It’s one thing to win a war, but it’s another thing to occupy. I think Russia is going to get a rude awakening when they see an asymmetric war during occupation, particularly if Europe and the US is united to put their economy in a vice grip. You’d think their experience in Chechnya would have drilled that into their heads.
Definitely a worry though. Did the US send more troops to Lithuania and Poland last week?
Sanctions need to include seizure of foreign homes and real estate in London, Paris, Vancouver, etc. let’s see how the oligarchs react when they lose their investments and vacation homes.
DOD is moving towards getting more processing plants in the US. Know they partnered with MP Materials to build/reconfigure the mine they have at the California/Nevada border.
the overall sentiment is correct though - we need to build our capabilities of both extracting and processing rare earths in the US. There’s actually a bunch of fun research going into this, including leaching coal ash to collect rare earths within those deposits.
Estonia and Latvia are both in NATO. A war there essentially turns into WW3. Moldova would be the next step as Russia already supports a breakaway region there.
Finland would probably be next, but it is hard for me to imagine them not joining NATO now.
Something that hasn’t been discussed too much is whether this accelerates Finland potentially entering NATO. It’s been growing for decades, and it is somewhat obvious that A) Russia is doing everything to expand its power in border states, including seizing territory it thinks is its own and B) NATO / EU / USA all believe that interfering militarily against Russia is not a viable strategy outside of if it is against a NATO member.
Curious to see how much Finlandization is even possible at this point.
Two distressed assets were traded for one another, so it doesn’t seem that shocking.
Will be interesting if Harden can shake off his playoff struggles in Philly. Would be hilarious to see them crash out to the Nets or vice versa.
Looking forward to the snow here in Denver, but the mountains really need a lot more. Went skiing this weekend, and it was amazing how little was up there and how shitty the snow was.
anyways, time to bust out the beer cans to measure the snowfall.