Or after much more than 20 minutes of torture they have four gunmen who wish the hell they had blown themselves up. I understand the skepticism, though.
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Russia/Ukraine conflict
- Thread starter amolina
- Start date
The Democrats are turning up the heat on Johnson. There is a motion to kick him out that has been put forward. The Democrats all voted to oust Kevin McCarthy and they are holding that over Johnson's head. If he makes sure a Ukraine aid bill gets a vote, they won't vote to kick him out. So his job as Speaker hangs in the balance.
As far as the loan instead of straight up aid goes, the Senate will probably go along with it because it's what Johnson will agree to. Next year the US can always forgive the loans.
The key issue is to start the air flowing to Ukraine again.
Like most autocracies, Russia has very little interest in protecting its own citizens. They just need to not revolt. Professor Timothy Snyder, who studies autocracy, puts it best: (emphasis mine)
I find his research on autocrats, their utter uselessness to their populations (the trains actually do NOT run on time - although they DO enrich the 'right people'), and the US's seeming flirtation with such leaders in the present time, quite on point.
Full link to the article
It has been said here before, but bears repeating: a lot of the reason Ukraine is able to stand firm is that autocratic Russia is so corrupt.
Buckminster
Well-Known Member
Update from Elon - inline with my thinking. This would likely involve increased spending (with strings) that would aid bargaining power.
Resolve the conflict?.... Easy...putin pulls forces back to pre-2014 borders...obeys the rules of a civilized world.
Done.
SwedishAdvocate
Active Member
Allegedly:
/1. Yesterday, Russian media reported that Russian reconnaissance ship "Ivan Hurs" was attacked, the ship was allegedly not damaged, and all the naval drones were destroyed. Today, a video appeared showing how one of the drones reaches the target [...
twitter.com/bayraktar_1love/status/1661724958236499970?s=20
/1. Yesterday, Russian media reported that Russian reconnaissance ship "Ivan Hurs" was attacked, the ship was allegedly not damaged, and all the naval drones were destroyed. Today, a video appeared showing how one of the drones reaches the target [...
twitter.com/bayraktar_1love/status/1661724958236499970?s=20
SwedishAdvocate
Active Member
France might requisition arms producers to speed up production to help Ukraine
[...] PARIS, March 26 (Reuters) - French Defence Minister Sebastien Lecornu said on Tuesday he was prepared to use his powers to requisition industrial capacities or impose priorities to weapon makers to speed up production of arms and shells needed on the battlefield in Ukraine and elsewhere.
"These questions ... are clearly on the table", Lecornu told a news conference, adding stocks and production lines were particularly strained with regard to anti-air missiles and artillery shells.
Lecornu said he could requisition stocks or tell companies to give priority to certain orders, citing Aster missiles produced by MBDA as a potential case for such a move. [...
SwedishAdvocate
Active Member
‘Give us the [self-censored] Patriots’ — Ukraine needs air defenses now, minister says
In a POLITICO interview, Ukraine’s chief diplomat Dmytro Kuleba delivers some blunt messages to Kyiv’s allies.MARCH 25, 2024 9:00 PM CET
[...] “If we had enough air defense systems, namely Patriots, we would be able to protect not only the lives of our people, but also our economy from destruction,” he added. [...
Source:
TMC rules most likely prevents me from providing a URL. But the article will be the top search result if you punch this into Google:
"Ukraine needs air defenses now, minister says" politico
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DanCar
Active Member
The plan to resolve the conflict is to kick the mf posterior.
Tiger
Active Member
Here's how to fix the Kerch Bridge problem /s
BitJam
Active Member
"Just that funding should be contingent on proper accounting of how it is used [...]"
Seems like malarkey to me. We are not actually sending money to Ukraine. We are sending them weapons directly. So accounting for how the funding gets used is almost entirely on us. And AFAIK, accounting is already in place in Ukraine to make sure weapons are going where they are supposed to go. Will Ukraine 100% eliminate all corruptions? No, of course not. No country ever has and no country ever will. If Elon wants to make aid to Ukraine contingent on them eliminating all corruption then he should just be honest and say he is against the US helping Ukraine.
Theses comments also give cover to people who want to block aid to Ukraine at all costs. We have a problem in our country right now that a small minority are blocking the will of the large majority regarding aid to Ukraine, Israel, and Gaza, and fixing the problems on our own border. IMO it is shameful to use misleading malarkey like this to give cover to those who are working against the best interests of the US and against the will of the majority of Americans.
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FielderJones
Member
When the United States eliminates all corruption in weapons spending, maybe then we can talk to Ukraine about it.
You are correct. All US foreign aid is subject to oversight, lots of it. You are also correct that 80-90% (range of estimates I've read) of the Ukraine aid is spent in the USA, under regular oversight, creating American defense jobs or buying new equipment to backfill what we sent to Ukraine.
Elon is amplifying a crucial Russian disinformation point, long ago clearly debunked by many including the ISW.
The ISW argue convincingly that the ONLY path to victory for Russia is confusing us with false narratives like this. Our collective Western economies dwarf Russia and its allies. Given that this is now a war of attrition, that should be conclusive to loss for Russia... unless they convince us to stop helping Ukraine. This is their only real play, and their disinformation folks know it and are hard at work, with a lot of recent success around here.
Excellent piece on this at ISW today. Lots of clear points, detail, and even some charts.
Institute for the Study of War
The notion that the war is unwinnable because of Russia’s dominance is a Russian information operation, which gives us a glimpse of the Kremlin’s real strategy and only real hope of success. The Kremlin must get the United States to the sidelines, all
My thoughts on hearing of the accident were similar. That bridge is a major artery in the Washington DC area. It being out is going to cause a lot of headaches.
I was about to say something similar. People seem to think the US is sending piles of cash to Ukraine or something. Almost all the money spent giving aid to Ukraine is spent in the United States employing Americans to make these things. The rest is spent transporting it to Ukraine and training Ukrainians to use it.
Not only was the aid given with the contingency that Ukraine ensure it's being used as intended, but Ukraine's government has a huge built in incentive to use it as intended. They are fighting a war and have zero interest in any of these weapons being used to do anything but fight the Russians.
Some Russian surrogates have claimed that these weapons are being sold on the black market, though there is zero evidence for this. On the other hand there is abundant evidence that weapons sent to Ukraine are hurting Russians.
I think Musk, Ramaswamy, and others like them have been co-opted by Russian intelligence to do their bidding. Some are willing participants, others are convenient idiots who don't realize they are being used. I think Musk is probably among the latter, but Ramaswamy appears to be among the former.
My understanding from some of the Denys Davydov YouTubes is that Russia is working fast to build a rail line from their main hub at Rostov all the way over land ending (near or into?) Crimea. This would circumvent the choke point of the Kerch bridge, and be largely out of range of Ukranian attacks without significant Ukrainian advances - and of course, right now, due to lack of resources (thank you so much for this again (/s), Speaker Johnson), Ukraine is actually giving ground, not taking it.
The completion of this rail line, and the additional heft it will give to Russian logistics, together sound like a huge problem. And yes, although you can strike a rail line with long range missiles, my understanding is the easy repairability makes it a poor choice for those limited, expensive weapons. You really need to get within artillery range to shut such a thing down effectively, I'm supposing?
Curious what our other informed voices have heard or think about this?
Doggydogworld
Active Member
This makes no sense. There is no vote scheduled, nor will there be until after Johnson allows a vote on Ukraine aid. The Democrats have no way to "turn up the heat" via motion to vacate. They have a carrot ("if it happens we'll vote to keep you"), but no stick.
SwedishAdvocate
Active Member
Don't think this has been posted:
[...] When Russian missiles struck Kyiv in a January 2 attack that killed at least three people, two ordinary outdoor CCTV cameras – one for a condominium, the other for a parking lot -- helped guide their way, the State Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) claims. [My u.] [...
www.rferl.org
Investigation: China's Hikvision, Dahua Security Cameras Heighten Risks Of Russian Attacks On Ukraine
February 08, 2024 14:18 GMT[...] When Russian missiles struck Kyiv in a January 2 attack that killed at least three people, two ordinary outdoor CCTV cameras – one for a condominium, the other for a parking lot -- helped guide their way, the State Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) claims. [My u.] [...
China's Hikvision, Dahua Security Cameras Heighten Risks Of Russian Attacks On Ukraine
Testing of Hikvision and Dahua CCTV cameras indicated that certain models are vulnerable to hacking and, in some cases, transmit information to servers controlled by companies fully or partly owned by the Chinese government. That poses a risk of data transfers to Moscow, experts say.
www.rferl.org
SwedishAdvocate
Active Member
A sign that the Russian Dictator is running low on armored vehicles?
The Dictator is allegedly down to 4/5 of these...
Out of all the vehicles that have been pulled out of storage and used by Russia in this war, this is one that was really at the bottom of my list to even see in theatre, never mind be destroyed.
The video shows what appears to be a Ladoga protected command vehicle, I won’t talk too much about it here as I made a whole post on the vehicle, so check below for the full info on it, in short it was designed to move senior Kremlin staff around under safety in the event of a nuclear attack, it was trialled in 1986 at the Chernobyl NPP.
twitter.com/AFVRec_/status/1772732087616835789?s=20
The Dictator is allegedly down to 4/5 of these...
Out of all the vehicles that have been pulled out of storage and used by Russia in this war, this is one that was really at the bottom of my list to even see in theatre, never mind be destroyed.
The video shows what appears to be a Ladoga protected command vehicle, I won’t talk too much about it here as I made a whole post on the vehicle, so check below for the full info on it, in short it was designed to move senior Kremlin staff around under safety in the event of a nuclear attack, it was trialled in 1986 at the Chernobyl NPP.
twitter.com/AFVRec_/status/1772732087616835789?s=20
The motion to vacate was submitted under regular order and not privileged so it requires going through committees where it will die. It was just a warning what some of his caucus will do. The Democrats have nothing to do with this at this point. It's theater.
Russia has increased gasoline imports from neighbouring Belarus in March to tackle the risk of shortages in its domestic market because of unscheduled repairs at Russian refineries after drone attacks, four industry and trade sources said on Wednesday.
Usually Russia is a net exporter of fuel and a supplier to international markets, but the disruption of Russian refining has forced oil companies to import.
