WAR AND PEACE

Perhaps we need this dog as Foreign Secretary?

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Satire!

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I’ve been wondering whose fault this war is, and Nigel explains it all.

It’s the EU’s and NATO’s.

Also Nigel_Farage

Well, I was wrong.

Putin has gone much further than I thought he would.

A consequence of EU and NATO expansion, which came to a head in 2014. It made no sense to poke the Russian bear with a stick.

These are dark days for Europe.

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Isn’t he the one who’s son has now been ennobled by Johnson?

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78 thoughts on “WAR AND PEACE”

  1. I’ve gone off topic immediately, for which I apologise, but it though it appropriate to highlight that according to Gove, they now have “territorial offices” in England.

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    1. Gove is a total dobber.

      #gove #Gove If that doesn’t get you, ya wee shite, then I don’t know what does.

      Oh, and you can tell your boss that he’s a total waste of space and that he couldn’t find his arse with an atlas.

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      1. This is probably a bit unfair to him, but I’ve always found him utterly repugnant. He actually makes my flesh creep.

        He’s probably cleverer than the rest of them, but he is so stomach churningly awful that he would never have a chance of being PM.

        Maybe the Tories learned that with Haig and Duncan Smith and that is why he has failed dismally in the last two contests.

        I wouldn’t put it past him to try again though.

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  2. Teaching must have stopped in englandland, a 56 year old definately missed out on the second world war.
    It’s the teenagers I feel for, they will be used and cast to death for nothing ..
    Allin the middle of a pandemic.
    The pundits were correct,wait until the olympics are over.
    Reports of Chernobyl being the route from Belarus to cut off Kyiy, he’s going for the whole Ukraine by the looks of things.
    As someone pointed out the doris has taken the gameboy off of putin and told him to go onto the naughty step.

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    1. In 1991 after the wall came down parts of USSR claimed to be countries, however Ukraine failed to get agreement on its borders which it must do to be considered as a country under International Law. As Russia is recognised as the successor state to the USSR, Ukraine is still part of Russia.
      Claiming Russia is invading Ukraine is just the same as claiming English (I know their technically British) troops are invading say, the Isle of Wight.

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      1. No, Kangaroo. Only Putin and his few allies dispute Ukraine’s borders. To say that prevents Ukraine from being a country, despite the clear preference of its citizens as expressed in a referendum, is like saying England can’t be a country if we Scots lay claim to Berwick-on-Tweed.

        Or possibly that the UK is not a State unless and until the business of Rockall is properly concluded.

        Or the question of sovereignty over Gibraltar is resolved.

        Or that India and Pakistan cannot be countries until the dispute over Jammu and Kashmir has been settled.

        Anyway, I seem to recall that Russia’s borders are themselves in dispute – after all, Crimea was universally agreed to be in Ukraine, with Sevastopol, the home of the Soviet / Russian / Ukrainian navy, enjoying special status. So, is Russia a country or not, Kangaroo?

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  4. I can barely watch any of this right now. It’s just too awful.

    A Russian dissident almost died from a deliberate poisoning that ultimately killed an innocent British citizen. The UK government did eff all, Corbyn refused to accept reams of police evidence pointing at Russia and so put no pressure on the government to do anything, and prominent indy supporters to this day claim the attempted assassination was carried out by MI5 or some other tinfoil hattery. Every single one of them apologising for Putin. Some for money, some for a childish idea that that the West is uniquely evil and at the centre of everything bad in the world, some for attention. This pattern probably happened everywhere, not just the UK and not just Scotland. But it did happen in Scotand and that Times article explains how.

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    1. I’ve just watched the heartbreaking video of a guy saying goodbye to his wife and daughter as they get on a train to get away form where the fighting is.

      I’m not in the least ashamed of the fact that tears were streaming down my face.

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    2. I agree about the lack of action from the west. Particular how the UK government failed to do anything about Salisbury.

      And then that ridiculous video of Trump where he believed Putin’s interpretation of the situation above the reports from American secret services…

      And when are we going to see the Russia report?

      And perhaps the most ridiculous

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          1. Odd friends indeed! I suppose that sociopaths enjoy each other’s company. πŸ˜‰

            It’s now been discovered that he illegally tore up presidential papers, and even took presidential papers back to Mar-a-Lago with him. That’s also illegal, since presidential papers are governmental property and must be retained in the national archives. People from the archives sent to retrieve them found some of them to be classified “Secret.” Among the papers Trump illegally spirited off to Florida were reported to be the Kim love letters. An upcoming book charges that his document destruction routine included stuffing presidential papers down the toilet. Odd!!!

            https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/feb/07/trump-papers-kim-love-letters-national-archives-mar-a-lago

            https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/02/07/trump-records-mar-a-lago/

            https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/trump-denies-flushed-records-white-house-toilet-rcna15693

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            1. Illegally removing papers?

              How many illegal things is he going to get away with?

              I’m not surprised that he took the gifts, which of course are gifts to America and not him. He seems to be a greedy grubby little bloke.

              He reminds me in so many ways of Johnson, except, to be fair, Johnson is a bit brighter.

              Is he still in Florida?

              How is his wife coping with yet more exile from her “ladies who lunch” friends in New York.

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              1. If ONLY taking some papers and gifts had been all the illegal things he did!! πŸ™‚

                He’s still at Mar-a-Lago, although the New York State authorities are trying to get him back for legal depositions. He lost all his court challenges to shield his presidential papers from the January 6 investigating committee. (Now if they can just find where he stashed the ones he stole.)

                No doubt Melania is ready for a trip back to the big city. Maybe a posh lunch and some shopping on Fifth Avenue while Donald is testifying. πŸ™‚

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                1. MDR…

                  Maybe she’s hoping that he won’t come home that night.

                  If he is extradited, at least he’s get his airfare to New York paid.

                  Oh, and I thought that he was going to leave America if he lost the election…

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                    3. He could have built a golf resort in Pyongyang, I suppose, but as the North Koreans can barely afford bread never mind to play golf, it would just have been him and his boyfriend on the course all day…

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                    4. LOL…..yes, the Pyongyang golf course probably would not have worked out as a money-making tourist attraction. I would think that a big Trump Tower Hotel in Moscow….approved by his good friend Putin who’ll have a penthouse suite……would be more likely. πŸ™‚

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                    5. Ahhhh, that’s why he’s been supporting him and calling him smart today?

                      He doesn’t want his hotel snatched and nationalised.

                      That would be expensive!!!

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                    6. Yes Tris! In fact, getting Putin’s blessing for Trump business enterprises in Russia were always rumored to be the cause of Trump’s lavish public admiration for Putin. Either that, or Putin “has something” on Trump…..maybe embarrassing videos?

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                1. I think he does that on purpose to make it look like he’s read them. Massive risk considering how drunk he gets on a nightly basis.

                  I heard that when Edward VIII was (briefly) king, he used to take papers to the house he lived in in Windsor great park where there were always parties going on. (I think Andy [previously known as Prince] lives there now).

                  Anyway, the then government of Stanley Baldwin would get them back covered in spilled drinks and presumably many of his “smart set” frineds would have read them.

                  Perhaps that is particularly worrying given his and his girlfriend’s affection for Adolf Hitler and the proximity to the war of Edward’s reign.

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                  1. Tris……I guess that’s one advantage of making the president live upstairs AT the White House. Unfortunately, before he left, Trumpy gathered up papers and stuff that belonged to the federal government and was supposed to go to the National Archives, which is just down the street. Trump however took them to Florida.

                    The National Archives is the same building where they keep and display the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution and lots of other cool stuff. Including BTW, a 1297 (Edward I) exemplar of Magna Carta, which a wealthy donor bought for $21.3 Million at auction……and is said to be the final version of Magna Carta issued by royal confirmation, and the first that was placed on the official legal registry of England.

                    SO…….I’d say that Trump’s papers should fit right in. I’ll be sure to ask to see them the next time I’m there to view the Declaration, the Constitution, Magna Carta and what not. πŸ™‚ Trumpy’s papers will be the ones that were torn up and taped back together of course.

                    The Presidential Records Act of 1978 was issued due to concern that Richard Nixon might destroy Watergate-related material. Prior to 1978, presidential papers were legally the personal property of the president.

                    https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jan/17/historians-having-to-tape-together-records-that-trump-tore-up

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                    4. I’m desperately trying to imagine why anyone would want to.

                      I mean, what you gonna do, walk down the street with a bright red attachΓ© case? (Tasteless or what?) … And pretend you are British cabinet minister… Now that would be embarrassing.

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                    5. PS: The Brits have red boxes and the Americans have a nuclear “football.” The football is less showy and could probably be more easily and cheaply decoyed. πŸ˜‰

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                    6. Yep the red attachΓ© case just says, you should mug me and steal this case. It could have all sorts of secrets inside… that you could sell to the Sunday papers.

                      The nuke codes are a little more subdued!

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                    7. “walk down the street with a bright red attachΓ© case? (Tasteless or what?)… And pretend you are British cabinet minister… Now that would be embarrassing.”

                      Love it! πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚

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    3. So in your purview, it’s all Jeremy Corbyn’s and prominent Scottish independence supporters to blame for what Putin has done. Seriously?

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      1. I don’t think Terry said anything like that was his view, Ian.

        The Brit government was weak in its response to what was a terrorist attack on English soil. They should have acted. Corbyn didn’t push them enough to act. Nor did the press… something to do with all the money that came from Russia perhaps.

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      2. Please read my words again. I chose them very carefully.

        Murray and Corbyn are a small cog in a much bigger machine that apologises and covers up for Putin.

        We know that a prominent Austrian MP invited Putin to his daughter’s wedding, despite the pair having never met. Italian politicians take money from Putin. German ex-Chancellors took jobs in Russian state enterprises. We know all this.

        I focused on the Tory party and Corbyn and a subset of indy bloggers because I know more about them than I do about Austrian MPs and German ex-chancellors. They are all apologising for him. They all contribute.

        Why does Putin feel emboldened? Here is just one data point: the Russians ordered the assassination of a dissident that went badly wrong and ended up killing an innocent British citizen. Nothing happened. No consequences at all. Why? The Tory Party are embedded in a network of Russian donations and Corbyn has a warped view about Western multi-lateralism. No political response was available. How about public opinion? Well, a prominent indy blogger began a campaign of falsehoods and conspiracy theories involving gay bodybuilders. He does this because he shares Corbyn’s warped view of Western multi-lateralism. The added bonus is that his head is so filled with coordinated plots and hubris that he has lost all perspective and is happy to spend his time pretending he is an expert on chemical weapons. Even 48 hours ago, he was still claiming there was no invasion of the Donbas, despite all evidence to the contrary.

        Corbyn, Murray and the Tory party are not the cause of the invasion but they all played a role. Thousands of others played a similar role. UK citizens cannot do much about Austrian MPs or German ex-chancellors. They do, however, get to choose which bloggers they retweet and who they vote for.

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        1. Another thing that helped to bring Corbyn down was that he was – and presumably remains – cripplingly indecisive. A fence-sitter par escellence.

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      1. The gay bodybuilders dunnit. That’s Murray’s theory.

        Or maybe because Hitler ordered a frequency for Middle C that melted their brains. Or they were zapped by a laser gun operated by a reanimated Elvis from the planet Mars.

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        1. I’m with you, Terry. The Putin apologists either infuriate me or engender feelings of pity, depending on whether I believe they should know better or can’t help it, whether they have been Got At or are doing it of their own free will, and on how much power and influence they have, warranted or unwarranted.

          And there’s some I simply can’t stand and never have been able to since the first time they came across my radar, such as Trump, who was already pretty loathsome in my eyes even before I moved to New York in the ’80s, at a time and place where he had already made himself infamous.

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            1. That’s actually quite blood-curdling, Tris – like major figures in Benito Mussolini’s National Fascist Party saying that Hitler’s henchmen supported them because they admired them.

              (P.S. I expect to see Godwin’s Law coming more and more into prominence as the closest parallel between Putin and a historical Russian figure is with Stalin, and the attack / annexation of Crimea and now the rest of Ukraine – with the limited objective of “liberating” the Donetsk and Lukhansk enclaves more and more looking like a fig leaf for his real intentions – finds its closest parallel with the Anschluss of the Sudetenland back in 1938.)

              Anyway, it looks to me as if Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson is shaping up to be almost as much an apologist for Putin as Oswald Mosley was for Hitler. Blaming the EU for poking the Bear is gaslighting (aka disinformation) on an industrial scale, though not yet on the scale of Putin’s propaganda machine portraying Ukraine as ruled by Nazis (with a Jewish President? Get real!) and committing genocide against Russian-speakers.

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              1. They seem to all have a talent for opening their mouths and saying really sill stuff that doesn’t stack up.

                It seems though that Farage and Johnson are on the same page when it comes to Putin.

                Who’d have thunk it?

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                1. Well now, Tris … let me have a wee thunk about this. Hm. Well, there’s the well-known nexus between Farage and Trump, with Nigel hopping over to America for photo ops and other things with the Mango Mussolini himself (he who referred to Katie Hopkins as a β€œwell-respected journalist”, if I have my quote correct). Alert Munguinites (spot the redundancy) will recall the odd visit by Farage to Julian Assange in the Ecuadorian embassy before Farage’s visit to Trump during his first election campaign, and his appearance at a MAGA rally in Arizona. Now, there are easier ways to transport dumps of Russian data useful in Trump’s campaign than on a thumb drive, one supposes, but if you know your internet traffic is being monitored by GCHQ, maybe it makes more sense to do it that way. Ah yes… who can forget β€œI love Wikileaks!”.

                  That was the visit to the Ecuadorian embassy when Farage was spotted by journalists (who happened to be passing? Were staking out the embassy? I can’t remember) and, when asked, claimed he couldn’t remember what he’d been there for. He evidently wasn’t expecting his visit to be noticed, as he didn’t have a cover story ready.

                  And then there’s the well-known nexus between Putin and Trump, as the evidence for it is legion. A day or two ago now, Trump described Putin’s recognition of the Donetsk and Lukhansk People’s Republics as independent countries (dunno if he’s commented on their subsequent invasion / annexation / Anschluss) as a stroke of genius, or words to that effect. Funny – I wonder – if Ukraine is not a country, as one commenter on here averred just the other day, because its borders are allegedly in dispute, how can the Donetsk and Lukhansk People’s Republics, which were part of it, become independent countries, while both their borders and the Ukraine’s are in dispute, the former in actuality and incontrovertibly, and the latter, only in Putin’s imagination? Or perhaps Ukraine’s borders are in dispute because Russia already annexed Crimea. Which would be like Scotland invading Berwick-on-Tweed and saying that England is not a country because its borders in dispute.

                  Now Boris is blaming the EU for β€œprovoking” Putin. A feeble attempt at blaming the ERG’s favourite bugbear in order to shore up his faltering support among the Westminster Tory Party? A feeble attempt to deflect attention from the Tory Party’s reliance on Putin and his nasty little oligarch pals for election funding, now that the Party’s core supporters are dwindling fast as they die off, to be replaced almost exclusively by the regime’s kleptochumocracy? Hm…

                  We should not dismiss the notion which I’ve heard repeated on mainstream media recently to the effect that Putin is becoming more and more megalomaniacal, paranoid and isolated. It’s what happened with Stalin, after all, and we know that in a proper democracy Putin would have been out years ago: he’s embattled at home, like Thatcher was in 1982, and likely thinks that a battle abroad will produce the desired if-you’re-against-the-war-you-must-be-a-traitor effect at home. I think, however, that he’s going to be disappointed in that: while it will undoubtedly play well with the arch-conservative, authoritarian-leaning among the populace, it’s not playing well among those whose critical faculties are still functional, i.e., the majority, who were pretty sick of Putin already.

                  Unlike the Yugoslav war, the war in Ukraine really is war on the EU’s borders. Blaming the EU for provoking it? Really?

                  Subject change: some might say that Crimea was Putin’s Sudetenland, not Crimea, but the parallels with Ukraine are much clearer. As a historical footnote, Munguinites might care to look at how Crimea came to have a majority Russian-speaking population – it was through Stalin’s expulsion of the Crimean Tatars (see https://is.gd/lQdiYg for Wikipedia’s article entitled β€œDeportation of the Crimean Tatars”). So you see, Crimea has been seized by Russia three times now: under the Tsars by conquest, under Stalin by ethnic and cultural genocide, and now by Putin, pursuant to the no. 2 crime, yet another of Stalin’s crimes against humanity. If I’ve missed any out, I rely on alert Munguinites to pick me up on it.

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                  1. LOL I’m choking myself laughing at Farage being unable to remember why he went to the Ecuadorian Embassy…

                    If it had been Gove, you’d have thought that he got a bit mixed up between Ecuador and Columbia… but I think booze is Farage’s thing.

                    Perhaps embarrassingly for Farage (although I’m not certain that he does embarrassment), the state press in Russia is apparently praising old Nigel for his support of the glorious leader… of who, as you point out, the average Russian is heartily sick.

                    Even his close allies appeared to be pretty slow to support his war.

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  5. This is so depressing,that a wee thug can destroy the peace in Europe which has existed for all of my lifetime (Balkans excepted).
    I believed that Angela Merkel managed to keep Putin sweet and in line but perhaps it is only a coincidence that he seems to have lost the plot since she has gone.
    Whatever happens from now on,no one is going to trust Russia for a very long time and that will be Putin’s legacy.

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    1. I don’t know what did it.

      Certainly Dr Merkel was… is… a stateswoman with a huge experience of dealing with other heads if government.

      It’s a pity we have lost her, but heaven knows she was deserving a break.

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    2. Angela Merkel was brought up in Soviet occupied East Germany (she was actually born in the West!) and spoke fluent Russian. Putin is a former KGB officer who was based in Leipzig and speaks fluent German. She know how to handle him and deal with him. Add to that her statesmanship so lacking in European leaders today…

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  6. One other thing that hasn’t been mentioned in the press is Putin’s statement about setting up courts to prosecute those he deems responsible for opposing him in Ukraine.

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    1. The response to anything Johnson has to say should be the same as Jean Claude Juncker’s to Farage in the European parliament following the Brexit vote:
      “Why are you still here?”

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  10. Interesting to watch countries in their reaction to the invasion of Ukraine :

    1) India – trying to work out how to get around sanctions. Not really surprised with Modi in charge;
    2) China – playing the diplomats. Again not really a surprise as its a win-win for them;
    3) Germany – squirming to avoid sanctions. Not a surprise as they turned off nuclear without any other plan than Russia would supply gas. Deeply intertwined with Russia these days – Schroder has been CEO of Gazprom and Rosneft for about 15 years now IIRC. They’re unlikely to go much further than they currently have;
    4) UK – doing absolutely bugger all. Not a surprise as Putin has bought and paid for the Tories;
    5) Australia – lot of hot wind as usual;
    6) USA – Republican party looks bought & paid for too. Can’t imagine GOP behaving like that in Reagans time. Democrats can’t really do anything without them so no real possibility of proper sanctions;
    7) France – arguably Putin has played a blinder here. He’s made Macron look like a fool during an election campaign, hence boosting the likes of Le Pen. Divisions everywhere so no real probability of even medium-term effective sanctions;
    8) Turkey – who knows really? Erdogan’s a grade A dictator so it’ll be whatever benefits him personally at a given moment. Frankly Turkey shouldn’t be in NATO now but given they are one of only two European countries with the ability to repair F35s……

    I think that Ukraine is fucked.

    I also think that next up for “demilitarisation” will be Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania. Probably just after “Taiwan”…

    Depressing to think how this all currently benefits the Tories.

    Johnson can stagger around pretending he’s Churchill; cost of living crisis can now be blamed on Putin (Ukraine produces 10% of the worlds wheat for example); Tory backbenchers won’t vote Johnson out while this is going on & if he had any sense he’d trigger a leadership competition himself. That’d guarantee him another 12 months.

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    1. Macron appears to be third in the polls, behind le Pen and the media right winger. Ahead of Anne Hidalgo, though.

      Ukraine may well be fucked, but I have heard suggestions that it may turn into a kind of big Northern Ireland for Russia.

      I’m inclined to disagree about the Baltic states, but I very much agree that Taiwan must be watching with trepidation.

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      2. If it turns into a “huge Northern Ireland” then just remember what Russia did in Chechnya to resistance groups. Oh and Afghanistan.

        Resistance might not be futile but it will be met by brutality on a scale never seen in Northern Ireland.

        It would also be naive to assume that Putin hasn’t planned for widespread resistance already.

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      1. Well yes but also the Ukrainians shouldn’t have cut it off – Minsk accords and such.

        Like I said on another thread here I’d have done the same were I them but this breach of the accords did actually hit normal people hard in Crimea.

        We’re past all that now given some of the Russian airborne attacks as far west as Lviv if reports are to be believed.

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