepherd, and the Ducal lord's daughter who happened to be in love with the shepherd and was coincidentally visiting him at the time. Your objective was to rescue the Duke's daughter, but the remains of her dress tells you her fate. Coincidentally the treasure hoard of the dragon is nearby enough you can sneak some of it away without it noticing... What do you do?
I, THE GREATEST SOLDIER IN THE WORLD WHOM EVERYONE MUST PAY RESPECTS TO ME, D'TRO-UPS, LEAP FROM THE EDGE WITH MY WEAPON DRAWN WITH THE INTENT TO CUT THE PATHETIC LIZARD'S HEAD OFF!
seriously?
DO NOT MOCK D'TRO-UPS!
!roll 1d20
Alaskaball rolled a natural 1
I genuinely think fully half the people here play dnd. At a minimum. And the rest of us wish we could keep a group together lol
:yea: wish i would have been into it in my teens when everyone didn't have different rigid schedules lol
A while back we organized a 5e group made up of hexbear users, I was one of them. Lasted several months until eventually we couldn't consistently get everyone together and it kind of fizzled out.
Still would really like to try that again though
It was hosted by @ssjmarx, but he was talking about running a Lancer game instead for this next time. No idea how that's coming along though
pathfinder first edition is. 2e is crazy simple, way easier to run than dnd 5e
Yes it's far more complex then D&D 5th. It's a lot closer to a more polished version of 3.5.
Yes, but I have to play remotely because I'm always getting up to go to the bathroom.
There's an ongoing discord-based D&D 3.5e game pinned in /c/games. All the sessions are groups put together by the players, so there isn't a consistent party, just whoever happens to be available and has characters close to the recommended level range. It's also combat heavy with less RP because 3.5.
If we get into a nuclear war 30 years after the end of the USSR, and all becuase the US wants to extend NATO into Ukraine for some fucking reason, then all I can say is that it's a fitting end to this ridiculous and stupid country.
Hopefully our nuclear command and control is as shitty as I think it is and we don't hurt anyone else as we exit.
It's all about that Nordstream 2 pipeline I think. Europe is energy constrained, Russia has the energy, US doesn't want Europe to become economically entangled with Russia. American soft power is crumbling like a dry sandcastle and it's lashing out. Not to mention Hunter Biden's personal connections with that Ukrainian gas company (which will lose out big time if Nordstream 2 starts running).
If you talk about stuff like this to liberals they will think you are some sort of crazy conspiracy theorist. Liberals think of politics like children, they see NATO as essentially no different from a little league baseball team the big bad Russian bully won't let tiny little Ukraine join, for no reason whatsoever besides being bad and Russian.
Any data or links related to Europe's energy demands or Sleepy Joe's connection with the Ukrainian gas company? Not doubting you, it's just what you said is very interesting.
I think it might be a bit conspiracy brained to pin the whole thing on the Biden's personal corruption, but Hunter had that cushy no-show job at Burisma. It blew up during the election when the rightists tried to use it as an October surprise and the liberals wrote it off as another Russian disinfo campaign.
I don't have NY specific stories in mind, but I've been hearing murmurs of energy shortages and price hikes. I can look more into it later when I get home.
Ya, it's mostly wishful thinking, like you know if there is a nuclear exchange between Russia and the US, a sub commander in the Pacific will try and nuke China for no reason other than racism. Like he will Slim Pickens' it if he has too.
However, the US nuclear command system is extremely convoluted and old. There are literally hundreds of systems that have to communicate with each other to launch the arsenal. And a lot of this is due to the extremely aggressive US nuclear posture, so you need all these checks and counterchecks to prevent unauthorized launch. Like the biggest irony would be if this all failed becuase the US has been the primary nuclear aggressor since 1945. But you just know they will manage to somehow launch all the missiles but they will also target every national capital in the world by accident.
Damn. They really want to sink and lay waste to the US if that happen.
NATO is and will be the instigator of any possible conflict. What I don't understand however is why tensions are so high - does Putin not do a good enough job for western imperialist capital in the now-capitalist Russia federation?
Well, in 90s early 2000s russia was extremely ope to foreign investors, now biggest slices are domestically owned, and profits are heavily taxed on transfer to other countries. Basically russians can rob the country, but other people have barriers. So no, not good enough.
Fantastically, they are currently proposing reducing barriers for capital movements out of russia.
Russia may be capitalist but they don't quite "bend the knee" to US geopolitical interests, I think that's the issue. Countries like the UK, Germany, Japan... they have some nominal freedom to guide their own foreign policy but when it comes to stuff that really matters, when have any of the US-aligned nations seriously challenged US imperialist foreign policy? The Iraq invasion, for example... even the allies that didn't buy in like the UK did more or less kept their mouths shut the whole time. Russia doesn't play along so they need to be "brought to heel", so to speak. Why now specifically though, idk.
What part of imperialism you don't get? It doesn't matter who's the one not letting you plunder another country, they are the enemy.
Whenever local capitalists want to take a part of the plunder, they become the enemy, see: soc-dem governments in latin america.
But plundering often takes a middleman/proxy. We call them the comprador bourgeoise and they always get their cut too. But the ruling class of Russia is not willing to play the part for now huh? It seems to me like war is bad for business. Either way the Russian people continue to suffer whether it's under imperial sanctions or the domination of the domestic bourgeoise.
Either way the Russian people continue to suffer whether it’s under imperial sanctions or the domination of the domestic bourgeoise
Currently both,
Russia have actually spent the last few years hardening their economy against sanctions
Thank you for the additional background, I appreciate the effort. I found it very helpful :parenti-hands:
This is something I've been wondering about. Russia is what the west made, so what's the problem? In broad strokes, my recent theory is that the Russian masses are unreliable, regardless of their government, and at any point could withold vast amounts of labor and natural resources. So, it's important to continually encircle and weaken them. Is the conflict in Ukraine not largely about threatening Russian access to it's only warm water ports?
No, but it's genius actually; if you start a land war in Asia in the winter, you'll be ready for the winter ahead of time instead of having winter happen at you six months into your "over by Christmas" campaign. They'll never expect it! You just can't understand Joe's strategic acumen
Looking forward to entire divisions of mechanized infantry get stuck during rasputitsa.
i don't buy this war stuff. it's just more US state propaganda. This is the real purpose: https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_briefs/RB10014.html
They laid it all out for everyone to see, yet very few people know about this stuff...It's not gonna happen (because :nuke: ) but the US invoking the draft to fight another full scale war and then getting our asses handed to us by like, Russia China and Iran all at once would probably be the single greatest catalyst for potential revolution.
The illusion of American exceptionalism would be shattered a bunch of libs would be forced to face the reality of the imperial war machine and the ones that make it home will have military training and probably a burning hatred for imperialism.
The seventies really were the perfect moment. I blame heavy metal for this cursed timeline.
I love metal but I think there's a kernel of truth to this not in causation but correlation, there was the counter culter but then there was this other side that was this American death drive that really kicked into high gear after the Vietnam war, vets became radicalized in different ways and a lot of them brought some real dark shit back into the American right with them. Kathleen Belew's Bring The War Home goes into great detail about how a new breed of American esoteric fascism and militancy on the right arose out of the post Vietnam war era in no small part due to backlash against the civil rights movement as well.
Maybe it’s because I don’t know shit about fuck, but it NATO enters Ukraine I’m betting on a repeat of the Balkans
