I couldn’t agree more! 
4 Likes
I have heard this line of thought. Since it is not very smart, I rank it high probability of being the US government thought.
Its economy grew at 3.6% last year. It has a debt to gdp of ~17%.
US GDP growth 2.5% last year (and that is a sketchy number because currently GDP does not equal GDI which I think indicates manipulation).
US debt to GDP is 131%
The way it looks to me is that even though the US economy is 8 times larger than Russia’s economy, we (the US alone) is spending more on the Ukraine war alone than Russia is spending.
The idea that Russian’s economy would collapse if the citizens could no longer buy McDonalds hamburgers or luxury hand bags made in China under a US brand seems ridicules on the surface. As if we actually make anything that Russia actually uses. Putting your name on a box doesn’t mean much and US corporations are pretty much a private label business for Asia.
It is simple when it comes to sanctions. What do they produce that we cannot live without? What do we produce that they cannot live without?
This is one reason why corporate America is so globalist. Without the globe, they have nothing. Without China, Apple couldn’t sell a phone. Ok, some are made in India with parts from China. Without the globe Apple is worth exactly zero. Its only value is its brand. A rancher with no cattle nor land only his trusty old branding iron.
The Ukraine war is an unmitigated disaster for the US.
10 Likes
FAFO… and we are now entering - or have already entered - the “find out” phase.
7 Likes
5 Likes
Great clip
2 Likes
This is a not-overly-biased pro-Ukraine guy on X. He’s a journo working for Bild-Zeitung, a German tabloid. With the usual caveat that AJAB (all journos are bastards), one can see that the GAE regime is getting worried about Russian advances.
When Regime mouthpieces express concerns, you can be sure the situation is more dire than they are letting on. Regime media have been preparing the public for more bad news on the Russian front for some months.
Here’s his latest tale of woe, for what it’s worth.
https://twitter.com/JulianRoepcke/status/1789374758552805386
https://twitter.com/JulianRoepcke/status/1789376296218222624
9 Likes
Science!
3 Likes
This particular journalist doesn’t seem to understand the concept of defenses. You don’t put defenses on the border, you put defenses where you get the most bang per buck.
1 Like
?Why am I skeptical of the veracity of this report. I suspect most everything reported out of Ukraine is propaganda - Russian or Ukrainian.
6 Likes
Yes, RFU is unapologetically pro-Ukraine, but they do provide interesting analysis and highlight innovations in tactics and weaponry. I’m assuming folks on this forum are sufficiently sophisticated to be able to take propaganda and still learn from it. At the same time, we’re trying to shape a realistic picture amongst ourselves.
Here’s some Ukrainian self-reflection Харьковские укрепления ''строили'' фиктивные фирмы. Кто виноват? | Украинская правда
Where Are the Fortifications? Kharkiv OVA Paid Millions to Fake Companies
Author: Martina Bohuslavets, Chairman of the Anti-Corruption Center “Mezha”
- Issue: Alleged theft of hundreds of millions of hryvnias intended for building fortifications in Kharkiv.
- Details:
- Contracts worth 7 billion hryvnias (~$189M) were given to fake companies for fortification construction.
- The Department of Housing and Communal Services and the Fuel and Energy Complex of the Kharkiv OVA awarded direct contracts to dubious firms.
- Companies involved: FOP Chaus I.O., Herz Industry LLC, Satisbud LLC, ATT BUD LLC, and Voskhod Woodworking Enterprise LLC.
- These companies were registered shortly before receiving contracts and had questionable owners with legal issues.
- The scheme exploited individuals unaware of their involvement as company owners.
3 Likes
7 Likes
Here is a logical counter-measure, probably deployable as a software update to a drone: aim at the jammer. At $7k/jammer, could use a squad of drones that includes a few low-cost kamikadze drones to eliminate the jammers.
7 Likes
That would not just eliminate the jammer – a suitable explosive device dropped on top of the jammer would probably eliminate most of the 8-10 soldiers in the “protected” group.
Attack and defense seem to be in a neck-and-neck race in drone world. However this kind of defensive move just rehashes the radar problem – switch on the radar and you know where the enemy is; but you also tell the enemy exactly where you are.
4 Likes
Not necessarily. When TX and RX stations are not colocated, RX stations are difficult to identify (e.g. passive sonar). If TX stations are cheap, multiple and scattered at locations known to RX stations, the RX stations do not have direct exposure. Only indirect, based on known or speculated operating TX/RX range.
6 Likes
That is true for some radar set-ups, but it makes the point about the competition between defense and attack. Initially, radar installations were both transmit & receive. The move to separate them in some types of installation was a response to the ease of attacking the transmitter.
In the case of the proposed Ukrainian game-changing jammer, the man-carried jammer is the transmitter. It won’t take long for the other side to devise a weapon to home in on the jamming signal.
5 Likes
Ukrainians seem to have been killing Russians just with annoyingly colored pieces of plastic these days: https://www.patreon.com/posts/20-may-fooled-up-104626633
In the big scheme of things, the average IQ of Russia is increasing because of this though…
I’m reminded of this tale:
A farmer and his son had a beloved horse who helped the family earn a living. One day, the horse ran away and their neighbours exclaimed, “Your horse ran away, what terrible luck!” The farmer replied, “Maybe so, maybe not.”
A few days later, the horse returned home, leading a few wild horses back to the farm as well. The neighbours shouted out, “Your horse has returned, and brought several horses home with him. What great luck!” The farmer replied, “Maybe so, maybe not.”
Later that week, the farmer’s son was trying to break one of the horses and she threw him to the ground, breaking his leg. The neighbours cried, “Your son broke his leg, what terrible luck!” The farmer replied, “Maybe so, maybe not.”
A few weeks later, soldiers from the national army marched through town, recruiting all boys for the army. They did not take the farmer’s son, because he had a broken leg. The neighbours shouted, “Your boy is spared, what tremendous luck!” To which the farmer replied, “Maybe so, maybe not. We’ll see.”
7 Likes
In the meantime, the pro-Russian political forces in Germany shut down the plan to build dedicated drone units:
But, good things might happen… Sometime by 2040…
5 Likes
4 Likes
A heartfelt report:
5 Likes
8 Likes