Monday Morning Quick Brief

The Cognitive folks have gotten my insurance to sign off on some therapy to try to help deal with the areas that got a bit scrambled by the lightning strike, so am off to that as soon as I get the snow cleared off my car. Please, donate to the fundraiser as I do the equivalent of a Bugs Bunny “Get me out of here!!!” I may also be going to follow-up on some other medical items. Will see.

Vladimir is continuing to rattle his nukes to engender a ‘Let Vladimir Win’ mindset elsewhere. Keep in mind he threatens nukes for many things, including appearing to breathe heavily near or at him. It may be working in DC (sadly), but I’m finding it surprising how little reaction (other than derision) it’s getting in Europe and Scandinavia. Again, a sign of how far the perceptions of Russia and Vladimir have fallen.

This article looks at several of Vladimir’s ‘Hail Mary’ options, including some naval I want to take a closer look at soon. Not onboard, though I will remind you that I pointed out a while back that you haven’t yet seen true brutality until Dvornikov gets going. It’s his stock in trade, and I suspect the increased use of missiles in the last few days is part of his handiwork. He may not be very good at killing dispersed troops, but he’s hell on wheels with women and children.

Trent Telenko raises a good point about artillery and ammunition in this thread. I agree whole-heartedly that we need to sit back, take a fresh look, and start over on pretty much every assessment about the Russian military that’s more than a couple of days old. Noticing that we are still relying on information and operational assumptions from the Carter and Reagan years. That’s not good.

Which is why I fully agree with Trent Telenko about the massive failure of almost every major intelligence agency (and quite a few of the minor) over the last few years. Afghanistan was a complete miss despite the large number of assets, penetration, and technical means. Ukraine is the same, with the 2012 and 2014 mindsets missing every bit of the changes from 2016 onwards. Russia? Got to agree with Trent: the novel would have hit the trash here too, simply because while it was clear that the kleptocracy was having an impact, I had no idea how bad it truly was.

I admit it, and I’m old enough to remember that both sides may have used padlocks and chains as PIDs on some tactical, or that some of the Soviet tactical weapons were stored on straw to protect them. The nomenclature has changed, but some other things haven’t. If even half of what is starting to come out is true… Not just nuclear, but almost every aspect of the military and even into aspects of civil.

I’m still not sold on Trent’s idea about PMCs. I agree it should work, but I am also not sure it is a good idea, yet.

More soon I’m sure. Meantime, I’ve got to clear snow off the car (!!) and head out. Be safe.

Some Previous Posts:

Vladimir And The Ukraine

Answers, Ramblings, And A Bit More On Vladimir And The Ukraine

Your Must Read For The Day On Russia

The Puzzles In Play, And The Missing Pieces

Quick Thoughts On Ukraine/Putin

The Thing Behind The Curtain

Missing Pieces And Surprise Pieces

Thursday Update

Not A Lot To Add

Noted

Monday Update

Burn Notice

Accuracy, Reliability, And More

Putin, Trump, And The Coming Storm

Three Futures For Russia

Quick Thoughts

Saturday Update

Mismatched Locomotives

War, Ag, Demographics, And The Worst Is Yet To Come

Past, Present, And A Hungry Future

Huge Grain Of Salt

The Moskva

Retribution Inbound

Uncertainty And Preparation

Honest Question

*****

If you like what you are reading, feel free to hit the tip jar in the upper right or the fundraiser at A New Life on GiveSendGo. Getting hit by lightning is not fun, and it is thanks to your help and prayers that I am still going. Thank you.

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