BLUF:
[American Thinker] USAA's extreme emphasis on DIE, CSR, and ESG metrics comes as a surprise and to the dismay of many of its loyal customers. The company's departure from its fiduciary responsibilities and foray into the realm of politics contributed to the first non-profitable year in 2022, the first in its 100-year history.
#1
...A couple years ago while my youngest son was still at home, we were looking for car insurance for him. I've been with State Farm for 43 years and never had a moment's problem with them, but what they were asking to get him started was a bit more than we could afford at the time.
So - went to the USAA website and discovered two things. First, they want every possible bit of data they can pry out of you first, and trust me - it gets sold.
Second, their prices suck. I mean, tactical nuclear Hoover-level suck.
So, we went to the SF office, sat down with our agent, and got the prices tweaked to the point where we could make it happen - something you can't do with USAA.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
08/23/2023 5:35 Comments ||
Top||
#8
Insurance is a legal requirement in many instances.
Unless you are in the country illegally.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
08/23/2023 7:59 Comments ||
Top||
#9
#7 B: I got the Weathertech floor mats. Love em, but I didn't dance.
Course, as a White dude, I can't dance
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/23/2023 8:29 Comments ||
Top||
#10
WeatherTech mats rule.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
08/23/2023 8:45 Comments ||
Top||
#11
USAA does have native English speakers answer the phone who have been unfailingly polite across the past 10 years. Seems like many if not most of them are former military. They paid promptly without quibbling in claims too. Kicker for me was their ensuring firearms without requiring serial numbers. YMMV
TONIGHT is the big night. GOP Debate Livestream & Trump/Tucker Interview Coverage. We’ll have it all. Live reporting, real-time fact-checking, drinking games, & interviews from Milwaukee with key figures. Tune in at 8:30 pm ET/5:30 PT on Mug Club & @rumblevideo. pic.twitter.com/gq3Zb2vBR5
[Indianpunchline] The 4-week old turmoil in the West African state of Niger is taking a curious turn that no longer allows a binary vision of “neo-colonialism and imperialism” versus “national liberation”. Niger’s coup leaders are making overtures to the United States and keeping the Russian military contractors, Wagner PMC, at arm’s length — at least, at the present stage of transition of power.
The speed with which Washington deployed Kathleen FitzGibbon, an ace Africa hand with intelligence background, as its new ambassador to Niamey signals diplomacy as the preferred course while keeping all options on the table.
Significantly, in an editorial, Washington Post took note today that “The two armies [US and Nigerian] have worked closely together over the past decade: Officers are familiar with one another, and Niger’s generals have not been considered anti-American.”
Equally, the US state department readout on Ambassador FitzGibbon highlighted that her rushed assignment aims to “bolster efforts to help resolve the political crisis at this critical time” and that her “diplomatic focus will be to advocate for a diplomatic solution.”
Interestingly, the readout limits itself to call for the release of the ousted president and his family members and ignored the earlier specific demand regarding his reinstatement. The readout hints that the US diplomacy is casting the net wide and will not limit itself to the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).
On the eve of Ambassador FitzGibbon’s arrival in Niamey, New York Times carried an interview with Ali Lamine Zeine, the prime minister-designate of Niger. Most certainly, Zeine, the topmost civilian official in the military junta, spoke for the generals and was addressing the western audience.
Zeine’s remarks suggest that the ruling cabal in Niamey are a smart lot and could be in the long game, who seek a direct engagement with the US. Indeed, the ECOWAS itself is caught in two minds after its first face-to-face interaction with the coup leader General Abdouramane Tchiani in the weekend.
The ECOWAS mediatory mission was led by General Abdulsalami Abubakar, the enormously influential statesman and king maker, who was Nigeria’s last military head of state and a source of moral authority who had kept his word to hand over power to a democratically elected government, making the long-awaited dream of Nigerians a reality.
After returning from Niamey, Abubakar briefed President Bola Tinubu and later spoke to the media where he expressed optimism that the crisis in Niger is not likely to deteriorate beyond diplomacy. Asked if there was any possibility of avoiding a military action by ECOWAS in Niger, Abubakar stated: “Hopefully, diplomacy will see the better of this. Nobody wants to go war, it doesn’t pay anybody, but then again, our leaders have said if all fails — and I don’t think all will fail, we’ll get somewhere, we’ll get out of this mess.”
Succinctly put, Niger faces a “messy” situation rather than a revolutionary situation. Perhaps, certain Bonapartist elements are discernible — for which, of course, there is plenty of blame to go around, as Africa’s elites and their failures are a major factor, not only because public opinion associates them with France but due to twin malaise of a poverty of political ideologies and populism, apart from the rise of new generations of young people frustrated by a status quo that, in their eyes, is of France’s making.
Importantly, therefore, the threat of Russia filling the vacuum is overstated and should not justify Western intervention. What needs to be understood is that part of of Russia’s appeal is that many Africans see Moscow as sort of “anti-France”. Conversely, the less France lives as an exploitative ex-colonial power in the popular imagination, the less Russia’s symbolic appeal will become.
One can see that Russians themselves understand this behind Moscow’s anti-colonial, anti-imperialist rhetoric. A commentary in the Russian daily Nezavisimaya Gazeta noted three days ago that “For the Russian Federation, it is noteworthy that the putschists for the first time dissociated themselves from Russia and the Wagner PMCs, assuring the West that they were ready to conduct political and economic cooperation with it.”
However, General Tchiani, who heads the putschists, is not going to give up power. On the other hand, he no longer repeats that former president Bazum will be put on trial. The ECOWAS delegation who met the ousted President Mohamed Bazoum, estimated that he isn’t in any imminent danger. The putschists have heeded Washington’s stern warning.
General Tchiani is also distancing himself from raucous public support of the putschists, which seems to embarrass him. The salience, according to the Russian daily, is that “judging by the recent actions and statements of the Niger military, they really do not want to sever all opportunities for dialogue with France, the United States and the organisations they support.
In the New York Times interview, Zeine outlined the ideas of the new authorities’ foreign policy priorities. He categorically rejected the assumptions and claims that Moscow was behind the coup. “I don’t see any intentions from the military government of Niger to cooperate with Russia or with the Wagner group,” Zeine said.
He even cautioned the West to be discreet not to push Niger into the arms of the Wagner. (According to reports, the redoubtable head of Wagner Yevgeny Prigozhin has flown into neighbouring Mali in Sahel, fuelling speculations.)
Most important, Zeine clearly told New York Times that the pro-French foreign policy vector will remain unchanged for Niger even under the new authorities. “We studied at French universities, our officers studied in France,” he said.
On the whole, Nezavisimaya Gazeta wryly noted, “Judging by the interview, the only thing that Tchiani and his associates are seeking is a revision of the terms of cooperation with the former metropolis. As Zeine put it, “we just want to be respected.” Conceivably, this refers to the revision of the conditions for the extraction of Niger’s uranium and gold reserves. Both are now suspended.
That said, there is great uncertainty regarding the actual intentions of the protagonists. Is the junta, which has class or corporate interests, seeking some concessions to save face or is merely buying time? Is the West scaling down its earlier strident demands of immediate restoration of democratic rule to a modest realistic expectation to let Bazoum go into exile and pin down the putschists to a timeline for transfer of power to an elected government? There are no easy answers.
One significant straw in the wind is that the African Union, at a session in its headquarters in Addis Ababa on Tuesday, while suspending Niger’s membership, decided that it needed time to study the implications of any armed intervention in that country.
The domestic opinion within Nigeria is also vehemently opposed to any ECOWAS military intervention. After all, similar past interventions in Liberia and Sierra Leone didn’t have happy endings Nigeria which was led up the garden path by Western powers and left holding the can of worms. Nigeria has its hands full with a serious internal security situation that allows no distractions. The northern Nigerian provinces have tribal, ethnic affinities with Niger and have come out against war.
Posted by: Slenter Panda4300 ||
08/23/2023 06:42 ||
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#1
Seasonal troop rotations? Redistributing ammo? Use or lose leave ?
#1
Since 2021, the U.S. Government has helped close more than 800 two-way trade and investment deals across 47 African countries for a total estimated value of over $18 billion, and the U.S. private sector has closed investment deals in Africa valued at $8.6 billion. U.S. goods and services traded with Africa totaled $83.6 billion in 2021.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited. by Nastya Sviridova Times and Fates, Editor's Choice, Pages of History
[RedStar.ru] The FSB of Russia publishes on its official website under the heading "Archival materials" of the section "History" declassified archival documents of the Central Archive of the FSB of Russia, dedicated to the activities of the Soviet state security agencies in the search for accomplices of Nazi Germany in the liberated territory of the Latvian SSR - members of the Latvian paramilitary nationalist organization "Aizsargi", who hosted active participation in the destruction of the peaceful Soviet population.
These documents contain details of the tragedies of the brutally murdered residents of the Latgalian village of Audrini, Rezekne district, the villagers from the village of Barsuki, Ludza district, shot in the Garbarovsk forest, political prisoners - former Soviet Komsomol activists and a teenage pioneer - from Ludza and Rezekne prisons. Here is the crying and groaning of Jews in the forest near the town of Preli (now the city of Preili in the eastern part of Latvia - Latgale), in the Riebe forest, Jews and Gypsies on the Anchupan hills in the vicinity of Rezekne ...
On the yellowed sheets from time to time - materials about the theft of "politically unreliable" local residents for forced labor in Germany. And about the results of the work of the Smersh counterintelligence in identifying and eliminating the Aizsargs who went into the forests in the territory of Latvia, which was liberated by the Red Army in 1944.
First of all, it is necessary to explain who the Aizsargs are. Translated from Latvian, this word means “defenders”, that is, it carries a positive connotation. However, it was from among the Aizsargs that many of Hitler's henchmen came out - the executioners of the Soviet people in the territory of Latvia.
In a special message from the head of the Smersh ROC of the 3rd Shock Army, Colonel A.S. Miroshnichenko to the head of the Smersh counterintelligence department of the 2nd Baltic Front, Major General N.I. Zheleznikov contains brief information about the history of the Aizsargi organization.
Being established in 1920, it received its organizational development after the fascist coup in Latvia in 1934 and became the head of political life. Its total number was about 30 thousand people.
After the establishment of Soviet power in Latvia in 1940, all leaders and activists of this organization were isolated. Thus, the Aizsargi organization did not carry out underground activities against the Soviet government (with the exception of singles). Those of the members of this organization who joined it out of their own convictions and class affiliation for personal gain took a wait-and-see attitude, and some quickly switched to Soviet work.
With the advent of the Nazis, the Aizsargi paramilitary organization again jumped out onto the local historical stage like a devil from a snuffbox. It was from among its members that the Nazis received their accomplices among the local population, who were widely used to carry out punitive actions in the occupied territory of Latvia, as well as Belarus and a number of western regions of the RSFSR.
The special message mentioned above says:
“In 1941, during the occupation of the Latvian SSR by the German troops, the command of Latvia was granted self-government and a colonel of the Latvian army, a prominent member of the DANKERS organization, was appointed Mayor of Latvia, who announced the order to the members of the Aizerg organization about the emergence of these organizations.
After the restoration of the “ayzerg” organization, the latter served as a base from which cadres were taken to public positions - self-governments (burgomasters, foremen, policemen and other responsible civil servants). Along with this, punitive detachments were created from the “ayzergs”, which fought and cracked down on the Soviet patriots who remained under occupation, carried out executions of the Jewish population, and some went to conduct punitive expeditions against partisans in the Byelorussian, Leningrad and Kalinin regions ".
The search for accomplices of the invaders, who actively participated along with the German punishers in the genocide of Soviet civilians, was one of the priority tasks of the Smersh counterintelligence agencies after the expulsion of German troops from the territory of the USSR. After the Smersh counterintelligence agencies were abolished in 1946, the MGB-KGB agencies under the USSR Council of Ministers continued to search for war criminals, since the crimes of the Nazis and their accomplices against the civilian population did not have a statute of limitations. And we emphasize that they still do not have.
The search for accomplices of the invaders, who actively participated along with the German punishers in the genocide of Soviet civilians, was one of the priority tasks of the Smersh counterintelligence agencies after the expulsion of German troops from the territory of the USSR
In the course of this large-scale and painstaking work, numerous facts of the brutal destruction of the civilian population of cities and villages in the eastern part of Latvia - Latgale by the Latvian henchmen of Nazi Germany were established. From the testimonies of witnesses of the atrocities of the occupying authorities against the civilian population, it follows that the local nationalists were not inferior in cruelty to the Germans, but often surpassed them.
The documents declassified by the FSB of Russia contain details of the tragedy of the inhabitants of the Latgale village of Audrini in the Rezekne district, which in Soviet times was called the Latvian Khatyn (by analogy with the infamous Belarusian village). Here is what is said about this in a certificate dated June 29, 1973, from the investigative department of the KGB under the Council of Ministers of the Latvian SSR, based on the materials of the criminal activities of the former head of the 4th police station of the Rezekne district, Kh.P. Puntulis.
Until 1940, this Puntulis was the commander of a platoon of Aizsargs, and with the arrival of the Nazis in July 1941, he organized and led a group of Aizsargs in the village of Malta. And on July 27, 1941, he was appointed by the new owners to the position of the police station located in Malta.
On December 18, 1941, in the village of Audrini, local policemen in the house of Anisya Glushneva caught her son Rodion and five more Soviet soldiers who had escaped from the Rezekne prisoner of war camp cleaning firearms. In the ensuing firefight, one POW and one policeman were killed.
Using this circumstance as a pretext for a bloody massacre of the inhabitants of the village of Audrini, the police arrested all men, women, children and the elderly - only 200 people, who were imprisoned in the Rezekne prison, and the village of 42 peasant households was burned.
In the evening of the next day, 130 inhabitants of Audrini were shot on the Anchupan hills. And a day later - on Sunday, January 4, 1942 - the Latvian policemen dealt with the rest of the inhabitants of the burned village.
“In order to intimidate the inhabitants and increase the bloody terror, PUNTULIS H.P. at the direction of EIKHELIS A.Ya. (Chief of Police of Rezekne County. - Ed. ), organized a public execution on the market square of the city of Rezekne of 30 men still alive, including several teenagers from the village of Audrini. He supervised this execution...
Before the public execution of EIKHELIS A.Ya. made a speech in which he threatened that everyone who supported the fighters against the occupying power would be shot, just like the inhabitants of the village of Audrini. Which, under the Geneva Conventions falls under the rubric of reprisals against civilians for supporting insurgent attacks on the occupying force. The reprisals must be one for one.
After each rifle salvo, Puntulis and his assistant Ya.Ya. Drozdovsky bypassed the victims and finished off those who still showed signs of life with pistols. As you can see, the hands of Puntulis and his subordinates are up to the elbows in blood. However, this is not all of their atrocities.
"PUNTULIS H.P. with all the forces and means at his disposal, he carried out the inhuman Hitlerite racial policy. He systematically organized and directed actions to exterminate the inhabitants of the Jewish and Gypsy nationalities.
From the trophy document - "Overview of the activities of the Rezekne district police on June 20, 1942" it is seen that on the territory of Kh.P. 4th police station, among others, 713 Jews and 28 Gypsies were shot.”
So, under his command, in the summer of 1941, Jews were shot in the Riebin forest. Act No. 1/21 of the Extraordinary Commission of the Latvian SSR dated October 15, 1944 states that 381 residents of Jewish nationality were shot in the village of Riebeni. Then this gang of policemen shot the Jews of Malta (about 200 people). In the autumn of 1941, she continued the executions of local residents of Jewish and Gypsy nationalities on the Anchupan Hills. No one was spared - neither children, nor women, nor the elderly.
On November 13, 1941, Puntulis and his subordinates in the Rezna parish of the Rezekne district in the forest near the farm "Rizhanka" shot political prisoners from the Ludza and Rezekne prisons. They were Komsomol activists and a 15-year-old teenager who was killed only because he became a pioneer under Soviet rule.
Puntulis also participated in the mass extermination of the inhabitants of the neighboring Ludza county. In one of the villages of this district called Badgers, the Soviet activist Yakov Proshchenkov found refuge. When the police found out about this and decided to capture him, he shot back and killed one of them. After that, the commander of the Daugavpils branch of the so-called Latvian security police, an SS Obersturmführer named Tabbert, issued an order that the inhabitants of Barsukov should be shot.
The reprisals against them near Ludza in the Garbarovsky forest were carried out by punishers under the direct supervision of Puntulis on January 6, 1942. 47 men, women and children of different ages were killed. Immediately after that, the monster policemen immediately shot about 130 gypsies from Ludza.
And also on the conscience of the chief policeman of Malta is the hijacking of 1049 people, whom, at his suggestion, the occupation regime recorded as politically unreliable for hard labor in Germany. Not everyone returned from there after the war ...
For the above-described deeds on Hitler's birthday, April 20, 1943, Puntulis was awarded, as indicated in the archival document, the "Cross of Military Merit of the second degree with swords."
Retreating under the blows of the Red Army in 1944, the Nazis took some of their henchmen with them. Puntulis also managed to escape, who was then warmed up by Canada. This bastard at the time of preparation of the above-mentioned certificate dated June 29, 1973 of the investigative department of the KGB under the Council of Ministers of the Latvian SSR lived in Canada at the address: Ontario, Vilovdale, st. Alfred, 98.
However, the Germans left most of their Latvian servants as an armed underground for terror and sabotage in the rear of the Soviet troops. These criminals, stained with the blood of innocent victims, hid in the forests and on farms, regularly terrorizing the local population that supported the Soviet regime.
In a telegram from the head of the Smersh counterintelligence department of the 3rd Baltic Front, Lieutenant General M.I. Belkin dated October 17, 1944 No. 563 / A says:
“The counterintelligence measures carried out by the Smersh front bodies on the territory of Latvia liberated from the enemy established the well-known military-fascist organization Aizsargi, which, when the Germans retreated from Latvia, received an order from the German command and its center to prepare its participants for the transition to an illegal position and create bases weapons, ammunition and food for the fight against Soviet power.
The Smersh counterintelligence authorities immediately began to eliminate the fascist shortfalls in the liberated territory of Latvia. And already in 1944 they achieved significant results in this direction. They are in the same telegram, the content of which is the head of the Main Directorate of Counterintelligence "Smersh" of the People's Commissariat of Defense of the USSR V.S. Abakumov reported to People's Commissar of Defense I.V. Stalin.
“The SMERSH organs of the front established and partially liquidated 33 Aizsargi volost organizations, as well as 10 espionage and sabotage groups from among the members of this anti-Soviet organization.
As of October 11 this year. 13 volost leaders and 125 active members of organizations were arrested.
Those arrested had: 2 machine guns, 104 submachine guns, rifles and pistols, 1148 mines and grenades, about 2,000 rockets, more than 14,000 rounds of ammunition and one radio station... An instruction from the center of the Aizsargi fascist organization on the transition of its members to illegal position for carrying out sabotage in the rear of the Red Army.
According to the testimonies of those arrested and documents found, in addition to the already liquidated organizations, 14 more volost organizations “Aizsargi” were identified with a significant number of their participants, and measures were taken to search and arrest them.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited. by Aleksandr Tishchenko and Sergey Adamov
[REGNUM] The section of the front on the left bank of the Oskol River in the Khar'kov region and along the northwestern border of the LPR is increasingly being reported. “The enemy launched six counterattacks <…> in the areas of Petropavlovka and Novoselovskoye. All attacks were repulsed by preemptive artillery fire, the enemy’s losses amounted to more than 40 servicemen,” Yaroslav Yakimkin, officer of the press center of the Zapad group of forces, told RIA Novosti on August 22.
The Armed Forces of Ukraine tried to storm the positions on the outskirts of the village of Novoselovskoye, their assault group was destroyed by artillery fire on Monday, an officer of the 1st Guards Tank Army of the Western Military District told TASS. “From the drone, we noticed the enemy assault group, which was preparing to storm the settlement. After the discovery, the coordinates were promptly transferred to the artillerymen, after which the enemy was destroyed by concentrated artillery fire,” said the military man.
Novoselovskoye, liberated by our troops on August 5, is located on Russian territory, in the LPR. And Petropavlovka is already a left-bank suburb of Kupyansk, a city in the north-east of the Khar'kov region. Fights are underway for another suburban village on the left bank of the Oskol, Sin'kovka - here, on August 21 alone, our military stopped four attempts to attack the enemy.
Kupyansk, we recall, was liberated at the very beginning of the Northern Military District, in February last year, but in September our troops were forced to leave the city as part of the retreat from the Balakleya and Izyum regions.
Now “the front line is slowly moving towards Khar'kov”, noted on August 19 on the air “Soloviev. Live” Vitaliy Ganchev, head of the military-civilian administration (CAA) of the Khar'kov region, created in May last year. “ Our troops are coming close to the suburbs of Kupyansk, clashes are being recorded in Petropavlovka - in the village itself,” Ganchev stated.
Naturally, now it is almost a gray zone in the settlements being liberated. Our territory has now expanded by another five settlements over the past week, now there are thirty-three of them under the control of the Russian Armed Forces. It’s basically a gray area where people live in very difficult conditions.”
In the past months, when there were battles for Soledar and Artyomovsk, and later, when our troops held back the “counterattack” of the Armed Forces of Ukraine on the Zaporozhye sector of the front, the situation in the Kupyansk direction did not fundamentally change. Today the situation is different - this is indirectly recognized in Kiev.
The progress began in July: then our troops occupied a section of the route from Chuguev (Khar'kov region) to Starobelsk and Melovoye (LPR), cutting off the Armed Forces of Ukraine from an important logistical route. Two weeks later, Deputy Minister of Defense of Ukraine Anna Malyar admitted the fact of the Russian offensive in this direction, and Western media spoke about the transfer of Ukrainian units to Kupyansk.
According to a number of telegram channels, the Ukrainian authorities of Kupyansk began mining administrative buildings, as well as undermining bridges on the way to the city. This may mean that Kyiv is seriously considering the possibility of surrendering the city to Russia - albeit with an attempt to cause the maximum possible damage to the advancing troops.
The fact that the Kupyansk sector is becoming vulnerable to the Armed Forces of Ukraine is also recognized in the West. The Wall Street Journal in an article dated August 22 notes: The Russian Armed Forces are trying to storm Kupyansk using small groups of infantry. Russian troops are now moving south to occupy the entire eastern bank of Oskol and capture strategic high ground in the east of the city before the offensive, Ukrainian sources tell the WSJ.
WHAT DID THE BATTLE IN SIN'KOVKA SHOW
But the speed and ease of moving to Kupyansk should not be overestimated, experts say. An example could be reports of the complete liberation of Sin'kovka - which were not confirmed later, military expert Alexander Mikhailovsky pointed out in a comment to IA Regnum.
“Yesterday, not without the participation of the Ukrainian TsIPSO, a video was thrown that our troops allegedly occupied a settlement. An analysis of the frames showed that they were made in a completely different place, but some sensation lovers have already picked up the video and carried it, ” the expert noted.
“The settlement of Sin'kovka includes a railway station, which is located at some distance, as well as a forest between the village and the station. If we are talking about the station area, then even the biggest optimists do not talk about the presence of our troops there,” the expert explained. “So even if the settlement is occupied, this area remains with the enemy and purely legally it cannot be considered that the settlement has been completely taken.”
One can only state that there are battles for a suburban village, “most likely, neither side has permanent positions, troops come in from both sides, then retreat,” Mikhailovsky noted.
More importantly, based on the nature of the battles in Sin'kovka, one can draw a conclusion about the general nature of the battles in the Kupyansk direction.
“From what is available in open sources, it follows that units of the second echelon are operating from that side, NATO equipment is not fixed,” the expert notes. “This suggests that reserves have not been withdrawn from the Zaporozhye direction and the enemy has not abandoned plans for an offensive there.”
At the same time, there were reports that the Armed Forces of Ukraine were withdrawing their units from the settlement. This plays an important role in the scenario of a possible offensive , which is worth considering, experts say. Securing on the high left bank of the Oskol allows the Russian Armed Forces to get Ukrainian troops stationed on the outskirts of Kupyansk within the radius of destruction, in particular, to use heavy artillery and 120mm regimental mortars.
Another sign of Kiev's nervousness regarding Kupyansk is the evacuation of 68 surrounding villages "to the safe regions of Ukraine."
HOW TO TAKE KUPYANSK
Kupyansk is an important railway center. Some experts on the level of significance compare the importance of his release with the occupation of Artyomovsk. Kyiv also understands the strategic importance of Kupyansk, and therefore it will not simply surrender the city, experts say.
The assault on settlements like Kupyansk is a serious offensive operation. In this case, the difficulty is connected with forcing the large Oskol River, on the two banks of which the city is located, military analyst Mikhail Onufrienko told IA Regnum.
“Sin'kovka is in the “pincers” of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, and the enemy has no chance to keep her. But there is still a fortified area in Petropavlovka - this is the last fortified area northeast of Kupyansk, ” the interlocutors explained.
Military analysts do not exclude that Russian troops will surround Kupyansk, but will not enter the city, since this carries the risk of losing personnel and equipment. As part of such a strategy, one part of the Russian troops will exhaust the positions of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, and the other part will go to liberate other settlements in the Khar'kov region.
It must be taken into account that the enemy can consciously withdraw from a number of settlements in order to organize a powerful defensive center directly in Kupyansk itself. The terrain relief plays a decisive role both for the forces storming the city and for the defenders.
“A general analysis of the situation in the Kupyansk direction looks like this. Our troops are pressing on the above-mentioned Sin'kovka and on the village of Petropavlovka, which is located four kilometers east of Kupyansk. With the occupation of Sin'kovka and Petropavlovka, our troops will be able to develop an offensive against the city from the north, northeast and east,” Mikhailovsky suggests.
As mentioned above, the enemy blew up the bridges across the Oskol River, which divides the city into two parts.
“The eastern part of the city is a serious industrial area. Here the enemy can try to create a defense center by analogy with Mariupol or Artyomovsk. But if our troops drive the enemy out of the industrial zone, it will be premature to talk about taking the city, because now we will have to force the river. Administrative buildings and a railway junction are located on the right bank side. Therefore, it is too early to celebrate the capture of the city, as some citizens do.
Onufrienko, in turn, believes that active battles in the Kupyansk direction will pull off part of the enemy forces from the Zaporozhye sector, and therefore, will further complicate the offensive of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. As previously noted by experts, the occupation of Kupyansk would open up opportunities for an advance towards the city of Izyum. This, in turn, opens up the prospect of returning the foothold, "hanging" from the north over the Slavic-Kramatorsk agglomeration - the stronghold of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the Donbass. Theoretically, the liberation of Kupyansk makes it possible to advance in the Khar'kov direction.
In addition, if such a large regional center as Kupyansk falls, then this, among other things, will be a colossal media blow for Kyiv, Onufrienko notes. The Ukrainian authorities pay attention not so much to successes at the front as to successes in the information and propaganda war, the expert concluded.
Text taken from the V Kontakte page of MILITARY ARCHEOLOGY. ★ ☭ World War II.
Stalin signed Decree of the State Defense Committee No. GKO-562s "On the introduction of vodka for supply in the active Red Army"
Three days later, the directive was detailed by a secret order of the People's Commissariat of Defense: in addition to the Red Army soldiers and commanders at the forefront, air units performing combat missions and engineering and technical units for servicing field airfields were also placed on "vodka allowance". On the ground, it was ordered to appoint those responsible for the correct distribution of vodka portions.
True, already in May 1942, Stalin canceled the mass daily distribution of vodka, retaining the right to an invigorating drink with an increase in the daily dose of up to 200 grams only for "servicemen of the front line units who have success in hostilities."
From stress: Front-line soldiers said that soldiers experienced terrible stress during the fighting. Shells are exploding around, tanks are roaring, the sky is black from smoke and burning, bullets are whistling, and at the same time you have to go on the offensive. Atman's psyche broke down after the battle. He became nervous, uncontrollable.
Something like that had to be relieved. Sometimes they tried to "discharge" themselves with foul language, sending fascists to all unthinkable mothers. But this was not enough.
Many were physically exhausted. Front food was not satisfying. Therefore, vodka added calories. And in severe frosts warmed.
It was not for nothing that the doctors approved the step of the command, declaring that in front-line conditions, regular consumption of alcohol in moderation is reasonable and permissible. A dose of one hundred grams is considered optimal.
Vodka was given out during lunch or dinner. Organized. The unit commander personally controlled the dose. Everyone had one toast: "For the victory!".
Some front-line soldiers recalled that forty-degree water was brought to combat units in three and five liter bottles. Sometimes pure alcohol was supplied, which was then diluted with water, observing the proportions. Such bottles often smelled of spruce needles. During the war, vitamin C was made from needles and added to vodka. AKA as gin
At vodka factories, sometimes there were problems with containers, so empty bottles were collected and sent to the rear.
Some former front-line soldiers assured that they themselves did not drink vodka at the front. Like, we were 18-19 years old then. Guys yet. More often they exchanged their forty-degree ration for soy candy or a crust of bread.
A total of 43 tanks were drunk in a month.
And the story began with the front hundred grams on August 22, 1941. Then Stalin signed the GKO decree "On the introduction of vodka for supply in the active Red Army." It said: "... to establish from September 1, 1941 the issuance of vodka 40 degrees in the amount of 100 grams per day per person (Red Army soldier) and the commanding staff of the front line troops of the army." In a word, those who directly fought.
But already on May 11, 1942, the Supreme Commander-in-Chief ordered to stop the mass daily distribution of vodka to personnel, and to maintain this practice only in relation to "those who have success in hostilities, increasing the rate of issuing vodka to 200 grams per person per day." It is said that the adoption of this decree was a necessary measure due to cases of drunkenness of the fighters and failure to follow orders.
All other Red Army soldiers were allowed to take alcohol in the war only on big holidays.
But soon this decision was also canceled. 200 grams for "having success in combat operations" is a bit much, and on June 6, 1942, the norm was again reduced to 100 grams.
After the November holidays of 1942, the drinking scheme in the army was improved. One hundred grams per day were issued per person in the units conducting combat operations, 50 grams each - in the reserve and support units. Everyone, without exception, gets a "hundred part" - on revolutionary and national holidays. And on the Transcaucasian front, instead of vodka, they were given 200 grams of fortified wine or 300 tablespoons
[Bee] MAUI, HI — President Joe Biden arrived in Maui this week full of quips and folksy anecdotes to show his support for the victims of the deadly fires, pulling out some of his best material to comfort those who lost everything.
"I know just what you guys are going through," The President told a group of Lahaina residents gathered to hear him speak. "When I was-I mean-a few years ago-a decade or so I was walking on the beach in Delaware, and if you've ever been to that beach you know how hot that sand gets in the sun, let me tell ya. I walked all the way across the beach without sandals on and my feet felt like they were burning hotter than one of Hunter's little girlfriends in a church on Sunday if you know what I mean! Pause for laughter."
Lahaina residents reacted to the President's story with mixed emotions, with some believing the President was just trying to relate to their entire city being burned to ashes and others wondering if he knew where he was.
"Hot beach sand?" Paolo Kekoa asked reporters. "I'm not sure how that's supposed to make me feel better after my entire house and everything I owned was incinerated..."
Democrat Leslie Makani says she appreciated the President's remarks. "They just go to show what a man of the people he is, how not at all detached from reality he is, how much he knows where he is at all times. Oh look, he's bowing his head and closing his eyes in humble reverence for the devastation on our island."
The President continued to regale islanders with more totally relatable stories like the time he burned a Totino's pizza in the oven and his house smelled like "burned pepperoni and fake cheese" for over an hour.
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/23/2023 13:04 ||
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Link ||
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Top|| File under: Tin Hat Dictators, Presidents for Life, & Kleptocrats
#1
So the cheeleaders of this situation are out and speaking for clarity.
You see, because Congress and Russians, Ukraine has been the super focus #1, he has been cuffs deep in Hawaii, and those weren't vacations but work spots away from distractions.
[Daily Caller] George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley said efforts to block former President Donald Trump using the 14th Amendment were "the single most dangerous constitutional theory" he had seen.
An article by William Baude of the University of Chicago and Michael Stokes Paulsen of the University of St Thomas slated to be published in the University of Pennsylvania Law Review suggests that Trump may be ineligible to run for president in 2024 due to his efforts to contest the 2020 election. A similar effort to disqualify then-Republican Rep. Madison Cawthorn of North Carolina for allegedly supporting the Jan. 6, 2021 riot at the Capitol building was revived by the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit in May 2022, according to the American Bar Association Journal.
#1
Regulation of intrastate commerce, standing, laches, penumbras …
It’s like picking a cause of death a drug addict that falls off a ladder into a sewage tank. So many causes.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
08/23/2023 11:50 Comments ||
Top||
#2
They don't care anymore. They know they can get away with it and will do it with Covid lockdowns starting in Dec-Jan. Institutions are already starting masking and vaccination mandates again. Just in time for the 2024 election.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[Bee] MAUI, HI — President Joe Biden arrived in Maui this week full of quips and folksy anecdotes to show his support for the victims of the deadly fires, pulling out some of his best material to comfort those who lost everything.
