CitizenVectron

Ukraine struck an oil depot in Proletarsk (200km from border) and it's been burning out of control for 2 days, taking out many/most of the large storage tanks:

Ukraine has completed the cauldron:

Ukraine did not inform the US or any other allied nation about its plan to invade Kursk, as they believe that Americans leaked their previous offensive to the Russians (and vetoed a second planned offensive):

Additionally, Ukraine just stated yesterday that even though the UK has approved Storm Shadow cruise missiles to be used against targets in Russia, the US is vetoing it (will withdraw American aid if cruise missiles are used against Russia).

I came into this thread being 50/50 on whether it was:

• Him being dead
• He sold the rights to his likeness to some AI company who will be running a 24/7 ai-generated version of his show forever

Good article on Ukraine's current offensive in Russia. They planned for months, and used drones and recon teams (sneaking across the border) to both destroy infrastructure as well as jam Russian radio/comms during the assault. They used western Strykers and Humvees to race past Russian towns without stopping to fight, getting as deep as they could before cementing into position.

Michigan Presidential Polling:

Harris (D): 47%
Trump (R): 44%

Rasmussen / Aug 17, 2024 / n=1093

(Republican Pollster)

Even Rasmussen can't rig her upward swing in MI.

Also, just confirmed that Michelle Obama will be speaking at the DNC, before Barack Obama.

Bus tour of PA kicks off right now, their plane just landed for the first rally inside a hangar (at which point they will get on separate buses and start the ground tour).

Chechen warlord invites Musk to Russia after he's filmed driving machine-gun mounted Cybertruck

APNEWS.COM

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Chechnya President Ramzan Kadyrov has invited Tesla CEO Elon Musk to Russia after being filmed behind the wheel of one of the company’s Cybertrucks mounted with a machine...

Sounds like Musk potentially have him a Cybertruck. Tesla hasn't responded to media requests for more info.

43 minutes ago, Signifyin(g)Monkey said:

House Republicans open probe into Walz’s engagement with China

 

OMG surely they wouldn’t do this unless they had a legit reason to suspect he’s a CCP spy, amirite?  

We will soon have NYT headlines like "Walz under House investigation for colluding with China," and then the only pushback will be in the fifth paragraph with "Sources in the Democratic Party deny these allegations." And they will have three quoted random people from a diner who say "Something must be going on."

I love how Harris can release a long list of economic proposals and the media says "this is light on details, is Harris really prepared to be President?" and then Trump says "I did the insulin" and there is far less blowback.

A video from 2020 shows Vance saying that Irish and other immigration led to crime in America. When questioned on it, he said the above quote.

Most likely what happens is that Ukraine will push from the west (with artillery support from their border to the south), forcing the Russian troops to cross north of the river on foot (also hopefully abandoning artillery/armour). Either that or the Russians will be forced to surrender.

Ukraine appears to have destroyed the major bridge connecting a part of Kursk that is under offensive, potentially trapping 700+ Russian soldiers, and a big swath of land. There are still two very small crossings further east, but Ukraine appears to be targeting them as well (and they may not be suitable for armour):

Blue is confirmed Ukrainian control, yellow is where advanced troops have gone to (but may not be holding), and the red line is the river that is creating the cauldron.

lol

Did anyone post this? Trump says the Presidential Medal of Freedom is better than the Congressional Medal of Honor because the people receiving it haven't been shot, or aren't dead.

Trump says presidential civilian award is 'better' than top military honor whose recipients are 'dead' or 'hit' by bullets

WWW.NBCNEWS.COM

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Trump praised Republican donor Miriam Adelson for having received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, a top civilian award.

2 minutes ago, Xbob42 said:

It didn't say anything about giving "everyone" $30k.

I'm simplifying, of course, but any money given to purchase something in a supply-limited market will only lead to price increases.

1 hour ago, S3xB0t said:

Direct to consumer advertising should be illegal. I’m happy to see Jardiance on the list. It’s an incredible drug. 

Yep. Banned up here. Or rather, you can advertise the name of a drug, but not what it does. So you only see some ass for drugs that already have name recognition. Like, a 30-second clip of an old guy who is happy skipping in the park, followed by "ask your doctor about Cialis." lol

So there are basically no drug ads, which is nice. It's shocking when you visit the states and see what is advertised on TV. Huge culture shock.

Just now, Xbob42 said:

Yeah I'm gonna need more than "this isn't a good policy."

If you give everyone $30k to buy a house, then the likely outcome is that houses become $30k more expensive very quickly. Canada has tried this, and it's done nothing. Solution is more housing (and faster, simpler, denser housing).

15 minutes ago, LazyPiranha said:

I’m no economist, but I have no idea how to lower the cost of housing without seriously pissing off anyone who has bought a house in the past four years and possibly financially screwing them over.

IMO you just need to build a tonne of housing. Unfortunately, that requires buy-in from local/state jurisdictions, who usually control zoning and code (both of which need to change). Federal governments can certainly do something, but it's basically just bribery to get local places to take action. In Canada, the feds are offering crazy money to provinces and cities that change their zoning to allow denser housing, and it's working (in terms of getting zoning changed).

But also, federal social housing needs to come back in a big way.

This isn't a good policy and won't help home prices come down, but also:

It's just social media meat for the base, so not consequential, but the Harris campaign put this out ahead of Trump's speech today: