kanisatha

Just LOVE When the Levee Breaks. I also always felt Led Zeppelin's greatness was fusing blues to hard rock.

I was more specifically talking about not running out of munitions for your military forces. States very often spend lots of money on military equipment but then don't stock up a lot on the munitions and spare parts that make it possible to keep using your equipment during a lengthy war. And btw, I was including my country, the US, in this as well. We here are also now having a debate in Congress about how come we don't have an adequate stockpile of these munitions (like anti-armor missiles for example). If we went into a full war with China right now, we'd very likely run out of munitions and spare parts within a couple of weeks. And that's very poor planning.

What @Elerondsaid. As time passes, it will become easier to sustain the sanctions as Western states adjust to their own difficulties. And the smaller Western states have no incentive to buck the bigger states. The only way the bigger states will lift the sanctions is if they can point to "nice" behavior from the Russian side, which is just not going to happen. Western economic "pain" is a political cost already paid, and won't get anywhere near bad enough to justify abandoning a major foreign policy interest of the West. Here's another great analysis of how things are only going to get worse for Russia, and potentially better for Ukraine with the passage of more time: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/06/25/ukraine-russia-balance-of-forces/

All major Western states have clearly said (yes including Germany and France) that a return to the 2/24 status quo is what would justify lifting Western sanctions. Will Putin ever agree to that? No, he won't. So the sanctions will continue. My expectation of how the war ends: - Russia occupies (and annexes?) all of the two Donbas provinces and much of the two southern Ukrainian provinces - An armistice to stop the fighting, to which Russia will agree because it has exhausted its offensive forces; Ukraine may be able to leverage the return of the cities of Kherson and Melitopol - No one recognizes or accepts Russia's occupation or annexation of any Ukrainian territories or any new "independent" states - Western sanctions on Russia remain in place

Well, this should if anything raise some serious questions about defense preparedness in Czechia and other NATO countries. If you are running out of arms reserves just simply supporting another state in its war, how will you have fared fighting your own war? The Czech people should ask some serious questions of their politicians about how long their own military would have lasted facing a Russian invasion.

The scorched earth approach Russia has taken means that even the pro-Russian people of those areas will never return to live there while the areas are under Russian occupation, because there will be very minimal rebuilding. Even after the war somehow "ends," nobody will be investing in Russia itself let alone these devastated areas. They will simply be areas of minefields, barbed wire, and defensive fortifications occupied by Russian reservists. And Western sanctions on Russia will not end.

Today's interesting read: https://www.19fortyfive.com/2022/06/the-ukraine-war-is-bleeding-russia-dry/

I would suggest playing BG1 first anyway, exactly because it is so much shorter. But you have to keep in mind how old that game is now, and on account of having led the way in the cRPG genre it didn't get to benefit from the lessons of many other games. DA:I is also a fun game to play. Make sure you don't allow yourself to get bogged down in the Hinterlands map. And I personally liked some of the war table quests and would recommend taking a case by case approach to whether you want to do those quests.

Russia's artillery war in the Donbas: https://www.19fortyfive.com/2022/06/russian-tactics-artillery-ukraine/

Yeah, four is a single battery (NATO standard). And yes the Russians will be prioritizing them for targeting as well. Good thing they're extremely mobile, which is HiM- part of their abbreviation. 'Shoot and scoot' is how you are supposed to use them.

Well, yes, but they're just the first batch. And other countries have now also said they too will send HiMARS. And HiMARS is an awesome system for the Ukrainians for this one reason. The one thing that is truly hurting the UA badly right now is that the Russians are relentlessly and indiscriminately bombarding UA positions with massive amounts of artillery, which the UA cannot get at as they're out of reach. With HiMARS, not only do those Russian artillery systems come with reach, one HiMARS has the potential to wipe out an entire battery of artillery guns, and possibly even more, in counter-battery fire mode.

Damn, I really got to give massive kudos to Lithuania. Their railroad action against Russia has the whiney crybabies in Moscow going bat-crap crazy! They're literally losing their minds, because tiny Lithuania has come up with a completely legal under international law way to REALLY stick it to the Russians, and there's precious little Russia can do about it short of invading NATO territory. Every argument the Russians raise about how "wrong" this is can be turned right back around on them! Lavrov, Peskov and co. are so apoplectic its side-splittingly hilarious. I'm keeping my fingers crossed it pushes Palputin's ticker over the line. Man, Lithuania is ****ing brilliant!!

Steam summer sale starts tomorrow!

I would guess they'd launch a major cyber attack. That's their big go-to short of military action. And yeah, Peskov saying, "This decision is really unprecedented. It's a violation of everything. We consider this illegal," is hilarious and the height of hutzpah. Everything the Russians have done since 2/24 is unprecedented, illegal, and "a violation of everything." In response to Russia's actions, any counter-action taken by anyone anywhere in the world is eminently reasonable by default.

See, the problem with all these new breakthroughs is that they will be too late to do anything for me, a 54 years old guy in *not* the best shape.

I had this game on my Steam wishlist for ages, mainly because I automatically put any cRPG with RTwP combat on my list. But after it came out of EA and still had huge issues, I dropped it from my list. Would be interested in hearing more from you about how it is.

Hahaha, you are so silly! Those of us living out here in the northeast already know what it feels like to have our last drop of blood squeezed out of us! Those prices are pretty close to what they charge out here. Besides, I'll have that Massachusetts-level pension going for me (50% of my annual income).

HA! Hawaii is exactly the place that's been on my mind lately for retirement as well. As someone who loves gardens, mountains, jungles, seafood, WW2 and naval history, and who is of Asian heritage and has family there, Hawaii is extremely attractive if I can swing the finances.

What about a couple of hundred acres of pristine beauty in Wyoming? Maybe even a horse ranch.

As far as I'm concerned, way to go little Lithuania!! Way to show the supposedly big and strong countries (Germany, France, Italy) what it means to have even the tiniest bit of a backbone.

These were assessments of NATO capabilities relative to Russia from before the Ukraine war. Current assessments are that both NATO and the US had continuing Cold War mentalities about Russian capabilities being akin to Soviet capabilities at the height of the Cold War, which is to say we severely overestimated Russian capabilities. Ironically, many experts assess that even as we overestimated Russian capabilities, we are simultaneously underestimating Chinese capabilities (and that's going to seriously bite us on the ass very soon).

Hehe, perhaps you need to think farther than even Iberia and bring those investments all the way across the Atlantic. I promise you they will be safe here.

Same here. And especially since I don't shell out for any streaming services. CBS used to be my go-to network for shows I loved for years. But now, three years in a row, they've canceled one of my beloved shows: first Hawaii 5-0, then SEAL Team (putting it in Paramount+ was the same as canceling for me), and now Magnum P.I. So now I literally have zero hour-long shows carrying over from the 21/22 season to the 22/23 season.

Now if only we could use our tax returns to buy an actual F-14 Tomcat. I'm sure they're cheap at the Boneyard.

No I don't. And I also don't read the same kind of sites on the left.