romad1

We can bleed Putin. We can make him pay for 2016. We can make the Trumpies cry.

I have some very pessimistic colleagues where I work about all this. Its hard not to be affected by that. I just don't know how this will play out. The thing that strikes me though is that people are using the template of Kabul for Kiev. I don't think that applies. In Ukraine we apparently have a place with a real sense of nationhood. Just because they have terrible corruption problems doesn't mean there are not people who will fight which they definitely did and continue to do since 2014. Afghanistan was tribes, various regions and the city of Kabul. A place where empires go to die. It also had the Russians, Chinese and Pakistanis plus the gulf billionaires funding an insurrection against the US and NATO. Now the shoe can be on the other foot. I'm all for that. Fuck Vladdie with a duck. Fuck his troops. Fuck his oligarchs and fuck anyone who takes his coin to be on RT or run for office.

Apparently, Canada has a huge Ukrainian diaspora. I have just heard from my brother who lives in Rochester, NY that they call them Yookies.

You missed 1991

We have given Ukraine a ton of weapons. We expect they can put up a fight like they did in 2014 when a bunch of militias fought off the rogues gallery that Putin sent in. However, the Russian Air Force and all those ballistic missiles and arty will kill a lot of people. I will not go out on any limb and predict how this will go. Putin should know but we have plenty of evidence that he has been self-deluding in this incident that wars have a way of creating their own chaos. For example, what happens if Russians expand the war into NATO territory.

Your tell was referring to Ukraine as The Ukraine. Ok.

I recommend the podcast The Daily from Feb 15 . I don’t know what to expect about Ukraine’s fighting spirit. It would seem from that (it’s NYT reporter going around to the Ukrainian equivalent of Ohio diners) but very interesting nonetheless.

You want Putin to put you to bed tonight. That’s just as ridiculous as what you wrote.

wow

Tom Cotton needs to let the grown ups do National Security.

WHAT THE ABSOLUTE FUCK DOES TOM COTTON OR HEW FUCKING HEWITT KNOW ABOUT ANYTHING!? Tom Cotton the pretend ranger

When your standup-comedian turned President is wearing battle fatigues and you are filling stadiums with people to celebrate your independence it gives lie to the beliefs of some very cynical people I have spoken to lately.

Good outcome if true

if it were a military necessity to replace your pipes in a couple hours under gunfire they would invent a way to do that. If it just means kids not being developmentally stunted: well that's what you get for being among the proles. Man, who am i anymore? :--)

Cheeky

Sullivan has impressed me.

I had an extended discussion with a colleague who is in the Durham-is-too-a-thing camp. She was saying that Biden is weak because he would NEVER fly to Kiev like he needed to to do the diplomacy of this situation. Well, of course not. Why should he fly there? He doesn't have to convince the Ukrainians of anything. "Here are giant bags of money and pallets of ammo and kick-ass tank killing and drone killing missiles. We probably can't get you THAAD or the better Patriot systems without training your folks up, Maybe Turkey loans you some S-400s (which are really S-250s amirite?!) Would you like to get some ice cream? I ran here to prove i'm not sundowning" Same person was upset at impeachment over something, something involving Ukraine.

Julia Ioffe is just a smoke show intellectual. Woof!

The mystery is why Prince Andrew had to

When you are a nerd with small hands the tiny young girls are appealing balms to your lack of self-confidence.

Germany: trying it and that sweet low cost LNG sure is tempting way to lower the power bills. Because Germany is anti-nuke. Renewables plus nuclear and you have something.

Take it off the table and then send assassins after Putin nonstop