Thanks for joining comrade! Enjoy your stay!

Sure, but the Ukrainians can use those 3 days to do the same thing. And the way things are, that means the Russian army loses momentum while Ukrainians gain respite (if they actually go for the ceasefire). Don't get me wrong, I agree with Putin's decision. It's the right thing to do, both morally and politically. Especially for the reasons to outline (but I think in Putin's mind he's just trying to present some good faith on Russia's behalf, and he's probably hoping there's no incident in Moscow while a bunch of BRICS leaders and other world leaders gather together). But militarily it might turn out to hurt the Russian effort more than it would help.

Winter was dedicated to all the maintenance stuff mostly, and there was mostly no other field work during that time. They had way more holidays as you say, and they also had a lot more breaks during the day. Historians have done studies on this. An average 8-hour labourer today works about 1800 hours per year, accounting for breaks and holidays. An average medieval peasant would work significantly less so. English peasants had it worse at 1600 hours. French and Germans would fluctuate at 1300-1400 hours. Italian and French would also fluctuate at 1200-1300. Byzantine peasants (whose majority were not serfs and worked on their own land) would work much less at 1000-1200 hours per year!

I like how the Lithuanians conquering and ethnically cleansing the Kievan Rus is called "liberation".

Also wonderful how the Catholic German and Polish settlers of the Baltic area are called "Lithuanians".

Bonus points for completely ignoring where the Rus actually came from prior to founding Kiev.

Why do they keep using the word “horde?”

Because that's what they are called in the Europa Universalis games, and that is the sum of their history education

On a serious note the Mongol splinter khanates called themselves "Hordes". And some of them preceded their Horde name with a colour to distinguish each other. You had the White Horde, the Blue Horde, and the Golden Horde.

The point of the meme is that a modern-day wage labourer is exploited way more than a medieval wage labourer. There's nothing there about famines, plagues and wars (which by the way only went away from Europe to an extend for the past 80 years, and there's no guarantee that they'll be staying away).

Also don't forget:

Medieval peasants worked on average (depending on the area and era you are looking at) 30-60% less hours per year than present-day wage-workers

Medieval peasants who worked on someone else's land could elect not to go to work on any particular day and just not get paid for it (that's how weekends were created)

Medieval bosses (i.e. land-owners) were responsible for feeding their workers for the day with breakfast and lunch.

Usually lunch during field work was followed by a customary 2-3 hours nap.

Crackers be jealous that they can't figure out how to get paid multiple wages, while ALSO getting paid multiple benefits, while ALSO getting paid mad money by peddling drugs and doing all the crime and somehow getting away with it, while ALSO somehow having the time to sit around all day on the street doing nothing and making passerbyes "scared".

This is what it means to be free! I might not like it, but I'll defend to the death the right of that municipal authority to oppress poor 80-year-old widows! Fuck yeah!

The spin in the article is so extreme that I'm getting nauseous.

Third sentence in:

It is hoped that this change in military support for Ukraine could see Moscow move its red lines to achieve a peace deal.

Yeah, as if Russia's supposed to be thankful now that UK won't deploy its super mighty unbeatable imperial regiments.

Then later on:

“This was always the UK’s thought. It was France who wanted a more muscular approach.”

Of course, Kid Starver just knew from the beginning that the British Army is basically an April Fool's joke by now and definitely did not seethe and shout and froth at his general staff for telling him this was going to be suicide. And dead empire, if it wasn't for those pesky French and their powers of seductive suggestion.

I can't wait to see what the Baltic chihuahuas will do next once the French pull out of the "coalition of the willing" as well.

This is pretty much false. Notice how they cite "people familiar with the matter said". That's usually doublespeak for "nobody official, just some Western pundit who dreamt about it".

This is probably a ploy to get Russia to deny this, so they can then turn around and say that Russia isn't serious about peace. They are doing this to get the lights off Zelensky categorically and most publicly turning down the US ceasefire proposal given to him in the recent London talks between Ukraine and US.

He bought into Trump's promises for peace pre-election and now he can't believe he was wrong. To be honest, a lot of otherwise reasonable good commentators have gone down this path.

High resolution version

I think it's time the world stepped in and liberated North Mexico

Indeed!

Civil war in Greece to suppress communists, followed by semi-dictatorships and full dictatorships for the next 30 years. Communists sent to Aegean gulags.

Terrorist action in Italy to suppress communists. Political assassinations and imprisonments for a decade.

Mass police beatings of demonstrations and political prisoners sent to Carribean gulags in France

Meanwhile Spain and Portugal ruled by fascist juntas for decades.

Yeah, there was so much liberation and self-determination in Western Europe!

Russia hosts the most Ukrainian refugees out of any other country. If Ukrainians wholly viewed Russia as the problem would they really move into Russia? The reality is that there's 2 types of Ukrainians: those who see Ukraine as a continuation of the Ukrainian SSR, and a brotherly people to the Russians, and those who see Ukraine as a new nation that has been liberated from the clutches of the evil Russians, and can now forge ahead, pure and independent, as Bandera envisioned. Your friend's Ukrainian friends are likely of the second type.

The problem with your friend, like many other people, doesn't really understand the complexity of the issues and doesn't know much about what's going on, besides what they are being told by mainstream media. And it's very likely they instictively trust mainstream media. By nature, humans are open to adapting the first opinion they hear about something, and then they become really defensive when other contradictory opinions come in.

Trying to convince people of something is a very slow process, and it doesn't happen while you are around. All you can do is present them with the evidence, give them an easy-to-follow rundown of the nuances, and explain why their opinion is uninformed. Patience and calm is actually more helpful in getting them to open up and listen to you. If you get angry, they get angry, and nobody can be convinced of anything while angry. During your discussion, they are still very unlikely they'll actually turn around their opinion. If you did a good job presenting your view, then there's a chance they'll keep thinking about it. Eventually, they might do their own research. And then they might decide they agree with you, or not.

A nice way to induce this self-assessment of opinions held, is to ask questions. When they tell you something that's blatantly false, ask them questions about it. This helps to lower their defensiveness, and helps them realize they probably shouldn't be so certain about what they heard.

That's the only advice I can give. Don't start these discussions expecting to convince anybody else. Start them because you want to discuss what's going on. Don't hang up on things you disagree. Just use it as a jumping point to discuss the situation further. If you are lucky, then maybe you'll turn them around. But that's not something you should worry about while holding the discussion. It just makes things frustrating.

This person got the wrong lesson from video games. The optimal strategy is usually the exact opposite of what they are suggesting. Take out the small guys only if they are getting in the way. Your priority should always be to focus on the boss, because when the boss dies, the small guys go away. Otherwise it's a waste of time and resources. Actually an apt description of what should be done. Well, what do you know? Lenin taught me how to play video games :D

The comments in that video are also joining in the insanity. They are all variations of "My parents spanked me when I was a child. I love this cop"

Short answer: Yes

Obama's and Biden's sanctions, along with Trump's tariffs, have split the world into economic camps with opposing interests. This is a prelude to a world war, whether it is hot or cold.

American policy has always been to smash anyone who can potentially grow to threaten their hegemony. After the fall of the USSR, their aim remained to keep dismantling Russia. Furthermore, they used the export of capital to China as a way to keep China away from the USSR. With the fall of the USSR, this was no longer necessary, and plans started being drawn about eliminating Chinese communism.

However, after 2001, the US got distracted by their wars in the Middle and Near East, which lasted a lot longer than expected, and exhausted their military industrial capacity more than it should.

Their arrogance had them think that they could force Russia to suffer a similar exhaustion by provoking a war in Ukraine. They found out that they miscalculated, as Russia fought the war in a way that Americans would never think of. No mass indiscriminate bombing of cities and civilian infrastructure, slow positional warfare instead of aggresive large maneuvers, retreat away from potential defeat to preserve lives, etc. Meanwhile Russia's centralized military economy has shown to be a lot more efficient, a lot more productive and a lot more cheaper, than the American model.

The Americans realized that Russia's existing industries and focus on raw material extraction allows them to punch well above their weight. At the same time, Americans (and Europeans) are finding out that stock trading and bank services may have produced a lot of wealth for them, but they are absolutely useless in producing tanks, rockets and jets, or even in protecting their population from disastrous economic blockades.

So yes, Trump's (urgent) aim is to rebuild industry in the US, so the US is able to rebuild its military, so the US can threaten Russia and China to bow down and stop challenging US hegemony, which is most likely going to lead to WW3.

Even if Trump fails, we might see a WW3. This is precisely why BRICS are letting the Americans down slowly and softly. Avoiding sudden moves can prevent the US from reacting militarily.

The protagonist stands with her back to us, on a vantage point looking at the sunrise with tears.

Her state-appointed fascist husband walks next to her.

"I know now what we did was bad. You remind me of that. Will you forgive me?"

She gives him her hand and smiles wiping away the tears from her eyes.

They kiss.

The End