World, Writing, Wealth discussion
World & Current Events
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When opposition death and injury rate seems a little higher than usual
So, I guess the same tactic could be used by other countries too and Lukas is probably not the worst enemy of aviation. Having said that, this doesn't justify apprehending of a dissident blogger and other political detainees
Journalists and bloggers are having a hard time of it recently. Khashoggi (sp??) didn't even make it past getting his papers at his embassy. Those politicians that howl at Lukas and do much the same thing themselves are, well, politicians. They make used car salesmen look like models of honesty and truthfulness.
Ian wrote: "Journalists and bloggers are having a hard time of it recently. Khashoggi (sp??) didn't even make it past getting his papers at his embassy. Those politicians that howl at Lukas and do much the sam..."How dare you compare Used Car Salesmen to these guys. You should never insult used car salesmen like that again......
But but but I said they were models of honesty and truthfulness. Well, almost . . .
You are going down the rabbit hole again Alice....
But there are good tea parties down there :-)
Papa said: "How dare you compare Used Car Salesmen to these guys. You should never insult used car salesmen like that again......" That gave me a smile :-)
My own conclusion is that occupying senior positions in gas-related giants may undermine longevity prospects: https://fortune.com/2022/04/25/deaths...
Casualty estimates during any war are, and always have been, unreliable, exaggerated, and occasionally fabricated by both sides of the conflict. They are used primarily as propaganda to bolster support from government and civilian observers.I have said before, and will say again: When the last shot if fired, peace treaties are signed, and a war is officially declared over, there are no winners and no losers. There are only survivors.
True, wars shouldn’t happen. Maybe one day the violence will become history
Jim wrote: "Casualty estimates during any war are, and always have been, unreliable, exaggerated, and occasionally fabricated by both sides of the conflict. They are used primarily as propaganda to bolster sup..."I disagree. Generally speaking, both sides are losers.
Ian wrote: "Jim wrote: "Casualty estimates during any war are, and always have been, unreliable, exaggerated, and occasionally fabricated by both sides of the conflict. They are used primarily as propaganda to..."We will have to agree to disagree.
I based the comment stated in message 60 upon my personal experience as a former U.S. Marine and Viet-Nam veteran. I consider myself to be a survivor of that 13-month combat tour. I have never considered myself to be a loser.
Out of curiosity, upon what personal experience or research did you base your conclusion?
Jim, I didn't mean survivors were losers; I meant countries are losers. If you look at the photos of places at the end of WW II, tell me how anyone in Europe had not really lost something, bearing in mind what would have happened had there been no war. Even in 1968 when I wandered around there were clear signs they still had not recovered. At the end of WW II Britain was the next best thing to being bankrupt, and where before it had been a strong manufacturing country, it had devoted so much to military manufacturing that its civilian form died away.I never meant to suggest that a returning soldier was a loser as a direct consequence of the war. I agree he was a survivor.
Ian wrote: "Jim, I didn't mean survivors were losers; I meant countries are losers. If you look at the photos of places at the end of WW II, tell me how anyone in Europe had not really lost something, bearing ..."Ian,
I agree that wars leave all of the participants worse off than they were prior to hostilities.
Unfortunately, as long as human beings are in charge, wars will continue to be declared and fought. I sincerely hope I am wrong, but believe that I am right.
Jim,Unfortunately, I rather fear you are right too
I wonder if there ever has been a time when man was not at war...
Papaphilly wrote: "I wonder if there ever has been a time when man was not at war..."There have been a couple of periods in which no records of major conflict have been noted. It is generally accepted that this is due to poor record keeping during those periods.
Nik wrote: "Surely unconnected to thread's heading:https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/..."
What to know about Guillain-Barré syndrome
https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/arti...
The Russians generally prefer to kill their targets, not just incapacitate them. Therefore, I'm inclined to think that he ate some bad food or maybe is one of the few who suffer this reaction to the J&J vaccine.
Can be anything, of course. It can be tricky with poising though, as I remember reading a well researched independent investigation into Navalny’s one, who survived. Can sometimes be even a total disaster like this one:
https://www.nytimes.com/1997/10/15/wo...
With Gorbi, Kravchuk and Shushkevich - all prime figures contributing to the breakup of USSR dying within the span of just a few month after the beginning of the russian invasion, I guess god might be with putler
According to our news Gorbi was 91 years old. Not a huge surprise he went, and maybe a sign that God might have been kind to him.
Can be of age, can be with age and there are also those who don't believe in coincidences. The other 2 weren't kids either
Probabilities are hard to understand sometimes. My parents died within two days of each other (both old). I have previously won money from the "bet you there are two people with the same age in this room". And in fairness, I had the odds only a little in my favour.
In a group of 23 people, the odds of two people having the same birthday is 50%. I'd think the odds of having two people with the same age would be more than a little in your favor - couldn't find statistics for that, but not a coincidence. In the case of poisoning political opponents, I'd think that past actions predict what's to come.Nik, I couldn't read the NYT article you provided a link for. You have to be a subscriber.
Energy still seems very unhealthy industry, especially for executives:https://www.cnbc.com/2022/09/01/lukoi...
Nik wrote: "Energy still seems very unhealthy industry, especially for executives:https://www.cnbc.com/2022/09/01/lukoi..."
Must be all that vodka....
While you were looking the other way:Jeffrey Epstein's mentor — who once ran a Ponzi scheme — was found dead. He was 77
https://www.npr.org/2022/08/26/111974...
It's probably just a coincidence. Probably...
Ian wrote: "But there are good tea parties down there :-)"Complete with Polonium. )
Russia loves to "Tie Up" the "loose ends" of it's black ops...
Nik wrote: "Can be anything, of course. It can be tricky with poising though, as I remember reading a well researched independent investigation into Navalny’s one, who survived. Can sometimes be even a total ..."
That's because elder semi senile Putin is just as effective at poisoning his rivals as he is at invading them.
Younger Putin would never have missed his target.
Another former Putin ally dies after ‘falling down several flights of stairs’ as eight cronies are mysteriously killedhttps://www.the-sun.com/news/6269942/...
J. wrote: "Another former Putin ally dies after ‘falling down several flights of stairs’ as eight cronies are mysteriously killedhttps://www.the-sun.com/news/6269942/......"
Clumsy
Papaphilly wrote: "Clumsy"Indeed, but whose clumsiness?
As Putin said, "There is no such thing as a former KGB man." That's the mindset. Killing is okay.
Nik wrote: "Apparently"Yep. Railroad baron Pavel Pachalniky (or whatever sad name for a sad man) just the latest on Putin's Dead pile.
52 year old railroader shot himself to death on his own balcony.
repeatedly. i guess his killers couldn't be bother to toss him off it.
Very fishy. Poor guy. I hope he's just hiding out somewhere.
I was thinking the other day about how lucky we are to live in the U. S., and I don't understand these groups that want to tear down what we have here. We're just so lucky to have the freedom we have, although I worry that government is too involved in punishing people who don't agree with the politics of the party in power. Isn't that how it starts, silencing and attacking people who don't agree?
That is how it starts. Assisted by people sitting back and letting them
Another Putin critic died after falling out of a windowhttps://www.businessinsider.com/putin...
If Russian, you should avoid windows, stairs, balconies, boats, and your own family.
J. wrote: "Another Putin critic died after falling out of a windowhttps://www.businessinsider.com/putin...
If Russian, you should avoid windows, stairs,..."
Or lay off the vodka especially around said avoidance.
Following the above, while constructively criticizing authorities and taking part in their shenanigans should be absolutely safe
Who thinks Putin is in any way a good guy incapable of ordering deaths of opponents? On 20 August 2020, Russian opposition figure and anti-corruption activist Alexei Navalny was poisoned with a Novichok nerve agent and was hospitalized in serious condition. Navalny said that his poisoning was ordered by Putin and this was backed up by a recording of a Russian operative. Navaly recovered and returned to Russia to serve 2 1/2 years in a penal colony, where he died suddenly of a "heart attack." The possibility of foul play couldn't be dismissed, of course. Great guy, Putin. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poisoni...
For all I know, Navalny is still alive but kept in prison for laughable charges. Nemtsov is dead. A cruel country ruled by a cruel tsar
Sorry, guys, I misread the article. He's in solitary confinement. This is from a NYT article in November of 2022: "“The general tendency has been to pressure him constantly, to make every day even worse, to keep pressuring him so that he breaks, to suppress him,” Lyubov Sobol, a key member of Navalny’s team, said in an interview, adding that a renewed effort to cut him off from the outside began around the end of September, about the same time that the Kremlin ordered a general draft for the Ukraine war.“These have been conditions of severe isolation; now he is isolated even more,” she said.
The article ended with this: "Mr. Navalny said his new conditions would not prevent him from speaking out against the war and the ruling party. “That’s what I call on everyone to do,” he wrote. “At every opportunity, campaign against the war, Putin and United Russia.” https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/17/wo...
So my point about Russia killing dissenters wasn't proved here.
He's "neutralized" and that suits the ruler
https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entr...
and for a direct comparison
https://greenwald.substack.com/p/as-a...
"In 2013, the U.S. and key E.U. states pioneered the tactic just used by Lukashenko. They did so as part of a failed scheme to detain and arrest the NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden. That incident at the time caused global shock and outrage precisely because, eight years ago, it was truly an unprecedented assault on the values and conventions they are now invoking to condemn Belarus.
In July of that year, the democratically elected President of Bolivia, Evo Morales, had traveled to Russia for a routine international conference attended by countries which export natural gas. At the time of Morales’ trip, Edward Snowden was in the middle of a bizarre five-week ordeal where he was stranded in the international transit zone of Sheremetyevo Airport in Moscow, unable to board a flight to leave Russia or exit the airport to enter Russia."