Comments by "David Himmelsbach" (@davidhimmelsbach557) on "Times Radio" channel.

  1. Everyone can look back to 2017-2021 to see how Trump would govern.
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  2. The sole and only reason he relented WRT the nuke station: pressure from Beijing. He won't listen to anyone inside Russia.
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  3. Kryxn, you are fundamentally wrong. Due to technical constraints, China can't import more Russian energy than before -- as the system was already running flat-out before February 24th. India is too far away for oil tankers rated for the Gulf of Finland to reach without refueling. But the West won't allow such refueling in its waters. The situation is so extreme that Moscow has tried shifting (oil) cargoes in the mid-Atlantic (!) from super tankers into a VLCC -- as a test. The same constraint applies to Black Sea rated supertankers. Very, very few were ever built with trans-oceanic fuel bunkers. HUNDREDS of ships with trans-oceanic legs are required to deliver the oil you imagine on the scale you imagine. They don't exist.
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  4. The Chernobyl story is more twisted, yet. Until the USSR collapsed, the entire affair was still a state secret. This means that 'publicly available' maps were not up-dated WRT the disaster. When the 1991 revolution came, Moscow lost both interest and access to Ukraine's map updates. When Putin invaded, he handed out the modern version of Esso road maps to his troops. (Reference to 1944 France & Patton's 3rd Army) THIS is why the Russian junior commanders deployed their men in such an insane manner. They had pre-disaster maps. As I type, Russia is having to deal with mass casualties of a radioactive nature. (This was a major factor in Putin's northern retreat. It's Top Secret, so don't tell anybody.) As for the 'Red Forest' -- Chernobyl was built in a swamp. The Soviets engaged in a massive reclamation project at the site -- moving mud and dirt all over -- driving piles by the hundred -- all to sculpt the terrain for its mega-project. (Four (4) world-scale atomic plants, side-by-side.) Part of that sculpting included a drainage zone (mega ditch) to take away excess water -- assumed to be the result of intense seasonal rains -- always a possibility at Chernobyl. This massive structure was to be hidden from US satellites via planting trees native to the area. They can tolerate saturated soils. This whole zone was flat, low and filled in with very diggable soil, even before the first tree was planted. When the disaster occurred, the astounding amounts of water employed naturally drained straight into the Red Forest. THAT'S why it's so radioactive. Think of it as a septic tank for radioactivity (the plant, itself) ... with a leach field. (i.e. The Red Forest) BTW, it's poor wording to describe the fiasco as an explosion -- much better to term it a reactor lit on fire -- the ultimate BBQ. Fundamentally, the Soviet atomic scheme was a massive pile of charcoal briquettes -- with natural uranium riven through it. After the first explosion -- a STEAM explosion -- the super-heated pile of carbon simply lit off. Plumes of radioactive nuclides went airborne, world-wide.
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  5. That's not a 'broad front strategy' at all. Putin, at this point, is just fighting to stay fighting. The Ukrainians are not, on the whole, counter-attacking. It's as the guest presented. The Russians are using canon fodder to expose Ukrainian strong points. In this, the fodder has replicated the role of penal battalions -- straight out of Stalin's Great Patriotic War. Where and when the Ukrainians are counter-attacking -- they are doing so largely out of range of Russian artillery. But, of course. Notably, up east of Kharkiv, the UA stopped moving east as soon as it reached the Russian artillery defense range. Wow, just like magic. The real problem with crippled units is that they are crippled in élan even more than TO&E. The entire 1st Guards Tank Army is so afflicted. That's why practically nothing has become of its Izyum bridgehead -- which surely figured large in Putin's Plan Z. Reforming units -- on the fly -- is impossible. The RA has to pull crippled battalion tactical groups entirely out of the war. But Putin can't wait for them to be re-blooded. Regardless, the imminent arrival of the American MLRS is the death of Putin's latest battle tactics. It eats artillery brigades for breakfast. When first employed in 1991, a single volley was known to have shredded a brigade. ('Steel Rain') Witnessing neighbors just fled -- officers, first. Destroying enemy artillery, rocket or tube, is job one for the MLRS system. The US Army did not use it for much else. Keep in mind, the MLRS system out ranges ALL Russian artillery. Putin is going to find it hard to counter.
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  6. Putin is not for turning. He's the LAST man in Russia to figure out that he's lost.
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  7.  @terryyakamoto3488  Donald did NOT incite an insurrection. Lay off the Corporate Media spin.
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  8. Keane is not a Major General -- he's a four-star.
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  9.  @feedyourmind6713  Russian NCOs are merely selected soldiers -- as in White Russians. They are INSTANT NCOs. If you are not a White Russian -- you won't be an officer, won't be an NCO. The ratio of privates to NCOs and officers is extreme in the Russian army, BTW.
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  10. Actually, Germany's stuff is in such poor shape that Berlin is having it practically re-manufactured before delivery. It would be the ultimate humiliation for German (war) goods to be proven drastically inferior to that of Sweden, France, Britain and the USA. What's notable is that German Gepard units are almost combat ineffective in the present day. They were conceived in the 1950s -- decades before smart munitions and brilliant missiles. Now, they just look pretty. They certainly can't roll anywhere near enemy opposition. I'd pencil them in as point defense near bridges and airports... and mighty weak even in such roles. The fact is that Merkel left Germany with merely a token army, a token navy and a token air force. (No F-35s for her !) The true mark of genius. /s
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  11. One ends the Black Sea blockade by driving the Black Sea fleet back into port -- via missile attacks. As far back as 1982, missile attack against a fleet was shown to be brutally painful. Britain has already promised Kyiv Harpoon missiles. What has happened about them in the last month ? Harpoon missiles can be launched from: ships, land, aircraft. So they are more than sufficient to push all surface combatants into port.
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  12.  @terjeoseberg990  Nope. To do so would be against doctrine. Utter destruction of Russian artillery is job one. Period. Artillery is THE backbone of military defenses... not tanks, APCs, -- not even infantry with machine guns. After enemy artillery is crippled, your boys have virtually no problem gutting the defense works. M-777 will be tasked with tearing up enemy logistics, and additional, pin-point, counter battery fires. (Low target density situations) All of this is established doctrine. (See Iraq, 1991, 2003.)
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  13. Cross is wrong about one thing: the USA does have no end of weapons and ammo to send. (Not so the Europeans.) It's political will that's touchy. Biden is the boy that bailed on Kabul.
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  14. I must disagree. Putin HAS a corridor to Crimea: two bridges, built at (his) serious expense, link Crimea by rail and highway -- right across the Kerch Strait. (See: map.) Trust me: a single rail line is more than sufficient to entirely meet the transport needs of Crimea. It's astonishing how much a one line can transport. That's why railroads are all over our planet -- practically define modernity -- in economic terms. Putin's objective is to entirely deny the Sea of Azov to Kyiv. Mariupol WAS a major grain exporting terminal -- since it streamed grains outward to the world -- grains grown in eastern Ukraine. Ukraine's rail grid was entirely set-up for this purpose -- on top of Mariupol being Ukraine's INDUSTRIAL HEARTLAND. Mariupol = Pittsburgh = Nizhny Novgorod = the 'Steel City' of a nation. To destroy Mariupol is to de-industrialize Ukraine -- as a whole. Its steel works are the biggest in non-Russian Europe. (!!!) Yet, talking-head after talking-head can't wrap their minds around industrial reality. Western (TV) talking-heads are clueless. (!!!) Odessa can keep importing/ exporting -- but it can't ever be a Steel City. Mariupol is Steel City because it's directly atop one of the world's largest metallurgical coal deposits. THAT'S why -- for a hundred-years -- the Donbass has been such a fixation for tyrants: Lenin, Stalin, Adolf, Putin. Met coal from the Donbass has been sent -- by rail -- up to Nizhny Novgorod (Gorky, for Bolshevik fans) for decades. Met coal (from the Donbass) was a HUGE trade item when Stalin enabled Adolf. (1939-1941) Yup. Look it up. It's why Adolf was so obsessed with Ukraine -- even before attempting the oil fields of the Caucasus. Yes, he started exploiting Donbass met coal -- straight off. Say, did I mention nickel? Nat gas? Water? Move along, now, nothing to see here, ... move along.
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  15.  @judithbradford9130  That's not his business reputation.
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  16.  @terjeoseberg990  You lose. The MLRS is not designed for such hits. It was EXPRESSLY designed to destroy enemy artillery, en masse. Period. Every war, this becomes its primary task. OTHER systems tackle enemy supply lines. Yes, they are important, but the MLRS is not to be used for such. Zelenskyy has been begging for the MLRS expressly to knock out Russia's artillery. Bridges and all the rest really are the business of the M777 and smart bombs. It's (crudely) like comparing a shotgun to a sniper's rifle. The MLRS is an AREA target system. Its rockets aren't cheap, either. BTW, the Russian rocket artillery has largely the same function. It only shifts over to other area targets when no enemy artillery is about. A string of trucks or a bridge is not considered an area target. The MLRS does have trick rockets that can be used for deep (precision) strikes -- but AFAIK -- Biden won't allow these sold/given to Zelenskyy. They've been the big hold-up WRT the whole deal. (They could reach Moscow.)
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  17. Mud Season is much worse than Winter. At least you can bundle up against the cold. But an ice cold mud wallow at the bottom of a hand dug trench -- that's a killer. In Mud Season, you can't stay dry.
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  18.  @bazduggan4042  Ukraine has had a seat in the UNGA for many decades... even when the USSR was around. Yup. Look it up. For international recognition as a nation state, the UN is the last word. Bad news Baz.
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  19. No WAY. By the end, the Krauts were entirely out of food, water and ammo. The Reds went through the ruble, brick by brick, to snag every last man.
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  20.  @davidcurry4433  The tyrant needs the money. Period. He also LIKES keeping the West on his string.
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  21. I see Castro. The parallels are striking. Check out Castro's history.
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  22. WRONG. Putin has a Libyan Connection -- even now. It's amazing what money/fresh weapons can do. Still, it may not last long. Libya is Sunni -- and is sure to get a hint from Damascus.
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  23.  @feedyourmind6713  The US Army has no NCO academies, either. In the West, NCOs are elevated out of the ranks. It's OJT all the way. Later, in patches, NCOs are given this or that specific instruction. But they don't go through anything like a Western military academy. (Sandhurst, St. Cyr, West Point, etc.) The US military just LOVES training manuals -- with self-instruction, too.
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  24.  @stevewhite3424  Zelenskyy made it public that he's ordered his army to kick the Russians out of Kherson oblast -- which has been universally interpreted as being before Autumn. All these recent months, Kyiv high command has been laying on additional green brigades... pretty much everywhere. Army tradition is that you always 'blood' new formations in a quiet sector -- if you possibly can -- before committing them big time. This is exactly what's been happening across the Kherson front. It's a fact that any defense requires artillery. Kyiv high command has just crippled Russian artillery stocks. So the Russian defense in the Kherson oblast has been cut in half... in the last seven-days.
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  25.  @laserbrain7774  At Stalingrad there were no SS troops. At the end of the war, Hitler's personal (SS) bodyguard walked (in surrender) straight through Soviet lines -- and fled to the West. The head of his body guard died in Germany in the 1990s, IIRC. I'm too lazy to pull him up. You'll see him in many scenes in the film "Downfall." The last to surrender were SS troops from foreign lands. They had all committed high treason in wartime. AFAIK, most were promptly shot by the Bolsheviks in May, 1945.
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  26. It's EASY to down-size 1520mm track (Ukraine) to 1435mm track. (Poland) In the 19th Century, the US unified all of the southern 'roads' over a 72-hour week end. Most of the work was performed by un-trained/ semi-trained crews hired on for just this one task. Converting rail cars down is also a snap -- you just change out the trucks/ bogies. Every railroad has stores of bogies as a matter of routine. Poland and Lviv already have dual tracks -- one 1520mm and the other (brand new) 1435mm. Having said that, I rather suspect that UNGA pressure will force Putin to allow humanitarian grain shipments out of Odessa -- so that he can ship out of Novorossiyk, too. Putin's blockade is not hurting Kyiv anywhere nearly as much as it's hurting the 3rd World.
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  27.  @RobBCactive  The word is that the Su-57 -- and much more -- is in hiatus because sanctions have stopped the flow of essential components. (micro-chips) Just check out the castration that has hit the Russian auto market. ( Renault is deeply in the mix. No wonder Macron wants the war to go away. )
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  28. 1953 was 71-years ago. Get with the program.
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  29. Those American tanks have the Chobham armor -- which can't be deployed without British assent. They invented it. The famous 31 Abrams were originally built for export and do NOT have the magic Chobham armor. As for that armor, it's FANTASTIC. Nothing ordinary can get through it.
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  30. As a kid, I padded my term papers. Savill pads his speech. Whew.
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  31.  @abdulimraan2706  Renewable energy did work -- when slavery was endemic. Back then, slaves were machines -- robots -- to their owners. "Robot" = 'worker' ... in the Czech language. It started out as a science fiction concept, BTW.
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  32. It's a fact of history that Stalin imported Russians -- who spoke Russian -- into the Donbass more than ninety-years ago. During his intense industrial drive, he built up the Donbass -- practically over-night. He gave its plum jobs exclusively to his Bolshevik true-believing supporters -- internally migrating Russians, in every case. This same grand policy was also conducted once Stalin got his hands on the Baltics, too. The folks moving in had no choice -- they were pawns no different than any other chess piece. Everywhere in the Soviet state, Stalin placed only true believers in all of the plum positions. This often meant compulsory relocations to hick towns in the sticks -- if that's where the key resource was. As I type, many of the (White Russian) descendants of those so displaced are moving out... if not back to Moscow... then to the USA. I met just one such fellow from Uzbekistan. No (White) Russian wants to live there. Its culture (food) is just too alien. It's also not where the action is. (Moscow) [Absolutely no night-life out there in the sticks.]
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  33.  @ThisHandleWasTheOnly1Available When you are the advancing army, you're in the position to recover the dead -- of your enemy.
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  34. No, he's nailed it. Trump has always bowed to the Pentagon. Trump wanted out of Syria and Afghanistan y e a r s before -- but was always talked out of abandoning the 'projects.'
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  35. 9.5 years -- absurd. Russia's economy can't withstand the sanctions imposed by the democracies. Putin's Plan 'D' has already gone off the rails. Put a fork in him, he's done.
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  36. Have IQs suddenly plunged in Britain? Putin has Scotched the deal -- right in the face of the world. The grain deal has to be regarded as a media op for his domestic audience. But for the SAM defenses of Odessa -- the grain exporting cranes would already be ruined.
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  37.  @stevewhite3424  Mud season or Winter season are out of the question. Duh.
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  38.  @stevewhite3424  Yes, but one would expect it to be a stationary artillery duel. After a century, warfare is back to WWI dynamics: not much happens in Winter. In the 18th Century, European powers just gave up on Winter War. George Washington violated that dictum -- and crushed the Hessians -- King George's most elite troops.
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  39. Wouter -- NOPE. Asia and Africa can't AFFORD Putin's oil. And, anyway, OPEC is closer -- cheaper -- and always will be.
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  40. Nope. NATO expressly stayed out of Putin's conquest. Putin is praying that he can re-frame his invasion as a defensive war against (evil) NATO. No-one is falling for it -- except dopes.
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  41. Putler has already hit his limit. Which is why sign-on bonuses have sky rocketed, of late. He's sending in cripples to the front line -- as bullet stoppers ! This next Winter will be of discontent. Surely Kyiv is going to return the favor:: thermal power systems, thermal heating systems, rail trestles, etc.
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  42. You ARE ancient. Coal gas is also known as manufactured gas/ synthesis gas. It contains CO and H2. This is the gas, when leaked, that kills occupants. It also takes 2.5 times as much pipe to deliver the same heat (therms) as natural gas. SNG has totally displaced coal gas. (Synthetic Natural Gas -- quite the oxymoron, no?) [SNG really is just methane from a nearby refinery. It is sourced from oil -- not coal. It's never cheap.] [ It competes with imported LNG -- now gassified -- which is, again, just methane. ] Qattar and USA will be delighted to sell LNG -- but setting things up will take time -- years, in fact.
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  43.  @marioformosa4259  You crazy! The US already can nuke Russia from the other side of the world. As for NATO -- there was NO WAY that Ukraine was ever going to be admitted to NATO. Germany and France have veto power -- and both were entirely against the idea. Putin knows this -- and always did. Likewise, Ukraine could not get into the EU. France and Germany were against that idea, too. EU membership for Ukraine will cost Germany and France BILLIONS of Euros every year in subsidies. No wonder Paris and Berlin hate the idea.
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  44.  @marioformosa4259  Formosa -- you live in an alternate universe. Red China's reserves entirely consist of US Treasuries, Eurobonds, etc. Absolutely no-one will accept Red Chinese government bonds as real money. For Red Chinese court rulings come with those bonds. Heh. Darth Putin fast-tracked Ukraine's EU membership. Until he invaded, it was a dead letter. France and Germany were not willing to cough up billions and billions of Euros to subsidize Kyiv. Now, they just about have to do so. Cute. You are plainly not well informed -- so I'll help you out. France, Germany, and Belgium -- year in, year out, shunt billions of Euros towards Spain, Portugal, Greece. We're talking about out-right cash transfers -- not bond purchases by the European Central Bank. These flows are set by formula. When the math is applied to Ukraine -- the flow becomes epic. Ukraine qualifies for more $$$$ than all others -- IIRC -- combined. It's poor -- and now -- it's broke. So, you see the irony. The nations most reluctant to send military aid -- are being forced by events to send the largest economic aid -- BY FAR. Sweet. Berlin and Paris want Kyiv to enter the EU decades from now -- but it must be obvious that Kyiv is going to be force-fed into the EU in less than five-years. EU membership will be Kyiv's "Marshall Plan." Macron and Scholz are just sick about this prospect.
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  45.  @aussiviking604  Actually Libya has long had an oil pipeline under the Med that terminates in Italy. ( It runs at reduced capacity because of Libya's internal troubles. ) Tell us about the next one.
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  46. Mearsheimer is stuck in the 18th Century. So is Zeihan. Both have, de facto, left atomic weapons out of their grand calculus. Putin is bold, brash, bullying -- and vocal. The ENTIRE reason for his invasion lies within his personal vision. Period. NATO expansion, EU expansion was a DEAD LETTER until Putin invaded. Putin has always been aware of this. Neither France nor Germany wanted Ukraine in either organization. They ALWAYS 'black balled' Kyiv's applications... over money & politics. EU membership for Ukraine must mean billions of Euro subsidies for decades to come -- paid out by Paris and Berlin, mostly. NATO membership for Ukraine meant the end of cheap Putin gas. That was long made brutally apparent -- behind closed doors. Until he invaded, his gas and oil was thwarting OPEC extortions against Europe. No WONDER Berlin and Paris loved their 'Putin option.' BTW, my track record crushes your 'experts' -- so I don't find them very impressive... just gassy.
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  47. The radio-head is dull -- green -- and is not asking salient questions. Time to replace.
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  48. The general is a poor historian -- or he misspoke himself. The blast forensics don't favor the Russian truck IED explanation. Such a detonation would've shredded the other vehicles -- which didn't happen. Instead, the blast came up from the water. So it's due to Special Forces emplaced explosives or some drone boat directed by Star Link, with the latter much more likely. The Russians still have one rail line in good working order. It's already been tested. It'll go back into service PDQ. The working line will allow railroad repair cranes to haul off the damaged carriages. The season is turning foul -- so proper repairs may require waiting until late Spring.
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  49. But Germany is NOT experiencing a huge economic contraction. What's got Europe on edge: RELIGION. The theology of Global Warming -- greatly aided by the KGB some decades ago -- is bearing fruit. The moment Germany and Britain turn back to coal -- their nightmares are over. But Warmist theology demands that this not be done.
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  50.  @j.p.ijsblok5304  The CRITICAL techniques are trade secrets -- and often lie inside the heads of key employees -- the guys that created them. In all of these years, non-Americans have found it brutally difficult to get inside the club. There are major players in Europe, true. But... it turns out that the Big Ones own American oil firms as subsidiaries. (BP, Shell) What is going on? The primary educational institution for the oil & gas industry is the University of Oklahoma. It's the Oxford/Harvard of those boys. (You'd be shocked as to how many Arabs attend.) This is the nexus of the industry. To be a real somebody -- you need to be an Oklahoma graduate. It's the knowledge base, from American drilling, that advances the art... ever since Drake in 1859. Yeah, before the Civil War. The Americans have been first in just about everything. The only other players of note: Shell and BP. All others are either dependent or laggards -- or both.
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