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SlowBloke posted:Having a lightweight modular vehicle usually ends up in the armor package being an option rarely purchased due to prices, which is a worry for a country without endless defense budgets. I think our army Iveco LMV armor packs cover less than 15% of the fleet(the burned out husks of the Russian army Rhys licensed variant in Ukraine were always without). I think that doesn’t sound too crazy for us. The context here would be that we’re buying 200+ Patria 6x6 vehicles already - that fits 2000 passengers, using baby math, and our army proper is 1 mechanised infantry brigade. Since 6x6 has a fuel tank for roughly 1.2 Latvias across, and can go 100 kmph on highway, the users for this buggy, if it passes testing and all the parts involved in making it a product they can legally sell to NATO armed force, would basically be non-frontline national guardsmen? Simultaneously, it could trivially be a grift scheme, though. Our current defence minister is hardly the most inspiring career official.
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Sep 5, 2022 19:41
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cinci zoo sniper posted:I think that doesn’t sound too crazy for us. The context here would be that we’re buying 200+ Patria 6x6 vehicles already - that fits 2000 passengers, using baby math, and our army proper is 1 mechanised infantry brigade. Since 6x6 has a fuel tank for roughly 1.2 Latvias across, and can go 100 kmph on highway, the users for this buggy, if it passes testing and all the parts involved in making it a product they can legally sell to NATO armed force, would basically be non-frontline national guardsmen? One thing that is worrisome of this kind of vehicles, where the core units is a over glorified dune buggy with poo poo strapped on, is that its chassis is sometimes far from sturdy. One Iveco LMV got into a crash with a Smart Fortwo(hitting the security cell of the Smart) where the smart got some side panels damage and the lmv got totaled. 
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Sep 5, 2022 20:13
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SlowBloke posted:One thing that is worrisome of this kind of vehicles, where the core units is a over glorified dune buggy with poo poo strapped on, is that its chassis is sometimes far from sturdy. One Iveco LMV got into a crash with a Smart Fortwo(hitting the security cell of the Smart) where the smart got some side panels damage and the lmv got totaled.  What the hell?
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Sep 5, 2022 20:20
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cinci zoo sniper posted:
Private doing driving lessons. During the session the steering rack hosed itself and made the driver lose control of the vehicle, it then side swept the smart making it flip. Private and trainer ended up being medevac'd while the smart driver didn't have much of a scratch. https://ilpiccolo.gelocal.it/trieste/cronaca/2014/04/15/news/blindato-dell-esercito-si-ribalta-centra-una-smart-che-resta-in-piedi-1.9055385
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Sep 5, 2022 20:33
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"Crashing into a Smart car" is probably not one of the top threats for the vehicle so they're not designed for that
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Sep 5, 2022 20:35
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A full speed Smart probably* has about as much kinetic energy as an APFSDS penetrator, so the LMV is arguably as sturdy as a main battle tank. *not doing the math
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Sep 5, 2022 20:39
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mobby_6kl posted:"Crashing into a Smart car" is probably not one of the top threats for the vehicle so they're not designed for that I would say a vehicle that is supposed to deal with a war shouldn't bend its chassis that easily.
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Sep 5, 2022 20:44
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cinci zoo sniper posted:
It's almost certainly this. I'm half hoping, half expecting that Latvian defense procurement during the war are going to be the bread and butter of investigative journalists 4-5 years down the line. I'm mostly basing that on the parliamentary secretary for the MoD being a person with a very interesting career track. During the last decade she went from leading the payday loan lobby to leading the construction company lobby to her current role, going from one booming goldmine to the next.
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Sep 5, 2022 20:46
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cinci zoo sniper posted:Huh, apparently there’s a homegrown Humvee-style vehicle development pretty far along the development track in Latvia. At least the party "Vienoti Latvijai" (United for Latvia) will make this task easier.  This is their entire manifesto. 8 of their 28 candidates are unemployed so they did have time to make something better.
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Sep 6, 2022 07:40
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Iceache posted:At least the party "Vienoti Latvijai" (United for Latvia) will make this task easier. I’ll be doing the effort post on the weekend, but in the meantime I’ll steal this teaser from Twitter. https://twitter.com/sprattys/status/1567441789459611648 For non-locals, this is a popular “party compass” quiz, which in this case shows pro-Russia populists/contrarians as the only party with meaningful overlap for someone replying “I both agree and disagree with this” to all questions.
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Sep 8, 2022 09:18
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loving centrists.
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Sep 8, 2022 11:27
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Unfortunately, not every party has agreed to submit their answers for the compass, and so it only covers roughly half of the electoral lists, effectively having a fairly big blind spot with Harmony’s omission. Or formerly big at the very least, since pre-election party ratings could spell out a scenario as dire as loss of 2/3 of the voter base.
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Sep 8, 2022 11:33
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https://twitter.com/a4toslu4ilos/status/1568228885741064193
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Sep 9, 2022 19:14
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Lmao, good idea to start looking into booking an appointment early to avoid the queues That post is also probably punishable by at least a fine for discrediting the armed forces
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Sep 9, 2022 22:24
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Yeah it’s a solid “10 years in prison” meme
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Sep 9, 2022 22:28
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okay i may be high but i am dying https://twitter.com/KevinRothrock/status/1568921971894755333
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Sep 11, 2022 12:38
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Sorry for using this thread for tourist questions but I would ask recommendations to do/eat/experience in Warsaw? I was gifted four night trip to Warsaw at end of this month. I am Finnish if that matters. Thanks for advance.
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Sep 11, 2022 15:38
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It’s perfectly fine to ask tourist questions here, don’t sweat it
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Sep 11, 2022 15:59
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The answer of course is it depends on what you like doing. The bog standard thing is the Royal Gardens, which you should do on a Sunday because until September 25th there are free Chopin piano recitals at the Chopin monument at 12 and 16. You should also go to Wilanow Royal Palace and the Old Town. Stroll down Nowy Swiat and Krakowskie Przedmiescie for the quintessential touristy experience. Take the elevator to the top of the Palace of Culture and enjoy the Stalinist architecture. You also want to go to the Warsaw Uprising museum and Polin, the Jewish history museum. As far as entertainment, catch some pre-war Warsaw vibes on Zabkowska in the Praga District, visit the old Koneser vodka factory there. Go to Plac Zbawiciela in the afternoon to hang out with the cool kids in the cafes there, or to Mazowiecka street at night for the trendy clubs. Get shopping done in the mega-malls at Zlote Tarasy and the surrounding area right smack in the downtown. That's off the top of my head. Drop me a PM and I'll give you some more pointers if you'd like.
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Sep 11, 2022 16:00
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lunael1982 posted:Sorry for using this thread for tourist questions but I would ask recommendations to do/eat/experience in Warsaw? I was gifted four night trip to Warsaw at end of this month. I am Finnish if that matters. Thanks for advance. All the downtown area around the market square and Royal Castle (you can get tickets to go inside) Neon Muzem. Seriously my #1 thing, gives a lot of historical and cultural background than you'd expect. Warsaw Uprising Museum POLIN museum of Polish Jews Palace of Culture and Science, it's a gigantic commie building and you can get a great view from the observation deck Copernicus Science Centre is better for kids IMO Try eating in a "Bar Mleczny" for an authentic experience 
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Sep 11, 2022 16:02
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Book tickets at the Copernicus ahead of time, they sell out 
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Sep 11, 2022 16:18
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Man, I hate Nowy Świat. It's the boring trendy plasticky street with boring overpriced food and drink places. It'd be vastly better to start somewhere around Uprising Museum and go east, passing the last of old decrepit buildings still left on Łucka st, or remnants of industrial railroad buildings near Warsaw West Station.
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Sep 13, 2022 13:11
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https://twitter.com/travelgov/status/1569666433738473473?s=46&t=uee4AeeplG5qJdSqasrsmw https://twitter.com/AFP/status/1569589439185432576 This fighting in Armenia proper, not NK. FishBulbia fucked around with this message at 14:17 on Sep 13, 2022 |
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Sep 13, 2022 14:10
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I wonder what’s the objective there.
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Sep 13, 2022 14:21
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Got my mail vote ballots for the Latvian parliamentary election today. I mentioned it to my Polish colleagues and they claim to be mildly jealous, as apparently Poland is making it really hard for the diaspora/absentee voters to vote from abroad. I don't know why that surprised me. Cinci, how's the effortpost coming along?
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Sep 13, 2022 15:24
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a podcast for cats posted:Got my mail vote ballots for the Latvian parliamentary election today. I mentioned it to my Polish colleagues and they claim to be mildly jealous, as apparently Poland is making it really hard for the diaspora/absentee voters to vote from abroad. I don't know why that surprised me. I’ve gone through 11 of 19 lists, but have to rewrite what I did for most of them, as my thoughts on the optimal format of presentation have meaningfully shifted along the way. My current plan is post it on Thursday evening, but I don’t mind trying to hurry up, if that’s the implication.
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Sep 13, 2022 15:28
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No rush on my behalf, my mind has been made up. Just curious about reading it is all.
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Sep 13, 2022 15:36
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a podcast for cats posted:Got my mail vote ballots for the Latvian parliamentary election today. I mentioned it to my Polish colleagues and they claim to be mildly jealous, as apparently Poland is making it really hard for the diaspora/absentee voters to vote from abroad. I don't know why that surprised me. Thanks for reminding me, I really should call the Polish consulate here in Toronto and get my passport. I may have to start from scratch with proving citizenship as I only had a passport at 14 because my mom got it for me, and they're now asking for me to provide a PESEL number and whatnot, which I don't have. Speaking of, what are the actual rules on voting from abroad? I generally don't follow Polish politics that closely, but how does it work as a citizen who's never resided in the good ol' RP? Figured you guys could use an extra vote that isn't PiS or PO.
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Sep 13, 2022 15:48
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a podcast for cats posted:No rush on my behalf, my mind has been made up. Just curious about reading it is all. For Thursday it remains then. Not sure whom I’ll going to vote for yet myself, but the coalition at this point looks reasonably straightforward - JV is going to score like 25-30%. NA and AS are going to be 10-15% parties, and PRO and A/P 5-10%. NA and A/P have both caused friction for various reasons in the current government, so the only thing that I cannot predict confidently is which of the two is going to get cast out into opposition, if it comes down to that. I would say for the specific coalition makeup my logic would be that we are going to get JV-AS-PRO, and, if that lacks the majority, or simply to have a bigger group, they will more likely go with A/P over NA, since NA’s gay marriage manoeuvring will make it much harder to sell PRO an alliance with NA, than to simply PR away some grumbling for letting A/P back into the government. Alternatively, we could, mathematically, get a JV-AS-NA(-A/P) coalition, but I expect JV to value young people’s support quite highly, and they’re hardly happy with NA on gay marriage either. In other words, I guess what I’m saying is that I already want to be discussing all of this, so I need to hurry up with the post for my own sake.
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Sep 13, 2022 16:00
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a podcast for cats posted:Got my mail vote ballots for the Latvian parliamentary election today. I mentioned it to my Polish colleagues and they claim to be mildly jealous, as apparently Poland is making it really hard for the diaspora/absentee voters to vote from abroad. I don't know why that surprised me. Just the impression I get, but I've seen several countries with conservative/right wing governments make it harder for overseas citizens to vote, on account of such voters usually being more left wing than the average population.
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Sep 13, 2022 16:00
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cinci zoo sniper posted:For Thursday it remains then. Not sure whom I’ll going to vote for yet myself, but the coalition at this point looks reasonably straightforward - JV is going to score like 25-30%. NA and AS are going to be 10-15% parties, and PRO and A/P 5-10%. NA and A/P have both caused friction for various reasons in the current government, so the only thing that I cannot predict confidently is which of the two is going to get cast out into opposition, if it comes down to that. I saw some news story the other day about A/P being potentially implicated in some sort of VID-involved bribery scandal, so if that progresses much beyond "it's possible" handwaving in the near future they may find themselves the odd party out.
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Sep 13, 2022 16:07
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Sir Bobert Fishbone posted:I saw some news story the other day about A/P being potentially implicated in some sort of VID-involved bribery scandal, so if that progresses much beyond "it's possible" handwaving in the near future they may find themselves the odd party out. Oh huh, I need to catch up with Latvian news for September then. If they’re plausibly caught red handed by VID, their coalition chances are basically dead, since they already did gently caress up big with ‘rona and gambling, sitting at 2/3 of their rating for the past election. They’re being kept afloat by basically just by Pavļuts being a good communicator, and Pabriks being a weirdo in an endearing way, whose latest stint of public misogyny isn’t helping them, however.
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Sep 13, 2022 16:16
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Sir Bobert Fishbone posted:I saw some news story the other day about A/P being potentially implicated in some sort of VID-involved bribery scandal, so if that progresses much beyond "it's possible" handwaving in the near future they may find themselves the odd party out. I saw that one on TV3's Nekā Personīga last week and while I have no love lost for A/P and Jaunups, it stuck me as posturing by the extortionists. They only stand to benefit from being seen as untouchable because of protection from high up, so it makes perfect sense from them to tell that to the victim. Edit: It was a group of VID investigators trying to shake down a businessman for a 100K bribe in order to avoid a trumped up/falsified tax evasion case. According to what they told the victim, they were part of a group that did this sort of blackmail routinely and enjoyed the protection of a power/gray eminence who's controlling a major coalition party. a podcast for cats fucked around with this message at 16:51 on Sep 13, 2022 |
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Sep 13, 2022 16:46
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Torrannor posted:Just the impression I get, but I've seen several countries with conservative/right wing governments make it harder for overseas citizens to vote, on account of such voters usually being more left wing than the average population. Not the case in Poland. Due to significant US segment right wingers would love overseas Poles to vote. In recent times US Poles voted mostly PiS. Unless they prepare for those hundreds of thousands that GTFO'd to Western Europe, which would probably lean left..
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Sep 13, 2022 19:41
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In Croatia too, the diaspora votes are overwhelmingly conservative. From reading a bit about Swedish elections, their votes from abroad also lean right.
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Sep 13, 2022 21:54
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Turkey as well. The German Turks who can (and bother to) vote, vote AKP. (The "and bother to vote" part is often overlooked imo, since a sizeable number of those who can vote in Turkish elections don't vote)
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Sep 13, 2022 22:03
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Clashes resumed in Armenia today. Prime Minister Pashinyan announced that 105 soldiers have been killed and Azerbaijan has seized areas of internationally recognized Armenia (i.e. not NK) https://twitter.com/ELINTNews/status/1570035233537286144?s=20&t=dG54xGw7GhJrcd_CNJYIcw Russian media is reporting that they've invoked or inquired about invoking Article 4 of the CSTO which would call Russia to intervene militarily.
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Sep 14, 2022 14:23
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I talked to an Armenian friend, she happened to be out of country but her daughter in in NK and the region's been sealed off. She doesn't seem to have more detail but also said that Azeris are attacking Armenia proper. I dunno if we have any leverage over Azerbaijan to get them to chill. Just gonna post this here under the "ex-soviet = eastern europe" rule https://twitter.com/AFP/status/1570034869761179650
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Sep 14, 2022 14:26
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mobby_6kl posted:I talked to an Armenian friend, she happened to be out of country but her daughter in in NK and the region's been sealed off. She doesn't seem to have more detail but also said that Azeris are attacking Armenia proper. I dunno if we have any leverage over Azerbaijan to get them to chill. I hope she stays safe. Azerbaijan is going to use the collapse of Russia's forces and the EUs dependence on Azerbaijani oil to take as much as they can.
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Sep 14, 2022 14:28
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FishBulbia posted:Clashes resumed in Armenia today. Prime Minister Pashinyan announced that 105 soldiers have been killed and Azerbaijan has seized areas of internationally recognized Armenia (i.e. not NK) CSTO observers are on their way already. https://www.interfax.ru/world/862010
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Sep 14, 2022 14:28
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