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

Spasiba

That's big. Tactically, it's kinda shocking that this would be shared so widely (that Ukraine captured it, not that they're giving it to the US. That seems expected). It's a strange info-strategic situation indeed (and has been since before Russia invaded), where tactics are so thoroughly giving way to such a completely different strategy vs the past -- that is, unheard-of transparency -- in order to try to convince Russia to pack up and leave. This unit in Ukrainian hands (probably after some American analysis) could have given Ukraine a large (if temporary) tactical advantage if Russia thought it was destroyed instead of captured. They might have been able to taken out every SAM truck and site within 200 miles of Kyiv from the air before the Russians figured out what was going on. But this disclosure pushes the strategy better. Soon the US will figure out how to harden its tech, and Ukraine may not be far behind. Russia's military situation becomes more hopeless, and the pressure increases to withdraw.

I wonder what circumstances would have led to a different info strategy, or if this was inevitable from the structure of the belligerents and their supporters. I tend to think it's not inevitable, because the Vietnam War didn't go that way (the USSR was not reporting on captured US equipment), but maybe the structures aren't quite as analogous as I think they are at first glance. I don't remember if there was any of this when the Soviets invaded Afghanistan, but I don't think we were publicizing our role in that quite as much, and it might be even more analogous. On the other hand, we wanted the Soviets in, not out, in order to bankrupt them. This time we want the Russians out, and are willing to bankrupt them if that's what it takes, but it's not the goal. I'm rambling a bit, but you see what I'm getting at, I think.

It makes a lot of sense strategically and psychologically given what has happened. The idea that russian tech could fail to kill off the world in a final strike needs to be put into putin's mind if there is any hope that he will back off and chose a defensive loss. I think the way russia has been outmatched in modern use of tech will make captures like this more prominent in his mind. He seems paranoid, and that will contribute to ideas that his tech will be overcome by spies and tech leaks.

It is just my thought that if he does not think he can destroy the world so no one can have it, that sort of personality will look to other means of survival so that he might one day recover and ruin his opponents. Of course, this does rely on a lot of stuff we do not know.,

I wonder if it's an acknowledgement of the media and communications environment ... being pretty sure that, if a piece of equipment that big is captured in the current situation, it's inevitable that civilians will see it and take and share pictures, so since it's no longer possible to gain a tactical advantage by making the Kremlin think it was destroyed, they might as well lean into the situation and get some psychological advantages.

Russian landing ship destroyed at Ukrainian port, naval forces say
Ship was reportedly transporting Russian armoured vehicles

I hate to agree with Steve, but I have a great internet connection, I'm on a PC, and half of the tweets either take forever, or never even load. Must be hell on a phone.

Busy day in Brussels...

https://www.politico.eu/article/live-blog-nato-g7-eu-summit-euco-war-ukraine-russia-biden/

It seems a lot of the traditional "rules" of espionage (and warfare more broadly) have likely been under serious review I the social media age.

He still looks remarkably human shaped.

That rhymed.

It really doesn't.

Domestic manufacturing doesn't necessitate debt-driven, instant-gratification consumerism. More of those jobs might even help people live within their means.

Err, it's pronounced "true-DOE" not "true-DOO".

I raised this last week too. If you go to your preferences and change Posts Per Page to 20 or 30, it helps substantially. You'll have to click next page more often, but I'd rather do that than waiting for an extra 20-30 posts to load.

On the PC you can block downloads from Twitter. I did it months ago and don't miss them. The text that is pasted in a post is enough to decide to click through to Twitter.

On phones you have to download 3rd party shit to block them. I haven't done that.

Yes on a competent phone and fast connection they are annoyingly slow. The problem is Twitter's servers.

Then there's the inane content. Most of the tweets about the war are propaganda. I wish y'all could stop.

Zelensky and his inner circle have known this was coming for several years.

Interview with President Zelensky's advisor Oleksiy Arestovych on 18th March 2019. Arestovych is both an actor friend of Zelensky and a former Major in Ukraine military's intelligence unit.

If the board could handle a decent seized gif it would be a lot easier.

The board can't, so here we are.

Isn't a seized GIF just a JPG?

UA is triggered by image formats?!

I hadn't meant to start a TIFF with him.

Who says I'm triggered? Did I use a worship word somewhere?

No.

You're in deep doodeau.

Sorry, didn’t see you there on the sidewalk.

WTF are you talking about, dentist?

Doubtless distracted checking your Mom wasn't getting into a john's car.

Just link it, don't try to attach it.

Worst Gary Coleman impression ever.