Ukraine and the Spirit of the Army
Here’s the weird thing: by any actual reality-based measure, Vladimir Putin is not losing the war in Ukraine. He is winning the war in Ukraine. — Tucker Carlson, August 29, 2022
I can't stop laughing at the fact that one day before the launch of the most successful Ukrainian counter offensive since the battle for Kyiv Tucker Carlson did a segment talking about how Russia is winning and its inevitable that Ukraine loses the war pic.twitter.com/OR3MjnO7KH
— Dylan Burns 🇺🇦🇲🇲🏳️🌈 (@DylanBurns1776) September 9, 2022
From this morning’s Washington Post:
CHUHUIV, Ukraine — After months on the edge of Russian occupation, and two days of heavy bombardment, residents of this beleaguered town came out Saturday to clean up — and celebrate, as a fast-moving Ukrainian counteroffensive pushed Russian forces into a stunning retreat from key strategic areas in the northeast Kharkiv region.
As the advancing Ukrainian troops regained lost territory with shocking speed, liberating the town of Balakliya and raising their blue-and-yellow flag over the city of Izyum, jubilant Ukrainians and officials in Kyiv and Western capitals indulged in a daring hope: maybe the grinding, stalemated war was swinging their way.
“Everything is going to be Ukrainian again,” cried Natalia Khubezhova, 48, who was one of dozens of festive residents of Chuhuiv out sweeping up glass and repairing doorways on the village hospital, which was struck by a rocket Friday. Tears ran from her eyes as she hailed the progress of Ukrainian soldiers, including her husband and son.
What explains this shift? It’s a complex problem, and Mencken reminded us that for every complex problem, there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong. Still, don’t discount the “spirit of the army” — the fact that Ukraine has a strong reason to fight, and Russian troops have no reason at all to fight.
Leo Tolstoy wrote in War and Peace:
By long years of military experience he knew, and with the wisdom of age understood, that it is impossible for one man to direct hundreds of thousands of others struggling with death, and he knew that the result of a battle is decided not by the orders of a commander in chief, nor the place where the troops are stationed, nor by the number of cannon or of slaughtered men, but by that intangible force called the spirit of the army, and he watched this force and guided it in as far as that was in his power.
Tolstoy elsewhere proposed an equation similar to that describing the relationships between momentum, mass, and velocity:
In military affairs the strength of an army is the product of its mass and some unknown x.
Military science, seeing in history innumerable instances of the fact that the size of any army does not coincide with its strength and that small detachments defeat larger ones, obscurely admits the existence of this unknown factor and tries to discover it—now in a geometric formation, now in the equipment employed, now, and most usually, in the genius of the commanders. But the assignment of these various meanings to the factor does not yield results which accord with the historic facts.
Yet it is only necessary to abandon the false view (adopted to gratify the “heroes”) of the efficacy of the directions issued in wartime by commanders, in order to find this unknown quantity.
That unknown quantity is the spirit of the army, that is to say, the greater or lesser readiness to fight and face danger felt by all the men composing an army, quite independently of whether they are, or are not, fighting under the command of a genius, in two—or three-line formation, with cudgels or with rifles that repeat thirty times a minute. Men who want to fight will always put themselves in the most advantageous conditions for fighting.
The spirit of an army is the factor which multiplied by the mass gives the resulting force.
Having some nice High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems never hurts either.
Hi. This post exists.
Patterico (029a15) — 9/10/2022 @ 12:51 pmIts a great post Pat. Tucker is Glen Becking himself and I heard Fox is in discussions with Megan Kelly and Ben Shapiro. Strange, Tucker’s the highest rated program on Television, not just cable, but no one advertises on his show. O’Reilly was supposedly unreplaceable, but he was.
Russia found out weapons don’t win wars – men and women fighting for their families do.
EPWJ (650a62) — 9/10/2022 @ 1:13 pmAnd weapons.
Patterico (029a15) — 9/10/2022 @ 1:14 pmtrue
EPWJ (650a62) — 9/10/2022 @ 1:27 pmI posted before the start of the war that ukraine would not be the pushover that the “EXPERTS” said it would, not knowing how corrupt the russian army’s leadership was. By the way their is a good book on why the experts are always wrong. I thought their would be a house by house defense of kiev watching school children making molotov cocktails in their class rooms, because ukrainians hate russia as a person familiar with their history.
asset (3bd92e) — 9/10/2022 @ 2:04 pm@2. You know what the difference is between Tucker Carlson and Bugs Bunny?
Nothing.
And the fact so many millions of Elmer Fudds never figure that out is what makes the media biz such a wonderfully lucrative enterprise.
“Man, you’re never going to get any truth from us. We’ll tell you anything you want to hear; we lie like hell. We’ll tell you that, uh, Kojak always gets the killer, or that nobody ever gets cancer at Archie Bunker’s house, and no matter how much trouble the hero is in, don’t worry, just look at your watch; at the end of the hour he’s going to win. We’ll tell you any sh!t you want to hear. We deal in *illusions*, man! None of it is true! But you people sit there, day after day, night after night, all ages, colors, creeds… We’re all you know. You’re beginning to believe the illusions we’re spinning here. You’re beginning to think that the tube is reality, and that your own lives are unreal. You do whatever the tube tells you! You dress like the tube, you eat like the tube, you raise your children like the tube, you even *think* like the tube! This is mass madness, you maniacs! In God’s name, you people are the real thing! *WE* are the illusion!” – Howard Beale [Peter Finch] ‘Network’ 1976
DCSCA (030713) — 9/10/2022 @ 2:08 pmSomebody send Tucker this video
https://twitter.com/i/status/1568563472048193536
steveg (ad36d2) — 9/10/2022 @ 2:26 pmOr this one.
maybe mildly nsfw if you work at a Baptist Church
https://twitter.com/i/status/1567596642966147077
This is the one time I’d be glad to have a bag over my head
steveg (ad36d2) — 9/10/2022 @ 2:29 pmI don’t understand why anyone believes that Trustfund Tucker knows anything about anything.
Nic (896fdf) — 9/10/2022 @ 2:31 pmThe Americans at Bastogne were outnumbered, outgunned and out of everything. They just wouldn’t give in. I don’t see the Russians holding the line anywhere, and once a rout starts it’s defeat in detail.
Kevin M (eeb9e9) — 9/10/2022 @ 2:36 pmI’m pretty sure that, when this is all over, we’d be wanting these people in NATO. I like them; they fight.
Kevin M (eeb9e9) — 9/10/2022 @ 2:38 pm@7/@8: Send Tucka this video instead– because he’d use it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_TUPUbvO0eU&t=2s
DCSCA (030713) — 9/10/2022 @ 2:45 pmI don’t understand why anyone believes that Trustfund Tucker knows anything about anything.
I doubt he could cook a scrambled egg.
Kevin M (eeb9e9) — 9/10/2022 @ 2:57 pm@13. It’s certain he can cook a Swanson TV Dinner.
DCSCA (030713) — 9/10/2022 @ 3:01 pmYou know what the difference is between Tucker Carlson and Bugs Bunny?
That is so unfair to Bugs. Tucker is much closer to Daffy as seen in “Duck, Rabbit, Duck”
Kevin M (eeb9e9) — 9/10/2022 @ 3:03 pmIt’s certain he can cook a Swanson TV Dinner.
I doubt one ever entered the house. The kitchen staff would have been fired.
Kevin M (eeb9e9) — 9/10/2022 @ 3:04 pm@16. Yummy, yummy, yummy he had mother’s love in his tummy: ‘In 1979, Carlson’s father married divorcée Patricia Caroline Swanson, an heiress to Swanson Enterprises, daughter of Gilbert Carl Swanson and niece of Senator J. William Fulbright.’ source, wikitrythesalisburysteakdinner.tinfoil.carbs
DCSCA (030713) — 9/10/2022 @ 3:11 pmBut back on topic.
From the Open Thread: The Bulge
https://twitter.com/TarmoJuntunen/status/1568227635641331713
Kevin M (eeb9e9) — 9/10/2022 @ 3:18 pmThings are moving fast, and in Ukraine’s favor.
Ukraine always had the will and they were always in the right. They just needed the means, which is happening. Slava Ukraini!
“Why do I care what is going on in the conflict between Ukraine and Russia? And I’m serious. Why do I care? Why shouldn’t I root for Russia? Which I am.”
Paul Montagu (753b42) — 9/10/2022 @ 3:24 pm[…]
“I don’t think that we should be at war with Russia. And I think we should probably take the side of Russia if we have to choose between Russia and Ukraine. That is my view.
–Tucker Carlson, Putin fanboi and defender of evil, December 2019
Those Ukraine soldiers are fighting for their homes. The Russians are conscripts fighting for lies, and fear of their own side.
And those weapons we designed for fighting Russia seem to work well.
Kevin M (eeb9e9) — 9/10/2022 @ 3:42 pmThe next question is whether Putin would call this “special military operation” a war so he could trigger a general mobilization and conscript Russians to the front (because the people he’s sending there aren’t the best, bad decision), but doing so would be an admission that he’s losing, and I doubt the populace would take kindly to fighting an illegal immoral war.
Paul Montagu (753b42) — 9/10/2022 @ 3:44 pmKevinM
steveg (ad36d2) — 9/10/2022 @ 3:55 pmThat map is great one.
I think it was actually done by this guy
https://twitter.com/i/status/1568723513099313159
Zelensky: I don’t need transportation, I need ammunition.
nk (a62991) — 9/10/2022 @ 5:53 pmPutin: Russian prostitute are the best in the world.
Carlson: From each according to his ability, to each according to his need.
@23. Zelensky: I don’t need transportation, I need ammunition.
Putin: Russian prostitute are the best in the world.
Carlson: From each according to his ability, to each according to his need.
Biden: Putin knows, if I am president of the United States, his days of tyranny and trying to intimidate the United States and those in Eastern Europe are over.
ROFLMAOPIP.
DCSCA (f0be40) — 9/10/2022 @ 6:00 pmWhat gets me about all this is that the Biden Administration is doing all this with surprising competence. I wonder if there’s an opportunity for graft here; he’s usually best when there is.
Kevin M (eeb9e9) — 9/10/2022 @ 6:50 pmWhat gets me about all this is that the Biden Administration is doing all this with surprising competence.
ROFLMAOPIP
DCSCA (860a74) — 9/10/2022 @ 7:02 pmWhat gets me about all this is that the Biden Administration is doing all this with surprising competence.
in the unlikely event ukraine wins every battle and recovers every piece of territory, they will simply be back to where they were nine months ago, minus many tens of thousands of lives and a ton of infrastructure
competence would’ve involved finding a way such that the war never happened, without costing us anything, and that’s what we had before demented joe got involved
we just passed the 83rd anniversary of the start of ww2, in which Germany conquered Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands, Belgium, Poland and France in nine months
Russia can’t even take Kiev in eight months, making the claims about putin’s threat to Europe look even more incredibly stupid than they did months ago
JF (a14cf6) — 9/10/2022 @ 7:29 pmThey will end up with everything back, plus Crimea, plus Putin’s balls. Then join NATO. With any luck, Trump will be dead, too.
Kevin M (eeb9e9) — 9/10/2022 @ 10:56 pmDon’t forget that Vietnam kicked China’s ass when China invaded in 1979. We shouldn’t be too shocked by Ukraine.
norcal (da5491) — 9/10/2022 @ 11:24 pmIf Putin’s propagandists were of Tolstoy quality, there would still be the Bell Curve to deal with.
That’s why Putin needs to impose a fifteen-year prison sentence on Russians who don’t profess to believe it (the propaganda), and why the West overwhelmingly [it’s a word, look it up] supports Ukraine.
The 75% of Americans who support supplying Ukraine with weapons are pats on the back for Brandon and fingers to Covfefe.
nk (2b3b13) — 9/11/2022 @ 6:10 amI think Winston Churchill called it “fighting spirit.”
This is true only some of the time, or else the Indians would have won many more of the Indian wars in the United States.
https://www.simplycharly.com/read/blog/a-fighting-spirit-how-winston-churchill-military-intelligence-saved-britain/
But te real difference is military intelligence or mistakes.
Sammy Finkelman (b434ee) — 9/11/2022 @ 6:26 am10. Kevin M (eeb9e9) — 9/10/2022 @ 2:36 pm
It would be a good idea to try to get a Russian rout started. That could end the war, particularly, if Putin became afraid Ukraine could go on past …could be any line, but would stop if e begged for peace. Putin in panic mode might get him to stop and agree to return all prisoners and let them re-establish contact with all Ukrainian citizens now in Russia (once contacted, they seem to be able to leave if not yet directly to Ukraine – those not under arrest I mean. So this may not need to be a separate demand. Besides you would want Putin to end this war as soon, and in as panicky a way, as possible..)
Sammy Finkelman (b434ee) — 9/11/2022 @ 6:39 amNo one expected Putin to invade two regions of Ukraine in 2014. That was all him, doing so illegally and without legitimate provocation. Sometimes bad actors do sh-t, JF.
Paul Montagu (753b42) — 9/11/2022 @ 6:57 amAnd Putin and Tucker might well consider it “winning”. How many Russians and Ukrainians are dying is no skin off their noses. How much it’s costing both nations is not coming out their pockets. They personally are sitting pretty. A psychopath’s “actual reality”.
nk (2b3b13) — 9/11/2022 @ 7:20 amnk (2b3b13) — 9/11/2022 @ 7:20 am
ukraine thanks you for your personal sacrifice, nk
JF (d1cafd) — 9/11/2022 @ 8:09 amAnytime, JF.
nk (a56588) — 9/11/2022 @ 8:27 amBy “competence,” you must mean: Telling Ukraine they couldn’t have the military aid already allocated by Congress until they did a political favor for the U.S. president.
As for how Biden “got involved” in a way that caused Putin to invade, you’ll have to explain that. But one thing we do know is that Biden didn’t regard Putin as more believable than our own IC, so instead of accepting Putin’s assurances that he was not going to attack, the administration announced the signs that he probably would — thus taking away the element of surprise.
Neither Trump nor his cult followers have offered any hint of what Trump would have done to prevent Putin from attacking Ukraine, except to suggest that mere threats of retaliation by the orange god-king would have cowed Putin into submission. Of course, some of the Trump cultists took the position that the U.S. should not be helping Ukraine defend itself from Russian conquest. Some even characterized Putin’s attack as a way of defending “Russian civilization” from the U.S.-controlled “liberal imperium.”
Oddly, I don’t recall any critics of NATO expansion (or of the continuing existence of NATO) predicating their critique on the idea that Russia is too much of a weakling to be any threat at all. It does have a large nuclear arsenal, which it has threatened to use. Not long ago, most of the people against helping the Ukrainians were saying there was no way they could defeat the Russians, so the best option was to “negotiate” how much of Ukraine to let Russia have.
Your comment is rather dismissive of the immense suffering that Russia has inflicted on millions of Ukrainians over the past eight months — and the costs borne by many other nations as they’ve joined together (more or less) to restrain Russia.
It also ignores one key difference from the WWII era: that the U.S. and European nations recognized the danger of letting Putin get away with seizing more territory, and immediately began helping the Ukrainians resist conquest. Another difference is the resolve and courage of the Ukrainians in fighting back.
Radegunda (4099ce) — 9/11/2022 @ 9:06 amModerator — I typed my email wrong the first time. You can just delete that first try.
Radegunda (4099ce) — 9/11/2022 @ 9:07 am@33. No one expected Putin to invade two regions of Ukraine in 2014.
You mean “no one” who wasn’t paying attention:
“Russia has been a great power for centuries, and remains so,” Putin declared in front of Duma, or parliament, deputies on August 16, 1999, as he sought their approval for his prime ministership. “It has always had and still has legitimate zones of interest abroad in both the former Soviet lands and elsewhere.”
https://asiatimes.com/2019/01/putins-plan-to-slowly-reclaim-russias-lost-empire/
DCSCA (227b44) — 9/11/2022 @ 10:52 amIt seems that the Russian occupation is collapsing. The Ukrainians are, in places, about 3 miles from the Russian border.
https://edition.cnn.com/europe/live-news/russia-ukraine-war-news-09-11-22/h_3fa6197f8b99435f3d0395c0d941159f
https://www.nytimes.com/live/2022/09/11/world/ukraine-russia-war/125b5058-92ea-5670-ad37-d364bb71d761?smid=url-share
Kevin M (eeb9e9) — 9/11/2022 @ 11:10 amHere’s the weird thing: by any actual reality-based measure, Vladimir Putin has to be nothing but a major embarrassment to the Trump cult. Can you imagine Putin whining about a “rigged and stolen election”? I mean, really, think about it!
The closest that Trump has come to being Putin, that I can see, is Judge Aileen Mercedes Cannon. And even with her, if she had ruled against him, all he would have done is called her a Mexican (she is Colombian born) and sued her to revoke her appointment.
nk (a56588) — 9/11/2022 @ 11:12 amSituation maps at link.
Rip Murdock (354535) — 9/11/2022 @ 11:30 amFootnotes omitted.
Rip Murdock (354535) — 9/11/2022 @ 12:10 pmMr. Muzyka has a thread…
This part is interesting…
Putin can’t conscript Russians into fighting in Ukraine without a general mobilization, but he can conscript Ukrainians in the conquered territories for use as cannon fodder.
Paul Montagu (753b42) — 9/11/2022 @ 12:13 pm@34. How much it’s costing both nations is not coming out their pockets.
Pfft. Step away from the bong, nk.
Since no U.S. ‘war bonds’ have been peddled by the Joe Show to finance the cost of “giving” munitions freely to the corrupt regime of Bugs Moran, that cost is certainly is coming out of your pocket as well as every other American. While at the same time, Squinty’s policy remains supporting “allies”- including several NATO members and their firms- along with several American companies as well, to continue to ‘do business’ w/Vladimir, Inc., and finance him beyond energy resources.
The list updated as of today:
https://som.yale.edu/story/2022/over-1000-companies-have-curtailed-operations-russia-some-remain
Suckers.
DCSCA (0c6b56) — 9/11/2022 @ 12:13 pmThe closest that Trump has come to being Putin, that I can see, is Judge Aileen Mercedes Cannon.
I don’t understand. She’s as qualified as any number of district court judges (as in “passably”). Did Trump threaten her he’d suicide her out a high window or something?
Kevin M (eeb9e9) — 9/11/2022 @ 12:13 pmbut he can conscript Ukrainians in the conquered territories for use as cannon fodder.
Absolutely guaranteed to polarize these erstwhile pro-Russian areas towards Ukraine for decades to come. Ask a Czech about 1968. Ukraine will be joining NATO before the next presidential election.
Kevin M (eeb9e9) — 9/11/2022 @ 12:17 pmRelated:
Rip Murdock (354535) — 9/11/2022 @ 1:38 pmTurnover among Russian generals is speeding up.
(Durin World War II, a Darwinian process gradually improved the quality of the Soviet non-coms and lower level officers. They had some good top men, Georgy Zhukov, for example, from the begining, but they never caught up with the Nazis in quality at the middle levels .
Now, it seems that they don’t have many good non-coms and officers at any level. Perhaps because of the pervasive corruption?)
Jim Miller (85fd03) — 9/11/2022 @ 1:53 pmMorale seems high
steveg (cffd1a) — 9/11/2022 @ 2:13 pmhttps://t.me/rysnya200/3401 (this link may be nsfw because it has a lot of dead Russian soldiers on the site. I do not recommend scrolling around over there. I did and was reminded the hard way that “200” is slang over there for KIA)
Ukrainians watching the war map in a sports bar.
The fans go wild.
This is so SAD!
Rip Murdock (354535) — 9/11/2022 @ 2:37 pmWhat’s really amazing me is that Reagan was the guy behind a lot of the best weapons. I operated MLRS for a few years on active duty and got into a few prototype versions. That HIMARS is a variant of technology that Reagan brought in to win the cold war, which let’s be honest, he absolutely did, and of course, he’s kicking Russia’s ass again today with that leadership.
Stands in stark contrast to what Trump’s leadership will lead to with respect to stabbing the kurds in the back, collusion with the world’s darkest governments, etc, or Obama and Biden joining Trump to undo any success our blood earned in Iraq and Afghanistan.
It probably serves our nation if this conflict lasts a lot longer, but Russia is crumbling so fast I don’t know if it will. Putin and his pals went from stability and comfort to watching their backs, and that’s probably the most important lesson China can take. Don’t underestimate American innovation or the west’s resolve. We screw around a lot, like when Trump and Biden gave the Taliban back their mojo, but we don’t have armies for marching around squares. We actually do know how to fight, and have been fighting, over and over and over and over. Something to consider.
Dustin (a87c64) — 9/11/2022 @ 2:49 pmYou know, some people take medication for those kind of thoughts. But magazine writers have to publish something or they don’t get paid.
nk (444166) — 9/11/2022 @ 4:37 pm…Reagan brought in to win the cold war, which let’s be honest, he absolutely did, and of course…
=yawn= Honestly. Takes two to tango; read it and weep, kid:
Let’s stop revising history: Reagan didn’t win the Cold War
https://thehill.com/opinion/international/478941-lets-stop-revising-history-reagan-didnt-win-the-cold-war/
Dismissing the continuity of administrations maintaining a post-WW2 foreign policy of containment– by the likes of HST, Ike, JFK, LBJ, The Big Dick, GRF, JEC, RWR and GHWB ain’t gonna win you points on Jeopardy! fella. Bet you’re still waiting for your ‘peace dividend,’ too. 😉
DCSCA (495230) — 9/11/2022 @ 4:40 pmhttps://twitter.com/andrejnkv/status/1507365192405073920
Kevin M (eeb9e9) — 9/11/2022 @ 5:16 pmLet’s stop revising history: Reagan didn’t win the Cold War
Let’s stop. You first. You are the one revising.
He did. His plan, his administration brought therm to their knees. He broke their economy by getting the to use their hard currency to compete with out credit cards. At the end, over 50% of the Soviet economy was being spent on the military and they fell behind every year. At Reykjavik, he offered Gorbachev a way out, and he took it.
To say “Reagan’s deeply personal diplomatic engagement with a moderate, reform-minded Soviet leader fostered the liberalizing changes that ushered in the collapse of the USSR” (as your source does) and then assert Reagan had nothing to do with it is absurd. It’s true that Reagan did that, but first he put their backs to the wall, before making them an incredibly fair offer they could not refuse.
Kevin M (eeb9e9) — 9/11/2022 @ 5:23 pm*getting them to use their hard currency to compete with our credit cards.
Kevin M (eeb9e9) — 9/11/2022 @ 5:24 pmThis was will end slowly, then all at once.
Kevin M (eeb9e9) — 9/11/2022 @ 5:25 pmOne thing is incontrovertible: Putin is all in. Even if he withdraws and shoots ALL the generals, he’s still undone.
Kevin M (eeb9e9) — 9/11/2022 @ 5:41 pmI’m curious to see where Putin lands in this. Will he accidentally fall out of a three-story window. Seems like that happens a lot over there. Maybe the citizens seize a ripe opportunity and take to the streets and finally, finally push back with all their might and win. Maybe Navalny is released and is voted in as president. Maybe the ogliarchs are happy to stay away because of the wrath they would face from the people. Maybe the military, weakened and shamed, join the citizens of Russia and say ‘enough’. Maybe the Kremlin sees the writing on the wall…
Dana (1225fc) — 9/11/2022 @ 5:58 pmBest bet for Putin (assuming he loses badly in Ukraine): a deal with Navalny like the one that Yeltsin made with him, allowing him to retire to his dacha with his whores.
Kevin M (eeb9e9) — 9/11/2022 @ 6:35 pmDana
From Darth Putin, here is an idea on how Putin would kill Putin. We will see if others are as capable
“2 yrs ago I promised to set up commission to investigate how a Russian in Russia on a Russian plane going to Russia from Russia consumed a Russian nerve agent only Russia has. And then blame Poland.”
steveg (5f7e37) — 9/11/2022 @ 6:43 pm#61 All good thoughts, Dana. (Though I might prefer at least a five-story window, just to make sure.)
Jim Miller (85fd03) — 9/11/2022 @ 6:45 pmI’m curious to see where Putin lands in this.
At worst, like Khrushchev or Gorbachev, would be my guess. The nomenklatura will appoint another apparatchik to keep the caviar supply flowing. They will not want to stir things up any more than is necessary.
The people will remain Russians. Which is to say, happy to have a short line at the grocery store and a pair of shoes to walk there with. That, with a bottle of vodka for three druz’ya to share along with their squalor will be enough for them.
nk (4f452c) — 9/11/2022 @ 6:48 pmI dunno, nk, seems like the time is ripe for a rebellion. This is 2022 and they know the West is not going to be a willing go-to to help relieve their misery without some very serious concessions. Young people are angry about being dragged into this doomed effort in Ukraine, so maybe the time has come. Surely if Navalny were out of prison and able to reach the masses more effectively, they might coalesce in an effective way to oust Putin.
Dana (1225fc) — 9/11/2022 @ 7:04 pmAs bad as that vodka may be, it beats samogon made using a car radiator with anti freeze residue, which is what you get when your squalor is that palpable.
The standing Ukrainian joke is that Russians crush everything with artillery to makes themselves feel more at home.
The Irish say whisky was invented to keep the Irish from ruling the world.
steveg (5f7e37) — 9/11/2022 @ 7:15 pmWell, it seems vodka was invented to keep Russians face down in the rapustita
You could be right, Dana. I admit that my view of Russian politics is jaundiced. Democracy in Russia is like Communism in Russia. Old Soviet joke:
nk (4f452c) — 9/11/2022 @ 7:15 pmHe’s just saying the absurd for reaction. This guy was insisting Ukraine wouldn’t even be invaded (again). Most of his delight at Trump is the damage he did to Reagan’s achievements. The guy despises the republican party and frankly he despises a lot of things. Not worth our time.
I just love that Putin, who used Trump to harm America, is still being crushed by a legacy of Reagan. I’m sure that is cause for much bitterness over in that cold, sad country, and it makes me laugh.
nk is right that the people there don’t expect a whole lot. Unlike America, they have never had a great leader. What’s our excuse?
Dustin (a87c64) — 9/11/2022 @ 7:24 pmI’d be satisfied with a bullet in the head.
Rip Murdock (354535) — 9/11/2022 @ 7:58 pm@57. =yawn= Except he didn’t. And he’d be the first to tell consistent U.S. foreign policy over multiple administrations post WW2 was responsible- including your beloved, open-the-door-to-China-Big-Dick, as well as the compromising of another essential individual to generate change: the late Mikhail Gorbachev. Without his participation, Reagan’s policies were DOA. But don’t worry. Keep pitching your geopolitical fairy tales of Vlad nuking the very territory he wants to reclaim rendering it inhabitable and useless and the corrupt Ukraine winning back everything -including Crimea— just like South Vietnam did all “on their own” =sarc=. It’s quaint.
@58. Unlike America, they have never had a great leader.
Hmmmmm. Start with Peter the Great. Ignorance is bliss; stay happy!
DCSCA (1bdf55) — 9/11/2022 @ 8:02 pmIt’s most certainly wishful thinking on my part, nk, but someone has to hold out hope for those Russians who are fed up with living under the boot of Putin and his thugs.
Dana (1225fc) — 9/11/2022 @ 8:04 pmThis is 2022 and they know the West is not going to be a willing go-to to help relieve their misery without some very serious concessions.
The West isn’t exactly stifling relief, if you care to bother to peruse the list of businesses and industries beyond the energy sector of allies and NATO members which are still financing Vladimir, Inc. It’s disgusting:
https://som.yale.edu/story/2022/over-1000-companies-have-curtailed-operations-russia-some-remain
DCSCA (1bdf55) — 9/11/2022 @ 8:06 pm#MeToo, Dustin. Whether we like it or not, we are going to have to share the world with them.
nk (4f452c) — 9/11/2022 @ 8:07 pmI’m sorry! Not Dustin. Dana. It’s my evening for commenting snafus.
nk (4f452c) — 9/11/2022 @ 8:09 pmWell I agree with Dana too. That’s what I was hoping the internet would accomplish. Unfortunately it’s skewed our perception of America, freedom, protest, politics, and I’m not sure what someone living under a boot really understands or wants. Russia has the tools, and hopefully finds the will. We’re lucky in America that the will was there at some point.
Dustin (a87c64) — 9/11/2022 @ 8:29 pm…seems like the time is ripe for a rebellion.
They had one; 1991-1993; Yeltsin saved Gorby’s butt from the coup; the USSR dissolved; Yeltsin became president of the Russian Federation, crime and corruption flourished as Roll-Royces and Big Macs were sold in Red Square– and Yeltsin brought in… Putin.
DCSCA (455aef) — 9/11/2022 @ 9:03 pmOn January 1, 1992, Yeltsin signed accords with U.S. President George H. W. Bush, declaring the Cold War officially over after nearly 47 years. – source, wikibio.Boris.vodka
Reagan vacated the WH January 20, 1989. Attaboy, Pappy Bush! You won the Cold War! Now where;s that peace dividend??? 😉
DCSCA (455aef) — 9/11/2022 @ 9:16 pmI see some sweet deals in the future for those who prefer the Kalashnikov system to the Armalite system: “Russian AK-74 in 5.45×39. Only dropped once.“
nk (ac6f7a) — 9/12/2022 @ 8:18 amVideo of a Russian Su-25 attack aircraft crashing right after take off reportedly in Crimea.
Wreckage of a Russian Su-25SM air support jet (NATO code name Frogfoot).
Sad!
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 9/12/2022 @ 9:34 amhttps://twitter.com/MattGertz/status/1569321565531115523 Tucker has not changed his tune, folks. Ukraine is desperate and losing.
Appalled (2a8ee9) — 9/12/2022 @ 10:09 amTucker’s guest is for sure a piece of work.
nk (ac6f7a) — 9/12/2022 @ 10:34 amSad!
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 9/12/2022 @ 11:34 amSAD!
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 9/12/2022 @ 12:02 pmThe Ukrainians announced an attack in Kherson at the end of August, but only sent a token force to feint. Their real assault was Kharkiv and the Russians had moved everyone south. Now they control the entire Kharkiv region, up to the Russian border.
Now, the question is, if they are fired on from Belgorod, do they return fire? To they try to take Russian territory, to force a settlement and/or Putin’s demise? Do they dare?
Kevin M (eeb9e9) — 9/12/2022 @ 12:43 pm“We have nowhere to keep all the POWs”
I’d say keep them at that nuclear plant.
Kevin M (eeb9e9) — 9/12/2022 @ 12:45 pmI think the model for this is the First World War, down to the German collapse in 1918. The Allies didn’t need to invade Germany to get an ceasefire. The Kaiser abdicated but I don;t expect Putin will unless he becomes afraid of a revolution in Russia.
Where will he go? Most likely. Qatar, not China, or, if he hasn’t got time, Turkey.
But Erdogan will be under heavy pressure too turn him over to the Hague – but that will take some time.
Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 9/12/2022 @ 1:01 pm#85
If the Russians try to build force there, the Ukranians will know about it in plenty of time to strike that force with their weaponry. If the Russians keep shelling from there, the Ukranians can fire back and are more likely to strike the weaponry.
Invading Russia seems a bad use of their forces, when there are still a lot of other places to go.
Appalled (465b3f) — 9/12/2022 @ 1:04 pmhttps://nypost.com/2022/09/10/russians-killed-2-abused-others-at-ukraine-power-plant-report
Two Ukrainians who worked at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant were killed (beaten to death) and 10 are missing and unaccounted for. Up to 200 others have been arrested but are known, or thought, to be alive. I don’t know how large the staff it. They didn’t allow a shift change for a long time.
The Russians regularly arrest and torture people in the occupied areas that they suspect might be plotting to kill them or just resisting their rules too much and too openly. One thing they do is inspect cell phones for pro-Ukrainian government content.
The plant is now no longer making or receiving electricity from the grid, although it has maybe one plant operating and has a diesel (?) generator with limited supply – enough diesel fuel for 10 days. It can’t safely be resupplied because of all the firing, and if it could it could maybe more simply be reconnected to the grid.
It needs to have a little electricity to prevent an nuclear accident. because this is not the new more modern type that simply shuts down when all power is cut off.
Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 9/12/2022 @ 1:18 pmUkraine may have already done so:
Here
Here
Here
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 9/12/2022 @ 1:23 pmTucker Carlson’s top Russia-Ukraine war expert Douglas MacGregor, claims to know of “people in Washington” talking about fighting and winning a limited nuclear war. (and seems to try to connect it to the idea that Ukraine is losing and that Washington would start it)
Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 9/12/2022 @ 1:26 pm64. Kevin M (eeb9e9) — 9/11/2022 @ 6:35 pm
Something like that is probably Putin’s fallback plan, but he’s damaged the ability of Navalny, or others who might treat him mercifully, to take over.
Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 9/12/2022 @ 1:33 pmI don’t think he will make it out of Moscow alive. He will fall from his hospital window.
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 9/12/2022 @ 1:33 pmAs do the Russians. Nothing new. The problem for any “plan” the SHTF after the first weapon explodes. If this happens it will be the Russians firing the first (and hopefully only) shot. There are lots of alternative actions NATO can take, such as cyberattacks on the Russian economy.
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 9/12/2022 @ 1:46 pmFour minutes ago:
https://www.nytimes.com/live/2022/09/12/world/ukraine-russia-war
Pinned:
Neither side probably represents their real views. Not doubling down and not negotiations.
Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 9/12/2022 @ 1:50 pmIn 1918, the Kaiser abdicated before the Armistice.
A partial timeline:
Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 9/12/2022 @ 1:57 pmRussian Media Watch:
Sad!
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 9/12/2022 @ 2:12 pmRussian Media Watch II:
Don’t stand near any windows.
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 9/12/2022 @ 2:28 pmOne thing that might concern Mr. Putin is the degree to which Chechnyan soldiers are getting practical experience in the Ukraine. Who knows what that might lead to.
John B Boddie (bee833) — 9/12/2022 @ 4:57 pmGood point.
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 9/12/2022 @ 4:59 pmInteresting how the Kadyrovites are the bogeymen card Russia plays on deserters. Ukriane plays it too, claiming 1300 Kadyrovites were sent to hunt down and shoot deserters from the Oskil river region…”or you can always surrender to us!”
steveg (4c1425) — 9/12/2022 @ 5:19 pmWhat if Putin Uses a Nuclear Weapon in Ukraine?
OFGS. Fantasy. And what if Auric Goldfinger uses a nuclear device at Fort Knox?
Well, if you explode it in Fort Knox, the… the entire gold supply of the United States would be radioactive for… fifty-seven years. -James Bond, 007 [Sean Connery] ‘Goldfinger’ 1964
DCSCA (df7022) — 9/12/2022 @ 6:36 pmInteresting how the Kadyrovites are the bogeymen card Russia plays on deserters.
Sigh. It used to be the NKVD (which became the MVD, which became the KGB, which became the FSB) that did that. Secret police are just not what they used to be.
And this is no longer a joke, either:
nk (c41af9) — 9/12/2022 @ 7:22 pmAt least there’s no shortage of third story windows.
lurker (cd7cd4) — 9/12/2022 @ 7:43 pmYeah, knowing what we know now, Putin probably did not consider Trump giving him a free penthouse in the proposed Moscow Trump Tower much of an inducement.
nk (f80665) — 9/12/2022 @ 8:14 pmMr. Sumlenny provides an example of a slice of what Ukrainians are fighting against. Though not on a battlefield, these imported Russian “educators” are footsoldiers for Putin’s cultural genocide of Ukraine.
Paul Montagu (753b42) — 9/13/2022 @ 6:34 amNewest timelapse map
steveg (691033) — 9/13/2022 @ 9:44 amhttps://twitter.com/i/status/1569611382231818240
Mr. Biden needs to tell Russia that a nuclear attack on Ukraine would be an act of war against the U.S. If Vladimir Putin chooses the path of Nikita Khrushchev, Joe Biden needs to stand like JFK.
We don’t ahve to do that. We simply have to say the following:
“Countries that trade with Russia may not trade with us. Countries that trade with countries that trade with Russia may not trade with us.” Let the Chinese pick.
Kevin M (eeb9e9) — 9/13/2022 @ 10:06 am“Countries that trade with Russia may not trade with us. Countries that trade with countries that trade with Russia may not trade with us.”
ROFLMAOPIP:
https://som.yale.edu/story/2022/over-1000-companies-have-curtailed-operations-russia-some-remain
DCSCA (f2a18c) — 9/13/2022 @ 10:10 amOceania, Eurasia, and Eastasia. Our old commenter narciso liked to say “to them 1984 is a how-to manual”. To Putin it may very well be. He is already well on his way with Europe’s dependence on Russian gas and oil. And that’s still the weak spot in our alliance.
nk (f80665) — 9/13/2022 @ 10:20 amSad!
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 9/13/2022 @ 10:48 am