romad1 Posted January 27, 2023 Posted January 27, 2023 Did we already post this? This is one hell of a story. Quote
1984Echoes Posted January 27, 2023 Posted January 27, 2023 US Training of Ukrainian troops (in this instance their NCO development program) from 2014 through 2021 (before they pulled out... was that Jan-22?) resulted in Russia's defeat, starting in February, 2022: https://www.yahoo.com/news/ukraines-battlefield-success-surprised-russia-174110124.html Quote
Tigeraholic1 Posted January 28, 2023 Posted January 28, 2023 Interesting thoughts from Moscow. The mouth breathers will be mouth breathers. It seems most sane Russians are ready for this to end. Quote
romad1 Posted January 28, 2023 Posted January 28, 2023 25 minutes ago, Tigeraholic1 said: Interesting thoughts from Moscow. The mouth breathers will be mouth breathers. It seems most sane Russians are ready for this to end. I can see some cracks in the wall. Quote
gehringer_2 Posted January 28, 2023 Posted January 28, 2023 1 minute ago, romad1 said: I can see some cracks in the wall. I"m wondering how long Putin can allow Prigozhin to keep building out Wagner. One day he may find he has waited too long and wake up to find Wagner tanks surrounding his dacha. 1 Quote
romad1 Posted January 28, 2023 Posted January 28, 2023 Just now, gehringer_2 said: I"m wondering how long Putin can allow Prigozhin to keep building out Wagner. One day he may find he has waited too long and wake up to find Wagner tanks surrounding his dacha. no comment 2 Quote
1984Echoes Posted January 28, 2023 Posted January 28, 2023 An educated guess: It's on the hush-hush... but the US, right now (and possibly the past several weeks), is sending ATACMS over to Ukraine. Quote
1984Echoes Posted January 29, 2023 Posted January 29, 2023 And the Ukrainians are counting tanks coming from the West. Each and every 321 (at this point) of them: https://www.yahoo.com/news/ukraine-receive-321-tanks-western-095800258.html Quote
romad1 Posted January 29, 2023 Posted January 29, 2023 Not sure what to make of Daniel Yergen but his history of the Oil industry "The Prize" was pretty good Quote
romad1 Posted January 30, 2023 Posted January 30, 2023 This was an excellent outcome. Side note: A former professor of mine was behind a lot of shenanigans in the Reagan administration. He was Constantine Menges. Anywho...Dr. Menges (whose nickname was "Constant Menace" from the Ollie North contingent) was behind at one point an attempt in the early 1990s to form a bloc of states pre-NATO called the Visegrad Bloc which would comprise the central/easter European former Warsaw Pact states to provide a bulwark against Russia. The idea was sort of loopy at the time because together their GDP was pretty abysmal. That has changed some with two-three decades of democracy and investment. Read about some of it here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visegrád_Group https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constantine_Menges 1 Quote
1984Echoes Posted January 30, 2023 Posted January 30, 2023 3 hours ago, romad1 said: This was an excellent outcome. Side note: A former professor of mine was behind a lot of shenanigans in the Reagan administration. He was Constantine Menges. Anywho...Dr. Menges (whose nickname was "Constant Menace" from the Ollie North contingent) was behind at one point an attempt in the early 1990s to form a bloc of states pre-NATO called the Visegrad Bloc which would comprise the central/easter European former Warsaw Pact states to provide a bulwark against Russia. The idea was sort of loopy at the time because together their GDP was pretty abysmal. That has changed some with two-three decades of democracy and investment. Read about some of it here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visegrád_Group https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constantine_Menges I didn't read this... But I would love to see a revisal of the Polish-Lithuanian "empire". I've been thinking about this the past few months. There's Poland, Lithuania & the other Baltics, Ukraine, could probably add at least Moldova, Romania, and Slovakia. Call it the Western Slavic Confederation (I'm guessing it's pretty similar to the Visegrad Group above, without reading... and, although the Baltics aren't Slavic, they were a part of the old Polish-Lithuanian Empire so I am honorarily including them here...). It would be missing Byelorussia, and Kaliningrad. But go ahead and kick the Russians out of those two areas, and might as well do Transdniestra as well. I'm certain the Russians would love that idea. The Czech Republic could either lean towards Germany (language/ cultural affinity in western Czechia) or the Western Slavic Union (eastern Czechia is Slavic, like it's former union state Slovakia...). I'm guessing they would choose Slavic based on current political affinities (heavily anti-Russian). It would also be missing southern Slavic nations but it's a little more tricky down there (Serbia, Hungary, etc...). But I agree, a mini-NATO in the east of Europe. I think I proposed a confederation with Poland and Ukraine several months back as a pathway for instantaneous inclusion of Ukraine into NATO. But revising Poland-Lithuania, or creating a Visegrad group is an excellent idea. Now just... "March on Minsk" (future victory song of the Western Slavic Confederation!) Quote
romad1 Posted January 30, 2023 Posted January 30, 2023 10 minutes ago, 1984Echoes said: I didn't read this... But I would love to see a revisal of the Polish-Lithuanian "empire". I've been thinking about this the past few months. There's Poland, Lithuania & the other Baltics, Ukraine, could probably add at least Moldova, Romania, and Slovakia. Call it the Western Slavic Confederation (I'm guessing it's pretty similar to the Visegrad Group above, without reading... and, although the Baltics aren't Slavic, they were a part of the old Polish-Lithuanian Empire so I am honorarily including them here...). It would be missing Byelorussia, and Kaliningrad. But go ahead and kick the Russians out of those two areas, and might as well do Transdniestra as well. I'm certain the Russians would love that idea. The Czech Republic could either lean towards Germany (language/ cultural affinity in western Czechia) or the Western Slavic Union (eastern Czechia is Slavic, like it's former union state Slovakia...). I'm guessing they would choose Slavic based on current political affinities (heavily anti-Russian). It would also be missing southern Slavic nations but it's a little more tricky down there (Serbia, Hungary, etc...). But I agree, a mini-NATO in the east of Europe. I think I proposed a confederation with Poland and Ukraine several months back as a pathway for instantaneous inclusion of Ukraine into NATO. But revising Poland-Lithuania, or creating a Visegrad group is an excellent idea. Now just... "March on Minsk" (future victory song of the Western Slavic Confederation!) The EU actually was in the work during that 1991 workup to Visegrad. They are the appropriate umbrella organization for this sub-division of states. Quote
1984Echoes Posted January 30, 2023 Posted January 30, 2023 The common thread amongst my Confederation is that they were all brutalized by the former Soviet Union and have no interest in going back to that. The EU may be the appropriate umbrella organization. But those states are going to align themselves militarily. Which you know to be true. And it's not as if smaller groups of NATO nations or nations that cooperate with NATO but aren't in the group never get together for maneuvers and exercises and such, they do... IE: BALTOPS. Quote
romad1 Posted January 30, 2023 Posted January 30, 2023 1 hour ago, 1984Echoes said: The common thread amongst my Confederation is that they were all brutalized by the former Soviet Union and have no interest in going back to that. The EU may be the appropriate umbrella organization. But those states are going to align themselves militarily. Which you know to be true. And it's not as if smaller groups of NATO nations or nations that cooperate with NATO but aren't in the group never get together for maneuvers and exercises and such, they do... IE: BALTOPS. Assuming a democratic election they are not interested in going back to that. Who knows if oligarchy is buying the elections on behalf of the Russian dictator? Quote
1984Echoes Posted January 30, 2023 Posted January 30, 2023 36 minutes ago, romad1 said: Assuming a democratic election they are not interested in going back to that. Who knows if oligarchy is buying the elections on behalf of the Russian dictator? Poland successfully fought against corruption in their economy/ politics... Ukraine is struggling with that. Although this war has actually allowed Zelensky to broom corrupt politicians out the door and to go after corrupt oligarchy to a much higher (successful) degree than they've ever been able to achieve previously... I think a war footing opens up the anti-corruption door wide-open... by necessity. Quote
romad1 Posted January 30, 2023 Posted January 30, 2023 6 minutes ago, 1984Echoes said: Poland successfully fought against corruption in their economy/ politics... Ukraine is struggling with that. Although this war has actually allowed Zelensky to broom corrupt politicians out the door and to go after corrupt oligarchy to a much higher (successful) degree than they've ever been able to achieve previously... I think a war footing opens up the anti-corruption door wide-open... by necessity. all in favor of this. I think Vladdie's miscalculation has resulted in the below quote from Samuel Johnson coming true. Quote "Depend upon it, sir, when a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight, it concentrates his mind wonderfully." 1 Quote
ewsieg Posted January 30, 2023 Posted January 30, 2023 Very possible this has nothing to do with Ukraine, but interesting as we get news that Putin is immobilizing more troops and making more purchases from the likes of NK and Iran. https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/blast-heard-military-plant-irans-central-city-isfahan-state-media-2023-01-28/ Quote
romad1 Posted January 30, 2023 Posted January 30, 2023 This is from today Really bad people? The kind who cheat on their spouses? Quote
pfife Posted January 30, 2023 Posted January 30, 2023 Conflating the FBI with the Intelligence community.... I'd never trust Pooty Quote
romad1 Posted January 30, 2023 Posted January 30, 2023 Not sure if this falls under the Warde Manuel/Juwan/Harbaugh did-something-wrong bin that the Freep likes to frame things but...still https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/2023/01/30/university-of-michigan-websites-russian-cyberattack/69854720007/ Quote
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