So “unexpected”. Who could have seen this coming?

That more of a consequence of the low level of class consciousness than a cause.

Typical socdem L

The US is absolutely cooked:

Replace Russia and Russians with the West and NATO and you’re spot on.

It’s sad that they were duped but hopefully this experience has taught them a lesson.

Unsurprisingly, latest reports are that the narco-führer has rejected the idea.

Who in Washington doesn’t?

I wish i could be as optimistic but i still think this will go well into next year. Would love to be wrong about this though.

“Steiner will come through any moment now.”

The US and EU did in 2 years what Putin not only couldn’t but didn’t ever really want to do in over 20 years, and Russia is better off for it.

I say vote but vote against the uniparty. Vote only for people who are not only not associated in any way with either side of the uniparty, but who are actively opposed to it. The most delusional stance is not so much thinking that voting makes a difference (which it barely does, if at all), rather it’s thinking that anyone can ever “change things from the inside”. Once you are in the uniparty system it swallows you up and assimilates you like the Borg. We’ve seen this over and over again. Even so-called “independents” more often than not end up in the ecosystem of one or the other part of the duopoly, and they justify it by telling themselves it’s only for fundraising purposes or whatever, but that’s just how you become part of the blob.

Have you seen the one where they think Putin taught Trump how to poison Biden before the debate?

Depends. Are you getting caught?

just so the country they happen to live in can (in the fantasy universe in our mind) get back a peace of land

If you’re referring to the Donbass, that’s irrelevant, the West couldn’t care less about it. Crimea on the other hand they very much care about since if NATO gets its hands on it they can permanently lock Russia out of the Black Sea, which is why the Anglo empire started the first Crimean war back in the 19th century.

The reality is that Ukrainians are being sacrificed so that NATO can swallow up yet another part of the former Soviet Union that can be used to “contain”, weaken and destabilize Russia, with the ultimate goal of either re-colonizing or finally balkanizing what’s left of it after the first dismemberment in 1991.

Interesting. I don’t know much about the molten salt option but i would be curious to learn how they plan to implement the compressed air storage. Because at least according to my naive understanding i would expect thermal losses to be rather hard to manage.

I mean when you pressurize and depressurize gases there is a temperature change that takes place, and when there is a temperature differential there will be energy lost to the environment. That much i still remember from my undergrad thermodynamics classes.

Me i’ve always been a fan of the idea of storing extra energy by pumping water up into a reservoir behind a dam and releasing it through turbines when you need it, that’s always been the most intuitive solution for me when i’ve thought about the renewable energy storage problem.

All good points. Plus there is precedent, as there has already been a coup against a MAS party government in Bolivia once, so at first glance another coup happening seems very plausible. They (reactionaries, three letter agencies, etc.) have plenty of motive to do one.

I’m not going to take a position on this yet, I feel like we don’t really have enough information to make an informed judgement.

Until we know more, which hopefully will happen once there is a proper investigation and trial, there are four main possibilities:

1. Evo Morales is correct and this was a political gambit by Arce to shore up his own position
2. He is half right in that it was planned but as a ploy to get traitors inside the military to expose themselves and give the government excuse to purge them
3. He is wrong but he was misinformed by forces either domestic or foreign trying to drive a further wedge in the party
4. He is wrong and is himself trying to politically maneuver against Arce to make a return as president and leader of the party

Whatever the case may be this is not a good look to have a figure as respected as Morales make such accusations against a government of his own party and i have to question his strategic judgement on this.

It’s not “significantly lower” but it is lower. It is correct that when the MoD writes “losses” they are referring to the combined number of sanitary (wounded) and irretrievable (dead) losses. But we know from a lot of reporting that for Ukraine that ratio is not good, they are having significant trouble getting medical help to their frontline troops in time and often they just leave them there. So if you just take half of that number from the MoD you already have a reasonable estimate.

You assume that they systematically over-report but the truth is you don’t know that, and for all we know there could be systematic under-reporting happening to an even greater degree. A lot of Russian commentators have suggested that the MoD really only reports what can be visually verified as a hit, but there is a lot that happens that can’t be directly observed. There are a lot of spotter drones, but not everywhere and seldom for strikes in the rear on logistics and such. And as you say, all of this is before you include losses from non-combat related causes.

So far the MoD numbers have tended to be very reliable, or at least composed according to the best information available to them. Insofar as they have reported on Russian losses they have also tended to agree with the estimates of pro-western organizations like BBC’s Mediazona which while biased at least try to have a somewhat decent methodology.

So yes, take any numbers that the MoD puts out with a grain of salt, but at least they are not the inverse opposite of reality like in the case of the nonsense that Ukraine claims.