Russia to invade Ukraine

What scares me is that my grandparents on one side of my family emigrated from Germany right before WW2 popped off. A couple of years beforehand, in fact. So they lived in Australia for the entirety of the war. I talked to my grandmother about it once, about what the environment was like and what it was like to move all that way to a country that ultimately became hostile to anyone with a German accent. She said some of the ostracization was pretty bad but for the most part Australians were ok. She said that they were largely accepted because they rejected the situation in Germany and elected to move away from it, and most Aussies saw that as a pretty significant and drastic attempt to avoid being around something that we all see as abhorrent. So most people were impressed by their attitude rather than preferring to alienate them

She did say that one of the things she noticed was the amount of people around her and in her neighbourhood talking about what was being said by the National Socialist German Workers' Party (old mate fancy mo's party) made sense. It was things about how other countries were taking up their resources. They were putting Germany into poverty intentionally to emasculate them economically. The rest of the world didn't take them seriously, and they were forced to take steps to protect every day Germans from being ground so hard into the dirt that they would never get back up. That Germans don't want anything but to live in their country safely, without the threat of a belligerent neighbour who could and probably would attack at any time. It was better to show initiative and make sure that those things didn't happen by putting defensive mechanisms into play in advance of things going sour. 
I had the hairs going up on the back of my neck as I listened to that video because it was a current day technology relay of what my grandmother told me about her experience as a young woman, and making the choice to leave Germany because she didn't like what was happening. Almost word for word. A normal, every day person who agrees with everything that Putin has said without asking themselves WHY he's saying it. I've seen a few conservative prepper types saying very similar things about how Putin makes sense and is it any wonder he's done what he's done.

It might be true. Or it might just be what he wants everyone to hear because it confirms their bias. Hearts and minds. Am I biased because a family matriarch told me her one experience of seeing the writing on the wall and choosing not to be involved? For sure. If she'd not made that choice I'd never have been born. But when history isn't rhyming but literally repeating itself in front of my eyes it gets me a little bit 'here we go for round three'. Normal, every day people rationalising and reorganising in their own mind to make not ok things somehow ok. 

NONE of these world leaders care about us. NONE of them want us to like them for reasons other than it directly benefits them. NONE of them tell you a story you don't want to hear. Not Biden, not Putin, not any of them. It's in the job description. I wouldn't believe a single word that comes out of Putin's mouth any more than any other politician or world leader. Even less so Putin, he literally spent years training and practicing the manipulation of the human mind. He does it masterfully because he was trained to be a master at it. He breathes deception like water. He's dangerous, because your regular politician and world leader can lie but at various points they'll be caught out in a lie. It's unavoidable because lies tend to tangle you up over time and that kind of makes us feel safe to think they're a bad person and we shouldn't trust them. People seem to dissociate that small factoid from their brains when they're listening to him.

The best way to assess a person like that is to ignore what they say and look at their actual acts. "If I were a person in the position to do the things that he's done, would I do those specific things". Judge the person based on that. If I ever look at a head of state or similar who's advocating for any kind of conflict and think "Yep, I'd do the same thing". On the day that I do, I suspect I'll get my head checked just to make sure I haven't gone off the deep end.

Possibly controversial opinion: Australia should not be involved in this in any way shape or form because we are TERRIBLE at choosing sides in wars.

Boer War: We were on the wrong side. We sided with an imperial power hellbent on crushing the locals who just wanted to keep living the way they had for generations.

WWI: Nothing to do with us. This was politicians fighting politicians. The royal families were on good terms and closely related to each other. Their peace efforts were scuppered by politicians who wanted war.

WWII: Nothing to do with us. The whole deal was kicked off on the premise of protecting Poland...who we left to the Soviets. Tens of millions of lives wasted just to choose one murderous dictator over another. Slight caveat, that we should still have kept all forces ready to fight any Japanese incursion.

Korea: Nothing to do with us. At the time South Korea was a dictatorship and worse off than the North. Don't let the situation today fool you.

Vietnam: Nothing to do with us. We sided with a corrupt regime against a dictatorial one. If the South swedish weren't willing to fight properly, neither should we. They seemed far more willing to take risks getting on an old boat to come here than to fight to stop the communists in the first place.

Iraq: We were on the wrong side in both wars. Kuwait was historically part of Iraq and right now is a vastly more oppressive regime than Saddam was. The second gulf war achieved nothing other than emboldening various islamist scumbags.

East Timor: Not really a war, but possibly the only one where we were on the right side. We subsequently screwed them out of their oil fields anyway.

Afghanistan: Nothing to to with us. In addition, the Afghan people had a fully modern country. If they really wanted anything other than a stone age theocracy, they could have fought for and kept it. They didn't.

We really need to stop sticking our noses in other people's business. How many Australians have died for no reason at all because some politician and media told them to? Russia's invasion may be wrong. Maybe right. NATO existed as a north american and western european organisation. The should not be trying to shit on Russia after they had already won the cold war. This whole thing could have been avoided if NATO had not pushed eastwards. Whoever is right or wrong, the difference is so marginal that is does not justify the massive loss of life.

In the next war, you wont need to choose sides 'cause there wont be any sides left to chose from.

One flash and your ash........






Do you mind if I smoke ? NO. Do you mind if I fart ?

Agree completely. Given the number who tried to flee the country, it's pretty obvious that most Russian's want no part in this war. Can you imagine the media showing a drone strike killing Australian troops the way they show them killing Russians? We need to stop taking sides in this, especially our media (who these days are effectively mouthpieces of the government)

Whoever did it, blowing up Nordstream was fantastic.

If they did that that would end the war. But it won’t be in Ukraine's favour.