Oh nothing really just wanted to share

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Actually I can't believe they are saying the US is blocking the transfer of the polish migs because it could escalate Russian aggression toward NATO like what the hell the news has been spouting how the USA has supplied the Ukraine with javelins and stinger missiles and that transport that snuck in during the first week of the war was carrying more such weapons. So wtf how can the Russians get any more pissed they know from our own news service what weapons are being shipped in if they want to tone down things with the Russians start shutting up the stupid news guys who are telling the Russians every thing. I can't believe the Ukrainians captured some tanks like what the crews bail out and abandoned them or the concussion from an artillery round take out the crews? Idk how advanced the polish migs are but as been said the Ukrainians are familiar with them, giving them new planes would just complicate things as they would not be familiar with them and probably just be more targets. If the mig 29 was incapable I'm sure the Russians and the Chinese would have scrapped them long ago. From what I've read they are still considered good combat aircraft. If they were that bad I'm sure Ukraine would have made some deal to get more capable aircraft from Europe or some other countries. Like maybe from Israel, they are building f16i and those mirage copies. The Israelis have had a lot of success with their aircraft hopefully the planes would be capable in any Air Force. I wonder if Ukraine will try to start up their own indigenous war industry or try to buy more advance equiptment from other western militaries like the UK or the US. I hope they don't deal with France they will sell to anybody and their stuff is not exactly the top. I've read the gripen and typhoon are better aircraft. Maybe Boeing can get a contract for their f15s or if Ukraine can afford it some f35s as the US is trying to increase foreign sales. Anything we sell to the Ukraine is going to piss off the Russians so who cares if they get pissed we've sold Ukraine enough stuff that Russia can't get any madder than they already are. I'm sure they already consider all the weapons we've already supplied as a escalation of aggression. I'm sure their pissed that most of the tanks that have been knocked out were by our supplied javelins. Like hell the news has been showing the Ukraine army firing lots of them so like I don't think that we can do anything more to piss off the Russians they probably are documenting that we are to blame for thousands of Russian deaths because we supplied weapons to the Ukraine. Like forget what they think and just get in there or keep the supply of weapons going to beat those bastards back. I hope Putin bankrupts the country again and if we bail them out again screw that. Again I hope we totally cut off any aid we may have given them. Supposedly we cut off financial aid years ago but we were still giving them humanitarian aid, food, and some other things medical, anyway I hope we are not being stupid and have cut all aid. Like we stupidly should have done to Iraq why is our government so stupid we knew the humanitarian aid was not getting to the people Hussan had confiscated all humanitarian aid and selling it and using the money, millions to finance his army. We were paying for his rebuilding of his army like what stupidity is that. They say well we have to help the needy there but hell if it's not getting to the people then what's the point of sending it when they were reporting that the aid was getting diverted and sold and the money used to build up Hussans army. Sometimes I really wonder what kind of idiots do we have running our country as they have been doing more to run our country into the ground. Sending our industry and most of our jobs to China and then saying they can't understand why our economy is so low. Our poverty level ha been slowly increasing over the years while the Chinese have been lowering there poverty rate by quite a bit down from 67 percent before they became the industrial power they are now to 30 percent according to their last census. They are doing so well all city citizens are given a 2500 yuan stipen to insure they are over the poverty rate. Unfortunately the country and farm folk don't get that stipend and they are the ones who are the poor. However like the US more are leaving the farms getting educated, as the US got more industrial more farm people left the farms. We were truly a prosperous nation. History shows that a country with a high industrial base has a much higher prosperity rate England was an industrial power house they even tried to make sure their industry was protected passing laws and such to imprison anyone who tried to sell or move industry out of the country. We actually thanks to Brits who snuck out information on British industry we copied and surpassed them and we became the industrial power house and England slowly sank into financial ruin and what do we do we give it away and made China the world industrial power and then wonder why they are so upper try these days they know they have the monopoly on just about all manufactured goods they are making all the money and screw those idiots in Washington saying look their slowing down so they not doing all that great they fell from a ten percent growth to only seven screw you idiots we only average a two percent. Boggles the mind, lol, been writing my congress reps and the pres saying how messed up things are and that they need to get our industry back, raise taxes on domestic imports the low taxes are only making the owners of those imports rich not us. Also they need to stop giving money to those stupid vocational colleges that promise people well paying jobs but the jobs they are training for are over loaded with workers and the salaries are dropping because of the over flow of workers. I applied for a warehouse job but it was a scam next thing I'm told that the job is filled but I scored high on my app, they can send me to train as a computer tech all I have to do is apply for a student loan 40 k and I'd have a great job, bull crap I knew the computer job market was already getting full and I could go to Jr college and get the same training for a tenth of what they were trying to charge me, I hope all those rats rot in hell. Anyway I had the brains to fugue it was a scam and got out of there. Hell I knew a bunch of guys that got scammed by ITT technical college they all got stuck for a 25/40 k student loan five of them only one got a half way decent job the rest no jobs or just part time like two days a week. They are now part of our 1.4 trillion dollar deficit, I told the pres and my congress reps that is unforgivable we are making some people rich at the tax payers expense and letting them scam thousands every year and putting people in debt for the rest of their life these people most of them will never be able to pay that loan and most end up on the streets. Anyway I keep writing hoping something will happen, lol.

 

Saw that too I was like damn like all these explosions out in the open where no one is like what the heck no one has a grenade launcher? The Ukrainians seemed to come out on top the got that one bmp and damaged the other might have got that one too. Looked like they got a number of infantry wasn't sure but looked like there were bodies on the other side.

 

That's what analysts were saying about Chechnya that the reason the Chechen were so successful was most of the soldiers sent were conscripts and they wouldn't leave there APCs and flank and lead the tanks so the tanks would get attacked because they had no protection and the conscripts had high casualties because they stayed huddled in the APCs and the APCs would get taken out. You'd think the Russians would learn from past engagements but appearently they are pretty dumb as to repeat their mistakes. Yes the moral is low most Russians don't even support or want this war so how can the rusdian command think their men will fight hard for something they have no faith in while the Ukrainians are fighting tooth and nail for their home land. You'd think the Russians would understand that as their slogan in wwii was for the mother land, and that giant memorial they built the mother land. They say thousands have gone to the recruiting centers to willingly join the armed forces, plus many civilians have taken up arms to help fight. You would think the Russians would know how hard a person will fight to protect their homeland. If anything the Ukrainians should be reminding them. Putin must be going nuts as his huge army is if anything showing the world how incapable they are. I wonder if he's worried the Chinese might think it's a good time to cross over and annex land like why not if the Russians can do it they can too. If the Chinese ran across now like what does pit in have left he's committed the bulk of his forces they'd be like in deep doo doo. I'd love to see the Chinese take advantage of the situation.

 

what are you talking about primarily? Problems in the US? If Putin has his way our match have no say next. We are gone.

 

I'd say there's no need to worry. Whatever the President may or may not do, the Congress would not allow the US to fail to honor its obligations to NATO. On the plus side, it has acted as a wake up call to many NATO members that have reduced their capabilities and were relying too heavily on the US.
As for Putin, he has a history of this sort of thing. The 2008 Russia-Georgia War, Russia ended up establishing two supposed republics South Ossetia and Abkhazia, that they recognize and exert control over, but that most of the world still consider part of Georgia. Then in 2014 he invaded and annexed the Crimea from Ukraine. Again, the international community has refused to recognize it. Now, it was time to take some more territory, then sit back and digest and amalgamate it, only the Ukrainians have been more combative than pervious victims. If history repeats and it usually does, when Putin decides to negotiate, he'll end up declaring Donetsk and Luhansk as independent republics, that no one but Russia recognizes and that Russia will control.

 

Seems to me you are talking about Adolf Hitler pt2, I am sorry. Putin is taking his piece of the cake and eats it. Lies, lies,lies. We must send arms and supplies all the while to stop him.The more he loses the more he understands. I am sure you have not forgotten Crimea 2014? Who did it? Like Sudetenland 1938.

 

The Russians have been historically liars as far back as wwii. Patton warned the US and the Brits that Stalin was a liar and would keep the Eastern European countries he said he was liberating and he did. Stalin was like hitler and was probably going to take Eastern Europe for himself but the great purge left his nilitary in shambles and he was trying to rebuild and was just not ready for a war. The winter war with Finland showed just how disorganized and untrained his army was if he couldnt take Finland then how could he even expect to take other countries. Hitler attacked knowing he was still rebuilding his army and hoped to take advantage of it but the sear size and fighting spirit of the soviets barred his way to victory I think hitler totally underestimated the fighting spirit of the people like really thinking he would take Russia in one summer they didn't even have adequate supplies for a war beyond the summer season. I think Putin has made a similar mistake thinking his huge army would over run the Ukraine in a week or less. The longer the Ukraine can hold out the more stressed the rusdian supply situation gets more critical. Reports of abandoned vehicles all over the Ukraine. I don't really get why the Russians are running out of fuel. One of the things in battlefield conditions if regular supply is not available then securing local supplies are usually a priority. Plus I've noticed that most of the tanks are not carrying their usual external tanks at the rear I wonder if in recent conflicts those proved to be too exposed to enemy fire and the fuel was lost. I was surprised to see that some of the bmps carried a log strapped on the back of the vehicle I guess the practice of getting bogged down vehicles using logs is a practice used on all tracked vehicles. I hope they totally run out of steam and the field commanders left without adequate supplies decide to head back for home and ignor Putin. Near the end of wwii hitler kept ordering his commanders to attack his commanders knew it was crazy and instead dug in and tried to fortify their defenses. They didn't have the supplies to fight a full out offensive and didn't have enough equiptment still working. The Russians are losing a lot of vehicles and the Ukraine has especially targeted all supply convoys they know if they can destroy enough of their resupply the rusdian ability to fight is going to fall on their face as they run out of fuel,and munitions. FMC using the chassis they made for the MRLS used the same chassis and built an armored cargo container to carry resupplies for units in combat they were able to follow the battalions and resupply them as need be and in quick order. Lol, I've been using my book on the Bradley and the variants which the chassis was based on the Bradley stretched out so I'm using a couple of my MRLS to build the replenishment vehicle and the command mobile center.

 

I'm just saying why are we worried about an escalation if we let Poland send planes isn't it escalated enough and like I said the Russians can already say that we are involved since we have been supplying the Ukraine with lots of weapons and that the news has pretty much reported such world wide so why get cautious at this point send them everything they can use planes weapons and other supplies. Kyiv has been fighting hard for days they are probably running short of food and water as well I really wonder how long they can keep fighting if they still have a large civilian population to care for the Russians probably figured that out too and is why they broke the cease fire the more burden they put on the defenders the more they may crack if they have thousands of civilians to try to care for. NATO and the EU know that too and have tried to send food water and medical supplies and reported that the humanitarian convoys have been forced upon by the Russians calling it another war crime like the Russians don't care about war crimes if they did they wouldn't be firing on residential zones and on schools and hospitals. I wish some one would tip things over and enter the Ukraine in force and air strike all those artillery and MRLS vehicles just pulverize those jerks. The Russians have been heavily using their artillery and MRLS, gets me where the news is getting all the video on them I wonder if their intercepting Russian news or using drones.

 

I thought the new modifications were supposed to make it a generation 4+ but with new sixth generation fighters on the verge of mass production by several countries could put it on the back burner but I think most of those planes are still years away from being deployed.
Hey CAC so you liked that hey shoot out between the Russians and Ukrainians, say what type of vehicles were those were those, the taifan armored cars? I'm really don't get why the Russians are running short of fuel like there are truck stops all over in fact in that battle on the hwy you can see a truck yard I bet that place has lots of diesel which is the primary fuel used by the Russians in most of their military vehicles. As for food I don't think they will be able to raid markets for long I'm sure what ever is left was taken by the locals or the Ukraine military. So soon the bastards will probably resort to robbing the civilians that are still trapped there. During wwii if it wasn't for the USA thousands of Russian troops would have starved we sent thousands of tons of can foods to Russia they say the soviet soldiers loved our canned meats I bet that was mostly spam. We had corn beef hash, canned roast beef and Vienna sausages as well, but spam seemed to be the biggest product sent to all fronts you can eat it straight out of the can as it's pre cooked and if they have a mess tent the cooks would bake bread and the soldiers would make spam sandwiches I tried it out of the can made a sandwich with mustard not bad but I still like it better fried. Corn beef hash is not very good cold out of the can Vienna sausages are good straight from the can with crackers that would be probably good with those field biscuits. In the scouts we called them survival crackers not sure where they got them came in plastic five gallon bucket containers. Wonder if their sending MREs to help out with food and I'm sure crates of bottled water. The Ukraine is already running short of water supplies thanks to the Russians cutting off the power. They say the Russians have shut off the power but if they damage the towers and transfer stations it could take months to get power restored. The Ukraine when this is over is going to need a lot of help to get thing back to normal, lots of cities and towns are in ruins bridges and hwyways destroyed. It's going to be a huge process to get things cleaned up plus I wonder if they will leave all the mass graves where they are or move the bodies to proper cemetery's. It's very sad to see all the bodies they have buried the kids that were killed. I've studied and read about war for years most of my life but I still hate the part of children war casualties.

 

I may not have made myself clear, for that I apologize. Yes, Putin will take what he can get, and what we allow him to take. Based upon his history with Georgia and Crimea he will start an incursion then settle for the smaller region that was his initial objective. Though no western nations have recognized his "conquests", he has not had to pay a heavy, long term, international political price. After the cease fires the western world went back to the status quo. Militarily, his costs were small and when he did stop, most western powers breathed a sigh of relief that he didn't try and take the whole country. Georgia in 2008, Crimea in 2014, now Ukraine. I actually think he would have gone after them in 2020, except Covid threw a wrench in the works.
What has changed this time is he's scared NATO, so those nations that were letting their military capabilities languish will now make sure they have some teeth. Next, the Ukrainians have destroyed the myth of Russian military invincibility, Putin will have lost much of his ability to bully and bluff. The costs in men and material have been much higher than Putin was anticipating for control of Donetsk and Luhansk. The economic costs and ostracization by most of the world, I am sure was not anticipated. He thought world response would be more muted, like it had been in his previous territorial grabs.
I'm all for sending all the weapons and supplies the Ukrainians can use, and if I was 10 years younger I'd have a plane ticket headed that way right now. It's a good and honorable fight, and they seem to have a President worth following. I don't think, at present, NATO should intervene directly, I think that might lead to a tactical nuclear exchange, or a widening of the war. If Putin does manage to take all of the Ukraine or a major part of it, based upon Ukrainian "heart", his military will be destroyed by an effective insurgency. Fighters and weapons will flow in from Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania and Moldova.

Prospero wrote: "I'm really don't get why the Russians are running short of fuel like there are truck stops all over in fact in that battle on the hwy you can see a truck yard I bet that place has lots of diesel which is the primary fuel used by the Russians in most of their military vehicles."

It's pretty much standard military doctrine that when pulling back and conceding an area to the enemy, you destroy or render useless material that the enemy can use. I'm sure the Ukrainians are contaminating vehicular fuel supplies before being forced to withdraw.

 

The Russians are firing with artillery the two nuclear power stations in their reach although this has been sanctioned in the UN. Nothing is sacred for Putin. They bombed the hospital in Mariupol and the videos of the hospital are called " western and Ukrainian " propaganda.
In the months/years to come we do like after WW2. The Russians will do the rebuilding of Ukraine and Putin is building houses himself, that ***hole.

 

I was watching that vid on that convoy ambush wow that lead tank they hit that at almost point blank range with a missile and then opened up on the rest. The bmps started running in such a panick and troops dismounted I thought they were going to run over their own men. The Russians are making all the mistakes they did in Chechnya that analysts said they did wrong in a urban combat zone they have to have scouts and infantry lead convoys and flush out any infantry with antitank weapons. They paid dearly in Chechnya for that and leaving the troops in their carriers can lead to higher casualties as the men are bunched up in the vehicles and if it gets hit well.
That was insane all those Ukraine Air Force personnel March up to the Russians that have sealed off the base the Russians all armed with assault rifles and the Ukrainians were all unarmed. Like shit they march up and the officer tries to negotiate with the Russians to give them their base back that was just nuts. Says the Russians have taken over at least three bases in the Crimea they could use those bases as forward bases for there helicopters and maybe even use them for their heavy transports like the AN124 and IL76s. Fly in more troops and equipment and supplies. It's really something to see all the build up we are doing are the ships those fast deployment ships they built from surplus tankers? Some of the vehicles looked like they are in European one and lots are still in desert storm camo, they said they didn't have the time to repaint but I noticed one with a single wheel replaced with a green one and was interested to see a tank with spare tracks and spare rubber shoes. The synthetic rubber used to make the shoes is far stronger and harder than normal rubber. Now in wwii the rubber shoes track was used to give the tanks better road grip as metal tracks sometimes slipped on hard streets also for use when they were moving them in the US from the assembly yards to the rails so they wouldn't tear up the roads too much. It's interesting to see the difference in some of the tanks like the rear turret basket looked different on some longer or deeper and mad more like a platform the crews walking on them some carrying boxes and other gear others something else. They were showing the comparison of the two armies and like wow the Ukraine forces are like a tenth of what the Russians have and the air force has like a hundred fighters vs 1500+. No wonder they want those planes. Do you think the offer of f35s is genuine and is it a ploy to allow us to enter the country like a sell of the planes would require we send flight instructors and ground personnel to train the Ukrainians. Those soviet missiles the Germans are sending from their East German stock piles is that a copy of our stinger or a similar type weapon. I was watching a program on YouTube that said how the javelins were developed from the dragon as the dragon was not working to what the military wanted. It was very effective during desert storm and the only thing they didn't like is it has only about a two km ranger but they have developed a new enhanced version that is in mass production and beside having a increased range of 4.5 km it also has a more powerful warhead a two stage warhead to better penetrate enemy armor i wonder if any of those have been shipped to the Ukraine. The supplies the west is sending will need to include large stocks of water and food as food production and deliveries had probably ceased and I'm sure stock piles are fast diminishing the Russians have crippled the power and water supply. The Ukraine may have a fraction of what the rusdian military is but they have shown they can dish it out much better. It's kinda crazy all the reports of Ukrainian forces capturing abandoned AFVs like bmps and tanks. I wonder if any Russian pilots will defect and claim the one million dollar reward. Like isn't that what that mig 25 defector did? Flew his plane to Japan. Funny the guy said said they usually only give them half a tank of fuel to keep them from trying to fly off but he was amazed to see his plane had full tanks and decided to defect. The then soviets demanded the return of the plane and pilot the Japanese invited militaries from all over to come and watch them dissect the plane and then they crated it up in I think they said 27 crates and sent them back the assessment was the design was very crude and according to the pilot they had to change out the engines whenever they used full power as the engines would burn out quite commonly. I wonder if they finally resolved that on the mig 31s. I have several revell mig 31 kits in 1/144 but they don't have the missiles or racks like our f14 that is a copy of our system the copied from Iranian f14s that we sold I'm still surprised that we didn't send in an air strike to blast those planes and insure the Russians didn't get them. Anyway I think maybe using one of my f14s I can build the missile system as it is pretty close the missiles are a bit different but should be easy to modify. Saw a 144 model of a mig31 like wow the thing was super detailed had a detailed full cockpit and even the engines lol, like maybe if your doing a diorama of and engine repair or replacement that would be good but like what good is that when you close up the fuselage you'll never see any of that but it would be kewl as a base for maybe building other engines for other types of aircraft and scenes. I hope the model companies will be inspired to come out with new kits on both Russian and Ukraine defense force. Be nice to see more vehicles available I'm dying to get some of those Ustar kits. Especially the t54 and t59 as there's like so many variations that are available the Iraq enigma, the Israeli rebuilds and other countries the Indian and a few other countries using the chassis with a new turret and the SU 54 basically like the old t34 SU with a casement built on the old chassis and a huge gun mounted in it.

 

Ok I'm pissed again writing my congress reps again. I read we've been buying Russian equiptment for friendly countries. Wtf why are we helping build up their economy I'm telling my congress reps any military equipment provided should be USA made and nothing else our tax dollars should go to American companies not foreign. I have to admit the war has been showing views of lots of rusdian equipment I've haven't seen much of giving me ideas for more projects.
I can't wait for summer already tired of feeling cold all the time. Have to cuddle up under a blanket all the time it's been so cold imguessvimshould be grateful we got the windows all replaced with double pane glass and got rid of all those old single pane. Lol, when this house was built they didn't have any companies that made doubled pane Windows the contractor to meet the sound requirements put a double set of Windows to sound the house against the freeway noise it was strange to have to open two sets of Windows all the windows facing the free way had a outer set and a inner set, use to be a real pain cleaning the windows as the gap between was barely wide enough to get into and clean the glass usevtomhave to get a stick or something wrap,paper towels around it and clean them that way took a lot of extra work love the newer double panes but not happy with the quality of work done I've seen much better work done and have done installations better myself. Sometimes wish my dad would have consulted me and my brother as we were both in construction and could have found a better company. The one he got did a lot of sloppy work and they just didn't do a clean looking job. I really hate companies that do less than professional,work. Like hell,that's their job that what they are paid for. I used to really get on my apprentices back telling them they had to,learn how to do a top,professional jop,as that was what they were paid to do and if they expected to advance to become a Forman one day they had to know all,aspects of doing the job like I learned how to do basic framing, drywall,repair and more I even learned how to do asphalt shingle roofing, door installations cabinate installations and building. Have repainted in inside of our house a few times floor repairs and lots more. My next project will be a veggie and fruit garden. Fresh veggies are great grew some summer squash like wow just planted six from seeds and the plants produced a bunch of squash and eggplants do well unfortunately I didn't do the tomatoes right the string lines I did were too flemsy and they fell,over tomatoes are ruined once the touch the ground. Next time I'll just buy those wire cages. Wanna get some fruit trees had a great plum tree but the gardeners my mom hired killed my plum tree just when it was reall,producing great had it for five years stared producing thr first year and kept getting more every year they were so good too. So a plum, orange, maybe a papaya and a guava and maybe a mango oh and a peach they seem to do well here

 

The newest thing I've seen is Putin is recruiting Syrian military volunteers to go fight in the Ukraine for a salary of $3,000. per month. Not the best quality troops, actually below mediocre. I guess he needs fodder for city fighting and sending that many dead Rooskies home in bags wouldn't do much for civilian support.

Syria recruiting troops from its military to fight with Russian forces in Ukraine | Russia | The Guardian

 

Wow that actually shows how desperate he's getting I wonder if he'll try to recruit more mercenaries from other middle eastern countries and maybe even Africa, mayanmar maybe else where I don't think he'll get help from turkey as they have denounced him. Anyway yeah you can't expect much for 3,000 a month. I don't think the guy is really trying to win this war if he thinks he can do it so cheaply or maybe the countries financial position is really not all that good one thing this war is costing him big already with the planes and ground equiptment lost. I still think we should partner up with Ukraine and give them some financial aid we are helping other countries build up their military we might as well help them and give them technical help in rebuilding there M84s into a better generation plus tank. Like our 120 or 121 gun the Abrams targeting system, we sold it to Taiwan for their M48H upgrades. And maybe a tusk upgrade for them. One thing we are getting a lot of data on our weapons effectiveness and what other improvements we may need to do. Like every military is watching and analyzing what's going on I bet the Chinese are watching closely as to analyze what tactics are employed effectiveness of US weapons against armor as I bet they figure they will encounter such if they invade Taiwan. I really think if they try a water assault it will be very costly and from China's performance on border clashes with India I'd think they will perform as bad as the Russians are. Do you think the arms sales will go thru the f35s and more weapons. I wonder if they have sent any of the new enhanced javelins I'm sure the pentagon is having a time gathering all the combat data they can as this can affect our battle tactics for future

 

What I read those Syrian guys have been trained to fight in cities so Putin decided to get men who can do it. Maybe he is afraid the Russian army soldiers and recruits cannot do it, die like flies instead.

Putin is running out of men for keeping the momentum going. He has been calling men from the reserves to fight. Also he claimed that vehicles bringing guns from the west will be shot. How the h**** do they know if there are guns or missiles or civilians in the trucks? Just another poor excuse for total war. I am surprised, that due to killing with artillery and rockets civilians ( the houses are sububrbian area ) the houses are bombed to kingdom come and burning brightly with 1000+ people including childred dead, that as the Ukrainian army has got 800 russian soldiers as prisoners they have not shot them straight away. Just put a gun in the hand and say they were fighting and died doing that. By killing civilians and bombing hospitals and civilian areas and nuclear power plants Putin is breaking all the rules of the UN and one day should be condemned to prison for life without a window and not even allowed to walk around in the yard for 30 minutes daily. He knows he is doing this.
Funnily enough they have not found US based research labs and have been quiet about this, not even admitting they were wrong. Next set of lies, Putin, I hope your end will be as ugly as Mussolini´s. It´s all you deserve.

 

McDonald's said it was temporarily closing its roughly 850 restaurants in Russia, while Starbucks also said its 100 coffee shops would shut.

Pepsi, which has a much larger presence in Russia than rival Coca-Cola, said it was halting the production and sale of Pepsi and other global brands in Russia, but the company, which employs 20,000 people there, said it would continue to offer other products.

Food companies Nestle, Mondelez, Procter & Gamble and Unilever have halted investment in Russia, but said they would continue providing essentials.

In fact, Russia was the fifth largest European retail market globally last year, valued at £337.2bn.

The world's biggest fashion retailers H&M and Zara-owner Inditex, which has 502 stores in the country, for example have already suspended sales in Russia, citing "tragic developments" in Ukraine. Other brands like Nike have simply said they can't currently guarantee delivery of goods to customers in Russia.

More brands are likely to follow suit, according to Maureen Hinton of retail consultancy GlobalData. Boohoo, Swedish furniture giant Ikea and Japanese clothing retailer Uniqlo which initially kept its 49 Russian stores open, saying clothes were a "necessity of life", are some of the other names to have now cut ties.

Even Levi's, the jeans brand that became a symbol of post-Soviet business in Russia, has closed its shops. The all-American jeans firm said about 4% of its total net sales came from Eastern Europe and Russia last year, but "any business considerations are clearly secondary to the human suffering experienced by so many".

Apple has also halted all of its product sales in Russia, and limited other services such as Apple Pay and Apple Maps. Its shops have closed too.

Large consultancy and law firms were some of the first to set up a presence in Russia after the collapse of the Soviet Union but they mostly operate out of the spotlight.
All of the Big Four accounting groups - Deloitte, KPMG, EY and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) - have said they will no longer have a member firm in Russia because of the invasion. Top-tier law firm Freshfields says it will no longer work with any clients linked to the Russian state either.

Payment giants Visa, Mastercard, American Express and PayPal are pulling out of the Russian market in protest.

Which companies are pulling out of Russia?

 

Been checking out stuff on the Grumman sea planes. I'd live to build a duck, I got like three goose I think one in like late 30s naval markings and two in sea blue with japanese markings. I cut one of my japanese goose to rebuild for casting I'm rebuilding the cockpit as it's kinda off to list I want to add more detail. First get the seats right add the forward passage and cut out the forward cargo hatch. Added the bulk head behind the pilot seats. I want to try to build a widgeon and mallard. An article I read said the widgeon was a cut down goose while the mallard was a stretched goose . Anyway I've always loved sea planes and like expanding on what I have. I would also like to build a seagull one day. I had an old albatross kit from England it was really low detail and low quality, got the Amodel hu16 looks really good needs some work but much better detailed should be fun to work on. Need to find more old reveal f4fs for other projects should be able to find them since revell gemany rereleased them about five years back more or less. Turn one into a wildcatfsh

 

Its interesting how many old aircraft are still flying refurbished with modern electrical and turbo prop engines. I hope the new b52 mold by Minecraft was made with intensions if doing the new refitted one scheduled to be done I wonder what other upgrades they may do

 

Wow Putin asking China for help, like what kind of help. This is really showing the world that Russia is weak and can't stand on its own. Like what are the Chinese going to do, I'm sure they are figuring the ca exploit some kind of advantage out of this.
I wonder how long Russian soldiers will keep fighting as reports they have run short of rations. They have been raiding homes for food now as I'm sure the markets have been cleaned out. I bet as soon as the Ukrainians heard the Russians were raiding markets they cleared out what ever was left out of whatever markets had stocks to hide them from the Russians. That's just ridiculous to not have enough ration supplies for an offensive soldiers burn a lot of calories carrying their equipment and fighting the cold weather without proper food they will get too weak to be able to fight effectively. I wonder if that's one of the reasons they say the Russians are surrendering more frequently and in larger numbers. These guys are probably mostly conscripts that have had enough and probably out of food and ammo. They also didn't look very well their uniforms looked pretty shabby like can your uniforms get all shredded that quickly. In the jungles or wild brush I can see it plants with thick thorns rip and shred uniforms but their in the cities maybe brushing against the rubble. Anyway it looks like Putins offensive is grinding down. Like how long will the army keep fighting before many of the soldiers start to rebell from lack of supplies. I'm sure they must have mobile kitchens at this point making a type of soup from what little rations they have would stretch whatever they have and at least give them some nourishment. If the Russians were smart they'd take over whatever bakeries they can find and have them bake all the bread they can as bread and some hot soup would help not only satisfy their hunger but boots morale. I'm sure the slow progress is also due to low morale. The Ukraine has reported that Russian forces are holding in a lot of areas most likely building up forces to try a mass attack. They have been pulling out of some areas leaving a lot of equipment and munitions which the Ukrainians have turned against the Russians their former owners. The Ukraine has certainly shown how well drones can be used in war for sure they have done a lot of damage to Russian forces firing missiles and dropping bombs.
Talking about bombs that was crazy those guys defusing that bomb. Like wow I bet those guys had to have a drink and something to calm themselves down the water thing kinda still stumps me like I guess that works think something like oil or vegetable oil would reduce the friction and help the threads turn easier. Now the guy was using bottled water which is filtered most heavy minerals filtered out, I would think distilled water would be better distilled has everything removed and doesn't conduct electricity so maybe it would reduce the chance of static discharge but I don't know. Funny a long time ago they did a study about using water to carry electricity but decided against it as it was too complicated to build a system that was really safe if you got a leak the water could be electrified and more dangerous than a broken line plus trying to make a power panel was too dangerous as how to be able to control the current and even build a power panel. Lol, electricians are like cats we hate water bad things can happen to us if water and electricity mix.