Free Republic

Not sure what you’re talking about. the Defense line that Ukraine broke through is identified as the Surovikin line. I would say that it looks like they’ve only penetrated the first TWO of what looks like THREE defensive lines, but this is DEFINITELY NOT the No Man’s Land. In fact, once they punch through the THIRD line, it’s pretty much wide open until Melitopol. I mean, I presume the Russians will expend mobile forces in places like Orkhiv, but these three lines ARE the big three defensive lines, and now two of three are gone.

Check with Colonel McGregor, though. He’ll be able to reassure you that the neo-Soviets will never get past Robotyne.

>> What did they do with all that money? <<

Hey, lawyers ain’t cheap.

The amazing thing is that most of Trump’s attacks on DeSantis sound like Democrats: When Trump handed over the reigns of global domination over to Fauci, DeSantis didn’t submit, so Trump lies about how much better NY Gov Hochul was then DeSantis. That’s just disgusting. OTOH, the flack that PAC got for “trashing” our “likely candidate” was for pointing out that Trump attacked Iowa’s Republican governor.

All the firepower expended on DeSantis belies the 100-a-day FReeper articles that DeSantis has no chance and has faded into oblivion.

>> That would reward illegal aggression, <<

Crimea was firmly under Russian control before the invasion of Ukraine.

>> and establish post war conditions that enable and embolden future Russian aggression, and substantially weaken Ukraine’s and Europe’s position.<<

Russia’s conduct during the war has already weakened it gravely. If that were not true, continuing the war would be suicidal. At what point will sufficient “punishment” be enough? Understand two things: (1) Ukraine will never get Crimea back, short of a direct U.S.-led land invasion of Moscow, and (2) There comes a point where the cost of Crimean revanchism increases to the U.S./NATO relative to the cost to Russia, and we start weakening faster than Russia.

>> Arguably <<

Means, “there’s no way in the world that I could possibly defend this ludicrous statement, but I’m going to make it anyway and just attach this so I can disavow it if I need to.”

>> Continued Russian occupation of Crimea would provide a base for future Russian land attack. It was the vector that was the most successful for them in their 2022 invasion, and best supports a potential future ground attack toward Odesa. <<

That is outright falsehood. They quickly captured Kherson because the treasonous mayor allowed them through the city’s defenses. The first serious resistance the invaders met was in Mikolaiv, where they lost. They also failed at conquering Zaporizzhia city, which is very far from the nuclear facility named after Zaporizzhia oblast, or any of the more populous northern end of Zaporizzhia oblast.

They’re called the Grand Divisions of Tennessee. Memphis, Nashville and Knoxville are absolutely the economic capitals of each Division, there’s not much in law to maintain the three Divisions; they’re each sorta the natural result of geography. The main legal affect is in representation to non-elective offices: for some examples, no more than two of five Supreme Court justices can come from the same region; the state textbook committee includes one non-teacher from each region; the Public Services Commission required each of the three commissioners to be from a different Division.

Most of the continuing effects of the Divisions simply come spontaneously from the cultural differences.

About Spencer rifles: Probably? Google says that Rosencranz (who led the Union army at Chickamauga) used them heavily in the June, 1863 Battle of Hoover’s Gap, part of the Tullahoma campaign.

Thank you for sharing that information. My comment was meant more as a condemnation of Poroshenko’s conduct of the war. My current opinion is that Crimea should remain part of Russia, and that something more complicated is probably required of the Donbas. Suggesting an independent state is probably insufficient because any such state will have a difficult time retaining its functional independence. Understand that my condemnation of Poroshenko is that he has made re-integration impossible, not that re-integration should not have otherwise happened.

To be clear, before the history buffs jump all over me: The Confederacy fought HARD for East Tennessee; Chickamauga was the second bloodies battle of the war by some measures, and the Battle of Knoxville was a key victory almost three years into the war. And East Tennessee was the spine that united the Confederacy! I meant only that from a political perspective, East Tennessee wasn’t core Confederacy

Tbe Battle of Chickamauga. The subtle, valid propaganda is interesting: the headline is “The Great Battle in Georgia,” emphasizing that the Union has now breached the core of the confederacy. East Tennessee was anti-slavery; it was dragged by the rest of Tennessee into seceding, and was almost severed, like West Virginia, except the Union couldn’t occupy it, so it defaulted to confederate control. Therefore, “capturing” East Tennessee wasn’t a big deal. (To this day, Tennessee is divided into three governmental regions, including East Tennessee.) To be in Georgia, on the other hand!

Deaths and casualties ended up beng fairly similar, with more Union troops being captured, but more Confederate troops being injured without capture.

Taken as a single battle, Chickamauga would go down in history as a confederate victory, because the Confederates repulsed the Northern attack. But Bragg was unable to claim most of the equipment briefly left by the Union, nor capitalize on the gains made possible by retreat. The Union was quickly able to regroup and, boosted by increasing numbers, take Chattanooga. Once the confederate seige of Chattanooga was lifted, the Union was quickly able to consolidate East Tennessee by winning the Battle of Knoxville. Once Spring came, the Atlanta campaign would begin.

A rather ugly and stupid way at looking at it. The biggest winner by far is the nation which is sitting by and growing rich while the West depletes its military and economic strength: China.

China is already claiming Russian territory, and Russia is so weak it can only grovel in response.

The Soviet apologists on FR sicken and disgust me. To think that formerly patriotic Americans could be so manipulated by foreign governments! Yes, we taunted a savage dog until he pulled his chains loose. But he is nonetheless a savage dog.

At the same time, Ukraine did everything it possibly could to delegitimize its dominion over Crimea, and Poroshenko conducted his war with the Donbas in such a way that the Donbas could never be reintegrated into Ukraine. There is no justice demanding in demanding the Donbas or Crimea be returned to Ukraine.

It is time to make peace.

Hold on, let’s not absolve government corruption here. As Democrat-loving as I’m sure Google is, the CIA ordered Google to lie for Biden.

He’s not wrong, though.

The price of eating out has gone absolutely goofy.

The “99-cent menu” at McDonald’s is now called the “$1-$2-$3” menu, but most of the items on it are more than $3. Whoppers at Burger King cost what sit-down restaurants charged before coronavirus. $8 sit-down meals now cost $20.

Fun fact: You can do this is in sheet music with symbols like this: 𝄆 and 𝄌

Getty Lee is John Lennon?

(Wait... this makes sense... Rush was formed as the Beatles began to break up...)

>> ‘Africanized honey bees’ are a deadly species that have now invaded N America. Gotta be very careful. There are some do’s and dont’s regarding what to do if attacked by a swarm. <<

Not exactly. African honey bees are the same species as the European (or “Western”) honey bee; just a different, more aggressive population. (Honey bees are not native the United States.) Africanized honey bees are a hybrid between African honey bees and European honey bees, which escaped from researchers in Brazil in the 1960s.

Merrick Garland is precisely twice as Jewish as Adolf Hitler.

I like Pink Floyd, too. ;-)

Does Charlie Brown control the nuclear football?

Uh.... you know this happened last year, right?

“Dayum, that was close!”