Coffeesforclosers

His wife is a hell of a soccer player. That's all I've got.

Leaning towards less guns. If armed bystanders aren't preventing mass shootings in Texas, then that argument needs looking at.

Somebody shot down a Kinzhal hypersonic missile supposedly. The Ukrainian Airforce is pissed because somebody blabbered that they can shoot down Kinzhals. And because they went further and said they did it with a PAC-3 patriot missile. Could all be nonsense. Could be true. Very interesting if it's true.

Yeah. The theory I saw, that seems the most reasonable, goes like this. Russia knows they're going to get hit by some kind of Ukrainian counter-attack, and it's going to be big and well equipped. Russia also knows its most effective arm is its Artillery. So the Russian Ministry of Defense is stockpiling artillery ammunition so they can give Ukraine the warmest possible reception. However, Wagner Group is only concerned about taking Bakhmut, and to do so they need huge amounts of artillery support. Prigozhin, who owns Wagner, is in a political pissing match with the Russian MoD, and he'd love to take Bahkmut in order to humiliate Sergei Shoigu and Valerii Gerasimov. Shoigu and Gerasimov control the arty ammo supply though, and are happy to tell Wagner to kick rocks, or continue their attacks without artillery. Which results in literal piles of dead Wagner mercenaries. Prigozhin is a-ok with hurling the dregs of Russia's penal colonies into Ukrainian defenses, but only if he enhances his prestige, and gains him influence with Tsar Vladimir that he can use against the MoD. So he's happy to send Wagner back to Syria and Central Africa and let the Russian army twist unless he gets his artillery ammunition. Which the Russian Army won't do, because they need that ammunition to try and blow up Ukrainian Offensive Guards brigades and Leopard 2 tanks, not polish their rival's resume. Russia is an interesting place.

What a ***** moron. Next time he'll wise up and quote somebody from Russia Today! But it's alright, it's not like he prepared his own briefing materials. Its just his staff that funnel unvetted propaganda to him, so he can repeat it live on camera.

Alright. It's a scary looking 5-10 years, maybe longer. But to paraphrase a Ukrainian paratrooper, we are so ***** lucky our enemies decided to be so ***** stupid right now. Hopefully it's enough.

Yeeeeeaaaaahhhh. Not good. Given how much penetration of the Russian military and government our intelligence apparatus has supposedly achieved... I'm wondering why clones of Kinzhals aren't rolling off a factory floor somewhere. Well in-line what Ukraine has taught us, if we bother to learn. I don't know how long it is until domestic microchip production ramps up, but it can't come fast enough.

What worries me is that long term, we could get a Russia with a rationalized MIC. Rather than the current fun house of corruption and ineffeciency. Agreed. Agreed. Hopefully they continue with Wolf Warrior diplomacy. Pivoting back to a more Deng Xiaoping inspired strategy would very bad for us. Especially since we show no inkling of converting our MIC from something that smashes third world countries and subsidizes congressional districts, to something that can sustain a near peer war for years.

You know, I want to turn this thread into the Let's Go Brandon circle jerk that the OP wants. But I'm enjoying the grown up discussion too much.

Luckily for you, the Draft no longer lasts more than four hours.

Absolutely ***** love this pick. About damn time!

Swole Beasely is going around too.

It's a free country and everyone's allowed to feel disappointed.

They sound like bouncers from Roadhouse.

Why do i feel something bad is in the offing?

Flowers.

Please Lord, WR or OL.

So who should I be hoping we pick at 27?

It's like there's a concerted effort to drain nuance from public discourse or something. And it's the other side's fault, of course.

I got called a Leftist for pointing out that people on the staff of Russia Today aren't reliable sources of information on the Ukraine War. We should start a club.

Do you know how much more fulfilling life is once you unplug from social media and stop following the 24hr news cycle Infoganda complex? My god, I wonder what my career would be like if I went into my bosses office every day, foaming-at-the-mouth screaming about every single problem I'd found.

China Walks Back Diplomat’s Apparent Questioning of Ex-Soviet States’ Independence. I really did think for a second that they would just double down.

TDS meets BDS. Or is it all just merging into Other Guy Derangement Syndrome?

China’s ambassador to France, Lu Shaye, said former Soviet republics have no “effective status” in international law Well that's quite a mouthful of foot Lu Shaye had there. Unless of course he just said China's quiet part out loud.

Ok, no worries. No they aren't. But all propagandists are the same in that they are counting on us, their targets, to 1. not bother to do their homework or 2. become jaded and give up trying.