Caption: Russia destroyed Mariupol, killing thousands of civilians in order to “protect it” from Ukraine. That’s just how they roll.

 

128,000 Hunter Biden e-mails

More than 120,000 emails from the notorious Hunter Biden laptop have been published on a searchable online database anyone can access.

bidenlaptopemails.com, allows users the option to download all 128,00 plus emails from Hunter’s hard drive onto their own computer.

The emails were uploaded by former Trump White House staffer Garrett Ziegler.

“Here are the 128k emails from the Biden Laptop, which is a modern Rosetta Stone of white and blue collar crime under the patina of ‘the Delaware Way’,” the site said.

 

The New Law of the Land

(Domestic Terrorism – Gateway Pundit) House Democrats on Wednesday passed a Domestic terrorism bill to silence conservatives and those Americans who disagree with them.

 

The Price of a Big Mac

Why so expensive in Lebanon?

 

A Tradition of Mistreatment

The Russian military has a long history of mistreating its personnel and their concerned families. During the Soviet Union’s war in Afghanistan, many conscripts were not informed before they left the USSR and were sent into combat. When they died or disappeared, Soviet authorities were curt and dismissive to grieving parents, particularly mothers who organized to get answers. In the 1990s, the Russian military sent unprepared conscripts to Chechnya for grueling urban warfare in cities such as Grozny. Many of these troops were killed, wounded, or captured.

Soldiers’ mothers looking to secure the release of their imprisoned children often pleaded with base commanders for help, only to be ignored. Many mothers traveled directly to Chechnya to find their sons and occasionally brokered deals or arranged prisoner swaps with Chechen militant groups for their release. In 2014, when Russia secretly sent forces into eastern Ukraine, military families were again bullied or lied to about the status and circumstances of their sons. Some, for example, were told their sons died in training accidents in Russia instead of in eastern Ukraine.

This culture of disregard has clearly extended to Russia’s latest invasion. Because it was worried about leaks, the Russian military kept its plans a secret, jeopardizing readiness and handicapping itself. Similarly, if Moscow wanted to avoid high casualties, it would not have proceeded with the same strategy once it became clear that Western intelligence had uncovered and published its invasion plans. But the Kremlin proceeded with the war as planned, sending its troops to face off against Ukrainian forces that were, in some cases, lying in wait.

It’s difficult to make sense of Russia’s preinvasion strategy unless one assumes that operational security trumps all and that soldiers are easily replaced. Commanders engaged in abstract war planning inside the Ministry of Defense’s headquarters might logically conclude that they should invade through the Chernobyl exclusion zone because, on a map, it is the most direct and undefended route from Belarus to Kyiv. But if they cared about their troops, they could have taken a different path—or at least prepared their soldiers for what was an incredibly hazardous task. Instead, according to workers at the Chernobyl nuclear plant, Russia sent its troops through the zone without protective gear to shield them from the radioactive dust kicked up by hundreds of their military vehicles. It didn’t tell the soldiers occupying the plant about the significance of their deployment. And it had its forces dig vehicle revetments deep into some of the most irradiated soil on earth, where troops reportedly lived for a month before growing sick and being medically evacuated.

Soldiers have reportedly called home to say they were considering shooting themselves so they could leave.

Radiation poisoning is a particularly extreme example of how the Russian military’s mistreatment of troops undermines its fighting capacity. But there are plenty of others. Soldiers became affected with frostbite thanks to poor planning and then were treated by Russian medics with 44-year-old field dressings. Some Russian commanders simply disappeared in combat zones, leaving their subordinates with no shelter, food, or water. The military sent expired field rations to some troops, not enough field rations to others, and field kitchen trucks filled with bags of potatoes, pickles, and oatmeal, most of which rotted within a few days.

The Russian military’s disregard for its soldiers has done more than undermine their combat performance. It has also tanked their morale and will to fight. Officers steal the contents of care packages so routinely that some soldiers have called their mothers and told them not to bother sending anything. Officials forget to pay soldiers their entitled combat pay, and units abandon the bodies of the fallen. It is little wonder, then, that some Russian troops simply melted away from the conflict, deserting fully functional modernized equipment in Ukrainian fields.

With discipline and morale faltering, Russian troops began looting what they could from Ukraine and shipping it back home—including washing machines, frying pans, televisions from Ukrainian schools and even used mascara. They raided Ukrainian convenience stores for meat, cigarettes, and alcohol. When they ran out of food from markets, they stole it (along with livestock) directly from the Ukrainian people. According to intercepted phone calls released by Ukraine’s intelligence services, some Russian soldiers have even eaten dogs.

Given how the Russian military mistreats its own personnel, it is also no surprise that Russian soldiers have engaged in widespread crimes. None of this is justifiable, and in multiple Ukrainian villages and cities, Russian troops have engaged in unspeakable atrocities—including torture, rape, and executions. But the fish rots from the head, and rather than showing concern about these abuses or issuing directives ordering them to stop, the Kremlin bestowed an honorific title on one of the units accused of committing atrocities in Bucha.

It will be nearly impossible for the Russian military to fix its internal cultural problem during this war. Indeed, even when the invasion ends, it will be difficult for the Russian military to reform, as it did in the aftermath of its five-day war against Georgia in 2008. Unlike the Georgian war, Moscow cannot blame old equipment; the problem lies with the decision-makers and their decisions, and these individuals have not admitted that the military still has a systemic personnel maltreatment problem.

The current leaders of the Russian military may even have been willing to actively overlook systemic personnel maltreatment as long as it was kept quiet, rubles flowed into the defense budget, and weapons procurement continued as planned. Russia’s top commanders are not apolitical warrior scholars; they earned their positions by understanding that loyalty is more important than speaking truth to power. They approved the invasion plan despite all its clear flaws, the most obvious being that it could stretch the professional fighting force to the point of breaking. There is no ready follow-on force to relieve the 190,000 troops Russia committed to this war, which means the troops will fight until exhaustion unless the Kremlin declares a mass mobilization.

The father of a conscript who disappeared aboard the sunken Moskva cruiser, for instance, went to the naval base in the Black Sea to ask where his son was. The local commander replied with a shrug: “Well, somewhere at sea.”

 

Knoll Lake

I went to Knoll Lake (local to me) for the heck of it the other day. It’s a very pretty “alpine” lake. What appeared:

The guy from AZ Fish and Wildlife showed up to stock the lake. 2,600 rainbow trout in the 12″ range. They’ll plant 10,000 fish in the lake before Memorial Day. Woods Canyon lake received fish in the 14″ to 16″ range, called “super stockers.”

There’s always something cool going on.

 

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR

23 COMMENTS

    • +1. Not that I was particularly surprised, but it is an excellent reference for future discussions elsewhere, properly attributed of course.

    • In the 80s, enlistments for conscripted Russian sailors on nuclear-powered subs were reduced to 2 years because they leaked radiation and lowered life expectancy.

      The biggest difference between the USSR’s and later Russia’s navy and Western navies is that the officers ran all of the complicated systems and were specialists. In the West, they are run by enlisted sailors and primarily by NCO’s. Officers are generalists and managers. Even senior NCO’s in the Russian navy are rarely trusted with sensors, with the mechanics of a torpedo or a number of tasks that you’d find them doing on a British, Italian, or US submarine. They might load the torpedo, cook the borscht, or clean this or that but they wouldn’t maintain anything.

      • One further comment. In peacetime, the US military, for example, is really a school. It’s tedious in many ways, but the training schedule is relentless when done properly. In wartime, it’s a vast human machine designed to put ordnance on target. When you look at it, that’s all it is.

        The Pentagon in recent years has redefined the mission to include gender-related bullshit, global warming, extensive race ‘awareness’ (even though you’re supposed to be able to self-identify as anything), and so forth. All that dilutes the point. It is so bad in some areas that political officers (zampolits) have been assigned to guard against “whiteness” and politically insensitive speech and to the extent possible, thought.

        • So how is our military now as compared to the Russian’s, who assumed they were large therefore competent?

          I feel we are too weakened due to the leadership stupidly focusing on feelings rather than readiness.

          • The US military has war machines that work most of the time and can deliver the goods. It’s all volunteer and we have been continually at war for my entire life with very few breaks, so they’re trained at the sharp point of the spear. We spend a VAST amount of money to keep them healthy and to train them. Russia is the opposite.

  2. I remember reading about Russian soldiers looting sinks and faucets from German homes during WWII, and taking them back home with them – even though their home towns didn’t have any water pipelines feeding water to the homes. The same with electrical appliances.

    • In the 1980’s somewhere around 70% of Russian hospitals nationwide did not have running water. Most of those were in rural areas, to be fair about it.

  3. Domestic Terrorism Bill- A means to an end. Elections matter, which is why the Dems have moved from stealing local races to massive national election fraud. The Magical Mr O’s Senate race was certainly one and look how that turned out, putting us in our current cliff diving trajectory as every cretin and reprobate is now running open loop with no end in sight.

    The wagon circling nepotism runs deep in The DC Club…Hunter will skate. He’s protected to protect The Little Big Guy. The judge in the Sussmann trial is married to Lisa Page’s lawyer, and despite Baker dropping the proverbial anvil on Sussmann, I have little hope this goes the way it should, with HRC in an orange jumpsuit.

    • The DC Swamp is a daisy chain of mountebanks and scoundrels who are married, tied together in filthy scams where neither can blow a whistle because they’re all dirty, etc. And to be fair about it, the circle of corruption works. HRC isn’t in prison and neither are any members of the Biden Crime Family.

  4. Knoll Lake truly looks beautiful. Nice place to live near.

    Thanks for the detailed information re Russian troops. I knew some generalities but your details added some good information.

    The US military is being poisoned from the top. That is exacerbated by the new troops who have spent 12 years or so being indoctrinated by the “education system” We can only hope that when push comes to shove we will still have some ass kickers left to do what is needful.

    • You’re right. Most of the venom is dripping down from on high. If you allow it to fester long enough though, it will infect the whole.

    • If you were there at the lake, you’d have fetched a net and limited out almost immediately… I know you, LSP. It’s like when the striped bass jump into your boat and you don’t count those toward your limit… It’s disturbingly like Jesus telling the apostles to fish on the other side of the boat.

  6. Knoll Lake
    Reading that makes me realize I need some high country lake time. The truck is in the hands of a mechanic who says he will make it pass emissions. After, bring it back and he will make it run again.

    I’m thinking Yankee Doodle Lake on Rollins Pass.

    • High country time is good for your soul. They’re like hyacinths.

      “If, of thy mortal goods, thou art bereft, And from thy slender store two loaves alone to thee are left, Sell one, and from the dole. Buy hyacinths to feed the soul.”

    • Snowed at the homestead last night. While not unusual for May in the Rockies, the high country has been getting hammered (thank you very much). YDL might still have ice and snowpack up there, but a beautiful spot nonetheless.

      • The road up often has snow drifts well into June. My Dad was the East Portal Section foreman in the early 1950’s and we spent a lot of time along Rollins Pass.

        • At least it is some long-awaited moisture. Though I don’t think it will happen this year, the Arizona mountains can get (and have had two years ago) snow on Memorial Day.

  7. I suspect the Russian military considers themselves totally autonomous with no need to answer to civilians. Once you join, inscribed, or shanghaied, you answer to on one but the military ranks above you. Silly mothers demanding answers from the military. Civilians do not need to know what is going on in our world. Not like the silly Americas, who publish all the information we need to succeed. So a soldier dies, it is his duty to the mother country and is honored… much more than when he was alive.

    It seems there are two countries occupying the same land. Russians and the military. God save us.

  8. “Russia’s top commanders are not apolitical warrior scholars; they earned their positions by understanding that loyalty is more important than speaking truth to power.”

    Thank goodness we don’t have that problem.
    #IStandWithMilley
    #IStandWithAustin (you racist!)
    Little disappointed with The Warrior Monk too, truth be told.

  9. They seem to have forgotten the ass-kicking (At first) they got in Chechnya. Sent in the conscripts for a walk-over, the rebels let them come in and then ambushed the shit out of them. A lot of beheadings followed. Always informative stuff, LL.

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