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SL Xpress
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"Whoever did it" indeed. This is a flat out demolition job. The amount of damage to the infrastructure is catastrophic. It's a purposeful sabotage done by the people in control of the area for maximum effect. I'll say this, too. The chances of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant surviving this war just went downhill. While a big jump in terms of consequences, it's not an insurmountable jump.
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So here's a Reuters' article from October 2022 where Zelensky accuses the Russians of mining the dam in preparation for blowing it up. The article doesn't go into as much detail as I'd prefer regarding the consequences. I'd prefer something like an engineer's report. But it's mildly helpful for providing a small amount of context. https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/is-kakhovka-dam-ukraine-about-be-blown-2022-10-21/ BTW, with no facts to back it up, I'm firmly convinced this is the Russians. Just like I'm firmly convinced they blew up the Nordstream 2 pipeline. IMO they're doing everything they can to slow down a Ukrainian counter offensive, especially to give the Ukrainians fewer options, even short term, so Russia can concentrate their defenses somewhat. They're also legitimately concerned about losing this area, so by destroying it they're depriving Ukraine of a very significant asset. There was also a heavy two lane bridge associated with the dam, so that deprives Ukraine from gaining that in the future as a means of shifting assets and supplies to the left bank of the Dnipro. I don't completely understand the timing. If the dam was mined - and I believe it was - it seems like they could blow it up any time they want. Maybe the Russians saw signs of an imminent river crossing they had no real counter for. In any case, this is obviously a big deal. I'm concerned about the lives and livelihoods that will be affected along the river, both up and down stream. This is a major, significant event in terms of navigation, flooding, water availability, and electric power generation, among other things.
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Boooooo! Boooooo!
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So is Shoigu, for that matter. At least Gerasimov is an actual soldier.
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We leaving Tennessee out for a reason? That cock sucking manager and his piece of shit dirt bag players can go to fucking hell. I’m glad we’re heading to the SEC for a myriad of reasons, but one of the things I’m looking forward to the most is watching all these “S-E-C! S-E-C!” mouthbreathers react when they realize how much better than all of them we really think we are. And then watching the Aggies going, “See? See? We told you!” Fuck off and just send the check. We don’t give a shit about any of you.
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Well, so far the guy is made of teflon. All the videos making a direct appeal to Putin to change their circumstances, whether it's military members, Wagner, mobilization units, people in the DPR, villagers asking about their husbands or promised pensions/compensation - they baffle me. None of this is his fault. It's the fault of incompetent subordinates. If only Putin can learn of this, he'll fix it. It's a cultural thing. It's also why whatever replaces Putin will also be Putin-nesque, just like the czars, just like the head of the Politburo. These fuckheads are hopeless. It's also why this war is so important. Ukraine finally has a chance to get away from this culture of retardedness. They're paying a steep price for it, but my gosh. You have centuries of being dominated by these freakazoids, and now you finally have a chance to break free once and for all, how much of a price is that worth paying?
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And all the federales say They could have had him any day They only let him hang around Out of kindness, I suppose
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The history of OPEC is replete with members producing far beyond their quota. Now you have someone who has to ship their oil through undocumented means to avoid sanctions. It's still important that Russia makes this announcement as opposed to just telling the Saudis to fuck off. There is some small market signal value, at least in the short term. But it's laughable to think Russia is going to abide by this. The Saudis know this, too. They weren't born yesterday. The thing is, if the Saudis want to really fuck over Russia they can simply turn on the spigots and send the price of oil crashing, so there are consequences to poor behavior. I just don't know if Russia is in a position to be all that considerate of their future self. They need every bit of currency they can bring in right now. And it's not likely the Saudis are going to send the price of oil crashing except as some kind of last resort. Bottom line is I don't believe this for one second except in the sense of being diplomatic. What the Saudis really need to crack down on to whatever extent they can - which seems to me very little - is the reselling of Russian oil by places like India for profit taking. I don't think it's realistic for anyone to stop countries from buying cheap Russian crude for their own consumption, especially when it's all done under the table. But when it's laundered and then resold into the market, it basically sends a signal to Russia to keep pumping out as much as possible, because someone is going to buy it, even at tremendously discounted prices.
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They're also difficult for air defenses to intercept. The issue is they're not very accurate on ground based targets. But if the intent is to sow general fear and unrest, and you don't care all that much about what target is actually hit, they're an expensive partial solution to the problem of Ukraine air defenses. It's a horrible use of them, though. As you're alluding, it's certainly a sign of weakness in capabilities. But yes, there's also issues with any kind of ammo production keeping up with consumption on both sides. Plenty of posts on this thread citing Russian serial numbers of missiles used indicating they're fresh off the production lines. Basically as soon as they're produced they're rushed off to the battlefield and used pretty much immediately.
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Where’s the it’s happening .gif?
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And yet the 300+ year Ptolemaic rule of Egypt, and his lineage was ended. But you’re right. Being queen of Mauritania makes it a sterling success. Good point.
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Generally positions just going radio silent is way worse on nerves as the imagination conjures all kinds of scenarios than information getting out, even if it’s screams and panic. Obviouusly if you have control of a switch and you can just shut off all Russian communications, you pull it. I like the way you guys think, though, both @RDCanecutter suggesting keeping signals on to spread fear, and your’s of faking the comms. Certainly anything that can be successfully faked on comms would be a huge asset, but if it can be successfully done I’d suggest there are way better uses for it than simply sending signals of screams and panic. Doesn’t change how fun the idea sounds, though.
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They were simply stopped at a new front line. Here’s hoping to many more such stoppages by the Russian defense.
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Hannibal invading Rome still led to the destruction of Carthage. Cleopatra siding with Marc Antony still ended with the massacre of her family and the ending of 300+ years of Ptolemaic rule of Egypt. The War of 1812 wa actually meant as an example of what seems like a blunder at the time, even when viewed historically, but the civilization/culture went on to great success and so it’s questionable how big of a blunder it ended up being compared to other historic blunders. Not sure what point is being made regarding the lend lease act and the timing of the two attacks by Japan and Germany, although certainly you and I see things the same way. Again, both the attacks by Germany and Japan are examples for me of blunders, but given that their civilization wasn’t destroyed, and is even thriving today, lowers their historical epicness below blunders that resulted in the destruction of cultures/civilizations. The Ottoman Empire joining Germany resulted in its destruction regardless of the reasons why they sided with Germany. Look, you and I both know all of these historical events have earned entire wings at libraries, which I then encapsulated as a sentence. My big point is that decisions which are made that lead to the entire destruction of a civilization/culture deserve a different place on the heirarchy of geopolitical blunders than ones that do not, regardless of how stupid the decision actually is. Invading Ukraine has turned out to be a really stupid decision. It seemed like a stupid decision from the outset, even when Putin was simply massing 190,000 troops on the border, but subsequent events have made it look waaaaaay stupider still. My main point - which was inferred but not explicitly stated - is that if it ends with the further breakup of the Russian Federation into much smaller fiefdoms, and/or much of the current Federation is absorbed by other countries - namely China - this goes way up the list of historical geopolitical fuckuos. On the other hand, if this leads to Putin being replaced and a Deng type leader emerging that somehow combines a hybrid state run capitalistic economy which unleashes Russian economic potential - or whatever other scenario someone wants to paint that leads to Russia experiencing some kind of resurgence of success - then it may end up not being a blunder at all in historical terms. That’s what I meant by you can’t judge these things in real time.
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It would seem to me that Ukraine would be wise to hit at one spot with a smallish crew, test defenses, pull Russian forces there, give the Russians confidence regarding their ability to successfully defend, then make their major push elsewhere. But that's armchair, Heart of Iron style back seat driving for you. I just have the opinion that Ukraine has the capability of being a lot more flexible with their forces, especially with the new Western armored vehicles, than Russia does with their inept command and control. And as we all know, the biggest advantage for the attacker is the ability to choose time and place for the attack. Once that all in commitment has been made, you can't get that advantage back. I really appreciate you posting this, @KYHorn. This does feel like the beginnings of what everyone has been waiting for.
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That's good to hear. Well, let's hope we host the supers, then. Although I'm still not going to root for A&M. It'll simply be a nice bonus if they happen to win, along with a favorable Director's Cup standing.
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That's true, but you and I both know that's not why Texas has refused to dog pile all these years after regionals. And there's still an injury risk after super regionals as well.
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The greatest of all time didn't say no. He was cock blocked.
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Probably best I stay away from expressing my thoughts on the general approach towards football hires. I'll just say the only time since Darrell Royal I felt like the university actually went after the best candidate available was the Mack Brown hire. Regardless of whether Brown succeeded or not, I would have been willing to defend that hire until the day I died. Slam dunk. The rest of them - all of them - have issues. I have no idea why the philosophy can't be to go out and get the best candidate every time, but something or someone is always getting in the way of that. But I'll refrain from a case by case analysis, especially on the baseball board. Which is not to say Sarkisian won't be successful. That's not my point. In any case, if there was any program other than football that should be able to go out there and money whip practically whatever coach they want to come be the head coach at UT, it would seem to me baseball would be it. Which is why that whole process under Perrin was so frustrating. But that's okay. I like Pierce. I think he's going to bring us hardware eventually. He's shown me he's ruthless enough that sentimentality isn't going to get in the way. That's a good sign. Could be this year is the year. I do know I'm excited the team has made it to Super Regionals. Oh, and no dog pile. That may be my favorite tradition in all of UT sports.
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I don't know that I personally get lost in it. I find this stuff fascinating. One of my biggest things is there's no such thing as a sure thing when it comes to coaching hires. There are exceptions. Augie Garrido when he was hired is about as close to a sure thing as you're ever going to get. Very unusual for a multiple national championship winning coach to leave the program he built. But I think of hires like Pete Carroll at USC, or Jim Tressel at Ohio State, who were similar cluster fuck type hiring situations. Sometimes it just works out. In my opinion it's too easy to get caught up in the talk of if they haven't won the whole thing then they're underachievers. I get that's the bar at Texas. And it should be. But there are plenty of coaches who weren't winning titles then suddenly they won a bunch of them. Heck, Jerritt Elliott had that reputation in volleyball, but after last season I don't hear much of a peep about it. Even got into the Hall of Fame recently. At the same time, I think all of us would like to see Pierce host a few more regionals and super regionals. There's a satisfaction in winning as the underdog, but it's not really the dynamic we aspire to as Texas fans. As Dodds famously said, "We are the Joneses."
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To me the key thing I'd point to as Exhibit A of how much Pierce wants to win is that he got rid of his long time assistant - something that had to be personally painful to do - because he recognized he needed a different level of a staff to win a national championship. I think we've seen some signs that the addition of Woody Williams is paying some dividends. I don't know the answer, but how many head coaches are there in college baseball with more NCAA tournament wins than Pierce since he's been at Texas? It can't be many. Is it even one? Obviously post season wins without a ring is a hollow stat, but I feel good about where we are as a program. And I had significant questions about the hire at the time, given that he seemed to be our 5th choice (or so) in that cluster fuck of a hiring process.
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LeBarron Johnson’s performance yesterday was so good, they should name a campus library after him.
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