Russia Invades Ukraine. Again by captaincrunch

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

Russia used sex toys and cosmetics to plant bombs in warehouses across Europe

April 5, 2025, 10:41 AM

https://english.nv.ua/nation/russia-hid-bombs-in-sex-toys-and-cosmetic
s-to-attack-warehouses-in-europe-reuters-reports-50503819.html

Parcel bomb attacks in Europe — using cosmetics and sex toys to disguise incendiary devices — are part of an alleged Russian intelligence operation.

The bombs, made with a chemical mix including highly reactive magnesium, were triggered by cheap timer devices commonly used to track lost keys, according to investigators. Tubes of cosmetics in the packages were filled with flammable gel.

Reuters, citing sources, said the investigation is examining suspected sabotage linked to Russian Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU) military intelligence service.

Explosions occurred July 19-21, 2024, at DHL logistics centers in Birmingham, England; Leipzig, Germany; and near Warsaw, Poland.

In November, The Wall Street Journal reported that Russia had planned to ignite fires aboard cargo or passenger planes bound for the U.S. and Canada. In January, The New York Times reported that after a series of warnings from the White House, Vladimir Putin appeared to halt the sabotage campaign — though U.S. officials said it’s unclear if that pause is permanent.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Sunday, April 6, 2025 6:05 AM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

German intel: Russia planning large-scale war, testing NATO resolve - report

Russia's military has increased by 30-50% since 2022, according to German intelligence findings.

By Joanie Margulies | April 2, 2025 17:25

https://www.jpost.com/international/article-848561

German military intelligence findings have led European officials to believe that Russia is preparing for a major war with NATO and European nations, according to findings from a joint investigation from German news outlets, published Thursday.

According to the report, Russia sees itself having a larger conflict with the West. The report claims that Putin is planning the "use of military force to achieve its imperialist goals,” specifying that the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine was merely a first step in movements against the whole of Europe.

By the end of the decade, Russia will have laid the groundwork to establish a “large-scale conventional war,” according to a joint investigation by Germany’s Süddeutsche Zeitung, WDR, and NDR.

Russia’s Baltic neighbors are not entirely confident in the country's current capabilities to wage war against NATO. The Lithuanian Special Service (VSD) does, however, believe that Russia is certainly capable of carrying out limited military action against one or more NATO countries.

Is this Putin testing how far he can go in the name of Russia?

Germany’s Federal Intelligence Service (BND) alleges that Putin is planning to test how seriously NATO countries will take their obligation to provide assistance as required under Article 5 of the NATO Treaty, specifically in emergency situations, German news outlet Bild reported.

German media has noted that three-quarters of Russian soldiers and personnel typically on borders with Baltic states are in Ukraine, and their Air Force and Naval units are “on full combat alert.” Should the war in Ukraine end, they would return to their posts.

Putin and the Russian army continue to evade the sanctions placed on the country by Western nations and are arming themselves, with their military production greatly surpassing Russia’s current needs for the war in Ukraine.

Russia plans to increase the size of its armed forces by 2026, expecting 1.5 million soldiers. Based on plans for the 2022 invasion of Ukraine, the size of the Russian Armed Forces would be increased by 30 to 50%. BND also noted that the Kremlin’s military spending has rapidly increased.

In 2025, it amounts to €120 billion, more than 6% of the country’s GDP - and nearly four times the country’s military budget four years earlier in 2021.

Last week, NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte swore NATO would deliver a crushing blow in response to Putin should they attack Poland or any other country in the alliance. He also stated that when the Russia- Ukraine War ends, there will be no normalization of ties with Russia.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Sunday, April 6, 2025 6:25 AM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

Sanctions fail to stop Russia’s artillery expansion in war

By Alexey Lenkov | Apr 5, 2025

https://bulgarianmilitary.com/2025/04/05/sanctions-fail-to-stop-russia
s-artillery-expansion-in-war/

In early 2025, a Ukrainian information resource reported that Russia’s defense industry has ramped up production of its 2S43 “Malva” self-propelled howitzers, a development underscored by a Telegram channel, BTVT.INFO, which published a photograph of a train convoy transporting at least eight of these artillery systems in February.

This escalation in manufacturing, as noted in the report, signals a significant shift in Russia’s military-industrial output amid its ongoing conflict with Ukraine. For the United States and its NATO allies, this news raises pressing questions about the evolving dynamics of the war, the effectiveness of Western sanctions, and the broader implications for European security.

While the immediate focus is on Ukraine, where these howitzers are likely destined, the ripple effects could extend far beyond the current battlefield, prompting a reassessment of defense strategies across the Atlantic.

The emergence of the 2S43 “Malva” as a key asset in Russia’s arsenal is not just a footnote in the war; it’s a development that could alter the strategic calculus for Western policymakers. Unlike traditional tracked artillery, the Malva is a wheeled 152mm self-propelled howitzer, designed for enhanced mobility and rapid deployment.

Mounted on an 8×8 BAZ-6010-027 chassis produced by the Bryansk Automobile Plant, this system combines a lighter frame—32 tons compared to the 42-ton 2S19 Msta-S tracked howitzer—with a potent 2A64 cannon, capable of firing high-explosive shells up to 24.7 kilometers or rocket-assisted projectiles reaching 29 kilometers.

Its ammunition capacity stands at 30 rounds, and it boasts a firing rate of over seven rounds per minute, according to Rostec, the Russian state-owned conglomerate overseeing its production. The Malva’s design prioritizes speed and cost-efficiency, allowing it to reposition quickly after firing—a critical advantage in counter-battery warfare where artillery units must evade return fire.

This howitzer isn’t entirely new to the scene. Development began in the 2010s under the “Nabrosok” program, led by the Burevestnik Central Research Institute in Nizhny Novgorod, with production handled by Uraltransmash, a subsidiary of Uralvagonzavod.

The system completed state trials in May 2023, and the first batch was delivered to the Russian military in October of that year, as reported by Russian media outlets like Militarnyi. Since then, it has seen combat in Ukraine, with its debut noted in June 2024 in the Kharkiv region, where it was used to target Ukrainian infrastructure.

The photograph from BTVT.INFO, showing a rail shipment of these howitzers, suggests that Russia is now scaling up production to meet battlefield demands, a move that aligns with its broader push to modernize artillery capabilities amid significant losses in the conflict.

For the Pentagon and NATO, Malva’s increased presence poses a direct challenge. In Ukraine, its mobility could enhance Russia’s ability to conduct rapid, concentrated strikes, complicating Ukrainian efforts to hold defensive lines.

The system’s wheeled chassis, unlike the tracked platforms that dominated Soviet and Russian artillery for decades, allows it to traverse varied terrain more efficiently and requires less maintenance, making it a practical choice for sustained operations.

Bekkhan Ozdoyev, Industrial Director at Rostec, emphasized this advantage in a statement last year, noting that the Malva’s “enhanced maneuverability” and “rapid deployment and withdrawal capabilities” are vital in the intense counter-battery combat seen in Ukraine. This adaptability could amplify Russia’s firepower, particularly in regions like Kharkiv or Donetsk, where artillery has been a decisive factor.

Beyond Ukraine, the implications are even more sobering. If Russia can sustain and expand the production of such systems, it might signal a capacity to project power into Eastern Europe, where NATO’s eastern flank—countries like Poland, Lithuania, and Estonia—remains on high alert.

The Malva’s range and mobility, while not revolutionary compared to Western systems like the American HIMARS or the French Caesar, still represent a credible threat when paired with Russia’s sheer volume of artillery.

HIMARS, for instance, offers a longer range—up to 80 kilometers with precision-guided munitions—but Malva’s lower production cost and simpler logistics could allow Russia to field it in greater numbers, offsetting some of the technological edge held by NATO systems.

What makes this development particularly striking is its timing. Western sanctions, imposed since Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014 and intensified after the 2022 invasion of Ukraine, were intended to cripple Moscow’s ability to sustain its military-industrial complex.

Yet, the sight of a train loaded with Malvas rolling through Russia in February suggests otherwise. The Ukrainian report, echoed by posts on platforms like X, indicates that Russia’s defense sector is not only weathering these restrictions but adapting to them.

Analysts have long speculated that Moscow might be circumventing sanctions through third parties—nations like China, North Korea, or even India could be supplying critical components or raw materials. While concrete evidence of such transactions remains elusive, the uptick in Malva production raises questions about the efficacy of the current sanctions regime.

To understand this resilience, it’s worth examining Russia’s historical approach to military production. During the Soviet era, the USSR maintained a sprawling network of factories designed to churn out equipment at scale, often prioritizing quantity over quality.

The Malva reflects a modern twist on this strategy: a relatively straightforward design built on existing technology—like the 2A64 cannon, also used in the Msta-S—combined with a cost-effective wheeled platform. This approach contrasts with the U.S., where systems like the M777 howitzer or HIMARS emphasize precision and advanced electronics, often at a higher cost and longer production timeline.

The French Caesar, a wheeled 155mm howitzer with a 40-kilometer range, offers a closer parallel to the Malva, but its production cycle—estimated at 15 months per unit—pales in comparison to the apparent speed of Russia’s output, as suggested by the BTVT.INFO imagery.

The Pentagon’s response to this development remains unclear, though it’s likely being closely monitored. In recent years, the U.S. has bolstered Ukraine’s artillery capabilities with systems like HIMARS, which have proven effective in targeting Russian positions with pinpoint accuracy.

As of early 2025, the Department of Defense has not publicly commented on the Malva’s production surge, but past statements from officials indicate a focus on countering Russia’s artillery advantage through superior technology and intelligence.

In a June 2024 press briefing, Pentagon spokesperson Sabrina Singh highlighted the importance of “getting Ukraine the capabilities they need to push back Russian advances,” a sentiment that could now extend to countering the Malva’s deployment. Whether this translates into accelerated deliveries of counter-battery systems or increased funding for NATO’s eastern defenses remains to be seen.

Back in Washington, the news is almost certain to stir political waters. The war in Ukraine has already polarized U.S. lawmakers, with some advocating for greater military aid to Kyiv and others questioning the cost to American taxpayers.

The sight of Russia ramping up its howitzer production could tip the scales in this debate. Proponents of increased support, like Senator Chris Coons, have argued that bolstering Ukraine’s defenses is essential to deterring Russian aggression, a view that might gain traction if the Malva’s battlefield impact grows.

Conversely, critics—often from the more isolationist wing of Congress—might seize on this as evidence that sanctions alone aren’t enough, pushing for a reassessment of U.S. strategy. Either way, the issue ties into a larger narrative about whether the West is prepared for a prolonged standoff with Russia, reminiscent of Cold War tensions.

Historically, artillery has been a cornerstone of Russian military doctrine, a legacy that stretches back to World War II when Soviet barrages overwhelmed German lines. The Malva builds on this tradition, adapting it to modern warfare’s demands for speed and flexibility.

Its combat debut in Ukraine last summer offered a glimpse of its potential: reports from the Kharkiv front indicated it was used to destroy bridges, disrupting Ukrainian supply lines. Yet, it’s not invincible—Ukrainian forces have already damaged or destroyed several Malvas, including one hit by a GMLRS rocket in July 2024, as documented by analyst Def Mon on X.

This vulnerability underscores a key trade-off: the Malva’s open-top design and lack of heavy armor make it lighter and faster but less protected than tracked counterparts like the Msta-S or Western systems like the German PzH 2000.

For the average American reader, the technical details of the Malva might seem distant, but its broader significance isn’t. It’s a tangible sign of Russia’s determination to sustain its war effort, even as the human and economic toll mounts. The Kremlin’s ability to produce these howitzers in quantity could prolong the conflict, testing Ukraine’s resilience and the West’s resolve.

At the same time, it highlights a paradox: while Russia lacks the cutting-edge precision of U.S. systems, its focus on scalable, practical designs keeps its military machine grinding forward. This contrast echoes the Cold War era when Soviet mass production often clashed with American technological superiority, a dynamic that shaped decades of global competition.

Looking ahead, the Malva’s rise prompts a mix of concern and uncertainty. For NATO, it’s a reminder that Russia’s industrial base, though strained, retains the capacity to adapt and expand. The U.S. and its allies may need to rethink their approach—whether through tighter sanctions, more robust support for Ukraine, or investments in next-generation artillery to maintain an edge.

From an analytical standpoint, this moment feels like a crossroads. If Russia can sustain this production surge, it might embolden its ambitions beyond Ukraine, challenging the security architecture of Eastern Europe.

But if it’s a short-term push masking deeper weaknesses, as some experts suggest, the West could exploit those cracks with patience and precision. The question lingers: is this a sign of Russian strength or a desperate bid to keep pace in a war it can’t afford to lose? Only time, and the battlefield, will tell.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Monday, April 7, 2025 7:11 AM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

The rate of Russian advances in Ukraine has been steadily declining since November 2024, in part due to successful Ukrainian counterattacks in eastern Ukraine.

The UK Ministry of Defense (MoD) reported on April 5 that Russian forces advanced
143 square kilometers in Ukraine in March 2025
195 square kilometers in February 2025
326 square kilometers in January 2025
393 square kilometers in December 2024
730 square kilometers in November 2024
1,787 square kilometers Total

The UK MoD likely uses a different methodology or sources to assess Russian advances in Ukraine, but the UK MoD's report is consistent with evidence ISW has observed of decreasing monthly Russian advances between November 2024 and March 2025.

ISW has observed geolocated evidence to assess that Russian forces in Ukraine gained roughly
203 square kilometers in March 2025.
354 square kilometers in February 2025
427 square kilometers in January 2025
569 square kilometers in December 2024
627 square kilometers in November 2024
2,180 square kilometers Total

https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/russian-offensive-campai
gn-assessment-april-6-2025

For comparison, Harris County, Texas (Houston) covers 4,603 square kilometers
Texas has a total area of approximately 695,662 square kilometers
Ukraine covers an area of 603,628 square kilometers

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Monday, April 7, 2025 8:52 AM

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Why Ukraine Still Isn’t About to Lose

By Benjamin Hart | April 7, 2025

https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/ukraine-war-trumps-wariness-ca
n-only-get-russia-so-far.html

It hardly seemed like good news for Ukraine when Donald Trump won in November, but the reality has been worse than most expected. While pursuing a thus-far illusory Russia/Ukraine ceasefire, Trump labeled Volodymr Zelenskyy a “dictator,” embraced Vladimir Putin’s version of the war’s history, demanded that Ukraine hand over much of its mineral wealth, and castigated Zelenskyy in the Oval Office. Yet as the U.S. pulls back from its role as Ukraine’s central backer and Europe struggles to fill that void, the actual battlefield in Ukraine has not changed very much. Given the international headwinds, can this equilibrium last much longer? To get a picture of the military and political reality in Ukraine and what the rest of 2025 may bring, I called Michael Kofman, a Senior Fellow at the Carnegie Endowment, whom I have spoken with several times since Russia launched its full-scale invasion three years ago.

When we talked in October, Russia had the clear momentum on the battlefield, and it seemed like they might be on the verge of seizing at least one more significant city, Pokrovsk. But that hasn’t happened. They haven’t really made significant progress since then, except in Kursk, the small area of Russia Ukraine invaded. Can you explain why that is and give an overview of where things stand on the battlefield in Ukraine?

We’re talking about the past several months, not necessarily about how things are likely to evolve in the spring and summer. But if we go back to the fall, things are looking quite a bit more grim. Russian forces were making accelerated gains on the ground, and they were taking more territory each month from July until November. Then their momentum slowed down considerably over the course of the winter.

The first and foremost reason for this, from my point of view, was weather. That may seem a bit of an obvious point, but it did significantly affect Russian operations over the course of the winter. The second was a degree of exhaustion. The Russian military paid a high price for those gains we saw in the fall, both in terms of manpower and equipment. Russian losses in September and October were high, and they pulled units out to reconstitute or regroup.

The third, which I found most interesting from my field work in Ukraine, was that the Ukrainian military began to successfully adapt to how Russian forces were fighting. If we take a wider look at 2024, the Russian military had made a general trade-off in how they were prosecuting the fight. They were essentially grinding their way through the front, and pressing Ukrainian forces from their positions in a way that wasn’t going to achieve operationally significant breakthroughs for the Russian armed forces, but could make use of their fairly poor force quality and their significant advantage in manpower and matériel. On the ground, what that looked like in practice was essentially assault groups of small numbers of men, fire teams, light motorized attacks, alternating with mechanized attacks — but generally staying away from attempts at large-scale combat operations or big developments.

And Ukraine adjusted?
?The Ukrainian military made significant investments in countering that approach. First, they very effectively mined themselves in, particularly employing drones to distance-mine. They also expanded drone units in an effort to lock down the front. This has been the main part of the Ukrainian effort — that is, expanding the drone part of the force, such that drones of various types are now responsible for probably 60 to 70 percent of the Russian casualties, compared to earlier periods of the war where it was chiefly artillery or small arms fire, those types of means. And then there’s still traditional artillery fires. This combination of effective defensive/offensive mining, using strike drones to trick Russian forces at the tactical level such that most Russian attacks don’t get to Ukrainian defensive lines, and to some extent, artillery fires — I won’t say it successfully countered the Russian approach, but took away many of its advantages, and has more effectively compensated for Ukraine’s deficit of infantry and the lack of manpower at the front to hold the front lines.

So from late 2023 through ‘24, Russian forces focused on assault groups, detachments, and essentially a means of attacking that was difficult to exhaust, on the one hand, but on the other hand wasn’t conducive to making big breakthroughs. Ukrainian forces then adapted in a way that allowed them to compensate to a degree for the lack of infantry at the front line, but also specifically to counter how Russian forces were fighting.

Is this approach going to ultimately address Ukraine’s mobilization manpower issues? I’m not sure, but it is certainly buying Ukraine time this year, it’s cost-effective, and it plays to Ukraine’s comparative advantage. That said, I don’t know if the trends we’ve observed the last couple of months will hold, as Russian forces are likely to resume offensive efforts over the course of the spring and summer. So it’s still unclear if we are seeing the beginning of a successful approach that will stabilize the front line for Ukraine, which I think is possible — especially looking at personnel changes and leadership changes, in combination with the technological innovations and tactical adaptations we can observe — or if this might end up being the best period of the war for 2025. The jury on that, I think, is still out.

What do you think a new Russian offensive might look like? Would it be similar to what they were doing when they had the momentum last year? Or a different approach?
?The Russian military has been intensifying offensive efforts since the middle of February, and they’ve not been especially successful outside of Kursk. Although I think we should caveat that by saying that a percentage of Russian effort was very much focused on Kursk, and it was a priority for them. At this point they’ve largely pushed the Ukrainian military out of the Kursk pocket. Ukraine is still holding a wedge there on fairly advantageous terrain, but nonetheless, Kursk at this point I think is largely a defensive operation for Ukraine meant to protect the Sumy region. I suspect the Russian military is going to redeploy a lot of forces from Kursk back down towards Donetsk, and also try to stretch the Ukrainian military by conducting attacks in the southern region of Zaporizhzhia. That’s already been taking place over the last two weeks.

The question is whether the Russian military is actually able to adapt once again this year. Because Ukrainian armed forces, in the investments they’ve made, are trying to lock down the front line and do have a chance of holding the Russian military to incremental gains. It’s just a question of — can they sustain it? And can they count on external material assistance? Although here too, it’s worth mentioning that in 2025, Ukraine is far less dependent on the West for day-to-day battlefield needs than it was in previous years.

Trump briefly cut off military aid and intelligence sharing to Ukraine before restoring it, and may do so again. But as you say, Ukraine is better equipped to fend for itself these days. So how alarmed are people you speak to on the ground about the prospect of another U.S. cessation of arms, and how long could Ukraine hold out for if that happened?
?The first question is easier to answer than the second. As you know from our past conversations, I’m reticent to give hard timelines and predictions — I hold to the adage that military analysis, while it has to try to be predictive, is not fortune-telling.

To your first question, the main areas where Ukrainian forces are dependent on the United States in particular are precision strike capabilities. That is, employment of GMLRs missiles fired by primarily HIMARS systems or M270s. This allows Ukraine to hold the Russian rear at risk — that is things beyond thirty-kilometer depth on the front line. I think that if Ukraine were to run out of missiles for HIMARS systems, it would certainly affect the course of fighting this year, because it will substantially free up Russian forces and how they organize logistics and command and control behind the front. The secondary dependence is in air defense, specifically Patriot missile batteries, which depend on not only western support, like parts maintenance, but also the actual interceptors. And there I can’t say how many months worth of munitions Ukraine has, but it would become quite problematic for Ukrainian air defense, I think, because there is no substitute for the missiles the U.S. has been supplying.

You mentioned intelligence support and various other forms of, let’s say, non- matériel systems. There I think it’s a bit debatable how much allies could take over, but it would certainly be an additional factor. How long could Ukraine hold out? This depends on a couple of factors. First, what is the offensive potential of the Russian military and what kind of offensive do they intend to launch in the spring and summer? Second, to what extent can Ukraine’s other Western partners step in? I think when it comes to artillery production, Europe is in a much better position now than it was in previous years. I think in many categories, other than the ones I just outlined, the Europeans could step in and help sustain the Ukrainian military effort.

And Ukraine itself now makes many of the munitions and drones that it needs, including mines. So if we’re looking at the tactical level and what’s being consumed the most at the front, Ukraine could probably sustain itself for quite some time, and we’d be seeing a steady degradation rather than any sort of sudden collapse. And even then, the jury’s out on how the fighting might unfold. But the impact would be visible over time, and I think one should not be too cavalier or hand-wave away the extent to which U.S. support and U.S. organization of military assistance writ large for Ukraine has been a significant contributor to Ukraine’s military efforts.

The other factor here is the possibility of some kind of ceasefire. Ukraine and Russia agreed to a limited one, on energy infrastructure, but that hasn’t been successful, and Russia keeps killing civilians across Ukraine. Plans for any kind of larger ceasefire have gone nowhere. And now Trump and Rubio seem annoyed that Putin might not be interested. Is what Trump wants and what Putin wants totally incompatible? What would a satisfactory ceasefire to Russia even look like?
?I think the Russian view is that despite the fact that their military is woefully underperforming relative to their expectations and their overall matériel advantages, that if they’re going to agree to a ceasefire, it would have to be a heavily conditioned one. Russian leadership has sought Ukrainian capitulation, which they can’t achieve on the battlefield. So instead, they’re trying to attain Western capitulation, to an extent. And here, they feel they have a stronger chance of getting a lot of what they want.

Naturally, they are stalling to the extent they can. But most importantly, they are trying to position the Russian-Ukraine war as one issue, or one negotiation topic, among an entire package within which they would like diplomatic normalization, economic normalization, some restored role for Russian conversations about European security. And what they’re essentially doing over the course of this time period, if we look at the process, is they are maneuvering this war away from being the central organizing principle in U.S. foreign policy under the previous administration. That is, everything was linked to the fact that Russia had invaded Ukraine and was conducting this atrocious war in Europe. They’re trying to isolate and sideline the war as one problem set among a series in U.S.-Russia relations, and trying to decouple U.S.-Russia relations from the war.

What they want is a host of Western concessions, not just on the question of Ukraine, but on this other set of issues. The challenge that Moscow has is that Trump very much wanted the ceasefire by the first hundred days, and had issued this as a fairly hard deadline. Russia’s efforts to say “yes” in theory but “no” in practice have a limited shelf life, because I’m sure it’s clear now to folks in the White House that the Russians have no intention of agreeing to a ceasefire anytime soon. And that even if they were to agree to a ceasefire, the odds that it would last and prove durable from my point of view are exceedingly low, given the track record of ceasefires with Russia, especially in this war.

So what is Russia actually looking for in these negotiations?
?I think what Moscow wants isn’t even a rescinding of sanctions, but rather, a pullback of U.S. enforcement, particularly of secondary sanctions. And that by itself will already give them the slack they need in order to sustain the war effort this year.

Naturally, their dream would be to have sanctions that are the most effective lifted as part of this process, perhaps get to a ceasefire, and then have the ceasefire collapse. But the other important part of this interaction, as best I can tell, is that both sides are trying to position the other as the party most responsible for the fact that there’s no ceasefire, come 100 days into the Trump administration. From my point of view, this is the game Moscow is trying to play. The question is, at the end of this month, who will the Trump administration blame? Or will they blame both Russia and Ukraine out of frustration as they’ve had a tendency to do? And what are the possible consequences for Ukraine?

I think the one thing that Ukraine certainly has going for it beyond its own resilience is that Moscow has a strong tendency to overplay his hand and to get overly ambitious in these types of negotiations with the U.S.. And while Russia retains the advantage in this war, its actual hand — if we look at Russian military performance relative to their maximalist demands and their political objectives — isn’t especially good. And they could very well come off in the coming days or weeks as the party that is the least realistic and the most recalcitrant and the most greedy in the negotiations given their actual position.

That could never just describe the Trump administration, of course.
?The other important factor is, of course, Europeans. Europeans are not likely to go along, particularly the leading European nations.

Lifting Russian sanctions would depend on them, too, right? It’s not unilateral.
?Yes. It actually depends on them in some respects, a lot more than it depends on us. They’re not likely to go along with a substantial lifting of sanctions. They’re also not likely to go along with any effort to revise Russia’s role in European security. And they will probably make a best effort in order to enable Ukraine, such that Ukraine doesn’t necessarily have to accept a bad deal. Because the reality on the ground is that the overall dynamic in the war hasn’t changed, and I wouldn’t spin it overly positively, the frontline is not about the collapse, and Ukraine is not in some dire position such that it desperately needs a ceasefire right now. That said, I wouldn’t make the other extreme version of this argument, suggesting that the entire dynamic has changed and that Ukraine has turned things around so dramatically that we can now have a completely different set of assumptions and expectations about the course of the war. That, too, is not true.

And it seems like there’s little hope of Ukraine gaining more territory, at least within Ukraine itself. They may be launching another limited operation in Russia, but it’s not like they’re going on the offensive elsewhere anytime soon.
?They’ve conducted fairly small-scale localized counterattacks in the last couple months, mostly to improve positions along the front line. The honest answer is I don’t know if Ukraine is planning another offensive operation, but looking at the overall trajectory in this war, I think Ukraine’s focus is and probably should be stabilizing the front, playing to some extent for time, and looking for ways to effectively exhaust Russian offensive potential while maximizing the cost to Russia, such that the Russian war effort in general reaches diminishing returns and the host of economic and other issues that Moscow has to deal with grow in significance, and affect the sustainability of the military effort if this war goes on through 2025.

And then negotiate some kind of ceasefire from that position of relative strength.
?If not from a position of strength, certainly not from a position of desperation or weakness. There is a significant range of outcomes you could have between these extremes. But most importantly, you would not have to accept a deal that would be fundamentally unacceptable to Ukrainian society, and that would make much of the war not worth it in the first place. Any society that sacrificed this much in a war of this scale that’s gone on now for over three years, is always going to ask “What was the point of the sacrifice if this is the political outcome that the war achieved?”

What I think is often difficult for some colleagues in the West to understand is the reason why the Ukrainian leadership is reluctant to just accept the ceasefire is that if all a ceasefire does is lead to a rearmament period. If there’s nothing supporting the ceasefire, then what follows very likely could be much worse for Ukraine. People will leave, a large part of the army may have to be demobilized, and Russia will simply come back — maybe in a year, maybe in four years, but they’re not likely to invade again in the way that they conducted the full-scale invasion of 2022. And in the third iteration of the war, the consequence for Ukraine could be even more dire.

That is why I think many in Ukrainian society and in Ukrainian political leadership rightfully ask — what is the point of getting a piece of paper that just says the word ceasefire on it when ultimately, it doesn’t end the war, it doesn’t attain any security for Ukraine, and it doesn’t ensure the return of people or investment to Ukraine, but simply leaves Ukraine as a country and a society in a prolonged period of jeopardy and facing the likelihood of a renewed war at any point in the future?

While also possibly handing off natural resources to the United States in exchange for zero security guarantees.
?In exchange for what looks like nothing.

It seemed like this minerals deal was about to happen, but it hasn’t yet. Why sign on those kinds of terms?
?I can only give you my opinion, which is that I think the mineral deal was a scheme meant to explain here in America why the U.S. was still supporting Ukraine and what the return for the United States would be in a very transactional and, I think to some extent, cynical sort of way. But it’s also a gateway deal to a series of other deals that were meant to follow. If you look at all the earlier drafts, it had very strong neo-colonialist overtones and it looked decidedly predatory. That draft was visibly revised over time, but the latest iterations I’ve seen look just as predatory and extractionist as the earlier version. So I’m not sure where we are at this point.

Trump and JD Vance attempted to humiliate Zelensky in the Oval Office and that predictably led to a swell of support for Zelensky in Ukraine. Does it seem like Ukrainians people are perhaps more supportive of this war effort now because of what’s happened in the US than they were before? Because it seemed like a few months ago there was quite a bit of restiveness among the population with his approach, and now it seems like there’s a new sense of patriotism going on.
?I think it’s important to disambiguate the two parts of your question. The first is the rally-around-the-flag effect that Zelensky experienced in publicly defending Ukraine and Ukrainian interests, first in the course of negotiations over the minerals deal, and then second during that disastrous White House meeting. The second aspect is Ukrainian public sentiment with respect to the war. Ukrainian society has of course grown increasingly tired of the ongoing conflict, and many would like the war to end. However, they’re not willing to make major concessions to Russia. And when we look at the domestic political leadership, they are heavily constrained by public attitudes and in my view, haven’t done much to shape them.

Plus, many are increasingly looking to future elections, which are likely to follow any ceasefire agreement. And there’s a tendency to get ahead of oneself, where elites begin positioning themselves for the parliamentary and presidential elections to come while having not actually figured out how this war ends. And this can lead to a degree of short-sightedness or a lack of serious thinking about the immediate while fixating on its political implications.

One of the biggest challenges that Ukraine has in making a deal — and it’s not a challenge, it’s frankly a feature — is the fact that Ukraine is ultimately a democracy, and the Ukrainian political leadership can’t just sign any deal the way Putin might. They will be looking over their shoulder over the course of the process, as you saw in the negotiation with the United States on the minerals deal, to see what the public reaction is. And they understand that they can make a deal, but the public may not accept this deal.

So I think there’s a degree of learning probably taking place once again here in the United States, that you can’t so easily force Ukraine or Ukrainian leadership into a deal. And that the amount of leverage that the United States has over Ukraine and over Russia, while probably more significant in the case of Ukraine, nonetheless is grossly insufficient if the question is “Can the United States force Russia and Ukraine into a ceasefire that they themselves do not want or do not want right now?”

So that leaves us with a muddle.
?There’s a reason why wars like this tend to go on well beyond the decisive phase of the war and negotiations may take months or years, if we look at historical cases. It’s very difficult to get society and elites, if they represent their society, to compromise. It is also exceedingly difficult to get leaders to make an agreement with a party they don’t trust, and to get them to agree to something that they don’t think actually answers any of the big questions for their country or won’t yield a solution to the war — especially if you’re not willing to offer security guarantees or anything else to backstop that arrangement.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Tuesday, April 8, 2025 5:29 AM

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Ukraine's European allies continue to ramp up domestic materiel production and address shortages inhibiting artillery ammunition production. German arms manufacturer Rheinmetall announced on April 7 that the company will acquire and repurpose German nitrocellulose producer "Hagerdorn-NC" for weapons production as part of ongoing efforts to increase Rheinmetall’s capacity for manufacturing ammunition propellants, particularly for 155mm artillery shells.[7] Nitrocellulose, also known as guncotton, is a crucial component of propellants for modern artillery ammunition and other munitions that use gunpowder.[8] Rheinmetall currently produces nitrocellulose at facilities in Switzerland, Spain, and South Africa and plans to increase its production of gunpowder by over 50 percent by 2028.[9] Rheinmetall subsidiary Nitrochemie Aschau — which produces nitrocellulose, other gunpowder components, and dynamite — has increased its production capacity by 60 percent since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and plans for another 40 percent increase by mid-2025.[10] Rheinmetall CEO Armin Papperger and Saab CEO Micael Johansson warned in April 2024 that the People's Republic of China (PRC) supplied an overwhelming majority of European ammunition components, including those necessary for nitrocellulose, resulting in bottlenecks inhibiting European artillery ammunition production.[11] Bloomberg reported in March 2025 that Rheinmetall expanded its sourcing of cotton linters — a key component for nitrocellulose production that faced a critical shortage in Spring 2024 — from Europe and countries friendly to the European Union (EU) and built up a stockpile of several years' worth of linters.[12] NATO General Secretary Mark Rutte told CBS News on April 7 that he has urged US and European leaders to ramp up defense spending and defense industrial production amid concerns of future Russian aggression against Europe.[13] Rutte noted that Russia manufactures on its own four times more ammunition rounds than NATO states combined manufacture, despite the fact that NATO’s combined economy is 20 times larger than Russia’s.

https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/russian-offensive-campai
gn-assessment-april-7-2025

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Tuesday, April 8, 2025 5:36 AM

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Murderers and Torturers — Why Are Russian Troops So Bestial?

Why are Russian soldiers so incredibly brutal and what does this say about the culture of the Kremlin’s military?

By Julius Strauss | March 18, 2025

https://cepa.org/article/murderers-and-torturers-why-are-russian-troop
s-so-bestial/

It makes for haunting viewing.?

A Russian soldier, almost certainly a 32-year-old father-of-two-daughters called Oleg Yakovlev from the city of Saratov, shouts “Film me! Film me!” as a Ukrainian captive, one of six who have surrendered, walks slowly away from him.

As a member of his squad films, Yakovlev raises his Kalashnikov assault rifle and riddles the unarmed Ukrainian with bullets. Another Russian soldier shouts: “Leave one for me!”?

The film is just one incident in?a Financial Times?documentary by Kyiv correspondent Christopher Miller. According to officials, it is only one of 59 documented cases where Russian soldiers have executed 201 Ukrainian captives.

Although drones and phones are capturing more evidence than ever before as they are committed, what’s recorded is almost certainly only the tip of the iceberg.

As a long-time Russia-watcher who lived in Moscow in the 2000s and covered Putin’s early years in the Kremlin, the Russians’ penchant for extreme brutality has long intrigued and disgusted me.

During my time in Russia, I spent more than a week on assignment with special forces — the storied?spetsnaz?— outside the Chechen capital Grozny and also watched them in action at some of the major terrorist attacks of the time.

I also traveled secretly to Chechnya — it was classed as an “anti-terrorist zone” at the time — to interview some of the families of Russia’s victims. I listened to accounts of torture, kidnappings, and killings from terrified Chechen civilians, most of them women.

I still have vivid memories of an interview in 2004 after Milana Ozdoyeva, whose husband had already been tortured and killed by the FSB, was abducted. As her children played on the floor around me, her mother described how she was taken away. She was never seen again.

Moscow didn’t want such stories coming out, of course. After one reporting visit to the north Caucasus, the local FSB secret policemen arrested my translator and used her arm to extinguish cigarettes. (She later emigrated to the US.)

Memories from my Chechen trips often return as I watch the evidence of Russian war crimes in Ukraine emerge: mass graves, summary executions, torture, and sexual violence.

The roots of Russian military brutality run deep. During World War II, the Red Army earned a reputation for its harsh treatment of both enemies and civilians. As Soviet soldiers advanced through Eastern Europe, they left a trail of destruction, including widespread rape and looting.

Stalin once infamously suggested that rape was a reward for Soviet soldiers liberating Eastern Europe from the Nazis. In cities from Berlin to Budapest hundreds of thousands of women were brutally abused. Those who resisted were shot.

Nor is brutality in the Russian military confined to the battlefield. It is also deeply ingrained in its internal culture, particularly through the practice of?dedovshchina?— the institutionalized hazing and bullying of young recruits.

Dedovshchina, which translates roughly as the “rule of the grandfathers,” has its roots in the Tsarist era when officers would drive new recruits around like beasts, flaying them with whips.

In the days when Soviet military service was two full years and there was a fresh intake of recruits each six months, it came to refer to the custom by which those in the last half-year would abuse and haze those who had just arrived.

It worsened considerably after military reforms in 1967, which allowed men with criminal records to join the army to bolster its numbers. The criminals brought their prison behavior and even their lingo with them.

Whereas, until then, beatings and hazing had been widespread, the criminals introduced other predatory practices such as pimping out conscripts to local farmers and workshops and then stealing their salaries.

Some recruits were even sent home and told to return every month with a monthly pay packet for the?deds?or?grandfathers.

Monitoring the abuse was, of course, difficult and statistics are patchy. But in 1993 alone, 169 soldiers were reported to have died as a result of hazing. An NGO, set up by the mothers of Russian soldiers, reported that 44% of conscript deaths in the military were from suicide.

One particularly harrowing case occurred on New Year’s Eve 2006 when Private Andrey Sychyov was beaten for hours by fellow soldiers. Sychyov was then forced to squat in the cold and later developed gangrene. When he was finally allowed to seek medical care doctors were forced to amputate his genitals and lower limbs.

Another infamous example was that of Private Artyom Pakhotin, who had the Russian word for “cock” carved into his forehead as punishment for smoking an illicit cigarette. Two weeks later, on April 19, 2018, Pakhotin shot himself during his platoon’s drill training session.

“Mom, don’t believe what anyone tells you,” he said in his last text message. “They’re bullying me here, exhausting me psychologically and extorting money . . . I don’t see how I can go on. I’m already very tired. I’m sorry it all turned out like this.”

Russian special forces, or?spetsnaz, are often portrayed as elite units, but their methods are also brutal.

During my time in Grozny with them, the soldiers told me of a?zindan?they used — a hole in the ground — where they would keep a prisoner. After days or weeks of torture, they said, he would be killed.

“Interrogation is not something you are taught,” one of the officers in Chechnya told me. “It’s something you learn.”

When Moscow launched its full-scale attack on Ukraine in February 2022, this culture of Russian military violence was given a whole new canvas.

In the Kyiv region alone, Ukrainian authorities and international organizations discovered over 1,100 civilian bodies, at least 458 in the suburb of Bucha. Many were found with hands tied behind their backs. Others bore signs of severe torture, broken bones, burn marks, and mutilation.

Evidence continues to mount. A documentary film called?Intercepted?provides a rare and chilling glimpse into the mindset of Russian soldiers in Ukraine. The film overlays footage of daily life in war-torn Ukraine with intercepted phone calls between Russian soldiers and their families back home.

In one scene, a soldier casually remarks: “Of course we had to kill all the civilians — they might have given our positions away.”

In another, a soldier brags about stealing a pair of New Balance trainers. His wife seems pleased and urges him to try and steal a computer as well for their daughter who will soon be starting school.

Yet another soldier says: “We’re catching a lot of Nazis here. We caught and killed three little ones this morning.” It is uncertain whether he is referring to children.

One of the most shocking elements of the film is the reaction of the soldiers’ womenfolk back home. When a soldier describes shooting a mother in front of her children, his partner responds, “Of course, she is an enemy too.”

Another woman urges her husband to “turn them into kebabs.”

Despite the overwhelming evidence of war crimes, there has been almost no accountability. By the end of the Soviet-Afghan War in 1989, 2,500 Soviet soldiers had been jailed by Soviet authorities and 200 had been convicted of premeditated murder.

But, so far, in the Ukraine war, there has been a culture of impunity. Indeed Putin has praised Russian soldiers in Bucha as heroes and given them awards.

It is chilling to think, even as suited envoys fly between high-level meetings in Moscow, Washington, and Riyadh, what the Russians are doing to their Ukrainian captives, be they military or civilian.

Julius Strauss is a former foreign correspondent for the Daily Telegraph who writes and?reports on Russia, Ukraine, Afghanistan, and the Balkans in his newsletter?Back to the Front, where this article was first published.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Tuesday, April 8, 2025 3:32 PM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

Russian Occupation Update, April 8, 2025

https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/russian-occupation-updat
e-april-8-2025

Key takeaways:

• The Kremlin is using the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) to consolidate social control over occupied areas of Ukraine and destroy any semblance of religious freedom

• Russian officials discussed plans for the continued forced absorption of occupied Ukraine into the Russian economy during the “lntegration-2025” forum.

• Russian federal censor Roskomnadzor issued an order on March 31 that will likely contribute to further crackdowns against pro-Ukrainian sentiment and dissent in occupied Ukraine.

• Russia continues to weaponize the school system in occupied Ukraine to Russify and militarize Ukrainian children and eradicate Ukrainian identity.

Download the whole report: https://www.understandingwar.org/sites/default/files/Russian%20Occupta
tion%20Update%2C%20April%207%2C%202025%20PDF.pdf

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Tuesday, April 8, 2025 4:41 PM

*yawn*

--------------------------------------------------

"I don't find this stuff amusing anymore." ~Paul Simon

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Tuesday, April 8, 2025 5:34 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

OMG! Teaching majority Russian-speaking children in Russian??
Horrors!

Allowing the ROC to exist where it had been the majority religion for a century?
Say it isn't so!!

-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal."- Henry Kissinger

AMERICANS SUPPORT AMERICA

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Tuesday, April 8, 2025 5:46 PM

You read more than I did.

Fuck Ukraine.

Nobody cares.

--------------------------------------------------

"I don't find this stuff amusing anymore." ~Paul Simon

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Wednesday, April 9, 2025 7:55 AM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
OMG! Teaching majority Russian-speaking children in Russian??
Horrors!

Allowing the ROC to exist where it had been the majority religion for a century?
Say it isn't so!!

It's Funny how there is only one religion allowed to be practiced in the occupied areas of Ukraine. Even funnier is that there is only one language allowed to be spoken in schools of the same areas. Even funnier, when our good old punching bag Hitler took territory, he didn't command the survivors to change religions and languages or else die. In Texas, the Trumptards are infuriated when someone speaks Spanish or even has a Spanish accent. Trumptards and Russians have a lot in common. "You are in America; you got to speak American." "You are in Russia; you got to speak Russian." Same, same.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Wednesday, April 9, 2025 8:01 AM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
You read more than I did.

Fuck Ukraine.

Nobody cares.

--------------------------------------------------

"I don't find this stuff amusing anymore." ~Paul Simon

You are partial right that, what's his name?, Biden, was a dummy. The Russians would declare a red line that Ukrainians must not cross or else Putin nukes America and then cowardly Biden would insist that the Ukrainians not cross the line. It was stupid of Biden to let his enemies in Russia and America dictate what Biden can or cannot do.

How The USA Aided Ukraine Not To Win A War

By Phillips P. Obrien | Apr 08, 2025

https://phillipspobrien.substack.com/p/how-the-usa-aided-ukraine-not-t
o

Here is the second part (expanded) of the piece that I started last week about how the US has misunderstood war, and from that how the US has, regrettably, imposed their flawed vision of war on the Ukrainians with disastrous results.

The original piece I wrote started with an overview of what can only be called US-Strategic failure. The US has an extraordinary track record since 1945. It has become arguably the greatest battle-winning/war-losing machine in global history. No power has had the global reach and technological dominance and capabilities of the USA since 1945, and yet at the same time, the US has lost most of the wars it has fought—and that includes the two longest and most expensive that it chose to start, The Vietnam War and The War on Terror in Afghanistan.

And arguably the one reason the Ukrainians have not experienced something similar is that intellectually they refused to accept US-dictation about how to fight their war.

Setting The Disastrous Course

One of the reasons the US has consistently lost wars is that it has a battle-centric view of how wars evolve. This is because the US has assembled a military machine that can win any battle it chooses to fight (though the Chinese might be challenging that reality now). Its fascinating, reading the story, how the US tried to impose its vision of war on Ukraine right from the start and how the Ukrainians tried to fight against US dictation.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Wednesday, April 9, 2025 11:39 AM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

Ukraine commander makes chilling admission about North Korean soldiers helping Russia

https://www.newsbreak.com/express-u-s--316349130/3955307362094-ukraine
-commander-makes-chilling-admission-about-north-korean-soldiers-helping-russia

To begin with, North Korean soldiers were thrown into what many know as "meat assaults," said Shyriaiev. The term describes costly attacks that lack proper support, inflicted by Russian commanders throughout the war.

He said the North Koreans were the ones often used in these assaults, "and the Russians are then used to secure the ground that the Koreans have taken."

He also said the soldiers were the best prepared physically.

"They are good marksmen. They are not afraid to engage drones -- they are shooting down drones with guns. They do not leave their wounded behind. They always try to evacuate them, " said Shyriaiev.

Compared to the Russians, "Koreans are more devoted, and to die heroically on the field of battle is something that Korean soldiers are proud of, " he said.

But Shryiaiev doesn't feel sympathy for the North Koreans if they get captured.

"I do not feel pity towards anyone who is waging war against my country. North Koreans are enemies for me and they are the enemies of my country.

He continued, "Also, I do not think that they don't understand where they have found themselves. It's impossible that they just don't know, or are clueless about where they ended up."

"I do not respect this adversary. This is not some kind of a tournament or ceremonial fight between knights. This is a war, a war which is a painful burden for our land, for our families."

Despite President Trump's insistence on a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine, seemingly no matter what it costs, Shyriaiev believes the war will drag on.

"All of us are, of course, yearning for peace. But when people begin to talk about the loss of territories, this is a very painful, very sensitive issue."

He explained, "We know that Russia is a country that never, never keeps its promises. It is a neighbor that is always a threat that has always aimed to suppress us and to conquer us."

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Thursday, April 10, 2025 6:28 AM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

Busting Yet Another Russian Bunker, A Ukrainian Fighter Jet Buried An Artillery Command Staff

The attack in southern Ukraine could offset Russia’s manpower advantage in the region, where a dozen or more Russian regiments and brigades face just a handful of Ukrainian brigades.

By David Axe | Apr 09, 2025, 04:55pm EDT

https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidaxe/2025/04/09/busting-yet-another-r
ussian-bunker-a-ukrainian-fighter-jet-buried-an-artillery-command-staff/

Lobbing a precision-guided bomb from potentially tens of miles away, a Ukrainian air force fighter—possibly an upgraded Mikoyan MiG-29—hammered a Russian bunker in southern Ukraine’s Kherson Oblast on Monday.

As many as 30 Russians from the command staff of the 81st Self-Propelled Artillery Regiment died, according to the Ukrainian general staff in Kyiv. In the aftermath of the daylight raid, a Ukrainian drone observed the survivors of the attack digging through the rubble with their hands.

It was at least the second bunker-busting raid the Ukrainian air force has conducted in recent days. On March 31, one of the supersonic MiG-29s hurled a boutique, American-made GBU-62 glide bomb at a former Soviet air-defense bunker—also in Kherson—that was occupied by a Russian command group.

A successful attack on a command bunker “minuses the high-ranking officer corps along with equipment,” one Ukrainian blogger explained. “Such strikes deprive enemy forces of clear control, and also significantly demoralize the military unit.”

It’s not for no reason the Ukrainian air force went after the 81st Self-Propelled Artillery Regiment’s command bunker. The regiment, part of the 70th Motorized Rifle Division—itself part of the 18th Combined Arms Army—lends critical heavy firepower to Russian forces on the left bank of the wide Dnipro River threading through Kherson.

Kill the commanders

Twenty-eight months after a swift Ukrainian offensive liberated much of Kherson, Russian troops may be plotting a new offensive of their own. When NPR visited a Ukrainian artillery battery on the right bank of the Dnipro recently, the Ukrainian gunners worried aloud about possible Russian mobilization in the area.

One gunner claimed he welcomed a Russian attack across the Dnipro. “We look forward to the Russians trying to attack us,” he told NPR. “It would give us a chance to destroy more of them.”

But Ukrainian troops are thin on the ground in Kherson as the general staff in Kyiv concentrates its best heavy forces in the east, where the Ukrainians are finally reversing some recent gains by increasingly weary Russian field armies.

The Ukrainian marine corps’ 34th, 39th and 40th Coastal Defense Brigades—new units largely equipped with light vehicles that are suitable for operations on muddy terrain—anchor Ukrainian defenses in Kherson. But they’re outnumbered by a dozen or more Russian regiments and brigades.

Blowing up command bunkers and burying the officers in the rubble can offset the Russians’ manpower advantage—by depriving that manpower of leadership.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Thursday, April 10, 2025 6:39 AM

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Commander-in-Chief General Oleksandr Syrskyi stated that there are currently 623,000 Russian military personnel fighting against Ukraine.[16] Syrskyi stated that Russian forces are "increasing the number" of personnel in Ukraine by 8,000 to 9,000 new personnel per month through contract recruitment and that the Russian force grouping fighting against Ukraine increased from about 603,000 on January 1, 2025 to 623,000 just over three months later. Syrskyi attributed these recruitment numbers to the financial incentives that the Russian Ministry of Defense (MoD) and Russian federal subjects have offered to Russians who sign contracts with the Russian MoD. Ukrainian Main Military Intelligence Directorate (GUR) Deputy Head Major General Vadym Skibitskyi stated on March 3 that there were 620,000 Russian soldiers operating against Ukraine and that there were about 580,000 Russian soldiers operating against Ukraine in November 2024.[17]

Syrskyi also spoke about Ukraine's efforts to further develop its tactical and long-range drone capabilities. Syrskyi stated that Ukraine has developed long-range strike drones with ranges of over 1,700 kilometers and noted that a Ukrainian drone recently struck a Russian Tu-22M3 long range bomber worth $100 million as it landed at a Russian airbase after a combat operation. Syrskyi reported that Ukrainian forces have also developed tactical fiber-optic strike drones with a range of up to 20 kilometers and that Ukraine plans to scale up production of these drones over the next one to three months (until about July 2025). Syrskyi noted that Ukraine continues to develop its Unmanned Systems Forces and that Ukrainian brigades are integrating drone units. Ukrainian frontline and long-range drones are crucial parts of Ukraine's defensive capabilities, and Ukrainian forces have leveraged these drones to defend against Russian offensive operations and inflict significant economic cost on Russia's war effort.[18] Syrskyi noted that long-range Ukrainian strikes against Russian ammunition arsenals forced Russian forces to roughly halve the number of artillery shells fired in Ukraine daily to around 20,000 and that Russian forces currently fire 27,000 to 28,000 artillery rounds per day. ISW has also observed Russian milblogger complaints that frontline Ukrainian drone operations have blunted recent Russian offensive operations south of Pokrovsk, and Ukrainian drone reconnaissance and strikes have inflicted heavy Russian vehicle losses throughout 2024.[19]

https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/russian-offensive-campai
gn-assessment-april-9-2025

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Thursday, April 10, 2025 8:04 AM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

Trump's Trumptards Traveled To Ukraine And Then Acted Like Greedy, Impatient Assholes

'Stop tapping your finger': Zelenskyy responds to Bessent’s criticism of subsoil deal

By Oleh Velhan | Kyiv, Thu, April 10, 2025 - 01:00

https://newsukraine.rbc.ua/news/stop-tapping-your-finger-zelenskyy-res
ponds-1744235192.html

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, during his visit to Kyiv in February, expected Ukraine to immediately sign the subsoil deal. However, his approach was mistaken, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

"I believe the problems lie in Mr. Bessent's approach. What he brought with him and said, 'You need to sign this now'... My colleagues know that tapping your finger on the deal and saying, 'Now it has to be signed'—I could only tell him, 'Stop tapping your finger and let’s talk substantively. He probably expected a different kind of dialogue, but I don’t consider Ukraine a third-rate country,'" Zelenskyy emphasized.

The president noted that he and Bessent were supposed to engage on equal terms, as citizens of Ukraine and the United States, with mutual respect. However, this approach "in some sense did not sit well with the American minister."

He added that he would not disclose all the details of the negotiations with Bessent, but he was not afraid if the US Treasury Secretary decided to reveal the full details.

According to Zelenskyy, the draft agreement presented by Bessent contained certain provisions that did not comply with Ukraine's Constitution and legislation.

Bessent's scandalous statement

Recently, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent accused Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of allegedly sabotaging the signing of the subsoil deal between Ukraine and the US.

According to him, the Ukrainian president "promised three times to sign the deal" but ultimately did not do so. But there is more to do before signing the deal:

Ukraine and US to discuss minerals deal in Washington - Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister

Thu, April 10, 2025 - 14:45

https://newsukraine.rbc.ua/news/ukraine-and-us-to-discuss-minerals-dea
l-in-1744285408.html

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Thursday, April 10, 2025 9:01 AM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

According to Military Summary Channel, Russia is taking territory all along the line of contact. American military official compared Russias advance to a lava flow. Some think that what we're seeing is the beginning of the highly anticipated final Russian offensive.

-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal."- Henry Kissinger

AMERICANS SUPPORT AMERICA

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Thursday, April 10, 2025 11:30 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
According to Military Summary Channel, Russia is taking territory all along the line of contact. American military official compared Russias advance to a lava flow. Some thunk that what we're seeing is the beginning of the highly anticipated final Russian offensive.

Good.

Fuck Ukraine.

--------------------------------------------------

"I don't find this stuff amusing anymore." ~Paul Simon

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Thursday, April 10, 2025 11:32 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Trump's Trumptards Traveled To Ukraine And Then Acted Like Greedy, Impatient Assholes

'Stop tapping your finger': Zelenskyy responds to Bessent’s criticism of subsoil deal

By Oleh Velhan | Kyiv, Thu, April 10, 2025 - 01:00

https://newsukraine.rbc.ua/news/stop-tapping-your-finger-zelenskyy-res
ponds-1744235192.html

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, during his visit to Kyiv in February, expected Ukraine to immediately sign the subsoil deal. However, his approach was mistaken, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

"I believe the problems lie in Mr. Bessent's approach. What he brought with him and said, 'You need to sign this now'... My colleagues know that tapping your finger on the deal and saying, 'Now it has to be signed'—I could only tell him, 'Stop tapping your finger and let’s talk substantively. He probably expected a different kind of dialogue, but I don’t consider Ukraine a third-rate country,'" Zelenskyy emphasized.

The president noted that he and Bessent were supposed to engage on equal terms, as citizens of Ukraine and the United States, with mutual respect. However, this approach "in some sense did not sit well with the American minister."

He added that he would not disclose all the details of the negotiations with Bessent, but he was not afraid if the US Treasury Secretary decided to reveal the full details.

According to Zelenskyy, the draft agreement presented by Bessent contained certain provisions that did not comply with Ukraine's Constitution and legislation.

Bessent's scandalous statement

Recently, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent accused Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of allegedly sabotaging the signing of the subsoil deal between Ukraine and the US.

According to him, the Ukrainian president "promised three times to sign the deal" but ultimately did not do so. But there is more to do before signing the deal:

Ukraine and US to discuss minerals deal in Washington - Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister

Thu, April 10, 2025 - 14:45

https://newsukraine.rbc.ua/news/ukraine-and-us-to-discuss-minerals-dea
l-in-1744285408.html

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

No deal for Ukraine.

Zelensky is a dead man.

Hope your pride was worth it, halfwit. You got way too high drinking that Democratic Party Kool-Aid and now you've just signed your death warrant.

--------------------------------------------------

"I don't find this stuff amusing anymore." ~Paul Simon

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Thursday, April 10, 2025 1:47 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Quote:
Funny how there is only one religion allowed to be practiced in the occupied areas of Ukraine.

FALSE, other religions (except Scientology, JW and one other) not banned.
https://novayagazeta.eu/articles/2025/04/07/soul-occupation-en

Quote:
Even funnier is that there is only one language allowed to be spoken in schools of the same areas.

Huh? You think schools should teach in multiple languages?
We have that here and it doesn't work.

-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal."- Henry Kissinger

AMERICANS SUPPORT AMERICA

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Thursday, April 10, 2025 6:17 PM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

Russia’s 70-Year-Old Assault Trucks Got Wiped Out In Eastern Ukraine

Drones swarmed the museum-grade GAZ-69 trucks. All along the front line, vehicle losses are spurring a swift de-mechanization of the Russian army.

By David Axe | Apr 10, 2025, 04:40pm EDT

https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidaxe/2025/04/10/russias-70-year-old-a
ssault-trucks-got-wiped-out-in-eastern-ukraine/

A few weeks after first appearing in significant numbers along the front line in Ukraine, Russian GAZ-69 trucks—museum pieces from the 1950s—seem to have participated in their first direct assault on Ukrainian positions.

“We are an inch away from the GAZ-69 sturm,” open-source intelligence analyst Moklasen predicted on April 1, using slang for “attack.” They were right.

The Thursday assault outside Bilohorivka, at the juncture of Luhansk and Donetsk Oblasts in eastern Ukraine, ended badly for at least one of the 3,500-pound, four-wheel-drive GAZ-69s, which rolled off the assembly line at the Molotov plant in Moscow some time between 1952 and 1972.

The trucks are totally unarmored except for the anti-drone cages some Russian troops weld onto them.

The GAZ-69 was struck by a first-person-view drone from the Ukrainian Abwehr Gruppe drone team, part of the 81st Air Mobile Brigade. The rest of the civilian-style vehicles in the platoon-sized column—potentially including additional GAZ-69s—also came under attack.

“No one arrived, no one reached” Ukrainian positions, the Abwehr Gruppe reported.

The best-protected Russian assault groups struggle to cross the mine-seeded, artillery-pocked, drone-patrolled front line of Russia’s 38-month-long wider war on Ukraine. Lightly protected assault groups in civilian trucks, all-terrain vehicles and motorcycles tend to fare even worse.

But more and more Russian regiments are riding in civilian vehicles as Russia’s losses of purpose-made combat vehicles exceed 20,000 and factories struggle to build new vehicles fast enough.

And that helps to explain why the numerically superior Russian force in eastern Ukraine, which may number more than half a million, has been struggling to gain ground.

“Despite holding the advantage along much of the frontline, Russia’s winter campaign yielded limited results—indicating Ukraine’s situation is not dire,” concluded Tatarigami, the founder of Frontelligence Insight, a Ukrainian analysis group.

That doesn’t mean the better-equipped—or luckier—Russian assault groups won’t advance a short distance here or there. Indeed, Russian regiments gained some ground south of Bilohorivka in recent days, according to the Ukrainian Center for Defense Strategies.

It does mean that, overall, the Russian army in Ukraine is increasingly ill-equipped for a major offensive—and likewise ill-equipped to exploit any localized breakthrough resulting from a successful assault. What was once one of the world’s great mechanized armies is de-mechanizing at a rapid pace.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Friday, April 11, 2025 6:09 AM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky stated on April 9 that Ukraine is interested in purchasing a large package of weapons from the United States, possibly within the framework of a future US-Ukraine mineral deal, as part of Ukrainian efforts to obtain security guarantees that would deter a future Russian invasion.[1] Zelensky stated on April 9 that Ukraine recently proposed to the United States that Ukraine purchase "30 to 50 billion" (likely USD) worth of air defense and weapons systems from the United States and that Ukraine is prepared to purchase these systems itself — either through direct payment to the United States or through the fund established by the potential US-Ukrainian minerals deal.[2] Zelensky stated that he recently told US President Donald Trump that Ukraine wants to buy at least 10 air defense systems to "help [Ukraine] after the end of the war" and that Ukraine will consider the provision of these air defense and weapons systems as a "security guarantee."[3] ISW continues to assess that a strong Ukrainian military backed by Western security guarantees remains the most vital component of a stable post-war European security architecture, guaranteeing a sustainable peace in Ukraine and deterring future Russian aggression.[4]

https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/russian-offensive-campai
gn-assessment-april-10-2025

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Friday, April 11, 2025 1:59 PM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

Vladimir Putin threat of 'worldwide blackouts' as NATO issues chilling warning

By Ryan Fahey, Claire Anderson | April 11, 2025

https://www.newsbreak.com/express-u-s--316349130/3958594503856-vladimi
r-putin-threat-of-worldwide-blackouts-as-nato-issues-chilling-warning

NATO is concerned that the Kremlin could unleash a new weapon against the world, causing "worldwide blackouts" by sabotaging undersea cables with its "shadow fleet". Executives from companies such as Vodafone, Orange, and Telefonica have penned an open letter to the UK, EU, and NATO, warning that Russia could easily destroy or disrupt the "defenseless" cables following a series of attacks.

In their letter, they stated: "The repercussions of damage to subsea cables extend far beyond Europe, potentially affecting global internet and power infrastructure, international communications, financial transactions and critical services worldwide."

They added: "Subsea cable security must be a cornerstone of broader infrastructure protection efforts. By acting now, we can safeguard the networks that underpin our shared future."

Approximately 95 percent of the world's data is transmitted via over 500 cables that span the ocean floor. In recent months, these crucial links have been targeted in several attacks.

These attacks have previously been condemned by global leaders and defense chiefs, who attribute the blame directly to Putin.

Despite Russia's denials of involvement, most nations are convinced that Putin is orchestrating the sabotage, given the presence of Russia's commercial shadow fleet in the area at the time of the attacks.

Since October 2023, most of the 11 reported attacks have taken place in the Baltic Sea, with additional incidents in the North Sea, heightening European leaders' concerns over a potential large-scale sabotage operation by Russia. Particularly after their Yantar spy ship was caught mapping underwater infrastructure in the North Sea.

China is believed to be conducting similar activities in waters near Taiwan.

UK Defence Secretary John Healey directly accused Putin when he delivered a stern warning in January: "I also want President Putin to hear this message: we see you, we know what you are doing, and we will not shy away from robust action to protect this country."

As the UK's critical offshore utilities such as pipelines, electrical cables, and energy considered the nation's "backbone"face threats, there's heightened awareness that Kremlin strikes on these vital structures could lead to chaos, potentially interrupting essential services including the British health service.

In response to these threats, a joint committee inquiry has been initiated, with MPs on the lookout for defensive strategies.

Matt Western, the head of the committee, reflected on the rising security concerns: "As the geopolitical environment worsens, foreign states are seeking asymmetric ways to hold us at risk. Our internet cable network looks like an increasingly vulnerable soft underbelly."

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Friday, April 11, 2025 2:02 PM

Maybe just leave them alone.

Nobody supports your Democratic Establishment campaign of eternal war in 2025.

--------------------------------------------------

"I don't find this stuff amusing anymore." ~Paul Simon

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Saturday, April 12, 2025 6:48 AM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Maybe just leave them alone.

Nobody supports your Democratic Establishment campaign of eternal war in 2025.

--------------------------------------------------

"I don't find this stuff amusing anymore." ~Paul Simon

Maybe Trumptards and Russians should stop being lying sacks of shit? The Russians could try to work more, steal and lie less, which would then make it easier for the Russian economy to grow as prosperous as the EU is. Trumptards could do the same, which would make it easier for them prosper in the USA.

The entire world would be better if Russians weren't envious and stealing from the neighbors. The same goes for Trumptards. See Trump's history of defrauding people if you doubt he is a thief and liar.
https://www.google.com/search?q=Trump+fraud+wiki

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Saturday, April 12, 2025 6:50 AM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

Russian media claims West spreads Satanism

Russian media are once again attacking the West, this time accusing it of spreading satanism. Putin appeals to the ingrained hostility towards the West within Russian society.

Russia has a long history of opposing "Western ideologies", a sentiment that is deeply embedded in the Russian mindset and history.

11:23 AM EDT, April 11, 2025

https://essanews.com/russian-media-claims-west-spreads-satanism-to-boo
st-propaganda,7144973205575297a

Why does Russia reject western ideologies?

Piotr Gursztyn, a historian, highlights that confrontation with the West is an entrenched aspect of Russian mentality. He noted, "Kremlin propagandists easily find examples of problematic phenomena in the West because our world is experiencing an axiological, ethical crisis today—this is a fact, not an opinion."

"Confrontation with the West is ingrained in Russian mentality," commented Gursztyn. Russia's historical resistance to Western influence is rooted in a sense of alienation from the outside world. Modern Kremlin propaganda taps into this tradition, depicting the West as a threat to "Holy Russia."

Russian deputies and Orthodox clergymen are actively involved in discussions about Western threats. A debate in the State Duma on Tuesday, attended by Bishop Pitrim, was a recent example of such participation. Nikolai Burlayev, who presided over the meeting, remarked that the Russian President had made it clear that Russia’s current struggle is directed against what he described as global satanism.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Saturday, April 12, 2025 7:29 AM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

A Dialogue With Russia’s Dark Side

A new book tries to understand the once-idealistic Russian journalists who now propagandize for Putin.

By John Kampfner | April 11, 2025, 3:00 PM

https://foreignpolicy.com/2025/04/11/soldatov-borogan-book-review-jour
nalists-putin-russia/

What do you with former friends who end up on the dark side, who espouse political views that are anathema to you?

It has never been an easy question to answer. I fell out with several over the Iraq War, as they became cheerleaders for the misadventure. The acrimony was at least as bad with those who proselytized for Brexit. It must have been the same for the Vietnam War and for other great/terrible moments in history. But surely nothing compares to now, with the division between those who stand in a broad sense for liberal democracy and those who advocate for authoritarianism and its various nativist-populist offshoots.

Our Dear Friends in Moscow: The Inside Story of a Broken Generation, Andrei Soldatov and Irina Borogan, PublicAffairs, 336 pp., $30, June 2025.
Free download of their books from the mirrors at https://libgen.rs/search.php?req=Andrei+Soldatov

For Americans, it was not easy during Donald Trump’s first term, but somehow people got by. The great exodus of liberals to Canada didn’t quite happen; the media continued to do its job. The president was restrained by the grown-ups in the White House. Now it is different. People are seeing their life’s work, everything they stand for, being destroyed.

Some Russians might allow themselves a wry smile. They’ve lived through such upheaval for nearly four decades. From the optimism of the late Gorbachev years to the collapse of Soviet Communism to the advent of Vladimir Putin’s presidency in 2000 and even for some years after that, they dared to believe that their new-found freedoms might last.

Central to that was a new type of journalism that included investigations about the past and present. I saw that for myself as a correspondent in Moscow in the first half of the 1990s. Military sites that had been closed were suddenly reopened. Archives were accessible. Officials and politicians were able to speak candidly to foreign and Russian reporters alike.

Andrei Soldatov and Irina Borogan were in their teens when the USSR collapsed. By the middle of 1990s, they were young reporters on a mission. The first newspaper to take them on was called Sevodyna (Today), and it was owned by an oligarch named Vladimir Gusinsky. The first group of post-Soviet super-rich were intoxicated by their sudden acquisition of wealth and were eager to flaunt their power and influence. Gusinsky’s main outlet was a TV station called NTV that broke the mold, challenging the Kremlin with fierce comment and intrepid investigation.

Soldatov and Borogan have spent their entire careers in journalism looking at the KGB and its successor organization, the FSB. In Sevodnya they found a willing publisher. As Putin consolidated his power, its editors became increasingly wary. Gusinsky was one of the first to be punished. He had his media outlets taken away, and he was driven out of Russia. At least he survived imprisonment or death.

In their compelling new book, Soldatov and Borogan chart the successes and travails of their investigations, through a series of newspapers who took them on and then dropped them. The story is partially a Russian take on the “journalists as good guys” trope that dates back to All the Presidents’ Men—with proprietors and editors being pushed and pulled in both directions. At the beginning, some of the authors’ pieces were published out of genuine journalistic integrity; sometimes they were let through to make the publication look open-minded, while the rest of its output was loyal to the power structures. Sometimes their reporting was diced and sliced. Other times it was rejected out of hand. They were repeatedly in and out of jobs.

The book is punctuated by the horrors of the Putin era. The calamities of his early years—the Nord-Ost theater hostage crisis, the Kursk submarine accident, and the Beslan school massacre—is followed by the succession of murders ordered by the Kremlin: Alexander Litvinenko, Anna Politkovskaya, Boris Nemtsov, Alexei Navalny.

Interspersed are rare moments of optimism, such as the hopes vested in Dmitry Medvedev, the prime minister who briefly swapped jobs with Putin. How absurd it is to recall that many Russian liberals and Western diplomats believed that, because he liked Apple products and was a fan of Deep Purple, Medvedev would usher in a different era. Now he is one of the most pernicious of them all—a so-called moderate who promised to abide by the rule of law now issuing florid threats about nuking European cities for supporting Ukraine.

The narrative is constructed around the authors’ relationship to half a dozen colorful characters, who first share their enthusiasm for journalistic enquiry, only to move over to the Putin cause. Some do it faster than others; others do it with more vehemence than others. All seemingly did so willing. In the early days, this group would gather at each other’s dachas or drink late into the night at Moscow’s new generation of bars and clubs, with names such as Duma (the name of Russia’s parliament) and Jean-Jacques. Then it turns sour, as Russian publications begin to reject their work and they felt under personal threat, but the authors insisted on staying in Russia until the dangers became too great.

Some of the poignant passages detail Andrei’s complicated relationship with his father, Alexey Soldatov. A prominent nuclear physicist in Soviet times, he introduced Russia’s first internet provider in 1990. Even though Alexey Soldatov was (surprisingly) appointed deputy minister of communications in 2008, he continued to fund his son’s journalism about the security services, so long as he confined himself to open-source material. “He knew what it was like to work with government secrets and how to calculate the risks,” the younger Soldatov writes. His ministerial tenure last only two years and, after a long disagreement with the Kremlin over its intentions to separate Russia’s domains from the global web, Alexei was arrested. Aged 72 and with a terminal illness, he was sentenced to a labor colony for “abuse of power,” where he languishes.

In exile in London, and with Andrei Soldatov declared a foreign agent in 2023, it has not been easy for the authors. They have persevered with their work and tried to keep up their contacts even from afar. For this, their latest project, they decided to track down their erstwhile colleagues to get a better idea of what led them to spout Kremlin propaganda.

The trigger was a commentary written by one of their peers, Petya Akopov. A week after Putin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Akopov called on a government-owned website for “the solution of the Ukrainian problem”—the same term the Nazis used about the Jews. “How could that have happened?” the authors ask. “He had grown up in an intelligent family in a friendly environment, had gotten a good education and had married a woman he loved. His family was blessed with two daughters. How had he become so bloodthirsty?”

Soldatov and Borogan divided up between them the various text messages or emails they would send. “We didn’t know what their reactions would be, and we didn’t know how it might affect us,” they write. They couldn’t just go and see them; they were, after all, “on the opposite side of the wall.”

To their surprise, several were prepared to talk. (When they tried to get hold of one of them, Olga Lyubimova, Putin’s culture minister, they were invited to submit questions via the press office.) These conversations are revealing but a little too brief, featuring in the appendix of the book.

Do we get a better understanding of the propagndists’ motivations? For some it seems to be family ties, going back to Stalin’s time. For others, it was the belief that they could, to use an English expression, have their cake and eat it: They could propagandize for all-Russia nationalism while enjoying the luxuries afforded by homes in London and villas on the Cote d’Azur. That has now been denied them, but who is to say that, thanks to Donald Trump, it won’t all come back again?

Soldatov and Borogan do their best not to be judgmental, which isn’t easy in the circumstances. It would also be invidious to see the poacher-turned-menacing gamekeeper as a particularly Russian phenomenon.

Many a journalist in the West has been enticed to cross over onto the other side of the rope, not just to do the job of government spokesperson (nothing wrong in that) but to lie and threaten on behalf of their bosses. This gripping book juxtaposes the often difficult and lonely trade of investigative journalism with the allure of power, the desire to ingratiate, and the toxicity of grievance. It’s a very Russian story, but the human characteristics it describes are not confined to Russia.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Saturday, April 12, 2025 8:31 AM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

SECOND lives in an alternate universe.

Meanwhile, on the front line

Kursk/ Sumy: Ukrainians have bern almost completely driven from Kursk, and Russians are now operating on the Ukrainian side of the border, in Sumy. The incursion cost the Ukrainian army more men and weapons than the failed summer offensive of 2023.

North eastern Ukraine: Russians are across the Oskil river with tanks and other heavy weaponry, and are flanking Kupiansk north and south. A Russian offensive is also aimed at Liman.

There was a huge pocket to the east of Konstantinovka city. That pocket is now being turned into a series of mini-cauldrons, with advances from Chasov Yar and Toretsk aiming at the city.

Pokrovsk continues to be flanked. Because so many major roads and railways leading into Pokrovsk have been taken by Russia, it no longer serves as a major logistical hub for Ukraine.

Advances continue across fields and hamlets south of Pokrovsk, closing in on the Dnipro border.

The front in Zaparozhiy, which has mostly been quiet for the last year is now active,

While avoiding energy infrastructure, Russia continues to strike munitions and drone factories, arms depots, command centers, concentrations of troops, and ("unofficial") NATO forces in Ukraine.

-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal."- Henry Kissinger

AMERICANS SUPPORT AMERICA

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Saturday, April 12, 2025 12:08 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Maybe just leave them alone.

Nobody supports your Democratic Establishment campaign of eternal war in 2025.

--------------------------------------------------

"I don't find this stuff amusing anymore." ~Paul Simon
Maybe Trumptards

Shut the fuck up, faggot.

--------------------------------------------------

"I don't find this stuff amusing anymore." ~Paul Simon

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Saturday, April 12, 2025 4:49 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Quote:
SECOND
Maybe Trumptards and Russians should stop being lying sacks of shit?

We know you're a liar. YOU know you're a liar. So this is just a liar calling everyone else liars.

Why should we believe you?

-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal."- Henry Kissinger

AMERICANS SUPPORT AMERICA

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Saturday, April 12, 2025 7:03 PM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
SECOND lives in an alternate universe.

Meanwhile, on the front line

Kursk/ Sumy: Ukrainians have bern almost completely driven from Kursk, and Russians are now operating on the Ukrainian side of the border, in Sumy. The incursion cost the Ukrainian army more men and weapons than the failed summer offensive of 2023.

North eastern Ukraine: Russians are across the Oskil river with tanks and other heavy weaponry, and are flanking Kupiansk north and south. A Russian offensive is also aimed at Liman.

There was a huge pocket to the east of Konstantinovka city. That pocket is now being turned into a series of mini-cauldrons, with advances from Chasov Yar and Toretsk aiming at the city.

Pokrovsk continues to be flanked. Because so many major roads and railways leading into Pokrovsk have been taken by Russia, it no longer serves as a major logistical hub for Ukraine.

Advances continue across fields and hamlets south of Pokrovsk, closing in on the Dnipro border.

The front in Zaparozhiy, which has mostly been quiet for the last year is now active,

While avoiding energy infrastructure, Russia continues to strike munitions and drone factories, arms depots, command centers, concentrations of troops, and ("unofficial") NATO forces in Ukraine.

-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal."- Henry Kissinger

AMERICANS SUPPORT AMERICA

I know that neither 6ix nor Signym can read a graph, but they think they can and will claim they can:

The rate of Russian advances in Ukraine has been steadily declining since November 2024, in part due to successful Ukrainian counterattacks in eastern Ukraine.

The UK Ministry of Defense (MoD) reported on April 5 that Russian forces advanced
143 square kilometers in Ukraine in March 2025
195 square kilometers in February 2025
326 square kilometers in January 2025
393 square kilometers in December 2024
730 square kilometers in November 2024
1,787 square kilometers Total

The UK MoD likely uses a different methodology or sources to assess Russian advances in Ukraine, but the UK MoD's report is consistent with evidence ISW has observed of decreasing monthly Russian advances between November 2024 and March 2025.

ISW has observed geolocated evidence to assess that Russian forces in Ukraine gained roughly
203 square kilometers in March 2025.
354 square kilometers in February 2025
427 square kilometers in January 2025
569 square kilometers in December 2024
627 square kilometers in November 2024
2,180 square kilometers Total

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Saturday, April 12, 2025 8:09 PM

Graphs are made to manipulate stupid people with highly curated stats, all derived from so-called "experts" to illustrate whatever lie of the day that they're telling stupid people.

They do it because idiots like you let them get away with it. If everyone had an IQ of over 100, there wouldn't even be any graphs in articles because everyone would be smart enough to realize that 9 times out of 10 whatever is coming next is pure fabrication.

Your graphs are ignored and belong in the coffin with Kevin Drum and his daily graphs.

Don't pretend that you're half as intelligent as me, boy.

You're just embarrassing yourself now.

--------------------------------------------------

"I don't find this stuff amusing anymore." ~Paul Simon

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Saturday, April 12, 2025 9:44 PM

Case in point...

Here's a graph you're probably familiar with. One that conned almost everyone for a couple of generations, in fact.

All pure bullshit from the beginning. Taught ad nauseam to every kid going to an accredited school that was getting funding from the Federal Government through the Department of Education until this extremely toxic belief in what a diet should look like was burned into their brains forever as a simple fact.

What did these lessons from our Government funneled down through the Department of Education do in the long run? They made a very few people a shit ton of money and made hundreds of millions of sick people over a few generations. Now we even give fat people Diabetes medication because why the fuck not? They're headed there anyway in a year or two.

All of this is what Fauci was busy doing long before teaming up with Democrats and China to destroy the world as we now only remember it over a cold.

Don't even get me started on how many people believe that they require 2,000 calories per day, since that's what they've seen on every nutrition label since they were old enough to read. Only the smartest or the luckiest who had daring teachers or smart parents who made them question the validity of a one-size fits all number for everyone grew up knowing any better. Those lucky ones, and the unfortunate girls who grew up with eating disorders were the only ones who knew better. That's it. That's all.

Most people don't even consider the wildly different sizes of the average woman vs the average man, let alone how many differences there are when you just take everyone at an individual level. And up until right now you've had a government and school system that has spent the better part of two decades telling all the boys and girls that they're all equal in everything, no matter what. I'm sure this rhetoric hasn't helped this particular situation, since it's never helped anyone in any situation. Ever.

What...? Maybe only 5% of those kids ever questioned why at a scrawny 13 years old and 90 lbs they would require the same amount of calories per day as their favorite 6'2" 320lb pro-wrestler would need in a day.

"Oh! But Jack! There's plenty of literature and science out there I could cite you right now that shows they do recognize that everyone is different and daily amounts needed vary wildly."

I'm sure that you could. I've already seen them. I have access to Google as well. You are not special.

The information is out there now because of the internet, but who gives a fuck? The Truth about this is not what most people believe. Most of them wouldn't believe you no matter how you tried to explain it to them after believing it all their lives.

Most people do not possess any critical thinking skills, or just enough to do the jobs with the most menial of tasks but never enough to get themselves into any trouble. ... and that's something else plaguing American Adults today that is entirely by design as the Public School System churns out another generation of Consumption Bots that are going to need to slave away 40 hours a week to make somebody else rich just so they can feed all their instinctual needs and fuel all of their addictions.

I ain't making any of this up. Check this out from Hartford Healthcare at St. Vincent's Medical Center. They wouldn't be studying it or writing articles about it if it weren't a phenomena that has happened. (And I didn't know this particular article even existed until I googled for it. I was really hoping somebody who has credentials actually wrote about it and I'm very pleased to see that somebody did. Although, sadly, I was trying to see if somebody did a study or at least some polls of what percentage of Americans believe they should be eating 2,000 calories per day, but it seems that Google A.I. even struggles with that one. Hopefully somebody is smart enough to get RFK to look into it if he's not already planing on doing that himself).

The Problem With the 2,000-Calorie Diet

https://stvincents.org/about-us/news-press/news-detail?articleId=45556
&publicid=745

Quote:
In this crazy world, sometimes up is down, down is sideways — and numbers we thought were grounded in science turn out to be more or less made up.

That’s the problem with the 2,000-calorie diet.

Turns out, 2,000 was never a magic number when it comes to daily calories. It was never even the most accurate number. It was just the number that made it through committee.

“In truth, there is no standard number of daily calories,” says Hartford HealthCare bariatric specialist Joseph St. Pierre, DO. “Everyone’s number is different.”

The 2,000-calorie diet was invented to simplify nutrition labels.

The history goes like this: In the 1990s, when the FDA was standardizing nutrition labels for U.S. food, they wanted to include a benchmark number for daily calories. Unfortunately, no such number existed. So they turned to data from public surveys, in which people had self-reported how many calories they ate per day. (Were these accurate reports? Fingers crossed.)

They got a wide range of answers, from 1,600 to 3,000 calories. But nutrition labels can only fit so much information! Ultimately, the committee decided to keep it simple, if not exactly accurate. They wanted just one number.

Technically, the survey average was about 2,400 daily calories — but 2,000 won the day. It was easier to remember, and proponents argued that it was better for people to eat too little than too much.

Too little? TOO LITTLE???!!!!

You know how many calories I need to maintain my current weight in a single day? 1,565. That's all. I ain't tall, but I'm a beefy dude. That's what I was told at the Diabetic center when they weighed me on the electric doo-dad scale. I hadn't counted calories for 20 years since I gave up power lifting, but I did some calorie counting for a few weeks after that and this information was correct.

I won't give you the height on my driver's license because I think I've given some of you freaks more than enough information to come and find me so we can party up one day already, but let's just say that I'm somewhere roughly in between your average male height and your average female height. And with my athletic-leaning-toward-muscular build, I used to break the BMI chart and they called me overweight before the Diabetes hit. And back in my power lifting days when I was built like a brick shithouse I was considered morbidly obese.

Yeah... BMI is pure bullshit conjured out of thin air too.

If I'm North of 150lbs and taller than your average woman, why are they telling me I need 33% more calories per day than I need? Why are they telling any woman who isn't near or over 6 feet tall that she needs 2,000 calories per day on every product?

Oh... and by the way... I'm thrilled to know that this poisonous health advice from "The Experts" that we've been teaching for DECADES to the public is an easily remembered number though. That way even the stupidest of us can remember the wholly inaccurate number you program into our brains so we can get ourselves just sick enough to need medicine to live for the rest of our lives. WE're worth nothing at all to you dead, right? Well... I'm sure quite a few of us have some good quality innards that you can sell to the highest bidder, but I'm afraid you wont find too much of anything worth selling when I finally shake this earthly coil...

Why do we send kids to school for 12 fucking years and nobody bothers to teach them anything about nuance?

Or maybe the better question to ask is why the fuck is everyone so fucking fat in 2025?

I think you have your answer.

You can't fault people for believing in the Food Pyramid because that came at a time where most people still trusted the news and the government.

Now it's only roughly half of the stupid people that they have left for an audience. The people who see a pretty graph drawn up by somebody who says things they agree with and so they take whatever manufactured and cherry picked statistics they're being shown as undeniable truth as deemed by "The Experts". That is all that they have left.

And for that, they have no one to blame but themselves.

--------------------------------------------------

"I don't find this stuff amusing anymore." ~Paul Simon

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Saturday, April 12, 2025 9:59 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
SECOND lives in an alternate universe.

Meanwhile, on the front line

Kursk/ Sumy: Ukrainians have bern almost completely driven from Kursk, and Russians are now operating on the Ukrainian side of the border, in Sumy. The incursion cost the Ukrainian army more men and weapons than the failed summer offensive of 2023.

North eastern Ukraine: Russians are across the Oskil river with tanks and other heavy weaponry, and are flanking Kupiansk north and south. A Russian offensive is also aimed at Liman.

There was a huge pocket to the east of Konstantinovka city. That pocket is now being turned into a series of mini-cauldrons, with advances from Chasov Yar and Toretsk aiming at the city.

Pokrovsk continues to be flanked. Because so many major roads and railways leading into Pokrovsk have been taken by Russia, it no longer serves as a major logistical hub for Ukraine.

Advances continue across fields and hamlets south of Pokrovsk, closing in on the Dnipro border.

The front in Zaparozhiy, which has mostly been quiet for the last year is now active,

While avoiding energy infrastructure, Russia continues to strike munitions and drone factories, arms depots, command centers, concentrations of troops, and ("unofficial") NATO forces in Ukraine.

-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal."- Henry Kissinger

AMERICANS SUPPORT AMERICA

I know that neither 6ix nor Signym can read a graph, but they think they can and will claim they can:

The rate of Russian advances in Ukraine has been steadily declining since November 2024, in part due to successful Ukrainian counterattacks in eastern Ukraine.

The UK Ministry of Defense (MoD) reported on April 5 that Russian forces advanced
143 square kilometers in Ukraine in March 2025
195 square kilometers in February 2025
326 square kilometers in January 2025
393 square kilometers in December 2024
730 square kilometers in November 2024
1,787 square kilometers Total

The UK MoD likely uses a different methodology or sources to assess Russian advances in Ukraine, but the UK MoD's report is consistent with evidence ISW has observed of decreasing monthly Russian advances between November 2024 and March 2025.

ISW has observed geolocated evidence to assess that Russian forces in Ukraine gained roughly
203 square kilometers in March 2025.
354 square kilometers in February 2025
427 square kilometers in January 2025
569 square kilometers in December 2024
627 square kilometers in November 2024
2,180 square kilometers Total

https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/russian-offensive-campai
gn-assessment-april-6-2025

For comparison, Harris County, Texas (Houston) covers 4,603 square kilometers
Texas has a total area of approximately 695,662 square kilometers
Ukraine covers an area of 603,628 square kilometers

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

Selective data, picked to start at Russia's maximum territorial gains, and ignoring the territory recaptured in Kursk.

If you expand the chart backwards you'd see an uneven increase from spring 2024 to Nov 2024, and if you include Kursk (more than 1,100 sq km) you'd see a huge jump up on March.

“Statistics don't lie ... but statisticians do.“

-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal."- Henry Kissinger

AMERICANS SUPPORT AMERICA

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Saturday, April 12, 2025 10:24 PM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:

Selective data, picked to start at Russia's maximum territorial gains, and ignoring the territory recaptured in Kursk.

If you expand the chart backwards you'd see an uneven increase from spring 2024 to Nov 2024, and if you include Kursk (more than 1,100 sq km) you'd see a huge jump up on March.

“Statistics don't lie ... but statisticians do.“

Like your inability to understand a graph, you know nothing about warfare. Russia is NOT winning when it takes back its own territory. If reconquering your own country counted toward a win, the South Vietnamese government would have won the war with North Vietnam since South Vietnam retook the same territory in the South many, many times. Winning the Vietnam War required taking North, not South, Vietnamese territory, preferably around Hanoi. A Russian victory in Ukraine requires taking Ukrainian territory, not Russian territory, preferably around Kyiv.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Saturday, April 12, 2025 10:44 PM

I think my last post is infinitely more interesting than the sum of any dozen posts made in the history of this 163 page thread combined.

--------------------------------------------------

"I don't find this stuff amusing anymore." ~Paul Simon

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Sunday, April 13, 2025 4:04 AM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:

Selective data, picked to start at Russia's maximum territorial gains, and ignoring the territory recaptured in Kursk.

If you expand the chart backwards you'd see an uneven increase from spring 2024 to Nov 2024, and if you include Kursk (more than 1,100 sq km) you'd see a huge jump up on March.

“Statistics don't lie ... but statisticians do.“
Like your inability to understand a graph, you know nothing about warfare. Russia is NOT winning when it takes back its own territory.

But it IS winning when it kills more Ukrainian soldiers and destroys more (mostly western) armored vehicles and equipment than during Ukraine's failed spring offensive, which is exactly what happened.

In an attritional war, territorial gains (or losses) aren't the point.

But Russian territorial gains will happen, you'll see.

-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal."- Henry Kissinger

AMERICANS SUPPORT AMERICA

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Sunday, April 13, 2025 4:42 AM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Case in point...

Here's a graph you're probably familiar with. One that conned almost everyone for a couple of generations, in fact.

[Video of food pyramid]

All pure bullshit from the beginning...

True, that. But nobody follows the food pyramid anyway. When was the last time you saw anyone eat a fast-food vegetable, aside from french fries and a bit of lettuce and tomato on a burger?

People are fat bc they're stressed, or sick, and food helps them feel better, if only while they're eating. Or they're rushed, or poor, and fast food is cheap, and fabricated to be as addictive as the internet.

And EVEN IF someone really wanted to hand out truly scientific advice, studies point in different directions. A 30-year study points to the AHEI diet https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/scoring-highly-on-alternative-heal
thy-eating-index-lowers-risk-for-many-illnesses-202202082681 And Seventh Day Adventists are usually vegetarian and overall very healthy.

But, yanno, I can't imagine eating that many servings of starch, whole grain or otherwise, without blowing up like a balloon, and I can't imagine what it would do to blood sugar!

And how many years have we been told not to eat eggs, only to find out that they're actually good for us?

And now there's another food pyramid, this one with protein and fats as the base. ANOTHER wholesale experiment on America!

The science hasn't been settled on this, and it doesn't take metabolic variability into account.

-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal."- Henry Kissinger

AMERICANS SUPPORT AMERICA

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Sunday, April 13, 2025 7:32 AM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:

Selective data, picked to start at Russia's maximum territorial gains, and ignoring the territory recaptured in Kursk.

If you expand the chart backwards you'd see an uneven increase from spring 2024 to Nov 2024, and if you include Kursk (more than 1,100 sq km) you'd see a huge jump up on March.

“Statistics don't lie ... but statisticians do.“
Like your inability to understand a graph, you know nothing about warfare. Russia is NOT winning when it takes back its own territory.
But it IS winning when it kills more Ukrainian soldiers and destroys more (mostly western) armored vehicles and equipment than during Ukraine's failed spring offensive, which is exactly what happened.

In an attritional war, territorial gains (or losses) aren't the point.

But Russian territorial gains will happen, you'll see.

If attrition wins wars, then the USA would have won the Vietnam War.

The USA had only hundreds of thousands of deaths and permanently disabled soldiers, while North Vietnam had millions. And the USA had a population ten times bigger than North Vietnam, so the USA should have won again and again if attrition wins wars.

Do you know what would have won in Vietnam and will win in Ukraine? An Army taking Hanoi and Kyiv. (Another way for Russia to win is convincing the EU not to allow ammo into Ukraine.)

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Sunday, April 13, 2025 7:37 AM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

Russian Drone and Missile Strikes on Ukraine
January 1, 2025 - April 12, 2025
Click the link for the graph: https://understandingwar.org/sites/default/files/Strikes%20Graphic%20A
PR%2012%202025%20V4.PNG

Russian forces have reportedly adjusted their long-range strike tactics in recent weeks, likely as part of an effort to inflict significant damage with strike packages of sizes similar to those they had been using earlier in the year and to intimidate Ukrainian civilians.

https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/russian-offensive-campai
gn-assessment-april-12-2025

CHORNOBYL, Ukraine, April 12 (Reuters) - Ukraine is seeking solutions to repair the damage caused by a Russian drone attack to the confinement vessel at the stricken Chornobyl nuclear power plant, a government minister said on Saturday.

Ukraine was working together with experts to determine the best way to restore the proper functioning of the containment vessel, or arch, after the February 14 drone strike. Unfortunately, after the attack, the arch partially lost its functionality. The drone attack punched a large hole in the new containment structure's outer cover and exploded inside.

The containment vessel was intended to cover the vast, and deteriorating, steel and concrete structure erected after the plant's fourth reactor exploded, sending radioactivity over much of Europe in the world's biggest nuclear accident.

https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/ukraine-seeking-solutions-damaged
-chernobyl-confinement-vessel-minister-says-2025-04-12/

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Sunday, April 13, 2025 11:23 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Case in point...

Here's a graph you're probably familiar with. One that conned almost everyone for a couple of generations, in fact.

[Video of food pyramid]

All pure bullshit from the beginning...

True, that. But nobody follows the food pyramid anyway. When was the last time you saw anyone eat a fast-food vegetable, aside from french fries and a bit of lettuce and tomato on a burger?

People are fat bc they're stressed, or sick, and food helps them feel better, if only while they're eating. Or they're rushed, or poor, and fast food is cheap, and fabricated to be as addictive as the internet.

And EVEN IF someone really wanted to hand out truly scientific advice, studies point in different directions. A 30-year study points to the AHEI diet https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/scoring-highly-on-alternative-heal
thy-eating-index-lowers-risk-for-many-illnesses-202202082681 And Seventh Day Adventists are usually vegetarian and overall very healthy.

But, yanno, I can't imagine eating that many servings of starch, whole grain or otherwise, without blowing up like a balloon, and I can't imagine what it would do to blood sugar!

And how many years have we been told not to eat eggs, only to find out that they're actually good for us?

And now there's another food pyramid, this one with protein and fats as the base. ANOTHER wholesale experiment on America!

The science hasn't been settled on this, and it doesn't take metabolic variability into account.

-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal."- Henry Kissinger

AMERICANS SUPPORT AMERICA

There's actually a lot more than just the food pyramid that I went into. We get lied to about everything every day.

The 2,000 calorie per day lie is especially egregious.

If our Public School system actually taught kids to become adults who were capable of reasoning and reading beyond headlines, having one number like that wouldn't be a problem because everyone would almost instinctively know that this number was in no-way a one-size fits all solution. But most people are stupid and were put through the 12 year meat grinder and aren't capable of doing much thinking for themselves anymore. So don't expect 80% or more of the population to believe anything other than the lie that 2,000 calories is their daily recommended intake because that's what all the labels says it is. Most of them will only discover that this was a lie when they start visiting that doctor for their first bodily catastrophic failure that will require them to pay somebody to live for the rest of their lives.

The fact that the 2,000 calorie number was more or less pulled out of a hat in the first place just makes it downright evil what they've done.

--------------------------------------------------

"I don't find this stuff amusing anymore." ~Paul Simon

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Sunday, April 13, 2025 12:56 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Quote:
If attrition wins wars, then the USA would have won the Vietnam War.

The USA Air Force was losing 10% of its aircraft with every bombing run over N Vietnam. Unsustainable over the long run.

AFA deaths are concerned ... yep! We killed millions of civilians! But not fighters. It's like our "strategy" in Afghanistan of "bombing them back into the Stone Age". Or Germany's genocidal rampage into Russia. Or Israel's genocidal "cleansing" of Gaza.

Does indiscriminate killing win wars? It seems not.

-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal."- Henry Kissinger

AMERICANS SUPPORT AMERICA

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Monday, April 14, 2025 6:00 AM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

Ongoing milblogger complaints about the Russian military's conduct of the war in Ukraine reinforce ISW’s assessment that Russian tactics will degrade Russia’s manpower and materiel resources and contribute to slowing Russian advances along the frontline. A Russian milblogger and former Storm-Z instructor claimed on April 12 that the Russian military command is using a "thousand cuts" tactic against Ukraine to the detriment of Russian forces and complained that deploying poorly equipped and poorly trained Russian infantry to attack Ukrainian defensive positions only results in marginal gains and heavy losses.[23] The milblogger argued that the Russian military command is attempting to present high manpower and materiel losses as necessary by falsely portraying the preceding combat engagements as evidence of Russia‘s coordinated "grinding" down of Ukrainian defenses.[24] The milblogger claimed on April 12 and 13 that the Russian military command is ignoring the fact that Russian forces are facing shortages of materiel necessary for offensive operations, which contributes to issues conducting assaults and to the failure of small group assaults along the frontline in Ukraine.[25] The milblogger claimed that frontline Russian commanders are under significant pressure from their superiors to conduct more infantry assaults, do not have sufficient time to plan new assault routes, and that some frontline commanders order assaults simply to be able to report something back to their superiors. ISW previously assessed that these grinding assaults will likely degrade available Russian manpower and materiel significantly enough that Russian forces will have to decrease offensive tempo on lower-priority sectors of the front.[26] The milblogger speculated that Russian forces are in a self-perpetuating cycle, where poorly trained infantry killed or injured in failed assault attempts are replaced with similarly poorly trained infantry, who are again sent into doomed assaults.[27] The milblogger’s claims reflect the general trend of slowing Russian advances along the frontline recently and highlight some of the critical issues that Russian forces will have to address if they intend to make significant territorial gains or conduct more sophisticated offensive operations in Ukraine in the future.[28]

https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/russian-offensive-campai
gn-assessment-april-13-2025

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Monday, April 14, 2025 6:02 AM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

Trump Has A ‘Maximum’ Meltdown On Social Media After Hate-Watching ‘60 Minutes’
The president snapped after watching a TV show he didn't like and said CBS should lose its license.

By Ed Mazza | Apr 14, 2025, 01:22 AM EDT

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/donald-trump-60-minutes-meltdown_n_67fc
70eae4b0c8069e852f1b

Trump railed against Sunday night’s reports on Greenland and the war in Ukraine.

The Ukraine segment featured an interview with the nation’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, by correspondent Scott Pelley. Pelley noted that Trump promised to end the war in Ukraine “immediately” and before even taking office, which did not happen.

Pelley asked Zelenskyy about Trump’s false claim that Ukraine started the war, and that Zelenskyy is a “dictator.”

“I believe, sadly, Russian narratives are prevailing in the U.S.,” Zelenskyy said.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Monday, April 14, 2025 6:18 AM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

Vladimir Antyufeyev was Russia’s leading specialist in the form of geopolitical theater known as “frozen conflict.” In a frozen conflict, Russia occupies small parts of a nearby country (Moldova since 1991, Georgia since 2008, Ukraine since 2014), and then presents its own occupation as an internal problem that prevents its neighbors from having closer relations with the European Union or NATO.

For Antyufeyev, the desires of the people of the Donbas were subordinate to the prerogatives of a far grander struggle against the European Union and the United States, which he portrayed as the Satanic West. He promised an offensive that would turn the tide in this global war. The Soviet Union had not collapsed, he said, because of its own problems, but because the West had deployed mysterious “destructive technologies” — this phrase, as in the Izborsk Club manifesto, meant “facts.” The Russian invasion of Ukraine, Antyufeyev said, must be understood as the self-defense of innocent Russians from an alliance between “the Freemasons of Europe and the United States” and “the fascists of Ukraine.” Antyufeyev had mastered schizo-fascism. Russia was at war against “fascists,” but these fascists were somehow in league with international “Freemasons.” The idea of a global conspiracy of Masons is fascist. Antyufeyev was using this fascist portrayal of the world to present himself as an anti-fascist.

Since Ukraine was the focus of the efforts of the global anti-Russian conspiracy, victory there, Antyufeyev thought, might change the world. The Russian intervention in Ukraine, Antyufeyev explained, was a defense of Russia’s natural gas and fresh water from a rapacious United States. It was all one struggle, but it could be won. In Antyufeyev’s view, “Ukraine is a disintegrating state. Exactly like the United States.” The destruction of the United States was both desirable and inevitable. “If the world were saved from demonic constructions such as the United States, it would be easier for everyone to live. And one of these days it will happen.”

from Chapter Five, Truth Or Lies (2015), The Road to Unfreedom (2018) by Timothy Snyder

Download all Timothy Snyder’s books for free from the mirrors at https://libgen.rs/search.php?req=Timothy+Snyder

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Monday, April 14, 2025 3:14 PM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

Defence Intelligence
UPDATE ON UKRAINE
14 April 2025

• Russia has likely sustained approximately 138,000 casualties (killed and wounded) in the Russia-Ukraine conflict so far in 2025.

• In March 2025, the average daily Russian casualties was approximately 1,300, according to Ukrainian General Staff reporting. This rose from 1,250 in February 2025, but remains below the very high daily rates of nearly 1,600 in late 2024.

• The rise in casualty rates has continued into early April 2025, and is highly likely reflective of increased Russian attacks along the frontline. Russian forces are likely attempting to rebuild frontline momentum following a period of lower attacks in the opening months of the year. Despite a relatively static frontline, reported Russian casualties remain significantly higher in 2025 so far than compared to spring 2024, when recorded daily Russian casualty rates were consistently below 1,000.

• Since invading Ukraine, Russia has likely sustained more than 920,000 total casualties.

4:05 AM · Apr 14, 2025
https://x.com/DefenceHQ/status/1911707265494642711

Find out more about how Defence Intelligence communicates probability:
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/defence-intelligence-communicating-
probability

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Monday, April 14, 2025 4:38 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

More BS from SECOND'S ridiculous sources.

-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal."- Henry Kissinger

AMERICANS SUPPORT AMERICA

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Monday, April 14, 2025 5:29 PM