danfrodo

Not better. Just don't want a vacation from the forum....

No they are not a 'state sponsor' they are a TERRORIST STATE. My blood is boiling seeing this. I will stop because all I can do is type strings of violence-tinged expletives......

PET?? Have you seen the mechanical properties? It's nothing. I've done structural simulation models w PET and it's wimpy stuff.

I don't like disagreeing w Beleg because I know I will lose , but I just want to clarify my point. Yes, he was a commie. And hitler a fascist. But I am saying what they really were were sociopathic narcissistic megalomaniacs that happened to be commie or fascist. Doesn't mean they couldn't also believe in commie or fascist ideology. I am saying the commie/fascist thing didn't matter so much. Especially considering they both were the same murderous monsters despite having 'opposite' views. Is Putin a fascist? A mob boss? A nuevo-soviet commie? Does it matter? -- what matters is that he's a murderous megalomaniac.

Interesting weapons. Fast, some punch, but very lightly armored. Would be great for a lot of things, not so good for some others . Could easily move a long way overnight. Showing RU the unit is poised to attack on some sector the next morning. When the sun goes down it races off to some other spot. By dawn it's easily 50 or more km away and launching an attack there.

My way of thinking about this is that in the end it's about the power desired by the individual that manages to take control, not the ideology they rode on the way up. Hitler wasn't a fascist as much as he was a hitler-ist. Stalin used communism to get in power but he was a Stalinist, wanting control for himself at any cost or method or means. Mao was mos def a Mao-ist first and commie second, though he was probably more of a true believer than the other two mentioned here.

this is a great point. Success up north still yields frontline on RU border, which will be fine later, but not now.

I agree they need a big win. What I've been wondering is whether they go all-out in May/June or do more local stuff initially. There's ~5 months of good weather so UKR might not want to risk everything on big initial push until they have punched around a bit to see what RU has & how it responds, attriting when RU moves stuff. And the other side, RU will probably be throwing more mobiks into the line so UKR may want to win before those troops show up.

Oh, great, more comments from people that actually 'know things'. This forum is the worst (disclaimer: this is a sarcasm) JonS, thanks for educating us on a how to think about this stuff.

Boats. I am sure UKR will be happy to pledge not to attack any boat leaving Crimea.

speak of the devil, some allegedly geolocated stuff on the kherson ops. And some speculation about where UKR should attack based on known RU fortification levels. But are those trenches all actually manned and supported? On paper looks tough on the southern front but what kind of army is actually there? How do they provide artillery support across that whole region and how fast can they shift what they do have to meet any threat? If they can barely get enough force to inch forward in Bakhmut is it because they have sooooo many men in the south? -- maybe, maybe not. I bet UKR has a pretty good idea what's down there. Author says going for Donetsk would be big surprise and might pay off, but I would never enter the city. The only thing I'd do in that area is try to cut the rail line SW of the city. That might be worth it. https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/4/23/2165137/-Ukraine-Update-So-many-counterattack-options-but-here-s-one-that-could-break-Russia

Good Lord, that is some cold blooded warfare. Looked like an entire platoon wiped out by drone grenades. On the Kherson crossing rumors Steve mentioned above, I can see how this makes sense for UKR. Maybe it's just feints but maybe UKR has decided this area is so weak it's worth the risk of the river supply line (I doubt this). But if it causes RU to shift some forces over here to counter nothing, that's great. If they don't shift forces maybe UKR can get a foothold from which it can raid and cut supply lines. Would be great to start offensive toward Tokmak/Meltipol and then if RU pulls forces out of the kherson river area to actually make a beachhead to cause some RU panic. This is all amateur-hour stuff on my part, but there's definitely a lot more choices on the UKR side than on the RU side. Just the fear of the counteroffensive helps UKR to be able to cause RU to react where UKR wants RU to react.

Speaking of fighting in Crimea.... Robert Forczyk's WW2 crimea history, Where the Iron Crosses Grow, is free if you have audible.com membership. Good book on the subject. I read it some years ago.

Part of ceding was hoping I could do my little part to make the discussion go away . And I wasn't going to take the time to see if his data was any good, so was throwing in the towel because there's bigger hills for me to die upon. Meanwhile, I am wondering how the forum breaks down into UKR spring offensive camps. I see two main camps in the world of internet opinion: 1. UKR offensive will be big, sudden surprise attack on (mostly) one axis and we will know it's the real deal and will come late spring. 2. UKR will conduct increasingly aggressive corrosion plus some attacks of small-ish depth, like 5-10 kms, in multiple areas to shape the battlefield and completely confuse Putin as to where to put his reserves. Then will strike later in summer in a much bigger way and we will then know that's the real deal. I am believer in #2

ah, good point. I'll cede this issue to you based on what you are showing. I still don't agree w RU violent annexation but can't argue that it was unpopular if the above is representative of the people there.

I think this is covered above but had to say that while this sounds great it isn't quite the case. Putin chased out everyone that didn't like RU and brought in a bunch of Russians and now we have a vote? It's like kill everyone in a village, bring in new people, have them elect a sheriff from their own who then gets to decide whether to prosecute for the murder of the villagers.

Absolutely amazing CaptMiller!!!

'enertainment' claim makes it harder to sue them. Where you are not understanding things is that 5G makes covid, hence the tech companies, which made covid because they could then make everyone take vaccines that planted little robots inside us so the One World Government could spy on us via big contracts w big tech paid for by selling the blood of children to movie stars. How can anyone not put these pieces together?

"Strong Men, Armed" as was once said. LOTS of them! I don't wanna face this crowd. I wonder what this is? I keep thinking UKR will do extensive corrosion/shaping and maybe some local offensives once the ground dries, for quite a few weeks, maybe even into mid summer. Then will have a lot of information about RU strength along the line along w better interdiction of RU communications from these operations. Then UKR will really hit hard using powerful units, some w western weapons & training, to totally unhinge very large RU forces. Maybe take Starobilsk and wreck supply for much of the Luhanks/Donetsk front. Take Polohy/Tokmak and maybe a little farther and unhinge the western landbridge, getting Crimea to landbridge crossings under himars range.

Geez, that video is a real tear jerker. So happy for these men (I think was all men?).

Just had my mind blown by how much map distortion we have and how it changes our view of the world. Turns out russia is not nearly as big as we think (though still very big of course) while africa is way bigger than we think. I saw this while perusing this daily UKR summary. First link is UKR summary w some eye opening map stuff. Second link is more map stuff w link to the originator of the map stuff. Summary also rehashes some prigozhin blatherings. https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/4/16/2164211/-Ukraine-Update-Wagner-chief-calls-for-end-to-Russia-s-offensive-actions-wants-to-lock-in-gains https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/4/16/2164201/-Maps-present-a-distorted-view-of-the-world-but-it-s-a-lot-worse-than-you-think

I wonder how much intent will matter. Showing off to his discord friends is different than trying to sell to enemies. Same outcome of course, for US.

From your keyboard to Gawd's ears. I am really hoping this leak plus some clever intel ops actually puts more indecision into Putler and friends. I just keep thinking "Pas de Calais".

I agree w you TheCapt that this is sometimes the case but I think it's often not the case. Lots of hiring managers will have both conscious & unconscious bias against various forms of LGBTQ+. Or colored hair. Or tatoos. If you are biased against tatoos it might be hard to find young employees these days! I keep wondering when tatoos will no longer be cool -- probably kids growing up now who see tatoos on their parents and it becomes like a matching nike outfit w stripes down the legs which kids wouldn't be caught dead wearing. I am aware of some of my biases and have to consciously choose to ignore them when I interview people. All of this gets into what we think someone in some role 'should' look like and how we need to see past that when considering someone for a job. Meanwhile, the right in the US is currently running its entire world, entire political campaigns, on anti-LGBTQ+ outrage. Will it work? We'll find out next year. But then we look at UKR. Where pink-haired young women are fighting (remember that post-ambush video early in the war?). Long bearded metro-hipsters, tattoo covered gamers, multi-pierced medics, etc. All of these kids that were considered weak and soft are fighting & dying for their country and their freedom. And I bet the new UKR military graves have plenty of gays in them too. edit: Having biases can be bad. Thinking you don't have any is always bad -- because we all do.

So you have heard the news items from the US Air Force Academy, I presume? It's been smacked a gazillion times for officers forcing christianity on subordinates. Turns out the US constitution has items other than 'guns' -- who knew? Meanwhile we are seeing the first signs of Putler pivoting to the defensive. I've been wondering whether he'd have time to redeploy & reorganize before the ground dries. Looks like he might be trying that. But who knows whether what is reported to him and what is real on the ground match up. And for us another month of watching soil get soaked, over & over again. The Texiera kid stole and disseminated classified documents that have damaged US interests. He must be punished. He's young and stupid and racist. He's in that stage of young enough to be really unwise but old enough to be held accountable for it. He's being called a truth-teller and whistleblower by Tucker & MTGreene -- I still wish I knew how much Putin pays them. Edit: forgot to add that I think his youth should be taken into account in sentencing. I throw the book at someone doing this after ~25-30 yrs old. I'd punish this kid but less so.