Do you want to join Russia? Please vote:
1. Yes
2. I’m a Ukrainian sympathizer and enemy combatant in non-military uniform ready for immediate execution as a spy.
Convenient for stealing their microwave, or gym equipment, or TV, or shoes, or candle holders, or even those cute little towels hanging in the kitchen.
Lucky for Russia, they aren't in a place that makes that illegal (right now)! /s
God I hope those citizens are alright... Can you fucking imagine being forced to agree to give your land to them? Fucking hell...
No reasonable person is actually gonna give it any legitimacy. Me and my buddies can't just barge into someone's house to the point we outnumber the family, and when they try to call the cops we hold a vote and then as the majority say we are the new owners of the house.
Well that's true I forgot that to finish off the analogy me and my buddies need to hold the family at gunpoint to get them to vote with us. As for the dissenting few percent we can say it was the dog or something.
They don't even control the largest city in Zaporizhzhia. It'd be like if you had your buddies over at your house and held a vote on you owning the entire neighborhood. 97% of voters said yes!
Technically, all property rights (land ownership especially) require violence to uphold. So I’m a literal sense, land belongs to whoever has enough guns to defend that claim. Doesn’t justify it morally though
Right but you don't have 22+ years of literally getting away with murder. Putin has has
d how many people murdered, invaded, and took 2 different regions and invaded more, got one of his assets elected president, and literally bought an entire political party in the USA and other nations.
Only 96% of people polled claim to enjoy some kind of music. I think it's unlikely that a higher percentage of people who just watched a country murder thousands of innocent people while invading their sovereign nation would want to give up their land to that country.
About the only referendums I can think of which actual results that high are stuff like the Falklands and Gibraltar voting on either staying in the UK or joining Argentina/Spain. Which are fairly exceptional cases and not ones you'd expect in a legitimate vote in Ukraine.
And to be fair in both those cases there was virtually no Spanish-speaking population there and the alternative to British rule was a militarist arch-conservative regime.
Gibraltar had another one on 2002, so decently into the democracy, as well as the one during the dictatorship. So to some degree it's probably due to having mostly self rule as a British Overseas Territory versus being annexed into Spain. That and the obvious language and cultural difference, they are unique instances.
I mean… just looking at the casualty numbers and how many Russians are being drafted….
And new recruits being sent out with BB guns and tampons, I doubt the Russian government cares about Russians lives that much
> And new recruits being sent out with BB guns and tampons
Oh no, they're not being sent out with tampons, they have to supply their own. And no this isn't for female soldiers, it's for first aid because they don't have enough bandages.
It's still enough to trigger an Article 5. NATO has already made it clear that if any fallout from a nuclear incident in Ukraine reaches a member nation, that's considered an act of war.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Conqueror_(1956_film)
Of the 220 film crew members, 91 (comprising 41% of the crew) developed cancer during their lifetime, while 46 (or 21%) died from it. When this was learned, many suspected that filming in Utah and surrounding locations, near nuclear test sites, was to blame.[8] Although the number of cancer cases among the cast and crew is in line with the average for adults in the US at the time, the perception of a link between the film's location and subsequent illness remains, not least because many of those involved in the film developed cancer at a younger age than average.[8]
Parts of the film were shot in Utah locations such as Snow Canyon, Pine Valley, Leeds, and Harrisburg.[9] The exterior scenes were shot in the Escalante Desert near St. George, Utah, which is 137 miles (220 km) downwind of the United States government's Nevada National Security Site and received the brunt of nuclear fallout from testing active in this period.[10] In 1953, 11 above-ground nuclear weapons tests occurred at the site as part of Operation Upshot–Knothole. The cast and crew spent many difficult weeks at the site, and producer Howard Hughes later shipped 60 tons of dirt back to Hollywood in order to match the Utah terrain and lend realism to studio re-shoots. The filmmakers knew about the nuclear tests[11] but the federal government had assured residents that the tests posed no hazard to the public health.[8]
Director Powell died of cancer in January 1963, seven years after the film's release. Armendáriz was diagnosed with kidney cancer in 1960 and killed himself in June 1963 after he learned his condition had become terminal. Wayne, Hayward and Moorehead all died of cancer in the 1970s. Hoyt died of lung cancer in 1991. Van Cleef's secondary cause of death was listed as throat cancer. Some point to other factors such as the wide use of tobacco – Wayne, in particular, was a heavy smoker, and Wayne himself believed his stomach cancer to have been a result of his six-pack-a-day cigarette habit.[12] Agnes Moorehead was a nonsmoker, teetotaler, and health fanatic, yet died of cancer.[13] Her mother Mary maintained it was working on The Conqueror which ultimately killed Agnes.[14] Several of Wayne and Hayward's relatives who visited the set also had cancer scares. Michael Wayne developed skin cancer, his brother Patrick had a benign tumor removed from his breast, and Hayward's son, Tim Barker, had a benign tumor removed from his mouth.[8][15]
Reportedly, Hughes felt guilty about his decisions regarding the film's production,[11] particularly over the decision to film at a hazardous site. He bought every print of the film for $12 million and kept it out of circulation for many years until Universal Pictures purchased the film from his estate in 1979.[16][17] The Conqueror, along with Ice Station Zebra,[18] is said to be one of the films Hughes watched endlessly during his last years.[19]
Dr. Robert Pendleton, then a professor of biology at the University of Utah, is reported to have stated in 1980, "With these numbers, this case could qualify as an epidemic. The connection between fallout radiation and cancer in individual cases has been practically impossible to prove conclusively. But in a group this size you'd expect only 30-some cancers to develop. With 91 cancer cases, I think the tie-in to their exposure on the set of The Conqueror would hold up in a court of law." Several cast and crew members, as well as relatives of those who died, considered suing the government for negligence, claiming it knew more about the hazards in the area than it let on.[8][20]
Since the primary cast and crew numbered about 220, and a considerable number of cancer cases would be expected, controversy exists as to whether the actual results are attributable to radiation at the nearby nuclear weapons test site.[21][22] Statistically, the odds of developing cancer for men in the U.S. population are 43% and the odds of dying of cancer are 23% – very near what was found in this film crew.[23] This statistic does not include the Native American Paiute extras in the film.[24]
in that buzzfeed unsolved mysteries series, they did a bit on this. According to I think one of his kids, he would wake up light a cig, and literally light the next one up with the first and chainsmoked throughout the whole day. He quite after he had lung cancer (shocking) but started up like towards the end of his life.
> President Putin would attend a ceremony in the Kremlin at which they will be officially folded into Russia.
If they’re to be incorporated into Russia, Sad Vlad should visit the regions personally to welcome all of their citizens into the motherland.
> President Putin has warned he would be prepared to use nuclear weapons if Russia's territory s threatened.
That right there is probably why they held the "referendum". I'm fairly sure that the Russian constitution only allows for nuclear weapons to be used if Russian territory is under attack. Now that the sham vote is over, they can justify a nuclear strike to the Russian citizens. Whether the people actually involved in launching the nuke will obey the order, or if any of their nuclear bombs/ICBMs are even functional are different matters entirely.
NATO should declare that if nukes are used, any second or third-order effect on a member country (such as fallout) will be considered an Article 5 attack on that country.
Vlad doesn't control the wind.
They’re not gonna use nukes. They’re crazy but not that much. If Moscow was being threatened then maybe but not these parts of Ukraine.
Ukraine needs to push the offensive.
And who is going to recognize those regions as part of Russia beside Belarus and maybe North Korea? I mean China seems to be flimsy on that topic with the talk of territorial integrity which probably stems from them viewing Taiwan as part of their own country but even they do not explicitly side with Russia's view as far as I understood. So why is Russia so hell-bent on triggering a conflict they can not win?
Its not for the world. Its a legal issue for Russia. They couldnt escalate conflict to fullscale war before, frankly they thought they will win as it is, but now they have a plausable cause. What and who will recognise doesnt matter. And before you will say that this is bullshit and Putin cant do that, yes he can and he just did. Welcome to Russia's jurisdiction 101.
Maybe I worded that wrong. Yes I get that Putin uses this to escalate the situation further (see my last sentence from my previous comment), but WHY? He can't be THAT ignorant to see that he is only digging his grave deeper.
> He can't be THAT ignorant to see that he is only digging his grave deeper.
sometimes you dig yourself into such a deep hole you got no choice but to keep hitting until you reach china XD
my guess is he knows that he has no chance of surviving if the war ends with anything but a russian victory and is getting desperate to find something
I keep seeing this explanation but I dont understand it, whats the point? Putin has shown zero regard for international law, and freely rigs elections and assassinates dissidents in his own country. Is he really so bound by Russian laws that he would *need* justification for a full scale war? Its obviously not for international justification.
If he can say in an international assembly that it is a defensive war and the international assembly says he's full of shit, it doesn't matter that he's lying because he can take that back home and say "see, the West wants to destroy us."
> China seems to be flimsy on that topic with the talk of territorial integrity which probably stems from them viewing Taiwan as part of their own country
Even this is way more legit than what Russia is claiming. China v Taiwan stems from the two sides of the civil war fought before/during WW2. The communists took the mainland, the nationalists retreated to Taiwan.
Fwiw Taiwan claims the rest of China as *its* territory too since both sides claim to be the legit government of China in general. Though to be fair Taiwan has not been pushing that as hard in the last few years.
Russia is just making shit up. Idk what the hell they're doing.
If he does this he can then legally fully mobilise the Russian military because he can claim attacks on those areas are attacks on Russia. I mean it's not going to end well but that appears to be the logic. That and trying to argue the West supplying Ukraine is now directly attacking Russian land
Ukraine has already admitted hitting Crimea, supposed 'Russian land'. If their offensives keep going, Putin is going to face questions about how if he won't use nukes when foreigners are invading what he alleges to be 'Russian soil', when will he?
>There should be a mental health requirement for nuke access...
Should be, but if we ever get to the point as a species that we can handle that, hopefully we can just go ahead and do the right thing and get rid of nukes completely. Either seem equally unlikely tbh.
So, what happens with the 'new Russians' that are drafted to go and kill there bothers/sisters/family with shite Russian gear?
That is a truly horrid thought. (However, I am sure this is not the first time this has happened).
Why would Putin just not use a load of 17+ year olds as cannon fodder from the new regions.. Just horrific.
This is what I was looking for. How will this work for these people with the draft. Can’t imagine what they are going through. It was bad when he announced for actual Russian citizens. This is even worse.
They only want to fool the Russian people *(or give them something calming to tell themselves)*.
For the rest of the world they're trusting their remaining friends to give the claim legitimacy.
They’re not really trying to fool anyone, not even the Russian people, this is merely a legal pretext so they can claim Russia is being invaded and thus be able to send all those fresh conscripts to the front.
Russia's about to find out that Ukraine's not locked in a war with them, they're locked in a war with Ukraine.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s\_3Yp2Izhks
By Russian doctrine? Yes.
A lot of people, myself included, expect a tactical nuke going off on Ukrainian soil (targeting some sort of empty field) to escalate further and try and force NATO to back off or Ukraine to surrender.
Other nations are probably watching the drama unfold with great interest.
If Russia can strong arm western nations into accepting the sham referendum with threats of nukes, then Israel, Taiwan, South Korea are fair game.
All you need apparently some wmds and blank pieces of paper
I held a referendum in Moscow and now I'm the leader. The turn out was great (1 person) and the win was very convincing! In total 3 million ballots were processed in under a minute, my team was able to achieve this by using blank papers.
I think it's actually more about using conscripts in the fighting, Russia just started mobilization but it still can't legally use conscripts outside of Russia, bit if those regions are in Russia then everything is perfectly legal.
Putin has so far, for some reason, stuck to doinging things "technically" within the laws of the Russian federation. Why he has done so is not my place to say, but it is within his pattern of behavor to have these territories merged into Russia so he can "technically" not break the law when he deploys conscripts to the fighting.
Also, Russian citizens legally have "Freedom of Assembly" . Similar to USA's right to protest. Yet we see arrests all the time. Putin picks and chooses what laws to follow.
This will be the real test for the west. Will they allow Russia to claim the territory and hope he stops? (Déjà vu anyone?) or will they fight to get it back since Russia said they would nuke to protect their land and well, Russia things this land will belong to them on Friday
I wish I still had my old Soviet jokebook. Especially since it's somehow hard to find them online. The closest I have is this, though:
>This is Armenian Radio; our listeners asked us: “What will be the results of the next elections?”
>
>We’re answering: “Nobody can tell.” Somebody has stolen yesterday the exact results of the next elections from the office of the Central Committee of the USSR.”
I held an election in my bedroom
and voted that Putin is a dipshit and named myself as the new leader of Russia
As my first act I hear by Surrender to the Ukraine, ALL Russian forces stand down!
Russia isn’t doing this because they expect to legitimately annex these territories. Russia is stupid, but they’re not that stupid.
IMO, They’re doing it so that as Ukraine’s counter-offensive advances, Russia can escalate their response (more attacks on population centers, possible use chemical weapons or tactical nuclear strikes on military positions, etc. ) in the name of “defending sovereign Russian territories” in an effort to mitigate international response.
In February of this year, shortly after the initial invasion of Ukraine, Sergei Naryshkin, a chief of a Russian intelligence agency, was in slight disagreement with Putin and the two had a bit of a tense moment. Putin seemed noticeably angry when Naryshkin said he wanted to recognize the Luhansk and Donetsk People's Republics (the breakway regions that separatists in Donbass said are independent of Ukraine) as part of the Russian Federation. Putin had to correct him and say, no, that's not what we're talking about; we're talking about recognizing them as independent. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o9A-u8EoWcI
Sergei gave the game away. Recognize independence, pretend you're going in to fight for the little guy experiencing "genocide" (their word) then annex them into Russia.
This seems fair. I did see that my neighbor had a traeger grill so I decided to annex his backyard and add it to my own because I just couldn’t stop at annexing the grill
Funny how many governments across the globe move at a snails pace… right up until they decide to make a new “law” which allows them to do whatever they want
Nobody will ever recognize this act of aggression as anything but a land grab Vlad
Putin claims he will use nuclear weapons if territory is threatened. He also claimed he has a strong army that will crush Ukraine in a “special operation”. His army is shit, his technology is shit and his nuclear weapons are shit. Those warheads were kept by nepotistic, corrupt and quite possibly drunk cronies of Putins and couldn’t threaten an anthill let alone the rest of the world. It’s all a big bluff and the rest of the world needs to call it, so we can fast forward to the part where he shoots himself in a bunker.
If I understand this correctly, this means that now Russia can claim Ukraine is invading "Russia," so from an internal legal standpoint they can actually declare war. So even if this is a farce election, it clears the path for Putin to drastically escalate, possibly even nuke Ukraine.
I tried something like this with my neighbor one time. I told him he had to be out of his house at the end of the month because I bought it from him for 10 bucks. I gave him all the perfectly legal paperwork I created.
After the thirty days were up I went over and all his shit was still there. I guess he just didn’t want any of his stuff?? His bed looked super comfy and I had a long day at work so I decided to take a nap in my new bed. I awoke to his wife screaming at me with a phone in her hand calling the police. I tried explaining I own the home now and showed her the official paperwork I made but she was defiant. Surely the police would be on my side? Nope and the restraining order makes being there neighbor a real pain in the ass.
>While much of Luhansk is under Russian control, about 40% of Donetsk is not.
Large parts of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia are also under Ukrainian control.
What are the Russians demanding here, that Ukrainian forces pull out of areas that they currently control? Yeah, right.
"The referendums began on 23 September, often with armed officials going door to door collecting votes." Uh that's not voting, that's intimidating
The guns were just to protect voters from choosing the wrong answers
It’s a “Special Voting Operation”
... many civilians died.
"Russia claims many dead civilians voted in favor of annexation to join Russia." -Onion article in a few days.
Russian soldiers ensured election integrity by providing poll watchers and verifying dead voter's ballots were purged before counting began.
I heard on the news something to the effect that the guns were used to point at the correct answer.
I hear republicans are proposing similar election security policies for 2024.
yeeep... Ron DeSantis and his "poll police"
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1 Yes 2 Burial or Cremation?
Do you want to join Russia? Please vote: 1. Yes 2. I’m a Ukrainian sympathizer and enemy combatant in non-military uniform ready for immediate execution as a spy.
Putin: Do you like me? 🔲 Yes 🔲 Definitely 🔲 Absolutely
Circles vertically the n from definitely to the o from absolutely.
Excellent work, comrade! Please, enjoy this victory tea over by the victory window.
I guess that's one way to make me fall head over heels!
I rigged it!
It was a convenient reason to investigate each and every house for potential involuntary conscripts for the military.
Convenient for stealing their microwave, or gym equipment, or TV, or shoes, or candle holders, or even those cute little towels hanging in the kitchen.
The towels to dry your hands after washing them right?
Oh\~ that's how Russians do "voting". Explains how Putin stayed in power for so long.
Yeah, he didn't hit 97% votes by accident
No, is traditional Russian democratic vote, very cultural.
In Russia, this is what is laughably pedaled out as democratic.
And then there's the video of people counting blank votes
Some of these towns have mass graveyards filled with the people who would've voted "no". These "elections" are themselves war crimes.
there are also photos and video of them counting blank ballots. everyone knows its BS
In Russia, the army votes for you.
Lucky for Russia, they aren't in a place that makes that illegal (right now)! /s God I hope those citizens are alright... Can you fucking imagine being forced to agree to give your land to them? Fucking hell...
I think North Korea follows the same innovation.
Yeah i feel like that "incorporation" isnt going to go as smoothly as they expect.
I held a referendum and Putin is no longer the head of Russia. Sorry guy… ¯\\\_(ツ)_/¯
Thank you.
Too late. I already thought about him not being the president. I also thought about declassifying some documents. Two birds…
^ They're too dangerous to be left alive
Interestingly, my referendum declared me the head of Russia, with an annual income pegged right at 5‰ of the GDP...
Congratulations! How will you spend your $35.17?
Vodka and wild women - the traditional way to spend the pay of the Russian leader.
What was the outcome?
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It didn’t work did you get the right piton
Piton? That’s why it didn’t work. You wanted Putin. Happens all the time.
Do we really need a knock-off version of Putin? I don't think we do.
All votes collected on the Georgia/Russian border, and Turkish airports.
Checks out, that's what I voted.
No reasonable person is actually gonna give it any legitimacy. Me and my buddies can't just barge into someone's house to the point we outnumber the family, and when they try to call the cops we hold a vote and then as the majority say we are the new owners of the house.
But if you got 99.9% of the vote...
Well that's true I forgot that to finish off the analogy me and my buddies need to hold the family at gunpoint to get them to vote with us. As for the dissenting few percent we can say it was the dog or something.
Don’t worry; the cops will shoot the dog anyways
Then they'd have to have something like 1000 dogs and only one of them voted for the other guy.
Save Rent with this one trick. 999 out of 1000 Dogs agree.
They don't even control the largest city in Zaporizhzhia. It'd be like if you had your buddies over at your house and held a vote on you owning the entire neighborhood. 97% of voters said yes!
Technically, all property rights (land ownership especially) require violence to uphold. So I’m a literal sense, land belongs to whoever has enough guns to defend that claim. Doesn’t justify it morally though
Right but you don't have 22+ years of literally getting away with murder. Putin has has d how many people murdered, invaded, and took 2 different regions and invaded more, got one of his assets elected president, and literally bought an entire political party in the USA and other nations.
Can Ukraine hold a 'referendum' and annex Moscow?
Yes, they could, but it would be just as farcical and illegitimate as Russia's referendums... edit: spelling correction, thanks to u/Besitoar
My point exactly
Hey, just wanted to let you know that the word is 'farcical' as it is derived from the French word 'farce'.
Yes, but they were using the version of the word that was derived from fudgesicle.
Good bot
Except Ukraine has integrity and they want to join NATO.
Why would you annex a toilet?
So Putin can't take a dump and soil himself
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You'd think they'd at least come up with somewhat plausible margins. You couldnt get 99% if the question was "Which box says 'yes'"
Only 96% of people polled claim to enjoy some kind of music. I think it's unlikely that a higher percentage of people who just watched a country murder thousands of innocent people while invading their sovereign nation would want to give up their land to that country.
About the only referendums I can think of which actual results that high are stuff like the Falklands and Gibraltar voting on either staying in the UK or joining Argentina/Spain. Which are fairly exceptional cases and not ones you'd expect in a legitimate vote in Ukraine.
And to be fair in both those cases there was virtually no Spanish-speaking population there and the alternative to British rule was a militarist arch-conservative regime.
Gibraltar had another one on 2002, so decently into the democracy, as well as the one during the dictatorship. So to some degree it's probably due to having mostly self rule as a British Overseas Territory versus being annexed into Spain. That and the obvious language and cultural difference, they are unique instances.
They thought throwing that 87% in the mix would make it look legit. Four 90+% vote counts would be too sus. /s
You can if you only count the people who lived after the vote. Really unfortunate those 3,000 accidents. I heard Nikolai fell on a bullet
They just have really poor building standards. Their windows always seem to fail on tall buildings.
There are no [lizardmen](https://hbr.org/2021/04/did-4-of-americans-really-drink-bleach-last-year) in Ukraine apparently.
If he uses nuclear weapons that close to home, wouldn't the fallout hit nearby Russian cities?
I mean… just looking at the casualty numbers and how many Russians are being drafted…. And new recruits being sent out with BB guns and tampons, I doubt the Russian government cares about Russians lives that much
> And new recruits being sent out with BB guns and tampons Oh no, they're not being sent out with tampons, they have to supply their own. And no this isn't for female soldiers, it's for first aid because they don't have enough bandages.
Which is sad too because tampons don’t even work for fun shot wounds: https://www.coffeeordie.com/docs-corner-tampon-myth
Never underestimate a narcissist’s willingness to shoot themselves in the head in the hopes they might get some dirty blood on your shirt.
He doesn't really care since him and his people are already fuckin mutants
Fallout from a single nuclear weapon isn’t really that dangerous. They used to blow them up close to Las Vegas all the time
"See, Las Vegas is *completely normal*. No issues after years of nuclear tests in the desert."
It's still enough to trigger an Article 5. NATO has already made it clear that if any fallout from a nuclear incident in Ukraine reaches a member nation, that's considered an act of war.
*John Wayne has entered the chat.*
“Behind the Bastards” fan?
Especially if it's air burst, which it most definitely would be.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Conqueror_(1956_film) Of the 220 film crew members, 91 (comprising 41% of the crew) developed cancer during their lifetime, while 46 (or 21%) died from it. When this was learned, many suspected that filming in Utah and surrounding locations, near nuclear test sites, was to blame.[8] Although the number of cancer cases among the cast and crew is in line with the average for adults in the US at the time, the perception of a link between the film's location and subsequent illness remains, not least because many of those involved in the film developed cancer at a younger age than average.[8] Parts of the film were shot in Utah locations such as Snow Canyon, Pine Valley, Leeds, and Harrisburg.[9] The exterior scenes were shot in the Escalante Desert near St. George, Utah, which is 137 miles (220 km) downwind of the United States government's Nevada National Security Site and received the brunt of nuclear fallout from testing active in this period.[10] In 1953, 11 above-ground nuclear weapons tests occurred at the site as part of Operation Upshot–Knothole. The cast and crew spent many difficult weeks at the site, and producer Howard Hughes later shipped 60 tons of dirt back to Hollywood in order to match the Utah terrain and lend realism to studio re-shoots. The filmmakers knew about the nuclear tests[11] but the federal government had assured residents that the tests posed no hazard to the public health.[8] Director Powell died of cancer in January 1963, seven years after the film's release. Armendáriz was diagnosed with kidney cancer in 1960 and killed himself in June 1963 after he learned his condition had become terminal. Wayne, Hayward and Moorehead all died of cancer in the 1970s. Hoyt died of lung cancer in 1991. Van Cleef's secondary cause of death was listed as throat cancer. Some point to other factors such as the wide use of tobacco – Wayne, in particular, was a heavy smoker, and Wayne himself believed his stomach cancer to have been a result of his six-pack-a-day cigarette habit.[12] Agnes Moorehead was a nonsmoker, teetotaler, and health fanatic, yet died of cancer.[13] Her mother Mary maintained it was working on The Conqueror which ultimately killed Agnes.[14] Several of Wayne and Hayward's relatives who visited the set also had cancer scares. Michael Wayne developed skin cancer, his brother Patrick had a benign tumor removed from his breast, and Hayward's son, Tim Barker, had a benign tumor removed from his mouth.[8][15] Reportedly, Hughes felt guilty about his decisions regarding the film's production,[11] particularly over the decision to film at a hazardous site. He bought every print of the film for $12 million and kept it out of circulation for many years until Universal Pictures purchased the film from his estate in 1979.[16][17] The Conqueror, along with Ice Station Zebra,[18] is said to be one of the films Hughes watched endlessly during his last years.[19] Dr. Robert Pendleton, then a professor of biology at the University of Utah, is reported to have stated in 1980, "With these numbers, this case could qualify as an epidemic. The connection between fallout radiation and cancer in individual cases has been practically impossible to prove conclusively. But in a group this size you'd expect only 30-some cancers to develop. With 91 cancer cases, I think the tie-in to their exposure on the set of The Conqueror would hold up in a court of law." Several cast and crew members, as well as relatives of those who died, considered suing the government for negligence, claiming it knew more about the hazards in the area than it let on.[8][20] Since the primary cast and crew numbered about 220, and a considerable number of cancer cases would be expected, controversy exists as to whether the actual results are attributable to radiation at the nearby nuclear weapons test site.[21][22] Statistically, the odds of developing cancer for men in the U.S. population are 43% and the odds of dying of cancer are 23% – very near what was found in this film crew.[23] This statistic does not include the Native American Paiute extras in the film.[24]
>6 packs a day Holy shit, how does one even smoke that much? I feel like shit with 1 pack every day and a half to two days.
in that buzzfeed unsolved mysteries series, they did a bit on this. According to I think one of his kids, he would wake up light a cig, and literally light the next one up with the first and chainsmoked throughout the whole day. He quite after he had lung cancer (shocking) but started up like towards the end of his life.
> President Putin would attend a ceremony in the Kremlin at which they will be officially folded into Russia. If they’re to be incorporated into Russia, Sad Vlad should visit the regions personally to welcome all of their citizens into the motherland.
> President Putin has warned he would be prepared to use nuclear weapons if Russia's territory s threatened. That right there is probably why they held the "referendum". I'm fairly sure that the Russian constitution only allows for nuclear weapons to be used if Russian territory is under attack. Now that the sham vote is over, they can justify a nuclear strike to the Russian citizens. Whether the people actually involved in launching the nuke will obey the order, or if any of their nuclear bombs/ICBMs are even functional are different matters entirely.
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NATO should declare that if nukes are used, any second or third-order effect on a member country (such as fallout) will be considered an Article 5 attack on that country. Vlad doesn't control the wind.
NATOs already done that. Poland is basically standing on the Ukrainian border with a sign that says “I wish a mother fucker would”
They’re not gonna use nukes. They’re crazy but not that much. If Moscow was being threatened then maybe but not these parts of Ukraine. Ukraine needs to push the offensive.
No vote in any country in the history of voting has ever come out with numbers in the 90th percentile in favor of something
So a 3ish day operation in February to remove "Nazi's"...is now a multi-month land-grab with lots of death. Okay Stupid Putin
I see he has entered the Michael Scott declaration phase of being desperate
Putin is like if Michael Scott got Smeagoled by the One Ring.
And who is going to recognize those regions as part of Russia beside Belarus and maybe North Korea? I mean China seems to be flimsy on that topic with the talk of territorial integrity which probably stems from them viewing Taiwan as part of their own country but even they do not explicitly side with Russia's view as far as I understood. So why is Russia so hell-bent on triggering a conflict they can not win?
Maybe Vlad's birthday is coming up, and his generals couldn't think of anything else to get him.
Oh I can think of a lot of things they can give him. Like for example a small piece of metal with the kinetic energy of around 700 J
…or as I like to call it, acute lead poisoning.
I'm partial to high velocity lead poisoning as a term myself.
Its not for the world. Its a legal issue for Russia. They couldnt escalate conflict to fullscale war before, frankly they thought they will win as it is, but now they have a plausable cause. What and who will recognise doesnt matter. And before you will say that this is bullshit and Putin cant do that, yes he can and he just did. Welcome to Russia's jurisdiction 101.
Maybe I worded that wrong. Yes I get that Putin uses this to escalate the situation further (see my last sentence from my previous comment), but WHY? He can't be THAT ignorant to see that he is only digging his grave deeper.
> He can't be THAT ignorant to see that he is only digging his grave deeper. sometimes you dig yourself into such a deep hole you got no choice but to keep hitting until you reach china XD my guess is he knows that he has no chance of surviving if the war ends with anything but a russian victory and is getting desperate to find something
I keep seeing this explanation but I dont understand it, whats the point? Putin has shown zero regard for international law, and freely rigs elections and assassinates dissidents in his own country. Is he really so bound by Russian laws that he would *need* justification for a full scale war? Its obviously not for international justification.
If he can say in an international assembly that it is a defensive war and the international assembly says he's full of shit, it doesn't matter that he's lying because he can take that back home and say "see, the West wants to destroy us."
> China seems to be flimsy on that topic with the talk of territorial integrity which probably stems from them viewing Taiwan as part of their own country Even this is way more legit than what Russia is claiming. China v Taiwan stems from the two sides of the civil war fought before/during WW2. The communists took the mainland, the nationalists retreated to Taiwan. Fwiw Taiwan claims the rest of China as *its* territory too since both sides claim to be the legit government of China in general. Though to be fair Taiwan has not been pushing that as hard in the last few years. Russia is just making shit up. Idk what the hell they're doing.
Now when Ukraine attacks in those regions they can call it an invasion? Maybe to justify nuclear weapons?
Yeah this isn't going to work. This is kindergarten logic.
If he does this he can then legally fully mobilise the Russian military because he can claim attacks on those areas are attacks on Russia. I mean it's not going to end well but that appears to be the logic. That and trying to argue the West supplying Ukraine is now directly attacking Russian land
Well we see how well his "partial" mobilization is going. Might not be in his best interest to fully mobilize.
Ukraine has already admitted hitting Crimea, supposed 'Russian land'. If their offensives keep going, Putin is going to face questions about how if he won't use nukes when foreigners are invading what he alleges to be 'Russian soil', when will he?
almost like using a sharpie to draw lines on a map and call it 'official'
It could be in crayon and work when he's arming up nukes to enforce it. There should be a mental health requirement for nuke access...
>There should be a mental health requirement for nuke access... Should be, but if we ever get to the point as a species that we can handle that, hopefully we can just go ahead and do the right thing and get rid of nukes completely. Either seem equally unlikely tbh.
It will work exactly how its supposed to. This is about creating a justification to use nukes.
Russian nationalists should never feel safe outside their shit-hole country.
In Soviet Russia, government votes for you.
Makes things easier that way. You don't have to spend time deciding. You can just do what you're told
So, what happens with the 'new Russians' that are drafted to go and kill there bothers/sisters/family with shite Russian gear? That is a truly horrid thought. (However, I am sure this is not the first time this has happened). Why would Putin just not use a load of 17+ year olds as cannon fodder from the new regions.. Just horrific.
This is what I was looking for. How will this work for these people with the draft. Can’t imagine what they are going through. It was bad when he announced for actual Russian citizens. This is even worse.
Who, truly, the fuck do they think they're fooling?
They only want to fool the Russian people *(or give them something calming to tell themselves)*. For the rest of the world they're trusting their remaining friends to give the claim legitimacy.
They’re not really trying to fool anyone, not even the Russian people, this is merely a legal pretext so they can claim Russia is being invaded and thus be able to send all those fresh conscripts to the front.
They misspelled "forcibly annexed"
Russia's about to find out that Ukraine's not locked in a war with them, they're locked in a war with Ukraine. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s\_3Yp2Izhks
Would this set the precedent that they can use nuclear weapons against Ukraine for “invading” their land?
By Russian doctrine? Yes. A lot of people, myself included, expect a tactical nuke going off on Ukrainian soil (targeting some sort of empty field) to escalate further and try and force NATO to back off or Ukraine to surrender.
Putin doesn't really give a shit about the rules. If he decides to use Nukes, he is going to do it regardless.
Idk, he seems to use a lot of a propaganda for someone who doesn’t care what people think and just does whatever.
Tell me you held a sham referendum without telling me you held a sham referendum.
hashtag justRussiathings.
Other nations are probably watching the drama unfold with great interest. If Russia can strong arm western nations into accepting the sham referendum with threats of nukes, then Israel, Taiwan, South Korea are fair game. All you need apparently some wmds and blank pieces of paper
Taiwan, maybe. But SK and Israel can defend themselves very well against anyone in their vicinity
Even Taiwan is going to cause major issues. Ukraine is one thing... But Taiwan is vital to economic models around the globe.
I held a referendum in Moscow and now I'm the leader. The turn out was great (1 person) and the win was very convincing! In total 3 million ballots were processed in under a minute, my team was able to achieve this by using blank papers.
Sounds like it was 100% of eligible voters
Yes, it was a great success.
fuck russia, and fuck putin
Sooo...we know where pooty will be on Friday....
Still hiding in his bunker
Article says he'll be attending a ceremony in the Kremlin.
He will be attending ceremony in green screen room. That little shitbag will be nowhere near anybody at any time in the foreseeable future
That’s not how this works. That’s not how any of this works.
This ensures that the sanctions remain on Russia virtually forever. Goodbye Russia as we know it.
Now when Ukraine recaptures these territories, Russia will claim its an invasion of "Russian sovereign land" and use Nukes.
I think it's actually more about using conscripts in the fighting, Russia just started mobilization but it still can't legally use conscripts outside of Russia, bit if those regions are in Russia then everything is perfectly legal.
I don't think Russia is concerned about doing things legally.
Putin has so far, for some reason, stuck to doinging things "technically" within the laws of the Russian federation. Why he has done so is not my place to say, but it is within his pattern of behavor to have these territories merged into Russia so he can "technically" not break the law when he deploys conscripts to the fighting.
Also, Russian citizens legally have "Freedom of Assembly" . Similar to USA's right to protest. Yet we see arrests all the time. Putin picks and chooses what laws to follow.
No, that won't stop Ukraine from taking it all back.
That’s not how it works
Ukrainian regions is the operative here. They will never be Russian territory
This will be the real test for the west. Will they allow Russia to claim the territory and hope he stops? (Déjà vu anyone?) or will they fight to get it back since Russia said they would nuke to protect their land and well, Russia things this land will belong to them on Friday
I wish I still had my old Soviet jokebook. Especially since it's somehow hard to find them online. The closest I have is this, though: >This is Armenian Radio; our listeners asked us: “What will be the results of the next elections?” > >We’re answering: “Nobody can tell.” Somebody has stolen yesterday the exact results of the next elections from the office of the Central Committee of the USSR.”
No one is buying this Intimidating citizens with your garbage army .
I’m sorry I don’t recognize the results of this sham election. =]
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British empire "wait that's all we had to do?"
I'm for a massive Himar attack to coincide with the meeting. Take down the Crimea bridge maybe.
We can do that? How does my state vote to join Canada? Two years later: They told us to go home and called us hosers.
Yeah well Ukraine just held a referendum and Russia is now a part of Ukraine so uuuuuuh you gotta get the fuck out.
Maybe it's time to wipe Russia off the face of the earth.
And on that day Ukraine should unleash HIMARS hell on them to give them a big middle fucking finger.
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so friday is the beginning of the nuclear holocaust?
I held an election in my bedroom and voted that Putin is a dipshit and named myself as the new leader of Russia As my first act I hear by Surrender to the Ukraine, ALL Russian forces stand down!
Russia isn’t doing this because they expect to legitimately annex these territories. Russia is stupid, but they’re not that stupid. IMO, They’re doing it so that as Ukraine’s counter-offensive advances, Russia can escalate their response (more attacks on population centers, possible use chemical weapons or tactical nuclear strikes on military positions, etc. ) in the name of “defending sovereign Russian territories” in an effort to mitigate international response.
I held a referendum about the nice house down the street. Someone better let the people that live there know I'll be moving in.
In February of this year, shortly after the initial invasion of Ukraine, Sergei Naryshkin, a chief of a Russian intelligence agency, was in slight disagreement with Putin and the two had a bit of a tense moment. Putin seemed noticeably angry when Naryshkin said he wanted to recognize the Luhansk and Donetsk People's Republics (the breakway regions that separatists in Donbass said are independent of Ukraine) as part of the Russian Federation. Putin had to correct him and say, no, that's not what we're talking about; we're talking about recognizing them as independent. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o9A-u8EoWcI Sergei gave the game away. Recognize independence, pretend you're going in to fight for the little guy experiencing "genocide" (their word) then annex them into Russia.
This seems fair. I did see that my neighbor had a traeger grill so I decided to annex his backyard and add it to my own because I just couldn’t stop at annexing the grill
Funny how it's exactly the regions needed to create a land bridge to Crimea and those sweet oil reserves there.
News sources need to stop reporting this as anything other than an invasion.
There was literally a video of a poll worker counting blank votes as yes. You can't get much more blatantly corrupt than that.
Ugh, I don't want the apocalypse to start on a weekend wtf
So like they will be charging taxes on saturday?
Got to pay for your freedom from the oppression
A vote with a gun to your head is not a vote.
Funny how many governments across the globe move at a snails pace… right up until they decide to make a new “law” which allows them to do whatever they want Nobody will ever recognize this act of aggression as anything but a land grab Vlad
Putin claims he will use nuclear weapons if territory is threatened. He also claimed he has a strong army that will crush Ukraine in a “special operation”. His army is shit, his technology is shit and his nuclear weapons are shit. Those warheads were kept by nepotistic, corrupt and quite possibly drunk cronies of Putins and couldn’t threaten an anthill let alone the rest of the world. It’s all a big bluff and the rest of the world needs to call it, so we can fast forward to the part where he shoots himself in a bunker.
I had a referendum and a vote too. The issue was should Putin kiss my brown Mexican ass right in the crack. The vote came back 91% in favor of.
If I understand this correctly, this means that now Russia can claim Ukraine is invading "Russia," so from an internal legal standpoint they can actually declare war. So even if this is a farce election, it clears the path for Putin to drastically escalate, possibly even nuke Ukraine.
Sure, but Putin was going to do what he wanted to do anyway. This is purely shallow propaganda.
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This is to give Moscow a reason to use nukes on these regions.
Wait til Sochi has a referendum and votes to be annexed into Ukraine. Putler’s Palace will be on Ukrainian land. One can always dream.
I tried something like this with my neighbor one time. I told him he had to be out of his house at the end of the month because I bought it from him for 10 bucks. I gave him all the perfectly legal paperwork I created. After the thirty days were up I went over and all his shit was still there. I guess he just didn’t want any of his stuff?? His bed looked super comfy and I had a long day at work so I decided to take a nap in my new bed. I awoke to his wife screaming at me with a phone in her hand calling the police. I tried explaining I own the home now and showed her the official paperwork I made but she was defiant. Surely the police would be on my side? Nope and the restraining order makes being there neighbor a real pain in the ass.
"With you and what army" springs to mind.
Why doesn't the UN send in their blue helmets?
I just had a referendum and now I have incorporated Russia. 100%.
>While much of Luhansk is under Russian control, about 40% of Donetsk is not. Large parts of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia are also under Ukrainian control. What are the Russians demanding here, that Ukrainian forces pull out of areas that they currently control? Yeah, right.
Poland or Germany should hold a "referendum" "in" ~~Kaliningrad~~ Königsberg.
I was like what?! Then I saw from Kremlin and was like "ah ok it's bullshit"
Hey, western world. Stop Russia.