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Bevo

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  1. This is somewhat true as well. When you are poor and hungry, you concern yourself more with your immediate needs and focus less on others including other Russians, the Russian government and most definitely Ukraine and Ukrainians.
  2. I was speaking with a Russian from southern Russia not far from Ukraine, and she tells me that most of her family back in Russia most definitely believe the Russian State Media news regarding Ukraine. She says that attitude is more the norm than the exception. Unfortunately, I didn’t ask lots of questions because she was a patient, but I found it interesting. Brainwashing is real and without easy access to many other sources of information, the Russian news dominates.
  3. @lazygringo I was looking for more practiced eyes. Should we pool our Lockett and Ffrench NIL, let them walk, and sign Ryan Williams as our WR2?
  4. https://understandingwar.org/research/russia-ukraine/russian-offensive-campaign-assessment-december-16-2025/ Toplines The Council of the European Union confirmed that European countries and the United States will provide “robust” security guarantees to Ukraine as part of the peace deal to end Russia’s war in Ukraine.[1] The Council of the European Union issued a joint statement on December 15 affirming that the United States and European leaders are committed to working together to provide “robust security guarantees” and economic recovery measures for Ukraine in the context of the peace deal. The Council agreed to provide support for the Ukrainian military in peace time; a European-led multinational force composed of forces from the Coalition of the Willing; a US-led ceasefire monitoring and verification mechanism; and a legally binding commitment to take military, diplomatic, and economic measures in the event of Russia’s reinvasion. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky reported on December 16 that US and Ukrainian officials discussed legally-binding security guarantees during the talks.[2] Zelensky noted that Ukrainian and US officials will meet in Miami, Florida, to continue discussions about security guarantees, and a US official noted that US and Ukrainian working groups will likely meet over the weekend (December 20 and 21) “somewhere” in the United States, possibly Miami.[3] The Kremlin explicitly rejected US and European offers to provide Ukraine with “NATO-like” security guarantees as part of a peace deal and continued to signal its unwillingness to compromise on Russia’s territorial claims to Ukraine’s sovereign territory. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov stated in an English language TV interview with ABC News on December 15 that Russia “definitely will not at any moment subscribe to, agree to, or even be content with” any NATO troops in Ukraine, even if these forces are part of a security guarantee or are members of the Coalition of the Willing.[4] Ryabkov also reiterated that Russia would not compromise “in any form” on the five Ukrainian regions that Russia illegally annexed — which includes the entirety of Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhia, and Kherson oblasts and Crimea. Ryabkov notably stated that Russia has “five [regions] altogether,” effectively reiterating the Kremlin’s demand that Ukraine give up unoccupied parts of Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhia, and Kherson oblasts to Russia, and therefore signaling that Russia remains unlikely to agree to any ceasefire that would freeze the current frontline. Ryabkov reiterated Russia’s theory of victory — which claims that Russia will inevitably win by outlasting Ukrainian resilience and Western support — by stating that the end of Russia’s war in Ukraine depends on when Ukrainian supporters “recognize the inevitable outcome of [Russian] success.” Ryabkov also stated that Russia’s whole “purpose” of war in Ukraine is to have Ukrainians find out that they belong in Russia, effectively restating the Kremlin’s long-term goal of establishing control over Ukraine’s government and its people, not just its land.[5] Kremlin Spokesperson Dmitry Peskov similarly reiterated on December 16 that Russia wants to “end this war” but seeks to achieve its goals, which ISW assesses include decapitating and replacing the Ukrainian government, destroying the Ukrainian military, and undermining Western unity.[6] Peskov also rejected the Ukrainian-proposed and US-supported idea of a Christmas truce.[7] The Kremlin has been effectively rejecting key points of various peace deal proposals, including the original US-proposed 28-point peace deal, such as reliable security guarantees for Ukraine or territorial swaps.[8] Russia launched an information campaign to frame the European Union and individual European countries as an enemy of the Russian people, comparable to Nazi Germany, in an effort to further militarize Russian society. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov claimed in an interview with Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting on December 15 that Europe is waging a war “under a Nazi flag” with Russia through European support for Ukraine.[9] Lavrov claimed that European leadership in Belgium, Germany, the United Kingdom, France, and the Baltic states is reviving “the theory and practice of Nazism.” Lavrov also claimed that Germany is involved in a “resurgence of militarism” and connected modern Finland to Adolf Hitler and the Siege of Leningrad — likely referring to historically and culturally significant events that invoke historical grievances amongst Russians. Lavrov also compared modern European leadership to historical figures such as Adolf Hitler and Napoleon Bonaparte that represent an existential threat to Russia. Lavrov’s false claims that different European leaders are practicing a nebulously defined “Nazism” are distinct from Russia’s false claims that Ukraine has neo-Nazi leadership, which pertains to Russia’s false claims that Ukraine is engaged in a genocidal campaign against Russian-speaking populations living in the country. Lavrov is leveraging the term “Nazi” to identify modern European countries and their current leadership as enemies of the Russian people and to recall Soviet narratives of patriotism to prepare the Russian population to accept greater levels of sacrifices in the pursuit of the ideological defense of the Russian state for an indeterminate amount of time. The Kremlin is trying to downplay ongoing Ukrainian counterattacks in Kupyansk as Russian ultranationalist milbloggers continue to acknowledge the severity of the situation for the Russian forces. Ukrainian military sources reported on December 16 that around 200 Russian servicemen remain in Kupyansk and that Russian forces have limited logistics due to successful Ukrainian shaping and interdiction operations.[10] Russian state media has recently vastly platformed statements from Russian military officials and propagandists that downplay the situation in Kupyansk, likely in an effort to uphold a false Russian narrative that Russian forces are imminently collapsing Ukraine’s defense — a narrative aimed at influencing Ukraine and the West to make significant concessions to Russia. Russian state sources, including the Western Grouping of Forces (GoF) and an unnamed source from the Russian Joint GoF, claimed that Russian forces retained control over Kupyansk and accused Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky of falsifying the December 11 video that he took in Kupyansk.[11] Some Russian milbloggers also amplified allegedly geolocated footage that shows two servicemen of the 121st Motorized Rifle Regiment (68th Motorized Rifle Division, 6th Combined Arms Army [CAA], Leningrad Military District [LMD]) reportedly walking in southern Kupyansk, using the video to claim that Russian forces still control the settlement.[12] Other Russian milbloggers, however, continued to criticize Russian state media for failing to adequately cover Ukrainian counterattacks in Kupyansk, with one milblogger even pointing out that Russian state media is relying on the Western and Joint GoFs to conceal the battlefield situation in Kupyansk.[13] The Russian Black Sea Fleet denied the loss of a Russian submarine as the result of a Ukrainian unmanned underwater vehicle (UUV) strike against the Novorossiysk Naval Base on the night of December 14 to 15 Russian Black Sea Fleet Spokesperson Captain 1st Rank Alexey Rulev claimed on December 15 that Ukrainian reports of the sinking of a Russian submarine in Novorossiysk are false and that no vessels suffered damages in the strike, and Russian Ministry of Defense (MoD)-run TV network Zvezda published footage on December 16 allegedly showing the undamaged submarine.[14] An open-source intelligence (OSINT) analyst assessed that the Ukrainian UUV detonated 20 meters from the Russian Project 636 Varshavyanka-class (NATO Kilo-class) submarine and noted that the Zvezda-published footage does not show the stern of the submarine, which was closest to the explosion site.[15] Another OSINT analyst noted that satellite imagery taken on December 16 shows that the submarine has not moved since the strike, potentially indicating damage to the submarine.[16] Ukrainian Navy Spokesperson Captain Third Rank Dmytro Pletenchuk reported that the Black Sea Fleet now only fields two submarines capable of carrying Kalibr cruise missiles following the strike.[17] Russian milbloggers noted that Ukraine’s ability to conduct a UUV strike inside the ostensibly secure Novorossiysk Naval Base is a serious security lapse, and reported that Ukrainian forces apparently hacked a surveillance camera at the Novorossiysk Naval Base headquarters to provide footage of the strike.[18] ISW cannot assess whether the Ukrainian UUV strike damaged the submarine from the available open-source information at this time. Key Takeaways The Council of the European Union confirmed that European countries and the United States will provide “robust” security guarantees to Ukraine as part of the peace deal to end Russia’s war in Ukraine. The Kremlin explicitly rejected US and European offers to provide Ukraine with “NATO-like” security guarantees as part of a peace deal and continued to signal its unwillingness to compromise on Russia’s territorial claims to Ukraine’s sovereign territory. Russia launched an information campaign to frame the European Union and individual European countries as an enemy of the Russian people comparable to Nazi Germany in an effort to further militarize Russian society. The Kremlin is trying to downplay ongoing Ukrainian counterattacks in Kupyansk as Russian ultranationalist milbloggers continue to acknowledge the severity of the situation for the Russian forces. Ukrainian forces recently advanced near Pokrovsk and marginally advanced near Kupyansk. Russian forces recently advanced in the Dobropillya and Kostyantynivka-Druzhkivka tactical areas.
  5. I liked his music in the 80s/early 90s and wondered what he was doing when I moved back to Austin around 2010.
  6. That’s what she said.
  7. I probably misinterpreted your point a bit. And I agree that acting as the world’s police force is a huge tangent for another thread.
  8. I’m a middle seat kind of guy. I can touch twice as many people mid-flight from that position.
  9. The first part I agree with. The second part, I’m not so sure about. There are real dangers and real expenses to being the world’s police force. Yes, we gain a lot of power and influence but is it worth the financial cost and the wrath of the countrymen from the countries that we have to police? We’ve already squandered a lot of the financial success that we gained by rebuilding Japan and Europe, how much more money are we going to have to collect or print to maintain wa world police presence.
  10. He’s younger than a Chris Stapleton guitar pick. Give him time and @closetojumping will rue the day he declared that he would do a Kegel for every yard AJ Jr. gained during the season.
  11. I think they are part of the giblets so I guess they are found in a bag in the neck cavity?
  12. nah, Flood/Sark are just lucky
  13. long-term it may not be a good thing, but short-term it is absolutely good that central and Eastern Europe are preparing for a Russian invasion and not relying on the US. if Russia does decide to attack, Germany and Poland will not be caught off guard. And more likely, Russia will not attack because with a fortified central and Eastern Europe, Putin knows he would lose.
  14. Shopping for 1 in Gainsville
  15. Ukraine most definitely doesn’t have the resources to open another front. Belarus’ army is terrible btw.
  16. Hopefully that is true: It would be a pretty lopsided world war - Russia can’t even take Ukraine. Unless there is a total collapse of Russiawithin the year, this is the weakest it will be - given that Trump wants to reopen Russia for business and end its Ukraine problem. Russia will use that opportunity to rebuild its oil and gas infrastructure and rearm its military.
  17. Ukraine’s gloves are off in its energy war with Russia. How much can it increase the pressure? https://www.cnn.com/2025/12/11/europe/ukraine-attacks-russian-energy-intl-cmd CNN Expansion London 04/23 Clare Sebastian Clare Sebastian Ukraine said Thursday its long-range drones had struck a major offshore oil platform in the Caspian Sea this week, in a previously undisclosed mission that signals a new expansion of its target list in a mounting campaign to cut off the Russian energy revenues funding its war. “This is Ukraine’s first strike on Russian infrastructure related to oil production in the Caspian Sea,” a source with the Security Service of Ukraine told CNN, calling it “another reminder to Russia that all its enterprises working for the war are legitimate targets.” The Filanovsky oil platform, owned by Lukoil, claims to be the largest oil field in the Russian sector of the Caspian. CNN has reached out to Lukoil and the Russian Ministry of Defense for comment. Ukraine’s deep strike campaign against Russian energy facilities began in earnest in early 2024, but since the beginning of August, Kyiv has escalated this effort, doubling down on what Ukraine’s sanctions commissioner Vladyslav Vlasiuk calls “long-range sanctions” targeting Russia’s biggest financial lifeline. Ukraine is now hitting an increasingly broad range of targets including not just refineries but oil and gas export infrastructure, pipelines, tankers, and now offshore drilling infrastructure. November saw the highest number of attacks yet in a single month, according to data from the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data (ACLED) project, and CNN’s analysis. It comes at a critical juncture in the war. Recent US-led peace efforts only appear to have hardened Russia’s maximalist demands, and Moscow’s forces are creeping forward in several areas of the front line. That, along with a global oil supply glut cushioning the market against potential price rises, means Ukraine’s Western allies have grown increasingly supportive of this campaign. “I think the general strategy since summer is the idea that you cannot allow Russia to retain so much of its critical energy revenue that has been fuelling the massive manpower recruitment advantage that Moscow has over Ukraine,” said Helima Croft, global head of commodity strategy at RBC Capital Markets, referring to Russia’s ability to pay high salaries and sign-on bonuses to recruit soldiers. “So, I do think it’s a more systematic effort to sort of close that energy ATM.” Repeated attacks, bigger targets Between the beginning of August and the end of November, Ukraine struck at least 77 Russian energy facilities, almost twice the total for the first seven months of the year, according to the ACLED. In November at least 14 refinery hits and four attacks on Russian export terminals were recorded. Striking the same facilities multiple times is now a key part of the strategy. The Rosneft-owned Saratov refinery, for example, has been hit at least eight times since the beginning of August, with four of those strikes in November. “What used to be occasional strikes meant to cause damage has become a sustained effort to keep refineries from ever fully stabilising,” wrote Nikhil Dubey, senior refining analyst at data and analytics firm Kpler, in early December. Dubey’s research shows that repeated strikes on Russian refineries like Saratov have knocked a significant amount of capacity offline and are “slowing the pace of every repair.” He also assesses that since August, Kyiv has been trying to maximize the impact of its refinery strikes, by targeting not just “the visible parts of the refinery but the important clogs in the refining system that produce the final fuels.” Sergey Vakulenko, a senior fellow at the Berlin-based Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center think tank, who spent 25 years in the Russian oil and gas industry, told CNN he believes the up- front damage Ukraine has inflicted has been manageable for Moscow so far, but that does not account for the long-term damage from the large-scale fires these attacks tend to cause. “Metals are not particularly fond of that kind of treatment, and nobody really knows how many of these cycles of heating by fire and cooling down these columns could survive,” he told CNN. The pattern of attacks also suggests Ukraine is no longer trying to limit the impact to just Russia’s domestic energy market. Since August, it has markedly increased strikes on Russian oil export facilities. The ports of Novorossiysk and Tuapse on the Black Sea and Ust-Luga on the Baltic have each been hit several times. And pipelines are also in play. The Druzhba pipeline carrying Russian oil to the few remaining EU countries that rely on it has now been hit five times since August, triggering protests from Hungary, which remains on good terms with Moscow. In late November, the Caspian Pipeline Consortium, which ferries 80% of all Kazakh oil supplies from Kazakhstan to the Black Sea, said it had been attacked twice in four days. The pipeline company, jointly owned by Russia, Kazakhstan and international oil companies including Exxon (XOM), Chevron (CVX) and Eni, said the second strike had knocked out one of its three mooring points for tankers. Ukraine never officially claimed responsibility for the strike. The entire terminal shut down for two days, according to Homayoun Falakshahi, head of crude oil analysis at Kpler. The Kazakh foreign minister called it “an action harming the bilateral relations of the Republic of Kazakhstan and Ukraine.” Vakulenko believes this shows the risks of this expanding campaign. “I guess Ukraine wants to instil fear and wants to make it expensive for any oil tankers going into the Black Sea,” he said, but added: “I think with this, Ukraine doesn’t earn any sympathies and might incur some costs.” A Ukrainian sea drone shows the Dashan, a sanctioned oil tanker, being struck by another sea drone in the Black Sea on Tuesday, in a still from a video shared by Ukraine's Security Service. Ukraine is undeterred. On Wednesday it carried out its third attack on another critical link in Russia’s oil supply chain – the ships that carry it to global markets. A source in Ukraine’s security service claimed sea drones had been used to attack a sanctioned oil tanker in the Black Sea, heading for Novorossiysk. The first two attacks on tankers in late November triggered a rare response from Putin, who called it “piracy,” and Turkey summoned both Ukrainian and Russian ambassadors in protest. “We have no other tool than to cut money flow to Russia to prevent this war for existence,” said Oleksandr Kharchenko, director of the Energy Industry Research Centre in Kyiv. The fact these sanctioned vessels were there in the first place, he argued, clearly demonstrates Western sanctions are inadequate. “So guys, if you can’t deliver your sanctions, maybe someone (can) help you,” he said. Western support Two external factors have allowed Ukraine to ramp up its energy attacks in recent months. First, a dramatic about-turn by the United States. “It is very hard, if not impossible, to win a war without attacking an invader’s country,” wrote US President Trump on Truth Social in late August. In October, two sources told CNN the US had increased intelligence sharing with Ukraine after the abortive Alaska summit between Trump and Putin, with a focus on energy-related targets inside Russia, hoping to force Russia back to the negotiating table. Europe was also on board. “By the end of summer no one in the room would even mention that Ukraine should restrain from hitting any target,” noted Dovilė Šakalienė, a Lithuanian parliamentarian who served as the country’s defense minister until October this year, in written comments to CNN. “Growing realization in the minds of Europeans that failure of Ukraine will directly affect our security within the span of one standard parliamentary term also helped,” she added. “The US remains an active partner when it comes to Ukraine’s deep strikes on Russian energy targets, while European allies have stepped up their involvement,” a source with Ukraine’s drone program told CNN. The second big tailwind for Ukraine has been falling oil prices driven by a global oversupply. Croft, from RBC Capital Markets, said she “just couldn’t envision that the Trump administration, which has been so focused on lower retail gasoline prices” would be “so supportive” of Ukraine’s attacks on Russian energy if oil prices were high. A Western intelligence source told CNN that Ukraine is getting extra support in this campaign “as needed” and “the goal is for these attacks to have consequences.” The global oil markets can “take it,” the source added. How long can Russia withstand this? While Russia remains intransigent in peace talks, its oil sector – the single biggest financial pillar of its war – is looking much shakier than a year ago. Russia’s oil refineries are processing about 6% less oil than they were this time last year, according to Kpler analyst Dubey. While that number may look small, it is disruptive for the Russians because “they usually run with only a small gasoline surplus,” Dubey said. In September and October this year, videos of cars lining up outside gas stations surfaced online and Russia’s government, facing shortages in some regions, moved to ban gasoline exports until the end of the year. At the end of November, Putin signed a law allowing Russian companies to receive a subsidy if they refine oil at Belarusian refineries and then import it back to Russia, state media reported, a measure designed to stabilize the domestic market. Ukraine’s escalating attacks have also coincided with the first new sanctions imposed on Russia since Trump returned to office in January. In October, Trump announced full blocking sanctions on Russia’s biggest oil companies – Rosneft and Lukoil. Prices for Russian Urals crude have gradually fallen since then to around their lowest point in the war so far, according to data from Argus Media, helping fuel a drop in Russian oil export revenues to their lowest point since February 2022, according to the International Energy Agency. In November, state media reported Russia’s oil and natural gas revenues fell almost 34% compared with the same month last year. Vakulenko believes the attacks on Russian energy facilities are just “one of the elements of the puzzle” of how to pressure Putin to seek peace. “I think the amount of economic damage one has to inflict on Russia is probably more than Ukraine could create at the moment,” he said. “I believe that if push comes to shove, Russia could probably survive with half of its oil and gas exports.” For Croft, it’s a question of whether Ukraine and its allies can stay the course. “The combination of infrastructure attacks focused on export targets, and the staying power of blocking sanctions, I think that could potentially drive Russia back to the table, but it has to be a longer duration event,” she said. With Trump now pressuring Ukraine to accept concessions, this may be a test of his appetite to do both.
  18. What's her maiden name?
  19. For more recent data Jeremiah Smith and Ryan Williams were freshmen all-Americans, but who knows if they’ll be worth a shit in the future. ^^^ beat me to it.
  20. Randy Moss was a freshman all-American, but to your point, I have no idea how he did after that.
  21. And looking at the guy in front of him vs. turning to watch Arch take a hit.
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