The Russian Invasion of Ukraine

[Fuzzy Necromancer]

I don't know who you're referring to.

Teddy Roosevelt (who advanced an imperial foreign agenda while advancing a progressive domestic agenda) and Woodrow Wilson (who advanced a progressive domestic agenda, attempted to advance a progressive foreign agenda at Versailles, but also imposed segregation federally). That's the best I can do for "progressives behaving badly".

I suppose there's also the progressives who supported eugenics in the early 20th century.

Thank you for clarifying. Frustration, do you agree with this assessment or do you have any examples to add?

[hammerofglass]

If we're including Roosevelt then Taft acting as governor of the Philippines during the insurrection and accompanying atrocities probably counts.

[Beastro]

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/articl ... laims.html

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/this ... -wl2gtdl9m

https://inews.co.uk/news/russian-invasi ... er-1501734

The author also addressed the likelihood of Putin launching a nuclear strike against the West, saying it was a possibility.

They also wrote that Russia's foreign intelligence service, the SVR, was trying to find evidence that Ukraine had built nuclear weapons to justify a pre-emptive strike.

'Is there a possibility of a local nuclear strike? Yes. Not for military purposes (it will not give anything - this is a defense breakthrough weapon), but with the aim of intimidating others,' they wrote.

'At the same time, the soil is being prepared to turn everything to Ukraine - Naryshkin and his SVR are now digging the earth to prove that they secretly created nuclear weapons there.'

"Russia's crazy and is capable of anything" is a lovely picture for them to paint right now. They are very weak, but very motivated. They'll use what they can to gain any advantage, but seriously risking nuclear war does not aid them.

The appearance that they are willing to, however, does.

Thanks, Draco Dracul!

Checking the definition of 'federation': Wikipedia's definition:

A federation (also known as a federal state) is a political entity characterized by a union of partially self-governing provinces, states, or other regions under a central federal government. In a federation, the self-governing status of the component states, as well as the division of power between them and the central government, is typically constitutionally entrenched and may not be altered by a unilateral decision of either party, the states or the federal political body. Alternatively, a federation is a form of government in which sovereign power is formally divided between a central authority and a number of constituent regions so that each region retains some degree of control over its internal affairs.

Do the federated states in Russia have any actual power or authority?

Think of the Russian Federation as a Russian Empire that throws numerous non-Russian groups the bone of some degree of self-governance to placate them and it'll make sense. The point of the Jewish Autonomous Oblast was originally to be a place to "encourage" the Soviet Union's Jewish population to move to so they could be out of the way in the middle of nowhere.

[clearspira]

I've been pondering something. We've seen how shitty the Russian armed forces are in the past few weeks. They have numbers on their side but their supply lines suck, their equipment is mostly old Soviet-era junk, and the morale of their troops are low. The Ukrainians have been capturing scores of them just with the promise of a cup of tea.

So that leads me to wonder about just how many of their nukes actually work, how many of them can actually be deployed even if they do, and how many of them are advanced enough to penetrate modern ballistic missile defence systems. And given Russia's new status as a vassal state of China, I cannot imagine Xi Jinping really wanting the end of the world to come about because of Putin's crusade to bring back the USSR.

[phantom000]

I've been pondering something. We've seen how shitty the Russian armed forces are in the past few weeks. They have numbers on their side but their supply lines suck, their equipment is mostly old Soviet-era junk, and the morale of their troops are low. The Ukrainians have been capturing scores of them just with the promise of a cup of tea.

So that leads me to wonder about just how many of their nukes actually work, how many of them can actually be deployed even if they do, and how many of them are advanced enough to penetrate modern ballistic missile defence systems. And given Russia's new status as a vassal state of China, I cannot imagine Xi Jinping really wanting the end of the world to come about because of Putin's crusade to bring back the USSR.

That did come up after the Cold War, when a lot of details were coming to light it was realized that the Soviet Nuclear forces might not have been as much of a threat as the west had feared. Sure, they had more bombs than the US but it was later learned that their command and control system, what Khrushchev would have used to issue the orders if he wanted to attack America or NATO was not all that reliable. It was estimated that if the order was given for an all out nuclear attack, about 40%-70% of the weapons would never have launched because their crews would never have gotten the order.

Of course that was back in the 1960's and a lot has changed since then.

As far as Russia becoming a vassal state of China, this war might make that more of a reality since China is holding the only Russian reserves that haven't been frozen yet.

https://www.stltoday.com/news/world/rus ... f7d57.html

It would not surprise me if when this is all over, China ends up owning Russia in a fairly literal sense.

[BridgeConsoleMasher]

I've been pondering something. We've seen how shitty the Russian armed forces are in the past few weeks. They have numbers on their side but their supply lines suck, their equipment is mostly old Soviet-era junk, and the morale of their troops are low. The Ukrainians have been capturing scores of them just with the promise of a cup of tea.

So that leads me to wonder about just how many of their nukes actually work, how many of them can actually be deployed even if they do, and how many of them are advanced enough to penetrate modern ballistic missile defence systems. And given Russia's new status as a vassal state of China, I cannot imagine Xi Jinping really wanting the end of the world to come about because of Putin's crusade to bring back the USSR.

How much China will continue to do business with Russia therefor isn't really certain but my guess is that the bar is rather low given how much China commands with its global financial interactivity. They also share a huge border. If Russia deployed nukes offensively then China would probably join the west in doing whatever it can to stop them. If it was an escalated conflict then they would rationalize the incident on the UN level.

As far as nuclear arsenal between the US and Russia, I thought it was like comparing the size of Nike vs Adidas in sportswear.

[CharlesPhipps]

I've been pondering something. We've seen how shitty the Russian armed forces are in the past few weeks. They have numbers on their side but their supply lines suck, their equipment is mostly old Soviet-era junk, and the morale of their troops are low. The Ukrainians have been capturing scores of them just with the promise of a cup of tea.

So that leads me to wonder about just how many of their nukes actually work, how many of them can actually be deployed even if they do, and how many of them are advanced enough to penetrate modern ballistic missile defence systems. And given Russia's new status as a vassal state of China, I cannot imagine Xi Jinping really wanting the end of the world to come about because of Putin's crusade to bring back the USSR.

The answer is probably, "not all of them but enough of them that it wouldn't matter."

[CharlesPhipps]

I've been pondering something. We've seen how shitty the Russian armed forces are in the past few weeks. They have numbers on their side but their supply lines suck, their equipment is mostly old Soviet-era junk, and the morale of their troops are low. The Ukrainians have been capturing scores of them just with the promise of a cup of tea.

So that leads me to wonder about just how many of their nukes actually work, how many of them can actually be deployed even if they do, and how many of them are advanced enough to penetrate modern ballistic missile defence systems. And given Russia's new status as a vassal state of China, I cannot imagine Xi Jinping really wanting the end of the world to come about because of Putin's crusade to bring back the USSR.

How much China will continue to do business with Russia therefor isn't really certain but my guess is that the bar is rather low given how much China commands with its global financial interactivity. They also share a huge border. If Russia deployed nukes offensively then China would probably join the west in doing whatever it can to stop them. If it was an escalated conflict then they would rationalize the incident on the UN level.

As far as nuclear arsenal between the US and Russia, I thought it was like comparing the size of Nike vs Adidas in sportswear.

There's an interesting article that Russia's invasion more or less exposed China to its own failings--specifically that a lot of nations DO NOT THINK LIKE THEM. Specifically, China has always believed it could get what it wanted economically and with intimidation (see Hong Kong) in the long term.

Russia using brute force exposed them to realizing that....well, a lot of their allies are morons.

https://www.stimson.org/2022/ukraine-di ... ve-a-clue/

[BridgeConsoleMasher]

I've been pondering something. We've seen how shitty the Russian armed forces are in the past few weeks. They have numbers on their side but their supply lines suck, their equipment is mostly old Soviet-era junk, and the morale of their troops are low. The Ukrainians have been capturing scores of them just with the promise of a cup of tea.

So that leads me to wonder about just how many of their nukes actually work, how many of them can actually be deployed even if they do, and how many of them are advanced enough to penetrate modern ballistic missile defence systems. And given Russia's new status as a vassal state of China, I cannot imagine Xi Jinping really wanting the end of the world to come about because of Putin's crusade to bring back the USSR.

How much China will continue to do business with Russia therefor isn't really certain but my guess is that the bar is rather low given how much China commands with its global financial interactivity. They also share a huge border. If Russia deployed nukes offensively then China would probably join the west in doing whatever it can to stop them. If it was an escalated conflict then they would rationalize the incident on the UN level.

As far as nuclear arsenal between the US and Russia, I thought it was like comparing the size of Nike vs Adidas in sportswear.

There's an interesting article that Russia's invasion more or less exposed China to its own failings--specifically that a lot of nations DO NOT THINK LIKE THEM. Specifically, China has always believed it could get what it wanted economically and with intimidation (see Hong Kong) in the long term.

Russia using brute force exposed them to realizing that....well, a lot of their allies are morons.

https://www.stimson.org/2022/ukraine-di ... ve-a-clue/

What Russia is doing is not very different from what goes on in the middle east. Just that any intervention by the west is historically a big deal, and we've naturally covered a lot of ground in that particular area for 3 decades over the course of 3 wars.

Remember though that Trump sent missile strikes to Syria as a gesture. Putin knows Biden won't send any stingers into the unproven ground unless provoked.

[hammerofglass]

I've been pondering something. We've seen how shitty the Russian armed forces are in the past few weeks. They have numbers on their side but their supply lines suck, their equipment is mostly old Soviet-era junk, and the morale of their troops are low. The Ukrainians have been capturing scores of them just with the promise of a cup of tea.

So that leads me to wonder about just how many of their nukes actually work, how many of them can actually be deployed even if they do, and how many of them are advanced enough to penetrate modern ballistic missile defence systems. And given Russia's new status as a vassal state of China, I cannot imagine Xi Jinping really wanting the end of the world to come about because of Putin's crusade to bring back the USSR.

How much China will continue to do business with Russia therefor isn't really certain but my guess is that the bar is rather low given how much China commands with its global financial interactivity. They also share a huge border. If Russia deployed nukes offensively then China would probably join the west in doing whatever it can to stop them. If it was an escalated conflict then they would rationalize the incident on the UN level.

As far as nuclear arsenal between the US and Russia, I thought it was like comparing the size of Nike vs Adidas in sportswear.

There's an interesting article that Russia's invasion more or less exposed China to its own failings--specifically that a lot of nations DO NOT THINK LIKE THEM. Specifically, China has always believed it could get what it wanted economically and with intimidation (see Hong Kong) in the long term.

Russia using brute force exposed them to realizing that....well, a lot of their allies are morons.

https://www.stimson.org/2022/ukraine-di ... ve-a-clue/

What Russia is doing is not very different from what goes on in the middle east. Just that any intervention by the west is historically a big deal, and we've naturally covered a lot of ground in that particular area for 3 decades over the course of 3 wars.

Remember though that Trump sent missile strikes to Syria as a gesture. Putin knows Biden won't send any stingers into the unproven ground unless provoked.

The US has been shipping stingers and javelins into the country since before the shooting started. What are you talking about?