Now That The Soviets Have Invaded Ukraine...

There is a lot more to do with this than Putin simply getting a wild hair up his butt and deciding to invade or retake a former piece of his country.

Changing the subject to the 2020 election and China isn't "a lot more to do with this".

What we're seeing is a completely unprovoked act under false pretenses that is destroying the lives and livelihoods of innocent people. Odd attempts to change the subject will never obscure that reality.

you will notice that the actions being taken there are laser sharp precision actions taken against non civilian military targets. It also appears to be very quick and focused.

You will notice the husband only struck his wife in the parts of the body that most efficiently cause her the maximum amount of pain while minimizing bruising and swelling. His abuse also appears to be restrained to exerting his control over her and not indulging in excessive emotional venting.

The natural tribal instinct is strong in some folks. Orange man bad, Putin bad, Russia bad. Right.

You seemed to have forgotten Obama Biden's coup in 2014, where we we spent billions of dollars in destabilizing a functional constitutional republic in Ukraine ultimately placing snipers in their capital, killing hundreds and instituting a corrupt regime.

Let's also not forget about Burisima while we are at it. Biden and company have been pushing this for a long time.

In addition, years of utterly insane leftist energy policy in Europe and unbridled insanity here under the Biden regime has funded Russias military might by reliance on them for natural gas and oil.

While war is tragic, I'm not going to buy the "we're at war with Eurasia. We've always been at war with them" narrative that Orwell so aptly described. Everyone these days seems to just hop on the "Russia bad" bandwagon. There's much more to it than that.

Wow. I started this thread hoping it would be a discussion about what we, as professional drivers, could do to ensure operational security in our sphere of influence, that being the transportation industry. In 2002, the operational security against terrorism became a topic of discussion for this industry. I know, because I was in the Group within within my police department that was involved with local business and industry to discuss site security and transportation s3curity concerns.

That was where I hoped the discussion would lead. Yez, I got sidetracked a bit too. Here is my intent with comments about the Soviets not being friends to the United States. The Soviet government, during World War II, alive with us against a common threat, Hitler. They willingly accepted our money and materiel to help fight their war effort. Once Hitler was vanquished, they didn't need us anymore, they were no longer our ally, and they began a persistent and dedicated effort to expand their ideoligical dominance throughout Europe and many parts of the world. The Cold War wasnt all that cold, lots of shooting by pro soviet and pro democracy groups by proxy.

The Soviets are the hard line government that is running that country now. Whether you want to call it Russia, the Russian federation, the former Soviet Union, matters not. Putin, and his ilk, are Soviets through and through. Many of the people in that nation are not Soviets, they are freedom loving individuals who have seen their governance get hijacked by thugs.

Without politics getting into this, I hope they are able to redirect their leadership in a way that reflects positively on the ideals for which they apparently once recently stood, that being a free state. Lord knows they arent now free.Thousands arrested for protesting the putinistas.

For those that care, if the conflict does broaden matters not which peraon or.party is in the white house. If the US gets involved, directly, you can expect to see conflict (at some level) come ashore. Sorry this turned into a politics discussion.

Have a safe weekend.

What we're seeing is a completely unprovoked act under false pretenses

Are you sure you have enough information about life in Donetsk and Lugansk republics to make such claims?

What we're seeing is a completely unprovoked act under false pretenses

Are you sure you have enough information about life in Donetsk and Lugansk republics to make such claims?

Andrey, did you come from one of those places? Please give us some basic description of what life is like in those places. What it like to be a truck driver there. I think it would be interesting to know more from our Russian colleague.

The Soviet government, during World War II, alive with us against a common threat, Hitler.

People always forget that as WWII was starting, Hitler reached out to Stalin to join him. Stalin didn’t want to have anything to do with it but agreed not to get involved as long as Hitler did not move on Russian territory. As the Nazi’s took over a large portion of Europe, Hitler convinced himself he could conquer Russia as well. Only then did the Soviet Union get involved and they only fought on their front. They were never truly allies.

The natural tribal instinct is strong in some folks. Orange man bad, Putin bad, Russia bad. Right.

Do you accuse everyone expressing a different viewpoint than your own of acting out of tribalism, or is there something in particular in what I said that made you suggest I'm acting out of tribalism?

You seemed to have forgotten Obama Biden's coup in 2014, where we we spent billions of dollars in destabilizing a functional constitutional republic in Ukraine

I seem to remember seeing hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians exercising their human right to protest against their government and then leading a revolution when their government turned against them. I also never misconstrued the $5 billion the United States spent in Ukraine during the twenty years between its independence in 1991 and 2013 to have been spent by Obama and Biden in 2014 to orchestrate the revolution.

ultimately placing snipers in their capital, killing hundreds

Who told you the identities of the shooters?

Let's also not forget about Burisima while we are at it. Biden and company have been pushing this for a long time.

Hunter Biden getting paid to sit on the board of a Ukranian natural gas company is evidence of what being pushed by them? Are you saying they pushed Russia to invade?

While war is tragic, I'm not going to buy the "we're at war with Eurasia. We've always been at war with them" narrative that Orwell so aptly described.

No one is saying we are at war. Russia is committing an unprovoked act of war against Ukraine. Nothing you've said justifies what Russia is doing to the Ukrainian people.

Are you sure you have enough information about life in Donetsk and Lugansk republics to make such claims?

If Russia were intervening purely out of an interest in protecting the separatists in Donetsk and Luhansk and enforcing their claim of independence, the invasion would have been concentrated on Donetsk and Luhansk, and not the entire nation.

The reality is there is zero difference between why this is happening to all of Ukraine now and why Crimea was annexed by Russia in 2014.

Putin, in his own words then: "When we were parting, I said to my colleagues: we must start working on returning Crimea to Russia."

Putin, in his own words now: "Modern Ukraine was entirely created by Bolshevik, Communist Russia. This process started practically right after the 1917 revolution, and Lenin and his associates did it in a way that was extremely harsh on Russia — by separating, severing what is historically Russian land. And today the “grateful progeny” has overturned monuments to Lenin in Ukraine. They call it de-communization. You want de-communization? Very well, this suits us just fine. But why stop halfway? We are ready to show what real de-communizations would mean for Ukraine. "

Wow. I started this thread hoping it would be a discussion about what we, as professional drivers, could do to ensure operational security in our sphere of influence, that being the transportation industry. In 2002, the operational security against terrorism became a topic of discussion for this industry. I know, because I was in the Group within within my police department that was involved with local business and industry to discuss site security and transportation s3curity concerns.

That was where I hoped the discussion would lead. Yez, I got sidetracked a bit too. Here is my intent with comments about the Soviets not being friends to the United States. The Soviet government, during World War II, alive with us against a common threat, Hitler. They willingly accepted our money and materiel to help fight their war effort. Once Hitler was vanquished, they didn't need us anymore, they were no longer our ally, and they began a persistent and dedicated effort to expand their ideoligical dominance throughout Europe and many parts of the world. The Cold War wasnt all that cold, lots of shooting by pro soviet and pro democracy groups by proxy.

The Soviets are the hard line government that is running that country now. Whether you want to call it Russia, the Russian federation, the former Soviet Union, matters not. Putin, and his ilk, are Soviets through and through. Many of the people in that nation are not Soviets, they are freedom loving individuals who have seen their governance get hijacked by thugs.

Without politics getting into this, I hope they are able to redirect their leadership in a way that reflects positively on the ideals for which they apparently once recently stood, that being a free state. Lord knows they arent now free.Thousands arrested for protesting the putinistas.

For those that care, if the conflict does broaden matters not which peraon or.party is in the white house. If the US gets involved, directly, you can expect to see conflict (at some level) come ashore. Sorry this turned into a politics discussion.

Have a safe weekend.

Yes, can we get this thread back to what Mr. Curmudgeon intended instead of going off on tangents?

To reply to Mr curmudgeon there. The best thing we as drivers can do is to make sure we are more self sufficient. Carry some extra food on the truck, try to not let everyone and thier brother know what you are carrying. Just basic stuff goes a long way. I know me personally, I am carrying a larger supply of cash, hidden of course. If the war broadens then I expect high amounts of cyber warfare. Payment systems going down, electric grids failing temporarily or permanently, phone systems going down.

Andrey, did you come from one of those places? Please give us some basic description of what life is like in those places. What it like to be a truck driver there.

Bruce, I visited these places many years ago. Most of what I know comes from my relatives who live there. I don't want to move this thread away from our general topic, so I'll answer very briefly: Donetsk and Lugansk is a coal mining region. It does have universities and theaters, but still the majority of its population is treated by Ukrainian authorities as dumb and retarded. In 2014 people claimed independence, pretty much like Americans did in 1776. Ukraine called them separatists and declared war. Since then people of this region have been fighting for freedom. Unfortunately, I cannot say anything about truck driving there - I've never driven anything bigger than a minivan before I came to America twenty years ago.