REAL WORLD EVENT DISCUSSIONS

Russia Invades Ukraine. Again

POSTED BY: CAPTAINCRUNCH
UPDATED: Sunday, April 28, 2024 02:14
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PAGE 110 of 127

Saturday, December 23, 2023 4:28 PM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.


Notice the change in narrative?

A year ago it was all "Ukraine is WINNING!" and "Russian troops are unmotivated brutal orcs only good to feed into meat grinders" and "Russia's economy is in tatters." and "Russia is running out of missiles/ planes/ artillery/ (fill in the blank)".

Now, it's ...

What if Russia wins?
https://www.ft.com/content/a788b749-c94c-4d9e-99e4-47300b0c6ea8

The High Price of Losing Ukraine: Part 2 — The Military Threat and Beyond
https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/high-price-losing-ukrain
e-part-2-%E2%80%94-military-threat-and-beyond

What could happen if Russia wins the war in Ukraine?
https://news.sky.com/story/what-could-happen-if-russia-wins-war-in-ukr
aine-experts-consider-the-scenarios-13031013

What If Russia Wins?
https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/ukraine/2022-02-18/what-if-rus
sia-wins

‘We’ll Be at Each Others’ Throats’: Fiona Hill on What Happens If Putin Wins
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2023/12/12/fiona-hill-ukraine-p
utin-00131285

****

Wow. Neocons and their prostitute media slowly coming to grips with reality?

The best analysis of what this means comes from ISW, the Kagan-Nuland branch of neoconism, as quoted by Simplicius:

Quote:
"To deter and defend against a renewed Russian threat following a full Russian victory in Ukraine the United States will have to deploy to Eastern Europe a sizable portion of its ground forces. The United States will have to station in Europe a large number of stealth aircraft. Building and maintaining those aircraft is intrinsically expensive, but challenges in manufacturing them rapidly will likely force the United States to make a terrible choice between keeping enough in Asia to defend Taiwan and its other Asian allies and deterring or defeating a Russian attack on a NATO ally. The entire undertaking will cost a fortune, and the cost will last as long as the Russian threat continues—potentially indefinitely."


In other words, all of the required defensive measures would bankrupt us.

More importantly

Quote:
"The future of NATO is bound up with the future of Ukraine much more tightly than most people understand...

Altering America’s will is no small thing. America is an idea. America is a choice. America is a belief in the value of action. US domestic resilience and global power come in no small part from people and countries choosing the United States and from Americans preserving their agency to act with intent. An adversary learning how to alter these realities is an existential threat — especially when ideas are that adversary’s core weapon."


Simplicius continues...

Quote:
" ' America the Myth floated along during all of this. It was a shared catechism of the American religion, but is becoming harder to swallow. We are becoming American Atheists and when the people stop believing in their own myths they perish.'

Now let’s see Kagan and cohort’s exegesis one more time, side by side:

'Altering America’s will is no small thing. America is an idea. America is a choice. America is a belief in the value of action. US domestic resilience and global power come in no small part from people and countries choosing the United States and from Americans preserving their agency to act with intent. An adversary learning how to alter these realities is an existential threat — especially when ideas are that adversary’s core weapon.'

Ah….so there it is. You see, American power is enshrined in nothing more than a Myth of supremacy and entitlement, one itself cloaked in various euphemistic coys and vapory misdirections like “the rules based order.” "


https://simplicius76.substack.com/p/breaking-down-thinktank-lands-late
st

Losing in Ukraine might lead large parts of the world to suddenly realize that America is not invincible. They might decide they had backed the wrong horse. Many nations might switch sides, or at least become equidistant. A tipping point may be reached, where side-switching becomes a self- reinforcing process. America may come to doubt itself, or at least doubt the neocon's version of itself. And there goes the neocon project of world domination!

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

Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM



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Saturday, December 23, 2023 7:42 PM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.


This belongs in the Palestine thread, but is also relevant to America's standing in the world, and with its allies....


Pentagon's Operation Prosperity Guardian "Falls Apart" As Spain, Italy, France Reject Request
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/pentagons-operation-prosperity-
guardian-falls-apart-spain-italy-france-reject-request

US Attacked 100 Times In Iraq & Syria Since October
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/us-attacked-100-times-iraq-syri
a-october

Israeli-Linked Tanker Struck By Drone Off India, Signaling Attacks Set To Widen
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/israeli-linked-tanker-struck-dr
one-india-signaling-attacks-set-widen

96% Of Saudis Oppose Ties With Israel, Hamas Grows In Popularity: Poll
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/96-saudis-oppose-ties-israel-ha
mas-grows-popularity-poll

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

Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM



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Sunday, December 24, 2023 6:32 AM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly


The timing of Putin’s reported interest in a ceasefire is more consistent with Russia’s ongoing efforts to delay and discourage further Western military assistance to Ukraine, than with a serious interest in ending the war other than with a full Russian victory. ISW observed similar Kremlin efforts to mislead Western policymakers into pressuring Ukraine to negotiate with Russia in winter 2022-2023, and effectively redirecting Western focus onto hypothetical negotiations rather than ensuring that Ukraine has sufficient materiel before its spring-summer counteroffensive.[7]

https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/russian-offensive-campai
gn-assessment-december-23-2023

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

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Sunday, December 24, 2023 3:58 PM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.


Institute for the Study of War (ISW). Kimberly Kagan is founder and President of that think tank. Kimberly is married to Frederick Kagan.

Frederick Kagan is Director of the "Critical Threats" project at the American Enterprise Institute think tank.

Frederick Kagan is Robert Kagan's brother.

Robert Kagan is cofounder (with Bill Kristol) of the Project for New America Century, which called for global domination.

Robert is married to Victoria "fuck the EU" Nuland, who, from her perch in the State Department, runs various neocon regime change ops, including Ukraine and attempts at regime change in Russia.


It's a nest of Jewish Zionist neocons, really, who have a very narrow agenda which does NOT include America's overall benefit.



The Kagans Are Back; Wars to Follow
https://www.globalresearch.ca/the-kagans-are-back-wars-to-follow/55801
71


*****

But that's OK, sweetie. Keep the pedal to the metal. You're heading for a cliff, so I'm not gonna stand in your way.


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

Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM



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Sunday, December 24, 2023 4:11 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Notice the change in narrative?

A year ago it was all "Ukraine is WINNING!" and "Russian troops are unmotivated brutal orcs only good to feed into meat grinders" and "Russia's economy is in tatters." and "Russia is running out of missiles/ planes/ artillery/ (fill in the blank)".

Now, it's ...

What if Russia wins?

The High Price of Losing Ukraine: Part 2 — The Military Threat and Beyond

What could happen if Russia wins the war in Ukraine?

What If Russia Wins?

‘We’ll Be at Each Others’ Throats’: Fiona Hill on What Happens If Putin Wins

****

Wow. Neocons and their prostitute media slowly coming to grips with reality?


Nah.

The War Machine hasn't been properly fed for a while.

Just commericals for Raytheon and the like is all.

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

Political correctness is just tyranny, with a smiley face.

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Sunday, December 24, 2023 5:35 PM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.


Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Notice the change in narrative?

A year ago it was all "Ukraine is WINNING!" and "Russian troops are unmotivated brutal orcs only good to feed into meat grinders" and "Russia's economy is in tatters." and "Russia is running out of missiles/ planes/ artillery/ (fill in the blank)".

Now, it's ...

What if Russia wins?

The High Price of Losing Ukraine: Part 2 — The Military Threat and Beyond

What could happen if Russia wins the war in Ukraine?

What If Russia Wins?

‘We’ll Be at Each Others’ Throats’: Fiona Hill on What Happens If Putin Wins

****

Wow. Neocons and their prostitute media slowly coming to grips with reality?


Nah.

The War Machine hasn't been properly fed for a while.

Just commericals for Raytheon and the like is all.

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

Political correctness is just tyranny, with a smiley face.
Ummmm...

I think they're more desperate than that, SIX. They banked a lot on Project Ukraine. Them, and the WH, State Dept, neocons, EU, NATO, IMF, BlackRock, Monsanto, Pfizer et al. A lot of political capital and currency was committed to succeeding. Not only have they not regime-change Russia (there go all of those lovely acquisitions!) they haven't managed to fold Ukraine into NATO, or even defend it from "Russian aggression". So much for those IMF loans and aid packages!

And if Russia takes most of Ukraine, financialists and transnationals won't even get the consolation prize of picking the Ukraine carcasse.

If Russia wins it'll be a huge black eye for NATO and the EU bureaucracy. A huge black eye for German, UK, French, etc leadership. A huge black eye for our Pentagon, resident neocons, and American influence in the Mideast and Asia! So much for Taiwan! ANOTHER black eye for our media!

The ONLY sector that made money on this in the MIC. Everything else will suffer.

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

Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM



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Sunday, December 24, 2023 6:42 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


No reason to do it overnight.

Can't bleed the plebs dry if they won the "war" in a week.

We're still going to be hearing about Ukraine 10 years from now.

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

Political correctness is just tyranny, with a smiley face.

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Sunday, December 24, 2023 10:40 PM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.


Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
No reason to do it overnight.

Can't bleed the plebs dry if they won the "war" in a week.

We're still going to be hearing about Ukraine 10 years from now.

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

Political correctness is just tyranny, with a smiley face.
You seem to think that the west is going to determine when the war ends.

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

Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM



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Monday, December 25, 2023 8:42 AM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly


European Union (EU) Foreign Affairs High Representative Josep Borrell stated that Russian President Vladimir Putin is not interested in a limited territorial victory in Ukraine and will continue the war “until the final victory.”[1] Borrell reported on December 24 that Putin would not be satisfied with capturing a “piece” of Ukraine and allowing the rest of Ukraine to join the EU.[2] Borrell added that Putin will not “give up the war” and called on the West to prepare for a “conflict of high intensity for a long time.”[3] Borrell’s statements are consistent with ISW’s assessment that Russia is not interested in a ceasefire or good-faith negotiations with Ukraine but retains its maximalist goals of a full Russian victory in Ukraine.[4]

https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/russian-offensive-campai
gn-assessment-december-24-2023

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

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Monday, December 25, 2023 8:53 AM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly


Russia’s Best Su-34 Fighter-Bombers Are Falling From The Sky In Startling Numbers

Four claimed shoot-downs in three days.

By David Axe | Dec 24, 2023,04:19pm EST

https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidaxe/2023/12/24/russias-best-su-34-fi
ghter-bombers-are-falling-from-the-sky-in-startling-numbers/

Two days after shooting down, in a deadly missile-ambush south of Kherson, three of the Russian air force’s best fighter-bombers, the Ukrainian claimed it shot down a fourth fighter-bomber. This one over occupied Mariupol.

That’s four Sukhoi Su-34s in three days, a weekly rate of loss that’s one of the worst so far for the Russian air force, 22 months into Russia’s wider war on Ukraine.

And it just might get even worse for the Russians. The Ukrainian air force is about to get a significant upgrade, in the form of ex-Dutch Lockheed Martin F-16 fighters.

The Ukrainian air force swatted those three Su-34s around noon on Friday just south of the Dnipro River in southern Kherson Oblast. The Sukhois reportedly were flying at high altitude, lining up to lob satellite-guided glide-bombs at the Ukrainian bridgehead in Krynky, on the otherwise Russian-held left bank of the Dnipro.

It’s unclear how the Ukrainians shot down those three twin-engine, two-seat Sukhois on Friday, reportedly killing most of the aviators aboard. But it’s worth noting that Germany recently had delivered a Patriot air-defense missile battery, Ukraine’s third.

A Patriot PAC-2 missile ranges as far as a hundred miles under the best circumstances, making it Ukraine’s farthest-traveling air-defense missile. A Patriot battery situated well behind the front line in Kherson easily can hit a Russian glide-bomber at its farthest release point, 25 miles or so from a target along the Dnipro.

The three confirmed recent Su-34 shoot-downs — four if you count Sunday’s claimed shoot-down — bring to 25 or 26 the number of the fighter-bombers the Russians have lost over Ukraine, out of a total pre-war fleet of probably fewer than 150 aircraft.

The Su-34 is the Russian air force’s best fighter-bomber, and the only type in the Russian inventory that has the combination of sensors, avionics and smart weaponry that allows it to detect and attack pop-up targets on short notice.

The Russian air force “is almost certainly anxious to minimize further losses of these expensive and complex aircraft,” Justin Bronk, Nick Reynolds and Jack Watling noted in a November 2022 study for the Royal United Services Institute in London. https://static.rusi.org/SR-Russian-Air-War-Ukraine-web-final.pdf

At the time RUSI published the study, the Russians had lost just 17 Su-34s. Now that they’ve lost as many as 26 of the $50-million jets — nearly a fifth of the fleet — the Russians’ anxiety undoubtedly is much worse.

It’s not for no reason that, after the Ukrainians swatted three Sukhois on Friday, the Russian air force reportedly halted — at least temporarily — glide-bombing raids on Ukraine’s Dnipro bridgehead.

Novosibirsk-based plane-maker Chkalov Aviation Plant annually produces just a handful of new Su-34s. Moscow cannot sustain the current rate of loss, to say nothing of sustaining a potentially higher rate of loss once Ukraine’s new F-16s join the fight in the coming weeks.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

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Monday, December 25, 2023 9:07 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
No reason to do it overnight.

Can't bleed the plebs dry if they won the "war" in a week.

We're still going to be hearing about Ukraine 10 years from now.

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

Political correctness is just tyranny, with a smiley face.
You seem to think that the west is going to determine when the war ends.


Not exactly "The West" as in Team America! Fuck Yeah!

I'm just talking about the people behind the scenes who control all of these things but don't hold any actual elected offices.

They hold no allegiance to any geographic boundaries or people when they view the planet as their property and all of its people as their slaves.


And make no mistake, if they actually wanted the war to end tomorrow, it would end tomorrow.

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

Political correctness is just tyranny, with a smiley face.

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Monday, December 25, 2023 9:40 AM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly


Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
No reason to do it overnight.

Can't bleed the plebs dry if they won the "war" in a week.

We're still going to be hearing about Ukraine 10 years from now.

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

Political correctness is just tyranny, with a smiley face.
You seem to think that the west is going to determine when the war ends.


Not exactly "The West" as in Team America! Fuck Yeah!

I'm just talking about the people behind the scenes who control all of these things but don't hold any actual elected offices.

They hold no allegiance to any geographic boundaries or people when they view the planet as their property and all of its people as their slaves.


And make no mistake, if they actually wanted the war to end tomorrow, it would end tomorrow.

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

Political correctness is just tyranny, with a smiley face.
Since he believes people behind the scenes who control all of these things run the world, it is not surprising to me that 6ixStringJack does not take personal responsibility for why his life has so far gone badly. It is much more psychologically comfortable to believe people behind the scenes wrecked his life rather than his crash was his fault. It is also no surprise that 6ix is attached to Trump, who promised to oppose these people behind the scenes. It is Jesus versus Satan, with Trump being the returned deity. For a certain kind of Russian, it is Putin in the role Trump plays while the West is Satan.

Putin attacks West as 'satanic', hails Russian "traditional" values
https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSS8N2Z80G1/

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

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Monday, December 25, 2023 10:57 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK


My life is fine. In many ways, thanks to the fact that I have taken personal accountability for any of my failures, acknowledged them, owned them, fixed whatever I could, and then recognized those things that can't be fixed or weren't worth investing time and energy into and moved on with my life.

I have zero debts to anyone. Financially or otherwise. Everything I own is mine free and clear, everybody I know is indebted to me one way or the other.

Enjoy your holiday break. You've got to get back to work soon, wageslave.



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

Political correctness is just tyranny, with a smiley face.

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Tuesday, December 26, 2023 10:44 AM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly


Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
My life is fine. In many ways, thanks to the fact that I have taken personal accountability for any of my failures, acknowledged them, owned them, fixed whatever I could, and then recognized those things that can't be fixed or weren't worth investing time and energy into and moved on with my life.

I have zero debts to anyone. Financially or otherwise. Everything I own is mine free and clear, everybody I know is indebted to me one way or the other.

Enjoy your holiday break. You've got to get back to work soon, wageslave.

From what I can see, you are not a grownup. Yes, you did remove tons of garage sale junk that cluttered your house, overcoming your hoarding tendencies. Yes, you also stopped drinking alcohol, overcoming another tendency. There are more trivial accomplishments I won't list. But in the bigger world, normal children with parents who aren't themselves immature have grown past the stage you are now in by the time they are 21. The Russians also need to become grownups, but that is a long story of how Russia never matured because of the trauma of 100,000,000 Russians being murdered by other Russians.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

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Tuesday, December 26, 2023 10:44 AM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly


What 2023 Taught Us in the Russia-Ukraine War

Foreign Policy’s best reads on the state of the conflict and the implications going forward.
By Stefan Theil, a deputy editor at Foreign Policy.

https://foreignpolicy.com/2023/12/26/russia-ukraine-war-lessons-milita
ry-aid-2023/

As Russia’s war against Ukraine enters its third winter, the scenarios for its outcome are still unclear. With neither side making substantial territorial gains in more than a year, there is much debate about whether the conflict has entered a stalemate — and who is to blame for Ukraine not advancing more quickly. At the same time, the fighting remains highly volatile in other ways, as Ukraine’s effective defeat of the Russian Black Sea Fleet in 2023 has shown.

The more crucial fight, it seems, is political. With Russian forces unable to gain any significant ground since summer 2022, President Vladimir Putin is betting on Western exhaustion. Already, weapons deliveries to Ukraine have slowed to a trickle as the U.S. Congress debates and delays the next allotment of aid. Along with Berlin, Washington has held back on delivering key weapons systems, such as the longer-range missiles that would allow Ukraine to hit important Russian targets farther behind the front, including in occupied Crimea.

Rightly or wrongly, Ukraine and its supporters believe that Western aid is calibrated to allow the Ukrainians not to lose and not to win.

Putin likely has his eyes on the U.S. election in November 2024. Should former President Donald Trump return to the White House for a second term, Ukraine could lose its most significant source of military aid, sanctions against Russia could quickly crack, and Kyiv could be pushed to hand substantial parts of its territory and population to Moscow — while likely still facing the Kremlin’s designs to control the country.

More at https://foreignpolicy.com/2023/12/26/russia-ukraine-war-lessons-milita
ry-aid-2023/

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

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Tuesday, December 26, 2023 10:48 AM

THG


Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
My life is fine. In many ways, thanks to the fact that I have taken personal accountability for any of my failures, acknowledged them, owned them, fixed whatever I could, and then recognized those things that can't be fixed or weren't worth investing time and energy into and moved on with my life.

I have zero debts to anyone. Financially or otherwise. Everything I own is mine free and clear, everybody I know is indebted to me one way or the other.

Enjoy your holiday break. You've got to get back to work soon, wageslave.

From what I can see, you are not a grownup. Yes, you did remove tons of garage sale junk that cluttered your house, overcoming your hoarding tendencies. Yes, you also stopped drinking alcohol, overcoming another tendency. There are more trivial accomplishments I won't list. But in the bigger world, normal children with parents who aren't themselves immature have grown past the stage you are now in by the time they are 21. The Russians also need to become grownups, but that is a long story of how Russia never matured because of the trauma of 100,000,000 Russians being murdered by other Russians.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly



Agreed...

T

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Tuesday, December 26, 2023 11:05 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Quote:
Originally posted by THG:
Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
My life is fine. In many ways, thanks to the fact that I have taken personal accountability for any of my failures, acknowledged them, owned them, fixed whatever I could, and then recognized those things that can't be fixed or weren't worth investing time and energy into and moved on with my life.

I have zero debts to anyone. Financially or otherwise. Everything I own is mine free and clear, everybody I know is indebted to me one way or the other.

Enjoy your holiday break. You've got to get back to work soon, wageslave.

From what I can see, you are not a grownup. Yes, you did remove tons of garage sale junk that cluttered your house, overcoming your hoarding tendencies. Yes, you also stopped drinking alcohol, overcoming another tendency. There are more trivial accomplishments I won't list. But in the bigger world, normal children with parents who aren't themselves immature have grown past the stage you are now in by the time they are 21. The Russians also need to become grownups, but that is a long story of how Russia never matured because of the trauma of 100,000,000 Russians being murdered by other Russians.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly



Agreed...

T


How's work treating you today, dummies? Making that money to pay all that interest on things you're never going to pay off before you die?



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

Political correctness is just tyranny, with a smiley face.

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Tuesday, December 26, 2023 11:16 AM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly


Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:

How's work treating you today, dummies? Making that money to pay all that interest on things you're never going to pay off before you die?
Your latest brag: "I've been looking at that every time I used those stairs for about 12 years now. Nice to NOT notice it anymore."
http://fireflyfans.net/mthread.aspx?bid=18&tid=65350&mid=11855
11#1185511

6ix, you are wasting your life. The Russians are wasting theirs.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

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Tuesday, December 26, 2023 11:16 AM

THG



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Tuesday, December 26, 2023 11:27 AM

THG


Quote:
Originally posted by THG:
Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Quote:
Originally posted by THG:
Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
My life is fine. In many ways, thanks to the fact that I have taken personal accountability for any of my failures, acknowledged them, owned them, fixed whatever I could, and then recognized those things that can't be fixed or weren't worth investing time and energy into and moved on with my life.

I have zero debts to anyone. Financially or otherwise. Everything I own is mine free and clear, everybody I know is indebted to me one way or the other.

Enjoy your holiday break. You've got to get back to work soon, wageslave.

From what I can see, you are not a grownup. Yes, you did remove tons of garage sale junk that cluttered your house, overcoming your hoarding tendencies. Yes, you also stopped drinking alcohol, overcoming another tendency. There are more trivial accomplishments I won't list. But in the bigger world, normal children with parents who aren't themselves immature have grown past the stage you are now in by the time they are 21. The Russians also need to become grownups, but that is a long story of how Russia never matured because of the trauma of 100,000,000 Russians being murdered by other Russians.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly



Agreed...

T


How's work treating you today, dummies? Making that money to pay all that interest on things you're never going to pay off before you die?






Fucking Jack can't even hold down a j
ob and he's suggesting those who can are the ones lacking.
He can't sell that shit even on his best day. Better keep it a secret Jack. Nobody thinks someone
who can't hold down a job is a winner.

Too funny...

T


T

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Tuesday, December 26, 2023 11:28 AM

THG


T

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Tuesday, December 26, 2023 11:28 AM

THG


Can you say Jack is a loser. I can...

T

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Tuesday, December 26, 2023 11:30 AM

THG


By the way, Ukraine is kicking Russias' ass.

T

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Tuesday, December 26, 2023 11:38 AM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly


Weapons are what counts. Although sanctions are important, it is the vast military aid provided predominately by the United States that has changed the reality on the ground in Ukraine. Superior weapons allowed the Ukrainians to repel the initial Russian advance and take back large swaths of territory. If Ukraine had had these capabilities before the war, Putin may have thought twice before launching a full-scale invasion. The same lesson applies to Taiwan. With the help of its partners, the island must become a porcupine bristling with armaments to deter any possible attempt to take it by force. China must calculate that the cost of an invasion is simply too high to bear.

Finally, the most important way to deter a Chinese move on Taiwan now is to ensure a Ukrainian victory. If Russia can gain territory and establish a new status quo by force, China and other autocratic powers will learn that the democratic world’s resolve is weak. That in the face of nuclear blackmail and military aggression, it chose appeasement over confrontation.

This outcome would make the entire world a more dangerous place. That is why all those who believe in a democratic Taiwan and a rules-based international order must work to ensure Ukraine prevails.

https://foreignpolicy.com/2023/01/05/russia-ukraine-next-war-lessons-c
hina-taiwan-strategy-technology-deterrence/

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

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Tuesday, December 26, 2023 12:31 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Quote:
Originally posted by THG:
Quote:
Originally posted by THG:
Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Quote:
Originally posted by THG:
Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
My life is fine. In many ways, thanks to the fact that I have taken personal accountability for any of my failures, acknowledged them, owned them, fixed whatever I could, and then recognized those things that can't be fixed or weren't worth investing time and energy into and moved on with my life.

I have zero debts to anyone. Financially or otherwise. Everything I own is mine free and clear, everybody I know is indebted to me one way or the other.

Enjoy your holiday break. You've got to get back to work soon, wageslave.

From what I can see, you are not a grownup. Yes, you did remove tons of garage sale junk that cluttered your house, overcoming your hoarding tendencies. Yes, you also stopped drinking alcohol, overcoming another tendency. There are more trivial accomplishments I won't list. But in the bigger world, normal children with parents who aren't themselves immature have grown past the stage you are now in by the time they are 21. The Russians also need to become grownups, but that is a long story of how Russia never matured because of the trauma of 100,000,000 Russians being murdered by other Russians.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly



Agreed...

T


How's work treating you today, dummies? Making that money to pay all that interest on things you're never going to pay off before you die?






Fucking Jack can't even hold down a j
ob and he's suggesting those who can are the ones lacking.
He can't sell that shit even on his best day. Better keep it a secret Jack. Nobody thinks someone
who can't hold down a job is a winner.

Too funny...

T


T


I don't need a job. I have everything I want.

Eventually my paid for house will be finished and I'll get bored and need something to do. Maybe I'll flip the house, pay zero capital gains taxes on it and start over.

Have fun working for the man paying off all that debt you never should have taken on and can't ever possibly pay off, buddy.

Say hi to your boss for me.



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

Political correctness is just tyranny, with a smiley face.

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Tuesday, December 26, 2023 5:58 PM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly


Originally posted by 6ixStringJack: "I don't need a job. I have everything I want."
And Trump will be the next President. Sure, 6ix. You have got it all figured out. If only humanity could see things your way, reality would be so much better. NOT.

Ukraine's Ready to Use Game-Changing Weapons

By Aila Slisco | Dec 26, 2023 at 2:04 PM EST

https://www.newsweek.com/ukraine-ready-use-f-16-fighter-jets-1855547

The prospect of Ukraine obtaining F-16s had been in doubt until May when President Joe Biden agreed to allow NATO allies to provide the jets after initially resisting repeated requests from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

So far, the Netherlands, Denmark, Norway and Belgium have agreed to provide Ukraine with a supply of F-16s. The Netherlands is set to send Kyiv an initial shipment of 18 jets out of 42.

Although the exact timeline for the arrival of the F-16s to Ukraine is unclear, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte informed Zelensky during a phone call last week that the first batch would be sent soon.

Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin has insisted that the F-16s will not improve Ukraine's footing in the war, saying during the Eastern Economic Forum in September that procurement of the jets "simply prolongs the conflict."

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

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Tuesday, December 26, 2023 11:49 PM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.


How many "game changing" weapons has Ukraine gotten? M777 howitzers? Leopard tanks? Patriot missiles? Bradleys? Abrams tanks? That hasn't prevented 400,000 Ukrainian soldiers being taken out of action, one way or another.

The only weapons that seem to work for Ukraine are mines, the HIMARS launchers, cruise missiles, and FPV drones. And Russia has a lot more of those, or equivalent, than Ukraine. I can't imagine what you think F-16s are gonna do, since Ukraine's previous fleet of warplanes was destroyed.

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

Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM



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Wednesday, December 27, 2023 12:49 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack: "I don't need a job. I have everything I want."


Yup. I don't pray at the altar of God Money like you do. I have more than my share, and I see no reason to stack excess 1's and 0's that are just going to sit in a virtual bank somewhere until I die.

Have you ever once heard me bitch personally about MY money?

If I need to work, I'll go back to work. It'll be part time. It will be low paying but low responsibility. And I'll be stacking up enough to take another 5 year vacation. Because my cost of living is obscenely low compared to all you wage slaves, you see.

Quote:
And Trump will be the next President. Sure, 6ix.


Everything points to this being the case right now.

Quote:
You have got it all figured out.


Most of the stuff that means anything...yup.

Quote:
If only humanity could see things your way, reality would be so much better. NOT.


Most of humanity does. You're the lefty lunatic on the fringes there, Reaverfan.



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

Political correctness is just tyranny, with a smiley face.

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Wednesday, December 27, 2023 6:31 AM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly


Russia's likely capture of Marinka in Donetsk Oblast represents a limited Russian tactical gain and does not portend any operationally significant advance unless Russian forces have dramatically improved their ability to conduct rapid mechanized forward movement, which they show no signs of having done.

A small and completely destroyed settlement does not offer Russian forces a secure operational foothold from which to launch further offensive operations. Marinka is located less than a kilometer from the pre-invasion frontline and Ukrainian forces have long fortified many of the surrounding settlements, which Russian forces have been similarly struggling to capture.[8] Russian forces have advanced roughly over three kilometers in depth into Marinka since February 24, 2022, and there are no indications that the rate of Russian advance to the next settlements identified as tactical Russian objectives will be any quicker, especially considering the rate of attrition that Russian forces suffered to capture a small settlement directly on the border of territory Russia has controlled since 2014. Russia's capture of Marinka follows several months of highly attritional marginal gains and is not the result of a sudden rapid mechanized Russian advance. Russian forces have not conducted any offensive operation that resulted in a rapid and mechanized forward advance since Spring 2022, and Russian capabilities to conduct the mechanized maneuver that would be required for such an advance have been severely degraded.[9] Russian forces have recently illustrated the lack of these capabilities in failed waves of mass mechanized assaults to capture Avdiivka, Donetsk Oblast, and those offensive operations resulted in further armored vehicle losses that have prompted the Russian command to transition to infantry-heavy ground attacks.[10]

https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/russian-offensive-campai
gn-assessment-december-26-2023

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

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Wednesday, December 27, 2023 6:41 AM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly


Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:

Quote:
If only humanity could see things your way, reality would be so much better. NOT.


Most of humanity does. You're the lefty lunatic on the fringes there, Reaverfan.
6ix, most of humanity lives in relative poverty compared to you. They better be content with their poverty or else be miserable about how God mistreats them or angry that "The West" stole their wealth. (That last option describes average Russians, which makes it easy for Putin to blame the Ukraine War on "The West", not on Putin.) Come to think of it, 6ix has much in common with average Russians but rather than "The West" he blames "The Democrats". 6ix, you have been angry/envious which is why you have all those Disney failure threads predicting the end of wealthy Disney. Personally, I became disinterested in Disney products back when Walt Disney hosted a weekly TV show called "The Wonderful World of Color" because I had real-world adventures rather than make-believe TV.

The average global personal income is $9,733 per year. The average global household income is $12,235 per year. The median per-capita household income is only $2,920 per year.
https://www.zippia.com/advice/average-income-worldwide/

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

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Wednesday, December 27, 2023 7:50 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:

Quote:
If only humanity could see things your way, reality would be so much better. NOT.


Most of humanity does. You're the lefty lunatic on the fringes there, Reaverfan.
6ix, most of humanity lives in relative poverty compared to you. They better be content with their poverty or else be miserable about how God mistreats them or angry that "The West" stole their wealth. (That last option describes average Russians, which makes it easy for Putin to blame the Ukraine War on "The West", not on Putin.) Come to think of it, 6ix has much in common with average Russians but rather than "The West" he blames "The Democrats". 6ix, you have been angry/envious which is why you have all those Disney failure threads predicting the end of wealthy Disney.




That's a real laugh, buddy. I have zero envy for the rich. Particularly for the rich and the famous, because I wouldn't wish that level of anti-anonymity on anyone. Money means nothing to me other than tokens that you barter in order to survive. My somewhat unique perspective on money has allowed me to become particularly good at allowing me to stack it and utilize it in just about the most efficient way you possibly could.

Sure, I exist on next to nothing without supplementing it right now, but ask yourself how I managed that in the first place. The only answer to that question is that I lived more or less the exact same way that I do now when I was working jobs making enough money to put myself in this position in the first place. How many people do you know that walk into their bank for a cashier's check to take to their house closing to pay it in full when they're only 32 years old who didn't have a rich mommy and daddy giving them that money? Now how many of them did it while only making about $250k in their life?

There are a lot of reasons to despise Disney. Their wealth is only one of them. I don't have a problem with the wealth that Disney has, but I do have a problem with how they choose to spend it.

Quote:
Personally, I became disinterested in Disney products back when Walt Disney hosted a weekly TV show called "The Wonderful World of Color" because I had real-world adventures rather than make-believe TV.


Yeah. Sure. Post another pirate link for content that you've downloaded and not paid your taxes on.

Quote:
The average global personal income is $9,733 per year. The average global household income is $12,235 per year. The median per-capita household income is only $2,920 per year.


Oh, that old gem again. We've been over this before ad nauseam. If you're living in a place where the average personal income is $9,733 per year, then everything you buy from food to clothing to transportation to entertainment costs a LOT less than somewhere where the average income is $40k per year. You don't even have to travel out of the country to see that this is true. Somebody working and living in NYC or LA is making a ton more than somebody doing the same job in bumfuck Kentucky doing the same job, but somebody in bumfuck Kentucky isn't paying $3,500 per month for a 600 sq ft. studio apartment.

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

Political correctness is just tyranny, with a smiley face.

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Wednesday, December 27, 2023 8:23 AM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly


Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:

Oh, that old gem again. We've been over this before ad nauseam. If you're living in a place where the average personal income is $9,733 per year, then everything you buy from food to clothing to transportation to entertainment costs a LOT less than somewhere where the average income is $40k per year. You don't even have to travel out of the country to see that this is true. Somebody working and living in NYC or LA is making a ton more than somebody doing the same job in bumfuck Kentucky doing the same job, but somebody in bumfuck Kentucky isn't paying $3,500 per month for a 600 sq ft. studio apartment.
It's pretty obvious you have very few foreign stamps in your passport. Oh? You don't need a passport? You've seen all you need to know from a screen? Russians are pretty much the same since they get all their "facts" about the Failing West from Putin. Trumptards hear about the Failing NYTimes and Failing California from Trump.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

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Wednesday, December 27, 2023 9:43 AM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly


The Rebirth of Russian Spycraft

How the Ukraine War Has Changed the Game for the Kremlin’s Operatives — and Their Western Rivals

By Andrei Soldatov and Irina Borogan | December 27, 2023

https://www.foreignaffairs.com/russian-federation/rebirth-russian-spyc
raft

In April 2023, a prominent Russian national with suspected ties to Russian intelligence pulled off an impressive escape from Italian authorities. Artem Uss, a Russian businessman and the son of a former Russian governor, had been detained in Milan a few months earlier on charges of smuggling sensitive U.S. military technology to Russia. According to an indictment issued by a federal court in Brooklyn, New York, in October 2022, Uss had illegally trafficked in the semiconductors needed to build ballistic missiles and a variety of other weapons, some of which were being used in the war in Ukraine. But while Uss was awaiting extradition to the United States, he was exfiltrated from Italy with the help of a Serbian criminal gang and returned to Russia.

The escape, which was reported in The Wall Street Journal last spring, was only one of a series of recent incidents suggesting how much Russia’s intelligence forces have regrouped since the start of the war in Ukraine. Back in the spring of 2022, in the months after Russian President Vladimir Putin launched his invasion, the Russian intelligence agencies had seemed disoriented and confused. One by one, European countries had kicked out Russia’s diplomats; according to one British estimate, some 600 Russian officials were expelled from Europe, of which perhaps 400 were believed to be spies. The FSB, Russia’s internal security service, had also badly misjudged the kind of resistance that Russian forces would face in Ukraine, assuming that Russia could quickly take Kyiv. This contributed to Russia’s humiliating performance.

Now, Russia’s foreign intelligence network appears to be back with a vengeance. And it is becoming more inventive, increasingly relying on foreign nationals — such as the Serbian gang that assisted Uss, for instance — to help it get around restrictions on Russians. Before the war, Western intelligence agencies mostly dealt with Russian operations being carried out by Russian nationals. That is no longer the case. Today, Russian intelligence activities draw on a range of foreign nationals, and that includes not only spying on the West and tracking arms shipments to Ukraine but also applying growing pressure on Russian exiles and opponents of the Putin regime who have fled abroad since the war started. Evidence of such activity is turning up everywhere from Georgia and Serbia to NATO countries such as Bulgaria and Poland. In early 2023, for example, British officials arrested five Bulgarians who were accused of spying for Russia, including in an effort to keep tabs on Russian exiles in London.

At the same time, Russia’s spy agencies also appear to have shifted their orientation. Before the war, there was a division of labor among the three principal intelligence services — the SVR (foreign intelligence), the GRU (military intelligence), and the FSB (domestic security). In the past, it was generally understood that the SVR mostly focused on political and industrial espionage and the GRU on military issues, while the FSB was primarily focused on Russia itself, using its foreign branch mainly to conduct operations against Russians abroad and to keep friendly regimes in neighboring countries in power. Now, these distinctions are no longer so clear: all three agencies are deeply involved in the war in Ukraine, and all three have been actively recruiting new assets among Russia’s most recent exiles abroad.

The return of Moscow’s spying apparatus has significant implications for the West in its efforts to counter Russian meddling and Russian intelligence operations. If recent indications are correct, Russian intelligence activities in Europe and elsewhere may pose a significantly greater threat than had been assumed in the early stages of the war. At the same time, these changes offer insight into Putin’s own wartime regime and the extent to which it is increasingly rebuilding Russia’s spy agencies according to earlier models from the Soviet decades. Putin is not only attempting to make up for the Soviet KGB’s failure in its confrontation with the West in the late twentieth century. He is also trying to restore the glory of Stalin’s formidable secret service, which had considerable success against the West in the decades from the Bolshevik Revolution to World War II.

THE HUNDRED YEARS’ WAR

Before Russia began its full-scale war in Ukraine in 2022, the country’s intelligence services looked fairly weak. They had long suffered from interagency infighting and turf wars, as well as from a breakdown in trust between the generals and the rank and file, which led to significant delays and failures in getting information from the ground to the top level. Russian intelligence operations, meanwhile, increasingly became known chiefly for their sloppiness, as in the cases of the botched poisonings of the former Russian military officer Sergei Skripal in the United Kingdom in 2018 and the opposition leader Alexei Navalny in 2020. In short, the Russian spy services seemed to have lost much of their former luster, a problem that burst into the open with the embarrassing misreading of Ukraine in the planning for Russia’s invasion.

But as the war in Ukraine entered its second year, the Russian intelligence agencies regrouped and found a new sense of purpose. Instead of dwelling on their mistakes and questioning why they had so utterly failed to anticipate Ukrainian resistance in the initial invasion, the agencies moved on, taking new strength from the fact that they were withstanding a confrontation with the entire West. They have not only increased their activities in Europe and in neighboring countries; the FSB has also stepped up its efforts to fight back Ukrainian ops on Russian soil. That Putin did not make any radical changes in the security services despite the catastrophe of 2022 has been seen as a virtue: since the tumultuous 1990s, there has been a widely shared view both among the intelligence leadership and the rank and file that any attempt to overhaul the agencies will weaken their capabilities.

Underlying this new activity, however, has also been a larger goal: revitalizing Russia’s overall intelligence war against the West. This is a war that for the main Russian agencies goes back to the earliest years of the Soviet era. As Russian intelligence officials see it, the war in Ukraine has launched the third round of a great spy war that has been playing out since 1917.

Putin is trying to restore the glory of Stalin’s formidable secret service.

The first round of this struggle, in which early Soviet operatives faced off primarily against their British counterparts, started soon after the Bolshevik Revolution. In that original conflict, Soviet agents successfully compromised any chance of fomenting resistance to the Bolshevik regime from abroad. They did this by conducting a massive and very successful false-flag operation, code-named Trust, in which they lured politically active Russian émigrés, as well as British spies, to the Soviet Union to help a fake anti-Bolshevik organization. These anti-Soviet activists were in this way identified and killed. The conflict reached its peak during World War II, when Russian spies successfully penetrated British intelligence and, in the United States, got access to the Manhattan Project and stole the secrets of the atomic bomb. Overall, Soviet officials believed they won this first round with the West.

The second round of the intelligence war, however, did not end so well for Moscow. During the Cold War, the KGB failed to save the Soviet regime it swore to protect. Then, in the early 1990s, the agency was nearly destroyed after being split apart and dismembered. The collapse left lasting scars on Putin, who witnessed it firsthand, and his security elite, as they struggled to rebuild a Russian state that had lost its former power. (Putin ultimately built the FSB on the KGB’s former foundations.)

Now, with the onset of a new grand conflict with the West, Russia’s intelligence agencies are seeking to reverse the setbacks that unfolded at the end of the Cold War. And they sense a new opportunity, seeing the war in Ukraine as the opening salvo in the third round of the intelligence war. The sense of continuity with their Soviet predecessors has even taken visible form in Russia: in September, Sergei Naryshkin, Russia’s head of foreign intelligence, inaugurated a new statue to the founder of the Soviet secret police in the courtyard of the SVR’s Moscow headquarters. And in November, the FSB reinforced that message by celebrating the 100th anniversary of the OGPU, the Soviet secret police, and stressing the role of the OGPU in crushing political émigré organizations.

But the continuity goes well beyond celebrating early Soviet exploits. In the run-up to the war and since, Putin has made notable use of former KGB generals who share his eagerness to avenge the humiliation of the Soviet collapse. Nikolai Gribin, who in the 1980s served as deputy head of foreign disinformation operations at the KGB’s foreign intelligence branch, has a lead role in a new Russian think tank launched in 2021, the National Research Institute for the Development of Communications, which seeks to shape pro-Kremlin opinion in countries near Russia, with a particular focus on Belarus. (Gribin himself has written several research reports on public opinion in Belarus.) In the 1980s, Alexander Mikhailov served in the KGB’s infamous Fifth Directorate — the branch given the task of rooting out ideological subversion, including dissidents, musicians, and church leaders — and ran disinformation operations for the FSB in the 1990s. Since the fall of 2021, a few months before the invasion, Mikhailov has been the FSB’s unofficial mouthpiece for the Russian media, promoting the agency’s view of events in Ukraine. As Russian intelligence portrays it, the war pits the United States and Europe against Russia, with the Ukrainians serving merely as the puppets of their Western spymasters.

Along with Putin, Russia’s spy agencies have also drawn some important lessons from the earlier Soviet intelligence wars. Because it pitted Russia directly against the West, the war in Ukraine has prompted the Kremlin and its spy agencies to rethink several major national security questions that had not been closely studied since 1991. For example, there was the question of Russia’s borders and whether to close them. The Kremlin decided against doing so, and that has benefited the intelligence services, which can use the new exodus of Russian nationals to Europe and other neighboring countries to help make up for the expulsions of Russian diplomats from European capitals. Putin has clearly set out to avoid the mistakes made during the Cold War, when the Soviets significantly restrained the cross-border movement of people, hampering Soviet intelligence.

But there was another pressing problem for the Kremlin: how to enforce discipline within the ranks. Putin could have followed Stalin’s approach, embarking on large-scale purges and mass repressions. But he seems to have learned that those measures ultimately backfired for the Soviets. Putin understands that instilling fear is a useful tool but that outright purges would hurt the agencies — as they did in the 1930s when the Soviets’ foreign intelligence lost its most talented agents. Thus, the head of the FSB’s foreign intelligence branch, Sergei Beseda, was initially detained and held incommunicado after the first disastrous days of the Ukraine invasion. But after several weeks, he was reinstated, and the broader purges in military intelligence and the FSB that many expected after Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of the Wagner paramilitary company, led a mutiny in June 2023 never materialized.

Overall, Putin has taken a flexible, pragmatic approach to his intelligence services, playing between the ever-present fear of purges and encouraging the agencies to be more innovative at regaining ground in the West. One result seems to have been a noticeable rise in more ambitious foreign operations over the past year, including alleged sabotage operations, as well as the exfiltration of the Russian operative in Italy and stepped up recruitment efforts in several NATO countries, as is apparent in the case of a member of Germany’s BND intelligence agency who was arrested in December 2022 on charges of allegedly transferring highly classified information to the Russian government, and is now on trial for treason.

SPIES LIKE US

In staging their comeback, Russia’s spy agencies have also internalized another important lesson from the Soviet years: the strategic use of ideology. In the 1930s, Moscow was able to win over many Westerners to the Soviet cause by aiming its arguments at Western deficiencies rather than promoting Marxist doctrine. At the time, Soviet agents learned that they did not really need to sell a full-fledged communist ideology; instead, they could portray the Soviet Union as an alternative to Western imperialism, emphasizing the West’s double standards and hypocrisy and offering in contrast a leader who stood up against global powers. These ideas are exactly what Russian agencies can now pedal to potential allies and recruits in Russia’s new intelligence war with the West.

As Russia prepares to enter a third year of war, its intelligence agencies know that the Kremlin supports them and shares their paranoia and prejudices. This reality suggests that the spy services can count on the Kremlin’s protection. But it does not mean that Putin himself is more secure in power.

For much of the past 20 years, Putin has struggled with the challenge of how to control his vast security and intelligence community, spread over an enormous country and abroad. In the early 2000s, he destroyed former President Boris Yeltsin’s concept of competing spy services, making the FSB the top agency. After Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014, Putin tried to bring his intelligence forces to heel by sending several middle-rank officers to jail on corruption charges. But this did not result in tighter Kremlin control of the agencies. Now, with the war in Ukraine, Putin has tried to avoid the mistakes of the past and keep his intelligence forces loyal. He has also succeeded in making them stronger, for the time being, than at any previous point in the war.

But it is unclear if any of this has improved his control over them. And so far, Putin has done nothing to fix the problem: he is unwilling to repeat Stalin’s mistakes of purging his agencies on an industrial scale, but he also understands that unlike during the Soviet years, when the Communist Party controlled the KGB, he has few other ways to rein them in. If things began to go badly for Russia in the war, this one-sided dynamic could mean that Putin’s spies might be in no rush to save him.

ANDREI SOLDATOV is a Nonresident Senior Fellow at the Center for European Policy Analysis and Co-Founder and Editor of Agentura.ru, a watchdog of the Russian secret services’ activities.

IRINA BOROGAN is a Nonresident Senior Fellow at the Center for European Policy Analysis and Co-Founder and Deputy Editor of Agentura.ru.

They are the co-authors of The Compatriots: The Russian Exiles Who Fought Against the Kremlin.

Download their books for free from the mirrors at https://libgen.is//search.php?&req=SOLDATOV

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
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Thursday, December 28, 2023 8:32 AM

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Ukrainian drone footage published on December 27 showed another Russian execution of Ukrainian prisoners of war (POWs) near Robotyne in western Zaporizhia Oblast.[1] The geolocated video shows Russian servicemen shooting three Ukrainian soldiers whom Russian forces captured in a tree line west of Verbove (east of Robotyne). The video later depicts one Russian soldier shooting an already dead Ukrainian serviceman again at close range.[2] The Ukrainian Prosecutor General‘s Office announced that it opened an investigation into Russian forces violating the laws and customs of war in addition to premeditated murder.[3] The Ukrainian Prosecutor General’s Office stated this incident occurred on an unspecified date in December 2023.[4] ISW previously reported observing drone footage of Russian servicemen using Ukrainian POWs as human shields near Robotyne on December 13.[5] The killing of POWs violates Article III of the Geneva Convention on the laws of armed conflict.[6]

https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/russian-offensive-campai
gn-assessment-december-27-2023

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Thursday, December 28, 2023 2:55 PM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.


Quote:
Ukrainian drone footage published on December 27 showed another Russian execution of Ukrainian prisoners of war (POWs) near Robotyne in western Zaporizhia Oblast. ..
And yet, no links to the video(s).

So not gonna take Kiev's and ISW's word on this, since they're both trying to drum up MOAR WAR by any means, and they've lied repeatedly. Evidence, or it's going into my mental warehouse and eventually into the wastebasket.

*****

Right now they're trying to take the focus off RUSSIA TAKES MARINKA.
Marinka was the main position from which Kiev shelled CIVILIANS in Dontesk City, even with cluster rounds. The capture of Marinka is BIG DEAL bc it was heavily fortified, and this opens up a number of supply lines, villages, and eventually citiies to capture.


*****
You spend paras and paras dragging the thread into off- topics like "Trump" and "Trumptards" and insulting SIX. And SIX takes the bait.

Let's focus on Ukraine, shall we? You can create a thread called "slugfest" if you like.

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

Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM



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Thursday, December 28, 2023 5:07 PM

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The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly


Russia covered up and undercounted true human cost of floodings after dam explosion

By Samya Kullab and Illia Novikov | Updated 7:07 AM CST, December 28, 2023

https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-war-dam-collapse-kakhovka-kh
erson-daacdc431f42912dfb91548794f03a3c

Over six months since the catastrophic explosion that destroyed the Kakhovka Dam in the southern Kherson region, an AP investigation has found Russian occupation authorities vastly and deliberately undercounted the dead in one of the most devastating chapters of the 22-month war. Russian authorities took control of the issuance of death certificates, immediately removing bodies not claimed by family, and preventing local health workers and volunteers from dealing with the dead, threatening them when they defied orders.

“The scale of this tragedy, not just Russia, but even Ukraine doesn’t realize,” said Svitlana, a nurse who initially oversaw the process of collecting death certificates and later escaped to Ukrainian-controlled territory. “It’s a huge tragedy.”

Russia, which didn’t respond to questions for this article, has said 59 people drowned in the territory it controls, roughly 408 square kilometers (160 square miles) of flooded areas. But in the Russian-occupied town of Oleshky alone, which Ukrainian military officials estimate had a population of 16,000 at the time of the flooding, the number is at least in the hundreds. An exact figure for the dead — in Oleshky, the occupied area’s most populous town before the war, and beyond — may never be known, even if Ukrainian forces retake the territory and are able to investigate on the ground.

The AP spoke to three health workers who kept records of the dead in Oleshky, one volunteer who buried bodies and said she was later threatened by Russian police, and two Ukrainian informants passing intelligence from the area to the Ukrainian security service. According to their accounts, mass graves were dug, and unidentified bodies were taken away and never seen again.

Nearly a dozen interviews were conducted with other residents, rescue volunteers and recent escapees from the area. The AP also gained access to a closed Telegram chat group of 3,000 Oleshky residents who posted about bodies lying on the streets, bodies collected by police and the many missing.

Most spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity or, like Svitlana, on condition only their first names be used, fearing reprisal from Russia on family members still in occupied territory.

Together, these accounts reveal a calculated attempt by Russian authorities to cover up the true cost of the dam collapse, which the AP has found was likely caused by Moscow. Residents of Oleshky fear their enduring traumas risk being forgotten as the war grinds on, and their beloved once idyllic home is gradually depopulated.

A TOWN ABANDONED

The dam burst in the early hours of June 6, causing extensive flooding along the lower Dnipro River, submerging entire communities across the Ukraine-controlled right and Russian-occupied left banks in a matter of hours.

At first, the Russian-appointed administration in Kherson told residents not to be alarmed. In a post on its official Telegram channel, it stressed the “situation is not critical.” So most went about their normal day — walking dogs, going to work, staying at home. Choices that would later prove fatal.

By the afternoon the water levels were rising quickly, inundating two-story homes as the powerful current swept everything away. The elderly struggled to climb up to roofs, people clung to their chimneys waiting to be saved by local rescue crews, most of them civilians who owned boats.

For the first three days of the floods occupation authorities were nowhere to be found, locals said, having apparently fled, despite initially reassuring residents. Conspicuously absent were police and prosecutors, both Russian-appointed officials authorized to deal with the deceased.

Bodies were piling up and decaying in the summer heat, their stench wafted in the air. Wailing relatives approached the town’s medical workers, not knowing where to take the dead.

“A lot of people drowned,” said Svitlana, the head nurse at the Oleshky District Multidisciplinary Hospital, the city’s main primary health center, which later transformed into a shelter for people forced out of their homes. The putrefaction of flesh caused many corpses to inflate. “People were floating around the city like balloons.”

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
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Thursday, December 28, 2023 6:47 PM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.


I thought this was really funny



There's a funny video on rumble but you have to go here...

https://sonar21.com/breaking-news-russia-admits-to-interfering-in-u-s-
elections-and-they-vow-to-do-it-again/

Quote:
"But there are powerful forces in Ukraine, previously nurtured by the U.S., which will resist to do so.[admit defeat] " -B

Exactly.

Just like in Afghanistan and elsewhere the US has created their own Frankenstein, now its blowback time; and they may do more than 'resist'- the previously 'nurtured' Nazis might come after Biden with vast 'intellectual ammunition"- the evidence of the Biden corruption in Ukraine.

That's a hell of a bargaining chip.

https://www.moonofalabama.org/2023/12/us-is-pushing-kiev-into-admittin
g-defeat.html#comments

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

Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM



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Thursday, December 28, 2023 7:15 PM

THG


It is funny because that's exactly what he is doing. Making America great again. By the way, the Turkish parliament’s foreign affairs committee gave its consent to Sweden’s bid to join NATO.

Too funny, thanks Putty

T

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Friday, December 29, 2023 6:40 AM

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The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly


Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov made a number of statements on December 28 that also run contrary to the reported backchannel messaging on which the NYT oped and similar arguments rely. Lavrov claimed on December 28 in another interview with RIA Novosti that “hints and leaks” in the Western media show that the West wants to look for a way to end the war in Ukraine while still declaring a Ukrainian victory – possibly in response to Western reports about Russia’s willingness to negotiate.[6] Lavrov also claimed that Ukrainian demands for the return of its 1991 borders amount to “demands for genocide.” Lavrov claimed that Ukrainians and Russians are “one people” and lamented the fall of the Soviet Union, after which millions of Russians were left outside of the borders of the Russian Federation--echoing many statements that Putin has made.[7] Lavrov’s statements appear to invoke the Kremlin’s concept of “compatriots abroad” that is used to justify Russia’s definition of its “sovereignty” and right to defend ethnic Russians and Russian speakers beyond its borders. The Kremlin has recently returned to its “compatriots abroad” narrative to justify its war in Ukraine and when discussing Russia’s imperial reconquests in and beyond Ukraine.[8]

The oped’s focus on the need for Ukraine to cede its land, finally, obscures the horrors that the Russian occupation is inflicting on the Ukrainian people living on that land. Russian forces and administrations have been engaging in large-scale and deliberate ethnic cleansing campaigns, forcibly and illegally deporting Ukrainians to Russia and replacing them with Russians and migrants to Russia.[9] Russian administrations have illegally deported tens of thousands of Ukrainian children to Russia under various schemes, including causing Russian families to adopt them.[10] Russian administrations are systematically working to eliminate the Ukrainian language, culture, history, and ethnicity in the areas that Russian forces occupy, as ISW has repeatedly documented.[11] Many of these activities appear to violate the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide and deserve at least a mention in discussions about how Ukraine’s president should cede Ukraine’s land and people to Russia.[12]

https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/russian-offensive-campai
gn-assessment-december-28-2023

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
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Friday, December 29, 2023 6:57 AM

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President Vladimir Putin promised Chinese leader Xi Jinping that his invasion of Ukraine would last five years, the Japanese newspaper Nikkei reported Thursday, citing multiple anonymous sources familiar with Russian-Chinese diplomatic maneuvering.

Putin’s remark apparently came during Xi’s visit to Moscow in March 2023, when Russia was already one year and one month into the war and had suffered a series of embarrassing setbacks.

Nikkei interpreted Putin’s words that Russia “will fight for [at least] five years” as an assurance that Moscow would emerge victorious in the end and a possible warning for Xi not to reverse China’s pro-Russia policy.

It also said that Putin’s comments to Xi call into question recent reports that the Russian leader is quietly signaling readiness for ceasefire talks, saying Putin may be creating an “illusion” of seeking peace to use to his advantage in the 2024 presidential vote.

https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2023/12/28/putin-promised-xi-that-russi
a-will-fight-5-year-war-in-ukraine-nikkei-a83588

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
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Friday, December 29, 2023 11:58 AM

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The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly


Russian poets given long jail terms for reciting verses against Ukraine war

Artyom Kamardin, 33, and Yegor Shtovba, 23, sentenced for ‘undermining national security’, ‘inciting hatred’.

Police stormed into the apartment Kamardin shared with his then-girlfriend, Alexandra Popova, and another activist. According to Amnesty International, Popova said police beat and violated Kamardin with a dumbbell before forcing Popova to watch a video of the act. She also claimed that police super-glued stickers to her face and threatened to rape her. A clip later circulated on Telegram of the bruised and battered Kamardin apologising for his words.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/12/29/russian-poets-given-long-jai
l-terms-for-reciting-verses-against-ukraine-war

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
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Friday, December 29, 2023 1:11 PM

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The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly


Kremlin Pins Russians’ Anger, War Fatigue on ‘Nearly Naked’ Stars

By Pyotr Kozlov | Dec 28, 2023

https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2023/12/28/kremlin-pins-russians-anger-
war-fatigue-on-nearly-naked-stars-a83598

The party’s organizer, television host and blogger Anastasia Ivleeva, has received the largest share of the blowback, having been hit with a $10 million class-action lawsuit and losing major sponsorship contracts in the past week despite publishing two apology videos.

Russian media reported that authorities have launched a tax audit against Ivleeva, a step that could lead to criminal prosecution.

This sweeping response can only have happened as a result of a political decision and a command from the highest level, Russian officials said.

"At first, the story with Ivleeva was spontaneous, but then, seeing its potential, the Kremlin decided to stir up the scandal," wrote independent political analyst and former Putin speechwriter Abbas Gallyamov.

“The campaign to discredit these stars on this scale is absolutely internal politics,” said a Russian official who is involved in Putin’s campaign headquarters. “Without Putin’s approval and a direct order from [domestic policy supervisor Sergei] Kiriyenko and [TV and state media supervisor Alexei] Gromov, it is simply impossible.”

The official added that security officers and the Federal Security Service (FSB) lobbied for a more zealous response.

The initial backlash to the party came from ultra-conservative activists, pro-war figures and military bloggers.

Yekaterina Mizulina, the head of the Safe Internet League, posted screenshots of angry reactions from her followers, one of which allegedly came from the relative of a Russian soldier who lost both legs in Ukraine.

“Did our loved ones die for someone’s underwear? We don't need apologies from them! They need to finance prosthetics for my relative and for hundreds of soldiers!” the response read.

More at https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2023/12/28/kremlin-pins-russians-anger-
war-fatigue-on-nearly-naked-stars-a83598

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
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Friday, December 29, 2023 3:32 PM

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NATO Needs Russia 'Ruined' in Ukraine for Future Peace: Official

By David Brennan | Dec 29, 2023 at 8:07 AM EST

https://www.newsweek.com/nato-needs-russia-ruined-ukraine-future-peace
-1856390

"Russia needs to walk away with the understanding that they lost, that they will lose the next war," Kusti Salm — the permanent secretary at the Estonian Defense Ministry — told Newsweek in an exclusive interview from Tallinn.

The Russian leader, Salm said, must end his gamble in Ukraine knowing "that economically they are ruined, we outlasted them, we kept our industry on a better footing, we have the technological advantage, we have better training, better morale; that they don't stand a chance."

"They need to walk away with the understanding that international law and the rule-based world functions and that you cannot bend it as you wish."

"This is the only way to draw a line there, so that this wouldn't happen again. If one of those elements is not fulfilled, then in a few years we will face another crisis, and not only from Russia, because everyone is learning."

"We think that it's three years before they will have the opportunity," Salm said of Russia's military recovery timelines. "Others go for five years, we have also heard seven or eight years. But the consensus is that they will regenerate, and they will come back. There is no one in intelligence, no one in defense circles who would dispute that."

"For Europe, for NATO, it's very simple," Salm added. "If Ukraine fails, NATO will be next...Deterring needs a lot more effort, a lot more investment, a lot more shifts in public opinion. It's actually a very high return on investment to keep on supporting Ukraine."

NATO nations have been sluggish in meeting the demands of a modern, high intensity war in which they are not direct combatants. Advanced weapons have arrived in Ukraine slowly, the mountains of required munitions remain undelivered, and the majority of alliance nations are yet to reach NATO's 2 percent of GDP military spending target.

Estonia's Prime Minister Kaja Kallas told Newsweek in May that NATO's 2 percent target is insufficient given the danger posed by Putin's expansionist kleptocracy, adding she was both "worried" and "surprised" at allied failures to raise spending.

The 2 percent figure should be a floor, not a ceiling, Kallas said, adding: "I have the feeling that some maybe think that this will just go away. But it's not. I think it's the new reality. And we have to be prepared for this, to actually, really execute our defense investment pledge that we have given."

"120 billion [euros, $133 billion] a year would be something that would do the trick; 0.25 percent of GDP," Permanent Secretary Salm said. "It's not a lot, it's not a strategic topic, it's not something that we cannot afford."

"With that money you also ramp up your own industry, most of the money will remain in your own economies. It would be a stimulus package at a time of an incoming recession."

Such a stimulus, Salm acknowledged, is some way off. "Europe hasn't found a way to package this," he said.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
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Friday, December 29, 2023 5:18 PM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.


Quote:
Originally posted by second:
NATO Needs Russia 'Ruined' in Ukraine for Future Peace: Official

By David Brennan | Dec 29, 2023 at 8:07 AM EST

https://www.newsweek.com/nato-needs-russia-ruined-ukraine-future-peace
-1856390

"Russia needs to walk away with the understanding that they lost, that they will lose the next war," Kusti Salm — the permanent secretary at the Estonian Defense Ministry — told Newsweek in an exclusive interview from Tallinn.


Sounds like a lot of hopium from a very tiny country.
No matter what Estonia wants, they're not going to change the outcome either way, they're too small.

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

Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM



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Saturday, December 30, 2023 7:54 AM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly


Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:

Sounds like a lot of hopium from a very tiny country.
No matter what Estonia wants, they're not going to change the outcome either way, they're too small.
It is matter of arithmetic. If the EU spends 2% of its GDP on weaponry and then sends what ammo Ukraine needs, Russia loses. The saner portions of the Russian public can do the same math without a calculator.

One out of every two Russians wish for the war in Ukraine to end in 2024, according to survey results from the Russian Field polling agency published Friday, Dec 29, 2023. https://t.me/russian_field_soc/1294

When asked what they wish for Russians in the New Year, 50% of Russian Field’s respondents named “peace, a peaceful sky, and the end of” what the Kremlin calls a “special military operation” in Ukraine.

Russian Field further said 40% of its respondents wished for health and 14% “patience, optimism, resilience, optimism.”

Another 6% wished for Russia's “victory,” the pollster said.

Russian Fields shared its poll results one day after the Japanese newspaper Nikkei reported, citing anonymous sources, that President Vladimir Putin promised Chinese leader Xi Jinping earlier this year to fight in Ukraine for five years.

Russian Field surveyed 1,600 Russian respondents between Dec. 4-12, 2023.

https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2023/12/29/50-of-russians-wish-for-end-
to-ukraine-war-in-2024-poll-a83606

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
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Saturday, December 30, 2023 7:56 AM

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The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly


Russian forces have likely routinely attempted to draw and fix limited Ukrainian air defense systems away from the front, and the Russian strikes on December 29 follow recent indications that Ukrainian air defenses may be presenting significant challenges to Russian aviation operations along the frontline. Ukraine lacks the number of air defense systems required to provide coverage to all of Ukraine, and Russian forces have likely conducted a consistent series of strikes, even if at a low intensity, in part to force Ukrainian forces to concentrate those air defense systems on protecting larger population centers far from the front instead of providing coverage for military operations.[39] Russian forces reportedly decreased their aviation activity after Ukrainian forces shot down three Russian Su-34s in southern Ukraine between December 21 and 22, which was subsequently followed by a notable decrease in the tempo of Russian ground operations on the east (left) bank of Kherson Oblast.[40] Russian forces had been relying on the mass use of glide bombs dropped from manned aircraft to support operations in Kherson Oblast and in eastern Ukraine, likely due to the reported Ukrainian ability to suppress long-range Russian artillery and shoot down Russian rotary wing aircraft.[41] A Ukrainian capability to suppress Russian aviation activity even in limited areas of the front would likely pose significant operational constraints on Russian forces.

Ukrainian forces have recently expanded their use of mobile air defense strike groups in an effort to avoid expending air defense missiles on routine Russian strikes with Shahed-136/131 drones.[42] The recent months of Shahed-heavy strikes and the relatively smaller number of Russian missile strikes may have eased pressure on Ukrainian air defenses in rear areas and allowed Ukrainian forces to strengthen air defense coverage along the front. Ukrainian Air Force Spokesperson Colonel Yuriy Ihnat stated on December 24 that Ukrainian forces can deploy air defense systems in any direction and not only in those where Russian forces have recently suffered aviation losses.[43] The Russian military’s increased use of missiles in the December 29 strike likely intends in part to reapply pressure on Ukraine’s limited air defense umbrella and prevent the Ukrainian command from redeploying air defense systems from the rear towards the front.

https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/russian-offensive-campai
gn-assessment-december-29-2023

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
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Saturday, December 30, 2023 10:07 AM

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Russian President Vladimir Putin's military on Friday launched what's been called the largest aerial attack of the Ukraine war, and one economic-focused Ukrainian outlet estimated the cost of the assault for Russia to be at least $1.273 billion.

Russia spent an estimated $1.17 billion on 90 Kh-101/Kh-555/Kh-55 long-range missiles missiles alone in the attack. Russian Kh-101 cruise missiles cost an estimated $13 million per missile.

While the bulk of the attack tally went toward Kh-101 missiles, Russia also reportedly used Kh-47 hypersonic missiles; Kh-22/Kh-32 cruise missiles; S-300/S-400/Iskander-M ballistic missiles; Kh-47M2 "Kinzhal" missiles; Kh-31P anti-radar missiles; one Kh-59 missile; and 36 Shahed-136/131 drones.

The total amount spent on the attack, according to Ekonomichna Pravda, was $1,273,220,000.

https://www.newsweek.com/putins-major-aerial-attack-ukraine-cost-russi
a-12-billion-report-1856666

If Russia could continue expending ammo at that rate for 365 days, the cost would be $465 billion. I think Russia should try that to see if throwing money at Ukraine will achieve victory by the beginning of 2025. Alternatively, I'm pretty sure Russia could more cheaply bribe Ukraine to surrender than bomb Ukraine into surrendering, assuming the bribes are delivered to the right Ukrainian government officials. Russians are only slightly more corrupt and dumber than Ukrainians, so this alternative plan could bring victory for Russia at a reduced cost compared to bombing Ukraine with very expensive missiles.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
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Saturday, December 30, 2023 1:06 PM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.


Edited for readability

Quote:
Ukraine Mounts Massive Series Of Attacks On Russian City, Killing At Least 14
Saturday, Dec 30, 2023 - 08:05 AM

Russia's Belgorod region, which lies just north of Kharkiv in Ukraine, was rocked by Ukrainian drone and missile fire which killed at least 14 people, with over 100 injured, according to revised updates. "According to updated information, 12 adults and two children were killed in Belgorod. Another 108 people, including 15 children, were injured," Russia's defense ministry said.

The death toll was so high due to the strikes on a residential area, the region's governor Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov indicated. While this Russian border region has throughout the war come under repeat cross-border attack, it has been relatively quiet of late, with only smaller sporadic mortar or drone attacks. In one instance a centrally located Christmas attraction, said to be (according to unverified reports) a skating rink with many children, came under fire.

Russia's defense ministry described a broader attack on Russian territory Saturday during which time the military intercepted and destroyed dozens of inbound missiles and drones.

Ukrainian media sources said that the armed forces launched some 70 drones on Russia in the series of deadly attacks, however, Kiev officials claim they only targeted military sites, including a direct hit on a electronic factory in Bryansk region where missile system components are made. "Unlike Russian terrorist attacks on the territory of Ukraine, the Security and Defense Forces have exclusively hit enemy military targets," a military source told Ukrainian media.

But Ukraine's military asserted it avoided civilian areas ... isn't born out by the video evidence.

Russian state media detailed that the shelling "targeted the central city district, which hosts regional government buildings, as well as the ‘Mayak’ city mall – a popular gathering place for locals that traditionally holds festive events on New Year’s Eve. Some reports also claimed that a local ice-skating rink was hit in the strike."


This major assault appears 'retaliation' by Ukraine for the major nationwide aerial strikes on Ukrainian cities that took place the day prior, where the rising death toll is at 39 Ukrainians killed.

The Ukrainian Armed Forces had cited that in the Friday Russian assault, up to 158 missiles and drones were launched, describing that this was a "record number" and the "most massive missile attack" of the conflict, excluding the very opening few days of the invasion.

*****

"This offence will not go unpunished," the Russian MoD said further. And spokesman Dmitry Peskov told a press briefing, "President Vladimir Putin has been informed about the Ukrainian armed forces' strike on residential neighborhoods in Belgorod."

Belgorod lies merely 20 miles from the Ukraine border, on the other side of which has witnessed two years of heavy fighting. Air raid sirens and the occasional inbound drone have become 'normal' for Russian residents in the region, however, the scale of Saturday's attack was unprecedented in intensity and the rate at which the missiles and drones hit central areas.

The Saturday attacks on Russia were rare for their size and scope, and likely Russian forces are preparing another wave of attacks on Ukraine. President Putin was reportedly briefed on the wide-ranging assault, detailed further as follows:

An initial statement from the Russian defence ministry on Saturday said 13 missiles were destroyed over the wider region overnight. Later, it said 32 drones had been shot down in the Bryansk, Oryol, Kursk and Moscow regions.

The governor of Bryansk region meanwhile said two villages were targeted and a child, born in 2014, had been killed. He said the attacks had damaged 55 homes, two private businesses, a football ground, a leisure centre and a pre-school.


https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/ukraine-mounts-massive-series-a
ttacks-russian-city-killing-least-14

Russian MOD doesn't target civilians. What's the point? They're out to destroy Ukraine's military. When civilian structures are targeted, it's bc they're housing military assets. Im sure that, on occasion, something will be mis-targeted or a missile will go astray. But Russian intelligence about who/ what is where seems to be usually good.
OTOH, expended Ukrainian air defense missiles have often landed in Ukrainian cities. There are videos (which I've watched) of expended air defense missileslanding on highways and streets. There is the infamous instance where a Ukrainian air defense missile landed in Poland, killing two. Ukraine immediately blamed Russia and tried to invoke NATO article 5. Fortunately, someone had already videoed the missile and uploaded it to the internet, where is was immediately ID'd as Ukrainian.

Since Kiev (quite rightly) limits the dissemination of videos of Ukraine's side of the war, we only have their word. And noting that Kiev has a well-established history of lying, their word isn't worth much.


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

Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM



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Saturday, December 30, 2023 4:51 PM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.


According to Military Summary Channel, Ukraine followed up its drone attack on civilians in Belgorod with a cluster munitions attack on them


A war crime, as even Dima points out.



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

Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM



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Sunday, December 31, 2023 8:43 AM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly


Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
According to Military Summary Channel, Ukraine followed up its drone attack on civilians in Belgorod with a cluster munitions attack on them


A war crime, as even Dima points out.
Russians say many things: Inside Putin's propaganda machine. Ordinary Russians were led to believe Europe faced imminent famine

"They will soon begin to perish unless they receive aid from Russia to survive. Complaints are already being voiced. If the winter is harsh, they will go extinct like the mammoths. I say this in all seriousness." (Then it must be true because Russians are trustworthy, truthful, and civilized by Christianity, unlike the godless Europeans enthralled by Satan.)

https://essanews.com/inside-putins-propaganda-machine-ordinary-russian
s-were-led-to-believe-europe-faced-imminent-famine,6979313314670721a

Moscow called a meeting of the United Nations Security Council on Saturday, adding it had requested that the Czech Republic's representative attend in New York to "explain this country's ammunition is being used for killing civilians in Belgorod."

Czech Foreign Minister, Jan Lipavský, said Prague would not "be summoned anywhere by Russia," adding its representatives would attend a Security Council meeting "when Russia wants to discuss the withdrawal of its occupying troops" from Ukraine.

https://www.newsweek.com/belgorod-russia-ukraine-strikes-us-volodymyr-
zelensky-1856770

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

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