Pods

The results of Kirby Smart's deal with the devil.

You clearly want to discuss the Saudis and should go make a thread on it. To quickly address your point, if you don't think he's a usurper, you can take it up with Reuters, but it's a weird hill to die on. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-saudi-palace-coup-idUSKBN1A41IS [quote]“It was a big shock to MbN,” said a Saudi political source close to MbN. “It was a coup. He wasn’t prepared.” The sources said MbN did not expect to be usurped by the often impulsive Mohammed bin Salman, who MbN considered to have made a number of policy blunders, such as his handling of the Yemen conflict and cutting financial benefits to civil servants."[/quote]

MBS is a usurper and not the legitimate ruler of Saudi Arabia. Fuck him.

You need to be focused on the collapsing ruble and whether your handlers are going to keep paying you.

Hi GRUHorn. I would have thought you'd be a little busy right now to be on here 24/7, but I guess that's yet more bad Russian planning. Nice attempt to lump this in with neo-cons though. Buzzword bingo. I've been in favor of much stronger intervention since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2014 and illegally seized Crimea. It was clear then that Putin wouldn't stop. We should have treated it like the existential threat that it was and slapped Putin down then, but normalcy bias is a bitch and people didn't want to see it. People didn't want to see this second invasion either, until it happened. A no-fly zone prior to THIS SECOND invasion would have stopped it before it happened. The Russian Air Force just had the worst day of any Air Force in 40 years against Ukraine's rag-tag bunch. Going against NATO is fucking laughable. Appeasement never works. Eventually, you either confront a blackmailer, or they'll take everything. The west made the same failure they made with Hitler and it's gotten them the same result.

It's called Nebraska.

I was in favor of a no-fly zone pre-invasion, but a no fly zone now also means no Ukrainian drone strikes on these convoys. As they get more drones, and more Stingers to suppress Russian air assets, that's going to be a big advantage.

Agree, and some vacationing drone pilots as well.

I believe discussion was that F-16's to Ukraine wouldn't work, because their pilots aren't trained and are a bit busy for the training right now. NATO can pick up the slack while the Polish pilots get trained.

Don't have to maintain it, if the Ukrainians blow it all up.

Downed KA-52 helicopter 16 slides of captured, or destroyed Russian equipment, including 4 T-80U and a truck full of munitions.

Downed KA-52 helicopter 16 slides of captured, or destroyed Russian equipment, including 4 T-80U and a truck full of munitions.

Cross-posting this from the DT. Footage of civilians murdered by Russian artillery in Charkov. Fucking barbaric. NSFW and very graphic.

Footage of civilians murdered by Russian artillery in Charkov. Fucking barbaric. NSFW and very graphic.

It don't know if I'd call it Ukraine winning, but I don't think the Russians have any options left that result in a win. Their equipment is outdated and they don't have enough. I don't see how they logistically maintain a siege, when they can't even come close to supporting the units they have deployed currently. Hannibal marched up and down Italy for 15 years kicking the shit out of the Romans every time they faced, but Rome refused to admit defeat. Extreme stubbornness is damn hard to beat. I see that in the Ukrainians and they are doing far better than the Romans ever did against Hannibal until Zama. I think the more Putin hits Ukraine, the harder they will fight. Long-term, Russia is fucked and will retreat in disgrace.

Will second that one too. Good article and absolutely no politics at all. I didn't know that until 2013, the Russians wore these instead of socks. It takes this dude over a minute to put on his boots. All to save, what, 30 cents?

If y'all haven't read this, you should. It's an excellent article and the author nailed it in November. Thanks for the link @atomheartbevo. The Russians didn't have enough trucks, even before the Ukrainians started turbo-fucking their supply lines. There is no way now for them to fix it and it's going to get worse and worse as the Ukrainians keep knocking off supply convos.

Wordle 256 2/6 🟩🟩⬛⬛🟨 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 First time I played. I got ridiculous beginners luck with my first guess.

Sean Penn talk not going away.

The Israelis. They'd smoke the Russkie AF, but they aren't getting involved with Russia and risking escalation in/from Syria.

Shit, that's a really good observation. Whatever is going on with him, Putin doesn't want to die.

I'm sure they have a Bayaktar 2 waiting for these fuckers too.

True, but also bitterly learned personal experience. 1 day of hard rain can cost 3 days of field work waiting for that shit to dry. It also makes it a bitch even walking around camp. It's fucking miserable. Yet another major Russian failure. That would have been frozen a month ago and they could have rolled over it.

Good old bentonite. AKA the stuff that cat litter was usually made of. Swelling clay that is simultaneously sticky and slippery. It's fucking awful to walk, drive, or do anything else on. Everything gets stuck in bentonite. Nothing moves over it until it dries.