TheOldGuy @TheOldGuy@qoto.org
I am a Democrat who supports Ukraine in their battle against The Russian fascist invaders.
I am a 73 year old Covid hermit who
lives on 10 acres in a sparsely populated area of the Ozarks. I heat with wood that is leftover by the lumber industry. When cutting oak for lumber only the trunk is used.
The largest town is population 2993. The county is 13k people scattered over 713 square miles.
Joined Dec 2022
🤔United States Secretary of State Blinken made statements today in Moldova on Ukrainian use of US weapons to strike russia in self defense
Journalist to Blinken (visiting Moldova): "Mr. Secretary, in recent days a number of leaders – Macron, Scholz, Secretary General Stoltenberg – have spoken about potentially letting Ukraine use Western arms to strike directly on Russian soil when Russia is directly targeting Ukraine. You’ve been publicly reported to be the most forward-leaning senior American official to be pushing for that. Do you think President Biden can be persuaded to agree on that?"
Blinken: "Another hallmark of our support for Ukraine over these now more than two years has been to adapt. As the conditions have changed, as the battlefield has changed, as what Russia does has changed in terms of how it’s pursuing its aggression, escalation, we’ve adapted and adjusted too, and I’m confident we’ll continue to do that. "
Prices for coffins have soared in Russia
The war with Ukraine provoked a sharp increase in the cost of funeral services and goods in Russia. In February, citizens had to pay an average of 7.4 thousand rubles to make a coffin. Compared to the same month in 2022, the price jumped by 66% - then a coffin could be purchased for about 4.5 thousand rubles, “Important Stories” calculated based on Rosstat data.
At the same time, digging graves is becoming more expensive. Last year, the increase in prices for this service reached 11.25% and became the maximum for the entire time of available statistics (since 2016). In February of this year, such work cost an average of 10.2 thousand rubles, while in the same month of 2022 it was necessary to pay about 7.9 rubles for them. Cumulatively, over two years of war, digging graves became 23% more expensive.
The cost of cremation has also increased. If in February 2022 you had to pay an average of 21 thousand rubles for it, now it’s already 32 thousand rubles (+52%).
- Russians taking part in the so called special operation may wish to place their orders now before prices increase further.
Will it unsettle them enough to make them seek peace. Ukraine promises to leave the radar alone if they will cease hostile actions and pull back to the 2013 borders
Rest in Peace
On May 29, during a rotation in the Kharkiv region, Iryna Tsybukh, a paramedic of the Ukrainian volunteer medical battalion “Hospitallers,” was killed. She was only 25 years old🕯️
This battalion has been participating in the Russo-Ukrainian war in Donbas since 2014. They provide first aid, pre-medical assistance, and evacuate wounded Ukrainian soldiers from the hottest spots on the front line.
Rest in Peace
18-year-old swimmer Nikita Zasiadko from Kharkiv gave his life for the freedom and independence of our country.
The boy devoted most of his life to sports. At the age of 15, he was awarded the title of Master of Sports of Ukraine in swimming, and at 17 — a candidate for Master of Sports in freestyle wrestling.
In 2022, Nikita graduated from the Kharkiv Professional College of Sports and entered the Kharkiv State Academy of Physical Culture to study two specialities at once: "Rehabilitation therapist" and "recreation".
Despite the danger, he stayed in his hometown, continued to study and volunteer.
As soon as he turned 18, he took a gap year and voluntarily joined the legendary Azov Brigade. He became a senior machine gunner with the call sign "Proud".
By the Decree of the President of Ukraine, Nikita Zasyadko was awarded the Order "For Courage", III degree (posthumously).
May he rest in peace...
The Committee of Youth and Sports
Source: Sports Committee of Ukraine
How are the prison inmates working as soldiers?
This one tripped and fell face first into it.
https://www.palmerreport.com/analysis/samuel-alito-just-stepped-in-it/56349/
Judge "Loose Cannon" can't stay out of it.
You get what you pay for.
https://www.jefftiedrich.com/p/trump-lawyer-todd-blanche-fucks-up
This is Palmer guessing. The verdict will be tomorrow
POLAND TO BUILD VAST NEW DEFENCE LINE
Poland is about to spend $2.55 billion on a border defence system the likes of which Europe hasn’t seen since the ill fated Maginot Line.
I’m not convinced this is any more sensible than that vast scheme.
The French, having suffered massive manpower losses in the First World War, decided to build at huge expense, under the tutelage of Georges Maginot its then War Minister, a line of massive concrete walls and underground defences, with hundreds of artillery emplacements, barracks, an underground railway and air conditioning with gas resistant seals.
It ran from the Swiss border to the border with Luxembourg. The plan was to take it to the English Channel but it proved too expensive. The fate of it was humiliating - the Germans went around it in 1940, cutting through the ’impossible’ Ardennes forest and defeating France in six weeks. You can visit the wall at a couple of sites and go inside - it’s awesome.
So with that behind us and then the war in Ukraine, which has become almost what France actually expected a war with Germany to look like (minus the drones and missiles), back in the 1930’s, I can’t but help feel this is misguided. Rarely does the next war look like the last one.
However, the plan is going ahead. From Poland’s border with the Russian Kaliningrad exclave, crossing the border with Lithuania and the infamous Sulwaki salient, down the entire border with Belarus, a huge set of defences from anti-tank and vehicle obstacles, trenches, fortified bunkers to command sites is being built.
Positions with pre-stocked bunkers, anti drone warfare jamming systems, long range optical and infrared scanners, fences and minefields will be installed along the whole length of it.
To add to this Poland has ordered Swedish AEW aircraft, and four American built Aerostat systems.
These are basically static helium airships with a radar, tethered to the ground that float 4km up in the air, giving them a range of 300km to spot incoming aircraft and missiles.
Not only is this to cover defences in the traditional sense. The whole border area is to get reinforced bridges, strengthened river banks, reinforced roads, all to ensure defence forces can rapidly move from rear areas to forward ones to engage the enemy.
The scheme is truly vast. It’s also part of a plan to stop Belarus and Russia from forcing migrants they let in, just to force them over the border into the EU, a growing problem, that’s almost permanent now and worsens in the summer months. In fact it’s gotten so bad already this year, Poland has had to deploy regular army units to stop migrants from Africa - the Russians and Belarus give transit visas out to Eritreans, Sudanese and may others to get to the EU, knowing migration stirs the political right wing parties in the west.
So is this vast border defence sensible? It’s mostly about being a deterrent. Making it incredibly hard for Russia to attack without immense difficulty. Yet it also has weak spots -
there’s no plan to bring it down the Ukrainian border - what if the Russians in some unforeseen future scenario, went around it?
Poland’s paranoia over Russia is, in my view, at any other time, excessive; but not now, it’s simply being prudent. Right now I wish Britain would display some of that paranoia. Poland conducted war games some four years ago, running seven simulations of a Russian attack. The orcs arrived in Warsaw in three weeks. Not once, but every time.
Poland is largely flat and open terrain, part of the great North European Plain that extends from Holland over north Germany, Poland to the Ural mountains.
Poland was occupied by the Soviets and hasn’t forgotten what Russia did in 1939, splitting the country in two with the Nazis, then letting it be destroyed in 1944 as Warsaw was raised to the ground. They have every reason to be paranoid and all the evidence they have backs it up.
Is this the right choice? A super high tech defence line for the 21st Century?
Again remember it’s a deterrent with a purpose if deterrence fails.
Putin said that the Russian economy has become the first in Europe.
At the same time, Russians literally do not have enough money for food, and they wear the same clothes for ten years.
Rich people in Russia have gotten even richer by profiting from the war and death of Ukrainians.
Poor people in Russia have become even more impoverished, but they consider it a norm, they go to war as cannon fodder to earn and steal. If they die, their families will receive payments, and if they are alive, they steal everything they can: from children's toys and toilets to furniture and appliances.
One can imagine how much a Russian soldier would like to get to well-off Europe...
I am a Democrat who supports Ukraine in their battle against The Russian fascist invaders.
I am a 73 year old Covid hermit who
lives on 10 acres in a sparsely populated area of the Ozarks. I heat with wood that is leftover by the lumber industry. When cutting oak for lumber only the trunk is used.
The largest town is population 2993. The county is 13k people scattered over 713 square miles.
Joined Dec 2022
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