War

Vlad is hammering Ukrainian cities with long range rockets, using up his limited and irreplicable stockpile out of spite. Vlad is controlled by feelings and emotion as much as Trump, both can't admit they made a mistakes, and neither can learn from their experiences.

sounds like the situation might be entering a phase I have heard delicately called “rapidly evolving”.

cannabineer said:

unless the alternative is socialists.

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“Socialist”…such an amazing word - it can mean whatever you want it to mean (if you (think you) don’t like it)…ground into semantic paste so many times, it’s become the tofu of the imagination.

Will never stop laughing at those who can’t get facts straight, and *won’t* shut up, and somehow parade about as if they had some kind of rank they were trying to pull. Them voting isn’t so great, but I believe in the value of our system - and I want it to hold together long enough for sane citizens to build it back better than the founders were able to do…and who knows when that might be?

Looks like Vlad wasted about 50 or more of his expensive and diminishing supply of missiles. These appear to have been mostly cruise missiles and are not of much use on the battlefield. He can't fight their army, so he murders the civilians at a safe distance. This will continue with each humiliation he suffers, so expect a lot of missile attacks on cities, unless he runs out of rockets.

Imagine if the struck the US or UK embassies with missiles. Germany might apologize for getting in the missile's way, but perhaps they had an epiphany since Nordstream was blown up. The fastest way out of the jam for Germany is to help defeat Russia ASAP and help Ukrainian natural gas. Start a pipeline across Poland, start drilling and capping Ukrainian gas wells and prefabbing the gas processing plants now. Talk to the Ukrainians and make it a wartime priority for Germany and Poland, get it done and make the dirt fly. Bury the pipeline 2 meters underground in Ukraine and the well heads in pits, future proof it against the Russians. The gas and oil are practically next door, and the solution is at hand, it can also be done quickly, provided there is motivation and competent management.

How many women and children did the Russian terrorist state kill over the weekend in Ukraine?

Vlad fired 84 expensive missiles at Ukrainian cities last night, almost half were shot down, 43. If he keeps it up for 10 days he will use up over 800 missiles and there are reports that say he doesn't have many left. Meanwhile he's army is getting an accelerating series of defeats and soon there could be a massive surrender or defeat in Kherson.

Savages targeting civilians.

Fogdog said:

Do you think Putin's Russia is not fascist? What would you call the political system if not that?

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they are fascists, but they're also kleptocrats, out to steal the wealth of the entire country, and let their crumbs fall for the rest of the country to fight over....does "trickle down economics" ring any bells?

Roger A. Shrubber said:

they are fascists, but they're also kleptocrats, out to steal the wealth of the entire country, and let their crumbs fall for the rest of the country to fight over....does "trickle down economics" ring any bells?

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Corruption is the sand in the gears of liberal democracy, here it is a bug, there it is a feature.

DIY-HP-LED said:

This is just Germany and I do hope they will arrive before spring; they are Germans remember! Apparently, they are coming through with a bunch of tanks, giving permission to third countries to transfer them to Ukraine. Maybe getting nordstream 1&2 blown up convinced them that the way out was to finish off the Russians ASAP. So, there are AA missiles and tanks in addition to winter gear on the way too, other NATO countries are sending winter gear too. The Ukrainians will have plenty while the Russians freeze without proper clothing and will be inside around a stove when they can and not out on sentry duty freezing their asses and getting frost bitten. The Russians will be fucked this winter, especially in cold weather when the well-equipped Ukrainians will take full advantage. I don't think the action will end with winter, if there are Russians left on their territory, they are gonna have a Helluva time without winter clothing and survival equipment.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1579098706066182144

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Not so sure,heard Schultz say that he didn't want to be first in supplying modern western battle tanks(Leopard 2's),along w/the excellent Marder IFV to Ukraine.

Bagginski said:

“Socialist”…such an amazing word - it can mean whatever you want it to mean (if you (think you) don’t like it)…ground into semantic paste so many times, it’s become tofu or the imagination.

Will never stop laughing at those who can’t get facts straight, and *won’t* shut up, and somehow parade about as if they had some kind of rank they were trying to pull. Them voting isn’t so great, but I believe in the value of our system - and I want it to hold together long enough for sane citizens to build it back better than the founderswere able to do…and who knows when that might be?

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The anticommunist fever of the late ‘40s and 50s left deep scars in our national psyche. We only have to look at race grievance voters to see how long such scars last. Cuba, Vietnam, half of Central America, Iraq … we invariably sponsored right authoritarians when there was danger of any sort of people’s government.

Ho Chi Minh tried to negotiate with us! Our mutually detrimental (afaik) snubbing him helped radicalize him and the North, with great pain and bloodshed to follow on all sides … while some histories focus on development of air power, smh.

It is less of a word with which to describe and more to conjure, and it remains an incantation against mild social democracy like can be found in much of Western Europe … and even that is under threat from nationalist movements more fascist than not.

We live (alas!) in interesting times.

ANC said:

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Yeah,that captures Russian military practices pretty precisely,which doesn't surprise me although in 1990 Gulf war w/generals showing precision munitions going into doorways I was prepared to see Russian generals showing the same thing at the beginning of the conflict,I mean hell it was 32 yrs later and if Russian tech was 20 yrs behind the West they should have been able to match that level(shocking ineptitude),as well as the combined arms theories the West had demonstrated,What did Russia learn in 32 yrs?. This fiasco looks circa.Stalin to me INCREDIBLE

CCGNZ said:

Not so sure,heard Schultz say that he didn't want to be first in supplying modern western battle tanks(Leopard 2's),along w/the excellent Marder IFV to Ukraine.

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He was reluctant, but they recently had a change of mind, getting the Russian gas cut off and the prospect of future Ukrainian NG and oil might have something to do with it. The only way out for them is the defeat and eviction of the Russian army in Ukraine ASAP, then the EU can drive another pipeline across Poland and start the drilling capping and build out of improved infrastructure to transport it to Europe. A country of 40 million that owes almost 100 billion could be making as much off NG and oil as Russia did every month and Europe is desperate. I think something can be arranged, there is suppose to be as much a 5 trillion cubic meters in reserves, maybe more. Think EU membership will be fast tracked for energy independence?

CCGNZ said:

Yeah,that captures Russian military practices pretty precisely,which doesn't surprise me although in 1990 Gulf war w/generals showing precision munitions going into doorways I was prepared to see Russian generals showing the same thing at the beginning of the conflict,I mean hell it was 32 yrs later and if Russian tech was 20 yrs behind the West they should have been able to match that level(shocking ineptitude),as well as the combined arms theories the West had demonstrated,What did Russia learn in 32 yrs?. This fiasco looks circa.Stalin to me INCREDIBLE

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They buy everything from abroad and lost their old Soviet enterprises and many of the high-tech ones were in Ukraine. They did inherit a vast amount of Soviet junk and ammo some of which was upgraded, with western and even Ukrainian parts. They have no industrial base to speak of and education was very low on the priority list all the shit you see that made Russia into a modern looking country were imported using oil money. Vlad was a loser long before this war began, he had over 20 years running the place with a fortune in oil and gas money coming in. The place is a shit hole, and the standard of living is a fraction of that in Europe, no domestic industry developed, and the place is corrupt from top to bottom a fascist kleptocracy run by a despot. It's basically a greatly reduced old Soviet Union with a new economic system, but run by ex KGB, the sword and shield of the party. By any measure Putin is a failure as a leader considering the money he had coming in and the richness of the vast land, they should be living like kings in Russia, not like shit.