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The economics explanation was covered in this thread on this prior post last month from Foreign Affairs. It explained how Ukrainian strikes on Russian refineries are very effective and do not raise gasoline or other refined oil product prices worldwide. They reduce Russia’s ability to turn oil...

There is a difference between crude oil prices and refined product prices (gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel). Ultimately the customers [voters in democracies] only care about the refined product prices. If Ukraine is inclined to play along with that strategy, they should continue to go after...

Good to see some progress during these times of otherwise little good news in terms of relationships of the participants/stakeholders: In marked shift from the past, Saudi textbooks no longer define Zionism as ‘racist,’ indicating progress towards a ‘warm peace’ such as that with the UAE...

Good time for Ukraine to take out more Russian oil refineries, depots, and other petroleum infrastructure.

The classic droplet and aerosol terms seemed unrealistically binary and un-nuanced, good to see guidelines being updated on this. A patient with a respiratory illness or even allergies when sneezing or coughing can be seen to have a similar same spray of particles suspended in the air if the...

As to how: One of the two canals connecting the Caspian Sea to the outside world is the Volga-Don Canal, which links it to the Black Sea via the Sea of Azov. This canal is 63 miles long and, as the name suggests, connects the Don and Volga Rivers. Its primary purpose is commercial transport...

Agree to disagree on the means to our similar end goals but good to hear we arrive at that same place. The points were to avoid partisan distraction, avoid pulling out one or two points in singularity which might weaken the comparative argument, but to illustrate Israel’s uniquely strong claims...

Not sure why property improvements keeps coming up, mentioned prior it was a minor part of the argument. Would reiterate several main points from my post. Hope no one claimed otherwise that Canaanites made it into the Bronze Age as a people, that we know from archeology. Humans have rendered...

Ukrainian drones now essentially 100% domestic manufacturered and some now becoming able to evade Russian EW: A new software package developed by Ukraine’s special forces allows drones to navigate by machine sight alone, with no need for outside input Many Ukrainian drones have been...

If there is a shortage of pilots, perhaps further developments could have brave western F-16 and Gripen pilots volunteering under the cover of the Ukrainian flag. There is much historical precedent for this, particularly in the case of Russia and China supporting their proxy forces in Korea and...

If that biblical history is largely correct, that was markedly earlier in their history. But they advanced far beyond stone age/tribal stage by the time colonial powers finally forced their most recent exile. All people alive today are descendants of one or more tribes. Many historical tribes...

Mosquito abatement was a side note, of minor consequence to the argument - was trying to add a supplemental historical fact. Certainly innumerable tragedies throughout history not confined exclusively to one group. One of the many main points, however was that Jews were not tribes, but rather...

This is an essential foundational counterfactual scenario to consider. Here is a more detailed version of the story to examine: What other people were indigenous to a land, advanced beyond the iron age into the classical period where they maintained a State/Kingdom, and despite repeated...

Agree, complicated and that there are many documented instances in history where Jews were treated relatively less poorly in Muslim ruled lands. We happen to know the most about what happened to Ashkenazi Jews in Europe followed a bit by Sephardi Jews (Iberian, Mediterranean region including...

When it don’t look good, because it go boom, hide it: Russian energy ministry halts disclosure of gasoline output data MOSCOW, May 29 (Reuters) - Russian energy ministry said on Wednesday it was stopping the disclosure of gasoline output statistics in order to safeguard "informational safety"...

Was hoping for an “amen” but will take an “ahem”. 😁

Anyone want to bet Russia "tests" a tactical nuke on Russian territory as a bluff to scare the West?

Anti-Semitism here and elsewhere getting dumped in large quantities, working towards renormalizing it. Antisemites may very well succeed. That dark historical precedent is certainly on their side. They will continue to criticize the Israeli government (again quite legitimate by itself) but...

Sadly this is woefully incorrect. Appreciate your knowledge of many historical topics, such as WW2, but this is a dangerous gap in knowledge, particularly with those who have stronger opinions on this thread topic. Beyond the two you mentioned, there are several other really big ones that were...

Waiting to see if confirmed by reputable sources. This posted about a day or two ago but so far doesn’t look like confirmation. Can’t be far away either way.

Egypt’s deep complicity in all of this continues to go ignored:

U.S. continues to ramp up 155 mm artillery shell production. Hopefully other western countries are on a similar trajectory. A plant still under construction in Mesquite, Texas, will soon turn out 30,000 artillery shells each month, roughly doubling current U.S. output… …To keep Ukraine’s...

Not sure where Sushko gets Russia preparing to send 200-300k more troops, but Putin looking more scared here in this short video clip as he realizes he gets further and further away from his original winning goals:

The list grows:

Here are a few of my ideas for a better strategic approach from Israel in navigating their Kobiashi Maru scenario: Learn from your enemies and outsmart them in geopolitics and counter-religiofascism in the battle of hearts and minds: -Counter Arabic islamofascist/State run media such a Al...

Have followed Stephens for a while. He is pro-Israel, but certainly not rabid, very much for incessant work towards a 2-state solution. He is also pro-Ukraine in Russia's war against them, relevant to another active thread in this forum. Stephens is moderate/right leaning, but part of an...

Where were these same folks for Bashar al-Assad’s enduring regime? Where were all the campus protests? Where is his arrest warrant with the ICC? >300,000 Syrian civilians died as a result of him against their 2011 Arab spring pro-democracy uprising. Nearly half of their ~14 million population...

Certainly all the righteous selectively anti-Israelis here, anti-semitic campus protesters, and those similar otherwise on social media were out in equal or greater force with the Yemeni war on civilians and many other comparable modern topics. Oh right, no they were not. As of the end of 2021...

The main weapons having problems are GLSDBs, apparently. The biggest culprit may be Boeing. Once world class, these days corner cutting is the rule such that civilian and military products are having serious operational problems. Just a little more thought and expense prevents many problems...

Double standards are often defined as affording one group more leniency while judging another more harshly for the same behavior. Would argue in the case of Jews/Israel, however, that it is often worse such as in matters related to this thread. Herein Israel is held to a higher standard, thus...

Sweden appears to be first out of the gate:

It is completely legitimate for one to be critical of Israel's current government and that alone does not make one antisemitic. But if the same adamant persons or protestors (far right typically and increasingly far left) spend a lessor amount of time critical of Hamas, the Houthis, Hezbollah...

As a part of the Jewish and Israeli world in my circles, can safely say it is not like that. There are many Jews and Israelis deeply critical of their current government. But they are also rightly alarmed to see the antisemitic highly disproportional geopolitical/religiofascist focus upon...

For perspective on Hajo Meyer, here is a good summary from another Dutch Jew - De Winter, whose parents survived the Holocaust in hiding. He is an author and critic of antisemitism in the Netherlands and similar extremist supporters like Meyer: When asked about the motives of Meyer and the...

Community notes spot on:

Absurd is too generous a word for the UN. Praises one of the kingpins of a genocidal government, mass murderer of the best of his own people, and the real force behind Hamas and their war with Israel. UN and their ICC dishonestly going after some of the wrong players:

Raisi played a decisive role in the mass execution of political prisoners in the 1980s.

Agree that a primary goal is to maximize avoidance of such harm/damage on Ukrainian people and other assets. But it is important HOW one takes down a particular weapon. I mentioned those Russian glide bombs as cheap and numerous to show the costs Russia is bearing, but that is relevant if we...

Immediately, perhaps not much, but long-term this does change some things. The Ayatollah is 85 years old and most analysts had pegged Raisi to be his hand picked replacement. Whether the geopolitical trajectory of their radical religious dictatorship changes as a result is unknown.

Glide bombs were supposed to be a "game changer" for Ukraine with reports of them getting Ukraine spun up with lots of these much earlier in the war, instead: Russia is increasingly using "glide bombs" - cheap but highly destructive ordnance - to advance its offensive in Ukraine. More than 200...

No formal thread on this, but most relevant to this thread and the "Russia/Ukraine Conflict" thread. Many Israelis will not miss any Iranian leadership as they remain one of the primary benefactors to their hands: Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis, and most recently launched a bunch of...

If this is confirmed and these figures are even half correct, awesome defensive withdrawal maneuver for Ukraine:

All these little things add up:

At the current rate of oil refinery strikes, and if they continue to keep those out of commission, Ukraine will have inflicted tens of billions USD capital loses from the Russian economy this year alone: ...The investment cost of a completely new refinery depends on its size, complexity, and...

In WW2 the allies (U.S. and British) bombed Nazi Germany industrial complexes, petroleum/coal infrastructure, airfields, dams, railways, etc. It is estimated that greater than 1/2 million German civilians died as a result. At the time this was largely considered ethical (minus the Dresden...

It's imperative that Ukraine makes this as costly as possible for Russia within ethical reason. There is excess refining AND oil production capacity in the world, so striking Russian refineries and other petroleum infrastructure is just the ticket. Putin is spending enormous amounts on his war...

Love the smell of burning refinery in the morning:

From the ATACMS strike on the Belbek airfield last night:

Sad that Hamas controls the narrative with the UN and media agencies regurgitating and propagating their falsified data and other disinformation. Hamas kills their own civilians and those agencies count them among purported Israeli aggressions. Hamas walks and hides among other agencies...

We will probably never know the actual figures. The only relatively ascertainable thing at this point is that the Hamas reported figures are contrived and almost certainly heavily inflated: