If Russia invades Ukraine (more)...

[Zhivago]

To be fair I’m surprised they haven’t already. The change in Italian government is also likely to open up some gaps in European solidarity.

Yup. TBH the solidarity has been pretty impressive- suspect Putin was thinking we'd crack earlier- but it looks like they are prepared for a long game.

Some of the noises coming from senior republicans in the US are a bit worrying. If the US decides not to continue its support then Ukraine is screwed. I worry that republicans will vote against anything Biden proposes just in order to oppose it.

Didn't both houses just vote to send ATACMS?

[Sandydragon]

Yes, but there’s some interesting media articles on the growing number of republicans who are not happy with getting involved, and if they gain control of both houses in the next few months that could prove difficult.

Hopefully it’s just over sensitive commentators but playing politics comes easy to many of the MAGA community

[Puja]

And let's not forget that Ukraine is what Trump's first impeachment was about. There are a few Republican nutjobs who would be anti it just on that basis.

Puja

[Stom]

Articles coming to the surface about sanctions helping Russia. How Russia is just trading more with Asia.

And, well, my views haven't changed. If I was in charge, the rule would be simple: you want to trade with us, play by our rules. Our rules are: human rights are essential. No rights, no trade. Corps can go elsewhere for their cheap crap and we can cut China off as well as Russia, and as well as India. Let them sink and find another way to do it, even if it means more expensive electronics. We can't continue with the world like it is, people like Putin, Xi, Modi, and lapdogs like Trump, Bolsonaro, Orban, etc., have had enough power for enough time. Cut them off completely and find an alternative.

BTW, how hard is it for a government to, for instance, provide every household with a free induction hob? Or to offer incentives to turn to electric heating rather than gas. Yes, I know, some electricity is produced by gas, but it's still a better solution.

Meanwhile, get the major electrical plant projects back on line. Nuclear is an option. Increase WFH and close offices. It's possible, there's just no political appetite.

[Son of Mathonwy]

Articles coming to the surface about sanctions helping Russia. How Russia is just trading more with Asia.

And, well, my views haven't changed. If I was in charge, the rule would be simple: you want to trade with us, play by our rules. Our rules are: human rights are essential. No rights, no trade. Corps can go elsewhere for their cheap crap and we can cut China off as well as Russia, and as well as India. Let them sink and find another way to do it, even if it means more expensive electronics. We can't continue with the world like it is, people like Putin, Xi, Modi, and lapdogs like Trump, Bolsonaro, Orban, etc., have had enough power for enough time. Cut them off completely and find an alternative.

BTW, how hard is it for a government to, for instance, provide every household with a free induction hob? Or to offer incentives to turn to electric heating rather than gas. Yes, I know, some electricity is produced by gas, but it's still a better solution.

Meanwhile, get the major electrical plant projects back on line. Nuclear is an option. Increase WFH and close offices. It's possible, there's just no political appetite.

Sorry, our lot aren't even willing to build windmills on land.

[Donny osmond]

How long before Germany cave?

To be fair I’m surprised they haven’t already. The change in Italian government is also likely to open up some gaps in European solidarity.

Yup. TBH the solidarity has been pretty impressive- suspect Putin was thinking we'd crack earlier- but it looks like they are prepared for a long game.

Long game may change tho if Rus turns off the gas completely?

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[Banquo]

To be fair I’m surprised they haven’t already. The change in Italian government is also likely to open up some gaps in European solidarity.

Yup. TBH the solidarity has been pretty impressive- suspect Putin was thinking we'd crack earlier- but it looks like they are prepared for a long game.

Long game may change tho if Rus turns off the gas completely?

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Yep, that's what I was driving at with long game.

[Banquo]

Articles coming to the surface about sanctions helping Russia. How Russia is just trading more with Asia.

And, well, my views haven't changed. If I was in charge, the rule would be simple: you want to trade with us, play by our rules. Our rules are: human rights are essential. No rights, no trade. Corps can go elsewhere for their cheap crap and we can cut China off as well as Russia, and as well as India. Let them sink and find another way to do it, even if it means more expensive electronics. We can't continue with the world like it is, people like Putin, Xi, Modi, and lapdogs like Trump, Bolsonaro, Orban, etc., have had enough power for enough time. Cut them off completely and find an alternative.

BTW, how hard is it for a government to, for instance, provide every household with a free induction hob? Or to offer incentives to turn to electric heating rather than gas. Yes, I know, some electricity is produced by gas, but it's still a better solution.

Meanwhile, get the major electrical plant projects back on line. Nuclear is an option. Increase WFH and close offices. It's possible, there's just no political appetite.

Sorry, our lot aren't even willing to build windmills on land.

whilst we could do more, the UK isn't so bad on this, Sizewell c finally signed, non fossil fuel power and so on. We should do more on home insulation etc tho, separate to this argument on energy independence.

[Mellsblue]

BTW, how hard is it for a government to, for instance, provide every household with a free induction hob?

Pretty hard. There’s obviously the cost, especially as building materials are suffering from levels of inflation similar to the rise in your energy bills (and have been since 2020), there is getting your hands on millions of units in a world where supply chains are gummed up and production lines are working way below capacity, then there is finding enough qualified people to fit the millions of units and then there’s the capacity of the grid to supply all these new electric items - news broke yesterday that no new houses could be built in parts of west London as there isn’t the capacity of elec supply.
Insulation is the sensible option but again isn’t as easy as just whacking a load of cladding on buildings or pumping insulation in to cavities. Previous initiatives have been prone to dodgy chancers creating more issues than they solve and even well intentioned council run programs have led to virtually uninhabitable houses due to ill thought out works. Even if you do get the insulation works to a high quality there is plenty of evidence that people then just use the same/similar amount of energy and have a warmer house and one less layer of clothing.
On the plus side, it looks like Scotland will set passive house standards as their minimum standard for new builds and hopefully the rest of the U.K. will follow… all we’ll have to do then is retrain an entire industry.
As for the idea that we can just transition to elec renewables, there are plenty of people and organisations who believe the U.K. will never be able to produce the supply required to run the entire country on renewable elec. A friend of friend works at Audi in their long term planning department (I’m sure it has a more fancy name than that) and they’re turning most of their attention to hydrogen due, mostly, to the green elec supply ceiling and, to a lesser extent, the worry that the next scandal are the conditions, ecological and human, at mines from where they source the lithium, carbon etc.

[Son of Mathonwy]

Articles coming to the surface about sanctions helping Russia. How Russia is just trading more with Asia.

And, well, my views haven't changed. If I was in charge, the rule would be simple: you want to trade with us, play by our rules. Our rules are: human rights are essential. No rights, no trade. Corps can go elsewhere for their cheap crap and we can cut China off as well as Russia, and as well as India. Let them sink and find another way to do it, even if it means more expensive electronics. We can't continue with the world like it is, people like Putin, Xi, Modi, and lapdogs like Trump, Bolsonaro, Orban, etc., have had enough power for enough time. Cut them off completely and find an alternative.

BTW, how hard is it for a government to, for instance, provide every household with a free induction hob? Or to offer incentives to turn to electric heating rather than gas. Yes, I know, some electricity is produced by gas, but it's still a better solution.

Meanwhile, get the major electrical plant projects back on line. Nuclear is an option. Increase WFH and close offices. It's possible, there's just no political appetite.

Sorry, our lot aren't even willing to build windmills on land.

whilst we could do more, the UK isn't so bad on this, Sizewell c finally signed, non fossil fuel power and so on. We should do more on home insulation etc tho, separate to this argument on energy independence.

If we aren't so bad, I'd hate to see what bad looks like.

[Banquo]

Sorry, our lot aren't even willing to build windmills on land.

whilst we could do more, the UK isn't so bad on this, Sizewell c finally signed, non fossil fuel power and so on. We should do more on home insulation etc tho, separate to this argument on energy independence.

If we aren't so bad, I'd hate to see what bad looks like.

Fair enough, I was thinking that our reduction in dependence on fossil fuels for 'lectric was a good news story, but digging a bit deeper, not so much.

[Stom]

Sorry, our lot aren't even willing to build windmills on land.

whilst we could do more, the UK isn't so bad on this, Sizewell c finally signed, non fossil fuel power and so on. We should do more on home insulation etc tho, separate to this argument on energy independence.

If we aren't so bad, I'd hate to see what bad looks like.

Let me introduce you to Hungary. Say hello to King Viktor, who believes that indentured servants should return to serve his climate change denying, fascist kingdom.

[Son of Mathonwy]

whilst we could do more, the UK isn't so bad on this, Sizewell c finally signed, non fossil fuel power and so on. We should do more on home insulation etc tho, separate to this argument on energy independence.

If we aren't so bad, I'd hate to see what bad looks like.

Fair enough, I was thinking that our reduction in dependence on fossil fuels for 'lectric was a good news story, but digging a bit deeper, not so much.

And apparently no one knows where Sizewell C will get its daily 2m litres of freshwater required for operation. The Planning Inspectorate recommended refusal of the project for this reason:

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfr ... er-suffolk

[Mellsblue]

Articles coming to the surface about sanctions helping Russia. How Russia is just trading more with Asia.

https://deliverypdf.ssrn.com/delivery.p ... INDEX=TRUE

[Stom]

Articles coming to the surface about sanctions helping Russia. How Russia is just trading more with Asia.

https://deliverypdf.ssrn.com/delivery.p ... INDEX=TRUE

Good to hear.

[Puja]

Articles coming to the surface about sanctions helping Russia. How Russia is just trading more with Asia.

https://deliverypdf.ssrn.com/delivery.p ... INDEX=TRUE

Good to hear.

Indeed. I saw similar articles to Stom, so very good to hear the other side. One belter of an article claimed that sanctions had caused Putin using energy supplies as a weapon, like it was somrthing he'd never done before.

Puja

[cashead]

Articles coming to the surface about sanctions helping Russia. How Russia is just trading more with Asia.

It's literally this.



or this




for this audience

[Sandydragon]

How many posters who used to be on here used to extol Putins virtues? This propaganda war has been going on for years.

[cashead]

Ungodliness and rowan would be the main ones. Imagine how much fun this thread would've been if they were still around.

[Which Tyler]

I'd rather not, thanks.

[Donny osmond]

In that vein, here's Jeremy Corbyn giving us a gentle reminder of what might have been...



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[cashead]

I'd rather not, thanks.

I considered unbanning them for April Fools. Probably for the best that I thought better of it.

[cashead]

In that vein, here's Jeremy Corbyn giving us a gentle reminder of what might have been...



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This shit is usually a dog whistle that Ukraine should surrender and/or cede territory. It also assumes Russia have come to attempts at negotiations in good faith, and, like, just lmao at the notion. Anyone saying this shit now after months of negotiated terms broken by Russia is either a fucking idiot or a Russian propagandist. Which one are you, Jeremy?

Corbyn is little more than a smug, irrelevant has-been, who wasn’t even good at his fucking job to begin with, who isn’t calling for peace - he’s calling for Ukraine to be stripped of their ability to fight back against invading genocidal imperialists. Fuck him.

Corbyn has always had a tremendous inability to read the fucking room. If he can’t read the room, he’s not fit to be a politician, and if he can’t tell the difference between the friendly old socialists and the Russian Disinformation Squad Allstars, then he’s not fit to comment on Russia’s warspecial operation in Ukraine. Fuck off, Jezza, you screeching Putinist hyena.

[cashead]

Also, note that Corbyn windbagged on Al Mayadeen, a Beirut-based pro-Russia "news" outlet.

Just imagine him sitting there in 2003, on the third day of the Iraq invasion, talking about how we need to get the African Union to negotiate a peace between the Bush neo-cons and Saddam with that smug look on his face, as if he is the first person in the world who has discovered the one weird secret trick to solve this issue. My brainwormed friend, have you interacted with objective reality in the last 6 months at all?

[Stom]

In that vein, here's Jeremy Corbyn giving us a gentle reminder of what might have been...



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This shit is usually a dog whistle that Ukraine should surrender and/or cede territory. It also assumes Russia have come to attempts at negotiations in good faith, and, like, just lmao at the notion. Anyone saying this shit now after months of negotiated terms broken by Russia is either a fucking idiot or a Russian propagandist. Which one are you, Jeremy?

Corbyn is little more than a smug, irrelevant has-been, who wasn’t even good at his fucking job to begin with, who isn’t calling for peace - he’s calling for Ukraine to be stripped of their ability to fight back against invading genocidal imperialists. Fuck him.

Corbyn has always had a tremendous inability to read the fucking room. If he can’t read the room, he’s not fit to be a politician, and if he can’t tell the difference between the friendly old socialists and the Russian Disinformation Squad Allstars, then he’s not fit to comment on Russia’s warspecial operation in Ukraine. Fuck off, Jezza, you screeching Putinist hyena.

He's an idiot. He's always been an idiot. But he's a consistent idiot. He can't get past the idea that everyone should be treated equally, even if they show they shouldn't be, and he's a pacifist at heart, so EVERYONE should lay down arms, even those being attacked.

But he is used as a stick by this UK government, and it works. Many voters are crazy about "Anyone but Corbyn", the Labour party is just Corbyn, even if he's not there, how dangerous Corbyn is, and the more time is spent digging up news stories on an irrelevant old man, the more it plays into the Tories' arms.