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Posted
3 hours ago, crash_davis said:

One of my daughter's roommate is Russian. She has family in Moscow and in Ukraine. Friends and family protesting in Moscow were taken by the police two days ago. No one has heard from them. Needless to say, she's in a bit of emotional mess right now.

assuming roomate is over 18.... let me be the first to help volunteer to console her

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Posted
1 hour ago, Horn of Gabriel said:

All the talk about the oligarchs rising up against Putin is wish casting.  He's there because of them not in spite of them.  They've been able to pillage Russia and flaunt law and order openly because of him.  They don't actually want him to go anywhere.  Sanctions and asset freezing might change things on the periphery but not that much, because these are multi-billionaires.  They've got hidden accounts and assets all over the place.  Plus, if you take a shot at the king and miss, you're dead and not in a pleasant way.  That's a pretty strong incentive for inaction.  Plus what do you think happens to the oligarchs' wealth if/when Putin is deposed?  If there's a popular uprising and a Yeltsin-style populist gets into power over Russia, great for the rest-of-world but for the oligarchs that's their heads on pikes.  At a minimum they're losing almost all of their assets.

If you're a multi-billionaire who has benefitted from the largesse of Putin and him looking the other way, would you rather:

  • Take a 50% hit to your net worth in sanctions and confiscations but stay alive, or,
  • Potentially try to replace Putin with a different crony and have a high chance of dying in the process, or,
  • Wait for a popular uprising and potentially lose everything AND die?

Logically your lowest risk option is to stand pat.  Especially if the reports are true that Putin has "sequestered" the oligarchs for their "safekeeping."

Not to mention in many cases Putin replaced previous oligarchs with new oligarchs loyal to him. Not only do they owe their continued wealth to Putin. They owe their initial wealth to him as well. And like you say, if they try to do something, they only get one shot. They better not miss their chance to blow.  

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Posted
2 hours ago, Brisketexan said:


Belarus has been all-in on this from the get go, with troops and all.
But there’s an opportunity here: citizens of Belarus who rose up against your tyrant POS leader a while back….his forces are busy elsewhere. Now is a prime time for a massive civilian uprising and coup. Just sayin’….in chaos is opportunity.

yeah.... but counterpoint for Belarus  their  whole fucking country is literally crawling with Russian troops right now who dont really give a fuck

Posted
8 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:

 


Find them. Kill them, if they will not depose Putin.



Kill them. All of them.



Someone should put 2 in the back of each of their heads. Profit from murder, die.

 

About those oligarchs 

 

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Posted

It's amazing what happens when pretty much everybody realizes that they are sick of your shit, or at the very least as in the case of China not enamored enough with it to lift a finger to help you.  

Posted
2 minutes ago, Hefeweizen said:

 

I'm loving the coordinated ratcheting up of fuck around and find out that everyone is doing to Russia now.  Fuck those motherfuckers.

 

Seriously.   They may still be billionaires after these losses but make them enjoy being billionaires in that shit hole of a country.  No more living the good life in NY/Miami/London/Paris/Barcelona.   Deport and ban them all and their families.

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Posted
Looks like we’re playing hardball. Not saying we shouldn’t, but Putin could get into desperation mode here. 
 
An alternative could be letting this invasion fizzle out and see how things shake out. 

Long game must be to try and have Putin killed from within instead of doing it ourselves
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Posted
2 minutes ago, Surly Bevo said:

It's amazing what happens when pretty much everybody realizes that they are sick of your shit, or at the very least as in the case of China not enamored enough with it to lift a finger to help you.  

It’s like that asshole that got himself killed small town Missouri in broad daylight on Main Street with a ton of witnesses that saw nothing 

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Posted
5 minutes ago, troph said:

Russian military vs US trained, US armed, US intel provided, and US advised troops.  I am stunned too, but stepping back it makes a lot of sense.  they suck, we don't and the Ukranian spirit is one I don't want to fuck with.

I could be giving the Russians too much credit but I think operationally they didn’t expect resistance and wanted to preserve infrastructure.  Now that they know better I expect air superiority to become more of a priority and the ground forces will delay further advances until we see some really horrific shit as a result of the bombing campaigns.  
 

I also wonder if Putin is keeping his most tactically able units back for the real fight to come and what we’ve seen so far was deployment of the most expendable.

Posted
1 minute ago, Hefeweizen said:

 

I'm loving the coordinated ratcheting up of fuck around and find out that everyone is doing to Russia now.  Fuck those motherfuckers.

 

Yeah, this is what I wish the world had been doing after Crimea and the Donbas actions. I'm glad it's being done now.

I don't understand what all the ramifications are. I don't think any of us really do. I remember when the Feds decided to let Lehman Brothers fail. Sometimes there are ripple effects that aren't widely understood until afterwards. I'm not saying the situations are comparable, because they aren't. I'm just saying that there are unintended consequences we're never prepared for. They just have to be sorted out when they occur. I feel quite confident we'll see something along those lines.

But it's a great day to be a human, that's for sure. Love the Germans sending equipment. Love the support being given by border countries. Love that the Russian military seems like a cluster fuck. Love pulling Russia from SWIFT, regardless of the initial hesitation of Germany, Italy, Hungary, and Cyprus (fucking Cyprus). Don't know what's around the corner, but I didn't expect to feel such gratitude for my fellow human beings right now. Much different than I felt back in 2014 regarding Crimea/Donbas.

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Posted
1 minute ago, Goofyboy said:


Nah… fuck that. They ran to hide instead of stopping a madman. They profit from this. Kill ‘em.

Ever think they are fleeing for their lives? We are supposed to have some civility and morality to us. Our Bill of rights supposedly prevents our government from doing that. I'll take the higher ground on this one, you can be a proponent of murder, your right I guess.

Posted

so....

Zelensky has been pretty regular on social media the last few days. Since the night began, the story about Russian special ops being in Kyiv hunting for him, and the broadcast about shutting down phones, nary a peep from Zelensky.

Hoping all is well...

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Posted
1 minute ago, Surly Bevo said:

It's amazing what happens when pretty much everybody realizes that they are sick of your shit, or at the very least as in the case of China not enamored enough with it to lift a finger to help you.  

This is like the beach fight scene in Karate Kid.

Ukraine is Johnny Lawrence

Russia is Daniel Larusso

China is Freddy Fernandez

 

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Posted
9 minutes ago, Immaculate Vibes said:

Looks like we’re playing hardball. Not saying we shouldn’t, but Putin could get into desperation mode here. 
 

An alternative could be letting this invasion fizzle out and see how things shake out. 

Sure thing, Comrade 

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Posted (edited)
47 minutes ago, MillerEP said:

The future is here:

 

That's moving beyond resource driven wars for corporate involvement. That's the stuff Frank Herbert was predicting ~60 years ago. That's committing the US to this whether Musk realizes it or not.

Edited by ShaggyBevo RIP
Posted
5 minutes ago, Longhornlove said:

Ever think they are fleeing for their lives? We are supposed to have some civility and morality to us. Our Bill of rights supposedly prevents our government from doing that. I'll take the higher ground on this one, you can be a proponent of murder, your right I guess.

bcc9cfa3-b5d0-4951-a232-6fa0475f09f7_tex

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Posted
1 minute ago, Nice Guy Eddie said:

I have to wonder if the SWIFT decision is delayed to give time for money to be moved around first. If you really want to hurt someone you cut off access without warning.

I cant get more than 300 bucks from the ATM on a weekend

 

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Posted (edited)
16 minutes ago, LCHorn said:

I could be giving the Russians too much credit but I think operationally they didn’t expect resistance and wanted to preserve infrastructure.  Now that they know better I expect air superiority to become more of a priority and the ground forces will delay further advances until we see some really horrific shit as a result of the bombing campaigns.  
 

I also wonder if Putin is keeping his most tactically able units back for the real fight to come and what we’ve seen so far was deployment of the most expendable.

you are, that was where the smarties on this thread were two days ago.  they are that bad. broke, under trained, under disciplined, under motivated, under fed, under paid, under provisioned, and the chain of command is a train wreck.  conversely, the Ukrainian forces are the exact opposite, in no small part due to US involvement the last decade.

Edited by troph
Posted
3 minutes ago, Reynolds Woodcock said:

Sure thing, Comrade 

GRHorn is that obvious mole in the movie. "Hey guys why don't we just let things fizzle out." Then Billy the Kid drops the hammer on him.

 

DHwS9m.gif

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