Miscellaneous And Off Topic Subjects

[THE_WIZARD_]

IT WAS PLANTED!!!!

[Jeff Buchanan]

Some may be interested in these two stories. The publisher is a media group named Meduza (one in a number of spellings). It is located in Riga, Latvia. It is a Russian language, open source media outlet that works to bring clarity to multiple issues, the war in Ukraine included. English translations are included. The first linked article attempts to clarify what is going on in the W boarder of the Donetsk oblast, specifically Soledar, Optyn and Bakhmut. the other (at the second link opines on how this is all going to play out) The first article in short:

• It's not completely clear which side is in control of the city of Soledar. Russia's MOD claims that the Russian army is in control but the Wagner Group claims its soldiers are doing the fighting and taking territory. Available imaging suggests street corners and major intersections change hands almost daily between Ukrainians and the Russian Army/Wagner Group mercenaries. The battle of Soledar is a part of the Russian plan to surround Bakhmut from the N and S.
• Military analysts do not see Russian control of this small city to amount to a significant accomplishment. About 500 people out of over 10K still reside there and few buildings are occupied most being flattened by artillery exchanges. Nevertheless, the Kremlin is touting it as such along with and separately the leader of the Wagner Group.
• The larger city to the S of Soledar, Bakhmut, does hold some tactical significance should the Russians gain control of it. That is unlikely to happen. Russia's focus on controlling this small front from Soledar in the N to Optyn in the S, with Bakhmut in between them has been immensely costly in terms of personnel and equipment losses on both sides.
• Some Ukrainian military analysts, who have more granular information about how much has been lost by the Ukrainian side, feel the defense of this relatively small and unimportant, other than symbolic, territory on the W boarder of the Donetsk Oblast has been too costly. https://meduza.io/en/feature/2023/01...t-after-battle.

The second link was published on January 9th. In short:

• The war being fought in the aforementioned space is an artillery duel and a war of attrition. The amount of artillery shells being expended by both sides is not sustainable. Both sides are already experiencing reduced capacity to conduct offensive operations given the shortage of mortar and artillery shells. Ukraine is depending on the West to provide shells and it is being reported that stocks in the countries supplying shells are near exhaustion; building more munitions is hard to do. Russia is depending on it's military industrial complex to build more shells. There is no way enough can be supplied to the front to support a renewed Russian offensive either now or, it is argued, in the future.
• The Russians are willing to expend soldiers to make up for the lack of artillery shells. Russia has some advantage here but the quality of mobilized troops has been poor and there's little doubt that will continue, The Russian combat training infrastructure is in bad shape. The logistics of mobilization, training and getting the soldiers to the front is beyond Russia's capacity now to support a major offensive thrust further into Ukraine and it is thought to remain incapable of doing that for the foreseeable future.
• OTH, Ukraine does have a more willing population to join the army than the Russians and they have the training infrastructure in place to get well trained and equipped soldiers to the battle space, wherever that is.
• It's being reported that western military trainers are urging the Ukrainian army to rely less on artillery and more on maneuver - that is the NATO philosophy and is driven in part by a switch to that battlefield strategy and away from a strategy reliant on artillery (still, the Russian way) after the collapse of the Soviet Union. It is also the reason the west appears to be ponying up more "fighting vehicles" which includes armor in the form of tanks, air defense systems and aviation assets.
• Ukraine's success in defending itself over the next year depends in large measure on how successful the Ukrainians are in switching away from resource limited artillery based warfare to NATO style maneuver warfare that uses less artillery to confront a severely depleted Russian army. It also depends on the west's willingness to keep supplying Ukraine's Armed forces with the weapons suitable to conduct maneuver warfare - armor, mobile air defense and aviation assets.

The author's of the Meduza link (here) think that the advantage in this war of attrition will swing to Ukraine over the next year because of improved battlefield tactics, better soldiers and technologically superior equipment coming from the west that will, theoretically, defeat the current state and capabilities of the Russian armed forces. https://meduza.io/en/feature/2023/01...trition-begins

[Hannibal]

Be all that you can be!

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[Mike]

Be all that you can be!

And what you cannot be as well!

[THE_WIZARD_]

Makes me feel safe...

[THE_WIZARD_]

C'mon man! It's locked up!

[Dr. Strangelove]

Free trade = communism. Brilliant.

Hard to believe a candidate this exceptional could lose without massive fraud being involved.

[CGVT]

She actually believes that bullshit. Jesus.

[THE_WIZARD_]

heh heh

[lineygoblue]

But Joe kept them in his Corvette!

[THE_WIZARD_]

...

[Jeff Buchanan]

Among our authoritarian and Communist "friends" who are famous for centralized national policy decision making all of them are in some sort of trouble. One unaccountable guy making policy (Putin or NK's Kim), in the case of Iran, Ali Khamenei or, in the case of China, a bunch of thugs close to Xi just does not work. Their singular failures at running a country are starting to show out. Ordinary citizens of Russia, NK, China and Iran are pissed off and restless, starving or all three. Putin is not for much longer going to hoodwink Russian citizens and the world with his alternate reality that he's been putting out there.

You may recall a year ago, Democracy, government by and for the people, was in "steep" decline if you listened to the MSM write opinion pieces about that. Replacing it were populist authoritarians literally world wide, the worst of them, bolstered by the bad guys I just mentioned. Xi's ill advised Zero Covid policy followed by a horribly implemented, I mean no planning, abrupt end to that policy is causing major problems for the Chicoms.

The good guys, running democratically elected governments, certainly have their share of problems but not anything like the mounting and complex problems facing leadership, in particular, Iran, Russia and China. NK is it's own bag of shit. But reports are coming out of China today that former, now furloughed, workers in the pharmaceutical, medical, surveillance, COVID test processing and tracing businesses, are rioting for unpaid, promised back and severance pay. Put that on top of the over 65 population in China flocking to overwhelmed hospitals then dying there, or alone at home, in astonishing numbers and at the rate of thousands/d and you have a real shit-sandwich that Chinese authorities are having to deal with. All of it of their own making. Fuck them. Asterisk, sympathy for citizens that live and are governed by these failing leaders.

[Da Geezer]

Climate change and woke culture.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJdqJu-6ZPo

[THE_WIZARD_]

heh

[Hannibal]

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