badgerx16

SOG is a "very angry old man", on the Russia thread Whelk is a "very angry young man". Try looking in the mirror.

Stalin said "Quantity has a quality all of it's own". The most effective weapon the Russians have had during and since WW2 has been artillery. What is happening in Donbas is that they have abandoned a "war of movement" for a slow grinding attritional "war of annihilation", an advance across scorched earth. They are liberating Ukraine by blasting everything to atoms, like a petulant child throwing a destructive tantrum because it hasn't got it's way.

Somewhere earlier on this thread a link was published to an essay written by Putin himself. In it he outlines the reasons why Ukraine is not a country, how it owes everything to Russia, and how history demands that it be reunited with the Motherland. He sees it as the birthplace and cradle of the Russian Orthodox Church and as such holy territory that he has a duty to protect. Many Western military analysts have studied the first 3 weeks of the war, and even most "armchair generals" have worked out what their initial intent was; drive directly for Kyiv to 'cut the head off the snake", using airborne troops to capture Hostomel airport and use it as a forward supply base and staging post for the motorised forces. They made 3 key mistakes: they set a timetable that ended with the Victory Day celebrations, meaning they had to set off in February, completely forgetting the key lesson of Russian history - the impact of General Winter; they underestimated the Ukrainians, especially Zelensky, and never captured Hostomel - the first objective missed was the first objective; and they overestimated their own abilities- they needed a quick win because logistics has always been the Achilles heel of Russian land forces.

He is such a good little Putin-bot.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/russias-economy-is-tankingbut-the-ruble-is-soaring-11653559916 "Sanctions against Russia have pushed its economy into what could be the biggest decline in decades, but the country’s currency has gone the other way." https://www.ft.com/content/22bd612b-c5d9-4f8f-98b8-5f5b69a1da37 "The rouble’s strength not only belies a struggling domestic economy, which is expected to slump into a severe recession this year, but it puts pressure on government finances by lowering the local currency value of dollar-denominated oil and gas revenues, they argue."

I read somewhere that they were running out of cruise missiles. On another note, this is an interesting story https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-61599932

In any large group of people there will be the odd "wrong un". It is how they are dealt with that shows the character of the group leadership. The Tories have an extremely poor record of acting in such cases, and in the world of semantic scoring, ( where the COVID fine score is currently 125-0 ), this would make it something like 10-1.

Who is the "Leader of the Opposition", and what party does he lead ?

I started as a developer, but I got better. I always used to tell ours that I could do their job, but they couldn't do mine.

Village

".....who represents her constituency as an independent after being expelled from Labour" Nice try though.

I take it as a badge of honour and mark of principle.

Absolutely. It's the people managing the network infrastructure and IT security who are wonderful.

Redistribution is not "throwing money around", excessive Government borrowing is.

Something to add to the COVID Relief fraud figures, 25% of Universal Credit claims are fraudulent or have been overpaid - over £5bn lost in the last financial year.

Read it here https://labourlist.org/2022/05/rachel-reeves-on-rishi-sunaks-windfall-tax-u-turn-we-lead-they-follow/

Just to annoy you further, our recycling centres stopped 'appointments' early last year.

It isn't means tested, so the Duke of Westminster gets his share as well as you; they don't know how much the ( not ) Windfall Tax wil raise because of the investment rebate, and the affected industries are bleating that it is unfair; the 'tax cut' NI reduction that is due is only partially reducing last year's NI rise. One good thing is that the previously announced 'loan' rebate intended for the autumn is now not going to need to be repaid. Then again, all money paid out has to be recovered later in some or other form.

It was actually a rant at my local Council's site where I wanted to renew the permit for collection of garden waste. Don't judge others by your standards.

So therefore you are not an easily manipulated gullible jerk.

Hopefully the easily manipulated gullible jerks who willingly and blindly support blue rosetted donkeys are in similar decline.

Looking through the front window watching a flock of 10 long tail tits at our bird feeders.

How many of the "Pro-Life" brigade are also pro guns ?

Other than putting out and collecting the cones, and maintaining dressing room bantz, what benefit to the team were KD and DW ?