summer patriot, winter soldier

i doubt russians will die for putin ....

i have very little doubt russians would die to protect the motherland.  i have serious doubts they will die to advance the interests of putin.   he is a cold ruthless bastard, and that wears very thin over time, even with russians.

"win one for vlad.s fur coat" doesn't seem very inspiring, does it.

john jay @ 03.31.2022

the average russian is, as the old saying goes, .....

..... , kept in the dark and fed a ration of shit.***

but, i come back to a subject treated a couple of posts ago, and that is wondering whether the russian population has much of an actual knowledge of the extent of the russian war dead and wounded in putin's war in the ukraine.  we know that russian "authorities" (sounds better than "thugs," doesn't it) have arrested many thousands of russians for protesting the war  .....  i wonder the extent of the protests if the russians truly knew how badly the ukrainian armed forces have defeated the russians, and how many russians they have killed, to this point in the war.

and, i am curious of another matter.   and, that is the fact, that while societal elites rarely suffer the brunt of war as does "your average joe," or put another way, the average citizen this is usually known by the people.   but, if the true extent of the disparity in fortunes of "war age" persons in the soviet union, between the communist elites and the working class "joe" or "stiff" or however you want to put it, were known, would the russian communists be able to sustain the war effort.

now, in the days of stalin, it would not have mattered.  (in the soviet union of wwii, russian soldiers were killed by the truck load by the german wermacht, at the start of the war and as it concluded.  as the russians advanced toward berlin, the suffered tremendous losses.   so much so, that russians of all ages and conditions were often "conscripted" or "drafted" right out of the cities and villages near the fronts, put in rudimentary uniforms, and plunged into deadly battle within the week.   they had very little time wasted on "training.")   the people simply bore up.  no matter how heavily the chains of oppression weighed up and cut into their shoulders, they simply persevered, and died.

is this the same society.

or, is it different.   has it changed by being more cosmopolitan and materialistic, not to mention wealthy, or is it still the old russian yoeman and peasant mentality that bears up under any amount of brutality and mistreatment.

looked up from this perspective, the issue of russian war dead, and whether the communist "elites" are bearing their share of the suffering becomes very material.   and, it especially is material given the issue of how much v. putin can get away with in furthering his ambitions and designs in the ukraine.   in short, will the russian people put up with having their sons and daughters killed like flies in the ukraine, or will they protest and rebel against it.

there are signs that putin's transgressions again decency are getting wearisome to the russian people.   so much is obvious.   is it so tiresome to the russian populace that it imperils putin's reign as dictator.

time will tell.  we suffer the idiot biden.   how much will the russians suffer the tyrant putin?  biden imperils us, putin kills ukrainians and russians alike, to fit his schemes.   and, for what?

john jay @ 03.31.2022

*** pravda and izvestia were for years the two main russian newspapers, or, organs, as people would say.  one of the words means "truth" and the other "news," and i cannot remember which goes/fits which.   it makes very little difference, for as the old russian saying went, "there's not much pravda in izvestia, and not much izvestia in pravda."   the communists have a long history of feeding the masses less than the truth, and the russian population have a long history of understanding that very well.   hence, the saying.

fatalism often has a very descriptive vocabulary, one which is very nuanced w/ realism.

do the ukrainians have the resources to do something sneaky, like filter into belarus and interrupt the russian supply lines there ....

i am curious, as to whether the unrainians have the resources to do anything sneaky while the russians resupply, like filter clandestinely into belarus, and interrupt the russian supply lines there.    it would be wonderful if they could blow up a supply train laden with troops, ammunition, weapons and more armor.  it would be, in fact, a major coup.

i have no doubt folks in the belarus would lend a bit of a helping hand hiding troops and arms, as such a mission got organized.

we'll see.

john jay @ 03.31.2022

 

p.s.   or, even into russia.  my goodness, but a lot of us would take a lot of pleasure and satisfaction in something like that.   imagine, killing russians in russia, before they got into the ukraine.   no one deserves it any more.

the russians are resupplying and regrouping ..... i've seen no analysis which suggests they are bringing in more troops .....

while this is going on the ukrainians will no doubt be tempted to launch some counter attacks in and around kiev, and perhaps to reinforce mariupol.  (anything to keep the street fighting going, which is just where the ukraine wants it to be.   it is very hard on the civilian population, but, it is devastating to the russian troops.) as to the latter, o.k., if they have the troops to spare.   as to the former, it might be wise to have some very localized counterattacks to shore up their defenses a bit.   but, i hope they do nothing major, as i see no reason to come out of the defensive lines that have literally been a meat grinder for the russian attackers.

sort of a why fix it if it ain't broke sort of a proposition.

now, if the russians use this little "breather" to figure out how to attack the ukrainians in their present lines, the ukraine will obviously have to adjust.   so far, however, the russians have not shown any inclination to abandon the tactics that served them so well in wwii, but which have been very dubious thus far in this war.

i hope the ukrainians continue to kill russians by the truck loads.

john jay @ 03.31.2022

p.s.   i wonder if they have any use for a 74 year old heart patient?

absolutely, positively inconsequential ..... over a hump with freecell .....

i have been inching closer to a 92% win rate at freecell.   that hardly puts me in the rarefied company of some players, but i am kinda pleased finally to accomplish it.

now you'd think that windows freecell would "throw you a bone" as you got pretty close, but such is not the case.--

2172 divide by 2361 ='s 91.99491%.   that's pretty close to 92%, but not quite over the hump.

2173 divide by 2362 ='s 91.9983%  very close, but,  no cigar

2174 divide by 2363 ='s 92.00169%.   now, that's over the hump, and is a quiet 92% on the scoreboard.  no congratulations, just a very very very quiet 92, no smiley face, no nothing.   laughing.

all totaled, i have probably played 7 or 8,000 games.   but some 2363 games back i decided to "zero out" my history and see how well i could do without temper tantrums causing me to throw away wins and to play carelessly.   to, you know, get serious about keeping track.   well, it's worth some percentage points, bt not enough to get into a lather about.   i just am not interested in expending the effort to ever reach 93%, for instance.   i am not gonna live loong enough.

the other day i was reading about this lady who has played all 32,000 original games, and lost a couple.   that's not me.   laughing.

so, i am not a "great" player by any stretch of the imagination, but the above is pretty good for me.   and, i have to admit, when the game throws a tough one at me, i am likely to taste defeat.   such is life.

but, i thought it interesting that the game had to go out 7 decimal points to deny me the 92% score.   the last "91 percenter" went out 6 places, and would not round up to 92.   and, only gave me 92% when i had achieved it at 7 decimal places.  hey, that's tough.

but in this age of moral relativism, it is sorta nice in a very odd way that there are some sticklers in matters such as this.   laughing.     after all, 91.9983% is not 92%.   close, but no cigar.

john jay @ 03.30.2022

 

update, march 7, 2022.   since this post, i have just gone along on a good clip.   i had a string of 97 wins, and then lost a game.   that hurt, i wanted another 100 game win streak, but i just could not win number 98  ....   and, believe you me, i tried.   well, after that loss i had another streak of 35 games, and lost the 36th, and i did not give that one up either.   so, basically, that was a pretty good stretch, 132 wins against 2 losses.   i have noticed that freecell keeps track of the games which give you problems, and a person will receive a whole mess of those until his or her "paralytics" develop some facility in handling the difficulties.  clever little program, that "freecell."   another thing that i have noticed, is that one's attentiveness tends to flag a bit with prolonged wins.  i guess a person just gets a little blase over time, and it takes a loss to keep sharp.  end update. 

note:   this will be my last post on this.   the upshoot of the whole deal is that sometimes you win, and sometimes you lose, and you do best being attentive.   other than that, you just learn to recognize certain problem areas, and learn how to attack them.   you have to  ....   you just cannot win if you try and ignore them, ... , sometimes.    and, sometimes you complete a game, and notice that you have remained ignorant of your peril right up to the end.   sort of like life.  bye bye on this topic.  jj

update (so i lied), 04.27.2022.  i clawed my way up to 92.6%, just a little over, and was going swimmingly until freecell noticed a flaw in my attack, and threw a whole stretch of games at me which just about floored me.   very, very, very difficult until i kinda figured out how to deal with them.   nonetheless, i am progressing more or less steadily toward 93%, at which case i believe i will stop playing for a bit, because my approach to the game is becoming a bit more compulsive than is good for me.  actually, right back to 92.6%.   another month or so, if things go well, i should hit 93%, and that is plenty good enough for me.   end update. 

what per centage of the russian dead & wounded in the ukraine were communists?

hey, "hedge" and "sneakypants what'syername", you guys should know, if anyone does.

i don't know why is didn't occur to me to ask about this before.   but, it is interesting to know just how much/many of the putin party have bought into this little corrective expedition into the ukraine.   now it is pretty startling but if you read the rosters of the marine officers killed in the pacific in wwii you will find a good many ivy leaguers among those dead.   harvard, yale, and the like.   sorry, no vassar grads of whatever gender are listed, to the best of my memory.   but a good many of america's elites served with pride and distinction in the armed services in wwii, much in contrast to the little know it all ninnies pt out by those institutions now.  no, i do not expect to get a correction letter from the dean of students on this point  ....  now, or ever.  no self respecting progressive gender bender would be so dumb as to get caught up in the military these days.

and, i would be absolutely astounded and amazed to find out that the russian war dead in the ukraine amounted to much more that 5% or so, and that being from the more senior members of the officer's rannks.  not a putin friend or associate in the number, and certainly & absolutely no members of the oligarchy that rules russia.

in short, no elites.   no person from the ranks of those who support and benefit from putin's rule.   anyone know?   anyone know where to find out?   the russian communist party, perhaps.   you could knock me over with a feather is they were releasing any numbers.

at this point there are at least 15,000 dead russians from the ukraine "expidition" and another 30 to 35,000 injured and wounded.  the 7 or 8 generals killed were almost certainly communist party members, .... , but, who else, and how many?

john jay @ 03.29.2022

any country that kills your babies and pregnant mothers does not want "peace," it wants your county. period.

to the people and president of the ukraine.--

the only way to keep your country is to keep killing russians by the truck load.   and, that is all there is to it.

it they say anything else, it is a sham and a snare/noose for the delusional.

john jay @ 03.29.2022

is russia wants "peace" in the ukraine, it should jjust get the fuck out of the ukraine. period.

any other type of "peace" is just a stall to get more russian troops into the ukraine.   in sum, they are liars to the core, and the only thing they can do to be trusted is to get the hell out of the ukraine, and the hell away from it.

period.   end of discussion.

 

john jay @ 03.29.2022

 

p.s.   until then, the ukrainians should just keep killing russians by the truck load.   now, that's "peace."

here is the stupidity of russia's attempt to conquer the ukraine .....

russia does not have the infrastructure to defend its acquisition, even if it does end up occupying the ukraine.   period.   actually, it is the end of the discussion, but i cannot resist the temptation to gild the lilly.

it took months and months and months for russia to get the troops, equipment, fuel & food, and other things like air power to put the invasion force into position.   i don't know how many months it took to "acquire" the soldiers, and to train them to the level of incompetence that they now have.   but, it should be obvious if they had to again build the troop level to "invade" again, or to defend the ukraine (from whom, you may ask), it would take as long.

and, this raises another not so obvious truth.   think about it, they have moved approximately 30 miles into the ukraine's territory in 31 days of fighting.   that's 30 miles from their border.   which means exactly this.   russia does not have the infrastructure to defend her current borders.   if they had been reacting to an "existential" threat to russia as constituted (again, from whom), they couldn't have done it any faster in terms of troop & material & weapons deployment, nor would they have been able to fight any more ably to ward off a genuine invasion.

they cannot, if the experience in the ukraine means anything at all, defend what they have.   why try to acquire more.  they simply haven't the infrastructure nor the military command to fight so far away from home, which i would define as close to moscow.  the  if the military of the ukraine can do what they have done to the russians, one can only imagine what the military of n.a.t.o. could do to the russians if it wanted to invade  ...  the example of ukraine might supply a bit of a cautionary note there.

putin is said to be in a snit over n.a.t.o. moving in on him.   so what?  could russia, with its present military, defend itself any more ably were it to have to move its forces closer to europe, say to the western border of the ukraine.    how would it be able to get forces there any quicker?   how would its ossified military, still steeped in the battle doctrine of wwii, be able to react, defend and fight any more ably than the deplorable example they have set forth in the ukraine.

some have said that putin wants to restore russia to its soviet union "glory days."   they say that this is the reason putin has tried "to acquire" the ukraine.   nonsense.   putin is doing this because he is a megalomaniac, and his greed and arrogance sees this as a way of expanding his wealth and stature as a great leader.   put simply, putin has a swelled head.

if he thought in terms of power, he would have looked at things objectively and in terms of power, and he would have concluded, had he a brain in his head, that he simply did not have the tools to invade and conquer the ukraine.    but, he did not look at things in objective terms, he looked only at how he could assuage the horrible demands of his ego, and warped personality.

this is why he will fail.   he fights for his ego needs.   and, the ukraine fights for its very existence.   the ukraine has the stronger source of fight and will, and the entire country shares that source.   as it turns out, the russian military hasn't really bought into putins needs to fuel its "fight."

john jay @ 03.27.2022

simply put, thus far the ukrainians have shot the brains out of the russians .....

the russians may be thinking that it cannot get any worse.   in that, they would be wrong.   the russians are not going to get any better ...  they weren't very adaptable to begin with, and now that all their brains are gone, their fighting ability will progressively degrade.   things will get worse.

in this world, there are penalties & costs associated with being slow and dumb, and the russians are going to pay them in spades.   no matter what they do, they are going to continue being killed by the truck load.  as they so richly deserve.

john jay @ 03.26.2022