Sanctions against Russia

[Bruce Tuncks]

Yep, I thought that the first time too....BUT, he only just won and with a lot of help from russia. That will all be a negative for the next time. AND he lost against old Biden, I reckon the gulf will only grow.

[facthunter]

They also  slag each other off in the primaries, giving ammunition for the opposite Party to use.. It's survival of the FATTEST (wallet) there. and that often comes with the FATTEST  HEAD.   Nev

[willedoo]

Russia's main rail supply route from Crimea is out of action. The Chongar rail bridge on the Crimea/Kherson border has been damaged in a missile strike. Rail lines are marked in white on the map, the bridge marked in red.

 

[facthunter]

I doubt that would take long to fix.. A mild flood would do more damage.  Nev

[willedoo]

It's also on the land abutment and not on a span over water. That would make it easier to fix. There were some photos of pillar damage underneath, but no proof or verification they were from this strike or an old one from somewhere else.

[spenaroo]

anyone having flashes of Enemy at the gates, Where they cut down the communications lines. just to keep taking out the repair workers

[willedoo]

1 hour ago, spenaroo said:

anyone having flashes of Enemy at the gates, Where they cut down the communications lines. just to keep taking out the repair workers

One of the worst Russian tactics is where they launch a missile or artillery strike, wait a suitable amount of time, then target the rescuers. They did it in Syria and are doing it in Ukraine. They also targeted rescuers and flood victims with artillery barrages in Kherson after the dam was blown.

[Old Koreelah]

4 hours ago, willedoo said:

One of the worst Russian tactics is where they launch a missile or artillery strike, wait a suitable amount of time, then target the rescuers. They did it in Syria and are doing it in Ukraine. They also targeted rescuers and flood victims with artillery barrages in Kherson after the dam was blown.

Beyond evil. 

[Old Koreelah]

10 hours ago, octave said:

I think the Republicans have a real problem.  Trump is way ahead in poling for the primaries.    The far-right policies such as limiting women's reproductive rights anti trans etc. are very popular with a large section of registered Republicans and MAGA crowd.  This is why Desantis is trying to move further right than Trump.  This is an advantage when it comes to the Republican primaries.  The problem is that these things are very unpopular with the electorate as a whole.   in other words, the policies that will get a presidential candidate elected in the Republican primaries are also the policies that will likely ensure that Trump loses in the presidential election.

…which is why Republican governments have been passing laws go make it hard for traditional Democrat supporters to vote. Blatant, obscene denial of democratic rights, but popular with the poor dumb whites who have been convinced that minorities are taking over their country.

[spenaroo]

America has the same problem we have though,
lack of a decent opposition.

I don't have anything against Biden... but you cant tell me he is the most suitable for a second term against Trump.
which then adds the influence, does America accept Kamala as president when Biden is deemed unfit? 

its the old Rudd v Howard... where the losing element was knowing you were actually voting Costello.

[Marty_d]

I was on a training course yesterday and the facilitator, born in the US but emigrated here in 2010, said that 38m people support Trump but 62m people are horrified at the very idea of him.

The question of course is how many of them, despite their horror at the man himself, feel more horrified at the thought of a "progressive left-wing" Democrat government.

If everyone who hated the thought of Trump winning in 2024 went out and voted for Biden it wouldn't be an issue.  But it's not that simple unfortunately.

[rgmwa]

Plus they have the electoral college system which distorts the outcome of the election anyway.

 

[onetrack]

Vast amounts of money is what distorts the U.S. elections. Every U.S. election result is effectively purchased by the politician who can raise the biggest amount of money from the wealthiest contributors.

 

Trump woke up to this long ago, that why he loves social media money-garnering. Every time Trump needs a heap of money to fight another "unwarranted, illegal, attack" on him, or money for the next round of electioneering, he whips out the social media money-gathering hat, and it's got millions in it within hours.

 

If the Americans could ever legislate to take the monetary and corporate wealth influence out of their political system, they might stand a chance of getting a better and fairer and more democratic system.

 

As it stands, political decisions in the U.S. are controlled by the extremely wealthy. And many Americans believe that a healthy corporate world is necessary for any working class American to gain wealth themselves. The opposite is actually the case, the corporate world is a drain on the American economy, with "unjust enrichment" featuring prominently there.

[Marty_d]

Money distorts any election, even here.  Political donations should be only allowed from individuals (not companies, unions etc) and a cap of say $20 per person.  And not received as a lump sum for 1,000 people who, for example, all work for Clive Palmer.  

 

The trouble is, companies have vastly more access to political leaders than every individual, because they pay for it.  But the government is not there to benefit companies, it's there to benefit the people of Australia.  And before you say "but companies are formed from people"- then I would say that every staff member of the company is a person in their own right who will vote the way they want to, and so is every shareholder (the ones actually in Australia), so why does the company need special access to government?

Same goes for unions, sporting groups, whatever clustering you want to look at.  They're all individuals, so government should be there for all of them PLUS all the individuals who are not a member of those groups.

[willedoo]

6 hours ago, spenaroo said:

which then adds the influence, does America accept Kamala as president when Biden is deemed unfit? 

The short answer is no. Kamala would have Buckley's chance. The only reason she's still there is that it would be too embarrassing for the Democrats to dump her at this stage. Plus she gives the added advantage of making Biden look good in comparison.

[willedoo]

I never cease to be amazed at the constantly evolving technology and tactics in warfare. Soldiers in trenches with mobile phones and internet access. Ukrainian intelligence has agents posing as women on dating sites and they are suckering Russian troops into giving away valuable information like positions, troop and equipment numbers, plans and logistics data. The orcs are falling for it hook, line and sinker. The average Russian grunt is not the sharpest tool in the shed.

[red750]

Ukraine with heavy attack: Putin’s “Grizzly” goes up in flames

 

Ukraine has achieved a success in the ongoing conflict with Russia. This reports the German newspaper merkur.de with reference to a corresponding video of Ukraine.

 

More story and video here.

 

[spenaroo]

15 hours ago, willedoo said:

I never cease to be amazed at the constantly evolving technology and tactics in warfare. Soldiers in trenches with mobile phones and internet access. Ukrainian intelligence has agents posing as women on dating sites and they are suckering Russian troops into giving away valuable information like positions, troop and equipment numbers, plans and logistics data. The orcs are falling for it hook, line and sinker. The average Russian grunt is not the sharpest tool in the shed.

no different to the intelligence brothels run during WW2.
same idea, different implementation

[red750]

Navalny has been sentenced to a further 19 year in prison, on top of the nine he is currently serving.

[Jerry_Atrick]

And no doubt in a solitary confinement cell will little light, food, or water

[willedoo]

Navalny stuffed up badly by going back to Russia. He might have achieved his goal to appear as a martyr to his western supporters, but the reality is, the west will eventually forget him and he's left stuck in a Russian rat hole prison. He would have received a lot more long term exposure if he had applied for political asylum and worked to promote himself in exile. People in Russia would take little notice of him either way, but at least in exile he would have kept his western fan base.

 

Navalny has always had trouble gaining much ground in Russian politics. Being primarily a self promoter, his position has swung with the breeze over the years to wherever he can gain popularity. A bit more than a decade ago, he started courting western support and toned down some of his more extreme right wing nationalistic views to appear more palatable to western audiences. His problem in Russia has been to find a political position where he can gain traction. I think that might have been his idea in focusing on corruption as a platform base.

 

He's been stuck between a rock and a hard place politically. By nature, he's a right wing nationalist, but there's already a major popular opposition party further to the right of his position. There is also a large popular party taking up the centre/centre-left. And there's no advantage for him to go way to the left as that's taken up by Russia's No.2 party, the Communist Party. He's always had delusions of being president of Russia, but the most he could have realistically achieved was to have been an opposition Kremlin critic in exile. It's doubtful he'd have the option of the Americans bailing him out in a prisoner exchange as he's a Russian citizen in a Russian prison.

 

[willedoo]

That was a good night for Ukraine's marine drones, or USV's as they call them. One navy landing ship out of action and listing badly to port, and one oil tanker, also with a possible hull breach. There's reports the tanker is immobilised with a flooded engine room. It was reported as empty at the time and is a Russian tanker used to transport fuel between Russia and Syria.

[willedoo]

I don't know how the Ukrainian USV's deliver a penetrating blast, but I'm assuming it would be on the surface, ie: the waterline of the target vessel. It would be good if they could launch a torpedo that would hit the hull a bit deeper. Or maybe both, a torpedo plus a surface blast when the drone hits. Sinking a ship has more propaganda value, but badly damaging one would tie up more resources in the repairing of it.

[willedoo]

It might buff out.

 

[willedoo]

Going by this satellite image, they were able to tow the ship to the dock in Novorossiysk and support it with a tug. That's probably where it will stay as there's no dry dock repair facility at Novorossiysk. There are dry docks in Sevastopol in Crimea but it would be doubtful they could get it in any condition to tow the ship there. At least, not in the short term. The Russian's are claiming they destroyed the drones; move along, nothing to see here.