A lot of talk about nuclear war and WW3 when everyone knows Trumps gonna lay down in 3 months for his daddy Vlad.
Yup. He will just tell the GOP to stop sending Ukraine any aid and they will bend down and kiss his ass while doing it. The rest of Europe is going to have to step up big time to make for no more US aid and I just don’t think they can/will do it.
Even if they wanted to, I have to assume it would take months and months to backfill what we are sending.
I hope they can step up and fill the void. Our military will be too busy policing our own cities, and of course the flow of weapons to Israel won’t stop.
I think EU could step up to fill the US gap BUT they would essentially have to completely deplete their remaining reserves and it would probably only last a few months. I'm not getting the impression EU is willing to go that far. South Korea has significant reserves that could help extend things but they'll need to be convinced (but seem more open to the idea now that NK is directly involved). Other than that idk where the stuff would come from. Nothing to send from Africa. Nothing to send from South America. Aus is doing all they can realistically do. India probably has stuff they can send but they are BRICS... Maybe Trump could be convinced to let the EU pay us for stuff? In my dumb opinion I think we're likely going to end up with negotiations pretty quickly after trump takes office. I'd think the results are Ukraine out of Kursk and Russia gives back a small portion of what they hold now and then a super uneasy ceasefire takes hold. What comes after that I have no clue.
Joe should spend the next 3 months doing good shit for the world and giving Ukraine whatever they want. They should also tell Poland to have a blast. He won’t because he’s a decrepit pussy
I don’t see Russia giving up anything. Who’s going to force them to? Trump is their bitch so we know it’s not going to be him.
remembering people saying we didn’t need to take their nuclear deterrent seriously because their shit probably wouldn’t work
Oof. I don’t really keep up in here so not sure I saw that debate. This isn’t NK, we have 40 years of Soviet ICBM observance. I can usually judge the significance of these types of events based on the unsolicited texts I get from certain people. This one registered pretty high, for obvious reasons.
I have to think even with advance notice, those expecting these to be fired had to be a bit surprised and on edge when they saw these light up. I am curious how much data we took in knowing these were coming. We had to have shared some of the intel with Ukraine. Imagine the blowback if we hadn’t given them notice and they hit something or some one strategic
Not quite. Warheads in this case are categorized in two ways: conventional or nuclear. These were conventional warheads. When we talk about effector packages for ICBM’s, we talk about payloads. A payload could be a singular warhead (conventional or nuke) or MIRV (each with their own warhead),…or a few other things. This appears to be a new ICBM-like missile that we’re calling Intermediate Range Ballistic Missile (IRBM). Im assuming they took an ICBM nose tip and made a more intermediate first stage for it for shorter distances. MIRVs are most often associated with nukes, Wikipedia has a good article on the US Peacemaker if you’re curious. They are exceptionally hard to get right. You have all the challenges of a normal ballistic missile, then on your terminal phase you need blow a shroud off and then deploy multiple payloads…at Mach lots. Then those payloads all need to survive re entry and guide to target. Now imagine that video with each of those having a small thermonuclear weapon in them (which they almost assuredly have for those MIRVs).
To add to this a little bit, the term ICBM only refers to it's effective range. ICBMs are, as described, inter-continental, so an effective range. The chart below omits tactical or close-range ballistic missiles / rockets but it gives an idea. Any of them could be nuclear or conventional.
Totally not Ukraine related but this thread has most of the people who would find this interesting. In WWII we had aircraft carriers used for training pilots. The interesting thing is #1 they were on the great lakes and #2 they used paddle wheels for propulsion....like a Mississippi river boat https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Sable
At what point will the Russian people revolt against Putin? Also did DeSantis ever get Florida's pension out of the Russian Stock Market? cause that seems bad
https://www.wfla.com/news/politics/...s-200m-in-russian-investments-state-rep-says/ Spoiler TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — In the intervening months since Russia invaded Ukraine, oil prices have risen, inflation has increased, and the state of Florida has reportedly lost millions due to investment in Russia. Even before the losses, Florida Democrats had urged the state to divest itself from the money it’s invested in Russian companies. Now, Democrat Andrew Learned (D-Brandon) says the state’s pension fund has lost $200 million from its investments in Russia, following sanctions on the country due to the war. The state reportedly has $300 million invested in Russia-based companies. Florida Dems call for state, Gov. DeSantis to end $300M in Russian investments “Florida’s Retirement System LOST over $200m in our Russian Investments after refusing to divest our holdings when I called for it over two months ago,” Learned tweeted. “Turns out, backing Putin and his war crimes in Ukraine wasn’t just bad for freedom, it was a bad investment too.” Up Next - Max Defender 8 forecast at 5 close volume_off -03:12 sd closed_captions fullscreen Shortly after the invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, Florida Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried and other state lawmakers requested that Gov. Ron DeSantis formally end the state’s involvement with Russian businesses through the state’s pension fund. In March, Learned proposed an amendment to the state’s appropriation bill, which is still under review by DeSantis, to divest the funds. That amendment failed, and Learned criticized his Republican colleagues for their lack of action. “Reminder: still crickets from Florida GOP about divesting our Russian investments,” Learned tweeted at the time. As previously reported, Florida’s investments in Russian companies are managed by the State Board of Administration. The Florida SBA operates as an investment fiduciary, and before any decision to invest or divest is made, the board must review the funds. By law, the SBA is controlled by the governor, alongside the state’s Chief Financial Officer and Attorney General, Jimmy Patronis and Ashley Moody, respectively. When WFLA.com reached out in March to ask the governor’s office about the divestment push, they said the review process was underway. “The SBA has been reviewing investments in Russian domiciled entities,” according to the Governor’s Office. “Any decisions will be announced after the SBA has concluded its review.” In the tweet thread from Learned on May 3, the Brandon lawmaker said that not only had Florida’s pension fund lost $200 million due to its investments in Russia, the state had actually “increased its holdings in Russia from June to December during the runup to war.” By comparison, Learned said Florida has just $80,000 invested in Ukraine. document from the Florida SBA showing the dollar amounts of what’s invested from Florida’s pension plan funds, split by country. Separately through a GoogleDoc made public by the Brandon congressman, the Russia-specific values were specified. What makes a recession and are we heading for one? The document reports the state pension fund had lost $200,722,906.45 in assets invested in Russian companies. It’s also worth reporting that the state’s investments in Ukraine had also lost $20,485.77. According to state officials, the documents published on Twitter by Rep. Learned are the updated pension records, and the review process for potential divestment is still underway.
Probably told this story but many years ago we had a former pilot living down the street. He was walking by one day and saw my 3yo son in an Old Navy sweatshirt and asked if we were Navy people (he didn't know what Old Navy was) and then proceeded to tell us that he had flown Wildcats on Guadalcanal. I immediately asked about the defense of Henderson Field, and his eyes lit up because it was so rare anymore that anybody knew about it. Turns out at one point he was flying a patrol over the Solomons one day and his Wildcat went into vapor lock, he had to bail, and the local tribesmen hid him for a few months from the Japanese occupation until he could be recovered by American forces. He then returned to duty as a flight instructor. Later that year for Veterans Day we made some cookies and took it to them, and on seeing us at the front door he ushered me and my kids into his study to show them pictures on the wall of him landing on the Essex in 1943. Kids had no real idea, but I was like, damn
https://bsky.app/profile/mbirnbaum.bsky.social/post/3lcd6vninms2y If we can do this now why the fuck weren't we more aggressive with aide sooner?
average Russian citizens are already feeling economic pain on a level most of us likely can’t understand and it’s gonna get worse
I'm not as deep into Syria as Ukraine but my understanding is this: I'm sure WhiskeyDelta has thoughts since he was deployed there (I think?) -The Syrian opposition forces seem to have been quietly getting trained and equipped (likely by Turkey and others) for a while now. Recent videos show them with legit kit and organization. -Russian assets in Syria are greatly diminished. Israel and others have also been doing air strikes for a while. Right now it seems the Syrian opposition forces are making a move given their renewed strength and Assad's somewhat looser stance.
Hezbollah and Russia propped up the regime in 2015-2016. Hezbollah and Russia are greatly diminished so they can’t bail them out now. Syria is an absolute disaster and has been so for a long time