Link to tweet

Don’t mince words anymore!

No more pulling punches - anymore!

No more let’s reach out ‘n’ be nice!

I’m not playing ANY of that game as long as MY side is THE ONLY side showing any interest in said game.



But then again… what do I know?

Yesterday afternoon on some commentator on NPR said " Ukraine is on their knees".

I hope they stand upright again soon

. . . one is a war-president, fighting a malicious monster like Putin-the-Poisoner.

from usa with love~

how many threats it took to get that asshole Johnson to go against his Lard and Savior and bring any sort of a vote, even one that attempted to set up a game of ping pong with this bill between the House and Senate.

Apparently, the MAGAt riders all failed. This has a chance of being expedited.

I notice Ukraine used a few of its remaining ATACMS last night to great advantage, knocking out 4 of Russia's most advanced air defense systems that were inexokucabkt ckystered together. I suppose it was a fireworks celebration of sorts.

May I borrow it sometime?

Now my prayer has been answered and Ukraine will receive that much needed aid.

They'll get some relief with arms, but its going to take awhile for the rest. Several NATO nations have made strong pledges, but are failing on delivery. Can't give them what you don't have. Sure, as soon as they produce it, they send it to them, but that's just a trickle over time. Meanwhile, Russia has more arms inside Ukraine than they started with and are quickly and easily replenishing them.

Ukraine will be focusing on defending territory and denying any major takeovers by Moscow. A summer offensive is expected, just no one is sure where its coming for. Sumy? Kharkiv? the rest of the Donbass? Odessa? Kyiv? One or two fronts? Moscow has a large number of troops inside their borders stationed at a number of places and training for something.

They concentrated so much on the counter offensive that flopped, they didn't think about creating fortified defenses in the case of failure. They got over confident. I read in one place where a village was taken by Russian troops using Ukraine's own trenches.

Ukraine may get lucky and finally take out the Kerch bridge, but it will be for morale, symbolic and a waste of ammo. The rail lines from Rostov on the Don to Crimea are complete. And unlike a bridge, those can be repaired with a lot more speed, I should know, I've seen it.

Ukraine needs a multi year aid plan, this is just a band aid. This is not going away anytime soon, were going to be here again in a year.

I have more faith in Ukraine than that! They have proven resilience and innovation. The US and all of EU are standing behind them. If we had not withheld the aid they needed when they needed it most, things would be different.

This is not due to some Russian greatness at war. It is not due to Russian brilliance at strategy. Russia's "strategy" is to send its soldiers through the meat grinder. Sometimes, they shoot their own soldiers. This isn't clever.

And yes, the Kerch Bridge will go kapoot, as well as the railroads. Just wait.

When Napoleon was facing off against General Mikhail Kutozov for Moscow, Kutozov realized Napoleon took too many casualties to hold the city and conquered territory. Rather than continuing to fight for "victory", he disengaged from the battlefield and moved their forces east of Moscow and let fate take its course. We all know what happened afterwards. Napoleon could not claim victory as Russia's armies were still intact and simply chose to walk away for the time being.

Russia lost the Russo-Japanese war....on paper. Japan was nearly broken, but the war became vastly unpopular and very costly for Russian Nobility, so they wanted out and the Tsar had to oblige. In WW2, the final nail in the coffin for Japan wasn't the atomic bombs, once they got word that the USSR invaded Manchuria, they knew the gig was up. China was their main need or resources and they were about to lose it.

I accept reality. The most patriotic Ukrainians volunteered for the fight (and are now being told they will not be able to leave after their contracts stated only two years), conscripting more, basically means those with less means who could not flee the country have to fight. Even with ammo, they aren't going to shoot much if it means attracting attention to their position. We should know, it happened in Vietnam.

On the propaganda front, yes, this is the survival for Ukraine. However, on the Russian side, we get nice articles on Yahoo from time to time of opposition to the war, but its anecdotal. Most in Russia believe this war is for their own necessary survival, we may all think that's ridiculous, but when you have hawkish maps on breaking up Russia even further circulating on the internet, who do you think they are going to believe? Hell, some here have even peddled them. That front is lost.

Screaming "Slava Ukraine" (most here probably don't even know it means Glory to Ukraine) will not win the war. Furthermore, we don't even know what that win looks like. Sure Zelensky has issued his vision, withdrawal of all Russian troops, reparations and criminal tribunals for leaders and generals. We all know that's not going to happen (plus with terms like that, may as well go for it all) and his various conferences on this are for show and morale back home.

You can hope Putin suddenly croaks or gets tossed. But you know who doesn't want that? NATO and Ukraine. Of all the likely successors, Putin is actually the dove, go figure. The second largest political party in Russia is actually critical of Putin for not being more forceable. Be careful what you ask for.

You can be optimistic all you want, but no one has gone broke for being cautious. Again, they needed at least a five year aid plan, these one offs don't work and only brings problems to be revisited. And we will be soon distracted with problems in our own backyard. Venezuela looks like its on the verge of invading Guyana and Haiti is a problem we are probably going to have to deal with ultimately, just not in an election year. And of course, then there is Netanyahu. Our attention span here in the USA isn't exactly that good.

We also have to keep in mind that Russia has an economy the size of Canada's.

is the Ukrainian flag waving on the floor. Well, too bad! The Repubs have little to say. MTG is especially ineffective, trotting out that lie about the border. And the deficit? tRump added to that more than anybody.

I want to thank the Dems for having the courage to override Repub objections. Putin must be driven back. How he got a foothold in America, I don't know. But, we did not give up. Putin will be beaten back. There must also be sighs of relief in Poland and the Balkans tonight, as well.

Kick the bears ass and stomp it into the ground.