Russia's War Against Ukraine

[FarAway Sooner]

It might depend on whether his political/ideological content aligns with the person watching it, mighten it?

I don't know if I've seen any of his stuff where he goes on the political so I don't really know where he stands.

I just wonder maybe if people are on a separate side politically to him, then that's why he loses credibility and authority - to them. Might it be different if they and he were both taking the same political stance? 

If a person is intellectually honest the political leaning of a purported expert or commentator should make no difference in the amount of weight or credibility that person lends to the opinion. For me, it has to do with the bonafides or credentials, ie. training, experience, education and intellect. Personally, I may not agree with everything a given expert says, but if he or she is discussing a topic in which he or she has great education or experience, I'm still going to listen and consider. If that same person is expressing opinion on a matter to which they do not have particular proven expertise, I'm going to be much more circumspect.

I couldn't agree with this sentiment more.  It's something we should all aspire to.  The trick, of course, is that by its nature we can never know everything that we don't know, so if we do have blind spots, they can be very hard to pinpoint.

There's a bunch of academic psychological analysis of this kind of stuff and the slippery slope between rational intellectual honesty and instinctual impulses.  If you haven't read Daniel Kahneman's Thinking:  Fast and Slow or Jonathan Haidt's The Righteous Mind, both are fascinating politically nonpartisan reads.  If you'd rather a shorter exposure, check out this 15-minute clip, where Haidt is challenging a largely Liberal audience to think differently:

[JasonPratt]

Well the first thing that happened is Youtube deleted Lauren Chen's channel, thus all her life's work basically. Not locked it, not hidden it temporarily until charges could be filed and prosecuted, deleted it. If she has enough common sense she has backups elsewhere, but man. (I knew about this earlier but forgot to mention it.)

Tim reports on Tenet's fallout. Note that this is just his normal morning show clipped to start at this topic, and then moves on about halfway through the video to other more politically political topics. (Which is also a note that this particular topic runs the risk of getting RPFy, so...)

Ben Shapiro interviews Tim on what's going on.

Megan Kelly on the other side. Worth noting that Lauren and her husband are not personally indicted, and everyone familiar with the case acknowledges that at most she was hiding (or not revealing) that Tenet was taking money from Russia Today.

[Windigo]

I think RT amplifies the messaging on both sides encouraging extremist thinking. There are enough useful idiots on both sides to create divisiveness.

Interestingly, the real messaging intent, IMO, is to create division amongst the masses whichever way they can in order to distract from growing income disparity. This was going on way before the Ukraine conflict and will persist long past its' end.

If you look at all the dark money involved in politics/geo-politics, it is not there for the interests of the common man.

[JudgeDredd]

I heard strong rumours of Russia being involved in the Brexit referendum. They are just rumours that I've done nothing to check out because - well, it's done. But it's not beyond a stretch to believe Russia would be funding something like that - a UK outside of Europe would be a nice thing for them.

They're probably funding the gangs trafficking people from Africa through to Europe to sow division.

**** 'em. I hate the ****.

[JasonPratt]

Did anyone have "Ukraine strikes Murmansk" on their bingo card for this year? I assume not "three times in a row"?

[Sir Slash]

Hurray! Can Vladivostok be far behind? 

[JasonPratt]

Kamchatka or bust!

[ArizonaTank]

Ukraine must have gotten boxcars on its attack roll...

Wednesday saw huge explosion and fires at a Russian ammo storage site, 240 miles east of Moscow at Toropets.

The Newsweek article in the link below says:
"Wednesday's attack could have been the biggest of the war so far, and the blast registered as a small earthquake on monitoring systems, according to Reuters. "

"Video widely shared on social media showed a huge ball of flame and numerous detonations following the strike on the 107th Main Missile and Artillery Directorate (GRAU) arsenal, located 240 miles west of Moscow."

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/satellite-photos-reveal-damage-from-attack-on-russia-s-biggest-ammo-storage/ar-AA1qPBHW?ocid=msedgntp&pc=NMTS&cvid=38508ecc541b4548a5c3921cffcdfa6f&ei=45

[JasonPratt]

I recall hearing that the wall of flame was about 6 klicks wide!

[FarAway Sooner]

I have seen pictures (of a few fires and A LOT of smoke), and I've heard claims of a widespread destruction at the Torovets (?) supply depot based on IR imaging and live photos.  Media claims to have seen pictures revealing extensive blast damage and/or huge areas of destruction, but I've not seen any actual pictures that show more than a few fires and TONS of smoke.

Anything that the Ukrainians can do to damage/disperse Russian logistics is a win.  I just haven't seen any pictures that prove more than a half-dozen or so buildings were destroyed.  Am I looking in the wrong place? 

Or are the extrapolations about the magnitude of the blast (some saying 1.4 KT and a fire covering 5 square miles) based on distant seismology sensors and anecdotal reports of a blast wave felt 200 miles away?  If the smoke hasn't cleared and the fires are still burning, I guess that's a good thing (from a Ukrainian point of view, at least).

[Tripoli]

I have seen pictures (of a few fires and A LOT of smoke), and I've heard claims of a widespread destruction at the Torovets (?) supply depot based on IR imaging and live photos.  Media claims to have seen pictures revealing extensive blast damage and/or huge areas of destruction, but I've not seen any actual pictures that show more than a few fires and TONS of smoke.

Anything that the Ukrainians can do to damage/disperse Russian logistics is a win.  I just haven't seen any pictures that prove more than a half-dozen or so buildings were destroyed.  Am I looking in the wrong place? 

Or are the extrapolations about the magnitude of the blast (some saying 1.4 KT and a fire covering 5 square miles) based on distant seismology sensors and anecdotal reports of a blast wave felt 200 miles away?  If the smoke hasn't cleared and the fires are still burning, I guess that's a good thing (from a Ukrainian point of view, at least).

Here's an image of the scale of the fires using the Fire Information for Resource Managment System (FIRMS) system: https://firms.modaps.eosdis.nasa.gov/map/#d:24hrs;@31.68,56.53,11.67z  Apparently the explosion registered as a 3.2 mag. earthquake

According to this article, about 14 square kilometers was affected: https://www.rferl.org/a/russia-ukraine-weapons-attack/33126058.html

[JasonPratt]

Video links via the Enforcer!

The first video released of the original explosion.

https://www.reddit.com/r/UkraineWarVideoReport/comments/1fjo5rb/toropets_tver_oblast_russia_first_video_of/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

https://www.reddit.com/r/UkraineWarVideoReport/comments/1fjqerv/toropets_russia/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

Original secondaries

https://www.reddit.com/r/UkraineWarVideoReport/comments/1fjpw0x/explosions_are_still_ongoing_in_toropets_tver/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

Before and after explosions

https://www.reddit.com/r/UkraineWarVideoReport/comments/1fkpdhv/consequences_of_strikes_on_ammunition_warehouses/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

Crater location

https://www.reddit.com/r/UkraineWarVideoReport/comments/1fktn9y/here_we_determined_the_location_of_the_crater/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

Panic in Toropets

https://www.reddit.com/r/CombatFootage/comments/1flosed/panic_as_the_ammo_depot_in_toropets_explodes/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

[ArizonaTank]

Reports that two more Russian ammo depots have been hit...

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/explosions-rip-through-more-russian-ammunition-depots/ar-AA1qWEIo?ocid=msedgntp&pc=NMTS&cvid=9be5ddbe10f44423bb1b2e6768ffc1f8&ei=15

[FarAway Sooner]

I appreciate the concrete info, guys.

It is crazy how war footage is brought right into our living rooms these days.  It's impossible to tell the % of Soviet ammunition lost or what the practical effects will be on the war, but those are some huge explosions and some vivid pictures.  The videos of the secondary explosions going off like a string of fire crackers was crazy.

[JasonPratt]

Haven't been able to get a good article about it to link yet, but Putin's Sarmat / Satan missile tests continue to go very well! ....for everyone but Putin! 

This time, the explosion destroyed the Plesetsk Cosmodrome. While still underground at the testing site. But hey, he got one to fly 35km recently before it exploded on its own!

Btw, the reason that ammo depot went off looking like a nuke, was because it detonated 35 kilotons of explosives. Little Boy was 15kt, Fat Man was 25kt. So a little less than both warflung nukes put together. (And it didn't all go off at once.) Probably takes the record of the largest non-nuclear artificial explosion on land.