Russia Invades Ukraine. Again by captaincrunch

Nobody cares.

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Political correctness is just tyranny, with a smiley face.

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Thursday, May 2, 2024 5:16 AM

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

Too Few Law-abiding Russians are Volunteering to Fight Ukraine. But Putin Has A Solution!

Russian authorities continue recruiting convicted criminals to fight in Ukraine. Russian media reported on April 30 that Trans-Baikal Krai Head Alexander Osipov approved the release of Dmitry Vedernikov, head of the “Metsenatovskie” Trans-Baikal organized criminal group, from prison to fight with the Russian military in Ukraine.[68] Vedernikov was serving a 24-year sentence in a maximum-security penal colony, and Russian sources reported that Vedernikov left the penal colony for Ukraine sometime in 2024. The sources reported that Vedernikov first appealed in October 2023 to go to the front but that Russian authorities refused the request. Vedernikov claimed that two other members of the “Metsenatovskie” criminal group have left prison to fight in Ukraine.[69]

Russian authorities continue international military recruitment efforts to staff its units in Ukraine. The Ukrainian Main Military Intelligence Directorate (GUR) published a list on May 1 of many Nepalese citizens serving in the Russian 1099th Motorized Rifle Regiment.[70] The GUR reported that this regiment is currently serving in Luhansk Oblast and that many of these soldiers have deserted after the unit suffered extreme losses during infantry-led “meat” assaults, brutality from Russian field commanders, and extrajudicial executions for refusing to comply with orders.

https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/russian-offensive-campai
gn-assessment-may-1-2024

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

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Thursday, May 2, 2024 5:20 AM

Yay. More propaganda...

*yawn*

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Political correctness is just tyranny, with a smiley face.

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Thursday, May 2, 2024 5:22 AM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Yeah.

Must be SECOND doing his "PSA" for neocons. Again.

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

Why SECOND'S posts are brainless: "I clocked how much time: no more than 10 minutes per day. With cut-and-paste (Ctrl C and Ctrl V) and AI, none of this takes much time."
Or, any verification or thought.

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Thursday, May 2, 2024 5:22 AM

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

Russian Airmen Filled A Shed With Powerful Glide Bombs. Soon, Dozens Of Ukrainian Drones Swarmed In.

The Saturday raid on Kushchyovskaya air base blew up a lot of KABs.

By David Axe | May 1, 2024, 05:48pm EDT

https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidaxe/2024/05/01/russian-airmen-filled
-a-shed-with-powerful-glide-bombs-soon-dozens-of-ukrainian-drones-swarmed-in/?sh=5d3fe4311b9a

The Russian air force pummels Ukrainian forces with as many as 3,000 KAB glide bombs every month. Which is why, on Saturday, the Ukrainians launched dozens of long-range drones at an air base in southern Russia—and blew up a shed full of KABs.

Video and satellite imagery from the aftermath of the attack on Kushchyovskaya air base, 120 miles from the front line in southern Ukraine, depict burned-out buildings and heaps of wrecked KABs. The overhead imagery may also hint at the destruction of at least one Sukhoi Su-34 fighter bomber—the Russian air force’s primary KAB carrier.

It will take much more than one raid on one base hosting one shed full of glide bombs to tilt the firepower balance in the Russia-Ukraine war.

But it’s worth noting the Ukrainians are at least trying to disrupt the basic infrastructure of Russia’s glide-bombing campaign. “Ukraine’s ability to disrupt Russian tactical air, particularly glide-bomb usage, is key to the wider defense of the front line,” the U.K. Defense Ministry explained.

Since the middle of last year, the KAB has been the Russian air force's primary aerial munition. The bombs, rough analogues of the U.S.-made Joint Direct Attack Munition-Extended Range and French-made Hammer glide bombs—both of which arm the Ukrainian air force’s own fighter bombers—range 25 miles on pop-out wings. They help keep Russian jets outside the range of Ukrainian air defenses.

Each KAB packs hundreds of pounds of explosives—enough to dig a crater dozens of feet deep. “All buildings and structures simply turn into a pit after the arrival of just one KAB,” wrote Egor Sugar, a trooper with the Ukrainian 3rd Assault Brigade.

The KAB is a “miracle weapon” for the Russians, Ukrainian analysis group Deep State noted. And the Ukrainians have “practically no countermeasures.” Except, perhaps, to blow up the sheds where the Russians store the bombs before loading them four apiece onto their Su-34s.

It’s unclear exactly which drones the Ukrainians flung at Kushchyovskaya. They’ve got options, including ex-Soviet spy drones with warheads in the place of their cameras, modified hobby drones packing pounds of TNT and pilotless sport planes with bombs under their bellies.

Whichever drones struck Kushchyovskaya, they did so in huge numbers. The weekend attack was one of the biggest of Russia’s 27-month wider war on Ukraine. The Kremlin claimed its troops shot down 66 drones, “illustrating the scale of the raid,” the ministry in London noted.

The Russians didn’t shoot down every drone, however. At least one of them struck the likely main target of the raid: that shed full of KABs. In destroying potentially scores of glide bombs, the Ukrainian drone operators may have given some of their comrades on the front line a short reprieve—a day or so—from the Russian glide-bombing campaign.

It will take many more raids on many more bases to significantly constrain the bombings over the long term, however. And it’s an open question whether planners in Kyiv will add the KAB infrastructure to the list of repeat targets for Ukraine’s strike drones. Those same drones are already targeting Russian oil refineries and weapons factories.

The big unanswered question is just how many long-range drones Ukraine can produce. Mykhailo Fedorov, who oversees Ukraine’s high-tech war industries, recently told Reuters that there are 10 companies producing thousands of long-range drones annually—potentially enough for weekly raids on the scale of the Kushchyovskaya attack.

But drone production could expand. "We will fight to increase the financing even more," Fedorov said.

Sources:

1. U.K. Defense Ministry: https://twitter.com/DefenceHQ/status/1785224494182797428

2. Brady Africk: https://twitter.com/bradyafr/status/1784582551736033568 ; https://twitter.com/bradyafr/status/1784582784176066763

3. Egor Sugar: https://twitter.com/SugarEgor/status/1758538023539556496

4. Reuters: https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/ukraine-produce-tho
usands-long-range-drones-2024-minister-says-2024-02-12/

5. Deep State: https://t.me/DeepStateUA/19104

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

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Thursday, May 2, 2024 5:53 AM

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

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba on How Kyiv Will Use American Aid

May 1, 2024, 3:48 PM

https://foreignpolicy.com/2024/05/01/kuleba-how-kyiv-plans-to-use-amer
ican-aid/?tpcc=recirc_latest062921

Ravi Agrawal: What impact has the passage of the U.S. aid package had on morale in your government?

Dmytro Kuleba: Well, it was definitely a boost for morale among Ukrainian soldiers, and also among the people of Ukraine. If the package that was announced immediately after adoption of the law had contained a battery of Patriots [missile defense systems], this boost would have been even stronger among the people, because Ukrainians suffer the most from Russian missile attacks.

Russian ballistic missiles are the real scourge of this war. They’ve been mainly used recently to destroy our energy system. I will dare to say that if another country suffered this scale of energy destruction, it would look much, much worse than Ukraine. We hold on because we have learned a lot. We are resilient; we know what the stakes are. But just to give an understanding to your viewers, half our energy system is damaged and we still have to run the country, run the war effort, and rally the world’s support.

RA: Does the aid package change your military strategy?

DK: There is a time gap between the announcement of the package and the moment when a Ukrainian artilleryman has more shells to fire back at the Russian invaders. And that moment has not come yet, because everything that was announced—we are grateful and we appreciate it—is still on its way. And therefore, in this time gap, bad things may happen, such as the advance of Russian forces on the ground.

The artillery ratio on the ground is incomprehensible. Basically, Ukrainian soldiers are starving because of the lack of artillery ammunition. And in the end, they get bombed and their positions get destroyed.

So, what really matters in terms of the war is not only the quantity and the quality of what is being provided, but also the timeline. And unfortunately, I have to admit that Ukraine’s allies are behind schedule, despite their efforts. Some of them are making a great effort. But when I look at what Russia achieved in restoring the production of its defenders’ industrial base and what the entire West has achieved so far, we have to face the truth and recognize that Russia is more effective in its war effort. And this raises a more fundamental question to the West. If it cannot be efficient enough in this particular war effort, then how efficient can it be if other wars and crises of the same scale break out?

RA: What types of weaponry are you prioritizing with the newly approved aid?

DK: We need artillery ammunition for the front line to stop Russia’s advance. We need air defense systems and missile interceptors to stop Russian missiles falling—literally on the heads of Ukrainians and on our energy infrastructure. We need radio jamming because modern warfare is largely a war of drones and software. And therefore, you need an abundance of electronic warfare to combat these modern, state-of-the-art weapons.

RA: Has America’s aid package energized Europe?

DK: I have to admit that between late autumn and April of this year, Europe was energizing the United States. Probably for the first time since World War II, Europe took the lead while the United States was, let’s call it, deliberating some very important decisions.

Europe realized that it faced the reality of the war in Europe on its own, and it had to act. So they adopted a decision on opening EU accession talks with Ukraine. They introduced the EU-Ukraine Facility, which is a multiyear macrofinancial program of assistance. Individual member countries announced unprecedented packages of military assistance. In the volume of military assistance provided to Ukraine, Germany was second to the United States, a reality completely unimaginable even in the immediate aftermath of the invasion in 2022.

Now, of course, finally the United States made their decision. And we thank everyone who made it possible. Europe feels even more confident because they sense that America is back.

The question is, how long is it going to last given your political cycle? But I’m pretty certain that whatever the outcome of the political debates in the United States, the stakes for the United States in the war here in Ukraine are too high for Washington to withdraw in any form.

RA: When we last spoke at the Munich Security Conference in February, the issue of a potential Trump presidency came up. How worried are you about that now?

DK: Listen, I am a Ukrainian who goes to bed in the evening not knowing whether a Russian missile will hit my house at night. What will be the reality that I will wake up in? Millions of Ukrainians feel the same. So the last thing I worry about is the outcome of elections in other countries, even in our most important ally, the United States.

And it’s not because I disrespect or ignore the political developments. It’s just because life taught us to be ready for any scenario, to survive and prevail under any circumstances. You cannot imagine how many times we were told in the last two years to give up on the idea of full accession into the European Union. Even our closest friends advised us to accept half measures and to make compromises. We didn’t, and we are on our path to membership. You cannot imagine how many people in the last months were telling us, “Don’t insist on the military package being debated by the United States in its current form. Make compromises in order to get it.” We didn’t, because we know that when it comes to the matter of survival, you have to be tough and you have to be ready for any kind of scenario. And you have to insist on Plan A, which is the best plan for your country. This is wartime diplomacy. It’s different from classic diplomacy.

RA: Republicans are trying to align on some aspects of foreign policy. The area they disagree on the most is Ukraine. J.D. Vance, a senator from Ohio, wrote in the New York Times recently that “Ukraine’s challenge is not the GOP; it’s math.” He says you need more soldiers than you can ever field, and more weapons than America can ever provide. He also cites you specifically, saying that you keep asking for more Patriot interceptors, but you need thousands, while America only makes 550 of them a year. How do you respond to that?

DK: Well, first let’s see the silver lining here. When I look at the votes cast by members of the Republican Party in both the houses of Congress, I don’t get an impression that the opinion you mentioned represents the majority.

Second, if the war was only about math, you and I wouldn’t be talking today because the position of the minister of foreign affairs of Ukraine would not exist anymore; we would have lost the war already. Look at the map and at the size of the country that invaded Ukraine. And then look at the size of Ukraine. By pure mathematical calculations, we were supposed to be swallowed. That was actually the projection of the best military and political analysts ahead of the invasion. I would like to remind everyone that we were given between seven and 10 days before everything would be done and partners would come to our funeral with solemn speeches about the importance of respecting international law and the rules-based order.

And this brings me to the third argument. Whether you are Republican or Democrat, you have to remember one thing. Security and prosperity of America stems from the current world order. If that world order ceases to exist, the security and prosperity of American taxpayers will be immediately under attack. And if you cannot satisfy the military needs, if you cannot produce enough interceptors to help Ukraine win the war against the country that wants to destroy the world order, then how are you going to win in the war against perhaps an enemy who is stronger than Russia? Think two steps ahead.

People come up with some of the most incredible arguments to explain why Ukraine does not deserve to be supported. But the very simple fact is, if you lose in Ukraine, it will have a domino effect and you will start losing everywhere. This is why I mentioned the difference in the defense industrial base between Russia and all our Western allies together. In two years of the war, Russia has become more efficient in producing weapons than the whole Western alliance. It’s a bad sign. Things must change if we are serious about defending the world as we know it.

RA: As a condition of the recent aid deal, the Biden administration needs to submit a Ukraine strategy to Congress within 45 days. If you had to advise the Biden administration, what would that plan look like?

DK: Well, first, be ambitious. If you lower your expectations and start with what is usually called Plan B, you will end up with Plan B. So you have to start with Plan A.

Second, stop looking at Ukraine through the prism of relations with Russia. I’m aware that there are still ideas that whatever the outcome of this war, the U.S. will have to maintain relations with Russia, and therefore should avoid burning bridges. But you will not be able to afford any proper relationship with Russia under President [Vladimir] Putin because he made his choice, and that choice is war. If anyone thinks that here he’s ramping up his defense industrial base only to fight Ukraine, they are completely wrong. So, consider Russia under Putin as an enemy.

Third point: Look for problems on your side and not on the side of Ukraine when you design your strategies. Ask yourselves: What are we doing wrong if we cannot help our ally prevail? Putting all the responsibility on the shoulders of Ukraine means consciously waiving yourself of responsibility. But every Russian missile that hits a Ukrainian energy facility deprives Ukrainians of electricity. If it kills civilians, it does that because someone did not supply an air defense system or an interceptor to help Ukraine avoid that. So this calculation should be present in all strategic calculations.

RA: Let’s talk about diplomacy. Ukraine is unlikely to get a formal invitation to join NATO at the summit that’s scheduled for July. Kyiv also wanted membership to the Joint Expeditionary Force, which is a British-led multinational military partnership, but it seems Washington won’t allow that, either. What signal does all of this send to Russia?

DK: Well, the signal to Russia is simple: That part of Ukraine’s future has not been decided yet. And that gives Russia hope. The law of the war is simple. The more uncertainty there is, the more resolve the enemy gets. We should all pursue a strategy under which the enemy has a crystal-clear understanding that Ukraine is part of the West, that allies will stand by Ukraine. Not as long as it takes, but as long as it takes Ukraine to win.

RA: I just mentioned two diplomatic things Ukraine won’t get this summer. Let’s talk about what it could get. You have leverage here because you have literal bodies on the line. Europe knows that and is grateful. So, my question is this: If Brussels could demand something from America on your behalf, something that Washington can do without involving Congress again, what would that be?

DK: I’m thinking about only one thing: air defense. Because air defense is something that our economy depends on, as do our cities and our civilians’ lives. I’m tired of urging [the world] to work harder and double and triple the work on this, because everyone knows where these systems are. Everyone knows what needs to be done to deliver them to Ukraine. So our appeal is: “Just do it.”

Politically, Europe is doing pretty well because its message on Ukraine’s membership to the European Union is crystal clear: Ukraine will be there and is on its way to getting there. While the message of NATO certainly requires additional clarification, we all know that we will be there, but we need more clarity on the timeline and the next steps.

The third issue that Brussels and Washington can work on together are Russian frozen assets. This is something that is in the hands of our partners. The United States has to be commended here because they hold a more advanced and tough position on this than Europe. So this is where Washington has to work more with European allies to address some of their concerns and make this money available for the war effort, because it will also relieve the pressure on the budgets of our allies. So these are the three issues that I would encourage Brussels and Washington to work on more actively.

RA: Switzerland is holding a high-level peace conference next month. Your Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, described Switzerland as openly hostile. What is the point of a peace summit without the party that initiated the war?

DK: Your point is valid if you address the war that Russia launched against Ukraine with textbook diplomacy, because all textbooks that we learned from tell us that you need two parties to sit down and negotiate.

Our approach comes from reality, and from the experience that we gained between 2014 and 2022, because the aggression against Ukraine started in 2014. Between 2014 and 2022, we had almost 200 rounds of talks with Russia in different formats, with mediators and bilaterally. But nothing worked. It ended up in the large-scale invasion [of 2022].

So we know that it doesn’t make sense to have Russia at the table if you cannot ensure that they act in good faith. There are only two ways to bring Russia to a situation where it will act in good faith. The first one is success on the battlefield, and the second one is having a coalition of countries who share the same principles and the same approaches. So this is why the summit does not intend to have Russia as a participant. Because the goal of this summit is to unite countries who share principles and approaches that they will build further actions on.

After that, communication with Russia may take place and Russia can be part of the talks. Because you are right: In the end, you cannot put the war to an end without both parties.

RA: Russia has broken several rules of the international order, thereby making it difficult to exert more pressure on it globally. But one country that can exert some pressure on Russia is China. Chinese President Xi Jinping is headed to Europe next week. What would it take for Beijing to change its approach to Russia and its so-called no-limits friendship with Moscow?

DK: When we approach a country from the perspective of “it’s impossible to make them accept responsibility for their crimes, and it’s impossible to change them, so let’s try to change the victim of their crimes instead,” this is called appeasement of an aggressor. If this is the policy that anyone wants to pursue under solemn cover of different foreign-policy concepts and peace efforts, then this war will lead to even greater war, as we know from history. So appeasement is not the solution.

And that brings us to the China-Russia relationship. I think you are absolutely correct in assuming that China has leverage on Russia. China can do more to convince Russia to change its behavior. And we, along with other European leaders, are talking with them about that. This is why we invited China to take part in the peace formula summit.

But also, there is another element in this construction. Some countries believe that Russia shouldn’t be pushed too far away in order to avoid a situation where Russia completely falls into the hands of China. And that imposes constraints on decisions taken with regard to supporting Ukraine. But the truth is that Russia is already in the hands of China. And there is nothing, nothing, that can bring them back into a different reality. So this is just a wrong way of looking at the new balance that has been created.

RA: That’s the story with China. And we know India is buying a lot more Russian oil than it used to. Is it fair to say that Kyiv’s outreach to the global south has largely failed? If so, why do you think that’s the case?

DK: If I look at the number of votes cast by the so-called countries of the global south for the U.N. General Assembly resolutions on the issue of Russian aggression against Ukraine, I don’t get an impression that they are lost, because many of them vote in favor of these resolutions. But the truth is that when you fight a war, the support that you receive is multilayered. Some provide you with weapons; others limit themselves just to pressing the green button in the UNGA twice a year.

So what I learned about the global south in the last two years is that it doesn’t exist, that we have to treat every country separately. There is a huge difference between China and India or between South Africa and Brazil. The mistake that we made with regards to them was not made in 2022. It was in the late 1990s, when we started paying attention to developing relations with these countries while Russia inherited a lot from the Soviet Union. I have to admit, they are better positioned there. But it doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t keep trying.

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

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Thursday, May 2, 2024 6:10 AM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Since you don't bother to read your own crap, I won't either.

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

Why SECOND'S posts are brainless: "I clocked how much time: no more than 10 minutes per day. With cut-and-paste (Ctrl C and Ctrl V) and AI, none of this takes much time."
Or, any verification or thought.

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Thursday, May 2, 2024 7:04 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:
Since you don't bother to read your own crap, I won't either.

I did read it and learned. I have noticed since I was a very small boy that the world was full of people like you and the Russians, with a superiority complex who are certain there is a conspiracy that is preventing them from prospering as much as they deserve. But they are the conspiracy. They are preventing themselves from prospering by not learning. Obvious to themselves, they already know it all and it is the West conspiring against them.

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

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Thursday, May 2, 2024 12:01 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Since you don't bother to read your own crap, I won't either.

SECOND: I did read it and learned.

You post the silliest things!
According to you ... and I'm quoting here

Quote:
I clocked how much time: no more than 10 minutes per day. With cut-and-paste (Ctrl C and Ctrl V) and AI, none of this takes much time."

Not much time for reading!
And that explains why your posts contradict each other, even one right after the other.
You're a one-man shitstorm! But always good for laughs.

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Thursday, May 2, 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 SIGNYM:

Not much time for reading!

When JFK was President and I was a child, speed reading had its 15 minutes of fame. I mastered the technique. I can read that fast. I was always amazed that Trumptards could take several minutes to read what I took several seconds to finish, such as the newspaper front page, but when the Trumptards were asked to recall facts about major points in the stories, they couldn't remember. I never think of myself as smart and don't know any Trumptards who think of themselves as stupid, but if I am average then Trumptards are retards. (Being retarded would explain why Trumptards struggle with modern American life.)
https://www.google.com/search?q=speed+reading

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

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Thursday, May 2, 2024 12:29 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Quote:
SITREP 5/1/24: The Russian Steamroller Rolls On as Ukraine Braces for Impact
Simplicius
May 02, 2024

Let’s start things a little differently this time and go straight to battlefield updates, as the Russian forces continue to make headway in a number of key sectors.

On the Avdeevka axis there have been several noteworthy gains since last time.

Firstly, the large gap area between Arkhangelsk and Keramik has been completely taken, circled in yellow below:

Zooming out, we can once again see that the key hub of the region, Kostantinovka, is slowly being enveloped by the salients pushing in from Ocheretino [to the south] and Chasov Yar, [to the northeast] with the Ocheretino, the southern portion of the pincer now 10km from cutting Konstantinovka’s MSR [main supply road]

Simplicius goes on to discuss Ukraine's dire shortage of weapons and soldiers now frequently discussed in "elite" western publications, the probable collapse of the front, and the interesting tidbit that American Special Forces are learning Ukrainian, in possible anticipation of deployment.
More, MUCH more, at
https://simplicius76.substack.com/p/sitrep-5124-the-russian-steamrolle
r

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

Why SECOND'S posts are brainless: "I clocked how much time: no more than 10 minutes per day. With cut-and-paste (Ctrl C and Ctrl V) and AI, none of this takes much time."
Or, any verification or thought.

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Thursday, May 2, 2024 12:38 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

You speed read.
Uh huh.
Then why don't you understand your own posts?
Eyesgofastbraingoes ... r ...e ...a ...l ...l ...y ... r ...e ... a ... l ... l ...y ...s ...l ...o ...w ...???

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Thursday, May 2, 2024 12:49 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:
You speed read.
Uh huh.
Then why don't you understand your own posts?

I get asked by Trumptards how to work their smartphones. When I explain to them in words, they tell me I am wrong because they already tried exactly my solution. I then take their phone and fix their problems because they are stupid, have never read an Android or iOS manual, and never will because they read slowly and misunderstand the simple concepts, as do you, Signym. There is too much nonsense floating around in Trumptard's head which is interfering with them understanding what is directly in front of them, whether in print or on a phone's display.

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

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Thursday, May 2, 2024 12:57 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Yeah, and you fix people's smart phones, too.

If you're so smart, why are your insults and lies so stupid?
Dood. Seriously.

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Thursday, May 2, 2024 5:35 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:
Yeah, and you fix people's smart phones, too.

If you're so smart, why are your insults and lies so stupid?
Dood. Seriously.

Signym, you can't help yourself, can you? I have seen many times that the thing which appeals to Trumptards about Trump is that he can't help being a stupid asshole, just like they are.

Trump’s penchant for bashing anyone who turns against him is so strong that last week, right before entering court for a separate hearing that also investigated a set of gag-order violations, he gave an interview to a local news station in which he violated the gag-order.
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2024/05/donald-trump-attorney-todd
-blanche-von-shitzinpantz.html

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

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Thursday, May 2, 2024 5:35 PM

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

For Reference: Russia at 6 to 7 percent of their GDP spent on their military, the US is at about 3.2 percent. - https://www.politico.com/news/2024/04/25/us-weapons-contract-ukraine-0
0154450

Facing Russian threat and an uncertain America, Europe rearms

By Ned Temko | May 2, 2024 | London

https://www.csmonitor.com/World/Europe/2024/0502/europe-arms-defense-s
pending-russia

Two words – stark, sober words – sum up a dramatic mood swing in Europe that could redefine, and ultimately loosen, the Continent’s decades-old alliance with the United States.

War footing.

That phrase, voiced most recently by British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak in a speech last week, is especially significant because it is such a jarring departure from Europe’s long-settled economic credo.

Washington has long urged European nations to spend more on their own defense. Russia’s Ukraine invasion, and European doubts about America’s role in tomorrow’s world, have had the desired effect.

For years, the refrain heard in European capitals has been the post-Cold War “peace dividend” – the leeway governments found they had to slash defense spending and invest more money in domestic economic and social priorities instead.

Today, Mr. Sunak is only one of a growing number of European leaders to have concluded that the days of the “peace dividend” are over, and that Europe needs to spend more – much more – on its defense.

And while they’re aware of how politically and practically daunting that goal is, they clearly feel a growing sense of urgency.

That’s because of two increasingly unsettling security concerns, one to the east, the other to the west.

The more immediate threat is Russia’s full-scale war of subjugation against Ukraine.

But there is another, longer-range worry: that, whoever wins this November’s U.S. presidential election, Europe cannot necessarily keep relying on America to be the superpower guarantor of the Continent’s security.

Both these fears have sharpened in recent weeks.

In Ukraine, Russian forces have been intensifying their attacks and begun making advances.

And in Washington, even as the Ukrainians found themselves running short of artillery shells, it took months for the Biden administration to overcome opposition from House Republicans and secure some $60 billion in desperately needed military aid for Kyiv.

European countries did try to fill the gap.

Indeed, in a letter to European Union leaders ahead of a summit six weeks ago, it was the president of the bloc’s ministerial council, Charles Michel, who first raised the call for “a paradigm shift” in Europe’s defense thinking.

“It is high time that we take radical and concrete steps,” he told them, “to be defense-ready, and put the EU’s economy on a war footing.”

The EU went on to approve more than $5 billion of additional military aid to Ukraine, and began trying to buy up all available artillery shells from other countries. But European leaders know that they simply do not have a big enough defense industry, nor large enough arms stockpiles, to come anywhere near taking over Washington’s critical role.

A more profound shift in economic priorities is clearly going to be necessary for that to become possible, especially among Europe’s main economic and military powers.

That is one reason Mr. Sunak’s comments were especially significant.

Countries on Europe’s eastern fringe, closest to Russia – such as Poland, Finland, and the Baltic states – have never needed convincing of the need to ratchet up defense investment.

Yet that message has taken considerably longer to resonate in countries further west, especially in Europe’s leading economic powerhouse, Germany, and in its main military powers, Britain and France.

Mr. Sunak, speaking in Poland with the secretary-general of the NATO alliance also in attendance, announced plans to increase Britain’s defense spending to 2.5% of gross domestic product – above the decade-old NATO target of 2%.

He urged Europe’s other NATO members to make that their new minimum, too.

Three days later, French President Emmanuel Macron also weighed in on the need for Europe to revitalize its defense industries. Emphasizing the importance of preventing Russia from prevailing in Ukraine, he said the EU should deploy its shared economic resources to ramp up arms production.

Donald Trump has vowed to refuse to offer U.S. aid to a threatened NATO ally if that country does not spend 2% of its GDP on defense.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, in a social media post, responded: “France and Germany want Europe to be strong. Your speech contains good ideas on how we can achieve this.”

Still, while most European countries have begun spending more money on defense since the start of the Ukraine war, putting the Continent on a real “war footing” would be a huge and difficult undertaking.

One obvious challenge is the old economics textbook choice: guns or butter?

Europe’s economies are still stuttering from multiple jolts: the 2008 world financial crisis, the pandemic, and the Russia-Ukraine war. More funds for defense would inevitably mean fewer funds for already cash-strained domestic priorities.

The scale of spending needed is enormous. Most of NATO’s European members have met, or are getting close to meeting, the old 2% target. But, beyond the eastern countries nearest to Russia, very few are within reach of Mr. Sunak’s proposed higher benchmark.

His hope, Mr. Macron’s hope, and that of a growing number of other European leaders, is that voters will quickly learn the lessons of years of underinvestment in defense.

And that’s a message that would resonate with one of Mr. Sunak’s predecessors, the prime minister who first coined the idea of a “peace dividend,” along with then-U.S. President George H.W. Bush.

Speaking in 1991, shortly after losing office, Margaret Thatcher told a luncheon honoring her in Washington, “The only real peace dividend is, quite simply, peace.”

And how had her generation come to enjoy it? “Because of the investment of billions of dollars and pounds in defense.”

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

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Thursday, May 2, 2024 5:47 PM

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

Hundreds of Russian Troops Gathered Out In The Open. They Didn’t Know The Ukrainians Had Aimed Four ATACMS Rockets At Them.

Potentially more than 100 Russians died as the ATACMS struck near Kuban in eastern Ukraine.

By David Axe | May 2, 2024, 05:29pm EDT

https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidaxe/2024/05/02/hundreds-of-russian-t
roops-gathered-out-in-the-open-they-didnt-know-the-ukrainians-had-aimed-four-atacms-rockets-at-them/?sh=7f8314b71a2e

No Russian air defenses can reliably shoot down an incoming ATACMS. The implication was clear: as of April, any exposed Russians within 190 miles of the front line were vulnerable to Ukraine’s growing arsenal of ATACMS.

Ignoring the danger, the Russians gathered out in the open near Kuban—and then more than a hundred of them reportedly died as the ATACMS thundered in.

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

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Thursday, May 2, 2024 7:29 PM

THG

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:

Yeah, and you fix people's smart phones, too.

If you're so smart, why are your insults and lies so stupid?
Dood. Seriously.

Here's comrade signyms' precious Russia. To signym, Russia is great and America is not. But she claims to live in America instead of her precious Russia. Can you say comrade signym has zero credibility? I can, I can say it. Can you say comrade signym has no morals? I can, I can say it. Can you say Ukraine and NATO are making sure Russia's future, will be standing on the global street corner tin cup in hand? I can, I can say it.

T

Putin Installs Old-Style Soviet Privileged Class | Inequality Growing

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Thursday, May 2, 2024 7:53 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

You sound like Dr Seuss writing fur four year olds, THUGR.

And SECOND? You took almost five hours to dream up calling me a "Trumptard"?

Sweet!

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Thursday, May 2, 2024 8:03 PM

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

Political correctness is just tyranny, with a smiley face.

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Thursday, May 2, 2024 8:05 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Yeah, and you fix people's smart phones, too.

If you're so smart, why are your insults and lies so stupid?
Dood. Seriously.

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

Why SECOND'S posts are brainless: "I clocked how much time: no more than 10 minutes per day. With cut-and-paste (Ctrl C and Ctrl V) and AI, none of this takes much time."
Or, any verification or thought.

"In real life, I'm really really smart. Trust me."

I wonder if everybody has to deal with two of the stupidest people in the world every day, or if it's just us that willingly subject ourselves to this.

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

Political correctness is just tyranny, with a smiley face.

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Thursday, May 2, 2024 9:22 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:

"In real life, I'm really really smart. Trust me."

I wonder if everybody has to deal with two of the stupidest people in the world every day, or if it's just us that willingly subject ourselves to this.

Macron doesn't rule out troops for Ukraine if Russia breaks front lines – May 2 at 12:54 pm (Paris)

Speaking to The Economist, the French president said it's necessary to have a 'strategic ambiguity' when dealing with Vladimir Putin.

"I'm not ruling anything out, because we are facing someone who is not ruling anything out," said Macron when asked if he stood by his earlier comments made on February 26.

Macron said "if Russia decided to go further, we will in any case all have to ask ourselves this question" of sending troops, describing his refusal to rule out such a move as a "strategic wake-up call for my counterparts."

https://www.lemonde.fr/en/france/article/2024/05/02/macron-doesn-t-rul
e-out-troops-for-ukraine-if-russia-breaks-front-lines_6670198_7.html

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

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Thursday, May 2, 2024 9:29 PM

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

"In real life, I'm really really smart. Trust me."

I wonder if everybody has to deal with two of the stupidest people in the world every day, or if it's just us that willingly subject ourselves to this.
Macron doesn't rule out troops for Ukraine if Russia breaks front lines – May 2 at 12:54 pm (Paris)

Speaking to The Economist, the French president said it's necessary to have a 'strategic ambiguity' when dealing with Vladimir Putin.

"I'm not ruling anything out, because we are facing someone who is not ruling anything out," said Macron when asked if he stood by his earlier comments made on February 26.

Macron said "if Russia decided to go further, we will in any case all have to ask ourselves this question" of sending troops, describing his refusal to rule out such a move as a "strategic wake-up call for my counterparts."

https://www.lemonde.fr/en/france/article/2024/05/02/macron-doesn-t-rul
e-out-troops-for-ukraine-if-russia-breaks-front-lines_6670198_7.html

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

No French citizen is going to go to Ukraine to fight for Macron.

Do you pay attention to ANYTHING happening in the world that isn't Russia or Trump?

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

Political correctness is just tyranny, with a smiley face.

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Thursday, May 2, 2024 11:28 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

I think most ppl misinterpret Macron entirely.

They tend to portray him as "rabidly pro-western" or as a cheese eating surrender monkey.

In reality, his political vector is "European army" independent of the USA, and under his (France's, Rothschild banker's?) control. He has stated this MANY TIMES. It's a naked power grab propelled on RUSSIA!RUSSIA! hysteria but heading in a different direction than the USA-dominated NATO.

So he'll flog the RUSSIA!RUSSIA! hysteria as long as it promotes the "EU army" but not if it promotes USA authority. Then, he'll backtrack.

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

Why SECOND'S posts are brainless: "I clocked how much time: no more than 10 minutes per day. With cut-and-paste (Ctrl C and Ctrl V) and AI, none of this takes much time."
Or, any verification or thought.

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Friday, May 3, 2024 12:06 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:

In reality, his political vector is "European army" independent of the USA, and under his (France's, Rothschild banker's?) control. He has stated this MANY TIMES. It's a naked power grab propelled on RUSSIA!RUSSIA! hysteria but heading in a different direction than the USA-dominated NATO.

Why did Macron send troops to Africa, Signym? Give your fictional explanation.

France "deployed several thousand troops" to the Sahel region of Africa to combat terrorism at the request of sovereign states, Macron said.

"I think to rule it out a priori is not to learn the lessons of the past two years," he continued, referencing the start of Russia's full-scale invasion in February 2022.

https://www.newsweek.com/nato-troops-ukraine-emmanuel-macron-russia-18
96596

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

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Friday, May 3, 2024 12:18 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
I think most ppl misinterpret Macron entirely.

They tend to portray him as "rabidly pro-western" or as a cheese eating surrender monkey.

In reality, his political vector is "European army" independent of the USA, and under his (France's, Rothschild banker's?) control. He has stated this MANY TIMES. It's a naked power grab propelled on RUSSIA!RUSSIA! hysteria but heading in a different direction than the USA-dominated NATO.

So he'll flog the RUSSIA!RUSSIA! hysteria as long as it promotes the "EU army" but not if it promotes USA authority. Then, he'll backtrack.

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

Why SECOND'S posts are brainless: "I clocked how much time: no more than 10 minutes per day. With cut-and-paste (Ctrl C and Ctrl V) and AI, none of this takes much time."
Or, any verification or thought.

I was thinking more along the lines of all the French farmers spraying shit everywhere and ruining their own crops because Fuck Macron. Remember the Yellow Vest protests?

French citizens got bent over and rawdawged repeatedly by Macron without any lube. Nobody is going to suit up and put their feet on the ground to fight Russia by his order. Anybody stupid enough to do that deserves what their very short future holds in store for them.

Fuck Macron.

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

Political correctness is just tyranny, with a smiley face.

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Friday, May 3, 2024 5:50 AM

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

Human Rights Watch (HRW) released a report on May 2 in which it confirmed that Russian forces have executed at least 15 surrendering Ukrainian soldiers since December 2023.[35] HRW reported that combat footage shows that Russian forces likely executed an additional six surrendering Ukrainian soldiers since December 2023.[36] HRW noted that in one case Russian commanders explicitly ordered Russian forces to execute Ukrainian soldiers instead of letting them surrender.[37] Attacking soldiers recognized as hors de combat, specifically including those who have clearly expressed an intention to surrender, is a violation of Article 41 of the Geneva Convention on the Protection of Victims of International Armed Conflict.[38]

https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/russian-offensive-campai
gn-assessment-may-2-2024

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

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Friday, May 3, 2024 6:19 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:

he'll flog the RUSSIA!RUSSIA! hysteria

Cannibal and Double-Murderer Selfie That Sums Up Ukraine War

One of them filmed himself eating a human heart. The other dismembered two women. Now they’re both free to kill Ukrainians.

Russia appears to have two new poster children for its war against Ukraine and supposed crusade to save “traditional values” from the deviant West: a cannibal and a murderer united on the battlefield.

Nearly two years after Moscow first hatched its deranged prison-recruitment scheme to use hardened criminals as cannon fodder in Ukraine, a selfie shared on social media provides a glimpse of the country’s new normal.

Dmitry Malyshev, sentenced to 25 years in 2015 for murdering a man and filming himself eating the victim’s heart, among other things, can be seen grinning and embracing Alexander Maslennikov, who got 23 years for murdering and dismembering two women he met at a nightclub.

Malyshev confirmed to V1.ru that both he and Maslennikov signed a contract to get out of prison by serving in the Russian military—in a notorious unit comprised of convicted rapists and killers.

“Alexander and I served together and signed a contract together with the Defense Ministry in October 2023,” Malyshev told the outlet, adding that both are serving in Storm V, a penal military unit Vladimir Putin signed off on in June 2023.

He went on to claim that the two convicted murderers are not like other criminals unleashed on Ukraine. They’ve got principals, according to him.

“I’ve known people who came here from the colony just for a change of scenery. They usually disappear quickly. But I understood why I was going and where I was going. How would you react if your little daughter was told how to put a condom on correctly in elementary school? Or if men will walk down the street licking each other? Is this normal for you? It's not normal for me,” he said, apparently referring to sex-ed classes and gay men, a favorite bogeyman in Kremlin propaganda.

Malyshev’s words horrified the Russian public years ago when he was tried for killing and devouring another human being. “We’re frying human flesh. Here it is—a heart. I’ve already added onion,” he said in video he’d filmed on his phone as a souvenir.

Now Malyshev is among the hordes of ex-convicts elevated to hero status in the war as he supposedly fights to protect “traditional values.”

At least 57 ordinary Russians have been killed so far by convicts who returned home after receiving a pardon to take part in the war, the independent outlet Verstka reported last week. After a series of disturbing headlines in the Russian media about ex-convicts arriving home and butchering their neighbors or raping schoolgirls, the Russian Defense Ministry stopped offering pardons and began offering only conditional release.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/cannibal-and-double-murderer-selfie-that
-sums-up-ukraine-war

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

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Friday, May 3, 2024 6:26 AM

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

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:

he'll flog the RUSSIA!RUSSIA! hysteria

U.S. accuses Russia of using chemical weapons in Ukraine

The U.S. State Department said in a statement that Russia has used chloropicrin against Ukrainian soldiers.

• The choking agent causes lung, eye and skin irritation and potentially vomiting, nausea and diarrhea.

• It said that Russia’s use of such chemicals in Ukraine "is not an isolated incident" and is likely driven by its effort to dislodge Ukrainian soldiers from fortified positions.

• The chemical is often used in riot control efforts but was banned on the battlefield by the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC).

What they're saying: "Russia's ongoing disregard for its obligations to the CWC comes from the same playbook as its operations to poison Aleksey Navalny and Sergei and Yulia Skripal with Novichok nerve agents," the State Department said.

• The Treasury Department said it targeted three Russia-based entities and two individuals involved in procuring items for Russia's chemical and biological weapons programs with sanctions.

• Separately, the State Department targeted three Russian government entities and four Russian companies associated with Russia's chemical and biological weapons programs.

Flashback: Earlier this year, Ukraine accused Russia of using chemical weapons, including chloropicrin, in more than 200 attacks in January alone.

https://www.axios.com/2024/05/02/russia-chemical-weapons-ukraine-us

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

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Friday, May 3, 2024 6:54 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 he'll flog the RUSSIA!RUSSIA! hysteria

Kremlin critics say Russia is targeting its foes abroad with killings, poisonings and harassment

The Kremlin, which routinely denies going after its opponents abroad, has been blamed for decades for such attacks.

The most famous cases include Soviet revolutionary-turned-exiled dissident Leon Trotsky, who was killed in 1940 in Mexico after being attacked with an ice ax by a Soviet agent, and Georgi Markov, a dissident working for the BBC’s Bulgarian language service, who died in 1978 in London after being jabbed with a poison-tipped umbrella.

Britain was the site of other poisonings blamed on Russian security services under Putin. Defector and former intelligence officer Alexander Litvinenko died after drinking tea laced with radioactive polonium-210 in 2006, and former spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter fell gravely ill but recovered following an attack with a Soviet-era nerve agent in 2018. The Kremlin repeatedly denied involvement in the British cases.

Now, with a full-scale domestic crackdown underway inside Russia, most of the Kremlin’s political opponents, independent journalists and activists have moved abroad. There are strong suspicions, as well as accusations from officials, that Moscow is increasingly targeting them.

The breadth of those individuals pursued by Russia, “even if they look and sound completely insignificant,” is because Russian authorities believe they “might come back to the country and destroy it completely,” said security expert Andrei Soldatov.

There are multiple reports of exiles being persecuted not only in former Soviet countries with a large Russian diaspora but also in Europe and beyond.

Much more at https://apnews.com/article/russia-attacks-poisoning-killing-litvinenko
-skripal-5ddda40fd910fe3f8358ea89cb0c49f1

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

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Friday, May 3, 2024 7:14 AM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Russia is not about to sweep across Europe or invade France, as Macron likes to fear monger.

There's a flood of narative about this.

It's a stupid scenario, but some elites find it a useful tool, and some believe it.

Is there any way for you to dial down the lies and hysteria about the ravening horde, SECOND?

-----------6
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger

Why SECOND'S posts are brainless: "I clocked how much time: no more than 10 minutes per day. With cut-and-paste (Ctrl C and Ctrl V) and AI, none of this takes much time."
Or, any verification or thought.

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Friday, May 3, 2024 12:27 PM

Second is a blunt instrument.

He can't act for himself because he has no agency.

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

Political correctness is just tyranny, with a smiley face.

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Friday, May 3, 2024 2:23 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:
Russia is not about to sweep across Europe or invade France, as Macron likes to fear monger.

There's a flood of narative about this.

It's a stupid scenario, but some elites find it a useful tool, and some believe it.

Is there any way for you to dial down the lies and hysteria about the ravening horde, SECOND?

Putin threatened to nuke any Western country that sends ammo to Ukraine. That is a threat he should either withdraw or say he is very sorry when he misspoke. He has done neither.

Putin warns West of risk of nuclear war, says Moscow can strike Western targets
By Vladimir Soldatkin and Andrew Osborn
February 29, 2024
https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/putin-warns-west-risk-nuclear-war
-says-moscow-can-strike-western-targets-2024-02-29/

https://www.google.com/search?q=Putin+threatened+to+nuke+any+Western+c
ountry+that+sends+ammo+to+Ukraine

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

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Friday, May 3, 2024 3:27 PM

Fuck off, warmongering NeoCon.

Go live your own life in constant fear and keep that shit to yourself, worm.

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

Political correctness is just tyranny, with a smiley face.

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Friday, May 3, 2024 8:14 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:
Fuck off, warmongering NeoCon.

Go live your own life in constant fear and keep that shit to yourself, worm.

Kremlin tiptoes up to the line and whispers: We will nuke the West if it sends troops to Ukraine

https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2024/05/03/kremlin-slams-dangerous-rema
rks-by-macron-about-troop-deployment-in-ukraine-a85028

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

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Saturday, May 4, 2024 12:30 AM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Yep. It's called deterrence. It's a time-honored way to prevent escalation.

Are the USA and EU smart enuf to take the hint?

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

Why SECOND'S posts are brainless: "I clocked how much time: no more than 10 minutes per day. With cut-and-paste (Ctrl C and Ctrl V) and AI, none of this takes much time."
Or, any verification or thought.

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Saturday, May 4, 2024 12:41 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:

Yep. It's called deterrence. It's a time-honored way to prevent escalation.

Are the USA and EU smart enuf to take the hint?

Zelenskyy outlines what is restraining Putin from nuclear strike on Ukraine

By Kateryna Shkarlat | Fri, May 03, 2024 - 22:30

https://newsukraine.rbc.ua/news/zelenskyy-outlines-what-is-restraining
-putin-1714764161.html

Russian dictator Vladimir Putin does not dare to launch a nuclear strike on Ukraine because he fears losing power, money, and, most importantly, societal support, stated Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy during a meeting with lyceum school students, cadets, and teachers of the National Academy of the State Border Guard Service named after Bohdan Khmelnytsky.

"When it comes to Russia's threats of nuclear catastrophe or nuclear strikes, these are sick-minded individuals, that's a fact. So, to say definitively whether they are capable or incapable of this is impossible. Because with sick-minded individuals, it's difficult to say until the end," noted Zelensky.

In his opinion, "despite this illness, these individuals cherish life very much, love themselves, are very afraid of losing power and money, and most importantly, losing societal support."

"All this, what I've listed: life, power, society, and the 'red line' that nuclear weapons cross with the whole world, this is a fact. Even those countries that balance between us and Russia and cannot decide, even these countries will turn away from Russia after a nuclear strike of any scale on any territory," the president said.

Zelenskyy believes that people who are afraid of losing money, power, and their lives will never use nuclear weapons.

"Otherwise, they will be eliminated. No matter how. They will all be eliminated, in my opinion," added the head of state.

Threats from the Russian Federation regarding the use of nuclear weapons

In February, the Russian President Vladimir Putin addressed the Federal Assembly. During his speech, he declared "full readiness" of nuclear forces and grimly hinted at the consequences of NATO military involvement in Ukraine.

Following this, the Prime Minister of Poland, Donald Tusk, pointed out that the dictator's aggressive rhetoric, including his decisions and "announcements," should be taken seriously. In his opinion, the European Union must be prepared for worst-case scenarios.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg stated that representatives of the Russian Federation have been constantly threatening with nuclear weapons for the past two years, but it is a psychological intimidation rather than real intentions.

American General Ben Hodges believes that Russia's threats regarding the use of nuclear weapons are unlikely to signify a genuine willingness to use them. However, it cannot be said that the chances of this happening are zero.

In early March, the Institute for the Study of War reported that the use of nuclear weapons by Russia in Ukraine or any other country is unlikely. They noted that Putin is merely "traditionally brandishing the nuclear saber."

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

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Saturday, May 4, 2024 1:49 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Yep. It's called deterrence. It's a time-honored way to prevent escalation.

Are the USA and EU smart enuf to take the hint?

Yup.

Once as a teenager I had unwittingly walked into a spot where I had blocked off the only route of escape for a skunk I didn't know was there until we saw each other.

All he needed to do was give me that little hiss and I got my ass out of there quick because there was no way I was going to school in the morning smelling like that.

Second and Ted are just salty that Putin doesn't bow down and kiss Joe Biden*'s withered dick.

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

Political correctness is just tyranny, with a smiley face.

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Saturday, May 4, 2024 7:31 AM

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

Skibitskyi stated that the current Russian military is unrecognizable from the force that launched the full-scale invasion in February 2022.[19] Skibitskyi noted that Russia’s once-elite airborne (VDV) and naval infantry elements have been completely degraded and that Russia will not be able to reconstitute them to their former combat capabilities for at least a decade.[20] Russian forces have heavily degraded relatively elite units by employing them in attritional ground assaults and counterattacks regardless of their designated functions and elite capabilities.[21] Degradation and the Russian military command’s decision to commit all forces along the frontline to more or less similar operations have transformed all Russian units in Ukraine regardless of their formal designations into motorized rifle units — mechanized infantry responsible for conducting combined arms ground assaults. Skibitskyi acknowledged that the Russian military is improving in some respects, however, and stated that the Russian military is now operating as a “single body, with a clear plan, under a single command.”[22] The Russian military has demonstrated an uneven propensity for operational, tactical, and technological innovation and learning, particularly with operational planning.[23] The Russian military is now entirely comprised of less-elite de facto motorized rifle units, but these units continue to innovate and adapt to fighting in Ukraine while relying on materiel and manpower advantages to increasingly pressure Ukrainian forces and exploit Ukrainian vulnerabilities.[24]

https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/russian-offensive-campai
gn-assessment-may-3-2024

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

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Saturday, May 4, 2024 7:32 AM

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

Inside Ukraine’s Killer-Drone Startup Industry

By Justin Ling | May 2, 2024

https://www.wired.com/story/ukraine-drone-startups-russia/

On the top floor of a building somewhere in Ukraine is a drone workshop.

Inside is a chaotic workbench covered in logic boards, antennas, batteries, augmented reality headsets, and rotor blades. On one end of the room is a makeshift photo studio—a jet-black quadcopter drone sits on a long white sheet, waiting for its close-up.

This particular workshop’s Geppetto is Yvan. He grins as he shows off his creations, flittering around with a lit cigarette in his mouth, dangling ash, grabbing different models. (Yvan is a pseudonym; WIRED granted some of the people in this story anonymity due to the security risk.)

Yvan holds up a mid-size drone: This model successfully hit a target from 11 kilometers away, he says, but it should be capable of traveling at least 20. He’s trying different batteries and controllers to try to extend the range. He screws on a stabilizer tailpiece to a hard plastic shell—Yvan 3D-prints these himself—and holds up the assembled bomb. It’s capable of carrying a 3.5-kilogram explosive payload, enough to take out a Russian tank.

He uses his index finger and thumb to pick up a nondescript beige chip: This, he says, is what he’s really proud of.

One big problem with these drones—which are based on commercially available first-person-view (FPV) or photography drones—is that their explosive payload is jimmy-rigged on. It requires the drone to crash in order to close the circuit and trigger the explosion.

This chip, Yvan says, allows for remote detonation from a significant distance, meaning the operator can park their drone and lay in wait for hours, even days, before it goes off. He expects this technology could, eventually, be connected to AI—exploding only if it registers a nearby tank, for example. He has created a long-range smart land mine, I note. After the idea is passed through our translator, he nods enthusiastically.

There are many of these FPV drone workshops around Ukraine—Kyiv estimates there are about 200 Ukrainian companies producing aerial drones, with others producing land- and sea-based uncrewed vehicles. But Yvan, grinning proudly, insists that the manufacturer which he represents, VERBA, is the best.

Ukraine is facing increasingly tough odds in its defensive war against a better-resourced, better-equipped enemy. Thanks to delayed aid from Washington and shortages in other NATO warehouses, Ukraine has lacked artillery shells, long-range missiles, and even air defense munitions.

These drones, however, represent a bright spot for the Ukrainians. Entrepreneurship and innovation is scaling up a sizable drone industry in the country, and it’s making new technological leaps that would make the Pentagon envious.

The age of drone warfare is here, and Ukraine wants to be a superpower.

After Yvan showed off his workshop, we loaded into the car to visit one of his factories.

Behind a steel door is a room filled with racks, where 30 3D printers are working simultaneously, printing various drone components in unison. The twentysomething employees seem accustomed to the screeching alarm—some are soldering the drones together, others are tinkering with designs in AutoCAD, one is lounging on a sofa.

Strung across one shelf of 3D printers is a black flag, a take on Blackbeard’s (apocryphal) pirate flag. It shows a horned skeleton wearing an AR headset and holding a controller, thrusting his spear toward a bleeding heart as a quadcopter flies above.

In the first year of the war, when FPV drones were providing extraordinary footage of the front lines and viral video of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) dropping grenades on Russian tanks captivated the world, Ukraine was snatching up every consumer drone it could find. Chinese technology giant DJI became a household name in Ukraine, thanks to its drones’ ubiquity on the front lines. Ukraine’s early advantage was quickly lost, however, as Russia scrambled to snatch up these Chinese-made UAVs.

“When Russia sees, from Instagram, my product, Russia starts buying all these components in China,” a VERBA executive says. The new demand from Moscow can often cause either shortages or inflation, squeezing out the Ukrainian companies. So entrepreneurs like Yvan began building their own.

When Yvan began his operation in the early months of the war following Russia’s February 2022 full-scale invasion, he was creating a handful of frankendrones to send to the Ukrainian Armed Forces. Now, Yvan says, his operation is producing 5,000 FPV drones per month. He offers a range of systems, from a mammoth 12-inch model to a 4-inch prototype.

At first, these entrepreneurs were pursuing this project on their own—scrambling, like most of the country, to be useful in helping Ukraine defend itself. Kyiv was initially cool to the idea that a domestic drone industry was worth the money and attention, especially given the demand for more conventional arms. Some in the military, one executive says, dismissed the utility of these innovative weapons and surveillance platforms as merely “wedding photography drones.” (One executive said Oleksandr Syrskyi, Ukraine’s new commander in chief, had been an early adopter inside the military, directly contracting 10 firms in early 2023 to begin assembling new technology for his forces.)

That attitude changed in 2023, when Ukraine set up Brave1, a government-run technology agency and incubator that helps connect private enterprise to the Ukrainian Armed Forces.

Since its creation, Brave1 has worked to streamline design, development, and procurement of new defense technology, while helping companies navigate government and military bureaucracy. Brave1 has already awarded more than $3 million in research and development grants and connected more than 750 companies to the Ukrainian Armed Forces.

When United24, the Ukrainian government’s in-house crowdfunding platform, first pitched an “army of drones” to its donors in 2022, it aimed to buy just 200 units. Today, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky projected late last year that his country would produce over 1 million drones in 2024.

“I would say that we can even double this number,” Natalia Kushnerska, head of Brave1’s defense technology cluster, tells WIRED.

“We have the responsibility and the motivation to do it today and to do it very fast,” she says. “Because we don't have any other choice.”

This is a war, one executive told me, “where the economy matters.”

Even hampered by sanctions, Russia has a $2 trillion economy—about 6 percent of that is geared toward its wartime production. Ukraine’s entire GDP, by contrast, is less than $200 billion.

While Kyiv has received substantial support from its NATO partners, it faces constant pressure to find efficiencies. The economics of these drones are looking better and better.

Yvan’s drones are, compared to conventional munitions, cheap. His most expensive unit runs about $2,500, but the cheapest is only $400.

Early in the war, the Ukrainians could reasonably expect—depending on weather, the mission, and Russian jamming efforts—that about 30 percent of their drones would connect with the target. Today, good Ukrainian-made systems are approaching a 70 percent success rate.

It can often take four or five artillery shells to successfully destroy a medium-range target, such as a tank. At $8,000 per shell—which are in short supply and high demand—that is an expensive proposition. Even if it takes two of Yvan’s most expensive drones to achieve the same objective, that’s thousands of dollars in savings. The proliferation of these drones reduces the “cost-per-kill,” as one executive phrased it, and reduces the strain on those dwindling ammunition stockpiles.

Even if Yvan and other producers are making more and more of their systems in Ukraine, they still rely on Chinese suppliers for critical onboard components. That comes with a trade-off—Chinese suppliers are cheaper, but they tend to be of lower quality and are happy to do business with Russia as well. Other options, such as companies in Taiwan, the United States, Canada, or Europe, are better quality but can be several times more expensive.

These supply chains, Yvan says, are “complicated.” Drone manufacturers who spoke to WIRED say anywhere between 40 percent and 80 percent of their drone components are made in Ukraine. Asked how long it would take before Ukraine manufactures nearly everything in these drones, from the rotor blades to the onboard components, Yvan provides a bullish estimate: “six months.”

It’s not an entirely unrealistic dream. Mykhailo Fedorov, Ukraine’s deputy prime minister and also minister responsible for digital transformation, said late last year that Kyiv hopes to break ground on a semiconductor factory, capable of producing 50,000 chips a year, by 2025. Ukraine produces about half the world’s supply of neon, necessary for the lasers used to make the chips.

There are already companies in Ukraine that have developed electronic design automation software—a necessary tool for producing chips—and that do electronic assembly inside the country itself. An industry source tells WIRED that a working group was formed in late 2023 to chart out how Ukraine could be a player in the semiconductor industry.

Another defense technology executive, Igor, manufactures considerably more-sensitive drones. “We definitely don’t buy anything from China,” he says. His products are more expensive, he says, “but we are looking for something that would differentiate us from the Russians.” At the moment, he says, “Russia is ahead.” He’s hoping to close that gap.

For any of this to work, however, there needs to be demand for these drones. The more they can sell, the more they can invest. “The things that they need,” Kushnerska says: “contracts and money.” Demand has certainly grown—fundraising platform United24 helped finance a fleet of naval drones and raised funds to purchase 5,000 surveillance UAVs. Other organizations have led similar purchases. The drone-makers, however, say it’s just not enough.

In early 2023, Ukraine’s parliament passed new laws to regulate how drone manufacturers can contract with the state; while profiteering is generally discouraged in the wartime economy, the law specifically allows the companies to charge up to 25 percent profit.

Yvan says he charges just a 10 percent premium for his drones and reinvests all that profit back into his operation. Representatives from other drone companies who spoke to WIRED say they operate on a similar basis.

More orders will mean more investment. Thus far, NATO countries have preferred to purchase locally-made equipment and ship it to Ukraine. That may be changing.

Bill Blair, Canada’s minister of defense, visited Kyiv shortly before I was there. While there, he announced that Ottawa would donate 800 Canadian-made drones to Ukraine. While the donation was lauded, a senior official asked the minister, “Why didn't you buy our drones?” After being briefed on the various innovations taking place in the Ukrainian drone industry, Blair was convinced. “We're also going to find ways to invest in Ukrainian industry,” he tells WIRED. “The point of the [Ukraine Defense Contact Group drone coalition] is to create capability, not only in the countries that are in the coalition but also capability in Ukraine.”

Even still, bureaucracy moves slowly. What’s more, startups—some of which are helmed by technologists or special effects gurus with no experience in procurement, let alone war—are often learning as they go. One executive, covering his eyes with his hand, says: “It’s like going completely blind.”

Not every company has been able to hack it. One executive says he’s aware of five defense technology startups that have shut down since the war began.

Much attention has been paid to FPV drones. They reinforce the idea that Ukraine’s defense is a scrappy, homespun effort. But even as the country has professionalized production of these light, agile drones, it has rapidly spun up production of other, more complicated systems.

One of Ukraine’s biggest disadvantages, from the start of the war, has been its difficulty in hitting targets inside Russia. Because Moscow has so effectively dominated the skies, Ukraine has been left playing defense.

That equation has changed substantially in recent weeks. Ukraine has had enormous success in attacking Russian oil refineries—knocking out as much as 15 percent of the country’s total refining capacity—and bombing Russian air bases. This has all been made possible by Ukrainian-made long-range attack drones.

Igor, who represents a company responsible for producing those long-range bombers, says they have developed a unit capable of flying 1,000 kilometers and carrying a 25-kilogram payload and has produced “several hundred” units for the Ukrainian Armed Forces. And they are actively working on a new model, capable of flying up to 2,500 kilometers. (It will pack a smaller punch, he said: “The longer you go, the lighter the payload.”)

These systems are more expensive: from $35,000 to $100,000. But if they can destroy millions of dollars worth of Russian equipment, that’s a bargain.

“These are no simple drones,” Igor says. “We don’t have the luxury, like the Western guys, to spend years in development.”

They’re not stopping with drones, either. They’re using the same technology to develop Ukrainian-made missiles, capable of flying farther and doing more damage to Russian military infrastructure, tucked well behind the front lines, which is regularly used to attack Ukrainian cities.

Igor’s goal is to “bring the war to Russia.” FPV drones have broadcast the realities of the front lines in high definition—long-range bombers could successfully make it feel real, he says. “They don’t suffer like we suffer.”

The effort to bring the war to Russia is advancing on multiple fronts. One of the most famous uncrewed systems of the war has been Kyiv’s Sea Baby drones. Videos have gone viral of these sleek ships clipping along the waters of the Black Sea.

According to Kyiv, they can carry 850 kilograms of explosives, go 90 kilometers per hour, travel some 1,000 kilometers—and they are invisible to radar. This is the kind of capability that the Pentagon, and other defense departments, has spent years trying to develop. “We like to joke that everything we do now, in Ukraine, takes three days—globally, it takes three years,” Brave1’s Kushnerska says.

Ask around Kyiv about these drones, however, and everyone is mum. Even otherwise talkative defense sources go quiet when asked about the Sea Babys. Asked about the vehicles, one defense executive smiled and said simply, “That’s classified.”

Kushnerska is equally evasive: “We need to keep silent about new solutions and new surprises that we are preparing for the enemy.”

The skullduggery is understandable. These uncrewed vehicles have been responsible for doing massive damage to Russia’s prized Black Sea fleet and spearheading the first major attack on the Kerch Bridge, in Crimea, in 2022.

Developing naval drones, however, is relatively easy compared to uncrewed land systems.

Over tea with Stepan, another defense entrepreneur, he lists the litany of difficulties of trying to build uncrewed land systems: They don’t travel well over tough terrain, they don’t operate well in inclement weather, and they don’t tend to go very far.

And yet, Stepan says, his company has overcome all those obstacles—which the Pentagon is still wrestling with—and has put these land systems in the field. Plus, Stepan says he’s “pleasantly surprised by how they’re being used.” He says their smallest unit, which has generally been used to deliver food and equipment, recently rescued and evacuated a wounded soldier from the front line.

Ukraine is not the only side deploying these land systems, however. In late March, pro-Kremlin channels celebrated what they said was the successful deployment of Russian-made uncrewed land systems, outfitted with an AGS-17 grenade launcher.

Ukraine believes its advantage will come from how it dispatches these systems. “You need a mesh system,” Stepan says. And that’s one of the single hardest things to do. Ukraine has started dispatching repeater UAVs, which are used to extend the base station signal, allowing the drones to fly farther and defend better against Russian jamming.

One ground drone, basically a mobile machine-gun turret, boasts an 800-meter range. What’s more impressive, however, is what happens when the land system is paired with a surveillance drone. Rather than them firing directly ahead, Stepan’s team has been training Ukrainian soldiers how to raise the weapon's trajectory, firing in a parabolic pattern and using the drone’s camera to adjust its aim. This tactic, he says, extends the drone’s firing range to 2.4 kilometers.

Doing combined operations with a couple of drones is hard enough. If Ukraine wants to really take advantage of these autonomous systems, it will need to figure out how to command multiple systems across land and air—and that’s where artificial intelligence comes in.

Stepan walks through the four levels of how AI can augment warfare: One is reconnaissance, where machine learning can be used to collate large volumes of footage and satellite imagery. Two is “copiloting,” as he calls it, where AI can analyze that intelligence and help draw insights. Third is planning, where AI can help develop “interlinked, complex orders” for multiple systems across land and air; he likens that to having AI develop football plays. Finally, step four is full autonomy, where AI collects intelligence, analyzes it, develops orders based on the intelligence, and dispatches and commands autonomous units based on that information—although humans review and approve each step of the process.

There are steps beyond this, Stepan notes, that remove human involvement entirely, but he isn’t interested in going there. Another executive recounted a story of how one company designed an autonomous machine gun, capable of conducting object detection and opening fire on its own—that was a “big, big problem,” he says, after the weapon’s radio signals were jammed and it began firing wildly. “I think we can do this slowly,” he adds.

Stepan’s systems are capable of operating at step four, he says. It means his systems have the “ability to take in variables” in real time—it allows his drones to change tactics depending on the environment. He provides examples: “What if our team is close? What if there is [electronic warfare]? What if one system loses connection?”

Kushnerska says Ukraine, alive to the concerns about and risks of AI on the battlefield, is mostly interested in using artificial intelligence only in the “last mile.”

It’s not enough to build drones. Ukrainians also have to know how to pilot them.

The last stop on Yvan’s tour is at a strip mall some distance away. Outside, a group of fresh-faced young men smoke cigarettes and enthusiastically greet him as he walks past.

Inside is a sterile classroom, with a dozen desks laid out—each featuring a tablet, a workstation, and an array of tools. In the back corner are pallets of FPV drones waiting to be unloaded.

This is Yvan’s drone school. Here, students learn not just the ins and outs of piloting these quadcopters but also how the machines work and how to repair them. Down the hallway is a large conference room where the students first test their skills—flags and checkpoints are propped up on cardboard boxes taped together into platforms of different levels. Once students can successfully navigate this makeshift course, they graduate to piloting the drones outside.

Yvan’s drones are normally painted jet black, designed to look as nondescript as possible. One drone, sitting on a desk in the training school, is spray-painted a bright orange. Yvan grins: “We’re sick of losing them in the grass.”

As Kyiv mobilized tens of thousands of ordinary Ukrainian men to fight, training has been a critical necessity. Particularly as ammunition supplies have dwindled, virtual training has been especially attractive. High-tech combat simulators have allowed Ukrainian troops to simulate real combat scenarios with rifles, rocket-propelled grenades, even anti-tank missiles. Ukrainian entrepreneurs are hoping to have dozens of these simulators online in the near future, with the goal of training 100,000 troops.

An industry source tells WIRED that a drone combat simulator went online last month, allowing trainees to simulate the entire process of launching a long-range drone strike. Version 2.0 is being rolled out now, they say, adding that it is likely the first immersive offensive drone simulator in operation. The simulator is also intended to help Ukrainian pilots practice integrating their drones with land systems, which is notoriously difficult for even experienced soldiers.

While Yvan’s drone school offers hands-on experience for users of the FPV drones, this new drone simulator allows pilots to practice long-range targeting, flying in adverse weather conditions, and countering electronic warfare.

All of this—the FPV drones, the long-range bombers, the flight simulators—is Ukrainian innovation at work. And it is moving remarkably fast. Some day, after the war is over, Yvan may well be on the front lines of a Ukrainian technology renaissance, fulfilling orders for the Pentagon. First, both he—and Ukraine—need to survive.

In recent weeks, Russian forces have made modest but steady advances along the front lines. Defense executives, meanwhile, see sabotage and industrial espionage as constant problems. Even more acute is the threat of Russian air strikes. One executive recently recounted how one of his company’s main facilities was nearly hit by two Russian cruise missiles. The risk is very real.

Leaving the school, Yvan opens up the back of his car. He rummages around and hands me two patches: One features a cartoonish and scantily clad woman wearing an FPV headset with the Ukrainian flag on the side, piloting one of Yvan’s rotocopters. The other, an army-green Canadian flag, carries the words “ALWAYS BE READY.”

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

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Saturday, May 4, 2024 7:53 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 SIGNYM:
Yep. It's called deterrence. It's a time-honored way to prevent escalation.

Are the USA and EU smart enuf to take the hint?

Yup.

Once as a teenager I had unwittingly walked into a spot where I had blocked off the only route of escape for a skunk I didn't know was there until we saw each other.

All he needed to do was give me that little hiss and I got my ass out of there quick because there was no way I was going to school in the morning smelling like that.

Second and Ted are just salty that Putin doesn't bow down and kiss Joe Biden*'s withered dick.

Alternatively, Putin is murdering people and stealing their land. Putin laughs and his military won't stop until it has taken Europe, proving that God loves Russia and hates the Satanic West:

Putin attacks West as 'satanic', hails Russian "traditional" values
Russian President Vladimir Putin said the West was "satanic" and rejected "moral norms" in a combative speech

Putin declares holy war on Western 'satanism'
Russian president Vladimir Putin invoked Jesus, Satan, and transsexual bogeymen in a Kremlin ceremony for carving up Ukraine.

Putin invokes Satan, slavery, Goebbels, nukes to denounce West in annexation speech.

Much more at https://www.google.com/search?q=Putin+Satan+West

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

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Saturday, May 4, 2024 9:04 AM

Shut the fuck up.

Nobody cares.

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

Political correctness is just tyranny, with a smiley face.

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Saturday, May 4, 2024 9:24 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:
Shut the fuck up.

Nobody cares.

Nobody in Russia cares: Russia Relying on 'Mass Over Quality'

May 04, 2024 at 8:16 AM EDT

The term "meat grinder" is used to describe Russia's tactic of sending waves of soldiers to wear down Ukrainian forces and expose their locations to Russian artillery. Using this method, Russia's gains have been incremental, albeit at a cost.

Despite the cost in life, Russia has fully adapted its military to attritional warfare which relies on mass over quality. This reliance on mass will almost certainly continue for the duration of the Ukraine war and have long-lasting effects on Russia's future army.

https://www.newsweek.com/russia-ukraine-mod-losses-1897297

Russia is adapting to war: Putin urges Russian women to have 'eight or more' children
https://www.google.com/search?q=Putin+asks+women+to+have+8+or+more+chi
ldren

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

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Saturday, May 4, 2024 9:31 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Shut the fuck up.

Nobody cares.
Nobody in Russia cares

Nobody cares. Period.

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

Political correctness is just tyranny, with a smiley face.

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Saturday, May 4, 2024 9:41 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:
Shut the fuck up.

Nobody cares.
Nobody in Russia cares

Nobody cares. Period.

Russians and Trumptards have shortened lives because they don't care and aren't careful. Have your teeth regrown, 6ix? No. Are you smoking? Yes. But you can brag about not drinking as much alcohol as a Russian.

How long does a Russian male live? 64.21 years. No one knows why. It couldn't be related to the way they live, could it? I knew many Trumptards who lived fewer years than a Russian. Death always came as a surprise for them, but it wasn't a surprise for me since they weren't careful.
https://www.statista.com/statistics/971100/life-expectancy-at-birth-in
-russia-by-gender/

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

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Saturday, May 4, 2024 9:52 AM

Shut up retard.

You're about to get destroyed in November because you and your party are a bunch of idiots.

We got plenty of problems right here in our country that nobody in the Democrat party will even acknowledge, let alone has any will or desire to address, and nobody has time for your bullshit fear porn about Russia.

Nobody gives one single shit about Ukraine, just as I've said from the very beginning of all of this. Nobody goes around waving Ukraine flags or even putting Ukraine flag banners on their Twitter handles anymore. You Democrat voting lemmings are only capable of thinking about one issue at a time, to the exclusion of everything else, and everyone's long since moved on to other things.

Just look at yourself, for example... EVERYTHING in the news is bad for Joe Biden* right now, so you've posted in 5 separate threads just this morning about Russia and that's all you posted about yesterday as well.

The dumbass college kids are all in on supporting Hamas right now and probably forgot all about the fact that Ukraine is a country on the map, let alone anything going on over there.

Fuck Ukraine. Fuck Russia.

Nobody cares.

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

Political correctness is just tyranny, with a smiley face.

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Saturday, May 4, 2024 12:59 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Quote:
Nobody in Russia cares: Russia Relying on 'Mass Over Quality'

May 04, 2024 at 8:16 AM EDT

The term "meat grinder" is used to describe Russia's tactic of sending waves of soldiers to wear down Ukrainian forces ... blah blah blah ...

UNLIKE YOU, OR NEWSPEAK, I've watched video after video of Russian assaults. These videos are posted by Ukraine from Ukrainian surveillance drones, and only when Kiev feels they show a tactical victory.

A Russian armored assault usually consists of a lead tank and two or three APCs. On occasion, they do something wild and crazy like assault at high speed with two or three dirt bikes (motorcycles).

Russians are profligate in their use of artillery, bombs, drones, and ... then ... armored vehicles, and these armored vehicles seem very protective. Time after time, I've seen videos of a Russian APC hit a landmine or be damaged by a FPV drone, and ALL the troops bail for the nearest cover. And remember, these are Ukrainian videos of Ukrainian "succeses".

No "meat grinder" there.

Russian clearing operations seem to work in small groups of three or four. Often under the watchful eye and guidance of a Russian surveillance drone.

No meat grinder there either.

I remember only two mass ARMORED assaults, one against the Avdiivka "terrakon" and one attempt thru fields SE of Avdiivka which had been heavily mined, and while they caused a lot of armored vehicle damage I didn't see much loss of life.

Total Rusian dead is estimated at 50,000-60,000. The Russian MOD and Kremlin are doing their best to minimize Russian casualties by attriting the other side as much as possible with, as I said, profligate use of missiles, bombs, artillery, drones, cluster munitions and TOS flamethrowers and defensive use of counterbattery artillery, EW, and air defenses.

They are highly aware that Russia's population is 130 million while the EU population is 450 million and USA is 330 million. The ONE THING that would probably cause the Kremlin to negotiate or, alternately, pull the trigger on WMD would be a scenario of mass casualties on the Russian side: an "existential threat" that Putin has referred to. The Kremlin and MOD have no intention of losing even a hundred thousand troops.

For comparison, Ukrainian dead and severely wounded are estimated at 400,000 to a million. Assuming 1/3 of those are deaths, that's 130,000- 300,000 dead.

How about bringing "real" into the "real world" events forum, SECOND, instead of your usual bullshit?

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

Why SECOND'S posts are brainless: "I clocked how much time: no more than 10 minutes per day. With cut-and-paste (Ctrl C and Ctrl V) and AI, none of this takes much time."
Or, any verification or thought.

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Saturday, May 4, 2024 5:53 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:

No meat grinder there either.

I remember only two mass ARMORED assaults, one against the Avdiivka "terrakon" and one attempt thru fields SE of Avdiivka which had been heavily mined, and while they caused a lot of armored vehicle damage I didn't see much loss of life.

Total Rusian dead is estimated at 50,000-60,000.

How about bringing "real" into the "real world" events forum, SECOND, instead of your usual bullshit?

Signym, where is the real proof of only 50,000 dead Russian soldiers? Instead of mourning the Russian fallen by verifiable name, Putin asks Russian women to have 8 or more children so that nobody needs to know how many died since there is an overabundance of available bodies to throw away. Even today, Russia does not have a provable number of dead Soviet soldiers to the nearest 10,000,000 for WWII. The Russian tradition of not knowing or caring continues.

In contrast to the Russian way, the US publicizes the names of the fallen. During World War II: 405,399 Americans died and the number is truth, not Russian propaganda. The USA still keeps a truthful list of dead soldiers. Russia never was truthful. (Russia pays volunteers ten times more than the average Russian to get new soldiers. Ten times would not be enough if the volunteers knew from official sources that a thousand of them die every day in Ukraine. https://www.businessinsider.com/russia-military-offers-recruits-10x-av
erage-salary-to-fill-depleted-ranks-2023-5

Putin can afford to lose 365,000 Russians per year [8 or more children per woman!] but he can't afford to pay them a hundred times more than average. Therefore Putin's secrecy about the names of dead soldiers in Ukraine.)

https://dcas.dmdc.osd.mil/dcas/app/conflictCasualties/ofs/namesOfFalle
n

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

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