"You don't spin up this kind of skyward muscle just to flex," said one observer.

Brett Wilkins Jun 16, 2025

Flight-tracking websites showed dozens of Air Force aerial refueling planes departing from military bases in the United States and heading to Europe on Sunday, fueling speculation of direct U.S. involvement in the widening Israeli-Iranian war.

Military-focused news sites reported that around 30 U.S. Air Force KC-135R and KC-46A tankers were identified by flight-tracking software in what The Times of Israelcalled an “unprecedented mass deployment” to Europe.

  • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.worldEnglish
    4·
    5 小时前

    Putin has done this multiple times now, and Trump is following up.

    The United Russia party has had a chokehold on Russian elections practically since the day the USSR was dismantled.

    There’s a lot more to their socio-economic dominance than Russia just starting new wars. RU controls the national media, they have deep roots in petrochemicals and finance and real estate, they’re mobbed up, they have control of the military across the officer’s corps, and they’re embedded all through local government.

    Putin could be the biggest peacenik hippie in Russia and that party wouldn’t budge from its perch.

    He’s doing these wars because he’s fascist. Not because he’s doing 11D politics chess.

    • Hotzilla@sopuli.xyzEnglish
      2·
      4 小时前

      Starting a war isn’t really 11D thing, it is more like “me big army, me attack” vibe. Even the orange orangutan can figure that one out.

      Russia has two exports, fossil energy and war. They know nothing else.

      Putin and his party are one and the same.

      • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.worldEnglish
        11·
        3 小时前

        Russia has two exports, fossil energy and war.

        Russia is the only country left with a functioning space program. Also, one of the few remaining virgin steel manufacturers, in large part thanks to their domestic supply of iron and cheap energy. And, like Ukraine, it is a major regional breadbasket (one of the knock on effects of the war has been a one-two punch to cereal exports into Africa and the Middle East).

        They don’t have the manpower that China and India enjoy, so they never properly built up their high end service and manufacturing base, even in the Soviet Era. But the “Russia’s just an oversized gas station” line doesn’t hold up to any kind of close inspection.

          • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.worldEnglish
            1·
            2 小时前

            60% of their export is fossil energy

            China, India, and Turkiye have been ravenous in their demand for petrochemicals. These sectors have been growing at a breakneck pace.

            it is a banana republic

            Which large US business conglomerate is extracting fruit produce from Russia through armed occupation at below market rates?

            • Hotzilla@sopuli.xyzEnglish
              1·
              32 分钟前

              https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banana_republic

              “In political science, the term banana republic describes a politically and economically unstable country with an economy dependent upon the export of natural resource.”

              They are so dependable on fossil fuel export that they try to sway all other nations to use fossil fuels and generate crisis on it to tie other nations closer to it’s only source of power in global market. Russia has less GDP than Italy. They are not super power anymore, and every nation should try to get away from their fossil fuels.

              • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.worldEnglish
                1·
                21 分钟前

                https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banana_republic

                https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Fruit_Company

                it came to control vast territories and transportation networks in Central America, the Caribbean coast of Colombia, and the West Indies. Although it competed with the Standard Fruit Company (later Dole Food Company) for dominance in the international banana trade, it maintained a virtual monopoly in certain regions, some of which came to be called banana republics – such as Costa Rica, Honduras, and Guatemala.

                https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banana_republic#Etymology

                In the early 20th century, the United Fruit Company, a multinational corporation, was instrumental in the creation of the banana republic phenomenon. Together with other American corporations, such as the Cuyamel Fruit Company, and leveraging the power of the U.S. government, the corporations created the political, economic, and social circumstances that led to a coup of the locally elected democratic government that established banana republics in Central American countries such as Honduras and Guatemala; No official apology has ever been done by any banana company or the U.S. with only the C.I.A. backed dictator of Guatemala apologizing in 2011

                :-|

                They are so dependable on fossil fuel export that they try to sway all other nations to use fossil fuels

                Ah, Okay. I think I understand the problem here.

    • Zenith@lemm.eeEnglish
      1·
      5 小时前

      Everything you said is true of the GOP/American Right as well, and they do it the same way, through oligarchy, it’s just a matter of they having more time to ratchet it down where the US is just getting its official start, although it’s been working behind the scenes towards this for decades too