I agree 100%. Ceding our space program to the Russians was one of the most baffling strategic decisions of my lifetime.
Seriously, 40 years ago when I studied this, a UF professor whose name escapes me referred to the Ukraine as the Soviets bread basket. I don't know when planting season is but if this isn't over in time to get the plants in the ground are the Russians going to starve?
TikTok/Social media war. Everyone has phones, dashcams, security, etc. Some are fakes, sure, but folks can't hide. Can't deny videos of, say, Russian forces looting places including pharmacies & stealing medications.
Ukraine may starve (and it has before:Holodomor - Wikipedia), the rest of Europe will suffer severe food shortages and terrible increased costs, but not starvation.
From CNN live "Ukrainian tennis star says he returned to his country to fight Russia so it has "a history to tell to my kids" From CNN's Adrienne Vogt Sergiy Stakhovsky, a former Ukrainian tennis pro who left his family to go fight Russia, said he decided to go back to his country because he "would like it to still be on a map." Stakhovsky and his wife did not tell their three young children where he was going, but he said he thinks they may figure it out. "It was not an easy decision. ... If I would stay home, I would feel guilt that I didn't come back. And now that I'm here, I feel guilty that I left them at home," he told CNN from Kyiv." there's a tweet for the interview but I don't have Twitter & couldn't figure out linking it.
Also "Russian airline yanked from global reservation system, a crippling blow to travel in the country From CNN's Pete Muntean The reservation system that is the backbone of airlines worldwide says it has terminated its agreement with Russia's government-owned carrier, which could significantly hamper domestic travel. The technology company Sabre says Aeroflot has been removed from its global distribution system, meaning the airline will not be shown in its "marketplace used by travel agencies, travel websites and corporations around the world to shop, book and service flight reservations.""
Side note, there is one small organization at Dulles airport that loads all the rules and fares for all the major airlines of the world. It is jointly owned by about 20 airlines. At the time their database was built, it was the 6th largest in the world. I used to work there.
From CNN live...why bother with negotiating? No intention of stopping nor does he seem to care "Worst is yet to come": Putin told Macron he will continue war in Ukraine, Élysée Palace source says From CNN's Nathan Hodge in Moscow and CNN’s Xiaofei Xu and Anaëlle Jonah in Paris Russian President Vladimir Putin told his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron that he will continue military operations in Ukraine during a 90-minute call initiated by Putin, an Élysée Palace source told reporters at a briefing on Thursday. “This conversation is unfortunately an occasion to hear that President Putin will continue military interventions and to go all the way,” according to the Élysée source.:
There was an interesting read about a young Russian lady who says "we don't want this!", but says people like her mom only listen to what the government media says and disagrees/says it's made up. Change from within Russia may be impossible and take years if it does. Putin has shown he doesn't care. I wouldn't put it past him to use lower megaton nukes to destroy Ukraine, move on to other places, and continue to hold the US & NATO hostage with the threat of larger nukes. Something needs to get done here.
There the fake news is coming from the government media, here it is coming from the for-profit media, but the result is the same in both places. People who are living in a different reality from the rest of us, who can't be reasoned with because they have been so well inoculated against truth.
Ski's crushing the Ukrainians by sheer weight of numbers, akin to ski strategy in WW2 - Human life means nothing to the Dictator. Wouldn't it be cool if the Russian soldiers said F this manure and started walking home, after all, Ukrainians are their brothers, not jack booted nazi thugs (although Poo-Tin wants them to believe that.
I'm sure Adolf Putin would not react kindly to Russian soldiers deserting and going back home. Nice thought though.
sierra - I'm actually of the opinion that Putin will only be stopped one way - Not through Economic Sanctions Not the threat of Western Intervention But when his own people put a bullet in his head. It's not beyond the realm of possibility.
Ultimately that is what it will come to. Someone in close proximity to him will need to take him out. A few thousand soldiers walking home will only piss him off and likely get them killed. As the Russian economy craters around them or if he tries to order a nuke strike, that may do the trick. In the meantime it is a shame that Ukrainians are getting killed and their towns and cities razed.
From CNN live, Zelensky said this regarding the refusal of a no-fly zone: "“If you can’t give Ukrainians a date, how long do you need? How many people should be blown up? How many arms and legs and heads should be severed, so that you understand? I will go and count them, and we will wait until we have a sufficient number,” Zelensky said in an impassioned plea. “If you don’t have the strength to provide a no-fly zone, then give me planes. Would that not be fair?” he continued."
Less of an intentional decision than an unintended consequence of the decision made decades ago to privatize space launches. Still agree that it was an unwise decision.
It won't happen. Just not enough people there believe Russia is wrong, & too many are believing the Putin spin. And if they do, a Putin acolyte will take his place, blame the death of their dear leader on the West, & go to war anyway. If a team went in and took him out, same thing. Basically it would need to be the oligarchs who band together, get him out, and they still have enough clout where the sheep that believe Putin blindly will finally listen.
