War in Ukraine

they have dedicated $19.2B to advance production facilities. does that count as a lot of money? it does in my world

 

Russians in Crimea are showing their faith in Russia's armed forces . . . by moving out. Apparently, they can see the writing on the wall, even if many Russia trolls cannot.

Russian military, occupation authorities in Crimea selling up, moving out amid fears of losing control of peninsula

 

I don’t know what else to tell you. You have asked why he would do it and been given the answers. The answers were never going to satisfy you. Got it. Back to Ukraine.

 

next up in the balcony free fall contest??

interesting question..tape released by FSB who doesn't like way Putin has blamed them for failure in Ukraine. why would they be outing elites unless trying to get them to pick a side

‘He’s Satan’: Russian Elites Call Putin Every Name in the Book on Leaked Call (msn.com)

A tape-recording of a recent conversation between two members of the Russian elite has gone viral on Russian social media. Yosif Prigozhin, a music producer, and Farkhad Akhmedov, a billionaire oligarch, allegedly discussed Russian strongman Vladimir Putin in the most unflattering way.
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“Yes, he doesn’t give a f-ck about anything. And he doesn’t give a f-ck about the people. He's Satan, f-ck ... He’s empty, f-ck. Both this one and the second one have complexes. They’re Lilliputians, f-ck, kids, with complexes.”

The conversation sounds authentic and probably is. We know that there is widespread discontent with Putin within the Russian elite. And we also know Russia’s rulers talk this way, peppering their sentences with frequent obscenities.

Perhaps more important than the authenticity of the conversation is the extreme likelihood of its having been taped and released by the Russian Security Service, the FSB. We know that the FSB is especially angry with Putin’s mishandling of the war and his attempts to put the blame on the spies. If the recording and its release are the FSB’s handiwork, then it’s reasonable to conclude that the FSB has taken off its gloves and is now actually trying to discredit Putin as well as force fence-sitting elites to take sides.

 

And it has the added bonus of making Putin even more paranoid and likely to make further mistakes that will further destabilize his rule.

 

I think it’s a lot, sure. But it isn’t enough, and that’s what we want, right? Defense production and acquisitions is not something I have a lot of education on (ask me a year from now, when I’m half way through War College; yeah, no kidding, that’s what it’s called). I do know there’s some kind of legal issue with propriety that means you can’t significantly ramp up production (without the DPA) by spreading the task among several contractors. So in WW2, for instance, Boeing owned the rights to make the B17, but we needed to crank out B17s at a rate that Boeing could not possibly match, even if they could just build more factories. I think the government had to task companies with factories that made other things, such as washing machines, with retooling for the effort. These companies did not just become part of Boeing, but I think Boeing had to be cut in on the production. To make the numbers of Javelins (among other things) necessary to keep Ukraine in the war — and, presumably, the U.S. out — it is probably going to take that kind of national effort. But you still have to make Raytheon whole in the process.

 

Mostly fair, but it undervalues whatthe rest of NATO is able to provide imo.

 

That we're even throwing around the acronym DPA here, wow. Why are we talking about invoking the DPA? I thought this was "Ukraine's war"? It's not really Ukraine's war, is it?

 

I'm going to go there:

Who do you guys think Putin wants to win more?

Donald Trump or Ron DeSantis?

 

I would want Trump because Trump divides the nation. Most Democrats would rather have Putin or Xi as President rather than Trump.

 

I believe Putin would prefer DeSantis. Putin starts ranting about nukes, Trump responds with “hold my beer.” Putin thought he could persuade Trump, but Trump took a big shit on Putin with Nordstream 2 and accosting Germany for their oil buys from Russia.

 

Xi's preference, though, IMO, is Biden. And China is by far the greater enemy. China is displacing us in the world order, and Biden and the Democrats seem completely fine and are apathetic about doing anything about it. If I am China give me the apathetic old guy with dementia that we also have plenty of dirt on that we can blackmail to get our way.

 

this is a thread about Ukraine. If you want to discuss domestic elections, please take it elsewhere

 

Norweigan munitions manufacturer cannot ramp up production because tiktok data center is using all spare electricity..wow

I can see this as a problem in the US also where data storage centers associated with social media and bitcoin mining operations are consuming electricity that could be better allocated to industries that actually produce something tangible. this massive amount of electric use also drives up the cost of electricity which harms both the consumer and the manufacturer

Weapons firm says it can't meet soaring demand for artillery shells because a TikTok data center is eating all the electricity (msn.com)

An arms manufacturer complained that a TikTok data center is eating all the electricity in the region, meaning the company cannot keep up with the surging global demand for ammunition. Experts are increasingly commenting on the massive demands of big tech companies, and how energy usage by their data centers is causing issues for other industries.

"We are concerned because we see our future growth is challenged by the storage of cat videos," said Morten Brandtzæg, the CEO of the Norwegian arms manufacturer Nammo, in an interview with the Financial Times.
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Power is provided on a first-come, first-served basis, according to Elvia, the energy provider in the Raufoss region of Norway (around 120km north of Oslo).

The energy company told the FT that it has no spare capacity for Nammo to hike its output as it has been promised to TikTok. A spokesperson told the FT if Nammo does order more capacity, it will "take time" before that can be achieved because the network needs to be "strengthened." Brandtzæg added he "can't rule it out" that it wasn't a coincidence that Chinese-owned TikTok was deliberately impeding the expansion of an arms company.

 

Theirs to fight. For the moment.

 

At this point, would you be surprised to learn we have actual US special ops on the ground in Ukraine (clandestine)?

 

Probably saw what goat-herders did to us on 9/11. Everybody BUT our military knew what was about to happen.

 

I would be pleased. And after I get done with my impending assignment, I would want to know how I could play a part.

 

Right on, man. Best of luck to you.