badgerx16

Would you go to war in a tank built by pissed Russians ?

Maintaing a 'war economy', especially on top of international sanctions, is severely detrimental to the domestic one. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/russia-economy-putin-ukraine-war-b2699716.html "The result in Russia has been rampant inflation, currently running at over 9 per cent, crippling interest rates of 21 per cent and runaway price hikes on staple goods that far outpace the headline inflation rate and have hit ordinary Russians hard. Last summer the price of eggs jumped by 42 per cent, bananas by 48 per cent, tomatoes by 39.5 per cent and potatoes by 25 per cent. The Russian ruble has lost over half of its value since Putin first invaded Crimea in 2014, and over $600bn of the Kremlin’s foreign currency reserves have been frozen in Western banks. More than 1,000 Western businesses – including Ikea and McDonald’s – pulled out, as did Western car manufacturers. Imports of Western goods – especially technology – are now expensively routed through sanctions-busting neighbours like Kazakhstan and Georgia. And last month Russian utility companies hiked prices for electricity by up to 250 per cent. “Everyone drives Chinese cars these days, but there are no spare parts,” says Alexandra, 39, a former journalist who lives in Moscow and whose ex-husband is fighting in Ukraine. “The only foreign cars you buy are right-hand-drive [from Japan]. Anyone with a mortgage is paying crazy interest. People complain how expensive everything has become.” "The current crazy levels of expenditure are unsustainable, so Putin has a strong economic incentive to bring his war to an end"

They had an even bigger one before the Second World War, having taken much of the remnants of the Spanish Empire in the 1898 war, particularly the Phillipines. That was also the year that they militarily occupied and annexed Hawaii.

Gaza, Panama, Canada, Greenland, Ukraine; it would appear that US foreign policy is built around a series of land grabs. I suppose that is the only language Trump speaks.

Russia is undoubtedly weaker, her best troop formations have been decimated, and the tank reserves have been burned through. Whether the Russian forces have been sufficiently weakened to the point where they do not pose a significant threat to Western Europe is open to question : they had a significant superiority before the SMO, still have vast reserves of manpower and the capacity to rebuild, and the UK's ground military headcount is probably smaller than at any time since the Spanish Armada.

Boasting ?

It seems that both Badenoch and Starmer may have been misinformed over the case of the Palestinian fsmily and the Ukrainian asylum process ; https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cvgp47mpxgno

Are they ? Replacing Russian military aggression with US economic colonialism is hardly going to help Ukraine, and using extreme intimidation to force them to accept is morally corrupt. What little has been suggested so far is more like a pause in proceedings before round 2 begins, Putin's new BFF tells him there are no adverse consequences to his aggression, and he can keep most of the territory he has overrun as he rebuilds his military and sets his sights on his next target. Edit; from Lavrov's comments, Russia is opposed to any external security guarantees for Ukraine, so there would be nothing to get in the way of SMO 2.0. ( Not that security promises to Ukraine have ever counted for much ).

Oops!

And GM wants us to negotiate a trade deal with him.

Ask the water fowl murderer.

Trump punishes Ukraine for being invaded. Make "the deal" so bad that whatever Putin offers looks the better option.

You haven't woken up in another one, a version of you exists in all of them. In fact, there are some where you, Turkish, LD, and Nic are great pals, and are often seen drinking together in a local alehouse.

Vance at the Munich conference berated European countries for cancelling election results, specifically targeting Romania's recent Presidential poll. Coming from somebody who to this day refuses to acknowledge that Joe Biden beat Donald Trump in 2020 this has more than a touch of the Alanis Morissette about it.

So which SOG was this making reference to ? "More vile nonsense from SOG II"

If you think SOG is ever embarrassed on here you still have a lot to learn.

Less than 3 weeks after the fatal crash in Washington DC, "several hundred" staff have been sacked at the FAA as Elon's purge of probationary staff gathers pace..

According to the Wall Street Journal a Ukrainian F-16 was shot down by friendly fire from a Ukrainian operated Patriot missile system because when the Patriots were supplied they had the Link-16 IFF system, which identifies the F-16 as a friendly asset, disabled, and when Ukraine started receiving F-16s nobody thought to turn it on.

So said The Smartest Guy In The Room. Then again he is a product of the US education system, which among other achievements has produced hundreds of millions of people who cannot spell or pronounce Aluminium.

Last week at a Q&A with the White House press corps, Trump was bemoaning the cost over run in developing the latest US Navy aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald R Ford. His claim was that the cost had climbed from an original $3M to $18M, ( it is actually $13M ), and that this escalation was due to the carrier using electro-magnetic aircraft catapults and lifts. Trump reminded the journalists that he pointed out last January that magnets don't work when wet, so cannot be used on ships. Why did the people building and commissioning the carrier not know this ?

Does Trump have plans to rebuild the Donbas with casinos and nightclubs ?

"Unfortunately, the agency finds that you are not fit for continued employment because your ability, knowledge and skills do not fit the agency's current needs, and your performance has not been adequate to justify further employment at the agency," Almost all Federal employees serve a 1 year, and sometimes longer, probationary period, during which they have even fewer employment protections than other US workers. As an easy way to cut staffing levels, Trump seems to be pruning out all such staff; https://www.npr.org/2025/02/15/nx-s1-5298182/trumps-probationary-workers-federal I wonder how many of them voted for Donnie.

So the bloke sharing a house with the gay couple doesn't want to be a fruit picker ?

Regicide