#Red Lines

[kevinlucbert]

Une rencontre

21 x 29,7cm, ink on paper, Kevin Lucbert, 2024

[rookthornesartistry]

𝐃𝐈𝐕𝐈𝐃𝐄𝐑𝐒 | 𝐑𝐄𝐃𝐒 𝐍𝐨. 𝟐

𝘳𝘦𝘲𝘶𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘣𝘺 @smutconnoisseur

𝘱𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘦 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦, 𝘳𝘦𝘣𝘭𝘰𝘨, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘢𝘨 @rookthornesartistry 𝘪𝘧 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘶𝘴𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘥𝘪𝘷𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘣𝘦𝘭𝘰𝘸.

BLACK BEAN

BLACK BEAN

ROSEWOOD

ROSEWOOD

ROSEWOOD

ROSEWOOD

MAROON

PENN RED

GRADIENT

[dontforgetukraine]

The only red line that really exists and should never have been crossed.

Source: @/demoguardian

[tomorrowusa]

Sadly, a majority of Americans are almost completely ignorant about Eastern Europe. They probably don't know the difference between Budapest and Bucharest. (Spoiler: They are capitals of two non-Slavic countries in the region)

When Russia illegally annexed Crimea in 2014, Americans were surveyed on the location of Ukraine on an unlabeled map. Just 16% got it right. This map shows one dot for each response.

Yes, a couple of people thought Ukraine was in Memphis. Not sure what's up with those many folks who thought it is in Greenland. Maybe that's why Trump tried to buy it from Denmark.

In history in US classrooms almost nothing is mentioned about Eastern Europe that happened before the 20th century. This short list of items is typical.

A few (usually exotic) personalities like Ivan the Terrible, Vlad the Impaler, and Peter the Great.

Copernicus (real name: Mikołaj Kopernik) sorting out the Solar System. And that is actually more science than history.

The Siege of Vienna (1683). Vienna is not exactly in Eastern Europe but the siege was lifted by Polish King Jan III Sobieski.

A passing reference to Tsar Aleksandr II freeing the serfs – but only because it happened within two years of the Emancipation Proclamation.

So if you know almost nothing about the location and history of a country, you certainly won't understand its importance to international peace and security.

And that's the case with Ukraine which Putin sees simply as a piece in his country collection in his effort to restore the decrepit Soviet Union in all but name.

As Brendan Simms writes in his linked article up top...

It is worth reminding ourselves what is at stake. If Putin is not defeated and forced to withdraw from Ukraine, this will endanger much more than just the viability of that country. It will enable the Russians to reconstitute their forces facing the Baltic states and Finland, constituting a threat that we will have to face without support from Kyiv. The Ukrainians are thus fighting not only for their own sovereignty but our security as well. Their army is one of the best guarantors we have against future Russian aggression. All they ask is our help. We should give them what they need.

About those so called "red lines" we hear about from tankies and Trumpsters – those lines apparently don't really exist.

Robyn Dixon and Catherine Belton at the Washington Post write:

Ukraine’s resistance to Russia’s invasion keeps crossing President Vladimir Putin’s red lines. Kyiv’s lightning incursion into Kursk in western Russia this month slashed through the reddest line of all — a direct ground assault on Russia — yet Putin’s response has so far been strikingly passive and muted, in sharp contrast to his rhetoric earlier in the war. On day one of the invasion in February 2022, Putin warned that any country that stood in Russia’s way would face consequences “such as you have never seen in your entire history,” a threat that seemed directed at countries that might arm Ukraine. If Russia’s territorial integrity were threatened, “we will certainly use all the means at our disposal to protect Russia and our people. It’s not a bluff,” he said a few months later in September. “The citizens of Russia can be sure that the territorial integrity of our Motherland, our independence and freedom will be ensured — I emphasize this again — with all the means at our disposal,” making a clear reference to Russia’s nuclear weapons.

In other words, Putin has been bullshitting.

Ukraine’s Kursk incursion “proved the Russians are bluffing,” said Oleksandr Danylyuk, a former Ukrainian intelligence and defense official, now an associate fellow with the Royal United Services Institute, a think tank in London. “It shuts down all of the voices of the pseudo experts … the anti-escalation guys.”

Vladimir Putin can bluff only so much before people see that he's full of shit.💩 We're already past that point. His imperialist fantasies make him think that he's back in the Soviet Union and all he has to do is say something bellicose to get whatever he wants.

There are now Ukrainian troops on Russia's soil and over 133,000 refugees fanning out from the area telling other Russians of what's really going on near the border without censorship from Russian state media. The weaker Putin looks inside Russia, the sooner his invasion will end.

As I've said before, give Ukraine whatever weapons it wants – except nukes. Ukraine is doing NATO an enormous favor by keeping Putin at bay.

[godbirdart]

commission for WAVERLIED

[random-xpressions]

I do not know what that sickness is called but there is a serious mental condition in which these people will find a pathetic sense of pleasure in seeing someone in pain & suffering. Some of the most gruesome serial murderers have acknowledged it - they feel good - when they slit the throat or when they cut the body parts of their victims. Why is this subject being brought? To give you a simple definition of being human: you can't be a human if you find pleasure in someone's suffering or pain. You must be a monster, you must be dead inside to inflict harm on someone. On a subtle note, such a tendency may even arise in relationships where it is not built on love but on settling scores with the other, tit for tat, avenging, paying back. Any such signs seen must be uprooted at its very start before it reaches a point beyond control. A relationship is built purely on the foundation of mutual pleasure, not suffering or pain...

Random Xpressions

[cosmic-whorror]

A pair of buns I tattooed on my love

[wheelsgoroundincircles]

Hot Wheels

Hot Wheel Redlines: I had all of these. My Pops gave me my first one at age seven. This is what started my life love for cars. I just had to sell them last year. I was sad to see them go but I needed the money. I hope someone else is enjoying them now as much as I did these past 55 years.

[lasseling]

Zelensky: Kursk Invasion Shows Russia’s Red Lines Are a Bluff

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Monday that the Ukrainian assault on Russia’s Kursk Oblast shows that Moscow’s red lines and threats of retaliation are a bluff.

[hombresguapos]

Retrato de un joven guapo

Imagen generada por IA

[realitysucksandsodoesmylife]

Work in progress Bive angst drawing (this is all over the place)

[kevinlucbert]

The red path

21 x 29,7cm, ink on paper, Kevin Lucbert, 2024

[rookthornesartistry]

𝐃𝐈𝐕𝐈𝐃𝐄𝐑𝐒 | 𝐑𝐄𝐃𝐒 𝐍𝐨. 𝟏

𝘳𝘦𝘲𝘶𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘣𝘺 @smutconnoisseur

𝘱𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘦 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦, 𝘳𝘦𝘣𝘭𝘰𝘨, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘢𝘨 @rookthornesartistry 𝘪𝘧 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘶𝘴𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘥𝘪𝘷𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘣𝘦𝘭𝘰𝘸.

LICORICE

BLACK BEAN

BLACK BEAN

BLACK BEAN

BLACK BEAN

ROSEWOOD

ROSEWOOD

BLOOD RED

GRADIENT

[dontforgetukraine]

No more red lines.

Source: Kama_Kamilia

[astraumbra]

Surge

[queenie435]