Russia Invades Ukraine. Again by captaincrunch

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

Ben Hodges @general_ben tweeted
Ukr General Staff will continue to pound Russian hq's and lines of communication (logistics) for the next few weeks, thru February, in order to set the conditions for the decisive phase of the campaign, the liberation of Crimea. I expect them to liberate Crimea by August.
5:41 AM · Dec 12, 2022
https://twitter.com/general_ben/status/1602267451093401600

Ben Hodges @general_ben is the former Commanding General USArmyEurope, Senior Advisor for @humanrights1st https://humanrightsfirst.org/

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

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Monday, December 12, 2022 2:39 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Ben Hodges @general_ben tweeted
Ukr General Staff will continue to pound Russian hq's and lines of communication (logistics) for the next few weeks, thru February, in order to set the conditions for the decisive phase of the campaign, the liberation of Crimea. I expect them to liberate Crimea by August.
5:41 AM · Dec 12, 2022
https://twitter.com/general_ben/status/1602267451093401600

Ben Hodges @general_ben is the former Commanding General USArmyEurope, Senior Advisor for @humanrights1st https://humanrightsfirst.org/

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

Take Crimea by August? Of next year?

Hahahahaha!!!!!! They won't even be able to fix their electrical grid by then! And by August, Kiev's military will only be a memory.

Jeez, these people are delusional.

-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE someone poor - William Blake

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Monday, December 12, 2022 4:09 PM

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:

Hahahahaha!!!!!!

The Group of Seven (G7) economic powers on Monday pledged to continue helping Ukraine defend itself against Russia's invasion. G7 leaders were joined by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy via videolink during Monday's meeting.

In a joint statement, G7 leaders slammed Moscow's "irresponsible nuclear rhetoric" and said if Russia ever were to use chemical, biological or nuclear weapons it "would be met with severe consequences."

Zelenskyy, during his video address, called on G7 leaders to send more weapons including tanks, rocket artillery and more long-range missiles.

"Unfortunately, Russia still has the advantage in artillery and missiles. This is a fact. These capabilities of the occupying army are the ones to fuel the Kremlin's arrogance," Zelenskyy said.

Expecting bad news for the remainder of 2022, the Kremlin cancels Putin's end-of-year press conference

The Kremlin says Russian President Vladimir Putin will not hold his annual end-of-year press conference this year.

"There will not be [a press conference] before the New Year," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

Peskov gave no reason for the break with tradition at the end of 12 months dominated by Russia's war in Ukraine and sanctions imposed in response by the West.

https://www.dw.com/en/russia-ukraine-updates-g7-say-air-defenses-the-i
mmediate-focus/a-64064770

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

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Monday, December 12, 2022 8:43 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

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

Hahahahaha!!!!!!
The Group of Seven (G7) economic powers on Monday pledged to continue helping Ukraine defend itself against Russia's invasion. G7 leaders were joined by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy via videolink during Monday's meeting.

In a joint statement, G7 leaders slammed Moscow's "irresponsible nuclear rhetoric" and said if Russia ever were to use chemical, biological or nuclear weapons it "would be met with severe consequences."

Zelenskyy, during his video address, called on G7 leaders to send more weapons including tanks, rocket artillery and more long-range missiles.

"Unfortunately, Russia still has the advantage in artillery and missiles. This is a fact. These capabilities of the occupying army are the ones to fuel the Kremlin's arrogance," Zelenskyy said.

Expecting bad news for the remainder of 2022, the Kremlin cancels Putin's end-of-year press conference

The Kremlin says Russian President Vladimir Putin will not hold his annual end-of-year press conference this year.

"There will not be [a press conference] before the New Year," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

Peskov gave no reason for the break with tradition at the end of 12 months dominated by Russia's war in Ukraine and sanctions imposed in response by the West.

https://www.dw.com/en/russia-ukraine-updates-g7-say-air-defenses-the-i
mmediate-focus/a-64064770

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

Yeah, yeah.
Whatever.

Aside from long distance missiles, possibly nuclear tipped, and/or officially sending NATO troops into Ukraine (there are thousands there unofficially in Kiev uniforms), "the west" has already done pretty much everything they can do. Europe is tapped out, militarily and economically.

Bakhmut will fall within a month. And meanwhile things are going "so well" in Ukraine, the EU and USA are trying to organize a war against Serbia, and China and Saudi Arabia just cut a $40 billion deal.

BTW having seen some videos of Putin, I think he does have some sort of medical problem. But I also think that Russia's future does not hinge on Mr Putin bc he and the rst of the upper ranks have been working hard to replace him.

-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE someone poor - William Blake

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Monday, December 12, 2022 9:55 PM

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:

Aside from long distance missiles, possibly nuclear tipped, and/or officially sending NATO troops into Ukraine (there are thousands there unofficially in Kiev uniforms), "the west" has already done pretty much everything they can do. Europe is tapped out, militarily and economically.

The cheese-eating French surrender monkeys may be tapped out, but not the U.S.

The U.S. has provided only $32 billion in aid to Ukraine since Moscow’s full-scale invasion in February, including almost $20 billion in arms and other security assistance. That is insignificant compared to what the Pentagon squanders each year.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-and-allies-confront-cost-of-aid-assur
ing-ukraine-victory-over-russia-11670733607?mod=djemalertNEWS

How much money does the Pentagon have, per year? In FY 2022, the Department of Defense (DOD) had $1.64 Trillion distributed among its 6 sub-components. Compared to the DOD's spending ($1,640 billion) Ukraine's $32 billion is the epitome of efficiency.
https://www.usaspending.gov/agency/department-of-defense?fy=2022

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

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Monday, December 12, 2022 11:09 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

So, what is Kiev going to do? Throw dollar bills at Russians?

It doesn't matter how much the Pentagon squanders every year. Squandering money is the antithesis of creating an effective military. In reality we have run out of weapons and munitions that would be useful to Kiev, and bc we've de-industrialized we dont have the capacity to churn them out in volume.

We could give Kiev weapons out of our current stock, but we'd have to send operators along with them bc it would take too long for Kiev to train up its soldiers.

-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE someone poor - William Blake

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Tuesday, December 13, 2022 8:38 AM

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:
So, what is Kiev going to do? Throw dollar bills at Russians?

It doesn't matter how much the Pentagon squanders every year. Squandering money is the antithesis of creating an effective military. In reality we have run out of weapons and munitions that would be useful to Kiev, and bc we've de-industrialized we dont have the capacity to churn them out in volume.

We could give Kiev weapons out of our current stock, but we'd have to send operators along with them bc it would take too long for Kiev to train up its soldiers.

Are you expecting Ukraine to surrender before New Year's Day? The War won't be ending soon, leaving plenty of time to train Ukrainian civilians into soldiers:

https://www.goarmy.com/careers-and-jobs/job-training/advanced-individu
al-training.html

17 weeks. Ammunition Specialist requires 10 weeks of Basic Training and 7 weeks of Advanced Individual Training.

As an Ammunition Specialist, you’ll be responsible for the highly specialized care and management of ammunition, explosives, and their components. You’ll perform stock control and accounting duties, and you’ll be in charge of receiving, storing, issuing, and inspecting weapon systems to determine if they need repair or need to be destroyed. This means you’ll be in charge of blowing up expired or partially used explosives and other ordnance in controlled settings, a crucial part of keeping our troops safe.

https://www.goarmy.com/careers-and-jobs/career-match/support-logistics
/transportation-inventory/89b-ammunition-specialist.html

32 weeks. Land Combat Electronic Missile System Repairer requires 10 weeks of Basic Training and 22 weeks of Advanced Individual Training

https://www.goarmy.com/careers-and-jobs/career-match/mechanics-enginee
ring/test-repair/94a-land-missile-system-repairer.html

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

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Tuesday, December 13, 2022 8:41 AM

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

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy pressed Western leaders again on Monday to provide more advanced weapons to help his country in its war with Russia, and he repeated his calls for Russian forces to withdraw from occupied areas of Ukraine, suggesting Christmas as a date to retreat.

During a video conference, Zelenskky told host Germany and other leaders of the Group of Seven industrial powers: “It would be right to begin the withdrawal of Russian troops from the internationally recognized territory of Ukraine this Christmas. If Russia withdraws its troops from Ukraine, then a reliable cessation of hostilities will be ensured.”

He added: “The answer from Moscow will show what they really want there: either a further confrontation with the world or finally an end to aggression.”

The G-7 leaders supported Zelenskyy’s appeal, saying in a statement after their meeting that “Russia can end this war immediately by ceasing its attacks against Ukraine and completely and unconditionally withdrawing its forces from the territory of Ukraine.”

The Kremlin has rejected all previous appeals to reverse its land grabs in Ukraine. It didn’t immediately respond to this latest one.

https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-government-90e64b55be2411219
1c5413a3e220a4c

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

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Tuesday, December 13, 2022 2:33 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
So, what is Kiev going to do? Throw dollar bills at Russians?

It doesn't matter how much the Pentagon squanders every year. Squandering money is the antithesis of creating an effective military. In reality we have run out of weapons and munitions that would be useful to Kiev, and bc we've de-industrialized we dont have the capacity to churn them out in volume.

We could give Kiev weapons out of our current stock, but we'd have to send operators along with them bc it would take too long for Kiev to train up its soldiers.

SECOND: Are you expecting Ukraine to surrender before New Year's Day?

Did I post that???

NO, I DIDN'T.

That's called a stawman argument, and it's a transparent rhetorical ploy to derail the discussion from (your) losing point.

-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE someone poor - William Blake

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Tuesday, December 13, 2022 2:44 PM

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:

NO, I DIDN'T.

That's called a stawman argument, and it's a transparent rhetorical ploy to derail the discussion from (your) losing point.

Signym, this next story will drive you to wild denials of the truth:

The Invisible Victims

UKRAINE/ RUSSIA

Earlier this year, doctors in Kherson, Ukraine immediately took action when they heard that Russians were invading their city. They quickly began making fake documents for orphans that claimed the children were too sick to move.

“We deliberately wrote false information that the children were sick and could not be transported,” said Dr. Olga Pilyarska in an interview with the Associated Press. “We were scared that (the Russians) would find out … (but) we decided that we would save the children at any cost.”

Pilyarska’s quick thinking prevented Russian troops from seizing Ukrainian children and sending them to live with Russian families – one of the worst atrocities to come to light since Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the invasion of the former Soviet republic earlier this year. More than 1,000 children in Kherson were taken away while Russia occupied the city for eight months until its liberation in mid-November. More than 13,000 in total have been kidnapped, according to the Ukrainian government.

Sometimes Russian troops convinced parents to relinquish their children with the enticement of free summer camps in Russia where children would be safe from the fighting, wrote New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof. But the children never return, and the Russian government has not been receptive to parents who have been trying to bring them back home.

Some of the kids were remanded to a “military-patriotic” training camp in Chechnya, a country led by Putin ally Ramzan Kadyrov. As Radio Free Europe wrote, Russian officials designated these Ukrainian children as “socially troubled” and in need of “re-education.”

Meanwhile, the United Nations recently accused Russia of committing numerous war crimes in Ukraine, including, stunningly, the summary execution of children, reported El Pais. Human rights advocates explained to ABC News that removing children from an enemy’s territory in this manner is a clear indication of Russia’s “genocidal intent” in Ukraine. Like rape, taking kids is a classic ethnic cleansing maneuver to destroy families and thus the basic building block of a nation’s sense of identity, added Forbes.

Bloomberg Opinion columnist Andreas Kluth called these abducted and missing Ukrainian children the war’s “invisible victims.” He wondered if they would ever be reunited with their families, even after the war ends. Investigators can find mass graves and see the damage that bombs and bullets have wrought. But parents won’t find closure until they have their children back.

Nobody should expect the Ukrainians to back down. That includes you, Signym.

https://www.dailychatter.com/stories/the-invisible-victims/

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

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Tuesday, December 13, 2022 2:55 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Yep, more bullshit.

I thought we were done with the "babies ripped from incubators" story.

You'd be a lot more believable if you kept at least one foot in reality.

-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE someone poor - William Blake

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Tuesday, December 13, 2022 5:58 PM

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:
Yep, more bullshit.

I thought we were done with the "babies ripped from incubators" story.

You'd be a lot more believable if you kept at least one foot in reality.

Signym, Russophiles deny it, but the sad truth is that Russia has murdered approximately 62 million of its citizens.

Once the Russian state settled on murder as a final solution to political conflicts, Russians were never the same.

R.J. Rummel, Lethal Politics - Soviet Genocide and Mass Murder since 1917 (Published 1990)

Chapters

1 61,911,000 Victims: Utopianism Empowered, 1917-1987 1

2 3,284,000 Victims: The Civil War Period, 1917-1922 33

3 2,200,000 Victims: The NEP Period 1923-1928 61

4 11,440,000 Victims: The Collectivization Period, 1929-1935 81

5 4,345,000 Victims: The Great Terror Period 1936-1938 109

6 5,104,000 Victims: Pre-World War II Period 1939-June 1941 127

7 13,053,000 Victims: World War II Period, June 1941-1945 151

8 15,613,000 Victims: Postwar and Stalin’s Twilight Period, 1945-1953 191

9 6,872,000 Victims: Post-Stalin Period, 1954-1987 217

While there are estimates of the number of people killed by Soviet authorities during particular episodes or campaigns, until now, no one has tried to calculate the complete human toll of Soviet genocides and mass murders since the revolution of 1917. Here, R. J. Rummel lists and analyzes hundreds of published estimates, presenting them in the historical context in which they occurred. His shocking conclusion is that, conservatively calculated, 61,911,000 people were systematically killed by the Communist regime from 1917 to 1987.

https://www.amazon.com/Lethal-Politics-Soviet-Genocide-Murder/dp/15600
08873/

Download all R.J. Rummel books for free from the mirrors at https://libgen.unblockit.page/search.php?req=R.J.+Rummel

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

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Tuesday, December 13, 2022 6:41 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

And the collective west nearly exterminated all indigenous people in the Americas that it ever contacted.

Your point?

-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE someone poor - William Blake

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Tuesday, December 13, 2022 7:44 PM

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:
And the collective west nearly exterminated all indigenous people in the Americas that it ever contacted.

Your point?

This is a classic Russian propaganda move, known as whataboutism, to mention "indigenous people", but the big difference was that Russians were exterminating Russians. Russians kill Russians (not "Indians") by the millions. See the difference, Signym? That pretty much explains why Russia has not prospered like nearly every other country in Eurasia. The big exception? North Korea went on a similar rampage to kill North Koreans and the result was that North Korea did not prosper while South Korea did. Funny thing about North Korea: it wouldn't have existed except for Russians setting North Korea on its path, the same one Russia has taken.

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

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Wednesday, December 14, 2022 3:14 AM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

No, it's a demonstration that you have no point

-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE someone poor - William Blake

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Wednesday, December 14, 2022 6:20 AM

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

Putin’s war on Ukrainian power grid reveals more than he’d like.

Why not target something military? The Russian army isn’t good at finding military targets, which move around and are camouflaged. The whereabouts of a power grid can be Google-mapped.

Here’s the thing: The Ukrainian power grid was built back in Soviet times to survive a thermonuclear war; it’s incredibly redundant and well-protected. There’s no way a non-nuclear warhead will blow the concrete casing that shields the generating facilities. Transformers are much softer targets, and Soviet engineers knew that as well. They couldn’t shield the transformers, so they put them as far apart as possible. A Soviet substation invariably occupies a much bigger space than its U.S. counterpart; every piece stands apart from the other, with incredible redundancy built into the system and capacities for rerouting.

A cheap Iranian Shaheed-136 drone will hardly kill a transformer. More likely, it will damage the coolant system, which will be fixed in a day or two. A missile, which costs anywhere from $3 million to $8 million apiece can do the job, but it’s unlikely it will severely damage more than two transformers. An X-101 missile costs $13 million, an X-555 $7.5 million, a Kalibr $6.5 million. But the biggest problem for Russia isn’t the price of the missiles: It’s their replacement — it takes up to nine months to deliver one.

Before the war, Russia had stockpiled about 1,900 long-range high precision missiles (900 Iskanders, 500 Kalibres, 144 X-101 and 300 X-555), of which it has used about two-thirds. Before the sanctions kicked in, it was manufacturing high-precision missiles (X-101, Kalibres and 9M729**) at a rate of around 100 per year, though that estimate perhaps should be revised upward.

It’s possible — theoretically — for Russia to destroy the Ukrainian power grid, were the air defense non-existent or the missile swarms big enough to saturate it. But neither is going to happen if the West continues to supply Ukraine. And because of several bottlenecks that speak volumes about the Russian army.

The first major bottleneck is the number of missile carriers: It seems Russia simply doesn’t have enough of them. It’s apparently incapable of launching more than 30-40 sea-born Kalibres in a swarm; some Kalibr carriers were damaged by Ukrainian sea drone attack, and it looks like Russia is afraid to launch from submarines.

Russian air-launched missiles are an even sorrier sight. These are mostly X-55, X-555 and X-101 missiles launched from strategic bombers in a standoff mode; a bomber “takes off from its air base in Engels, flies to the Caspian and launches missiles from over the water,” explains Roman Switan, 58, a military expert and former fighter pilot. The X-55 is an old missile, originally fitted with a nuclear warhead, built back in 1970s. The warhead is stripped and a blank is fitted, and a hellishly expensive missile with no precision guidance system to speak of is used only to saturate the air defense. X-555 is a non-nuclear variety of X-55, built later. X-101 is the most modern, high-precision.

There’s usually around 60 or 70 X-55, X-555, and X-101 in one swarm, and, incredibly, all bombers take off from a single base: Engels. A recent Ukrainian drone attack on the base damaged one strategic TU-95 bomber and likely reduced the number of missiles launched in a single salvo several hours later by at least 16 pieces.

Russia launches the missiles over the Caspian apparently because some of them are so old, the ignition doesn’t catch on. “Instead of flying off, the missile simply drops down,” said Switan. It is especially dangerous for such antique items as X-55. Recently ecologists found over 2,500 seals dead on Caspian beaches. While the precise cause of the seal deaths has not yet been determined, X-55 fuel is highly toxic.

Were Putin fighting against Caspian seals he might have succeeded. Against Ukrainians and their power grid? Not so much.

Before the war, Russia was flaunting its new missiles: a hypersonic 3M22 Zirkon, a hypersonic Kinzhal, and a much-touted land-launched ballistic Iskander. “Our Iskanders are laughing” was a popular motto on Putinist T-shirts. But no Iskanders were used in attacks on power grid. The reason? Their scarcity — Russia is well into its emergency supply — and, most probably, the refusal of Belarus dictator Aleksandr Lukashenko to let Putin launch Iskanders from Belarus, for fear of retaliation. There’s no use to launch them from Russia: The 500-km strip along the border is already devastated.

As for Kinzhals, it seems that Russia has only three modified MiG-31K capable of carrying them, a single missile each. During every attack these MiGs took off from Belarus, loomed menacingly over the border, and then flew back. Not a single Kinzhal was launched.

Another bottleneck is the programming. Each missile has to be individually programmed: Its flight path, evasion patterns — all should be individual, better to evade the air defense. And this is something, it appears, that doesn’t happen. Russian missiles come in droves. They follow the same flight path. It seems that the small group of Russian missile programmers unmasked by Bellingcat is simply not up to the task.

It also becomes harder to hit the right target. Initially the Russian army could use Googlemaps. But increasingly it must discern; it won’t do any good to send a $13 million missile into a transformer that’s already burned down. Again, it appears Russia has no capacity to do this quickly enough.

Russian stockpiles are dwindling. Ukrainian air defense — which recently started getting its first NASAMS and HAWKs — is rapidly improving.

It seems Putin thought a terror war against the civilian population — destroying the Ukrainian power grid in winter, leaving citizens to freeze or surrender — would cause the Ukrainians either to revolt against the war or flood hapless Europe as refugees.

It was a fever dream. Apparently, nobody told Putin it’s crazy to use $5 billion worth of strategic missiles against a grid built to withstand nuclear war and with an air defense improving by the day.

https://thehill.com/opinion/national-security/3773351-putins-war-on-uk
rainian-power-grid-reveals-more-than-hed-like/

** 9M729 is a Russian ground-launched cruise missile with a range of 2,500 km. Its development prompted the 2019 U.S. withdrawal from the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, which prohibited ground-launched missiles with ranges between 500 and 5,500 km.
https://missilethreat.csis.org/missile/ssc-8-novator-9m729/

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

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Wednesday, December 14, 2022 8:33 AM

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

In a move that sparked outrage across the world, Russian President Vladimir Putin awarded the unit an honorary military title and praised it for its “heroism” and “bold actions.”

Chibrin said he didn’t see any of the supposed heroism, but many of the crimes.

Chibrin also described widespread looting, with Russian soldiers taking computers, jewelry and anything they liked.

“They didn’t hide this at all. A lot from my unit, when we left Lipovka and Andreevka in the end of March, they took cars, vehicles, they took civilian cars and sold them in Belarus,” he said. “The mentality is, if you steal something, you are good. If nobody catches you, good! If you see something that is expensive and you steal it and don’t get caught, you are good.”

As for the unit’s commanders, he said they were well aware of the alleged rapes and murders and of the looting, but took little interest in seeking justice.

“They reacted like: ‘Whatever. It happened. So what?’ Actually, there was no reaction,” he said. “Discipline goes [down the drain], there’s no discipline.”

https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/13/europe/russian-defector-war-crimes-intl
-cmd/index.html

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

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Wednesday, December 14, 2022 8:53 AM

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

Zelensky tells David Letterman a Jewish joke about Russian military’s performance

“Two Jewish guys from Odesa meet up,” Zelensky says. “One asks the other: ‘So what’s the situation? What are people saying?'”

“And he goes, ‘What are people saying? They are saying it’s a war.'”

“What kind of war?”

“Russia is fighting NATO.”

“Are you serious?”

“Yes, yes! Russia is fighting NATO.”

“So how’s it going?”

“Well, 70,000 Russian soldiers are dead. The missile stockpile has almost been depleted. A lot of equipment is damaged, blown up.”

“And what about NATO?”

“What about NATO? NATO hasn’t even arrived yet.”

https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/zelensky-tells-letterman-
jewish-joke-about-russian-militarys-performance/

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

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Thursday, December 15, 2022 9:13 AM

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

The Biden administration is planning to send Ukraine advanced electronic equipment that converts unguided aerial munitions into “smart bombs” that can target Russian military positions with a high degree of accuracy, according to senior U.S. officials familiar with the matter.

The kits incorporate global positioning devices for precision and can be bolted onto a variety of weapons, creating what the Pentagon calls a Joint Direct Attack Munition, or JDAM. The U.S. military has used the technology on bombs weighing up to 2,000 pounds, usually incorporating it with bomber aircraft and fighter jets.

On Tuesday, senior U.S. officials told The Washington Post that the Pentagon also was preparing to provide Ukraine with a Patriot missile system, the U.S. military’s most sophisticated air defense weapon. Biden has yet to approve that move either but could do so imminently, officials said.

The Kremlin has reacted angrily to the outpouring of Western military aid, making thinly veiled threats to use nuclear weapons in Ukraine and warning of the potential for a broader spillover war with NATO. For that reason, the Biden administration has sought to move cautiously in approving new capabilities that could be viewed by Russia as escalatory.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/u-s-planning-to-give-ukraine-smar
t-bomb-kits/ar-AA15hTry

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

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Thursday, December 15, 2022 9:41 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by second:
The Biden administration is planning to send Ukraine advanced electronic equipment that converts unguided aerial munitions into “smart bombs” that can target Russian military positions with a high degree of accuracy, according to senior U.S. officials familiar with the matter.

How long do you suppose it will be before we find those in Africa and the Middle East?

One week? Two tops?

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

Growing up in a Republic was nice... Shame we couldn't keep it.

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Thursday, December 15, 2022 9:56 AM

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

Russia warned the U.S. that if it sends Patriot missile systems to Ukraine it will consider the move a provocation that could lead to “unpredictable consequences.”

The Biden administration is finalizing plans to send a Patriot missile system to Ukraine, three defense officials told NBC News earlier this week. The surface-to-air defense system would help Ukraine repel Russian aerial attacks.

The Russian embassy in Washington said in a statement on Telegram Wednesday that sending the Patriot missile system would be considered “provocative.”

In his nightly address Wednesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russian forces were destroying “everything in front of them.” He added that “city after city” in Donbas in eastern Ukraine was being destroyed.

“There is no calm on the front line. There is nothing easy and simple. Every day and every meter is fought for extremely hard,” Zelenskyy said in a nightly address on his Telegram channel.

https://www.cnbc.com/2022/12/15/ukraine-war-live-updates-latest-news-o
n-russia-and-the-war-in-ukraine.html

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

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Thursday, December 15, 2022 10:22 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Russia warned the U.S. that if it sends Patriot missile systems to Ukraine it will consider the move a provocation that could lead to “unpredictable consequences.”

Putin isn't worried about that. He knows that those missile systems are going to turn up in Ali Khamenei's hands by the new year.

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

Growing up in a Republic was nice... Shame we couldn't keep it.

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Thursday, December 15, 2022 10:23 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by second:
In his nightly address Wednesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russian forces were destroying “everything in front of them.” He added that “city after city” in Donbas in eastern Ukraine was being destroyed.

Hmmmmmmmm....

Well that seems to go against everything that Ted's videos are claiming.

So... Who is lying then?

Will Ted even remember the videos he posted now that we're being presented with a new narrative?

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

Growing up in a Republic was nice... Shame we couldn't keep it.

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Thursday, December 15, 2022 11:05 AM

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 second:
In his nightly address Wednesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russian forces were destroying “everything in front of them.” He added that “city after city” in Donbas in eastern Ukraine was being destroyed.

Hmmmmmmmm....

Well that seems to go against everything that Ted's videos are claiming.

So... Who is lying then?

Will Ted even remember the videos he posted now that we're being presented with a new narrative?

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

Growing up in a Republic was nice... Shame we couldn't keep it.

I get the feeling that you misunderstand how Armies operate. Since Armies move around, Russians have difficulty targeting them. Since towns don't move, Russians see towns as easy targets, firing at those, which doesn't do much more than destroy real estate and kill civilians. Most of the time, the Ukrainian Army stays out of towns to avoid being hit. I suspect you will never understand how differently winners operate than do losers of wars. When this war is all over, Russians will be bragging about how much damage they did to Ukrainian buildings while Ukraine did almost nothing to Russian buildings, but the Ukrainian Army will still have won the war by beating the Russian Army.

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

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Thursday, December 15, 2022 12:53 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Quote:
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
Quote:
Originally posted by second:
In his nightly address Wednesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russian forces were destroying “everything in front of them.” He added that “city after city” in Donbas in eastern Ukraine was being destroyed.

Hmmmmmmmm....

Well that seems to go against everything that Ted's videos are claiming.

So... Who is lying then?

Will Ted even remember the videos he posted now that we're being presented with a new narrative?

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

Growing up in a Republic was nice... Shame we couldn't keep it.
I get the feeling

Nobody gives a shit about your feelings.

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

Growing up in a Republic was nice... Shame we couldn't keep it.

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Thursday, December 15, 2022 11:35 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Oh, yeah- now SECOND is an expert in warfare too??

SECOND, Russia isn't targeting "cities" ... that's what Kiev does.

Russia is targeting the electric infrastructure. Even then, they aren't targeting the power plants, they're targeting the distribution grid.
why are they doing this? It's a vulnerability in Kiev's military, bc the trains are electric, and bc they're a different gage than the EU, it's not like the EU can supply them with diesel locomotives.

-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE someone poor - William Blake

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Thursday, December 15, 2022 11:51 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Oh, yeah- now SECOND is an expert in warfare too??

Second is an expert at everything Second has ever Seconded.

Really. Second should be President of the World. We'd be so lucky to have somebody as perfect as Second making all of our decisions for us. There would be no need for any other politicians worldwide. Just Second telling us all what is good for us. Second has never made a single mistake in his life or has ever been wrong about anything. Second has never had even a sip of coffee and will live forever because Second has never ingested anything that wasn't pure as sunlight.

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

Growing up in a Republic was nice... Shame we couldn't keep it.

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Thursday, December 15, 2022 11:57 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

I thought this was a very interesting and far-ranging discussion between

An ex-Marine with weapons systems experience, writing from Bangkok. He tends to focus on weapons systems and logistics.

A British- educated Greek with connections to businessmen all over Europe, posting from London

An American-educated Argentinian posting from Karkhiv.

An American-educated Cypriot whose father was a diplomat, currently currently posting from Cyprus

-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE someone poor - William Blake

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Friday, December 16, 2022 12:41 AM

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:
Oh, yeah- now SECOND is an expert in warfare too??

Second is an expert at everything Second has ever Seconded.

Really. Second should be President of the World. We'd be so lucky to have somebody as perfect as Second making all of our decisions for us. There would be no need for any other politicians worldwide. Just Second telling us all what is good for us. Second has never made a single mistake in his life or has ever been wrong about anything. Second has never had even a sip of coffee and will live forever because Second has never ingested anything that wasn't pure as sunlight.

In the Vietnam War, the US killed millions of Vietnamese, destroyed hundreds of billions of dollars of real estate, and the US lost. It was impossible to believe back in Texas, where the people who are now Trumptards or fathers of today's Trumptards could not understand why the US lost. Didn't killing millions of Vietnamese guarantee a win? Maybe atom bombs should have been used on Vietnam, the Texas Trumptards argued. Didn't thousands of US deaths guarantee a win? The future Texas Trumptards were convinced that hippies and peaceniks and Democrats were the cause of the US loss in Vietnam, not the competence of the US military, which destroyed more property and killed more Vietnamese every day.

Russians are just as confused about why Russia is losing in Ukraine as the future Trumptards were confused about why the US lost in Vietnam. Russia has killed vast numbers of Ukrainians. Russia has destroyed hundreds of billions of dollars in real estate. Russia has only lost a few thousand soldiers. How is it possible that Russia has not already won in Ukraine? It must be somebody's fault, but not the Russian military's fault, that Russia has not already won! This is probably why Russians talk about nuking Ukraine the same way future Trumptards talked about nuking Vietnam because the minds of a certain kind of Trumptard or Russian will believe that the more people you kill and the more property you destroy the closer you get to winning a war.

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

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Friday, December 16, 2022 3:28 AM

Your stupidity is disturbing.

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

Growing up in a Republic was nice... Shame we couldn't keep it.

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Friday, December 16, 2022 6:04 AM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Quote:
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
Your stupidity is disturbing.

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

Growing up in a Republic was nice... Shame we couldn't keep it.

His disturbance is stupid.

-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE someone poor - William Blake

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Friday, December 16, 2022 6:57 AM

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:
Quote:
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
Your stupidity is disturbing.

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

Growing up in a Republic was nice... Shame we couldn't keep it.
His disturbance is stupid.

-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE someone poor - William Blake

Your reaction to news out of Ukraine is very telling about who you are. I saw the same about news out of Vietnam in 1969. In my little corner of East Texas, the Trumptards still remember the My Lai massacre in Vietnam, but they remember it for the rank injustice when Lieutenant William Calley Jr., a platoon leader in C Company, was convicted for murder.

The Trumptards I'm familiar with, at least the ones who remember, were pleased that President Nixon freed Lt. Calley. Putin would probably do the same for Russia's version of Lt. Calley if a Russian military court should convict somebody for massacring Ukrainians.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M%E1%BB%B9_Lai_massacre

Russia invaded Ukraine in 2014. Russia won't leave in defeat until at least 2023, so there is a similarity to the long time lag between the US invading Vietnam and leaving.

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

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Friday, December 16, 2022 9:33 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Quote:
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
Your stupidity is disturbing.

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

Growing up in a Republic was nice... Shame we couldn't keep it.
His disturbance is stupid.

-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE someone poor - William Blake

Your reaction to news

It's not news.

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

Growing up in a Republic was nice... Shame we couldn't keep it.

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Friday, December 16, 2022 11:21 AM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Quote:
SECOND: Your reaction to news

SIX: It's not news.

Indeed. SECOND posts lies, propaganda, and disinfo.

.....

SECOND, why was it that you volunteered for Vietnam? You never did explain that ginormously stupid mistake. A war, BTW, that was prosecuted and expanded BY DEMOCRATS AND ENDED BY A REPUBLICAN.

As far as I can tell, all you've ever done in your life was replace one belief system (Jehova's Witless) with another ("I hate everybody that I project my original mistake onto").

-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE someone poor - William Blake

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Friday, December 16, 2022 12:35 PM

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

Ukraine’s chiefs warn of a looming Russian offensive and the critical months that lie ahead

Russia is massing men and arms for a new offensive. As soon as January, but more likely in the spring, it could launch a big attack from Donbas in the east, from the south or even from Belarus, a puppet state in the north. Russian troops will aim to drive back Ukrainian forces and could even stage a second attempt to take Kyiv, the capital.

Those are not our words, but the assessment of the head of Ukraine’s armed forces, General Valery Zaluzhny. In an unprecedented series of briefings within the past fortnight the general, along with Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukraine’s president, and General Oleksandr Syrsky, the head of its ground forces, warned us of the critical few months ahead. "The Russians are preparing some 200,000 fresh troops," General Zaluzhny told us. "I have no doubt they will have another go at Kyiv." Western sources say that Russia’s commander, General Sergey Surovikin, has always seen this as a multi-year conflict.

This is not the view outside Ukraine. In the freezing mud, the conflict is thought to be deadlocked. There has been almost no movement for a month along the 1,000km or so of battlefront. Admiral Sir Tony Radakin, Britain’s most senior officer, this week said that, right now, a shortage of artillery shells means Russia’s scope for ground operations is "rapidly diminishing".

The appearance of stalemate is feeding new interest in peace talks. France’s president, Emmanuel Macron, America’s Joe Biden and (for very different reasons) the Russian aggressor, Vladimir Putin, have all in recent days talked about a diplomatic solution. Many in the West, appalled at the suffering, and, more selfishly, wearying of high energy prices, would welcome this. But Ukraine’s commanders argue that it should not happen too soon, and they are right.

If Ukraine sought to stop the war today, freezing the battle lines where they are, the Russians could prepare better for the next attack. Mr Putin’s generals have been pushing on with their programme of training and deploying newly mobilised troops and retooling industry to help the war effort—including, say Ukrainian commanders, by producing artillery shells. A freeze would repeat the mistake of the three years leading up to the invasion on February 24th 2022. In that time Mr Putin talked endlessly to the West’s leaders, who indulged him, while all the while readying his armies for invasion.

The West’s highest responsibility is to ensure that any Russian counter-offensive fails. For that, the supply of weapons must increase, and fast. Ukraine has used HIMARS, a rocket system the Americans have been supplying since June, to devastating effect against Russian ammunition dumps and command-and-control centres, allowing the rapid advance first in the north-east and then in the south. But Russia has moved many such targets back out of range of Ukraine’s HIMARS batteries. So Ukraine needs more powerful ordnance, like the ATACMS missiles that could hit targets at least twice as far away. And it needs lots of them, as well as regular ammunition and artillery of all kinds; plus tanks and helicopters and much else, too.

Ukraine also needs help repelling Russian attacks on civilian electrical, water and heating systems. These are aimed at wrecking Ukraine’s economy as well as battering the morale of Ukrainian troops on the front line, who are worried about their families back home.

As General Zaluzhny explains, Ukraine is running low on stocks of ammunition for its existing defence systems (mostly Soviet-era anti-aircraft kit being repurposed for use against missiles). It also needs many more, and better, anti-missile defences; the American Patriots that now seem to be forthcoming will be a huge boost, but training soldiers to use them takes time and they should have been supplied months ago.

If Ukraine is to emerge from this conflict as a thriving democracy, even air defence will not be enough: it also needs to recapture more territory. Although Russian forces have seized only a small slice of Ukraine's Black Sea coast this year, that puts them close enough to all of the big Ukrainian-held ports to menace shipping. Apart from limited amounts of grain under a UN deal, Ukraine's exports are still largely cut off.

Taking more territory also helps avoid a frozen conflict by showing that Mr Putin risks losing even the gains he has made. With today’s frontier, Russia has a land-bridge that can resupply annexed Crimea and threaten the south of the country. By contrast, if Ukraine cuts the land-bridge and retakes the northern coast of the Sea of Azov, it can negotiate from strength, putting even Crimea within artillery range. That way it can discredit the idea in Russia that Mr Putin can prevail simply by launching another attack in a few years’ time.

Ukraine is still willing to make the sacrifices that fighting on demands. Mr Zelensky told us that "95 or 96% of people want to de-occupy all their territory", recapturing everything that Russia seized in 2014 as well as what it has taken this year. He argues that Western promises of security guarantees are a poor substitute for his country’s territorial integrity. After all, similar guarantees offered to Ukraine by America and Britain in 1994, when it surrendered the Soviet nuclear weapons on its soil, proved almost worthless 20 years later.

Ukraine’s backers will have a slightly different point of view. They believe taking back everything is a maximalist aim that Ukraine will struggle to achieve, not least because it will in places mean freeing people who do not want to be liberated. Mr Putin’s nuclear threats are a reason to ensure that Russia is not victorious, but also a reason to require that Ukraine does not appear to threaten Russia’s recognised borders. Ukraine also needs to understand that the flow of military and financial aid depends on it avoiding internal rivalries that may be emerging, and on ensuring that it curbs long-standing corruption.

That said, the entire world—including Russia—would benefit from the failure of the revanchist idea that the old Russian empire can be recreated. If Ukraine is adequately supported, its commanders can push a long way towards the coast, and possibly take back most of what Mr Putin has seized since February. The more territory that Ukraine can recover the greater the chances of its lasting success. ¦

The Economist December 17th–23rd 2022

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

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Friday, December 16, 2022 1:25 PM

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:
Quote:
SECOND: Your reaction to news

SIX: It's not news.

Indeed. SECOND posts lies, propaganda, and disinfo.

.....

SECOND, why was it that you volunteered for Vietnam? You never did explain that ginormously stupid mistake. A war, BTW, that was prosecuted and expanded BY DEMOCRATS AND ENDED BY A REPUBLICAN.

As far as I can tell, all you've ever done in your life was replace one belief system (Jehova's Witless) with another ("I hate everybody that I project my original mistake onto").

President Kennedy gave permission to overthrow Ngo Dinh Diem, the President of South Vietnam. That overthrow became an assassination, showing Kennedy to be just as bad as the President with the worst judgment, Andrew Johnson, April 15, 1865 – March 4, 1869.

Signym, did you not understand that thanks to Kennedy's (and LBJ's and Nixon's) bad judgment and over-weaned pride, the US destroyed hundreds of billions of dollars in Vietnamese real estate and yet still lost? In contrast, Vietnam destroyed no US real estate and yet won. Putin, with judgment just as bad as Kennedy's, has put Russia on the same path to a loss after destroying hundreds of billions in Ukrainian real estate. It is possible Russia will continue fighting Ukraine after Putin is as dead as Kennedy, but this war will end with Russia losing to a smaller, weaker country because losing is NOT an existential threat to Russia. Eventually, some replacement for Putin will use good judgment and withdraw from Ukraine. It is too bad that Putin is too proud to admit his mistake and then rectify it.

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

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Friday, December 16, 2022 3:36 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

SECOND:
Define "winning".
Define "losing".

BTW, why DID you volunteer for Vietnam? Can you explain your rationale, what was the winning argument that convinced you that it was necessary, or at least a good thing to do?

-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE someone poor - William Blake

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Friday, December 16, 2022 3:51 PM

Second was born no earlier than 2 decades after Vietnam ended.

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

Growing up in a Republic was nice... Shame we couldn't keep it.

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Friday, December 16, 2022 4:47 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Well, SECOND?
You seem to have plenty of time to post bullshit, but no time to answer three simple questions?

-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE someone poor - William Blake

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Friday, December 16, 2022 5:34 PM

Good.

Fuck Ukraine. Fuck Zelensky.

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

Growing up in a Republic was nice... Shame we couldn't keep it.

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Saturday, December 17, 2022 5:50 AM

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:
SECOND:
Define "winning".
Define "losing".

BTW, why DID you volunteer for Vietnam? Can you explain your rationale, what was the winning argument that convinced you that it was necessary, or at least a good thing to do?

Signym -- Why did I volunteer? I didn't want to go to college like my sisters. I didn't want to work at Burger King like my father and mother. The most meaningful life I could think of was in the military. Second in life for most meaningful was petrochemical plant construction, which is where I worked for two decades. That's all!

Russians have not defined what "winning" in Ukraine means. "Losing" is described as “Humans will turn into non-humans... humanity as a whole will be eradicated... What is ahead of us is the forced replacement of people with robots and robotization of the people… If we don’t confront the West, utter horror will follow, it will be a catastrophe.”

Here is the whole article:

Kremlin TV Stars Combust as Russians Admit War Is Aimless

Putin’s media darlings are promptly melting down as more Russians realize they “don’t understand what they’re doing” in Ukraine.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine continues to stall—along with the Kremlin propaganda blitz meant to convince the Russians that supporting the war is their sacred duty. Pro-Kremlin propagandists unanimously agree that Vladimir Putin’s war is here for the long haul, but bristle at the fact that no one seems to know the end goal of the so-called “special operation.”

During Wednesday’s broadcast of NTV’s show Meeting Place, hosts Andrey Norkin and Ivan Trushkin spearheaded a discussion about the effectiveness of homegrown propaganda, complaining about the lack of views and comments on “patriotic” promo reels urging the youth to rush for the front lines.

One guest, Russian rapper Ptakha, whose real name is David Nuriev, didn’t beat around the bush. “As far as the youth is concerned, honestly speaking, I communicate with a lot of them and very few understand what we’re doing there, because they [Ukrainians] didn’t cross our borders. Very few understand,” he said. “Trying to ride the wave of the Soviet ideology, claiming that we’re fighting Germans, is also very questionable.”

Trushkin asked: “Can you produce a clip explaining what we’re doing there, in a language that’s easy to understand?” Ptakha replied: “I don’t quite understand it myself.” Norkin angrily retorted: “I categorically reject what you’re saying right now, young man. Let’s stop butting heads over here.”

Undeterred, Ptakha continued to speak and said the Wagner Group of mercenaries are at war solely “to make money,” and that the rest of Russian troops don’t understand Moscow’s aims. As the guests piled on, loudly arguing with the inconvenient assessment, Norkin shut Ptakha down: “I don’t want to offend you or insult you, but you are very certain that you’re right, despite your lack of basis. You want us to explain all of this to you, but we aren’t going to do that. This is not the point of today’s program.”

During Monday’s airing of The Evening With Vladimir Solovyov, the eponymous propagandist complained about the “generation gap,” stating that mainly men of his own age are fighting in Ukraine, while younger Russians aren’t eager to march into battle.

In Solovyov’s Wednesday broadcast, the topics of propaganda and the widespread lack of understanding as to Russia’s long-ranging goals was likewise front and center. Andrey Sidorov, deputy dean of world politics at the Moscow State University, predicted that the West will intensify its information offensive against Russia during the spring of 2024—targeting the presidential election. “Russia’s destruction is the main goal of the West, they openly admit that,” he said.

With notable irritation, Sidorov pointed out: “When the government does not identify clear goals, it’s very difficult to fulfill your oath... so what is our goal?” He complained about the lack of clarity on how much of Ukraine Russia intends to occupy, expressing his hope that the final aim includes all of the Ukrainian territory. During Tuesday’s broadcast of the show Time Will Tell, State Duma member Alexander Kazakov likewise argued that Russia should take all of Ukraine: “We need all of it—everything!”

State media’s desperation to control the narrative of the war is palpable, with propagandists seemingly competing for the most outrageous theory on what would happen if Russia loses the war. Head of RT Margarita Simonyan previously alleged that the Russians would end up in Western concentration camps or be turned into mindless “yahoos,” while Professor Dmitry Evstafiev predicted that they would be caged and displayed alongside animals at the zoo.

“What will happen if the West is allowed to build the kind of a world it wants to create? What kind of world will it be? Can a normal person live in this world?,” political scientist Sergey Mikheyev lamented on Solovyov’s show. “Humans will turn into non-humans... humanity as a whole will be eradicated... What is ahead of us is the forced replacement of people with robots and robotization of the people… If we don’t confront the West, utter horror will follow, it will be a catastrophe.”

In an apparent effort to strengthen Russia’s ideological standing and eliminate foreign influence, Vitaly Tretyakov, dean of Moscow State University’s School of Television, pushed for Russia’s liberals to be forced into publicly denouncing their written criticism of the Soviet Union. He called for the Russian Academy of Sciences to arrange for these public denouncements and threw in another proposal: “Maybe we should burn these books!”

Mikheyev eagerly chimed in: “Together with their authors!”

https://www.thedailybeast.com/kremlin-state-tv-stars-flip-out-as-russi
ans-admit-putins-war-in-ukraine-is-aimless

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

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Saturday, December 17, 2022 6:20 AM

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:
Well, SECOND?
You seem to have plenty of time to post bullshit, but no time to answer three simple questions?

-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE someone poor - William Blake

The Story Behind The Infamous Viet Cong Photo That Shocked The World
Story by Mia Willaims • Yesterday 3:29 PM
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/the-story-behind-the-infamous-vie
t-cong-photo-that-shocked-the-world/ss-AA14chDT#image=11

“The infamous Viet Cong photo,” taken by Eddie Adams in 1968, shocked the world when published by a joint US-Vietnam task-force. His stunning black-and-white photo depicts Lt. General Nguyen Loan executing a Vietcong prisoner in the city of Saigon . . .

This is a twisty-turny story from Vietnam that shines light on the Ukraine War, but you have to assembly the pictures in your head before you can see the pattern and what it all means. If you can't assembly it, and hold it in your mind for several minutes without dropping the pieces of the story, then it is just one damn picture after another, signifying almost nothing, unconnected to any theme larger than one person executing another. It would help to look in the wiki for the relationship between the photographer and the man with a gun:

Quote:
Adams would later lament the impact of the photo. On his photograph, Adams wrote in Time in 1998:

Two people died in that photograph: the recipient of the bullet and General Nguyen Ngoc Loan. The general killed the Viet Cong; I killed the general with my camera. Still photographs are the most powerful weapons in the world. People believe them; but photographs do lie, even without manipulation. They are only half-truths. ... What the photograph didn't say was, "What would you do if you were the general at that time and place on that hot day, and you caught the so-called bad guy after he blew away one, two or three American people?". ... This picture really messed up his life. He never blamed me. He told me if I hadn't taken the picture, someone else would have, but I've felt bad for him and his family for a long time. ... I sent flowers when I heard that he had died and wrote, "I'm sorry. There are tears in my eyes."

Loan moved to the United States, and in 1978, there was an unsuccessful attempt to rescind his permanent residence status (green card). Adams advocated for Loan when the U.S. government sought to deport him based on the photograph, and apologized in person to Loan and his family for the irreparable damage it did to his honor while he was alive. When Loan died, Adams praised him as a "hero" of a "just cause". On the television show War Stories with Oliver North Adams referred to Loan as "a goddamned hero!"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eddie_Adams_(photographer)#Pulitzer_Priz
e%E2%80%93winning_photograph

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

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Saturday, December 17, 2022 8:33 AM

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

Russia fired more than 70 missiles at Ukraine on Friday in one of its biggest attacks since the start of the war, knocking out power in the second-biggest city.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Russia still had enough missiles for several more massive strikes. “Whatever the rocket worshippers from Moscow are counting on, it still won’t change the balance of power in this war,” he said in an evening address.

The mass strikes appeared to be a continuation of the Kremlin’s attempt to destroy Ukraine’s energy infrastructure. Ukraine’s state energy company Ukrenergo said energy consumption had fallen by 50% as a result of the attacks.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/dec/17/russia-ukraine-war-at-a-
glance-what-we-know-on-day-297-of-the-invasion

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

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Saturday, December 17, 2022 9:55 AM

Fuck Zelensky.

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

Growing up in a Republic was nice... Shame we couldn't keep it.

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Saturday, December 17, 2022 10:42 AM

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:
Fuck Zelensky.

You and Volodymyr Zelenskyy are about the same age. He was Born 25 January 1978 (age 44).

Children 2
Spouse Olena Kiyashko (m. 2003)
Occupation Politician • actor • comedian

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volodymyr_Zelenskyy

6ix, if you could tell jokes like Zelenskyy, you could have an expansive life rather than your present-day minimalist one.

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

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Saturday, December 17, 2022 11:07 AM

I prefer my minimalist lifestyle.

Besides... Kid fucking and crossdressing for laughs like Zelensky is nothing that I would ever aspire to.

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

Growing up in a Republic was nice... Shame we couldn't keep it.

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Saturday, December 17, 2022 12:37 PM

THG

Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Quote:
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:

Fuck Zelensky.
You and Volodymyr Zelenskyy are about the same age. He was Born 25 January 1978 (age 44).

Children 2
Spouse Olena Kiyashko (m. 2003)
Occupation Politician • actor • comedian

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volodymyr_Zelenskyy

6ix, if you could tell jokes like Zelenskyy, you could have an expansive life rather than your present-day minimalist one.

Russia invades Ukraine. Many countries offered Zelenskyy a ride out. He said I don't need a ride I need amunation.

Jack says fuck Zelensky. That says it all. Jack=ass=loser.

T

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Saturday, December 17, 2022 1:30 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Quote:
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:

Fuck Zelensky.

SECOND: You and Volodymyr Zelenskyy are about the same age. He was Born 25 January 1978 (age 44).
Children 2
Spouse Olena Kiyashko (m. 2003)
Occupation Politician • actor • comedian

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volodymyr_Zelenskyy

6ix, if you could tell jokes like Zelenskyy, you could have an expansive life rather than your present-day minimalist one.

THUGR: Russia invades Ukraine. Many countries offered Zelenskyy a ride out. He said I don't need a ride I need amunation.
Jack says fuck Zelensky. That says it all. Jack=ass=loser.

Supposedly Zelenskiy has a number of mansions already, one in Florida and one in Italy, thanks to his CIA-StateDepartment-WH patrons.

The thing that's keeping him glued to Ukraine is his Nazi praetorian guard, who will shoot him in the head if he bolts from office.

-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE someone poor - William Blake

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Saturday, December 17, 2022 4:53 PM