Русский корабль - иди нахуй

[locodos 5425]

34 minutes ago, Parliament said:

The Nazi's were absolutely TERRIFIED of Canadian soldiers in WW2.  Said they fought like savages.

Fast forward to today, and Canada is the best ally America can have.  Culturally similar but not stupid like we are.  God bless Canada, I say.

Australia is America's best ally.  They've fought for us in every war.  Not so much the British & Canadians.  After the civil war the US was prepping to fight the English (again) and Canada (again).  1812 was still fresh in American memory.

God bless those goofy upside down bastards

[SL Xpress 7518]

3 minutes ago, DefinitelyNotHollywoodColt said:

I liked the patch, too. Sorry, more just a comment about him in general.

Hard to describe but the backdrop is I’m pretty sure whatever psychological effect happens when we get hooked on “likes” is going to be the end of us…

There’s just something about that addiction crossed with the violent voyeurism that’s fueling it that feels yucky to me.

 

Well, I'm sympathetic to that. Not specifically when it comes to anything about Ukraine, but certainly in general. 

"What gets measured gets done," with the corollary you better be sure you're measuring the right things. Heck, I get a dopamine hit when someone likes my comment on here, as much as I don't want to. It's how we're wired. You see people all the time engage in more and more extreme behavior simply to generate a reaction on social media. No doubt about it. Thanks for the explanation. 

[MillerEP 30575]

From what I've been seeing most of the foreign legion is getting sent to Vuhledar or south of Kreminna. I don't think they're sending them to Bakhmut, they pretty much just have the national guard there.

[SL Xpress 7518]

2 minutes ago, MillerEP said:

From what I've been seeing most of the foreign legion is getting sent to Vuhledar or south of Kreminna. I don't think they're sending them to Bakhmut, they pretty much just have the national guard there.

Gotcha. Thanks for the clarification. 

[SimonBolivar 10961]

43 minutes ago, Parliament said:

Fast forward to today, and Canada is the best ally America can have.  Culturally similar but not stupid like we are.  God bless Canada, I say.

Yeah, I was chilling in Vancouver this summer and somehow people knew I was "from the states". I guess they could smell the stupid emanating from my body.

[MissingInAction 25316]

19 minutes ago, SimonBolivar said:

Yeah, I was chilling in Vancouver this summer and somehow people knew I was "from the states". I guess they could smell the stupid emanating from my body.

[RDCanecutter 26560]

35 minutes ago, SimonBolivar said:

Yeah, I was chilling in Vancouver this summer and somehow people knew I was "from the states". I guess they could smell the stupid emanating from my body.

During my first trip to Quebec, I was standing in front of a grocery store beer cooler, looking at Maudite beer and practicing the local accent: "mo-dzit, mo-dzit, mo-dzit." I was draped in layers of wadded-up clothes like I'd seen the locals do.

A dude walks up to the beer case, hears my mumbling, and starts talking me up in French. I know enough French to tell him I'm not from Quebec, I just drove up from the States. He says "I don't blame you for moving there. They treat us better down there than they do up here, don't they?"

[SL Xpress 7518]

8 minutes ago, SimonBolivar said:

Yeah, I was chilling in Vancouver this summer and somehow people knew I was "from the states". I guess they could smell the stupid emanating from my body.

Well, if you don’t say “about” the right way. 

You don’t stick any “eh’s“ in. 

You say y’all even once. 

You ask for extra ice. 

You’re surprised out loud at how much shit you can buy at Canadian Tire. 

You act surprised because the liquor stores are all government owned. 

You're aggressive in any way because of perceived poor service. 

You indicate you don’t want to wait in this line, and what’s it for, anyway?

You do anything with your phone while you’re in a car. 

If you’re in Ontario, you say something about how weird it is to buy bags of milk, or you barbarically store your butter in the refrigerator, rather than on the counter where it belongs. 

You wonder where the u-turns for the freeways are, or why it’s so far to the next exit after you missed the correct one. 

You marvel at the lack of billboards and businesses directly on the freeway right up to the momeht you have no idea where the next gas station is. 

You reference imperial measurements for something. 

Plenty of others, but those are good indicators for a Canadian you’re from the states. 

[Brisketexan 105617]

6 minutes ago, SL Xpress said:

You’re surprised out loud at how much shit you can buy at Canadian Tire. 

Outfitted my daughter's entire dorm room shopping at Canadian Tire.

Do you know what I didn't see ANY of for sale at Canadian Tire?  Tires.  Not a single one.

[SL Xpress 7518]

5 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:

Outfitted my daughter's entire dorm room shopping at Canadian Tire.

Do you know what I didn't see ANY of for sale at Canadian Tire?  Tires.  Not a single one.

It’s been baffling me for thirty years. I bring it up to Canadians, and it’s like it’s the first time they’ve considered it. “But it’s Canadian Tire. That’s just how it is.”

[Pato del Muerto 52893]

Maybe they have tyre stores instead?

[SL Xpress 7518]

Graham and McCaul getting more aggressive with their rhetoric about F-16s. 

https://thehill.com/policy/defense/3877635-graham-biden-administration-decision-to-withhold-f-16s-from-ukraine-beyond-disappointing/

[SimonBolivar 10961]

16 minutes ago, SL Xpress said:

Well, if you don’t say “about” the right way. 

You don’t stick any “eh’s“ in. 

You say y’all even once. 

You ask for extra ice. 

You’re surprised out loud at how much shit you can buy at Canadian Tire. 

You act surprised because the liquor stores are all government owned. 

You're aggressive in any way because of perceived poor service. 

You indicate you don’t want to wait in this line, and what’s it for, anyway?

You do anything with your phone while you’re in a car. 

If you’re in Ontario, you say something about how weird it is to buy bags of milk, or you barbarically store your butter in the refrigerator, rather than on the counter where it belongs. 

You wonder where the u-turns for the freeways are, or why it’s so far to the next exit after you missed the correct one. 

You marvel at the lack of billboards and businesses directly on the freeway right up to the momeht you have no idea where the next gas station is. 

You reference imperial measurements for something. 

Plenty of others, but those are good indicators for a Canadian you’re from the states. 

Apparently it was because I told the lady taking my order at the Lebanese restaurant "yes ma'am".

[956 Worldwide 34966]

18 minutes ago, SL Xpress said:

Well, if you don’t say “about” the right way. 

You don’t stick any “eh’s“ in. 

You say y’all even once. 

You ask for extra ice. 

You’re surprised out loud at how much shit you can buy at Canadian Tire. 

You act surprised because the liquor stores are all government owned. 

You're aggressive in any way because of perceived poor service. 

You indicate you don’t want to wait in this line, and what’s it for, anyway?

You do anything with your phone while you’re in a car. 

If you’re in Ontario, you say something about how weird it is to buy bags of milk, or you barbarically store your butter in the refrigerator, rather than on the counter where it belongs. 

You wonder where the u-turns for the freeways are, or why it’s so far to the next exit after you missed the correct one. 

You marvel at the lack of billboards and businesses directly on the freeway right up to the momeht you have no idea where the next gas station is. 

You reference imperial measurements for something. 

Plenty of others, but those are good indicators for a Canadian you’re from the states. 

You should always have half a stick at least of butter in a butter dish on the counter so you can spread it or use it in anything that needs softened butter.

[Parliament 14383]

1 hour ago, locodos said:

Australia is America's best ally.  They've fought for us in every war.  Not so much the British & Canadians.  After the civil war the US was prepping to fight the English (again) and Canada (again).  1812 was still fresh in American memory.

God bless those goofy upside down bastards

Yeah I recall Australia followed us into that gong show in Vietnam.

[SL Xpress 7518]

6 minutes ago, 956 Worldwide said:

You should always have half a stick at least of butter in a butter dish on the counter so you can spread it or use it in anything that needs softened butter.

Heretic. You wreck that bread like a good American with your brick like butter. The good ol’ chemical manufacturing companies came up with fake butter for spreading. 

I feel like I accidentally walked into a room with a bunch of commies in here. 

[956 Worldwide 34966]

Just now, Parliament said:

Yeah I recall Australia followed us into that gong show in Vietnam.

Don’t sleep on the Dutch, surprisingly. They were not in Vietnam, they had their own Southeast Asian misadventures. But they are nearly everywhere we are and after they were embarrassed following Srebrenica are HYPER aggressive. 
 

There’s probably not a closer EU member state than the Dutch. 

[956 Worldwide 34966]

5 minutes ago, SL Xpress said:

Heretic. You wreck that bread like a good American with your brick like butter. The good ol’ chemical manufacturing companies came up with fake butter for spreading. 

I feel like I accidentally walked into a room with a bunch of commies in here. 

Erroneous. When you have biscuits you want real butter and you want it room temp. You spread it on half a biscuit, drizzle some honey, then close it back up. The temp melts it immediately and it soaks the biscuit and you don’t get stuck with little pieces of cold butter. Even the second and third biscuit is still warm enough to make sure you have a butter infused biscuit. 

[utee94 15888]

6 minutes ago, 956 Worldwide said:

Don’t sleep on the Dutch, surprisingly. They were not in Vietnam, they had their own Southeast Asian misadventures. But they are nearly everywhere we are and after they were embarrassed following Srebrenica are HYPER aggressive. 
 

There’s probably not a closer EU member state than the Dutch. 

<obligatory>There are only two things I can't stand in this world... </obligatory>

[Bevo 13653]

2 minutes ago, 956 Worldwide said:

Erroneous. When you have biscuits you want real butter and you want it room temp. You spread it on half a biscuit, drizzle some honey, then close it back up. The temp melts it immediately and it soaks the biscuit and you don’t get stuck with little pieces of cold butter. Even the second and third biscuit is still warm enough to make sure you have a butter infused biscuit. 

If you are a true German, you just spread some lard on it.

[Nivek 17051]

Tim Hortons.

[Gatorubet 30418]

53 minutes ago, SL Xpress said:

Well, if you don’t say “about” the right way. 

You don’t stick any “eh’s“ in. 

You say y’all even once. 

You ask for extra ice. 

You’re surprised out loud at how much shit you can buy at Canadian Tire. 

You act surprised because the liquor stores are all government owned. 

You're aggressive in any way because of perceived poor service. 

You indicate you don’t want to wait in this line, and what’s it for, anyway?

You do anything with your phone while you’re in a car. 

If you’re in Ontario, you say something about how weird it is to buy bags of milk, or you barbarically store your butter in the refrigerator, rather than on the counter where it belongs. 

You wonder where the u-turns for the freeways are, or why it’s so far to the next exit after you missed the correct one. 

You marvel at the lack of billboards and businesses directly on the freeway right up to the momeht you have no idea where the next gas station is. 

You reference imperial measurements for something. 

Plenty of others, but those are good indicators for a Canadian you’re from the states. 

there is nothing here about vinegar and french fries. I don’t think you’ve ever been to Canada.

[956 Worldwide 34966]

10 minutes ago, Bevo said:

If you are a true German, you just spread some lard on it.

I’ve done that. I like biscuits made with lard as the shortening although the wife usually makes hers with cold butter. To top, I like butter because it has more of a taste than lard. 
 

But, to bring this back to Ukraine— the measure of a true Ukrainian even more than good borscht is a love of salo. It’s cured, unrendered fatback with usually just a streak of lean, much less than bacon. 

You can cure it in all sorts of spices— black pepper, paprika- but the most glorious is to cure it in garlic and then add a bit of finely minced garlic to the rind.  Ukrainians slice it and eat with dark bread, pickles, and garlic and vodka.

Anyway, I bought a hunk in Kyiv’s Bessarabian Market and brought it home in a carryon, which smelled for weeks later. And my wife made biscuits and I sliced it thin and put it on a biscuit and drizzled it with honey and made maybe the best breakfast of my life. I explained to the wife that it was Dixie-Slavic fusion cuisine as I felt my arteries harden.

 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salo_(food)

[MillerEP 30575]

 

[Parliament 14383]

So we can be confident Italy isn't gonna go all right-wing and flake out on us, right?

[956 Worldwide 34966]

2 minutes ago, Parliament said:

So we can be confident Italy isn't gonna go all right-wing and flake out on us, right?

Meloni has been pretty reliable on Ukraine, far more than anyone imagined. I think she wants to stake out her separation from Berlusconi who is just completely discredited. 

[956 Worldwide 34966]

8 minutes ago, MillerEP said:

 

On Moldova, Russia is almost for sure behind and manipulating these protests.  But the account is a bit simplifying. Moldovan isn’t a language, they just speak Romanian. About 15 percent of the population speaks Russian as a primary language and many more are bilingual and that’s who you’d expect to be at this protest. 
 

How this works— and how this worked in Donbas in 2014- is as follows. A GRU operative has long-standing contacts with some semi-shady local Russian speakers who has business ties (legal and illegal) to Russia and a network of people he works with both legitimately and illegitimately. The GRU passes off some cash to these folks, it helps if they are a city council member or village hetman or some shit. Then THOSE guys trawl the alleys for drunks and MMA gyms and weight rooms for disaffected young meatheads and maybe grab some local cops. And they pass on some cash or booze to them and get a protest going and at some point they actually get some organic growth. 

[Brisketexan 105617]

14 minutes ago, 956 Worldwide said:

On Moldova, Russia is almost for sure behind and manipulating these protests.  But the account is a bit simplifying. Moldovan isn’t a language, they just speak Romanian. About 15 percent of the population speaks Russian as a primary language and many more are bilingual and that’s who you’d expect to be at this protest. 
 

How this works— and how this worked in Donbas in 2014- is as follows. A GRU operative has long-standing contacts with some semi-shady local Russian speakers who has business ties (legal and illegal) to Russia and a network of people he works with both legitimately and illegitimately. The GRU passes off some cash to these folks, it helps if they are a city council member or village hetman or some shit. Then THOSE guys trawl the alleys for drunks and MMA gyms and weight rooms for disaffected young meatheads and maybe grab some local cops. And they pass on some cash or booze to them and get a protest going and at some point they actually get some organic growth. 

You know what puts a stop to that?

THOSE guys, AND their meatheads, disappearing and/or waking up dead in a landfill/ditch/deep in the woods.  They are an existential threat to the nation, affiliated with a hostile nation state that has an armed presence and a stated intention to overthrow the government.  Bullet.  Back of the head.  Problem solved.

[atomheartbevo 90082]

3 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:

You know what puts a stop to that?

THOSE guys, AND their meatheads, disappearing and/or waking up dead in a landfill/ditch/deep in the woods.  They are an existential threat to the nation, affiliated with a hostile nation state that has an armed presence and a stated intention to overthrow the government.  Bullet.  Back of the head.  Problem solved.

[956 Worldwide 34966]

And on the “disaffected young meathead” front, here’s a good time to do some taxonomy of a specific type of (usually) Russia-friendly protest thug and separatist recruit: the sportsman. 
 

In Russia in the 1990s and early 2000s, you would for sure find “sportsmen.” Usually black clad— leather jackets, black pants, black knit caps, black t-shirts. Despite their name, they didn’t appear to be actual athletes, although for sure they had spent some time in a gym. They appeared to serve no function at all besides waiting outside by an idling Mercedes G-Wagen or smoking outside of restaurants that didn’t have menus or interest in serving customers. 
 

It was clear these hulking goons with shaved heads or high and tight haircuts were bad news, but a better class of bad news than the gopniki in track pants and newsboy hats that were hanging out in alleys with a purpose (robbery or just assaulting passersby). The sportsmen could fuck you up bad it was clear. They just had no interest in kicking some foreigners ass unless said foreigner was getting mouthy with the go-go dancers or not wanting to pay for his drinks. “Sportsmen” were basically hired goons for various unsavory characters from real gangsters to gangster wannabes. 

Radio Free Europe has a great article on the OG sportsmen: https://www.rferl.org/amp/blood-sports-rise-of-russia-gangster-athletes/27722386.html

But after 2010 they were really a dying breed in Moscow, St. Petersburg, and other big Russian cities where hipsters opened brewpubs and Putin just made the entire state an organized criminal enterprise. 
 

But like teenagers in Middle America aping The Wire, young men in hardscrabble places across eastern Europe and the Balkans (like Donetsk) adopted the “culture”’ of the sportsmen. Their leather jackets were fake, the gangster barons they worked for just grimy provincial scumbags with a stolen Polish BMW, they had never truly been “athletes,”  and they’d have been hopelessly lame in Moscow. But the ethos lingered on and that’s where the fledgling DNR and LNR found their protesters and later first recruits. 

Edited February 28, 2023 by 956 Worldwide

[Brisketexan 105617]

18 minutes ago, 956 Worldwide said:

And on the “disaffected young meathead” front, here’s a good time to do some taxonomy of a specific type of (usually) Russia-friendly protest thug and separatist recruit: the sportsman. 
 

In Russia in the 1990s and early 2000s, you would for sure find “sportsmen.” Usually black clad— leather jackets, black pants, black knit caps, black t-shirts. Despite their name, they didn’t appear to be actual athletes, although for sure they had spent some time in a gym. They appeared to serve no function at all besides waiting outside by an idling Mercedes G-Wagen or smoking outside of restaurants that didn’t have menus or interest in serving customers. 
 

It was clear these hulking goons with shaved heads or high and tight haircuts were bad news, but a better class of bad news than the gopniki in track pants and newsboy hats that were hanging out in alleys with a purpose (robbery or just assaulting passersby). The sportsmen could fuck you up bad it was clear. They just had no interest in kicking some foreigners ass unless said foreigner was getting mouthy with the go-go dancers or not wanting to pay for his drinks. “Sportsmen” were basically hired goons for various unsavory characters from real gangsters to gangster wannabes. 

Radio Free Europe has a great article on the OG sportsmen: https://www.rferl.org/amp/blood-sports-rise-of-russia-gangster-athletes/27722386.html

But after 2010 they were really a dying breed in Moscow, St. Petersburg, and other big Russian cities where hipsters opened brewpubs and Putin just made the entire state an organized criminal enterprise. 
 

But like teenagers in Middle America aping The Wire, young men in hardscrabble places across eastern Europe and the Balkans (like Donetsk) adopted the “culture”’ of the sportsmen. Their leather jackets were fake, the gangster barons they worked for just grimy provincial scumbags with a stolen Polish BMW, they had never truly been “athletes,”  and they’d have been hopelessly lame in Moscow. But the ethos lingered on and that’s where the fledgling DNR and LNR found their protesters and later first recruits. 

Cool.  Do they have skulls?  Can those skulls be penetrated by a 9mm round?  Problem solved.

[chainsaw 10026]

18 minutes ago, 956 Worldwide said:

And on the “disaffected young meathead” front, here’s a good time to do some taxonomy of a specific type of (usually) Russia-friendly protest thug and separatist recruit: the sportsman. 
 

In Russia in the 1990s and early 2000s, you would for sure find “sportsmen.” Usually black clad— leather jackets, black pants, black knit caps, black t-shirts. Despite their name, they didn’t appear to be actual athletes, although for sure they had spent some time in a gym. They appeared to serve no function at all besides waiting outside by an idling Mercedes G-Wagen or smoking outside of restaurants that didn’t have menus or interest in serving customers. 
 

It was clear these hulking goons with shaved heads or high and tight haircuts were bad news, but a better class of bad news than the gopniki in track pants and newsboy hats that were hanging out in alleys with a purpose (robbery or just assaulting passersby). The sportsmen could fuck you up bad it was clear. They just had no interest in kicking some foreigners ass unless said foreigner was getting mouthy with the go-go dancers or not wanting to pay for his drinks. “Sportsmen” were basically hired goons for various unsavory characters from real gangsters to gangster wannabes. 

Radio Free Europe has a great article on the OG sportsmen: https://www.rferl.org/amp/blood-sports-rise-of-russia-gangster-athletes/27722386.html

But after 2010 they were really a dying breed in Moscow, St. Petersburg, and other big Russian cities where hipsters opened brewpubs and Putin just made the entire state an organized criminal enterprise. 
 

But like teenagers in Middle America aping The Wire, young men in hardscrabble places across eastern Europe and the Balkans (like Donetsk) adopted the “culture”’ of the sportsmen. Their leather jackets were fake, the gangster barons they worked for just grimy provincial scumbags with a stolen Polish BMW, they had never truly been “athletes,”  and they’d have been hopelessly lame in Moscow. But the ethos lingered on and that’s where the fledgling DNR and LNR found their protesters and later first recruits. 

sounds like a lot of guys who peaked in high school and never left bumfuck Ohio

[DefinitelyNotHollywoodColt 12301]

Genocidal Brisket is Best Brisket

[Brisketexan 105617]

Just now, chainsaw said:

sounds like a lot of guys who peaked in high school and never left bumfuck Ohio

The parallels between rustbelt Ohio and Russia are more significant than any of us should be comfortable with.

[MillerEP 30575]

35 minutes ago, 956 Worldwide said:

On Moldova, Russia is almost for sure behind and manipulating these protests.  But the account is a bit simplifying. Moldovan isn’t a language, they just speak Romanian. About 15 percent of the population speaks Russian as a primary language and many more are bilingual and that’s who you’d expect to be at this protest. 
 

How this works— and how this worked in Donbas in 2014- is as follows. A GRU operative has long-standing contacts with some semi-shady local Russian speakers who has business ties (legal and illegal) to Russia and a network of people he works with both legitimately and illegitimately. The GRU passes off some cash to these folks, it helps if they are a city council member or village hetman or some shit. Then THOSE guys trawl the alleys for drunks and MMA gyms and weight rooms for disaffected young meatheads and maybe grab some local cops. And they pass on some cash or booze to them and get a protest going and at some point they actually get some organic growth. 

The tweet says Moldovian, but the reporter in the video actually says Romanian. Here is a translation:

Russian: "I still can't understand your language, sorry"

Reporter: "This is yours...It's yours. It's from Moldova. We lived in Moldova. How old are you?"

Russian: "21"

Reporter: "21, and did you learn Romanian in school?"

Russian: "No, I didn't say from here."

Reporter: "Where did you come?"

Russian: "I'm from Russia"

[Brisketexan 105617]

11 minutes ago, DefinitelyNotHollywoodColt said:

Genocidal Brisket is Best Brisket

Naaah, not genocidal.  I am just a firm believer in the "play stupid games, win stupid prizes" rule.  You want to play the "hey, I'm gonna attack/overthrow your country" game?  Cool.  The rules of that game include "I kill people who attack/try to overthrow my country."  Those are the ground rules.  You still want to play, then go in with your eyes wide open.  This isn't fucking tiddly-winks.  Don't want to be subject to those rules?  Cool.  Then don't attack my country.  Easy-peasy.  Binary choice here, choose wisely.

[SL Xpress 7518]

3 minutes ago, 956 Worldwide said:

Erroneous. When you have biscuits you want real butter and you want it room temp. You spread it on half a biscuit, drizzle some honey, then close it back up. The temp melts it immediately and it soaks the biscuit and you don’t get stuck with little pieces of cold butter. Even the second and third biscuit is still warm enough to make sure you have a butter infused biscuit. 

This is horseshit. 

You take your brick butter, you put it on your plate. Then you pour the honey over it. Then you take your knife and mix it all up, suffering through smushing the cold hard pat of butter so that it mixes right. Thus, honey butter. 

It’s a crafting exercise. It’s not meant to be an automated process. This is small town Texas at its finest. 

Sticking it on a biscuit and putting honey on it? Might as well offshore the entire process.

I’m convinced Covid came from Wuhan butter being left on a counter somewhere. 

[Captainant 27987]

44 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:

The parallels between rustbelt Ohio and Russia are more significant than any of us should be comfortable with.

Right down to the oligarchal power structure that controls the local government and privatizes profits while socializing losses. Pretty striking now that you mention it

[atomheartbevo 90082]

Ahh, now we know why the Russians are driving into minefields, they are getting rid of the mines.  This one managed to take out two.

 

[Pescado_Rojo 19454]

35 minutes ago, SL Xpress said:

This is horseshit. 

You take your brick butter, you put it on your plate. Then you pour the honey over it. Then you take your knife and mix it all up, suffering through smushing the cold hard pat of butter so that it mixes right. Thus, honey butter. 

It’s a crafting exercise. It’s not meant to be an automated process. This is small town Texas at its finest. 

Sticking it on a biscuit and putting honey on it? Might as well offshore the entire process.

I’m convinced Covid came from Wuhan butter being left on a counter somewhere. 

Native small town Texan here...My grandmother kept her butter in the kitchen cabinet next to the (real) sugar bowl. Butter was always perfectly soft and spreadable. I keep mine in the fridge, but if I'm doing a real deal big weekend breakfast, I set it out when I start and it's soft enough to be spreadable by the time everything is ready. 

 

Also, Fuck Russia 

[BamaATL 16593]

Time for you daily minefield Vulhedar update, always fun.  

 

[BamaATL 16593]

Well, I'm going to guess that Himars with glsdbs have not met their match.  

 

 

[SL Xpress 7518]

2 hours ago, 956 Worldwide said:

On Moldova, Russia is almost for sure behind and manipulating these protests.  But the account is a bit simplifying. Moldovan isn’t a language, they just speak Romanian. About 15 percent of the population speaks Russian as a primary language and many more are bilingual and that’s who you’d expect to be at this protest. 
 

How this works— and how this worked in Donbas in 2014- is as follows. A GRU operative has long-standing contacts with some semi-shady local Russian speakers who has business ties (legal and illegal) to Russia and a network of people he works with both legitimately and illegitimately. The GRU passes off some cash to these folks, it helps if they are a city council member or village hetman or some shit. Then THOSE guys trawl the alleys for drunks and MMA gyms and weight rooms for disaffected young meatheads and maybe grab some local cops. And they pass on some cash or booze to them and get a protest going and at some point they actually get some organic growth. 

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.

 

[BamaATL 16593]

8 hours ago, Brisketexan said:

He's no Guangbiao Chen:

By the way, whenever myself or my brethren mention Alabama's 57 billion national championships, I'm just going to go ahead and point out that we were merely inspired by by boy Guangbiao Chen, and that we are clearly in the right.  

[atomheartbevo 90082]

1 hour ago, BamaATL said:

Well, I'm going to guess that Himars with glsdbs have not met their match.  

 

There are a few 1930s (and earlier) weapon that are still okay to still be using in 2023.

• Bofors 40mm (or its descendants)
• M2 .50 Browning Machine Gun
• Browning Hi-Power
• Colt .45 M1911
• MG42 (and the MG3 and other descendants)

[BamaATL 16593]

1 minute ago, atomheartbevo said:

There are a few 1930s (and earlier) weapon that are still okay to still be using in 2023.

• Bofors 40mm (or its descendants)
• M2 .50 Browning Machine Gun
• Browning Hi-Power
• Colt .45 M1911
• MG42 (and the MG3 and other descendants)

There is only one Colt 45 I think is ok to be using in 2023

[Kel Varnsen 8628]

1 hour ago, atomheartbevo said:

Ahh, now we know why the Russians are driving into minefields, they are getting rid of the mines.  This one managed to take out two.

 

Those things were full of troops too.

[RDCanecutter 26560]

I'm starting to think that the Russians don't care about getting through the mines, that they are doing that to punish whoever they put inside the vehicles.

[Gatorubet 30418]

1 hour ago, atomheartbevo said:

There are a few 1930s (and earlier) weapon that are still okay to still be using in 2023.

• Bofors 40mm (or its descendants)
• M2 .50 Browning Machine Gun
• Browning Hi-Power
• Colt .45 M1911
• MG42 (and the MG3 and other descendants)

Damn straight!  A world without Ma Deuce?

[Parliament 14383]

1 hour ago, atomheartbevo said:

There are a few 1930s (and earlier) weapon that are still okay to still be using in 2023.

• Bofors 40mm (or its descendants)
• M2 .50 Browning Machine Gun
• Browning Hi-Power
• Colt .45 M1911
• MG42 (and the MG3 and other descendants)

Dude: