The Crazy SOB Actually Did it!

[RCMerchant]

People like this give me hope.

An old Ukrainian woman gives Russian soldiers sunflower seeds that will grow on their graves.
Sunflowers are Ukraine's national flower.

Then she basically says ' f**k you!'

http://youtu.be/pekBo-ynIhI

[Allhallowsday]

...Something is off when one man's life matters so much in the path of history in a world of billions. 

Now that I dig.

[Rev. Powell]

Nata is still posting. In fact, today she posted pictures feeding the pigeons. No war images.

A Russian convoy is now reportedly stalled 20 miles outside Kyiv.

[LilCerberus]

Since biden won't do it, a couple of US companies quit buying Russian oil...
Gonna hurt us more than it does them, but I guess it sends a statement...

[Rev. Powell]

Nata's still feeding the pigeons. Even though they're shelling Kyiv.

https://youtu.be/Oke_-kJg8pg

[RCMerchant]

Since biden won't do it, a couple of US companies quit buying Russian oil...
Gonna hurt us more than it does them, but I guess it sends a statement...

I guess you send a statement too, what that is...???  

[ER]

It's become morally inexcusable to fund Putin by purchasing his oil.

If the world quit buying Russian oil, Putin's regime would collapse. Russia is already imploding in slow motion in the realm of history, has been for decades with its low birth rates and internal decay, but without oil to sell, the country would simply descend into third world status. (Which could be even more dangerous.)

It's not a scientific survey, but every Russian I have spoken to in the last fifteen years hated Putin and wanted him gone. I look on this aggression in Ukraine as Putin's fault, not Russian people's, though I'd like to see more open resistance and non-cooperation among Russians inside Russia, and sanctions may nudge that along.

I know they have motivation to be so, but the courage of the Ukrainians who are standing in front of Russian tanks is humbling. War brings out the best and the worst at the same time.

[lester1/2jr]

I drive for a living. I'm not going to pay 10 a gallon for gas so NATO can expand it's operations in yet another former soviet territory. I feel bad for Ukraine though and in fact Ukraine could be any of us. What if China started supporting secession in Texas or Florida or gave Mexico weapons to take back California?

We are all just pawns in the big chess game of the rich and powerful.

[Rev. Powell]

Nata is still feeding the pigeons and begging for donations. I'm afraid the siege of Kyiv will start soon.




My Russian friend is continuing to post despite Russia saying they've cut off access to Facebook. I guess he's using a VPN. He's not saying anything too inflammatory but I'm suddenly a little afraid for him too when I hear about Putin's crackdown on "fake news."

[ER]

Apparently it's illegal in Russia to call this a war, it's a "special operation."

[RCMerchant]

Well, it looks like no one should fret too much about Russian gas; it's pretty low. They're convoy is stalled. It ran out of gas!

[LilCerberus]

Well, it looks like no one should fret too much about Russian gas; it's pretty low. They're convoy is stalled. It ran out of gas!

It's not because they ran out of gas, it's because the Russians are having a hard time getting the gas to the tanks, as well as food & spare parts due to bottlenecking & Ukrainian attacks.
Making a single 40 mile long convoy was strategically a pretty bad idea.

[RCMerchant]

^ If they can't get the gas to the tanks...then they'er out of gas! Which gets me to thinking (uh oh!) did the trucks bring them gas run out of gas? 
Or was there never any gas on the way?

[Jim H]

Well, it looks like no one should fret too much about Russian gas; it's pretty low. They're convoy is stalled. It ran out of gas!

It's not because they ran out of gas, it's because the Russians are having a hard time getting the gas to the tanks, as well as food & spare parts due to bottlenecking & Ukrainian attacks.
Making a single 40 mile long convoy was strategically a pretty bad idea.

From what I've read from some military people, it sounds like Russian tanks were poorly maintained and not run frequently enough but corruption in logging means they can't really even tell easily what has and hasn't been maintained.  They didn't do things like limit sun exposure and monitor tires, check for rust, all kinds of stuff.  So the tires seem ok at a glance, but have gotten weak; this means they can't drive well through Ukrainian mud (which apparently is brutal) without shredding and getting stuck.  So now they have to drive on a limited number of roads and mostly stick together, making them easier targets.  

Russia blew this initial attack in a number of ways; almost every expert overestimated how fit the Russian military was.  While it makes me happy for Ukraine, it makes me worry for the world; I don't like the idea of badly corrupt and inept fools with thousands of nukes.  Failures in the missile detection systems in the USSR days nearly led to nuclear war in the 1980s, I don't want that to happen again when we have less competent and moral people than Stanislav Petrov at the button.

[Alex]

Well, it looks like no one should fret too much about Russian gas; it's pretty low. They're convoy is stalled. It ran out of gas!

It's not because they ran out of gas, it's because the Russians are having a hard time getting the gas to the tanks, as well as food & spare parts due to bottlenecking & Ukrainian attacks.
Making a single 40 mile long convoy was strategically a pretty bad idea.

From what I've read from some military people, it sounds like Russian tanks were poorly maintained and not run frequently enough but corruption in logging means they can't really even tell easily what has and hasn't been maintained.  They didn't do things like limit sun exposure and monitor tires, check for rust, all kinds of stuff.  So the tires seem ok at a glance, but have gotten weak; this means they can't drive well through Ukrainian mud (which apparently is brutal) without shredding and getting stuck.  So now they have to drive on a limited number of roads and mostly stick together, making them easier targets.  

Russia blew this initial attack in a number of ways; almost every expert overestimated how fit the Russian military was.  While it makes me happy for Ukraine, it makes me worry for the world; I don't like the idea of badly corrupt and inept fools with thousands of nukes.  Failures in the missile detection systems in the USSR days nearly led to nuclear war in the 1980s, I don't want that to happen again when we have less competent and moral people than Stanislav Petrov at the button.

Honestly, we've known for decades that the Russian military is in a bad way. They use conscripts who are badly trained and brutally treated by their comrades-in-arms as well as their commanders. The deployment of their one aircraft carrier to Syria a couple of years back was a disaster for them. They lost two jets (one was due to the deck catapult failing if I recall correctly and I can't remember why they lost the other one, although I am pretty sure it was another accident). The ship's water filtration system failed and they had to send out a supply ship to give them fresh water (although I think the sailors had to go without showers for the duration). I think I might have even heard that the engine failed on the route home and it had to be towed at least part of the way back. The problem is that people can learn from these mistakes and make sure they don't happen the next time (I believe the Admiral Kuznetsov went in for a major refit to fix these problems for example and an intensive training regime was planned for its sailors). I'd rather see Russia not learn from its mistakes and make them later on. The first Chechen campaign used up all the Russian army's ammunition supplies for the next five years and evidently, they have a terrible system in place for command and control for their fighters.

Still, all this is an improvement on the days when electricity companies shut off supplies to Russian military bases because they couldn't afford to pay their electric bills. Much of their equipment is still Cold War relics (although they do have some quite scary modern kit). I wouldn't be surprised to see a repeat of what happened in the Winter War of 39-40.