@Steelhers not just you. Guessing the sudden influx is impacting a few things.

And now, #CoSo is approaching 100,000 users! Unreal.

Welcome, all newcomers! Counter.Social has been around a bit, and has seen lots of improvements.

I came here nearly five years ago, in part, because The Bird was overflowing with influence-campaign propaganda that @th3j35t3r took pains to prevent here. But I stayed for the people.

"Webb telescope's new dazzling photos prove it has perfect vision"

https://mashable.com/article/nasa-james-webb-telescope-focused

"Astronomers Tease 'Groundbreaking Result' of Milky Way's Black Hole"

https://www.cnet.com/science/space/astronomers-tease-groundbreaking-result-of-milky-ways-black-hole/

"Eight years later, an explosion far out in space is still revealing secrets about the lives of stars"

https://phys.org/news/2022-04-years-explosion-space-revealing-secrets.html

Welcome, all!

@gooner_73 welcome to CoSo!

@SteppinRazor the scary thing is it's believable that Russia would say that (I think it's a modification of a real RT Tweet)

@JeSsA thanks! I've been here a while, though not as active recently.

In at Counter.Social before all of the Tweeter realizes there's something better, Elon or no.

@WhoopassGirl Disgusting and ridiculous. Seems like a certain contractor needs to lose his business!

I assume all of this has been wargamed out.

My main question is whether Putin would consider losing in Ukraine to be worth losing everything everywhere.

Because it appears to me the former outcome isn't an unrealistic possibility at this point, whether or not NATO gets involved more directly.

Here's where I hope that "deconfliction" thing is working. Because I would guess incoming missiles at a target that close might have triggered some interception preparations.

Seems rather escalatory, and I wouldn't be surprised to hear NATO troops watched this strike particularly closely.

@robmac oops -- I think you were discussing Rubio looking for an offramp :)

He's pretty craven, from what I've seen. He'll hitch his wagon to whoever he thinks will help him.

@robmac apart from the Rubio issue, those examining the Putin issue most closely (from what I'm seeing) don't seem to be expecting him to back down.

We all want him to, and by all rights, he should. He's responsible for the damage to Russia and Ukraine. But the actual expectation seems to be that hell double down, not least of which out of self preservation.

@mcfate @fathermal well, if it helps, I'm not about to start quoting him in general :)

I'm mostly interested in information -- and in this case, the possibility that his tweet offered a bit of a window into additional professional assessments.

@mcfate @fathermal that he does. The tweets over the last couple of days have been of a different nature.

It's entirely possible that this is his own take. But given his position on committees in the Senate, it's also possible he's relating what he's hearing