Ukraine - somebody explain to me

[myboynoah]

Ukraine never had a chance. They should negotiate a ceasefire before it is too late and a lot more civilians are killed.

The US and other countries are just making this whole thing worse right now... but I don't expect any of you here to understand this.

Yeah Ukrainians, the awesome life of Russians awaits you! Libertarians of the world unite!

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[myboynoah]

MAGA!

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[Moliere]

Russia's stock market has opened at all this week. I really wonder when they will open it. When they do, it's going to be ugly, like worse than Black Friday ugly. There is an enormous humanitarian crisis that is going to hit very soon, not in Ukraine but in Russia. It'll be interesting to see how Russia responds and I'm worried they are going to use the crisis to justify further aggression. I don't worry about them taking another country since it's very clear their army isn't exactly up to snuff and they'll need the army to occupy Ukraine and it's likely they'll also need their army to keep the peace at home as well as people begin to suffer inside of Russia.

[Katy Lied]

I have a soft spot for Tulsey Gabbard because she speaks samoan, and she's a vet, and she is a member of the airport-flower-waiving Hare Krishna without actually calling herself a hare krishna, and I am willing to excuse her early misguided comments. Twitter makes it possible for all politicians to get their gut reactions out, even dumb takes. I trust that she is more clear headed now.

Now Tucker Carlson - my husband is mad at me because I've been referring to him as Tokyo Rose.

[Jeff Lebowski]

MAGA!

Ha. That was my first thought too when I saw that tweet this morning. Same kind of idiot.

[Omaha 680]

Russia's stock market has opened at all this week. I really wonder when they will open it. When they do, it's going to be ugly, like worse than Black Friday ugly. There is an enormous humanitarian crisis that is going to hit very soon, not in Ukraine but in Russia. It'll be interesting to see how Russia responds and I'm worried they are going to use the crisis to justify further aggression. I don't worry about them taking another country since it's very clear their army isn't exactly up to snuff and they'll need the army to occupy Ukraine and it's likely they'll also need their army to keep the peace at home as well as people begin to suffer inside of Russia.

I guess a silver lining to this insanity is the myth of the unstoppable Russian Army has been shattered. The west was rightly terrified of a ground invasion in Europe to the point that using tactical battlefield nukes to slow a massive Soviet invasion was a legitimate potential strategy for most of the cold war. Putin has been living off those memories for a long time and it seems that time has run out.

[Moliere]

I guess a silver lining to this insanity is the myth of the unstoppable Russian Army has been shattered. The west was rightly terrified of a ground invasion in Europe to the point that using tactical battlefield nukes to slow a massive Soviet invasion was a legitimate potential strategy for most of the cold war. Putin has been living off those memories for a long time and it seems that time has run out.

The saying that "Russia is a gas station" is almost exactly correct and their problem is that they need an oil price around $70/bbl to break even on their national budget. They haven't been around that for a long time in spite of the recent surge in prices. I"m sure they aren't exactly in a good spot fiscally even before the invasion and there's good reason to assume the invasion was partially driven by the desire to control more of the pipelines and oil/gas production (even though Ukraine doesn't produce much, they have a lot of pipelines that run trhough it). Russian oil will always have a market, but it's going to be at a discount as worldwide pressure mounts against them. They best thing the US could do right now is drill and produce a lot of oil, but that won't happen for myriad reasons.

If I were in Russia (and even Russian) I'd be heading for another country yesterday. But I guess if I were Russian, I'd proably not have any idea of what is going on since it looks like Russia just shut down all independent journalism. I saw that the BBC is taking all reporters out of Russia due to a new law that could end up putting independent journalists in jail.

[Jeff Lebowski]

The saying that "Russia is a gas station" is almost exactly correct and their problem is that they need an oil price around $70/bbl to break even on their national budget. They haven't been around that for a long time in spite of the recent surge in prices. I"m sure they aren't exactly in a good spot fiscally even before the invasion and there's good reason to assume the invasion was partially driven by the desire to control more of the pipelines and oil/gas production (even though Ukraine doesn't produce much, they have a lot of pipelines that run trhough it). Russian oil will always have a market, but it's going to be at a discount as worldwide pressure mounts against them. They best thing the US could do right now is drill and produce a lot of oil, but that won't happen for myriad reasons.

If I were in Russia (and even Russian) I'd be heading for another country yesterday. But I guess if I were Russian, I'd proably not have any idea of what is going on since it looks like Russia just shut down all independent journalism. I saw that the BBC is taking all reporters out of Russia due to a new law that could end up putting independent journalists in jail.

15 year sentence for saying mean things about Putin's "Special Military Action".

[Commando]

The saying that "Russia is a gas station" is almost exactly correct and their problem is that they need an oil price around $70/bbl to break even on their national budget. They haven't been around that for a long time in spite of the recent surge in prices. I"m sure they aren't exactly in a good spot fiscally even before the invasion and there's good reason to assume the invasion was partially driven by the desire to control more of the pipelines and oil/gas production (even though Ukraine doesn't produce much, they have a lot of pipelines that run trhough it). Russian oil will always have a market, but it's going to be at a discount as worldwide pressure mounts against them. They best thing the US could do right now is drill and produce a lot of oil, but that won't happen for myriad reasons.

If I were in Russia (and even Russian) I'd be heading for another country yesterday. But I guess if I were Russian, I'd proably not have any idea of what is going on since it looks like Russia just shut down all independent journalism. I saw that the BBC is taking all reporters out of Russia due to a new law that could end up putting independent journalists in jail.

Ha- there is a campaign of people talking to Russians about the Ukraine invasion in the comments on sites like Tripadvisor, etc. I guess it won't be long before Russia shuts down the internets..

[Jeff Lebowski]

Ha- there is a campaign of people talking to Russians about the Ukraine invasion in the comments on sites like Tripadvisor, etc. I guess it won't be long before Russia shuts down the internets..

Russia truly is turning into North Korea.

[Bo Diddley]

Russia is in a no-win scenario. They will eventually take over Ukraine, but will pay a high price militarily. Even holding it after taking it will exact a high price. With the whole world against them, their economy is going to struggle mightily. Something has to give.

[Commando]

I'm still trying to digest (albeit with considerable indigestion) this Tulsi Gabbard tweet from two weeks ago:

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Presented with a kind of sweet smugness, it has elements of truth, but is grossly misleading, devoid of nuance, and is the kind of thing, like the execrable Tucker Carlson's observations, that Putin loves to rebroadcast in Russia. It's been fun watching her and Carlson backpedal a bit as they've been educated the past few days. I had mixed feelings about Gabbard before this, but not anymore.

Can't stand her. She always couches her ignorant bullshit with an explanation of what the word 'Aloha' means.

[Commando]

lol Putin really really stepped in it, didn't he?

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[Uncle Ted]

I guess a silver lining to this insanity is the myth of the unstoppable Russian Army has been shattered. The west was rightly terrified of a ground invasion in Europe to the point that using tactical battlefield nukes to slow a massive Soviet invasion was a legitimate potential strategy for most of the cold war. Putin has been living off those memories for a long time and it seems that time has run out.

Putin sent 80% of his army into Ukraine. The Russian army isn't all that big any more. The problem with Russia is they are sitting on like 3,000 nukes and Putin is too much of a crazy man that he might actually use them, especially if he feels cornered. The Russians have already been shelling a nuclear power plant which is leaking radiation now.

[Uncle Ted]

Russia truly is turning into North Korea.

A North Korea with nuclear delivery systems that can hit any target in the US and not be deflected by our defense systems.