Russia invades Ukraine

I had worked with a Russian PHD chemist years ago.  Two things that stick in my memory is one, He said the break up of the Soviet was due to their war in Afghanistan, enormous economic costs.  I had believed it was due to Russia spending trying to keep up with U.S. spending on star wars plans.

This is an oppurtunity to cause real harm to Putin.  Biden plays this correctly, he can break Russia.  Lay low until the invasion turns into an occupation, then supply the Ukrainians with massive support for their

insurgency.  Prolong the conflict until Putin realizes it to costly.  The U.S. just suffered through an endless war in Afghanistan, lets learn from our mistakes and use it against Russia.

The second thing I remember he said was,  the most beautiful women in Russia come from Estonia.

It remains to be seen if the Russians try to take the whole country or just the eastern parts.   My understanding is the latter areas  are largely sympathetic to being occupied by Russia.  Kiev and the western parts, not so much.   

Looks like he wants to install a puppet government. I read something a bit earlier that reported anti-war protests are breaking out all over Russia. I think there is a threat that his position in Russia will be diminished as the average citizen begins to feel the effects of the sanctions. However, I don't see much hope for an independent Ukraine at this point. The only way I see them regaining their independence is when the Putin regime ends in Russia and that could be a long time.

What I don't understand is why all this is being treated as some kind of big surprise. Putin made it clear long ago that his goal is to restore the Russian Empire, and he considers breakaway former Soviet republics--such as Ukraine--to belong to Russia.

He'll gradually gobble up Ukraine, and we won't do anything about it. Nor should we try. If there's one thing we should have learned by now, it's to not get involved in endless wars in places we don't really give a shit about.

(By the way, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania will be Russian territory by 2030.)

It's been maybe ten to twelve years back now but I used to contract Ukrainians all the time when I had my web marking company. They were absolutely incredible as they were some of the best coders and graphic designers I ever worked with. Anything I could imagine, they could make a reality.  Ukrainians and other contractors from Eastern Europe churned out high-quality work so efficiently, I quit looking for contract hires from any other region. 

If Putin cyber attacks one of the NATO allies, it could cause WW3. Just sayin'.

Yeah, he did expose his abilities with that and we are dreadfully behind in that area. It isn't hip and defense contractors aren't happy if you hire a bunch of nerds rather than buying a bunch of new planes and tanks. 

Another out of touch democrat as he flies around the world on his private jet

https://news.yahoo.com/john-kerry-fears-russia-ukraine-161133138.html?fr=sycsrp_catchall

“And so I hope President Putin will help us to stay on track with respect to what we need to do for the climate.” Does anybody really think putin cares about the climate?

Actually, the US defunding of Ukraine and the subsequent invasion could harm a lot of things for us. For example:

Trade

Inflation

Deficits

Tourism income

Mental Health

Climate issues

Interest rates

Immigration issues

But gosh, if someone mentions any of the above, they are "out of touch," right?

Another genius tom post.

The trouble with the US military is the same trouble we're having with so many of our institutions, both public and private: old white fucks are running them. And the main problem with old white fucks is that their thinking is very, very "last century." The military reality is that some nerd in a basement can defeat a million macho men with big big tanks and guns and planes. All the nerd needs to do is write a few lines of computer code.

But our military doesn't hire nerds.