A Political Thread pt. 2

[General Melchett]

This is presumably why we need more bonuses for bankers - how will they ever cope with the cost of living crisis and bans on Russian imports - have you seen the cost of caviar recently? Not to mention the nothing-to-do-with-brexit increase in the cost of Bollinger.

This is why the UK Government is making a major blunder by not introducing a windfall tax on energy companies like the EU is planning to do. Truss claims it will hinder growth in the economy but she's talking out of her arse because energy companies are under no obligation reinvest their massive profits in UK projects that will help the UK economy. The profits will be used to pay dividends to their investors and the rest will be banked or used largely for overseas projects. The least she can do is get assurances from the energy companies that they will reinvest a % of their profits in the UK but there are no indications she has done that. Massive opportunity missed.

 

[Which Tyler]

Overview of the last few days in Ukraine

TL;DR it's been about securing the gained territory, de-mining, starting investigations on the mass graves, putting supply lines in place etc. 3 established bridgeheads on the East of the Oskill River, but not really pushing forwards from there yet.
Around Kherson, Russia seems to be continuing it's current strategy of throwing men at it, with only the supplies they have on their backs, whilst those already in Kherson (or the entire Russian territory NW of the Dnipro) are running out of ammunition, food, clean water, morale, and life. Plenty of stories of Russians surrendering there, but mostly isolated pockets. Ukraine reportedly have run out of logistics target in the area, so are now targeting bunkers and barracks. This is siege warfare, modern-style, and it's not going to be pretty.
Russia having some minor successes near Bakhmut, pretty much their last point of offensive action.
I think the war crime on the dam near Kryvyi Rih has been mentioned here already.

Some of the above is from yesterday and last night, so may be too recent for this update, which is, by definition, out of date by the time he hits "publish":

Update for September 13-15 — Ukraine Daily Update

Situation update for September 13-15.

www.ukrdailyupdate.com

Here's his map for those who want to zoom and pan:

https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/viewer?mid=1IAEioi_4fG25hwvtvq7IvkGIRSRBET4&ll=48.33671153241347%2C35.94865468395318&z=7

And yesterday's update:

 

[Which Tyler]

This is why the UK Government is making a major blunder by not introducing a windfall tax on energy companies like the EU is planning to do. Truss claims it will hinder growth in the economy but she's talking out of her arse because energy companies are under no obligation reinvest their massive profits in UK projects that will help the UK economy. The profits will be used to pay dividends to their investors and the rest will be banked or used largely for overseas projects. The least she can do is get assurances from the energy companies that they will reinvest a % of their profits in the UK but there are no indications she has done that. Massive opportunity missed.

Which is where trickle-down economics has fallen on it's arse for every one of the last 40-odd years.

The mega-wealthy squirrel their £ away in offshore bank accounts as a way to keep score against each other. It's taken out of circulation and kept on computers, and away from prying eyes.
The moderately wealth spend their £ back into the economy, where each £ works to create more £s, they also tend to pay their share of income tax.
The poor have to choose which essentials to spend their £ on, which generally means generating £ for the mega-wealthy, so that they can take it back out of circulation again.

 

[Reiser99]

This is presumably why we need more bonuses for bankers - how will they ever cope with the cost of living crisis and bans on Russian imports - have you seen the cost of caviar recently? Not to mention the nothing-to-do-with-brexit increase in the cost of Bollinger.

In fairness to the UK, the wealthy is in line with the developed average and it's the poor who are below average, so in reality we not only are we a poor country, but our wealthy are only averagely wealthy in the context of the world. Basically we are just becoming a poor country period.

 

[Which Tyler]

NB: No source provided for this one; though he's generally reasonably conservative, and seems to have good contacts in the area.




Reports of Russians shooting at... something... allegedly in Kherson City. Still possible that this is old footage from elsewhere, or Russian propaganda (my suspicion), but most (not all) of the analysts I follow seem think it's probably genuine (if only for the incoming tracer round).
I'm sure @Tallshort can comment much more intelligently on that than I can. Personally I'm skeptical that it's Ukrainian forces, and would be... surprised if Partisans had tracer rounds. I'm not going to get my hopes up that it's Russian on Russian either.

 

[Which Tyler]

Oh FFS:

 

[Bada-Bing!]

 

[Bada-Bing!]

Jacob Rees-Mogg’s imperial measurements consultation ‘biased’ after no option given to say no

‘It’s a nonsense’: government facing claims of manipulating questions to get desired result from survey on ‘Brexit bonus’

www.theguardian.com

Oh look at JRM trying to return Britain back to imperial measurements.

 

[McTallshort]

NB: No source provided for this one; though he's generally reasonably conservative, and seems to have good contacts in the area.




Reports of Russians shooting at... something... allegedly in Kherson City. Still possible that this is old footage from elsewhere, or Russian propaganda (my suspicion), but most (not all) of the analysts I follow seem think it's probably genuine (if only for the incoming tracer round).
I'm sure @Tallshort can comment much more intelligently on that than I can. Personally I'm skeptical that it's Ukrainian forces, and would be... surprised if Partisans had tracer rounds. I'm not going to get my hopes up that it's Russian on Russian either.

Something doesn't seem right there. Now bare in mind I was just a squddie and there is a tendancy to over analysis this stuff but if you watch the later videos there are a couple of things that don't add up. The sequence follows the guys on the left firing off to the right and then taking fire back. The use of tracers is normal even for partisans, they are 10 a penny in conflict zones but after we see 1 tracer returned (probably 5 rounds in total) the guys in the left can be seen running for cover. Why they were not already in cover when they first opened fire? Could be bad drills, inexperience or incompetence but it's not normal. Then in the next shot you see the Quick reaction force (QRF) turn up which is normal but what isn't normal is they are riding on top of their APC. Why? They knew they would be coming into contact so you should be in the protection of their APC and debus behind it. Again this could be just lazy, **** soldiering but the Russians have been engaged in a war for 6 months and should be better. Imagine British soldiers riding down the Falls road on top of their armoured land rover? Then there is the end sequence when the camera is behind the APCs and shots start whipping down the street right between the APS and at about 3 meters height from a completely different direction. Again this could all be explained but on first glance something doesn't add up

 

[Bruce_ma gooshvili]

Something doesn't seem right there. Now bare in mind I was just a squddie and there is a tendancy to over analysis this stuff but if you watch the later videos there are a couple of things that don't add up. The sequence follows the guys on the left firing off to the right and then taking fire back. The use of tracers is normal even for partisans, they are 10 a penny in conflict zones but after we see 1 tracer returned (probably 5 rounds in total) the guys in the left can be seen running for cover. Why they were not already in cover when they first opened fire? Could be bad drills, inexperience or incompetence but it's not normal. Then in the next shot you see the Quick reaction force (QRF) turn up which is normal but what isn't normal is they are riding on top of their APC. Why? They knew they would be coming into contact so you should be in the protection of their APC and debus behind it. Again this could be just lazy, **** soldiering but the Russians have been engaged in a war for 6 months and should be better. Imagine British soldiers riding down the Falls road on top of their armoured land rover? Then there is the end sequence when the camera is behind the APCs and shots start whipping down the street right between the APS and at about 3 meters height from a completely different direction. Again this could all be explained but on first glance something doesn't add up

Yeah, I think the suggestion is it's a bit of theatre for domestic consumption, so maybe their director told them to do things that look a bit more flash.

I'm quite impressed with India's Modi (who is not a nice man) making a point of giving Putin a bit of a public dressing down on the stupidity of war. Russia getting bogged down seems to be creating a bit of regional instability with Azerbaijan attacking Armenia again and Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan also now having skirmishes. Hopefully it stays low level as I think one war in the region is enough for everyone.

 

[Ragey Erasmus]

Jacob Rees-Mogg’s imperial measurements consultation ‘biased’ after no option given to say no

‘It’s a nonsense’: government facing claims of manipulating questions to get desired result from survey on ‘Brexit bonus’

www.theguardian.com

Oh look at JRM trying to return Britain back to imperial measurements.

Staggering how this was originally a joke about how backwards everyone thought the Brexit Tories were, how regressive and was viewed as a ridiculous extreme position designed solely to cater to a backwards nationalistic mindset of a bunch of old farts and yet here we are with them embracing this ridiculous policy.

They are the caricature of themselves, Mogg in particular.

 

[Al Bangor]

 

[Al Bangor]

 

[Al Bangor]

 

[Al Bangor]

 

[Al Bangor]

 

[Al Bangor]

 

[Ragey Erasmus]

Republicans have now sunk so low that Florida has engaged in human trafficking to try to score cheap political points... Jesus these people are absolute scum.

 

[Al Bangor]

Republicans have now sunk so low that Florida has engaged in human trafficking to try to score cheap political points... Jesus these people are absolute scum.

They're copying the sleazy example set by Texas. Absolute scum is right. I've been to all 50 states and Florida and Texas were my least favorite before this and I like them even less now.

 

[Al Bangor]