Coffeesforclosers

Now that is a real piece of work, assuming of course it's true and everything works out like that. For everyone that isn't going to read Tibs tweet thread. The UK is supplying very advanced anti ship missiles that can strike Russian warships at anchor in Sebastopol. Since the Moskva was sunk, and the Turks closed off the Bosporus to warships, the remaining Russian vessels can't defend themselves from missiles. Meaning they can no longer blockade the port of Odessa. Meaning if NATO wanted to, they could escort Ukrainian grain shipments along coastal and west black sea routes. This would provide huge amounts of food back to global supply chains, meaning drastic price relief for all of Africa, and huge revenues for Ukraine. There's a few places where this could all go wrong, but it's a neat idea with a lot of upside for a lot of innocent people.

The facts are there, you've just got sift through the BS. Which includes stuff you very much might want to agree with. As for whatever the media is saying, the only bits I see are what gets posted on this thread. If I watch news, I watch PBS.

Yeah, it is. Along with the three NE SB wins where the other team scored 24+ points. Or maybe it was Belichick who got Vinatieri into FG range?

Except he has outside of NE without either of those guys?

Yup. I think it's safe to say that everyone in this thread hopes Ukraine is doing as well as they're telling us they're doing.

Russia's said it over and over again. They don't want peace, they want to win. For them, winning is erasing Ukraine and Ukrainians from the history books through torture, murder, reeducation and deportation. Ukraine's offered concessions for peace, Russia has rejected them all. Zelensky called Putin personally the day before the invasion because he thought it was a bluff and wanted to negotiate more. Putin didn't pick up the phone. One side wants to annihilate the other side, and says so repeatedly. What I don't understand are people saying "well they really should find common ground and wrap this thing up". Great, what's the common ground between a free country vs. we're going to destroy you utterly and have fun doing it?

So far as new states go...you could do worse... Hopefully most of that gets paid with seized assets from Putin-friendly oligarchs.

How?

Revisiting this exchange, let's not go crazy and think this shows some kind of critical fault line in Russian society based on the war. But it's where Russian conservatism has jumped the shark from conservatism to fascism. Old dude didn't get all those medals, ribbons and white hair delivering pizza. Still, young guy in the slick network gettup jumps right down his throat because he might be telling the naked emperor that he's naked. And the emperor can never be naked because that's the party line and you tow the party line.

FWIW, I think that's exactly what they mean too.

The egghead screaming at the guy with all the medals is trying so hard to look like Tucker Carlson.

Not a day goes by without Russia crying wolf about their nuclear arsenal. Whenever they start fantasizing about nuking all their enemies, what I hear is Fredo is smart and he wants respect.

Yup. This war has me reading a lot of stuff, re-reading a lot of stuff with new perspective...and if you asked my woman, reading way too much about Soviet era weapons systems. Doesn't help one of my coworkers is a Tanker in the Reserves.

Hooooo boy yeah. Russia uses 3 man tank crews and replace the loader crewman with an automatic loading system. The automatic loader stores the ammunition in a "carousel" around the turret ring, instead of a sealed off compartment in the back of the turret. So as a Russian tank fires, the carousel clicks around like a cylinder in a revolver. It's a great idea for keeping your tanks small and your crew sizes small, but the crew is also sitting in the middle of a ring of 125 mm shells if the tank gets hit. The Soviets wanted smaller, lighter tanks to keep them cheap and mobile. They figured in a WWIII type scenario, getting there first, with the most and the biggest guns trumped ergonomics and crew survivability.

*Clutches Pearls*. How dare Joe Biden escalate against a country whose only policy is escalation! Cooler heads need to come together, and tell other people to give up their land and liberty so we can be safe! My lord the Federalist author is happy to turn over Ukrainian civilians for rape, torture, murder and "reeducation", but for the love of God don't arm them, people might get killed and Russia might get angry! It's perfectly alright to feed Ukrainians into Russia's police dungeons, filtration camps and mass graves if it leads to peace, but for them to die fighting their would-be conquerors is some kind of moral swamp we have to climb out of? What a joke.

"The Nazis entered this war under the rather childish delusion that they were going to bomb everyone else, and nobody was going to bomb them"-Sir Arthur Harris "There is no instance of a nation benefitting from prolonged warfare"-Sun Tzu Man, all those deals full of Ukrainian concessions that Russia left on the table a month ago so they could get their Short Victorious War...

Power derives from a popular mandate from the masses, not some farcical aquatic ceremony.

Sad. And why not? His pet patriarch will bless anything he does.

Man, it's like Russia is going through all the stages of the Vietnam experience in fast forward. There's growing chatter that May 9th will be Russia's formal declaration of war against Ukraine instead of the big victory celebration. The much vaunted offensive in the Donbass is doing what everyone though it would so far, which is gain ground here and there and achieve very, very little. Now if Russia is going to declare war on May 9th, expect some kind of insane gesture to try and "reset" the situation. Like Russia also declaring war on Finland or Sweden, or the Baltics. Quite possibly on us, so they can have a life-or-death "struggle for survival" that's entirely of their own making, due to their own stupidity.

What the ***** is up with that country. I might just watch Tucker Carlson tonight, so he can go on explaining why Russia's "interests" need to be respected or whatever he's on about

I'm behind on this part of the Ukraine war news. So critically important bits of Russian industry have all started catching fire at the same time?

Per Russia, their losses are: KIA, 13,441 MIA, 7,000 WIA, no number given. 116 Sailors when down with the Moskva, 100+ are still missing and at this point are probably lost at sea. Make of this what you can.

We only just learned. Instead of knocking over some tiny, 3rd world country, Russia thought it could roll over a real military supported by a determined, patriotic people and their government. Of the three things I mentioned, the bluff part was the most important. Nobody, not Bush, Obama, or Trump ever called it, and Biden only got to call it by accident.

A fraud of a superpower based on petrodollars, mountains of rusting Soviet weapons and a few hi tech toys, and bluffing.