On Friday, September 30, Vladimir Putin announced his annexation of four provinces of Ukraine. The fact he does not fully control any of the four provinces - Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson - and that a vote at gunpoint is not a legitimate vote to join Russia, assuming such was actually legal in any way under international law, and that all four are sites of mass murder and mass kidnapping/deportation since Russia invaded Ukraine in February, didn’t matter.
Can Biden/NATO continue to back Ukraine while avoiding conflict with Putin—who launched his war against Ukraine not in February but eight years ago when he invaded it and illegally annexed the Crimean Peninsula?
In the words of TC, On ' …September 30, Vladimir Putin announced his annexation of four provinces of Ukraine. The fact he does not fully control any of the four provinces - Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson - and that a vote at gunpoint is not a legitimate vote to join Russia, assuming such was actually legal in any way under international law,..'
With this statement, he '.... declared a new war, not merely a war on Ukraine.' (TC)
To remove Putin, it is not possible, in my opinion, for the West to avoid direct conflict with him. Are we moving closer to WW III or has it already begun?
It is now, possibly more than ever, incumbent on the U.S. Congress to avoid their customary posturing and brinkspersonship and pass a budget resolution that funds the government through the end of the fiscal year 2023 and includes support for Ukraine until the status quo ante 2014 is achieved.
Putin declared WW III when he explained War 6.o: disinformation campaigns at home and abroad, and boosting opposition in other countries to split nations allowing opposition. Terrorist attacks have shown the way by exploiting free press, killing less than hundred innocent people, but spreading fear among billions. The autocratic message is: democracy is weak. We should learn democracy is vulnerable, and learn about ourselves. Putin dug out Trump for president from the confederate dung. We have the same kind of lessons to learn in Sweden. Then we can see there is also back fire to the weapons used against us: disinformation as a lullaby makes for a heavy wakeup.
I wonder about the supersonic weapons; have they not made nuclear weapons obsolete? Really useful only to scare? The US Navy had a film on Youtube with an electric cannon shooting an unarmed warhead at high speed, capable of sinking a warship at 200 km distance, and freeing warships of being loaded with explosives. China has announced a ballistic missile at speed mach 4-7, and Russia one at mach 20.
Trump did not have to be deposited in the White House at supersonic speed, he could just sit there and do all the destruction.
What Putin has done and continues to do, along with his generals and soldiers, and the Wagner Group mercenaries (and there's another group called Ruschists who sound worse than the Wagner boys) is brutality at its worst. If you heard Fiona Hill on Friday's broadcast of PBS Newshour, you'll know that Putin and his submarines are likely behind the explosions in the gas pipelines in the Baltic. I hope you look her interview up as well as some of her articles in Foreign Affairs. There are also some excellent articles in The Guardian and The WSJ (I never thought I'd say that). Putin is going to do what he is going to do in order to hold onto power. The question for me is whether he'll hold on longer than the folks who are fleeing across Russian borders to Georgia and beyond, as well as those who are resisting in the streets all around Russia. My guess is that Medvedev is sharpening his own knives, but he is not the only one. There is a 60 year old guy who is ostensibly the leader of Luhansk who has been with Putin from the beginning of his regime. He says he works behind the scenes. That in itself should make Putin keep his own weapon close at hand. The police keep putting people in prison. Navalny, in a piece that his attorneys apparently smuggled out of Russia, which appeared in the WAPO (I think or perhaps NYT) said some in his penal colony had agreed to join the army in order to get out of prison. Another excellent article. Timothy Snyder has a class you can catch on Youtube coming directly from Yale - a couple of classes a week - they're up to class 8. Check it out. I am immersed with the history of a part of the world I never paid any attention to. And, I frankly do not see how NATO will not be drawn in eventually beyond what they are doing now to train Ukrainian military personnel and provide weapons. BTW the Sueddeutsche Zeitung reports that there have been drones reported hovering over training areas located in Bavaria. So that is being investigated. It will probably be important to begin to keep Russian subs from destroying communications cables which are located in the world's oceans. Imagine that for a moment. Putin is a numbers man - he loves dates on the calendar. He turns 70 on October 7. I'd say, watch out for something horrible to happen to mark his birthday.
Hum. What modeling is Putin engaging in by rewriting history or in this instance taking back parts of a country that was once under Russia's sphere of influence ( part of it's empire)? When is "border" "or "sovereignty" established in victory renegotiatible? Will Rome be next to declare sovereignty over say England or France or Austria? China over Singapore (oh, wait they already did) or Taiwan? Or, Mexico over Texas and Arizona or California? Should we fear that the Mexicans will use the US and Mexico trade agreement, unfair by all standards (made up of course) as justification for storming our Southern borders and, God forbid, retake Texas (hum, a loss or a gain?) and threaten to move The Wall to the Oklahoma and Arkansas borders? What international insanity is he unleasing? Next, we'll see Cubans invading Florida, establishing a Nation in Exile in Miami or Venezuelans demanding relocation to Martha's Vineyard or the Irish retaking Bauston. Too much to think about, TC. I must rest. 😉
I read earlier reports that many Russian soldiers in Lyman have been fleeing Lyman. It occurred to me that they must feel between a rock and a hard place. Not only were they sent to Lyman to fight the Lyman citizens, but also, they were now charged to fight their ostensible Russian citizens, otherwise known as comrades. I hope they all get home safely. Although I doubt there is any way for them to avoid being nailed as traitors while under threats of lethal punishment by Putin's goons.
Two Ukraine experts, Colonel Vindman and another whose name I cannot recall both spoke on MSNBC saying the same thing: the only way to end this war now is to WIN this war.
It seems to me that the response the US to the Russian assault on Crimea in 2014 set the table for this invasion of Ukraine. I think that the Yard Punk in Russia was emboldened by (if not indirectly aided by) our own Yard Punk who left office in 2021.
Encirclement generally involves preventing enemy soldiers from escaping to fight another day, does it not? If so, how the heck did Russian troops withdraw from Lyman after it was encircled?
Can Biden/NATO continue to back Ukraine while avoiding conflict with Putin—who launched his war against Ukraine not in February but eight years ago when he invaded it and illegally annexed the Crimean Peninsula?
In the words of TC, On ' …September 30, Vladimir Putin announced his annexation of four provinces of Ukraine. The fact he does not fully control any of the four provinces - Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson - and that a vote at gunpoint is not a legitimate vote to join Russia, assuming such was actually legal in any way under international law,..'
With this statement, he '.... declared a new war, not merely a war on Ukraine.' (TC)
To remove Putin, it is not possible, in my opinion, for the West to avoid direct conflict with him. Are we moving closer to WW III or has it already begun?
As TC has pointed out before in his reviews on Russian history, things have
not always gone well for the Yard Punks
who have subjugated their population.
Yard Punk Putin was a KGB thug. You
can dress him up and botox him, but
he will always be a KGB thug. Most of
his Yard Boys have been in it for the
money and power. A lot of that is being
drained away with sanctions and the
foolish threat of nuclear weapons.
Absolutely no one in this world, even
the Yard Boys, want nukes set off.
The threat to Putin will come from
within.
It is now, possibly more than ever, incumbent on the U.S. Congress to avoid their customary posturing and brinkspersonship and pass a budget resolution that funds the government through the end of the fiscal year 2023 and includes support for Ukraine until the status quo ante 2014 is achieved.
Overstepping
Its a concept foreign to dictators. They don’t get it. Until they do. Then it ends badly
The sizzlin’ griddle is real.
Thank you, TC. The dang truth always cuts through the nonsense.
Russian warship….really go f*ck yourself.
I like that President Biden says it in his own way emphatically.
Unita. 🗽
Putin declared WW III when he explained War 6.o: disinformation campaigns at home and abroad, and boosting opposition in other countries to split nations allowing opposition. Terrorist attacks have shown the way by exploiting free press, killing less than hundred innocent people, but spreading fear among billions. The autocratic message is: democracy is weak. We should learn democracy is vulnerable, and learn about ourselves. Putin dug out Trump for president from the confederate dung. We have the same kind of lessons to learn in Sweden. Then we can see there is also back fire to the weapons used against us: disinformation as a lullaby makes for a heavy wakeup.
I wonder about the supersonic weapons; have they not made nuclear weapons obsolete? Really useful only to scare? The US Navy had a film on Youtube with an electric cannon shooting an unarmed warhead at high speed, capable of sinking a warship at 200 km distance, and freeing warships of being loaded with explosives. China has announced a ballistic missile at speed mach 4-7, and Russia one at mach 20.
Trump did not have to be deposited in the White House at supersonic speed, he could just sit there and do all the destruction.
What Putin has done and continues to do, along with his generals and soldiers, and the Wagner Group mercenaries (and there's another group called Ruschists who sound worse than the Wagner boys) is brutality at its worst. If you heard Fiona Hill on Friday's broadcast of PBS Newshour, you'll know that Putin and his submarines are likely behind the explosions in the gas pipelines in the Baltic. I hope you look her interview up as well as some of her articles in Foreign Affairs. There are also some excellent articles in The Guardian and The WSJ (I never thought I'd say that). Putin is going to do what he is going to do in order to hold onto power. The question for me is whether he'll hold on longer than the folks who are fleeing across Russian borders to Georgia and beyond, as well as those who are resisting in the streets all around Russia. My guess is that Medvedev is sharpening his own knives, but he is not the only one. There is a 60 year old guy who is ostensibly the leader of Luhansk who has been with Putin from the beginning of his regime. He says he works behind the scenes. That in itself should make Putin keep his own weapon close at hand. The police keep putting people in prison. Navalny, in a piece that his attorneys apparently smuggled out of Russia, which appeared in the WAPO (I think or perhaps NYT) said some in his penal colony had agreed to join the army in order to get out of prison. Another excellent article. Timothy Snyder has a class you can catch on Youtube coming directly from Yale - a couple of classes a week - they're up to class 8. Check it out. I am immersed with the history of a part of the world I never paid any attention to. And, I frankly do not see how NATO will not be drawn in eventually beyond what they are doing now to train Ukrainian military personnel and provide weapons. BTW the Sueddeutsche Zeitung reports that there have been drones reported hovering over training areas located in Bavaria. So that is being investigated. It will probably be important to begin to keep Russian subs from destroying communications cables which are located in the world's oceans. Imagine that for a moment. Putin is a numbers man - he loves dates on the calendar. He turns 70 on October 7. I'd say, watch out for something horrible to happen to mark his birthday.
Hum. What modeling is Putin engaging in by rewriting history or in this instance taking back parts of a country that was once under Russia's sphere of influence ( part of it's empire)? When is "border" "or "sovereignty" established in victory renegotiatible? Will Rome be next to declare sovereignty over say England or France or Austria? China over Singapore (oh, wait they already did) or Taiwan? Or, Mexico over Texas and Arizona or California? Should we fear that the Mexicans will use the US and Mexico trade agreement, unfair by all standards (made up of course) as justification for storming our Southern borders and, God forbid, retake Texas (hum, a loss or a gain?) and threaten to move The Wall to the Oklahoma and Arkansas borders? What international insanity is he unleasing? Next, we'll see Cubans invading Florida, establishing a Nation in Exile in Miami or Venezuelans demanding relocation to Martha's Vineyard or the Irish retaking Bauston. Too much to think about, TC. I must rest. 😉
I read earlier reports that many Russian soldiers in Lyman have been fleeing Lyman. It occurred to me that they must feel between a rock and a hard place. Not only were they sent to Lyman to fight the Lyman citizens, but also, they were now charged to fight their ostensible Russian citizens, otherwise known as comrades. I hope they all get home safely. Although I doubt there is any way for them to avoid being nailed as traitors while under threats of lethal punishment by Putin's goons.
Two Ukraine experts, Colonel Vindman and another whose name I cannot recall both spoke on MSNBC saying the same thing: the only way to end this war now is to WIN this war.
It seems to me that the response the US to the Russian assault on Crimea in 2014 set the table for this invasion of Ukraine. I think that the Yard Punk in Russia was emboldened by (if not indirectly aided by) our own Yard Punk who left office in 2021.
Well said TC.
TCinLA. can you email me @ rhubbell@gmail.com?
So much truth is encapsulated in this statement: "The war is not existential for Russia, but it is for Putin: He wins or dies."
Encirclement generally involves preventing enemy soldiers from escaping to fight another day, does it not? If so, how the heck did Russian troops withdraw from Lyman after it was encircled?