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Nick Soapdish posted:https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/dec/10/hungary-viktor-orban-republicans-ukraine-aid God, I loving hate him so much. It's infuriating that one fat fascist gently caress can ruin so many people's lives and grind a large part of an entire continent's political apparatus to a screeching halt. Go have a loving heart attack, Orban, fall out of a window, accidentally convince the CIA that you're a democratically elected left-wing politician.
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Dec 10, 2023 22:05
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PurpleXVI posted:God, I loving hate him so much. It's infuriating that one fat fascist gently caress can ruin so many people's lives and grind a large part of an entire continent's political apparatus to a screeching halt. Amen
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Dec 11, 2023 00:44
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So I guess the Russians win because Europe wants cheap gas and the GOP is now just the American chapter of United Russia?
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Dec 11, 2023 01:11
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Kraftwerk posted:So I guess the Russians win because Europe wants cheap gas and the GOP is now just the American chapter of United Russia? It's not even "Europe" that wants cheap gas, even Germany's given up on that dream for the most part, it's Orban that wants blowjob points from Putin so he can keep collecting fascismbucks and spite "the liberals." You'll notice that pretty much every country with any kind of defense industrial base is supporting Ukraine in some way nationally even without explicit EU funding for it. It's just that this amounts to a good deal less than what could be accomplished with EU money. As for the US I'd be surprised if every single procedural lever that can be thrown without needing permission from the Republicans wasn't getting thrown.
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Dec 11, 2023 01:16
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I am interested in seeing what the mic lobbyists will do if not listened to.
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Dec 11, 2023 01:16
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Kraftwerk posted:So I guess the Russians win because Europe wants cheap gas and the GOP is now just the American chapter of United Russia? PurpleXVI posted:It's not even "Europe" that wants cheap gas, even Germany's given up on that dream for the most part, natural gas in europe isn't even that expensive anymore: https://tradingeconomics.com/commodity/eu-natural-gas prices only ~30% higher than 2012, in other words, up about the same or less than inflation over the period https://twitter.com/nntaleb/status/1609912978219868168?s=20 https://insight.factset.com/european-natural-gas-storage-enters-withdrawal-season-amid-tensions https://www.celsiusenergy.net/p/european-natural-gas-inventories.html Insight/2023/12.2023/12.06.2023_Energy/european-natural-gas-storage-levels.png?width=640&height=720&name=european-natural-gas-storage-levels.png) europe seriously built out its LNG import facilities and cut legacy wasteful use. I don't think natural gas plays a controlling factor in their decisions on the war anymore
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Dec 11, 2023 01:37
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Comrade Blyatlov posted:Did they ever get the laser F35 working? iirc they're still working on it. This guy is in charge of development. 
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Dec 11, 2023 01:43
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pmchem posted:natural gas in europe isn't even that expensive anymore: So what is it then? Why is everyone pulling the plug on this and letting Ukraine get absorbed by Putin? I thought the MIC was supposed to be this all powerful lobby group that wants to benefit and profit from this. Where are their lobbyists? Why am I hearing crickets.
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Dec 11, 2023 01:45
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CainFortea posted:iirc they're still working on it. Noice
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Dec 11, 2023 02:01
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Kraftwerk posted:So what is it then? Why is everyone pulling the plug on this and letting Ukraine get absorbed by Putin? I thought the MIC was supposed to be this all powerful lobby group that wants to benefit and profit from this. Where are their lobbyists? Why am I hearing crickets. Okay, so, the EU has an issue where certain decisions require unanimity, meaning that one single lovely actor, like Orban, can gently caress the entire thing up, and "everyone" can't do jack about it. You'll notice you still hear about individual countries, like Finland and Germany, delivering arms and ammunition. Certain other countries are waffling because their leaders are insane(Slovakia's new president is an insane piece of trash who rants about how Russia only ever brings peace, Geert Wilders of the Netherlands has had bad hair and worse politics for decades now) or due to lovely domestic politics(like Polish farmers, who are a powerful lobby. Remind yourself that European farmers are ALWAYS wrong on EVERY SINGLE ISSUE and anything they support is bad, regressive and harmful to everyone else), but even then it's more or less purely Orban blocking EU-wide decisions on the subject, which locks off a lot of money that individual countries might not be able to just drop out of their budget. So no, it's not "everyone" pulling the plug, and it hasn't ever been. It's just badly built institutions being victim to bad faith actors that no one ever planned for because they were optimists, idiots or both. As for the MIC... I'm not sure if they really give a poo poo about Ukraine. They're making plenty of money already and I think they're more concerned about fighting for the big bucks like delivering some major new weapons platform for a major military like the US, at which point they want to not have alienated any politicians that might decide to block them out of a grudge. I mean, hell, if anything, the MIC goons are probably thinking long-term where they'd like Russia to remain a credible threat so they can pitch the Ultra Commie Destroyer 5000 to negate the armies of floating nuclear-powered double-turretted T-14 lasertanks that might overrun NATO any day now. I just don't think there's enough money in supporting Ukraine for them to make any kind of effort about it compared to the alternatives.
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Dec 11, 2023 02:19
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Kraftwerk posted:So I guess the Russians win because Europe wants cheap gas and the GOP is now just the American chapter of United Russia? Kraftwerk posted:So what is it then? Why is everyone pulling the plug on this and letting Ukraine get absorbed by Putin? I thought the MIC was supposed to be this all powerful lobby group that wants to benefit and profit from this. Where are their lobbyists? Why am I hearing crickets. Who says the plug is getting pulled outright? Securing armaments for Ukraine has been a continuous and literal effort from the jump. I highly doubt that, for example, the Biden or Scholz admin have just given up on the enterprise. Just because the worst people online are being loud again doesn't mean anything. That the worst people in those legislative bodies are being loud again means a little bit more, but it doesn't look like more than "give me concessions to get your thing through" to me atm (modulo Orban and similar true believers, who I agree with PurpleXVI about). Of course I would prefer that congress and Europe overall deliver a decisive "yes, obviously, here's everything you could want", but our political structures aren't really built to deliver that.
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Dec 11, 2023 03:22
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pmchem posted:europe seriously built out its LNG import facilities and cut legacy wasteful use. I don't think natural gas plays a controlling factor in their decisions on the war anymore I worked in semiconductor manufacturing during the first Russian invasion of Ukraine and occupation of Crimea. The laser lithography process uses noble gases in the chambers, specifically a lot of neon. The litho tools also happen to be the most expensive process tools in the whole fab (each are $50M+), and as such are usually the bottleneck for capital equipment. The most economical way to get commercial quantities of neon gas is as a byproduct of steel manufacturing, but only a specific type of steel manufacturing process. 2/3rds of the world's capacity for that kind of steel manufacturing was in Eastern Ukraine. Commodity prices shot up overnight, literally 10x higher and even peaking at 30x higher. It also became scarce. Where they used to get huge tanks delivered via cargo ship they were shipping canisters via air mail, because the chips must flow. Within a week the tool manufacturers developed, tested, and deployed a software update that reduced consumption by 50%. Over the next month, they deployed two more updates that ended up reducing the consumption by a total of ~80%. In the next couple months, commodity prices settled down to a bit higher than before, but nowhere near the peak. Effective cost was now 30% of what it was pre-crisis, because they had curbed consumption so much. Moral of the story is that people can pull off some very impressive feats of engineering to adapt to price shocks of critical commodities.
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Dec 11, 2023 03:51
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Kraftwerk posted:So what is it then? Why is everyone pulling the plug on this and letting Ukraine get absorbed by Putin? I thought the MIC was supposed to be this all powerful lobby group that wants to benefit and profit from this. Where are their lobbyists? Why am I hearing crickets. Unfortunately, as Purple mentioned, I'm worried that russia putting ukraine's head on a pike right outside its borders will allow the MIC to sell a lot more to a lot more nations because apparently multiple thousands of casualties a month are sustainable for the indeterminate future. Of the many terrible things about all this, and the one that depresses me most, is that Russian military success in tar-pitting or even reversing Ukrainian gains means the same "as part of strategic doctrine, torture and inflict as much cleansing and disruption onto the population that you can until the enemy collapses" tactics from syria and gaza have yet another example of being successfully deployed just before the nations of the world start thinking of how they're going to respond to climate change political upheaval. Ronwayne fucked around with this message at 06:12 on Dec 11, 2023 |
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Dec 11, 2023 06:02
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https://bsky.app/profile/noelreports.bsky.social/post/3kgbhi7nonm2s "Ukraine reached agreements on unblocking parts of the Ukrainian-Polish border. The Yagodin-Dorohusk checkpoint was unblocked since 14:00 local time." Some good news at least.
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Dec 11, 2023 13:55
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110th posted a video showing 122 various Russian vehicles destroyed or abandoned. Mostly BMPs and Batra, but 34 tanks as well. This is limited to the Avdiivka part of the front, and I didn't see a timeframe. Currently on r/combat footage but I wouldn't go clicking carelessly there as there is some graphic stuff.
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Dec 11, 2023 15:42
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PurpleXVI posted:As for the MIC... I'm not sure if they really give a poo poo about Ukraine. They're making plenty of money already and I think they're more concerned about fighting for the big bucks like delivering some major new weapons platform for a major military like the US, at which point they want to not have alienated any politicians that might decide to block them out of a grudge. I mean, hell, if anything, the MIC goons are probably thinking long-term where they'd like Russia to remain a credible threat so they can pitch the Ultra Commie Destroyer 5000 to negate the armies of floating nuclear-powered double-turretted T-14 lasertanks that might overrun NATO any day now. I just don't think there's enough money in supporting Ukraine for them to make any kind of effort about it compared to the alternatives. MIC has their boat floated with 'Chyna' for the next 30+ years. Russia is not really relevant in next gen capabilities discussions compared to staying ahead of Chinese who are moving really fast.
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Dec 11, 2023 15:53
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ded posted:well you see in the non-marine version there is a perfect space for the laser and I mean...the USAF isn't going to want to hang it on the outside, like this: 
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Dec 11, 2023 22:49
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What the christ is that abomination of a color bomb?
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Dec 11, 2023 23:08
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SerthVarnee posted:What the christ is that abomination of a color bomb? Checking for drag & vortices at Mach speeds? edit: probably wind tunnel testing.
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Dec 11, 2023 23:16
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SerthVarnee posted:What the christ is that abomination of a color bomb? They're hydro painting it for a music festival fly-by.
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Dec 11, 2023 23:17
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SerthVarnee posted:What the christ is that abomination of a color bomb? Crayon Fluid Dynamics
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Dec 11, 2023 23:34
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SerthVarnee posted:What the christ is that abomination of a color bomb? What, never seen an airplane break the light barrier before?
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Dec 11, 2023 23:54
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Steezo posted:What, never seen an airplane break the light barrier before? It's gone to plaid!
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Dec 12, 2023 00:12
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Just Another Lurker posted:Checking for drag & vortices at Mach speeds? Wind tunnel testing for sure.
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Dec 12, 2023 00:22
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https://www.kyivpost.com/videos/25341quote:Russian POWs Reveal Why They Came to Ukraine
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Dec 12, 2023 00:24
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That's what drives Putin. :crosshands:
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Dec 12, 2023 00:30
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SerthVarnee posted:What the christ is that abomination of a color bomb? https://www.aftc.af.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/3203297/aftc-gains-new-test-capability/
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Dec 12, 2023 00:57
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SerthVarnee posted:What the christ is that abomination of a color bomb? Wind tunnel testing for the USAF's DE pod. Edit: Oh sure, go find the actual article, show off.
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Dec 12, 2023 01:03
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They wanted to get away from it in Russia?
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Dec 12, 2023 02:32
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https://twitter.com/KyivPost/status/1734603725975511498quote:Cyber units of the Military Intelligence of Ukraine attacked the tax system of the Russian Federation. I wonder if the economic impact of this on Russia will be meaningful.
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Dec 12, 2023 18:14
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uhhh move to Russia westoids, we don't have taxes!
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Dec 12, 2023 18:21
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PurpleXVI posted:https://twitter.com/KyivPost/status/1734603725975511498 why would any government have tax stuff not air gapped
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Dec 12, 2023 20:42
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ded posted:why would any government have tax stuff not air gapped Corruption?
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Dec 12, 2023 20:42
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ded posted:why would any government have tax stuff not air gapped Because it needs to interact with oh idk, loving everything in the country?
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Dec 12, 2023 20:45
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See, Russia's problem was modernizing their systems. The IRS still uses AS/400 mainframes and has no plans to switch anytime soon.
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Dec 12, 2023 21:09
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ded posted:why would any government have tax stuff not air gapped I mean, for example here in Denmark, you can do more or less all your tax reporting via an online portal. So if they've got anything like that implemented, that would be a reason for tax systems to be accessible.
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Dec 12, 2023 21:12
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psydude posted:See, Russia's problem was modernizing their systems. The IRS still uses AS/400 mainframes and has no plans to switch anytime soon. Mainframes are still the kings at manipulating and handling structured financial and numerical data in this day and age.
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Dec 12, 2023 21:13
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There is nothing wrong with mainframes for that sorta task. Newer is not always better
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Dec 12, 2023 21:27
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Correct. Although people who can actually maintain them are an endangered species.
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Dec 12, 2023 21:29
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AS/400s aren’t mainframes, though.
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Dec 12, 2023 21:31
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