Blazingcatfur – Page 4915

Friendly fire blunders, confusion, low morale: why Russia’s army has stalled

Uniforms are one of the most deceptive trappings of military culture. They suggest uniformity but it is often said of the British army that if two officers look the same, one must be improperly dressed. Armies, and especially professional armies, are more often warring tribes of subcultures, and for commanders it is critical to understand how those cultures interact if the force is to be employed effectively in battle.

When it comes to Russian military culture, the Russian army has been through a period of significant change, with constant modernisation since 2008. The Soviet Union fielded an army of more than 3.5 million soldiers in 1991. The Soviet army was largely a conscript force and lacked an experienced noncommissioned officer corps. This meant that Soviet units had to be treated with a degree of uniformity, since the personnel rotated so frequently that most line units were necessarily commanded using set formulas that formed the basis for unit training.

#Ukraine: The Ukrainian sources claim that the Russian jet was shot down near Izium, #Kharkiv Oblast. We believe the shown jet is a Russian Su-30SM fighter. pic.twitter.com/lFQYvcGoTA

— 🇺🇦 Ukraine Weapons Tracker (@UAWeapons) April 3, 2022

by Blazingcatfur•April 3, 2022April 3, 2022•0•"Ukraine - Russia"

Federal budget could see more money for economy destroying climate programs says extremist Guilbeault

With the federal budget slated to be unveiled on Thursday, Environment and Climate Change Minister Steven Guilbeault says we could see more climate-related elements in the budget.

Speaking to Evan Solomon on CTV’s Question Period, he said it’s “fair” to say that new programs to fight climate change could be in the budget.

“I’m not the finance minister. I don’t know what will be in the budget, but it is possible that that there will be new elements announced in the budget,” Guilbeault said.

by Blazingcatfur•April 3, 2022April 3, 2022•0•Canada's Corrupt Liberal Government, Green-Scam

Biden ‘confident’ his son didn’t break the law, White House chief of staff says

President Joe Biden is “confident” that his son Hunter didn’t break the law, White House chief of staff Ron Klain said Sunday.

“Of course the president is confident that his son didn’t break the law,” Klain said on ABC’s “This Week.”

Hunter Biden’s international business dealings have been under investigation since 2020, but discussion about his conduct has accelerated in recent weeks with confirmation that a laptop dropped off at a repair shop in Delaware was indeed his. Among the questions is whether he exploited his family name to make dubious or illegal business deals, and whether his father was aware of what he is/was doing.

by Blazingcatfur•April 3, 2022April 3, 2022•0•"President Dementia AKA Joe Biden"

Two Russian soldiers have died & 28 are in hospital after being poisoned by pastries offered them by civilians near besieged Kharkiv

Two Russian soldiers have died and 28 are in hospital after being POISONED by pastry delicacies offered to them by civilians near besieged Kharkiv, according to the Ukraine Ministry of Defence

Russian troops near Kharkiv died after eating poisoned stuffed buns given to them as ‘gifts’ by Ukrainian citizens, a Ukrainian intelligence agency has claimed.

Two soldiers from the 3rd Motor Rifle Division died immediately after eating the delicacies served by the citizens of Izium, a Facebook post by the Main Intelligence Directorate of Ukraine announced on Saturday.

Another 28 Russian troops are in intensive care after the poisoning with several hundred others also suffering from ‘severe illnesses’ after drinking poisoned alcohol given to them by civilians.

by Blazingcatfur•April 3, 2022April 3, 2022•0•"Ukraine - Russia"

That Liberal-NDP deal may be putting New Democrats in an awkward spot

A cynic might wonder whether New Democrats are feeling uneasy about their public image

On Wednesday, a little more than a week after the Liberals and New Democrats announced a historic confidence-and-supply agreement, NDP MP Laurel Collins rose in the House of Commons and attacked the government’s new climate plan, saying it lacks “ambition” and offers “massive subsidies to unproven carbon capture technology.”

“The government continues to put the interests of big oil and gas above protecting the workers who are impacted by the climate crisis,” she said.

Maybe Collins would have been even less generous if the Liberal-NDP accord didn’t exist. But her critical read of the Liberal plan might dash any thoughts that the new governing agreement means Liberals and New Democrats will spend the next three years holding hands and singing the old CCF campaign song.

The NDP’s public image wasn’t always complete shiite but they’re Singhing a different tune now.

by Blazingcatfur•April 3, 2022April 3, 2022•0•Canada's Corrupt Political Class

‘They were all shot’: Russia accused of war crimes as Bucha reveals horror of invasion

The retreat of Russian forces around Kyiv has left horrifying evidence of atrocities against civilians littered across the region’s suburbs and towns, turned into hellish war zones by Vladimir Putin’s invasion.

As Ukrainian armoured columns rolled into Bucha, a town north-west of the capital, they found streets blocked by burned-out Russian tanks and military vehicles, and strewn with the bodies of civilians whom locals said had been killed by the invading forces without provocation.

Photographs from the town showed a scene of devastation, with hunks of charred and destroyed tanks and armoured vehicles lined up along one street, along with dead bodies.

#Ukraine: A Russian TOS-1A thermobaric multiple rocket launcher, captured by the Ukrainian forces. This MRL is likely the one which was hit with an ATGM yesterday – that’s why its working condition is doubtful. pic.twitter.com/rmLyEjtNM0

— 🇺🇦 Ukraine Weapons Tracker (@UAWeapons) April 2, 2022

#Ukraine: A Russian Ka-52 hitting what is likely Ukrainian tanks (or BTR) with ATGM, in the area of #Izyum. Two vehicles are destroyed. pic.twitter.com/WjQntzcm9g

— 🇺🇦 Ukraine Weapons Tracker (@UAWeapons) April 3, 2022

by Blazingcatfur•April 3, 2022April 3, 2022•0•"Ukraine - Russia"

The left-wing case against identity politics

It is time progressives stood up to the racism, classism and misogyny of wokeness.

The Identity Myth by David Swift is a fun and clever book. It’s a counterblast to the Flapper Girl socialism of Novara Media. It brilliantly dismantles the ‘NeoOrientalism’ of the identitarian left. It lights a fire under the arse of the graduate left who say, without a flicker of shame, that 65-year-old working-class people who own their homes are the new propertied elite while posh twentysomethings with PhDs who pay sky-high rents in hip Hackney are the new proles. If you’ve ever found yourself wondering how the left lost the plot, how a movement founded to represent the interests of the working class ended up treating the working class as a lost, hopeless, mostly racist cause, you could do worse than start here.

by Blazingcatfur•April 3, 2022April 2, 2022•0•"Identity Politics"

Lawyer Fined for Saying Free Speech ‘Dying‘ Due to Muslims Wins Appeal

A lawyer fined £500 ($660) by regulators after saying that “free speech is dying and Islamists and other Muslims are playing a central role” has won an appeal to the Bar Tribunals & Adjudication Service, telling Breitbart the campaign against him was “politically motivated”.

Related…

Gone to Rot – Free speech in Britain is losing ground to the “right” not to be offended

John Adams wrote that the real war for American independence was won in the hearts and minds of the people, with the help of newspapers and pamphlets, which “enlightened and informed” public opinion. Freedom of expression, which the American colonists inherited from the British liberal tradition, was thus a catalyst for the creation of a new nation. In Britain today, however, the public seems to be losing interest in such liberty: a December 2021 YouGov poll found that 43 percent of respondents valued protecting people from offensive or hateful remarks over the right to free speech.

by Blazingcatfur•April 3, 2022April 2, 2022•0•"Islamophobia", Islam, Islam and violence, Islamization of the West, UK

Why Russian-Ukrainian Peace Talks Won’t End Putin’s War

In what appeared to some as a significant volte-face, the Kremlin signaled earlier this week that it is seeking substantive progress in ongoing peace talks with Ukraine.

During the latest round of Russia-Ukraine talks in Istanbul, Kiev offered Moscow a fresh model for Ukrainian neutrality. Ukraine is willing to abandon its bid to join NATO in exchange for legally binding security guarantees from a large group of “guarantor nations,” including the United States, Canada, France, Britain, China, Germany, Israel, Turkey, Italy, and Poland. The Ukrainian negotiators likened the scheme to Article V of NATO’s charter, which relates to collective defense. But the analogy belies a striking contrast: Article V is a reciprocal security arrangement that requires every member to come to the defense of every other member, whereas Ukraine is calling for unilateral security guarantees from the world’s great powers without taking on any military commitments in turn.

by Blazingcatfur•April 3, 2022April 2, 2022•0•"Ukraine - Russia"

Does Hunter Biden Face Indictment?

Probably

Will President Joe Biden’s son be indicted? Probably.

There is less in that answer than you might suppose. It has been widely known for years that Hunter Biden has tax problems. In 2020, the District of Columbia slapped Biden fils with a $450,000 lien, stemming from tax delinquencies that stretched back to at least 2017. The lien was filed in July, as the presidential campaign was heating up.

by Blazingcatfur•April 3, 2022April 2, 2022•0•"Joe Sleazebag Biden"

The Democrats have a pedo problem

Progressives have a pedophilia problem. Full stop, as the Barack Obamas of the world might say. From CNN producers to Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) station chiefs and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) field agents; from the woke Disney corporation to Democrat donors; from Hollywood to the North American Man/Boy Love Association (NAMBLA); from Facebook/Meta to the Lincoln Project to America’s public school system — the progressive Left has a demonstrated prurient interest in underage children.

This is not guilt by association, innuendo, or conjecture; it is a firmly established fact pattern.

by Blazingcatfur•April 2, 2022April 2, 2022•0•Batshit Crazy Progressives

How to Save or Destroy an American City

The remedies we need to try.

I was in the midst of another cancer scare. Imaging tests were ordered, and then blood tests. No cancer – Yay! – but the blood tests revealed that I needed to increase the dosage of a medication for an unrelated chronic illness. Wednesday, March 23, 2022, was gray and drizzly. I don’t like to leave the apartment anywhere near sunset, but this medicine was important. I said the prayer I always say before opening my door. “God be with me as I walk. Saint Joseph protect my home. Saint Christopher protect my steps.” I set out for the CVS, three miles and two towns distant. Thanks to Google maps, I know I walk up 430 feet to arrive at the CVS in Wayne. There are pharmacies five minutes’ walk from my apartment, and, like my apartment, these nearby pharmacies are more or less at sea level. I walk so far and so high because I live in Paterson, NJ. It’s not just that a good part of the population speaks Spanish, Arabic, Bengali, or what is now called African American Vernacular English, and used to be called Ebonics. It’s not just because I am white and my first language is English, so I am a target for hostility and petty sabotage. I don’t want my prescriptions to meet the same fate as my vandalized, spat upon, and disappearing postal mail. I walk two towns away because even simple things that should work easily often don’t work in Paterson at all. More on that, later.

by Blazingcatfur•April 2, 2022April 2, 2022•0•"Homelessness & Affordability Crisis"

Don’t turn the Ukraine refugee crisis into a new normal

Ultra-liberal immigration policies are domestically divisive

… Studies show overwhelmingly that Britons support immigration. But voters understand that, as with many good things, immigration works best in moderation — not least to ensure we can maintain the highest levels of social solidarity and cohesion.

I am ceaselessly staggered — though I know I shouldn’t be — at how the perfectly reasonable stance of millions of voters on this question is regarded by the liberal intelligentsia as somehow unconscionable. They still aren’t getting it. I’m not sure they ever will.

by Blazingcatfur•April 2, 2022April 2, 2022•0•Immigration & Refugee Reform

Criticizing Public Figures, Including Influential Journalists, is Not Harassment or Abuse

As social media empowers uncredentialed people to be heard, society’s most powerful actors seek to cast themselves as victims and delegitimize all critiques.

The most powerful and influential newspaper in the U.S., arguably the West, is The New York Times. Journalists who write for it, especially those whose work is featured on its front page or in its op-ed section, wield immense power to shape public discourse, influence thought, set the political agenda for the planet’s most powerful nation, expose injustices, or ruin the lives of public figures and private citizens alike. That is an enormous amount of power in the hands of one media institution and its employees. That’s why it calls itself the Paper of Record.

by Blazingcatfur•April 2, 2022April 2, 2022•0•"Elites vs. Populists"