"The 1980's are calling to ask for their foreign policy back."

Ron Paul used to advocate for this when going after terrorists.

Holy shit.



Confirmed from all parties, they're currently on a train into Kyiv.

Cotton?

Fox reporter wounded, cameraman killed.
https://www.cnn.com/2022/03/14/media/fox-correspondent-ben-hall-ukraine/index.html
https://www.thewrap.com/fox-news-cameraman-killed-ukraine/

Roden models is one of the dozen or so plastic model kit makers in Ukraine.
They just reported the man who does their boxtop paintings was killed.

Interesting. Honestly, I can't say history supports Hertling's commentary. There have been numerous end around amphibious assaults in naval history that were successful. Some, like Anzio, faltered and had to be rescued themselves. But Operation Dragoon in Southern France was a huge success, especially as Cobra had stalled due to a lack of supplies. Opening the port led to supplies being used in Western France. McArthur's invasion of Inchon was a masterpiece in Korea - at least until the Chinese responded to approaching UN forces at their border.

Whether the Russians have the capability is indeed in question. But it's certainly not a foregone conclusion it can't work. Let's hope they call it off, and if that doesn't happen that it fails spectacularly.

Here is a cool site that tracks ship traffic. People are keeping tabs on Russian hyper yachts.

https://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/home/shipid:6570613/zoom:9

The little personal stories that pop up on Facebook are getting to me. This was on a Samoyed group (our previous dog Nikki [see avatar] was a sammy). Ukraine is a big Samoyed breeding center.

Wow, great news.

So far Ms Ovsyannikova has had a harrowing experience, a 14 hour interrogation by state security.

But then after her moment in court she was fined the equivalent of $280 and let go!

Let's hope that's the end of it. Of course, it's Russia, so they could trump up additonal charges at any time.

https://www.cnbc.com/2022/03/15/mar...ned-for-ukraine-war-protest-on-russia-tv.html

Good news - I was expecting her to show up floating face-down in the Moskva. But then Putin does seem to tend towards the "leave them alive and use them as examples" thing a fair bit when it comes to folk still IN Russia, like Pussy Riot.

If she'd criticised him from the UK, the polonium teabags would be in the post already.

That could be interpreted in a couple of different ways: 1) Putin feels secure enough to decide that denying everything is the best course 2) he's afraid of making a martyr out of her out of fear that she will become a symbol of wider rebellion. 1 seems more likely to me, but since I'm not privy to anything substantive, all I'm doing is guessing. Anyone else have any ideas?

Why the fuck would soldiers shoot unarmed civilians? Goddammit.

$280 actually works out to the equivalent of $4.3-million dollars when you factor in the current purchasing power of the Ruble.

https://www.ft.com/content/503fb110-f91e-4bed-b6dc-0d09582dd007

Excellent article about Russian elites.

Interesting, thanks! Great background info. The only thing that made me wonder about the analysis was the impression that the elites wanted to support the attack on Ukraine so that the West would cut them off. They might be taking advantage of that happening to solidify their own power, which is pretty common in these situations. But I really doubt anyone expected the ferocity of Western reaction. Or the fact that it wouldn't be a few day romp and then presented as a fait d'accompli. Certainly Russian military planning (or lack thereof) implies that there was no institutional expectation of this being a long term occupation.

The thought that this might be transformed, or even originally intended, to form a long term cold war once again is yet another piece of shitty news. But I guess once the tanks rolled and the sanctions flew we were already there.

He's either lying or he's trying to distance himself from his puppet master.

Probably some of the same reasons the Mi Lai massacre happened.
The killing of civilians, whether on a small or large scale, has many possible causes. The average age of soldiers in Vietnam was 19 to 20, younger than in previous wars. The stress of war, the shock and anger of seeing friends and fellow soldiers killed, as well as the wide use of drugs and alcohol among troops may have contributed to many of the atrocities committed. [/quote]

Next they'll start selling bananas.

"Putin? Never heard of him."