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[Owlbread]

You'd make a good German, you know that?

Within every self loathing German there is a nationalist struggling to get out. I have learned this. I think it manifests itself in a lack of inclination towards self deprecation; it's almost as if Germans don't "do" English-style insipid Hugh Grantism. It's simply not in them.

But yes, reading through my rant perhaps I'm not being clear enough; literally 12 hours after the vote, the Tories opportunistically decided to shift the focus of debate away from Scotland and onto England, where they plan to push through something called EVEL (English Votes for English Laws). Under EVEL Scottish MPs would not be able to vote on laws that only affect England. It resolves something called the West Lothian Question - a longstanding problem with devolution. The thing is that this will utterly cripple Labour in Scotland - this is something the Tories have been planning for quite a while. It also means that there will be little point in having a Scottish cabinet minister if he can't even vote on English matters, and the House of Commons is all about the English matters.

Personally I am 100% in favour of EVEL - England is a nation and our MPs should not interfere in the running of the English Parliament, which in my eyes should be Westminster. Anything that cripples Labour is also good. The SNP are in favour of EVEL and currently practise it, having refused to vote on English matters for decades now. I am also in favour of SVSL, however; not every Scottish matter is devolved and some are still debated in the Commons. Having English MPs excluded from voting would be a step in the right direction - same with Wales and Northern Ireland.

But yes, now all the WM parties are using the Scottish debate for their own gain. While the Tories are focusing on England (and gaining English votes while they're at it, by the way), Labour are trying to rig the devolution settlement so that it's as weak as humanly possible. Their proposals consist of things like devolving the power to raise tax but not lower it. The more powers like that we get, the smaller our block grant through the Barnett Formula becomes; meaning that the SNP government will be forced to raise taxes to keep public services going. The only other things are party political issues like devolving housing benefit and practically nothing else re: Welfare; that's only because the Bedroom Tax was one of Labour's main campaigning issues over the last few years. Labour basically want to drive Scotland into the ground because it'll take the SNP with it; meaning that Labour can occupy the ruins of a subjugated, pacified country.

As for the Liberal Democrats; they're an irrelevance. Fuck them. They'll get wiped at the next election anyway. I am thinking of actually going to the count so I can watch Danny Alexander lose his seat.

Oh goodness, the fish is called 'Microbrachius dicki'. There simply is no way this is a coincidence.

I am trying to find out if it was named after a Professor Harden Dick or something but there is a dearth of information online.

[Ukrainian Ranger]

http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2014/10/vladimir-putins-coup-112025.html

I suggest that article to understand why I have no doubts that a major war with Russia is unavoidable and diplomacy is useless

Especially page 3

[smjjames]

http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2014/10/vladimir-putins-coup-112025.html

I suggest that article to understand why I have no doubts that a major war with Russia is unavoidable and diplomacy is useless

Especially page 3

Reading page two atm.

Also, Putin wanting to rule for life and with an iron fist, Soviet style? No surprise there. That alone doesn't make a major war unavoidable unless Putin chooses to go that route, because we won't be the one to make the first move.

And finished.

IMO, Putin would have to be a real idiot to attack the Baltics or Poland, which are in NATO, still though, that would of course, test the integrity of the NATO alliance which had not too long ago, had murmurings about maybe dissolving it as it was no longer needed.

Of course though, if a major war were to break out (going into AGG territory here though) and drag in the US, NK could take the opportunity to strike while the US is distracted. I don't see China being an ally of Russia though.

[miauw62]

Also, "dive boat". So cute~ :v

"underseaboat" also works :v

No, it's underseaer

[Dutchling]

*cough*

[miauw62]

I have never heard anyone use onderzeeboot ever

[smjjames]

I have never heard anyone use onderzeeboot ever

The Germans do, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U-boat 'Unterseeboot' True, slightly different spelling, and that's where the term U-boat came from.

[miauw62]

In Dutch. Other languages font count

[Sergarr]

Excerpts from that article, with commentary courtesy of me:

"Draconian laws have been passed enabling the regime to arrest anyone for anything said online." <= There's a saying in Russia: "The severity of the law is compensated by the optionality of it's application". I doubt that this will affect anyone outside of the people acting as mass-media; BTW, one of the most popular social-network accounts in my country is a) pro-communist and b) anti-Putin. It's still not closed. Do the math.

"The regime has invested in extensive surveillance technologies, including ones that allow it to rewrite foreign websites when seen on Russian computers." <= This looks like a serious case of [citation needed], because a) I've never heard of these things here and b) Isn't that already a world-wide practice? I know that Google alters the content of the search pages based on your physical location.

"they fear Facebook, Skype and Twitter will soon be banned." <= This will never happen as long as Medvedev (the prime minister of Russia) and the governmental offical keep using social networks to troll foreigners.

"Moscow is well aware that among the country’s bestselling novels is a historical fantasy of a Poland that teamed up with Nazi Germany to conquer the Soviet Union. Nor had it gone amiss in Moscow that Sikorski himself has praised the novel, on more than one occasion." <= So apparently the Sikorski is evil enough to consider allying with Nazi Germany just to conquer Soviet Union, presumably with enacting Generalplan Ost and killing more than 100 million Russians, as something worthy of praise? Just - what?

"But to hold down this enormous territory would require a force of 200,000 to 300,000 troops and a 10-year commitment. And they could never sustain it without permanent, national mobilization.” <= He doesn't understand how little people out there actually care about who owns their land. Just look at the amount of forces that are currently holding the Donbass territory, pretty much with zero partisan attacks. Only the Western parts of Ukraine can possibly offer any kind of that resistance, and you'll be a fool to believe that Russians after 10 years of suppressing Chechnya's rebellions have not learned how to deal with indigenous population.

Anyway, this is sorely missing a point that there is only one Crimea, and one cannot simply repeat it. Too many circumstances were for us, and too little - against. Also, the two main proponent of this idea, Sikorski and Bildt are both ex-foreign ministers. I wonder why...

[miauw62]

Google changing the contents of its own search pages and Russia changing the content of arbitrary websites is completely different. Mainly because not every website is owned by the Russian government. And laws enabling censorship are bad, no matter what conditions you can think up to make them better.

[Mictlantecuhtli]

Ruble looks to be carving out a nice new all time low.

.. you'll be a fool to believe that Russians after 10 years of suppressing Chechnya's rebellions have not learned how to deal with indigenous population.

Anyway, this is sorely missing a point that there is only one Crimea, and one cannot simply repeat it.

Lol. 'We're good at oppressing'. I would sure hope so since the country needs oppression to keep its borders. This fun ride for Putinites will end soon enough, though.

[Sergarr]

Well according to that article, it is not going to end soon.

Also, Chechnya is like, the only region where the oppression is needed. All other regions of Russia do not need that, because Russian language is just that strong of a drug.

[Dutchling]

Spoiler: RT seems to have a little trouble translating German ::) (click to show/hide)

[Sergarr]

#Ukraine militia obviously refers to separatists.

There is no other militia in Ukraine that I know of.

[Dutchling]

Oh I know, I just think it's funny how they're trying to keep Russia out of it.