In other news Putin announced plans to mobilize furniture for the war in Ukraine. Draft notices are being prepared for end tables, coffee tables, and those odd little tables by the door where some people throw their keys and mail, and maybe a hat.
They've been preparing for mass mobilization for years in case if it begins. I'm not saying it won't eventually happen, but I wouldn't panic either.
They've proven to be a paper tiger. They are struggling against Ukraine in ways that few could have predicted, and it's only getting worse for them.
TFA talks about regional managers receiving training, as if what they're doing is different from whatever they've been routinely doing for years.
Men are being forced to sign up for the military, no surprise there. But what’s the rest of this supposed to mean? Are they evacuating civilians from those areas? For a second this read like a withdrawal.
I think the gist was that they are going to use underhanded tactics to force mass mobilization onto large parts of Russia. Sort of like general mobilization, where the government commands you to report for duty, but without the legal hassle of declaring it.
The last time Putin tried forced conscription, a million men or so is said to have left Russia. The war has only gotten less popular, so I assume this is an attempt to avoid mass protests and departures at home.
The Russian military is rapidly starting to run out of men. Unless they figure out how to conscript more soldiers, the war is lost because they have nobody to fight it.
It's unconscionable that a million people would have to die because one person can't admit he made a mistake in starting a war of choice.
It's such a weird timeline where I can say "at least Trump surrendered when it became clear his stupid war was lost."
That's not out of the woods, yet.
Iran has closed the Strait again after Israel bombed Lebanon again.
Israel won't stop until it has pulled the US all in.
And Trump might just be dumb enough to do a "special operation" with ground troops when his deal fails.
My current expectation is even weirder, actually. I think the most likely outcome at the moment is for Trump to "switch sides" and start supporting Iran against Israel. Not in the sense of literally bombing Israel, but in the sense of bullying Israel to give concessions to Iran.
Trump's philosophy on life is very simple: there are winners and there are losers. Right now Iran is a winner. He got suckered by a loser into siding with them against a winner, and now he's mad. I could see him wanting to be on the winning side and punishing the ones who made him look like a loser.
As I say, very weird timeline.
Much as I dislike Iran, I hope they keep the strait closed for Trump & co.
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