More on the Russian-Ukrainian War

One of Putin's most loyal lackeys tried complaining about American support to Ukraine and got royally smacked down:

If I had robbed the vast resource wealth of my country so comprehensively that a neighbour a fraction of its size could spank its invasion force with less than 5% of the Pentagon's annual budget in donated weaponry, I simply wouldn't talk shit. https://t.co/JuB5JSebWL

— Dmitry Grozoubinski (@DmitryOpines) October 13, 2022

StrategyPage has a fairly lengthy exposition on how the Russians have screwed the pooch in military readiness, training, and command & control. Putler has been saying that Russians found a way to prevail in WW2, but he's been neglecting that fact that Russia succeeded because of massive amounts of military and economic aid from the Western Allies.

That is a point which was well known to the Soviet leadership at the time:

"If the United States had not helped us, we would not have won the war," he wrote in his memoirs. "One-on-one against Hitler's Germany, we would not have withstood its onslaught and would have lost the war. No one talks about this officially, and Stalin never, I think, left any written traces of his opinion, but I can say that he expressed this view several times in conversations with me."

Other than nuclear weapons, Russia is a Potempkin military power. They can beat up on vastly inferior third-world adversaries and insurgencies, but they are getting their clocks cleaned in a near-peer war by a country that is far smaller. Probably the only thing that keeps the Chinese from moving to occupy large chuncks of Siberia is knowing that they have many of the same problems of corruption in their military as do the Russians.

He'll Probably Get All the Sex He Wants in Prison

A 22-year-old faces life in prison after he pleaded guilty to plotting a mass shooting to “slaughter” women at an Ohio university, according to U.S. Attorney Kenneth L. Parker.

Tres Genco, 22, of Hillsboro, Ohio, has been in custody since his arrest in July of 2021, Parker explained Tuesday.

Genco is a self-identified “Incel or involuntary celibate,” the U.S. attorney said.
...
When he first began posting on the Incel websites, Genco attended Army Basic Training in Georgia. He was discharged for entry-level performance and conduct in December 2019.

A month after being discharged, Genco conducted surveillance at an Ohio university on Jan. 15, 2020.

The same day, Parker said, Genco allegedly searched online for topics including “planning a shooting crime” and “when does preparing for a crime become an attempt?”

During the investigation, Genco’s manifesto was found which claimed he would kill women “out of hatred, jealousy and revenge.”

Yet another spoiled white guy who thinks that women should want to fuck him because he's a white guy. None of these jerkoffs are willing to do the work to meet people, to get to know them, to make friends. They're more inteersted in sitting in their mother's basements and consuming hatred and emitting rage online.

Well, he's probably going to get the chance to make lots of friends on his cellblock.

Too Bad They'll Never See a Dime

The conspiracy theorist Alex Jones should pay $965 million to people who suffered from his false claim that the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting was a hoax, a jury in Connecticut decided Wednesday.

Jones acted the ass throughout the discovery phase of the case, so he got hit with a default judgment. The trial itself was only about damages.

Acting like an asshole in legal proceedings often does not go well.

Russian Losses and Other Stuff

90,000 men, according to this website. Machine translation into English.

The state of the Russian army after seven months of war, machine translation here.

Russian soldiers who have served in Ukraine are apparently disillusioned and are saying that the conscripts are going to be slaughtered. Their schools are being denuded of teachers.

Meanwhile, one of Russia's more prominent American lackeys quit the Democratic party. Good riddance to rascist garbage. She will probably find a welcoming home in the Party of Treason.

Does Putler Want a Cease-Fire?

Otherwise, why would his Asset be talking about this shit?

Former President Trump has emerged as the most prominent advocate in the United States of negotiations between Ukraine and Russia to broker a cease-fire as hostilities between the two sides ratcheted up over the weekend.

Or is there another reason why the TOFF has decided to try to lead the pro-appeasement caucus?

H/T

Retching These Down, Here (updated)

Here's One Ultra-Rich Fuckwit Who Belongs in ADX Florence

Elon Musk spoke directly with Russian President Vladimir Putin before tweeting a proposal to end the war in Ukraine that would have seen territory permanently ceded to Russia, it has been claimed.

In a mailout sent to Eurasia Group subscribers, Ian Bremmer wrote that Tesla CEO Musk told him that Putin was “prepared to negotiate,” but only if Crimea remained Russian, if Ukraine accepted a form of permanent neutrality, and Ukraine recognised Russia’s annexation of Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia.

What is it with these ultra-rich lunatics who think that, just because they made a shitload of money doing something, that they have the knowledge and expertise to tromp around in foreign relations? And the deal that Musk is promulgating is one that gives Putin more territory than his inept army has been able to take on the battlefield.

At the same time, Musk has said that Taiwan needs to surrender to China. Clearly, Musk believes that freedom and self-determination get in the way of his becoming even richer. He's willing to throw close to seventy million people under the yoke of dictators so he can make a buck selling cars. Musk is somewhere between being a money-grubbing quisling and an evil, soulless piece of meat.

Even worse, he seems to be fucking with Starlink to screw up the Ukrainians' counteroffensive against Putler's legions:

This looks way worse now: “Ukrainian forces reported connectivity issues as they continue their counteroffensive into areas previously held by Russian forces…Musk responded by saying that what happens on the battlefield is ‘classified.’” https://t.co/snzEFXYYI7

— Bianna Golodryga (@biannagolodryga) October 11, 2022

He is proof that being rich brings out the despicable nature of some people. Elon Musk is the poster child for why it is absolutely necessary to tax the fuck out of the rich.

The View From Poland

It's over at Chant du Depart. It's worth the time to peruse.

Weapons That Have Served For a Century

In the U.S., we have the M1911 pistol and the M2 machinegun. Both served that long.

Add to that, the B-52 bomber. Planned upgrades to it (new radars, better engines) may have them serving to 2060.

They're Not Surrendering to Russian Terrorism

David Ignatius found that, on the streets of Kyiv, there is no taste for compromising with the Orcs.

What became clear after several dozen conversations here is that for Ukraine, there’s no middle ground. The resiliency and resolve I heard reminded me of Londoners during the Blitz in World War II. For Ukraine, there’s no turning back, and I was asked repeatedly why some in the West still talk about compromise with Putin.

Ukraine’s determination to go all the way worries some in the Biden administration, who believe that the war must be settled through negotiations and that the United States has a responsibility to contain this conflict before it expands into something much worse. I share those concerns, but it’s hard to make arguments for conciliation to Ukrainians whose nation is being hammered by Russian attacks.

“It would be extremely difficult to explain to society why we need to sit down at the table with these terrorists and negotiate,” Oleksiy Danilov, head of the Ukrainian national security council, told us.
...
I asked [Deputy Defense Minister Hannah Maliar] what she had surprised her most in the months since. The biggest shock, she said, was how “barbaric” the Russian attacks had been — destroying kindergartens, maternity wards, homes for the elderly. “In our civilized world, no one assumed this could happen in the 21st century,” she said.

Ukraine fought back. Its citizens think they will be victorious. What they want from the West is weapons and money to fight Putin. A visit here left me with the feeling that steady, sustained military assistance to this astonishingly brave nation — despite Russian threats and for as long as it takes — is an investment in a safer and better world.

He's right about the spirit of the Ukrainians:

Russians, how are you feeling this morning? All good? Happy with your leadership? We’re relatively ok, but hate you even more today. pic.twitter.com/JY7LCvMQxy

— Liubov Tsybulska (@TsybulskaLiubov) October 10, 2022

We, as in the nations of NATO, should ge giving Ukraine all the air-defense weapons we can.

And as for a certain country that can't be bothered to get involved, because they have NATO nations on their borders and thus benefit from NATO's de facto protection, they can go fuck themselves.

As for the Kerch Bridge, it may not have been a truck bomb that blew it up.