Ukraine

[Unagi]

My main concern was sky pollution.

You continue to surprise me; you contain multitudes.

There was a YouTube video that was put out about this a while back.
Not kidding.

[hitbyambulance]

My main concern was sky pollution.

You continue to surprise me; you contain multitudes.

There was a YouTube video that was put out about this a while back.
Not kidding.

https://www.science.org/content/article ... re-worried

[Unagi]

My main concern was sky pollution.

You continue to surprise me; you contain multitudes.

There was a YouTube video that was put out about this a while back.
Not kidding.

https://www.science.org/content/article ... re-worried

[malchior]

Are there any alternatives to Starlink?

Not really. They could go back to line of sight comms but they'd lose a lot of the real-time intelligence sharing and other capabilities (video/pictures/remote control) that they've patterned their war effort around. There is a lot invested into this 'way of working' at the moment.

[Daehawk]

My main concern was sky pollution.

You continue to surprise me; you contain multitudes.

Im taking Tums for that.

[Max Peck]

Interesting, if true.

#BREAKING: Firefight erupts in military base in Russia’s Belgorod region near Ukraine according to Russian sources, reported of dead and wounded after possible recruits/mobilised forces open fire on other soldiers

[Holman]

Russian boot camp is more akin to prison than to Parris Island.

There have always been stories of trainees being beaten to death or otherwise suffering from the pecking order: more experienced soldiers extorting money or other forms of submission, rape, etc. Maybe it was Western propaganda, but I recall more than one story of a trainee opening fire on the rest of his platoon.

I'd be surprised if conditions have improved, especially under the present mobilization.

[Jaymann]

My understanding is there were so many beatings that morale actually did improve.

[Max Peck]

It appears that Musk has decided it is more advantageous to perpetuate the myth that SpaceX has been giving Ukraine a free ride than to cash in on an additional stack of government lucre.

Musk says SpaceX will keep funding Ukraine Starlink internet

Elon Musk says his rocket firm SpaceX will continue funding its Starlink internet service in Ukraine, a day after he said it could no longer do so.

"The hell with it... Even though Starlink is still losing money & other companies are getting billions of taxpayer $, we'll just keep funding Ukraine govt for free," he tweeted.

Starlink has been vital for Ukraine's military and people to stay online.

Ukraine says it helped to reboot key infrastructure after Russian attacks.

It's such a shame that SpaceX doesn't get any taxpayer dollars...

[LordMortis]

It's hard to tell delusion vs grift vs just being in business for me. That reads like delusion but he's been living off the gov't teat with his a mask of libertarianism for so long you'd think there would be gaping cracks in his ability to not see how his businesses are not constantly receiving billions of gov't generated revenue.

https://fourweekmba.com/how-does-spacex-make-money/

https://www.forbes.com/sites/rachelsand ... nd-access/

https://subsidytracker.goodjobsfirst.or ... /tesla-inc

https://news.bloombergtax.com/financial ... st-profits

To say nothing of EV tax credits on vehicles sold early in his expansion, funding his company while he was losing money hand over fist.

[Max Peck]

At least Musk is batting .500 on his foreign policy tweets. He may have backtracked on the Starlink grift, but his proposal for Taiwan submitting to China a la Hong Kong scored him a nice tax break from the Chinese government.

[Daehawk]

[Carpet_pissr]

To say nothing of EV tax credits on vehicles sold early in his expansion, funding his company while he was losing money hand over fist.

To be fair, that’s how those programs are supposed to work: put federal money behind businesses or tech that supports federal policy (reduce emissions, create new sectors, whatever). Haven’t looked at stats but the EV subsidies seem wildly successful from that perspective, what with GM and others making ‘EV only by X date’ announcements.

Probably would have happened anyway, organically, but nothing like injecting billions(?) of federal funds into something to shorten the timelines.

Elon’s douchiness really shouldn’t be a factor (in that specifically - I could see the nat sec issue mentioned upthread as needing some attention though)

[LordMortis]

To be fair, that’s how those programs are supposed to work: put federal money behind businesses or tech that supports federal policy (reduce emissions, create new sectors, whatever).

It's not being fair if you hold the libertarian view which holds that government spending is "other people's money"



https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/other-peoples-money/

[Alefroth]

https://www.cnn.com/2022/10/17/europe/r ... index.html

A Russian SU-34 fighter jet crashed into a residential building in the western city of Yeysk, which lies on the Sea of Azov, during a training flight Monday, according to Russian state media.

It's getting harder and harder to keep Russians in the dark about the war. This will likely be blamed on Ukraine nonetheless.

[Grifman]

A fascinating look at the growth in Western aid for Ukraine:

[Kraken]

That New Yorker article is worth its considerable read time.

[Carpet_pissr]

That New Yorker article is worth its considerable read time.

It’s also a great listen. LOVE when great articles like this have an audio option for us commuters. The Atlantic does that a lot as well.

In other news:
‘The new commander of President Vladimir Putin's army in Ukraine appears to be preparing the Russian public for the surrender of the occupied southern city of Kherson, amid a counteroffensive by Kyiv to retake its territory.’

I assume this man knows to avoid anything above the first floor for the next…ever.

[LawBeefaroni]

Desperate times, desperate measures.

Oct 19 (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday he was introducing martial law in four Russian-occupied regions of Ukraine that Moscow last month claimed as its own territory.

I take it as an indication the these regions weren't properly celebrating their new Russian overlords.

[Scraper]

Desperate the mes, desperate measures.

Oct 19 (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday he was introducing martial law in four Russian-occupied regions of Ukraine that Moscow last month claimed as its own territory.

I take it as an indication the these regions weren't properly celebrating their new Russian overlords.

Don't worry they got 99.4% of the population to vote for annexation, so I'm sure they'll comply

[Pyperkub]

A fascinating look at the growth in Western aid for Ukraine:

Why link the Twitter rather than the actual article?

[malchior]

Russia has charted towards genocide again.

[Kraken]

Good interview with Fiona Hill, "one of America’s most clear-eyed observers of Russia and Putin, who served as an adviser to former President Donald Trump and gained fame for her testimony in his first impeachment trial."

The West has come a long way since February in understanding the stakes in Ukraine, Hill says, but the world still hasn’t totally grasped the full challenge Putin is posing. Putin must be contained, Hill says, but that won’t happen unless and until international institutions established in the wake of World War II evolve so they can contain him. And that conversation is only just beginning.

“This is a great power conflict, the third great power conflict in the European space in a little over a century,” Hill says. “It’s the end of the existing world order. Our world is not going to be the same as it was before.”

[Carpet_pissr]

Good interview with Fiona Hill, "one of America’s most clear-eyed observers of Russia and Putin, who served as an adviser to former President Donald Trump and gained fame for her testimony in his first impeachment trial."

The West has come a long way since February in understanding the stakes in Ukraine, Hill says, but the world still hasn’t totally grasped the full challenge Putin is posing. Putin must be contained, Hill says, but that won’t happen unless and until international institutions established in the wake of World War II evolve so they can contain him. And that conversation is only just beginning.

“This is a great power conflict, the third great power conflict in the European space in a little over a century,” Hill says. “It’s the end of the existing world order. Our world is not going to be the same as it was before.”

Wow, must read. I don't know what her hyperbole scale is, but if it's zero...wow.

[LawBeefaroni]

Random: one of my coworkers' daughter did Fiona Hill's hair when she testified. Was a career changing do (for the daughter).

[malchior]

Good interview with Fiona Hill, "one of America’s most clear-eyed observers of Russia and Putin, who served as an adviser to former President Donald Trump and gained fame for her testimony in his first impeachment trial."

The West has come a long way since February in understanding the stakes in Ukraine, Hill says, but the world still hasn’t totally grasped the full challenge Putin is posing. Putin must be contained, Hill says, but that won’t happen unless and until international institutions established in the wake of World War II evolve so they can contain him. And that conversation is only just beginning.

“This is a great power conflict, the third great power conflict in the European space in a little over a century,” Hill says. “It’s the end of the existing world order. Our world is not going to be the same as it was before.”

Wow, must read. I don't know what her hyperbole scale is, but if it's zero...wow.

It's zero. And she's right. This is why I am watching the UK and US both spinning into chaos with dismay. The United States is clearly compromised on national security. And it is probably about to get much worse in a few months.

On top, she mentions Musk and in context it is even worse. One of our prominent business leaders is making decisions about Ukraine's battlefield communications, while flying national security space missions, commanding one of the largest companies in capitalization, and consuming a major media company with huge propaganda delivery value.

[paulbaxter]

This story is pretty wild. Head of major Ukrainian company being charged with treason. The story makes it sound so blatant, it almost sounds like a ridiculous comedy plot.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/ ... hone-calls

[Isgrimnur]

BBC

Ukraine has carried out a "massive" drone attack on the Black Sea Fleet in the Crimean port city of Sevastopol, damaging one warship, Russia says.

Nine drones were used, a top official said. Ukraine has not commented.
...
Russia said the ships targeted in Saturday's attack were involved in the internationally-brokered deal to allow grain exports from Ukrainian ports and hours later announced that it was suspending its participation in it.

[Carpet_pissr]

From what I read in a separate article, the ship that was hit was the CURRENT flagship of the Russian navy, since the Moscva was sunk (so #2 after the Moscva, and until this strike, was #1).

They have first person footage of the speedboat drone strike...it's pretty amazing too because you can see helicopters trying to shoot the drone and see bullets hitting the water all around it, then it goes RIGHT past a patrol boat that's trying to shoot it...then it approaches the ship and the feed goes dead of course.

[Isgrimnur]

[Daehawk]

Russia military should feel unsafe on so many levels.

[Alefroth]

And a consequence of this is that Russia halted the grain export deal. Now they are saying the will give free grain to poor countries.

[Pyperkub]

And a consequence of this is that Russia halted the grain export deal. Now they are saying the will give free grain to poor countries.

And who, exactly, believes them?

[Roman]

Turkey and the UN are now said to be providing convoy support for the grain shipments.

[Grifman]

Another Putin victory?

[LawBeefaroni]

Shove those territorial gains down the Ukrainians' throats!

[malchior]

There were real fears that the Kherson campaign would be bloody and protracted. The Russians probably do not have the capacity to stop them and are going to move the goalposts to say land corridor to Crimea is a victory. Let's see how that holds up.

[malchior]

The retreat from Kherson seems like a good time as any to rub this in Charap's face.

[Carpet_pissr]

Coincidentally and mysteriously immediately before the pullout:

‘Russian-installed official in Kherson region dies‘

Can you guess how he died?

Edit: ok that might have backfired, reading further. It was a trick question…defenestration was NOT the cause of death. I just assumed it was Putin punishing yet another commander that failed him, but increasingly looking like a Ukrainian revenge move considering how reviled he was.

(Car crash is the answer)

https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/09/europe/k ... index.html

[malchior]

Yeah but that story is dodgy too in characteristic fashion. The official story is that his driver was avoiding a truck that carried out a 'dangerous maneuver'. That guy was a flat out traitor to Ukraine so I won't be surprised to hear that Russia was trying to hush up they did a shit job of protecting him.