acrashb

You know if we converted a tenth of the amount written in this thread to game development and giving the community meaningful QOL features such as the replay system already available in CMPE and a map editor that isn't the most tedious thing to use on earth we might actually be on engine 5 by now.

1000 pages and 1M views, well safe to say that this thread has expunged the shame of the Peng Thread being the largest and mostest longest on the forum.  This is now the Forum Thread of Legend...we well all be able to tell our grandchildren that we were here, and they will all think we are lying about it - which is the exact opposite situation with aforementioned Peng Thread.

Hey guys, this is HISTORY under our eyes ! 🇺🇦
 
 

Page 1000 incoming... I think it's only right to mark this milestone with a bone  

Russian Official:  *snorts a rail of coke off of the stripper's ass*  "uh...yes"

I believe that the actual objective is in fact to ensure Russia's defeat, but it's a goal that cannot be stated publicly for diplomatic reasons.
It would be a major boost to Putin's popularity if the US openly declared that they were plotting Russia's humiliating defeat.
Imagine if during the US stay in Afghanistan, Pakistan had come out and said "Our objective is to ensure American defeat - thwarting their aims to hold on to Afghanistan and smashing its armed forces in a convincing and humiliating way".

Let’s Use Chicago Rules to Beat Russia
Why the U.S. adversary is a lot like Al Capone
By Eliot A. Cohen
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/07/madrid-nato-summit-2022-russia-ukraine/661494/
 
 

Russia doesn't have 'another army' waiting around so it'll probably be a little difficult to take back Alaska.

Elvis and I are pissed- that is a Flyers goalie, and we need all the help we can get.

How not to destroy captured equipment:
 
 

I just realised. The Russians have put up barges with radar reflectors next to Kerch bridge and then tested our a smoke screen.
They are literally defending it with smoke and mirrors  

Without wishing to derail the thread with discussion of old Polish TV shows again, I can't help noticing three tankers and a dog in front of the Polish-flagged T-72. Something tells me the homage is deliberate...

Having both Leatherneck and Bootneck friends, let me assure you it is entirely possible to be all of the above lol.
I have no reason to believe he lied....

I checked out joining the International Legion when it was first was announced but at age 65 and 25 years out of the military, naturally it was a polite 'no'.  Too old, not current or recent military and my medical history was a guaranteed 'no' but I tried.
So I did the next best thing.  I had a $1500 DJI drone.   I sent it to Ukraine as a donation in my stead.  If I can't do my part, at least my drone can.  I wonder at times every time there is a Ukrainian drone video, if it is my bird.  That helps me get through all of this.

All right guys, this is a post where I spill my guts in quite an emotional manner, please move along if your're not up for it.
I'll start with stating that I'm really fond of this community that I accidentally found thanks to @Der Zeitgeist. While we differ in perception of some minutiae of the events unraveling in front of us, we all seem to share the same view on whats right and moral in this context. And that is really a lot, more that I could expect from most of my average 'real', 'physical' acquaintances.
For my whole life, since I was an 8 years old kid listening to my grandpa's war tales, I was deeply interested in all things military related. It is easy to get a young boy interested  in this kind of stuff - the power, the agency, the feeling of purpose this provides is unmatched by anything else in the world. Of course  when you're still an adolescent, your understanding of what war/ armed conflict means cannot be deep enough. As I was entering my adulthood, even studying military history academically, I grew to hate the very notion of armed conflict and violence. I guess getting the real grasp of what war means to a regular person was too much to me at this point. I retained my interest, but didn't really pursue it apart from theoretical knowledge. Especially, I dodged the last years of draft i Poland - neither me, nor Polish civil society in general was really ready for it in early 2000's. I was living my life happily since then, like if "The End of History" was and undisputed fact of life.
And it really changed with the start of war in Ukraine. I could easily picture myself in the position of average Kyiv or Kharkiv citizen, a guy in his late 30s, with a reasonable career in IT, concentrated on making a living for his wife and young kids, who is suddenly confronted with the need to physically fight for all that is important for him. 
Of course, in this great community we mostly  concentrate of relatively coldly analysing what is going on, trying to get a grasp of events the way a historian narrates the Battle of Kursk - it is of course THE WAY to practically understand the events and be able to draw conclusions. That's how a commander should look at it, putting his feeling aside. This however isn't the only way to talk about war, especially it isn't the only "right" way to do so. 
On a personal or local society level, what this war is is the fight between right and wrong, between liberty and slavery, between good and evil. Of course, if you are a mature individual, you understand that the good and bad are very relative terms, and it's best to avoid such violent situations at all. Yet, it if comes to the conflict like this, for me the only true way to talk about the people on the very front line, in the trenches facing The Enemy, is poetry and epic prose. The cold analysis is of course important to practical understanding of the situation, yet it doesn't do justice to a person giving his or her life for a greater cause. Having said that, I run at a few videos kept very much in the spirit I outlined here:
A music video to Sabaton's 40:1 song, really fitting the evens of the first few weeks of war. We might've forget it already, but the first days were about the grassroots citizen resistance that in many cases stopped the orcs. Videos from February and March are really reminding of what it is all about:
Here's an Azov oath from 2015, it's as powerful as it gets:
And a subtitled Ukrainian anthem:
There's a conclusion to this rant - today I sent a letter to my local Territorial Defense brigade. They are overflowing with volunteers at the moment, but I'll should be able to join in the winter, early next year at the latest.
It's OK, I'll have the time to get used to morning jogs I guess.

Combat mission Fire Direction Center needs to be a thing...

I got a feel that KGB clan is starting an operation to replace Putin with Patrushev. He is being portrait as kind of sane version of Putin. Putin right now is like old man living in fantasy land and Patrushev is emerging like straight-talker-problem-solver guy you need in crisis.
For example, while Putin was discussing with Shoigu victory of liberating LDNR and giving awards Patrushev made straight talk that there is still job to be done.
 
And here he talks about issues of Far East
Here you see him warning local authorities about their indifference to local regional needs (as if it is not his boss who put them there and tolerated their behavior). He talks like he is sure they will not be able to appeal to Putin himself. 
So, I am reading tea leaves that they are isolating Old Man rerouting decision making processes to Patrushev like do not bother Glorious Old Man with unnecessary boring details, respect his age and health. 
Fun Fact - Lenin was always portraited as Glorious Old Man. He was like an Orthodox saint elder. But Lenin was just 53 years old and young energetic politician Putin is 69 years old now.

Interesting tidbits in this article:
Ukraine prepares a counter-offensive to retake Kherson province
https://www.economist.com/europe/2022/07/03/ukraine-prepares-a-counter-offensive-to-retake-kherson-province
 

Impact on Ru industry - civilian Girkin (Nesmyan)
 

Did not look like RU propaganda tool. More like kid with imagination. 

Brutal video of death of Ukrainian soldier who tried to cover his wounded collegue. Brave guy - in US, for such action he would probably earn Medal of Honour. In this war there are probably dozens if not hundreds of similar nameless feats.
 
Also, tension remain sky high in Belarusian direction- medics are forbidden to left the country, Belarussian soldiers are keep in the field constantly training already for some time, there is also visibvle movement from ammunition depots. Lukashanka's statement hardened as well in last several days (he said he "made decision long ago'); judging by his rants, both countries are already at serious war. Perhaps Putin pressures him to do something, but it still seems he is doing everything he can not do to anything...
Ukrainian officials (Podolyak lately) constantly send messages to Belarus to **** off, they seem to believe Ru+BL soldiers in the North may at least harass their troops along the border to keep their forces occupied there.
This may still be a game "I know you are bluffing so I will bluff too".

I agree that discussing the subject in depth would be almost as derailing as talking about old Polish TV shows  But from outsider and layman's perspective it sound really interesting. I'm quite sure that both Russian nationalism and imperialism are things, and although from foreign  POV both manifest themselves more or less in the same way, maybe there's indeed a discourse between the two inside Russia?  As a rule of thumb, hardcore nationalism focused on ethnicity and/ or race might be quite in opposition to imperialism, which always seems to be at least a bit universal ( are the Buryats Russians? Tricky question I guess...).
I'll be happy to see this discussed.

That was the dumbest idea ever, or at least a contender for the prize. It exist only because of a quirk in the U.S. electoral system that I won't bombard the thread with. And yes it should be ended immediately.

Closing topic of Uzbekistan for now here is civilian "Girkin " (Nesmyan) quote regarding situation in the whole region
Looks like while discussing crisis management for RU going down, we missed that RU downfall will ignite all regions where RU compressed issues but never truly resolved them. Given Taliban is around the corner I would say it is not just one pressure cooker that is going to explode.  

Can we take this review of old tv shows to a different thread?  it is just filling up space unnecessarily in this one