March 26, 2022

Ukraine, as seen by Canadian Forces in US

https://twitter.com/CAFinUS/status/1507548752671817738

Canadian Forces in 🇺🇸@CAFinUS

Reasons why the invasion hasn’t happened quickly:

1. Ukrainians

Mar 25, 2022·Twitter Web App

March 23, 2022

I'm not asking the US. I'm asking caring intelligent DU members

Re metric: Smart thing Biden could do is recommit the US to the metric systems like Saint Reagan did and like the US Army does.

It would put the contrast between anti-science RepubliQonners and progressive Democrats in sharp contrast and would be an excellent platform to run on in 2024 or even 2022.

March 21, 2022

Multiple explanations; usually several apply to each person

Most of these points have been found to have deep origins from the Web Brigades of Russia, concentrated in St. Petersburg.

2) Biden is against Russia. "The enemy of my enemy is my friend".

3) They have been told that Hunter Biden and the Clintons are running pedophile operations out of Ukraine.

4) It's all NATO's fault for pushing Russia. He had to do it they say.

5) It's like the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962. It differs in may ways.

6) The bio-weapon labs have to be destroyed.

7) Putin is a strongman. They also thought tRump was a strongman. They like strongmen.

8) Putin is protecting whites.

9) Putin is denazifying because ... Azov battalion. It's been debunked.

10) Putin is uniting Greater Russia.

11) Putin is a genius. They also think tRump is a genius. But it says a lot about their mental capabilities.

12) They have been told that Ukraine is a Deep State base.

13) Ukrainians are Russians! They are not. Stalin starved and repeatedly decimated Ukrainians and then moved in Russian speaking peasants.

14) Ukrainians speak Russian! Many do because of Stalinization.

I could go on, but I won't. The points are all bogus.

The worst one: 1) The Ukrainians should have folded before Putin moved in and given him everything he wanted, "to save lives". That they are stupid for not giving up. These are the same people who will in other contexts ferociously state "Better to die on your feet than be a slave on your knees".

March 21, 2022

Typos & fingers are not the problem. Deficit of proofreading is a problem

Everybody makes typos.
Everybody can fix typos.

Not everybody proofreads or proofreads enough or proofreads as well as would be best.

Some people think that typos don't matter and so they don't proofread just on principles. They are either mistaken or egoistical. If they are mistaken, they don't realize that the few seconds they save readers over cognitive dissonance is multiplied by the number of readers and greatly outweighs the minute for proofreading and fixing. Those who are egoistical don't care because they think their time is more valuable than all their readers put together or they are writing for their own vanity not their readers sake.

Everybody can proofread but they have to want to.

I hope everybody would want to proofread, but I don't expect compliance from egoists.

March 21, 2022

Pen mightier than sword; printer mightier than tank

In the Soviet Union, printers were tightly controlled for just these reasons.

March 20, 2022

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.

March 19, 2022

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.

March 12, 2022

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.

March 7, 2022

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.

March 7, 2022

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.