By Jo Nova
Remember how the war with Ukraine was going to accelerate the green energy revolution?
The Flakpanzer Gepard needs more ammo, not solar panels. Photo By Hans-Hermann Bühling
For some reason, unreliable wind and solar power are not helping German industry build more tank ammunition. Instead, the federal government is allegedly talking to the state governments about taking green subsidies and spending the money on factories to build shells instead. And they are building those factories near the coal plants.
Just a couple of weeks ago, the chief of Germany’s army warned that sending weapons and arms to Ukraine has left military stockpiles “bare”.
Germany led the way in the great Green Energiewende transformation spending in the order of €32 billion a year, every year, in a quest for green electrons. Instead of creating peace on Earth and better weather, it just made the legendary economic powerhouse of Europe weak and vulnerable.
Tell the world, if the Germans can’t run a nation efficiently on “renewable” power, who can?
It’s perhaps not the Reset Klaus had in mind:
Great Reset Fail? Germany Mulls Diverting Green Agenda Cash Aimed at Killing Coal to Arms Industry
Kurt Zindulka, Breitbart
The German government is reportedly considering diverting green agenda subsidies aimed at cutting coal power to the defence industry in order to ramp up production of arms amid the war in Ukraine.
A report from Bloomberg claims that the federal government in Berlin is conducting confidential conversations with regional state governments to direct green subsidies to produce more weapons and ammunition and thereby create more jobs in areas of the country impacted by the attempted move away from coal.
According to a source familiar with the plans who spoke to the news organisation, German defence contractor Rheinmetall AG is planning to build a factory to produce the basic components for ammunition in the state of Saxony, one of the main hubs of the coal industry in the country.
Trump did warn them.
Now the German Greens despair,
Because military stockpiles are bare,
As the loss of their grants,
Goes to shell-making plants,
Near coal power they need for warfare.
–Ruairi
When the factory is ready and able to produce what ever, I hope the war will be over at this time.
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The war will not end while everyone in the weapons industries is making fortunes dumping and replacing their very old stock. It’s a real bonanza for the heavy manufacturers. War is always about money and power and civil wars are terrific as none of your own people die and your potential enemies are crippled and you can live test your latest weapons. I was appalled recently when the Ukranians shot up a school used as a Russian barracks an with the new US shrapnel shells and boasted of killing 600 Russian soldiers in their beds. What a triumph of technology. The good guys striking back. Imagine if the Russians had done that.
Most of the wars since WWII have been Civil wars which are particularly lucrative and geographically contained and fire up the munitions industries of many countries. Even Iran is making money! No refunds or product guarantees.
The US Civil war caused more loss of American lives than all wars since and yielded so many great inventions. And Shrapnel’s earlier invention of the exploding shell came into its own as against the Napoleonic era solid cannon balls. The race for bigger shells, longer guns and greater range kept going until the German rail guns of WWII with a staff of 250 plus more to lay track and a shell of 7 tonnes. And the bankers cannot keep up the supply of cash, often to both sides.
The share of the deadly trade in arms is now
Characteristic Share of international arms exports
United States 39%
Russia 19%
France 11%
China 4.6%
Germany 4.5%
Yes, it’s all about the principal. And as always, the Russians are the bad guys. When hasn’t that been true?
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Before WWII Mrs Krupp of Krupp Steel was Hitler’s greatest fan and financial backer. That was Mussolini’s great invention, socialism partnered with the capitalist classes. At the time Krupp was the biggest company in the world. Thyssen Krupp are still there.
Wars are easy to start and near impossible to end. Ending the loss and suffering of the people in the sandwich is never the motivation.
While the UN prances about with Carbon Credits, where are they? The entire purpose of Roosevelts’ United Nations was to prevent war, not encourage it. 40-80,000 people doing nothing, saying nothing. Too busy shutting down food and industry and demanding more carbon cash to save the planet?
And do not expect Bidens and Son to stop it. Likely they started it.
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Agreed TdeF, but it was not entirely Mussolini’s invention, half of his La dottrina del fascismo was written by the father of fascism, the Hegelian Marxist Giovanni Gentile. Fascism is just an alternative interpretation of collectivism and socialism (hence “National Socialism”).
National Socialism is Fascism with additional racial and nationalist elements.
There is a good reason the Left have written Gentile out of history, they don’t want it to be known that Fascism and National Socialism is of the Left, not the freedom-loving right.
Benedetto Croce wrote of Gentile:
This results in the “public-private partnership” which we saw under the Fascists and the National Socialists and today in places with Leftist regimes like Australia, NZ, Canada, UK and the US. Big companies co-operate with Government or else! E.g. the social(ist) media.
The National Socialists had a partnership with Elite business interests who supported the regime’s objectives and offered generous subsidies and contracts. Sound familiar? E.g. any “green” project or any covid-related project today.
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…”socialism partnered with the capitalist classes”… Now where have we seen that in place or being planned in the recent past?
The whole Climate scam is built on it with the UN the main instigator…and our Jim and Albosleazy are planning to go all in on it…now I hear noises coming from Big Business against the Albo government while they were part of the cheerleaders for this bunch during the last election…if the consequences would not hit the people the hardest, I would have cheered Albo and co on to let the Business sector suffer for their idiocy…idiots.
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Freedom isn’t free, peaceniks never prevented a war. Chamberlin discovered that.
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Stockpiles will still need to be replenished. Not much use having a military if they have nothing that goes bang.
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‘Green’ power will never supply enough electricity to maintain civilisation at its present level. It only works if the nation is prepared to go back to the past way of life with the lords telling the peasants what to do and when to do it.
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Maintain actual civilisation level is not a target. Just the contrast.
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That is, indeed, the objective.
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Get rid of wood, coal, oil, gas, nuclear and petrol cars and trucks and have everyone use electricity.
Then get control of electrical distribution and get one big on/off power switch.
And put it in the office of the dictator. Who now literally has all the power.
Isn’t that what is really happening? Power comes from the barrel of a gun. In peacetime, the office of the head of State who can shut everyone or anyone one down as he pleases. It’s happening all over the world.
Which is why coal, gas, oil, nuclear have to go. Power corrupts but Electrical power corrupts absolutely.
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And yes, governments have worked out how to tax the air you breathe.
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I’ve always maintained that the old Communist way of controlling labour, resources,land etc have now been surpassed by the NEW COMMUNISTS who’re far more vicious, and need a far more easy to control weapon. ENERGY!
Why bother with all the other tools & the problems they present. Control of the OVERIDING TOOL is energy. Control the one resource every body is reliant on and you then have full control over the whole planet. Simple really!
Problem is the electorates of the important western economies don’t have the brains to see where they’re being led by the likes of the WEF, the UN and the socialist governments!
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The rubber is meeting the road at last. Will the “Next Thing” be WWWIII nuclear exchanges or a financial collapse? AGW and ESG amongst other fantasies is applying the handbrake to the world at a time where we should be the happiest and most fulfilled. I am confident that the great reset will happen- maybe a redo of the French revolution may be in order!
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On the contrary –
Right from the start Schwab has asserted that “The Great Reset” would be borne out of a decade of massive international turmoil that would basically bring the nations to their knees, paving the way for the “New Order” to take over. He quoted the start date for this to be 2020, with The Great Reset taking over completely by 2030.
Seems to me that so far everything is pretty much on schedule.
Unfortunately.
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It has never really been about fighting “global warming.”
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Herr Kommandant Klaus Schwab has just taken the concept of the The Fourth Reich and rebranded and repackaged it as per his book The Fourth Industrial Revolution. Also, instead of the traditional Norse gods of the National Socialists has replaced them (and traditional theistic Western religion) with transhumanism as the religion of his movement.
An interesting short essay about transhumanism.
https://www.acton.org/religion-liberty/volume-28-number-4/transhumanism-religion-postmodern-times
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Beats me why Schwab hasn’t met James Bond yet. Or are their Royal Majesties in on the game?
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Schwab will never know as he will be dead by 2030 and so will the ‘Great Reset’ IMHO. It just won’t work as just like Communism, it goes against basic Human Nature.
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Seems to me … that whilst Trump wanted NATO to be funded by it’s members, rather than the USA paying for most of it, it is Putin that has successfully gotten the NATO membership to ante up.
Last year Putin was being hailed for getting the EU to switch from fossil fuels to renewables … now it seems his actions are leading to a major EU rethink of the global warming dogma.
Strange days indeed
Most peculiar, mama!
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There’s a little green idol
North of Katmandu
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?.???
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From “Nobody Told Me”, John Lennon
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Ah, mystery I can explain.
AHLD used lyrics from John Lennon’s song Nobody Told Me.
RoQ appears to have recognised the lyrics and added more.
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Further, John Lennon borrowed the “yellow idol” line from a poem by J. Milton Hayes, titled “The Green Eye of the Yellow God”.
From the Wiki entry
It is set in Nepal (“to the north of” Kathmandu), and tells the tale of a wild young officer known as “Mad Carew”, who steals the “green eye” of a “yellow god” (presumably an emerald in a gold statue) in order to impress his beloved. He is wounded in the course of the robbery, and later murdered, presumably by a devotee of the god for the theft, who returns the jewel to the idol.
John Lennon uses the opening line in the posthumously released song “Nobody Told Me” (changing “one-eyed” to “little”).
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Green_Eye_of_the_Yellow_God
The full poem here https://allpoetry.com/The-Green-Eye-Of-The-Little-Yellow-God
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There is nothing quite like a real emergency to focus the attention of the blob. As interest rates continue to climb and power prices spiral out of control the blob here will take more notice of all those wonderful green plans that might “save the world” but ruin theirs in the process. I note the Oz had another column on the false economies of EVs. 20 cents per kWh equivalent for petrol and anything up to 44 cents per kWh for electricity. Add in the 10 year battery costing $30000 and the $60000 initial price tag and an EV looks a very expensive alternative no matter how “green” it supposedly is.
Getting back to the war I note Biden is sending 31 Abrams tanks and the Germans are sending a companies worth of Leopards. Excellent tanks but at the Battle for Kursk in 1943 in much the same area they would have been destroyed in less than half an hour. Tanks must be protected with infantry and they must be just as mobile under armour protection , that is armoured personnel carriers. With all that the Ukranians still only have an armoured brigade facing a Russian Division. Not really a fair fight.
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Firstly, the tanks have to arrive
Secondly, how many Ukrainians have been trained?
Thirdly, how much ammunition has been supplied?
Fourthly, what about the mental health of the quartermasters who have to deal with 4 different types** of ammunition and delivery of them to the right unit?
** Allowing for the existing (?) tanks.
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The quartermasters wont allow anything to be delivered, they need to be kept in store in case someone needs them.
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Alexander Mecouris this morning –
“Russia Bakhmut on Brink of Capture, Big Russian Kharkov Gains; Zelensky Loses Key Ally Reznikov”
https://rumble.com/v28k9r8-russia-bakhmut-on-brink-of-capture-big-russian-kharkov-gains-zelensky-loses.html
Allowing that is anywhere near right a bit more hand waving on the political front and the QM’s likely won’t have that problem.
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And whose side is billionaire Κolomoisky on?
I believe he backed Zelensky’s run for President but they’ve since fallen out (?).
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As regards 2) Ukrainians are being trained to use challenger tanks not 10 miles from me. Some 20000 infantry have also been trained in the same area to use NATO tactics
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A large number of Australian Defence Force personnel have flown to the UK to train Ukraine military.
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The US is training pilots – on F 16s, I think.
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It’s all falling apart in Ukraine.
Politico no less
Ukraine army discipline crackdown sparks fear and fury on the front
Critics say new legislation that punishes deserters and rule-breakers more harshly contravenes human rights and demotivates military personnel.
KYIV — President Volodymyr Zelenskyy refused to veto a new law that strengthens punishment for wayward military personnel on Thursday, rejecting a petition signed by over 25,000 Ukrainians who argue it’s too harsh.
“The key to the combat capability of military units and ultimately of Ukraine’s victory, is compliance with military discipline,” Zelenskyy said in his written response to the petition.
Ukrainian soldiers have stunned the world with their resilience and battlefield successes, withstanding a year-long onslaught from Russian troops. But among Kyiv’s forces, made up largely of fresh recruits lacking previous military experience or training, some are struggling to cope. There are those who have rebelled against commanders’ orders, gotten drunk or misbehaved; others, running low on ammunition and morale, have fled for their lives, abandoning their positions.
Seeking to bring his forces into line, Zelenskyy in January signed into force a punitive law that introduces harsher punishment for deserters and wayward soldiers, and strips them of their right to appeal.
The law aims to standardize and toughen the repercussions for rule-breaking, improving discipline and the combat readiness of military units. Disobedience will be punishable by five to eight years in prison, rather than the previous two to seven; desertion or failure to appear for duty without a valid reason by up to 10 years. Threatening commanders, consuming alcohol, questioning orders and many other violations will also be dealt with more harshly, potentially with prison time; those who broke these rules in the past may have gotten away with a probation period or the docking of their combat pay.
Those who lobbied in favor of the new law, such as the Ukrainian Army General Staff, argue it will make discipline fairer: Previously, because courts adjudicated infractions on a case-by-case basis, some perpetrators were able to escape punishment for serious rule-breaking entirely, while others received harsher sentences for less significant violations, according to an explanatory note that accompanied the new law.
But soldiers, lawyers and human rights watchdogs have slammed the measures as an inappropriate and blunt instrument that won’t deal with the root causes of military indiscipline — and over 25,000 Ukrainians called on the president to veto the law altogether in a petition submitted to the president late last year.
The new punitive rules remove discretion and turn courts into a “calculator” for doling out punishment to soldiers, regardless of the reasons for their offenses, lawyer Anton Didenko argued in a column on Ukraine’s Interfax news agency.
“This law will have negative consequences for the protection of the rights of military personnel who are accused of committing a crime and will reduce the level of motivation during service,” an NGO, called the Reanimation Package of Reforms Coalition, said in a statement. “This can carry risks both for the protection of human rights and for the defense capability of the state.”
Zelenskyy’s military commanders disagree, arguing the measures are necessary to hold firm in the face of Russia’s assault.
Army of civilians
Markus said commanders frequently didn’t understand the problems and shortages faced by their troops on the ground due to local sergeants failing to communicate with them. He played videos of soldiers complaining about a lack of weapons or inappropriate or illegal orders from their commanders, before telling those in the audience that most problems could be resolved internally through the proper channels, while publicly airing complaints discredited Ukraine’s army and undermined attempts to help troops.
“Do I recognize the existence of problems that lead to the arbitrary abandonment of positions? Yes,” Zaluzhnyi said in his video supporting the reforms. “Am I working on their elimination? Successful operations to liberate the territories of our state are a confirmation of that.”
But members of Ukraine’s armed forces, many of whom have expressed respect for Zaluzhnyi, were deeply disappointed by his support of the new law.
“It is very demotivating. This is such a striking contrast with Zaluzhnyi’s human- and leader-oriented ‘religion,’” said Eugenia Zakrevska, a human rights lawyer who enlisted in the war effort and is now a member of the 92nd Ivan Sirko Separate Mechanized Brigade. This was a pointed reference to an interview the commander-in-chief gave to the Economist in December, in which he said that unlike the Kremlin, the “religion” he and Ukraine practised was “to remain human in any situation.”
Treating the symptoms, not the disease
It is only out of sheer desperation that soldiers leave their posts, Zakrevska argued, adding that to prevent desertion, commanders should rotate fighters more frequently. But she acknowledged that in many places, R&R for the troops is impossible due to a shortage of combat-capable fighters.
Most brigades are full, Zakrevska said — but some of those in them aren’t fit to fight, and “it is impossible to fire them. Because no one can be fired from the army at all. Only after a verdict in a criminal case. Such a system also greatly undermines morale. Because it turns service in the army from an honorable duty into a punishment.”
“In the situations of despair and complete exhaustion, fear of criminal liability does not work,” Zakrevska argued.
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Russia is churning out legacy classics by the gazillion while the Biden administration places more orders for Homer’s car with Raytheon.
No they won’t: – Wunderwaffen Won’t Save Ukraine.
There is still the prospect for diplomacy and negotiation to resolve the war in Ukraine. But nothing about Biden or his administration suggests either the wisdom or restraint to take such a course.
Throughout the war, the Germans undeniably had more sophisticated and superior weapons, including their Panther and Tiger tanks. They also developed jet fighters, as well as the first cruise and ballistic missiles. In addition to these technical advantages, the German Wehrmacht had an innovative and decentralized system of tactics and maintained rigorous training for officers through the end of the war.
Even so, in spite of such qualitative superiority, by 1944 it was obvious Germany was going to lose. Israeli historian Omer Bartov goes further and argues that Germany was destined to lose the war from the moment it invaded the Soviet Union. Germany’s chief disadvantage was the size, or rather lack of size, of its population and economy, compared to the combined might and numbers of the British, American, and Soviet empires.
Economic Power and Wars
As Germany retreated from its high-water mark in 1942, many Germans consoled themselves with rumors that Hitler was setting a trap. The rumor went as follows: as soon as the Germans appeared to be defeated, they would unleash a fusillade of Wunderwaffen, i.e., wonder weapons, which would turn the tide, exact revenge on the allies, and lead to a German victory.
No such victory would be forthcoming. In a war of attrition, numbers, supply chains, and mass end up counting for more than the quality of armaments and other technological advantages. As Paul Kennedy famously argued in The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers,
The triumph of any one Great Power in this period, or the collapse of another, has usually been the consequence of lengthy fighting by its armed forces; but it has also been the consequences of the more or less efficient utilization of the state’s productive economic resources in wartime, and, further in the background, of the way in which that state’s economy had been rising or falling, relative to the other leading nations, in the decades preceding the actual conflict.
A similar dynamic is currently underway in Ukraine. Russia, the supposed basket case nation with an economy “the size of Italy’s,” has not only survived, but turned the tide, in spite of crushing Western sanctions. Talk of a winter offensive by the Ukrainian army has disappeared, as casualties mount and Russia surrounds concentrated Ukrainian forces.
American media seem confused, but this is probably because very little of this war is “telegenic” when compared to the American Gulf War. Rather, this is a war of attrition, where artillery is predominant, the battles are slow and dirty, and the chief technological marvel is the widespread use of cheap drones to augment the abilities of forward observers.
An Industrial Economy Proves Resilient
Russia’s industrial age economy is apparently well suited for a war of attrition, as Russia has the ability to produce both food and other necessities for her people, while also producing tanks, endless kamikaze drones, and an order-of-magnitude more artillery shells than its opponent. Meanwhile, Ukraine’s economy is destroyed, with its government payroll and military budget entirely dependent on Western subsidies.
Not only can Russia produce more than Ukraine, but it turns out, at least for now, that it can produce more arms and ammunition than the entire West. Having offshored much of its dual-use industrial infrastructure to China in service to globalization over the last 20 years, the West’s military industrial complex is now only optimized for profits. Western leaders mistook economic activity measured by GDP with productive capacity.
Thus, the United States and NATO can produce very sophisticated weapons systems like the F-35 and the Patriot missile, but can only do so slowly and expensively. Like German industry producing sophisticated, but delicate and expensive tanks during World War II, the western arms industry is not optimized for either speed or volume. It will take years to catch up.
By contrast, Russia has followed its successful World War II practice of producing many good (but not great) weapons, which are simple and reliable, like the T-90 tank. Moreover, Russia appears to possess domestic factories and techniques to produce mountains of artillery shells, which are now pulverizing the large numbers of Ukrainian forces gathered in Bakhmut.
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A modified T-64 (built in Ukraine) has turned the tide against Russia
‘It should come as no surprise that the Russian army’s armor corps seems to be devolving back to the 1980s. The Russian army widened its war on Ukraine with thousands of reasonably modern T-72, T-80 and T-90 tanks—and quickly lost more than 1,500 of them to Ukrainian artillery, anti-tank missile teams and, yes, tanks.
‘As Russian losses deepened, the Kremlin opened up warehouses and vehicle parks where as many as 10,000 old tanks lay moldering. Ironically, many of the newer T-72 and T-80 tanks in long-term storage were in worse condition than were T-62s from the 1970s.’ (Forbes)
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The why are the West sending Challengers, Leopards, and Abrahms?
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The chatter from the frontline suggests the T-64 is lighter, faster and more manoeuvrable than the newer Russian models.
The donated tanks from the West are also overweight for the terrain, so they will be kept back from close fighting until superior fire power is required.
The only problem with the T-64 is that they are continually breaking down.
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Forbes!! serial Russia haters and go to for East Coast establishment types. The ones who brought down Trump.
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“Seeking to bring his forces into line, Zelenskyy in January signed into force a punitive law that introduces harsher punishment for deserters and wayward soldiers, and strips them of their right to appeal.”
The iron fist behind the comedian!
Since mid-last year there has been stories (Russian propaganda of course) from captured Ukie soldiers about being left at the front lines by their officers who retreated to their billets miles behind. They wouldn’t see an officer or get any news for days at a time.
The officers were often the remnants of those brigades with the WW2 German eagle fascination and were there to shoot anyone seen not ‘doing their duty’..
‘Questioning orders’ was filmed on two occasions that I’ve seen, groups of 20 or more soldiers arguing with officers about being sent to some front line or other, these days it would be Bakhmut, worse than WW1 trenches.
Ukrainian Security forces have been stopping any young guys randomly and press-ganging them into the army, that’s been ongoing for 6months or more. A new law like this will just make the Govt more hated by the people, that will need more repression, a downward spiral they saw under Communism.
This is American freedom for you, people..
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Very interesting KP. I always like to get a taste of what is really going on.
Of course the narrative is simply we must fight for our freedoms, no further enquiry done or advised.
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Remind me, who did America attack?
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Here’s a reminder:
https://i.redd.it/w2n9ytnkhnq51.png
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You are quoting Politico.
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In modern warfare those tanks are not only protected by infantry, but more importantly air cover. Certainly, Ukraine don’t appear to have any ascendency in air cover so those tanks are just sitting ducks. Plus, the Russians have satellites and probably have at least 1 parked over that part of Ukraine. So, they can observe everything that is going on. All those tanks are going to do, is serve as photo opportunities.
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Last year I was thinking the Age of Tank Warfare is over.
Who wants to sit in a tank waiting to be taken out by ONE GUY with a shoulder-mounted rocket. He’s probably not even in your line of sight — he only needs to launch it vaguely in your direction. It launches at low velocity, guides itself to a position high overhead, locks in its target and comes crashing down at high velocity.
It must be essential to have enough ground troops to clear a space around each tank as it advances. What would that need to be? … a 5 km radius?
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Western Tanks have an protection system called by the British, Chobam. It’s more sophisticated than a simple thick plate of alloy steel. As I understand it, it features a spaced array. The outer plate which is treated to specific hardness and strength is a certain fraction of thickness to the primary plate, which is in turn a specif hardness and strength. The space must be of enough depth as well.
The inclusion of a spaced array helps to defeat shaped charge munitions.
For defeating armour piercing projectiles, such a system has certain advantages compared to a single thick plate. Armour piercing projectiles are capped meaning they have a hard cap over the nose (not counting the nose cone). If the outer plate removes the cap, as well as altering the projectile’s ballistic bahaviour, then the velocity required for it to defeat the system will exceed the velocity it can stike with without itself being destroyed. Behind the primary plate there is a curtain to arrest any spalls or splinters that may be ejected from the back of the primary plate.
A solid projectile, such as depleted uraniam, which is unlikely to be broken up or shattered, striking at extreme velocity can still pose a dangerous threat.
Of great concern is the actual striking angle of the munition or missile. The closer it can strike at a right angle the more effective it can be, and the more likely the system can be defeated. This is why a smart munition that performs a “pop up” maneuver could be of grave concern.
Modern Tanks also have exploding armour that direct a shock wave outward against the incoming munition or missile.
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There is a was patented ceramic material armour plate that can be moulded into many shapes, it is poured as crystals of fine powder consistency into a mould and then placed inside a very high temperature oven (electric where I saw it produced). The production run I observed produced body armour plates that were shaped to the chest measurements for comfort and slipped into a Kevlar jacket. I was told that a hit from a military round resulted in the armour being damaged at impact point but the projectile stopped as the armour crushed on impact.
I understand that the USSR armoured vehicle factories used a similar specification armour plating.
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AA is highly effective against ground attack.
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As Rommel discovered in North Africa with his very high velocity rapid firing 88s’ (Acht Acht or Ack Ack) fired horizontally. It was the most feared gun of the war and ultimately mounted on the Tiger.
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It’s a good thing the Russians don’t have A-10s. In 43 they had Stormivicks.
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There will be no A 10s nor will Apaches be widely deployed until or unless 4th or 5th gen fighters clear the Russian fighters.
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Drones… They have been a game changer on the fronts and do help negate the massive advantage of American electronic/satellite intelligence.
Heavier suicide drones can stop a tank, so if the Leopards and Abrams get on the battlefield a lot will be learned.
If you believe Scott Ritter, he’s written about the tank problems here-
https://kolozeg.org/truth-about-tanks-how-nato-lied-its-way-to-disaster-in-the-ukraine-scott-ritter/
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Recently I watched a WW2 documentary and in part a story about Germany’s secret weapon, a pistol like a flare gun that fired small grenades and they were very effective against infantry.
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Plus, apart from all of the above, you can’t just get into a tank and use it. It requires substantial training plus understanding of tactics. These tanks will be useless without properly trained and experienced crew and commanders. Plus also, enemy forces will end up getting the main battle tanks of the West and discovering their weaknesses and technology.
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The people being trained near us in the UK are already tank drivers. It is reckoned it wil
Take then two weeks or so to teach them to use challenger tanks.
The three types of tanks being sent will present logistical problems however. The challenger uses rifled shells, the other two types take a standard NATO shell but the Abrams has a gas turbine engine and the other two diesel. So different types of shell and different types of fuel will pose challenges out in the field in the east of Ukraine quite apart from someone trained to drive a challenger will not be able to swap instantly to the other two types.
There are many thousands of Leopold tanks in eastern Europe so it makes sense to concentrate on them although arguably they do not have the heavy armour of the other two types
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The US Abrams only will be send next year, the uran protection the actual tanks have has not to fall in Russians hand, so the US have to restore older models without that protection, a work for several month….
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Are they restoring old or building new sans the secret stuff and depleted U armour? I read the latter. The Bradleys will be good.
I disagree with most of what has been posted here by the Yank haters but agree the Abrams doesn’t fit. The Yanks had to promise them to prompt other nations to make good with Leopards. Why are they the bad guys?
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The biggest tank battle of all time happened at Prokhorovka in the Kursk area where the5th Guards Tank Army ran into elements of the German 2nd SS Panzer Corps (Leibstandarte-Adolf Hitler, Das Reich and Totenkopf). Many tanks literally collided with each other which understandably turned to absolute carnage. Wars of armour like this engagement are unlikely to be repeated. Interestingly, Leibstandarte engaged our 6th Division in Northern Greece in April 1941, where my Uncle Lex was captured. The Germans souvenired his slouch hat.
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But what about the Australian designed and built Bushmaster armoured all terrain vehicles?
sarc.
Yes I know, they are for fast transport and offensive purposes not front line attack vehicles.
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You want the poor bustards to walk in the open?
They are good vehicles, well designed to protect the grunts from IEds.
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Last year it was “Ukraine is at war with Russia”
Desensitising us, bit by bit.
Soon, “Europe has always been at war with Russia”.
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And for the Democrats, WWII never finished.
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We can only hope these idiots start to use their brains and finish off their TOXIC S & W lunacy forever.
Thirty two billion $ a year should’ve been used for ONLY RELIABLE BASELOAD power until they had enough to last another 50 to 60 years.
I hope the Germans and the rest of EU wake up very fast but I’ll believe it when I see the evidence for it.
China and Russia are watching and waiting to pounce at the first available opportunity.
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In yesterday’s thread, Lance at #26:
https://joannenova.com.au/2023/02/monday-open-thread-27/#comment-2629111
gave us this link which describes the financial hole some German companies making wind turbines are in:
https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2023/02/wind_power_makers_suffer_huge_losses_want_to_abandon_major_project.html
Will be interesting to watch if they get more subsidies or have to just bear the losses.
Thanks Lance.
Cheers
Dave B
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I’ll go into more detail later but the Left had a problem with the standard of living and freedoms of the non-Elites of the West become too great so had to bring them back a notch or ten. They are basically returning us to times before the Enlightenment and the Scientific Revolution.
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The Elites and serfs will be much as represented by the Morlocks and Eloi of The Time Machine.
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Didn’t the Morlocks come out after dark and eat the Eloi ? There’s hope yet.
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Just think they could’ve spent just 4 minutes to watch Dr Rosling’s “200 countries in 200 years” DATA video and saved hundreds of billions of $ that were washed down the drain.
But the EU preferred their fantasy world of hobgoblins and fairy tales and the TOXIC, UNRELIABLE S & W disasters.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jbkSRLYSojo
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Alternatively the idiots at the EU 28 + the UK could’ve taken a few minutes to understand their big drop in co2 emissions since 1970.
That’s if this so called Climate Change lunacy was ever about co2 emissions in the first place? THINK about it, why couldn’t they have spent just a few minutes of their time to understand the DATA?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_carbon_dioxide_emissions#/media/File:World_fossil_carbon_dioxide_emissions_six_top_countries_and_confederations.png
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Now the German Greens despair,
Because military stockpiles are bare,
As the loss of their grants,
Goes to shell-making plants,
Near coal power they need for warfare.
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Stupid Is As Stupid Does! Forrest Gump was right again!
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AGAIN I’ve been watching the King Island fantasy this morning and wind is just a very tiny generation number and solar even worse and the diesel as always is always carrying the load.
And their clueless battery is still FLAT.
So if this tiny TOXIC plant can’t service 2000 people how then do they expect to RELIABLY service 26 million Aussies for 24/7?
https://www.hydro.com.au/clean-energy/hybrid-energy-solutions/success-stories/king-island
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They don’t expect to generate sufficient power to satisfy community demand but just enough to satisfy the Greens on KI!
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And the constant flat battery will dramatically decrease its life. So add a huge replacement cost.
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If they were truthful about it all and simply said that the aim of wind and solar was simply to reduce the amount of diesel fuel used, then they might have a case.
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Actually generating useful power was never the point. The objective was simply to further enrich the Green Blob. Once the payment for construction was handed over, the job was completed and all objectives met.
Kerrching!
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I dont think that 0% means a flat battery, quite the reverse. They are dumping a 100kW + of excess power into a resistor. The way I read it those % is that they are the % contribution to total load. The battery is fully charged but not needed at the moment so 0% contribution.
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If the battery is fully charged, why don’t they just use that instead of diesel?
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“If the battery is fully charged, why don’t they just use that instead of diesel?”
Will you stop bringing up perfectly valid points, you’re ruining the story!
Besides, they’re saving it for best.. A politician will turn up with his entourage and a photo opportunity will be had. There will be no smelly noisy diesel running on THAT day!
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Because, like all the batteries being sprayed around the grid its there for stability not bulk supply. If there is a fault or say a rapid wind drop, the battery can instantaneously support load and frequency control while the generator winds up and the system settles
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When you consider that the green industry in Germany is now shifting offshore to China, to escape their self-imposed & crippling green energy costs, it paints an even more complete picture of failure. What many green-tards don’t realise is that the world is a violent place in a constant flux of power struggle. Countries such as China, Russia, Iran, etc, would love to overthrow the peaceful western democratic regimes and re-imagine the world in their own totalitarian tyranny. The only thing that has prevented this unwanted outcome is cheap dispatchable and reliable energy production in the USA and other western countries.
Perhaps this shift in Germany is an indication that some people are slowly waking up to the fact that being taken over by Russia and China is a vastly scarier outcome than the imaginary climate change armageddon that ironically makes life more bearable in a cold continent.
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Russia seems to be getting along pretty well to me – Here’s another video, this is from Moscow’s largest mall. 2023
Good to hear the Aussie Voice explaining
As he says, how many shops are closed – “10 maybe but there are 400 other Shops” and all the brands closed are available in the other shops – Nike, Converse, North Face shops just renamed
Looks Busy to me and outside the Hypermarket, trolleys looked pretty full.
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“Countries such as China, Russia, Iran, etc, would love to overthrow the peaceful western democratic regimes and re-imagine the world in their own totalitarian tyranny. ”
Lol! You’ve certainly got the sarcasm down pat!
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Chinese people have the highest intelligence as a group. They are quite pragmatic- happy to sell us solar panels and anything else.
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Even the bone headed councillors in New York’s areas are starting to respond to their citizen’s fears about the true future costs of their TOXIC UNRELIABLES.
AGAIN big surprise NOT.
And surely their self inflicted disaster will be complete when they have factored in NEW electric heat pumps and the super expensive EVs + the new charging stations etc?
Thanks to the Manhattan Contrarian blog.
https://www.manhattancontrarian.com/blog/2023-2-4-in-new-york-a-very-slow-political-awakening
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Did I hear this correctly (several weeks ago): EU President Von Der Leyen tweeted out that Ukraine has lost 100,000 military personnel, since the Russian invasion .. and then swiftly deleted her tweet? If the number was wrong, she could have corrected it…
Compare that to American losses in the Vietnam War: 58,000 killed.
If Zelensky thinks he’s going to push Russia back to their previous border, how many Ukrainians is he willing to sacrifice? A quarter of a million?
The losses could go that high and STILL BE without an end in sight.
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If Zelensky thinks he’s going to
push Russia back to their previous bordermilk the West or every dollar he can get, how many Ukrainians is he willing to sacrifice?A quarter of a million?As many as it takes.FIFY
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If you like that sort of thing you’ll luv this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aWHv8VrHi00
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I currently don’t have extremely strong feelings either way about Ukraine but the fact that the Leftist Elites of the West are supporting the Ukes is a huge warming sign.
And has everyone forgotten the concerns about National Socialist movements in Ukraine before the current invasion?
And even before that, even the National Socialists of WW2 were quite shocked at the enthusiasm with which the Ukes carried out their orders. And does no one remember or know of Babi Yar?
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I do. I have been to cities in those areas in the last decade. Many are Russian or half Russian and it is the dominant language. The whole country is only about the age of Australia and a real mix of people, mainly Orthorodox Russians to Cossacks to Catholic Poles. Stalin deported the Crimean muslims in a single night. This is a civil war in which many others have big financial interests.
It’s not a simple good guys and bad guys. There is no great cultural difference or core conflict. And Ukraine has been in major internal conflict for decades. There really are fascist gangs and criminal groups we cannot imagine.
The people in the Donetsk and Crimea in particular are passionately Russians, not Ukranians. And Crimeans over 70 were all born in Russia until Kruschev gave it away. I can believe the 97% referendum which we are told is fake. It isn’t.
Plus the Kiev government even cut off the drinking water for Crimea after the people decided to be Russians. And shelling the Donetsk for a decade with many Russian casualties. This is not Russian expansionism at all. There was a real cry for help.
And if nothing else, consider the war pension for ex soldiers is triple in Russia what it is in the Ukraine. And the Fascist central government is more a kleptocracy than democracy. That does not cancel Nationalism but Ukraine was no peaceful happy place. Remember the Orange revolution and Yulia Timoshenko? What other country jails Prime Ministers?
I was never scared travelling solo around Russia but Ukraine at times was very dangerous. The armed police were the scariest and the Russians view it as a country of criminals. It’s not hard to get that impression and wonder where the money goes and why Joe Biden and Son made it their playground under Obama. Joe boasted that he forced the government to fire the chief prosecutor for investigating Hunter Biden’s boss. Doesn’t anyone care what this means? Trump was impeached on the mere suggestion that he might do what the Big Guy boasted of doing.
It is interesting how the Americans fought for Kosovo’s right to break away from Russian Serbia but the Crimea and Donetsk people had no right to break away from Ukraine. The only way to understand American policies is to see the Democrats as perpetually anti Russian.
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And where is the United Nations? Collecting carbon cash?
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Excellent analysis, TdeF. Thank you.
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Yes excellent.
00
You only have to look at the vast natural/farming resources the Ukraine has, then contrast that with the population’s low standard of living and general poor economic well-being. That’s a huge red flag and just indicates huge levels of corruption.
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Just seeing photos of Zelensky, as with Blair, Cameron, Turnbull and a few others in Australia, Biden and Co, I felt a deep distrust from the outset. There’s something about their bearing and expressions that leaves me very uneasy. My personal red flag instincts?
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” There’s something about their bearing and expressions that leaves me very uneasy. ”
You can pick a WEF enthusiast easily..
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Well, if “B-Liar” was in the photo, there’s at least ONE reason to distrust!
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And the scourge of common tuberculosis and other preventable diseases. Surviving the miserable winter is an achievement. The British and French found that out in the Crimean was of 1855, a punitive war. Balaclavas were knitted because soldiers were losing their ears and named after the city. Melbourne is full of memories of that terrible useless war. Balaclava, Crimea, Sebastopol, Cardigan, Alma, Carlisle, Inkerman. And perversely the area of Balaclava is the suburb of choice for Russian Jews.
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TdeF, a lot of those place names are in the adjoining suburbs of St Kilda East and Caulfield as well. Balaclava as a suburb name is rarely used except for the name of the train station. It is a real suburb but within the St Kilda East precinct.
Balaclava was named after the Battle of Balaclava of 25th October 1854.
Other local street names after the Crimean war apart from ones you named:
Blenheim Street after the battle ship HMS Blenheim.
Malakoff Street after the Battle of Malakoff in 1855.
Nightingale Street after Nurse Florence Nightingale who served in the Crimean War.
Odessa St after the city.
Pakington Street after Sir John Pakington who was British secretary of state for war.
Raglan St after Lord Raglan, commander of British forces.
Redan St after the Battle of the Great Redan.
Westbury Grove and Westbury St after Frank Atha Westbury who served in Crimea and emigrated to Melbourne in 1866.
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In Ballarat there are whole suburbs and locations using all those names. Sebastopol, Redan, Cardigan. Sebastopol so named (original spelling Sevvastopol) in the 1850’s because the explosives used in the goldmines at the time reminded people of the battleground cannon. Or, so the story goes.
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If I had to state my position, I would say I’m on the side of the STATUS QUO when it’s working to preserve the peace; and when disturbing it, would lead to a costly war.
So NATO expansion into Ukraine when Russia clearly stated that would be crossing a RED LINE for them, should’ve been off the table.
If Zelensky actually had some political wisdom — instead of just being a ‘comedian’ — he would’ve said “NO” to NATO and the EU; and instead worked with the Russians to preserve good relations as a close trading partner, and possibly military partner — or at least stayed neutral. That would’ve been the sensible path.
The same path by the way, that Canada and Mexico take with regards to their powerful neighbor — you can’t imagine the USA ever allowing the Red Dragon to park its heavy weapons just over the border.
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I have always thought of Ukraine as extremely corrupt. Now we are told they are the most moral angelic nation on earth.
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Isn’t Schadenfreude a German word?
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Or is it just the end of the Green Peaceful Germans? Have they said sorry for long enough?
To suggest that 300 German battle tanks rolling East across Poland and into the Steppe is provocative is an understatement. 20 million Russians were slaughtered in a well planned, documented and unprovoked German war of total annihilation. Will this be the point at which the Ukranian civil war becomes a world war? It would be over in 20 minutes. And history would not blame the Russians, if there is to be any more history.
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So the “save the planet” green agenda (for the common people) has turned into “history repeats, let’s attack Russia”.
Germany, like Britain, is seriously cash strapped and militarily depleted, and just quietly, quite a few more EU countries.
So pick one – a proxy war you won’t and can’t win and one YOU’LL be a retaliatory target in (a mach 9 Zircon will educate you VERY quickly) OR end the BS and start looking after your citizens like you should be.
Yes, they’ll go for the 1st choice…
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US munitions stockpiles are also severely depleted by supplying Ukraine, with estimates that it could take 5 or so years of normal production to replenish many of those supplies.
So accidentally, Putin has done Xi a huge favour by Russia’s incompetence. If China were to walk into Taiwan any time over the next few years, it takes on the West ‘led’ by Biden/Harris/MIlley and no munitions to fight with.
Not good news for Australia. How’s that Trump Derangement Syndrome going now?
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I’d take that oft-repeated “news” with a pinch of salt.
“Appear weak when you are strong, and strong when you are weak.”
Sun Tzu
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According to many posters here, America would have no right to defend Taiwan and enrich its munitions manufacturers.
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The groupthink here is that America is a bully and we should have nothing to do with them, they only drag us INTO wars.
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Does the Ukraine Russia war have carbon offsets??
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Let’s hope some Leftist Elite is being enriched by the sale of carbon credits for the war, for both sides. /sarc
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Seeing as it’s kind of a modern leftist western war against Russia, no, they’ve dropped the carbon credits. I’m pretty sure if it was an old school neo-con war it would be counted.
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So we have seen governments subsidise so called renewables. Now that renewables are more than obviously failing. Will we see governments subsidise HELE coal or nuclear. Do we now have a situation where energy companies never have to expose themselves to costs of R&D and building the actual plants. Instead this will all be done with taxpayers money and the companies just reap the profits. In the modern world the owners of energy production have gun to our heads.
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Interesting Trump’s position. His supporters praise that he told Putin if you attack I’ll flatten your cities, and it deterred him.
I’m not sure that’s on the right path either. That is what really concerns me.
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Prolly concerned Putin too.
We are led to believe that Putin has been told that if he uses a nuke, even a tactical one, his dacha will vaporise.
Does that make you feel better?
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MAD seems to have gotten us through some rather threatening times so far. I’d not write it off.
10