Well, well, well. Looks like Putin is losing this battle after all. Day 4 dawns and his invasion still hasn't captured a single major city.
China has abstained rather than supporting Russia in a UN Security Council Resolution and will be watching closely as global public opinion has shifted massively in favour of supporting Ukraine with military hardware.
Re the propaganda thing, this war also marks another couple of changes. We are not sourcing the information from government channels, but private individuals uploading to the internet. Anonymous has apparently hacked Russian TV channels and is broadcasting the reality of what is happening in Ukraine.
The internet is changing everything.
I heard Tik Toc in particular - zillions of people right in affected areas are saying what is going on - and it is not Russian soldiers, it is sporadic small gun fire, and you don't take over a 48 million person country the size of Texas with little guns.
Well, well, well. Looks like Putin is losing this battle after all. Day 4 dawns and his invasion still hasn't captured a single major city.
China has abstained rather than supporting Russia in a UN Security Council Resolution and will be watching closely as global public opinion has shifted massively in favour of supporting Ukraine with military hardware.
Re the propaganda thing, this war also marks another couple of changes. We are not sourcing the information from government channels, but private individuals uploading to the internet. Anonymous has apparently hacked Russian TV channels and is broadcasting the reality of what is happening in Ukraine.
Someone really needs to lay off the mushrooms a bit me thinks.
I first read it from here:
Glenn Greenwald@ggreenwald
No matter your views, no propaganda is as potent and difficult to resist as war propaganda. The more complete the societal consensus, the less room for questioning, the harder it becomes. It becomes a closed system. It targets our deepest emotions and instincts. Good thread: ðQuote
TweetTucker Max@TuckerMax · 11h
A lot of people asked me why I posted about ignoring the Ukrainian/Russian war.
I don't know war, but I do know media, and everything about how the war is being covered is sending up major red flags to me.
Two quick examples:Show this thread12:53 PM · Feb 26, 2022·Twitter for iPhone
I donât know exactly what or why, but this affair is starting to feel scripted. Now that on its face is crazy, but â¦. What if? What is the end game? Am I losing my shit here? Anyone else feeling some deep âoffâ about this whole affair
Seems super suspect.
Someone really needs to lay off the mushrooms a bit me thinks.
I actually have no idea what to think about Ukraine, but kinda reminds me of Wag the Dog
Those cities are as cosmopolitan and first word as anyplace, and they are being terrorized
An interesting take I read the other day was Ukraine is the size of Texas, and Putin's 200-300 k troops will be unable to survive amongst 48 million Ukrainians.
Different than China which can send in millions of occupants, as would happen in Taiwan
So perhaps this is a testing to see the playbook for how the powers react, and China will adjust accordingly.
Clay Martin, Dr of Jihad@wayofftheres·10h
Hey look, letâs take breath. Does this while UKR narrative seem a bitâ¦.off? I donât know exactly what, but the outliers are adding up. Russia has so far committed the B team, with very little arty or air. They are out if guided munitions you say? Well they have plenty of dumb
Ones, and historically arenât shy about using them. Russian POWs that look like they are 12. 70s era Soviet doctrine, after AFG, Chechnya 1&2, and Georgia as practice? From a nation of chess players? Then the stories. Ghost of Kiev, sunflower seed lady, the 13, battle for Chernob
Meanwhile, our own State Dept sanctions Russia and Putin personally, but not the gas/oil? Says by design sanctions do not affect gas flow, as well as it doesnât affect US oil imports from Russia? UKR pres out fighting in the streetsâ¦
I donât know exactly what or why, but this affair is starting to feel scripted. Now that on its face is crazy, but â¦. What if? What is the end game? Am I losing my shit here? Anyone else feeling some deep âoffâ about this whole affair
Its 2022. There should be tons of cell videos of all the actionâ¦.rarely showing a few engagements. I watched live stream last night (0330-0530 Ukraine time) and only hear sporadic gunfire. Seems super suspect. Where are the pics of the downed jets? All the Russ that surrendered?
Ask yourself why they even still have electricity, internet,
and cellphone communicationsâ¦knocking those out would Norma be a top priority. Donât anyone come at me with they have a superior grid than we do.
A lot of people asked me why I posted about ignoring the Ukrainian/Russian war.
I don't know war, but I do know media, and everything about how the war is being covered is sending up major red flags to me.
Two quick examples:
1. Hero stories popup immediately, that end up not being true.
The 13 guards telling the Russian naval ship to fuck off (turns out they surrendered), the "Ghost of Kyiv" (doesn't seem to be true), the sunflower seed story, etc...
MOST telling, media runs them uncritically.
2. The biggest weird thing to me: no one stopped buying oil/gas from Russia.
Germany said they will keep buying.
US State Dept went so far as to say, EXPLICITLY, that sanctions are designed to NOT stop the flow of gas.
My daughter works for a company that measures the amount of oil in a storage tank using satellites with SAR (synthetic aperture radar) which works at night, through storms, in real-time. They can count cars in a parking lot, and track movements over time using a library of images. It's pretty amazing stuff, and most of it is free from governments who own the satellites.
While the US and NATO may not be willing to put boots on the ground, they are definitely feeding the Ukrainians very detailed information on movements. The cameras are nice...but not so necessary.
An example of the technology, they held a contest to see what people thought would be interesting, and the winner was the Monitoring of Illegal Fishing
The old days of cops in cars doing a stakeout are obsolete, they use cell phone mobility data and cameras that alert and playback any interesting event. And the satellites, I hear you, widely used by short sellers on wall Street, insurance companies, lots of ways to have awareness without being present.
Fascinating thread about urban warfare in Ukraine. For instance, the city has cameras everywhere naturally, si they were able to easily watch incoming tanks, etc., without being in that physical space. Took the Russians a while to figure that out and disable them.
My daughter works for a company that measures the amount of oil in a storage tank using satellites with SAR (synthetic aperture radar) which works at night, through storms, in real-time. They can count cars in a parking lot, and track movements over time using a library of images. It's pretty amazing stuff, and most of it is free from governments who own the satellites.
While the US and NATO may not be willing to put boots on the ground, they are definitely feeding the Ukrainians very detailed information on movements. The cameras are nice...but not so necessary.
An example of the technology, they held a contest to see what people thought would be interesting, and the winner was the Monitoring of Illegal Fishing
Meanwhile, social media are going wild, not only on Putin (see the video on Twitter), and his war in Ukraine :
couple of thoughts on this
could he have miscalculated?
short term maybe:
he's going to war with the tools he has, some are described by a couple of analysts as vintage 1970s while the ukrianes have a lot of 2000s tech like javelins and NLAWS
or he just doesn't want to destroy infrastructure and minimize damage to his victims
long term: he most certainly did, the fallout and blowback from this will remove any doubt that anyone has about his character/intentions
and putin doesn't have the resources to sustain his occupation
eventually he will have to leave
it's looking like this war is between putin (not russia/russians) and the ukraine
hopefully in his demise he doesn't try and take too many innocent people with him
Just watching a USA air force F16 been doing heaps of crazy figure 8 's along the Ukraine/Romanian border while couple USA helicopters were doing similar along the Polish/Ukraine border. No commercial aircraft in Ukraine airspace, elsewhere the skies are packed.
Fascinating but ever so sad whats taking place.
Was listening to some Ukrainians reporting that they were fleeing and having to abandon much loved pets. One guy basically ditched a load of food and water on the floor of his house leaving his dog to whatever , fully expecting to have said a final goodbye. I would be shattered to have to do that to my dogs. War stinks.
