Russian invasion of Ukraine

[Detournement]

On 11/07/2022 at 16:20, Detournement said:

 

 

The guy could say Ukraine is building a Death Star off the moon of Endor and the British press would faithfully report it. 

[jagfox]

 

 

 

[vikingTON]

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jul/15/gas-blackmail-how-putins-weaponised-energy-supplies-are-hurting-europe

For those keeping score at home:

- Sweeping economic sanctions designed to devastate the lives of Russians, as they have driven the peoples of Iran, Venezuela etc. into penury and (in imperialists' dreams) supplicant political status = rightfully administered, legitimate sanctions. 

Quote

Although Moscow had a record of restricting gas flows to Europe as part of past disputes with Ukraine – including in 2005-06, 2009 and 2017 – many in the industry had assumed that because the Kremlin kept supplies flowing throughout the cold war, it would not resort to cutting off its largest market. However, Ben van Beurden, CEO of Shell, said this week that Putin has now shown “he is able and willing to weaponise supplies”.

On the other hand, not selling a globally traded commodity to the European market on the West's terms = unjustifiable 'gas blackmail'. I wonder where Putin got the idea of 'weaponising' access to resources from!

Biden and Zelenskiy are willing to fight to the last Euro of west and central Europe's prosperity - which of course benefits the US and its corporate class by unravelling its chief economic competitor in the Western world. 

Edited July 16, 2022 by vikingTON

[Tam M]

We have sponsored a Ukrainian family and they joined us last week. It's a bit of a crowded house as we already had six of us living at mine and now a further three. They are very nice, Mum is always cleaning up and Dad is walking about with his toolbox fixing everything. If anyone is considering doing it, I highly recommend.

If there's a photo that makes you a proud Dad it's this one.

[101]

On 11/07/2022 at 17:31, Left Back said:

No it couldn’t.

There are only like 30,000 full time are brave boys.

I'm sure the full strength of the UK military is under 200,000 and the capacity of Hampden for events is something like 150,000 so unless the army make up the vast majority of the armed forces then of course they could fit.

When there is a hologram Vera Lynn tour we will find out for sure .

[renton]

5 minutes ago, 101 said:

There are only like 30,000 full time are brave boys.

I'm sure the full strength of the UK military is under 200,000 and the capacity of Hampden for events is something like 150,000 so unless the army make up the vast majority of the armed forces then of course they could fit.

When there is a hologram Vera Lynn tour we will find out for sure .

Yep, 80k in the army, 30k in the army reserves and 30k each in the Royal Navy and RAF.

[Left Back]

6 minutes ago, 101 said:

There are only like 30,000 full time are brave boys.

I'm sure the full strength of the UK military is under 200,000 and the capacity of Hampden for events is something like 150,000 so unless the army make up the vast majority of the armed forces then of course they could fit.

When there is a hologram Vera Lynn tour we will find out for sure .

The regular army is currently over 80,000 personnel.  Due to cut to 72,500 or thereabouts.

you aren’t getting anything like 150,000 inside Hampden.  Not even close.  Capacity for concerts is pretty much the same as capacity for football so just over 50,000

[101]

10 minutes ago, renton said:

Yep, 80k in the army, 30k in the army reserves and 30k each in the Royal Navy and RAF.

 

5 minutes ago, Left Back said:

The regular army is currently over 80,000 personnel.  Due to cut to 72,500 or thereabouts.

you aren’t getting anything like 150,000 inside Hampden.  Not even close.  Capacity for concerts is pretty much the same as capacity for football so just over 50,000

We're fucked if China fancy a scrap

[Sergeant Wilson]

12 minutes ago, 101 said:

 

We're fucked if China fancy a scrap

We always were.

[welshbairn]

You could fit the infantry into Pittodrie. 

[Ziggy]

10 hours ago, Tam M said:

We have sponsored a Ukrainian family and they joined us last week. It's a bit of a crowded house as we already had six of us living at mine and now a further three. They are very nice, Mum is always cleaning up and Dad is walking about with his toolbox fixing everything. If anyone is considering doing it, I highly recommend.

If there's a photo that makes you a proud Dad it's this one.

Well done!!

We’ve applied and they’ve came and did the assessment on us 

Just waiting to get matched with a family. I’d no idea you could get a DIY expert though, hopefully I get a joiner.

[Tam M]

Well done!!
We’ve applied and they’ve came and did the assessment on us 
Just waiting to get matched with a family. I’d no idea you could get a DIY expert though, hopefully I get a joiner.

I wouldn't hold out much hope on being matched... they can't cope with the volumes. We met ours via a charity website. Initially was meant to be Mum and Son, but Dad got injured and was allowed to leave, so Mum and Son came on Homes for Ukraine Visa and Dad on the Scotland Sponsor, but we didn't want them to be separated so invited them all, provided they were happy with the squeeze. There's 200 stuck in a hotel 10 minutes from me.

If you need any help/advice, just drop me a pm.

[ICTChris]

A Ukrainian cargo plane has crashed in Greece, seemingly carrying ammunition. No word on what the cause was.

[Billy Jean King]

A Ukrainian cargo plane has crashed in Greece, seemingly carrying ammunition. No word on what the cause was.

BBC saying it was carrying Serbian weapons to Bangladesh so looks unconnected to the war.

[Detournement]

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/jul/17/putin-is-already-at-war-with-europe-there-is-only-one-way-to-stop-him

Simon Tisdall's Observer column grimly notes that the sanctions he was demanding months ago have crippled Europe. Apparently it's easily solved by going to war with Russia though. 

 

[Newbornbairn]

Middle class w****r inconvenienced, wants working class boys sent to die for his lifestyle. 

[Hillonearth]

21 hours ago, welshbairn said:

You could fit the infantry into Pittodrie. 

It's a mistake that many people make that having an army of 80,000 (actually 73,500 as of 1 April this year) means being having 80,000 you're able to put on a battlefield to fight....in most modern armies, there's a lot more tail than tooth involved.

Looking at the most recent UK army numbers by corps, https://ukdefencejournal.org.uk/how-many-soldiers-are-in-each-british-army-regiment/ there are over 5000 medical staff and a couple of hundred chaplains who have no combatant role for starters, along with 600-odd musicians to cover all the ceremonial stuff our military has boxed itself into doing.

Add in all the other corps who would only be involved in a battle in the loosest sense; the admin staff (3-4000), REME (7500 mechanics who would be behind the lines recovering and repairing stuff) RLC logistics staff (10,000 drivers, storemen and whatever - a friend of mine in the military used to call them the Really Large Corps because so many of them were out of shape as f**k) signallers and intelligence corps (over 7000 combined) whose roles are probably increasing in importance given the rise of cyber warfare but don't have a traditional war-fighting role.

That's half of your 73,500 right there that aren't traditional fighting troops, and you can also subtract all the ones that are who are medically unfit or under training.

[Newbornbairn]

The idea is you keep a small seedcore who are capable of training and being supplemented by a large number of draftees - as happened in WWI and WWII. That's why you see Britain providing training for so many of the world's armies - it keeps our training skills up to speed. If you can train a Ukrainian who can barely speak 3 words of English how to operate a MLRS system, you should be able to do the same with the average Weegie. 

[Sergeant Wilson]

1 hour ago, Newbornbairn said:

The idea is you keep a small seedcore who are capable of training and being supplemented by a large number of draftees - as happened in WWI and WWII. That's why you see Britain providing training for so many of the world's armies - it keeps our training skills up to speed. If you can train a Ukrainian who can barely speak 3 words of English how to operate a MLRS system, you should be able to do the same with the average Weegie. 

I wonder if they have interpreters?

[Todd_is_God]

1 hour ago, Detournement said:

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/jul/17/putin-is-already-at-war-with-europe-there-is-only-one-way-to-stop-him

Simon Tisdall's Observer column grimly notes that the sanctions he was demanding months ago have crippled Europe. Apparently it's easily solved by going to war with Russia though. 

Just like shutting down society for Covid, it should have been obvious that prolonging this war would have widespread economic consequences.

As usual, though, the virtue signalling, bandwagon jumping public blindly followed each in other in demanding both, and are now crying about the impact on their finances. You reap what you sow.

The solution, of course, lies in ending the war ASAP, not in escalation that almost certainly will end with Russia launching nuclear weapons when they are on the brink of defeat.

Edited July 17, 2022 by Todd_is_God