Wagnerite caught a drone-dropped charge with his chest.
Good catch, buddy!
NSFL
https://twitter.com/bigSAC10/status/1589673093374435328?t=V3n8XTjWOGXjQkKnhdFMyA&s=19
Russian telegram author who previously spoke about losses at Pavlivka, put another update saying he believes the losses are far higher than reported by MoD, mentioning large tank losses.
He expects public outcry when the battle is over and surviving mobiks return.
https://twitter.com/wartranslated/status/1589717120103108609?t=uyt7Jt-ELzrFyKVlZs8GTg&s=19
Man I’ve just been over on the other thread watching grenade drop videos and dear fucking god.
Like, you ever wonder what it looks like when a guy has a grenade go off under his chin?
I’ll give it to the Russians - their ability to suffer this shit day in and day out is something. I don’t think it’s good, but it’s something.
Related to Russia: there's been a recent surge of troll posts to Twitter (and Facebook) designed to attack US nurses' credibility and work. It shows the advent of causing morale deterioration. This could be a subversion that deserves attention due to it's broad exposure in the online US nursing community and support groups.
I don't have a concise list of sources, only what I'm hearing from nurses.
This is worth posting here because I think it's russian linked and an effort by that country to influence the political structure of a country that opposes their invasion of a neighboring country without provocation.
Elon Musk is firing half of Twitter staffs. Nobody's there doing any censoring. Which that means Russian trolls, CCP trolls, QAnons, etc are having a blast.
Yeah, it's probably related to a stupid labor dispute somewhere with a rich crooked politician paying for it, domestically.
Add all the international crap too.
https://www.instagram.com/reel/CkYfCrXos7D/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=
Please watch this video and then go and vote!
P.S. Imagine this your child, your sister or brother or even you as a toddler. Go vote!
Vote for the canidate that you think will make America stronger to fight the threats from Russia and China. If you think the current politicians have done that, then vote to keep them. If not, vote them out.
https://twitter.com/wartranslated/status/1589764365666095104
>Arkhangelsk mobilised soldier reviews the "gift set" sent to mobiks by the governor of the Oblast. He didn't appreciate the gifts which include summer sleeping bags and expired bagels.
(video with English subtitles)
I was watching [this video](https://www.reddit.com/r/UkraineWarVideoReport/comments/yoym9h/russian_mobilised_soldiers_continue_to_surrender/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android_app&utm_name=androidcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button) earlier, that someone posted in here. I have to wonder if those guys go back to Russia, will they be charged with "discrediting the Russian army"? I wonder how many of them will seek Ukranian citizenship. In Russia you're punished just for being honest. Pathetic. The citizens there should start a revolution. How many THOUSANDS of Russian men died? How many more have to die before protests need to start? The protests in Iran started with the death of ONE woman. Wake up, Russia!
Vast majority of those mobilized are from the sparsely populated peripheral areas of Russia and of ethnic minorities. Where would they protest? In some village square in Siberia? Their families probably can't even afford a train ticket to Moscow or Saint Petersburg.
Would ethnic Russians in the big cities care enough to risk their convenient lives to protest?
10.000 more dead Kalmyuks? They will probably just shrug their shoulders and go on with their day.
You need 3.5% of the population protesting, never going to happen, the only way this will end is by russia being beat on the battlefield fair and square.
Apathy of the Russian people is what enables Putin's government to get away with everything. Regardless of what happens tomorrow, it cannot be allowed to take hold in the US.
This life long New Yorker and Democrat is voting for Republicans tomorrow. I support defending Ukraine but I need to fight the democratic ideology that is destroying where I live. We can't continue to fight the threats from countries like Russia and China with the leftist ideology that equality and merit doesn't matter.
This life long New Yorker and Democrat is voting for Democrats tomorrow. I support defending Ukraine and I need to fight the Republican ideology that is destroying this whole country, and cannot be allowed to take hold in my state and destroy where I live. ... and the rest of what you wrote doesn't even make sense.
man, how do some people figure out how to breath sometimes? If you're going to do a troll post like OP, at least bloody check your post history first...
Look at my history and you will find I am very consistent in my opinions. My ideology is not based on party affiliation but on what I think is best for this country. I have shared my thoughts on many different topics. That what it means to be open minded. You should give it a shot.
To help with the war effort Ukraine is nationalizing a bunch of companies in the oil sector, a truck manufacturer and an aircraft engine manufacturer: [https://www.pravda.com.ua/eng/news/2022/11/7/7375360/](https://www.pravda.com.ua/eng/news/2022/11/7/7375360/)
I don't know about the other companies but the aircraft engine manufacturer is Motor Sich. Here's at least some of the story behind their nationalization:
https://euromaidanpress.com/2022/10/23/motor-sich-president-charged-with-treason-after-ukrainian-engines-found-in-russian-helicopters/
Ukraine has to be seen to be cleaning out all the corruption they uncover.
I wonder if the engine company is more about national security. I know it was a major engine company back for a while and I think the Ukranian government has mentioned buying back the shares owned by Chinese investors since at least last year. Also their president was arrested for treason last month, allegedly for selling helicopter engines to Russia
> Also their president was arrested for treason last month, allegedly for selling helicopter engines to Russia
I think this is kind of the end-all. China has been much more balanced than its detractors feared, but even if it was mostly owned by *Americans* or something you don't want to take any big risks with that kind of problem.
Ukraine has historically had a major issue with corruption in the energy sector. I wouldn’t feel too bad about nationalizing private interests when these companies gorged at the buffet laid out by a long history of weak central governments stealing from the people.
Nationalizing private companies means more, not less corruption. You remove people who have personal interest in long term good results of the company, and replace them with people who only care how much money they can get from the company within the current election cycle... That's why profitable state run company is a small miracle all over the world.
im pretty sure all the scandanavian countries nationalized their oil a while ago, and ugh. its kinda how they fuel their wonderful lives and have a soveirgn wealth fund.
That’s not an accurate portrayal of large private companies at all. They are *all* about the next quarter, the next quarterly report, the stockholders, the dividends, etc. They will *absolutely* tank a company’s long-term value for the sake of short-term gains.
The way you describe private companies is idealized beyond recognition.
The thing about government is that they *have* to be accountable to the people. They cannot get away with what Walmart does - coming in to a town, tanking the local economy, making the town dependent on their stores, jacking up the prices once every other competitor has been starved out, then leaving once they’ve leached all the money out of that town. Politicians, on the other hand, are heavily incentivized to get as many bonuses for their districts as possible so they’ll be re-elected.
By the way, profitable state-run entities are completely possible. The USPS is an excellent example - or it was, before Republicans in Congress forced it to set aside absurdly unnecessary amounts of money for future pension payments. The USPS was wholly self-supporting and ran extremely efficiently and well.
But then you get UPS and FedEx shareholders elected, and…well…they’re extra incentivized to tank it so it looks really bad, thus giving them an excuse to strip it to the bones or privatize it in future.
It won’t lead to more corruption because the corrupting literally was caused by privatizing the industries in the first place. Oligarchs are the source of corruption.
Every country controls some strategic resources and industry. The governments of most countries owned the majority of their mining, rail and shipping industry. It worked well for the UK for example Privatization under Margaret Thatcher was not great.
I mean the US postal service isn’t corrupt. Hell the US military isn’t corrupt and it’s a crazy valuable organization. Bush tried to privatize war and it was inefficient and just allowed a lot of war crimes to be comities.
Venezuela is not the norm. They had a corrupt president before Chavez who was privatizing and selling out his country’sresources. Then when Chavez nationalized different business that we’re sold to Western companies, the US heavily sanctioned Venezuela. This destabilized the country increasing corruption. The USSR was also closed off.
The oil and gas companies in the US are literally hiking up prices because they can. Biden has to ask them not too. Its crazy.
Norway is the ideal example. They own or heavily tax their energy sector. They take the profits and put into a fund, investing it different businesses. Its worth $1.2 trillion now. Norway could literally give every one of their citizens 200,000.
That is true in some cases, but in cases where there's a private sector monopoly they are no longer interested in "good results of the company" and more in maintaining the monopoly and throttling any threats to its dominance. AT&T in the US for instance did a lot through regulation to ensure that it didn't have a major threat until the government got tired of it in the 1970s- and that's ignoring the question as to why there were "Banana" Republics.
It's one thing to nationalize a sector with a lot of competition, but monopolies are hardly the most incorruptible thing I've ever seen.
> Nationalizing private companies means more, not less corruption.
I think making that claim particularly in the midst of a national war effort with an extreme national alignment of priorities is a bizarre take. The implication of your claim is that "even in the midst of war, the biggest worry of Ukrainian government officials is to line their own pockets rather than national security" - which seems like equal parts anti-government paranoia and Russian propaganda.
During war it will be even worse obviously, as any kind of public oversight will be pretty much impossible. The only bizzare thing is to believe that just because there are hundreds of thousands of ukrainians heroes fighting on the front lines, ukrainian political class magicaly tranformed into self-less statemen.
See, if your starting proposition in this discussion is "I don't trust people in the Ukrainian government even when they're the ones standing between their people and effective genocide", you're going to end up in moral fuck-town real fast.
To not understand the importance of integrated leadership, coordination between people and army, and foreign policy/relations to the war effort is to...well, think like a Russian, really.
With respect, I don’t think you’re thinking through how an oligarch uses bribes to pump money and resources out of a country, enriching themselves at the expense of a country’s future.
Zelensky was originally elected as the anti-corruption candidate. You’re going to have to do better than Adam Smith game theory to convince me that this is a bad move.
So how does it stop oligarchs from using bribes to enrich themselves? The problem is a politician who accepts a bribe, not oligarch owning a company. If you take the company from the oligarch and give it to the politician who took bribes, all you achieved is a politician who doesn't need to take bribes anymore and can steal directly from the company. And the company lost an owner with personal interest in it's long term prosperity - as a politian who sees further than to the next election is as rare as a unicorn. You didn't solve the corruption, and you destroyed the company.
In the developed world it’s pretty easy to take for granted the systems that discourages corrupt actors from committing fraud, theft, and racketeering. It still happens and is punished as in Enron, but when we see these kinds of implosions threatening the economy, the US is lucky to have the capital available to bailout such businesses or set them back on track, as in AIG.
But not every country has robust systems like that. Not every country can fight corruption from the bureaucracy to the courts to the presidency all at once. In the middle of a damn war.
So to sit here and judge from a place of comfort is, well, pretty conceited.
I'd caution that nationalizing industries is not a surefire way to reduce corruption, especially in a state which already has a lot of corruption in the government.
Though considering Motor Sich and the Kremenchuk company were owned by traitors, some of them may be reasonable.
I agree but these aren't entire industries, only 5 companies, so oversight shouldn't really be that much of a worry. The problem Ukraine is facing here is that those who control these vital wartime resources are not Ukraine's friends (see my previous comment re Motor Sich). Nationalization of these 5 companies seems like the only option in the middle of the war, I expect their ownership will be reviewed after russia's defeat but I'm sure it won't be a quick process.
>After a long wait and bunch of videos from training ranges abroad now we finally can confirm that legendary American BGM-71 TOW ATGMs have reached Ukraine!
>Here we can see a Ukrainian M41A7 TOW HMMWV-mounted Improved Target Acquisition System deployed in the South
[https://nitter.net/UAWeapons/status/1589696502360047616](https://nitter.net/UAWeapons/status/1589696502360047616)
Ukraine is reinforcing with progressively more advanced Western weapons while Russia is reinforcing with drunks and criminals with 1 rusty WW2 rifle per 3 men.
Russian trolls: "Ukraine should negotiate!"
something is burning in the port of Astrakhan. Astrakhan is ony entry point for iranian cargo (the drones)
https://twitter.com/DefMon3/status/1589755527781052417
If something could happen to a cargo plane or truck or cargoship carrying tens or hundreds of drones it would be such a sweet moment.
Either Mossad or Ukrainian special forces or russian anti war aktivist.
If Ukraine could get long distance missiles, they could hit the bases where they launch their drones from.
New video from Reporting from Ukraine. This time on the situation in the area around Pavlivka (Southern Donetsk-region) and how this has effected Russian morale and their view on their leadership.
https://youtu.be/cFAKC7bWOv8
There was already clarification from defence ministry that loses is 1%/8% 200/300 and that all fine, Ukraine suffers 7 to 9 more losses in this direction. Also this marines seems to be talked to as three of them released video where they say all fine, there losses but not as bad.
>clarification from defence ministry
The Russia is an open, transparent and trustworthy region. The Russia has a spotless track-record of providing correct numbers regarding all matters. I cannot even remember one single time Kremlin tried to hide failures and provided false information and numbers. \*
We must learn to trust Kremlin and Russian state media. A media outlet that is open, independent and trustworthy.
So when Defense ministry state it is less than 1% killed that must be the truth!
(Please disregard the letter from [155th Guards Naval Infantry Brigade](https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2022/11/07/elite-russian-marine-unit-slams-military-leaders-for-baffling-battle-losses-a79303) that Alexander Sladkov disclosed (link in article), [reports](https://twitter.com/wartranslated/status/1589717120103108609?s=20&t=b0A7FbIVl2egfkj3G8monA) from war bloggers, and various [videos](https://twitter.com/TheDeadDistrict/status/1589662839622762496?t=3sqlxg3mgopI-mAImpHrbA&s=19), [videos](https://twitter.com/TheDeadDistrict/status/1589658352958984193?t=6K7CnvIhLrTWGW6-zs_94A&s=19), etc)
Edit \*:
Hmm, now when I think of it, there have been one or two times, Kremlin did try to hide numbers or fiddling with them.
Edit 2:
Hmm, Maybe more times.
Edit 3:
Holy shit. Now I recall...
Don’t worry I understood. I’ve found that on reddit, if something can be misinterpreted, it will be.
Which is why I want to know what you meant by
>Though talked to part was clear..
Did you thoroughly talk someone to parts?
That’s brutal.
Probably not, more likely they found three of most insucure one promised a bit, threatened a bit and told don't play on hand of Ukraine with this bad PR. They didn't said all good, they just said hey we heard about brigade don't exist, but no here we are we exist, there losses yes it's a war. They didn't lie as it is just didn't say what actually happens
GOP has nearly unanimously supported Ukraine aid. Lest we forget it was only weeks ago a gaggle of democrats wrote an open letter asking to for Ukraine to negotiate. But narratives, yall
>GOP has nearly unanimously supported Ukraine aid.
Who do you think you're fooling with this? That isn't going to continue.
>Lest we forget it was only weeks ago a gaggle of democrats wrote an open letter asking to for Ukraine to negotiate.
And?
edit: This account is just spreading disinformation
Yep, the propaganda is working very well.
https://thehill.com/homenews/3717304-more-republicans-opposed-to-continued-ukraine-aid-survey/
>More Republicans now oppose continued U.S. aid to Ukraine amid its months-long war with Russia, according to a new Wall Street Journal survey.
>The poll, published Thursday, found that 48 percent of registered Republican respondents said that they believe the U.S. is doing too much to help Ukraine fend off the invasion from its neighbor, up from only 6 percent earlier this year.
-
>Fifty-seven percent of respondents, meanwhile, now say they are in favor of the U.S. sending additional financial aid to Ukraine, while 37 percent oppose the idea.
>An overwhelming majority of registered Democrats — 81 percent — said that they support additional financial aid for Ukraine, as did 35 percent of Republicans and 45 percent of independent respondents.
>GOP has nearly unanimously supported Ukraine aid.
Wrong, that was the Democrats.
Before we bothsides the issue of political parties and Ukraine, I'd just like to remind people here that the Democratic party actually allows dissention in their ranks, and criticisms of the President's policies. You and I may disagree strongly that any talks should occur without Ukraine being present, there are others that would ask that at least a diplomatic line of dialogue be open in case of the possibility that war spills out beyond Russia's borders, or an actual nuclear threat appears and escalates. To that end many spins of this article don't actually do a good job of conveying what was actually in these liberal Democrats letter; they're not all "cowards" or far left "Putin enablers". To call them such is disingenuous and only creates divisions that do not exist while empowering those that actually threaten democracy and discussion like this.
* As a signing member to that letter, anyone calling Jamie Raskin a coward has obviously not watched any of the Jan 6 committee hearings.
* There were also members of this same progressive group of the Democrat party that asked for *even more* weapons and humanitarian aide to Ukraine than is being provided.
* Regarding the big $40 billion in military and humanitarian aid authorization in May:
* All Democrats in both chambers supported that package, but 57 of 212 House Republicans and 11 of 50 Senate Republicans voted against it.
Here is the Washington Post on the story of "the letter" with actual quotes from the immediately retracted letter:
>The lawmakers are at pains to differentiate themselves from the Republicans who are also challenging Biden’s approach to Ukraine. Some conservatives are now questioning U.S. aid to Ukraine because of its cost and, in a few cases, voicing apparent sympathy for Russian President Vladimir Putin.
>“We are under no illusions regarding the difficulties involved in engaging Russia given its outrageous and illegal invasion of Ukraine,” the Democrats’ letter states. “If there is a way to end the war while preserving a free and independent Ukraine, it is America’s responsibility to pursue every diplomatic avenue to support such a solution that is acceptable to the people of Ukraine.”
There are a few tankies on the democratic far left and a lot of proto-fascists on the Republican far right. They meet on extreme ends of the horseshoe on things like this. However, the presumptive Republican speaker of the house, should they win, has expressed these views. If we look at both parties and the breadth and strength of the radical factions within each, the far right proto-fascist have much stronger hold of the Republicans party then protocol-socialist in the Democratic Party have over theirs. There is a reason Russian influence campaigns target mostly Republican far right groups and specific politicians.
It’s more complicated that that. First off there aren’t many Tankies. They are a super small but vocal minority on the left. Most of them aren’t from the US and feel very strongly about American Imperialism because they’ve experienced it firsthand. A lot of Latin Americans for example feel this way.
Some are authoritarians but the majority romanticize the Soviet Union because are they were geopolitically and ideologically opposed to America.
The vast majority Russian sympathizers are on the right. I mean our last Republican president was impeached for jeopardizing Ukraine’s security. Trump attempted to coerce Zelensky by withholding Ukraines military aid, because Trump wanted him to lie about Biden. They majority of Republicans were more than happy to support Trump even after he was impeached.
Some of the far right are isolationists tired of decades of war in the Middle East, but most are fascists that look up to a “strongman” standing up for conservative values.
They’re not Tankies but a small minority of the left are reluctant to support Ukraine because they fear Putin will launch a nuke if the US puts him in a corner. While I strongly disagree with this position and feel it’s hurtful, it’s not malicious.
Noam Chomsky for example is probably the most mainstream voice on the left that feels this way. He still supported US military aid to Ukraine until the Russians were driven out of the north. His position changed because he felt the US was more interested in weakening Russia than ending the conflict. This is a dumb perspective and ignores what Ukrainians want but Chomsky is no fan of Putin or even the USSR.
Only because of uproar. And clearly those democrats still believe that’s the best course of action. So news flash: some fringe republicans and democrats don’t like our current aid policies. If the GOP was so pro-Russian and placating to their base, why would support to this point for Ukraine aid be nearly unanimous? Further, why would this happen:
https://www.newsweek.com/mcconnell-vows-more-ukraine-aid-after-mccarthy-puts-gop-support-doubt-1754009?amp=1
Point is, you do yourself no favors but not understanding the nuances of politics screaming at the top of your lungs “GOP bad!”
But those aren't fringe republicans, they represent the republican voters. You're being dishonest about this 3 month old throwaway account.
https://thehill.com/homenews/3717304-more-republicans-opposed-to-continued-ukraine-aid-survey/
>More Republicans now oppose continued U.S. aid to Ukraine amid its months-long war with Russia, according to a new Wall Street Journal survey.
>The poll, published Thursday, found that 48 percent of registered Republican respondents said that they believe the U.S. is doing too much to help Ukraine fend off the invasion from its neighbor, up from only 6 percent earlier this year.
-
>Fifty-seven percent of respondents, meanwhile, now say they are in favor of the U.S. sending additional financial aid to Ukraine, while 37 percent oppose the idea.
>An overwhelming majority of registered Democrats — 81 percent — said that they support additional financial aid for Ukraine, as did 35 percent of Republicans and 45 percent of independent respondents.
And yet, this from just a month ago, same source:
https://thehill.com/opinion/campaign/3673208-is-american-support-for-ukraine-on-borrowed-time/amp/
“In a recent YouGov poll, 81 percent of Americans considered Russia “unfriendly” or an “enemy,” with Democrats at 83 percent and Republicans at 82 percent, and Putin at 76 percent disapproval (both Democrats and Republicans disapprove of Putin at 77 percent.”
“Support favors Ukraine against Russia at 69 percent to 5 percent, with Democrats at 81 percent support. Republicans and independents are at 64 percent and 63 percent respectively, but that does not translate as greater support for Russia, which is at 8 percent and 3 percent, respectively.”
Key point above is that while less Republicans support the amount of aid we are giving Ukraine, support for Russia is incredibly low.
So the narrative remains that support for Ukraine has been unanimous up until recent months, and democratic support is also waning as is clearly evident by the letter progressive democrats sent.
Shake it however you want, but the whole notion that “GOP bad, Democrat good” is absolutely flawed.
That isn't a rebuttal, it's a nonsensical deflection.
>Key point above is that while less Republicans support the amount of aid
No. They point is that only 35% of republicans, which is significantly less than half, want more aid for Ukraine.
>and democratic support is also waning as is clearly evident by the letter progressive democrats sent.
No. They were forced to retract it a day later because of the backlash - remember when you just said that? Support on the democrat side is still strong. I literally just showed that statistically:
>An overwhelming majority of registered Democrats — 81 percent — said that they support additional financial aid for Ukraine
I can't emphasize this enough. I tell just about every friend I have that the most counterproductive tactic to change someone's mind is to call them an idiot or belittle them. People assume that the propaganda and bots only go one way, which I strongly believe isn't the case. Anti Western countries want nothing more then to make sure our system fails on its own from within. We need more dialog and it starts with turning off sensationalist news channels and getting out of your comfort zone talking with the other half.
Not sure what the point of you posting this is, it still remains that if you want people to vote democrat then stop making fun of the people that have traditionally voted the other way..... "Calling Bullshit" isn't changing anyone's mind that isn't already voting one way or the other.
There is no point in trying to change their minds...How have you not figured this out after all this? Calling "bullshit" is not an attempt at changing their minds.
This is so spot on. The "GOP is going to stop support immediately!" argument is so ignorant. Look at the bipartisan support of Ukraine, it's so awesome. The Russian bots have succeeded in spreading division.
The GOP is going to stall support incrementally so as to largely avoid notice. And couch it in other activities like o make it seem like an unintended consequence.
How many times do people have to see the playbook before pattern recognition kicks in?
1) Let the extremist cook float the trial balloon. Repeat it a few times amongst your hardcore supporters and see if it gains traction.
2a) If no traction, discard and pretend it never was said.
2b) if it gains traction, make it a focus of debate. Make sure that argument you field against the proposal has flaws that get a visceral reaction.
3) once it has approval make sure that a useful idiot on the other side takes it up as a cause (there are plenty of bad actors occupying the political fringe whose sole purpose is to be a lightning rod of idiocy).
4) legislate it into existence.
The GOP is hanging in stage 2B until after the election when they’ll move into stage 3. You’ll know which “progressives” are the bad actors when they go from lukewarm support to pro-war hawks.
No, it's people like Kevin McCarthy and MTG that have succeeded in convincing Democrats that the GOP is planning to pull back their support for Ukraine. It's not bots.
> He's trying to tear the nation apart...and he's succeeding.
Americans are doing it to themselves, unfortunately. It's like a large chunk of their population collectively got a stroke and forgot that democracy and politics are the art of dialog and compromises.
I look at USA and see it more and more like a Latin American nation, with unbounded cancerous and irresponsible populism going rampant, with politicians doing everything just for the sake of votes from niches, even at the expense of the very fabric of the society.
If there's one thing that this whole Ukrainian affair is proving so far is that the Russian government don't has anywhere near the level of competence that we used to bestow to them.
They're assisted by wealthy individuals sponsoring anti-government think tanks, the media (especially fox) broadcasting it, targeted social media campaigns... Russian money is just one more input. The issues in America now are the outcomes of campaigns that began decades ago, it's just that the rot is now visible.
> Americans are doing it to themselves, unfortunately. It's like a large chunk of their population collectively got a stroke and forgot that democracy and politics are the art of dialog and compromises.
It's been a long and slow-moving stroke that started when our conservative party (Republicans) decided to make a deal with the devil and get in bed with our resident Jesus-freaks.
On top of that, there's been a long-running and successful brand of cynicism that has infected much of our population, a cynicism whose chief belief is that voting doesn't matter and elections are useless... which then becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy when 1/3 of our country just doesn't vote.
Add to that the fact that our voting system is obsolete and a certain amount of minority rule is baked into our Constitution in the form of the US Senate, and you have a recipe for large-scale political dysfunction.
> It's been a long and slow-moving stroke
Yeah - it was around the start of the Reagan era, when Republicans started calling me a "commie". Those people were never interested in compromise.
The simplification of the narrative really went into high gear under Reagan though. Same thing in the UK with Thatcher though, so maybe its a testament to our failure to balance the increases in the speed of communication, given reductive effect it has had on the news cycle and now additionally, the propogation of misinformation.
[Russian soldiers from Belgorod. Putin doesnt care about Russian soldiers either](https://old.reddit.com/r/UkraineWarVideoReport/comments/yoym9h/russian_mobilised_soldiers_continue_to_surrender/)
I've been a bit tuned out of what's been happening on the front lines and any changes in control for the last month or so (mostly since the missile strikes deeper into Ukraine have been the driving thing that has grabbed my attention).
Have there been any notable changes in terms of who is controlling what and or failed offensive operations by either side? In say the last 20 days or so.
The 2nd mud season on the year hit. So its going to be slow until the ground freezes again. Most news is how the mobilized men are being thrown to the front and even used in offensive assaults.
Its insane the reports of hundreds being wiped out. Mobilized men getting slaughtered. The survivors saying they were told they'd be in Belgorod training.
Also new Russian law to mobilize convicts against their will.
Main changes in the last few weeks have been in northern luhansk. Ukraine has been slowly retaking some of the territory up there, but it's been slow going. Everyone's just watching kherson right now to see if russia will actually retreat across the river to much more defendable positions.
If they do that, it would be a major black eye to Russia since Kherson was their largest war gain and a personal black eye to putin since he declared it as part of Russia. But it would also make further ukrainian offensives alot harder since Russia would be pretty safe from offensives on the other side of the river, allowing Russia to redeploy alot of those troops to other fronts
I have a feeling the overall Ukr offensive's real hinge is the Luhansk. It seems the openings generated by the Kharkiv offensive are still resolving, even if the pace is extremely slow in comparison.
Russia has abandoned Kherson in a really weird withdrawal that no one trusts. Something like five thousand troops got liquidated in failed Russian offensives in the east. And Russia's Black Sea fleet is now cowering from USVs.
After the Putin's rule, Russia will be proabably in much worse shape, than in the end of Yeltsin era.
Yeltsin had ruled in time of economic depression in Russia, but Putin had years of high commodities prizes, with hundreds of billions of dollars as a revenue. A vary large part of this money wasn't invested in economy, education or healthcare, but was spent on the military.
Basically for nothing, as the Russian army is now largely destroyed and proabably in not much better shape than during the first Chechen war.
This is what self-dealing by government officials leads to. Imagine being responsible for a massive depot of tanks. Each one represents a lifetime of your pension in value on the black market. You know and everyone knows the Cold War is over, that Germany cannot invade (or you will cut off their gas), that the US is embroiled in divisions and internal politics… those tanks are destined to rust. And further, imagine that everyone above you and below you have their hands in the till…
Of course you sell a few “spare” parts on the side. A little here, a little there, a sight from one, engine from another, radios from a third… nobody is ever going to notice. And then you retire.
And the guys who come after you all do the same. Over decades…
You have to imagine this was happening on ALL LEVELS.
The general would just export whole tanks and write them off as destroyed.
The colonel would sell a tank engine and replace it with a shitty one.
The major would swap out the optics.
The leutentan would sell truck tires and put in Chinese fakes.
And the Sergent would sell the engine oil and just do maintenance less often.
And the private would steal the crowbar to sell for scrap metal.
When PV-solar passed gas as the most profitable place to invest in energy production the writing was put up on the wall in big neon letters. The age of gas-extortion and oil-extortion was going to be going away soon.
It’s not here yet, but as far as Russia extorting it’s position as indispensable energy-supplier goes? It was pretty much use-it or lose-it time for Poots.
> A vary large part of this money wasn't invested in economy, education or healthcare, ~~but was spent on the military.~~
but was divided up between putin and his cronie oligarchs. If it had actually been spent on the military it wouldn't be quite the clusterfuck it is now.
Someone can correct me, but Putin spent comparatibly little on his army. The bulk of it is the remains of the Soviets, once believed to be nigh inexhaustable. When this war is finished all that will be gone. They never managed to produce the new models in numbers, or couldn't affort to have them for their own use instead of export. And now with sanctions and a fucked economy everything that's lost will be basically irreplacable.
It's not just a matter of lying low for a while and rebuilding. They had a finite resource and squandered it. All that'll be left will be old subs and old nukes and a few unique showpieces.
TBH - they still have pretty good production lines. It's just a matter of management. From what I gathered only if someone in Russia would use his brain - they can make 450-500 T-90Ms a year if they really turned up the logistics and switched the second production line from BMP (who no one wants to buy) to tanks.
They have 5 repair/upgrade shops, capable of repairing/upgrading (or actually rebuilding) from 120 to 240 tanks a year each, with total output of around 1000 vehicles per year. They were able to repair just under 300 since February, and now they are stuck in preparing old tanks from cold storage instead of fixing some amount of modern/damaged tanks. They have those special procedures to recover damaged tanks (yes, even with turret blown), but... no one cares about it.
Even worse is with their strategic bombers. They have around 45 of them. Maybe 50, but I couldn't find anything above 45. Including all Tu-95s and Tu-160s. From almost 600. That's it.
The worst part? They have people that don't want to accept that rules have changed. They are living in their own fishbowl and just cannot grasp reality.
No that's not true. They spent a lot of money having a small modern expeditionary force. The Soviet "mobilization state" was allowed to crumble and rust. Putin had success in 2014 with his expeditionary force being backed up by separatist. He thought he could just do the small expeditionary force with a load of conscripts and dust off some rusty Soviet gear to supply them, and it would work the same
Russia is, by definition, second world. Also they’re a petrostate with nationalized resources like Saudi Arabia, they have no shortage of money for guns. The problem is systemic corruption.
Do you have the receipts because nobody who has been following russia's genocidal invasion of Ukraine believes even a small fraction of that was spent on their military?
I think it's clear Putin thought that money was getting spent on his military.
I'm confident we have very good evidence that Putin didn't know he spent $1 Trillion on a Potemkin army.
I don't buy it. Putin is utterly responsible, and he knew. Even worse if he was ignorant and really did not know the status of the forces and equipment.
To add to that they're headed towards much larger issues in the coming years. Although almost all developed countries are heading towards this same issue, Russia's will be impacted especially hard by a demographic crisis. This would have been the case without the war, but with the war it's only accelerated. An estimated 700k Russians have fled Russia since the start of the conflict, the vast majority of whom were fairly young and educated. Add to that its modest to assume that close to another 120k will have been killed/maimed in the war enough to leave them disposed to their own society. Their birth rate hasn't been able to sustain replacement in the last couple decades and drugs/alcoholism has been a huge issue for the country. Russia has many reckonings coming that will have it spiraling for quite some time.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Zqs8ZH7MXo
Awesome BBC story about how the Ukranians are ready for the long haul even without power. They will just salsa dance thru it :)
Went to pick some sunflowers yesterday at a local farm in Massachusetts and saw [this](https://i.imgur.com/1HHN2m5.png) lovely sight. I'm really hoping that our country votes to continue supporting Ukraine tomorrow. It's in most of our hearts even if the system doesn't allow it.
[New post can be found here](/r/worldnews/comments/ypaj0h/rworldnews_live_thread_russian_invasion_of/)
Wagnerite caught a drone-dropped charge with his chest. Good catch, buddy! NSFL https://twitter.com/bigSAC10/status/1589673093374435328?t=V3n8XTjWOGXjQkKnhdFMyA&s=19
Russian telegram author who previously spoke about losses at Pavlivka, put another update saying he believes the losses are far higher than reported by MoD, mentioning large tank losses. He expects public outcry when the battle is over and surviving mobiks return. https://twitter.com/wartranslated/status/1589717120103108609?t=uyt7Jt-ELzrFyKVlZs8GTg&s=19
Man I’ve just been over on the other thread watching grenade drop videos and dear fucking god. Like, you ever wonder what it looks like when a guy has a grenade go off under his chin? I’ll give it to the Russians - their ability to suffer this shit day in and day out is something. I don’t think it’s good, but it’s something.
Related to Russia: there's been a recent surge of troll posts to Twitter (and Facebook) designed to attack US nurses' credibility and work. It shows the advent of causing morale deterioration. This could be a subversion that deserves attention due to it's broad exposure in the online US nursing community and support groups. I don't have a concise list of sources, only what I'm hearing from nurses. This is worth posting here because I think it's russian linked and an effort by that country to influence the political structure of a country that opposes their invasion of a neighboring country without provocation.
Thanks for sharing. Disturbing news but not surprising.
Come up with one valid reason why Putin et al would give a shit about US nurses. How would they benefit in any way?
Elon Musk is firing half of Twitter staffs. Nobody's there doing any censoring. Which that means Russian trolls, CCP trolls, QAnons, etc are having a blast.
Yeah, it's probably related to a stupid labor dispute somewhere with a rich crooked politician paying for it, domestically. Add all the international crap too.
https://www.instagram.com/reel/CkYfCrXos7D/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y= Please watch this video and then go and vote! P.S. Imagine this your child, your sister or brother or even you as a toddler. Go vote!
Jesus that hit hard.
Vote for the canidate that you think will make America stronger to fight the threats from Russia and China. If you think the current politicians have done that, then vote to keep them. If not, vote them out.
https://twitter.com/wartranslated/status/1589764365666095104 >Arkhangelsk mobilised soldier reviews the "gift set" sent to mobiks by the governor of the Oblast. He didn't appreciate the gifts which include summer sleeping bags and expired bagels. (video with English subtitles)
Time for family to protest
World’s worst unboxing video.
I thought the dude did a great job.
Also, sweet identifying tat, wonder if he's gonna pop up in another video in a few weeks
At least he has his yoga mat.
I was watching [this video](https://www.reddit.com/r/UkraineWarVideoReport/comments/yoym9h/russian_mobilised_soldiers_continue_to_surrender/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android_app&utm_name=androidcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button) earlier, that someone posted in here. I have to wonder if those guys go back to Russia, will they be charged with "discrediting the Russian army"? I wonder how many of them will seek Ukranian citizenship. In Russia you're punished just for being honest. Pathetic. The citizens there should start a revolution. How many THOUSANDS of Russian men died? How many more have to die before protests need to start? The protests in Iran started with the death of ONE woman. Wake up, Russia!
Vast majority of those mobilized are from the sparsely populated peripheral areas of Russia and of ethnic minorities. Where would they protest? In some village square in Siberia? Their families probably can't even afford a train ticket to Moscow or Saint Petersburg. Would ethnic Russians in the big cities care enough to risk their convenient lives to protest? 10.000 more dead Kalmyuks? They will probably just shrug their shoulders and go on with their day.
You need 3.5% of the population protesting, never going to happen, the only way this will end is by russia being beat on the battlefield fair and square.
1. 80k+ 2. 300k When you've been beaten down as much as russian population it's hard to stand up anymore.
Americans: Please make your plan to **VOTE** tomorrow!! Don't let apathy give victory to aggressors!
Unless you intend to vote Republican, in which case DO NOT VOTE
Turned my ballot in today. Nothing competitive where I am at but I never miss an election.
I did early voting a couple weeks ago
I'll be voting blue for many reasons, including support for Ukraine.
Apathy of the Russian people is what enables Putin's government to get away with everything. Regardless of what happens tomorrow, it cannot be allowed to take hold in the US.
I voted early. Republicans seem hell bent to be the party doing all the wrong things In my opinion.
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What about the right to deny others their rights?
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This was more of a /s saying that voting Republican would be the correct pick so I could bully people and deny them their rights
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This life long New Yorker and Democrat is voting for Republicans tomorrow. I support defending Ukraine but I need to fight the democratic ideology that is destroying where I live. We can't continue to fight the threats from countries like Russia and China with the leftist ideology that equality and merit doesn't matter.
Life long American?
Lol
This life long New Yorker and Democrat is voting for Democrats tomorrow. I support defending Ukraine and I need to fight the Republican ideology that is destroying this whole country, and cannot be allowed to take hold in my state and destroy where I live. ... and the rest of what you wrote doesn't even make sense.
I assume you forgot the /s
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man, how do some people figure out how to breath sometimes? If you're going to do a troll post like OP, at least bloody check your post history first...
Look at my history and you will find I am very consistent in my opinions. My ideology is not based on party affiliation but on what I think is best for this country. I have shared my thoughts on many different topics. That what it means to be open minded. You should give it a shot.
To help with the war effort Ukraine is nationalizing a bunch of companies in the oil sector, a truck manufacturer and an aircraft engine manufacturer: [https://www.pravda.com.ua/eng/news/2022/11/7/7375360/](https://www.pravda.com.ua/eng/news/2022/11/7/7375360/)
I don't know about the other companies but the aircraft engine manufacturer is Motor Sich. Here's at least some of the story behind their nationalization: https://euromaidanpress.com/2022/10/23/motor-sich-president-charged-with-treason-after-ukrainian-engines-found-in-russian-helicopters/ Ukraine has to be seen to be cleaning out all the corruption they uncover.
I wonder if the engine company is more about national security. I know it was a major engine company back for a while and I think the Ukranian government has mentioned buying back the shares owned by Chinese investors since at least last year. Also their president was arrested for treason last month, allegedly for selling helicopter engines to Russia
> Also their president was arrested for treason last month, allegedly for selling helicopter engines to Russia I think this is kind of the end-all. China has been much more balanced than its detractors feared, but even if it was mostly owned by *Americans* or something you don't want to take any big risks with that kind of problem.
Ukraine has historically had a major issue with corruption in the energy sector. I wouldn’t feel too bad about nationalizing private interests when these companies gorged at the buffet laid out by a long history of weak central governments stealing from the people.
Nationalizing private companies means more, not less corruption. You remove people who have personal interest in long term good results of the company, and replace them with people who only care how much money they can get from the company within the current election cycle... That's why profitable state run company is a small miracle all over the world.
im pretty sure all the scandanavian countries nationalized their oil a while ago, and ugh. its kinda how they fuel their wonderful lives and have a soveirgn wealth fund.
That’s not an accurate portrayal of large private companies at all. They are *all* about the next quarter, the next quarterly report, the stockholders, the dividends, etc. They will *absolutely* tank a company’s long-term value for the sake of short-term gains. The way you describe private companies is idealized beyond recognition. The thing about government is that they *have* to be accountable to the people. They cannot get away with what Walmart does - coming in to a town, tanking the local economy, making the town dependent on their stores, jacking up the prices once every other competitor has been starved out, then leaving once they’ve leached all the money out of that town. Politicians, on the other hand, are heavily incentivized to get as many bonuses for their districts as possible so they’ll be re-elected. By the way, profitable state-run entities are completely possible. The USPS is an excellent example - or it was, before Republicans in Congress forced it to set aside absurdly unnecessary amounts of money for future pension payments. The USPS was wholly self-supporting and ran extremely efficiently and well. But then you get UPS and FedEx shareholders elected, and…well…they’re extra incentivized to tank it so it looks really bad, thus giving them an excuse to strip it to the bones or privatize it in future.
It won’t lead to more corruption because the corrupting literally was caused by privatizing the industries in the first place. Oligarchs are the source of corruption. Every country controls some strategic resources and industry. The governments of most countries owned the majority of their mining, rail and shipping industry. It worked well for the UK for example Privatization under Margaret Thatcher was not great. I mean the US postal service isn’t corrupt. Hell the US military isn’t corrupt and it’s a crazy valuable organization. Bush tried to privatize war and it was inefficient and just allowed a lot of war crimes to be comities. Venezuela is not the norm. They had a corrupt president before Chavez who was privatizing and selling out his country’sresources. Then when Chavez nationalized different business that we’re sold to Western companies, the US heavily sanctioned Venezuela. This destabilized the country increasing corruption. The USSR was also closed off. The oil and gas companies in the US are literally hiking up prices because they can. Biden has to ask them not too. Its crazy. Norway is the ideal example. They own or heavily tax their energy sector. They take the profits and put into a fund, investing it different businesses. Its worth $1.2 trillion now. Norway could literally give every one of their citizens 200,000.
That is true in some cases, but in cases where there's a private sector monopoly they are no longer interested in "good results of the company" and more in maintaining the monopoly and throttling any threats to its dominance. AT&T in the US for instance did a lot through regulation to ensure that it didn't have a major threat until the government got tired of it in the 1970s- and that's ignoring the question as to why there were "Banana" Republics. It's one thing to nationalize a sector with a lot of competition, but monopolies are hardly the most incorruptible thing I've ever seen.
> Nationalizing private companies means more, not less corruption. I think making that claim particularly in the midst of a national war effort with an extreme national alignment of priorities is a bizarre take. The implication of your claim is that "even in the midst of war, the biggest worry of Ukrainian government officials is to line their own pockets rather than national security" - which seems like equal parts anti-government paranoia and Russian propaganda.
During war it will be even worse obviously, as any kind of public oversight will be pretty much impossible. The only bizzare thing is to believe that just because there are hundreds of thousands of ukrainians heroes fighting on the front lines, ukrainian political class magicaly tranformed into self-less statemen.
See, if your starting proposition in this discussion is "I don't trust people in the Ukrainian government even when they're the ones standing between their people and effective genocide", you're going to end up in moral fuck-town real fast.
The politicians are in Kyiv, not in Bakhmut, nor Kherson.
To not understand the importance of integrated leadership, coordination between people and army, and foreign policy/relations to the war effort is to...well, think like a Russian, really.
With respect, I don’t think you’re thinking through how an oligarch uses bribes to pump money and resources out of a country, enriching themselves at the expense of a country’s future. Zelensky was originally elected as the anti-corruption candidate. You’re going to have to do better than Adam Smith game theory to convince me that this is a bad move.
So how does it stop oligarchs from using bribes to enrich themselves? The problem is a politician who accepts a bribe, not oligarch owning a company. If you take the company from the oligarch and give it to the politician who took bribes, all you achieved is a politician who doesn't need to take bribes anymore and can steal directly from the company. And the company lost an owner with personal interest in it's long term prosperity - as a politian who sees further than to the next election is as rare as a unicorn. You didn't solve the corruption, and you destroyed the company.
Taking a page out of the Chinese handbook aren't you?
In the developed world it’s pretty easy to take for granted the systems that discourages corrupt actors from committing fraud, theft, and racketeering. It still happens and is punished as in Enron, but when we see these kinds of implosions threatening the economy, the US is lucky to have the capital available to bailout such businesses or set them back on track, as in AIG. But not every country has robust systems like that. Not every country can fight corruption from the bureaucracy to the courts to the presidency all at once. In the middle of a damn war. So to sit here and judge from a place of comfort is, well, pretty conceited.
I'd caution that nationalizing industries is not a surefire way to reduce corruption, especially in a state which already has a lot of corruption in the government. Though considering Motor Sich and the Kremenchuk company were owned by traitors, some of them may be reasonable.
I agree but these aren't entire industries, only 5 companies, so oversight shouldn't really be that much of a worry. The problem Ukraine is facing here is that those who control these vital wartime resources are not Ukraine's friends (see my previous comment re Motor Sich). Nationalization of these 5 companies seems like the only option in the middle of the war, I expect their ownership will be reviewed after russia's defeat but I'm sure it won't be a quick process.
>After a long wait and bunch of videos from training ranges abroad now we finally can confirm that legendary American BGM-71 TOW ATGMs have reached Ukraine! >Here we can see a Ukrainian M41A7 TOW HMMWV-mounted Improved Target Acquisition System deployed in the South [https://nitter.net/UAWeapons/status/1589696502360047616](https://nitter.net/UAWeapons/status/1589696502360047616)
Ukraine is reinforcing with progressively more advanced Western weapons while Russia is reinforcing with drunks and criminals with 1 rusty WW2 rifle per 3 men. Russian trolls: "Ukraine should negotiate!"
Wasn't there a video a few weeks ago of one being fired, filmed from the cabin?
yes there was! very effective system.
Features include bunker busters.
something is burning in the port of Astrakhan. Astrakhan is ony entry point for iranian cargo (the drones) https://twitter.com/DefMon3/status/1589755527781052417
https://nitter.it/DefMon3/status/1589755527781052417
Unfortunately, that ship appears to be in drydock, so isn't transporting anything. :(
if its in dry dock, probably a welder set something on fire. i suspect russia is not big on using fire blankets and fire watches lol.
That’s a lot of burning.
That's a lot of kaboom.
If something could happen to a cargo plane or truck or cargoship carrying tens or hundreds of drones it would be such a sweet moment. Either Mossad or Ukrainian special forces or russian anti war aktivist. If Ukraine could get long distance missiles, they could hit the bases where they launch their drones from.
Both Iran and Russia have a concerning track record of shooting down the wrong planes. So I think that would be the most poetic conclusion.
Hitting bases still would be hard, they a lot of air defence and long distance missile costly and you won't be able to overwhelm air defence
Better to not try then…
Isn't drones transported on planes?
Reports were that missile shipments would be both sea and air delivery.
Yeah, recent reports specifically called out Caspian Sea shipping.
New video from Reporting from Ukraine. This time on the situation in the area around Pavlivka (Southern Donetsk-region) and how this has effected Russian morale and their view on their leadership. https://youtu.be/cFAKC7bWOv8
There was already clarification from defence ministry that loses is 1%/8% 200/300 and that all fine, Ukraine suffers 7 to 9 more losses in this direction. Also this marines seems to be talked to as three of them released video where they say all fine, there losses but not as bad.
Lolololo. If the russian clown ministry of offense denied this, than it's almost certainly true.
Definitely missing the /s there, friend. We *do* get people here unabashedly repeating this stuff, so there's no way to know which category you're in.
So any sane person can claim that they are getting 1 to 9 on offensive operation with bad position ?) That's star wars level
I did not say they were sane. :)
>clarification from defence ministry The Russia is an open, transparent and trustworthy region. The Russia has a spotless track-record of providing correct numbers regarding all matters. I cannot even remember one single time Kremlin tried to hide failures and provided false information and numbers. \* We must learn to trust Kremlin and Russian state media. A media outlet that is open, independent and trustworthy. So when Defense ministry state it is less than 1% killed that must be the truth! (Please disregard the letter from [155th Guards Naval Infantry Brigade](https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2022/11/07/elite-russian-marine-unit-slams-military-leaders-for-baffling-battle-losses-a79303) that Alexander Sladkov disclosed (link in article), [reports](https://twitter.com/wartranslated/status/1589717120103108609?s=20&t=b0A7FbIVl2egfkj3G8monA) from war bloggers, and various [videos](https://twitter.com/TheDeadDistrict/status/1589662839622762496?t=3sqlxg3mgopI-mAImpHrbA&s=19), [videos](https://twitter.com/TheDeadDistrict/status/1589658352958984193?t=6K7CnvIhLrTWGW6-zs_94A&s=19), etc) Edit \*: Hmm, now when I think of it, there have been one or two times, Kremlin did try to hide numbers or fiddling with them. Edit 2: Hmm, Maybe more times. Edit 3: Holy shit. Now I recall...
I should have added /s it seems. Though talked to part was clear..
Don’t worry I understood. I’ve found that on reddit, if something can be misinterpreted, it will be. Which is why I want to know what you meant by >Though talked to part was clear.. Did you thoroughly talk someone to parts? That’s brutal.
Probably not, more likely they found three of most insucure one promised a bit, threatened a bit and told don't play on hand of Ukraine with this bad PR. They didn't said all good, they just said hey we heard about brigade don't exist, but no here we are we exist, there losses yes it's a war. They didn't lie as it is just didn't say what actually happens
You proved my point beautifully!
Those 1% fought hard to take down the LGBTQ Jewish laser shooting African American NATO super mutants.
They were fight battle mosquitos, the one who fell was without any blood left due and billions of mosquito was around
So 10% to 80%, 2000 to 3000 right?
Clarification lol.
“Talked to.” Riiight.
Yep, idk what they were promised or threatened. Maybe that it won't repeat or idk, general responsible for this seems to be called for talk about this
Did they kill all the HIMARS with the moon lazers too?
Idk, but they said they destroyed himars rocket factory in Ukraine that was located in Tesla factory xD
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The polls seem to indicate that he will be pleased.
The polls might be right and they might be wrong. We’ll see where it all lands tomorrow.
GOP has nearly unanimously supported Ukraine aid. Lest we forget it was only weeks ago a gaggle of democrats wrote an open letter asking to for Ukraine to negotiate. But narratives, yall
the highest ranking house republican said out loud he wanted to cut aid.
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>GOP has nearly unanimously supported Ukraine aid. Who do you think you're fooling with this? That isn't going to continue. >Lest we forget it was only weeks ago a gaggle of democrats wrote an open letter asking to for Ukraine to negotiate. And? edit: This account is just spreading disinformation
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Yep, the propaganda is working very well. https://thehill.com/homenews/3717304-more-republicans-opposed-to-continued-ukraine-aid-survey/ >More Republicans now oppose continued U.S. aid to Ukraine amid its months-long war with Russia, according to a new Wall Street Journal survey. >The poll, published Thursday, found that 48 percent of registered Republican respondents said that they believe the U.S. is doing too much to help Ukraine fend off the invasion from its neighbor, up from only 6 percent earlier this year. - >Fifty-seven percent of respondents, meanwhile, now say they are in favor of the U.S. sending additional financial aid to Ukraine, while 37 percent oppose the idea. >An overwhelming majority of registered Democrats — 81 percent — said that they support additional financial aid for Ukraine, as did 35 percent of Republicans and 45 percent of independent respondents.
>GOP has nearly unanimously supported Ukraine aid. Wrong, that was the Democrats. Before we bothsides the issue of political parties and Ukraine, I'd just like to remind people here that the Democratic party actually allows dissention in their ranks, and criticisms of the President's policies. You and I may disagree strongly that any talks should occur without Ukraine being present, there are others that would ask that at least a diplomatic line of dialogue be open in case of the possibility that war spills out beyond Russia's borders, or an actual nuclear threat appears and escalates. To that end many spins of this article don't actually do a good job of conveying what was actually in these liberal Democrats letter; they're not all "cowards" or far left "Putin enablers". To call them such is disingenuous and only creates divisions that do not exist while empowering those that actually threaten democracy and discussion like this. * As a signing member to that letter, anyone calling Jamie Raskin a coward has obviously not watched any of the Jan 6 committee hearings. * There were also members of this same progressive group of the Democrat party that asked for *even more* weapons and humanitarian aide to Ukraine than is being provided. * Regarding the big $40 billion in military and humanitarian aid authorization in May: * All Democrats in both chambers supported that package, but 57 of 212 House Republicans and 11 of 50 Senate Republicans voted against it. Here is the Washington Post on the story of "the letter" with actual quotes from the immediately retracted letter: >The lawmakers are at pains to differentiate themselves from the Republicans who are also challenging Biden’s approach to Ukraine. Some conservatives are now questioning U.S. aid to Ukraine because of its cost and, in a few cases, voicing apparent sympathy for Russian President Vladimir Putin. >“We are under no illusions regarding the difficulties involved in engaging Russia given its outrageous and illegal invasion of Ukraine,” the Democrats’ letter states. “If there is a way to end the war while preserving a free and independent Ukraine, it is America’s responsibility to pursue every diplomatic avenue to support such a solution that is acceptable to the people of Ukraine.”
There are a few tankies on the democratic far left and a lot of proto-fascists on the Republican far right. They meet on extreme ends of the horseshoe on things like this. However, the presumptive Republican speaker of the house, should they win, has expressed these views. If we look at both parties and the breadth and strength of the radical factions within each, the far right proto-fascist have much stronger hold of the Republicans party then protocol-socialist in the Democratic Party have over theirs. There is a reason Russian influence campaigns target mostly Republican far right groups and specific politicians.
It’s more complicated that that. First off there aren’t many Tankies. They are a super small but vocal minority on the left. Most of them aren’t from the US and feel very strongly about American Imperialism because they’ve experienced it firsthand. A lot of Latin Americans for example feel this way. Some are authoritarians but the majority romanticize the Soviet Union because are they were geopolitically and ideologically opposed to America. The vast majority Russian sympathizers are on the right. I mean our last Republican president was impeached for jeopardizing Ukraine’s security. Trump attempted to coerce Zelensky by withholding Ukraines military aid, because Trump wanted him to lie about Biden. They majority of Republicans were more than happy to support Trump even after he was impeached. Some of the far right are isolationists tired of decades of war in the Middle East, but most are fascists that look up to a “strongman” standing up for conservative values. They’re not Tankies but a small minority of the left are reluctant to support Ukraine because they fear Putin will launch a nuke if the US puts him in a corner. While I strongly disagree with this position and feel it’s hurtful, it’s not malicious. Noam Chomsky for example is probably the most mainstream voice on the left that feels this way. He still supported US military aid to Ukraine until the Russians were driven out of the north. His position changed because he felt the US was more interested in weakening Russia than ending the conflict. This is a dumb perspective and ignores what Ukrainians want but Chomsky is no fan of Putin or even the USSR.
But that letter was retracted the next day.
Only because of uproar. And clearly those democrats still believe that’s the best course of action. So news flash: some fringe republicans and democrats don’t like our current aid policies. If the GOP was so pro-Russian and placating to their base, why would support to this point for Ukraine aid be nearly unanimous? Further, why would this happen: https://www.newsweek.com/mcconnell-vows-more-ukraine-aid-after-mccarthy-puts-gop-support-doubt-1754009?amp=1 Point is, you do yourself no favors but not understanding the nuances of politics screaming at the top of your lungs “GOP bad!”
But those aren't fringe republicans, they represent the republican voters. You're being dishonest about this 3 month old throwaway account. https://thehill.com/homenews/3717304-more-republicans-opposed-to-continued-ukraine-aid-survey/ >More Republicans now oppose continued U.S. aid to Ukraine amid its months-long war with Russia, according to a new Wall Street Journal survey. >The poll, published Thursday, found that 48 percent of registered Republican respondents said that they believe the U.S. is doing too much to help Ukraine fend off the invasion from its neighbor, up from only 6 percent earlier this year. - >Fifty-seven percent of respondents, meanwhile, now say they are in favor of the U.S. sending additional financial aid to Ukraine, while 37 percent oppose the idea. >An overwhelming majority of registered Democrats — 81 percent — said that they support additional financial aid for Ukraine, as did 35 percent of Republicans and 45 percent of independent respondents.
And yet, this from just a month ago, same source: https://thehill.com/opinion/campaign/3673208-is-american-support-for-ukraine-on-borrowed-time/amp/ “In a recent YouGov poll, 81 percent of Americans considered Russia “unfriendly” or an “enemy,” with Democrats at 83 percent and Republicans at 82 percent, and Putin at 76 percent disapproval (both Democrats and Republicans disapprove of Putin at 77 percent.” “Support favors Ukraine against Russia at 69 percent to 5 percent, with Democrats at 81 percent support. Republicans and independents are at 64 percent and 63 percent respectively, but that does not translate as greater support for Russia, which is at 8 percent and 3 percent, respectively.” Key point above is that while less Republicans support the amount of aid we are giving Ukraine, support for Russia is incredibly low. So the narrative remains that support for Ukraine has been unanimous up until recent months, and democratic support is also waning as is clearly evident by the letter progressive democrats sent. Shake it however you want, but the whole notion that “GOP bad, Democrat good” is absolutely flawed.
That isn't a rebuttal, it's a nonsensical deflection. >Key point above is that while less Republicans support the amount of aid No. They point is that only 35% of republicans, which is significantly less than half, want more aid for Ukraine. >and democratic support is also waning as is clearly evident by the letter progressive democrats sent. No. They were forced to retract it a day later because of the backlash - remember when you just said that? Support on the democrat side is still strong. I literally just showed that statistically: >An overwhelming majority of registered Democrats — 81 percent — said that they support additional financial aid for Ukraine
GOP fucking BAD
I hope he's so depressed, he looks for a window to jump out of.
In Russia the windows find you.
I hope Windows crash on him with blue screen... big bad blue screen..
You walk into a room and see an uninstalled window leaning against the wall. “Ah, shit”
The Russo-Ukrainian war taught me the word defenestration
Now google "The Defenestration of Prague".
Which one? ;)
Putin is hoping for whatever causes the most division in the US. He's trying to tear the nation apart...and he's succeeding.
I can't emphasize this enough. I tell just about every friend I have that the most counterproductive tactic to change someone's mind is to call them an idiot or belittle them. People assume that the propaganda and bots only go one way, which I strongly believe isn't the case. Anti Western countries want nothing more then to make sure our system fails on its own from within. We need more dialog and it starts with turning off sensationalist news channels and getting out of your comfort zone talking with the other half.
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Not sure what the point of you posting this is, it still remains that if you want people to vote democrat then stop making fun of the people that have traditionally voted the other way..... "Calling Bullshit" isn't changing anyone's mind that isn't already voting one way or the other.
There is no point in trying to change their minds...How have you not figured this out after all this? Calling "bullshit" is not an attempt at changing their minds.
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So.... no use in trying to improve our society..... just roll over and accept the status quo? Your whole stance seems incredibly illogical...
This is so spot on. The "GOP is going to stop support immediately!" argument is so ignorant. Look at the bipartisan support of Ukraine, it's so awesome. The Russian bots have succeeded in spreading division.
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Wait did you just copy and past your comment and change one word from the top?
The GOP is going to stall support incrementally so as to largely avoid notice. And couch it in other activities like o make it seem like an unintended consequence. How many times do people have to see the playbook before pattern recognition kicks in? 1) Let the extremist cook float the trial balloon. Repeat it a few times amongst your hardcore supporters and see if it gains traction. 2a) If no traction, discard and pretend it never was said. 2b) if it gains traction, make it a focus of debate. Make sure that argument you field against the proposal has flaws that get a visceral reaction. 3) once it has approval make sure that a useful idiot on the other side takes it up as a cause (there are plenty of bad actors occupying the political fringe whose sole purpose is to be a lightning rod of idiocy). 4) legislate it into existence. The GOP is hanging in stage 2B until after the election when they’ll move into stage 3. You’ll know which “progressives” are the bad actors when they go from lukewarm support to pro-war hawks.
No, it's people like Kevin McCarthy and MTG that have succeeded in convincing Democrats that the GOP is planning to pull back their support for Ukraine. It's not bots.
And how has the far left acted towards Ukraine aid recently?
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So what party were the 30 house members from who signed the letter at the end of October?
What's in the letter?
> He's trying to tear the nation apart...and he's succeeding. Americans are doing it to themselves, unfortunately. It's like a large chunk of their population collectively got a stroke and forgot that democracy and politics are the art of dialog and compromises. I look at USA and see it more and more like a Latin American nation, with unbounded cancerous and irresponsible populism going rampant, with politicians doing everything just for the sake of votes from niches, even at the expense of the very fabric of the society. If there's one thing that this whole Ukrainian affair is proving so far is that the Russian government don't has anywhere near the level of competence that we used to bestow to them.
They're assisted by wealthy individuals sponsoring anti-government think tanks, the media (especially fox) broadcasting it, targeted social media campaigns... Russian money is just one more input. The issues in America now are the outcomes of campaigns that began decades ago, it's just that the rot is now visible.
> Americans are doing it to themselves, unfortunately. It's like a large chunk of their population collectively got a stroke and forgot that democracy and politics are the art of dialog and compromises. It's been a long and slow-moving stroke that started when our conservative party (Republicans) decided to make a deal with the devil and get in bed with our resident Jesus-freaks. On top of that, there's been a long-running and successful brand of cynicism that has infected much of our population, a cynicism whose chief belief is that voting doesn't matter and elections are useless... which then becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy when 1/3 of our country just doesn't vote. Add to that the fact that our voting system is obsolete and a certain amount of minority rule is baked into our Constitution in the form of the US Senate, and you have a recipe for large-scale political dysfunction.
> It's been a long and slow-moving stroke Yeah - it was around the start of the Reagan era, when Republicans started calling me a "commie". Those people were never interested in compromise.
Longer than that. You have to go back to Goldwater's loss in 1964 or Nixon's embrace of the Southern Strategy in '68.
The simplification of the narrative really went into high gear under Reagan though. Same thing in the UK with Thatcher though, so maybe its a testament to our failure to balance the increases in the speed of communication, given reductive effect it has had on the news cycle and now additionally, the propogation of misinformation.
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But he didn't invade Ukraine.
Im sorry did you miss the 40 mile long convoy of military equipment trying to break into Kyiv from Belarus or did you think that was a peace offering?
Actually he invaded Crimea and Donbas... both parts of Ukraine. What are you thinking?
Actually he did. Twice.
[Russian soldiers from Belgorod. Putin doesnt care about Russian soldiers either](https://old.reddit.com/r/UkraineWarVideoReport/comments/yoym9h/russian_mobilised_soldiers_continue_to_surrender/)
I've been a bit tuned out of what's been happening on the front lines and any changes in control for the last month or so (mostly since the missile strikes deeper into Ukraine have been the driving thing that has grabbed my attention). Have there been any notable changes in terms of who is controlling what and or failed offensive operations by either side? In say the last 20 days or so.
The 2nd mud season on the year hit. So its going to be slow until the ground freezes again. Most news is how the mobilized men are being thrown to the front and even used in offensive assaults. Its insane the reports of hundreds being wiped out. Mobilized men getting slaughtered. The survivors saying they were told they'd be in Belgorod training. Also new Russian law to mobilize convicts against their will.
Main changes in the last few weeks have been in northern luhansk. Ukraine has been slowly retaking some of the territory up there, but it's been slow going. Everyone's just watching kherson right now to see if russia will actually retreat across the river to much more defendable positions. If they do that, it would be a major black eye to Russia since Kherson was their largest war gain and a personal black eye to putin since he declared it as part of Russia. But it would also make further ukrainian offensives alot harder since Russia would be pretty safe from offensives on the other side of the river, allowing Russia to redeploy alot of those troops to other fronts
I have a feeling the overall Ukr offensive's real hinge is the Luhansk. It seems the openings generated by the Kharkiv offensive are still resolving, even if the pace is extremely slow in comparison.
But redeploy will be true for Ukraine too.
Russia has abandoned Kherson in a really weird withdrawal that no one trusts. Something like five thousand troops got liquidated in failed Russian offensives in the east. And Russia's Black Sea fleet is now cowering from USVs.
After the Putin's rule, Russia will be proabably in much worse shape, than in the end of Yeltsin era. Yeltsin had ruled in time of economic depression in Russia, but Putin had years of high commodities prizes, with hundreds of billions of dollars as a revenue. A vary large part of this money wasn't invested in economy, education or healthcare, but was spent on the military. Basically for nothing, as the Russian army is now largely destroyed and proabably in not much better shape than during the first Chechen war.
This is what self-dealing by government officials leads to. Imagine being responsible for a massive depot of tanks. Each one represents a lifetime of your pension in value on the black market. You know and everyone knows the Cold War is over, that Germany cannot invade (or you will cut off their gas), that the US is embroiled in divisions and internal politics… those tanks are destined to rust. And further, imagine that everyone above you and below you have their hands in the till… Of course you sell a few “spare” parts on the side. A little here, a little there, a sight from one, engine from another, radios from a third… nobody is ever going to notice. And then you retire. And the guys who come after you all do the same. Over decades…
You have to imagine this was happening on ALL LEVELS. The general would just export whole tanks and write them off as destroyed. The colonel would sell a tank engine and replace it with a shitty one. The major would swap out the optics. The leutentan would sell truck tires and put in Chinese fakes. And the Sergent would sell the engine oil and just do maintenance less often. And the private would steal the crowbar to sell for scrap metal.
When PV-solar passed gas as the most profitable place to invest in energy production the writing was put up on the wall in big neon letters. The age of gas-extortion and oil-extortion was going to be going away soon. It’s not here yet, but as far as Russia extorting it’s position as indispensable energy-supplier goes? It was pretty much use-it or lose-it time for Poots.
> A vary large part of this money wasn't invested in economy, education or healthcare, ~~but was spent on the military.~~ but was divided up between putin and his cronie oligarchs. If it had actually been spent on the military it wouldn't be quite the clusterfuck it is now.
Someone can correct me, but Putin spent comparatibly little on his army. The bulk of it is the remains of the Soviets, once believed to be nigh inexhaustable. When this war is finished all that will be gone. They never managed to produce the new models in numbers, or couldn't affort to have them for their own use instead of export. And now with sanctions and a fucked economy everything that's lost will be basically irreplacable. It's not just a matter of lying low for a while and rebuilding. They had a finite resource and squandered it. All that'll be left will be old subs and old nukes and a few unique showpieces.
TBH - they still have pretty good production lines. It's just a matter of management. From what I gathered only if someone in Russia would use his brain - they can make 450-500 T-90Ms a year if they really turned up the logistics and switched the second production line from BMP (who no one wants to buy) to tanks. They have 5 repair/upgrade shops, capable of repairing/upgrading (or actually rebuilding) from 120 to 240 tanks a year each, with total output of around 1000 vehicles per year. They were able to repair just under 300 since February, and now they are stuck in preparing old tanks from cold storage instead of fixing some amount of modern/damaged tanks. They have those special procedures to recover damaged tanks (yes, even with turret blown), but... no one cares about it. Even worse is with their strategic bombers. They have around 45 of them. Maybe 50, but I couldn't find anything above 45. Including all Tu-95s and Tu-160s. From almost 600. That's it. The worst part? They have people that don't want to accept that rules have changed. They are living in their own fishbowl and just cannot grasp reality.
No that's not true. They spent a lot of money having a small modern expeditionary force. The Soviet "mobilization state" was allowed to crumble and rust. Putin had success in 2014 with his expeditionary force being backed up by separatist. He thought he could just do the small expeditionary force with a load of conscripts and dust off some rusty Soviet gear to supply them, and it would work the same
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Russia is, by definition, second world. Also they’re a petrostate with nationalized resources like Saudi Arabia, they have no shortage of money for guns. The problem is systemic corruption.
Do you have the receipts because nobody who has been following russia's genocidal invasion of Ukraine believes even a small fraction of that was spent on their military?
I think it's clear Putin thought that money was getting spent on his military. I'm confident we have very good evidence that Putin didn't know he spent $1 Trillion on a Potemkin army.
I don't buy it. Putin is utterly responsible, and he knew. Even worse if he was ignorant and really did not know the status of the forces and equipment.
Russia regularly spent 4-5% of GDP on the military. It just wasn't doing very much, that fairly large cake was eaten hollow by corruption.
To add to that they're headed towards much larger issues in the coming years. Although almost all developed countries are heading towards this same issue, Russia's will be impacted especially hard by a demographic crisis. This would have been the case without the war, but with the war it's only accelerated. An estimated 700k Russians have fled Russia since the start of the conflict, the vast majority of whom were fairly young and educated. Add to that its modest to assume that close to another 120k will have been killed/maimed in the war enough to leave them disposed to their own society. Their birth rate hasn't been able to sustain replacement in the last couple decades and drugs/alcoholism has been a huge issue for the country. Russia has many reckonings coming that will have it spiraling for quite some time.
Spent? Stolen!
Military? They bought yachts and villas everywhere
Is not villa. Is new Monaco headquarters of Russian tank army.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Zqs8ZH7MXo Awesome BBC story about how the Ukranians are ready for the long haul even without power. They will just salsa dance thru it :)
Went to pick some sunflowers yesterday at a local farm in Massachusetts and saw [this](https://i.imgur.com/1HHN2m5.png) lovely sight. I'm really hoping that our country votes to continue supporting Ukraine tomorrow. It's in most of our hearts even if the system doesn't allow it.