I still believe a military invasion of Taiwan is incredibly remote. I continue to travel there often and the general feeling of the many people I know there is that the sabre rattling is a nuisance as it leads to economic shivers and to a degree flight of capital.

I don't remember scoffing at anything.

The people of Taiwan are pragmatic enough to know that they can expect no military assistance from anywhere.

Responsibility Deficit Disorder is a medical condition. Symptoms include inability to be corrected when wrong, false sense of superiority, desire to share personal info no else cares about, general hubris. It's a medical issue rather than pure arrogance.

I'm hearing that the Saudis are looking at joining BRICS....if that happens it's a major disaster.

The Democrats are a foreign policy disaster for the whole west.

'Who are you and how did you get in here? I'm a locksmith. And, I'm a locksmith.' (Leslie Nielsen)

I'm hearing that Shoigu has agreed with Surovikin's conclusions on the Kherson situation and has approved the withdrawal of troops to the left bank of the Dnieper river.

It's being stated that the withdrawal of troops and the remaining civilian population will be carried out as soon as possible. In the next few days, Kherson will come under the control of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

'Who are you and how did you get in here? I'm a locksmith. And, I'm a locksmith.' (Leslie Nielsen)

They've been fortifying Kherson for weeks if not months & then to call a retreat is very odd.
From a tactical standpoint being the other side of the Antonovskiy bridge makes sense, its a bottle neck surrounded by Rivers, Marshland & bogs and would be very difficult to move anything substantial through that.

If the Russians have retreated this opens up a new flank on Russians forces east of Kherson.

If the Ukrainians can navigate the Antonovskiy crossing then Crimea is very much in Ukrainian sights - take a look at the E97 road there's not much left before Crimea.

Its flat, horribly flat, I would'nt want to be a tank crewman on either side.

The mountains are calling & I must go.

All media does that though. Independents included

Did you know? 98.0000001% of people are morons.

Yes they are. They are the ones with the resources to check and verify, before they publish.

They aren't self-important attention seekers, sitting at a desk in a basement, in front of a camera and trawling through disinformation deliberately placed to confuse and obscure. Who then conjure up stories to suit a predetermined narrative which reinforces the prejudices of a small but noisy audience of the "dissident right". Plus a few from the "dissident left".

Confirmation biases and conspiracy theories abound. Truth is a rare commodity.

By all means use multiple sources before reaching a conclusion, but don't use sources which have zero credibility.

For the avoidance of doubt any comments in response to a previous post are directed to its ideas and not at any, or all, posters personally.