
SL Xpress
Full Members-
Posts
4237 -
Joined
-
Last visited
-
Days Won
1
Content Type
Profiles
Forums
Store
Downloads
Recruiting - 2020
2019-2020 Football Season
Football
Entertainment
Sports
News and Business
Cloak Room
Transfer Portal
Recruiting
Events
Everything posted by SL Xpress
-
Wagner got more ammo. From what I’ve read they’re the ones making advances on the northern flanks.
-
Germans, Austrians, Swiss. Just something in that whole culture. I admire the loving shit out of them, and I’ve known plenty of generous, warm, unselfish Germans, but as an aggregate? Selfish, conceited, our farts don’t stink assholes.
-
I’m glad to see Pistorious say out loud what everyone has known for decades. I’m not sure Germany ever carried its weight, but some of that is no one really wanted them to. It’s not like anyone is excited to see Germany build a really powerful military even after 80 years have passed. But the state it’s in right now is deplorable. And of course it is. Look how much they spend on defense. Nearly all of NATO is like that, but Germany has been the worst. Well, hopefully they do the right thing and start rebuilding their defense forces, but even with Ukraine there’s uphill sledding to do politically. And it can’t be fixed overnight.
-
Kherson? I don’t understand what you mean by that. Heck, with the steelworks a lot of those guys would have been better off if they hadn’t surrendered. I feel like it was mostly they couldn’t afford to lose any more helicopters to supply them. But I don’t know that. Azovstal doesn’t seem like a good equivalent to me. The Donetsk airport, on the other hand, seems very similar to Bakhmut.
-
So it would be like the Alamo if Ukrainian command was telling the military in Bakhmut to get the hell out of there, and they were collectively crossing lines in the sand saying, “Hell no, we won’t go!” Because that to me WOULD sound a lot more like the Alamo.
-
So explain to me how that analogy makes sense. The defenders of the Alamo were not just outflanked. They were literally the only defenders within hundreds of miles. If they could have withdrawn to a better defensive position somewhere they would have. There was no where else to go. The situation in Bakhmut is that there is a high ridge literally just west of the town where the defenders inside the city would no longer be flanked and the supply lines would no longer be under such severe constraint. There are plenty of other disadvantages, but those are some big ones pros in favor of it. There is an opportunity here to trade territory for lives. To me that’s the obvious issue. Someone in the Ukrainian command has decided they don’t want to do that. Okay. They’re the ones in charge. They get to. But it’s obvious they’d prefer to trade lives to prove a point. We’re not giving up a single inch of territory to you fucks. Not a single inch. If that’s the case, it is what it is, but it’s depressing to witness. If that’s the case. Or we can believe there’s a brilliant strategy involved here. I do not believe that. I think an emotional decision is being made to defend Bakhmut come hell or high water, even though there was a perfectly good route to withdraw as recently as a couple of weeks ago. That was not the situation at the Alamo.
-
Neither Severodoneysk nor Lysychansk were in this much danger of encirclement nor having their supply lines cut off. Bakhmut has held even better than either of those along the eastern front. It’s the flanks that have failed them. It was a direct withdrawal to the southwest in the former. Also, Lysychansk was the high ground in that area. At Bakhmut the only withdrawal route is now directly covered by artillery and mortar shells, and they have active SU-25’s running low altitude missions in the area. Not to mention the ground is a slog. The high ground in the area is actually to the west, where new defensive fortifications have been built. You could very well be right, but it’s not an apples to apples comparison. I never had the same feeling the defenders in Lysychansk would come under heavy fire while withdrawing the way I do about Bakhmut. Also Severodonetsk and Lysychansk had much more clear strategic importance than Bakhmut does. It’s not like I’m seeing an impending loss of the war. But it does appear to be a possible unnecessary loss of life. And as far as being armchair generals, that’s what anyone is who analyzes what is going on. If you’re a thinking human being that spends hours upon hours reading and studying this stuff you can’t help but come up with opinions, even if they’re wrong. Then you have the firing of the General who was commander of the overall forces in Donbas, including Bakhmut. Something went wrong in Bakhmut, either in part because of him, or he wanted to go in a different direction than people higher up the chain of command. I feel like the whole situation warrants some second guessing. Not saying any of it is correct, but it looks to me like there’s some second guessing within the Ukrainian command structure. It could be this isn’t a clever rope a dope strategy but an insistence on trading lives at the expense of voluntarily giving up any more territory. In other words, a political decision over a strategic one Which wouldn’t make it the wrong decision, per se, but it would make me very sad. I would prefer those men/women have been withdrawn at a stage where it wouldn’t be quite so harrowing than what it is now.
-
Love this fucking interview with a couple of artillery officers: https://wartranslated.com/pravda-com-ua-interview-ukrainian-colonel-oleh-shevchuk/ BTW, I had to look it up. The Pions referenced are large self propelled howitzers that shoot 203 millimeter shells. Compare that to the 152 and 155mm shells the other Soviet and Western howitzers fire. As stated in the interview, they were originally designed to fire nuclear shells. Anyway, thoroughly enjoyed a lot of aspects of this interview, the information they imparted, and their general mindsets. As always, thanks to Volodya Treytak for the translation.
-
My thoughts: Just because they state it's a strategic decision, not a political decision, doesn't mean it's true. And just because it's a political decision, doesn't make it the wrong one. They know the conversations out there. If you send in reinforcements, you're not going to confirm holding Bakhmut is for political purposes. So you either keep silent about the reasoning, or you say something out loud because you're concerned about the perception. Particularly the perception among your own military forces. Read about what the marines that served under MacArthur thought about his insistence of taking every Japanese held island with their blood. Lots of talk of an Army general much more willing to sacrifice Marines than his own Army grunts. If it was this important to hold, those reinforcements should have been sent to the flanks long ago. They've been steadily collapsing since the start of the year, two months ago. Of course there are other priorities, chiefly preparing enough units and making sure they're equipped for whatever counteroffensive they have planned in a couple of months. And there have been attempted Russian offensives in other directions, including the Kreminina and the Vuhldehar areas. Then there's the firing of the general responsible for the general armed forces in the Donbas, which I originally guessed, and still do, was because he wanted to pull the troops out of Bakhmut. If you look at the https://deepstatemap.live/#13/48.5762/37.9610 - which I'm not saying is the end all be all of the disposition of armed forces, but it's something and they do try to correct their data as it comes in - the situation looks completely untenable without managing to force back the Russian positions. Which the UAF has tried on both the northern and southern flanks according to various reports, and failed. How hard they tried, I have no idea. But without some successes with a quickness, Bakhmut cannot be supplied except irregularly, and probably some of that will have to come from helicopter just as it did in Azovstal until the UAF command ordered them to surrender. I don't have the information at my disposal the UAF does, so I hope something they know tells them this can continue to be a successful defense. Because the way I'm looking at it, I think there's about to be a lot of martyrs in Bakhmut, the same way there was in Azovstal, except these martyrs had a clear line of withdrawal available to them at one time. Some of the same dynamics occurred in the Battle for the Donetsk Airport. Not with the same numbers, but an insistence on keeping an untenable position for reasons, when a defensive position was available just to the west. I want to give the UAF the benefit of the doubt here, but I find myself too emotionally invested in the job the defenders of Bakhmut have done for so long, similarly to the defenders of the Donetsk Airport (the notorious UAF Cyborgs, who never slept or ate according to separatist legend), except on an even greater scale. In any case, I believe this is a political decision coming from Zelensky himself, and if it really is a strategic decision - which I don't believe - it's a fucked up one because more should have been done sooner.
-
UT's next basketball coach - discussion/debate [Sean Miller Hired]
SL Xpress replied to alphahorn's topic in Basketball
Richard Quick, the women's swimming and diving coach that left after a bitter divorce to go on to win multiple national championships at Stanford. Kind of Mick Haley, who left for the national team and USC after Texas wouldn't raise his salary nor let him coach the national team while being a head coach. He won two national championships with the Trojans. I guess Shaka Smart, but that was more of a you can't fire me, I quit sort of deal. Helped us out financially along with public perception, so thank you Shaka. I can't think of any others. Like, ever. Coaches just don't tend to leave Texas unless they're canned or they retire, even if it's a forced retirement. -
I agree, but it is an awesome show for what it is. The only regular season match they even mention is the loss to Iowa State. I'm with you. I'd love it if they could have made it an hour long show. But I sure liked reliving it in any case.
-
I didn't think of it as condescending even a little bit. I'm not sure I'd even be bothered if someone was. If someone is taking the time to impart information to me from their military experience, I'm going to be appreciative regardless of its tone. I don't have a lot of ego invested regarding military systems. Plenty of other subjects, though. In any case, no apology necessary. We good.
-
No joke, my stepfather served in artillery, and his hearing was so damaged that for the last few years of his life no level of hearing aid helped him much. It wrecked his cognitive abilities, too, because he ended up being so isolated. I took him personally to around 10 different hearing specialists around the country to try to get him something that would help. He was such a pleaser he'd always say they were making a huge difference, but as soon as we got somewhere with a decent amount of ambient noise, he was lost. Don't fart around with your hearing. Seriously. He led an extremely successful life, so it could be argued how much of an impact it made overall, but it severely impacted his quality of life for the last 2 years, for sure.
-
Thank you for the explanation. Very much appreciated. I know about the different types of explosions. Same principles are used in torpedos/harpoons, too. But I didn't imagine it was set by turning a wrench on a setting on the warhead. I guess I imagined it was more automated than that? No reason, other than ignorance.
-
Patented, huh. In the US that's a VA disability check waiting to happen for sure.
-
I honestly didn't even know that was a thing. I'm amazingly ignorant when it comes to artillery and artillery systems. Thanks for the explanation. Edit: actually, I shouldn't be so specific. Pretty much any military system. I was in engineering on a steam ship in the Navy. We weren't firing anything at anybody down there. I can tell you all about ungrounded electrical systems, though. Weeeeeee!
-
It's so interesting to me to see what a difference it makes to fire at longer distances with more precision. I mean, it's completely obvious, but we've always depended on air power for those types of strikes for the most part. Everyone has always known how critical it is to be able to destroy supply chains, but this war is hammering it home. Also, I'm sure logistics officers are watching this and wargaming on their end, too. Like you're saying, drones are such a game changer. I have a lot of members of my family who have served in the military, but the closest one who died in combat is my great uncle, who was flying an unarmed single engine reconnaissance plane over German lines in WWII. This Ukraine war is a bat to the face in terms of how far we've come since then. And we still have more to go. Magyar was showing in one of his in depth videos that the real time feed is not good enough for a lot of what he does. He needs to digital feed from the USB after the drone returns, and then reviews all that footage to find his most constructive targets. You know that real time feed is going to keep getting better and better. It almost certainly is with what the US armed forces are using versus a lot of the off the shelf stuff Magyar is utilizing. I realize people are dying out there in horrific ways, including innocent civilians, however I can't help but find the whole thing fascinating from an analytical point of view as well. War is always the ultimate political statement, whenever it's conducted.
-
The lack of hearing protection.... What are you gonna do, though. You're fighting for survival, who needs hearing? What are they doing with the wrench with the top of the shell at the beginning of that video?
-
My body is ready.
-
Lockheed doubling their HIMARS production from 48 to 96 units per year. They had already made plans to increase it to 60, but now they've increased it further. Made by Lockheed. Marketed by UAF. "When you have a combat proven system that is out there and in the news - daily - then that's driving that demand," said Jennifer McManus, the vice president for operations of Lockheed's missile business. https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/lockheeds-himars-plant-gearing-up-meet-demand-after-ukraine-success-2023-02-28/
-
UT's next basketball coach - discussion/debate [Sean Miller Hired]
SL Xpress replied to alphahorn's topic in Basketball
I do not believe that even a little bit. -
Maybe it's not directly related. I just don't think it matters what job he takes, whether it's the first or not. He's not going to be married to it. He can take the first job, then take a better job later on. No need to sit out a year. That would be the main thing I was disagreeing with. As far as getting people engaged, that's his super power as much as anything else. He'll have people running through brick walls, the way he does everywhere. I don't care where he goes. And if he can put together a Sweet 16 roster at Arkansas-Little Rock in one year, he can certainly put one together at Ole Miss. Not saying he would or will, but he certainly can. Roster management is another super power. He has a lot of them, unfortunately. I wish he had a super power that kept him from getting arrested by the police for felonious domestic violence. That would be a boon right about now.
-
You have a different perspective on what happened in the Donbas than I do. I respect your knowledge and your contributions, so I'd like to seek some clarification if you get the time. Brief timeline - 21 February 2014 Yanukovych flees Kyiv 27 February 2014 little green men appear in Crimea 16 March 2014 Crimean referendum First government buildings seized in Donbas a couple of weeks later. Late March. Shortly after Yanukovych's departure anti government pro Russian protests started in the Donbas. But the actual operation to secure various government buildings was not led by a mob or sportsman. I watched on individual's hand held camera phones in real time as obviously professional operatives secured police stations, national guard offices, and internal security places without a shot being fired. Some were contested, but they were so outgunned they immediately surrendered without a fight. Many of them seemed to be willing participants in the takeover. This gave a pretext for the arming of the separatists. Could be it was sufficient arms for what they ended up bearing. I don't know. But it could very well have merely supplemented what the Russians were providing, using the arms taken from the police offices, national guard armories, and internal security buildings as cover. Certainly this was true of the T-64 tanks, of which the separatists captured 20, and then Russia began supplying them more. Even with that the eventual anti terrorism operation by Ukraine in April had initial success until it was encircled and wiped out by an invading Russian armed force. My point is I don't think it was protests that did the heavy lifting in the Donbas. It was Russian operatives in a planned operation working alongside collaborators both from Russia and inside the Donbas who took over various buildings with armaments and then moved on to administrative buildings under armed threats that created the separatist regions, without really a single shot being fired. It's not clear how strong the pro Ukrainian sentiment really was. Yanukovych's strongest political support came from eastern Ukraine, and especially the Donbas. But Russia didn't bother finding out, taking advantage of the sense of chaos within the Ukrainian government, the lack of a sense of national mandate, the hollowing out of the military, and the strong pro Russian sentiments within the security forces, until Ukrainian patriot militias along with government forces came in and started pushing armed resistance towards the border, right up until the Russian army destroyed them. I guess my question then, is this different than how you view what happened in the Donbas? What part do you feel the protests played in helping Russia secure the Donbas for their separatists? Because I don't think they played any direct part compared to the operation carried out by Russian special forces/intelligence officers. Without their intercession I do not believe the separatist movement has anything remotely close to the effectiveness it had from the outset.
-
UT's next basketball coach - discussion/debate [Sean Miller Hired]
SL Xpress replied to alphahorn's topic in Basketball
Which is not to say he interviews this time around. But with a new arena, a new AD, more money rolling in to the athletic department than ever before, with major increases from separating Moody donations from basketball and SEC television revenue, plus the robust emphasis on NIL, it does put Texas in a better spot than in the limited time when penny pinching Patterson was in charge. I don't have a strong preference who we hire, but my personal biases tend toward wanting someone good on defense versus someone who is good with offense. I know that's not everyone's predilection, but it is mine. My favorite right now is Tommy Lloyd, but if I thought we had a shot at Bennett I'd take him in a heartbeat. Hiring a championship winning coach is a home run in my opinion. I'd love to keep him as an assistant. No need to pack his office THAT quickly.
Football ... Basketball ... Baseball ... Other Sports ... Futbol ... 🤫995🤫 ... Gambling ... Movies & TV ... Music ... Hobbies ... Lulz ... Food & Travel ... Daily Texan ... Business and Markets ... Cloak Room ... Help ... For Sale ... Board Discussion ... Subscribe!... Donate!... Advertise... COOKIE MONSTER!