|
What is the most powerful flying bug? This poll is closed. |
|||
|---|---|---|---|
| 🦋 |
|
15 | 3.71% |
| 🦇 |
|
115 | 28.47% |
| 🪰 |
|
12 | 2.97% |
| 🐦 |
|
67 | 16.58% |
| dragonfly |
|
94 | 23.27% |
| 🦟 |
|
14 | 3.47% |
| 🐝 |
|
87 | 21.53% |
| Total: | 404 votes | ||
|
Ardennes posted:Yeah, Russia is more hybrid state capitalism but no one believes it because they like saying the words oligarch and kleptocracy without acknowledging how things actually work in the West. The reason to a large part Russia is holding together more than expected is that the state actually does have a lot of control and can nationalize industries, get old state factories back at full strength, and force still private firms to keep on producing or else. sounds worse than the US paying pharma companies for the right to buy medicine at higher prices.
|
#
?
Jan 30, 2023 11:35
|
|
|
|
| # ? Jun 7, 2024 15:33 |
|
|
Tankbuster posted:lol by this logic india isn't a neoliberal state because the state controls the banks and forces everyone to invest in modi's backer's financial investments. One could argue that during the “Red tape Raj” (Brits…) that India was state capitalist to a degree and some of that is still around but Modi himself is doing everything to erode and destabilize the system. That said, the farmers in the end seem to have been victorious. As far as Russia goes, one could certainly argue also some elements of the state are making a return to social life, both in Moscow and slowly in the regions, it is just taking time due to a large part again because of the Kremlin. Obviously, it could be better with a lot different guy in charge but I don’t see some things changing. I think any functional Russian government would have still gone into Ukraine eventually. Ardennes has issued a correction as of 11:48 on Jan 30, 2023 |
|
#
?
Jan 30, 2023 11:42
|
|
|
Well the press did start shilling for modi wholesale when the INC government actually brought back more state control of the economy post 2008. Lol that indian civil society made their own cargo cult color revolution.
|
|
#
?
Jan 30, 2023 11:46
|
|
|
Tankbuster posted:Well the press did start shilling for modi wholesale when the INC government actually brought back more state control of the economy post 2008. Lol that indian civil society made their own cargo cult color revolution. Yeah, but arguably it is only holding India back since it really needs more not less state investment and undermining its development. As far as Russia goes, we will see but it actually seems the Russian war machine is growing more not less capable and that will eventually flow into the economy and if they are getting capital from exports then the whole system can keep running. As discussed much earlier in the war, Russia really does have all the physical materials for a modern war machine, it holding production holding them back. Honestly, it is probably why Russian strategy at this point is “let them come.” Ardennes has issued a correction as of 12:01 on Jan 30, 2023 |
|
#
?
Jan 30, 2023 11:53
|
|
|
Despite my overall outlook that russia will achieve less than their bare minimum, it does feel like barring any surprises that we've reached that point typical of any major war against russia where they hilariously screw up for the first half but now are regaining their balance and will stumble forward to some kind of victory in the second half by sheer weight.
|
|
#
?
Jan 30, 2023 12:15
|
|
|
Al-Saqr posted:Despite my overall outlook that russia will achieve less than their bare minimum, it does feel like barring any surprises that we've reached that point typical of any major war against russia where they hilariously screw up for the first half but now are regaining their balance and will stumble forward to some kind of victory in the second half by sheer weight. I really hope that doesn’t apply to the Second World War because uh lol. Also, I don’t know how you get victory here without reaching the bare minimum of objectives. Ardennes has issued a correction as of 12:27 on Jan 30, 2023 |
|
#
?
Jan 30, 2023 12:20
|
|
|
You just need to redefine victory to something vague and spin the narrative to your domestic audience that operation gently caress up was a total smashing success victory achieved.
|
|
#
?
Jan 30, 2023 12:33
|
|
|
DancingShade posted:You just need to redefine victory to something vague and spin the narrative to your domestic audience that operation gently caress up was a total smashing success victory achieved. I think this is out of the realm of spin because the situation is inherently unstable, it isn’t Vietnam or Iraq, Russia can’t detach and float away.
|
|
#
?
Jan 30, 2023 12:34
|
|
|
Ardennes posted:I think this is out of the realm of spin because the situation is inherently unstable, it isn’t Vietnam or Iraq, Russia can’t detach and float away. The public has the memory retention of the average goldfish. Russia can still be there doing whatever it does as the average domestic drooler eats more mcdonalds while going "yay we won!".
|
|
#
?
Jan 30, 2023 12:35
|
|
|
DancingShade posted:The public has the memory retention of the average goldfish. Russia can still be there doing whatever it does as the average domestic drooler eats more mcdonalds while going "yay we won!". From the Western side, if Ukraine still exists in any form, it is a victory, because obviously Russia wanted to “disappear the country and its population.”
|
|
#
?
Jan 30, 2023 12:43
|
|
|
DancingShade posted:The public has the memory retention of the average goldfish. Russia can still be there doing whatever it does as the average domestic drooler eats more mcdonalds while going "yay we won!". They'd notice if totally not US cruise missiles land in Moscow
|
|
#
?
Jan 30, 2023 12:49
|
|
|
genericnick posted:They'd notice if totally not US cruise missiles land in Moscow Only if it affected the supply of chicken nuggets. The gallery might clap and hoot for the marvel movie spectacle for a few minutes though.
|
|
#
?
Jan 30, 2023 12:51
|
|
|
Ardennes posted:I really hope that doesn’t apply to the Second World War because uh lol. Also, I don’t know how you get victory here without reaching the bare minimum of objectives. not ww2 more like Chechniya, but yeah anything less than taking the entire donbas is a defeat in my book.
|
|
#
?
Jan 30, 2023 13:02
|
|
|
Danann posted:https://twitter.com/KitKlarenberg/status/1618891680035504128   Highly significant benefits
|
|
#
?
Jan 30, 2023 13:05
|
|
|
Futanari Damacy posted:I will never stop posting this lol
|
|
#
?
Jan 30, 2023 13:07
|
|
|
ModernMajorGeneral posted:
The moderate ones are a shameless lie
|
|
#
?
Jan 30, 2023 13:11
|
|
|
Population: Less than China.
|
|
#
?
Jan 30, 2023 13:12
|
|
|
Regarde Aduck posted:The moderate ones are a shameless lie No, no. We're totally interested just for humanitarian reasons. (room breaks out into laughter)
|
|
#
?
Jan 30, 2023 13:14
|
|
|
can't wait to go to war with china over some manmade island in the south china sea
|
|
#
?
Jan 30, 2023 13:16
|
|
|
To the left: uranium and maybe a bolt hole To the right: A thing you squeeze to extract money and luxury goods To the middle: The lord's castle. Man I love this neo feudalistic future.
|
|
#
?
Jan 30, 2023 13:16
|
|
|
one of the reactions I saw to that "TATO" picture is "well they wouldn't let the Philippines into such an alliance because we wouldn't be capable of paying our fair share of the military commitment" and I'm like... when has NATO ever worked like that? The one time someone piped up about it, everyone accused Donald Trump of wanting to destroy NATO and likened him to a two-bit gangster running a protection racket.
|
|
#
?
Jan 30, 2023 13:18
|
|
|
https://www.theage.com.au/world/eur...130-p5cgn8.htmlquote:London: Boris Johnson said that Valdimir Putin personally threatened him with a missile strike that would take out the former UK Prime Minister “in a minute”. not sure there is a living human being who would not be tempted to threaten to blow up boris with a missile strike if given the power to do so
|
|
#
?
Jan 30, 2023 13:19
|
|
|
Jel Shaker posted:do we believe boris when he says that putin threatened him with a missle if he visited ukraine? putin seems like the guy to make veiled threats but it’s boris’s word against his so lol
|
|
#
?
Jan 30, 2023 13:23
|
|
|
I wonder also how much SK is going to be that useful with NK just sitting over the border with a huge amount of artillery, SK has been pretty quiet with the current conflict.
|
|
#
?
Jan 30, 2023 13:28
|
|
|
Hey they are getting contract from poles so why make noise when you can make money?
|
|
#
?
Jan 30, 2023 13:30
|
|
|
ModernMajorGeneral posted:https://www.theage.com.au/world/eur...130-p5cgn8.html "I did it 35 minutes ago."
|
|
#
?
Jan 30, 2023 13:33
|
|
|
Turning Boris Johnson into a martyr would have made for the most insufferrable media cycle from the British press
|
|
#
?
Jan 30, 2023 13:36
|
|
|
gradenko_2000 posted:Turning Boris Johnson into a martyr would have made for the most insufferrable media cycle from the British press Implying that the British press is anything but insufferable 24/7/365 already.
|
|
#
?
Jan 30, 2023 13:38
|
|
|
he got covid and the media treated him like the second coming, and that’s with them neglecting to mention that he got it at parties they were all at
|
|
#
?
Jan 30, 2023 13:46
|
|
|
Jel Shaker posted:he got covid and the media treated him like the second coming, and that’s with them neglecting to mention that he got it at parties they were all at It was actually surprising how hard the press eventually went after Bojo considering who replaced him. I guess just Brexit payback.
|
|
#
?
Jan 30, 2023 13:51
|
|
|
DancingShade posted:Implying that the British press is anything but insufferable 24/7/365 already. If there is one thing I have learned about the British, it's that they can always get worse. Al-Saqr posted:not ww2 more like Chechniya, but yeah anything less than taking the entire donbas is a defeat in my book. I think this is pretty close to a good metric. I'd say 'less than victory', but potato, TATO. Why is NZ so big on that TATO map? It's half the size of western europe!
|
|
#
?
Jan 30, 2023 14:10
|
|
|
Weka posted:Why is NZ so big on that TATO map? It's half the size of western europe! countries get up- or downsized according to their calculated racism coefficient
|
|
#
?
Jan 30, 2023 14:18
|
|
|
Ardennes posted:I wonder also how much SK is going to be that useful with NK just sitting over the border with a huge amount of artillery, SK has been pretty quiet with the current conflict. Same with Israel. States that have something obvious to lose by alienating Russia because it can arm their traditional enemies have stayed our of this one.
|
|
#
?
Jan 30, 2023 14:20
|
|
|
DancingShade posted:Another lesson to take away is: good luck fighing a large scale modern conflict against a relatively peer opponent unless you have logistics up the wazoo and a stomach for losses. Well, if I can give a few more examples of what we've already talked about post 1991, Light, Lean, Globally Deployable, Digital etc. etc. forces, We don't maintain a large replacement pool. It used to be each Regiment retained a large force in garrison to train replacements and, in the event of a catastrophe, the Regiment would not be lost. For example, Royal Rifles of Canada and the Winnipeg Grenadiers were totally destroyed in the Battle of Hong Kong, but the cadre that remained in Canada was able to raise new battalions. Additionally, Canadian units in combat would leave behind a group led by the 2IC before going into action for the same reason. An example of this would be the North Shore Regiment in Normandy, which was almost eliminated on July 4, 1944 at Carpiquet airfield. In the Cold War, under the Big Battalions system, Infantry Regiments retained large (up to the hundreds iirc) numbers of Personnel Awaiting Training, rear detachments and miscellaneous troops in garrison for the same reason. Those are all inefficient, strictly speaking, and have now largely been done away with. Our ability to replace losses is constrained by the training pipeline, so that, for example RCR maintains about a company of soldiers awaiting training at 4 CDTC, plus whoever is cycling through Infantry School, there is the Company+ strength Reserve 4 RCR, but otherwise we really can't make up infantry casualties. Infantry casualties, as you'll have noticed, are a major feature of the war in Ukraine. Worth remembering too, is that in the British Army, about one Battalion of each Regiment would be on Home Service at a given time. Those days have long passed, and they would have the same problems we do. Unlike us, they've combined and amalgamated Regiments rather than draw them down to company strength so they would have an even harder time providing the cadres to rapidly force generate (and we now have the most Highland Regiments in the world). It also means they can't scrape together 400 replacements if a Battlegroup is mauled, where that might be only one day's casualties. Similar things have happened across ammunition stocks, which we've talked about, spare weapons systems and of course spare parts, as well as any kind of vehicle or equipment you might imagine. It's really simple. Militaries are and have always been inefficient. You need to spend a lot of money on surplus capacity that, if everything goes well, you will never, ever, use. Now, previously, states had been willing to tolerate that. To use an example that goes way back:  The Late Roman Army maintained large forces that were not part of the field army (Comitatenses). The Limitanei were a reserve that provided a huge pool of available manpower, security, garrisons, public works, but were incredibly cost inefficient, strictly speaking. There have been some great studies of Late Roman logistics recently and the gist of it is that they maintained vast stocks of arms and other equipment along with this extra manpower so that if a crisis happened, and several times it did, the loss of the field army did not mean the loss of the Empire or even province. This system did "nothing" most of the time, but when it was used, it proved several times its value. That's not something most people can wrap their heads around today. Another example, Earl Hess is the preeminent expert on logistics in the American Civil War. During the invasions of the Upper and Lower South in the Western Theatre, the Union not only created an unprecedented network of rail and river transportation, but essentially built infrastructure from scratch in several places. This allowed them to replace casualties and equipment more easily in the South than the Confederates, but also came at an enormous cost. I'll give a quick example of the kind of work this entailed. During the Civil War, wood fuel was the most common for both steamships and locomotives in the American West. River steamers needed fuel on a regular basis, and the prewar system of woodyards scattered along the banks of the Mississippi River provided it. Captains preferred to stop for wood twice a day so as not to carry too much fuel on board, thereby reducing weight on the boat. The privately owned and operated woodyards grew into a large business, but coal began to be used before the war broke out, especially along the Ohio River. The woodlots operated smoothly during the war. Typically a lookout (usually a black man) kept watch for approaching boats and a white agent of the woodlot owner negotiated the price when it stopped. If well stocked, the wood at the lot was chopped and stacked. It often was still green because the war increased river traffic, with a consequent increase in demand for fuel. If the woodlots were empty and a boat captain was in desperate need of fuel, there was nothing left but to land a party of men with axes to cut their own timber. The government had a vested interest in making sure this did not happen often, so it rounded up large numbers of refugee slaves from contraband camps near the river system and put them to work for the woodlot owners. In many cases, the government itself established woodlots worked by freedmen who used teams and wagons the government confiscated from nearby plantations. By September 1864, about 1,000 blacks worked in government-owned woodlots and half that number in privately operated lots. The government-owned lots produced more than 60,000 cords of fuel, worth $125,000 to steamers. These lots sold fuel to boats owned by the government at $1.50 less per cord than the going price at privately owned lots, producing a total savings of some $90,000 for the treasury. Most of the money produced by these government-owned lots was used to purchase supplies for the men, women, and children who lived in the contraband camps. I always hate historical currency conversion, but using 1864 USD, that's about $3M of fuel provided, saving the government $2M. It gives you a sense of the scale, and of course that's just one part of it. It was an absolutely massive undertaking. It's not that operating a system to provide logistical support like that is impossible today in any real sense, but it would be considered "inefficient", and left to private contractors, who would of course charge the government as much as possible. I like the anecdote for a few reasons. First, because the failure of Reconstruction was not a foregone conclusion, as emancipated slaves demonstrated their ability to own and operate vital industries soon after being freed. Second, because the invasion of the South was facilitated by their own former slaves. Besides the contributions of the USCT, a huge amount of the logistical support for the war came from Freedmen and Contraband. But mostly, it shows that the Free Market is, as you all know, neither more efficient nor less expensive. The supply situation was greatly improved by the government-owned lots, and of course they charged significantly less than those in private hands. As a sidenote, it's so funny there was a Lost Cause myth about the Confederates because they never had a chance. They weren't even able to consistently provide blankets and canteens to troops operating in their home states. “Confederate logistics and supply should have become easier as the war progressed because their lines of communications became shorter with retreat. But the Rebels suffered so many institutional and administrative problems with their system of logistics and supply that we cannot characterize it at any period of the war as simple or easy. Given that this study is concerned with supply in field operations, the Federal army’s experience is far more instructive than that of the Confederates.” also, dudes rock? “It is difficult to understand the level of vandalism committed against railroad property by Federal soldiers. They were in fact wrecking the very means by which their food was provided on a daily basis. But vandalism of railroad property had always been a feature of iron horse history, in contrast to the story of river steamers, where one finds no evidence of it. Railroad vandalism before the war tended to be motivated by some hard issue. When the Michigan Central Railroad refused to pay full value for cattle that its trains killed along the track (because the company fenced in its right-of-way), local farmers in Jackson County began to wreck switches and rolling stock in protest.” Frosted Flake has issued a correction as of 14:52 on Jan 30, 2023 |
|
#
?
Jan 30, 2023 14:45
|
|
|
I am always tickled by alternate history that pretends that the south ever had a serious chance of x, y, or z happened. I would argue that there wasn’t anything really could have done militarily. At the first Bull run, the Union already have reinforcements coming into DC. Even if the Union had been crushed at Antietam, the Western campaign wasn’t going to be salvageable and the confederates wouldn’t have been able to capitalize on a victory and that goes even more so for Gettysburg. The south was fighting a losing war from the beginning, it just some lucky breaks here and there kept them in the war until it just became them sacrificing lives for time. I don’t know a current country like that. Ardennes has issued a correction as of 15:05 on Jan 30, 2023 |
|
#
?
Jan 30, 2023 15:03
|
|
|
Futanari Damacy posted:I will never stop posting this I hope when this becomes the cspam background that it's cropped in such a way that they are peeking over the top of the forum frame
|
|
#
?
Jan 30, 2023 15:03
|
|
|
Ardennes posted:I am always tickled by alternate history that pretends that the south ever had a serious chance of x, y, or z happened. I would argue that there wasn’t anything really could have done militarily. The author points out the literally any time the Confederates invaded the North they began running out of food because they didn't have supply lines and the locals wouldn't feed them. Every Confederate invasion failed after a enough time, even if they had won some engagements. “Part of the reason why there is so little material on logistics in the Confederate army is that Rebel officers were terrible record keepers. Joseph Wheeler tried to get his subordinates to maintain good accounts of exactly who handled quartermaster duties in his cavalry corps during the middle part of the war, and only slightly succeeded. He issued a circular on March 4, 1863, requiring regimental and brigade leaders to report the name and rank of their quartermaster and commissary officers and whether they had posted bonds. Wheeler had to request this information repeatedly. He finally warned that any officers not reported would be relieved of their duties by March 15. The next month, Wheeler spelled out clearly in another circular exactly what types of forms had to be submitted each month to the corps quartermaster to ensure timely record keeping so he could know what his command needed on a regular basis. One can search in vain for similar documents in the Union army; Federal quartermasters and officers knew what they were supposed to do without having to be told through circulars and general orders issued by corps or army headquarters.” “Confederate transportation history in general tends to be the story of unsolved problems, irreparable difficulties, and frustrated attempts to make a success out of failure. That is not to say that Rebel troops always suffered from logistical limitations, but the difference between Union and Confederate logistics is stunning, and this discrepancy played a huge role in eventual Federal success. In no other area is this as true as in rail-based transportation. Commissary General Lucius B. Northrop fretted, complained, and cried out during the war for improvements in the way the Confederate government handled privately owned railroad companies. A sympathetic Rebel quartermaster who had access to Northrop’s letter book noted that he wrote at least 30 long letters to various Confederate officials about this problem during the war; that averages one letter every six weeks. For example, Northrop complained that 1,400 hogsheads of sugar shipped from New Orleans the previous November, destined for troops in the Army of Northern Virginia, still had not arrived as of January 1862. Fifty barrels of pork that started from New Orleans in August 1861 finally reached the army by January 12, 1862." “Due to many and varied institutional and cultural problems, the Confederates never came close to this. Their military transportation system was weak to start with and deteriorated rapidly as the war lengthened; their institutional apparatus for procuring food and forage faltered from the beginning of the war and only worsened as time went on. The basic problem with Confederate logistics and supply was not that the South lacked resources, but that the Rebel government failed to develop effective methods of mobilizing and using those resources, especially compared with their opponents. As a result, Confederate commanders relied more and more on feeding from the countryside. Their support systems were so weak that they never could invade Union-held territory with a real hope of conquering it and staying there. In every Confederate invasion attempt—Sibley’s New Mexico Campaign, Bragg’s Kentucky Campaign, Lee’s Maryland foray, Lee’s Pennsylvania raid, and Hood’s Tennessee Campaign—Rebel forces lived off the land as they moved and were linked with their homeland by a string of wagons rather than secure rail lines or river-steamboat transportation. Their only hope was that the local population would rise en mass to support them, feeding their armies, or that they could capture enough supplies to enable their troops to remain in enemy territory. Southern commanders could not reasonably expect to be successful with a strategy such as this, especially when opposed by a larger, better-organized, and better-supplied army.” Frosted Flake has issued a correction as of 15:15 on Jan 30, 2023 |
|
#
?
Jan 30, 2023 15:07
|
|
|
Ardennes posted:I am always tickled by alternate history that pretends that the south ever had a serious chance of x, y, or z happened. I would argue that there wasn’t anything really could have done militarily. theres no way they could have won . . . i guess we could call it, a lost cause
|
|
#
?
Jan 30, 2023 15:09
|
|
|
Al-Saqr posted:not ww2 more like Chechniya, but yeah anything less than taking the entire donbas is a defeat in my book. Why?
|
|
#
?
Jan 30, 2023 15:11
|
|
|
|
| # ? Jun 7, 2024 15:33 |
|
|
vibes
|
|
#
?
Jan 30, 2023 15:12
|
|