This comic is kinda old already, but still stays relevant.
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Russia’s economy is smaller than California’s, yet we still pretend that they’re a massive threat so that we can continue buying aircraft carriers. Graphic should have USA fish about 10x bigger than Russia fish.
Also, needs Iran and China fishes.
… and the opposing fishes should be shown buying Russia’s oil with their frowny faces. “I can’t believe that you’re making me buy your oil, you are deplorable. Here’s 50 billion dollars. Jerk. You’re a jerk.”
Russia used to have a lot of tanks left over from the soviet union. Ukraine has blown most of them up.
Electrified everything I own because fuck Putin. I think the next think to look at is a battery to use off peak energy. Just looked and it appears some much better capacity/£ options are available since I last looked. Its always looking more and more tempting but then I always think about what if I wait for the next one to come out which is even batter?
To be completely fair, Russia has been the number 1 donor of tanks to Ukraine, so they weren’t all blown up.
Some companies offer modular batteries, so instead of buying like one big 15kWh battery, you can get 3 5kWh batteries. And there’s usually a cabinet or server rack where you can put them together.
That way it’s more scalable and easier to add capacity. And when it’s time to upgrade or replace them, you can do that in smaller steps instead of all at once.
Have wondered about those, not sure how hard it would be to connect to the whole house. A single ring I could probably do quite easily. Think you need proper sockets/plugs to do it safely rather than the technically works but you may die if you touch the pin kinda cable. Then just flip the circuit breaker to remove that ring from the grid.
But that wouldn’t cover cooking or my heat pump. Not sure if that could properly be done as a DIY job.
Though doing 1 ring from the battery would make it pretty easy to measure my non cooking/heating energy usage. Suppose lighting is separate but that should be all LEDs anyway.
Yeah I’m not an electrician, and unless you are one I’d say you should probably have one install it for you if you want it to feed directly into your home circuit.
There’s a few other components to it though, like an inverter basically takes the DC output from the batteries and converts it to AC at the right specs for your home circuit. So really you just need that to be installed properly, and then I’m pretty sure the batteries are plug-and-play.
Also an MPPT is important for solar batteries because it controls the flow from the panel to the batteries, which improves efficiency as well as battery health and safety.
The smaller modular batteries though, they can be rated for over 3500W continuous output. That should be enough for a heat pump, especially because I’m pretty sure that’s for each battery.
But if you’re running stuff from outlets, you can also look into portable batteries, sometimes called power stations. Some of them come with built-in inverters and MPPT controllers so you can charge them with solar panels and run AC devices on them without any additional peripherals.
Russia’s economy is smaller than California’s, yet we still pretend that they’re a massive threat so that we can continue buying aircraft carriers. Graphic should have USA fish about 10x bigger than Russia fish.
The problem is that California uses US weapons that costs magnitudes more for at best marginal improvements over weapons used by both Russia and Ukraine that cost less than vodka by weight, and which US cannot feasibly produce for less than 10X price, so it kind of levels out. Throwing money at Ukraine to produce them is smart, but there’s only so many they can make.
Ukrainian here, glad someone understands. Russia is still the threat, and a very real threat to the whole Europe. No European country is ready for the war of drones - neither on the frontlines vs FPV (which we see repeatedly in European-Ukrainian trainings) and in the air vs reactive jet shaheds.
Like ffs just count the amount of antiair rockets you have in your country and check out the history of russian aerial attacks on Ukrainian cities. Its 200-300 shaheds every second day. Would your stocks last a week? Okay, two? USA is learning this in Iran, but they are on the other side of the world so they can take the L and move on.
I really hope Europe gets off its ass and both assists Ukraine more, and partners with it for defense technologies. By raw GDP even many of the Euro fish would as big or bigger than the Russian one but we have an MIC that’s almost as bloated and corrupt as the US one. We need to get more efficient with our spending and I expect partnering with Ukraine is the only realistic way for that to happen.
USA is learning this in Iran, but they are on the other side of the world so they can take the L and move on.
Idk if the US gets to walk away from this. How many military bases in the region are still standing? What’s the timeline for replacing all those lost F-15s and C-130s?
We’re not seeing a war in downtown Cincinnati. But the US empire is going to be fundamentally changed from it’s “Push Libya’s shit in because we can” Obama Era recent past.
Empire is crumbling right before our eyes. Well, people voted for it. But it doesn’t threaten shaheds to fly daily over states. Not instantly, at least.
And the same can’t be said about EU, sending shaheds from Belarus = pretty much the whole Europe is in range.
In a way. But Russia is a lot more willing to spill blood.
They’re regularly having weeks as bad as 9/11 and they’re just not all that notable.
If it came down to both countries fighting for their lives like WWII, then yeah, the 20x would be accurate.
What’s with this weird orientalism going on? Talking about Russians like youre some 18th century phrenologist detailing how the Savage hun can withstand harsher climates than the genteel anglo-saxon.
They’re regularly having weeks as bad as 9/11 and they’re just not all that notable.
More than a 9/11 died from covid in the US every week and nobody gave a shit. There’s a shitton of carcrashes, and no one gives a shit. Britain is full of people starving and no one gives a shit. Long term COVID is crippling the population everywhere and no one gives a shit.
The US had a bunch of grunts perish in Operation Epstein Fury, and all it led to was some coverups and no one gives a shit.
This isn’t because the “mind of the mob” is cowed or bred or somehow different from the rest of us. Its because of material conditions. Russia has a lot of military casualties and soldiers on, not because “the Russian mind” or whatever other idealistic dumbassery people in this thread will pull out of their ass, but because of complex political, social, cultural and material structures.I was wondering why you got so heated about a pretty banal comment, then I saw the .ml lol.
Russia sucks dick, the USSR was kinda cool, but its dead and a bunch of oligarchs are living in its corpse. Why are you dick riding a bunch of corpse beetles?
I generally react quite negatively to racism, and I’m happy to hear the instance I frequent has a reputation for doing the same. Cant imagine being proud about ignoring racism.
You would have supported the invasion of Iraq in the 00’s. Or operation Barbarossa if you lived back then. You see calling out racist drivel as somehow being supportive of a country. Not reducing complex geopolitics down to childish notions of “they’re just evil!” is somehow the same as driving a tank into Kiev. It is with the mentality you display that we saw people take up arms in WWI under the notion that they’d be home before Christmas - after all, it was just the dastardly hun that needed a darn good thrashing.
You’re clearly right, ml. Western counties and Russia are equally likely to commit to ground invasions.
Saying anything else would be racist.
Western counties and Russia are equally likely to commit to ground invasions.
I mean, stack the US and Russia against one another for the last 25 years.
Where is the lie?
I think you responded to the wrong comment?
Western counties and Russia are equally likely to commit to ground invasions.
Looking at the list of countries the US has invaded compared to Russia? Yes. Looking at the list of countries European member states have invaded or helped to invade? Also correct.
Of course you were being sarcastic because you think invasions of countries with brown people don’t count.
Lmao you don’t fucking know me. Go lick some more authoritarian statist boot.
Its not racist to say people from a country suck.
Actually it is. Hating someone based on where they come from is the most basic type of racism there is.
More than a 9/11 died from covid in the US every week and nobody gave a shit
Lots of people gave a shit. That’s the whole reason we had quarantine for over a year.
I don’t think it’s unfair to say that the Russian government’s hard fascist turn in the 90s, and it’s decades of corrosive white nationalist domestic politics, has fucked with the heads of many of it’s residents in a way the squishy libs in Europe and the US aren’t able to conceptualize.
That’s not a “calipers” situation. It’s the end result of Shock Doctrine economics and attendant toxic culture war politics. And it’s not contained to Russia by any means. You see this shit across Eastern Europe and the Middle East. As common in Riyadh and Cairo as Moscow and St. Petersburg.
But it does help to answer the question “Why do Russians seem to have an appetite for endless war that Euros/Americans lack?”
I was pretty close to agreeing with you until we hit the final text
But it does help to answer the question “Why do Russians seem to have an appetite for endless war that Euros/Americans lack?”
Claiming europeans and americans do not have a massive appetite for war is just ridiculous. Thats why I talk about orientalism and calipers. Its pretty clear there’s a good amount of othering going on here, as well as just pure old-fashioned nationalism.
Claiming europeans and americans do not have a massive appetite for war is just ridiculous.
Neither have a draft. Neither have a majority population that actually supports these overseas conflicts. These aren’t popular conflicts by any measure.
That hasn’t always been the case. Americans were gungho about invading Afghanistan after 9/11. And Iraq had majority support in its opening months. But Libya? Syria? Iran? None of these ever did. They provoked popular backlash the day the first shots were fired.
Thats why I talk about orientalism and calipers.
The Russian media having done a better job of manufacturing consent has nothing to do with their skull size. Again, this is the sort of thing Americans used to be good at. Now they blaze ahead without the pretext of public consent, because the US democratic system has become morbund.
Russian state actors do appear significantly more concerned with “winning hearts and minds” than their Western peers. They invest more in propaganda and social controls.
It also helps that this is a border war and not some conflict happening on the other end of the planet. Russians don’t need to read about Ukrainian attacks on Russian soil in the media, they can see it in their own backyards. This isn’t twenty years of “Ukraine is just six months away from an Atom Bomb” Thomas Friedman scare stories. This direct conflict amps up the nationalist urgency, in the same way US attacks into Iran and Yemen ignited a firestorm of militarism fueled by newfound nationalist sentiment.
Its pretty clear there’s a good amount of othering going on here, as well as just pure old-fashioned nationalism.
The Russian government and the US government are not mirrors of one another.
Having to have a draft seems like it is an argument against a massive appetite for war, not for it.
That hasn’t always been the case. Americans were gungho about invading Afghanistan after 9/11. And Iraq had majority support in its opening months.
Iraq wasn’t just “the opening months” lmao. Whats up with this revisionist bullshit? The democrats ran their campaign in 2004 on “the war is good, we can do it better.”
Libya? Syria? Iran? None of these ever did. They provoked popular backlash the day the first shots were fired.
Yeah such popular backlash they reelected the guy who did it. You know what actually got backlash? Withdrawing from Afghanistan.
The Russian media having done a better job of manufacturing consent has nothing to do with their skull size. Again, this is the sort of thing Americans used to be good at. Now they blaze ahead without the pretext of public consent, because the US democratic system has become morbund.
Sure, but that’s not what you’ve been saying. I don’t know if the Russian mainstream media is better at manufacturing consent than the US or the rest of Europe, which you conveniently left out. Everyone in Europe is Gung-ho about Ukrainians fighting to the last man, despite the war being overwhelmingly in popular in Ukraine (they also have a draft, quite a brutal one at that, and a draft is a sign you cant get the needed troops). Listen to how you and most other users talk about Russia, like some alternative universe Mordor. People are frothing at the mouth at the thought of killing Russians. Whenever a civilian center is bombed in Russia then the main takeaway is joy and a “serves them right”-attitude. That’s what an appetite for war looks like. Yet you will read this and think “well that’s different, we’re at war with Russia and they’re so evil and they started it.” You will be blind to the fact that there is an immense appetite for war. Not to mention all the other ones people just don’t give a shit about.
Europe and the US is completely fine with interfering in African nations and pursuing brinksmanship with China.
And its not like the war in Russia didnt meet protests from day one. Weird thing to point out as a difference (especially with regards to Syria and Libya, which had people clamoring to invaded or “do more” than establish a no-fly zone".
Russian state actors do appear significantly more concerned with “winning hearts and minds” than their Western peers. They invest more in propaganda and social controls.
Completely vibes-based statement. Europe is under immense surveillance and many member states seek even more tools to do so. “They invest more in propaganda and social controls” is such a vague statement and one I cannot help but doubt after seeing your revisionist ideas about the development of wars and popular sentiment.
Many European nations crack down hard on anti-israel protests. You get arrested in Denmark for positive comments on facebook stories about Israel getting bombed. Had this happened in Russia you would use it to opine like some armchair ethnologist about Russians propensity for authoritarianism, but because it happens elsewhere it is ignored.This is what I mean by calipers, othering and orientalism. What is occurring (and worrying) in Europe and the US is treated as an after-thought, while the very same things happening in Russia is an indictment of some central characteristic of the russian people. We create these massive stories, like you did here, often with revisionist history and vibes, in order to create a picture of an enemy that is easy to despise or pity, while we at the same time claim they’re the ones to be propagandised, and we are somehow just well-informed citizens. Even though we will make nonsense statements like “the invasion in Libya was opposed from the very start, while the Russians supported the invasion in Ukraine” or “the Russians have invested much more into social control” while the arrest of protesters is a regular occurrence in Europe and the US.
The Russian government and the US government are not mirrors of one another.
Not what I said, and youre correct, the Russian government is competent and less prone to creating a slave-labour force of prisoners.
Russia’s potential economy is much bigger though:
- 130M of obedient slaves
- largest land mass in the world
- access to the melting arctic
- loads of natural resources
Obedient slaves.
Yeah man, those simple slavs, their brainpan just isn’t shaped for Democracy™.
Libs and chauvinism go hand in hand
Are they not? I’m a russian language speaker in Thailand right now and everyone who’s not an obedient fool has escaped long time ago or became an obedient slave.
1.5m people either dead or disabled by the war, economy on the brink of collapse, completely outcast from the cosmopolitan world - is that not obedient slavery?
Yeah man, its like when I hear the poors complain about stress. Why don't they simply take a vacation?
“Since I speak english this means I have a unique insight into the mind of the anglo-saxon, and let me tell you, if they haven’t uprooted themselves from Albion, then that means they’re mindless dolts, unlike me: A person who simply moved to Thailand. Whats stopping them? Why do they not simply overthrow their heinous monarch? It must be because the simple bog-dwellers cannot comprehend morality” <- You, in an alternate universe.
completely out cast from the Cosmopolitan world.
Lmao what a delusional eurocentric take. “The Cosmopolitan world” somehow consists of the US and parts of Europe. Alright bud. Whatever shall the Russians do, now that they can only trade with most of the world? Im sure they’re crying over the lack of paperwork, while they have to settle for trading with China, India, well- really all of Asia.
You vastly underestimate how poor a bunch of Russians are, the poor class often stays behind when a crisis hits. While the middle and upper classes use their wealth and connections to jump the boat.
Most refugees were relative to their country, not poor.
Stays behind when crisis hit? The crisis is of their own doing. Russia is a rotten country and a rotten culture that has no one else to blame.
I generally don’t like destructive change like revolution but Russians will never recover, never. The culture is so far gone and so broken and so passive that the best thing that could happen to an average russian is complete dissolution of the entire Russian project into independent smaller states.
I generally don’t like destructive change like revolution but Russians will never recover, never. The culture is so far gone and so broken and so passive that the best thing that could happen to an average russian is complete dissolution of the entire Russian project into independent smaller states.
What a simplistic and reductive worldview. You would do well as an orientalist professor at Oxford in the 1800’s. You should look into phrenology.
All you’re saying here could be said about most nations, as I exemplified with Britain.
130M of obedient slaves
Just open, Nazi tier racism. But the shitlibs here will upvote it anyway because they’re just as racist as the worst MAGA chud, so long as it’s against the right target
Yes, but, nuclear bombs. That matters much less for the usa cause im pretty sure russia literally doesnt have the capabilites to bomb the us cause of missile defense but for europe it matters.
Russia’s economy is smaller than California’s, yet we still pretend that they’re a massive threat
How big is Yemen’s economy compared to Saudi Arabia?
I don’t think comparing by nominal GDP is nearly as effective as GDP adjusted to PPP. Russia is an industrialized economy with a low nominal GDP but higher GDP by PPP, whereas California has a high nominal GDP but is much lower by PPP.
PPP
Purchasing Power Parity if anyone else didnt know.
Correct.
I think at least China, Iran and North Korea could be added as participants on Russia’s side
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Don’t like the implication that european nations are just hapless little fishies hounded by predator. This is a large geopolitical war between economic blocs. The Europeans have agency and actively pushed boundaries as well. They aren’t victims of a mindless aggressor attacking them out of pure instinct. Both sides of this conflict have distinct political-economic motives that led to this war. Nation’s are rational actors.
(Seeing your nickname here) you’re probably just jealous of the US fish ;p
Pssssh… nuh uh
Curious how you’d break that down, other than Putin and monied right-wing sources tampering with major, global elections, as we’ve abundantly seen as on ongoing process, non?
Please name one thing Canada did that forced Russia to invade Ukraine.
I said Europe for a reason but Canada is part of NATO no? NATO is effectively the economic bloc I am referring to here so increasing tensions with Russia at least happened with Canada’s acceptance. Regardless Canada is not genuinely threatened by Russia and their support for the war in Ukraine is primarily along geopolitical lines. As a rule Nation’s do not act out of sympathy for oppressed people, look at palestine for example, so it can’t truly be argued that Canada supports Ukraine out of moral concern.
So Russia had to invade Ukraine because NATO won’t trade with Russia even though they do?
Sort of, NATO was practicing an method of economic and physical encirclement intended to suffocate the Russian economy. I don’t personally think this was feasible but Russia has for about 2 decades and made their stance clear on this matter. If NATO continued on this path it would lead to war. Russia has stated this repeatedly and high ranking members of NATO have as well. Everyone involved knew this but to NATO’s credit, they pushed those boundaries for a very long time and Russia never actually did anything about it. Mostly because it was not economically or militarily feasible.
Ukraine was the final red line though. Sure, morally speaking, one nation should not be able to limit the treaties another nation decides to make or coalitions they try to join but geopolitics is not governed by morality. It was stupid to believe that Russia would just accept Ukraine’s entrance into NATO which is why no one in power genuinely believed this. Russia was not going to accept an alliance that allowed for a military buildup so close to their key infrastructure and ballistic missiles within a few minutes of Moscow. Russia fully understands that NATO is an imperial organ and necessarily a threat to its existence as a decently sized economy largely independent of it and brimming with natural resources.
Russia didn’t “have to” invade Ukraine but if it didn’t it would effectively look like rolling over to their largest geopolitical enemy and, strictly speaking, put them in a strategically compromised position.
This doesn’t make it morally right or a great thing that I just fucking love but in the world of real politik it is rational. They weren’t forced into this action but were put in a position where not doing it would be strategically untenable in the long term. The Russian ruling class is simply protecting their economic interests.
You don’t have to be Russia’s number one fan to understand this conflict as more complex than the western propaganda narrative that Russia is just an evil imperialist taking Ukraine because it wants to.
Sort of, NATO was practicing an method of economic and physical encirclement intended to suffocate the Russian economy.
What the fuck are you even talking about? EU trade with Russia was at an all time high at the start of 2022.
It was stupid to believe that Russia would just accept Ukraine’s entrance into NATO
Again, what the fuck are you talking about. Ukraine declared its neutral status in 2010 and again in 2014, stating that they were not seeking NATO membership. That position only changed after the annexation of Crimea.
Stop writing walls of nonsense on shit you clearly have no idea about.
I’m tired and had a bit to drink so I won’t be super in depth here and I apologize for that but I will explain my reasoning as simply as possible.
The 2022 and previous state of NATO member nations economic relationship with Russia was one of opportunism and convenience that does not reflect their long term strategic goals in the region.
Ukraine declared neutrality on the matter because it knew joining NATO would lead to it being invaded. This changed after the highly western backed and financed Maiden “revolution”. This occured concurrently with the Russian invasion of Crimea and it is arguable that both influenced each other in turn. Russia recognized the changing political tides towards western powers in Ukraine and responded to it while Ukrainian nationalism swelled in response to Russian invasion. None of these events were beneficial to the working people of Ukraine.
Edit: you can disagree with my reasoning here and I’d kinda understand, I don’t expect to convince you, but at least I am consistent.
Stop writing walls of nonsense on shit you clearly have no idea about.
But they said they know the material conditions and stuff, so shut up and let Russia do what they want to civilians.
IIRC, there was no serious talk of Ukraine joining NATO before Russia invaded Crimea
You’re kidding, right?
NATO is not an economic block. NATO does not trade or have anything to do with international trade deals. It is a defence pact just as the Warsaw pact was. Russia was free to trade with whoever they wanted to after the fall of the USSR. What changed after that?
I used NATO as a shorthand for the economic bloc the countries within it make up and I apologize for any confusion that caused. NATO members are and have been for some time highly economically intertwined and aligned on geostrategic goals. They tend to sanction nations that threaten the economic order they benefit from in order to preserve that system as a group. They often, though not necessarily through the organ of NATO, invade the same nations as a coalition for the same reason. NATO is not the economic organ but its members are part of an economic organ.
This is a battle between the authoritarian countries and democratic countries of the world. If you can set aside the vaguely racist tankie paradigm for just five minutes and think about which countries are democracies and which are not, you might be able to understand the world a little better.
Of course the tankie regurgitates Putins narrative.
If it’s “Putin’s narrative” that wars start for more complex reasons than “some nations are just evil and bad” then I fear he just has a better understanding of how the world works than someone who accepts that premise. Some nations being simply evil and bad is the type of thinking that fascists actively encourage. Do not fall for it. At least attempt to develop an understanding of the real material reasons for international military conflict.
I probably hate the Russian ruling class more than you and for better reasons but that’s no reason to simplify geopolitics to such a degree.
We can discuss why Russia decided to invade Ukraine, but it doesn’t change the fact that they did. They started the war with Ukraine, twice. I’m not sure if it is your intention but your comments do come off as though you’re equating Russia’s actions with the actions of the EU, in terms of explaining why hundreds of thousands of people are dead, which surely is not good. Assigning blame is absolutely a reasonable thing to do when people are violently killed, and in this instance that blame lies with Putin and Russia.
Certainly much of the immediate death is at the hands of the Russian ruling class but to claim this happened in isolation of broader geopolitical forces because Russia just does that is infantile and chauvinistic. This is my issue with the meme. Atlanticist nations are active participants in this war and it is not even their workers dying for it. It is Ukrainian workers dying for Atlanticist goals. Imperialist war is a disgusting awful thing where workers are forced to die for the interests of their oppressors but at least the Russians are dying for Russia. Even if Ukraine miraculously “wins” this war there will not be a free Ukraine. Their rulers owe the west too much. This is a war over ownership of Ukrainian resources and labor power, nothing more.
To claim that Russia is an instinctual aggressor and Atlanticist powers are a benevolent allies of Ukraine is nakedly propagandistic.
This is art
A art
FTFY
What
Get ready for others also sucking off Russia soon if the AfD victory is indication of anything.
Kanye isn’t the only one that loves fish sticks
Do you like fishsticks?
I like putting them in my mouth.
-Donald Teump and Kanye West
Nation states dividing the working class against themselves is sad as fuck. Fuck every country, but double fuck countries that start wars of aggression. Russia and the USA.
comic strip.
posted in c/funny
big divisive arguments in the thread
At some point, the “America and Russia are having sex” joke has fully exhausted itself.
It’s all just cope. Totally divorced from the historical moment. Millions of people dead. More slated to die in a hellish conflict with no clear end.
But, “Lolz what if they were giving each other BJs” is immortal.
It’s not really a joke at this point anymore though, just a statement
Yeah i think we’re past laughing.
Both. Its both
It is not like they do it of the goodness of their hearts. It is just a strategic decision for them (with actually might be what the comic also implies any ways…) We have seen how much they responded against Israel. Some like Germany infact went the other way.
32 countries that make up the most useless and deceptive organization ever created, second only to the ONU.
I think these days it should be so that the Ukraine fish is larger than the others on the right side combined, including USA
Or increase the size a little and give him a big ass coral drone
How so?
Both.
No matter what, the Donald sucks.
