unicorn

From what you're posting, it sounds as if there was a treaty signed and agreed to by Russia and China. It's fine to remember history, but obviously all countries can't claim to land just because that's the way it was historically. It's clearly impossible for every country to be the size it was at its greatest extent. Greece used to extend all the way to India. The Persians had an empire that extended to Greece. The US once owned the land around the Panama Canal. Hell, Lithuania once extended all the way to the Black Sea. Once both sides agree, for whatever reason, borders need to be respected.

And, of course, the US bankrolled the KGB/FSB czar to lead Russia. Nuttiest stuff I've ever read.

Do you not even read what you write? You called news in the US "propaganda narratives," and use Noam Chomsky to support your narrative. I can't believe he's still alive, in any case. Anyone familiar with Fox News and MSNBC knows that the news in the US present widely diverging opinions--just not so far as holocaust denial, such as promoted by Chomsky. It's preposterous to believe that news in the US is a "government narrative," unlike in Russia (or China), where the press is only allowed to present the leader's views (and live). When was the last time the US government threw a reporter out a multi-story building's window?

Dude. You previously promoted the idea that elections are freer in Russia than they are in the USA, now you're saying the press is freer in Russia? The country in which countless reporters (and others) who have been critical of the government get unceremoniously thrown out of windows, poisoned, and shot? That's not even mentioning what happens to even apolitical gay people. If that's really what you believe, I really don't understand why you don't live there. You can't seem to explain the contradiction between your words and your deeds. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_journalists_killed_in_Russia https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11574603/Another-Putin-critic-falls-window-death-Tycoon-plummets-luxury-hotel-India.html "Russia's 'highest-earning elected politician' who had criticized Vladimir Putin's war in Ukraine has been found dead after a mysterious fall from a hotel in India. Sausage multi-millionaire Pavel Antov, from the main pro-Putin party United Russia, had been on a trip to celebrate his upcoming 66th birthday. A male friend in his party had died 'from a heart attack' on Thursday last week, and the wealthy politician perished two days later...". https://www.npr.org/2018/04/21/604497554/why-do-russian-journalists-keep-falling https://www.newsweek.com/russians-keep-mysteriously-falling-windows-deaths-1738954 https://www.newsweek.com/every-russians-who-fell-death-ukraine-war-started-this-year-2022-pavel-antov-1769951 "Ravil Maganov, who was chairman of Lukoil, Russia's second-largest oil producer and biggest private oil company, was found dead on September 1. According to reports from Russian media outlets, he had fallen from the window of a hospital in Moscow. Russia's Interfax news agency said Maganov "fell from a window at Central Clinical Hospital and died from injuries sustained." But the reports did not explain why Maganov was in the hospital...".

Factually wrong, as I'm fairly sure you know. First of all, the "vote" in the Donbas occurred only after the Russian invasion, with "voters" under the watchful eyes of armed Russian soldiers. https://www.cnn.com/2022/09/23/europe/occupied-ukraine-referendum-russia-intl-hnk/index.html Secondly, that agreement was never passed in the first place: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agreement_on_settlement_of_political_crisis_in_Ukraine Russian Federation: Refused to sign What Russia did agree to was to respect the 1994 borders in return for Ukraine surrendering their nuclear weapons to Russia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Budapest_Memorandum#:~:text=The "Budapest Memorandum" is actually,States%2C United Kingdom and Russia. According to the three memoranda,[6] Russia, the US and the UK confirmed their recognition of Belarus, Kazakhstan and Ukraine becoming parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons and effectively abandoning their nuclear arsenal to Russia, and that they agreed to the following: Respect the signatory's independence and sovereignty in the existing borders.[7] Refrain from the threat or the use of force against the signatory. Refrain from economic coercion designed to subordinate to their own interest the exercise by the signatory of the rights inherent in its sovereignty and thus to secure advantages of any kind. Seek immediate Security Council action to provide assistance to the signatory if they "should become a victim of an act of aggression or an object of a threat of aggression in which nuclear weapons are used". Refrain from the use of nuclear arms against the signatory. Consult with one another if questions arise regarding those commitments

I'd heard before that alcohol was forbidden in Aboriginal lands in the Northern Territory. Until today, I'd always thought it was because the Aboriginals had voted those restrictions on themselves. This would have been similar to the US, in which certain tribal communities have decided amongst themselves to forbid alcohol on Tribal lands (for example, the Navajo in Arizona, Utah, and New Mexico). Then today, I read in the New York Times that it's whites who make those decisions in Australia. Did I understand my reading correctly? https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/12/world/australia/alice-springs-alcohol.html?te=1&nl=the-morning&emc=edit_nn_20230313 ...“For 15 years, I couldn’t buy a beer,” said Mr. Shaw, a 77-year-old Aboriginal elder in Alice Springs, the territory’s third-largest town. “I’m a Vietnam veteran, and I couldn’t even buy a beer.” Mr. Shaw lives in what the government has deemed a “prescribed area,” an Aboriginal town camp where from 2007 until last year it was illegal to possess alcohol, part of a set of extraordinary race-based interventions into the lives of Indigenous Australians. Last July, the Northern Territory let the alcohol ban expire for hundreds of Aboriginal communities, calling it racist. But little had been done in the intervening years to address the communities’ severe underlying disadvantage. Once alcohol flowed again, there was an explosion of crime in Alice Springs widely attributed to Aboriginal people. Local and federal politicians reinstated the ban late last month. And Mr. Shaw’s taste of freedom ended...For those who believe that the country’s largely white leadership should not dictate the decisions of Aboriginal people, the alcohol ban’s return replicates the effects of colonialism and disempowers communities. Others argue that the benefits, like reducing domestic violence and other harms to the most vulnerable, can outweigh the discriminatory effects."

You're stating the complete opposite of the truth. The truth is that Russia and Ukraine signed a treaty in which Ukraine got rid of its nukes in exchange for Russia accepting Urkaine's borders, then Russia (Putin) invaded Ukraine--first Crimea and then eastern Ukraine. As you know, not only have Ukrainians not persecuted Jews, but they elected one for President. You speak as a shill for RT, and it sounds as though you'd be happier living in Russia, which might be a good idea.

Looking at the nametags, they're written with the Roman alphabet, which neither Russians nor Ukrainians use. Your story sounds fishy.

They died protecting the country they loved. Would you like to live under Putin, without freedom, where one's life can be in danger due to one's sexual orientation (for example)?

It goes way beyond the father murdering his own son and wife--as horrible as that sounds, it gets even worse than that. The murdered son was in legal hot water for killing someone else, and the father used that fact to state that others had a motive to kill the son which he killed. Also, their housekeeper died under mysterious circumstances with family around. The family of the housekeeper was awarded a settlement from the insurance company, and the father actually stole that settlement!!! The killer son was never brought to justice from a criminal standpoint, but his testimony in a civil case which was pending could have damaged the father. I didn't even realize the surviving son may have killed someone himself. Many people were outraged that the whole family seemed to consider itself above the law--and the whole family appeared to be quite depraved.

You learn something new every day! Maybe we could just shove a cake into his face? Though I wouldn't mind seeing him perish in the desert....

He's more than "affiliated" with the Quincy Institute. He founded it and is its President. The fact that this institute is funded by right-wing fat-cats doesn't exclude the possibility of his getting money under the table from Putin. No one who knows anything could seriously believe that Russia is more of a democracy that the US. Anyone of any influence in Russia who even says anything critical of Putin gets either murdered or they and their family sent to Siberian prisons. Putin has iron-clad control of the press in Russia, and no credible opponent of his is allowed to live. That's obviously not democracy. It's totalitarianism/dictatorship. According to the Institute's Wikipedia page: "During the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, there were two resignations in protest at the institute's dovish response to the conflict: non-resident fellow Joseph Cirincione of Ploughshares Fund, who had raised money for Quincy, and board member Paul Eaton, a retired senior Army major officer and adviser to Democratic politicians and liberal advocacy groups. Cirincione said he "fundamentally" disagrees with Quincy experts who "completely ignore the dangers and the horrors of Russia’s invasion and occupation and focus almost exclusively on criticism of the United States, NATO, and Ukraine". " Equally preposterous is the notion that Lavrov isn't working for Putin. Yes, all secretaries of state work at the pleasure of their bosses, and the US's is no exception. However, if Lavrov were to say something contrary to Putin's ideals, he wouldn't just be fired, he'd be murdered, and his family probably sent to Siberian prison camps. Wilkerson also mentioned that Putin and Xi listen and take counsel from their respective legislatures. Again, so ridiculous he can't possibly believe that either. It would be interesting to look into Wilkerson's finances to see if there's evidence he takes money from Putin.

Lavrov is a man with no self-respect. I hope he eventually gets his just desserts.

"Sergei Lavrov doesn't work for Putin...Wang Yi doesn't work for Xi..." Biden is Attila the Hun and Putin is a saint. Russia is more of a democracy than the US? Yes, of course, Biden is assassinating all reporters who oppose him. 😂😂😂😂😂 He can't believe that. Never heard such BS in my life. I wonder how much RT is paying him.

Won't need it. The USSR didn't do anything to get the southern Kuril islands ("bravely joined" the fight against Japan after the US dropped the A-bomb and Japan was on the verge of surrender), so if the Russians were defeated, Japan could just take the islands back without a fight, as these islands were taken from the Japanese in the last days of WW2.

I guess you're right, though the son who was killed was actually also a killer and a man of ill repute himself...

I'm glad to hear that scumbag won't see the outside of a prison for the rest of his life. He should get extra punishment for having such ugly sons! What an appropriate last name.

I don't think that people who watch Fox news could care less about the truth.

Well, obviously Saudi Arabia opening up its airspace means a huge time/distance difference for El Al. But If Oman didn't open its airspace, couldn't El Al just fly over the UAE, or does the UAE have its airspace closed as well?

https://www.instagram.com/reel/CpLa8AoAsRN/?igshid=MDJmNzVkMjY%3D

It's like when we see on the news tornadoes in Arkansas. I tell my partner "That's Lord Shiva vacuuming up the Bible belt...".

Well, what do you think they do with the big bottles? They have to be refilled often as well. I don't see this as distasteful in any way.

There used to be some politicians, even in the Republican party, that I could respect, such as John McCain. Those are becoming a dying breed. I'll never forget the 60 Minutes story which showed that Congress members, who used to spend most of their time in their offices, now spend most of their time in their party's campaign buildings drumming up support.

I've noted with chagrin most hotels have dropped offering individual shampoo bottles and mini soaps in favor of big dispensers. I guess the switch reduces plastic waste, but I prefer the old way. How about you?