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[KittyTac]

I'm sorry kittytac you might have to get used to it... If I teleported in pyjama to the balkans, sorted out that I'm lost and freezing,  and once I'm offered the inevitable glass of raki and inquire about ukraine, the guy tending me the glass won't have as heated opinions as what one gets to read these days.

I expected better from Bay12 and especially mart who is generally reasonable. But whatever. It was a misunderstanding.

[martinuzz]

It is only when you start linking biological research into genetics and brains to race that it becomes the racist canard you mentioned.

Like, it starts well before that, because intelligence as a concept has had major problems regarding bias in relation to race for pretty much its entire existence as a formal area of study (and well before, for that matter). It's a damn messy subject at this point on a bunch of levels. Things are marginally better nowadays, in some ways, but it's still a rough subject to try to navigate.

I am quite aware of the bias of IQ tests and do not regard them as a useful tool in research into intelligence. Which is why you do not see me advocating or even mentioning 'IQ'.

Last I paid attention the good faith researchers in applicable fields are currently in the process of basically tearing the whole damn thing down so they can rebuild it as something actually worth a shit.

Exactly my point when I say I don't have a problem with science doing research into biological basis of intelligence.

[LordBaal]

What I meant that stating Russians migth have lower intelligence is as blank as saying most boomers are out of their minds.

We are losing focus here.

[nenjin]

To me, as someone who doesn't travel in Europe, the Russian people and their opinions seem like a black box. Owing in part to the fact that people with opinions that government finds unpopular tend to end up dead. I don't blame people for coming away with the impression that Russians support what their government does. But I wouldn't ascribe anything to it more than I would any other country.

I mean, look at the US. You could argue half of the country has a crippling mental deficit based on the last few years, and come up for all sorts of reasons for it, from a bad diet to pollution. But there's no point to doing so, because "people" aren't "the government."

[martinuzz]

Directly following a video of the Russian parliament approving the use of military force abroad, Putin demanded that Ukraine recognizes Russia's claim on the Crimea, and demanded that Ukraine relinquishes it's advanced weapons, in what sounded like an ultimatum.

To me, as someone who doesn't travel in Europe, the Russian people and their opinions seem like a black box. Owing in part to the fact that people with opinions that government finds unpopular tend to end up dead.

This is very rare. Putin only uses nuclear weapons and biochemical weapons on individuals that he really thinks can harm him, like Letvinenko (Putin used 7,6 million euros worth of nuclear weapons on him) and Navalny (who survived the pretty darn cheap novitsjok biochemical weapon).
Most people who disagree with him are still alive, they're just uncomfortable, cold, and locked up in Siberia while being raped in secret hospitals.

[LordBaal]

Thats more or less the stardard among his friends too. Here we don't have a Siberia but we do have a complex called "The Tomb" that belongs to military inteligence were most people dont come back ever. And well, basically anyone can get killed here and no one could do anything about it.

[martinuzz]

Biden is sending troops and aircraft to the Baltic states and to Poland.

EDIT: Putin has now said that his recognition of Donetsk and Luhansk is including the territory that they claim but which is still controlled by Ukraine. An invasion and war seem unavoidable now.

[martinuzz]

Well, at least it's crystal clear now that Trump is a Russian agent.

[LordBaal]

How so? What did our artificially tanned friend said now?

[delphonso]

Called Putin smart and savvy, in a sort of 'damn I wish I had thought of that' way. He even said that the US should have done the same with the southern border.

Republicans are split on it, as many are old fashioned 'anti-commie' (meaning Russia/China), but the rest are taking in Tucker Carlson's pro-fascist rants.

[martinuzz]

Not to mention that he blames Biden for the situation and compliments Putin on his response.

The US should expect that all military secrets a president has access to are in the hands of Putin.

[LordBaal]

Noice.... what a crappy moment to be alive.

[martinuzz]

The US should expect that all military secrets a president has access to are in the hands of Putin.

Come to think of it. Military experts expressed surprise when Russia announced it's succesful development of hypersonic nukes, saying they knew Russia was working on it, but they were far behind compared to the US.

I wouldn't be surprised if those Russian hypersonics are made with US technology handed to them by Trump.

You guys should arrest the moron and bring him to a CIA site for advanced interrogation.

[Starver]

I'm not sure he'd be the only link in the chain. It's not like he could have asked to see the plans, memorise them then pass on the details verbally at his undocumented meeting with Putin in Helsinki.

Though there's always donjg it by sneakernet, or that mysterious tunnelling IP shown to be connected between Trump servers and Russian ones. I suppose the question is whether his authority was such that he could have been requesting the PDFs/whatever and given unrestricted access to copy them. Or somehow editing a vital .rhosts file or three.

But I don't expect Trump to be able to divulge an entire project's-worth of technical documention. Nor for that to be sufficient to get a stalled Russian project into a successful prototype in a couple of years, unless they were already much closer than we think.

I do think he was a blabbermouth and did say far too much in a bid to impress Uncle Vlad (possibly to boast, but in the process gave far too many clues about what the US did or did not know about things). I don't think he ever thought of himself as a traitor/agent/whatever. Others may have done, and proudly, in his turbulent wake.

[McTraveller]

So what's the rationale behind sanctions being used against obviously illogical leaders?  I mean I suppose the idea is you make life so hard for the general population that they force policy or regime change? Because I don't think you can actually cause hardship for people with the kind of wealth and power that the elite of sanctioned countries have.

I don't see how sanctions work if you're in a place where the leadership has enough following in the military to simply ignore or brush off any potential public pressure.

Am I just out of touch with reality?  (I often wonder lately... my state of mind is ... odd.)