Русский корабль - иди нахуй

[AUS-97HORN 11,654]

26 minutes ago, Parliament said:

Aggy to the SEC will nver be topped.  Or bottomed.  Or whatever.

they were guaranteed to be the only team from Texas ever allowed to be in the SEC.  GUAR-AN-TEED

[Gatorubet 30,064]

5 hours ago, PTINS said:

Ukraine, overt or covert? Russia v. Russia? Isolate Belarus? Pull Russia troops away from Ukraine? The Iraqi mind fuck?

Thoughts?

  

With Belarus about to have a potential power vacuum and maybe a more friendly Putin stooge, maybe make it harder for Zs to link up for another northern invasion re-do?  

[tx ind 6,996]

4 hours ago, DefinitelyNotHollywoodColt said:

So I’ll ask again, is this the biggest geopolitical blunder in the history of mankind?

Amateur historians, please stack rank…

[YGIFS 19,449]

I dunno, I thought the cones really tied the alley together.  

[Rimbo 25,752]

6 minutes ago, tx ind said:

Might have been a blunder for one party, but for the other? Can't buy this kind of publicity.

[YGIFS 19,449]

I pride myself on not missing many details, it's what they pay me for.  And noCR, but it's only now that I realize that Rudy was giving those remarks as his hair dye chemicals were melting off his head that he was standing under a 2-4-3 chemical warning sign at you know, the Four Seasons 'Hotel' to save face, as his face was burning.  

I know it's cold comfort to the brave people of Ukraine, but we're living in a simulation and this is just more proof.

[Brisketexan 104,464]

1 hour ago, Brisketexan said:

I dunno.

There was the time in college when there was this really, really pretty girl who I'd seen several times on campus, and even made some nice eye contact at a party or two, was at a smaller party I was attending.  Eye contact again, and it's undeniable, so I'm heading over.  And right before I get to her, the crowd parts enough for me to notice that she was a...big girl from the waist down.  So, I peeled off like a fighter plane after its attack.  I could even see the look of betrayal on her face.  COLLOSAL blunder, because 1) that was just a dick move, and I owe her an apology, and 2) she was plenty cute and clearly interested in me and you realize at a certain point that you regret EVERY girl you ever turned down.  That was a pretty colossal blunder.

Wait....it gets worse.  I just looked her up on the google-fu (had to figure out her married name).  She lost that weight, and is a gorgeous 50+ year old gal these days.  Immature, judgey, shallow Brisket is WORST Brisket.

Boys, let this be a lesson to you.

Edited June 2, 2023 by Brisketexan

[YGIFS 19,449]

You're stalking chicks from college during a European War/Baseball Regionals?  Sickie.  

I saw there was a UT Law CLE deal at AT&T Conf. Center today and half expected to see you there.  But upon further inspection, it was for Employment Law specifically right before I was about to text you to watch the game somewhere.  But I can obviously see we're both hard at work   

[tx ind 6,996]

4 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:

Wait....it gets worse.  I just looked her up on the google-fu (had to figure out her married name).  She lost that weight, and is a gorgeous 50+ year old gal these days.  Immature, judgey, shallow Brisket is WORST Brisket.

Boys, let this be a lesson to you.

After 36.6k posts one should know the rules.

[Brisketexan 104,464]

1 minute ago, YGIFS said:

You're stalking chicks from college during a European War/Baseball Regionals?  Sickie.  

There's never a wrong time to have wicked regrets.

1 minute ago, YGIFS said:

I saw there was a UT Law CLE deal at AT&T Conf. Center today and half expected to see you there.  But upon further inspection, it was for Employment Law specifically right before I was about to text you to watch the game somewhere.  But I can obviously see we're both hard at work   

Meh.  We'll be out of the tourney soon enough.   This team doesn't have that post-season gumption, methinks.

Just now, tx ind said:

After 36.6k posts one should know the rules.

Yeah, not gonna dox her so she looks up her photo being used somewhere and is reminded of some dickhead who treated her shitty back in college.

[Pescado_Rojo 19,327]

2 hours ago, GopherRock said:

It's right up there with the bombing of Pearl Harbor and Napoleon's march on Moscow. 

[The Dog 43,771]

russia pulling these old pieces of crap out of storage because they don't have good tanks anymore.

[Brisketexan 104,464]

15 minutes ago, The Dog said:

russia pulling these old pieces of crap out of storage because they don't have good tanks anymore.

I move that Russia's name at the UN be changed to the Russian Republic of Fuck Around and Find Out.  Gritty may as well be on their damned flag at this point.

[Deej 76,510]

29 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:

Wait....it gets worse.  I just looked her up on the google-fu (had to figure out her married name).  She lost that weight, and is a gorgeous 50+ year old gal these days.  Immature, judgey, shallow Brisket is WORST Brisket.

Boys, let this be a lesson to you.

She dodged a bullet. 

[Brisketexan 104,464]

1 minute ago, Deej said:

She dodged a bullet. 

[956 Worldwide 34,313]

5 hours ago, DefinitelyNotHollywoodColt said:

So I’ll ask again, is this the biggest geopolitical blunder in the history of mankind?

Amateur historians, please stack rank…

I don’t think we are there yet, it could end up being but there’s a way to go. 
 

In recent memory it’s hard to beat the colossal fuckup and misreading that led to Saddam invading Kuwait. It took a while but that ended up with him getting hung. Granted, it wasn’t all good for us but it was worse for him. 
 

I have a long post in CR about the British Abyssinian Campaign. Long story short— an Ethiopian emperor begged the Brits to intervene and help him win some wars against Muslim tribes and aspiring nations. The colonial Brits demurred. He threw a fit and took several Brits hostage and whipping them, while demanding the Brits come help him. Victoria responded by sending the Bombay Army under Napier to build a port, a railroad, and regular road from the sea to the mountain fortresss—- all just to destroy the emperor’s army, make sure he was dead, take the hostages, and leave.  An African leader demanding that the colonial British show up in his country has to be an all-time monkey’s paw fuckup. 
 

Any number of attempts to fight Rome but the First Roman Jewish War and subsequent revolt ended with Jerusalem lost for 2000 years and Jews scattered across the ancient world. 
 

Perhaps the all-time best Great Power screwup, through, has to be Alcibiades convincing the Athenians to let him mount the Sicilian Expedition which ended in a complete disaster, a change of government, and eventually Spartan occupation. Complete war of choice that destroyed Athens as a major power.
 

 

 

[BamaATL 16,592]

1 hour ago, Brisketexan said:

Wait....it gets worse.  I just looked her up on the google-fu (had to figure out her married name).  She lost that weight, and is a gorgeous 50+ year old gal these days.  Immature, judgey, shallow Brisket is WORST Brisket.

Boys, let this be a lesson to you.

So, Didn't Fuck Around Still Found Out?  

The world is a confusing place at times.

[The Dog 43,771]

 

[Parliament 14,112]

Lolololol!!! Lawlessness and looting!  You su...

[PTINS 3,442]

2 hours ago, DefinitelyNotHollywoodColt said:

So I’ll ask again, is this the biggest geopolitical blunder in the history of mankind?

Amateur historians, please stack rank…

From an economic perspective, it is an absolute disaster for Russia. They had a bottomless cash cow, and they shot it in the head.

With the caveat that you never get involved in a land war in Asia, nobody is going to invade Russia and annex their lands, meaning nobody is going to take their mineral resources.

Russia's was the largest Oil & Gas Exporter in the World, with total exports of ~ $200,000,000,000/yr, roughly $130 Billion in oil and $70 Billion in gas.  Europe was the perfect trading partner for Russia, with limited production and a common border, and imported ~ 70% of Russia's export $, or ~ $130 Billion worth of Russian O&G.  

Keep in mind that Russia's gross proceeds and net proceeds are different than US O&G companies, as they are not burdened with production and severance taxes, they don't pay royalties (except some bribes maybe?), pay for permits, wrestle with the EPA, OSHA and countless other governmental regulations, they don't pay for right-of-way and damages incurred during construction, and they are not fighting against 100's of organizations who sole purpose in life is to make sure they never drill another oil & gas well anywhere at any time. They won't get expertise from Exxon, Shell & Conoco anymore, so replacing US technology with "Made in China" will affect on-line performance.

Where domestic O&G companies has profit margins in the 5-10% range, Russia's are maybe 80%.

That will never be replaced. Over time, the production will find its way into the market, but at a much different price point.  I expect war reparations Russia pays to Ukraine will take the majority of that revenue for a some period of time, and after that, Russia will be a secondary supplier to Europe and left to deal with China & India. 

How will Russia replace that revenue, Vodka and mail-order-brides?

 

[SquishMitten 10,395]

2 hours ago, Deej said:

She dodged a bullet. 

Maybe she lost all that weight so she could safely stand on ledges. They might’ve been perfect for each other

[Nivek 16,807]

1 hour ago, 956 Worldwide said:

Perhaps the all-time best Great Power screwup, through, has to be Alcibiades convincing the Athenians to let him mount the Sicilian Expedition which ended in a complete disaster, a change of government, and eventually Spartan occupation. Complete war of choice that destroyed Athens as a major power.
 

 

 

No way can this be pinned on Alcibiades.  Nicias bloated the military campaign, but it still could have worked if they followed Lamachus or Alcibiades' plans for the most part as both were more competent than Nicias who was almost spartan is how conservative he was.  Alcibiades would have pressed the attacks and won.  Lamachus had the better plan.  Nicias was such as dumbass that even after Lamachus died, Alcibiades was in exile, he let Sparta slip in a general to reorganize Syracuse, and camped his fucking army near a marsh that was causing a disease outbreak among the Athenians.  Demosthenes tried to reason with Nicias on his arrival to leave the campaign or at least move the camp, but the dumbass persisted as the leader and ignored the need for Attica to be defended from Spartan attack.  Afraid that if he returned he could be killed.  

Alcibiades for all his faults, still loved Athens.  Even in exile (from Sparta and Athens) tried to help Athens as their generals were incompetent and they were going to lose their replacement fleet/army due to not setting up defenses, guards, and abandoning their ships to search for provisions.  Sparta was watching and Alcibiades wanted to help but they refused him.   And got crushed exactly the way he predicted.  

I would say Nicias played a bigger role.  The clown lost complete control of his army at one point.  While Demosthenes had to surrender his 6000 men after they got split up, Nicias had 34,000 men with him.  Only 7000 survived.  Nicias was by far the biggest reason for the failure.   That and Athens recalling Alcibiades.    

[AUS-97HORN 11,654]

1 hour ago, The Dog said:

 

[SquishMitten 10,395]

This is a thread detail I can fuckin appreciate. Love it when our folks come out and drop knowledge bombs

[The Dog 43,771]

Just because:

 

[The Dog 43,771]

[MillerEP 30,339]

 

 

 

[Parliament 14,112]

Happy hunting, Boys!

[Scheiss Meister 8,398]

1 hour ago, Nivek said:

No way can this be pinned on Alcibiades.  Nicias bloated the military campaign, but it still could have worked if they followed Lamachus or Alcibiades' plans for the most part as both were more competent than Nicias who was almost spartan is how conservative he was.  Alcibiades would have pressed the attacks and won.  Lamachus had the better plan.  Nicias was such as dumbass that even after Lamachus died, Alcibiades was in exile, he let Sparta slip in a general to reorganize Syracuse, and camped his fucking army near a marsh that was causing a disease outbreak among the Athenians.  Demosthenes tried to reason with Nicias on his arrival to leave the campaign or at least move the camp, but the dumbass persisted as the leader and ignored the need for Attica to be defended from Spartan attack.  Afraid that if he returned he could be killed.  

Alcibiades for all his faults, still loved Athens.  Even in exile (from Sparta and Athens) tried to help Athens as their generals were incompetent and they were going to lose their replacement fleet/army due to not setting up defenses, guards, and abandoning their ships to search for provisions.  Sparta was watching and Alcibiades wanted to help but they refused him.   And got crushed exactly the way he predicted.  

I would say Nicias played a bigger role.  The clown lost complete control of his army at one point.  While Demosthenes had to surrender his 6000 men after they got split up, Nicias had 34,000 men with him.  Only 7000 survived.  Nicias was by far the biggest reason for the failure.   That and Athens recalling Alcibiades.    

Damn, I love this place.  Sports, politics, tites, music, film, and Classical Greek history.  What a well rounded, if somewhat maladjusted, bunch.

[Gatorubet 30,064]

6 hours ago, The Dog said:

 

thank you. Now we know those stock piles of explosives are there we can make them go boom

[MillerEP 30,339]

 

[Gatorubet 30,064]

8 hours ago, Rimbo said:

blinken fucks

@immamac get this guy an invitation to Surly

Quote

Blinken referenced Finland’s 1939-1940 Winter War with the Soviet Union, saying that Moscow — both then and in its 2022 Ukraine invasion — had invented a provocation to justify its plans and then wrongly anticipated a quick victory before resorting to targeting civilians.

[MillerEP 30,339]

 

[MillerEP 30,339]

 

[Gatorubet 30,064]

4 hours ago, Brisketexan said:

There's never a wrong time to have wicked regrets.

Meh.  We'll be out of the tourney soon enough.   This team doesn't have that post-season gumption, methinks.

Yeah, not gonna dox her so she looks up her photo being used somewhere and is reminded of some dickhead who treated her shitty back in college.

Yeah man. You are so right. Those assholes would dox her.  PM me tho…

[The Dog 43,771]

 

[Nivek 16,807]

1 hour ago, SquishMitten said:

This is a thread detail I can fuckin appreciate. Love it when our folks come out and drop knowledge bombs

Socrates was a hoplite at one point and saved Alcibiades' life during a battle.  

In case you get on Jeopardy. 

/derail off.

Edited June 3, 2023 by Nivek

[BamaATL 16,592]

No Socrates Johnson was available for this

 

[RDCanecutter 26,239]

2 hours ago, The Dog said:

Just because:

 

She kicked him in his little penguin balls.

[dimyh 1,874]

10 hours ago, DefinitelyNotHollywoodColt said:

So I’ll ask again, is this the biggest geopolitical blunder in the history of mankind?

Amateur historians, please stack rank…

So the sweetest schadenfreude is that Putin is on record stating that the collapse of the Soviet Union was the biggest tragedy of the 20th century. So when the time is right, I like to think the last thing to go through his head, other than that bullet, was to wonder how he created the biggest disaster in the 21st century.

[Macanudo 12,922]

1 hour ago, Scheiss Meister said:

Damn, I love this place.  Sports, politics, tites, music, film, and Classical Greek history.  What a well rounded, if somewhat maladjusted, bunch.

Don't forget boobs.  We have lots of those too.

[NorthLoop 14,071]

1 hour ago, Scheiss Meister said:

Damn, I love this place.  Sports, politics, tites, music, film, and Classical Greek history.  What a well rounded, if somewhat maladjusted, bunch.

It's almost as if most of the people here went to a top class university and received a well rounded education. 

[Armybrat 40,678]

9 hours ago, chainsaw said:

Can someone remind me why Russian political programming always looks like a game show?

More like the Gong Show.

[chainsaw 9,831]

Just now, Armybrat said:

More like the Gong Show.

The set reminds me of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire or maybe America's Got Talent. The guests always wear these infomercial mics and look more like game show contestants than pundits.

[Scheiss Meister 8,398]

30 minutes ago, Macanudo said:

Don't forget boobs.  We have lots of those too.

Are you talking pictures or posters?

[MillerEP 30,339]

 

[Brisketexan 104,464]

Damn, I love this place.  Sports, politics, tites, music, film, and Classical Greek history.  What a well rounded, if somewhat maladjusted, bunch.

Just like Texags, right?!?!

It's almost as if most of the people here went to a top class university and received a well rounded education. 

Oh. So…not like Texags at all.

[DDD Dad 14,167]

12 minutes ago, Scheiss Meister said:

Are you talking pictures or posters?

 

[Rimbo 25,752]

6 hours ago, The Dog said:

russia pulling these old pieces of crap out of storage because they don't have good tanks anymore.

 

But they both pop their turrets just the same.

 

3 hours ago, SquishMitten said:

This is a thread detail I can fuckin appreciate. Love it when our folks come out and drop knowledge bombs

 

2 hours ago, Scheiss Meister said:

Damn, I love this place.  Sports, politics, tites, music, film, and Classical Greek history.  What a well rounded, if somewhat maladjusted, bunch.

 

 

42 minutes ago, Macanudo said:

 

 

38 minutes ago, NorthLoop said:

It's almost as if most of the people here went to a top class university and received a well rounded education. 

 

When I first visited UT as a high school project and was following a current student through her classes, in one science class - a substitute was teaching that day - a student challenged the teacher for mischaracterizing a story ) on Galileo, iirc, but it was over 30 years ago so 🤷).

After class, the student kept on the challenge, surrounded by other students who were there to hear both perspectives

It really struck me that the typical UT student was actually interested in learning, which I'd certainly never experienced at high school.

Pretty much stayed that way since, too.

 

11 minutes ago, Scheiss Meister said:

Are you talking pictures or posters?

 

I mean. We got both. Sometimes in the same poster.

[atomheartbevo 89,362]

9 hours ago, SL Xpress said:

Well, I believe it's hard to measure those kinds of things in real time. 

Off the top of my head I'd say blunders that result in the end of civilizations or ruling classes probably rank higher. For example, Hannibal invading Rome - while brilliant, and I do think could've resulted in an ultimate victory had he been supported by his capital better - ended up with the complete annihilation of Carthage as a civilization. 

Cleopatra siding with Marc Antony ended with the massacre of her family and the ending of Ptolemaic rule and the Hellenistic domination of Egypt. 

The leaders of the Khwarazmian Empire probably should've traded with Genghis Khan rather than attack his caravans and behead his ambassadors. 

The Fourth Crusade sacking Constantinople didn't really do the Christian West a whole lot of favors in the long run. 

Charles XII invading Russia probably wasn't the best idea in retrospect. 

The Ottoman Empire siding with the Axis powers. 

Germany invading Russia and Japan attacking Pearl Harbor weren't great decisions at the time, but Germany is in great shape in many ways as a country/society, as is Japan. 

The examples you and others mentioned are mostly "epic" in nature - the Japanese thinking that they could take the US out of a fight that would span the Pacific even as everybody knew that the US was ramping up its industrial might, and to do so long enough for Japan to secure their oil and gas supplies, Cleopatra's machinations, people fucking with Genghis Khan, Germany attacking Russia when it had not finished off the rest of Europe, the Ottoman's siding with Germany when neither Germany nor the Ottomans had the world-spanning navy, resources, and Empire that the Brits had, Napoleon doing his thing in Russia, and the list goes on. These things were on a massively grand scale.

And some of these things were even grounded in reality - Japan was already on a timer in terms of running out of oil, and knew they had to take out Pearl Harbor to help cut off the Philippines so that the US couldn't use the Philippines to interdict Japanese supply lines. Arguably the Ottomans knew that if somebody was going to take them down eventually, it'd be the Brits, and so on.

The thing about Russia's actions in 2022 is that there wasn't anything "epic" about them.  Russia had controlled 17% of Ukraine for nearly 8 years, and Russia had nearly 8 years for its spies to completely survey the Ukrainian military inside and out, and for several years, Russia had pro-Russian leaders running Ukraine, and more importantly, Russia had nearly 8 years to build a military that was completely tailored towards taking over more of Ukraine and occupying it.

Nearly 8 years to prepare to take over a country that it had worked to destroy internally through political maneuvering and shutting off a lot of natural resources it controlled.

And in late 2021, even after Russia took over 15% of Ukraine nearly 8 years before, they still had much of Europe trading with them, relying on them for energy.

It's like if Japan had infiltrated the US government and had been controlling it for nearly 8 years after it had annexed Hawaii and Alaska and the Philippines and a chunk of California, or if Germany attacked Russia after it had been controlling parts of the country for a few years, and had taken over Siberia for nearly 8 years.

And yes, hindsight is 20/20, but it was clear that Putin misjudged the Ukrainian people because Russia didn't have the numbers to truly occupy and control all that much territory. You can put a dozen soldiers at a crossroads and control the traffic at that specific point, but if you don't have dozens more soldiers backing them up by securing the surrounding countryside, you don't control shit. Instead, you've got a dozen guys waiting to be picked off or surrounded.

I think a case could be made that Russia fucked up far worse than anybody else, given that they had an 8 year head start to be ready for February of 2022. 

Edited June 3, 2023 by atomheartbevo