Football ...
Basketball ...
Baseball ...
Other Sports ...
Futbol ...
🤫995🤫 ...
Gambling ...
Movies & TV ...
Music ...
Hobbies ...
Lulz ...
Food & Travel
...
Daily Texan ...
Business & Markets ...
Cloak Room ...
Help ...
For Sale ...
Board Discussion ...
Advertise...
Tailgate Donations

SL Xpress
Full Members-
Posts
4887 -
Joined
-
Last visited
-
Days Won
1
Content Type
Profiles
Forums
Store
Downloads
Recruiting - 2020
2019-2020 Football Season
Football
Entertainment
Sports
News and Business
Cloak Room
Transfer Portal
Recruiting
Events
Everything posted by SL Xpress
-
I fucking love this guy. President Zelensky telling it like it is with the other heads of state doing their play acting standing next to him on either side. Just call it like it is. And I'm with him. If we can't see things the same way, what are we accomplishing? Russia is pure evil here. The way they've behaved historically. The way they tried to bribe Yanukovych and encourage him to be a ruler for life by gutting the military and building up his internal security forces. They way they annexed Crimea and organized thugs to take over the eastern part of Donetsk and Luhansk. The way Putin repeatedly stated Ukraine was a historical mistake, and then tried to rectify by invading the country. The annihilation of cities and peoples who didn't want to be under Russia's thumb. The kidnapping and brainwashing of children. The destruction of anything with a connection to Ukrainian culture or identity. The indiscriminate bombing of civilians. The targeting of hospitals, ambulances, and medical workers. The sabotage of the dam, the concerted effort to cause as much of a humanitarian disaster as possible, up to and including bombing evacuees and the people trying to rescue them. The massacre of civilians with bullets in the back of their heads. The execution of prisoners of war, and now the wrongful trials. Fuck these guys. Fuck them right up the ass.
-
Here's a public service announcement from a couple of attractive Ukrainian girls in uniform.
-
Yeah, I posted a clip of an infantry assault on the Bakhmut side a couple of days ago. In the trench the Ukrainians took you could clearly see a Mosin-Nagant rifle in the background. I think I said something about the Russians using bolt action against AKs. Not saying assaults against forces armed like this aren't dangerous, but...yeah. That's not a fair fight in any way whatsoever. Not that I'm complaining. Just a bit in disbelief.
-
More importantly, back to type.
-
https://www.instagram.com/p/CtjvTyaOJOa/?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet Abby Vanderwal commits to Texas. Rated as the #2 outside hitter in the class of 2025. Rumored to be a strong lean to Wisconsin or Minnesota, she was invited to the recent Texas elite camp and that's all she wrote. Texas is also the prohibitive favorite for the #1 outside hitter in Macaria Spears, and allegedly has a shot at the #3 outside hitter, Kaci Damaria. I don't understand how we have room, or how you convince the top 3 outside hitters in a single class to sign with the same program, but I want to believe. Here are some comments a non Texas fan who follows the volleyball club scene used to describe her prior to her commitment: "Seen this kid on the other side of the net a ton the past 3 years. Consistently will put her team on her back and terminate when everyone knows shes getting set the ball. Doesn’t have any other elite players around her to take the focus of the defense away from her. All solid, but none elite. Wants the ball in the biggest moments. Does everything well a 6 rotation outside needs to + Has an elite arm. In a class that has many elite players at the OH position, she sits #1 imo. " In sad panda news, the setter Texas seemed to be targeting for this class, Campbell Flynn, committed to Nebraska. I don't know who Texas is going after, but there are names being thrown around. I'm also unclear on who they'd sign as a middle blocker. Or where they'd get all the scholarship room.
-
Torbush! That's crazy to me. The use of drones in this war has felt to me like the introduction of machine guns to the battlefield.
-
I don't know. They're still trying to get into NATO (thanks Erdogan!). I mean, it's not an empty gesture they're willing to train Ukraine on them. I have no idea what's going to happen with Ukraine and western fighter jets in the future. I just feel confident they're going to eventually get some kind of package. WHEN that's going to happen is another question. What that will entail is another one. Which countries will be involved yet another one. I do wonder if Congress passed another $100 billion tranche for Ukraine that we wouldn't already be seeing F-16s over there, but that ain't happening. They're going to try to make the current authorizations work for as long as possible. F-16s would put a major dent in that plan. This isn't really part of the conversation we're having, but I will say that in my opinion, we're doing a terrible job of justifying our involvement in Ukraine to the domestic audience. I've probably talked to about 30 people in the last few days relaying the dam explosion, Russian efforts to keep people in the path of floodwaters from evacuating, and then opening fire on evacuation centers. It's the most powerful reaction I've ever been able to generate in others in a short amount of time. We're simply not doing a good job of relaying to the average American how bestial Russia is at its core, and why they need to be stopped now. I'm sure a big part of that is to not escalate the confrontation between Russia and the US, but the downside of that is the American people see any spending on Ukraine as money that could be spent in the US, and it's not going over well. In my opinion.
-
Beggars can't be choosers. Yes. They'll take less than ideal British and French fighter jets, too, so no need to limit it to just those. The problem is, the Swedes have already said they can't really afford to give up any of their Gripens. They could always change their mind. The Gripen would be the most effective plane according to experts I trust, for Ukraine in their current situation. They were basically developed from the ground up to fight Russia under the exact kind of circumstances Ukraine now faces. VERY mobile small footprint maintenance platform. Less than ideal runway situations (can land/take off from roads, short runways with debris). The basic idea is to keep a defensive air force in the air even while Russia is bombing the ever living crap out of usable runways. Basically it's Gripens, then Hornets, then Vipers in terms of what's best for Ukraine. But the F-16s are the most numerous, and the most likely to be exported in numbers. Also, that's probably the mid term future for Ukraine after they win this war until they've earned the trust to operate 5th generation fighters, which is a ways off.
-
Modi is going to be a problem. Rahul Gandhi was just in the United States doing a tour trying to galvanize the Indian diaspora over here against him. There are several countries where it would be beneficial if the opposition was in power. Turkiye. India. Poland. But they're too important to keep in our orbit regardless. Then there are countries that are a problem that would be even worse with someone else in power. Like Saudi Arabia or the UAE. Huh. Human interactions on an international scale are complicated. Who woulda figured?
-
I mean, they just blew up a major dam. They stole or destroyed every flotation device and then fired upon people trying to evacuate after news of the dam's destruction got around. They fired on evacuation centers. Honestly, if you're showing compassion towards others and trying to help the less fortunate, you're a bane to their existence and must die. This is a culture sick at its very core. It's not new. This is business as usual.
-
Maybe. I've noticed Ukrainian field ambulances don't have markings on them any more because Russian military was specifically targeting them. You say it's hard to explain targeting. It's hard to explain a lot of things, but they do them anyway. You just have to know if you're going to help people in a war zone where Russia is involved, there's a good chance they're going to try to kill you. Not accidentally. Purposefully.
-
Merkava II has a 105mm gun. The Merkava III has a 120mm gun. Both of them use standard NATO ammunition. The overall design philosophy of the Merkava was to make it easily able to be repaired under battlefield conditions. The turret is placed towards the rear of the tank, with the engine forward, to help protect the crew from shots to the front. One of the interesting things about the Merkava I and II (the tweet only mentions Merkava II and III being sent) is that the Israelis used it as an IFV when the M113 APC was performing horribly. They took out the ammunition pallets in the rear, and allegedly it could fit 10 people. This was possible because of the clamshell entry/exit doors to the rear. The best tank for Ukraine are any Leopard 2s they can get ahold of, especially the 2A4 and 2A6 variants. But those are limited. They're getting the 31 Abrams in a few months. I'd say beyond those two, the Merkava will be the best tanks in their service. Frankly, the Merkava III is a really good tank. Especially the later versions. It adds another supply chain in terms of repairs, but a tank is a tank. Especially ones that can fire NATO 105mm and 120mm ammo. You listen to the people fighting in the front lines, and that's the message they keep repeating, "more tanks."
-
Could've been an ammo explosion, too. I'm with you, though. Whenever I see explosions that big on these videos, I assume it hit fuel or ammo. Even with artillery strikes, there's a big difference when the target of opportunity has ordnance or fuel supplies. You see it.
-
Boy, I never found McCarthy glorified violence. He made it seem horrifying. I still feel like you have a valid point. I just don’t know if MCarthy is the one I would make as Exhibit A. I never wanted to be one of MCarthy’s villains. They weren’t really sympathetic characters to me. To me he illustrated them as elemental forces. They are not to be celebrated. They are to be feared.
-
It would be a shame if you were attacked in too brutal a fashion. In every other species a broken leg is a death sentence. Mankind is the only species capable of nursing someone so fundamentally crippled back to health, and also has the willingness to do so. There are innumerable fossil records of people given more elaborate burials than their peers who possessed some kind of infirmity. A woman who couldn’t chew and so it’s obvioua someone cared for her by chewing her food for her. People with dwarfism obviously celebrated in some way. We are tribal. If we associate someone else in some way as part of our tribe, we can be remarkably generous with one another. Even the most ruthless societies exhibit this. But an inherent defining aspect of being part of a tribe is having some kind of identifiable group that’s not part of that tribe. I don’t believe violence is inevitable...but it’s very close. Someone at some point demonizes the other tribe, often as part of a bid for power, and then our natural inclination is to go down a path of repression, deportation, and extermination. An overall outlook that emphasizes the good in everyone can lead to a mending of fences. But it can also lead to a tribe adding their culture to the fossil record, rather than being extant. Having said all that, I feel an emphasis on either view loses an important aspect of our humanity. Personally I am grateful we had someone within my lifetime who wrote so eloquently about something I consider essential to us as human beings. At the same time, I’m glad we have the capacity as a species for other expressions as well.
-
I don’t think we can actually understand evil from a book, but it doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try. My thing is, we’re not on some kind of arc as a species where we get more loving and more generous with each generation, but there are people under the illusion that’s the case. I find that extremely dangerous, which is why I pulled the quote and commented on it. Over the last 70,000 years or so our species goes in various kinds of pendulums. Especially since the advent of agriculture, but even before then. No one measures past civilizations based upon how kind they were, and how happy their citizens were. And of those that were remarkable at instituting a level of equality, communal generosity, and individual freedom, they were invariably destroyed by more powerful civilizations built upon heirarchy, repression, and military prowess.
-
“I think the notion that the species can be improved in some way, that everyone could live in harmony, is a really dangerous idea.” Couldn’t agree more with this. It would take a level of repression that would beg the question of is the cure worse than the disease? More likely the people who aspire to such beliefs are taken advantage of by those of us who do not harbor such notions. Which is why it’s so important not to possess those illusions. That said, it’s also true humanity can be remarkably generous with one another, and that’s rarely a prominent feature in the McCarthy books I’ve read.
-
TOW missile at work. It's a beautiful sight.
-
Yes. The short answer (which I'm not that good at) is that Wagner was departing Bakhmut, and they were demining Russian mines so they could do so. The Lt. Colonel in question told his men to open fire on them. Wagner then took him prisoner, apparently tortured and interrogated him, and got him to confess on camera he was drunk and angry towards them. Then they released him. A few days later he releases another video explaining his actions, basically calling the Wagner soldiers assholes, saying they blatantly stole Russian military equipment and supplies. I'm sure there's more to the story, since they had operated in the same theater for quite a while, but we have multiple points of confirmation that it really did happen, including from the people involved on both sides. No one is exactly denying it. Hope that helps.
-
Hahaha! I know. Those Russians with their zany domestic squabbles.
-
"We have a very important thing: Our freedom, democracy and law." As well as launching artillery at Russian forces, Olha has been publishing videos on TikTok about life on the front lines. How a young mum became a warrior On February 24 last year, Olha woke to the sound of Russian missiles hitting Ukraine's capital. She went to her 18-year-old brother's room and asked him if he wanted to leave the city. "He said, 'No, I want to defend my country'," she said. The next day, Olha, her brother and mother joined a long queue and enlisted with Ukraine's armed forces. Her mother and brother are now serving as combat medics. As she prepares for the much-anticipated counteroffensive, the junior lieutenant has an extra sense of motivation. She is fighting for a better future for her seven-year-old son. He has spent the past 15 months living with his aunt in another country. "One week before the invasion, I got information that Russia was ready for war," she said. "So I just bought the tickets, and I told my son that it's better to be in a safe place. For him, it's a little bit difficult because he likes his school, his friends, and he is asking me every time, 'Mum, when I can go back home?' "I say to him 'a little bit later, please'. I'm happy that he never heard the sounds of explosions, and never heard the sound of sirens. It's important for his psychological health." To explain why she made the sacrifice of being separated from her son, Olha quoted her younger brother who had just won a law scholarship to study at Kyiv University. "My brother said, 'I don't want to study law because we don't need to study law if Russia comes to our country. There is no law in Russia and people have no rules'," she said. "So we have to defend our country. And then we can think about the future." Olha's family are originally from Kramatorsk in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine. She was there when Russian-backed separatists seized government buildings in 2014 at the beginning of the war. For her, this is another motivation to stay and fight. "I was a witness to Russian crimes, military crimes in 2014 when they entered our territories and took control," she said. "People got killed and tortured, and I cannot live with these things. I have to defend my country." Inside the Battle of Bakhmut In the long days and nights on the front lines in Bakhmut, Olha said she got to know her enemy. "In Bakhmut we've seen the real face of Russia. The face of murder. We've seen cruelties and medieval things," she said. Her unit, which serves inside the 241st Brigade, fought against the notorious Wagner mercenary group and other battalions from the Russian armed forces. Wagner famously recruited murderers, rapists and drug dealers from inside the Russian prison system. Their founder Yevgeny Prigozhin has estimated that 20,000 of their troops died in the city. Previously Wagner mercenaries have been accused of filming the execution of two of their recruits with sledgehammers after they allegedly deserted their units. Olha described Wagner units as "the most cruel and mad" she came up against and said they forced their own troops at gunpoint to de-mine her unit's defensive positions. "They were using people for de-mining territories. That's medieval. They were doing it to make a hole in our defence and then to attack our positions," she says. "Behind them were guys with machine guns in case they decided to go back, their commanders would kill them." By contrast, Olha said her unit always looks out for each other. "Morale is very important for every unit. We are friends. Your team is your shelter. If there is bad morale, all of us could die," she said. Of 42 members of her unit, only three were professional soldiers prior to the invasion. Their ranks include lawyers, an economist, a surgeon and businessmen. "But after a year of war and three times in Bakhmut, probably all of us are professionals now," she laughed. "All of them have decided that the freedom is very important for them, and they can die for freedom." While some questioned Ukraine's strategy of trying to hold Bakhmut for as long as it could, Olha is adamant it made tactical sense. "It was the right strategy. Because if you put a finger in the mouths of Russians, they will bite off an arm," she said. "I think that we performed our combat task perfectly … their assault potential is now lower than before." Dispatches from the front While fighting in Bakhmut, Olha became a hit on TikTok, gaining over 130,000 followers thanks to her daily dispatches from the front lines. "That was not my idea," she said laughing. "I have a friend, and he said, 'You know, people in Ukraine don't have the right information about Bakhmut. They think that everything is very bad. So can you make a small video?' "Then I tried to make a video every day in Bakhmut and people started to be more confident in our success." With her growing online following, the woman known as Witch has become one of the faces of Ukraine's resistance against Russian invaders. Soon, she expects to be involved in Ukraine's counteroffensive, which could begin at any moment. Like all units that have been rotated from out of the front lines, Olha's platoon has been busy familiarising themselves with new equipment and tactics. "We have been studying and training so much for the counteroffensive," she said. "We've trained every day and have had very difficult, very exhausting trainings." Olha said her unit is confident they and the rest of Ukraine's armed forces can do the job when the time comes. "We have the support of our allies. We have good weapons. We have high motivation. We have really good people who knows how to fight, with good battle experience," she said. "So I'm sure that the counteroffensive will be successful." She’s a future president of Ukraine. No doubt about it. And she doesn’t know how much she wants @Brisketexan yet. She’ll learn, though. They all do.
-
Ukraine-Germany soccer match breaks out into chants of solidarity:
-
When she says "we'll do nothing," what does that actually mean? What exactly is Germany/NATO supposed to do to stop Russia from mining a titanium dioxide manufacturing plant? Doing nothing was 2014. What we're seeing now is most definitely doing something. It could be more, but it sure could be a whole lot less, too.
Football ... Basketball ... Baseball ... Other Sports ... Futbol ... 🤫995🤫 ... Gambling ... Movies & TV ... Music ... Hobbies ... Lulz ... Food & Travel ... Daily Texan ... Business and Markets ... Cloak Room ... Help ... For Sale ... Board Discussion ... Subscribe!... Donate!... COOKIE MONSTER!