Ryuu96 said: Big shift: The German defense minister said the EU should consider banning Russian gas because of Russian atrocities in Ukraine. The statement marks a major change in German policy, which has consistently led the EU away from sanctioning Russian energy.https://t.co/yTxNRXvCZH — Cliff Levy (@cliffordlevy) April 3, 2022

It does feel like another big political shift following the revelations of the Bucha massacre and that the Western powers are about to up the ante on sanctions and/or military support for Ukraine.

Also read that Russia have called an emergency UN Security Council meeting concerning the Bucha massacre, but are blaming ‘provocations from Ukrainian radicals’. Oh for god sake. I know I shouldn’t be surprised given Russia clearly has no shame but who is buying Russia’s poorly weaved fables over this?

The UN should have been dissolved long, long ago. Just let security alliances keep things in check. A whole lot less lying, backstabbing, and vetoes of objectively right decisions would occur. If Russia, China, North Korea, and Iran want peace with neighbors then they will have to obtain it by mutual agreement and won't be able to wiggle there way through loophole, after loophole, after loophole. Who cares if they throw a fit about countries abandoning the UN? The UN has been a joke and will continue to be. Let it die, let's all save some money on efforts that get stalled in the UN, and instead pump that money into actual results.

So basically Russia are applying a different (and definitively incorrect) meaning to the word Nazi, as its actually their rhetoric which is extremely similar to that of the Nazis.

SecondWar said: So basically Russia are applying a different (and definitively incorrect) meaning to the word Nazi, as its actually their rhetoric which is extremely similar to that of the Nazis.

Well yeah. It's quite similar to how Antifa call themselves anti-fascists whilst using very fascistic methods for enforcing their ideology. Humanity is nothing if not hypocritical beyond belief.

I wouldn't call Antifa's methods fascist methods but they definitely use violence against many who don't think like them, have no problems to destroy people's belongings (shops, cars and so on) even if these people did nothing to anyone, release names of some to the public to label them as something specific, like to use their look and behavior in groups to spread fear and appear dangerous and so on...

But it's not a secret that the extremes (which Antifa is obviously) are often similar in many things even if their ideology is the complete opposite.

They both don't really scream "we have only good in mind" in the eye of an average person who doesn't belong to one of both extremes. I would say most people kinda fear both groups if they see them in their city (at least here, not really sure how Antifa groups behave in every single country)

These are the indicative estimates of Russia’s combat losses as of April 4, according to the Armed Forces of Ukraine. pic.twitter.com/Hq2ppdsejs

— The Kyiv Independent (@KyivIndependent) April 4, 2022

Compared to a week ago:
+1300 Troops (a little under previous daily average)
+24 Planes
+7 Helicopters
+61 Tanks
+28 Artillery
+150 Personnel carriers
+12 MLRS
+123 Vehicles
+3 fuel tanks
+26 UAV
+4 special equipment

Overall there's no significant slowdown of assets loss for Russia. Ukraine had many success north of Kyiv recently but with Russia's retreat there it is not certain whether or not Ukraine will be able reproduce the same kind of success in other Russian occupied territory. I certainly hope so.
Also it's quite depressing to see the ruble value getting back much of it's pre war value. Wonder why that is? Anyway, sanction need to be dramatically increase.

EpicRandy said:. Also it's quite depressing to see the ruble value getting back much of it's pre war value. Wonder why that is? Anyway, sanction need to be dramatically increase.

This, combined with the evidence of atrocities in Russian occupied territory shown the need for a hard ramp up in sanction plus enhanced military support for Ukraine.

Also the West/Nato need to think seriously and and decide what red line would cause them to actually intervene militarily on Ukraine's behalf. With such crimes against humanity, leaving it as 'attack a Nato member' seems to far removed. 

CGI-Quality said: TonsofPuppies said: Well yeah. It's quite similar to how Antifa call themselves anti-fascists whilst using very fascistic methods for enforcing their ideology. Humanity is nothing if not hypocritical beyond belief. Now I'm curious, such as?  I'm only deviating a bit because I've heard this before and context is needed.

One of the largest components of fascism is the suppression / censorship of those whom oppose you - Russia, for example, is clearly exercising fascistic tactics upon its own people by arresting them for peacefully protesting, etc. Antifa operates in a similar fashion, using tactics such as doxxing and threats of violence against property and/or people to achieve their goals. Shutting down right-leaning or conservative speakers on college campuses for instance. I have no problem with them staging a counter protest against a speaker they disagree with, the line for me is crossed when they do not allow that speaker to speak and don't allow the people who want to hear them speak, do so.

I wish Nato country were more aggressive in there action.
In my opinion Nato country could:

• Officially excuse military personnel that volunteer for Ukraine foreign legion.
• Offer financial incentive to citizen who volunteer to join Ukraine foreign legion. (When Putin invaded east Ukraine in 2014, he did so while telling they were only volunteer, time for him to reap what he did sow then).
• This can enable a country to send more military aid to Ukraine even such which Ukrainian aren't necessary trained for.
• Hire and send mercenaries to Ukraine (Russia is already doing this so no reason we shouldn't be allowed to)
• Complete ban on every Russian imports not just Oil and Gaz (If Russia did not have nuclear weapon and NATO got involved directly, it would already be like this so any action short of this and you cannot say you did every thing possible IMO)
• Nationalize every Russian owned assets within your border. (Russia is already preparing to do just that in there own country, probably holding back only because it can be considered an act of war)
• Put Russia on notice that any new war crime will be strongly answered to (such as when they used chemical weapon in Syria, one of sole 2 actions taken by Trump which I supported, don't remember what was the other though)

TonsofPuppies said: CGI-Quality said: Now I'm curious, such as?  I'm only deviating a bit because I've heard this before and context is needed.  One of the largest components of fascism is the suppression / censorship of those whom oppose you - Russia, for example, is clearly exercising fascistic tactics upon its own people by arresting them for peacefully protesting, etc. Antifa operates in a similar fashion, using tactics such as doxxing and threats of violence against property and/or people to achieve their goals. Shutting down right-leaning or conservative speakers on college campuses for instance. I have no problem with them staging a counter protest against a speaker they disagree with, the line for me is crossed when they do not allow that speaker to speak and don't allow the people who want to hear them speak, do so.

Suppression and censorship are definitely not exclusive to fascism. Communism (Leninism specifically) as well as religious and military regimes say hi.

To quote the first line of Wikipedia: "Fascism (/ˈfæʃɪzəm/) is a form of far-right, authoritarian ultranationalism"

Antifa is the opposite of far-right, they are the opposite of authoritarian and the opposite of nationalistic.

So yeah they might share a trait with Fascism (and the other types I mentioned above) but that doesn't make them fascist.