Bernardo de La Paz
Bernardo de La Paz's JournalPen mightier than sword; printer mightier than tank
In the Soviet Union, printers were tightly controlled for just these reasons.
Freedom is beyond American, but the subversion of the slogan for authoritarian purposes is American
The sheeple and teabaggers and deplorables have no idea how they are molded by powerful forces like Russian bot brigades and rogue capitalists and authoritarians.
They think most people are in the dark, but it is the RW sheeple who turn off real information sources and go down rabbit holes with their confirmation biases.
That's the ticket! Put in a light rail system with cargo so no trucks needed downtown!
But seriously, imagine a light rail system with flatcars on some trains with electric golf cargo golf carts that get on and off at stops and make the final deliveries and pickups.
Think of light rail as moving people AND stuff, not just people. Like air system. Like interstates. Like rail system. Like ocean ships did and can do again.
Could easily be a goal along with punishment for failure. But Putin believed him
Since Putin bought an assessment that seemed flawed even from here says something about Putin.
Either Putin is not so bright or he doesn't acknowledge that he has made his environment toxic to competency and reality-based approaches.
It's on him. He's been President, officially and unofficially, for 22 years.
Logistics screwed up because
* Navy got disproportionate amount of money
* Only super powers can have both a navy and an army
* Putin's Russia is not an oligarchy, it's a kleptocracy
* Everyone down the chain gets a cut
* Until you reach the grunts, who are ill-fed, underpaid, poorly trained, and lied to
* So there is more inventory taking than maintenance
* Cheap tires from China
* No second echelon because a) too expensive, b) not in the plan
* Plan was for quick victory
* Russian logistics depends on trucks and roads
* Mud month has begun precluding off-road
* Russia low on smart ordinance, so they don't have air superiority
* Thus convoys get bogged down, run out of fuel
* Three abreast on roads (to save time) means that foulups / damage are blockages
Explore the threads by Kamil Galeev on Twitter.
Yes Kamil Galeev thread concludes Putin can be broken quickly and must be
Long thread, initially a bit bleak re Russia China alliances but ends positively.
Break Putin AND his whole apparatus by:
* increase hyperinflation in Russia
* make it easy for brains to leave Russia now that it is full fascist (not hyperbole)
I'm sure there is more, but I read so much for so long it is hard to take it all in but it is well organized, tells it like a story, and seems very well researched. He's an academic, I think from central Asia republic (Turkmenistan?) analysing in the west.
https://twitter.com/kamilkazani/status/1500554224928759815
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1500495309595725831.html
Lots of interesting images in the twitter link.
Putin is losing the oligarchs
Five have spoken out including Deripaska:
Radio Free Europe
https://www.rferl.org/a/deripaska-oligarch-ukraine-russia-war/31734624.html
...
Deripaska, who has been sanctioned by the West, warned of a possible nuclear accident at any of Ukraine's nuclear power facilities during the fighting, which would endanger, Russia, Ukraine, and Europe as a whole.
...
Deripaska is one of several Russian billionaires to call on the authorities to stop the full-scale military attack against Ukraine launched on February 24.
Mikhail Fridman, Pyotr Aven, Oleg Tinkov, and Aleksei Mordashov -- also billionaires who have been targeted by Western sanctions -- have already publicly called for a cessation of hostilities.
Little more at link, only two sentences.
When Putin loses more oligarchs, as I think he will, he will no longer have their confidence as Da Capo. They will ask him to retire, one way or another.
Russian Oligarch Deripaska Calls For End Of War Against Ukraine
Source: Radio Free Europe
Russian billionaire tycoon Oleg Deripaska, known for his close ties with President Vladimir Putin, has called for an end to the war in Ukraine.
...
Deripaska, who has been sanctioned by the West, warned of a possible nuclear accident at any of Ukraine's nuclear power facilities during the fighting, which would endanger, Russia, Ukraine, and Europe as a whole.
...
Deripaska is one of several Russian billionaires to call on the authorities to stop the full-scale military attack against Ukraine launched on February 24.
Mikhail Fridman, Pyotr Aven, Oleg Tinkov, and Aleksei Mordashov -- also billionaires who have been targeted by Western sanctions -- have already publicly called for a cessation of hostilities.
Read more: https://www.rferl.org/a/deripaska-oligarch-ukraine-russia-war/31734624.html
Two more sentences at the link, not much.
Ego leaves him no choice
He wants the two things all Rs want: money and to be relevant.
Democrats and progressives want the same things too. But they also want something else, which they balance with the other two and which sometimes becomes uppermost: helping people. Not some abstract notion of unity or helping the oligarchs. Practical actions and approaches that help actual people of all kinds. All kinds.
Putin is a mob boss. Controls but depends on the oligarchs. Mob bosses only are mob bosses while
Mob bosses are only Da Capo while they are producing. Putin isn't producing any more. He controls oligarchs through state apparatus including threats of violence (via subordinates of course) but if push comes to shove and they unite, then that apparatus and threats won't work very well, particularly if the populace feels the same way.
They won't assassinate him but they will convince him to retire to his $1,000,000,000 palace (yes, billion dollar palatial estate) he is building.
The question is, how soon will they act and how long will it take to convince him.
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Gender: Do not displayMember since: Fri Jul 16, 2004, 11:36 PM
Number of posts: 48,988
