Russo-Ukrainian War 2014-25

[grumbler]

So I am guessing the massive Russian retaliation for the missile-use green light happened: according to the Ukrainians they used an ICBM to hit a Ukrainian town.

Yeah first use of an ICBM in combat history to strike Dnipro. There goes international arms control.

Footage of the incoming MIRVs.

https://x.com/gaborgurbacs/status/1859559835081056518

The fans of "Rods from the Gods" are disappointed.

[Josephus]

I think it's becoming increasingly obvious that peace is going to come through a negotiated settlement that will see Ukraine lose territory. The Russkies have the advantage now and I think the Ukrainians have lost the will to fight.  And Trump will get all the credit.

[Crazy_Ivan80]

I think it's becoming increasingly obvious that peace is going to come through a negotiated settlement that will see Ukraine lose territory. The Russkies have the advantage now and I think the Ukrainians have lost the will to fight.  And Trump will get all the credit.

The West is done.

[The Minsky Moment]

Footage of the incoming MIRVs.

So their super duper high tech missile is late 1960s tech.

[Crazy_Ivan80]

Pro Russian candidate in the lead in romania's presidential elections....
For fuck's sake

[HVC]

[Crazy_Ivan80]

Back when it was funny. I'm not laughing at it anymore 😐

[Syt]

Back when it was funny. I'm not laughing at it anymore 😐

We know that about The Simpsons. But what about Russia?

[Crazy_Ivan80]

Back when it was funny. I'm not laughing at it anymore 😐

We know that about The Simpsons. But what about Russia?

Well played. Well played indeed.

[Tamas]

Pro Russian candidate in the lead in romania's presidential elections....
For fuck's sake

I am reading the liberal candidate is now in the lead.

[Josquius]

Had no idea Romania was having an election but doesn't seem so bad.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/nov/25/calin-georgescu-romania-election-hard-right-candidate

Populist nutter with 2x% and they have a system where the top two go to a run off.
Hopefully people are sensible enough to see this incumbent leftist opponent he'll be up against is the right choice even if the voters themselves are libs.

[Solmyr]

Had no idea Romania was having an election but doesn't seem so bad.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/nov/25/calin-georgescu-romania-election-hard-right-candidate

Populist nutter with 2x% and they have a system where the top two go to a run off.
Hopefully people are sensible enough to see this incumbent leftist opponent he'll be up against is the right choice even if the voters themselves are libs.

You are assuming liberal voters have a problem with electing fascists.

[celedhring]

Had no idea Romania was having an election but doesn't seem so bad.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/nov/25/calin-georgescu-romania-election-hard-right-candidate

Populist nutter with 2x% and they have a system where the top two go to a run off.
Hopefully people are sensible enough to see this incumbent leftist opponent he'll be up against is the right choice even if the voters themselves are libs.

You are assuming liberal voters have a problem with electing fascists.

Fortunately, Josq is wrong and the latest count gives a runoff between the fascist and the center-right candidate. 

[crazy canuck]

Yeah, it seems that Jos only read about as far as the first paragraph of the article he linked.

Another election in which the polling really got it wrong.  According to polling, the incumbent leftist government should have easily been one of the runoff parties.

The article attributes the big swing to social media. Based on the American experience, that is probably accurate. I would think the Romanians are even more susceptible to Russian social media operations and the Americans were.

[Tamas]

I remain skeptical on just how directly Russians can control these things (they can amplify but I don't think they can influence), but for sure it feels like models based on the old world revolving around television and newspapers are dead.

The online space IS the real world now, TV and newspapers can catch up to it but that's it. Reminds me a bit of what I heard many years ago from somebody in the gaming industry: used to be that the games the gaming magazines/sites wrote about became the hits or at least the games people talked about. But since social media this has turned around entirely: the magazines/sites have to gauge what's being talked about online and cover those games. Which in the gaming context is not at all a problem.

But in politics I feel like the centre-left (and right, of what husks remain of them) parties are truly now the conservative forces, playing catchup to the far-right which has woken up faster to the new reality of the world. And they can make easier use of it as well since they are unburned by truth and facts.