Russia - threadbanned users in OP

Woman killed as result of shelling in Golovchyno village of Belgorod region

another senseless killing!

It's hard to do some stuff when using an Xbox controller. Here's a little trick you might like to try in future - copy some germane bits of the text and paste it into a search engine and it will find the original source.

He spends far too much time on social media. He took a very public turn to the alt-right there for a bit when some rape allegation surfaced. The alt-right ecosystem is full of Russian influence much like the far left so he probably still believes the Russia/Putin Stronk memes. He should really stick to Tesla and Space X.

Yeah it's called total and complete narcissism, they have given up on that little voice of self doubt that's keeps us all from total calamity and forces us to be self critical and improve ourselves.

Elon Musk wanted this

But instead got this

So he needed a distraction. What a cnut.

The weapons have made a big difference but you still need motivated people to wield them. Before Putin's "3-day war" started I saw a few news reports from Ukraine showing preparations that were being made, specifically around training. Some of the trainees were interviewed and you had web designers and marketing people spending their free time doing weapons and field training taught by army regulars. While that didn't say anything about the state of the Russian army, it certainly suggested that the Ukrainians were motivated, and motivation makes a massive difference.

From the early days of this war, the similarity between the Ukrainians in 2022 and the Finns in 1939 is striking. Smaller army, less well-armed (at first), but highly motivated and using clever tactics to frustrate a larger enemy that was struggling to adapt.

During Round 2 aka the Continuation War in 1941, the Finns attacked the Russians simultaneously with Operation Barbarossa. Much to Hitler's chagrin, however, the Finns stopped once they'd liberated Karelia when Hitler wanted them to press on to Leningrad. "No thanks Adolf, we're grand, we've got our territory back...good luck with the Barbarossa thing..."

Bill Gates has decided to channel his mega wealth into global health initiatives. Jeff Bezos is looking to explore space. Musk is talking gash on Twitter.

Anyway, if this Starlink system is really working as well as claimed, his contribution to Ukraine's war is still a net positive one, so as long as that continues, I'm not that aggravated by him having a few glasses of wine and talking asinine stuff on Twitter.

Just going back to this topic for a second, one thing worth keeping in mind is that the strategic bomber forces on both sides are only a shadow of their former selves. The days when the US and Russia/USSR had dozens of bases each with several squadrons of strategic bombers each are long gone. The Russian Air Force only has 123 strategic bombers in their operational inventory. 66 Tupolev TU-22M "Backfire"; 42 Tupolev TU-95MS "Bear"; 15 Tupolev TU-160 "Blackjack". Out of those, only the Blackjacks and Backfires are able to drop bombs, the Bears have been converted into pure missile trucks. Now, using the standard "rule of three"* with regards to complex military hardware and ignoring any potential maintenance and supply issues on the Russian side, this would mean that only 22 Backfires, 14 Bears and 5 Blackjacks would be available at any one time. That's not a large force.

The US Air Force isn't in much better shape either. They have a total of 135 strategic bombers in their inventory: 73 B-52H Stratofortress; 43 B-1B Lancer; 19 B-2 Spirit. Using the same "rule of three", that would leave the USAF with 24 B-52s, 14 B-1Bs and 6 B-2s ready to go at any one time. Once again, that's not a large force and a far cry from the heady days of SAC back in the 1960s and 1970s, when the US would have dozens of bombers on airborne alert at any one time, with hundreds sitting on ground alert, ready to go within five minutes. Also, whilst the B-52H is still able to drop conventional bombs, it is mostly used as a cruise missile truck these days.

*The "Rule of Three" with regards to military hardware states that in order to have one unit of a complex piece of hardware (warship, bomber, fighter, etc.) available at any given time, you need at least three: The one "on alert", one working back up after a maintenance period and one in deep maintenance, dry dock, etc. The reason is that any modern military system above a certain level of complexity will not be able to remain on alert 24/&, both due to scheduled maintenance periods and unexpected issues.

“Until there is a crisis, autocracies look strong and democracies look weak.” (Quote unattributed, your post reminded me of it.)

^

Do they even care how absurd they sound?

A bit of insight into the life on the frontline (Donetsk, Sept 2022):

Surrendered LPR troops at Lyman.

I noticed how clean their uniforms are. They dropped their weapons at the first opportunity.