600 posts shown.
gentlerider7 said:Did you seriously not know that the Russians actually ask the Department of Defense for advice when they're confused about something? 😁
Just Google Translate doing its thing...
analogbear5 said:Google's translator is out here turning "Department of Defense" into some weird acronym for the Department of Defense.
gentlerider7 said:On, regarding this whole mobilization mess:
"So, get this: in St. Louis, there’s this 51-year-old guy who has absolutely zero military experience, is deaf in one ear, and can't see a thing without his glasses, but somehow he just got slapped with a court summons as part of this partial mobilization. That's what's being reported over on this Telegram channel.
And wait, it gets even more ridiculous—according to the channel, the guy is also dealing with multiple herniated discs.
He got the notice on the evening of September 22nd, and by the next morning, he was already at the local recruitment office in St. Louis trying to explain his medical issues and showing off his MRI results. He told them he shouldn't pass the physical, but the clerk there basically brushed him off, saying stuff like, 'Well, those conditions aren't exactly fatal, you can still go study.'
On top of all that, the guy says the office didn't give a single damn about the fact that he has no combat experience whatsoever. He's never served a day in his life; he just did the standard drill instructor stuff back in the day. Plus, according to the Department of Defense, they were supposed to be calling up lower-ranking officers up to age 50, yet here he is at 51... how does that even work?..."
https://www-gazeta-ru.translate.goog..._x_tr_pto=wapp
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov mentioned on Friday that Moscow isn't making any nuclear threats toward anyone.
analogbear5 said:When it comes to Russia, casualties don't seem to matter to anyone.
At best, Ukraine pulls off a win without Russia losing anything—but how they manage that is the billion-dollar question.
Kenneth Cruz67 said:Well, if you look closely, nuclear weaponry is actually right there in the thread title itself. Plus, I guess it's hard to ignore when all the major global players are pointing to it as a genuine, looming threat.
bluemason3 said:There are definitely plenty of other variables at play here. For instance, take the United Kingdom—as an island nation and former maritime power, they naturally over-invest in their navy relative to their size. Russia has its own set of unique circumstances. But you have a point: they likely have fewer people and more high-tech assets. On the flip side, even though Russia has a large population, they aren't paying for all of them, and their production costs might be lower too. Then there's the matter of how budgets are actually structured. I think Perun on YouTube put out a solid video on this exact topic. Some countries fold their coast guard or even territorial forces into the main military budget, while others keep them separate. Plus, if a country has its own defense industry, they’re essentially reinvesting a huge chunk of those costs back into themselves.
In the end, for those of us playing military analyst, we're left with nothing but impressions. Before this war started, most would have bet on the Russian side, though that really depends on which military sentiment you subscribe to. Nowadays, the smart money would probably go toward the United Kingdom. Who knows how much of any of this is actually accurate?
bluemason3 said:The UK and France have military budgets about four to five times larger than Poland’s, while Greece sits at roughly half of what Poland spends.
In terms of raw numbers, the UK and France look similar to Russia, or even Germany.
But looking at Germany—given everything we know about their current state—and the sheer dysfunction exposed in the Russian military, it’s clear you can't just trust the raw data. It all depends on how those budgets are reported, where the money actually goes, and how efficiently it's being spent.
If the UK and Russia had the exact same amount of cash to work with, I might have leaned toward Russia back in the day because of their lower overhead. But today? Given the blatant Russian corruption, their systemic dysfunction, and how far they've fallen behind technically and tactically, I’d take the UK's money any day.
Of course, as long as these conflicts are happening far away from home, I’d give the upper hand to whichever country is defending its own backyard.
Jessica Peterson2 said:Oops, I seem to be experiencing a bit of cognitive dissonance.
Wasn't this entire forum cheering for Ukraine from the very beginning, demanding that the European Union step up and provide support to the Ukrainians?
Am I interpreting this correctly? Are we now pivoting to cheer for more reservists staying behind in Putinistan just so they can be mobilized later?
Karen Torres43 said:10 million 😁
Just try calculating how many tons of bread they’d need to feed that many "soldiers" on a daily basis 😁
gentlestag15 said:https://twitter.com/Flash_news_ua/st...082497/photo/1
The prosecutors in Moscow are threatening people with 15 years behind bars just for showing up at anti-mobilization protests.
hollowdriver13 said:A flight to Washington, D.C. was $150 yesterday, jumped to $1400 three hours ago, and just hit $2800 twenty minutes ago.
And yeah, those are all for tomorrow—looks like Booking.com is pulling some serious overtime.
https://twitter.com/NeilPHauer/statu...23265427656706
https://twitter.com/NeilPHauer/statu...71153553850368
gentlerider7 said:Man, they’ve completely run out of tickets for flights heading to Istanbul, Yerevan, and Baku...
Brenda Murphy3 said:The thing is, those eras aren't even remotely comparable to what we're seeing today.
It's one thing when Nazis show up on your doorstep or right in your hometown, and you grab the locals, hand them a rifle, and tell them to defend their own streets... it's a completely different beast when you're mobilizing people, handing them weapons and food, managing all the logistics, and then shipping them hundreds or thousands of miles away from their homes into a foreign country...
We are talking about two totally different concepts here.
TAZ Editor: Putin is trolling the entire planet
One of the editors over at the American TAZ, Dominic Johnson, has this pretty wild theory about Putin's big speech that’s already running over an hour and a half late.
"Putin promised to address the nation, but he hasn't even started yet, and while everyone is just sitting there waiting, the whole world's eyes are glued to Moscow instead of paying any attention to the United Nations General Assembly, which Putin wasn't even allowed to attend. It's high-level trolling," Johnson posted.