The 800 lb elephant in the roomski

[Dave's Not Here Man]

www.cnbc.com/2022/08/25/russia-ukraine-live-updates.html

It seems things are not quite going to spec over there in the XUSSR without the aid and comfort of John Barron. If Mr. Poot'n needs to raise his military by 25% just to conquer Ukraine's border territory, I think Poland, Romania, etc are probably not in any real danger. Of course a gaggle of B52 bombers would further reduce that danger, but I digress.

[k9krap]

Russia has lost a yuuuuge amount of soldiers in this war (or whatever you want to call it). I read that Puter is sending convicts to the front lines now. Morale is extremely low.

[Dave's Not Here Man]

There's a lot of propaganda out there so be careful what you read. The old #1 rule of war always applies.

[k9krap]

I usually only count on NYT and WaPo but I may have seen something hinky on social media.  I do try to fact check though. 

[minx]

I think the soldiers themselves are demoralized, but Poots has taken a page from the Bush-the-Lesser scorebook and told the general Russian public that all is well -get revenge on these Western assholes by going out and buying shit and living your daily lives!

So the soldiers get all the shit, while the rest of the country basically says 'All good - they have things in hand' - just like we did in Afghanistan and Iraq.

[Dave's Not Here Man]

It depends on what the actual objective is, which is sometimes stated and sometimes not so much. Our country was attacked by 15 Saudi nationals, no Afghanis or Iraqis, so naturally we went to war with Iraq and Afghanistan in the WOT. But there was a stated reason maybe more than an objective (you'd have to be pretty damn naive to think the objective was to put a stop to terrorism). Russia (Putin) wants those ports and for some reason Crimea wasn't enough to accomplish that goal. Which is why there's been no waves of airstrikes on Kyiv, which would end that war in days.

Pam, those sources are usually pretty reliable but I wouldn't put full faith in them for the whole truth. I've been following multiple sources that may well be the sources WaPo and NYT get their "information" from. Radio Free Europe, for example, is a US Gov run media out of the USIA and they have been pouring it on as a cheerleader for Ukraine. Some of the reporting sounds exactly like Tokyo Rose and Josef Goebbels wrote the scripts trying to demoralize russian troops and that's where I believe we get the secondary idea that the are in fact demoralized (when in truth we have no damn idea about their morale).

[bobathon]

I laugh because I got blocked by like 6 users at a blog, for complimenting Ukraine's propaganda. They thought propaganda means "lies from my enemies". Body counts, plane shoot-downs, those poor lost Roosky boys phoning home, Granny Picklejar knocking down drones, that was all top quality propaganda, true or not. Of course, maybe Russia isn't trying that hard here.

[Dave's Not Here Man]

Bringing this back from the dirt because of the recent developments over there. I guess Putin has his mind made up about winning that war in the face of an embarrassing defeat, at least as far as what we presume his goals were from the beginning not being met. Or were they? Remember that the beginning of this was a decade or so ago, which is becoming more in focus in some group topics and not in others. Attempting to have the little referendums in those towns with Russian "mayors"..... well, that might stick here and there so again, was that how he planned it? Piece by piece?


However, the idea that Ukraine being reclaimed by the USSR by whatever very unsavory means necessary is at least cause for some concern. The main concern there being that radioactive wasteland Ukraine wouldn't be very useful to the NUSSR now, would it? 

[k9krap]

Is Putin ill?  I’ve read several articles saying it’s rumored he has cancer.

Regardless, I’m reading he’s getting pressure from home - public and political pressure. He is bypassing authority chains by issuing commands directly to his generals because of this. I’ve been some opinions say Ukraine should try negotiating since they’re in the catbird seat now, but what would they have to give up if they did?

[bobathon]

Ukraine should give up those Rooskie occupiers.
Roosha should give up their ambitions.

[minx]

I am worried because Vlad is all about appearances. And it's quite clear that he's becoming a desperate man.
Hoping we're on high alert in case he literally does go nuclear.

Meantime he's now drafting all those folks who thought they were safe and could watch from a far safely in the motherland.

[Dave's Not Here Man]

Isn't Russia just as used to abject failure in their quest for world domination as we are? He'll find a way to bow out gracefully or..... FLASH. Remains to be seen. Saves us from waiting on giant freaking asteroid.

[minx]

Vlad is a saner version of Trump. He's spent his entire life building the image of the strong virile Russian man and leader who is a big success. So he's not going to go down easily.
It would be better for the world if he did have a terminal illness that could be ascribed to natural causes and not 'revenge from his enemies'. He could die a natural death without questions. (HA!)

[bobathon]

Gravity is natural. It killed several of Putin's minions already.