Greg Holden’s Original Demo Video: “The Lost Boy”

Music • Views: 23,464

YouTube

For some reason I was thinking about this song in the context of current events. It seems to fit.

The Lost Boy -

I left my home still as a child
I walked a thousand sorry miles
To wait for my father to gather up his tools
He said my boy you’ve got to run
Don’t wait for me, don’t wait for mum
We’ll come get you when it’s safe for us to move

So I waited many years
Held back the pain behind my tears
For my father to come find me like he said
In that time I was alone
So many years without my home
I made brothers of a different kind instead

At the time I didn’t know
Just how hard the wind could blow
Towards disaster, and the things that I would see
I never found my father
I never found my mother either
But I know that in my lifetime I will be

A hero to the masses
To those born without chances
There’s a freedom that everyone deserves
I know there’s greed and there’s corruption
I’ve seen death and mass destruction
But I’m telling you and I hope that I am heard

I will not be commanded
I will not be controlled
I will not let my future go on, without the help of my soul

Jump to bottom

462 comments
1
No Malarkey!  Mar 3, 2022 • 7:29:45pm
2
PhillyPretzel  Mar 3, 2022 • 7:32:29pm

re: #1 No Malarkey!

Talk about being isolated. I was going to say provincial but that is not the right word.

3
Hecuba's daughter  Mar 3, 2022 • 7:33:50pm

re: #1 No Malarkey!

The article was written on February 27th. By now, it would be surprising if most Russians were unaware of the conflict, especially given the devastating financial consequences of the sanctions.

4
FFL (GOP Delenda Est)  Mar 3, 2022 • 7:34:31pm

re: #2 PhillyPretzel

Talk about being isolated. I was going to say provincial but that is not the right word.

I expect a combination of total media control and perhaps simply concentrating on getting by over external matters. Could have a large mix in of people who are similar to the Fox-addicted here in the USA. Simply buying the line that they are being fed since that is what they want to hear.

5
EPR-radar  Mar 3, 2022 • 7:36:16pm

re: #4 FFL (GOP Delenda Est)

I expect a combination of total media control and perhaps simply concentrating on getting by over external matters. Could have a large mix in of people who are similar to the Fox-addicted here in the USA. Simply buying the line that they are being fed since that is what they want to hear.

I have to admit I still can’t wrap my head around the idea that a sizable fraction of any human population (25% or so) is seeking propaganda to believe in, as opposed to any attempt to engage with reality.

6
PhillyPretzel  Mar 3, 2022 • 7:36:17pm

re: #4 FFL (GOP Delenda Est)

Yes that is it. You are right. It is like a bunch of Fox viewers. They only see and hear what they want to hear.

7
Patricia Kayden  Mar 3, 2022 • 7:40:35pm
8
darthstar  Mar 3, 2022 • 7:46:46pm

New thread’s alive, so here’s the image I just posted downthread.

9
jaunte  Mar 3, 2022 • 7:52:01pm
10
austin_blue  Mar 3, 2022 • 7:52:06pm

Goddamit!

CL’d (MPBUH) again.

A little Geological lesson:

re: #5 Love-Child of Cassandra and Sisyphus

USA Today trying to generate webhits with doom porn:

But as anyone who has taken a geology class knows, it’s the PNW where there is a risk of a “great earthquake” in one’s lifetime.

It’s because of the quake in the early 20th century that SF get’s all the attention. But earthquakes in the PNW, the big ones, are on the scale as what happened in Japan and Indonesia.

{break}

Let’s be clear, here. From the Gulf of California to Point Reyes and Tomales Bay, the San Andreas fault is the big newsmaker as far as earthquakes are concerned in Cali. And for good reason!

To the west of that fault complex, a big chunk of Cali is moving, relative to the east side of the fault complex at a pretty rapid clip to the NNW, and It will eventually be an entirely unconnected spit of land heading toward toward Vancouver Island.

But the San Andreas complex is a strike-slip fault complex where the fault is nearly vertical and the fault blocks are grinding against and moving past each other on each side of those vertical plates. Every fault complex is different, but each has a strain factor that it cannot exceed, That means that there is only so much energy that can be stored in a fault complex that can be released in a rupture along its entire length.

For the San Andreas, it’s about 8.2 or so. What does that mean? If the San Andreas ruptured from the Salton Sea all the way up to Point Reyes, It could be an 8.2 seism, at the most. That’s pretty bad and would fuck lots and lots of shit up.

But once the San Andreas wanders into the Pacific Ocean. It drops down into Upper Mantle where a much larger fault complex lurks. It’s the Cascadia Subduction Zone, where the Pacific Plate is diving under the North American Plate from northern Cali to north of Vancouver Island. Instead of a vertical, land-based rocks rubbing against each other rupture plane, the Pacific Plate, as it is forced under the North American Plate, pulls the western edge of the North American Plate DOWN, and it does so for hundreds of miles. This is called a dip-slip fault and it can store more than an Order of Magnitude more energy than a strike-slip fault.

So a max strike-slip San Andrea rupture might hit an 8.2 max, but a Cascadia Rupture along its entire length might hit a 9.5, or more, we just don’t know. But a 9.0+ in the Cascadia would release an energy pulse around thirty times greater than anything the San Andreas could produce and push a 100’ tsunami (and maybe 150’) into Oregon and Washington and maybe all the way up into Vancouver, BC.

Oh, and Cascadia is overdue to pop.

It would be Biblical, and maybe this is where Biblical floods were sourced.

11
jaunte  Mar 3, 2022 • 7:56:07pm
12
austin_blue  Mar 3, 2022 • 8:02:11pm

re: #11 jaunte

Ten units and forty souls at a Nuke Power Plant on fire?

I’m umm… glad I’m not the On-Scene Supervisor at that particular ER. Jeez Louise, the pucker factor at that site would inhale seat cushions in the fire trucks.

Poor bastards.

13
jaunte  Mar 3, 2022 • 8:08:20pm
14
Belafon  Mar 3, 2022 • 8:09:36pm

15
weststpaulbear  Mar 3, 2022 • 8:11:43pm

Youtube Video

16
Hecuba's daughter  Mar 3, 2022 • 8:11:57pm

re: #6 PhillyPretzel

Yes that is it. You are right. It is like a bunch of Fox viewers. They only see and hear what they want to hear.

TBF: we all have a tendency to prefer listening to media that reflect our perspective. I’m not going to listen to OAN, Fox, or Newsmax. We just hope that our media presents the truth as best they can and own up to errors. Meanwhile those who view the alternative networks have come to believe a totally different narrative about the world. And they certainly are trying to ensure that the next generation hears only their narrative in those states that they control.

17
I Would Prefer Not To  Mar 3, 2022 • 8:13:02pm

If Putin dies doesn’t the 2nd in command take over? In my org chart that person would be…Donald Trump

18
austin_blue  Mar 3, 2022 • 8:13:31pm

re: #5 EPR-radar

I have to admit I still can’t wrap my head around the idea that a sizable fraction of any human population (25% or so) is seeking propaganda to believe in, as opposed to any attempt to engage with reality.

Well, I can’t either although it seems to be true.

I guess we will both have to SUFFER!

19
jaunte  Mar 3, 2022 • 8:14:06pm

re: #16 Hecuba’s daughter

Here in Texas it’s remarkable the sheer amount of malfeasance the local newspapers don’t cover.

20
jaunte  Mar 3, 2022 • 8:15:35pm

re: #16 Hecuba’s daughter

Speaking of living in a news silo:

21
austin_blue  Mar 3, 2022 • 8:22:37pm

re: #19 jaunte

Here in Texas it’s remarkable the sheer amount of malfeasance the local newspapers don’t cover.

Well, that’s because there is a long-held belief that a man isn’t guilty of malfeasance until:

A): The reporter knows what malfeasance is, knows how to spell it, and hasn’t been paid to forget what he knows, and

B): The malfeaser kept his pants on when the cameras were operational.

22
Yeah Sure WhatEVs  Mar 3, 2022 • 8:25:47pm

re: #20 jaunte

Speaking of living in a news silo:

Hateful and stupid. Pure conservatism.

23
I Would Prefer Not To  Mar 3, 2022 • 8:35:44pm

How do the citizens of the St Petersburg not know there is a war on a week after their money lost half its value in a week?

24
austin_blue  Mar 3, 2022 • 8:40:36pm

re: #23 I Would Prefer Not To

How do the citizens of the St Petersburg not know there is a war on a week after their money lost half its value in a week?

You tell them that Russian currency and banking is Under Attack by the West!

But you don’t tell them that it’s because Pooty Poot Poot Poot has invaded Ukraine and the entire world agrees that he’s the biggest Russian asshole since Stalin.

25
Hecuba's daughter  Mar 3, 2022 • 8:46:39pm

re: #23 I Would Prefer Not To

How do the citizens of the St Petersburg not know there is a war on a week after their money lost half its value in a week?

I’m sure that by now they all know. After all, there were protests in St. Petersburg this past weekend.

26
jaunte  Mar 3, 2022 • 8:48:23pm
27
austin_blue  Mar 3, 2022 • 8:49:48pm

re: #14 Belafon

[Embedded content]

We are the pros from Dover and we are here to repair the Tracheo-Esophageal Fistula and still make our tee time.

(Is this right? I think it’s close.)

28
Dr Lizardo  Mar 3, 2022 • 8:53:13pm

Maniacally appropriate pic, BTW. 😄

29
piratedan  Mar 3, 2022 • 8:53:39pm

re: #25 Hecuba’s daughter

also have to say that there are plenty of people who are just grinding their days away, not everyone watches the news and not everyone is exposed to multiple points of views that would keep one as informed as we are… and even if so, all we have to do is look here in the US and the UK and elsewhere where people reject what does not confirm their own understanding of the world.

in these days when we have so many people who are willfully rejecting, I also have to remember that there are even more of us who are just keeping their heads down, living paycheck to paycheck, with other concerns.

30
Captain Ron  Mar 3, 2022 • 8:58:19pm
31
Hecuba's daughter  Mar 3, 2022 • 9:03:45pm

From downstairs:

re: #198 Dangerman

Ukraine claims to have Russian war plan documents
Russia’s attack planned to last 15 days, ending March 6, says Ukrainian General Staff

The attack started a week late. So it could still be on target for 15 days, and not the 3-4 days that had been bruited about.

32
wrenchwench  Mar 3, 2022 • 9:10:12pm

re: #26 jaunte

[Embedded content]

Digital paint chips—-can you trust them? The blue looks a little dark, but there are a few blues on there.

33
retired cynic  Mar 3, 2022 • 9:20:29pm

re: #29 piratedan

and there are some of us who wish mightily that we could stop paying attention long enough to work properly…

34
jaunte  Mar 3, 2022 • 9:28:05pm
35
Belafon  Mar 3, 2022 • 9:31:17pm

re: #26 jaunte

36
Belafon  Mar 3, 2022 • 9:33:06pm
37
electrotek  Mar 3, 2022 • 9:36:13pm
38
Belafon  Mar 3, 2022 • 9:48:42pm

One of the things I had to get onto my cousin about was that she believed that transgender people didn’t exist before modern medicine.

39
Targetpractice  Mar 3, 2022 • 9:49:46pm

It’s hard as hell to take all these MAGAts who now want boots on the ground in Ukraine and want bans on Russian oil seriously when just 2 weeks ago they were screaming that we should not be involved in any fighting between Russia and Ukraine because it would cause oil prices to spike.

Oh wait, that’s right, they’re simply contrarian assholes who are now trying to get people to forget they spent days/weeks nuzzling Putin’s taint when they thought there wouldn’t be a war.

40
Grunthos the Flatulent  Mar 3, 2022 • 10:00:44pm

re: #38 Belafon

One of the things I had to get onto my cousin about was that she believed that transgender people didn’t exist before modern medicine.

Let her Wiki-walk from here: en.m.wikipedia.org

41
Belafon  Mar 3, 2022 • 10:09:11pm

There’s a Netflix series coming out called All the Old Knives, m.imdb.com. The premise is:

Two CIA operatives, and former lovers, reunite at idyllic Carmel-by-the-Sea to re-examine a mission six years ago in Vienna where a fellow agent might have been compromised.

Not my thing, but what’s notable to me is that Thandiwe Newton is 8 years older than Chris Pine. Definitely not your typical Hollywood age arrangement.

42
Belafon  Mar 3, 2022 • 10:11:29pm

re: #39 Targetpractice

It’s hard as hell to take all these MAGAts who now want boots on the ground in Ukraine and want bans on Russian oil seriously when just 2 weeks ago they were screaming that we should not be involved in any fighting between Russia and Ukraine because it would cause oil prices to spike.

Oh wait, that’s right, they’re simply contrarian assholes who are now trying to get people to forget they spent days/weeks nuzzling Putin’s taint when they thought there wouldn’t be a war.

That and saying Biden is weak for not standing up to Putin is failing so they have to find another way to say that Biden is weak for not standing up to Putin.

43
wrenchwench  Mar 3, 2022 • 10:19:07pm

re: #40 Grunthos the Flatulent

Let her Wiki-walk from here: en.m.wikipedia.org

From there:

The history of faʻafafine, through the elisions of colonialism, is difficult to trace.

‘Elisions of colonialism’, what a nice phrase. I think another word for that is genocide.

44
No Malarkey!  Mar 3, 2022 • 10:19:56pm

re: #36 Belafon

45
No Malarkey!  Mar 3, 2022 • 10:31:47pm
46
Teukka  Mar 3, 2022 • 10:35:41pm

Thought of the day (Re: Russia-Ukraine)

47
Targetpractice  Mar 3, 2022 • 10:37:34pm

re: #42 Belafon

That and saying Biden is weak for not standing up to Putin is failing so they have to find another way to say that Biden is weak for not standing up to Putin.

Ayep. Apparently the new magical words are “energy independence,” which (if you remember the Obama years) would happen overnight if only Biden would bend the knee to Big Oil and Big Coal.

48
Sherlock Hound  Mar 3, 2022 • 11:09:17pm
49
Sherlock Hound  Mar 3, 2022 • 11:10:09pm

Tankies have to tell on themselves!

50
Sherlock Hound  Mar 3, 2022 • 11:19:54pm

Great going, Lindsey! The whole world heard you.

51
Teukka  Mar 3, 2022 • 11:23:23pm

re: #49 Sherlock Hound

Tankies have to tell on themselves!

52
Dr Lizardo  Mar 3, 2022 • 11:32:32pm

Yandex is the largest technology company in Russia, with a market share of 42%:

53
Dr Lizardo  Mar 3, 2022 • 11:33:53pm
54
Targetpractice  Mar 3, 2022 • 11:35:11pm

re: #53 Dr Lizardo

[Embedded content]

Because regimes whose war efforts are going well frequently make it illegal to talk about how the military is getting royally screwed.

55
Dr Lizardo  Mar 3, 2022 • 11:45:04pm

The thought occurred to me that Putin wanting to secure the Zaporizhzhia nuke plant was, aside from capturing vital infrastructure - a legit war aim - he could also use it to indulge in some outright cartoon supervillainy. If Russia is forced out of Ukraine, he could threaten to destroy the plant’s reactors and render Europe uninhabitable for god only knows how long. A mega-Chernobyl, if you will.

Of course, Russia would be hit by this as well. But I’m thinking more and more that Putin is locked in to a Götterdämmerung mentality; that if he - personally - (and therefore, in his thinking, Russia) can’t have Ukraine, then it’s better that he take all of Europe down with him.

56
Teukka  Mar 3, 2022 • 11:51:49pm

Isn’t this what happened already at the Chernobyl NPP?

57
Dr Lizardo  Mar 4, 2022 • 12:07:32am
58
Teukka  Mar 4, 2022 • 12:08:05am
59
Dr Lizardo  Mar 4, 2022 • 12:23:01am
60
Targetpractice  Mar 4, 2022 • 12:26:29am

re: #58 Teukka

[Embedded content]

“Sorry we blew up your house, burned down the shops, and shot the local farmers. Have a loaf of bread.”

61
TedStriker  Mar 4, 2022 • 12:41:28am

re: #57 Dr Lizardo

Yeah, that ain’t gonna buff out.

Goddamnit, Russia…

62
Targetpractice  Mar 4, 2022 • 12:50:12am

Actually, mentions of Russian “humanitarian aid” seems appropriate in reference to not only the Winter War being to describe their efforts so far but also the usage of so many petrol bombs by the defenders. For those who didn’t know already, the term “Molotov cocktail” came from the Winter War as a response to (what else?) Soviet propaganda. The Minister of Foreign Affairs of the USSR in those days was a man named Vyacheslav Molotov, who was every bit the bullshit artist that Joseph Goebbels was in the same time period. When the USSR came under heat for bombing civilians in Finland during the War, Molotov assured the international press that they were actually food drops to provide aid to the starving Finns.

The Finns responded to this utter bullshit in the way that Finns always do: They immediately dubbed the bombs (including cluster munitions) “Molotov food baskets” and then further dubbed the petrol bombs they’d been using in the war to be “Molotov cocktails” as “a drink to go with the food.”

63
Dr Lizardo  Mar 4, 2022 • 12:51:04am
64
Dr Lizardo  Mar 4, 2022 • 12:53:20am
Guardian reporter, Luke Harding, is currently in Lviv, western Ukraine where he says demoralised Russian soldiers tell of their anger at being “duped” into war.

Eight days after Vladimir Putin’s invasion it is clear that a significant number of his servicemen are demoralised and reluctant to fight. Some have given themselves up.

Others have abandoned their vehicles and have set off back towards the Russian border on foot, lugging their weapons and kitbags, videos suggest. These episodes do not mean that the Kremlin will fail in its attempts to conquer Ukraine, as its tactics shift to brutal shelling of civilians.

But low morale among invading troops might be one reason why Russia’s blitzkrieg plan to overwhelm Ukraine appears not to have progressed at the speed Putin would have wanted. The assumption in Moscow was that the operation would be swift and successful. Soldiers were given food and fuel supplies for only two or three days, the videos suggest.

The Kremlin also appears to have had a totally fantastical idea of the reception they would get. Several prisoners of war said they had been assured Ukrainians would welcome them as liberators. Russian forces were expecting flowers and cheers, not bullets and bombs, they said.

theguardian.com

65
Love-Child of Cassandra and Sisyphus  Mar 4, 2022 • 1:04:18am

re: #64 Dr Lizardo

How much of that do you think is Ukrainian propaganda?

66
Love-Child of Cassandra and Sisyphus  Mar 4, 2022 • 1:04:47am

.

Youtube Video


..

67
Love-Child of Cassandra and Sisyphus  Mar 4, 2022 • 1:11:18am

They promised me rain.

They lied, I think.

The rain estimates for today and tomorrow have been changing ever since the forecasts from last week.

The actual precipitation depends upon many things, not the least of which is where exactly a low pressure center turns eastward.

Looking at radar, there’s been a stream of moisture in a band running south to north, all day out here in California. Alas, it’s not brought much rain, only a trace in most places.

We need rain. The entire southwest has had a very dry Jan and Feb.

68
Captain Ron  Mar 4, 2022 • 1:13:27am

re: #67 Love-Child of Cassandra and Sisyphus

We got 0.01” in Contra Costa. Water came down the downspouts!

69
Dr Lizardo  Mar 4, 2022 • 1:13:55am

re: #65 Love-Child of Cassandra and Sisyphus

How much of that do you think is Ukrainian propaganda?

To be completely fair, hard to say. Of course, propaganda is an important part of war, and various claims have to be scrutinized. Would I be surprised if some Russian soldiers just said, “Fuck this shit” and skedaddled back home? Not at all - there’s plenty of video out there of Ukrainian soldiers and civilians alike finding abandoned Russian military hardware.

70
ericblair  Mar 4, 2022 • 1:19:00am

$100M is a pretty lowball estimate.

71
Yeah Sure WhatEVs  Mar 4, 2022 • 1:20:08am

Nice. Surprised myself with three.

UmJMOFFrUUpBUmRnekxPaHVUSC9tRXZUN3ozQUtubFdpb2RtM2VsMm5sRTRyc3RsdGhMMnorK0wxc09BR295NzExelIzQlVvMUxSajNYenJPbkE4TEYwL1BTVWRxU2xDYlhFbDNsR3NGZCtYQWFzdlFkeFlPNU9iZzRHdU9oY1k6OnsSgzryd/79nxkrvg8Q+7A=

72
Targetpractice  Mar 4, 2022 • 1:22:27am

re: #64 Dr Lizardo

theguardian.com

This bit just gets me:

Others have abandoned their vehicles and have set off back towards the Russian border on foot, lugging their weapons and kitbags, videos suggest. These episodes do not mean that the Kremlin will fail in its attempts to conquer Ukraine, as its tactics shift to brutal shelling of civilians.

I get that we need to remain realistic, but there does seem to be this undercurrent in the media in the last few days that some reporters and pundits feel a bit bitter that their predictions of a first round knock-out by Russia failed to materialize and so they’re now trying to assure folks that they’re still going to be right in the end.

73
Dr Lizardo  Mar 4, 2022 • 1:25:11am

re: #70 ericblair

I also wonder how much of that hardware might be defective? For example, the soldiers operating that Pantsir might well have tried to utilize it, only to discover it didn’t function, and just abandoned it before they ended up as a potential target. Frankly, there’s no point in potentially getting yourself killed over something like that; it’d be like getting yourself killed over a broken-down 1984 Cutlass Ciera.

74
Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))  Mar 4, 2022 • 1:27:54am

re: #58 Teukka

Because delivering aid to people you have just invaded kinda cancels itself out as a humanitarian gesture

75
Love-Child of Cassandra and Sisyphus  Mar 4, 2022 • 1:28:38am

Looks like the low pressure center has already turned eastward:

Image: G17-sector-psw-GEOCOLOR-72fr-20220304-0423.gif

But looking at radar it’s hard to believe we’ll get any measurable rainfall before sunrise. We were projected to get up to half an inch.

76
Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))  Mar 4, 2022 • 1:30:51am

re: #73 Dr Lizardo

I also wonder how much of that hardware might be defective? For example, the soldiers operating that Palantir might well have tried to utilize it, only to discover it didn’t function, and just abandoned it before they ended up as a potential target. Frankly, there’s no point in potentially getting yourself killed over something like that; it’d be like getting yourself killed over a broken-down 1984 Cutlass Ciera.

Pantsir, Pandur, Palantir…so confusing.

77
Dr Lizardo  Mar 4, 2022 • 1:32:54am

re: #76 Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))

Pantsir, Pandur, Palantir…so confusing.

Heh, yeah I changed it in my original post there. I read over quickly, and my mind caught it as “Palantir”.

78
Targetpractice  Mar 4, 2022 • 1:37:45am

re: #73 Dr Lizardo

I also wonder how much of that hardware might be defective? For example, the soldiers operating that Palantir might well have tried to utilize it, only to discover it didn’t function, and just abandoned it before they ended up as a potential target. Frankly, there’s no point in potentially getting yourself killed over something like that; it’d be like getting yourself killed over a broken-down 1984 Cutlass Ciera.

It looks like another case of getting bogged down in the mud and then abandoned in-place with only token efforts to render it inoperable. We can’t see inside, so they might have smashed up the electronics and took/burned the documentation. But either way, that’s a multi-million dollar piece of equipment that some commander is now going to have to fill a shitload of paperwork out to the effect of “Lost to Ukrainian mud, need replacement.”

79
Dr Lizardo  Mar 4, 2022 • 1:43:03am

re: #78 Targetpractice

It looks like another case of getting bogged down in the mud and then abandoned in-place with only token efforts to render it inoperable. We can’t see inside, so they might have smashed up the electronics and took/burned the documentation. But either way, that’s a multi-million dollar piece of equipment that some commander is now going to have to fill a shitload of paperwork out to the effect of “Lost to Ukrainian mud, need replacement.”

LOL, yep, and there’s likely some Russian desk officer somewhere in their Ministry of Defense building looking at his inbox, thinking, “Goddammit, what the hell is actually going on? More of this?!”, sighing loudly then getting to it and duly filing all that paperwork.

Eh….it’s a living.

80
Yeah Sure WhatEVs  Mar 4, 2022 • 1:45:13am

re: #78 Targetpractice

It looks like another case of getting bogged down in the mud and then abandoned in-place with only token efforts to render it inoperable. We can’t see inside, so they might have smashed up the electronics and took/burned the documentation. But either way, that’s a multi-million dollar piece of equipment that some commander is now going to have to fill a shitload of paperwork out to the effect of “Lost to Ukrainian mud, need replacement.”

I wonder how many Russia has to be replaced with… And their inventory for repair.

81
Dr Lizardo  Mar 4, 2022 • 1:51:20am

The boffins at the Institute for the Study of War thinktank have been very sober since the start of the war, and have generally reasoned that despite early Ukrainian successes, they will eventually be overwhelmed as Russia reorganizes and grinds them down with a more conventional attack.

But yesterday’s assessment is really the first one where they’ve just come straight out and directly said they don’t know why the Russians are still sucking so bad at this.

“The Russian military has continued its unsuccessful attempts to encircle Kyiv and capture Kharkiv”

“These failures of basic operational art — long a strong suit of the Soviet military and heavily studied at Russian military academies — remain inexplicable”

“Russia has not achieved air superiority over Ukraine as of March 3”

“Russia’s failures in the air superiority fight are very surprising; ISW cannot offer any explanations for them at this time.”

I think it’s not unfair to say that if the Russians were doing a group assignment on how to effectively invade another country, the ISW would have scheduled a meeting with their academic supervisor right about now.

understandingwar.org

82
Targetpractice  Mar 4, 2022 • 1:57:58am

The mud that bogged down the armies of Napoleon, the mud that froze the Third Reich in their tracks, is now preventing Russia from overwhelming and conquering Ukraine with ease.

“Fate, it seems, is not without a sense of irony.”

83
FFL (GOP Delenda Est)  Mar 4, 2022 • 2:02:23am

re: #42 Belafon

That and saying Biden is weak for not standing up to Putin is failing so they have to find another way to say that Biden is weak for not standing up to Putin.

I’ve noted that more than one of my conservative friends and acquaintances are getting quieter and quieter about politics. I figure it’s embarrassment about the hypocrisy by their selected leaders that is actually starting to work through the conservative shell and into their brains since the main news story right now is not Trump and thus they can’t simply write it off as liberal bias against him.

84
Dr Lizardo  Mar 4, 2022 • 2:09:51am
Today, Russia appears to be on the verge of an economic collapse without parallel in its post-World War II history. The United States and European Union’s decision to sanction Russia’s central bank on February 28 has essentially severed the spinal cord of the country’s economy. Russia is set to default on its debts, see its oil export relationships rejuggled to its detriment, its currency collapse even further, and it is now possible that most of its residents’ quality of life may fall to Iranian or potentially even Venezuelan standards in the near future.

President Vladimir Putin has long justified his strongman rule through warnings that without his guiding hand, Russia would be destined to fall back into the chaos of the 1990s when Russians experienced a drastic decline in living standards and a major contraction in the economy on the back of the Soviet Union’s collapse. Yet the reality is that his invasion of Ukraine has made possible a collapse worse than anything that Russia experienced in the 1990s.

Russia now faces a choice between another 1918, 1991 or 1998-style economic crisis. Unless Putin withdraws from Ukraine or the Russian people can otherwise force change in the Kremlin’s strategy, a 1918-style collapse is the base scenario, and the 1990s options are optimistic.

aljazeera.com

85
Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))  Mar 4, 2022 • 2:10:29am

re: #81 Dr Lizardo

The boffins at the Institute for the Study of War thinktank have been very sober since the start of the war, and have generally reasoned that despite early Ukrainian successes, they will eventually be overwhelmed as Russia reorganizes and grinds them down with a more conventional attack.

But yesterday’s assessment is really the first one where they’ve just come straight out and directly said they don’t know why the Russians are still sucking so bad at this.

I am also stumped. I assumed that it would be a mater of days, 2 weeks tops before there was nothing but mopping-up and local pacification measures left to undertake. How could they have cocked up this badly?

86
FFL (GOP Delenda Est)  Mar 4, 2022 • 2:10:44am

re: #78 Targetpractice

It looks like another case of getting bogged down in the mud and then abandoned in-place with only token efforts to render it inoperable. We can’t see inside, so they might have smashed up the electronics and took/burned the documentation. But either way, that’s a multi-million dollar piece of equipment that some commander is now going to have to fill a shitload of paperwork out to the effect of “Lost to Ukrainian mud, need replacement.”

I’m sure the report will actually be that they had to fight off a company-sized attack by Ukrainian Spetznatz that ultimately failed when they were driven away from the vehicle and left it in a flaming wreck. Without suffering any casualties!

87
Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))  Mar 4, 2022 • 2:12:00am

re: #83 FFL (GOP Delenda Est)

I’ve noted that more than one of my conservative friends and acquaintances are getting quieter and quieter about politics. I figure it’s embarrassment about the hypocrisy by their selected leaders that is actually starting to work through the conservative shell and into their brains since the main news story right now is not Trump and thus they can’t simply write it off as liberal bias against him.

I know a few who are doubling down “Not everyone who fires the first shot is the one guilty of starting a war!” “What about what NATO did in Serbia?” etc. etc…

88
Targetpractice  Mar 4, 2022 • 2:15:16am

re: #83 FFL (GOP Delenda Est)

I’ve noted that more than one of my conservative friends and acquaintances are getting quieter and quieter about politics. I figure it’s embarrassment about the hypocrisy by their selected leaders that is actually starting to work through the conservative shell and into their brains since the main news story right now is not Trump and thus they can’t simply write it off as liberal bias against him.

What’s really changed in the last week? MAGAts seriously overestimated the speed and ease that Vlad would have in conquering Ukraine. It was supposed to be over in a matter of hours or days, so fast that Western efforts to forestall war and support Ukraine looked to have been pointless and Biden “weak” for “letting it happen.” Hence all the gushing over Putin and the talk about the “strength” of Russia because it wasn’t “woke.”

Now? Now, much like their “America First” ideological predecessors, they look like total assholes for having rooted for the enemy and are trying to play CYA by insisting that they were “tricked” by Biden and now his “weakness” is he’s not committing to boots on the ground and “Drill, Baby, Drill!”

89
Dr Lizardo  Mar 4, 2022 • 2:16:24am

re: #85 Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))

I am also stumped. I assumed that it would be a mater of days, 2 weeks tops before there was nothing but mopping-up and local pacification measures left to undertake. How could they have cocked up this badly?

With every passing day, it’s starting to look like the Russian Army really isn’t much of a credible fighting force, and their Air Force may be just as weak. Maybe their much-vaunted and dreaded military exists largely on paper - or in the fevered dreams of Russia’s leadership.

Seems like the only thing they’ve got going for them is nukes, as well as conventional missiles and bombs….but those won’t last forever.

90
FFL (GOP Delenda Est)  Mar 4, 2022 • 2:18:46am

re: #80 Yeah Sure WhatEVs

I wonder how many Russia has to be replaced with… And their inventory for repair.

Couple hundred of the systems in Russian service estimate by 2018 according to Wikipedia. That, of course, gives you no idea of what the serviceability rate and supply of spares are for it.

Something along these lines is one reason I suspect the Russian Air Force is not being more of a factor. I’ve seen a theory that they are short of guided bombs and using regular bombs and rockets accordingly (with higher threat to the aircraft.) Plus it might well be that their serviceability and sortie rate is very low due to a lack of spare parts and possibly poorly trained maintenance personnel. That would result in a lot of aircraft simply sitting on airfields in Belarus or Russia as some pictures have implied.*

A bunch of the Russian high-tech systems like the Ka-52 (attack helicopter) and the Pantsir are not something they have thousands of. Same for the more advanced BMD-3 and BMD-4 vehicles the VDV (paratroopers) use.

* - If the purchasing contract stated that you’d get an aircraft and a number of spares it doesn’t help you if the plane eats through one type of spare quicker than you can get more of them. And that is even before corruption or something else creeps in and causes even more problems.

91
FFL (GOP Delenda Est)  Mar 4, 2022 • 2:21:34am

re: #82 Targetpractice

The mud that bogged down the armies of Napoleon, the mud that froze the Third Reich in their tracks, is now preventing Russia from overwhelming and conquering Ukraine with ease.

“Fate, it seems, is not without a sense of irony.”

Which leads one to question why Putin opted to invade right now when the transition from winter to mud usually occurs.

92
FFL (GOP Delenda Est)  Mar 4, 2022 • 2:24:37am

re: #88 Targetpractice

What’s really changed in the last week? MAGAts seriously overestimated the speed and ease that Vlad would have in conquering Ukraine. It was supposed to be over in a matter of hours or days, so fast that Western efforts to forestall war and support Ukraine looked to have been pointless and Biden “weak” for “letting it happen.” Hence all the gushing over Putin and the talk about the “strength” of Russia because it wasn’t “woke.”

Now? Now, much like their “America First” ideological predecessors, they look like total assholes for having rooted for the enemy and are trying to play CYA by insisting that they were “tricked” by Biden and now his “weakness” is he’s not committing to boots on the ground and “Drill, Baby, Drill!”

First time one of my friends trots that one out I am calling him a f**king idiot to his face. Will destroy a 40-year-old relationship, but there are limits even I have about stuff like this.

93
Targetpractice  Mar 4, 2022 • 2:25:54am

re: #91 FFL (GOP Delenda Est)

Which leads one to question why Putin opted to invade right now when the transition from winter to mud usually occurs.

Best guess? He’d dithered too long, either because he thought he was being clever by failing to attack when the West said he would, or because it took so long to move sufficient forces for the planned blitz that he ran past the original invasion date. But to withdraw those same forces would have looked “weak,” so he rolled the dice that the overconfident estimates of his subordinates would hold and he’d be in Kyiv by no later than Sunday to accept Zelensky’s surrender.

94
FFL (GOP Delenda Est)  Mar 4, 2022 • 2:28:49am

re: #93 Targetpractice

Best guess? He’d dithered too long, either because he thought he was being clever by failing to attack when the West said he would, or because it took so long to move sufficient forces for the planned blitz that he ran past the original invasion date. But to withdraw those same forces would have looked “weak,” so he rolled the dice that the overconfident estimates of his subordinates would hold and he’d be in Kyiv by no later than Sunday to accept Zelensky’s surrender.

I also think he picked winter since that is when Russia’s influence over the EU regarding natural gas supplies is at its highest. Which appears to have been a fairly effective lever on Germany in particular in past years.

95
Jack Burton in Mactified Forshion  Mar 4, 2022 • 2:29:51am

re: #90 FFL (GOP Delenda Est)

Their Air Force has been basically worn out dicking around in Syria. They are out of PGMs and bombs, and dumb bomb carpet bombing Ukraine would go over *real* well.

I’m also reasonably sure that the Russian economy has always been some degree of clown shoes, even more so during COVID. They spend billions on flashy prototypes to scare everyone (us) into blowing up their defense budgets, but they can’t afford to feed their soldiers or keep normal equipment in working order.

When anyone says the Russians or Chinese are “peer” or “near-peer” threats, at least based on my understanding of those terms, they are selling something and smells like when I was cleaning my garage and found a dead rat.

96
ericblair  Mar 4, 2022 • 2:31:43am

re: #74 Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))

Because delivering aid to people you have just invaded kinda cancels itself out as a humanitarian gesture

It’s also one of the bare fucking minimum things you are responsible for as an occupying power.

97
Jack Burton in Mactified Forshion  Mar 4, 2022 • 2:32:38am

re: #96 ericblair

It’s also one of the bare fucking minimum things you are responsible for as an occupying power.

Basically they should be praised for not committing a war crime.

98
Yeah Sure WhatEVs  Mar 4, 2022 • 2:33:01am

Of course.
qz.com

99
ericblair  Mar 4, 2022 • 2:34:41am

re: #95 Jack Burton in Mactified Forshion

When anyone says the Russians or Chinese are “peer” or “near-peer” threats, at least based on my understanding of those terms, they are selling something and smells like when I was cleaning my garage and found a dead rat.

There are a whole bunch of Western military staff weenies who are staring at a pile of plans and guidance documents that have to be completely rewritten.

100
Targetpractice  Mar 4, 2022 • 2:38:38am

re: #94 FFL (GOP Delenda Est)

I also think he picked winter since that is when Russia’s influence over the EU regarding natural gas supplies is at its highest. Which appears to have been a fairly effective lever on Germany in particular in past years.

Hence why pre-war talk of sanctions and embargos seemed so iffy as Germany effectively is the EU and they were more worried about domestic fallout from higher prices/shortages of goods than they were Ukraine’s sovereignty. But it seems that Russia’s failure to live up to its reputation changed the calculus enough that German leaders felt confident their constituents would see any hardship as worth the cost.

101
Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))  Mar 4, 2022 • 2:39:33am

re: #91 FFL (GOP Delenda Est)

Which leads one to question why Putin opted to invade right now when the transition from winter to mud usually occurs.

Had he done this at the start of winter, it would have been more of a threat to Europe. Fortunately, the winter has been relatively mild and did not deplete their reserves.

102
Dr Lizardo  Mar 4, 2022 • 2:39:53am
103
Dr Lizardo  Mar 4, 2022 • 2:41:23am

re: #101 Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))

Had he done this at the start of winter, it would have been more of a threat to Europe. Fortunately, the winter has been relatively mild and did not deplete their reserves.

Yeah, we got lucky with a pretty mild winter season this time.

104
Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))  Mar 4, 2022 • 2:42:56am

re: #100 Targetpractice

But it seems that Russia’s failure to live up to its reputation changed the calculus enough that German leaders felt confident their constituents would see any hardship as worth the cost.

They were asking everybody to turn their lights out for an hour last week to show Russia they would rather sit in the dark than buy energy from a dictator.

I typically spend my evenings with nothing but an LED paper-lantern chain while watching my i-Pad so there was little difference here

105
steve_davis  Mar 4, 2022 • 2:42:58am

re: #85 Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))

I am also stumped. I assumed that it would be a mater of days, 2 weeks tops before there was nothing but mopping-up and local pacification measures left to undertake. How could they have cocked up this badly?

Is there any real evidence that the Russians haven’t ALWAYS been this bad? We’re talking about a nation that in WWII literally had thousands of soldiers turn around and fight with the Nazis. Who had no radios in their tanks. Who mainly beat the Germans because weather and overwhelming numbers of soldiers simply won the day. But I don’t know that there’s any evidence anywhere that soviet/russian troops are actually any good at their jobs, is there? There was a fascinating twitter thread from yesterday about how the “elite” paratroopers with the blue-striped shirts are basically just police thugs with really good p.r. from the propagandists at home.

106
Jack Burton in Mactified Forshion  Mar 4, 2022 • 2:43:15am

re: #99 ericblair

There are a whole bunch of Western military staff weenies who are staring at a pile of plans and guidance documents that have to be completely rewritten.

As someone who worked in the defense world for 2 decades, my opinion is that the DoD budget needs to be seriously reevaluated and a lot more go to cybersecurity, drones, and intelligence gathering and less to F-35s and similar endless money pits or attempts to make Ironman suits for the “Warfighter” (another term the defense industry loves but makes me cringe whenever I hear it).

We need to weaponize information the way Russia and China have been, because other than nuclear weapons, that is the only real threat that they are to the rest of the world.

107
Jack Burton in Mactified Forshion  Mar 4, 2022 • 2:44:40am

re: #75 Love-Child of Cassandra and Sisyphus

Looks like the low pressure center has already turned eastward:

Image: G17-sector-psw-GEOCOLOR-72fr-20220304-0423.gif

But looking at radar it’s hard to believe we’ll get any measurable rainfall before sunrise. We were projected to get up to half an inch.

A hour later and it’s pouring in North County.

108
Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))  Mar 4, 2022 • 2:46:02am

re: #105 steve_davis

Is there any real evidence that the Russians haven’t ALWAYS been this bad? We’re talking about a nation that in WWII literally had thousands of soldiers turn around and fight with the Nazis. Who had no radios in their tanks. Who mainly beat the Germans because weather and overwhelming numbers of soldiers simply won the day.

I do need to take you to task about that. It certainly applied to the early part of the war, but by the time of Stalingrad and especially the battles to liberate Belarus in the summer of 1944, their operations were both strategically and tactically brilliant: they had the Germans completely snookered as to their real intention and timed their attacks to really back-foot the Germans and send them reeling.

109
Jack Burton in Mactified Forshion  Mar 4, 2022 • 2:48:11am

re: #108 Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))

It may very well be by the time of Stalingrad, all the idiots and political promotees were dead.

110
steve_davis  Mar 4, 2022 • 2:48:27am

re: #108 Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))

I do need to take you to task about that. It certainly applied to the early part of the war, but by the time of Stalingrad and especially the battles to liberate Belarus in 1944, their operations were both strategically and tactically brilliant: they had the Germans completely snookered as to their real intention and timed their attacks to really back-foot the Germans and send them reeling.

Looks like I’m going to have to make good use of pdfdrive’s search bar again! :-) At the moment, I’m just having fun finding books on Napoleonic war and tactics, but the tail-end of war on the Eastern Front might well be a good read.

111
Ming5000  Mar 4, 2022 • 2:48:51am

Reading through the overnight LGF I am more enraged at what Putin is doing.
I am resisting thinking about the future and how Putin may be pushed out of all Ukraine. I fear he may keep some more of Ukraine than he had before the current invasion.
I don’t want to fantasize about Finland taking Soviet seized Karelia back, or Japan repatriating the Kuril Islands that they claim.
I am trying to remain objective, but hatred is seeping in.

112
Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))  Mar 4, 2022 • 2:49:45am

re: #109 Jack Burton in Mactified Forshion

It may very well be by the time of Stalingrad, all the idiots and political promotees were dead.

That had a lot to do with it, and all the junior officers promoted beyond their ranks after the purges in 1938 had a chance to learn their trade the hard way.

113
FFL (GOP Delenda Est)  Mar 4, 2022 • 2:50:04am

re: #105 steve_davis

Is there any real evidence that the Russians haven’t ALWAYS been this bad? We’re talking about a nation that in WWII literally had thousands of soldiers turn around and fight with the Nazis. Who had no radios in their tanks. Who mainly beat the Germans because weather and overwhelming numbers of soldiers simply won the day. But I don’t know that there’s any evidence anywhere that soviet/russian troops are actually any good at their jobs, is there? There was a fascinating twitter thread from yesterday about how the “elite” paratroopers with the blue-striped shirts are basically just police thugs with really good p.r. from the propagandists at home.

The Russians in the early part of WW2 were still recovering from a pretty nasty purge of their officer corps by Stalin. Compounded by commisars and other political controls. They traded space and men for time.

By the latter part of the war, following a learning process, the Russians were getting more complex and good at operational attacks and exploiting what they could against the Germans and doing what the Russians had become good at doing. Perhaps a bit favoring overwhelming brute force and destruction compared to the western Allies, but still effective in its own way using massed artillery and armor assaults.

The professionalism and level of training of the current Russian army might well be completely different since it is a couple of generations removed and there have been a number of changes regarding how modern warfare is generally fought now.

114
Dr Lizardo  Mar 4, 2022 • 2:51:22am

re: #111 Ming5000

Reading through the overnight LGF I am more enraged at what Putin is doing.
I am resisting thinking about the future and how Putin may be pushed out of all Ukraine. I fear he may keep some more of Ukraine than he had before the current invasion.
I don’t want to fantasize about Finland taking Soviet seized Karelia back, or Japan repatriating the Kuril Islands that they claim.
I am trying to remain objective, but hatred is seeping in.

Well, if the current decrepit state of the Russian military is any indication, a battalion-level group of anime cat-girl cosplayers armed with katanas could probably take the Kuril Islands with minimal difficulty.

115
Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))  Mar 4, 2022 • 2:52:29am

re: #110 steve_davis

Looks like I’m going to have to make good use of pdfdrive’s search bar again! :-) At the moment, I’m just having fun finding books on Napoleonic war and tactics, but the tail-end of war on the Eastern Front might well be a good read.

Brent Nosworthy is the man to read on Napoleonic tactics.

Richard Holmes writes on the whole era of musketry.

116
Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))  Mar 4, 2022 • 2:55:05am

re: #113 FFL (GOP Delenda Est)

The professionalism and level of training of the current Russian army might well be completely different since it is a couple of generations removed and there have been a number of changes regarding how modern warfare is generally fought now.

The Red Army fell apart after 1991, and the wars of occupation in Afghanistan and the Caucasus did a lot to wreck morale. Putin seemed to think that he could build it back up to former glory, and after his success in Crimea, things looked positive.

117
Michele: Out of the closet, Into the fire  Mar 4, 2022 • 2:58:57am

re: #38 Belafon

One of the things I had to get onto my cousin about was that she believed that transgender people didn’t exist before modern medicine.

*Rolls eyes*

118
Patricia Kayden  Mar 4, 2022 • 3:08:55am
119
ericblair  Mar 4, 2022 • 3:10:11am

re: #106 Jack Burton in Mactified Forshion

As someone who worked in the defense world for 2 decades, my opinion is that the DoD budget needs to be seriously reevaluated and a lot more go to cybersecurity, drones, and intelligence gathering and less to F-35s and similar endless money pits or attempts to make Ironman suits for the “Warfighter” (another term the defense industry loves but makes me cringe whenever I hear it).

We need to weaponize information the way Russia and China have been, because other than nuclear weapons, that is the only real threat that they are to the rest of the world.

I’ve been working in the defense world for about the same amount of time, and I think we’ve both heard these arguments made by pretty senior people. The problem, of course, is the huge mass of entrenched interests that have made this politically unfeasible. However, this is one of these tectonic shifts of history that makes a lot of impossible things possible: if you told me last month that Germany was going to kill Nordstream 2 and almost double its defense spending, I’d tell you to cut down on the edibles.

120
Jack Burton in Mactified Forshion  Mar 4, 2022 • 3:12:15am

re: #118 Patricia Kayden

[Embedded content]

The burn pit exposure is not just an post-9/11 thing. The whole reason that the government had to admit that Area 51 actually exists, is because the workers there sued the government for getting sick from burn pits there in the 80s and 90s.

121
Ming5000  Mar 4, 2022 • 3:13:44am

Rob Lee on twitter gives some useful information on military vehicles and conglomerates recent war pictures. He has made two political commentary that has pissed me off.
1) Putin’s failure to launch his invasion on the date that intel said it would be, was a loss for Biden.
2) “The best thing the US can do to help Ukraine is to convince Putin that de-escalation is a less costly and risky option for him than continuing the war.”

Rob should stick to his swim lane. IMHO

122
Jack Burton in Mactified Forshion  Mar 4, 2022 • 3:18:56am

Lindsey Graham is an idiot, and should be kicked off Twitter for publicly calling for the assassination of a world leader. Even if said world leader is a monster.

That said, the Russian people or senior officials in the Government or the Duma might be able to force this to stop or force Putin out somehow. They don’t necessarily need to off him.

If someone pushes him out a window though, I’m not going to complain. But it would be best if that didn’t happen after a dumbass US Senator was yapping about it on Twitter.

123
Ming5000  Mar 4, 2022 • 3:30:06am

When you are at war, is the top leader immune? I don’t know what rules we are playing by. The definition of “war” has become muddled over time. Countries have figured out it is best not to say “War!”. Police actions, liberations, are all war.
Hasn’t Putin been at war with the US since at least the run up to Trump’s win in 2016?
Putin seems to think decapitating a country is fair game. Is it? I couldn’t find a quick answer online.

124
Yeah Sure WhatEVs  Mar 4, 2022 • 3:30:25am

re: #114 Dr Lizardo

Well, if the current decrepit state of the Russian military is any indication, a battalion-level group of anime cat-girl cosplayers armed with katanas could probably take the Kuril Islands with minimal difficulty.

Oh my! 😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣

125
Michele: Out of the closet, Into the fire  Mar 4, 2022 • 3:31:10am

re: #43 wrenchwench

From there:

‘Elisions of colonialism’, what a nice phrase. I think another word for that is genocide.

Yep. Every culture has a history of trans-gendered people. And they all have one horrible thing in common. Christian “missionaries” doing everything in their power to wipe us out. Why? Because within those cultures, we held positions of respect and power. And to a patriarchal power structure, a woman, even a trans-woman, holding any sort of power was/is an abomination unto their god.

126
Hecuba's daughter  Mar 4, 2022 • 3:36:10am

re: #55 Dr Lizardo

The thought occurred to me that Putin wanting to secure the Zaporizhzhia nuke plant was, aside from capturing vital infrastructure - a legit war aim - he could also use it to indulge in some outright cartoon supervillainy. If Russia is forced out of Ukraine, he could threaten to destroy the plant’s reactors and render Europe uninhabitable for god only knows how long. A mega-Chernobyl, if you will.

Of course, Russia would be hit by this as well. But I’m thinking more and more that Putin is locked in to a Götterdämmerung mentality; that if he - personally - (and therefore, in his thinking, Russia) can’t have Ukraine, then it’s better that he take all of Europe down with him.

Fighting a modern war by taking down the electrical infrastructure; was this their primary goal in order to achieve a quick victory? The 15 day plan?

127
Michele: Out of the closet, Into the fire  Mar 4, 2022 • 3:51:25am

Back in a while Lizards.

128
Ming5000  Mar 4, 2022 • 3:54:26am

War:
Since 1945, developments in international law such as the United Nations Charter, which prohibits both the threat and the use of force in international conflicts, have made declarations of war largely obsolete in international relations
Found on wiki and linked to a paper from the house of lords - London

Also, most definitions of war include “armed conflict”.

129
ericblair  Mar 4, 2022 • 3:57:24am

re: #128 Ming5000

War:
Since 1945, developments in international law such as the United Nations Charter, which prohibits both the threat and the use of force in international conflicts, have made declarations of war largely obsolete in international relations
Found on wiki and linked to a paper from the house of lords - London

Also, most definitions of war include “armed conflict”.

Apparently the war crimes case kicks off next week at the International Court of Justice (“The Hague” part of The Hague), with briefs to the prosecutor. There will be a lot of technicalities there regarding the legality of the war and of the conduct of the war.

130
Hecuba's daughter  Mar 4, 2022 • 4:05:13am

Quordle comment - clue

bUFOWkRnbDlVSW1vLzNBZ0VUbVZqKzdZeVBsdzJIRzZKS3BSc3kyY2VaWFI1SFR3SmNUdzRTUUhSYWk2MThXVml1TDFHajJuL2pFbFFHamRLOUNSdGZaZUx2RVNMdVhWWGhZVFI4a055eld5cmNBUzBqcDlvNjRHWHZkckRwK1JIMjZPNDdXcjJGVm5JQnJMem5rVktnPT06OgDJCIJH1VYMJ88tjwRc1ag=

131
Yeah Sure WhatEVs  Mar 4, 2022 • 4:10:28am

re: #130 Hecuba’s daughter

Quordle comment - clue

[Embedded content]

bkJoczZlV2lyWnRKL3FPbFNyd0kyZ0dWUVlQdG5Zdyt5dEJvSkt6MmlvMnFOOE1jZ2tmaTkyOEZVZUVZMFNwU3llcE1zZW9BQ1lqVE12V0RzNzhFRG9ic0ZYV1hVSG54ZE85QWlxN1JpWms9OjqamQrWiCv8YKoGpmsx8BVh

132
Thanos  Mar 4, 2022 • 4:22:44am

re: #106 Jack Burton in Mactified Forshion

As someone who worked in the defense world for 2 decades, my opinion is that the DoD budget needs to be seriously reevaluated and a lot more go to cybersecurity, drones, and intelligence gathering and less to F-35s and similar endless money pits or attempts to make Ironman suits for the “Warfighter” (another term the defense industry loves but makes me cringe whenever I hear it).

We need to weaponize information the way Russia and China have been, because other than nuclear weapons, that is the only real threat that they are to the rest of the world.

I’m with you there, where are our submarine drone carriers, our nanobot spy swarms, our modified drone A-10s?

133
Ming5000  Mar 4, 2022 • 4:30:03am

re: #129 ericblair

Apparently the war crimes case kicks off next week at the International Court of Justice (“The Hague” part of The Hague), with briefs to the prosecutor. There will be a lot of technicalities there regarding the legality of the war and of the conduct of the war.

I want to know the consequences of conviction at the Hague.
Rules of War
The rules of the road seem pretty vague:

“Both the Hague and Geneva Conventions address the subject of penalization, but neither states specifically the manner in which a violator should be tried and punished.”

Basically, it seems unless Putin is dragged out of a spider hole, not much effective will happen. Maybe his vast wealth can be tapped.

134
Ming5000  Mar 4, 2022 • 4:31:39am

re: #132 Thanos

I’m with you there, where are our submarine drone carriers, our nanobot spy swarms, our modified drone A-10s?

Agreed. Why don’t we have drones on the level of the Turkish model, that can be donated like we do the javs and stingers?

135
Dopamine Fish  Mar 4, 2022 • 4:32:25am

I almost became a victim of my early success. I was scrambling to eliminate consonants, but I managed to get there pretty quickly.

Click to Reveal

Wordle 258 4/6

⬛⬛🟨⬛🟨
⬛⬛🟩🟩⬛
🟩⬛🟩🟩⬛
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

136
Ming5000  Mar 4, 2022 • 4:53:45am

Have I been shadow banned from LGF?

137
Shropshire Slasher  Mar 4, 2022 • 4:58:46am

re: #136 Ming5000

Have I been shadow banned from LGF?

You are on double secret probation!

138
b.d  Mar 4, 2022 • 5:00:29am

re: #136 Ming5000

Have I been shadow banned from LGF?

I CAN’T SEE THIS COMMENT?!

139
Florida Panhandler  Mar 4, 2022 • 5:01:09am

re: #70 ericblair

One Oligarch yacht is enough to pay for an entire division of equipment. Let that “sink” in.

Russians for years have steadily klepto-ed themselves into a military quagmire. This is the sort of corruption we have to expect when Republicans finally take over here.

140
Belafon  Mar 4, 2022 • 5:02:26am
141
lawhawk  Mar 4, 2022 • 5:03:04am

Greets and saluts from the NYC metro area. We’re treated to all the GOP couch commandos and propagandists claiming that Biden needs to start a shooting war with Putin to put an end to the invasion. Hannity’s all like - let’s bomb that Russian convoy and act as though someone else did it. It’s not like Russia can’t tell who scrambled bombers/fighters, and hit those convoys when the Ukrainian air force is largely grounded and the bulk of Ukrainian attacks are via UAV (many of them successful at that).

We’ve got the guys who had been cheerleading for Putin just days ago now claiming Putin needs to be put down. Graham is talking about assassinating Putin. You’ve got other GOPers making similar noises.

Why?

Because that’s what they think Biden should be doing right now, instead of just putting together a diverse coalition opposing Putin and imposing harsh sanctions that have essentially caused the ruble to be valueless. That means Putin’s claims that he can pay out 12 million rubles to a soldier’s family who died is worthless. 12 million rubles? That’s roughly $100,000. And that value continues dropping.

There’s a reason that Bellingcat is willing to consider paying the fine that the Russians imposed now? Because they have let the sanctions devalue the ruble to the point that a few thousand dollars covers the fine.

142
Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))  Mar 4, 2022 • 5:04:01am

re: #38 Belafon

One of the things I had to get onto my cousin about was that she believed that transgender people didn’t exist before modern medicine.

why do I suspect she thinks the same about autism or PTSD?

143
Belafon  Mar 4, 2022 • 5:04:13am
144
Shropshire Slasher  Mar 4, 2022 • 5:09:36am

America wins the race against China to recover US F-35C stealth fighter jet that fell into the South China Sea after crashing off USS Carl Vinson in January

dailymail.co.uk

145
jeffreyw  Mar 4, 2022 • 5:12:09am

Sloppy Joe with Hot Giardiniera

Good morning!

146
steve_davis  Mar 4, 2022 • 5:21:04am

re: #123 Ming5000

When you are at war, is the top leader immune? I don’t know what rules we are playing by. The definition of “war” has become muddled over time. Countries have figured out it is best not to say “War!”. Police actions, liberations, are all war.
Hasn’t Putin been at war with the US since at least the run up to Trump’s win in 2016?
Putin seems to think decapitating a country is fair game. Is it? I couldn’t find a quick answer online.

[Embedded content]

the CIA had to be reformed so as to stop them from killing leaders, not because they were bad at it, but because they kept killing democratically elected folks in order to install various autocratic puppets. If we actually assassinated Putin so that a democracy could flourish, it would, I’m pretty sure, be a first. There was no law against killing Hitler on the international conventions of war, I don’t think. I mean, several movies have played off that.

147
steve_davis  Mar 4, 2022 • 5:22:58am

re: #140 Belafon

[Embedded content]

see? you don’t need a vaccine. you just need to become old as hell /////

148
Dopamine Fish  Mar 4, 2022 • 5:24:36am

re: #146 steve_davis

the CIA had to be reformed so as to stop them from killing leaders, not because they were bad at it, but because they kept killing democratically elected folks in order to install various autocratic puppets. If we actually assassinated Putin so that a democracy could flourish, it would, I’m pretty sure, be a first. There was no law against killing Hitler on the international conventions of war, I don’t think. I mean, several movies have played off that.

The “rules of war” - if we mean the Geneva Conventions - are generally built to govern only soldiers on the field in uniform and the ways in which they may kill each other. (In fact, enemy combatants not in uniform are not protected by the Geneva Conventions, and are usually executed as spies or saboteurs.) An assassination attempt is beyond the scope of the Geneva Conventions, and as such, is not necessarily off the table. With that said, I’d be surprised if anyone outside the Ukraine actually tried it; Moscow has got to be a difficult nut to crack, so to speak, when it comes to Putin’s personal security.

149
Thanos  Mar 4, 2022 • 5:26:06am

Stumbled across this the other day :

Youtube Video

150
steve_davis  Mar 4, 2022 • 5:27:44am

re: #141 lawhawk

Greets and saluts from the NYC metro area. We’re treated to all the GOP couch commandos and propagandists claiming that Biden needs to start a shooting war with Putin to put an end to the invasion. Hannity’s all like - let’s bomb that Russian convoy and act as though someone else did it. It’s not like Russia can’t tell who scrambled bombers/fighters, and hit those convoys when the Ukrainian air force is largely grounded and the bulk of Ukrainian attacks are via UAV (many of them successful at that).

We’ve got the guys who had been cheerleading for Putin just days ago now claiming Putin needs to be put down. Graham is talking about assassinating Putin. You’ve got other GOPers making similar noises.

Why?

Because that’s what they think Bideuld be doing right now, instead of just putting together a diverse coalition opposing Putin and imposing harsh sanctions that have essentially caused the ruble to be valueless. That means Putin’s claims that he can pay out 12 million rubles to a soldier’s family who died is worthless. 12 million rubles? That’s roughly $100,000. And that value continues dropping.

There’s a reason that Bellingcat is willing to consider paying the fine that the Russians imposed now? Because they have let the sanctions devalue the ruble to the point that a few thousand dollars covers the fine.

i’m going to put together later my entirely uneducated speculations as to why we are doing, and not doing, certain things in Ukraine, but one theory I have is that, at the moment, in the world of Realpolitik, Ukraine could almost not be going any better for us. They have become a kind of reverse Vietnam: we are standing mostly on the sidelines supplying an army with high-tech weaponry, which they are using to annihilate an army that is actually much more incompetent than our conscription-based army of 1967.

151
Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))  Mar 4, 2022 • 5:29:12am

re: #146 steve_davis

the CIA had to be reformed so as to stop them from killing leaders, not because they were bad at it, but because they kept killing democratically elected folks in order to install various autocratic puppets. If we actually assassinated Putin so that a democracy could flourish, it would, I’m pretty sure, be a first. There was no law against killing Hitler on the international conventions of war, I don’t think. I mean, several movies have played off that.

Yes, if the July 20th Valkyrie plot had succeeded against Hitler, the people who succeeded him would not necessarily have been democrats. I could well imagine that modern Germany might look more like Franco’s Spain or Pinochet’s Chile than the progressive, open-minded democracy that it is today.

152
No Malarkey!  Mar 4, 2022 • 5:33:02am

re: #123 Ming5000

When you are at war, is the top leader immune? I don’t know what rules we are playing by. The definition of “war” has become muddled over time. Countries have figured out it is best not to say “War!”. Police actions, liberations, are all war.
Hasn’t Putin been at war with the US since at least the run up to Trump’s win in 2016?
Putin seems to think decapitating a country is fair game. Is it? I couldn’t find a quick answer online.

Assassination has generally been a no no. But attacking an enemies “command and control” with military strikes is a recognized part of warfare, I believe.

153
No Malarkey!  Mar 4, 2022 • 5:34:37am

re: #151 Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))

Yes, if the July 20th Valkyrie plot had succeeded against Hitler, the people who succeeded him would not necessarily have been democrats. I could well imagine that modern Germany might look more like Franco’s Spain or Chile than the progressive, open-minded democracy that it is today.

Only if the Allies let them retain power. We would’ve stuck to our demand for unconditional surrender.

154
Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))  Mar 4, 2022 • 5:38:10am

re: #153 No Malarkey!

Only if the Allies let them retain power. We would’ve stuck to our demand for unconditional surrender.

It took military defeat along with the utter desolation and collapse brought about by the war to finally wean the overwhelming majority of Germans off the notion that National Socialism was or could be a viable movement.

Had they killed Hitler off earlier, there still would have been a much more sizeable core of supporters and sympathizers to his cause.

(Even now there is still a fringe element)

155
Belafon  Mar 4, 2022 • 5:38:55am

Sherri Palini, who in 2016 was reported kidnapped, faked it. She could end up in prison.

156
No Malarkey!  Mar 4, 2022 • 5:41:41am

re: #155 Belafon

Sherri Palin, who in 2016 was reported kidnapped, faked it. She could end up in prison.

Is she one of Sarah’s daughters?

157
William Lewis  Mar 4, 2022 • 5:41:55am

re: #151 Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))

Yes, if the July 20th Valkyrie plot had succeeded against Hitler, the people who succeeded him would not necessarily have been democrats. I could well imagine that modern Germany might look more like Franco’s Spain or Chile than the progressive, open-minded democracy that it is today.

I have gotten into internet “fights” for suggesting that allies were lucky that the assassination of Heydrich succeeded and that the attempt on Hitler failed. The first got rid of the most competent and dangerous high level Nazi, the latter caused the loss of Rommel and, as you note, avoided a still fascist government that too many (Patton, etc) would have wanted to work with against the Soviets.

158
Belafon  Mar 4, 2022 • 5:42:57am

re: #156 No Malarkey!

Is she one of Sarah’s daughters?

My phone autocorrected. It’s Palini.

159
Dr Lizardo  Mar 4, 2022 • 5:43:10am
160
lawhawk  Mar 4, 2022 • 5:43:40am

Another Biden blowout in jobs report.

Huge jobs report data. 678,000 jobs created.

161
Dr Lizardo  Mar 4, 2022 • 5:44:05am
162
darthstar  Mar 4, 2022 • 5:44:52am

re: #159 Dr Lizardo

Belarus isn’t anywhere near the water.

163
Dr Lizardo  Mar 4, 2022 • 5:45:36am

re: #162 darthstar

Belarus isn’t anywhere near the water.

Yes. And that’s why Putin mentioned “the Baltics”. It’s a thinly-veiled threat.

164
FFL (GOP Delenda Est)  Mar 4, 2022 • 5:48:33am

re: #159 Dr Lizardo

Pretty much an indirect threat on a NATO member since that’s the obvious direction Belarus would gain land.

165
Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))  Mar 4, 2022 • 5:49:14am

re: #161 Dr Lizardo

The Moscow Stock Exchange will remain closed through at LEAST next Wednesday, March 9th. It has been closed since Monday Feb 28th, making it the nation’s longest shutdown. Obviously this is just postponing the inevitable

“Goodbye, dear friend, and rest in peace!”

166
Belafon  Mar 4, 2022 • 5:50:02am
167
Dr Lizardo  Mar 4, 2022 • 5:50:28am

re: #164 FFL (GOP Delenda Est)

Pretty much an indirect threat on a NATO member since that’s the obvious direction Belarus would gain land.

Exactomundo. He’s threatening to go after the Baltics next. He’s gambling that all he needs to do is say, “Booga booga booga! I’ve got nukes!!” and NATO will back down.

168
lizardofid  Mar 4, 2022 • 5:50:33am

re: #162 darthstar

Belarus isn’t anywhere near the water.

They’re just a sharpie stroke away.

Oh, good morning!

169
No Malarkey!  Mar 4, 2022 • 5:51:37am

re: #157 William Lewis

I have gotten into internet “fights” for suggesting that allies were lucky that the assassination of Heydrich succeeded and that the attempt on Hitler failed. The first got rid of the most competent and dangerous high level Nazi, the latter caused the loss of Rommel and, as you note, avoided a still fascist government that too many (Patton, etc) would have wanted to work with against the Soviets.

I think there was a movie about the allies thwarting an assassination attempt on Hitler because he was hurting Germany more than helping. I’ll “fight” you. Patton had little political influence. Ike and FDR were focused on achieving the war aim of unconditional surrender and Churchill despised fascists, so if Valkyrie had succeeded, the junta would’ve had the unpleasant surprise of the allies still demanding unconditional surrender. Plus Germany would then likely have been embroiled in a civil war as regular army and SS units would be fighting each other, making the allied advance even easier.

170
darthstar  Mar 4, 2022 • 5:52:37am

re: #168 lizardofid

They’re just a sharpie stroke away.

Oh, good morning!

Good morning back.

171
FFL (GOP Delenda Est)  Mar 4, 2022 • 5:53:47am

re: #167 Dr Lizardo

Exactomundo. He’s threatening to go after the Baltics next. He’s gambling that all he needs to do is say, “Booga booga booga! I’ve got nukes!!” and NATO will back down.

And pretty much cementing the prospect that the EU or USA cannot settle things with any sort of appeasement. Putin is mired down in Ukraine, but already rattling about continuing into the Baltics.

And the Belarus government is now more heavily tied to Putin’s aggression as well. Might have been a calculation that if Putin falls they are doomed anyways.

172
Weaselone  Mar 4, 2022 • 5:54:45am

re: #163 Dr Lizardo

Yes. And that’s why Putin mentioned “the Baltics”. It’s a thinly-veiled threat.

It’s not much of a threat. Any Baltic country would hand Belarus it’s ass in a one on one confrontation and Russia itself seems a bit preoccupied in Ukraine at the moment. The Finns are in a better position to regain Karelia.

173
No Malarkey!  Mar 4, 2022 • 5:54:54am

re: #167 Dr Lizardo

Exactomundo. He’s threatening to go after the Baltics next. He’s gambling that all he needs to do is say, “Booga booga booga! I’ve got nukes!!” and NATO will back down.

The question is, just how irrational is Putin? As his invasion of Ukraine fails, are his increasing threats of nuclear war pure bluff, or might he escalate out of desperation?

174
Dr Lizardo  Mar 4, 2022 • 5:57:17am

re: #173 No Malarkey!

The question is, just how irrational is Putin? As his invasion of Ukraine fails, are his increasing threats of nuclear war pure bluff, or might he escalate out of desperation?

Impossible to say right now. But if Putin sincerely and genuinely views NATO as weak and decadent, he might be willing to roll the dice that we’ll sacrifice the Baltics to avoid a direct military conflict.

175
A hollow voice says: Abort SCOTUS  Mar 4, 2022 • 5:57:19am

re: #154 Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))

It took military defeat along with the utter desolation and collapse brought about by the war to finally wean the overwhelming majority of Germans off the notion that National Socialism was or could be a viable movement.

Had they killed Hitler off earlier, there still would have been a much more sizeable core of supporters and sympathizers to his cause.

(Even now there is still a fringe element)

Overwhelming majority? When did the nazis have a majority, much less an overwhelming one?

176
lawhawk  Mar 4, 2022 • 5:59:18am

re: #165 Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))

There’s a reason that the Russian analysts were drinking to the end of the Russian stock market on tv and the newscaster was all … WTF.

The Russian stock market is about to cease to exist as a functioning entity because Putin decided to invade Ukraine. Putin can’t inject enough money to keep those businesses afloat, because he doesn’t have the money to give. Devaluation has made the ruble almost worthless. 12 million rubles (what Putin says he’d pay to families of dead soldiers) is now roughly $100k USD.

This is ending badly for the already damaged Russian economy. The only thing the Russians have going for it is high oil prices. That’s it. If oil prices drop, Russia is toast. So, how do you accomplish that? Get Iran to rejoin JCPOA and have them open up their nuclear program to full inspections. Iran lets the oil flow, and the world gets a check on proliferation.

Of course, that whole situation was FUBAR thanks to Trump abrogating the JCPOA and Iran said fuck it, we’ll work on our nukes - edging them closer to having nukes. Trump made the world less safe and emboldened everyone from Putin on down to Jong Un and the Taliban. Biden’s cleaning up the mess, but it will be years before we see the full scope of the mess Trump left behind.

177
No Malarkey!  Mar 4, 2022 • 6:00:28am

re: #175 A hollow voice says Vaccinate the world!

Overwhelming majority? When did the nazis have a majority, much less an overwhelming one?

Hard to say since Germany wasn’t having free and fair elections in the 1940s. But there was an entire generation that had been raised on Nazi propaganda for 12 years by 1945.

178
Weaselone  Mar 4, 2022 • 6:00:53am

re: #174 Dr Lizardo

Impossible to say right now. But if sincerely and genuinely views NATO as weak and decadent, he might be willing to roll the dice that we’ll sacrifice the Baltics to avoid a direct military conflict.

There are already forces of nuclear armed NATO powers in the Baltics. There wouldn’t be any way to avoid direct military conflict.

179
No Malarkey!  Mar 4, 2022 • 6:03:06am

re: #160 lawhawk

Another Biden blowout in jobs report.

Huge jobs report data. 678,000 jobs created.

Plus the December and January job numbers were revised upwards by 92,000 new jobs.

180
Dr Lizardo  Mar 4, 2022 • 6:03:08am

re: #178 Weaselone

There are already forces of nuclear armed NATO powers in the Baltics. There wouldn’t be any way to avoid direct military conflict.

And Putin is gambling that we’ll say, “Fuck that” and abandon the Baltics to their fate. At some point, Putin is going to have be stopped, even at the cost of a direct military confrontation, with all that entails.

181
darthstar  Mar 4, 2022 • 6:04:10am

Oklahoma would like to have a port city…so would Nebraska.

182
Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))  Mar 4, 2022 • 6:04:40am

re: #167 Dr Lizardo

Exactomundo. He’s threatening to go after the Baltics next. He’s gambling that all he needs to do is say, “Booga booga booga! I’ve got nukes!!” and NATO will back down.

Over a million ethnic Russians living in the Baltic states so they already have a casus belli.

183
No Malarkey!  Mar 4, 2022 • 6:06:15am

re: #180 Dr Lizardo

And Putin is gambling that we’ll say, “Fuck that” and abandon the Baltics to their fate. At some point, Putin is going to have be stopped, even at the cost of a direct military confrontation, with all that entails.

He is pretty much stopped in Ukraine. Until he can extricate his army from the war he is already in, Putin can’t invade the Baltic states, even if he was mad enough to want to. Unless he plans to invade with a military band.

184
Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))  Mar 4, 2022 • 6:07:08am

re: #175 A hollow voice says Vaccinate the world!

Overwhelming majority? When did the nazis have a majority, much less an overwhelming one?

Poorly formulated: “to wean overwhelming majority of those who already supported Hitler off the idea that National Socialism was viable.”

And although they never won a majority, they were terribly popular right up to the point that the war started turning on them.

185
lawhawk  Mar 4, 2022 • 6:07:13am

re: #174 Dr Lizardo

Impossible to say right now. But if sincerely and genuinely views NATO as weak and decadent, he might be willing to roll the dice that we’ll sacrifice the Baltics to avoid a direct military conflict.

If he thinks NATO is weak and decadent, and Ukraine was going to be a pushover that would fall within hours of invasion, then someone is seeing the world through Trump-like lenses. They are seeing what they want to see, not what they need to see.

Putin’s invasion has reinvigorated NATO, reasserted US leadership, seen the EU rise to the occasion, and caused world opinion to turn against Putin in a single voice.

Putin has to know that he lacks the means to invade beyond Ukraine given that he’s committed most of his active forces to Ukraine and they’re bogged down. It’s not going to get any easier against a NATO force that is far more modern, ready for combat, and trained on combined arms in ways that Russian forces are not. Ukraine invasion has revealed Russia’s major failures to prepare their military. It may be large, but it’s not a large and modern force. There are specific units that are modern and capable, but conscripted units are showing their inability to get to their objectives.

Russia can’t open up another front without seeing their Ukraine front collapse since a second front would essentially open the door for NATO to bring its own air superiority to bear on Ukraine front. US and NATO forces would treat those bogged down convoys in Ukraine no different than the highway of death in the gulf war. It would be an unmitigated disaster for Russian military forces. Even if Russia somehow forced its cronies in Belarus or Kazakhstan to side with him, it wouldn’t help on air superiority and would add to the body count.

186
Dr Lizardo  Mar 4, 2022 • 6:07:38am

re: #183 No Malarkey!

He is pretty much stopped in Ukraine. Until he can extricate his army from the war he is already in, Putin can’t invade the Baltic states, even if he was mad enough to want to. Until he plans to invade with a military band.

He’s likely thinking longer-term, not like next month or something. He’s just putting the Baltics on notice.

187
Dr Lizardo  Mar 4, 2022 • 6:09:22am

re: #185 lawhawk

Putin has to know that he lacks the means to invade beyond Ukraine given that he’s committed most of his active forces to Ukraine and they’re bogged down.

I’m coming around to the view that Putin may not be a rational actor.

188
Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))  Mar 4, 2022 • 6:09:49am

re: #186 Dr Lizardo

He’s likely thinking longer-term, not like next month or something. He’s just putting the Baltics on notice.

They already sat up and noticed as soon as Putin invaded Ukraine for chrissakes…

189
Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))  Mar 4, 2022 • 6:10:49am

re: #187 Dr Lizardo

I’m coming around to the view that Putin may not be a rational actor.

rational, just
a) catastrophically ill-informed
and
b) cold-blooded to the point of being criminally sociopathic.

190
lizardofid  Mar 4, 2022 • 6:11:15am

re: #176 lawhawk

Get Iran to rejoin JCPOA and have them open up their nuclear program to full inspections. Iran lets the oil flow, and the world gets a check on proliferation

Warning: crazy scenario:

YWpSNVlTLytYeVp3dncvVXZhVlEvWkgzQ296WlFxRFZwTVlXTGxoVUhlZURtLzFIdndkdTRoaE5IbGwyTmxJRWFSRHhSU09tSkVhK2RHQ1Y4K2ltOEFPZEhGNGhsVm9yRnVzdlAxbnUvWEJkUi9jS09lSWU3U29WdnlnSzFNWkJoakFSRjNteUJZY01ZUXo2M2d4WFdHQWhXbkIvOGRITzBJMk93ZVE1MiswPTo6gUm2v13DQwIDrQtkRWCUuw==

191
lawhawk  Mar 4, 2022 • 6:11:36am
192
Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))  Mar 4, 2022 • 6:13:11am

re: #190 lizardofid

Warning: crazy scenario:

[Embedded content]

RGpmd1NxbjIvYzBnV2xPTHN5a2RXZDJUU1ErVlYyMnduM1NCWkdqR1NvTT06OkV43QwJEl1jSGUfESezNcQ=

193
Belafon  Mar 4, 2022 • 6:15:40am

re: #189 Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))

rational, just
a) catastrophically ill-informed
and
b) cold-blooded to the point of being criminally sociopathic.

So, irrational.

194
Crush White Nationalism  Mar 4, 2022 • 6:16:04am

re: #191 lawhawk

I’d read it, but democracy dies behind a paywall.

195
Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))  Mar 4, 2022 • 6:17:47am

re: #193 Belafon

So, irrational.

sociopaths are not necessarily irrational.

196
Dr Lizardo  Mar 4, 2022 • 6:17:49am

UjFLMmorS0MyRTA0NmdUYXJzS1k2TVRhUk9WZVdMK05IT2Vwbmg2bnRWZmhkNWFJK3k1STNSdENJWmFjMjFwZWRlR2FSdzI4anB0VDk4RUJrSWpmYlV5eDlzMktKYmVKd0RXYlhVNm5vR3Fzb0ltT2VnRVdYWXlSSWFYZmxLUURKK1FiZWZzNXlrdTZWdVc5MjVIMm9DOEgvV0V5blVFNkhRWlUxcWFHVmE4WmplTVBxYks4ek9TdFNqOEtDTVVueHByd01mb1h5bkFyZkF1VU5INU44c0p5d1lSY3FEcEZPbE9URDh4RkVMaEdqNnJ4UU5hRzl0UVc1UDNhMzBBTmd1aE4xYUVOK25aU21xOU56VlE2OUUzaVZqR0dLaGdsREx0d3lodU9BcXFFRU9OdmthZ0k3SzdZYWZubWVFWmhteExaQXRhQVhzWjhGSUcvd25mdGdRPT06OpvBeC31kiQQ+xEQqWBXifs=

197
No Malarkey!  Mar 4, 2022 • 6:21:40am

re: #187 Dr Lizardo

I’m coming around to the view that Putin may not be a rational actor.

Let’s assume for a moment Putin is rational, but he acted on a lot of bad information and wishful thinking that Ukraine was weak and the Russian army was capable. If he is, Putin has to know that he has grossly miscalculated, and he is trying to figure out how to ensure the survival of his regime. It looks like he is going to try to muscle through to victory in Ukraine while puffing himself up to look dangerous in order to dissuade NATO intervention. Life is going to get very hard in Russia as their economy collapses and living standards plunge, so he is going to clamp down as hard as he can to try to prevent a popular uprising, while maintaining a security bubble around himself to avoid assassination. If the Russian army doesn’t completely fall apart in Ukraine from desertion, surrender, starvation and possibly outright revolt, it will be mired in battling an insurgency for as long as it remains there. Since Putin will be focused on preserving his own power at all costs, things are going to go from bad to worse unless popular revolt or a palace coup take him out. Its a grim picture.

198
Dangerman  Mar 4, 2022 • 6:22:54am
Job growth accelerated in February, posting its biggest monthly gain since July as the employment picture got closer to its pre-pandemic self,” CNBC reports.

“Nonfarm payrolls for the month grew by 678,000 and the unemployment rate was 3.8%… That compared to estimates of 440,000 for payrolls and 3.9% for the jobless rate.”

BUT, BUT, BUT….(inflation)

199
No Malarkey!  Mar 4, 2022 • 6:23:28am

re: #190 lizardofid

Warning: crazy scenario:

[Embedded content]

RXNBam9xak8xVGJBc0p6b0FBQ0lnVk9zcmNTc09NSFlwK3krSFR1ZTBKOXlrcGxLZDAxRnhGei95UEdqa1R0ejo6mtrzos3pEGBEXSduUd4F2Q==

200
A hollow voice says: Abort SCOTUS  Mar 4, 2022 • 6:24:05am

re: #190 lizardofid

Warning: crazy scenario:

[Embedded content]

WkVrVzF3RW14a29UU2Vzd0YyNkU2RzVXVi9lOWxqT1p6d3VYaExqVlVsSGIxSThNYURQTmhWT0YxR2lGU290QnJ2bUl3b05lWDJrN0wzZ2hIaG00REsrSDNZbEVvOGxPZmRwNWlrN01rQUVUem9ESllKNkVrc1c5eDUvNThwZ3JJK2pxTmdPVTdZYlRQd0RLNUZzWHFTY1NDMEg0MUNFY284cjhUUG1iWms5OS9SL0J2YnZzNlkzVXYwMGNYVUJUT3NqM2F2eXpCbVhhc3NpTUFTSVlTSDV5R29IQTc4TElQL2NBSWN4azI2NjdxOHZyKzZtZ0dyZnBDZ3pIcmtlODo6KuTxHJSCHcDsM+kfbuyHIg==

201
Dangerman  Mar 4, 2022 • 6:24:56am

202
Dangerman  Mar 4, 2022 • 6:25:19am

And

203
darthstar  Mar 4, 2022 • 6:26:43am

re: #182 Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))

Over a million ethnic Russians living in the Baltic states so they already have a casus belli.

Lithuania has no interest in becoming a Russian (or Belarusian) property. Latvia probably feels the same. Having a million expats doesn’t make a country yours. Otherwise we’d have a claim on Mexico, and England would have a claim on the US.

204
Dangerman  Mar 4, 2022 • 6:27:10am

re: #183 No Malarkey!

He is pretty much stopped in Ukraine. Until he can extricate his army from the war he is already in, Putin can’t invade the Baltic states, even if he was mad enough to want to. Unless he plans to invade with a military band.

Kelly’s Heroes?

205
Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))  Mar 4, 2022 • 6:27:15am

Inflation is Biden’s fault for paying people not to work!!!

206
Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))  Mar 4, 2022 • 6:27:33am

re: #204 Dangerman

Kelly’s Heros?

Norway 1940

207
Rightwingconspirator  Mar 4, 2022 • 6:28:41am

Sad drone footage.

208
No Malarkey!  Mar 4, 2022 • 6:28:56am

re: #205 Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))

Inflation is Biden’s fault for paying people not to work!!!

The Kentucky General Assembly is slashing unemployment benefits under the theory that there are a bunch of lazy people on the dole who need to be forced to flip burgers.

209
lawhawk  Mar 4, 2022 • 6:31:43am

re: #203 darthstar

Lithuania has no interest in becoming a Russian (or Belarusian) property. Latvia probably feels the same. Having a million expats doesn’t make a country yours. Otherwise we’d have a claim on Mexico, and England would have a claim on the US.

Stalin forcibly moved tens of millions of people around the USSR - moving Russians into various republics, and moving the historic residents of those republics to other places - to dilute their numbers and potential to stand against Stalin. We’re still seeing repercussions of those policies today, and Putin is using those decades old relocations as justification to invade sovereign countries.

210
lawhawk  Mar 4, 2022 • 6:32:43am

re: #206 Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))

Finland and the Winter War?

211
The Pie Overlord!  Mar 4, 2022 • 6:36:05am

Re: the Baltics. Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia are all NATO members.

212
Dopamine Fish  Mar 4, 2022 • 6:37:08am

re: #211 The Pie Overlord!

Re: the Baltics. Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia are all NATO members.

So in other words, Lukashenko is saying he wants a piece of NATO. I wonder if Putin is going to rein in his puppet, or if shit is going to get REAL ugly in Eastern Europe soon.

213
Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))  Mar 4, 2022 • 6:38:34am

re: #209 lawhawk

Stalin forcibly moved tens of millions of people around the USSR - moving Russians into various republics, and moving the historic residents of those republics to other places - to dilute their numbers and potential to stand against Stalin. We’re still seeing repercussions of those policies today, and Putin is using those decades old relocations as justification to invade sovereign countries.

And that is an issue that gets little mention: over a million ethnic Russians in the Baltic states and over 7 million in the Central Asian republics (mostly Kazahstan)

Putin has his Sudenendeutsch out their just waiting to be repatriated

214
steve_davis  Mar 4, 2022 • 6:38:57am

re: #173 No Malarkey!

The question is, just how irrational is Putin? As his invasion of Ukraine fails, are his increasing threats of nuclear war pure bluff, or might he escalate out of desperation?

rational man approach. always assume you’re opponent will make sane decisions. if you assume your opponent is insane, then there is literally nothing you can do that will thwart them from doing whatever it is their delusions direct them to do. If Putin is insane, then backing down from him may be the spark that a megalomaniac needs to believe further invasion, or use of nukes, is viable.

215
darthstar  Mar 4, 2022 • 6:39:41am

Parking brake malfunctioned in my X5. It happened once before. I was able to access the manual release cable then reset the controller to dismiss the alert message. This time the controller wouldn’t reset. So I took it in to get an estimate (230 for a diagnostic…oh, and check engine light was on so they said that was another 230 dollars). Got a loaner, and two days later they call to say, good news, the check engine bug is covered under extended warranty, but the brake controller and assembly replacement will be another 2400.

I like the car and it gets great mileage (diesel) and has great torque (again, diesel) so I figure it’s worth keeping for another year or so. Still don’t like pissing away 3K like that.

216
lawhawk  Mar 4, 2022 • 6:39:45am

re: #181 darthstar

Oklahoma would like to have a port city…so would Nebraska.

New York would like a Pacific port to complement it’s Atlantic port in NYC. (and according to early US maps, that was exactly what it was entitled to. /

217
No Malarkey!  Mar 4, 2022 • 6:41:50am

re: #212 Dopamine Fish

So in other words, Lukashenko is saying he wants a piece of NATO. I wonder if Putin is going to rein in his puppet, or if shit is going to get REAL ugly in Eastern Europe soon.

the notion that tiny Belarus has the capacity to launch a war against NATO is ludicrous.

218
b.d  Mar 4, 2022 • 6:42:07am

re: #181 darthstar

Oklahoma would like to have a port city…so would Nebraska.

They can have Beaumont

219
Shropshire Slasher  Mar 4, 2022 • 6:42:46am

re: #215 darthstar

Parking brake malfunctioned in my X5. It happened once before. I was able to access the manual release cable then reset the controller to dismiss the alert message. This time the controller wouldn’t reset. So I took it in to get an estimate (230 for a diagnostic…oh, and check engine light was on so they said that was another 230 dollars). Got a loaner, and two days later they call to say, good news, the check engine bug is covered under extended warranty, but the brake controller and assembly replacement will be another 2400.

I like the car and it gets great mileage (diesel) and has great torque (again, diesel) so I figure it’s worth keeping for another year or so. Still don’t like pissing away 3K like that.

That is a really nice ride, I am jelly. I wanted the X5 but couldn’t justify the expense, so I ended up with a Volvo XC60 with a 300 hp inline 6 that I am happy with, but I still want the X5…

220
Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))  Mar 4, 2022 • 6:43:59am

re: #218 b.d

They can have Beaumont

How about Louie Gohmert’s district?

221
Dr Lizardo  Mar 4, 2022 • 6:44:19am

re: #214 steve_davis

If Putin is insane, then backing down from him may be the spark that a megalomaniac needs to believe further invasion, or use of nukes, is viable.

Sure. Imagine if Putin just says, “Give me one-third of Lithuania, or Vilnius goes up in a mushroom cloud” and NATO, understandably worried about a nuclear exchange, says, “Okelydokely.”

What message does that send to Putin? That he got away with it, and at virtually no cost. It’s madman theory writ large - the ultimate form of nuclear blackmail.

222
No Malarkey!  Mar 4, 2022 • 6:44:51am

re: #214 steve_davis

rational man approach. always assume you’re opponent will make sane decisions. if you assume your opponent is insane, then there is literally nothing you can do that will thwart them from doing whatever it is their delusions direct them to do. If Putin is insane, then backing down from him may be the spark that a megalomaniac needs to believe further invasion, or use of nukes, is viable.

At the same time, you don’t put a rational man in a position where he comes to believe that a limited nuclear war is a rational option. So yes, we keep helping Ukraine fight for itself as much as we can, but we do not directly intervene and get NATO forces into a shooting war with the Russian army.

223
Scottish Dragon  Mar 4, 2022 • 6:45:11am

re: #10 austin_blue

Dip slip faults are usually characterized by crustal tension though, yes? Really more accurate to call that a reverse fault, I would think.

224
darthstar  Mar 4, 2022 • 6:45:31am

re: #217 No Malarkey!

the notion that tiny Belarus has the capacity to launch a war against NATO is ludicrous.

Belarus is already extended militarily helping Russia in Ukraine. Russia has 90% of its defenses in Ukraine. There’s a better chance of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania bum-rushing Belarus than the inverse.

225
b.d  Mar 4, 2022 • 6:46:13am

re: #220 Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))

How about Louie Gohmert’s district?

Landlocked…..he’s done anyways. Think he came in 4th in the Texas AG primary. Poor fella.

226
Patricia Kayden  Mar 4, 2022 • 6:46:28am

re: #182 Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))

Over a million ethnic Russians living in the Baltic states so they already have a casus belli.

I’m not hearing any stories of ethnic Russians who live in Ukraine joining the invading Russian forces to destroy Ukraine but I may be missing something.

227
The Pie Overlord!  Mar 4, 2022 • 6:46:51am

Nothing to see here. Keep scrolling.

NjJQNzgyNnkyVXRtS3NvM1B3clVvc0lYcC9aaUEwSndhMCtJd1FkWW1NZ1ViR3dES0lGNmh2NHhicy94MmRVQXlsRFFaamlpcFNZd2lOeTl0WjZWc0xHZEZTZHFETkxRRW4zckxOc2lyTG5KdHFJOFN5NS9pQS8rK3lSQlJUa0lBaERUZk5HS2dZdjcyNWQ0clZrRXZIMmh4UmVhOG1RL2NoMzBieEk0MTBxNHNIdHZTR25vWU1BQ0xmNGFRQkg1UFU3ZmZxYktnRGxscXI5WVJhTFBWOXJkMDRhc3hKMVZBdE5uNCt5bWt6RGVPTC9aWm1iZlkwcWQzWDN1d2RIaC82WlNEbnVXcVdQVTQvb0M0bTNKeStTQUpKbDYyWjZvWWkzYVZrbjVLZVk9OjqZAlX4Wmvg882GKoSY7yHl

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Scottish Dragon  Mar 4, 2022 • 6:47:15am

re: #222 No Malarkey!

At the same time, you don’t put a rational man in a position where he comes to believe that a limited nuclear war is a rational option. So yes, we keep helping Ukraine fight for itself as much as we can, but we do not directly intervene and get NATO forces into a shooting war with the Russian army.

That may not be feasible if we continue to see mass bombardment of cities. How much of the Ukrainian population are we willing to sacrifice?

229
ericblair  Mar 4, 2022 • 6:48:15am

Apparently nobody wants to be part of the Yay Russia show.

230
No Malarkey!  Mar 4, 2022 • 6:48:21am

re: #226 Patricia Kayden

I’m not hearing any stories of ethnic Russians who live in Ukraine joining the invading Russian forces to destroy Ukraine but I may be missing something.

They just provide the excuse for a Russian invasion.

231
Dr Lizardo  Mar 4, 2022 • 6:48:41am

re: #222 No Malarkey!

At the same time, you don’t put a rational man in a position where he comes to believe that a limited nuclear war is a rational option. So yes, we keep helping Ukraine fight for itself as much as we can, but we do not directly intervene and get NATO forces into a shooting war with the Russian army.

Russia did change their nuclear doctrine to reflect their belief that a nuclear war is, in fact, winnable.

According to a Russian military doctrine stated in 2010, nuclear weapons could be used by Russia “in response to the use of nuclear and other types of weapons of mass destruction against it or its allies, and also in case of aggression against Russia with the use of conventional weapons when the very existence of the state is threatened”. Most military analysts believe that, in this case, Russia would pursue an ‘escalate to de-escalate’ strategy, initiating limited nuclear exchange to bring adversaries to the negotiating table. Russia will also threaten nuclear conflict to discourage initial escalation of any major conventional conflict.

en.wikipedia.org

It didn’t, for whatever reason, make a lot of news headlines at the time. But perhaps it should have.

232
Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))  Mar 4, 2022 • 6:49:27am

re: #226 Patricia Kayden

I’m not hearing any stories of ethnic Russians who live in Ukraine joining the invading Russian forces to destroy Ukraine but I may be missing something.

They are certainly present in the “Regional Defense Forces” in Luhansk and Donetsk, so they have Russia’s six.

233
lawhawk  Mar 4, 2022 • 6:50:45am
234
No Malarkey!  Mar 4, 2022 • 6:50:53am

re: #228 Scottish Dragon

That may not be feasible if we continue to see mass bombardment of cities. How much of the Ukrainian population are we willing to sacrifice?

Hundreds of thousands. Just like in Syria, Rwanda, Afghanistan (Soviet edition), etc. You don’t risk billions to save hundreds of thousands.

235
darthstar  Mar 4, 2022 • 6:55:03am

Close friend’s uncle owns a record store in Las Vegas - Wax-Trax Records - little hovel of a place in an old house across the freeway from the Strip. Veritable museum. If you’re looking for a rare record, he’s got it. Floor to ceiling, every room, vinyl, vinyl, vinyl. Original pressings of Zeppelin, Beatles, Elvis…some of these records aren’t cheap (I paid $100 for a green label copy of Live Dead)…you can add zeroes for others.

Well, his place has been randomly visited by some recording artists, and one in particular, Elton John, fell in love with Rich and his store. Visits frequently, and recorded an 80th birthday message and sent it to him - his wife posted it on facebook. Elton says, “Happy birthday you old bastard” on the recording. Very sweet.

236
Scottish Dragon  Mar 4, 2022 • 6:55:37am

re: #234 No Malarkey!

Look where ignoring Syria got us.

Now it’s the center of Europe. Who do we feed to the wolves next? Always the same calculation, always the same ‘Peace in our time’ before the dictator takes another bite.

237
lawhawk  Mar 4, 2022 • 6:56:35am

For all those who think Trump would do a better job, the reason we’re in this mess is precisely because Trump gave away the farm and advanced Putin’s agenda far better than Putin could have ever hoped without a shot fired.

Putin thought that Trump undermined NATO and US natsec so badly that he could take Ukraine without a fuss.

Turns out that Biden did a masterful job of countering Putin’s every move short of sending in our own troops. That has consequences - bad ones for Putin and his designs on the rest of Eastern Europe.

238
No Malarkey!  Mar 4, 2022 • 6:56:45am

re: #231 Dr Lizardo

Russia did change their nuclear doctrine to reflect their belief that a nuclear war is, in fact, winnable.

en.wikipedia.org

It didn’t, for whatever reason, make a lot of news headlines at the time. But perhaps it should have.

And a NATO attack on the Russian army in Ukraine would be seen as a direct threat to the survival of the regime. So we provide all the aid to Ukraine that we can so that it can fight for itself, but we cannot directly intervene militarily.

239
darthstar  Mar 4, 2022 • 6:57:01am

re: #227 The Pie Overlord!

That happens when I overthink it. Took 4 today, should’ve been 3.

240
Dr Lizardo  Mar 4, 2022 • 6:57:05am
241
Dr Lizardo  Mar 4, 2022 • 6:58:45am
242
steve_davis  Mar 4, 2022 • 6:59:15am

re: #219 Shropshire Slasher

That is a really nice ride, I am jelly. I wanted the X5 but couldn’t justify the expense, so I ended up with a Volvo XC60 with a 300 hp inline 6 that I am happy with, but I still want the X5…

this is the disadvantage of the nice ride. Getting a new tire on the Mazda3 was 200 bucks. I was thinking “son of a bitch, that’s gonna be 800 when I replace all of them, and I’m gonna have to replace all of them, ‘cause by the time the other 3 need it, I won’t want to have one tire with 40k on it.”

243
lizardofid  Mar 4, 2022 • 7:01:06am

I will confess, it took a while.

dXdpMlRWU3YxcW1wVzJ3T3VqYmlHcDU5Ky9pYXpqZkl6aEVUV2hTQ01pN2IzSUsvOXk1dmpDTVpJZk9LaG9iM0FNTCtGRDh0Z3ZYMndtTTFPdE1Kendrd2lEK1FUWUJZaGV0WFQvRm1mV2NncmRKcWhWcVJ2ek5DRWpVa21LSXc6OnDKR7zLNkhquiAPVXhcJuI=

244
The Pie Overlord!  Mar 4, 2022 • 7:01:10am

I’m getting spam emails from TFG and the GOP. I have never donated to GOP even back in the day when I was a Republican, I don’t even know where or how they got my email.

245
darthstar  Mar 4, 2022 • 7:01:16am

re: #237 lawhawk

NATO, and by extension Europe, are fare more unified today than they have been in years. Multiple countries expressing interest in EU and NATO membership, a realization that an energy alliance can off-set dependency on Russia (and it’s almost spring so demand for natural gas will begin to wane soon), and while they may spend a lot of money, oligarchs are kind of corrupt assholes.

246
Dopamine Fish  Mar 4, 2022 • 7:01:56am

re: #244 The Pie Overlord!

I’m getting spam emails from TFG and the GOP. I have never donated to GOP even back in the day when I was a Republican, I don’t even know where or how they got my email.

[Embedded content]

They probably bought email lists from shady places in order to open their spam up to more people that don’t enthusiastically subscribe to their lists.

247
Dr Lizardo  Mar 4, 2022 • 7:02:13am
248
HRH Stanley Sea  Mar 4, 2022 • 7:02:28am

re: #227 The Pie Overlord!

Nothing to see here. Keep scrolling.

[Embedded content]

SStKczFncUZURzlYdXpjc3lGeGJHYktMWDFkcTE1cTl3VnlZQzk4NkRKY2NIbzhpaW40czFnWlNnSFVXV2FlbFFnWTdSUmJleTIvLzk1OHB2R01UYXUvTUlSakxONzhOOWZuT1I0M2dHYWFsVWREM3Z0bUNjMmVMR3hOSGhqS3BRZmV1UTFadkZTS3Vsb2lzZjlkN21LOXBzV3pVSlQ3Mk9DZWc0ekVUdzBGUHdsaHo5bmpxOFNYbVRoR3BucTNyOjoELPhO3jw77vNs1mA4bq2h

249
darthstar  Mar 4, 2022 • 7:02:40am

re: #244 The Pie Overlord!

I’m getting spam emails from TFG and the GOP. I have never donated to GOP even back in the day when I was a Republican, I don’t even know where or how they got my email.

[Embedded content]

2022 Trump Life Membership - with auto renewal and scheduled membership fee increases included.

250
Crush White Nationalism  Mar 4, 2022 • 7:04:34am

re: #235 darthstar

Close friend’s uncle owns a record store in Las Vegas - Wax-Trax Records - little hovel of a place in an old house across the freeway from the Strip. Veritable museum. If you’re looking for a rare record, he’s got it. Floor to ceiling, every room, vinyl, vinyl, vinyl. Original pressings of Zeppelin, Beatles, Elvis…some of these records aren’t cheap (I paid $100 for a green label copy of Live Dead)…you can add zeroes for others.

Well, his place has been randomly visited by some recording artists, and one in particular, Elton John, fell in love with Rich and his store. Visits frequently, and recorded an 80th birthday message and sent it to him - his wife posted it on facebook. Elton says, “Happy birthday you old bastard” on the recording. Very sweet.

[Embedded content]

A friend worked at a Wax Trax in Chicago about 35 years ago. They don’t seem to be related.
en.wikipedia.org

251
Michele: Out of the closet, Into the fire  Mar 4, 2022 • 7:04:51am

re: #244 The Pie Overlord!

I’m getting spam emails from TFG and the GOP. I have never donated to GOP even back in the day when I was a Republican, I don’t even know where or how they got my email.

[Embedded content]

I’ve been getting unsolicited fauxnews newsletters in my E-Mail recently.

252
darthstar  Mar 4, 2022 • 7:06:06am

re: #247 Dr Lizardo

Ruble’s still holding strong at 9/10ths of a cent.

253
Dr Lizardo  Mar 4, 2022 • 7:06:22am

BTW, the Moscow Stock Exchange is now closed until 9 March. LOL.

Can’t have a stock market crash when there’s no stock market, amirite?

254
Dr Lizardo  Mar 4, 2022 • 7:06:58am

re: #252 darthstar

Ruble’s still holding strong at 9/10ths of a cent.

Hope they ain’t gonna spend that all in one place!

255
Rightwingconspirator  Mar 4, 2022 • 7:07:46am

re: #253 Dr Lizardo

BTW, the Moscow Stock Exchange is now closed until 9 March. LOL.

Can’t have a stock market crash when there’s no stock market, amirite?

[Embedded content]

Like covid testing…//

256
darthstar  Mar 4, 2022 • 7:08:23am

re: #253 Dr Lizardo

BTW, the Moscow Stock Exchange is now closed until 9 March. LOL.

Can’t have a stock market crash when there’s no stock market, amirite?

[Embedded content]

That’s cheating! There are a lot of Russian investors with sell orders in the queue.

257
Thanos  Mar 4, 2022 • 7:11:10am
258
Scottish Dragon  Mar 4, 2022 • 7:11:29am
259
Dr Lizardo  Mar 4, 2022 • 7:12:52am

re: #256 darthstar

That’s cheating! There are a lot of Russian investors with sell orders in the queue.

Yep… all of them, I’d say.

260
darthstar  Mar 4, 2022 • 7:13:45am

Pilot ejected safely. Ukranians are looking for him as he’d just bombed a civilian area before they shot him down.

261
ericblair  Mar 4, 2022 • 7:14:23am

Uh, ok. Putin looks really nervous if you watch the video: his eyes are darting around.

262
Belafon  Mar 4, 2022 • 7:14:27am

re: #241 Dr Lizardo

If that’s true, it’s to protect the bank from when the citizens lose access to their money due to some future sanction because of Putin.

263
Scottish Dragon  Mar 4, 2022 • 7:15:10am

re: #260 darthstar

Pilot ejected safely. Ukranians are looking for him as he’d just bombed a civilian area before they shot him down.

Oops!

264
Dopamine Fish  Mar 4, 2022 • 7:16:10am

re: #261 ericblair

Uh, ok. Putin looks really nervous if you watch the video: his eyes are darting around.

Hey fuckboy, you want international cooperation to return and relations to normalize? Admit you fucked up and get the fuck out of Ukraine! Your path forward here is clear: GTFO, or we continue squeezing until one of your rich buddies decides to slip some polonium in your tea so he can get access to his money.

265
ericblair  Mar 4, 2022 • 7:16:20am

re: #260 darthstar

Pilot ejected safely. Ukranians are looking for him as he’d just bombed a civilian area before they shot him down.

They issued a correction; it’s a Su-25 close air support aircraft.

266
Dr Lizardo  Mar 4, 2022 • 7:19:22am

re: #261 ericblair

He’s starting to feel the pressure.

267
Belafon  Mar 4, 2022 • 7:19:45am

re: #265 ericblair

They issued a correction; it’s a Su-25 close air support aircraft.

Hopefully the people who find him know that.

268
Scottish Dragon  Mar 4, 2022 • 7:19:59am

re: #265 ericblair

SU-34 is a huge, 2 crew aircraft. About on scale with the F111

269
b.d  Mar 4, 2022 • 7:20:08am

re: #261 ericblair

[Embedded content]

Uh, ok. Putin looks really nervous if you watch the video: his eyes are darting around.

He’s looking down the whole time too, head not high and the cockiness seems to be gone.

270
steve_davis  Mar 4, 2022 • 7:20:55am

re: #260 darthstar

Pilot ejected safely. Ukranians are looking for him as he’d just bombed a civilian area before they shot him down.

[Embedded content]

allahu akbar, mother****.

271
Teddy's Person  Mar 4, 2022 • 7:22:10am

re: #269 b.d

He’s looking down the whole time too, head not high and the cockiness seems to be gone.

Your billionaire enablers getting their yachts seized will do that to a guy.

272
Belafon  Mar 4, 2022 • 7:22:12am

re: #265 ericblair

They issued a correction; it’s a Su-25 close air support aircraft.

Can that still drop bombs?

273
Scottish Dragon  Mar 4, 2022 • 7:23:43am

re: #272 Belafon

Can that still drop bombs?

the SU-25 is a close support attack fighter. one 23mm gun and six wing pylons for rocket pods and bombs

274
No Malarkey!  Mar 4, 2022 • 7:24:43am
275
darthstar  Mar 4, 2022 • 7:25:26am

Couple of my facebook friends have done this now.

276
Dr Lizardo  Mar 4, 2022 • 7:26:21am

re: #269 b.d

He’s looking down the whole time too, head not high and the cockiness seems to be gone.

Maybe an economist explained matters to him.

“Mr. President, let me show you this brief Powerpoint presentation, which I call “We are so fucked!!”

Slide 1: “Do you know how fucked we are? Here’s the numbers.”

Slide 2: “This graph here shows how fucked we are right now, how fucked we’ll be by the end of the year, and how fucked we’re still going to be until the year 2063.”

Slide 3: “This pie chart shows how many people in Russia depend on the state for their income. Not just pensioners, but state employees, police, army, air force, etc. They’re totally fucked because the state is now fucked.”

Slide 4: “This illustration here shows an angry mob with someone’s head on a pike. And that, Mr. President, is how fucked you’re gonna be in a few more months.”

“Do you have any questions, Mr. President?”

277
Dopamine Fish  Mar 4, 2022 • 7:27:50am

re: #276 Dr Lizardo

Maybe he saw that broadcast from yesterday: “Stock market, you were interesting. Farewell, comrade.”

278
Yeah Sure WhatEVs  Mar 4, 2022 • 7:30:53am

re: #227 The Pie Overlord!

bUFlMFpTOEQzSG5rNGRodUxvV2hsZXhjMGZFK1lWVEltK2wvZDUxbVREa3dEaVIvUkFmT3pWM0M2dTZ6OHZlcDZubEhrZVZnR0dNRHFqVWxpUzZLalNFcm12Q3R1b2hlNC9wNlB0YUJabmQ0Z2tmNTBkTGErczRPOElKNTlFdEUzSHhQNXljbjQ4aG5sOTlMWjAvdU53PT06OkTpyeA6M04KA74eUmZP2XM=

279
Yeah Sure WhatEVs  Mar 4, 2022 • 7:31:54am

re: #229 ericblair

Apparently nobody wants to be part of the Yay Russia show.

Equally likely, they fear it’s poisoned.

280
Scottish Dragon  Mar 4, 2022 • 7:32:57am
281
Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))  Mar 4, 2022 • 7:33:32am

re: #252 darthstar

Ruble’s still holding strong at 9/10ths of a cent.

They are working hard to hold it steady at that. They don’t want it careening into the hundredths of a cent

282
Scottish Dragon  Mar 4, 2022 • 7:33:44am

re: #279 Yeah Sure WhatEVs

Equally likely, they fear it’s poisoned.

a little polonium tea never hurt anybody…

283
darthstar  Mar 4, 2022 • 7:33:58am

re: #274 No Malarkey!

So they’ve turned the corner. Can we begin measuring the conflict in Friedman units?

284
Scottish Dragon  Mar 4, 2022 • 7:34:39am
285
Dr Lizardo  Mar 4, 2022 • 7:34:52am

re: #281 Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))

They are working hard to hold it steady at that. They don’t want it careening into the hundredths of a cent

Yeah, pretty sure the CBR is working overtime on that. The minute they let up, it’s the good bad old days again, of 700 rubles to the dollar.

286
darthstar  Mar 4, 2022 • 7:35:56am
287
Dopamine Fish  Mar 4, 2022 • 7:37:05am

re: #284 Scottish Dragon

288
Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))  Mar 4, 2022 • 7:38:52am

re: #287 Dopamine Fish

Does the school have some established “no flag distribution” policy?

289
Scottish Dragon  Mar 4, 2022 • 7:39:24am

re: #283 darthstar

So they’ve turned the corner. Can we begin measuring the conflict in Friedman units?

Had folks telling me that Russia has 1000s of T72 tanks in reserve to replace battle losses etc after news yesterday the Russian Army had effectively lost an entire armored division in terms of tanks and AFVs that were provably photographed destroyed or abandoned/captured.

Pointed out that if they can’t keep the goddamned tires repaired on stuff going in right now, what are they odds they can haul out tanks that haven’t had a wrench turned on them in 10 years?

290
darthstar  Mar 4, 2022 • 7:39:24am

re: #281 Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))

They are working hard to hold it steady at that. They don’t want it careening into the hundredths of a cent

re: #285 Dr Lizardo

Yeah, pretty sure the CBR is working overtime on that. The minute they let up, it’s the good bad old days again, of 700 rubles to the dollar.

It can go lower? Good.

291
darthstar  Mar 4, 2022 • 7:43:02am

re: #289 Scottish Dragon

Had folks telling me that Russia has 1000s of T72 tanks in reserve to replace battle losses etc after news yesterday the Russian Army had effectively lost an entire armored division in terms of tanks and AFVs that were provably photographed destroyed or abandoned/captured.

Pointed out that if they can’t keep the goddamned tires repaired on stuff going in right now, what are they odds they can haul out tanks that haven’t had a wrench turned on them in 10 years?

I hope Ukraine has a steel plant that can melt down these tanks and transports and turn them into beams and supports for building reconstruction.

292
Dopamine Fish  Mar 4, 2022 • 7:44:47am

re: #289 Scottish Dragon

1000s of T-72 tanks - which is an extremely old design, for a main battle tank, and even if they were kept up to maintenance standards (and as you allude, it’s highly unlikely), they’ll get the crap beaten out of them by Javelins, a threat they weren’t designed to face. Let’s just face it: If Russia had kept its equipment in shape and provided adequate training and supplies to maintain morale, this would be a very different story right now. Instead, we see what happens when you trust in “I have the biggest army in Europe” and don’t do anything to keep it in shape.

293
Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))  Mar 4, 2022 • 7:45:40am

re: #290 darthstar

It can go lower? Good.

when it hit 700, they just lopped off two zeros. Now it is back up to 120 (or 12,000 if you ignore the “reset”)

294
darthstar  Mar 4, 2022 • 7:45:53am
295
No Malarkey!  Mar 4, 2022 • 7:46:17am

Fucker Carlson attacking another black woman, this time VP Harris. yahoo.com

296
Dopamine Fish  Mar 4, 2022 • 7:48:29am

re: #294 darthstar

It’s no wonder the Ukrainians are scrapping the things as fast as they can haul them off the battlefield. What good are free weapons if it’ll cost thousands and take months to restore them to even a bare minimum of operable condition?

297
Scottish Dragon  Mar 4, 2022 • 7:48:39am
298
Yeah Sure WhatEVs  Mar 4, 2022 • 7:51:35am

re: #261 ericblair

Uh, ok. Putin looks really nervous if you watch the video: his eyes are darting around.

More like a side teleprompter he was reading from. That’s how I see it at least.

299
lizardofid  Mar 4, 2022 • 7:52:18am

re: #293 Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))

when it hit 700, they just lopped off two zeros. Now it is back up to 120 (or 12,000 if you ignore the “reset”)

If the world won’t trade with you, does it matter?

300
darthstar  Mar 4, 2022 • 7:52:39am

Ha! Thank you China!

301
Scottish Dragon  Mar 4, 2022 • 7:52:47am

re: #294 darthstar

yep. 10 to 12 million dollar Pantsir S1 system left in the motor pool with the engine being turned over and the wheels left in the same spot for a couple years or more.

Un-freaking-believable. Someone else pointed out those are cheap Chinese knock off tires copied from the Michelin military model. Dumped in bulk to the 3rd world with no QA inspection and not rated for that vehicle.

302
Scottish Dragon  Mar 4, 2022 • 7:53:25am

re: #300 darthstar

Ha! Thank you China!

Yep! that’s it right there!

303
lizardofid  Mar 4, 2022 • 7:53:59am

re: #298 Yeah Sure WhatEVs

More like a side teleprompter he was reading from. That’s how I see it at least.

Well well, this may cleave off some gop support.

//

304
steve_davis  Mar 4, 2022 • 7:54:25am

My questions are twofold: 1)what are we doing to get planes to the Ukrainians? Surely we can freakin’ buy planes from our allies if we had to that Ukrainian pilots are already trained to fly. I know a couple of countries earlier stated that they were not in fact supplying the Ukrainians with their various russian planes, but there has to be a way to get money to talk. 2)is the 20 billion dollar a day burn rate for the invasion actually accurate? Hard to imagine that wouldn’t put a limit on how long this invasion can last. The ruble floats against the dollar, correct? So they can’t just deficit spend their way into resupplying the war and their economy.

305
Colère Tueur de Lapin  Mar 4, 2022 • 7:54:52am

re: #257 Thanos

Yikes — I started to read, and then decided I needed those brain cells that would self-destruct after reading more

306
No Malarkey!  Mar 4, 2022 • 7:54:53am

re: #294 darthstar

I wonder how many functioning vehicles the Russian army will have left by the time they get to Kyiv?

307
Shropshire Slasher  Mar 4, 2022 • 7:54:54am

Update on Miss Alabama, hidden because NY Post link and some really hateful imagery.

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

308
Yeah Sure WhatEVs  Mar 4, 2022 • 7:55:42am

re: #283 darthstar

So they’ve turned the corner. Can we begin measuring the conflict in Friedman units?

I’ll be happier when they’re doing fractional Scaramuccis.

309
darthstar  Mar 4, 2022 • 7:55:42am

re: #302 Scottish Dragon

Yep! that’s it right there!

Good timing…Is Devin Nunes running Putin’s launch into Ukraine along with Truth Social? I’m starting to see a pattern here.

310
No Malarkey!  Mar 4, 2022 • 7:56:13am

re: #299 lizardofid

If the world won’t trade with you, does it matter?

Soon all Russians will be billionaires! In Roubles.

311
lawhawk  Mar 4, 2022 • 7:56:15am
312
Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))  Mar 4, 2022 • 7:58:07am

re: #300 darthstar

Ha! Thank you China!

I am willing to bet that some minister got funds approved to buy the Michelin version, substituted the Chinese version and pocketed the difference.

313
lawhawk  Mar 4, 2022 • 7:58:27am

re: #300 darthstar

This has My Cousin Vinny vibes too it.

Youtube Video

314
darthstar  Mar 4, 2022 • 7:59:57am

re: #300 darthstar

Ha! Thank you China!

[Embedded content]

Someone over at dKos pointed out that this vehicle is a 15 million dollar piece of machinery - and it’s the third one Ukraine has captured. Then they said the US should send them Michelins along with Javelins.

315
Dopamine Fish  Mar 4, 2022 • 8:00:18am

re: #312 Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))

I am willing to bet that some minister got funds approved to buy the Michelin version, substituted the Chinese version and pocketed the difference.

There’s discussion in that thread that it might be a Belarusian knockoff of the Chinese knockoff, but all are in agreement that it’s not the Michelin tire.

316
Dr Lizardo  Mar 4, 2022 • 8:01:16am

re: #315 Dopamine Fish

There’s discussion in that thread that it might be a Belarusian knockoff of the Chinese knockoff, but all are in agreement that it’s not the Michelin tire.

Knockoff of a knockoff? Truly, all things are possible in Russia.

317
darthstar  Mar 4, 2022 • 8:02:54am

re: #315 Dopamine Fish

There’s discussion in that thread that it might be a Belarusian knockoff of the Chinese knockoff, but all are in agreement that it’s not the Michelin tire.

Well, in all fairness it was only intended to navigate Red Square on the first of May.

318
Teukka  Mar 4, 2022 • 8:03:28am

re: #297 Scottish Dragon
FWIW, I concur. 60% within the month.

319
mmmirele  Mar 4, 2022 • 8:03:29am

re: #158 Belafon

My phone autocorrected. It’s Palini.

It’s Sherri Papini and I kept an eye on this case because it occurred in Redding and was Bethel-adjacent.

DoJ press release: justice.gov

Complaint and affidavit: justice.gov

Basically, what they’re nailing her for is two things: 1) she continued to lie to the FBI years after the “kidnapping” and even after being warned of the consequences of lying to the FBI and 2) she received a number of payments from California’s victim compensation fund via the US mail. So not for the fraud on the compensation fund (I would presume that would be a California charge) but because she received checks in the mail from the compensation fund, hence mail fraud.

If she had pretty much disappeared after what happened and not lied about it afterwards, and not soaked the victim compensation fund, I think she could have gotten away with it.

320
Dopamine Fish  Mar 4, 2022 • 8:04:56am

re: #319 mmmirele

If she had pretty much disappeared after what happened and not lied about it afterwards, and not soaked the victim compensation fund, I think she could have gotten away with it.

But there’s the rub, right? If she had done that, she couldn’t have profited from the incident. What’s the point in grifting if you don’t get anything from it?

321
Hecuba's daughter  Mar 4, 2022 • 8:05:48am

re: #131 Yeah Sure WhatEVs

[Embedded content]

SkU0NlhJKzNDOFJtZVhSK2F4c3dQOC96ZDNDTG9UMXZnVE1IRS9Ma0pwRT06OsyhsY4rgMurE+Embn8ho4U=

322
steve_davis  Mar 4, 2022 • 8:08:09am

re: #296 Dopamine Fish

It’s no wonder the Ukrainians are scrapping the things as fast as they can haul them off the battlefield. What good are free weapons if it’ll cost thousands and take months to restore them to even a bare minimum of operable condition?

I’m guessing they would be mostly sitting ducks, but if the guns still work, I could see how maybe building them a bit of a bunker while allowing the turret to still move a bit would make them a wonderful deterrent back at Kyiv against an attempt to just overrun the joint. I know Fury was fiction, but even so, you’re talking three heavy machine guns on the front, and then something that can fire high explosive or armor piercing rounds.

323
Yeah Sure WhatEVs  Mar 4, 2022 • 8:09:47am

re: #321 Hecuba’s daughter

TXJBWTlWcHgvOGRscFI2cWw2ajdFdmFDbjBhRE1HcHllb1BoVHZ1d1o0ZWltVERwdEJxYWN1NjlvY3hUK3FzVDc0YUpxNUVDSUFQRnNyTUFJWXQzK3h5YWJQYmp2Q0NIWWtBZFp6WkJDT0U9OjqCC1yMNYA9K1/GyM/Gx1uK

324
William Lewis  Mar 4, 2022 • 8:11:35am

re: #289 Scottish Dragon

Had folks telling me that Russia has 1000s of T72 tanks in reserve to replace battle losses etc after news yesterday the Russian Army had effectively lost an entire armored division in terms of tanks and AFVs that were provably photographed destroyed or abandoned/captured.

Pointed out that if they can’t keep the goddamned tires repaired on stuff going in right now, what are they odds they can haul out tanks that haven’t had a wrench turned on them in 10 years?

The T-80’s have proven to be death traps as are the T-90s. Those autoloaders go boom if you look at them cross-eyed and the ERA isn’t stopping anything. More T-72’s just equals more graves for Imperial Russian Tankers.

325
Scottish Dragon  Mar 4, 2022 • 8:14:23am
326
lizardofid  Mar 4, 2022 • 8:15:02am

re: #316 Dr Lizardo

Knockoff of a knockoff? Truly, all things are possible in Russia.

OGFLdUt0RVJyWEgzRG5BNjduektVRmI3NVdKNk5hMWRWOVBja3B4ZHUvZ05CbEtGOWFCRlM2dis4SXk2MHVDUGZ5TnF5TjM2TDBUK2luaUZJQThTMndTbHFrb2hNSzIrb1N4OXdCSzBiRzRZdnhoVFRScmYrRzBmTEQ1WUdKUld3WlRzdEhqclFleUQvK01yMmxVNFRnNHFrZDhNQi95ME9wT3hMb05hVHVyM2xFQ0hSM1lsbmpFNEVUVGI1VlVqOFQ3M2JzcE51b2dFOWIwUUNrcEJEY1pvSzlnSWc2RzlReFJzR1ZOL2FxU1liTm1KK2NaR0Z5eEhhZ0FXdlh5MXdYUUpNT1B4VjBtZWRtbUdrdS96R3c9PTo6dzA9mAV2g+51q9Po8XGwFg==

327
Scottish Dragon  Mar 4, 2022 • 8:16:17am

re: #324 William Lewis

The T-80’s have proven to be death traps as are the T-90s. Those autoloaders go boom if you look at them cross-eyed and the ERA isn’t stopping anything. More T-72’s just equals more graves for Imperial Russian Tankers.

T-90 supposed to have all the bells and whistles for stopping incoming ATGM and identifying laser aim origin pts etc. Not sure I’m impressed so far

328
Belafon  Mar 4, 2022 • 8:16:49am

re: #325 Scottish Dragon

The Russian Air Force is still bombing, no matter what Robert says.

329
lawhawk  Mar 4, 2022 • 8:17:47am

re: #324 William Lewis

The size of the Russian military is impressive. Their modern gear is far more limited. Their logistics and maintenance record is something that would result in the unit being sidelined indefinitely in other military service. People keep conflating size with quality.

They have the size, not the quality. And it’s becoming clear that the units with quality gear are few and far between, and even the vaunted Russian marines are really more like shock troops, and not tip of the spear. They’re thugs in uniform without the kind of ability to fight ashore the way our Marines can do. Russian combined arms training appears limited. Conscripts aren’t going to fight with the same kind of spirit as a dedicated unit of volunteers. These Russian troops were thrown in without knowing WTF was going on.

Most of Russia is in the dark about what Putin is up to.

330
Scottish Dragon  Mar 4, 2022 • 8:17:55am

re: #328 Belafon

The Russian Air Force is still bombing, no matter what Robert says.

But nowhere near like what we expected. They still don’t have air superiority.

331
The Pie Overlord!  Mar 4, 2022 • 8:20:50am
332
Dr Lizardo  Mar 4, 2022 • 8:22:18am

re: #326 lizardofid

It’s all about quality control, or lack thereof in Russia. I owned a couple Russian wristwatches…one was great, kept really good time, and could probably take a direct hit from Tsar Bomba.

The other one? Failed in less than a year. The Russians are entirely capable of making some very good products when they set their mind to it. They just need to keep their QC consistent.

333
William Lewis  Mar 4, 2022 • 8:23:45am

re: #327 Scottish Dragon

T-90 supposed to have all the bells and whistles for stopping incoming ATGM and identifying laser aim origin pts etc. Not sure I’m impressed so far

That’s what the claim has been. The T-80 (a descendant of the T-64) got chewed up and spit out in Chechnya and they upgraded the T-72 and called it the T-90 as a result. The T-90’s are what we’ve been seeing getting slaughtered by the Javelins and NLAWS.

Makes me wish I had my old M-60A3, some APFSDS-DU ammo and a clear line of sight…

334
Hecuba's daughter  Mar 4, 2022 • 8:23:59am

re: #187 Dr Lizardo

I’m coming around to the view that Putin may not be a rational actor.

Or Putin’s superhackers may be able to do to the Western world what they apparently can do with physical attacks at the Ukraine nuclear plant: shutting down our electrical grid and other facilities needed to keep our society running. This could be the first salvo in modern warfare — where ammunition and planes and missiles are irrelevant.

335
No Malarkey!  Mar 4, 2022 • 8:24:23am

re: #325 Scottish Dragon

That is a dangerous game to play.

336
Scottish Dragon  Mar 4, 2022 • 8:28:25am
337
William Lewis  Mar 4, 2022 • 8:28:50am

re: #332 Dr Lizardo

It’s all about quality control, or lack thereof in Russia. I owned a couple Russian wristwatches…one was great, kept really good time, and could probably take a direct hit from Tsar Bomba.

The other one? Failed in less than a year. The Russians are entirely capable of making some very good products when they set their mind to it. They just need to keep their QC consistent.

When I shot film, my utterly favorite cameras were the old Contax range finders. The prewar production line was taken to Kyiv and my Kiev 4 & 5 were wonderful cameras. But it took some tries and buying from the right sources to get known good ones. The lenses tended to have less issues because they were simpler & they were Zeiss designs.

I currently have a FSU 35/2.8 lens for my Leica that is as good as pre-WWII Zeiss. The current FSU 50/2 I have is a stinker. Sample variation is a killer.

338
Scottish Dragon  Mar 4, 2022 • 8:31:03am

re: #333 William Lewis

That’s what the claim has been. The T-80 (a descendant of the T-64) got chewed up and spit out in Chechnya and they upgraded the T-72 and called it the T-90 as a result. The T-90’s are what we’ve been seeing getting slaughtered by the Javelins and NLAWS.

Makes me wish I had my old M-60A3, some APFSDS-DU ammo and a clear line of sight…

Damn, my Lt scared me one day in Korea when he came in my barracks room, looked at my model of an M-60A3 and asked if it was Russian.

“Uh, no, Sir. That’s ours.”

Only two tanks with turrets that look like an upside down row boat. M-41 Walker and the M-60 Patton. Both ours.

339
Belafon  Mar 4, 2022 • 8:32:38am

re: #334 Hecuba’s daughter

Or Putin’s superhackers may be able to do to the Western world what they apparently can do with physical attacks at the Ukraine nuclear plant: shutting down our electrical grid and other facilities needed to keep our society running. This could be the first salvo in modern warfare — where ammunition and planes and missiles are irrelevant.

They may also be able to concentrate really hard and cause all of our heads explode.

The point being, don’t attribute something to them that we really haven’t seen proof of.

The US, on the other hand has demonstrated that they can, in fact, mess up an Iranian refinery with hacking.

340
Scottish Dragon  Mar 4, 2022 • 8:35:39am

re: #335 No Malarkey!

That is a dangerous game to play.

Any re-armament and support is dangerous. How is a Ukrainian marked drone more provocative than a shipment of Javelins? It’s almost certain we are providing real time target info and AWACs air control to the Ukrainian AF. We don’t admit it, and the Russians know we are doing it but can’t do anything about it.

Keep the pretense, paint the birds in the right livery and have their officer in *control*

341
Teukka  Mar 4, 2022 • 8:36:15am
342
Dangerman  Mar 4, 2022 • 8:36:53am

‘overdue’ huh?

then why didnt your team do it?

343
Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))  Mar 4, 2022 • 8:37:31am

I worked as a liaison translator for a company that was looking into joint ventures with the USSR at the turn of the 90’s. In various areas: hydraulics, electronics, pharmaceuticals, food, etc.

We would get groups of specialists over and show them some fancy analytical device and they would say: “Ah yes, we have seen something like that, a fellow built a prototype in a lab in Smolensk.”

And we would explain that ours is already in its second generation of serial production.

That is the story of why we really won the space race: we were able to spin off and monetize ´so many of the inventions we came up with to get us too the moon.

Company I worked for was based on one of them.

344
ericblair  Mar 4, 2022 • 8:37:42am
345
Belafon  Mar 4, 2022 • 8:37:51am

re: #342 Dangerman

‘overdue’ huh?

then why didnt your team do it?

How do we distract the world from Russia? By causing a war in South East Asia.

Edited slightly

346
Colère Tueur de Lapin  Mar 4, 2022 • 8:39:07am

re: #345 Belafon

How do we distract the world from Russia? By cause a war in South East Asia.

Which is a morass — as we all know

347
Dopamine Fish  Mar 4, 2022 • 8:42:22am

re: #343 Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))

That is the story of why we really won the space race: we were able to spin off and monetize all the inventions we came up with to get us too the moon.

Company I worked for was based on one of them.

Heck yes. The space race generated incredible developments in materials science, electronics, software and software interfacing with hardware, lightweight construction techniques, and supply-chain process improvements in scarce materials such as titanium and aluminum. What America did better than anyone was taking these advancements and applying them to consumer products, improving everyday life as a byproduct.

348
Teukka  Mar 4, 2022 • 8:42:47am

Youtube Video

349
Scottish Dragon  Mar 4, 2022 • 8:43:17am

oh no.

350
Hecuba's daughter  Mar 4, 2022 • 8:45:31am

re: #243 lizardofid

I will confess, it took a while.

[Embedded content]

RWsyRytpZEcxZ1lsYzVTY0JWT0ZscE9kN1grZFpML25TMkRYSjBoY1hqeW5PREJTNUVPWTJWWUlONXdqNURGRjAwNFpsbmRzeWhzQzdhT2UrVmNIenAzYmQxRG5TRXkrWDN5Ry81bG1YK2JIc3BCb0s3M2IxRlkrcklIZnV2WDhNbHJkcXVDdVVVcUg0WDFBZHV4TitBdzNPTitTVGd2TzhXVjJ2dk00Q3NidlR1RUh0WC80bEFZVHlDK0FJTml5OjovkvAT9sDaCHxJNSmC7LPE

351
mmmirele  Mar 4, 2022 • 8:46:48am

re: #307 Shropshire Slasher

Update on Miss Alabama, hidden because NY Post link and some really hateful imagery.

[Embedded content]

I remember those people! They were a pain in the azz to multiple school districts with their shenanigans. Here’s a number of articles from al.com about Glynis Bethel: al.com

352
Decatur Deb  Mar 4, 2022 • 8:47:19am

re: #336 Scottish Dragon

Joseph Stalin, who I do not support, did far less damage to the Russian people than the shitlib NATO sanctions will.

That’s kind of the point, isn’t it?

353
Teddy's Person  Mar 4, 2022 • 8:48:33am

re: #349 Scottish Dragon

oh no.

[Embedded content]

I wonder if this was part of the failed aluminum plant deal that Mitch McConnell worked on during the Trump administration. You build your plant in Kentucky, and we’ll give you our teacher retirement funds.

354
gocart mozart  Mar 4, 2022 • 8:49:54am
355
Hecuba's daughter  Mar 4, 2022 • 8:50:54am

re: #248 HRH Stanley Sea

[Embedded content]

dlRodEhKamdhQlRLOHRKVklyUTB5Q3NBcDhxSmxDNjNMS2doQng1Y3ByQi8xWS96NitjalQvMXVQczZBLzV3RTNNL2dFYWovUkZzSEhiUVNDWk8ybzIzVlpMdllXUWV2M0JUVDhqWDlmRXJjamhCN3d0RHdFTTI4RUVJVENXeDRJaDBseFdVbm1qd3IzeGY5WE9rdzQ4SWlaeXllVDJVUFNiSUFXWTZFNTRkb2hjMkN2WTNFOTBtcjE1QzExMXJsRVZFak8vOFNGUXY5NEFaVkVrSlJHNU9lMEp2RUtMNi8zd3pTR3MzenFBTT06OktPWL/JPxBvyH3L8C6lDVA=

356
ericblair  Mar 4, 2022 • 8:52:20am

This is just bananas. Nobody expected this. I can think of two things: if you think maintenance of armor and ground vehicles is a huge burden, military aircraft are like an order of magnitude worse, and how well do you think Russia did on that. Also, you can probably wonder how much of the relevant expensive missiles the Russian aircraft need were used in Syria over years and years. And you can’t crank these missiles out over a weekend, plus see the previous tweet about the real impact of sanctions.

357
Yeah Sure WhatEVs  Mar 4, 2022 • 8:53:56am

re: #353 Teddy’s Person

I wonder if this was part of the failed aluminum plant deal that Mitch McConnell worked on during the Trump administration. You build your plant in Kentucky, and we’ll give you our teacher retirement funds.

That’s what I was thinking - right after WTF WERE YOU THINKING?

358
Eventual Carrion  Mar 4, 2022 • 8:54:54am

re: #227 The Pie Overlord!

Nothing to see here. Keep scrolling.

[Embedded content]

SUJvaEJoUE5mS216Y3hiVFRzZ1pZNFhRcDZwVkdHOS8wRDBoWVpJVENRSE5UYVprZmtHUjVmREhWYjBoUGF5a2FaNk9lSXZyVjd6QXRFbnpUaXo3ZG5NdVQ0ZGtZRVhlRjYwWlQ1bC8xTlRGcENseHY1bWtTd280L2kxcjRjQ1dWaHFWUnBSRXdYWTZPNUxkKy8wSmFxaXNqd0dEVHNLeHNuWDZFaTU1MSt1eDBLby9wNFhSNHpmOTZYTmEybVVlZVF0SkVnR3ZvSExZUFgyK1d4QU9zQT09OjpDvusEpS38ZaR7gEJl7FE/

359
Colère Tueur de Lapin  Mar 4, 2022 • 8:55:29am

re: #357 Yeah Sure WhatEVs

That’s what I was thinking - right after WTF WERE YOU THINKING?

Kickback / laundrying

360
Teddy's Person  Mar 4, 2022 • 8:55:46am

re: #357 Yeah Sure WhatEVs

That’s what I was thinking - right after WTF WERE YOU THINKING?

My first thought was typical, teachers get screwed over again.

361
Yeah Sure WhatEVs  Mar 4, 2022 • 8:56:29am

re: #359 Colère Tueur de Lapin

Kickback / laundrying

Republicans and their love of Putin?

362
Yeah Sure WhatEVs  Mar 4, 2022 • 8:57:02am

re: #360 Teddy’s Person

My first thought was typical, teachers get screwed over again.

That goes without saying. 😕

363
Scottish Dragon  Mar 4, 2022 • 8:57:40am
364
Decatur Deb  Mar 4, 2022 • 8:57:59am

re: #360 Teddy’s Person

My first thought was typical, teachers get screwed over again.

The decisionmakers who left that money in there, in the face of the buildup to war, need to do time.

365
Dopamine Fish  Mar 4, 2022 • 8:59:17am

re: #364 Decatur Deb

The decisionmakers who left that money in there, in the face of the buildup to war, need to do time.

Yeah, that’s a very dumb decision. If you’re looking at all the stuff coming out of Washington, they’re saying that war is coming, and you continue to maintain your holdings in Russian banks, you’re dumb and you should owe somebody a lot of money.

366
HRH Stanley Sea  Mar 4, 2022 • 8:59:34am

This was so hard for me.

QUdINm5MVUZPVitVeTN2UTdibmxvWEFsSFF3WHdQc3lRS3ZoUHFaalFCeFBobzhXWEVzeDUvZnNhN1FBRWE1aUUzZ2cyc1Jkd3R2MEp0L1JrRWVhYUYxWERkUnFWYUdRTUJnckkrU0FZbmZEeTNoQTA3R1N3THNxRWZnZk9oa3A4T0g1dWhHa1BlMGpGUkpCUFdFV2dnaGxPTkd2MTdHZms0WXhaWEQvSi9jPTo6CuyI2SO8RD6jsjovyLF/Hw==

367
Dr Lizardo  Mar 4, 2022 • 9:00:01am

re: #356 ericblair

Then they have to operating out of NATO airbases in Central Europe. Unless the Russians are so hopelessly incompetent that they’ve failed to strike Ukrainian Air Force bases.

368
steve_davis  Mar 4, 2022 • 9:02:14am

re: #337 William Lewis

When I shot film, my utterly favorite cameras were the old Contax range finders. The prewar production line was taken to Kyiv and my Kiev 4 & 5 were wonderful cameras. But it took some tries and buying from the right sources to get known good ones. The lenses tended to have less issues because they were simpler & they were Zeiss designs.

I currently have a FSU 35/2.8 lens for my Leica that is as good as pre-WWII Zeiss. The current FSU 50/2 I have is a stinker. Sample variation is a killer.

and it’s hard to fuck up a 50mm lens. That’s normally the easiest lens to build, and typically the cheapest to buy because of that.

369
Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))  Mar 4, 2022 • 9:03:39am

re: #353 Teddy’s Person

I wonder if this was part of the failed aluminum plant deal that Mitch McConnell worked on during the Trump administration. You build your plant in Kentucky, and we’ll give you our teacher retirement funds.

I was about to say that it sounds like Mitch McConnel’s fingerprints were all over it.

God that man is a menace to his own people…

370
Scottish Dragon  Mar 4, 2022 • 9:04:45am

re: #367 Dr Lizardo

Then they have to operating out of NATO airbases in Central Europe. Unless the Russians are so hopelessly incompetent that they’ve failed to strike Ukrainian Air Force bases.

Increasingly looks like the Russian AF cannot afford precision guided munitions (PGM) or pilots lack the training to use them. Analysts are narrowing in on possibility that the Russian AF is reluctant to reveal degree of operational problems and weakness to Western observers.

371
Dr Lizardo  Mar 4, 2022 • 9:05:54am

re: #370 Scottish Dragon

Increasingly looks like the Russian AF cannot afford precision guided munitions (PGM) or pilots lack the training to use them. Analysts are narrowing in on possibility that the Russian AF is reluctant to reveal degree of operational problems and weakness to Western observers.

That could well be.

372
Decatur Deb  Mar 4, 2022 • 9:06:26am

re: #370 Scottish Dragon

Increasingly looks like the Russian AF cannot afford precision guided munitions (PGM) or pilots lack the training to use them. Analysts are narrowing in on possibility that the Russian AF is reluctant to reveal degree of operational problems and weakness to Western observers.

Or their Ministry of Defence.

373
Florida Panhandler  Mar 4, 2022 • 9:06:40am

Snowden’s absence continues despite his re-surfacing a single snarky pathetic post since the invasion began. If he ever resurfaces again look for the pivot towards fully supporting/excusing/denying the actions of his benefactor, whether forced by Putin or not. So much is the lot of the libertarian who thinks that that ideology is actually workable in real life without gangsters and thugs taking over. In any regard Putin’s assets are becoming more and more isolated and many jumping ship like Traitor Hannity.

Traitor Hannity’s cowardly pivot should make him a joke amongst the MAGA crowd, but it won’t because the entire movement is a bad terrible joke to begin with. Putin’s unleashed worldwide army of sycophant fascist asswipes intent on corrupt thugs being in charge across the globe. This must be made clear to every voter as the election draws nearer.

374
Dopamine Fish  Mar 4, 2022 • 9:07:11am

re: #370 Scottish Dragon

Increasingly looks like the Russian AF cannot afford precision guided munitions (PGM) or pilots lack the training to use them. Analysts are narrowing in on possibility that the Russian AF is reluctant to reveal degree of operational problems and weakness to Western observers.

It’s a lack of PGM, as well as apparently bad intel; threads from early in the war indicate that Russian first strikes hit places that had been abandoned, or had no military aircraft present.

375
Dr Lizardo  Mar 4, 2022 • 9:08:11am
376
Dopamine Fish  Mar 4, 2022 • 9:11:50am

Huh. Today I learned.

377
Scottish Dragon  Mar 4, 2022 • 9:13:25am

re: #372 Decatur Deb

Or their Ministry of Defence.

378
Scottish Dragon  Mar 4, 2022 • 9:16:33am

re: #376 Dopamine Fish

Huh. Today I learned.

I know he isn’t supposed to say that, but it is unfortunately true.

The world needs one of the dissidents in the FSB to end this for all our sakes.

379
Dr Lizardo  Mar 4, 2022 • 9:17:19am

re: #377 Scottish Dragon

That clown should thank his lucky stars that he’s dealing with Putin.

If Stalin was the boss, he’d have already been shot in the basement of the Lubyanka.

380
garzooma  Mar 4, 2022 • 9:20:27am

re: #376 Dopamine Fish

There’s a reason that assassinations are banned in the U.S. by executive order. Because if we were to vocally advocate for or endorse political assassinations, guess what it gives psychopathic adversaries the justification to do to their critics here?

It’s worse than that in this case. You don’t want the ruler of a country with nuclear weapons thinking that his choices are between firing some nukes or eating a bullet.

381
Belafon  Mar 4, 2022 • 9:22:54am

re: #380 garzooma

It’s worse than that in this case. You don’t want the ruler of a country with nuclear weapons thinking that his choices are between firing some nukes or eating a bullet.

It also gives Russia the ability to say “We can go after Ukraine’s president because ours is a target of the US.”

382
Barefoot Grin  Mar 4, 2022 • 9:22:58am

I took the head of the KCIA to assassinate South Korean President Park Chung Hee in 1979 as the increasingly erratic leader responded brutally to demonstrations and labor disputes. It brought about another military coup. Fortunately, the US was in a position to apply pressure after the Gwangju massacre from behind the scenes as South Koreans continued to protest at great risk. Finally, though, it may have been the need to present a democratic face to the world as the 1988 summer olympic games loomed that nudged the military and political leadership to forego authoritarianism for democracy (pledged in 1987, but only achieved in the early 1990s).

I don’t see Russia changing much without Putin, but it’s the best hope for Russia and the world.

383
darthstar  Mar 4, 2022 • 9:23:25am

Merle in his happy place…and fleurs.

384
Hecuba's daughter  Mar 4, 2022 • 9:23:29am

re: #332 Dr Lizardo

It’s all about quality control, or lack thereof in Russia. I owned a couple Russian wristwatches…one was great, kept really good time, and could probably take a direct hit from Tsar Bomba.

The other one? Failed in less than a year. The Russians are entirely capable of making some very good products when they set their mind to it. They just need to keep their QC consistent.

That was one of their problems with their Covid vaccine — the inconsistency of quality. It didn’t matter if the original lab design was effective if much of the vaccine did not meet specifications.

My sister tends to be contemptuous of all things Russian based on her personal contacts with the local community. Based on the culture in which they were raised before emigrating here, too many look for short cuts and are not adaptable to a culture which demands hard work.

385
darthstar  Mar 4, 2022 • 9:25:54am

re: #378 Scottish Dragon

I know he isn’t supposed to say that, but it is unfortunately true.

The world needs one of the dissidents in the FSB to end this for all our sakes.

And Lindsey Graham illustrates why he should never rise to the Executive branch.

386
Eclectic Cyborg  Mar 4, 2022 • 9:26:35am

I wonder if it’s a good time to invest in Russian window futures?

/

387
Decatur Deb  Mar 4, 2022 • 9:27:35am

re: #380 garzooma

It’s worse than that in this case. You don’t want the ruler of a country with nuclear weapons thinking that his choices are between firing some nukes or eating a bullet.

re: #381 Belafon

It also gives Russia the ability to say “We can go after Ukraine’s president because ours is a target of the US.”

And that fuckhead Lindsey knows all this—he’s a Reserve colonel in the Judge Advocate General Corps.

388
jaunte  Mar 4, 2022 • 9:28:49am
389
Scottish Dragon  Mar 4, 2022 • 9:30:26am

re: #379 Dr Lizardo

That clown should thank his lucky stars that he’s dealing with Putin.

If Stalin was the boss, he’d have already been shot in the basement of the Lubyanka.

I’m not sure. He’s an ethnic Tuvan, which makes him unusually safe to have around by Russian coup calculation since he has no built in power base. That’s why he has survived every purge since 1991. Stalin was actually hostile to competent officers, since that was a direct threat to him.

390
Jay C  Mar 4, 2022 • 9:30:41am

re: #353 Teddy’s Person

I wonder if this was part of the failed aluminum plant deal that Mitch McConnell worked on during the Trump administration. You build your plant in Kentucky, and we’ll give you our teacher retirement funds.

IIRC (and Google and Wiki are surprisingly stinting of information), the aluminum plant project in Ashland, KY well pre-dates the Trump Admin: however, all that that “plant” has produced, so far, is a steady stream of hot air, boosterish bullshit, and financial FAIL. And the only jobs it created were for the guys who built a long fence around the site in 2019.
ISTR that getting the Russians (fronted by the crooked oligarch Oleg Deripaska) involved was the project of Mitch McConnell and the then-Governor (the odious Matt Bevin), who chose them to try to revitalize the shuttered plant over some other bidder (domestic, I think).
I’m sure there was some sleaze involved, but I’m also sure we’re unlikely to get to the bottom of it because Mitch McConnell…

391
darthstar  Mar 4, 2022 • 9:30:46am

Highway 50 closed at Echo Summit due to some gravel on the road.

That’s a big fuckin’ rock. I hope Coyote is okay.

392
jaunte  Mar 4, 2022 • 9:31:14am

re: #391 darthstar

Wow, that’s the size of a large boulder.

393
Jay C  Mar 4, 2022 • 9:31:49am

re: #386 Eclectic Cyborg

I wonder if it’s a good time to invest in Russian window futures?

/

I dunno: it’s traditionally a falling market….

394
Scottish Dragon  Mar 4, 2022 • 9:32:16am

re: #381 Belafon

It also gives Russia the ability to say “We can go after Ukraine’s president because ours is a target of the US.”

Well, they are doing that openly anyway. 3 attempts so far according to Brit newspapers.

395
retired cynic  Mar 4, 2022 • 9:35:05am

re: #383 darthstar

Merle in his happy place…and fleurs.

[Embedded content]

He DOES look happy!

396
lawhawk  Mar 4, 2022 • 9:35:31am
397
No Malarkey!  Mar 4, 2022 • 9:36:25am

re: #349 Scottish Dragon

oh no.

398
darthstar  Mar 4, 2022 • 9:37:19am

re: #375 Dr Lizardo

I think not having Windows updates would be a bit of a gift to Russia.

399
Scottish Dragon  Mar 4, 2022 • 9:38:11am

re: #397 No Malarkey!

It appears by that point the value had dropped to 778,000 as of 31st of December.

400
darthstar  Mar 4, 2022 • 9:38:13am

re: #397 No Malarkey!

[Embedded content]

I wonder if Rand Paul had his finger in that pie.

401
Teddy's Person  Mar 4, 2022 • 9:38:58am

deleted

402
retired cynic  Mar 4, 2022 • 9:39:31am

Just speaking personally here: I don’t do Wordle; I have other habits! But I would far rather scroll past posted results here than unlabeled private messages. I always look at those, in case something important to one of us is shown there. And that takes a lot more time.

IMO, post them, and I can scroll past without an issue. IMO.

403
Decatur Deb  Mar 4, 2022 • 9:40:00am

re: #364 Decatur Deb

The decisionmakers who left that money in there, in the face of the buildup to war, need to do time.

re: #397 No Malarkey!

Kentucky’s Teacher Retirement System says it sold all $12 million of its investment with Sberbank of Russia on Feb. 23 — the day before it invaded Ukraine.

Never Mind.

404
JC1  Mar 4, 2022 • 9:40:21am

re: #360 Teddy’s Person

My first thought was typical, teachers get screwed over again.

This investment is less than 1% of the fund’s assets. It won’t mean much.

405
No Malarkey!  Mar 4, 2022 • 9:41:23am

re: #400 darthstar

I wonder if Rand Paul had his finger in that pie.

No, I know things about the Teacher’s Retirement System that leave me with little confidence in it. But its funded from teachers’ compensation and has an independent board that makes investment decisions.

406
Yeah Sure WhatEVs  Mar 4, 2022 • 9:46:19am

re: #402 retired cynic

Just speaking personally here: I don’t do Wordle; I have other habits! But I would far rather scroll past posted results here than unlabeled private messages. I always look at those, in case something important to one of us is shown there. And that takes a lot more time.

IMO, post them, and I can scroll past without an issue. IMO.

Plus it’s extra work to fat finger it on my phone.

A little joy amidst all the shit. I’m not sure why this has to be hidden.

407
GlutenFreeJesus  Mar 4, 2022 • 9:47:59am

How about a Wordle page. :)

408
Decatur Deb  Mar 4, 2022 • 9:49:33am

Posobiec, Free Republic, and LGF have arrived at the same assessment of Lindsey Graham. 2022 is weird.

409
Shropshire Slasher  Mar 4, 2022 • 9:49:57am

re: #391 darthstar

Highway 50 closed at Echo Summit due to some gravel on the road.

[Embedded content]

They are going to need something bigger than a single 100 pound jack-hammer.

410
Hecuba's daughter  Mar 4, 2022 • 9:50:43am

re: #402 retired cynic

Just speaking personally here: I don’t do Wordle; I have other habits! But I would far rather scroll past posted results here than unlabeled private messages. I always look at those, in case something important to one of us is shown there. And that takes a lot more time.

IMO, post them, and I can scroll past without an issue. IMO.

I do try to label my comments so those not interested can skip them — but there were a couple responses today where I failed to do that. Will make sure in the future that anything that is wordler (or similar games) related is identified so they can be bypassed.

411
Belafon  Mar 4, 2022 • 9:55:30am

re: #398 darthstar

I think not having Windows updates would be a bit of a gift to Russia.

You don’t really need them if you can’t connect to the internet.

412
retired cynic  Mar 4, 2022 • 9:55:54am

New evidence shows Trump was told many times there was no voter fraud — but he kept saying it anyway
The House Jan. 6 panel aims to prove that Trump was acting corruptly by continuing to spread misinformation about the election long after he had reason to know he had legitimately lost
washingtonpost.com

One of those people said the committee spent five hours focused particularly on the role of former chief of staff Mark Meadows and Trump attorney Cleta Mitchell in casting doubt on the election even before the vote. The committee is probing extensive text messages between Meadows and Mitchell, the two people said.

413
darthstar  Mar 4, 2022 • 9:56:37am

Well, the February jobs report didn’t suck. +678,000 non-farm jobs. Sorry, Republicans.

414
Teukka  Mar 4, 2022 • 9:57:03am

The longer Putin lets this drag on, the more likely it is that people in the West will begin to hunt for Putins henchmen, collaborators and enablers. We’re seeing the beginning of that.

415
darthstar  Mar 4, 2022 • 9:57:22am

re: #411 Belafon

You don’t really need them if you can’t connect to the internet.

Don’t they have modems?

416
DodgerFan1988  Mar 4, 2022 • 9:57:36am
417
Eclectic Cyborg  Mar 4, 2022 • 9:57:36am

All over the place on that one:

Wordle 258 6/6

⬜⬜🟨⬜🟨
⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
🟨🟨🟨⬜⬜
🟨🟨⬜⬜⬜
⬜🟩🟩🟩⬜
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

418
Dr Lizardo  Mar 4, 2022 • 9:58:34am

This YouTube Channel, Brick Immortar, really outdid himself with this two-part, hour and a half long documentary on the 2014 MV Sewol disaster:

Youtube Video

Youtube Video

There should be an Emmy category for YouTube documentaries. This one would be a shoe-in.

419
Yeah Sure WhatEVs  Mar 4, 2022 • 9:58:47am

re: #414 Teukka

The longer Putin lets this drag on, the more likely it is that people in the West will begin to hunt for Putins henchmen, collaborators and enablers. We’re seeing the beginning of that.

That’s a good thing. I approve.

420
Decatur Deb  Mar 4, 2022 • 9:59:27am

re: #414 Teukka

The longer Putin lets this drag on, the more likely it is that people in the West will begin to hunt for Putins henchmen, collaborators and enablers. We’re seeing the beginning of that.

I know a place near Central Park they should check.

421
Shropshire Slasher  Mar 4, 2022 • 10:03:27am

re: #402 retired cynic

Just speaking personally here: I don’t do Wordle; I have other habits! But I would far rather scroll past posted results here than unlabeled private messages. I always look at those, in case something important to one of us is shown there. And that takes a lot more time.

IMO, post them, and I can scroll past without an issue. IMO.

I believe people are being polite and hiding it because some people (like me) cry about seeing wordle every day. I am done crying, about this anyway. I do agree with you.

422
Belafon  Mar 4, 2022 • 10:04:07am

re: #415 darthstar

Don’t they have modems?

Yes, but either you don’t need the updates or Windows is a crappy operating system that you should never connect to the internet.

These days, Windows isn’t any worse than any other operating system.

423
Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))  Mar 4, 2022 • 10:06:07am

re: #421 Shropshire Slasher

I believe people are being polite and hiding it because some people (like me) cry about seeing wordle every day. I am done crying, about this anyway. I do agree with you.

damned if you do, damned if you don’t

someday I might take up the game.

for now I am sticking with spider solitaire…

424
retired cynic  Mar 4, 2022 • 10:06:41am

“We’re Underestimating What Mr. Putin Is Up To”: Sizing Up Media Coverage of Russia’s Attack on Ukraine
“We’re sort of framing this as a plucky country slaying a dictatorship,” says author Peter Pomerantsev. “But Putin is this mad stalker trying to get revenge.”
by Joe Pompeo (no relation!)

vanityfair.com?

The one problematic thing is that nobody has really made sense of what Putin’s up to. I think we’re sort of framing this as a plucky country slaying a dictatorship. But Putin is this mad stalker trying to get revenge. It’s all about undermining 1989 and what he feels was an unfair defeat of the Soviet Union. He hates Ukraine because they chose a different path, and that’s a challenge to the kleptocratic model he’s set up. But his aim is America. Listen to what the Russian propaganda is saying. It’s all about you guys. And I do wonder if this framing of plucky little guy versus the Goliath misses the fact that he’s gunning for you, he’s coming for you. He’s very clearly saying, over and over again, that he thinks America controls Europe, that it rules Europe secretly like a puppet master, and that America has been conducting nonstop war against Russia. Part of it is for propaganda purposes, but part of it clearly reflects his worldview and the worldview of those around him. Clearly, what’s happening now is the battle between a dictatorship and a country fighting for its future. But we’re kind of missing out on the big picture. It still seems like a drama from a faraway place, when actually, the drama is about us.

425
Scottish Dragon  Mar 4, 2022 • 10:06:45am
426
Dr Lizardo  Mar 4, 2022 • 10:07:23am
427
darthstar  Mar 4, 2022 • 10:08:45am

re: #422 Belafon

Yes, but either you don’t need the updates or Windows is a crappy operating system that you should never connect to the internet.

These days, Windows isn’t any worse than any other operating system.

I should probably add sarc tags to my tech posts…happy to see Microsoft and Oracle giving Russia the boot. Really need Amazon to ban Russian IP ranges from accessing the backbone. That would likely mean game over for their propaganda machine…and most of their communications as a lot of their content, including state TV, is voice over IP, or VOIP.

428
No Malarkey!  Mar 4, 2022 • 10:09:51am

re: #413 darthstar

Well, the February jobs report didn’t suck. +678,000 non-farm jobs. Sorry, Republicans.

The economy has already generated half as many jobs this year as it did in a typical year pre-pandemic.

429
Scottish Dragon  Mar 4, 2022 • 10:11:30am

re: #424 retired cynic

“We’re Underestimating What Mr. Putin Is Up To”: Sizing Up Media Coverage of Russia’s Attack on Ukraine
“We’re sort of framing this as a plucky country slaying a dictatorship,” says author Peter Pomerantsev. “But Putin is this mad stalker trying to get revenge.”
by Joe Pompeo (no relation!)

vanityfair.com?

I don’t think anybody is underestimating that at all.

It’s why you see a majority of Swedish and Finnish citizens now in favor of joining NATO.

430
Belafon  Mar 4, 2022 • 10:14:12am

re: #424 retired cynic

“We’re Underestimating What Mr. Putin Is Up To”: Sizing Up Media Coverage of Russia’s Attack on Ukraine
“We’re sort of framing this as a plucky country slaying a dictatorship,” says author Peter Pomerantsev. “But Putin is this mad stalker trying to get revenge.”
by Joe Pompeo (no relation!)

vanityfair.com?

If we underestimate Putin, we could end up losing when he surprises us.
If we overestimate Putin, we could end up giving up when we shouldn’t have.

431
darthstar  Mar 4, 2022 • 10:14:43am

re: #425 Scottish Dragon

Twenty years of unchecked corruption and a shit-ton of hubris. All of the officers they had in Afghanistan in the 90s are long since retired. Vladimir Putin has been running a long con and he wasn’t even aware of it. He actually still believed his military was battle ready.

If he tried to start a multi-national war, I honestly think Russia would fall faster than Ukraine. They’re in worse shape than Iraq was when we took it the second time…and we’d bombed the fuck out of them for a couple of years before that happened.

432
Belafon  Mar 4, 2022 • 10:16:07am

We’re definitely getting near cornered animal territory. But that doesn’t mean you back off because you’re afraid he might bite.

433
Scottish Dragon  Mar 4, 2022 • 10:16:25am
434
No Malarkey!  Mar 4, 2022 • 10:16:34am

re: #425 Scottish Dragon

435
Scottish Dragon  Mar 4, 2022 • 10:19:22am

re: #431 darthstar

Twenty years of unchecked corruption and a shit-ton of hubris. All of the officers they had in Afghanistan in the 90s are long since retired. Vladimir Putin has been running a long con and he wasn’t even aware of it. He actually still believed his military was battle ready.

If he tried to start a multi-national war, I honestly think Russia would fall faster than Ukraine. They’re in worse shape than Iraq was when we took it the second time…and we’d bombed the fuck out of them for a couple of years before that happened.

Yes, the sheer folly of this has been shocking. I would not consider the Russian Army capable of defending Russian territory at this point, which is why I concede that No Malarky has a point in how dangerous Putin can be right now. His military is a paper tiger and it is burning.

436
darthstar  Mar 4, 2022 • 10:21:02am

I was waiting for the Ruble to drop below the Japanese Yen…which isn’t exactly a 1-1 comparison…Ruble’s down another 10%…Sayonara motherfucker.

1 Russian Ruble equals
0.0081 United States Dollar

437
Dr Lizardo  Mar 4, 2022 • 10:23:58am

re: #431 darthstar

Twenty years of unchecked corruption and a shit-ton of hubris. All of the officers they had in Afghanistan in the 90s are long since retired. Vladimir Putin has been running a long con and he wasn’t even aware of it. He actually still believed his military was battle ready.

If he tried to start a multi-national war, I honestly think Russia would fall faster than Ukraine. They’re in worse shape than Iraq was when we took it the second time…and we’d bombed the fuck out of them for a couple of years before that happened.

That could well explain why the Turks closed the Bosphorus and are cheerfully selling their deadly drones to the Ukrainians. Erdoğan watches the news just like us, and he has an intelligence service to give him news none of us are privy to.

Erdoğan probably reckons the Turkish Army could make it to Red Square in a speedrun.

438
No Malarkey!  Mar 4, 2022 • 10:25:38am

J.P. Morgan predicts Russian GDP will drop 11%, which seems like a conservative estimate to me. thestreet.com

439
Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))  Mar 4, 2022 • 10:26:13am

re: #430 Belafon

If we underestimate Putin, we could end up losing when he surprises us.
If we overestimate Putin, we could end up giving up when we shouldn’t have.

I think he is counting on us getting tired and moving on…we can only sustain our current level of media concern for so long.

440
Backwoods_Sleuth  Mar 4, 2022 • 10:27:16am
441
No Malarkey!  Mar 4, 2022 • 10:27:29am

re: #437 Dr Lizardo

That could well explain why the Turks closed the Bosphorus and are cheerfully selling their deadly drones to the Ukrainians. Erdoğan watches the news just like us, and he has an intelligence service to give him news none of us are privy to.

Erdoğan probably reckons the Turkish Army could make it to Red Square in a speedrun.

I think that Putin has an elite division based near Moscow, which I expect him to keep there to protect himself. Though how elite it actually is is subject to question now.

442
jaunte  Mar 4, 2022 • 10:30:49am
443
darthstar  Mar 4, 2022 • 10:30:52am

re: #441 No Malarkey!

I think that Putin has an elite division based near Moscow, which I expect him to keep there to protect himself. Though how elite it actually is is subject to question now.

I suspect his personal security crews are undergoing some intense refresher training these days…as well as equipment upgrades.

444
steve_davis  Mar 4, 2022 • 10:32:52am

re: #443 darthstar

I suspect his personal security crews are undergoing some intense refresher training these days…as well as equipment upgrades.

down at the Havoline, getting tires rotated on all the vehicles.

445
jaunte  Mar 4, 2022 • 10:33:37am

re: #443 darthstar

intense refresher training

With some truth serum/interrogation interludes.

446
Barefoot Grin  Mar 4, 2022 • 10:35:09am

re: #420 Decatur Deb

I know a place near Central Park they should check.

Lousy with ‘em.

447
Scottish Dragon  Mar 4, 2022 • 10:36:40am

re: #437 Dr Lizardo

That could well explain why the Turks closed the Bosphorus and are cheerfully selling their deadly drones to the Ukrainians. Erdoğan watches the news just like us, and he has an intelligence service to give him news none of us are privy to.

Erdoğan probably reckons the Turkish Army could make it to Red Square in a speedrun.

The Turks are nasty. I never understood why some Israel fanboys about ten years ago were confidant about an Israel/Turkey dust-up. That’s one badger I would avoid poking.

448
Backwoods_Sleuth  Mar 4, 2022 • 10:36:45am
449
No Malarkey!  Mar 4, 2022 • 10:36:52am

re: #442 jaunte

Before this war is over there are going to be millions of refugees; the US must take its fair share of them. Get TFG onboard by letting him pick the teenage refugee who most closely resembles Ivanka as his new mistress.

450
Grunthos the Flatulent  Mar 4, 2022 • 10:37:12am

UTC+13 calling. UTC+13 calling. Have encountered weekend Wordling conditions. Please advise.

Click to Reveal

Wordle 259 5/6

⬛🟩🟩⬛🟩
⬛🟩🟩⬛🟩
⬛🟩🟩⬛🟩
⬛🟩🟩⬛🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

451
jaunte  Mar 4, 2022 • 10:37:35am

re: #449 No Malarkey!

Trauma piled on trauma.

452
danarchy  Mar 4, 2022 • 10:38:09am

re: #365 Dopamine Fish

Yeah, that’s a very dumb decision. If you’re looking at all the stuff coming out of Washington, they’re saying that war is coming, and you continue to maintain your holdings in Russian banks, you’re dumb and you should owe somebody a lot of money.

Apparently it also isn’t true

yahoo.com

They apparently sold all of their shares a couple weeks ago. They lost about 3 million of their total investment of 15 million.

453
Shropshire Slasher  Mar 4, 2022 • 10:38:32am

Putin committing suicide for fear of death.

454
Hecuba's daughter  Mar 4, 2022 • 10:39:01am

re: #450 Grunthos the Flatulent

Oh no!! looks like tomorrow’s wordle will be a challenge!

455
John Hughes  Mar 4, 2022 • 10:39:47am

re: #51 Teukka

Even though there is a lot of difference in their ideology (extreme left vs. extreme right),

first you’d have to demonstrate that there is anything “extreme left” about their ideology.

They are right wing authoritarians.

456
Teukka  Mar 4, 2022 • 10:40:50am

re: #453 Shropshire Slasher

Putin committing suicide for fear of death.

Not fear of death. Fear of what will await him at the Hague.

457
No Malarkey!  Mar 4, 2022 • 10:41:21am

re: #439 Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))

I think he is counting on us getting tired and moving on…we can only sustain our current level of media concern for so long.

If it bleeds, it leads. As long as Putin is providing us plenty of war porn, the media is going to lap it up.

458
No Malarkey!  Mar 4, 2022 • 10:42:21am

re: #456 Teukka

Not fear of death. Fear of what will await him at the Hague.

If Putin loses power, I think he will be too dead to face a war crimes tribunal.

459
FFL (GOP Delenda Est)  Mar 4, 2022 • 10:47:55am

re: #388 jaunte

Putin has failed conservatism by failing to overrun a liberal democracy quickly enough.
//

460
GlutenFreeJesus  Mar 4, 2022 • 11:01:57am

re: #441 No Malarkey!

I think that Putin has an elite division based near Moscow, which I expect him to keep there to protect himself. Though how elite it actually is is subject to question now.

Putin ain’t in Moscow. Call it a hunch.

461
darthstar  Mar 4, 2022 • 11:03:06am

I just texted some rando in Russia.

462
John Hughes  Mar 4, 2022 • 12:38:01pm

re: #64 Dr Lizardo

The Kremlin also appears to have had a totally fantastical idea of the reception they would get. Several prisoners of war said they had been assured Ukrainians would welcome them as liberators.

strange, I seem to have heard that somewhere before.


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