War

HGCC

Well-Known Member
It's true that some folks do prefer that lifestyle, but by in large, most people want the stability of a home, even if it's just a 10x10 shed.
We have something like that. I think it's important to acknowledge there are many different kinds of and reasons for homelessness. These sort of programs and communities are better than public housing and people pushed into it by poverty. I think they are great for legitimate down on your luck type situations and something that should be expanded on and in every city.


Here much of our problem is crazy junkies, fuck them. Everyone has had enough of their shit getting stolen by meth raiders.
 

DIY-HP-LED

Well-Known Member
See what I mean, Ukraine is already paying dividends, America will only need a token force in Europe. Ukraine is pounding the shit out of Vlad's pathetic army, Germany is going strong and Finland and Sweden will be in NATO, greatly strengthening the alliance. Belarus might be the next domino to fall and it will make a north south line right next to European Russia and right through the middle of the Russian cultural world, making an Iron curtain impossible to implement.

With a weak Russia, strong Ukraine and European NATO, there will be little need for American and Canadian troops in Europe. Russia's days as a conventional war threat to Europe are over for a long time to come, if his army is destroyed in Ukraine. Even if he gets out, his army is obsolete in equipment, organization, tactics and doctrine, it requires a military cultural revolution. If it doesn't change, then the lessons learned to destroy them in Ukraine will be applied to eliminate them quicker in the next war they fight. With the geopolitical situation and the attitude of their government, they may be called on the fight several wars in succession, in Belarus, Georgia and other former soviet republics. Finland saw it's chance to act because Russian actions caused a shift in public opinion and everybody saw that Russia is weak, tied completely down and cannot attack them over it, ditto for Sweden.

Xi must be pissed at Vlad over this shit, it kinda fucked him for Taiwan, but it does open up possibilities in Asia.

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DIY-HP-LED

Well-Known Member
These and other long range artillery are the game changers, when coupled to modern fire control radars and drones. They were designed by NATO many years ago to defeat Soviet artillery and can out range it by a considerable distance. They can shoot the Russians and the Russians can't shoot back at them.


Video Shows Donated Howitzer Now in Ukraine to 'Transform' Russians

A video tweeted by The Kyiv Independent showing the Ukrainian army with an M777 howitzer has sparked interest on the internet after a reporter said the artillery would be used to turn "a bad Russian into a good one."

The M77 howitzer field artillery pieces are being donated to Ukraine by Western allies to target invading Russian forces. The U.S., Australia and Canada are providing the additional firepower.

Kyiv Independent journalist Oleksiy Sorokin tweeted the video of soldiers surrounding one of the cannons.
 

DIY-HP-LED

Well-Known Member
The accuracy and range of the western artillery that is being supplied will make a big difference in many ways, when compared to the Russians. Because of it's longer range, less guns and crews will be destroyed by enemy action and it can defeat Russian artillery with minimal risk. Next, the increased accuracy means that less shells are expended to destroy a target using conventional munitions. All guns, regular or long range use the same 155mm rounds, just the barrels are longer, stronger and they use more propellant. This greatly reduces the burden of logistics and mobility because they don't need a ton of shells per target and the gun barrels don't wear out as fast firing useless rounds. Drones can locate targets and battery commanders can watch the fall of their shot from the perfect angle, they can also laser designate targets for precision munitions. All the advantages are with the Ukrainians here and they can kill many Russians and destroy much of their equipment and logistics for minimal casualties.

When it comes to dug in defensive positions, well we've seen what cheap commercial drones can do to soldiers in trenches and machine gun nests and how they like tanks can be used against defensive positions. It was this combo of tanks and airpower that made trenches obsolete in the first place. Stingers and Anti tank weapons took this off the table, but drones may bring it back, they can protect the tanks from above over running these positions, along with the infantry on the ground. After they are pounded by precise artillery strikes.
 

printer

Well-Known Member
Turkey’s leader opposes letting Finland, Sweden join NATO
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is raising opposition to allowing Finland and Sweden to join NATO.

“We are following developments concerning Sweden and Finland, but we are not of a favorable opinion,” Erdogan said, according to the Associated Press.

NATO’s 30 member states must unanimously agree to allow a new country to enter the alliance in addition to respective national legislatures ratifying new membership.

 

DIY-HP-LED

Well-Known Member
Here is an example of the RC community helping out with a simple RC plane and camera, they do the grunt work and call in the serious military drones like the Puma to finish them off with precise artillery strikes. It is also an indication of the armed forces taking these people much more seriously, as their usefulness becomes apparent. They scout them and the army does the rest.
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See how gamers are outwitting and helping to kill Russian soldiers

CNN's Erin Burnett meets a Ukrainian who is one of the fighters using drones and aerial technology to kill Russian soldiers.
 

DIY-HP-LED

Well-Known Member
Turkey’s leader opposes letting Finland, Sweden join NATO
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is raising opposition to allowing Finland and Sweden to join NATO.

“We are following developments concerning Sweden and Finland, but we are not of a favorable opinion,” Erdogan said, according to the Associated Press.

NATO’s 30 member states must unanimously agree to allow a new country to enter the alliance in addition to respective national legislatures ratifying new membership.

Finland’s president and prime minister issued a statement Thursday calling on its legislature to apply for NATO membership “without delay,” and Sweden’s leaders are expected to issue a similar announcement shortly.

The turn by both Nordic countries towards NATO membership is in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, where the defensive organization is viewed as a key deterrent to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s ambitions of expansion.

Erdogan’s opposition is so-far an outlier compared to welcoming statements from the Secretary-General of NATO and some of its founding members, including the U.S., United Kingdom, Germany, France, Belgium, Iceland, to name a few.

The Turkish leader explained his opposition by citing Sweden and other Scandinavian countries’ alleged support for Kurdish militants and others whom Turkey considers to be terrorists.

Turkey and Greece have tense relations with conflict on multiple fronts over energy exploration in the Mediterranean Sea and on the divided island of Cyprus.

“Furthermore, Scandinavian countries are guesthouses for terrorist organizations,” Erdogan said.

He said he also did not want to repeat Turkey’s past “mistake” from when it agreed to readmit Greece into NATO’s military wing in 1980. He claimed the action had allowed Greece “to take an attitude against Turkey by taking NATO behind it.”

Turkey and Greece have tense relations with conflict on multiple fronts over energy exploration in the Mediterranean Sea and on the divided island of Cyprus.
He's looking for money, his economy is on the rocks and a weak Russia is in his interest, Vlad might cut off his oil and gas, he also has an election next year I believe and he had better do something about the economy in Turkey. Norway financing his pet canal might change his mind in a hurry as would an EU loan or other assistance.
 

Roger A. Shrubber

Well-Known Member
Turkey’s leader opposes letting Finland, Sweden join NATO
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is raising opposition to allowing Finland and Sweden to join NATO.

“We are following developments concerning Sweden and Finland, but we are not of a favorable opinion,” Erdogan said, according to the Associated Press.

NATO’s 30 member states must unanimously agree to allow a new country to enter the alliance in addition to respective national legislatures ratifying new membership.

Finland’s president and prime minister issued a statement Thursday calling on its legislature to apply for NATO membership “without delay,” and Sweden’s leaders are expected to issue a similar announcement shortly.

The turn by both Nordic countries towards NATO membership is in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, where the defensive organization is viewed as a key deterrent to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s ambitions of expansion.

Erdogan’s opposition is so-far an outlier compared to welcoming statements from the Secretary-General of NATO and some of its founding members, including the U.S., United Kingdom, Germany, France, Belgium, Iceland, to name a few.

The Turkish leader explained his opposition by citing Sweden and other Scandinavian countries’ alleged support for Kurdish militants and others whom Turkey considers to be terrorists.

Turkey and Greece have tense relations with conflict on multiple fronts over energy exploration in the Mediterranean Sea and on the divided island of Cyprus.

“Furthermore, Scandinavian countries are guesthouses for terrorist organizations,” Erdogan said.

He said he also did not want to repeat Turkey’s past “mistake” from when it agreed to readmit Greece into NATO’s military wing in 1980. He claimed the action had allowed Greece “to take an attitude against Turkey by taking NATO behind it.”

Turkey and Greece have tense relations with conflict on multiple fronts over energy exploration in the Mediterranean Sea and on the divided island of Cyprus.
erdrogan is a lying piece of shit...putin told him if he supported this, turkey would be next on the chopping block. as far as i'm concerned, if turkey stops either Finland or Sweden from becoming NATO members, then they should be expelled from NATO and left to defend themselves from the hungry russians at their borders.
 

DIY-HP-LED

Well-Known Member
Yep, he's going full Stalin and decapitating his military! Though in this case it was necessary, but to complete the job he needs to top himself off too. :lol: The fault lies at the very top this time and there is no escaping that fact, the captain is responsible for the ship and the condition of he crew. Vlad's ship is sinking, is about to roll over and plunge to the bottom. The engines are breaking down, the bottom leaking badly, the crew is drunk, inexperienced and the fuel tanks are almost empty anyway. Meanwhile Captain Vlad and his officers continue to blithely sail into the teeth of a hurricane.
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Putin ‘Punishes’ Generals After Losing 73 Military Vehicles In Failed River Crossing Bid In Ukraine


May 13, 2022 Russian president Vladimir Putin insists that his military is achieving all of its targets on time. However, reports from Ukraine and Russia seem to paint a different picture. Putin is allegedly purging his own commanders due to their string of failures in Ukraine. Ukraine claims that Putin has either sacked or arrested his top military officers over invasion blunders.
 

printer

Well-Known Member
Just an opinion piece but something to hope for.
Prepare for the disappearance of Russia
It’s 1991 again and, now as then, Western policymakers and analysts are terrified of confronting the two big “what if” questions raised by Russian President Vladimir Putin’s calamitous war with Ukraine: What if the Russian Federation is following in the Soviet Union’s footsteps and is on the verge of collapse? What if, once again, the process is driven by internal factors and there’s nothing we can do about it?

The Soviet collapse was both a surprise and an annoyance for much of the West. Few government leaders expected a superpower to disappear overnight and even fewer greeted the prospect with enthusiasm. President George H. W. Bush’s infamous “Chicken Kiev” speech, in which he warned Ukrainians against pursuing “suicidal nationalism” and thereby risking undermining the Soviet state, became emblematic of Western fears of a Soviet collapse. The speech was also testimony to the belief that Western policy could prevent such an outcome.

 

Roger A. Shrubber

Well-Known Member
Just an opinion piece but something to hope for.
Prepare for the disappearance of Russia
It’s 1991 again and, now as then, Western policymakers and analysts are terrified of confronting the two big “what if” questions raised by Russian President Vladimir Putin’s calamitous war with Ukraine: What if the Russian Federation is following in the Soviet Union’s footsteps and is on the verge of collapse? What if, once again, the process is driven by internal factors and there’s nothing we can do about it?

The Soviet collapse was both a surprise and an annoyance for much of the West. Few government leaders expected a superpower to disappear overnight and even fewer greeted the prospect with enthusiasm. President George H. W. Bush’s infamous “Chicken Kiev” speech, in which he warned Ukrainians against pursuing “suicidal nationalism” and thereby risking undermining the Soviet state, became emblematic of Western fears of a Soviet collapse. The speech was also testimony to the belief that Western policy could prevent such an outcome.

A similar inability to imagine the unimaginable appears evident today. Eurasia Group’s Ian Bremmer typifies this inability to think beyond Russia: “Gone are the days when Russia’s war aims consisted solely of ‘de-Nazifying and demilitarizing’ Ukraine. Also gone are the days when U.S. and allied governments limited their involvement to helping Ukraine defend its sovereignty and territorial integrity,” he writes. “… The result is a new Cold War between Russia and its opponents — one that promises to be less global than its 20th-century counterpart but also less stable and predictable.” Despite all the portentous changes that Bremmer foresees, Russia’s collapse as a state is not one of them.

And yet, it’s perfectly possible, possibly even probable. And the sooner the West starts thinking about what a Russian collapse will look like, the better — not because there is much we can do to stop it, but because it will have earth-shattering consequences for the world.

Putin believes that whatever problems arise within his realm must be the handiwork of foreign forces. Soviet leaders held similar views. In fact, the weaknesses of their states were the products of their dysfunctional political and economic systems and of policy mistakes the leaders made.

Soviet totalitarianism and central planning were good at mobilizing people and resources for mega-projects such as industrialization, collectivization, and war (while also killing millions in the process), but they failed miserably as systems of governance in modern societies. Mikhail Gorbachev’s perestroika was a conscious effort to fix the malfunctioning Soviet system — and not to rid it of nefarious Western influences. Quite the contrary, Gorbachev understood that opening the USSR to the world could save it. The Soviet Union fell apart because Gorbachev emasculated the Communist Party, thereby destroying the linchpin of totalitarian rule and both enabling and compelling the non-Russian republics to seek salvation from a decrepit system through independence.

Putin’s fascist Russia is no less dysfunctional. The hyper-centralization of power in the hands of a possibly irrational leader with delusions of grandeur is a recipe for institutional decay, as bureaucrats attempt to survive by empire-building, compartmentalization and buck-passing, and for policy disaster. It was Putin and a small coterie of his sycophantic pals who decided to invade Ukraine, thereby dooming thousands of Russian soldiers to an early death and exposing Russia’s efforts at building a powerful military as fictional. Corruption thrives in such circumstances, while the ability to pursue imaginative policies of economic and political reform atrophies under the dead weight of a dysfunctional and corrupt bureaucracy.

If the Russian Federation falls apart, it will be due to the strains and weaknesses inherent in the system, the inability of Putin to keep its parts together and its elites happy, and the catastrophic impact on Russia of his idiotic decision to invade Ukraine with an army that was unprepared for such an adventure. Western military and economic assistance to Ukraine has strengthened Ukraine and improved its war effort, but the disintegrating processes currently affecting Russia would be taking place even if Western assistance had been minimal.

Now, as in 1991, the Russian Federation’s provinces and non-Russian autonomous republics will be forced to fend for themselves as they witness the Russian political and economic system crumble around them. There was already a “parade of sovereignties” during the dysfunctional 1990s; there will be another one in the 2020s. The Russian Federation could metamorphose into 10 or more states, only one of which would be known as Russia. That would change the face of Eurasia forever.

Stopping this process likely will not be possible. If the West were to abandon all its sanctions tomorrow, disintegration would be slowed down, but not halted. Indeed, slowing it down might be worse than letting it take its course. The longer the disintegration, the greater the cost in lives. All the West can, and must, do is prepare for a probable outcome: the disappearance of Russia as we know it.
i don't see the problem...all the deaths will be in what was russia, the hardliners and fascists will all gather together into one or two of the new states, and will be easy to keep an eye on, till it becomes time to eliminate them permanently.
the peaceful states will be more interested in economic growth and stability, and will exploit whatever resources they have within their borders. seems like a win/win for the world, the farmers will go back to farming, the miners will go back to mining, researchers will be able to communicate with western counterparts, and vice versa...could be the dawn of a golden age, instead of a new dark ages
 
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