Sure on a global scale, but on a more macro level, the war on drugs failed because people want to buy and consume drugs… if there is no legal, regulated, safe method to buy them then the black market will fill that gap… same under rationing, same under prohibition, same with drugs and in the future cigarettes…!

“…faster than expected.” I feel like we’ve been hearing that alot over the last few years, it’s like the tagline for the climate crisis.

Good for you, top effort. That’ll have exactly 0 affect on the climate crisis though…

Police bust into a building through the windows, swinging from the chandeliers:

“Ha ha! Zis is a raid! En garde naives…!”

Fight music and clashing of swords starts.

From the paper that brought you: “Hurrah for the Blackshirts” an editorial from 1934 reporting on Hitlers blackshirts, by the then editor Viscount Rothermere who’s son the current Viscount Rothermere still owns it… same shite different arsehole…

They do, doctors are still working for emergency cases, pre appointments get pushed…

“If junior doctors are paid so badly wouldn’t a better response to this be to quit and do something else or move to a different country?”

They are, and they have been…? The NHS has been hemorrhaging staff since well before the pandemic, from nurses, senior nursing staff, registrars, junior doctors and consultants… I know at least 5 people myself from various hospital/GP health care trades that have upped sticks and moved to Canada, Australia or New Zealand… because of exactly these problems. They get payed better and have a higher quality of life in the commonwealth than back here…

Sit down officer this ain’t your jurisdiction

That’s just for the greater good…

I disagree, the more that comes out, the more I’m convinced its a jostling for power kinda vibe. If he’s walked away without securing loyalists at FSB, MoI, AND MoD he’s a dead man and he has to know that. You can’t get into a powerful position in Russia and not know that. If so, then with FSB, MoI and MoD loyal to him he runs Russia in all but name.

Nah, if Prigozhin doesn’t have loyalists installed at FSB, Interior, and Defence he’s a dead man. I guarantee you he knows this. You don’t get into a position of power in Russia without knowing that. His lead elements were holding an Operational Rally Point just outside of Moscow when they just… turned around and a promise…? From Putin…?

No chance, Prigozhin may be a ruthless, cutthroat sociopath but he’s not an idiot. Add to that Putin called him out as a terrorist, a mutineers, an enemy of the state, for Putin to U-turn makes him look weak. Sure, the leverage is there but there’s no way you make him look weak and just walkway… not AND survive for very long…

Yeah, He has to have his people installed at Defence, FSB and Interior, and at that point he’s in charge of the Russian Federation in all but name.

“When you play the game of thrones, you either win or you die.”

I am very sceptical of this. Lukashenko brokered a deal? He’s a Putin puppet, why would Prigozhin cut a deal with him? What would that deal look like? Does Prigozhin become head of the MoD or Putins designated successor? He’s right there outside Moscow, he has the leverage, why would he blink?

Putin called him a traitor, an enemy of the state, why would Putin back down from that point, he already looks weak, why look weaker via a U-turn? Prigozhin must know he’s a dead man if he backs down, he knows the play book, why would he trust in the deal?

Was the whole thing a psy-op to give Putin an out? Was the voice recording that is the ultimate source of all this a Russian State propaganda play? Is it a play by Wagner to buy time to consolidate his forces before he moves on Moscow? But then, he has to be the one to move fast and hard…

Whatever is going on, we don’t know. Next 5-24hrs will be key.

Prigozhin has done audio only before, but you are right. I believe the channel was the Concordgroup official one.

“When you play the game of thrones, you either win or you die.”

I am very sceptical of this. Lukashenko brokered a deal? He’s a Putin puppet, why would Prigozhin cut a deal with him? What would that deal look like? Does Prigozhin become head of the MoD or Putins designated successor? He’s right there outside Moscow, he has the leverage, why would he blink?

Putin called him a traitor, an enemy of the state, why would Putin back down from that point, he already looks weak, why look weaker via a U-turn? Prigozhin must know he’s a dead man if he backs down, he knows the play book, why would he trust in the deal?

Was the whole thing a psy-op to give Putin an out? Was the voice recording that is the ultimate source of all this a Russian State propaganda play? Is it a play by Wagner to buy time to consolidate his forces before he moves on Moscow? But then, he has to be the one to move fast and hard…

Whatever is going on, we don’t know. Next 5-24hrs will be key.