Russia Invades Ukraine. Again by captaincrunch

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Iskander on descent (R) v Kinzhal (L).

If it's not glowing on the way down, it's not a Kinzhal.

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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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Wednesday, January 10, 2024 8:02 AM

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

NATO Hits Only One of Two Major Spending Targets

Jan 10, 2024 at 3:00 AM EST

https://www.newsweek.com/nato-hits-major-equipment-target-2024-2014-su
mmit-20-percent-1859101

The fierce backbiting of the alliance's "brain death" era—as described by French President Emmanuel Macron in 2019—is generally in the rear view mirror.

Allied leaders agreed on two key 10-year spending targets at the Wales summit in September 2014. By 2024, they said, members would "move towards" or beyond spending 2 percent of GDP on their militaries, while committing 20 percent of annual defense spending to major new equipment and related research and development.

As the deadline approaches, the picture is mixed. The majority of NATO nations have still not reached the 2 percent threshold, much to the chagrin of those who have. NATO estimated that as of July 2023, all 31 member states had surpassed the 20 percent spending target; seemingly a big win for a bloc so often consumed by expenditure disputes.

"If you take the technical way of looking at those targets, 20 percent is as important as 2 percent," Fabrice Pothier, a former director of policy planning for NATO, told Newsweek. "It's not just about how much you spend, it's where you spend it." (If 80 percent of spending goes to pensions, NATO is not buying defense. Rather its spending is a social welfare program.)

But even amid success, tough questions remain. "Where do you put this 20 percent?" Pothier asked. "Do you put it in developing some Europe-grown technologies like in air defense? This is what the French would like to do, to fill one of the biggest gaps in the NATO, and especially European, defense toolbox."

"Or do you go more for existing technology like the U.S. Patriot system and the Israeli systems, which is what Germany is proposing?"

"These debates, which can be quite technical, can become very political," he added. "If the two main European military powers go in different directions about where they want to put their money, you're not going to build that defense industrial base for certain technologies—like air defense systems—that will be robust enough to actually create the kind of mass of production that you need."

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, January 10, 2024 8:50 AM

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

Nearly 50 Nations Say Russia Must 'Cease' Accepting Weapons From North Korea

Nearly 50 countries released a joint statement on Tuesday condemning the relationship between North Korea and Russia after Russia launched North Korean ballistic missiles at Ukraine at least twice in recent weeks.
https://www.state.gov/joint-statement-on-dprk-russia-ballistic-missile
-transfers/

The statement — issued by the State Department — called on Russia and North Korea to “immediately cease all activities that violate” the three United Nations Security Council resolutions it said the countries are violating through their arms transfers, one of which explicitly bans the transfer of arms with North Korea.
https://www.un.org/securitycouncil/s/res/1718-%282006%29

I'm sure Russia won't change despite the stern words of these statements, but if the message was also attached to a highly explosive device delivered to Putin, that might motivate change. When Putin reads "We condemn in the strongest possible terms the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea’s (DPRK) export and Russia’s procurement of DPRK ballistic missiles" Putin starts laughing when he gets to the words "strongest possible terms" and never finishes reading even to end of that sentence.

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, January 10, 2024 1:20 PM

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

How Ukraine Must Change If It Wants to Win

A beleaguered country needs more than volunteerism and chutzpah to protect its version of democracy.

By Anne Applebaum | January 9, 2024, 8:30 AM ET

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2024/01/rustem-umerov-defens
e-minister-ukraine/677060/

On December 29, Russia launched the largest missile attack against Ukraine since the start of the full-scale invasion. On January 2, another attack of the same magnitude hit schools, hospitals, and apartment blocks across Ukraine. Early yesterday morning—the day after Orthodox Christmas—the Russians hurled yet another missile barrage at Ukraine. Together, these attacks sent a message: Russian President Vladimir Putin is not interested in negotiations, cease-fires, or swapping land for peace. Although he cannot overwhelm Ukraine militarily, Putin now believes that he can keep up the pressure, destroy Ukraine’s civilian infrastructure, wait for Ukraine’s allies to grow tired, goad the Ukrainian public into turning against the government, and then win by default.

Often, this new phase of fighting is described as a “war of attrition,” as if the only thing that will determine the outcome is the number of bullets. But although the number of bullets does matter, the war has an important narrative and psychological component too. Alongside the bombings, Kremlin officials are now telegraphing to everyone—to Western politicians and journalists, to Ukraine, to the Russian people—that they can absorb 300,000 casualties and massive equipment losses, that their country’s economy is thriving, that they are willing to devote half of the national budget to defense production indefinitely. At the same time, the Russians and their supporters in the United States and Europe describe Ukraine as corrupt, politically divided, and, above all, certain to lose. In Washington, some Republicans justify their (so far) successful attempt to block American aid to Ukraine by using this language. Viktor Orbán, the Hungarian prime minister who courts investment from Russia and China, does the same when blocking European aid.

Ukrainians know that negotiations with Russia are fruitless, and in any case not on offer. They also know that military loss still means the same thing that it meant when Russia invaded in February 2022: occupation, mass repression, concentration camps, and the end of an independent Ukraine. They also know that the Russians are much weaker than they claim. Their soldiers still stumble into traps; their commanders still seem to be improvising. The Russian public is tired of the war and of the falling living standards it has created. Nevertheless, to beat the Russians militarily and psychologically, to undermine the Russian propaganda repeated by Orbán and the MAGA right, to maintain their alliances and defend their territory until the Russians have had enough, they have to change.

Two years ago, in the weeks that followed the full-scale invasion, ordinary people pitched in to buy night-vision goggles, the managers of chic bistros mobilized to feed troops, men drove their children to the border and then went home to fight in the territorial army. Now the volunteerism, chutzpah, and wild energy that carried the army and the society forward for the past two years have to be transformed into systems, institutions, and rules. Ukraine needs not just the most enthusiastic army, but the best-managed. Ukraine needs not just clever engineers who build innovative sea drones, but the most modern defense industry in Europe, if not the world. Finally, Ukraine’s government needs to eliminate any remaining corruption and mismanagement—and convince its allies that it has done so as well.

I did not invent these recommendations. I heard them in Kyiv, late last month, from Rustem Umerov, Ukraine’s new defense minister.

To outsiders, Umerov might seem an odd choice for this job. Born in 1982 in Uzbekistan because Stalin had sent Umerov’s Crimean Tatar family into exile there in 1944, Umerov returned to Crimea with his parents only in 1991, when Ukraine became independent from Moscow’s control. When he was still very young, Umerov told me, he “understood how to be what is now known as a refugee.”

His memories of resettlement and his membership in Ukraine’s Muslim Tatar minority might have led him to feel excluded or alienated. Instead, he drew for me a clear line from his childhood experience of exile to his present role in defending Ukraine. From the time he was a student, he understood that the Tatars are only safe when Crimea is part of a democratic, tolerant Ukraine—but a democratic, tolerant Ukraine is only guaranteed if Ukraine is part of Europe. He was an advocate of Ukrainian membership in NATO and the European Union when that position wasn’t particularly popular. “We want to be a part of the civilized world,” Umerov now says, “part of the rule-of-law world … What Russia proposes is no rule of law, no development, aggression towards all their neighbors.”

Following the Russian occupation of Crimea in 2014, when many Tatars were expelled from their homes once again, Umerov became an advocate for Crimean political prisoners, directly negotiating for their release. Starting in February 2022, he served again several times as one of Ukraine’s intermediaries with Russia, as well as with Turkey and the Gulf States, both formally and informally.

Along the way, he obtained a reputation for competence. When I asked others about him in Kyiv, they mentioned the languages he speaks (which include Turkish as well as English, Russian and Ukrainian) as well as his wide range of contacts, lack of pretension, and absence of drama. I met him in the same featureless conference room where I had previously met his predecessor, Oleksiy Reznikov, a personable lawyer who forged good relationships with his foreign counterparts but retired amid a series of news stories about Defense Ministry corruption. Reznikov was not personally implicated: Since 2022, in fact, there has been no suggestion of misused foreign aid or of high-level corruption in the Ukrainian army. But there has been overcharging and waste, just like in the U.S. military—the difference being that if the Ukrainian army has a shortage of winter uniforms because someone has written a bad contract, people might die.

Ending both the reality and the impression of sloppiness is now Umerov’s second-most important task. It’s also part of a larger problem, he told me. Ukraine needs everything, all the time: artillery rounds, winter shoes, F-16s. Prioritizing the army’s needs, translating that into concrete purchases and coordinating with both Western companies and Ukraine’s growing defense industry is a complicated managerial problem that needs more than one solution. Umerov mentioned several, including the creation of 10-year contracts that will help both domestic and foreign companies plan long-term, and investment conferences designed to encourage Western companies to cooperate directly with Ukraine. When talking about these changes, he makes frequent reference to “OECD rules” and “NATO standards.” He also talks about “systems” and “transparency.” These are not buzzwords. Ukraine’s continued existence depends on making them mean something real.

Umerov’s more important task—Ukraine’s most important task—involves people, not shoes and bullets. Ukraine needs to recruit and train more soldiers, as well as to give veterans a rest from combat. Fear and paranoia about military service are growing; there are reports of people being pressed into the army and of others trying to sneak across borders and swim across rivers in order to dodge mobilization. Umerov understands this, again, both as a narrative problem and a real one. He wants to change the tone of the conversation: “This is not a punishment,” he says of military service. “It’s an honor.” But everyone is afraid of the unknown, he told me, and right now military service involves a lot of unknowns. “People should understand how they will be trained, how they will be fed, how they will be taken care of during the operation. And then how they will exit.” The details are still a matter of debate, but he wants to end the uncertainty, negotiate new rules with the military and with Parliament, create a national military service database and then give all military-age citizens a clear set of options.

For Ukraine to weather Russia’s narrative war, Umerov also thinks that the Ukrainian political debate needs a “decompression.” The purported rivalry between the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, and the chief of the army, Valery Zaluzhny, has had a lot of airtime in the Ukrainian media. Umerov is widely thought to be one of the people who can bring the two men together. When I asked him about the friction between them, he replied that he just wants these discussions to become less exciting: “It’s also normal, you know, for there to be disagreements between people. I mean, okay, there’s general unity, everybody wants to win the war, but there can be different opinions.” Instead of politicizing disagreements or making a fetish of them, “we should be focused on the objectives, strategic objectives, military objectives.”

None of these tasks is simple, and any of them could trip up larger, richer, and less embattled countries. Russia has a much larger population but has made a mess of mobilization, which it now does by stealth, forcing ethnic minorities and even foreigners with work visas into their army. European democracies have so far failed to rapidly ramp up domestic military production, even in the face of a growing, existential threat from Russia. The U.S., meanwhile, is incapable of any kind of decompression: Americans have hardly any debates that are calm, apolitical, and “focused on the objectives.” All of our conversations about Ukraine, just to take one relevant example, are now fully politicized: a part of the Republican Party is opposing aid to Ukraine simply because that harms Joe Biden.

But then, we don’t face the same stakes. Ukraine’s battle against Russia has always been a civilizational clash, between an open society and a closed one, a rule-of-law society and a dictatorship. Ukrainians are still betting that their version of democracy is not just more attractive than Russian autocracy but more effective. On the way out of Umerov’s office, I met some of his younger colleagues, who were joking about how confusing expressions like “institutional transformation” can sound to many Ukrainians, especially the older employees of the massive apparatus that is the Defense Ministry. But they weren’t suggesting that they won’t try to explain, or that they won’t eventually implement an institutional transformation and win the war. If they believe in Ukraine’s future, so should we.

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, January 10, 2024 2:21 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

It amazes how many lies Anne Apolebaum works into each para

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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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Wednesday, January 10, 2024 5:19 PM

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

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
It amazes how many lies Anne Apolebaum works into each para

Since the article was by Anne Applebaum, not Apolebaum, you have photophobia. But I've always been convinced you and the Russians were from the Mirror Universe of Star Trek where characters are aggressive, mistrustful and opportunistic in personality.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mirror_Universe#Characteristics

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, January 10, 2024 6:23 PM

Just wanted to give you a little update since you obsess over my expenses buddy...

Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Quote:
Originally posted by second:
There is a Path to Victory in Ukraine
The Delusions and Dangers of Defeatist Voices in the West

By Dmytro Kuleba | December 14, 2023

It was almost two years ago that Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

And here we are, still talking about the war that nobody cares about.

Sure. Let's send them another $150 Billion, Joe*.

Fuck Ukraine.
I understand your position since you can't afford to fix your house because wood is outrageously expensive.

Yes. Wood is outrageously expensive because of Bidenflation.

I can afford it. I choose not to pay that much for it. I haven't worked in 4 1/2 years and I've got plenty of money left because I never buy anything on credit and I bide my time and wait for the sale or clearance. That's how I got $2,000 of pre-Bidenflation baseboard and trim to do my entire house for $125.

It will get done. Just not at this price.

Quote:
You can't pay your taxes, either, but fortunately, you don't have any income to tax.

Sure I can. I just wasn't going to pay more than my share and I got them to drop my property taxes by nearly $800 per year, and that will be every year going forward too.

Funny though... They didn't get around to filing the paperwork on time so I had to pay their full amount and I won't be reimbursed until about 2 months before the next bill is due. But the point is I had the money to pay for it.

And you're right. I don't have any income tax.

How was work today, bitch?

Quote:
Meanwhile, Biden is sending the equivalent of 3% of the Pentagon's budget to Ukraine so that the other 97% isn't another year of complete waste with nothing to show for it.

$150 Billion.

I lived on $7,000 this year.

If everybody knew how to use money like I do, 21,428,571 Americans could have paid for everything they needed to live off of that money sent to Ukraine.

Or... I could have lived 21,428,571 years off of that money.

We've had 3 years of nothing to show for anything under the Biden* Administration. Including Ukraine not winning a war that it's never going to win.

I just bought ten 6' Oak closet poles for the job. Normal price is $22.98 per rod. They were on sale for $19.99 and there is a no-limit $10 rebate per rod.

So normal price with tax would have been $245.87.

Because I waited patiently for 27 days for a sale I knew would pop up eventually, my price after rebate is now going to be $113.98, and whatever I buy in the future with the $100.00 rebate card I get in the mail 10 weeks from now gets the sales tax taken off of it too, so it really in essence only cost me $106.98 for $245.87 worth of wood because I didn't run out on December 14th and buy it like you would have.

That's a 56.49% savings and all it cost me was 27 days more waiting on a job that I've been wanting to get done for 12 years now anyhow.

SPOILER ALERT: Even before Joe Biden* sat in that chair the first day it would have cost me a lot more than $106.98 for all that wood if I'd paid full asking price for it when Trump was still President.

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

Political correctness is just tyranny, with a smiley face.

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Wednesday, January 10, 2024 7:47 PM

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

Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:

SPOILER ALERT: Even before Joe Biden* sat in that chair the first day it would have cost me a lot more than $106.98 for all that wood if I'd paid full asking price for it when Trump was still President.

6ix, I also include you, along with Signym, Russians, Nazis, and Texas Trumptards in general, as menaces from Star Trek's Mirror Universe. Your lives are woeful because you are in the wrong universe. Once that is widely known, your troubles will double until you return to the mirror. (The Mirror Universe plans to conquer this universe but fails. That's your role. Strife. Defeat. Repeat. Forever.)

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, January 10, 2024 8:00 PM

Not at all a legitimate reply to my post.

Ignored, just as anything you ever post should be.

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

Political correctness is just tyranny, with a smiley face.

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Thursday, January 11, 2024 6:35 AM

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

Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Not at all a legitimate reply to my post.

Ignored, just as anything you ever post should be.

You act like someone who shamefully crossed over from Star Trek's Mirror Universe. 6ix, you, Signym, and the Russians lived in a perverse version of reality and you hate this version that doesn't need you. You cry that you are the good guys in the original universe and that if you got your way here, all would be well but what you have accomplished so far on your mission is making life worse.

Here are the Russians comparing their Mirror Universe version of WWII to their version of the Ukrainian War's events:

Russian Offensive Campaign Assessment, January 10, 2024

The Kremlin’s effort to use the mythos of the Great Patriotic War (Second World War) to prepare the Russian public for a long war in Ukraine is at odds with Russia’s current level of mobilization and Russian President Vladimir Putin’s rhetorical attempts to reassure Russians that the war will not have lasting domestic impacts.

St. Petersburg outlet Fontanka published an interview with Russian State Duma Defense Committee Chairman Andrei Kartapolov on January 9 wherein Kartapolov stated that even in the “victorious years of 1944 to 1945” the Soviet forces faced difficulties, prompting the interviewer to ask Kartapolov if Russia was now figuratively in 1944-1945 (i.e. nearing the end of the war in Ukraine).[1] Kartapolov attempted to expand the erroneous analogy between the Soviets’ fight against Nazi Germany and Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine by claiming that Russia is currently figuratively somewhere in December 1943 and moving into 1944.[2] The Soviet military launched a series of successful offensive operations following its defensive victory at the battle of Kursk in July 1943 and by December 1943 had reached the banks of the Dnipro River and Kyiv in Ukraine. Kartapolov explained his logic by claiming that Ukrainian forces failed in the summer 2023 counteroffensive in Zaporizhia Oblast in a way similar to Nazi Germany’s losses in battles in 1943.[3] Kartapolov’s analogy makes little sense, particularly given the fact that the Russian forces have not gained notable ground in recent months as the Soviet forces did in the months before December 1943.[4] The interviewer asked Kartapolov if his analogy suggests that Russia’s war in Ukraine will end in 2024, forcing Kartapolov to admit that Russia’s war in Ukraine and the Second World War cannot be literally compared.[5] Kartapolov nevertheless continued to use allusions to the Second World War to claim that the Russian military would continue the war in Ukraine until it installed a “banner over the Reichstag” (i.e. complete victory in Ukraine that achieves all of Putin’s maximalist objectives).[6]

Kartapolov also alluded to the Second World War in response to a question about demobilization for Russian servicemen called up during Russia’s partial mobilization by arguing that mobilized Soviet personnel did not go home in 1942 just because they had been fighting for a year.[7] Kartapolov characterized Russian calls for demobilization as part of operations by Ukrainian and Western intelligence services.[8] The interviewer pushed back against Kartapolov’s allusion and stated that the entire Soviet Union was mobilized during the Second World War whereas only one percent of the Russian population is mobilized today (likely referencing Putin’s December 1 decree alleging that the Russian military has a total of 2.039 million personnel, 1.32 million of whom are combat personnel on a population of roughly 145 million).[9] The interviewer argued that either Russian officials should mobilize the entire country or mobilized personnel unwilling to sign contracts should be able to conclude their military service.[10] Kartapolov responded by reiterating the Kremlin’s rhetorical line that there is no need for general mobilization now or in the near future.[11]

This exchange prominently highlights the disconnect between Russian force generation efforts and efforts to gradually mobilize Russia’s defense industrial base (DIB) and the Kremlin’s routine rhetorical reliance on the mythos of the Great Patriotic War. The Soviet Union mobilized roughly 34.5 million people during the Second World War, including roughly 35 percent of its male population, and committed almost the entirety of Soviet industry not destroyed by Nazi Germany to the war effort.[12] The Russian leadership continues to indicate a deep desire to avoid a wider mobilization and continues efforts to gradually mobilize Russia’s DIB in a way that is less disruptive to the Russian economy.[13] Kartapolov was likely attempting to promote a victorious portrayal of events in Ukraine while arguing that the Russian public should be prepared for a longer war effort. The Kremlin has routinely relied on allusions to the Second World War to try to achieve this effect throughout the war in Ukraine.[14]

Kremlin rhetoric casting Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine as a long total war for national survival also undermines Putin’s efforts to reassure Russians about the domestic impacts of the war and assuage discontent about the Russian state’s expectations for Russian service. Putin met with residents in Anadyr, Chukotka Autonomous Okrug, on January 10 and attempted to reassure residents that there are no issues with material or financial support for Russian servicemembers in Ukraine.[15] Putin also promised residents that Russian personnel should have a right to receive leave for a six-month period in which they received no leave as well as for the next six-month period.[16] Putin’s focus on providing promised leave is notably at odds with Kartapolov’s description of a war effort reminiscent of the Soviet Union’s in the Second World War, during which soldiers did not get regular leave. Putin and the Kremlin have routinely tried to assuage Russian concerns that the war in Ukraine will have long term economic impacts, and appeals to Russian economic anxiety appear to be a major aspect of Putin’s 2024 presidential campaign.[17] Kartapolov may be purposefully promoting longer-term Kremlin messaging that Putin and other higher-ranking Kremlin officials may want to avoid during Putin’s presidential campaign. There is no indication that erroneous Russian comparisons between the war in Ukraine and the Second World War reflect an intent within the Kremlin to bring Russia to a wartime footing remotely reminiscent of the Soviet Union’s full-scale mobilization during the Second World War. Constant Kremlin allusions to World War II are meant in part to create the entirely false impression that Russia today can sweep aside its enemies relying on mass and weight of overwhelming manpower and materiel as the Red Army supposedly did to Nazi Germany.

https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/russian-offensive-campai
gn-assessment-january-10-2024

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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Thursday, January 11, 2024 8:56 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Not at all a legitimate reply to my post.

Ignored, just as anything you ever post should be.
You act like someone who shamefully crossed over from Star Trek's Mirror Universe.

I've lived here the whole time motherfucker.

You're in my universe, and you're always wrecking my calm with your bullshit.

Don't ever bring up my finances again. I have far more a handle on them than you will ever manage.

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

Political correctness is just tyranny, with a smiley face.

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Thursday, January 11, 2024 10:22 AM

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

Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Not at all a legitimate reply to my post.

Ignored, just as anything you ever post should be.
You act like someone who shamefully crossed over from Star Trek's Mirror Universe.

I've lived here the whole time motherfucker.

You're in my universe, and you're always wrecking my calm with your bullshit.

Don't ever bring up my finances again. I have far more a handle on them than you will ever manage.

You lived in Indiana, where shitheads run the state. I lived in Texas, where shitheads also run the state, but I learned how to evade their deep-seated stupidity that keeps them suffering and poor. You haven't learned. The smarter Russians learned how to evade the hereditary stupidity of Russian shitheads, but effective evasion required the smart ones to emigrate from Russia. Russia ought to have been able to instantaneously crush Ukraine. But because most of the smartest Russians had a long time ago left the country, Russia struggles with military strategy and tactics from the brains of the least competent/energetic.

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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Thursday, January 11, 2024 10:32 AM

Have fun at work today making money to pay off all those loans you're never going to pay off before you die, bitch.

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

Political correctness is just tyranny, with a smiley face.

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Thursday, January 11, 2024 12:22 PM

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

Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:

Have fun at work today making money to pay off all those loans you're never going to pay off before you die, bitch.

I have no debt. I do have people who owe me, all of whom are Trumptards. They are very erratic at repaying on time, especially the one who owes me $898,392. Despite it being a zero-percent interest loan. Trumptards are lying sacks of shit, but I knew that before the first loan. All it takes is a phone call to my lawyer to shove those liars into bankruptcy. Some might even kill themselves. No skin off my nose what happens to them.

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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Thursday, January 11, 2024 12:22 PM

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

Civil Defense Minister Carl-Oskar Bohlin told a “People and Defense” conference last weekend that “there could be war in Sweden.”

He noted that it wasn’t his “primary intention to appeal to your fear, but rather to your situational awareness” and said he was trying to make Swedes aware of the potential for conflict, and to ask them to be prepared.

When asked to respond to Bohlin’s comments, Sweden’s military Commander-in-Chief Micael Bydén said he agreed with the minister, stating: “We need to prepare as far as possible, at all levels, throughout society.”

Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas on Thursday announced a fresh 80 million euros ($87.5 million) in military assistance to Ukraine, and said Estonia would provide long-term assistance equaling 0.25% of its GDP over the next four years.

“If all the countries supporting Ukraine made a similar commitment, this would lead to a definite victory for Ukraine,” Kallas said.

https://www.cnbc.com/2024/01/11/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/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

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Thursday, January 11, 2024 1:34 PM

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

Have fun at work today making money to pay off all those loans you're never going to pay off before you die, bitch.
I have no debt.

Nobody buys that or any of the other bullshit you're selling.

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

Political correctness is just tyranny, with a smiley face.

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Thursday, January 11, 2024 2:03 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
It amazes how many lies Anne Apolebaum works into each para
Since the article was by Anne Applebaum, not Apolebaum, you have photophobia. But I've always been convinced you and the Russians were from the Mirror Universe of Star Trek where characters are aggressive, mistrustful and opportunistic in personality.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mirror_Universe#Characteristics

Ah. Since you can't deny she's lying you become the typo Nazi and hurl personal insults?

Quote:
How Ukraine Must Change If It Wants to Win

Ukraine can't win

Quote:
A beleaguered country needs more than volunteerism and chutzpah to protect its version of democracy.
Its version of democracy includes banning opposition parties and jailing opposition activists, canceling elections, and kidnapping men off the street to serve in the army

Quote:
By Anne Applebaum
Infamous rabid neocons
Quote:
| January 9, 2024, 8:30 AM ET

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2024/01/rustem-umerov-defens
e-minister-ukraine/677060/

On December 29, Russia launched the largest missile attack against Ukraine since the start of the full-scale invasion. On January 2, another attack of the same magnitude hit schools, hospitals, and apartment blocks
Targets are military installations: weapons factories, troop concentrations, air defense systems, depots etc. Civilian targets were rarely struck, and according to Ukraine's head of Air Force, by incoming missiles knocked astray by air defense missiles (I quoted him previously)

Quote:
across Ukraine. Early yesterday morning—the day after Orthodox Christmas—the Russians hurled yet another missile barrage at Ukraine. Together, these attacks sent a message: Russian President Vladimir Putin is not interested in negotiations, cease-fires, or swapping land for peace.
Finally! Truth!

Quote:
Although he cannot overwhelm Ukraine militarily,
First of all, "he" isn't fighting Ukraine, it's Russia. Second, Ukraine is ALREADY being overwhelmed.

Quote:
Putin now believes
mind-reading
Quote:
that he can keep up the pressure, destroy Ukraine’s civilian infrastructure,
targets are military not civilian. But Ukraine does use civilian buildings for military uses

Quote:
wait for Ukraine’s allies to grow tired, goad the Ukrainian public into turning against the government, and then win by default.

AFAIK Russia is making every move to guarantee a military victory. If there happens to be a coup in Ukraine, that's a side effect

Quote:
Often, this new phase of fighting is described as a “war of attrition,” as if the only thing that will determine the outcome is the number of bullets. But although the number of bullets does matter, the war has an important narrative and psychological component too. Alongside the bombings, Kremlin officials are now telegraphing to everyone—to Western politicians and journalists, to Ukraine, to the Russian people—that they can absorb 300,000 casualties
Russian KIA estimated at 50,000

Quote:
and massive equipment losses,
Not sure about "massive" losses, but at the rate Russia is producing tanks, shells, drones etc they can absorb more than Kiev and the west

Quote:
that their country’s economy is thriving,
by all reports, including the IMF and western visitors, it is

Quote:
that they are willing to devote half of the national budget to defense
lie

Quote:
production indefinitely. At the same time, the Russians and their supporters in the United States and Europe describe Ukraine as corrupt, politically divided,
EVERYBODY (except western neocons) describe Ukraine that way! These are well-known facts

Quote:
and, above all, certain to lose. In Washington, some Republicans justify their (so far) successful attempt to block American aid to Ukraine by using this language. Viktor Orbán, the Hungarian prime minister who courts investment from Russia and China,
Not AFAIK.

Quote:
does the same when blocking European aid.
Ukrainians know that negotiations with Russia are fruitless, and in any case not on offer. They also know that military loss still means the same thing that it meant when Russia invaded in February 2022: occupation, mass repression,
There will be war crimes trials. For those in command and Nazis, that's a butt puckering thought

Quote:
concentration camps,
SERIOUSLY ??? Will Russians eat their babies too??.

Quote:
for and the end of an independent Ukraine.
it will be the end of Ukraine in NATO and the EU.

Quote:
They also know that the Russians are much weaker than they claim. Their soldiers still stumble into traps; their commanders still seem to be improvising.
She must be looking at a different war than what's on the PRO-UKRAINIAN Military Summary Channel. Bc from what I see on a daily basis, it's Ukrainians who stumble into fire sacks over and over.

Anyway, she goes on like that for the entire article.

And people actually believe this shit?

-----------
"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, January 11, 2024 10:03 PM

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

Russians are highly organized for a long-term war. Ukrainians? Not so much.

Russian Offensive Campaign Assessment, January 11, 2024

The reported concentration of the Russian military’s entire combat-capable ground force in Ukraine and ongoing Russian force generation efforts appear to allow Russian forces to conduct routine operational level rotations in Ukraine. Ukrainian Main Military Intelligence Directorate (GUR) Deputy Chief Major General Vadym Skibitskyi stated on January 11 that Russian forces have 462,000 personnel in Ukraine and that this represents the entire land component of the Russian military.[1] Skibitskyi stated that most Russian units in Ukraine are manned at between 92 and 95 percent of their intended end strength and that the size of the Russian grouping in Ukraine allows Russian forces to conduct rotations throughout the theater.[2] Skibitskyi stated that Russian forces withdraw units that are at 50 percent or less of their intended end strength to rear areas and return them to the front following recovery and replenishment.[3] Russian Security Council Deputy Chairperson Dmitry Medvedev stated on January 11 that the Russian military has successfully replenished Russian forces in Ukraine through an ongoing crypto-mobilization effort that generated over 500,000 new personnel in 2023.[4]

ISW previously observed routine Russian struggles to conduct operational level rotations from the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022 through Ukraine’s summer 2023 counteroffensive.[5] The apparent Russian ability to generate forces at a rate equal to Russian losses likely provides Russian forces the ability to replenish units that the Russian command has withdrawn from the line due to degradation and later return these replenished units to the front.[6] Russian forces maintain the initiative throughout eastern Ukraine, and the absence of Ukrainian counteroffensive operations likely removes pressure on operational deployments that had previously partially restrained the Russians‘ ability to conduct rotations.[7] Russian forces have not seized the battlefield initiative in Kherson Oblast, however, and appear to be degrading units and formations operating near the Ukrainian bridgehead on the east (left) bank of the Dnipro River without making apparent efforts to conduct operational level rotations (although they do appear to conduct tactical-level rotations).[8] Russian forces have conducted several regroupings during localized offensive operations in the Avdiivka, Bakhmut, Lyman, and Kupyansk directions since early October 2023, which likely provided Russian forces time to conduct the rotations Skibitskyi described.[9] ISW has not observed widespread Russian complaints about a lack of rotations throughout the theater since summer 2023, and the overall tempo of Russian operations is consistent with Skibitskyi’s reporting.[10]

https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/russian-offensive-campai
gn-assessment-january-11-2024

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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Friday, January 12, 2024 3:20 AM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Russians are highly organized for a long-term war. Ukrainians? Not so much.

Russian Offensive Campaign Assessment, January 11, 2024

The reported concentration of the Russian military’s entire combat-capable ground force in Ukraine and ongoing Russian force generation efforts appear to allow Russian forces to conduct routine operational level rotations in Ukraine. Ukrainian Main Military Intelligence Directorate (GUR) Deputy Chief Major General Vadym Skibitskyi stated on January 11 that Russian forces have 462,000 personnel in Ukraine and that this represents the entire land component of the Russian military.

"The Russian military is one of the largest in the world, with an estimated active duty personnel of around 900,000 and an additional 2 million in reserve"
https://thegunzone.com/how-large-is-russian-military/
"Russia has one of the largest militaries in the world. It ranks fifth by active military personnel, which was measured at over 830 thousand[ active duty
https://www.statista.com/topics/9957/armed-forces-of-russia/

-----------
"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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Friday, January 12, 2024 5:05 AM

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

How the best chance to win the Ukraine war was lost

By Yaroslav Trofimov | January 9, 2024 at 6:30 a.m. EST

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/01/09/ukraine-war-win-cha
nce-west-lost/

Yaroslav Trofimov is the chief foreign affairs correspondent of the Wall Street Journal. This article is adapted from his new book, “Our Enemies Will Vanish: The Russian Invasion and Ukraine’s War of Independence.”

Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, was flying home on a Turkish Airlines plane from New York when Russia invaded. He had just been welcomed into the White House by President Biden. It felt like he had been diagnosed with Stage 4 cancer, he thought. The warm handshakes, the empathetic smiles were meant to be final farewells — for him, and for his country.

In Washington, and in most European capitals, no one expected Ukraine to survive in February 2022. The CIA director, William J. Burns, had secretly flown to Kyiv at Biden’s request, warning Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky that Russia was planning to assassinate him.

“They spoke about the physical liquidation of our leadership, about the creation of filtration and concentration camps,” said Zelensky’s national security adviser, Oleksiy Danilov. “But what could we do? We kept asking: give us weapons. But they didn’t really give weapons to us.”

As the United States shut down its embassy in Kyiv ahead of the invasion, it did ship some weapons to great fanfare, such as Javelin antitank missiles. But the quantity was puny: only about 90 Javelins, according to Danilov. Then-British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, while also briefed about the hopelessness of the Ukrainian cause, had overruled internal objections and authorized a heftier load of about 2,000 NLAW missiles. Still, those were weapons best suited for a guerrilla campaign, not a conventional war.

At the time, Ukraine’s military leadership, under Gen. Valery Zaluzhny, had successfully kept Kyiv’s war planning secret — and not just from the Russians. Neither Washington nor many senior officials in the Zelensky administration knew Zaluzhny’s blueprint. “We were pessimistic about Ukraine holding out in part because the Ukrainians didn’t share any of their preparations or planning with us,” a senior Pentagon official told me later. “And the preparations and plans that they did share with us were military deception.”

Western governments were stunned by the speed of the Russian advance and mindful of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s warnings not to interfere. Johnson called Zelensky with an offer to arrange an escape, one of several such calls that the Ukrainian president received. One possibility, Johnson explained, was to set up a Ukrainian government-in-exile in London, the way a Polish government-in-exile had been established there after the Nazi and Soviet invasions of 1939. Zelensky asked for weapons instead.

Poland, perhaps because of its history, was the only nation that didn’t despair in these early hours. Rerouting his connecting flight, Kuleba attended Poland’s national security council meeting on Feb. 24, the day of the invasion. The Polish government, like other NATO members, had been told by the alliance’s intelligence that a swift collapse of the Ukrainian state was near certain. Still, Warsaw refused to give up. Immediately, Poland sent several truckloads of ammunition and heavy weapons. “The Poles believed in us more intuitively than fact-based, because all the facts spoke against us at the time,” Kuleba recalled.

The mood was very different in other European capitals. “Nobody was giving the Ukrainians any chances,” Johnson said. “If this is going to happen, the best thing is that maybe it should happen quickly,” a senior aide to German chancellor Olaf Scholz told him at the time.

In his speech on the day of the invasion, Putin threatened unimaginable consequences should the West try to help Kyiv. And, since the first days of the war, the White House’s overriding priority had been not to overstep Russia’s “red lines” and provoke a direct confrontation between Moscow and NATO — especially a nuclear one.

Putin’s admonishments worked, to a significant extent. In the months to come, the United States and its partners held back from supplying Ukraine with Western-made capabilities at a time when they would have had the biggest effect, and prohibited Kyiv from using Western weapons to strike military targets on Russian soil. By the time many of these Western systems did arrive, in the second year of the war, Russia had built up defenses, mobilized hundreds of thousands of troops and switched its industries to wartime footing. The best window of opportunity for a clear and quick Ukrainian victory had disappeared.

I went to see Zelensky in his fortresslike office in Kyiv in July 2022. Ukraine had survived, repelling the initial Russian onslaught on Kyiv, but was bleeding men as Russia refocused on seizing the eastern region of Donbas, where the conflict began in 2014.

Encouraged by Kyiv’s military abilities, the Biden administration and Western allies had just started supplying outgunned Ukrainian forces with Western artillery. It was indispensable: Ukraine’s own Soviet-standard ammunition, used to repel the Russians around Kyiv, had almost run out. Still, Ukrainian requests for Western tanks, fighting vehicles, combat aircraft or Patriot air defenses kept getting dismissed out of hand — mostly because of fears about Moscow’s reaction.

Zelensky was grim-faced, chronically tired and visibly aged. I had last met him 2½ years earlier at a banquet in a Kyiv art space. At the time, the former comedian performed a short standup routine and deferred thorny questions about his relationship with President Donald Trump to the guest of honor at his table, whom he kept calling “the real president”: actress Robin Wright, a.k.a. President Claire Underwood in the television show “House of Cards.”

That quick smile, the sparkle in the eyes and the desire to please the crowd were gone. Again and again, Zelensky returned to the horrendous damage inflicted by Russia on the Ukrainian people. Only a fraction of the many thousands of deaths went reported, he noted. “You have an explosion in a city center, and 11 people are missing. What does it mean? This means that nothing is left of these people, nothing at all.” He waved his hands. “Children without limbs, children without heads …”

By failing to seize Kyiv in March, Putin had already suffered a strategic military defeat in Ukraine, Zelensky believed. “He opened his mouth like a python and thought that we’re just another bunny. But we’re not a bunny and it turned out that he can’t swallow us — and is actually at risk of getting torn apart himself.”

Zelensky showed his exasperation with Washington tying itself in knots of self-imposed red lines. He dismissed fears of Russian escalation as unwarranted. After all, as Ukrainian officials kept telling their American interlocutors, Russia had already used all its weapons except the nuclear bomb on Ukraine. What else could it do?

The United States, however, kept taking Russian nuclear warnings seriously. “The Venn diagram between our and Ukrainian interests overlaps about 85 percent, but that remaining 15 percent is pretty important,” a senior Pentagon official told me. “The Ukrainians are already fighting for their existence. But the United States has a special obligation to avoid a nuclear war that would end all life on Planet Earth forever.”

As I talked to Zelensky, Ukrainian, U.S. and British commanders were meeting at a U.S. base in Wiesbaden, Germany, to figure out precisely where the Ukrainians should launch their attempt to regain Russian-occupied land — at that point nearly a quarter of the country.

From Kyiv, Zelensky and Zaluzhny advocated for a push to the Sea of Azov in the Zaporizhzhia region that, if successful, would sever Russia’s “land bridge” to Crimea and deprive Moscow of its biggest prize in the war. After months of losses, the Russians were on a back foot, with as few as 100,000 combat-capable troops left in Ukraine. Unwilling to admit that his “special military operation” was not going according to plan, Putin rejected his generals’ calls to mobilize reservists. Russia was at its weakest. A better chance to strike a decisive blow might not present itself. What Ukraine needed to succeed, Zaluzhny calculated, were about 90 additional howitzers and adequate ammunition, according to his aides.

It wasn’t a huge ask, but the allies weren’t convinced. The Ukrainian military had not yet demonstrated any capacity for offensive operations, especially large ones involving complex coordination between multiple brigades, the U.S. advisers said. They urged a more modest operation in Kherson.

Zaluzhny disagreed. “We must attack where we should, not where we can,” he argued, according to his aides. But without the requested package of U.S. weapons and ammunition, the Zaporizhzhia push was impossible. The Ukrainians focused on Kherson and Kharkiv.

In late September 2022, I followed Ukrainian troops into the just-liberated city of Kupyansk, which had served as the capital of the Russian-occupied part of the Kharkiv region. Russian defenses had crumbled overnight in Ukraine’s most successful offensive of the war so far. U.S. officials were stunned — and worried.

The big square in front of the municipality was empty, except for two Ukrainian troopers who ran from building to building to evade Russian snipers. Several Russian flags were scattered in the dirt, some half-burned. A billboard with the words “We are a single people with Russia!” was still hanging on the facade. Abandoned in haste, this had been the inner sanctum of the Russian occupation administration.

The Russians had left behind hundreds of copies of IDs of Kupyansk citizens who had come to collect subsidies or to apply for Russian passports. Some of the rooms were full of brand-new textbooks and teaching aids written in Russian, still wrapped in cellophane and meant for the new schools that were supposed to supplant Ukrainian education. I was surprised by the sheer quantity of paperwork left behind. Minutes of meetings, agendas, guidelines, allocations were spilling from cupboards. The Russian bureaucratic machine had been preparing for permanence.

Joining a Ukrainian patrol, I advanced around the remains of burned-out Russian tanks and armored vehicles, past the anti-Russian graffiti that testified to local Ukrainian resistance, and past the bloated remains of a Russian soldier. He was lying in a pool of dirty water under a billboard advertising a Ukrainian fish-processing company that proclaimed, “We value everyone, we work with the best!”

The soldiers belonged to Ukraine’s International Legion, with Ukrainian officers and troops made up from foreign volunteers. I asked one of the legionnaires, a Tennessee medic who went by the call sign “Doc,” why he had decided to come fight for Ukraine. He told me it was the images of destruction wrought by Russia that he had seen on TV. “Everybody saw these pictures. For me, it wasn’t a choice, really. If I didn’t do this, I would have hated myself,” he replied. “I just don’t like fascists and I don’t like people raping and murdering.”

A white truck with Russian military “Z” markings spray-painted on the sides in orange sat in the middle of the road, its windows shot out and two corpses spilling out from the cabin. A tank without a turret smoldered nearby, alongside a stack of carbonized cadavers. I took a photo with the squad of legionnaires. Within a few weeks, some of these men were killed.

A pickup truck sped past. In the back, a Ukrainian soldier winked and raised a thumb. There was a black bundle at his feet, and it took a minute to realize that it was a person. From the back, it seemed like a hunched old woman. It was only once I approached that I grasped it was a wounded Russian soldier.

The Ukrainian escorts asked the blindfolded prisoner where he was from.

“Belgorod,” he said.

“Ah, neighbors! Have you been to Kharkiv before the war?”

“Of course,” the Russian replied. It used to be common for the people of Belgorod to visit the much bigger Kharkiv on weekends. The two cities were only an hour and a half’s drive apart, back when there was no war and when the border was easy.

“Did you see any Nazis there?” the Ukrainian asked, squinting. Putin’s declared goal of the war, after all, was Ukraine’s “denazification.”

“No,” the Russian mumbled.

“Then why the f--- did you come here to fight?”

There was no reply.

That week, as Russian armies fled in disarray, a stern-faced Putin delivered a speech to the nation. Ukraine’s Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions — none of them fully controlled by Moscow — would henceforth become unalienable parts of Russia.

Once again, he reminded the world of Moscow’s nuclear weapons. “In case of a threat to the territorial integrity to our nation, to defend Russia and our people, we will, without a question, use all the means available to us,” he warned. “This is not a bluff.”

The war, he added, was no longer just against the regime of Ukraine but against “the entire military machine of the collective West.” To win, Russia needed more troops. At least 300,000 more.

Within hours, Russian recruitment offices started rounding up men. Hundreds of thousands of Russians stampeded to flee the country through the few available exit routes. Flights to the few international destinations still linked with Russia sold out in a matter of hours. That week, the cheapest one-way economy ticket from Moscow to Dubai cost nearly $8,000.

Ukraine called Putin’s nuclear bluff. In the following weeks, Kyiv pressed its offensive into areas that Moscow now considered Russian soil, taking the city of Lyman in Donetsk and then Kherson — the only regional capital that Russia had occupied since the full-scale invasion.

But in Washington, fears of a Russian nuclear escalation reached their highest point that week. According to U.S. intelligence estimates, Putin was likely to consider a nuclear strike under three scenarios. One was a major attack on Russia proper, especially with NATO involvement. Another was the possibility of losing physical control over Crimea. And the third, according to a senior Pentagon official, was a Ukrainian battlefield victory “that would completely and totally shatter the Russian military, such that the Russian state would sense an existential threat.”

Crumbling in Kharkiv and Kherson, the Russian military seemed on the verge of such a collapse in the fall of 2022 — a consideration that, at that critical moment, again tempered U.S. assistance to Kyiv. The Biden administration reached out to Moscow to de-escalate.

National security adviser Jake Sullivan went on American television networks. “We have communicated directly, privately, to the Russians at very high levels that there will be catastrophic consequences for Russia if they use nuclear weapons in Ukraine,” he said.

By late November 2022, the Ukrainian offensive had run out of steam. There was no massive resupply of artillery ammunition, and Kyiv’s pleas for Western tanks and fighting vehicles kept getting turned down. Meanwhile, Russia’s new commander for the war, Gen. Sergei Surovikin, had hundreds of thousands of fresh troops at his disposal. Ukraine’s advantage in manpower was over. Surovikin ordered these men to spend the winter digging, creating nearly impregnable fortifications along the entire front line.

All the hardware that Ukraine was begging for in 2022 — Leopard and Abrams tanks, Bradleys and Strykers, and Patriot batteries — was eventually provided the following year. “A mountain of steel,” is how U.S. officials termed it.

But, by then, it was a different war. The Ukrainian offensives of 2023 gained little ground against an entrenched, prepared and more numerous enemy. Putin’s nuclear brinkmanship had gained him time — not just to prevent a military collapse, but also for indispensable military aid to Ukraine to get caught up in the United States’ own domestic politics.

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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Friday, January 12, 2024 7:27 PM

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

Options to seize Russian assets and funnel them to Ukraine

By Natasha Bertrand | Fri January 12, 2024, 12:00 PM EST

Officials have spent the last year quietly trying to figure out how to divert billions of dollars in frozen Russian money to cash-starved Ukraine.

The proposal the US has hit on, described in detail here for the first time, is based on a novel legal theory to justify seizing and transferring to Ukraine the roughly $300 billion in Russian Central Bank assets.

The legal case is necessary, officials explained, not only so that the US is on solid legal ground in the event that Moscow challenges the seizures in an international forum or in a US court, but also so that the US can convince a critical mass of allies to join in the effort.

The US has put a new twist on the law, however, by arguing that instead of returning the seized assets to Moscow if it comes back into compliance, the West can keep the money as a down payment of sorts toward what Russia will owe Ukraine anyway for its reconstruction.

“It is temporary and reversible insofar as Russia is going to owe Ukraine much more than that ($300 B) for the unbelievable damage Russia has inflicted,” the senior administration official said. “And really, it’s Russia’s obligation to make up the difference in time.” The US would describe these assets as a “credit” towards what Russia will eventually owe, the official added.

Much more at https://www.cnn.com/2024/01/12/politics/us-proposal-russian-assets-ukr
aine/index.html

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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Friday, January 12, 2024 8:33 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Options to seize Russian assets and funnel them to Ukraine

Oh good. We don't have to give any more money from the Social Security fund to child rapist Zelensky now.

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

Political correctness is just tyranny, with a smiley face.

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Friday, January 12, 2024 9:03 PM

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

Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Options to seize Russian assets and funnel them to Ukraine

Oh good. We don't have to give any more money from the Social Security fund to child rapist Zelensky now.

How much would payroll tax need to be increased to keep Social Security solvent?

An immediate increase in the combined payroll tax rate from 12.4 percent to 14.4 percent would be sufficient to allow full payment of the scheduled benefits for the next 75 years.

https://www.google.com/search?q=how+much+would+payroll+tax+need+to+be+
increased+to+keep+Social+Security+solvent

If you are 6ix, you won't know that SS taxes only pay for SS benefits, nothing else. Certainly not pay for foreign policy decisions.

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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Saturday, January 13, 2024 12:24 AM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Quote:
Journalist Gonzalo Lira Reported Dead In Ukrainian Custody

Friday, Jan 12, 2024 - 02:20 PM

Journalist Gonzalo Lira has died while in Ukrainian custody, according to his father.

"Gonzalo Lira, Sr. says his son has died at 55 in a Ukrainian prison, where he was being held for the crime of criticizing the Zelensky and Biden governments," wrote Tucker Carlson on X. "Gonzalo Lira was an American citizen, but the Biden administration clearly supported his imprisonment and torture."

In May, Lira was arrested by Ukrainian authorities because he “publicly justified” the Russian invasion, according to a press release by the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU).

The statement from Kiev said that Lira “has the citizenship of one of the countries of Latin America” but omitted that he is also California-born U.S. citizen, as ZeroHedge contributor Space Worm reported at the time.

Following his release, Lira said he was tortured in a Ukrainian prison, explaining that "two thugs held my head and used a toothpick to scratch the whites of my left eye, while asking me if I could still read if I had just one." Lira informed followers that he was making a mad-dash via motorcycle towards the Hungarian border:

According to journalist Alex Rubernstein, Lira said that he had double pneumonia (both lungs), which was ignored by the Ukrainian prison holding him.

"I have had double pneumonia (both lungs) as well as pneumothorax and a very severe case of edema (swelling of the body). All this started in mid-October, but was ignored by the prison. They only admitted I had pneumonia at a Dec. 22 hearing," reads the letter. "I am about to have a procedure to reduce the edema pressure in my lungs, which is causing me extreme shortness of breath, to the point of passing out after minimal activity, or even just talking for 2 minutes."

In response to Lira's reported death, his father allegedly wrote: "I cannot accept the way my son has died. He was tortured, extorted, incommunicado for 8 months and 11 days and the US Embassy did nothing to help my son. The responsibility of this tragedy is the dictator Zelensky with the concurrence of a senile American President, Joe Biden." ,

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/journalist-gonzalo-lira-reported-d
ead-ukrainian-custody-according-father

-----------
"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, January 13, 2024 6:59 AM

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

Who is this guy Signym writes about?

Edward Hunter Christie @EHunterChristie knows who he is:

So, apparently, low-life clown Gonzalo Lira really is dead. His trajectory is well documented. And yet American pro-Moscow agitators such as @TuckerCarlson bent the known facts beyond recognition so as to present Lira as some kind of martyr and so as to demonise Ukraine as it continues to fight a harrowing war for its national survival.

This tells us that Tucker Carlson is a deeply evil and perverted man. A pied piper for calculated callousness in the face of fascism and war.

Quote: So while it's unfortunate that Gonzalo Lira has died, I really can't bring myself to feel any remorse.

As a failed pick-up artist who encouraged and taught men how to sleep with impoverished Eastern European women who turned Russian shill while Russia was attacking Ukraine he was nothing more than a dirt bag.

He was first warned by Ukrainian authorities that his actions were illegal, yet he continued.

He was then placed under house arrest, a very lenient punishment here in Ukraine.

He then violated the conditions of his house arrest by attempting to escape to Hungary.

Ironically he contracted severe pneumonia, something he struggled with and died in a Kharkiv hospital, a city which is constantly attacked by the country he supported.

Honestly, I wouldn't care if the Tate brothers rotted in a Romanian prison either.

3:36 AM · Jan 13, 2024
https://twitter.com/EHunterChristie/status/1746104032341455266

More about Gonzalo Lira at https://www.google.com/search?q=Gonzalo+Lira

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
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Saturday, January 13, 2024 9:46 AM

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

The War That Neither Ukraine nor the West Can Afford to Lose

By Serhii Plokhy | 12 Jan 2024, 04:09 PM IST ( with inputs from The Wall Street Journal )

https://www.livemint.com/special-report/the-war-that-neither-ukraine-n
or-the-west-can-afford-to-lose-11705055921894.html

The war between Russia and Ukraine can continue indefinitely unless the West realizes that what’s at stake isn’t just the fate of Ukraine but the future of the West itself.

As the New Year arrived in Ukraine with the Russian missile attack on Kyiv on the early morning of Jan. 1, 2023, there were two main questions on the minds of policy makers around the world. The first pertained to the fate of the continuing Russian winter offensive, while the second concerned the results of the planned Ukrainian spring counteroffensive.

The answer to the first question came in May when Yevgeny Prigozhin withdrew his Wagner Group troops from the ruins of Bakhmut. Taking control of Bakhmut had come at a high cost to Wagner, with perhaps 20,000 soldiers killed, most of them convicts recruited by Prigozhin from Russian prisons.

This was the sole significant success of the offensive. Bakhmut was to remain under Russian control, but Prigozhin rebelled when the Kremlin decided it didn’t need his services and ordered to roll his troops into the regular Russian army. The mutiny revealed fissures between the Russian political and military leadership, which didn’t rush to protect the regime. The Kremlin eventually assassinated Prigozhin, but the military brass’s dissatisfaction with Putin’s handling of the war suggested possible trouble in the future.

The counteroffensive

The failure of the Russian offensive opened the door for Ukraine’s June counteroffensive. Despite some optimistic predictions, the destruction of the Russian Army-controlled section of the Kakhovka Dam on the Dnipro River effectively dashed Ukrainian hopes of using the dam as a bridge to cross the Dnipro and sever the supply lines connecting Russian troops in the south of Ukraine with their logistical hubs in Crimea.

As a result, the situation on the mainland reached a stalemate. Less than 200 square miles changed hands since the beginning of the year. Russia managed to stabilize the front line by bringing at least 300,000 additional soldiers and officers into the Russian army. Ukraine, as well as being outnumbered 3 to 1 in terms of manpower, lacked superiority and often even parity in firepower.

While the Ukrainians had received tanks, fighting vehicles and antiaircraft missile batteries, they didn’t receive the F-16 fighters they had requested, nor the U.S. ATACMS long-range guided missiles. Delays in supply were caused by various reasons, including disagreements between NATO commanders and their Ukrainian counterparts on the required weaponry and timing, quarrels between the allies on who should supply what (notably the public dispute between the U.S. and Germany regarding supply of Leopard and Abrams tanks), and White House concerns about crossing Putin’s red lines and provoking a nuclear war.

No end in sight

But efforts to prevent the war from escalating no doubt will contribute to lengthening it, likely through 2024 and beyond.

What’s more, the battles of 2024 will be fought amid a political event—the U.S. presidential election—that will be as important to the future of the war as any individual offensive. The U.S. remains the largest Western supplier of weapons to Ukraine and is second only to the European Union in financial assistance to Kyiv. The political uncertainty in the U.S. will greatly affect the country’s ability to provide Ukraine with crucial military aid.

Ukraine is likely to face a shortage of munitions at some point in the coming year. Yet it takes time for Ukraine’s Western partners to increase the production of munitions. The U.S. has already doubled the production of some artillery shells, but there is long way to go to meet the demands of the Ukrainian front.

Meantime, the European Union is unlikely to meet its pledge to supply one million shells to Ukraine. The surprise Hamas attack on Israel and the possible start of larger Middle Eastern war could further exacerbate Ukraine’s munitions situation.

To be sure, Russia also faces challenges in terms of munition supplies, but has been able to fill the gap with the help of North Korea, which supplied Moscow with one million shells. Beyond that, Putin has been effective in circumventing Western sanctions, stabilizing Russia’s economy and mobilizing its industry for wartime needs.

Land for peace?

As 2023 comes to an end, there are more calls for a cease-fire and eventual “land for peace" settlement.

However, such an outcome won’t provide either stable or lasting peace in the region. While Ukraine has been engaged with its allies in discussing the “peace formula," the Kremlin insists on achieving all of its original goals, including the so-called denazification of Ukraine, which is a code word for the destruction of Ukraine’s political and intellectual elites.

Ukraine can’t lose this war because the very existence of the Ukrainian state and nation depends on its outcome. And ending it with an armistice resulting in the loss of people and territories and without NATO membership is tantamount to losing the war.

Ukraine has been in that position before, in 2014-15, when the Minsk agreements never brought peace but provided Russia with the ability to build a stronger army and come back in force a few years later. The Russian policies targeting Ukrainian activists, kidnapping children and replacing school curriculums with the Russian ones would lead to eradication of anything politically and culturally Ukrainian on the occupied territories.

A loss for Ukraine also would be tantamount to a major loss for the U.S. and its allies. Russian victory would result in Moscow strengthening its grip of the post-Soviet space, restoring its positions in the Caucasus, where Armenia indicated its interest in strengthening its relations with the West, and Central Asia, where Kazakhstan uses its ties with China to counterbalance Russian power in the region.

Even more important, Russia’s success in Ukraine would increase a threat to NATO’s Eastern flank—in particular the Baltic states and Poland. Outside of Europe it would embolden Moscow’s allies Iran and North Korea and provide a template for China for the military solution of the Taiwan dispute. In all those cases, the U.S. and NATO troops could find themselves in the midst of a military conflict of the sort that Ukraine fights today without direct involvement of NATO.

In many ways, the biggest disadvantage for the West is the striking difference between the ways in which the war is viewed in Russia and the West.

While the Kremlin perceives it as a life and death struggle with the U.S. and its allies, and whips the anti-Western hysteria in the Russian media to mobilize the population and resources to wage such a war, the Western governments imagine this war largely as a conflict between Ukraine and Russia, and debate the degree to which they should help Ukraine without antagonizing Russia too much.

What the West perspective is missing is that the key question on the global agenda is the future of the West itself. At stake in this war isn’t just the fate of Ukraine but also the security of the West, the stability of the international order, and the future of democracy as a global force.

The outcomes of wars of such magnitude shape the future for generations to come. Even if much of the West doesn’t yet recognize this, this war is no exception.

Serhii Plokhy is the professor of history and the director of the Ukrainian Research Institute at Harvard University. He is the author of “The Russo-Ukrainian War: A Return of History."

Download all of Serhii Plokhy’s books for free from the mirrors at https://libgen.is//search.php?&req=Serhii+Plokhy

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
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Saturday, January 13, 2024 2:32 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Gonzalo Lira

Quote:
In October 1996, Lira made a deal with G. P. Putnam's Sons to publish his first... book called Counterparts. The story is about a strong female FBI agent and her "counterpart," a CIA operative. In 1997, he released a Spanish novel called Tomáh Errázurih. In 1998, he directed a short action film called So Kinky. His second book, Acrobat, came out in 2002. In 2005, he filmed Secuestro in Chile, which did well in the box office during its opening weekend. Between 2010 and 2013, Lira shared his ideas about economics and other topics on his blog. Sometimes, he reposted them on Business Insider and Naked Capitalism. He also contributed to a financial website called Zero Hedge. In that time, he contacted economist Steve Keen to work together on a project, but Keen mentioned that Lira made big promises and didn't deliver, leading to issues with collaborators and employees. Starting in 2017, Lira was active on YouTube using the name Coach Red Pill (CRP). He shared content that was disrespectful towards women and anti-feminist, attracting the attention of a group called incels. Lira's videos gave advice like "never date a woman in her thirties" and claimed that women only want money, a house, and kids. In one video, he suggested people in Western democracies move to a less developed country because of his concerns about COVID-19 vaccines. He posted many videos, gaining subscribers and views. In November 2021, Lira deleted most of his CRP content and started using his real name. He lived in Kharkiv and had a family with a Ukrainian woman, with whom he had one daughter.

I listened to many of his videos from Kharkiv. He rarely spoke DIRECTLY about the war's effect on the city, altho he videoed missile damage from the streets once or twice. He used to host a program called "Roundtable" where he and two or three guests would discuss a variety of political and economic topics.

Of all of the rountable discussions I've heard over the years, IMHO he was THE BEST host and moderator. Conversation flowed from one person to another and one interesting idea to another. Prompted by Lira's questions, following a person's train of thought and either extending it or counterposing it in unexpected ways, and passing that ball to someone else.

The guy was brilliant. DREAMTROVE (on his better days) brilliant. But foolhardy and an attention whore. He knew the SBU was looking for him, and for months every listener expected that video to be his last. And finally, it was.

The American Embassy should have interevened and had Lira deported. No American should die in a foreign jail for expressing an opinion, and nobody should excuse his death by slagging his personality.

-----------
"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, January 14, 2024 4:07 AM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

So, Russia's largest missile/ drone attacks on Ukraine were on Dec 29, Jan 3, Jan 8, and Jan 13. Anyone besides me notice a pattern?

*****

Russia is still having problems with drones whenever they go on a (local) offensive, which exposes their equipment and soldiers. I think their solution to the problem is to deny drone manufacturing and NATO ISR as much as possible because they haven't been able able to solve the drone problem at the front line.

-----------
"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, January 14, 2024 7:19 AM

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

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
So, Russia's largest missile/ drone attacks on Ukraine were on Dec 29, Jan 3, Jan 8, and Jan 13. Anyone besides me notice a pattern?

Evil is not a once-and-done with Russians. They repeat. For recent examples:

Russian Offensive Campaign Assessment, January 13, 2024

Russian forces are reportedly increasingly using chemical weapons in Ukraine in continued apparent violations of the Chemical Weapons Convention, to which Russia is a party. The Ukrainian General Staff reported that Russian forces have used chemical weapons 626 times since the beginning of the full-scale invasion and have used them at least 51 times so far in 2024.[18] The Ukrainian General Staff reported that Russian forces currently launch chemical weapons at Ukrainian positions up to 10 times a day and that Russian forces typically use drones to drop K-51 grenades filled with irritant CS gas (2-Chlorobenzalmalononitrile), a type of tear gas used for riot control (also known as a Riot Control Agent [RCA]), onto Ukrainian positions.[19] The Ukrainian General Staff reported that Russian forces used a new type of special gas grenade containing CS gas against Ukrainian positions on December 14, 2023.[20] The Russian 810th Naval Infantry Brigade previously acknowledged on December 22 that the brigade deliberately uses chemical weapons by dropping K-51 grenades from drones onto Ukrainian positions near Krynky in the east (left) bank of Kherson Oblast.[21] Russia is a party to the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC), which prohibits the use of RCAs as a method of warfare.[22]

A fire destroyed a large warehouse in St. Petersburg belonging to Russia’s largest online retailer Wildberries on January 12.[23] Russian sources claimed that on the night of January 10 to 11 a mass fight broke out between migrant workers at the facility and that this prompted Russian authorities to conduct a raid on the warehouse, during which several migrants received military summonses.[24] Russian law enforcement recently detained 700 migrants at a Wildberries warehouse in Moscow Oblast and issued some military summonses in November 2023.[25] Russian authorities have consistently conducted raids on migrant communities to issue military summonses to naturalized migrants and coerce other migrants into military service.[26] Wildberries appears to be a notable target for these mobilization raids, and the company has previously admitted that such raids have interrupted their operations.[27]

https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/russian-offensive-campai
gn-assessment-january-13-2024

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
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Sunday, January 14, 2024 7:45 AM

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

Russian Orthodox priest faces expulsion for refusing to pray for victory over Ukraine

From whom comes the church's motivation to expel the priest? Patriarch Kirill, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, who is a staunch supporter of the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, and his war in Ukraine.

The priest faces expulsion from the Russian Orthodox church for refusing to read out a prayer asking God to guide Russia to victory over Ukraine.

In a verdict published on Saturday, a church court said Aleksiy Uminsky should be “expelled from holy orders” for violating his priestly oath. The decision was forwarded for approval to Patriarch Kirill, the head of the Russian church who strongly backs President Vladimir Putin.

The case shows how the church is clamping down on internal dissent as it throws its support behind Putin and his “special military operation” in Ukraine, which is now nearing the end of its second year.

The church court said Uminsky had broken his oath by refusing to read the “Prayer for Holy Rus” – an archaic name for Russia – which Kirill has made compulsory at church services.

“Behold, those who want to fight have taken up arms against Holy Rus, hoping to divide and destroy its united people,” said the prayer first pronounced by Kirill on 25 September 2022, seven months into Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

“Arise, o God, to help your people and grant us victory through your power.”

Dozens of Russian Orthodox priests have been punished for challenging the church’s line on the war – for example, by reading out prayers for peace instead of victory – according to Christians against War, an online group that has documented their cases.

Uminsky was the most prominent casualty so far. He had served for 30 years as senior priest at the church of the life-giving holy trinity in Moscow before being abruptly fired this month, just before Orthodox Christmas, in a move that paved the way for Saturday’s verdict. He was renowned for his hospice work for dying children and adults, and led the funeral for former Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev in 2022.

In an interview last November, Uminsky said that the language of war and the “special military operation” was “in no way compatible” with church liturgy.

He encouraged believers to seek out priests who “pray more for peace than for victory and understand that any victory is always a pyrrhic victory in these wars … In modern wars any victory is almost always equivalent to self-destruction.”

Ksenia Luchenko, an expert on the Russian Orthodox church at the European Council on Foreign Relations, said the verdict against Uminsky was unsound because the prayer he was accused of refusing to read had not been considered and approved by the highest body of the church, the Holy Synod.

She said his punishment was “evidence of Patriarch Kirill’s usurpation of power in the Russian Orthodox church and violation of its statutory documents.”

More at https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/jan/14/russian-orthodox-priest-
faces-expulsion-for-refusing-to-pray-for-victory-over-ukraine

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
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Sunday, January 14, 2024 7:46 AM

Fuck Ukraine.

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

Political correctness is just tyranny, with a smiley face.

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Sunday, January 14, 2024 8:50 AM

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

Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Fuck Ukraine.

Never blame Trumptards for being retards at life. Instead, they must blame the Democrats, Hollywood, Big Business, or even blame Ukraine for Trumptards' problems. 6ix, you won't be fine because you are blameworthy for what happens to you but you are too crazy to realize your problems are all your fault. Don't shift the blame to Ukrainians and the ammo the US sends them.

The Putin-loving portion of Russia has the same problem as the Trumptard portion of America. Neither blame themselves for what happens to them. And so it keeps happening.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
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Sunday, January 14, 2024 8:51 AM

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

Putin Ally Says Poland Is 'Next'

By Thomas Kika | Jan 13, 2024 at 10:15 AM EST

While the Ukrainian "special military operation" continues, Russian officials hint at similar invasions in the near future, usually suggesting former Soviet Union territories as likely targets, such as Moldova or the Balkan States.

The latest potential future target hinted at by a Russian official is Poland, which was never officially a Soviet territory, but did exist alongside it in the Eastern Bloc during the Cold War.

Aleksey Zhuravlyov made the suggestion about Poland. Zhuravlyov is a Russian lawmaker and member of the State Duma known for his nationalistic and militaristic tendencies.

"Another question is to you, guys in the West, what are you going to do about it?" Zhuravlyov asked. "They understand very well that Ukraine is finished. So what's next? Sweden is getting ready and so are the Balkans. The Poles have quieted down a bit, they probably started to realize that they are next. Of course, we have no illusions, but we understand that all of them are getting ready for the next stage of war."

https://www.newsweek.com/putin-ally-says-poland-next-ukraine-war-rant-
russian-tv-1860470

Meanwhile, Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, now deputy chairman of Russia's Security Council, made a comment in response to a visit by British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to Kyiv. If the UK sends not just a Prime Minister but also soldiers, Russia will declare war on the UK. More details: "I hope that our eternal enemies - the arrogant British - understand that deploying an official military contingent to Ukraine would be a declaration of war against our country," Medvedev wrote on the Telegram messaging app. Along with being inept warriors, Russians are violent blowhards and braggarts.

https://news.yahoo.com/russias-medvedev-says-uk-troop-125315205.html

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
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Sunday, January 14, 2024 5:29 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Mediazona's updated list of confirmed Russian dead.

https://en.zona.media/article/2022/05/20/casualties_eng

-----------
"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, January 14, 2024 5:32 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Fuck Ukraine.
Never blame Trumptards for being retards at life. Instead, they must blame the Democrats, Hollywood, Big Business, or even blame Ukraine for Trumptards' problems. 6ix, you won't be fine because you are blameworthy for what happens to you but you are too crazy to realize your problems are all your fault. Don't shift the blame to Ukrainians and the ammo the US sends them.

What problems are you referring to?

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

Political correctness is just tyranny, with a smiley face.

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Sunday, January 14, 2024 5:40 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
So, Russia's largest missile/ drone attacks on Ukraine were on Dec 29, Jan 3, Jan 8, and Jan 13. Anyone besides me notice a pattern?

SECOND::Evil is not a once-and-done.

That's why you keep repeating lies?

For recent examples:

Quote:
Russian Offensive Campaign Assessment, January 13, 2024

Russian forces are reportedly increasingly using chemical weapons in Ukraine in continued apparent violations of the Chemical Weapons Convention, to which Russia is a party. The Ukrainian General Staff reported

Evidence?
Casualties with chemical weapons injuries?
Chemical residues?
Independent investigators?

-----------
"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, January 15, 2024 7:01 AM

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

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Evidence?
Casualties with chemical weapons injuries?
Chemical residues?
Independent investigators?

There is an entire book about people like you, Seven Myths of the Russian Revolution. People like you don't want to know. I still remember your denials about Russia shooting down Flight MH17, one example out of many of your habits.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malaysia_Airlines_Flight_17

Signym, don't ever change. The British philosopher Bertrand Russell’s view of human nature may be of some interest since it was shaped by the age of war and revolution. In his 1919 essay “Dreams and Facts,” he wrote:

The influence of our wishes upon our beliefs is a matter of common knowledge and observation, yet the nature of this influence is very generally misconceived. It is customary to suppose that the bulk of our beliefs are derived from some rational ground, and that desire is only an occasional disturbing force. The exact opposite of this would be nearer the truth: the great mass of beliefs by which we are supported in our daily life is merely the bodying forth of desire, corrected here and there, at isolated points, by the rude shock of fact. Man is essentially a dreamer, wakened sometimes for a moment by some peculiarly obtrusive element in the outer world, but lapsing again quickly into the happy somnolence of imagination.

From page 176 of Seven Myths of the Russian Revolution by Jonathan Daly and Leonid Trofimov, 2023

Download the free book from the mirrors at https://libgen.is//search.php?req=Leonid+Trofimov

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
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Monday, January 15, 2024 7:26 AM

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

Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:

What problems are you referring to?

You do not have money to buy the proper tools for your carpentry. Other Trumptards have such worries because they, like you, are ill-suited to life in an America they find hostile. They want President Trump to fix their problems so that they can continue to behave stupidly, with maximum freedumb. Russians have the same problem of being ill-suited for life in Europe, which is why they have Putin to tell them it is Europe that needs to change, not Russians.

http://fireflyfans.net/mthread.aspx?bid=18&tid=65350&mid=11863
53#1186353

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
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Monday, January 15, 2024 7:27 AM

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

Ukraine’s plight chills spirits in the Baltics

Worries about US reliability and Nato weakness leave Lithuania and its neighbours exposed

By Edward Lucas | Monday January 15 2024, 12.01am GMT, The Times

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/ukraines-plight-chills-spirits-in-t
he-baltics-q8sw2f5jn

An unspoken question hung in the air as I joined thousands of Lithuanians in a snowy Vilnius last week to greet President Zelensky at the start of his whistle-stop tour of the Baltic states. Are we next?

The contrast between the cheerfully decorated, peaceful streets of the Lithuanian capital and the ravaged towns and cities to which the Ukrainian delegation would return was stark. Ukraine’s plight is keenly felt in the Baltics, which underwent similar torments in living memory.

At the weekend, three million Lithuanians commemorated the anniversary of a Soviet massacre in 1991, the bloodiest episode of the struggle to regain independence. Only 20 miles of lightly-defended, rolling countryside lie between Vilnius and the border with Belarus, Russia’s closest military ally. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/January_Events

In the summer after that massacre, there was another: https://www.lrt.lt/en/news-in-english/19/2046867/lithuania-commemorate
s-medininkai-massacre-anniversary

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
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Tuesday, January 16, 2024 12:48 AM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Evidence?
Casualties with chemical weapons injuries?
Chemical residues?
Independent investigators?

SECOND There is an entire book about people like you,

A book about science, hypothesis testing, and reasoning?

Where's the evidence for ANYTHING you allege?

-----------
"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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Tuesday, January 16, 2024 1:41 AM

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

What problems are you referring to?
You do not have money to buy the proper tools for your carpentry.

Sure I do. I already have all of them I'm likely to ever need.

Are you referring to me mentioning that I wasn't going to spend $6,000 on a Multi-Spindle Pocket Hole machine while you were stalking me in the Garden?

https://www.kregtool.com/shop/pocket-hole-joinery/commercial-machines/
multi-spindle-pocket-hole-machine/DK3100.html

I can count on zero hands how many people I know in my life who own one or would ever even need one. What would be the ROI on that purchase? I was going to drill 2 holes in 19 oak spindles and chances are very high that I would never have a need for that machine for the rest of my life.

I've already devised a much better way to make what I need anyhow, and on the off chance that I don't already own the right sized hole saw that I need for the way I'm doing the job now, I'll spend 5 bucks to get one, or maybe I'll get fancy and buy a step drill bit and splurge 15 bucks for it.

You're such a dumb, useless cunt.

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

Political correctness is just tyranny, with a smiley face.

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Tuesday, January 16, 2024 6:42 AM

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

Ukrainian officials announced that Ukrainian forces destroyed a Russian A-50 long-range radar detection aircraft. The Russian information space strangely claimed that the aircraft was destroyed by friendly fire from Russian air defenses.[10] The A-50 is used to coordinate Russian air defense activity and the claim that Russian air defenses shot down the A-50 would amount to a calamitous failure on the part of Russian forces, if true. A Russian source that focuses on Russian aviation blamed Russian commanders who lack the proper background required for their positions.[11]

The current commander of the Russian Aerospace Forces, Colonel General Viktor Afzalov, has an extensive background in Russian air defense operations.[12] Whether his lack of experience as a pilot poses any problems for Russian air operations, which is questionable, his experience as an air defender should have been appropriate to ensure that Russian forces do not shoot down their own airborne control aircraft. A Russian insider source claiming to be an employee of an unspecified Russian security structure claimed that unspecified Russian actors created a “duck” (a Russian term for a false claim) about how Russian forces shot down the A-50 to reassure Russian pilots that missions over the Black Sea and Sea of Azov are still safe and that human error was the cause of the incident.[13] It is unclear why Russian pilots should be more comfortable with the idea that their ground-based air defenders are so incompetent.

https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/russian-offensive-campai
gn-assessment-january-15-2024

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
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Tuesday, January 16, 2024 7:33 AM

http://fireflyfans.net/mthread.aspx?bid=18&tid=65350&mid=11864
00#1186400

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

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

What problems are you referring to?
You do not have money to buy the proper tools for your carpentry.

Sure I do. I already have all of them I'm likely to ever need.

Are you referring to me mentioning that I wasn't going to spend $6,000 on a Multi-Spindle Pocket Hole machine while you were stalking me in the Garden?

https://www.kregtool.com/shop/pocket-hole-joinery/commercial-machines/
multi-spindle-pocket-hole-machine/DK3100.html

I can count on zero hands how many people I know in my life who own one or would ever even need one. What would be the ROI on that purchase? I was going to drill 2 holes in 19 oak spindles and chances are very high that I would never have a need for that machine for the rest of my life.

I've already devised a much better way to make what I need anyhow, and on the off chance that I don't already own the right sized hole saw that I need for the way I'm doing the job now, I'll spend 5 bucks to get one, or maybe I'll get fancy and buy a step drill bit and splurge 15 bucks for it.

You're such a dumb, useless cunt.

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

Political correctness is just tyranny, with a smiley face.

Your ambition is many times larger than your skill/knowledge. This Old House will show you how to build a less ambitious version of what you need:

To bring this back to the Russians, their ambitions are much larger than their skills/knowledge, which is why they have struggled, starved, turned to cannibalism, suffered and died through out their history. Russians do love to blame their neighbors for Russia's self-caused problems. And then inflect their personal and mental troubles on their neighbors.

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, January 16, 2024 11:15 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Your ambition is many times larger than your skill/knowledge.

Incorrect. This is how you learn to do stuff and how to make things. This is how you you take what is pictured in your imagination and make it come to life. Sometimes some things are going to be more challenging than other things, and yes... you are going to be limited by the tools you have in your arsenal if you don't happen to have a $100,000 worth of tools in your garage, but there's almost never a problem that can't be solved in a much more economical way if you have the will and the persistence to get it done. You are rarely ever limited by skill or knowledge, especially in the age of the internet where it's easy to learn how to do things.

I have plenty of free time, and I have a vision for this house. I'll get there, eventually. I've already got 4,000+ pictures more than the overlook you've posted.

You know this. You've already seen many of them since you're always lurking in the Garden.

In just the kitchen alone I've turned this...

Into this...

And this...

Into this...

And this...

Into this...

And this...

Into this...

Sure... the cabinet work took about half a year for me to complete, and wasn't even truly completed for another 2 years until I finally got around to building my own drawers that were missing on either side of the sink. But the cabinets you're going to buy today for $20k+ are garbage pressed wood everywhere but the faces and the doors, and these things are rock solid actual wood through and through from the late 50s. And they're perfect.

All the trim I bought was essentially free with clearance and rebates and the credit card I pulled at the time that gave me $250 back with $1000 worth of purchases in 90 days. The new flooring was a cutoff at the end of a roll that I got for 30% off, and my friend and his old man helped me install it because we were bartering a lot of work.

All in all, the huge kitchen remodel cost me way under $1,000 so far, and because I spent the time working at it I saved all of that great cabinetry from going into a landfill instead of spending 1/3rd of what I paid for the whole house to buy new cabinets.

You're not getting a kitchen remodel done for less than $30k in 2024, and if you were going to buy cabinets like the ones that I've restored, it might cost you $60k or more to do it.

Quote:
This Old House will show you how to build a less ambitious version of what you need:

My first thought was going to be to tell you that this was a video on how to build a hand rail on a porch and it didn't apply to my situation where I've got a rectangular box with no access from the outside, but I watched it and I might actually slightly modify how I was going to do this now. (Having an open mind is a good thing... I'd advise you to try it sometime).

I can't build the entire "baluster system" in one solid piece like they did. The problem is that I've already put trim and caulk up, and the existing construction was not perfectly level and plum. If I were to make one solid piece to install right now, there would be gaps in certain places at the top that can't be hidden anymore by trim, and I still likely have to make some minor adjustments on how the poles attach to the top because after 65 years of settling the floors in this house aren't perfectly level either. (It would have been interesting to see him put a level on the rail when he was done installing it, because I can almost guaranty you that the porch wasn't level and his hand rail is just as out of level as the porch was. If he accounted for that off camera, he didn't mention that step in the process).

I have mentioned that if I were to do this all over again, I would have changed the order of how I'd done things for this very reason, and I'm not about to rip out all the work I did and ruin my walls to start from scratch now.

But instead of drilling holes for the poles to slide through in both the top and bottom plates that I'm going to cut to fit and router a decorative edge on, I may now choose to instead just attach the bottom poles to the bottom piece, while still drilling the holes through the top piece so I can slide it up exactly where I need it to go so that all the poles are plum and any large gaps that would have otherwise existed at the top where the jamb isn't level would be minimized, hopefully eliminated.

But I still might go the route of putting holes in both the top and bottom pieces because this might be the easiest way of ultimately making all the poles plum and perfectly aligned.

Like I mentioned before, I'm going to leave as many options open as possible until I get to a point where final decisions are going to need to be made, and I've got plenty of scrap wood to test ideas out on to make sure they're sound before I do something I can't undo.

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

Political correctness is just tyranny, with a smiley face.

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Tuesday, January 16, 2024 11:21 AM

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

Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:

Like I mentioned before, I'm going to leave as many options open as possible until I get to a point where final decisions are going to need to be made, and I've got plenty of scrap wood to test ideas out on to make sure they're sound before I do something I can't undo.

You are finding meaningfulness in wood. Good for you, but for those who aren't soulful artists, it is only carpentry, not the purpose of life.

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, January 16, 2024 11:38 AM

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

Like I mentioned before, I'm going to leave as many options open as possible until I get to a point where final decisions are going to need to be made, and I've got plenty of scrap wood to test ideas out on to make sure they're sound before I do something I can't undo.
You are finding meaningfulness in wood. Good for you, but for those who aren't soulful artists, it is only carpentry, not the purpose of life.

Well... I do think of myself as an artist.

I've never made the claim to anyone that I was a carpenter.

At some point in my life I put down the sketch pad and graphite pencils and picked up a hammer, a saw, a drill and a paintbrush, and then I got myself the best canvas to work on that I'll probably ever own in my life.

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

Political correctness is just tyranny, with a smiley face.

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Tuesday, January 16, 2024 11:48 AM

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

Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:

Well... I do think of myself as an artist.

I've never made the claim to anyone that I was a carpenter.

At some point in my life I put down the sketch pad and graphite pencils and picked up a hammer, a saw, a drill and a paintbrush, and then I got myself the best canvas to work on that I'll probably ever own in my life.

Lovely sentiment. Now back to war:

Dramatic video captured a blaze in a flat near the base, during which a woman can be heard screaming: "Mother of God, we've got to get the hell out of it."

Voronezh, a city of more than one million people, lies some 155 miles from the border with Ukraine.

Russia declares state of emergency after 'Ukraine kamikaze drone attacks' on key airbase

By Matthew Dooley | UPDATED: 07:15 ET, Tue, Jan 16, 2024

https://www.the-express.com/news/world-news/124486/Russia-state-of-eme
rgency-ukraine-attack-airbase

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, January 16, 2024 11:50 AM

THG

Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Fuck Ukraine.
Never blame Trumptards for being retards at life. Instead, they must blame the Democrats, Hollywood, Big Business, or even blame Ukraine for Trumptards' problems. 6ix, you won't be fine because you are blameworthy for what happens to you but you are too crazy to realize your problems are all your fault. Don't shift the blame to Ukrainians and the ammo the US sends them.

The Putin-loving portion of Russia has the same problem as the Trumptard portion of America. Neither blame themselves for what happens to them. And so it keeps happening.

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, January 16, 2024 1:25 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Your ambition is many times larger than your skill/knowledge.

Incorrect. This is how you learn to do stuff and how to make things. This is how you you take what is pictured in your imagination and make it come to life. Sometimes some things are going to be more challenging than other things, and yes... you are going to be limited by the tools you have in your arsenal if you don't happen to have a $100,000 worth of tools in your garage, but there's almost never a problem that can't be solved in a much more economical way if you have the will and the persistence to get it done. You are rarely ever limited by skill or knowledge, especially in the age of the internet where it's easy to learn how to do things.

I have plenty of free time, and I have a vision for this house. I'll get there, eventually. I've already got 4,000+ pictures more than the overlook you've posted.

You know this. You've already seen many of them since you're always lurking in the Garden.

In just the kitchen alone I've turned this...

Into this...

And this...

Into this...

And this...

Into this...

And this...

Into this...

Sure... the cabinet work took about half a year for me to complete, and wasn't even truly completed for another 2 years until I finally got around to building my own drawers that were missing on either side of the sink. But the cabinets you're going to buy today for $20k+ are garbage pressed wood everywhere but the faces and the doors, and these things are rock solid actual wood through and through from the late 50s. And they're perfect.

All the trim I bought was essentially free with clearance and rebates and the credit card I pulled at the time that gave me $250 back with $1000 worth of purchases in 90 days. The new flooring was a cutoff at the end of a roll that I got for 30% off, and my friend and his old man helped me install it because we were bartering a lot of work.

All in all, the huge kitchen remodel cost me way under $1,000 so far, and because I spent the time working at it I saved all of that great cabinetry from going into a landfill instead of spending 1/3rd of what I paid for the whole house to buy new cabinets.

You're not getting a kitchen remodel done for less than $30k in 2024, and if you were going to buy cabinets like the ones that I've restored, it might cost you $60k or more to do it.

Quote:
This Old House will show you how to build a less ambitious version of what you need:

My first thought was going to be to tell you that this was a video on how to build a hand rail on a porch and it didn't apply to my situation where I've got a rectangular box with no access from the outside, but I watched it and I might actually slightly modify how I was going to do this now. (Having an open mind is a good thing... I'd advise you to try it sometime).

I can't build the entire "baluster system" in one solid piece like they did. The problem is that I've already put trim and caulk up, and the existing construction was not perfectly level and plum. If I were to make one solid piece to install right now, there would be gaps in certain places at the top that can't be hidden anymore by trim, and I still likely have to make some minor adjustments on how the poles attach to the top because after 65 years of settling the floors in this house aren't perfectly level either. (It would have been interesting to see him put a level on the rail when he was done installing it, because I can almost guaranty you that the porch wasn't level and his hand rail is just as out of level as the porch was. If he accounted for that off camera, he didn't mention that step in the process).

I have mentioned that if I were to do this all over again, I would have changed the order of how I'd done things for this very reason, and I'm not about to rip out all the work I did and ruin my walls to start from scratch now.

But instead of drilling holes for the poles to slide through in both the top and bottom plates that I'm going to cut to fit and router a decorative edge on, I may now choose to instead just attach the bottom poles to the bottom piece, while still drilling the holes through the top piece so I can slide it up exactly where I need it to go so that all the poles are plum and any large gaps that would have otherwise existed at the top where the jamb isn't level would be minimized, hopefully eliminated.

But I still might go the route of putting holes in both the top and bottom pieces because this might be the easiest way of ultimately making all the poles plum and perfectly aligned.

Like I mentioned before, I'm going to leave as many options open as possible until I get to a point where final decisions are going to need to be made, and I've got plenty of scrap wood to test ideas out on to make sure they're sound before I do something I can't undo.

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

Political correctness is just tyranny, with a smiley face.

Wow. I've never seen the "before" before.

Can you redo our kitchen?

Im sure you'd be better at it than THUGR. Or SECOND.

-----------
"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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Tuesday, January 16, 2024 5:02 PM