Russia and Ukraine

[The Grand Nudger]

OFC, in the alternate reality crafted by putins admin, they're fighting the very real possibility of..well...this..

[Leonardo17]

Seymour Hersh is reporting the details on what everybody knew already: the US blew up the Nordstream pipelines.

https://seymourhersh.substack.com/p/how-...paign=post

(Hersh was the first to report about My Lai and other important stories.)

https://youtu.be/dmEsZTDrm60?t=5

[The Grand Nudger]

Time for some depressing numbers. Since 2014, a conservative estimate of deaths for both sides in the russo-ukranian war, is 200k. Many, many many many more wounded, displaced, captured, kidnapped, missing - and straight up fled. If we split that right down the middle, assuming that russian forces are the most fearsome and competent invaders the world has ever seen..literally all evidence to the contrary, this is a fucking disaster for all parties involved. I wonder if it even needs to be said that at the current intensity of fighting, 1k kia a day (and lets again assume that russian supersoldiers are inflicting the same on ukranian defenders) this literally cannot continue. In short order, there will be just a handful of people left to so much as throw a rock at the other guy on either side. It reminds me of that old (possibly apocryphal) albert e line. No clue what weapons ww3 will be fought with, but ww4, sticks and stones. Didn't even take a nuke to realize this situation..and it's unlikely that the use of tactical nukes, so often threatened, would actually make the situation worse for the combatants on either side. Not because they aren't horrific, but because russia is really digging a basement under "horrific" already. Presumably, so that they have some place to hide all those bodies.

Personally, I'm beyond the point of thinking that even a return to pre 2014 borders is credible. Putin, or his successor, will simply try again. I have some sympathy for the russian person who, looking at this, thinks there really is something to the idea of it being an existential conflict - because even though it didn't start out that way or even in the same universe, the russian admin has since done everything it possibly could to convince the world that there probably shouldn't be any russia, in future. I have no belief whatsoever in the ability of the russian people to change this situation, and I don't blame them for this predicament in the least. I'm disgusted, I'm disappointed, but I do understand.

[The Grand Nudger]

Do we really constantly have to refute bulshit like this, just because this troll has not been shown the door and sent back to his bridge?

Russia invades Ukraine, Russia is waging war against ukraines civilian population, which is a fucking WAR CRIME. Russia has threatened to expand this war to central Europe, has threatened with nucear war.

Do we really need to elaborate on why it is reasonable to NOT support Russias economy?

+ Putin's Chechen Ally Ramazan Kadyrov is even talking of attacking Poland after Ukraine.

-and the russian analogs to faux news are declaring that a straight in the us will one day be named after stalin.  These people are ridiculous. If any of them truly believe any of it, that explains their incompetence in actual combat all by itself. I can't even, sometimes. Is there still lead in the paint? Do they spend their downtime huffing lada fumes and mainlining bleach? What the actual fuck...?

[The Grand Nudger]

They've gotta do something about russian men's low t and russian womens low fertility rates, eh?  It's not like those casualties are gonna replace themselves!

One thing about Russian culture is that they value men a lot. 

Do they..though...really...? Seems like a lot of dead russian men might argue to the contrary. Hell, living russian women have been known to call that one a lie. Who cares if their sons and brothers and husbands and fathers die. They're a bunch of unemployed wifebeating drunks. A bag of carrots and a sack of potatoes might actually be an upgrade, or so they've said. Hell, the war in ukraine is basically an episode of oprah - check under your dead men, cause there's a free car!

In contrast, since we're talking about valuing men. Know what the basic payout is for a dead us soldier to his listed survivors? 100k, 250k (or more - and there are itemized lists all the way down to the loss of individual digits - thumbs are money baby - and dicks..may as well be gold plated!) if he pays some piddly ass fee....plus whatever pay he's owed or has squirreled away - and in the case of his children, full or partial transference of whatever benefits he's earned in service and didn't live to cash out. They get his social security too. Here in the us, for better and for worse and regardless of how we feel about it, soldiers are lionized, we're heroes. In russia? They're suckers. Marks. Food for enemy artillery.

The King of Battle thanks them for their sacrifice, and drinks deeply of their spilt blood, from the hallowed out skulls of the fallen.

[Thumpalumpacus]

The narrative is changing. The mainstream media are finally admitting that all is not well.

Outnumbered and Worn Out, Ukrainians in East Brace for Russian Assault

The war is intensifying in a string of villages on the eastern front, where doctors struggle to handle an influx of gruesome injuries...

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/06/world...sive.html/

They're preparing us for the bad news.

The Russians are getting ready to launch more human waves. Of course there will be Ukrainian losses as well as victories, bad news as well as good.

I did read this Tweet on another forum this morning, with accompanying video documenting at least 31 destroyed Russian AFVs:

The latest Russian offensive on Vuhledar was an epic disaster. I don’t recall to see such carnage in such a small area since Russians tried to cross the Siverky Donets River last river.

https://twitter.com/Tendar/status/162364...1_&ref_url=

[The Grand Nudger]

Or since the last time they tried the same attack along the same path with the same composition of forces and the same plan of action...in vuhledar. The naval infantry unit involved (supposedly their best) was decimated, reconstituted, then decimated again. It was so gruesome that, for a shining moment, it broke through the state media in russia.

I can't help but pick a nit, though. The numbers coming out suggest that russia isn't preparing to send human waves - rather, that it's already pulled that trigger - and doing as well as it ever has. As a groundpounder right down to the core of my being...I can't comprehend this waste of men. People say, "oh, well, it works". Oookay, if it works, then imagine how much better all those men would work if they were actually trained, supplied, and supported? Insanity.

If I were a betting man, I'd say that ukraine will, if they don't get more support from the west, start jerry rigging the kinds of cluster munitions we no longer use out of what we do send them, and that'll be the next thing the nuts and tankies scream about. "Boo, unfair, double plus ungood, the ukrainian nazis are slaughtering the hapless zerg with terrorweapons!"

[Thumpalumpacus]

Or since the last time they tried the same attack along the same path with the same composition of forces and the same plan of action...in vuhledar. The naval infantry unit involved (supposedly their best) was decimated, reconstituted, then decimated again.  It was so gruesome that, for a shining moment, it broke through the state media in russia.

I can't help but pick a nit, though.  The numbers coming out suggest that russia isn't preparing to send human waves - rather, that it's already pulled that trigger - and doing as well as it ever has.  As a groundpounder right down to the core of my being...I can't comprehend this waste of men.  People say, "oh, well, it works".  Oookay, if it works, then imagine how much better all those men would work if they were actually trained, supplied, and supported?  Insanity.

Right, the definition of insanity raises its ugly head ...























... wait for it ...


























... again.

[HappySkeptic]

Fury in Ukraine as Elon Musk’s SpaceX limits Starlink use for drones

Another data point to show how far Elon has fallen down the alt-right rabbit hole.

[The Grand Nudger]

Pray that he doesn't alter the deal further.