sburke

Sorry just grumpy. I’m on the ground now with food and wine in the belly. so the reason I think China is not quite the monolith has to do with a couple trends 1 demographics. China is about to fall off a population cliff with no way to alter it. The one child policy created a ticking time bomb and the current financial position for younger people is so bad there is no way to entice them to have more children. 2 employment. China has made a big deal of building opportunity and growing their middle class. On the one hand they have been wildly successful, on the other they have created a problem in that the children of that new middle class expect to get employment commensurate with their education, problem is there simply aren’t work opportunities so they are forced into work they resent. 3 the pension system - issue here is similar to that facing the US social security system however it is looking at a much bigger meltdown largely due to the previous couple issues 4 last is housing China is facing a worse housing crisis than the US, again over promising to its population there have been several major failures in development projects with average Chinese losing major amounts of money not sure if you recall the recent incidents where folks went to get their money from the banks and the CCP manipulated their Covid travel restrictions to specifically limit their ability to do so, it got called out with major protests till the CCP had to step in and guarantee their investments you’ll notice none of the items I listed had anything to do with politics I don’t think democracy itself is a big motivator, it is all about financial issues the social compromise in China is based around wealth and opportunity and the CCP is failing heavily in that regard If things get bad undoubtedly the state will come down heavy, but in doing so will have broken that social contract. There have been a couple different crisis lately , the Covid lockdowns, bank issues etc and the govt has been forced to back down several times now. Control is solid for now but there are definitely some cracks and the source of those is something I don’t think the CCP can solve for

https://www.yahoo.com/news/exiled-wagner-boss-returns-russia-114024764.html

My plane is late and I have to walk across a hot tarmac to board. I’m grumpy.

I won’t do your reading for you. Go look into employment opportunities for young people, housing situation and the pension plan. Stop assuming stuff and read about the actual events affecting Chinese society.

The CCP starving part of its population is not much of an option. Right now the CCP has a big problem in just the employment and housing areas that are causing significant stress. If you think that starving them is not going to be an issue I think you need to look more closely at the current state of social relations in China. It isn’t so rock solid as you seem to think it is.

“Loss of controlled positions is not allowed.” You also aren’t supposed to tear off that label on your mattress, however…. somehow that last sentence makes me think the preceding stuff is just BS.

Sometimes?

https://www.yahoo.com/news/ukraine-reports-particularly-fruitful-few-114518802.html

https://www.yahoo.com/news/russians-die-under-mysterious-circumstances-095451323.html

I’m sorry, what exactly are we basing this claim on? What are production rates? What actual technology standards are included? Considering they are fielding t 54s not so sure any of this is valid.

I’m not quite dead yet, I feel happy! https://www.yahoo.com/news/commander-russias-akhmat-unit-killed-124413239.html

https://www.yahoo.com/news/ukrainian-artillery-forces-invaders-flee-101600454.html

Many years ago when I was just a snotty teen, what would now be termed a millennial or something I got involved in some radical circles. Didn’t get a lot of what was happening but there was a lot of factionalism. (Cue the forum scene in “Life of Brian” splitter!). I recently had reason to recall one I’d completely forgotten. An organization called the African People’s Socialist Party. They just got indicted for collaborating with a Russian agent. The world is a pretty f’d up place with a lot of f’d up people. They have this view that the Russian invasion of Ukraine is an anti-colonial struggle. Some serious drugs would be needed to get to that conclusion.

Are you insinuating there might be some disinformation? How dare you!

https://www.yahoo.com/news/40-employees-russian-embassy-leave-103800774.html

https://www.yahoo.com/news/runners-deliver-flag-bakhmut-nato-095722378.html

Well can’t say your pessimism is unwarranted but regarding iPhones, wasn’t that the first question that woman asked when her son was capture?. We also are talking Oligarchs who don’t live in shacks that are the ones we are hitting with sanctions.

I think you are jumping to a conclusion too early. We have a lot of time yet to play out for war crimes trials. One article cited above is Lukashenko possibly having a card to play in turning over Wagner folks to The Hague. I get this is the “immediate gratification is too slow” era, but the fat lady isn’t schedule to sing for quite a while yet.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/wagner-revolt-could-leave-putin-023653169.html Despite all of Belarusian strongman Alexander Lukashenko’s chest thumping about his involvement in negotiating an end to Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin’s uprising in Russia, he might have set himself up for political instability, a top U.S. diplomat tells The Daily Beast. With Lukashenko agreeing to have Prigozhin exiled to Belarus—and potentially having Wagner fighters move to Belarus—there are likely elite Belarusian politicians in Lukashenko’s circle who are eyeing the outcome of his negotiations with great distaste, U.S. Ambassador Michael Carpenter told The Daily Beast. “I’m sure the top power in nomenklatura in Belarus is looking very carefully at what has occurred,” Carpenter, who has tracked the ins and outs of Lukashenko’s rule for years, told The Daily Beast. “Some of them are beholden to Russia and others very much want to chart a course for an independent, sovereign Belarus.”

If you look at specific areas they are. Nothing really new in that statement. You are reading it too literally. If you just read some of the posts above you can clearly see UA advances in different areas. Granted it would be nice to see 500 & 1000 & 2000 all in one sector. He didn’t however say that.

He can correct me if I am wrong, but I think he was specifically referring to use by the UA. With the RA having limited offensive capacity I assume his thinking there is less need for them. Not sure I agree but he wasn’t saying what think your response implied.

While I generally agree, the nature of this fight is existential. A lot of things have to be put to the side unfortunately. Reality trumps what may have been desired. I am sure the UA would prefer not to mine their own country, but considering how many Russia is dumping, that earlier figure of them clearing 10x as many as they laid is likely going to be a low ball for the reality facing Ukraine.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-election/mike-pence-volodymr-zelenskyy-surprise-trip-ukraine-rcna91763 "I believe America’s the leader of the free world," Pence told NBC News. "But coming here just as a private citizen — being able to really see firsthand the heroism of the Ukrainian soldiers holding the line in those woods, see the heroism of the people here in Irpin that held back the Russian army, to see families whose homes were literally shelled in the midst of an unconscionable and unprovoked Russian invasion — just steels my resolve to do my part, to continue to call for strong American support for our Ukrainian friends and allies."

https://www.nytimes.com/video/world/europe/100000008893083/ukraine-frontline-hospital.html?smid=em-share Treating the wounded The Wagner paramilitary group’s brief mutiny in Russia and the fallout from it has eclipsed attention on the war in Ukraine over the past few days. The war slogs on in the meantime: Russian soldiers kill or wound as many as thousands of Ukrainian troops a week, adding to the invasion’s toll. My colleagues Yousur Al-Hlou, Masha Froliak and Ben Laffin published a striking video today from the front lines, following Ukrainian combat medics. Before the war, they were civilian doctors and nurses. Now, they treat their wounded countrymen while trying to protect themselves from artillery fire and rocket attacks. I urge you to watch the video, which changed how I look at the sacrifice Ukrainians have been forced to make. I spoke to Yousur and Masha about their experience following these medics for a week. German: What is the mood among Ukrainian medics, more than a year into the war? Masha: They compared the grinding workload to the film “Groundhog Day,” reliving the same day over and over and losing sense of whether it’s day or night. They have been living in that hospital, as well as working there. They’re tired. They don’t have a sense of when this is going to end. What they say in the video has an existential sense to it. They seem motivated to keep going because they feel their country needs them. Yousur: They’re not just defending their country. They’re defending their families’ lives and their own lives. It’s a very personal struggle. It’s a very personal motivation — a very personal risk. One of the doctors asks: “How could I not take this on? How could I not be at this frontline hospital? How can I not risk my life if it’s in service of protecting my family and protecting my country?” They acknowledge they have fatigue. They acknowledge that they have doubts about when this conflict might end. But they also have this relentless motivation. Masha: One doctor said these young soldiers were the same age as her child. She spoke about imagining it’s her child in the operating room — and she just wants to hug and protect them all. It seems like an important point: As tired as they may be, these doctors are not giving up on the war. Yousur: That’s right. These doctors were not shy about voicing the toll the war is having on them. But it doesn’t negate their motivation and their hatred toward the enemy — feelings they also expressed openly. These feelings live in parallel. What were their lives like before the invasion? Yousur: They were anesthesiologists, surgeons, nurses and so on at civilian hospitals. They were wearing white coats. When the invasion began last year, their lives changed drastically. It is a nearly universal aspect of the war. Once it began, a lot of civilians suddenly found themselves in service of their country. People volunteered to stitch camouflage nets for soldiers. Grandmothers made Molotov cocktails. Similarly, these doctors began working practically overnight in a frontline military hospital having to tend to the wounded amid rocket fire.

T54s versus leopard 2s. Who wrote this alternate history crap, or is this some crazy scenario from the cesspool?