danfrodo

some war stuff for today. Sniper w thermal sites wrecking a mine laying team. Another RU soldier chased down and blown apart by a little drone -- this is one cruel war. Plus a few other interesting bits. https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/12/15/2211794/-More-Russian-stuff-blowing-up-Suicide-bomber-attacks-Ukrainian-council-meeting?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=trending&pm_medium=web

My mind was greatly flipped around on versailles treaty unfairness when I learned two things: 1. germans, when in control, imposed greatly more onerous treaty on Russia (Brest-Litovsk) 2. German plans for post-victory in the west in WW1 were much more onerous than versailles. Having said that, two seemingly hypocritical things can be true at the same time: 1. germans were genuinely angry at versailles and believed it to be a great betrayal and burden. 2. Germans were plenty happy to dish out way worse than versailles when they had the power

Well, KevinKin is having his fun. he KNEW that UKR would fail this summer. He's like a sports gambler that wins a bet and thinks he prophesied the result. No, folks looked at data and made guesses, and a bunch of us guessed wrong. We had good reasons for our guesses, but were wrong for lots of reasons (mines!, UKR not as good as we thought, defensive supremecy, etc). And you were right, congrats, you are the smartest. I was wrong about this summer, I thought UKR better and RU worse than they actually were. Now KevinKin thinks he knows everything about anything. Good for him. He must be having a good time. Now we are being lectured in long screeds, which I now just skip, hoping for something more insightful & interesting to come along. Meanwhile, in the war.... looks like a long slog. Maybe UKR loses all the occupied territory because it just can't bust through and finally settles into some kind ceasefire w low grade violence sometimes along the line. Maybe RU soldiers mutiny. Maybe there's a coup in moscow. Maybe zelensky is thrown out of power. Lots of unknowns ahead. Kevinkin, however, will tell us how all these unknowns will turn out, with complete certainty.

from your keyboard to Gawd's ears, I hope. I always hope to see some kind of mutiny leading to cascade of mutinies, but it just never happens. Instead, the idiots send videos asking for Putin's help because they are being slaughtered. "dear Father Putin who we know cares so much for us, if you only knew we know you would help us". Such incredible ignorance. And speaking of slaughter, that is one heckuva pile of dead men & vehicles up north in kharkiv region that you showed.

Today's episode of 'more russian stuff blowing up'. Sharing because has video of close range trench fight. Don't know how it ended. UKR & RU shooting at each other lengthwise down the trench system from 20m or so away. Crazy. https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/12/12/2211239/-More-Russian-stuff-blowing-up-Russia-s-tax-agency-Ukraine-s-cell-phone-provider-are-hacked?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=trending&pm_medium=web

That's what I was thinking. Simply launching up a drone and saying 'find and kill tank, other in that sorta direction' would be a really, really bad idea.

feller talking about the beauty of bradleys & other AFVs & IFVs. we have so many in storage doing nothing that could really make a difference next year. https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/12/10/2210723/-Ukraine-Update-The-Ukrainian-Army-is-expanding-they-need-American-surplus-armor?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=top_news_slot_3&pm_medium=web Here some really nasty FPV drone attacks on infantry, plus collection of other UKR war stuff. https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/12/10/2210784/-More-Russian-stuff-blowing-up-the-spirit-of-Christmas-can-t-be-snuffed-out?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=trending&pm_medium=web

Can't wait to see how this turns out. Looks like a T34/76? If it was a T34/85 I'd bet on the russian. But here I think I'll still bet on the tiger despite the initial angle & sighting advantage of the T34.

Some good little snippets here today. Some rather biting humor/satire. Some heartwarming xmas stuff. And a little thing about NK ammunition -- looks as good as we'd expect. Hopefully lots of shells are inaccurate and even more blow up in the barrel, with any luck ending the service life of the crew. https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/12/9/2210683/-More-Russian-stuff-blowing-up-Problems-with-North-Korean-ammunition?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=trending&pm_medium=web

A great example of the insane waste or war. These are, of course, necessary defensive works. But what if the same levels of work were instead being spent on infrastructure like roads, water & sewage systems, schools, hospitals, etc. One of those days where i just want someone to kill Putin. Or some kind of local RU mutiny to spread. Speaking of mutiny, I still hope against hope that some kind of small, company level mutiny could grow and spread to some kind of sector collapse. We've seen how in Prig mutiny most RU units just stood aside to see what would happen. I'd love to see this on the front. Don't need whole front to break, just a significant area that leads to other areas becoming untenable once UKR moves into the abandoned areas. RU soldiers at some point might realize they've got better survival chance by killing their officers and threatening anyone that comes at them. But then again, then they won't get paid. Of course, they don't get paid dead, either. And in many areas of the front they are most likely gonna be dead, and soon.

From which thing, pray tell? @haiduk showed some really interesting bits from Krynky. I wonder if UKR had secondary/backup plan of using their bridgehead to kill lots of RU, assuming primary plan was for more territorial gain on left bank to get Kherson City out of RU artillery range. RU doing nice job of attacking and failing so far.

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Some stuff I hadn't seen here. Aftermath of the ambushed RU convoy in Kherson region. Cluster bombs are a significant health hazard. https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/12/5/2209834/-More-Russian-stuff-blowing-up-Ukraine-launches-mass-drone-assault-on-Crimea?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=trending&pm_medium=web

Der fuhrer said so?

I am hopeful because I can't see the Gaza need for 155mm continuing indefinitely.

If you could read me the slides, word for word, that would great. And have each bullet point slow-reveal. And also spend weeks wordsmithing it because that is actual work. (I had manager 2 levels up that would spend day upon day wordsmithing slides instead of just putting the basics & supporting data there and then simply telling the dang story

actually LOL'd at this, well done

Yeah, that really adds insult to injury when you're taking expensive losses and can't locate the perpetrator. good luck!

some war stuff about the RU losses around Andiivka. A summary of things we already know but some nice charts & such. https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/12/3/2209226/-Ukraine-Update-Why-a-lack-of-armored-vehicles-is-stalling-Russia-s-infantry-assault?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=top_news_slot_8&pm_medium=web

Dang, that is a big hole in the side. T34/85? IS2?

Great pics as usual. The Great King Tiger2 emerging from the smoke. I still love these beasts. I remember when I was young & foolish and thought these things were nearly invincible. Then I played CM. Oh, turns out 60 tons of steel is a lot more fragile than one would think. Also at some point read how mechanically unreliable they were. Kinda wish I could go back to my starry-eyed ignorance and idolize these things like I used to.

This is what I find so mind boggling, that a dictator can be so incredibly emotionally driven. To become dictator they make ruthless, clever, calculated, rational decisions. Then they become dictator and suddenly they lose their minds. In RU, how was a country of 144 million w nukes and a huge supply of easily made money (fossil fuels) not enough? But it seems once they hit what should've been the pinnacle of power they suddenly need to grasp for more. I was one of the knuckleheads who thought "attacking UKR is insane, it won't happen". Learned my lesson. Sanity is no guide for what dictators will do.

Ukraine has suffered and continues to suffer terrible losses, but it survives and will continue to survive this war that was intended as Ukrainian extermination.

Yeah, the 'RU is winning' stuff is so shallow it's hard to put words to it, like this is some kind of sporting event w a scoreboard. Since day 4 of this epic debacle, Putin has done nothing but desperately try to salvage something, anything. from an utter disaster and the cost is absolutely astronomical relative to the gain. Maybe does hold the current gains, but the costs continue to accrue meaning he aint done paying yet, so every day it becomes more of an absurdly ruinous affair. It's like he bought a house where the costs of keeping the house go up more & more every month.

Various war stuff, some already seen here, some not. And lots about animals in the war at the bottom. Incredible mouse infestation in one position, awful. The misery and murder goes on. Speeding RU Lt hits a group of RU soldiers crossing the road. As a fellow human, I would normally feel sorry for them, but it's some guys that won't be killing UKR folks going forward at least. https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/12/2/2209189/-More-Russian-stuff-blowing-up-Resistance-fighters-take-a-toll-on-Russians?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=trending&pm_medium=web