Comments by "MarcosElMalo2" (@MarcosElMalo2) on "Times Radio" channel.

  1. You Canucks really took the lead on training the Ukrainian NCO cadre. This included the UK and the U.S. but when I’ve seen interviews of Ukrainian NCOs, they talk about their Canadian trainers the most.
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  2. And if you see a backwards “N” it means it’s already been hit.
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  3. It’s the try-hard theatricality of the hit that is notable. With all the means available to assassinated Prigozhin and his lieutenants, this is what Putin went with. Such a flamboyant display of violent power tells me the nature of Putin’s greatest fears.
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  4. The corruption pie has shrunk. Knocking off oligarchs is one way to maintain the size of your slice.
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  5. It occurred to me that Russian forces might be exhausted and weakest in the area around Bakhmut, and that could be a very strategic line of attack to cut the Russian occupation in half.
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  6. I’m not sure what you’re saying. If you mean that Ukraine doesn’t have to fight over every scrap, but can force Russia to leave ALL of Ukraine by taking strategic targets, I agree. However, it is a mistake to let the Russians keep any Ukrainian land.
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  7. This is a particularly good interview. I also really enjoyed his appearance on Perun’s channel.
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  8. I can’t help but remember that time in the early 70s when Mao played the America card on the Kremlin when the least expected it. The members of the Politburo must have shat their pants in unison.
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  9. Gep Schroeder was personally enriched. I hadn’t heard anything about Merkel before this video.
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  10. We can recognize the self-serving factors in France’s decision without taking away the moral motivations and the greater interest served by sending these planes to Ukraine.
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  11. It might be an occupational hazard for any autocrat clinging to power for more than two decades. The yes-men are all that are left after years of purging, banishing, and worse of anyone with independent views.
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  12. Soviets had home field advantage. In the current situation, the Russians don’t. Nor does the Russian army have the logistics, a sufficient number of trained soldiers, or morale on their side.
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  13. He’s devoted his life to the study of air power. He’s a subject matter expert working for a think tank. I would not be surprised at all to hear him introduced as Dr. Bronk in the not distant future.
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  14.  @johnnyenglish583  I think there are two main ways to look at Russia’s economic stability. Short term war sustainment and long term health. And the catch for Russia is the longer it can sustain the war, the worse will be its long term prospects. The only reason a country switches to a war time economy is to outlast the adversary. In this case, they have to outlast Ukraine. As long as the west can supply Ukraine and as long as Ukraine is willing to fight, Russia won’t outlast them. And the west is nowhere near having to switch to a war time economy. A strategic build up of a country’s DIB is not a wartime economy. It’s actually an economy booster for a period.
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  15. Look for the Yale Courses YouTube channel. Timothy Snyder is teaching a course on the history of Ukraine this semester and they’re putting the classes on line. Right now I think they’re up to the 11th lecture and I’m eagerly awaiting the next drop. The last lecture I saw had a guest lecturer who talked about the Maidan. Edit: 20th lecture
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  16.  @doonewatts7155  Are you suggesting garlic and crosses should be part of the military aid packages being sent to Ukraine? 🧛‍♂️
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  17.  @thomasherrin6798  it’s a geopolitical question, not a question of blame. The root of the question is the deeper question of how involved should the U.S. be in Europe vs retreat into isolationism. The apartment building is an analogy, and I would look at it a different way: the U.S. is the apartment building next door to the European apartment building, which is on fire. Do we (the U.S.) help our neighbors put out the fire? Do we catch and punish the arsonist? I don’t think we want the fire to spread to our building. We want to punish the arsonist to discourage other would be arsonists.
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  18. Hindsight is 20/20. Given the facts available and the political context at the time, NATO leadership’s decisions on aid to Ukraine made sense at the time. The West was giving military aid during the period in question. When we look at the history leading to the current moment, we must remember that political leaders respond to the crises of the moment, not crises beyond the horizon.
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  19. They actually do know where they are for the most part.
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  20.  @Realist369 Without state-of-the-art infrared opticals and targeting systems, any tanks Russia produces are tin can death traps. Russia has lost access to the technology to make modern tanks or upgrade older models to modern standards.
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  21. It would be best if he admitted it as he was passing the third floor but before he reaches the second floor.
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  22. You should learn to spell the word “sneer”.
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  23. Check out Stephen Kotkin’s most recent appearances for a similar but different perspective. You might not agree with everything he says, but he’s got a great mind and good eye.
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  24.  @casperwallace9685  China needs Russia, but China doesn’t need Putin. China is going to extract a great cost from Russia for any aid they give Putin, but at the same time they cannot give Putin the full support he needs without suffering economic fall out. My guess: they’ll continue to buy Russian oil for now, at below market prices, but this won’t be enough to sustain Putin’s adventure. China will profit greatly from Putin’s desperation while avoiding being dragged into the conflict. They might involve themselves in arranging for Putin’s replacement but only because they want a replacement that is friendly to China.
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  25. The issue was the 1) NATO avionics/communications suite and 2) cockpit layout. It took time to remove the NATO kit and replace it with kit that can smoothly integrate into the Ukrainian Airforce. Cockpit layout is surprisingly important—pilots train many hours on a plane to hardwire the locations of dials, gauges, readouts, and various controls. A pilot might be able to fly an unfamiliar layout, but until they’ve mastered a new layout they are at reduced combat effectiveness. Remember, fractions of a second count. You don’t want to be scanning for your altimeter when a missile has you on lock. So Poland either had to reconfigure the cockpit to resemble a Ukrainian MiG-29 or they had to train Ukrainian pilots on their configuration. I do not know which solution Poland used. If I am correct, the Polish Migs can be put into immediate use once they arrive in Ukraine.
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  26. Oooh! Interesting thought!
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  27.  @Daniel-f1m2e  You’re doing God’s work with your colleagues, draining a small amount of Russian resources from Putin’s war effort. Every bit counts in sapping Russia economically. Your unconvincing posts are just the sort of activity that strengthens the West. And to think you’re getting paid for such shoddy work! It’s really quite brilliant. In effect you’re acting as a double agent for the West.
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  28. Game of Clown Cars
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  29. It’s a spectrum. On one end you have insufficient/ineffective. On the other you have dropping nukes on civilian targets that have little or no strategic value. It’s actually very difficult to pinpoint “proportionate” on that line. It’s better to err in the side of too much than too little. Doing too little also leads to perpetual war. Israel’s biggest mistake has been ignoring or even hampering humanitarian aid for civilians. If Israel can evacuate Rafah and provide the refugees with the necessary medical and food aid, they can be as disproportionate as they want going after Hamas.
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  30. Galeotti makes some hard-to-refute arguments. There’s a lot we don’t know but I think Galeotti has hit the salient points with his analysis. On Prigozhin, surely he knew that he was under a daily reprieve from Putin, and that the big boss could have him snuffed any time and anywhere. What difference would it make to Prigozhin if he was assassinated in a car, on a train, or while traveling in a jet? (A lot of people are misapplying corporate practices of executives that might avoid “putting all their eggs in one basket”. Corporate executive leadership is answerable to stockholders who don’t want their company’s management to be wiped out in one blow. Prigozhin was only answerable to Putin, but more importantly he was not very concerned about the fate of his company if he died. Wagner served Prigozhin, not the other way around. It’s not the sort business you can really pass on to your heirs. So what did Prigozhin care if his closest lieutenants were taken out with him?) Putin might have ordered the assassination in a fit of pique. But it’s possible that other criminal underbosses (aka oligarchs) were jockeying to take away Prigozhin’s Africa operation. They must be very unhappy with current circumstances, and were seeking a form of recompense for their losses. Prigozhin was making moves to prevent the vultures from descending on him, which is why he was on that plane.
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  31. This might be premature, but I wonder if the Donetsk separatists are open to direct negotiations. I suspect they are growing tired of their Russian overlords sending their men on suicide missions.
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  32. You didn’t specify in which war you served after being drafted. Correct me if I’m wrong, but wasn’t the last time we fought with conscription the Vietnam war? That ended up leading to a lot of social unrest—and it also led to the all volunteer Army after the conflict was over. Perhaps that is the point of conscription: administrations will be a lot more hesitant to send in the troops to fight foreign wars, or risk losing the next election. Or (and, really), our elected representatives and officials will be less willing to engage our military in long “democracy building” occupations. That’s the thing about Iraq and Afghanistan: we won those wars but lost the peace. I cannot tell you if that was due to bad planning for the post-war period. And to be fair, our occupation of Iraq was not a total loss. It’s a mixed bag. “We fight them over there instead of fighting them over here” wasn’t a hollow platitude. Our military destroyed Isis. Anyway, I’m getting off point. I’m not necessarily against conscription for the right reasons. What is your argument for conscription? “Whipping American youth into shape” isn’t a good reason for conscription. It’s a laudable idea, but that should not be the basis of conscription.
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  33.  @nom_chompsky  Israel never claimed sovereignty over Gaza. It never installed a government nor a permanent military occupation. No country wants to own Gaza because Gaza is apparently ungovernable, even by the Gazans themselves. Do you think Hamas was at any point the government of Gaza? If a country is owned by whomever controls it, that means Hamas owned the territory of Gaza. So, who owned Hamas? The people of Gaza? The religious fundamentalists in Tehran? See, the issue is that you’re throwing around the term “own” without specifying what you mean by it. You’re playing a word game. Or maybe you meant “pwn”. And right now the IDF is pwning Hamas.
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  34.  @picogang  Yale is one of a group of universities called the Ivy League. I just had a quick peek at the Wikipedia page to refresh my memory before I responded to your comment, but I’ll just recommend that you have a look yourself. Yale, along with fellow Ivy League universities Harvard and Princeton are in the top five universities. I’m not sure which other two universities are in the top five, but if I was to guess, it’s Stanford and MIT. Anyway, have a glance at the article. I think you’ll find it interesting.
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  35. It’s not that big a deal. You just go to the downstream lost and found. If no body has turned in your battalion, you put up flyers and check at the dog pound. The reason these Russian soldiers bunch up like that is they’re told that there are 2 kilo sacks of sugar on the other side, so they line up it just like in Soviet days.
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  36. He was quite clear in his explanation of what affect this initial deliver of F-16s will have. If you do not have the knowledge to understand what he is talking about, that’s on you. Seek elsewhere for your entertainment pudding.
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  37. Nope. He’s a respected defense analyst with expertise in air power. He’s pro Ukraine, but he doesn’t let his sympathies interfere with his duty to provide the facts.
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  38.  @steved7961  Putin was a mid level KGB colonel in East Germany during the late Cold War period. He wasn’t “lowly”, nor was he in charge of all operations. And he did have a boss or bosses to whom he reported. I don’t know if it’s true that the Patriarch was one of these bosses, but it’s “interesting if true”. You are correct that “handler” is the wrong word to describe Putin’s direct superior. I think it’s fair to assume that one of Putin’s bosses was his patron, a mentor that was guiding Putin’s climb through the ranks.
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  39. Unfortunately, you’re not going to get an unconditional surrender from Russia, with or without Putin. The negotiations will follow the contours of the battle. If Ukraine is able to expel Russia from Donbas, then the breakaway provinces will be off the table for Russia. If Ukraine is unable to completely dislodge the Russians, those provinces will become a point of negotiation. (Fwiw, I’m confident that Ukraine will be able to expel the Russians.) On the other hand, retaking Crimea is probably beyond Ukraine’s capabilities, although I’d love to be proven wrong. I think Ukraine has the potential to expel Russia from every part of Ukraine BUT Crimea. The point is, Ukraine won’t be able to impose everything it wants or should get. I wish it were otherwise.
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  40. Part of Russia’s active measures and propaganda is to push the story that Western resolve is weakening. Partly this is for their own internal propaganda purposes.
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  41.  @ashcarrier6606  And how many tanks can Russia produce or upgrade with completely domestically produced components once their stockpile of foreign sourced components is gone? Foreign sourced components is also one of the reasons we’re not seeing T-14 Armatas in Ukraine. (The terrible engine design is another. That is an incredible story.)
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  42.  @buddymacbuddington  Yes, I roam, but you Rush. You Russianed yourself into a helluva own goal by invading Ukraine, vatnik.
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  43.  @cowboyx9380  If Russia went into full war time mobilization, it could muster many more retired military with combat experience. Right now, Russia has a couple of hundreds of thousands of (ostensibly) combat capable soldiers in the theater. These numbers could be boosted into the millions if Putin changed the status of the war from “Special Operation” to “Full declaration of war”. But to do this, Putin needs to have public support that he doesn’t currently have. Which is why strikes on Russian territory are risky, as it would boost Putin’s popularity. We also have the risk that Putin will try to boost his popularity with false flag attacks on civilian targets. Look, Ukraine is within its rights to strike anywhere in Russia that it wants, using whatever means it wants. But that doesn’t mean it would be wise to strike Moscow. I think Ukraine must be careful of selecting targets in Russia, limiting attacks to disrupting Soviet, I mean Russian, logistics close to the border with Ukraine. For now anyway.
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  44. Reports are that the first planes have arrived in country.
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  45. He wants civilians to evacuate Rafah so they won’t get killed in the coming battle between IDF and Hamas. Are you dense? By your logic, evacuating people from a burning building is ethnic cleansing.
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  46. A quasi-blockade would still be within the realm of sanctions and would be do-able. An actual blockade of Russian ports with warships is considered an act of war and is a non starter unless Putin initiates was on a NATO country. A quasi blockade means you intercept the shipping before or after it enters or leaves port, and search it for contraband while it is in international waters. You do a quite thorough search that might delay arrival by weeks or even months (once you get a queue of ships waiting to be searched. You can do quite a bit of economic harm with delays.
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  47. Whether or not we are careful, Putin is doing a pretty good job of humiliating himself and his country.
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  48.  @aw2031zap  It’s relative. When he was in the Bush administration, he was the crazy war monger, even more so than Rumsfeld. When he was in the Trump administration, he was one of the cooler heads, a restraint on Trump. 🤷🏻‍♀️ As far as his competence, intelligence, ability, he’s second or third echelon (Schultz and Albright being in the first rank). You could call him a quack, which is to say he committed malpractice like an incompetent medical doctor. I think that’s a little harsh. I think he was in over his head in the Bush administration. Personality-wise, he’s kind of a self-serving dirtbag. He was rude and brusque when pushing his opinion (following in the footsteps of Donald Rumsfeld), which made him well suited for the Trump administration. Anyway, there a lot to criticize. I think his war-mongering attitude was a pose which he had to drop when faced with a truly dumb superior and the stakes were higher. Bolton is mediocre, but he was better than some of the fools that might have served in his position.
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  49. They have a pro-humanity and anti-criminal bias. How can you trust news from people that hate violent criminals?
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  50. You’re being too kind to him. Putin has the moral development of a three year old throwing a tantrum, i.e., he’s a monster. The main difference is that a three year old doesn’t command armies nor have access to nuclear weapons.
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  51. The Eagle S dragged the anchor for 60 nautical miles. The anchor’s flukes broke off. It’s not possible that the crew was unaware that the anchor was being dragged for hours. It would affect the performance and handling of the ship. This is very solid evidence that the act was intentional sabotage.
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  52. This February, Putin will come out of his bunker. If he sees his shadow there will be six more weeks of war.
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  53. I’m surprised I haven’t yet seen video of the plane crash set to “Flight of the Valkyries”.
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  54. Putin’s use of brutal violence against his own people has been minimal and targeted. He’s not going to lose power when he loses Crimea. If he dies he will be replaced by even more brutal and ruthless thugs. He’s not going to let any potentially serious threats to his power gain momentum. Rather he will manipulate his potential rivals to fight each other (as we seem to be seeing now). Any attempts at a grassroots revolt are going to be brutally suppressed. Putin will happily do to Russia what he has been doing to Ukraine if he must, but I don’t think he will have to go that far. The Russian people are too accustomed to subservience to dictators. That said, Putin is creating a space for Xi and the CCP to economically infiltrate Russia’s Central Asian possessions. He will need Chinese assistance to “stabilize” any unrest, giving the Chinese more influence. This is how Russia becomes a vassal to China.
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  55. 90% of Putin’s lies are targeting the Russian public. He is now desperately trying to pump up support for his war. Before he was lulling them into apathy.
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  56.  @sandrosfregola5896  That means he’s not experienced enough to throw in words like “bloke” or “mate”.
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  57.  @silaslong-js8ps  You must be a Putzi.
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  58. So if you’re a wagner, don’t get onboard any aircraft and you’re safe!
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  59.  @normanboyes4983  That could be. Good thought.
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  60. Sofa King good.
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  61. Do those awesome eyebrows come with the knighthood?
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  62. What he says now is that the bottleneck/limitation is the number of pilots. The implication is that more F-16 pilots can be trained than Gripen pilots in the same time period. The Gripen might have been a more suitable plane for conditions in Ukraine, all other things being equal. But things are not equal, and consideration must be given to many other factors, such as time needed to train and training slots available at any one time. If we’re just comparing planes, Gripen might be better for this particular job. But we are not comparing planes, but total systems. I tend to think the Gripen was the right plane, but not the right system.
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  63. If a breakthrough happens, it will happen in an unexpected (or less expected) sector of the front. Kherson was a tough slog (and continued to be a slog), but the breakthrough occurred at Kharkiv. I think it’s foolhardy to predict where that breakthrough will come.
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  64.  @garymelnyk7910  Vlad Vexler is a very interesting political philosopher. He’s very humanist in his focus. Snyder and Hodges are also humanist, but each has a slightly different approach. I see them all as complementary. I’m a regular viewer of Vlad’s chat channel, where he posts more frequently than in his other channels. Stephen Kotkin is another interesting figure for those interested in Russia, the Soviet Union, and Geopolitics. Like Snyder, he is a historian, but he has a different perspective. In my humble opinion, his perspective is also complementary to Vexler, Snyder, and Hodges. His most noted accomplishment is writing a highly regarded 3-volume biography of Stalin. (He also has a distinctive Brooklyn accent which many have compared to the actor Joe Pesci.) I also watch Peter Zeihan, but Pete is too reductionist imho. He’s an analyst and trend-spotted of Geopolitics. When I watch his videos, I keep in mind that his main clients are private industry, particularly in energy and agriculture. He’s not bad, but I’m not a fanboy. I’m not sure I’ve seen Michael Clarke. I’ll check him out. Thank you for the suggestion.
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  65. Yes, he said that.
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  66. The only real effect of the Nordstream sabotage was to spike the price of gas and roil the financial markets. The only beneficiary of this momentary chaos that also had the capability to do the sabotage was Russia. It has the added benefit of getting Gazprom clear of contractual obligations to buyers that it couldn’t meet. Luckily, gas prices settled down, LNG tankers have filled available storage to 90+% capacity, and more capacity is being built. Russian shenanigans just aren’t hitting like they used to. Instead of the pipeline sabotage dividing Europe, its having the effect of getting European countries to cooperate even more.
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  67. That’s not true. The problem is that the Ukrainian defense forces don’t have enough equipment and ammunition to supply the men and women currently fighting. The Ukrainian training pipeline seems to be functioning as it should. You’re repeating disinformation.
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  68. Agreed, Kadyrov might be close to being physically done. But that is far from saying Chechnya will be neutralized as an ally. However, when he goes, Chechnya becomes a greater distraction and possibly a greater drain. For the time being, lump Putin, Shoigu, and Gerasimov together as “The Regime”. And the biggest and daily fear of an authoritarian regime is losing power and being replaced.
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  69.  @shockofthenew  It’s not generational. The people you are talking about have been rioting in Britain against non-whites.
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  70. I responded to one of your other comments about recruitment and conscription. And to clarify my reply there, you are making good points and there should be a lot more discussion on these issues. But that said, I think I have the answer. It started coming to me as a funny answer that would solve the problem you just stated with clarity. Now hear me out. 😂 lol WHAT IF the military classified first person shooters as sensitive military technology, and co-opted the FPS game companies into the DIB. They would still be private companies, but they would become military contractors. Gamers would flock to recruiting offices if the latest and greatest releases were only available to the military as training simulators. Games companies would still be allowed to sell older games and gimped versions of our military’s exclusive games. I’m proposing this as a ridiculous joke. But is it really ridiculous? 😂 I see some obvious objections, like aren’t all gamers irretrievable softbody slobs? The truth is that some are. But not all. And some are borderline. The military could sponsor e-games to find the best gamers. I guess the question remains. Would these gamer recruits be willing to pick up a rifle in real life? I think the answer is yes, some would. What do you think? Is my idea dumb enough to work?😅
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  71. Your mind is like a Ford Pinto that threw a rod.
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  72. A peace agreement will be necessary but only after Russia leaves Ukraine and hostilities cease. Reparations, war crimes, and return of kidnapped Ukrainians are all points that will be negotiated. I think the priority will be the return of kidnapped citizens. Reparations beyond what has already been seized will be a tough point. It’s difficult imagining Russia giving in wrt war crimes. Maybe Russia will sacrifice lower lever officers and soldiers, maybe they will give up some higher ranked officers whom Putin wants to blame, but I doubt we will see real justice while Putin keeps his head.
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  73. “Close to Putin and shares his ideals “ is an understatement. The Patriarch is just as possessed with the bloodthirsty ambition to destroy Ukraine and subjugate Ukrainians. Others in this thread are coming up with interesting speculations behind why he would do this, but for whatever reasons the greater motivation is ambition for power over others. It’s the same motivation that has corrupted religion since religion was invented. Sky Cake!!
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  74. Trump isn’t a billionaire. He’s always been leveraged.
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  75. We don’t have to imagine. Or was that your point. Unfortunately, ex-president Trump had made it clear he won’t be installing people like McMasters if he is elected a second time. Trump has made it clear that he will be installing loyalists in these positions to co-sign his BS and do his bidding, not give advice that might be contrary to his whims.
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  76. From Putin’s perspective, it’s a civil war. There are no Ukrainians, just misbehaving Russians.
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  77. @Alex There’s only proof that eight prototype T-14s exist. Eight on parade. Not quite as illusory as the T-95, but it’s a reasonable guess that the eight prototypes are it.
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  78. It’s spelled amore, darling. 😘
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  79. Two things that Professor Clarke touches on are worthy of further thought. Clarke says one of the reasons for the civilian bombing campaign is to make Putin and his inner circle “feel good”. I break this down into two things: 1) Cruelty for cruelty’s sake, and 2) destroying another country in order to be COMPARATIVELY superior. Inflicting cruelty is an exercise in power. On a day to day basis, someone with “absolute power” of life and death over others needs to check the extent of their power. The tyrant must constantly test his boundaries to see if they are expanding or shrinking. The tyrant wakes up in the morning uncertain about his power today, and this insecurity leads him to commit atrocities to prove to himself that he can still impose his will on large swaths of humanity. However, the would-be Tyrant must take care not to push too far against his own people if he doesn’t yet have total control. Instead he tests his power against a “them”. In the current case, Russia is Putin’s “us” and Ukraine (and NATO by extension) is “them”. And of course Putin’s domestic power is now being undermined because he is now sacrificing his own imperfectly subjugated subjects. The second “feel good” factor is akin to the childish proposition, “If I can’t have it, nobody can”, but the larger component is, “If I hurt you more than you hurt me, I win”. Putin feels that damaging Russia’s economy, degrading its military, and undermining Russian society is worth the cost if he can destroy Ukraine’s ability to function as an independent democracy. This is why he goes after the electrical grid and other civil infrastructure, but it is also why he murders civilians and bombs Cultural targets. It is why the Russian Army loots and rapes. With regard to signs of Putin being removed from power, we are only seeing palace intrigues that will reshuffle his subordinates but that will not threaten Putin himself. Those that criticize him directly will become object lessons, as they have in the past.
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  80. You probably want a constitutional republic rather than a constitutional monarchy. It will be hilarious if Boris becomes the new PM.
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  81. Loch him up! 😂 (felicitous autocorrect error) But is this really a “Trump Tribute”? How is this different than the raucous parliamentary debates we’ve seen for decades? I don’t claim to understand UK politics, but these sessions have always seemed to me like a cross between a lively debate and a celebrity roast. I think going after Jeremy Corbyn is fair game. The U.S. Republicans still attack Obama. Eight years into Obama’s presidency, the Democrats were still complaining about Bush (and then missed him dearly when Trump took office). I suspect the Democrats will get a lot of mileage from Trump’s miserable leadership for decades. Anyway, Corbyn is fair game, but he never led the country. Why don’t the Tories go after Tony Blair as well?
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  82. EAD. Fighters and strike-fighters need EAD aircraft to clear out space in the adversary’s air defense.
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  83.  @abrahamdozer6273  I’m sorry, I don’t think I made myself clear. I’m not saying to retake Bakhmut. I’m saying draw a line from Bakhmut to Rostov-on-Don. I don’t think it’s probable, I’m just saying it’s possible. And one thing our dear friend Prigozhin showed the world is that there aren’t many Russian Forces between Bakhmut and Rostov. Or between Rostov and Moscow. 😉
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  84. Seethe more.
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  85.  @thebigr201  The main problem with food stamps and wic for service members is the social stigmata. If the money was channeled through the military as allowances for military families, it wouldn’t have that stigmata. Or even better, just give our soldiers a pay raise and let them decide how to spend it. But I think it’s awesome that your trans kid is serving. I’ll give the Army credit for being open minded towards trans people.
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  86. You never know what they’ll get up to with those rascally Habsburgs.
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  87.  @tybarnes895  Good points, but I think public support for Putin’s war is thin, but widespread. The Kremlin could deepen that support if buildings in Moscow start getting blown up. It could lose that support if Putin orders full mobilization. The sanctions are already beginning to wear down the public’s patience. I’m thinking about what happened to President Lyndon B. Johnson. The conflict in Vietnam and subsequent draft wore down the public’s patience, and he decided not to seek a second term. Contrast this with GWB at the point of the 2004 election—he had taken steps to avoid the appearance of public sacrifice for the Iraq war, even giving out tax breaks to gin up short term prosperity.
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  88. Is it, though? The comedy roast-style parliamentary debate has been a feature of UK politics for years, no?
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  89. So it’s possible they were on the payroll but didn’t act at the start of hostilities in February 2022. My understanding was a lot of these corrupted “agents” were surprised by the invasion. Actually carrying out the plots was not on their minds. Just the same, they’re corrupted. It’s better to be safe than sorry.
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  90.  @volodymyrv5897  That training will serve the dead Russian soldiers well. Or perhaps you mean that Russian generals will be better trained in pinning medals to their uniforms? That training will be important after they’ve been pushed out a window. Maybe you’re right. Maybe Putin is a necromancer creating an army of undead.
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