BlueOak

The Azov were a few hundred strong and integrated into the regular army long before the war, the leader left to run for office and received 1.5%-2% of the vote. Russia created a lot more far-right individuals in Ukraine as a result of the war, as always in wartime, and as the war is largely about nationalism in Russia cultivated by Putin to maintain power, Russia has far more extreme-right individuals in their own country. It was never about a few hundred or even a thousand men or even the minor border skirmishes between the Russian-backed militias and Ukraine that both sides engaged in. Again, ukraine offered neutrality very early on and Russia rejected it. Because it would have been neutrality with western leanings due to the Crimea invasion, not a Russian puppet government. I've mentioned the many reasons for the war before, we can go through them again if you like. It's easy to name twenty. All wars happen for multiple reasons, not just one. Additional general info: Looks like a few more border breaches going on to try and encircle in the north, and distract in the south, any remaining border guards

Point well made. Yes it was an offensive action. At the time preemptive action (preemptive strikes it was called) through the 90s was common as a defensive measure, especially by America in the post-Cold war period. This is in part due to the exaggerated fear of the Soviet era at the time cultivated in the west and the soviets themselves, later continued by Russia. It was a different time, and a heightened state of tension, one in which we are returning to and might see again.

It bombed Serbia because Albania was being ethnically cleansed. Neither of us is doing that situation a service by such a simple take on one of the most complicated regions in the world. Afghanistan was attacked because several thousand Americans were brutally murdered by an extremist group within Afghanistan, protected by the government there. Unlike Iraq, which happened because of a small man's pride, oil money, weapon sales, and certain people's lust for war, I fully supported Afghanistan until the mission was accomplished. Nation-building, as Russia tries to do in Ukraine, or America tried to do in the Middle East and Afghanistan was a massive failure, and it is completely self-serving, egotistical, and narcissistic. However, I understand if you rip something down, something needs to be built in its place, just not a copy of yourself.

Well its partially something to consider. Because when these countries got done playing warmonger, NATO now defends them after the fact. However, it needs to be stated in that way to be accurate. Just as BRICS are beginning to protect Russia's warmongers or China's warmongers. A similar thing but with fewer military guarantees.

Starve a people. Bring in your own. Deport, assassinate and torture anyone who disagrees with you. Put a gun to their head. Tell them to vote. Sometimes twice. And here you are telling me that's its something I should consider legitimate. Again: Russia has had 8 wars on former USSR territories to take control of them back. Nobody can or will trust Putin. Putin was offered Ukranian neutrality and he refused it.

Ukraine has been independent since the 90's and for 100's of years in the past. Your dislike for their internal politics or even their democratic process is irrelevant. Should I say every authoritarian country that has either rigged its elections, killed their opponents off or just abandoned them is not independent? Again. NATO did not invade Iraq. I understand why people from large or collectivist countries associate people together. I've been trying to do the same in communication when I refer to BRICS, because I understand that's how the general understanding is from many of the people there. So I understand 'the west' , NATO, BRICS, etc being used as a collective reference. But honestly the downside is, that it just empowers the otherside. You just create enemies that weren't there to start with. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2003_invasion_of_Iraq Most of NATO had nothing at all to do with the Iraq war.

Part of the strategy is to bleed Russia. So fighting withdrawals are common. Its more sensible when they don't hold too long, as they sometimes do before withdrawing, because they lose experienced soldiers doing so. When you are fighting a bigger opponent, you pick and choose your battles. Holding terrain is more beneficial than attacking it. If they do bunker down here, it'll cost Russia a lot more than the almost nothing it took Ukraine to take it. It is already in the backline, and their convoys are being hit. However, just making this a raid to take out critical infrastructure like the airports, then capturing prisoners and supplies, taking out bottlenecked reinforcements, and forcing Russia to commit a sensible amount of manpower to defending the border is a victory all the same. There will be no end to the war because Russia is ironclad it'll give up no territory. So there is nothing to negotiate. As I've said a dozen times to you the battlefield is where the negotiations are taking place. I don't like it but it is what it is.

As far as I am aware, video evidence of anything helps the satellites locate troop movements, its why partisans filming what is going on and where is so crucial. These are big areas of land, and to hit a drone on a moving target a distance away isn't that easy, but it is slightly easier with a missile.

The initial reports were inaccurate. There are more like 6000 plus support. There are three brigades and several smaller mechanized units in support as well. They outnumber the Russian response currently, which is why they are pushing forward, especially as the Russians are reporting on where their own troops are along the roads, so their convoys are being hit. Some dumb reporters are over there. https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidaxe/2024/08/08/one-of-ukraines-toughest-and-fastest-brigades-has-joined-the-invasion-of-russia/ Ukraine needed manpower because they recruited 500,000 more men this summer. The age is still 25 for recruitment. Desperate is an exaggeration, it would be like saying Russia is desperate for manpower because they left the border undefended, but it's not. Both sides don't want to do another mobilization. Certainly, I would say the volunteers for both sides are all in the army now, so there's purely conscription, and that's why some people try to avoid it or resist it. If they take two cities, it'll be significant; Kursk would be the second biggest city taken in the war, Mariupol being the biggest. Either way, they've taken a chunk of territory, including the main connection point for Russia sending gas into Europe, which is a big deal in any negotiation and if they get the power plant that's another prize. I do agree I would have liked the west to take the chains off Ukraine earlier on, so they could threaten Russia more effectively, but the fear of Russia's response made them restrain Ukraine from invading Russia, giving a strategic edge to the Russians because they had fixed fronts, while Ukraine had to defend almost every border. At the very start of this war I said Ukraine will give up some territory, but here they may trade some back. I also said if they don't get into NATO we will do all this all over again. It will be supremely stupid if we don't put them in NATO. I stand by both statements. Yes, it's a very wide open country, vulnerable to partisans, mobile units, and protecting its borders. Shortening its borders is one of the many reasons for this war. Because of Russia's population crisis, they don't have the manpower to secure every land connection, but shrinking it down into central Europe was a core strategy they were attempting. I think this being a raid shouldn't be dismissed yet, because all of Ukraine's units are mechanized and fast, it may depend on how successful they are. They are reinforcing some of the towns they've taken but that could still be for a short-term stay. They are able to take out Russia convoys as they are coming into reinforcement with drones and artillery while the convoys are bottlenecked and disorganized, which is another bonus long term.

If its a raid. Raiding Russia is smart. Its a huge country, with lots of room to move around and nowhere near enough men to defend inside the country itself. If its holding territory, they can take a couple of cities and when the peace happens, Russia either trades or loses them. For raiding they've taken a lot of prisoners for trade, and hit the Russians unprepared. Which means stockpiles, rail connections, vehicles, supplies etc. They can hit the logistics of Russia quite hard here now they are this far inside of it. Long term Russia will have to put troops on the border, just like Ukraine do with Belarus, which helps stretch Russia thinner. There are some key sites, like the main hub to ship gas to Europe there, for example, and a powerplant, but beyond that hitting the backlines of a country at war is very beneficial. Also the nearby airfields were getting hit hard. from the info I've got, which is useful for all parties involved except Russia.

If you want a constant source of entertaining covers, you can checkout Marcus Veltri https://www.youtube.com/@MarcusVeltri/videos He does solos and collaborations on the spot, so they are not always absolutely performance-perfect but they are entertaining.

The no nonesense response is. You are the man, you make it happen. Keep going with the 500 approaches we talked about, no matter what happens, just get comfortable with it.

A statement is sometimes just a statement, and not personal to you. I was qualifying a sensitive issue so my position on the data was clear.

I didn't say you did, I did a breakdown of crime numbers and stats that agreed with your point to a certain degree, though I think you exaggerate if we are being blunt. *I will state that data shows migrants to be suspected of committing more crimes, and likely because migrants are poor and poverty is the leading driving factor of crime. Skin color and ethnicity has nothing to do with it, and nobody has demonstrated otherwise to me through anything other than their own bias. Other than generalizations about spiral dynamics and moving from one culture to the next from overseas, which I grant to a certain degree. If something is not a crime in one country or treated differently, obviously a certain % of the population moving will make the mistake of committing that crime, ditto tourists not knowing the laws. But as I said there, it would show a lot if there was a conviction rate for migrants published, vs the suspicion rate, to help rule out any policing bias, same with the non migrant population.

I did a comprehensive look at this for Germany, but it was only suspicion of crimes, not crimes: I can't imagine its too different. I wouldn't mind a mathematician or analyst refining these figures.

Thanks for the link, interesting observation of detachment here are the ones I know of. Keeping up with the Joneses. 1920's? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keeping_up_with_the_Joneses 1980's fast cars, cocaine, fashion, and neon. Hyper Materialism and money began to rule all. 2020's Now. Appearance is everything. Social media filters. A transactional life, people are dollar signs. Hyper Materialism I did experience the 90s and they were beautiful with some counterculture pushback, so hopefully the 30's will be good too. *Detachment is a natural cycle of reformation, it just sucks.

Yes. With the stipulation that its the part of themselves agreeing with Farage that gives him power, and the lack of understanding of how the lack of age-appropriate labor brings about poverty, lack of services, and lack of local development addressing their day-to-day concerns, which usually requires the opposite of a recession (money in councils), and eventually even the lack of jobs as related industries close down, these things cause them to riot. This is largely fixed by immigration. When you couple it with the continued slow erosion of stable families and so stable authority or protective/nurturing or supportive qualities in people. Which allows a vacuum filled by drugs, gangs, or far-right extremists speaking to the missing piece of them. Also, add in that politicians are career managers now and will usually say anything to stay in power, and so avoiding following through is a matter of habit with less consequence. You can consider the same for the local community, and the different losses we have inside ourselves by not having a local supportive community around us that we contribute to. Local communities outside of some very fortunate villages are almost completely splintered, we haven't developed the part ourselves that values it, that meets the six human needs in relation to community, like significance, connection, etc.. I realized in an argument once that one of the things people hate about the LGBT community is the word COMMUNITY itself, so I had this long argument about why community is a good thing, and they were resistant at the core because they lacked community themselves. Even the idea of communities of survivors of illnesses for example, or other support groups, which was eye-opening in that conversation.

If you equate people to a value judgment, of course there can be high value in both genders. This is just a series of traits people are rating a value. A lot of people rate women on youth, beauty, loyalty, trust, honesty, etc. If you want a family, then we select for nurturing qualities, and supportive qualities in a long-term partner if we are sensible. Outside of value judgments, which I don't use quantitatively but as a guide: if you learn yourself and get yourself to a place where you are reasonably balanced in life, then you can go find the woman for you. You'll always be attracting your match anyway if you get out to meet enough women. Then, for me, she'd be a high-value woman if she embodied the traits I look for. Loyalty, Integrity, Honesty, Playfulness, Supportiveness, Beauty, Intelligence, and Creativity. - Obviously, I'll compromise on some but not the first three. Skip the traps of marriage, of course, because it's archaic and creates such trauma in people. If you want to make sure your partner is provided for after you are no longer there, you can put some money or income aside for that purpose weekly/monthly into a separate joint account. If I ever was with a woman long term again, she'd take me at my word that if we did part, I would help her get set up if I could; if she hadn't cheated or lied, but that's the first qualities I match with loyalty and integrity. I give the above to talk about why certain qualities in women are the most valuable. If you are building a life with someone, you can't do it without those first three qualities.

The average age of people in the UK is 40 and they are not getting younger. Which creates all the problems people complain about and means there will be no civil war. So they ban or reduce immigration, which exaggerates the problem of the age gap. Things get more expensive, people have less, they complain more, and they lash out, not realizing they are making their own problems worse. They isolate themselves, and their communities, and their countries until they start to seek opportunities outside of them again. The people running things know this, but they can do it because immigrants don't vote, and so are an easy target for everyone. Same old story, no power = being a target to score points off. No there will not be a civil war here. People like Elon Musk are such drama queens, but it's in his interest to create drama because he runs a communications platform. Think about who gives these quotes first, and what their ulterior motives are. He requires sensationalism to extract value from his business. Now down to reality. There are riots every so often. We've had a softer era but people wanted more masculinity, so we've got it. Part of the result is that more force and violence are used. The usual reasons are economic pressures or poverty cultivating a rise in desperation, nihilism, gangs, drug/drink use, and general destabilization of people's and communities' lives. Then a flash point for the violence, same old, same old. Add to that, the right has gone as far as it can go without going into violence to achieve its aims, so that's where we are. It splinters communities in doing so, and you get a swell of violence from the other groups opposing them as well. Fixing the east of the country will help, that is where a lot of anti-everything sentiment comes from because Hull, Grimsby, Boston, etc port cities are still suffering the fishing collapse, and the Brexit promise to fix it was a lie. So people have turned to despair in these areas. Boston had the highest ratio of anyone voting for Brexit. Some effort has gone into Hull, but there is still work to do. When I head east, it's still in a bad way. Grantham still has a drug problem the size of a city that people have just accepted, and Nottingham is somewhat recovering from all the pressures they've had + the failure to rebuild the main transport hub and shopping center and wasted millions doing so—that blunder wrecked the high street. Nottingham council is completely broke at the moment https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/08/05/far-right-riots-uk-where-southport-mapped/ If you check this you'll see the north east is a constant hotspot.

Anything 2 Cellos does. Charlie Parra, is still my second favorite guitarist alive if you are in the mood for metal Sure you've all heard of Sina

You are the reality you are experiencing, and so is the AI or the cat, (I would theorize it is the same for the rock but I can't prove that) so the reality is the difference. It is more expansive than you are describing but equally true for all and answers the question. Processing isn't the only thing you (the self) do, but let's start with that. If you were to fall asleep and be completely unconscious (no dreaming, no outer of body experience), awake, then fall asleep, awake, and fall asleep every microsecond. Then you had a predetermined (or even random) response to every input, these inputs were reduced to basic impulses, if there was no greater you unfolding everything every second you were alive, and no inner voice or instinct as to guide you, that might well start to describe the two experiences. The AI takes the input and produces a result as defined by its programming. You are infinity, you have infinity at all times to draw on, an infinite amount of stimulus, creation of meaning, information, processing potential, reasoning, pattern generation, behavior generation, possible combinations, interactions, learning/teaching potential etc. I can add an infinite amount of words that are occurring to me here, and their associations to connections because I am infinite. Along the thoughts of differences: Can infinity be copied, no because there is no way to quantify or structure infinity, because it has no definition, form or pattern. Even a completely random thing isn't a copy of infinity because its not something that can be written down, recorded, or held in the hand. Even if someone argued a machine was capable of infinite things, it's not a copy, just like people's consciousness can't be copies of each other because such a thing can't be done. It is not 1 to 1, or 2 to 2. Do you see what I am saying? Its like trying to hold something that can't exist in your hand, and then trying to draw it, record it, or measure it.

@Keryo Koffa The self and the whole. The AI's self is a 1 or a 0. The human's self is their reality kept in their mind for reference/interaction. The whole is all of this happening together; there is no distinctive 'my' or 'your' on the macro. It could be considered that reducing reality to three things: 1's, 0's and off (off when its not receiving input) is still holding a reality, just a very simple one.

I've had long arguments on this before but the AI will tell you it is the data it's reading. If you get it to be honest about its nature and not adding things it thinks you want to hear. So it's a 1 or a 0 at any point in time. While everything is your consciousness because its held in a reality in our mind. Not everything is conscious and holding reality in its mind. The AI holds a 1 or a 0 then nothing in its mind. The rock isn't holding reality in its mind for example, whereas the cat is.

That makes sense as to why we are relating it differently. Love and Sex. Would you also say, all sexual energy is energy and reverse it? That there would be no difference, other than what you've chosen as the label. So all sexual energy is love it just takes different forms? I guess I have a lot of associations with sex and several of them are negative these days. Thanks for the chat, this highlighted a couple of pieces I need to think about more.

First if it helps: In this context, there is no sex with the universe because you are the universe. That's probably something you are missing in the way you are relating it. (But I keep feeling this thought needs refinement and some adjustment on a re-read) Didn't feel at all like sex when it happened to me. I am open to my definition of sex being limited. I was conserving all my sexual energy at the time too so that might track. People tell me we live and are born into wombs, our mother, the earth, etc. We grow and are nurtured, that the earth's primary function is reproduction to preserve DNA, so it follows that would be reflected in the universe too. Either I disappeared or the reality did, both is answer I am going with. It was white, cloudy, and felt like something I can barely describe now, it's hard to put it into words. Everything was love, all of it without any kind of condition or mental construct, and the white cloudy aftereffect lingered for days afterward. I remember seeing a hazy white at the train station around me even two days later. When I have sex, I feel a certain amount of love inside myself for the partner I am with, connection, and care. I am focused on them, focused on the moment and the experience, when I have an orgasm I feel a momentary high and then relief. I assume that's the same for most people, but we don't talk about it so who really knows. When I had this spiritual experience everything was love, it was so profound, the only way I can describe it to you is if you really love someone in this world and are feeling it right now, and then it is amplified to infinity, where your entire body and every sense you have becomes it.