Posted on 10/22/2025 2:39:32 AM PDT by ganeemead
Putin also made it hellish for the residents of Russian occupied Ukraine, drafting them into the army and using them as cannon fodder. Casualty rates for these units was estimated to be 50%.
Drafted and disposable
With the full-scale Russian invasion in 2022, civilian men were drafted en masse, often inadequately trained and poorly equipped before being assigned to near-impossible missions. This resulted in a staggering number of dead and missing soldiers, the fate of whom often remains unknown for months or years.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cgkm7lly61do
Bumping Putin out of power would be a disaster.
So where have you been? Back from your deployment in Ukraine?
Barrister who was disbarred after forging Lady Hale letter sued for £200,000 by ex-client
Past Disciplinary Findings for Mr. Alexander Stamatis Mercouris
A former barrister, was disbarred due to professional misconduct. The Bar Standards Board heard that he had misled a client by fabricating a story about winning a substantial legal settlement and used forged documents to support his claims. He even went so far as to claim he had been kidnapped and bribed by a senior member of the judiciary to drop a legal case. His misconduct included allegations that he forged the signature of Baroness Hale, who was at the time a Justice of the Supreme Court. Following these events, he was struck off the roll for misconduct, bringing the profession into disrepute.
https://www.barstandardsboard.org.uk/disciplinary_finding/76984.html
“Bumping Putin out of power would be a disaster.”
I listened to a Russia watcher who went through the decades long list of Putin-heir-apparents. Putin brings someone in and gives them lots of positions as if he’s training an heir. Then, he sends them off to obscurity in the outback of beyond and brings in another. The problem for Putin with having a ready replacement is...he has a ready replacement. He is acting as though he will live forever. The point is, no matter how much money and power he has, there is an expiration date. When that happens, there will be chaos as anybody who is anyone in Russia has his own private military. It will be bombs, bullets and missiles in streets. Hopefully, the people sitting on the nukes will keep them from being sold while this goes on. But each nuke sitting on a remote launcher would make that crew richer than 99% of the planet. Quite the temptation.
Just wait until Putin takes the gloves off.
Yeah, “new war” got my attention too.
If by “protecting” you mean killing thousands and destroying much of the Donbas, then I guess he has succeeded 😎
Right, because Putin will live forever? Putin is 73, someone new will probably take his place in the next 5 years. Most Russian leaders died in their 70's.
Stalin died at 74.
Khrushchev at 77.
Brezhnev at 75.
Yeltsin at 76.
“Colombia/Venezuela?”
Yes, absolutely, Venezuela and Cuba. Columbia is just a side bet and distraction. Did anyone actually think that relations would not deteriorate because Trump has decided to threaten and possibly invade two allies of Russia? Russia was just going to roll over and let him without any opposition or retaliation in return? It does not matter one bit who is right or wrong. The end result is going to be extremely negative and put our country at extreme risk. It is moving the war from “over there” to right in our back pocket. Only a dense fool cannot see this reality in cause and effect.
Again... It does not matter who is right or wrong. Righteousness will not change the real world result of these actions.
That’s not the same as our pushing it. The response of the country and its remaining leadership would be different.
seems Russia attacked Ukraine’s energy sector fairly often a year or 2 ago then sort of backed off
—
Yes a couple big strikes a month using expensive cruise missiles
Now it’s several times a week using both missiles and hundreds of cheaper drones which they are now mass producing 100’s per day
They have increased the payload of the drones from 50Kg to 90 and the speed
They are producing more cruise and ballistic missiles than before the war (remember Russia is going run out a missiles talk) including a version that the patriot only has a 10% success rate
They have increased the range and payload of glide bombs and are dropping 200 per day on targets
According fo Ukraine, They are now mass producing a new rocket/glide bomb system that can strike 200km away
They have also upgraded FPV battle field drones to a range of over 35KM
Mad-Vlad the Invader's publicly announced goals in Ukraine include the following:
Putin's Dmitry Medvedev showing
map of Russia's goals in Ukraine as of 2024:
Putin awards Solovyov:
Don't see any serious "pushing" from the west for a leadership change in the Kremlin. Trump wants a freeze of the battle lines, which only Putin rejects.
"Let it be cut the way it is. It's cut up right now. I think 78% of the land is already taken by Russia. You leave it the way it is right now," Mr. Trump told reporters Sunday on Air Force One, apparently referring specifically to the Donbas region. "They can negotiate something later on down the line. But I said cut and stop at the battle line. Go home. Stop fighting, stop killing people."
President Trump
You have to think about how really perverted Putin is. The Soviet Union occupied Eastern Europe as the result of defeating an occupier, Nazi Germany.
But now, Putin is trying to take it back by mass murder and turning the victim countries to rubble. No one wants the Russians back but he’s going to slaughter and destroy and yes, risk WW3 to do it.
Add in a brutal incompetence that has allowed a one month war to drag on four years.
Even if he wins, the Ukrainians (who already hated Russia) will despise the occupiers even more.
Not even a reasonably intelligent dictator would do things this way.
And all this nonsense about him “needing” Donetsk to protect Russia or Russians living there. He wants Donetsk because it’s been key in stopping his invasion, and it’s key to his future invasion.
After the Putin fantasy of Ukraine being Nazis who tortured all the Russian speakers, what do you think he’s going to do to the population if he wins? He’s already kidnapped many thousands of children.
And he claims Polish Nazis started WW2.
Plus plenty of stories from individuals of him being a psychopath.
VOLKSWAGEN’S €11 BILLION PROBLEM - GERMANY’S ENGINE IS STALLING
Volkswagen’s missing €11 billion.
That’s the cash shortfall threatening to grind the automaker’s operations to a halt beyond 2025.
Sales are collapsing in China, U.S. tariffs are biting, and Europe’s EV boom has turned into a slow crawl.
Add Germany’s soaring energy and labor costs, and the math starts to look fatal.
VW’s answer? Brutal cost cuts, asset sales, and a leadership shake-up that insiders say could define the company’s survival.
Analysts warn of credit downgrades, layoffs, and a blow to Germany’s industrial identity.
If Volkswagen sputters, it’s not just a car crisis - it’s a warning light for Europe’s entire economy.
Source: Reuters, Bloomberg
Colombia may be more than a sideshow. The coca plant is fairly limited in where if can be grown. Colombia, Peru, and Bolivia are the nations occupying that region. I’ve read that the Mexican cartels efforts to cultivate coca in Mexico were a failure. So, depending on the scope of any war against drugs coming into America, if cocaine is to be interdicted, Colombia will be a player, in some capacity. The overlay of the extra-governmental cartels is also a factor.
Ukraine's FP-5 Flamingo, test firing:
Even though they've been around for, what, 40 years?, still, when Pres. Trump talks about sending 2,000 to Ukraine, that could be half our inventory.
We only make a few dozen per year -- at least as of last year.
Today US production has increased, but by how much?
At the same time, we're told that Ukraine itself has developed a rough analogy to Tomahawk called Flamingo -- faster, longer range, heavier warhead, but less expensive guidance system, and supposedly produced at hundreds per month.
If all this can be believed, Ukrainians could have thousands of Flamingos (forget Tomahawks) ready in early 2026.
Last week, Pres. Trump answered a reporter's question on Tomahawks by saying he mentioned to Putin sending 2,000 Tomahawks to Ukraine, and Putin was not happy about that.
How happy will Putin be about being hit by thousands of Ukrainian built Flamingos?
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