Ukraine Smashes Tank Column Near Kyiv, Kills Commander of Russian Regiment

Posted on | March 10, 2022 | Comments Off on Ukraine Smashes Tank Column Near Kyiv, Kills Commander of Russian Regiment

Brovary is a suburb of Kyiv on the east side of the Dnieper River. A column of Russian tanks rolled into the town Wednesday, apparently seeking a way into Kyiv not blocked as the Ukrainian capital’s western approaches have been blocked. But the attempt to reach Kyiv proved deadly, as the Russians were ambushed in an attack that reportedly killed Col. Andrei Zakharov, commander of the 6th Regiment:

Drone footage shows a Russian tank column coming under fire on the outskirts of Kyiv.
A Russian tank commander was killed in the attack in the town of Brovary, the Ukrainian military claimed.
The footage, taken from a Ukrainian drone, shows three Russian tanks in the village of Skybyn before they are joined from the north by at least 20 Russian vehicles, including tanks and a TOS-1A, the thermobaric missile launcher system Russia recently confirmed it had used in Ukraine.
The vehicles turn and stop on the north side of the village before artillery shells and rockets begin to explode around them.
The closely grouped tanks appear to be thrown into disarray by the attack, eventually turning to retreat from the town.
A [British] military expert, Air Marshal Philip Osborn, said the grouping of the vehicles suggests they did not anticipate an attack.
“In regards to grouping, you would only group in that way if you felt relatively secure from attack,” he told Sky News. “This video proves that was a misjudgement.”
Intercepted radio communication in audio released alongside the video says they have been “ambushed” as multiple strikes hit the column. . . .
The Ukrainian Ministry of Defence said the Russian forces “suffered significant losses in personnel and equipment” and the tank column was forced to retreat and go on the defensive.
Footage taken in the aftermath of the ambush shows burning Russian vehicles on the road.

The video is some of the best “war porn” we’ve seen yet:

This video of a Russian military column coming under attack and retreating was geolocated to 50.587111, 30.837889 by @MrWolfih and confirmed by Bellingcat. Filmed in Brovary, northeast of Kyiv. https://t.co/fj8ukOgip0 pic.twitter.com/oc8dV4OOIR

— Bellingcat (@bellingcat) March 10, 2022

It appears that the Ukrainians hit the lead tank in the Russian column, then hit the last tank in the column, and were beginning to take out the tanks in between when the entire column made a hasty U-turn and headed back east. Some are saying the Ukrainians were using artillery, while others share my opinion that Javelin antitank missiles did the most damage, but regardless of what weapons the Ukrainians used, the Russian tactics were an invitation to disaster. You’re just going roll a dozen tanks down the middle of main street in broad daylight and think the enemy’s not going to be watching you? Clearly, the Ukrainians had planned this ambush well — they had picked this spot as a good trap, with “channelizing” features, and had it zeroed in with their artillery — and the surveillance drone was part of that plan. No doubt video of this ambush will serve as morale-boosting propaganda for the Ukrainians, showing their success in beating back the Russian invaders.

Russia’s losses in Ukraine continue to escalate:

he invading army has suffered “very, very significant casualties,” a U.S. official told CBS News on Wednesday, putting the U.S. estimate at between 5,000 and 6,000 Russian troops killed in action. That’s comparable to losses in World War II battles, the U.S. official said. It’s also, as Fox News’ Jacqui Heinrich notes, “more than the number of Americans killed during the Iraq War.”
The U.S. estimate is about halfway between the 500 Russian casualties Moscow claims and the 12,000 Russian deaths claimed by Ukraine. The U.S. intelligence estimate also puts Ukraine’s casualties at 2,000 to 4,000 killed troops plus hundreds or thousands of slain civilians.
Ukrainian forces continue to destroy a stalled 40-mile-long Russian military convoy north of Kyiv, and the “unexpected effectiveness” of Ukraine’s air defenses has curtailed Russian air activity, Britain’s Ministry of Defense said early Thursday, in its latest public intelligence assessment. . . .
“Putin truly believed people would greet (Russians) with flowers. Instead, they were met with Molotov cocktails,” Ukrainian diplomat Volodomyr Shalkivskyi said at Australia’s National Press Club on Thursday. “Russian soldiers going into Ukraine did not have extra ammo or food in their packs. They did however have a parade uniform for a Russian victory parade through Kyiv,” he added. “You cannot win a war against a free people determined to fight for their freedom. There is no way we will give up.”

Why should Ukraine give up now? They’re winning. If Russia has suffered 5,000 troops killed in action, that’s about 330 a day on average. That may not seem like much, considering that Russian invasion force is more than 100,000 troops, but when you factor in the addition troops wounded and captured — probably at least twice the KIA number — this brings Russia’s total manpower losses to somewhere around 15,000. This is not a trivial degradation of an army’s fighting capacity, and you must add into this calculus the losses of equipment that Russia has sustained, not only in terms of vehicles destroyed by the Ukrainians, but also the vehicles that have broken down or gotten stuck in the mud.

Every day the war goes on, Russian losses will only increase, and while the invaders are also inflicting losses on the Ukrainian defenders, those losses don’t do as much to degrade Ukraine’s ability to keep up the fight. No matter how many losses they’ve taken, the defenders can still hunker down and wait for their chance to strike in ambushes like the one that wrecked that Russian column at Brovary. How many Russian troops will die trying to make that town safe enough for the invaders to continue their advance on Kyiv? Even if it is defended by only a few dozen Ukrainians (well armed with Javelins and mortars), Brovary could remain an obstacle for weeks. And this doesn’t even consider the possibility that the Ukrainians might counterattack, striking the rear of the Russian invasion force and cutting their supply routes.

Guess who doesn’t think Ukraine can win? Our “experts”:

On Wednesday’s broadcast of the Fox Business Network’s “Fox Business Tonight,” Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) reacted to the Biden administration’s rejection of Poland’s plan to transfer MiGs to Ukraine by stating that the U.S. is supplying Ukraine like they’re going to lose, the decision to send the jets should be left to Poland and Ukraine instead of D.C. bureaucrats, and it’s a good thing Zelensky hasn’t been to U.S. intelligence briefings because the intelligence community has “repeatedly said he has no chance” of winning.
Issa said, “[F]ortunately, President Zelensky doesn’t go to our classified briefings that have repeatedly said he has no chance, he will not survive, and he will crumble quickly. The problem, of course, is that we’re still resupplying him like he’s going to fail, instead of resupplying him like he’s going to stop this terrible dictator from taking a country by force.”

Our “intelligence community” really isn’t very intelligent.

Category: Russia, Ukraine

Sweet Payday for Jeff Zucker

Posted on | March 10, 2022 | Comments Off on Sweet Payday for Jeff Zucker

You remember when the malignant dwarf Jeff Zucker was forced out at CNN last month because he was shtupping the last-place network’s executive vice president and chief marketing officer Allison Gollust?

And do you also remember when Gollust, whose main job qualification as a network executive was being Jeff Zucker’s girlfriend, later exited CNN blabbering nonsense about “journalistic integrity”?

Guess what it cost CNN to get rid of these two lovebirds?

Former CNN President Jeff Zucker allegedly reached a multimillion-dollar exit deal with parent company WarnerMedia prior to resigning in February.
According to people familiar with the situation, Zucker was owed $5 million from his 2021 bonus, The Wall Street Journal reported. The agreement was finalized before Zucker announced his resignation when it was revealed he was involved in an extra-marital, consensual relationship with Chief Marketing Officer Allison Gollust. . . .
Deadline reported Tuesday that Zucker had received a $10 million, one-time payment upon leaving the company, citing their own sources. Zucker will receive the payment in the approximately seven to 10 days. Gollust also received $1 million after she left the organization, Deadline continued.

Imagine paying out $11 million to be done with these people, whose tenure at CNN basically wrecked the network, both in terms of ratings and its reputation. But I’m probably just jealous I didn’t wangle a sweet deal like that. Heck, I could have ruined CNN for half that price.

Category: CNN

‘Baltimore-Area Women’

Posted on | March 9, 2022 | Comments Off on ‘Baltimore-Area Women’

Headline:

4 Baltimore-area women
charged with stealing thousands of dollars
of merchandise in Rehoboth Beach

As a descriptor, “Baltimore-area women” is perhaps a suitable synonym for Democratic voters, but let’s learn more:

Four Baltimore-area women have been charged with stealing thousands of dollars of merchandise from Tanger Outlets in Rehoboth Beach.
Delaware State Police said they arrested Antonia Risby, 26, of Baltimore; Adaja Cozart, 24, of Middle River; Jasmin Burgess, 21, of Gwynn Oak; and Cemone Massenberg, 25, of Baltimore.
Police pulled over the black Infiniti sedan they were in, at about 2:41 p.m. March 5, in the parking lot of Bayside Outlets. The sedan’s rear license plate was covered with paper.
The suspects were found to have shoplifting tools, and numerous empty shopping bags from various stores were found in the car.

From another account of the same incident:

Investigators say Risby is connected with three other shoplifting incidents at Gap Outlet Store, Victoria Secrets Outlet Store, and Under Armour Factory Store in the Tanger Outlets. Investigators say she stole more than $11,000 worth of merchandise in those cases.
All four women face several felony-level shoplifting charges, including shoplifting over $1,500 and possession of shoplifting tools.

If your shoplifting spree reaches “felony-level,” you might be a Baltimore-area woman. Notice that I’ve quoted two different stories about the same case. That’s because, after seeing one story and wishing to find more details, I decided to Google “Baltimore women shoplifting” and oh, my goodness! It’s the mother lode of crime news!

Four women allegedly stole
$5,600 worth of merchandise
from DSW, Old Navy in Abingdon

Four women from Baltimore have been charged in Harford County with stealing more than $5,600 worth of merchandise from DSW and Old Navy stores in Abingdon.
Sonnova Winchester, 41, Lattie Dower, 48, Shanay Jackson, 27, and Sade Johnson, 26, and are each charged with two counts of theft from $1,500 to less than $25,000 after they were allegedly caught putting merchandise into bags and walking out of the stores without paying for them, according to charging documents.
Winchester has been charged with similar thefts in the last few months: last week in Anne Arundel County and in June in Harford County.
Harford County Sheriff’s deputies were called to DSW shoe store in the Constant Friendship shopping center Tuesday afternoon by store employees, who said they had video of four people putting items in their DSW bags as they tried on various pairs of shoes. . . .
As the deputy was looking at the video, a separate call was dispatched for a theft involving four women at the Old Navy store across the street, in the Boulevard of Box Hill shopping center, according to charging documents. The description of those women matched those in the DSW theft.

5 Baltimore women charged
with stealing over $2.7K
from Lancaster Kohl’s, Bon-Ton

Police charged five Baltimore women with conspiring to steal over $2,700 worth of collective merchandise from two clothing stores at a Lancaster mall.
Whitney Muse, 23, Trashell Davis, 18, Kyra Miller, 24, Tyjae Smith, 18, and Lakyah Green, 24, were each arraigned Tuesday on two counts of retail theft, two counts of criminal conspiracy and a single count of possessing an instrument of a crime.
Police responded to Park City Center for a report of retail theft in progress at 6:48 p.m. Monday, according to an affidavit of probable cause.
At least one of the women was seen taking merchandise from Kohl’s, concealing one or more items in a bag from H&M clothing store and leaving the store without paying, police said.
Police located one of the suspects during a vehicle stop about an hour later and found three H&M bags filled with clothing.
Most of the items still had anti-theft devices attached, police said.
An investigation determined $1,654.98 worth of merchandise was stolen from Kohl’s and $1,115.88 worth of items was taken from Bon-Ton at Park City Center.
All five women were placed in Lancaster County Prison: Miller, Davis and Smith on $50,000 bail, and Muse and Green on $40,000 bail, according to court records.

It would probably be unfair to stereotype the female population of an entire city based on a handful of incidents. On the other hand, many would be tempted to say of Baltimore what Obi Wan Kenobi said of Mos Eisley: “You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy.”

Category: Crime, Maryland

Two Russian Generals Reported Killed as Ukraine Invasion Becomes ‘Clusterf**k’

Posted on | March 9, 2022 | Comments Off on Two Russian Generals Reported Killed as Ukraine Invasion Becomes ‘Clusterf**k’

Russian Maj. Gen. Vitaly Gerasimov reportedly has joined his comrade Maj. Gen. Andrei Sukhovetsky in the ranks of those killed during Putin’s disastrous invasion of Ukraine. The Russians have confirmed that Sukhovetsky was killed Feb. 28 by a Ukrainian sniper near Mariupol, while Gerasimov was reportedly killed Monday near Kharkiv.

Ukraine’s defense ministry released audio of an intercepted call from a Russian intelligence officer that appears to confirm that Gerasimov was killed along with several other senior Russian officers, although the nature of the Ukrainian attack involved is unknown. Having two major generals killed in the span of a week is one measure of how badly the Russian invasion has gone, and the fact that their communications are being intercepted is another measure:

Russian forces in Kharkiv have accidentally taken out their own secure communications systems by destroying the 3G towers they depend on, it has been reported.
Ukraine’s military has shared an intercepted call captured as a result, reporting the death of Major General Vitaly Gerasimov to someone identified as a senior Russian intelligence officer by Bellingcat’s Christo Grozev. . . .
Mr Grozev said he had confirmed the Major General’s death with a Russian source and that Bellingcat had also identified the senior FSB officer in the intercepted conversation as one known to be based in the Russian city of Tula.
“His boss… makes a long pause when he hears the news of Gerasimov’s death (before swearing),” added Mr Grozev.
“In the call, you hear the Ukraine-based FSB officer ask his boss if he can talk via the secure Era system. The boss says Era is not working.”
Era is a “super expensive crypto phone system” which the Russian Ministry of Defence introduced last year, Mr Grozev said, alongside a guarantee it would work “in all conditions”.
However, according to Mr Grozev, the cryptophones require 3G/4G data connections to work, and Russian forces in Kharkiv have destroyed so many 3G towers, and replaced others with surveillance equipment, that it is not working.

As the Church Lady would say, well, isn’t that special? Losing two major generals is pretty bad, but it isn’t the worst problem facing the Russians in Ukraine. British defense expert Michael Clarke “says Russian forces have lost about 860 pieces of significant equipment — including tanks, armoured vehicles and artillery pieces, according to verifiable figures from independent sources or with photographic evidence”:

Of those, about 60% of them have been abandoned or captured. . . .
Ukrainian sources say Russia has lost 11,000 troops but verifiable sources put the figure closer to 10,000, according to Prof Clarke.
He says this is much worse compared to the conflict in Afghanistan, in which Russians lost 15,000 troops in about nine years. . . .
Prof Clarke says a Russian convoy headed towards Kyiv has not moved in six days – a major issue for its planned attack on Kyiv.
He agrees that it’s a “sitting target” and says Ukrainian forces are attacking it effectively using drones. . . .
“They’re being clever, because what they’re doing is they’re attacking the fuel.
“This convoy contains about 15,000 troops – it’s basically an armoured division and probably about 230 tanks.
“They’re not attacking the tanks, they’re attacking the fuel.
“They’re holding it in place by denying it the ability to sort itself out. They’re keeping the traffic jam jammed.”

Estimates of Russian losses vary, but all agree it’s bad for them:

Lt. Gen. Scott David Berrier, director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, told the House Intelligence Committee on Tuesday that his agency has seen estimates that between 2,000 and 4,000 Russian troops have died. He also noted they have “low confidence” in the assessment, gathered from “some intelligence sources, but also open source” data.
The number is much lower than the estimate from the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, which said Russia had lost 12,000 troops. . . .
Russian troops face more problems than just Ukrainian resistance, according to the Department of Defense.
“They still seem to be plagued by logistics and sustainment challenges,” a senior defense official told reporters on Tuesday. “They still are struggling to overcome fuel shortages, food shortages, and making sure that they can — in terms of ground troops — that they are able to arm themselves and defend themselves, and so they’re still working their way through that.”

So the total KIA may be as low as 2,000 or as high as 12,000, but even the lowball figure of 2,000 is not insignificant, as it means the Russians are losing nearly 200 men killed per day, to say nothing of the troops wounded and captured. Perhaps Russia can withstand such attrition and still win, but officials at the Kremlin are reportedly furious:

A week ago, Russian journalist Farida Rustamova wrote on Substack that a high-level source told her Kremlin insiders believed the war on Ukraine has been a complete disaster.
“They’re carefully enunciating the word clusterf–k,’’ she wrote, according to a translation.
Another source told her, “No one is rejoicing. Many understand that this is a mistake, but in the course of doing their duty, they come up with explanations in order to somehow come to terms with it.”
Rustamova, a former BBC and TV Rain journalist, published the report March 1, less than a week after the invasion began.
She reported that only a small circle close to Putin knew of the imminent invasion, with many assuming the military build-up on Ukraine’s border was a negotiating tactic with the West.
Her reporting also cast doubt on the Russian president’s state of mind.
“He is in a state of being offended and insulted,” said a source described as a “good acquaintance” of Putin. “It’s paranoia that has reached the point of absurdity.
“Putin now seriously believes what [Defense Minister Sergie] Shoigu and Gerasimov are telling him: about how quickly they’ll take Kyiv, that the Ukrainians are blowing themselves up, that Zelensky is a coke addict.”

Even if you take these reports with a grain of salt — as wise people should in a wartime situation — the overall picture is that the Russian offensive is bogged down, and unlikely to get rolling anytime soon:

Having failed to make a decisive advance in the early phase of its Ukraine campaign, the Russian army is now facing a thaw that could make progression on key routes problematic due to mud.
Like the armies of Napoleon and Hitler before them, Russian mechanised divisions are likely to be slowed down or halted as unpaved roads become treacherous quagmires.
Locals have a word for the twice-yearly season of mudbound roads in the region: Rasputitsa, a term that refers to both to the seasons themselves, and the resulting muddy conditions on the roads created by thawing snow in the spring combined with wet weather, or heavy rains in the autumn.
As President Vladimir Putin massed his army at the Ukrainian border, many Western experts expected him to abstain from marching in as the weeks passed, because time was running out before the great thaw.
“Early spring is a bad time to invade Ukraine if the main roads have been destroyed, a task well within Ukraine’s irregular warfare toolkit,” wrote Spencer Meredith, a professor at the US National Defence University, in an article published a week before Putin gave the order for the invasion.
While some experts may have misread Putin’s intentions, their assessment of weather conditions has been spot-on, as pictures of Russian tanks stuck in the mud have begun to appear frequently on social media.
“There were already numerous episodes when Russian tanks and other equipment drove into the fields and got stuck. So the soldiers had to leave the equipment and go on foot,” said Mykola Beleskov, an Ukrainian military analyst.
He added: “The situation will worsen as the weather warms up and the rains start, it’ll just chain them to the ground.”

The “rasputitsa’s” impact: a transport straying off the road gets stuck in slime/mud. The rasputitsa brought the Wehrmacht to a standstill for several critical weeks as its advance came near Moscow in October of 1941; it’s now bogging down the Russian Army before Kyiv. pic.twitter.com/IO7kL4GHTF

— Daniel Garst (@garst59) March 8, 2022

Passing the word. Ukrainians have decided to flood parts around Kyiv with the help of a reservoir to worsen the rasputitsa mud, which makes it almost impossible for heavy military vehicles to make progress. ?????#SlavaUkraïni ?????? pic.twitter.com/MVdehOiRF8

— MattyKUSA ???? (@MattyK_USA) March 6, 2022

The weather may ultimately defeat Putin’s army.

PREVIOUSLY:

March 7: Why Ukraine Is Winning (So Far)
March 5: Ukraine: Russia Agrees to Temporary Cease-Fire in Besieged Mariupol
March 4: Teetering on the Brink
March 1: War and the Meaning of Nationhood
Feb. 27: Listen to the Experts!
Feb. 27: The Blessings of St. Javelin
Feb. 26: What a Real President Looks Like
Feb. 26: UKRAINE: Kyiv Survives Another Day
Feb. 25: UKRAINE: No, Thanks, Fox News, I Don’t Want to Hear Geraldo Rivera’s Opinion
Feb. 24: UKRAINE: Fight for Gostomel Airfield Emerges as Crucial Early Battle
Feb. 24: UKRAINE: What Biden Said
Feb. 24: WAR: RUSSIA INVADES UKRAINE UPDATE: AIR BASE NEAR KIEV REPORTED CAPTURED BY RUSSIANS
Feb. 22: Ukraine as 21st-Century Sudetenland

Category: Military, Russia, Ukraine

In The Mailbox: 03.08.22

Posted on | March 9, 2022 | Comments Off on In The Mailbox: 03.08.22

— compiled by Wombat-socho

Silicon Valley delenda est.

Guess she’s just a spud girl…looking for that REAL tomato.

OVER THE TRANSOM
357 Magnum: Lack of EMS Personnel At The Tipping Point
EBL: Captured Russian Officer Apologizes For Ukraine Attack, also, “Crude Oil Blues”
Twitchy: The Atlantic Thinks Slow Joe Is Doing Fine With Ukraine, also, In Texas, Joe Biden Says There’s Nothing He Can Do About The “Putin Spike At The Gas Pump”
Louder With Crowder: Stephen Colbert Is OK With You Paying $15/Gallon For Gas, also, Founder Of Critical Race Theory Admits To Indoctrination In K-12 Education
Vox Popoli: Hostile Countries, Neocons Threaten Red China, and Poland Washes Its Hands
Gab News: The Real Threat Is The Regime

RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES
Adam Piggott: Are We The Baddies?
American Conservative: The Looming Food Crisis
American Greatness: The FBI Goes On Trial In The Whitmer Case, also, Reject Liz Cheney’s War
American Power: Ukraine, The New Right, & Defending The West, also, Emirate & Saudi Leaders Decline Biden’s Calls During Ukraine Crisis
American Thinker: Why Should Deplorables Fight For Those Who Hate Them? also, Why The Washington Post Can’t “Correct” Its Trayvon Tribute
Animal Magnetism: Animal’s Daily Sky News News
Babalu Blog: Cuba Continues To Earn Millions From Its Slave Doctors In South Africa, also, Biden Now Sucking Up To Venezuela’s Brutal & Corrupt Regime For Oil
BattleSwarm: Can Ukraine Actually Win? also, Russo-Ukrainian War Update
Behind The Black: Today’s Blacklisted American, Local Texas Pols Lean On Congressmen To Get Starship Approved By FAA, and Ben Rich, The Skunk Works, & The F-117 Stealth Fighter
Cafe Hayek: More Proper Praise For Petroleum, also, Essential Women Of Liberty
CDR Salamander: The Blob Wants A War
Da Tech Guy: No Fly, No Oil, No Kidding, The Corrupt Madigan Enterprise & The Illinois Democratic Party, and Report From Louisiana – Chasing Chickens & Facebook Jail
Don Surber: May This War End Globalism, Zelensky Is The Latest CNN Hero, and Only 40% Of Democrats Would Defend America – But 88% Would Defend Albania
First Street Journal: How Far From The Tree Did The Apple Fall? also, Another Murder In Lexington
Gates Of Vienna: Interviews With Donbas Residents, A Hall Of Mirrors, and The Fog Of Peace & The Clarity Of War
The Geller Report: Whoever Is Behind “Joe Biden” Has Done All They Could To Derail American Life
Hogewash: Team Kimberlin Post of The Day, Zooming In To Arp 143, and Crocus
Hollywood In Toto: A Cuomo Comeback? Blame Hollywood’s Mega #MeToo Fail, also, Droll Hyperions Can’t Summon That Superhero Sizzle
The Lid: Ukraine War Has Thrown Global Markets Into Complete & Utter Chaos
Legal Insurrection: Virginia Democrat Mayor Nixes “Abortion Provider Appreciation Day” After Backlash, Iranians Out-Negotiated Biden Administration With Help From Russia, Red China, and Conservative Students At Boston U Explain How To Go On Offense Against Liberalism
Nebraska Energy Observer: Ukraine, Continued, also, Rollin’
Outkick: Far-Left Nut Rex Chapman To Work March Madness, Broncos Score Russell Watson In Seahawks Trade, and Enes Freedom Calls NBA Hypocrites For Supporting Ukraine
Power Line: Our Present Bewilderment, The Madness Of Slow Joe, Iran Edition (5), and Environmentalists Vs. Science
Shark Tank: Legislative Session Headed To Overtime
Shot In The Dark: Lie First, Lie Always – John Marty Is Coming For Your Guns, also, “Great Time For A Strike, Denise…”
The Political Hat: Newspeak Dictionary & The Nomenklatura
This Ain’t Hell: Ukraine Wants Foreign Reinforcements, Arvil Reed In The News, also, It’s Vindman Again
Transterrestrial Musings: Climate & The Real Crisis, The Wargame Before The War, and NYC Subways
Victory Girls: Joe Biden’s Dirty Lies About U.S. Energy Production
Volokh Conspiracy: FIRE Lawsuit Against Collin College
Weasel Zippers: Bad Orange Woman Claims Slow Joe “Will Do Everything He Can” To Reduce Gas Prices, also, Racist Joy Reid Claims America Only Cares About Ukraine Because They’re White
The Federalist: The Full List Of Every Lie Joe Biden Has Told As President, Wisc. School District Says Parents Aren’t Entitled To Know If Their Kid Is Trans, and Half The Country Did Speak The Truths CDC Director Insists Nobody Said – And They Were Smeared
Mark Steyn: Shots In The Dark, Naked In a Russian Winter, and Poles Apart

Amazon Warehouse Deals

Category: Linkagery

In The Mailbox: 03.07.22

Posted on | March 8, 2022 | Comments Off on In The Mailbox: 03.07.22

— compiled by Wombat-socho

Silicon Valley delenda est.
OVER THE TRANSOM
McG’s Tally Book: Absolutely Not
A View From The Beach: This Is Not A Smart Military Blog
EBL: Winston Churchill’s Iron Curtain Speech, also, Met Opera Fires Russian Diva Anna Netrebko For Not Denouncing Putin (Sufficiently)
Twitchy: “RIP To The Reporter Ron DeSantis Just Murdered,” also, Subversive Floridians Say “Gay” In Stunning & Brave Video
Louder With Crowder: Ron DeSantis Exposes Truth About Alleged “Don’t Say Gay” Bill, Blasts Reporters For Sucking At Their Jobs
Vox Popoli: Why Russia Is Holding Back, We Are Wizards, and The U.S. Wants War
Gab News: Feds Paid Media To Shill The Jab

RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES
Adam Piggott: Acting On The Lies
American Conservative: Have We Cornered Ourselves? also, We’ve Had Enough Of Zero-Sum Democracy
American Greatness: Wokeness On Energy Is Weakness, also, Big Pharma Funds “Studies” By Radical Transgender Groups Encouraging Transition Procedures For Children
American Power: Herbert Marcuse & The Left’s Endless Campaign Against Western “Repression”, also, How War In Ukraine Drives U.S. Inflation At Farms, Supermarkets, & Retailers
American Thinker: COVID Vaccines – What Happened To “Safe & Effective”? also, Addict, Degenerate, & Bagman Of A Corrupt Family Enterprise Exposed
Animal Magnetism: Goodbye, Blue Monday
Babalu Blog: Putin, Che, & The Castro Brothers All Had The Same KGB Boss, also, Cuba’s Apartheid Tourist Industry Loses Its Main (Russian) Clientele Due To Ukraine War
BattleSwarm: @MKHammer Tells School Boards Why Parents Now Hate Them, also, The Failed Logistics Of The Russian Invasion
Behind The Black: Pushback – High School Student Sues School For Religious Persecution, Red China Launches Seven Satellites With Long March 2C Rocket, and Fractured Terrain On Mars
Cafe Hayek: Jonathan Sumption On COVIDocratic Tyranny, also, An Unseen Cost of Debt-Financing Government Expenditures
Chicago Boyz: Can The EU Significantly Reduce Russian Gas Imports? also, Ukraine Thread Part 3
CDR Salamander: Red China’s 2022 – On Midrats, also, In Ukraine, We Enter A More Brutal Stage
Da Tech Guy: OK, Kids, Who Wants To Be Drafted First?, Thinking About What Happens After Ukraine Falls, and “I Did That!” Ukraine War Variant
Don Surber: Shell Buys Russian Oil, Trumpenfreude For Twitter, and Macgregor – Zelensky Is No Hero
First Street Journal: The Warmongers Keep Beating The Drums, also, This Is Exactly What The Left Wants
Gates Of Vienna: Heim Ins Reich, Who is Bombing Whom?, and Playing With Fire In Molenbeek
The Geller Report: Ports Are Open – DeSantis Says Global Shipping Company Moving From California To Florida, also, Freedom Convoy On The March
Hogewash: Team Kimberlin Post of The Day, Deimos, and I’m Not Making This Up, You Know
Hollywood In Toto: Here’s How The Batman Delivers An Essential Superhero Story, also, Clueless Oscars Can’t Face Ratings Reality
The Lid: Silence About Russia & Red China Adds To Coca-Cola’s Historic Amorality, also, Durham – Sussman’s Lie A Key Driver In Clinton-Originated Russian Collusion Investigation
Legal Insurrection: Harvard Law Professors Praise Joe Biden Economy, Exposing BLM At School – A Deep Dive Into The Indoctrination Of Fourth-Graders, and Democrat Operative David Brock Declares Jihad On Republican Election Lawyers
Nebraska Energy Observer: Random Observations, also, Sunday Matinee
Outkick: Tennessee Cracks Top Ten, Former ASU QB Jayden Daniels Transfers To LSU, and Michael Wilbon Uses The “T” Word To Describe Grayson Allen, Gets Off Scot-Free
Power Line: Another Industry Destroyed By Taxes, The Idiocy Of Seattle, and The Madness Of Slow Joe, Iran Edition (3)
Shark Tank: Christina Pushaw Triggers Progressive Democrat Pols
Shot In The Dark: Obvious & Impossible, also, Decisions
STUMP: Motor Vehicle Accident Deaths, Part Three
The Political Hat: Anti-Racist Audit – Attempted Murder Fine, Parent Involvement Bad
This Ain’t Hell: Russia’s Military Track Record Suggests They’ll Be In Ukraine A While, Another Two Accounted For, and NPRC Returns To Full Operations
Transterrestrial Musings: The World’s Longest POW Camp, Elon & Russia, and Mastercard & Visa
Victory Girls: Trudeau & Freudian Slippage, On Putin – The Right Needs To Check Itself, and Biden Administration Tries To Schmooze For Venezuelan Oil
Volokh Conspiracy: A Million Little Carrots, also, UC Hastings Faculty Sends Letter To Concerned Students
Weasel Zippers: Buttigieg Says People Upset With High Gas Prices Should Buy An Electric Car, Second Russian General Now In Hell, and Nearly 20,000 Volunteers Have Reportedly Signed Up To Fight For Ukraine
The Federalist: Bad Orange Woman Is A Lying Liar Who Lies – Insane Gas Prices Edition, Five New Special Counsel Arguments Against A Russia Hoaxer’s Attempt To Escape, and Why Cheerleading VISA’s Russia Ban Is A Recipe For Disaster
Mark Steyn: Death Becomes Him – Bob Fosse & All That Jazz, Nobody, and War In Europe – Day Twelve

Amazon Warehouse Deals

Category: Linkagery

Why Ukraine Is Winning (So Far)

Posted on | March 7, 2022 | Comments Off on Why Ukraine Is Winning (So Far)

Quintus Fabius Maximus Verrucosus, surnamed Cunctator (c. 280 – 203 BC), was a Roman statesman and general of the third century BC. . . . His agnomen, Cunctator, usually translated as “the delayer”, refers to the strategy that he employed against Hannibal’s forces during the Second Punic War. Facing an outstanding commander with superior numbers, he pursued a then-novel strategy of targeting the enemy’s supply lines, and accepting only smaller engagements on favourable ground, rather than risking his entire army on direct confrontation with Hannibal himself. As a result, he is regarded as the originator of many tactics used in guerrilla warfare.

The so-called Fabian strategy of avoiding pitched battle while attacking the enemy’s supply lines has proven its value in Ukraine, where the defenders are inflicting real damage on the Russian invaders:

The remains of a Russian Tigr fighting vehicle sat smoldering on the side of the road, as Ukrainian troops lounged outside their trenches smoking cigarettes. Nearby, a group of local villagers was tinkering with a captured T-90 tank, trying to get it running again so that the Ukrainian Army might put it to use.
For three days, Russian forces had fought to take Mykolaiv, but by Sunday, Ukrainian troops had driven them back from the city limits and retaken the airport, halting the Russian advance along the Black Sea, at least temporarily. By Monday morning Russian forces had resumed their attack.
“Few expected such strength from our people because, when you haven’t slept for three days, and when you only have one dry ration because the rest burned up, when it’s negative temperature out and there is nothing to warm you, and when you are constantly in the fight, believe me, it is physically very difficult,” an exhausted Col. Sviatoslav Stetsenko, of the Ukrainian Army’s 59th Brigade, said in an interview. “But our people endured this.”
Taking Mykolaiv remains a key objective for Russian forces, and the thwomp of artillery in the distance on Sunday suggested that the Ukrainians had not pushed them back that far. But the unexpected Ukrainian success of defending this critical port, about 65 miles from Odessa, underscores two emerging trends in the war.
Russia’s failure to seize Mykolaiv and other cities quickly, as President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia appears to have intended, is largely a function of its military’s faltering performance. Russian forces have suffered from logistical snafus, baffling tactical decisions and low morale. . . .

You can read the whole thing, but it is Russia’s “logistical snafus” that are crucial to understanding why Ukraine is winning. Russia doesn’t have enough trucks to supply its army, the tires on their trucks are crap, and their entire supply line is vulnerable to attack. Using small forces to strike the Russian supply columns in hit-and-run attacks, the Ukrainians can prevent Russia’s assault forces from being able to bring their full strength to bear in attempting to capture Ukrainian cities. When the Russian invasion began, many experts expected Kyiv to capitulate within four days. We’re now in Day 11, and Kyiv is still hanging on:

Andriy Zagorodnyuk, a former defense minister now at a Kyiv think tank, said the Ukrainian special forces, Pentagon-funded and -trained since 2015, had engaged in efforts to demoralize the enemy, assaulting Russian convoys and striking Russian camps at night. “They attack when they’re least expected,” he said.
Ukrainian special forces also have been instrumental in holding off Russian advances north of Kyiv, and in counterattacks that have prevented Russia from consolidating gains.
“Going deep into our territory, Russian troops are stretched and lose contact with their command,” said Yurii Kochevenko, an officer with Ukraine’s 95th Airborne Assault Brigade. “Their logistics are disrupted. They have great difficulties with the supply of fuel, with the delivery of ammunition. They abandon their equipment and scatter in all directions.”

An army cannot fight if it cannot be supplied. The odds against Ukraine are still formidable, but every day that they can delay Russian victory works in their favor and against Putin. Here is a 20-minute video further explaining Russia’s logistics problem in Ukraine:

(Hat-tip: Stephen Green at Instapundit.)

Category: Military, Russia, Ukraine

Rule 5 Double Scoop Sunday: Wng Dng Swt Pnt*ng

Posted on | March 7, 2022 | Comments Off on Rule 5 Double Scoop Sunday: W*ng D*ng Sw**t P**nt*ng

— compiled by Wombat-socho

Lo, having returned from Nashville (or a suburb of it, anyway) I feel it is incumbent on me to salute a butt-kicking band named after the introduction to one of Uncle Ted’s biggest hits, or at least its lead guitarist Ruyter Suys (pronounced “Rider Sighs”, according to Infogalactic) who can shred with the best and looks pretty good doing it.
Ceterum autem censeo Silicon Valley esse delendam.