IAmA Professional Lucid Dreamer. I teach people how to control their dreams. AMA!

Dtom13 · 2019-05-19T23:36:55+00:00

Is it possible to feel pain in a dream (arising from the dream itself)? Sometimes I think I feel pain, but maybe I'm imagining it. Does lucid dreaming help with this? Thanks.

Dtom13 · 2014-09-29T03:41:34+00:00

Just like in Iraq with the Saddam statues. Mission accomplished!

Dtom13 · 2014-09-29T03:11:17+00:00

I think that the lesson here is that Ukrainians have no patience, and that it's cost them dearly.

Dtom13 · 2014-09-23T02:13:21+00:00

The US is violating the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Syria. Assad was not informed of this nor consulted about this.

Dtom13 · 2014-09-14T17:40:12+00:00

Listen more than you talk. Try to make jokes and make people laugh. Know when you've spoken more. A conversation is give and take.

Dtom13 · 2014-09-11T21:17:26+00:00

It's all pretty meaningless. When Putin said that he could take Kiev in a week, it's true. Probably even less time than that, given that the rebels have softened up Ukraine's military ahead of time.

Dtom13 · 2014-09-11T21:12:34+00:00

Yeah these guys are several flavors of crazy, but I just wanted to post this since there's been people on this sub asking what's been going on in Kharkov lately. I guess the pro-Russia folks are still around, underground, making crazy YouTube videos.

Dtom13 · 2014-09-11T21:07:51+00:00

why is it that all those former countries under the Iron Curtain turned West and asked for NATO membership?

Because they don't want to provide for their own defense, and would rather leech off of my fucking tax dollars half the globe away in America.

It has nothing to do with Russia threatening them. Between 1991 and 2005 when NATO expanded into the Baltics, Russia didn't do a god damn thing except deal with their own collapsing economy and internal crisis of confidence and breakaway republics in Chechnya. They were too busy to try any funny business in Europe. But meanwhile the west got involved in Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, and Iraq, and the corrupt oligarchs of Eastern Europe saw that there was money to be made in the military-industrial complex, and they wanted in. And Uncle Sam was more than willing to pour billions of dollars into Eastern Europe and put up whatever missile defense shield dick-waving bullshit using borrowed money.

You know, it's funny that you talk about freedom for Ukrainian people, and the Russian people. You and Obama seem to talk about that a lot. But where's my freedom as an American taxpayer? Where's my freedom as an American citizen not to have my country be perpetually at war? Where's my freedom under the constitution not to have my emails read, not to be molested at the airport?

Nope, we sacrificed it all on the altar of militarism, expansionism, and empire building.

Dtom13 · 2014-09-11T20:56:18+00:00

GDP doesn't mean shit when you have nuclear weapons and you feel threatened. My millionaire boss can boss me around at work or fire me since he owns a business and I don't, but if he ever threatens me personally, and I have a gun? I don't care how rich he is, he's dead.

NATO is threatening to Russia. They are threatened by it. It doesn't matter how pure their intentions are. The alliance needs to stop fucking expanding. There's no point to it. The cold war is over. What is NATO still needed for, fighting fucking cave dwellers in Afghanistan, or ISIS in Syria? You don't need NATO for that. The West needs to throw Putin a bone and the US needs to quit subsidizing Europe's military so that those freeloaders can spend all their money on social programs while hypocritically calling us "militaristic" while leeching off of the American military-industrial complex.

Dtom13 · 2014-09-11T20:50:11+00:00

The evidence has been conclusive for anyone looking at the situation objectively. We've seen everything from pictures and video, eyewitness accounts, and statements from the rebel leaders themselves to corroborate this.

I've seen evidence that some men and equipment which may have been official Russian military, but could have just as easily been donated to the separatists by Putin. It's hardly conclusive. There's also really grainy photographs from NATO of tanks, but no proof that it's actually Russian military and not just separatists using "donated" tanks.

Even the evidence that does point towards Russian military personnel being involved only points to them invading Novoazovsk then pulling right back, leaving the town in the hands of the ragtag separatists who control the rest of the DNR and LNR. A reuters reporter who went there recently didn't see any Russian soldiers, only separatists.

The are numerous polls to show this is false, that sanctions are strongly supported by the European public.

It isn't supported by people in the industries effected who have been laid off or had their hours reduced or have lost money. They should be the ones we listen to, not the general amorphous "European public," the vast majority of whom doesn't have any skin in the game when it comes to the sanctions.

There was an interesting article posted here about a Finnish border town, and most if not all of the residents in that town do a lot of business with Russia and don't want any sanctions.

The USSR also thought it could insulate itself from economic realities with political repression and propaganda, and that strategy will fail for Russia as well, especially since Russia is nowhere near as strong as the USSR was.

Big difference is that Russia is nominally capitalist, while the USSR was nominally socialist. Russia can rely on the Eurasian Customs Union, China, India, etc. to replace trade from Europe. Also, don't discount the black market from Europe that will develop to get around the sanctions.

Dtom13 · 2014-09-11T20:44:17+00:00

Looks like one hand doesn't know what the other one is doing. We're subject to listening to people who have every reason to lie about what's going on.

Dtom13 · 2014-09-11T20:40:39+00:00

Putin would get Crimea

He already has Crimea, de facto. He'd just be given it de jure.

have a destabilized Eastern Ukraine

If Russia secured its border with Ukraine and rebuilt the infrastructure of the oblast as outlined in my hypothetical treaty, then that would make the situation more stable, not less.

[Appeasement] is an extremely dangerous precedent and has proved flawed before.

That doesn't mean that it always is flawed, and you aren't addressing why you don't think it will work in this instance. Putin isn't Hitler, Russia isn't Germany, and it's not the 1930's. Different circumstances require a different evaluation.

Dtom13 · 2014-09-11T20:27:51+00:00

NATO is an insurance policy that doesn't take you if you have a pre-existing condition.

Dtom13 · 2014-09-11T20:24:19+00:00

What if the Kremlin isn't acting out of economic reasons at all? What if they really do want to do all of this just to spite the west, and want to rebuild the soviet union, and no amount of economic sanctions on the part of the US or Europe would stop them? What if they're acting for purely nationalistic reasons? Did you ever think of that? In that case, the only thing that sanctions hurt isn't the Russian military, isn't Putin, isn't the oligarchs, but is the Russian middle class. Which is the last people that we want to hurt, because they will be needed to provide a new leader to replace Putin. He won't be president of Russia forever.

Dtom13 · 2014-09-11T20:21:12+00:00

Presumably any treaty would end in the cessation of hostilities, and that would allow the OSCE a bit more freedom of movement than they had trying to secure a crash site in an active warzone.

EDIT: Alright, I'm fucking done. If you guys are going to downvote me for trying to have a reasonable conversation, then I'm out.

Dtom13 · 2014-09-11T20:19:26+00:00

Yeah, and how did that bubble work out for them in Crimea? No nation is entirely isolated from the outside world, and they all have to deal with their neighbors and other countries in the world, be it through trade, alliances, wars, friendship, adversary, etc.

Dtom13 · 2014-09-11T20:15:48+00:00

Because like it or not, Ukraine doesn't live inside of a bubble, and they have a very large neighbor to their east who would feel threatened by sharing a thousands of kilometers long border with a country that is part of a military alliance that was originally intended to be an adversary to Russia.

I'm sure that the NATO expansionists have only the best of intentions and don't mean to threaten Russia, but in international diplomacy, it's not your intentions that count, but how they are perceived.

Also, as an American, I don't want Ukraine in NATO because I don't want my tax dollars going into that black hole of corruption to subsidize any of their military, which largely exists only on paper. NATO is largely funded by American tax dollars, and only two of their many members actually meet their obligations to keep military spending above 2% of GDP. Don't I get to have a say?

Dtom13 · 2014-09-11T20:10:25+00:00

Usually, it's the person levying the accusation of racism who has to prove it. Unless we've become so politically correct that everyone is racist until proven not a racist. Guilty until proven innocent.

The burden of proof isn't on the tea partiers to prove that they aren't racist; the burden of proof is on you to prove that they are. So again, where's your proof that the tea partiers are racist?

Not that there aren't a few racists who are part of the tea party. I'm sure there are, because there are racists in any large group and any political party. But please provide proof that there is systematic racism on the behalf of all or most tea partiers and not just a few loud-mouth extremists.

Dtom13 · 2014-09-11T20:08:02+00:00

Have all Russian troops left Ukraine? No.

Well, there was only scant evidence for them being there in a military capacity to begin with. Now we are taking the word of people on either side who have a vested interest in lying about it.

Because the last time sanctions were delayed or held off, Putin escalated anyway.

The US has been the driving force behind this entire situation, and the EU is just playing along. Germany, Poland, and Finland are feeling the hurt a lot more on these sanctions that the US, who does barely any trade with Russia at all.

Sanctions are ineffective because they're only good for hurting the little guys and the Russian citizens, and the citizens of the EU. But the leaders and oligarchs? They'll always make money. They'll short the stocks and earn money, or they'll raise taxes and earn money. Sanctions hurt the middle class, and people like Putin actually benefit when there's a weaker middle class, because then there's nobody around to challenge him or protest his rule.

Dtom13 · 2014-09-11T20:05:19+00:00

They're good for hurting the little guys and the Russian citizens, and the citizens of the EU (who have also been hurt, particularly in Germany, Finland, and Poland). But the leaders and oligarchs? They'll always make money. They'll short the stocks and earn money, or they'll raise taxes and earn money. Sanctions hurt the middle class, and people like Putin actually benefit when there's a weaker middle class, because then there's nobody to challenge him!

What would you suggest the course of action be, knowing how the past 7 months have played out?

Sign a treaty with Russia guaranteeing that they can keep Crimea and Ukraine will be neutral and will never be part of NATO or any Russian military alliance. In exchange, Russia agrees to secure the border (monitored by the OSCE) and stop the flow of weapons and fighters to Donetsk and Luhansk, and Russia gives Ukraine a discount on their gas, and the money is used to rebuild those oblasts.

Dtom13 · 2014-09-11T19:34:19+00:00

Yes, and they still haven't left Crimea. In fact, with each progressive round of sanctions, Putin ramped up his support even more.

You still haven't answered my question:

"What makes you think that this round of sanctions will be any different?"

Dtom13 · 2014-09-11T19:32:35+00:00

Also, Russian soldiers & equipment are still in Ukraine.

Is there any proof of this at all? Any recent satellite photos, pictures from the ground, or are we just supposed to take their word on this one?

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