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PaperclipPerfector  12d ago (text post)   32006 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of April 14, 2025

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I have a pretty low opinion of the Ukrainian government's risk-assessment and strategy generally but even they surely wouldn't try to assassinate Trump, right?

Best case scenario, they get President Vance who is no Ukraine supporter.

Worst case scenario, shooting war with the United States?

If this really is an SBU operation, they've taken leave of their senses and are running on pure emotion.

What do they have to lose? They are doomed and Trump is making a show of not giving them weapons and trying to pressure them into surrender.

If I were a fanatical Ukrainian nationalist, Trump would be pretty high on my kill list right about now.

What do they have to lose?

If it came out that a Ukrainian operation assassinated the US president, they would lose all remaining support from the US. I don’t think even the staunch pro-Ukraine faction (i.e. congressional Democrats) would stand for that, “don’t assassinate the president” is a pretty stark red line. And what would be the gain? Trade anti-Ukraine Trump for anti-Ukraine Vance?

I suppose I could see a lone-wolf mentally-unstable fanatic type trying to kill Trump out of some sense of revenge but an intentional SBU op seems absurd.

If this really is an SBU operation, they've taken leave of their senses and are running on pure emotion.

I don't think so either. At this point I'm pretty sure SS has to be using jammers. (BTW Putin has been reputedly jamming the shit out of area around his limo since early 2010s so it seems someone knew about FPVs back then)

I think the scam angle is more likely.

I mean Kasparov got buzzed by the dongcopter back in like 08. It's not hard to imagine putting a bomb in there.

Yeah, I'm thinking there's someone in the fun and secretive part of Russian state who was just like me as a kid and wondering why you're not putting bombs in RC cars. Never got around to doing it as a kid only bc it was 1990s eastern Europe and we were just too poor, I think.

I developed tinnitus at age 8.

BTW Putin has been reputedly jamming the shit out of area around his limo since early 2010s so it seems someone knew about FPVs back then

Could also be jamming remote triggers on IEDs, but good security regardless.

How do they run their own comms I wonder.

Good question. I'm not a signals expert, but perhaps jamming everything except a narrow band for their own comms. The comms band is cycled regularly (daily?).

Same here but I think it's hard to do stuff like that, or at least was hard.

Also in Ukraine they're not doing that..

It’s safer to try and convince some schizo cutout to do it and hope he succeeds than to risk using someone competent who can actually be firmly connected to Ukraine. If you look at CIA assassination manuals from the 1960s they actually talk about this, and techniques for convincing a mentally ill political radical to try something.

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