There was a time when I was willing to give media reports, especially those in newspapers, the benefit of the doubt. No longer. I now start with the assumption that the reporters are being fed a meme generated by the intelligence community. A case in point, a piece in the Washington Examiner by Joel Gehrke, The West is Losing Weapons Production Race to Russia, NATO Ally Says.
The article is sourced to the secretary of Estonia’s Defense Minister, who makes the following claim:
Russia ’s defense industry has “almost doubled” its prewar ammunition production rates, according to a senior NATO member defense official who estimated that Ukrainian forces could face as many as 10,000 incoming rounds per day.
“Russia can still manufacture a lot of dumb bombs,” the Estonian defense minister’s permanent secretary, Kusti Salm, told reporters in Washington this week. “And dumb bombs are also 152 [mm] artillery that does the most damage in the battlefield. … Shooting 10,000 artillery [rounds] a day makes a lot of damage.”
Mr. Salm is being disingenuous at best. Yes, Russia is manufacturing “dumb bombs,” but Salm declines to admit that Russia also is producing a prodigious amount of “smart” bombs and missiles. Why did he fail to mention that salient point? Is he truly ignorant of Russia’s activities on that front or is he reluctant to expose the clay feet of the Western narrative?
That assessment complicates the picture of Western efficiency and Russian military incompetence that appeared over the last year. Russia’s logistical preparations for the war have attracted scorn in Western public discourse, . . . .
Yet Salm, a senior defense official for one of the only NATO allies that share a border with Russia, acknowledged that “mobilization has had an effect and the line has been stabilized,” whatever the shortcomings of the mobilization process. And he expressed displeasure with those who underestimate Moscow.
At this point Mr. Gehrke veers back to the meme that Russia’s mobilization is no big deal because Moscow scooped up a bunch of inexperienced office workers and threw them into the front-lines as cannon fodder. His source? The Moscow Times, which is based in Amsterdam and is the kind of outlet that the CIA or British Intelligence would use to spread their false meme.
Gehrke continues with Salm:
“It’s not actually very much if you have 30 million people in the mobilization reserve; you can afford it,” Salm said, referring to Russia’s losses. “And losing 1,400 tanks is a lot of tanks … but it’s bearable if you have done 10,000 in the stocks. Even if you can make one working [tank] out of three, still you have many times more tanks than European allies.”. . .
“All mobilized soldiers have the new digital uniforms — all of them,” the Estonian defense official observed. “It means that their military was prepared for these numbers. Mobilized soldiers haven’t showed up in Second World War uniforms. It means that they were prepared. They knew. They know what they’re doing.”
There is a grudging acknowledgement — after months of insisting that Russian troops are sporting threadbare uniforms we now learn that those “conscripts” are wearing genuine Ninja gear. A digital uniform means that the soldiers are kitted in camouflage that makes them harder to detect. Hmmm.
Salm offers this depressing tidbit:
“The allies are getting to the realization that it’s going to be a longer war. It’s going to be an extremely costly war,” Salm said. “And, in order to manage this strategy, you need to have an end goal. … The reason why we are not there, I guess, is the cost in itself, the fact that a lot of the ammunition stocks have been depleted in Europe. It’s a problem in itself that you need to deal with.”
How does Europe deal with that “problem?” Is it going to magically create ammunition factories and acquire the necessary metals to produce artillery shells in the face of skyrocketing energy costs? How exactly does Europe jump over this barrier? Short answer, it does not.
Salm closes with this “sunny” assessment:
“The price tag, we know, is going to be a large one,” he said, “probably much larger than the bills that the Congress have put forward and definitely much higher than European allies have put forward.”
So the meme is shifting from “Russia is losing and has crappy equipment” to “Russia’s ability to produce crappy equipment is strong and the West is running out of supplies and needs more money.” A lot more!! You do not have to be a skilled military or intelligence analyst to recognize the delusional thinking on the part of Salm. No country in Europe is in an economic position to ramp up spending and military production. Even if they could the fruits of increased production are at least one to two years away.
Ukraine’s fate hinges on whether or not the United States will continue to pour money and materiel into Kiev’s rat hole. The United States, economically, resembles a tottering Jinga tower — Washington shifts money from domestic priorities and stacks more on top of Ukraine. As in the game Jinga, the longer this goes on the more unstable the tower.
I have read that the Russians use gps, satellites and drones with their “dumb bombs” to make them smart at a far cheaper price than all those electronics in the noses of “smart bombs” of the west.
And 10k per day is low from what I read.
Yes, I believe their bombers are now equipped with a device that controls the exact moment to release the bombs so they hit precisely – much cheaper than a smart bomb like the US produces.
I am always reminded of the Russian “space pencil”.
similar to pencil, I agree. But private arms manufacturers want to supply Montblancs to write down shopping list!
The device is designated as SVP-24. Already in use since Syrian campaign.
Once I saw a video about guiding-upgraded bombs used in Syria to destroy IS positions. They simply use a guidance device with fins. They can attach it to the bomb and it glides into the target using GPS similar to the guidance of Krasnopol shells. Krasnopol uses a laser thou.
Apparently the problem in Syria was that you need an Orlan-10 drone to direct the Krasnopol (which comes in both laser and GPS/Glonass versions). Instead of dealing with all that hassle the Syrians preferred to send 3-4 dumb shells to do the work. Dumb artillery has been the God of war for centuries. It won’t go away this year.
Somewhere I also read that the Russians want to start mass producing these smart shells. But a problem is that if the enemy finds a way to neutralize the shell’s “smartness” the whole arsenal must be upgraded. Dumb shells can’t be neutralized.
The guidance system communicates with the bomber, not GLONAS. Off-loading the satellite positioning function to the bomber allows a much simpler system positioning the munition relative to the bomber to be attached to the munition itself, lowering the cost barrier to using precision guided bombs.
Yes. I read this about a year ago.
Victor. J.Walter
true, i think Martyanov or southfront wrote about it during the Syria campaign.
And i have read about the system on Rusvesna, but i must admit i do not know what to search for bc i do not remember the systems name😳
They use ballistic computers for more accurate use of dumb munitions (like those air launched rockets fired upwards). Those are more expensive than single smart bomb upgrade, but you only need one per aircraft.
Not GPS, but GLONASS 😉
Read that. It monitors all the variables and the object is to drop the bomb at the precise condition to hit the target. With smart bombs a lot of the expensive guidance stuff blows up with the bomb.
For some reason I am reminded of a story from Yemen where a US gov smart bomb destroyed a bus full of school kids. The use of cost benefit analysis goes right out the window when your foreign policy amounts to spreading mayhem in every country that doesn’t kiss your butt.
Using technology against the enemy. Techies talk a lot about data, data drives world, etc.. It is changing sports in a big way.
Pretty smart to say how can we fire more exp!osive than rhe enemy per dollar spent. More shells increases probability of injuring, maiming, and killing of opponent. Moneyball in baseball. Put as many men on base per dollar spent. Use players with high on base percentage. That may be rhe .220 hitter who gets a walk every 6 at bats
The Russian defense industry serves the state, not the other way around as in the US. This means that the Russians are practical. They don’t waste money on what is essential war toy doodads. They re-design, repurpose, and re-develop. A BMP3 might look like a BMP2 but it aint. Ditto Su 30s and 35s look a lot like Su27s but they are not. As I write here:
https://julianmacfarlane.substack.com/p/much-ado-about-nothing-western-wunderwaffen
Larry,
The Jinga Tower reminds me of the movie The Big Short. Then as now, magical money theory will be our undoing in the West. Just how long our money monkeys keep the virtual money suspended in limbo land to fund this insanity remains unknown. However it almost always starts when the politicians disconnect money from its physical commodity base by fractional reserve banking policies. The business cycle is cyclical but what drives it remains ultimately mysterious, apart from the fact that it’s human created. It reduces down to the belief that producing nothing makes one wealthy. And any culture based on this fundamental economic flaw will be doomed to collapse.
Fractional reserve lending and who profits is what the war is about. 250000 dead Ukrainians never realised who they are fighting for. They are fighting for international bankers and the largely privately owned and controlled central banking system.
Fractional reserve lending and who profits is what the war is about. 250000 dead Ukrainians never realised who they are fighting for. They are fighting for international bankers and the largely privately owned and controlled central banking system.
What drives the business cycle isn’t mysterious. It is the actions of the central bank. That is, the central bank causes the business cycle. Austrian economists laid this out a long time ago. You can learn more about it if you research Austrian Business Cycle Theory (ABCT).
Its the theory that makes sense to a lay person like myself. Economics was a boring subject before I read the Austrian theory. It accords with the real world.
This is wrong and has always been wrong. Profit determines investment, output and employment. Profit rates determine the business cycle. Central Banks do not overdetermine accumulation. The Austrian school was a last ditch effort of liberal thought to preserve the fiction that markets are optimal and efficient and self-correcting if only government doesn’t get in the way. It’s fantasy with no connection to reality.
Booms and busts determine the business cycle. Booms and busts are caused by printing money.
Troll alert. Don’t feed the troll.
And agree with Steven below regarding his mention of Michael Hudson. If folks really want to understand how the masses are being exploited, Hudson is spot on in my opinion.
I read “Money, Bank Credit and Economic Cycles” by Jesus Huerta de Soto. It explains the history of banking and all about fractional reserve, and Austrian Business Cycle Theory in language any layman can easily understand. The last chapter is his proposal for a free banking system with full reserve banking. A fantastic book.
Fractional reserve banking is essential to the function of a bank. It predates the Renaissance. If a bank has to keep all its deposits in a vault, it cannot make loans or invest in anything. In that case, depositors must pay the bank a fee to store their money.
The size of the reserves is the important question, and it must be related to the risk of default.
When a modern bank makes a loan, it actually creates money. Regulators determine what the fractional reserve must be, and any amount on deposit over that can be loaned out. The loan creates a money account for the borrower, but it does not reduce the amounts owed to the original depositor, so there is actually more money in circulation.
There is a lot of nonsense about fractional reserve banking out there, but if it didn’t exist you would have to pay for everything, cars, houses, medical expenses, college tuition from whatever cash you had on hand. No cash; no college.
Couldn’t a public bank create money? Need a mortgage to buy a house, the public bank gives you the money without interests, and which you pay back over 30 years. The public bank would be part of the US Treasury.
Time value of money.
Without interest, there is no time-value of money.
This is essentially what Japan has done in recent years, 30-ish year mortgages with almost negligible interest (fixed ~1%, variable ~0.5%). Of course it still goes out through “private” banks, but the Bank of Japan sustains the entire scheme. It sustains a construction boom, with wider benefits for the economy. But it recently ran into foreign exchange difficulties after the US Fed started hiking rates, so not sustainable forever. Surprisingly ~80% of borrowers took variable instead of fixed, perhaps penny-wise pound-foolish.
Fractional reserve is a tool of the 1% used to manipulate and exploit the masses. Without fractional reserve what Michael Hudson calls financial capitalism would not be possible.
I don’t see hoe Blankenship and Nuland can even show themselves in public.
These people have no shame. They have one big ego.So yes, you will see them again in public.
Sociopaths gotta sociopath.
Vickie can’t help but show herself. Not enough cover of any kind on the planet to hide THAT!
I sometimes wonder if these officials really believe what they say. Can they really be that dumb and (or) in denial ? Other examples like Borrell, von der Leyen, Truss or Biden would suggest so. OTOH, the recently resigned spin-doctor Arestovych would suggest otherwise.
Being located in Europe, I am really worried about our future here.
However having lived through the collapse of the Eastern Bloc, I know that a system can announce plans for the next century, and then suddenly collapse in a matter of days.
They know they are telling bald faced lies, they know we know they are telling baldfaced lies – but they simply do not care.
As long as they stay capable of either fooling or intimidating effectively most of their population, they will keep on going … and changing narratives creatively along the route
They are skilled in both (fooling & intimidating), that “makes” for their utter lack of other abilities
Regarding the obvious lack of intelligence exhibited by the likes of Borrell, von der Leyen, Truss, and Biden, I’ve been considering this:
When a true genius appears, you can know him by this sign: that all the dunces are in a confederacy against him. — Jonathan Swift
One thing it seems they really believe: that Putin aggressiveley invaded a free and democratic country. If it was not free and democratic then that’s because the Russians interfered there already before.
I was shocked to meet a friend from the foreign ministry, she had never heard of “Minsk”. But the “Budapest Memorandum” they all cite.
Now, it seems they are going to rewrite the past: Nobody should think that we were living well with the Russians for 30 years. It is about who to blame for that these cooperations started at first place, who has willingly or by misjudgement brought us into these ties with evil Putin.
Where I live it’s called Jenga. Must be some copyright thing.
They will methodically move the ramparts of BS defense only back as far as needed.
I can’t find it on amazon under “Jinga”, so either obscure brand thing, or get this, Larry’s expertise isn’t in wooden children’s toys.
Where’s an MSM reporter when you need one huh? I bet they’re expert in children’s toys.
I bet there are a lot of Syrian soldiers from the Tiger forces Unit fighting in the Wagner Formations …
Syria needs every soldier it has. They have been fighting since 2012.
I read there are very large numbers of Syrian volunteers (can’t remember if that was in general or Wagner specifically, but the latter sounds more plausible).
It’s something called gratitude!
Equating cost with money is out of paradigm.
It is a matter of “real resources ” money is not a real resource. Money is created by fiat.
Anything that is physically possible undertaken by a sovereign nation that has access to the required real resources, is never, ever subjected to a financial constraint.
Unfettered access to real resources such as raw materials, human capital, industrial know how and so on are the only real constraints.
For example:
The US Federal government can purchase anything it wishes at any US dollar amount from the world at large that is for sale in US dollars. Period
The US Federal government creates US dollars by fiat (spending) and destroys US dollars by fiat (Taxation).
The above holds true for all nations that are sovereign in their own currencies.
The European nations that have adopted the Euro are not sovereign in their own currencies and cannot be equated to those nations which are.
Therefore, the question is ; which nation(s) in the West have access to the needed real resources required to physically produce the requirements of military ?
Political will is another topic 🙄
Therefore, the question is ; which nation(s) in the West have access to the needed real resources required to physically produce the requirements of military ?
Great summary. It took me a long time to understand what MMT was actually saying.
Johnny you made the point I was going to make – to elaborate, the factories and trained machinists, and functional supply chain, and manufacturing administrative support need to be available (they need to exist), or else it will take far more than a few years. Europe, under US neo-liberalism guidance, also has been shipping its industry to China (to successfully break its unions’ powers).
Long covid and covid (and the vax) remove something like 5-10% of the US labor force at any time – and that is devastating the supply chain.
It seems to me the Estonian Defence Minister’s comments are part of preparation for an exit strategy for the West. Something like, “well, we tried our best and gave it everything (‘literally’) we’ve got but it just wasn’t enough to stop those awful Ruskies.” Perhaps the ‘strategy’ (the word deserves scare quotes when applied to the glorious West) is to propose “we lost the battle (Ukraine) but the war (weaken/destroy Russia *then* China) goes on. We need more more more money for war, sorry, defence.”
Changing the subject only slightly, what with Germany giving its Panzers (oops, I meant Leopards) to Ukraine, we may be treated to the sight of tanks bearing the Iron Cross in battle with Russian tanks. And this, only a few hundred km from Kursk. That’s sure to make the Ruskie population clench its collective (not). As we used to say when I was much much younger, “Fuckin’ far out, man.” 🙂
One can only hope/pray, as Douglas Macgregor recently opined, the senior American military leadership strongly counsels against direct engagement.
Not to worry. Russia mainly takes out tanks with precision missiles.
The Germans got tricked by the suicide pact trick by the US. “You kill yourself today and I will do the same right after you…”
Given how transparently stupid it is, I have to assume somebody is getting greased to make this happen. Like Nordstream, it’s too obviously against Germany’s interest.
The cultural self hatred is powerful, and ironically built on the concept of racial or national guilt for the Third Reich. Penance owed for the sins of others is a repulsive anti-individualist idea built on medieval religious values.
Here’s the latest from Politico: Ukraine can’t retake Crimea soon, Pentagon tells lawmakers in classified briefing.
The assessment from the DoD officials is likely to anger Kyiv, which wants to recapture the peninsula from Russia.
Ukrainian forces are unlikely to be able to recapture Crimea from Russian troops in the near future, four senior Defense Department officials told House Armed Services Committee lawmakers in a classified briefing. The assessment is sure to frustrate leaders in Kyiv who consider taking the peninsula back one of their signature goals.
The briefers included Laura Cooper, deputy assistant secretary of defense for Russia, Ukraine and Eurasia, and Lt. Gen. Douglas Sims, director of operations on the Joint Staff.
https://www.politico.com/news/2023/02/01/ukraine-crimea-russia-pentagon-00080799
So, a “classified briefing”, almost certainly intended to change the narrative, is on the internet almost as soon as the meeting ends. Likely to anger Kiev? I’d say it will send Elensky into orbit, all things being considered. I’d be interested to hear what others think of this.
“So, a “classified briefing”, almost certainly intended to change the narrative, is on the internet almost as soon as the meeting ends.
Yes, there are parties actively try to re-frame the Overton window so that public discourse has a connection to actual events that cannot be hidden. There are an increasing number speaking up so we’ve seen the window frame shifting for a couple of weeks now.
Soon the numbers that see that the window is shifting will start to grow exponentially and we’ll see a minor scramble to fit in. Gonna be interesting to see what excuses and rationales make it into the window and which are excluded.
Overton window – excellent conceptualization, had not heard of it before. Thanks for that insight.
Yesterday, Alexander Mercouris of The Duran said that according to a high Ukrainian official, Ukraine’s defense minister, Reznikov is on his way out. When you add to this the death of the interior minister in a helicopter crash and the removal of several other pro Zelensky officials from office including his former spinmeister within the last two weeks, I wonder if Z himself is going to take the walk one way or another. He seems to be a recalcitrant puppet who’s trying to shed his strings. Reminds me of the 1963 US led coup of the Diem regime in South Vietnam. That ended badly for the Diem brothers.
If Kiev were really serious about taking Crimea back then it should ready itself to be brutalized and mauled to death by Russia. I have zero doubt about this.
There’s a disconnect between the West’s “lies & delusions” and the realities of this war post-April 2022. I’m as guilty as anyone, but chalking the West’s behaviour up to “delusion” is starting to seem too easy, not to mention that it doesn’t explain anything.
After April, the AFU had ceased to be an organized fighting force. Its ground forces were in disarray, and its air force and navy had ceased to exist. There was no strategic path to victory and it beggars belief that NATO’s General Staff and Defence Ministries didn’t know it, whatever they may have thought in February.
That the lies re: “Ukraine is winning” cranked up to 11 suggests they had a more cynical purpose that only lying could serve. That, in turn suggests that the war itself had acquired a purpose other than “winning”.
The only rationale that makes sense to me is that the goal, whatever it was at the start, had turned into making Ukraine into a poison pill. Crimea’s loss had greatly devalued the Maidan’s success, but after Russia destroyed the AFU in April 2022 while leaving the country intact, the West was left with no strategic option other than to make the inevitable as unpalatable to Russia as possible.
To that end, first the world’s Soviet, then ever more lethal Western arms and “training” were drip fed into the AFU to keep it on life support while keeping the regime afloat financially so it could kidnap the maximum number of conscripts for the meat grinder. To top it off, 40% of Ukrainian territory has been set with mines and booby traps. $10Bs spent so that a maximally destroyed Ukraine gets ceded to Russia when the time comes.
Brzezinski said that “… if Moscow regains control over Ukraine… Russia automatically again regains the wherewithal to become a powerful imperial state, spanning Europe and Asia.” Russia regaining a de-populated, destroyed Ukraine will delay matters, and that’s as much as the West can hope for.
Therein, I believe, lies the method in the West’s apparent madness.
That makes a lot of sense!
“This, I believe, is the method of the obvious madness of the West.”
The method of the obvious madness of the West lies in the basic principle of all global politics: “You die today so that I can die tomorrow” – the principle of destruction and decay.
The new world order that Russia is proposing should be based on the principle: “I will help you survive today, recover and start developing so that we become richer and happier tomorrow.”
“Russia’s return of depopulated, destroyed Ukraine will delay the case, and this is all the West can hope for.”
The fact is that the restoration of what was destroyed in Ukraine is in itself an incentive for the development of the Russian economy.
And what will the West get from the destruction of Ukraine? In the best case – the development of the military-industrial complex for the future. At worst, tens of millions of hungry and angry emigrants, social tension and ears from a dead donkey to boot.
In the aggregate, restoration of what was destroyed does not advance an economy. That’s known as “the broken window fallacy”. You’re paying twice for the same thing. Ideally, UA would’ve surrendered back in April and Russia would’ve captured it intact.
As it is, UA will have to be de-mined and its infrastructure restored before its human. industrial and natural resources can be leveraged into geo-political power. That will take time. Especially its human resources which may take generations.
The West, I assume, will take that time to try to regroup. What it is at the end of that process is a world-historical question.
What you say suggests two things: (1) that it took Russia only eight weeks to reduce one of the best NATO-trained armies to a compost pile and to do so with a severely self-limited force; and (2) that, while the West may have ‘gifted’ Moscow with territory that’s heavily mined, Moscow in exchange has dismantled the West’s entire global monetary/political arrangement while simultaneously exposing its combined military forces as weak and fraudulent. Looks to me as though President Putin leaves this card game with the entire kitty plus the pants, shirts, and shoes of all the other players.
(1) it was still quite a bit more than a “compost pile”, but the AFU had lost its ability to fight in large formations, say beyond brigade level. Wars are won on the strategic and operational levels and the AFU had been reduced to fighting tactically.
(2a) “Entire” monetary arrangement overstates the case. The USD still buys stuff anywhere and the institutions governing its flow and use are still very active.
Rather, the sanctions kickstarted the use of the alternate systems that Russia and esp. China had been putting in place for a while. That caught everyone’s attention and now there’s a queue at the BRICS application window.
(2b) Syria first exposed the USM as a fraud. Ukraine extended that to NATO, putting any remaining doubts to bed. The exposure extends from weapons’ combat efficacy through the tactical, operational and strategic levels. It also exposed the gap between the two MICs. In intensive, extended conflicts, Russia’s ability to supply its forces with materiel simply dwarfs NATO’s.
The players are still at the table and there’s a lot of hands left to play. I wouldn’t be counting winnings yet.
My suspicion is that goals of this fool’s errand are to funnel as much elicit cash as they (US) can laundering it through Ukraine and back to the corrupt politicians’ pockets, and to run cover until they can hopefully make all the embarrassing intel disappear – stuff like the bioweapons research, etc.
They have to know they’re losing and it’s a waste of money on the war front, so logically it has to be about something else. The kickbacks (some related to FTX) and shady bio-warfare stuff make some sense – keep the cash cow as long as you can fleecing the American public (remember a lot of the aid is cash), laundering the kickbacks through vehicles like FTX, and while you’re at it burn up all the bio-warfare files.
Zelenskyy is likely in on it and is happy to keep it going as he, in all probability, is banking a cut. Plus he likely has “insurance” as protection. He’d be nuts (or nuttier than he seems) not to have this. Once the gig is up, the compliant media will run whatever cover story the deep state wants.
“…There was a time when I was willing to give media reports, especially those in newspapers, the benefit of the doubt. No longer. I now start with the assumption that the reporters are being fed a meme….”
So true; MoA has a salient passage on his website from the Spanish Civil War;
Early in life I have noticed that no event is ever correctly reported in a newspaper, but in Spain, for the first time, I saw newspaper reports which did not bear any relation to the facts, not even the relationship which is implied in an ordinary lie.
I saw great battles reported where there had been no fighting, and complete silence where hundreds of men had been killed. I saw troops who had fought bravely denounced as cowards and traitors, and others who had never seen a shot fired hailed as the heroes of imaginary victories; and I saw newspapers in London retailing these lies and eager intellectuals building emotional superstructures over events that had never happened.
I saw, in fact, history being written not in terms of what happened but of what ought to have happened according to various ‘party lines’.
George Orwell, Looking back on the Spanish War, Chapter 4
I thought you (or Orwell) was going to mention examples like the bombing of Gernika: done by the nazi stukas, the fascist spanish rebelds said the Republica was the one to blame.
(Like nowadays when Russians are accused of bombing the nuclear plants they seize or the refugees that are coming towards their territory).
I am afraid that the statement of the Estonian politician, as well as of all others who recognize the military strength of Russia, only means a call to raise the stakes, to invest more in the Ukrainian proxy army. Larry notices this too, and wonders if the West has the strength to raise the stakes. I am afraid that the West still has resources and will invest everything it has because the stake is high.
Defeat means the disintegration and definitive disintegration of the unipolar world, victory means taking over Russia’s resources and maintaining the hegemony of the West. The Russians know that too, and they won’t budge even a millimeter. If we add to this that there is still enough Ukrainian live meat, there are all the prerequisites for a long-term conflict.
Investigators search Kolomoisky:
https://kyivindependent.com/national/law-enforcement-raids-houses-of-notorious-oligarch-controversial-ex-minister-tax-office-head-and-others
On Biden’s orders…
Yeah, Diaperface told the Ukie authorities “just use the ole’ classified docs in the garage ploy.”
The US Secretary of State the Jewish Antony Blinken returns from Israel after dropping a message off in Tel Aviv for Netanyahu.
As soon as Blinken returned from Israel, the Israeli government announced they are considering sending an Iron Dome missile system to Kiev. It is being reported “this has left Russia fuming.” Putin & Co. in Moscow have issued a deterrent to the Israeli government.
According to Maria Zakharova, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson, “anyone speculating about sending any weapons to Ukraine is escalating the conflict; don’t try to provoke us.”
More provocation this time from Israel
https://abeldanger.blogspot.com/2023/02/more-provocation-this-time-from-israel.html
Fascinating the lengths we go through to support such an awful place as Ukraine is now that we have ruined it completely. I wonder what Blinken threatened them with? On the other hand, it would be equally interesting to see a few F-35’s shot down over Lebanon should Israel send Ukraine an Iron Dome system. Russia has been able to sit out the continuous affronts to Syria and Iran but could very easily decide to do more. Al Tanf is an egregious insult as is Deir Ezor. One missile each and they would stop being an irritant.
There is talk that the destruction and depopulation of Ukraine will enable the novo-Israel. Ukraine is the real homeland of the Khazarian Jews + Israelis don’t feel very comfortable at all in Palestine.
Yes, I have heard & read that too, I have some bookmarked, & these were the quickest ones I could find.
“There’s a secret plan for the reverse migration of the Jews back to their Khazarian homeland.”
http://stateofthenation.co/?p=107962
“NATO is Khazaria in Drag”
https://www.henrymakow.com/2022/04/russia-khazaria-ukraine.html
Also, the US sending “aid” to Ukraine has been a HUGE money laundering operation, which was massive until FTX’s implosion. I’m sure they found some other manner to complete the laundering without FTX’s assistance, it’s wayyyy too much money for the greedy psychopaths to pass up…
I have countless bookmarks covering FTX & all of its connections, what it had done & was doing, from quite a few different websites & authors…
https://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2022/11/14/the-washington-dc-uniparty-surfaces-in-ftx-crypto-exchange-political-contributions/#more-239792
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2022/11/ftx-ceo-sam-bankman-fried-admits-ftx-crypto-laudromat-ukrainian-government/
It was always going to come down to a logistics-based dominance. Russia simply has more stuff (troops and equipment) closer and had 8 years to get their ducks in order. At this point is a war of attrition with Ukraine burning through crops and equipment. Regarding Russian equipment, it is designed to be the lowest cost to get the maximum benefit. It is also designed to be operated and repaired by normal people (idiot-proof). The technical stuff is always run by officers and not enlisted soldiers. Tanks and helicopters have a life span of minutes in an actual battle. Pouring a lot of money into tanks is simply stupid, especially in the days of drones. All tanks are vulnerable on the tops. Russia has a layered AD defense and ours is hopelessly inadequate. We also are 100% dependent on air dominance and cannot operate without helicopter insertions. So, in a slugfest, as we see in Ukraine western armies simply can’t fight equally. This only leaves nukes but can we actually deliver them on target?
I recall back in the REFORGER days in Germany we had 3 days of ammunition and a complete inability to fight past that point. I also recall in 1988 there was a battlefield simulation at the Warrior Prep Center that for the first time German Generals were permitted to attend. This was a completely automatic simulator based on actual capabilities. The Germans were in shock when the first thing the US did was a “wall of fire” along the entire West and East German border using tactical nukes. This was, after all, their country we simply and very casually destroyed. It meant nothing to us and nothing has changed since. The re-unification came within a year and I believe it was partially due to the revelation of US warfighting doctrine against the Soviet military (now inherited by Russia).
I will add having sat on the border in January pulling border guard duty along the Czech border in 1972 that we were always insane about how we planned things. We had an entire Division arrayed along the border at all times. However, much later in my career I was talking with one of my British counterparts on a joint exercise up in Marburg and I learned the Brits patrolled their section of the border (which is all flat territory by the way) by driving a jeep down the border once a week.
I also expect at some point Russia will finally lose its patience and fire off a few (or many) non-nuclear hypersonic missiles against NATO targets in western Europe probably beginning with Ramstein AFB and very likely both ABM sites in Poland and Romania. I would also expect the complete destruction of the entire logistics hubs in Romania, Poland, and Moldova (possibly Hungary as well). They could easily take out a few US bases at home as well just to prove the point. Russia also enjoys First Use dominance a thing that goes unmentioned in the west. The collective west has zero defense against a first strike by Russia. Russia, of course, doesn’t want that.
I also expect Lavrov to remind the US of the December 2021 treaties that were rejected and probably look pretty good now. Russia will be the one dictating terms which is something the US has never experienced before. The problem is can they deal with that?
Reforger. Good God, those clusterfucks have not crossed my mind in years. I remember a truly spectacular one. A previous MOS had been in Commo and they stuck me in a RATVAN with a little black Spec 4 female. The batteries died on everything, and we were in an isolated position by ourselves, and they forgot about us. 4 days later, and two spectacular hate fucks later someone wandered along and collected us.
Yeah, the stories I could tell. My favorite was sitting in an ambulance on the tank range at Grafenwoehr for 7 days at a time. Boom, boom boom! Then watching when an air ambulance lands near you and takes away a tank gunner who cut his hand off in the breach block. We were, literally sitting one tank over and no one even called us to respond. We felt pretty useless.
In that same range (the tank commanders qualification course TCQC) there was another ambulance from a sister unit about 5 tanks away and I noticed a long line at the back door. Wondering what was going on I sidled over and it was an ambulance manned by 2 female soldiers making a tidy profit in the world’s oldest trade. I have heard similar from friends in the Navy on ships.
Many years later in REFORGER 1988 I was the commander of the 10th MED LAB and dual-hatted as the S3 officer for the larger 10th Medical Laboratory Bn, which also had the 655th Blood Bank among others such as the Weisbaden Drug testing lab. I had 20 soldiers deployed around Germany providing blood support and like you, these soldiers were more or less abandoned in place. However, as a prior enlisted officer, I took my personal CUCV and picked them up one at a time. I had my Sergeant Major do the same in another vehicle. We also took them care packages during the week as these guys were generally attached to some head shed in the boonies, told to sit in a corner, and more or less ignored. Again, we felt pretty useless. However, later on, the 655th did a great job in the Iraq invasion (I was long gone by then).
A few months ago a nazi reddit group dedicated a whole subreddit to attack me and one of my cartoons. The cartoon in question (later stated on Twitter by Garland Nixon, and I have no idea where he found it) depicts a Ukranazi soldier surrounded by swastikas, Bandera flags, etc, confronting a Russian soldier in standard green camouflaged Ratnik gear. Among the other things these reddit nazis found to criticise was my “claim that the Russians still have any of their Ratnik gear left”.
And now their own Estonazian defence minister torpedoed their hypothesis.
Sad!
These people are mad beyond salvation. Infected with psychological rabies may even be appropriate.
If they’re simply treated as such, it allows for some internal consistency, else cognitive dissonance rears its ugly head and begins to drive one toward their own level of madness.
“Ukraine’s fate hinges on whether or not the United States will continue to pour money and materiel into Kiev’s rat hole.”
According to the Washington Post the US wants UA to pay back ALL American aid. The question ‘How?’ is not being answered.
https://russian.rt.com/inotv/2023-02-02/WP-Vashington-predupredil-Kiev-chto
WP: Washington has warned Kyiv that it will have to account for all American aid
The material is presented in the retelling of InoTV
US officials from the Department of Defense, the State Department and the US Agency for International Development, during a visit to Ukraine last week, warned the Kyiv authorities that they would have to account for everything sent to them from Washington, writes The Washington Post. “The importance of this message cannot be underestimated,” warned State Department Inspector General Diana Shaw.
The inspectors general of the Department of Defense, the State Department and the US Agency for International Development have warned Kyiv to account for the military and economic assistance it receives, reports The Washington Post.
During a visit to Ukraine last week, the heads of the departments of inspectors general of the three departments issued a message, which, according to the publication, can be translated as: “ Be prepared to account for everything that we give you. And keep fighting corruption .”
According to State Department Inspector General Diane Shaw, the trip ” provided us with an opportunity to communicate directly to the Ukrainian government the expectations of American taxpayers for transparency and accountability .”
“ The importance of this message cannot be underestimated ,” Shaw stressed, adding that all three agencies are “ committed to rooting out any fraud, waste or corruption ” that could hinder Ukraine’s victory.
According to US Agency for International Development Inspector General Nicole Angarella, the Americans made it clear that it was important for them to ” get timely and open access to information from the government of Ukraine to enhance the ability of the office of the inspector general to conduct independent audits and investigations .”
As The Washington Post recalls, the visit took place against the backdrop of growing dissatisfaction with the representatives of the Republican Party with the direction of more and more assistance to Kyiv. So, last year, Speaker of the House of Representatives Kevin McCarthy warned that the party would not issue a ” blank check ” to Ukraine.
However, the Democratic Party believes that there is nothing to worry about. So, according to Senator Chris Koons, he is not particularly concerned that American weapons end up on the black market ” in no small part because the Ukrainians use everything that we send them .”
“ I have repeatedly and directly brought to the attention of Ukrainian leaders the concern that we must continue to strengthen transparency and accountability measures in relation to all American assistance sent to Ukraine ,” Koons said.
LMAO!!! They’re on crack!! And probably a whole bunch of other drugs…
Expecting the Ukraine to pay it all back, with what?? They don’t have a functioning economy & will need to rebuild, but that costs money too (although supposedly BlackRock wants to help them with that, ah… more corruption). And, they want them to continue fighting corruption?? That is hilarious coming from one of the most corrupt countries & we’ve been using them for laundering money, 46 biolabs there, plus more Biden & deep state shenanigans (although hopefully Putin has destroyed all of them, as well as all of the tunnels used for trafficking).
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/01/pharma-msm-tech-intel-zelensky-deep-state-working-together-cover-bioweapons-ukraine-2/
If you are not from the east, you will not understand what corruption is. And the US government is not from the east.
https://www.dodig.mil/Ukraine/Oversight-Updates/Article/3282912/defense-state-and-usaid-inspectors-general-visit-kyiv/
Here is the pressrelease
Vital infrastructure news from Donetsk City https://www.kp.ru/daily/27460/4715279/
The Russian Defense Ministry has completed the construction of a new water conduit in the Donbass
A new hydraulic structure connected the wells of the village of Kipuchaya Krinitsa in the DPR and the Yuzhny water intake in the city of Donetsk
Specialists of the Military Construction Complex of the Russian Ministry of Defense have completed the construction of another water conduit to provide clean drinking water to residents of the Donetsk People’s Republic.
“The new hydraulic structure connected the wells of the village of Kipuchaya Krinitsa in the DPR and the Yuzhny water intake in the city of Donetsk. During the test work, military specialists fill the tanks, wash and disinfect communications. In the coming days, clean artesian water will begin to flow to the residents of Donetsk in the amount of 7,000 cubic meters per day,” the military department commented.
It should be noted that the construction of this conduit began in October 2022. During this time, a 36-kilometer pipeline was laid, pumping and transformer substations were built. The route passed through difficult sections with a large number of communications that had to be bypassed. Well construction continues today in the Kipucha Krinitsa area.
After the launch of this pipeline, military builders will start building a new water conduit from the Shevchenkovsky water intake in the Dokuchaevsky district to Donetsk.
Recall that this year, military builders in the Donbass began the construction of a larger water conduit that will run through the territory of the Rostov region and the Donetsk People’s Republic to the Seversky Donets-Donbass canal. The capacity of the conduit will be up to 300,000 cubic meters of water per day.
Earlier, Deputy Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation Timur Ivanov flew around the water conduit route with a working group. After the flyby, the military builders emphasized that this would be the eighth water conduit built by the Russian Ministry of Defense to provide water to the inhabitants of the liberated territories. (Earlier, military builders erected and launched the Chernovsky water conduit near Debaltseve, in Volnovakha, Rovenki, Dokuchaevsk, a line from the Khanzhenkovsky reservoir to the Seversky Donets canal, and so on).
I firmly believe the Russian target list for an escalated war in Europe is far beyond our comprehension.
Larry, on the topic of: “Journalist being fed propaganda” topic.
This absolves the professional, objective, Western journalist of any culpability. It almost makes them look like sad, uneducated fools who are trying hard to write the truth but are unable to see that they are being fed narratives.
I respectfully disagree. America/the west have been brainwashed into this idea that our journalistic vulture class is professional, independent and only seeks the truth no matter what. The reality, however, is that they hide behind the constitution and the fact that it is almost impossible to prove that they intentionally manufacture narratives in order to promote agendas. If you ask me, the MSM are the main reason why America is divided and is falling apart. They lend credence to all the bullshit policies, they whitewash all the moves to dumb people down, tax them to death, send all their tax moneys to private contractors and far away proxy wars – they are actively involved in producing and driving narratives and they do it hand in hand with their “handlers” from the department of state or defense or whatever department needs a manufactured narrative. Why? ‘Cause it is a gig that pays great money; it also brings fame – remember Wolf Blitzer riding on a tank into Iraq…
Sadly, nobody has found a way to hold these people accountable, some kind of an online “wall of shame” where their stories are deconstructed statement by statement and rated for “truthfulness”, together with their names next to it. If you are going to publish lines like “Soledar has no military value”, well, you should be called out on it and future employers (and readers) should be able to quickly look your name up and see what your “truth score” is, line by line. I bet that would stop 80% of the bullshit they write.
I second every crossed ‘t’, dotted ‘i’, comma, and exclamation point in your post. Our ridiculous media are the beating heart of what President Putin correctly labeled The Empire of Lies.
Unfortunately their billionaires owners like and want the journalistic control of narrative and the ability to manage markets.
A few days ago , a German military drop a non-convenient truth : German industry need energy and gas to make explosives.
“And … it’s gone.”
So, the Russian don’t have enough people to sell their gas to now, I wonder if they found a convenient way to use it ?
Russia have shifted their energy resources to the East. When you read of how the west has knee capped Russia via loss of energy revenues it is not entirely correct. Russia is still selling at a nice profit, does not need to buy energy from other countries in order to make energy as other countries do, and, can move completely away from supply energy to Europe and not miss the revenues.
European puppets have destroyed Europe. It will take 12 or so years for Europe to regain what they have lost. And…they will kiss the ass of Russia to get back those energy resources at a good price. European leaders have made certain that they will never be a economic or military threat to Russia ever again.
In 2020 oil was 39 U.S. dollars a barrel today it is 76 U.S. dollars a barrel. Does anyone really think Russia is being hurt with price caps on energy?
Moving gas from A to B is a lot harder than most people think … gas is gaseous and the physics of the thing is not helping.
“If you don’t read the newspaper you’re uninformed. If you read the newspaper you’re misinformed. ” Mark Twain.
Nothing new here. Mass media has been misinforming people since its inception. It has always been used to whip people up for war in Dimocracies. But for some reason, we think it was more truthful back in the old days. In WW1 the evil Hun chopped the arms off children, push pregnant woman out of windows and made soap out of human fat. The sh:t people fall for! I won’t even start on the fables of WW2.
Plato’s allegory of the cave applies: The priests have conned their flocks forever. “more shekels, please”.
When it is over, and we have lost the war? I have said this before. And I know people consider me a lunatic. The American war machine is turned on the American citizens. And they are building the infrastructure now.
https://amgreatness.com/2023/02/01/planned-new-fbi-hq-is-twice-the-size-of-the-pentagon/
They are building a new FBI HQ. Twice the size of the Pentagon. To wage war on us. The FBI controls the elections. If you read the news at all, you know they controlled the last two elections.
You can pretend you are going to fight them. You don’t understand how evil they are. They will kill your family. They will convict innocent men of pedophilia while a man who raped his daughter sits in the White House.
Make a plan on leaving. Build resources. Time to Didi Mau the fuck out of this AO.
“…, according to a senior NATO member defense official who estimated that Ukrainian forces could face as many as 10,000 incoming rounds per day.”
10,000 should be considered as a peaceful day on the front, considering that western sources claimed it went up to 50.000-60.000 a day.
True; approximately 60,000 rounds a day of mixed munitions are being fired by Russia. The Estonian Defense Minister is only down playing the numbers so the West does not look so weak in comparison to Russia.
To fire 60,000 a day means Russia has one huge stockpile as well as the capability to make from 40,0000 to 70,000 rounds a day.
Any words that come from the mouth of any Balkan leader is to be considered questionable and bias information. They have already proved themselves to be fools.
Baltic leader, you mean. Understandable how the two can be confused though.
We’ll be alright in the West though. A former NATO bigwig was just elected head of Chechnoslovenia, so after Ukraine, we’ll use them to slip the Chechnos into NATO and use them to free Sackishvilla and bring Georgia back around for membership. We’re always thinking and always on top of it, so no worries. Mission accomplished soon enough.
Estonia is in the Baltic region, but the last part applies to Balkan too (and most of Europe for that matter). 🙂
Palm slap to head! Yes, you are correct, I was thinking Baltic but wrote Balkan. 🙂
See also
https://aurelien2022.substack.com/p/they-say-they-want-rearmament
Article on Zero hedge, this morning about the Petro dollar, It seems every article on this miss’s the point, the US enslaved the rest of the world with this, they fluctuated the commodities and currencies to there advantage, like A Houdini magic trick, Then printed money out of thin air leveraging the system to infinity, buying the government’s of the world and the US, many are starting to under stand, the buying of the governments of Eastern Europe after the USSR collapse, but few are aware of the Buying of US, Cities, states, and local governments, through vote buying, Programs like Affordable housing, EBT cards and so much more. These are from the Excess money from the, Houdini ripoff” Money pumped in from the stock market, and US treasury, are why so many big corporations are woke, even if one person on a board, stands up and points it out. There is no Integrity and less leadership to stop it.
Not to mention anytime previously a country makes a move to stop using US dollars we declare a war on them. Russia, Iran, and China are just the next to do so. However, this time they actually succeeded and the idiots seized Russian sovereign assets which was the actual beginning of the end of the dollar. No one trusts the US to not seize their assets now hence why the Saudis and others are no shifting to alternate currency transactions that bypass US interference. That single move; albeit not the first time we have done it, was the first time against a large (and nuclear-armed) country like Russia, has doomed the dollar. Some believe Russia deliberately left $300 billion dangling out there as bait just to reveal the impunity (and stupidity) of the US. If true it was brilliant.
European Defense Ministers of various countries have said and written many words but, the only Defense Minister that has been correct about any of this Ukrainian involvement is Russia’s.
The very bias press can write what they choose to write but the day will come when all of them will eat much crow. At some point in the future the press will be held accountable for the words they have written. As will the leaders and subordinates of these European countries.
Since the beginning of the military operation, the Russian army, as well as its power structure, has not been playing around. They choose a way to respond to problems that arise in a responsible way.
Some misunderstand this model. Propaganda totally subverted this model and until now has given the impression that Russia is small in everything it does. They underestimated from a very early age the value of a strong and powerful country.
Therefore, it is more certain that we will see this same propaganda changing its image.
The Ukrainians are going to retake Crimea (presumably with a “thunder run?”), and then they are going to depopulate the peninsula of Russians, according to French TV talking experts.
https://www.bitchute.com/video/kU3hQ9C0fUpl/
It will be a painful process, they opine, this cleansing, history has shown this to always be the case, the uprooting of millions and forcing them to move elsewhere is unavoidably, a tragic business, but it must be done, because it has to be done.
Projection much, Frenchies?
So, the stated goal of the Russians, of demilitarizing and de-Nazifying Ukraine, always struck me as rather comical, when it was clear 40 days in that the intention of the SMO was to enter Ukraine on tip toes and then exit it as quickly as possible. How do you de-anything in a counry when the main element of your plan is to not be physically present when you implement it? You don’t.
And as we are all now more than aware, the Russians got stuck, and as a result, the Ukraine of today is a madhouse filled with weapons and Nazis, and not much else.
Which was the stated goal of the US in the beginning. Our brave Ukrainian freedom fighters will likely not last more than a month or two against the Russian onslaught, my Deep State Media mouthpieces informed me, but what they can do, is become like the Viet Cong, and melt into the fabric of society, only to reemerge here and there – and now and then! – in mostly urban settings, with the type of hand held weaponry that would allow them to launch truly spectacular inner city guerilla operations the Viet Cong could only dream of, and for an indefinite amount of time.
Decades possibly.
Col. Macgregor pointed out yesterday (and I will say, it is about time someone did), that the population of Ukraine has probably been cut at least in half, from roughly a pre-war total in the 41-43 million range to perhaps as little as 20 million today.
Is he right? I don’t know, but my guess is his figures are in the ballpark.
I’ve been following this British ex-pat vlogger Bald and Bankrupt for years now. He travels around central Europe and Russia (including the Donbas), and investigates the ruins, and the still plentiful intact remains, of Soviet society – all without judgement, if anything, mostly with a kind of thoughtful and loving reverence.
The reason I bring him up; he was in Kiev when the Russians invaded, and on Day 3 I think it was, he decided to leave via a Human Corridor, and so he got on the main train heading for Poland, and it was packed to the gills with young people for the most part, and general mood on the train seemed to be quite postive, certainly lacking the usual anxiety one might normally associate with such a mass exodus from one’s homeland.
And I remember thinking at the time, if the Russians should ever turn out the lights on these people, they’ll not only leave, they’ll thank them.
The Russians can empty this place in a matter of weeks, without any real applied violence, if that is their intention.
Are the Russians still turning out the lights? Well I just Googled “are the lights on in Kiev?” and the last answer given, from 3 days ago, is a qualified yes, Kiev is back up to 19 hours a day.
All the answers before that are from November till mid-December.
What a strange, strange war this had been.
According to CIA’s factbook:
As of 24 January, 2023, approximately 17.92 million people had fled Ukraine, and 5.91 million people were internally displaced as of 5 December 2022.
https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/ukraine/
Thanks for the information.
So we can conclude it would seem that most of the exodus and internal displacement in Ukraine transpired BEFORE the Russians started to tenderly nibble away at the country’s electric grid.
Which I find interesting. The Russians are creating a wasteland in certain sectors of what is now legally their own sovereign territory, but for the most part, they’ve left untouched the sovereign territory of their enemy.
And yet the civilian population of their enemy is running away, which leads me to consider the possibilty that they are unpatriotic at best, and treasonous at worst.
Their men men folk are dying by the tens of thousands every month on their behalf, you would think the least they could do is stick around and cheer them on.
It’s hard to say if there is a grand strategy or not. During the Cold War NATO envisioned itself against a giant Soviet juggernaut. NATO was not designed for the long fight. They hoped to blunt a Soviet advance within the first week or so and everyone would get wise and go home or go to the negotiating table. If that didn’t happen, nukes would fly. As such, the war would be fought with the weapons on hand. Weapons could be as complex as needed to be the most effective. You weren’t going to have time to worry about production or cost. Who cared if a weapon was very hard to produce quickly if it was really effective? As long as it was easy enough to get sufficient numbers in the years leading up to what was anticipated, it was fine.
For thirty years the focus has been off the traditional NATO roles with insurgencies and brush fire wars taking precedence. Big systems were ignored and allowed to age. Boondoggles we’re allowed to persist because what we had was good enough for goat herders. But now?
The war in Europe is neither quick nor small. It’s a large grinding war requiring massive amounts of equipment. And no western equipment is easy to produce nor was it ever imagined that huge numbers of it would need to be produced. And the Russians always had massive amounts of equipment stockpiled that was marginally inferior, but much more easily brought into a state of readiness. In addition the Russian economy is much more old fashioned and industrial. The Russians now have the advantage and it will only increase. Any tank, even one taken off a WW II monument and put into service, is superior to no tank.
I personally think that the sweet spot for a long conventional war would be 1960s technology. Vastly effective, but still much more readily produced than today’s crap.
The West HAS TO declare victory and walk away or they will find themselves completely unarmed. They can’t keep feeding weapons into this meat grinder.
Salm’s comment “The allies are getting to the realization that it’s going to be a longer war…” actually resonates because the impending Russian “victory” (if you will) in the Ukraine will not be the end of NATOstan’s war against Russia….which is really to say it will not be the end of the US hegemon war against Russia. Russia already knows this and is preparing/planning accordingly.
Potential candidates for a protracted NATOstan vs. Russia shooting war are:
– Serbia (Balkans)
– Poland and the Baltics
– GAAT (Georgia, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Turkey)
– Iran will retaliate when attacked
– Taiwan…can’t forget about Taiwan
– Syria
The US/EU can’t lose any conflict against Russia and Russia can’t lose any conflict against US/EU…very dangerous times and a sure sign of “longer war(s)”.
Good article on why a “long war” is not in the US’ best interests.
https://www.unz.com/mwhitney/ukraine-is-sinking-are-western-elites-bailing-out/
While I don’t necessarily agree with the article premise that “powerful elites have broken with the majority opinion because they think the current policy is hurting the United States…”, that is precisely the condition that must be met (e.g. a change in hostile policy toward Russia) to avoid a long war.
Good read…
This is too funny not to share:
https://twitter.com/TheStupidTimes_/status/1621167262005854208
In English, the word Estonia translates as “speed bump”
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/russias-economy-forecast-to-outperform-us-within-two-years/ar-AA16VE5U
The IMF (Which is the USA’s bitch) says the Russian economy is and will outperform the US economy. You cannot sanction someone that makes 40% of the world’s fuel and food. This is not the higher fucking rocket science. Fuel and food is like cocaine. It will FIND a way.
And one thing is for sure….Zelensky and Hunter know a lot about cocaine. And…they both became wealthy men because of the Ukraine…coincidence…I think not.
Thanks Mr. Johnson, Sir, great Blog !
“You never bathe twice in the same river”
Heraclitus, Fragments (6th-5th c. BC)
“No offense to the philosophers who exalt unity, eternity, being with a capital E, nothing is stable, nothing is permanent in the world and in the cosmos. Even the river in which we bathe is never the same, because its current carries everything away. We must not hope to find a fixed anchor point, neither in reality nor in ideas. Everything is movement, change, becoming.
And this is very well so ! “
the most populous european nation, with the largest military, the most natural resources, the most basic industries, a long running space program, can mobilise a rather small number of men and provide them with uniforms, and these eurocrats are absolutely dumbfounded 😀
Remembering Stalingrad (in German):
https://www.dw.com/de/stalingrad-zweiter-weltkrieg-putin/a-42320785
On 2 February 1943 the northern pocket in Stalingrad finally surrendered …
A few of my fav comments under today’s live Ukraine update at the Daily Telegraph:
“If the West finds itself too late to train Ukrainian pilots to fly modern Western warplanes, then the West must fly them themselves to clear Ukrainian skies. It must declare a humanitarian mission to deny Russia opportunties to strike Ukraine from the air. Any source of missiles must be a legitimate target of that mission, be it in Russia, occupied Crimea, Belorussia or in the Russian fleet.
How long must we stand and watch the killing of Ukrainian people? This is OUR war. Stop humouring Putin.”
“Ukraine needs to join NATO and NATO needs to welcome Ukraine. Forget about nuclear war, just focus on winning. Total war wins. Do we want Russia to have Ukraine?”
These are just two. The comments are supposedly from Telegraph paid subscribers. The normal Telegraph reader is conservative, generally rational pro British and skeptical of global warming, woke ideologies etc etc.
However the people commenting are frothing at the mouth Russian haters. Anyone who comments with something that may go against the grain is simply labeled as a Russian troll. “No cabbage for you comrade” being one common retort.
Surely they can’t be real people or perhaps I am naive to believe that people aren’t as maliable as I thought.
“The normal Telegraph reader is conservative, generally rational pro British and skeptical of global warming, woke ideologies etc”
In your logic it does not make sense.
In mine, it makes total sense that that kind of people are also Russia haters and swallow whatever the MSM tells. (They are reading that MSM for long for a reason, do they?).
Maybe it is because the cultural (political, etc.) differences between you and me.
You completely misconstrue my point.
They are definitely not real people. All this talk about Russian troll farms is BS. The real troll farms are Western NGOs. And NAFO.
The most popular IP address on Reddit at some point was coming from Eglin AFB.
I remember reading on instapundit maybe 15-20 years ago, how important the Pentagon thought the information war was. They are clearly investing heavily into changing the narrative online.
Hit them back with that same energy… make fun of them for not knowing who their father is, ask them how much Bandera is paying them, accuse them of being paid trolls, etc. I don’t know if DT has a comment policy, but if it does, you might get them so worked up that they violate said policy resulting in their ban.
Either way, watching them lose their temper is pretty hilarious!
https://www.berlingske.dk/internationalt/danish-military-intelligence-suggests-drug-induced-megalomania-may
My mind simply cannot understand all these things, these so-called professionals are simply LYING to our face, from the American Agencies with 3-letter names, to the British Security Services, to intelligence agencies from all EU countries especialy the ones from Poland, Ukraine, Baltic States, do nothing but invent stories that simply have nothing to do with reality, since February last year we have been delivered weekly so-called briefing reports on the state of health of the President of Russia, to the state of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, all of which have in common the SF CHARACTER of the content of these Information Notes. EVERYTHING is nothing but a big LIE… Now we have to weigh and try to reach the right conclusion… ARE these a product of a Psychological War waged against Russia and the Russian people or simply all these Informative Notes are the result of the work of some “professionals” who, unfortunately, have nothing to do with the Field in which they work…. IT IS IMPOSSIBLE that in the last 11-12 months we will have a share of gods if not 100 reports in which the diseases suffered by the Russian President and the incompetence of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation are analyzed in detail… from this article I can only conclude that the Security Services of the NATO member countries, compared to those of the US and the UK, are populated by people who were hired not because of their professional skills but because they tick boxes that are considered MAIN values when hiring, for example, the candidate’s Sexual Orientation, his/her affiliation of LGBTQ +, has preferential pronouns, belongs to another gender / sex from the 73 new genders / sexes… or they are part of the social divisions that must be represented, the integration of all, equity and belonging to different letters from LGBTQ +, or candidates are considered to be anything but a person from the 2 sexes recognized by science. ONLY if hiring is done on these criteria can these reports be justified, which have nothing to do with reality.
I check theconservativetree.com several times a day & I just finished reading this article. As I was going through it I kept having the thought it was somehow connected to Ukraine & the power-hungry nitwits. Oh, I forgot money-hungry too.
I got to the end & sure enough, so I thought I would share the yup moment here:
“…‘America-First’ is also specific policy at a granular product level looking out for the national interests of the United States, U.S. workers, U.S. companies and U.S. consumers.
Under President Trump’s Trade positions, balanced and fair trade with strong regulatory control over national assets, exfiltration of U.S. national wealth is essentially stopped.
This puts many current multinational corporations, globalists who previously took a stake-hold in the U.S. economy with intention to export the wealth, in a position of holding contracted interest of an asset they can no longer exploit.
Perhaps now we understand better how massive multi-billion multinational corporations and institutions are aligned against President Trump. In essence, Donald Trump is the anti-WEF weapon of the American people.
They will even organize a western corporate war against Russia to stop anyone from blocking their financial goals.
There are trillions at stake.”
https://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2023/02/02/the-core-the-essence-the-cornerstone-of-globalism-the-exfiltration-of-wealth-one-exceptional-example/#more-242820
The definition of Engineering is to solve a physics problem with the least amount of material, energy and time. The Russians are good at it engineering. Here is a good example. One of the problems with tank tracks, in WW2, was the tendency of the pins holding the track shoes together, sliding out sideways. Germans, Americans, English and others tried all kinds of complicated devices (especially the Huns) to keep the pins in place. The Russians didn’t bother with complex solutions. They simply welded a half moon shaped piece of metal to the body of the tank. Every protruding pin would contact this wedge piece of steel and would get pushed back in place. Bingo, no inspection, no loss of track in battle.
This just in from Putin-No Lebensraum in Rodina-Mat for you.
A salute to the heroes of the Motherland who stomped the Nazi war maching into the turf.
Stalingrad Forever!
I wonder how effective Russian intelligence services are today.
The diversity and political, racial animosity in the west is great.
It seems that would be ripe to be plucked and cause problems like data leaks, sabotage. I don’ t think US is protected from this. BLM and some latino advocacy groups have total disdain for the US. Read highly touted ” How the Word is Passed” about slavery and racism in US by Professor Clint Smith. Author hates US with a passion. I am certain he is not an isolated academic-mainstream for BLM, no different from Sharpton, Stacey Abrams, Jeffries Michelle Obama.
Larry as usual you are right on the money. The problems with the Baltic nations is they are powerless countries represented by politicians that run their mouths far more than they should. Only because of the support of their deranged massively in debt murderous Uncle Sam do they taunt Russia and disrespect disgracefully the effort to destroy Nazism by Russia in WWII. Good luck with attempting to be prosperous with societies like that. And they represent to a large degree what the West has also become – greedy, murderous, insensitive, callous and ignorant. An empire in precipitous decline and unable to be a graceful loser or an equal citizen of the world we live in.
This isn’t a “war” but a conflict. In an actual war you don’t contain your response to the enemy personnel and weapons in front of you. You also attack their means of training these personnel and producing these weapons, attacking bases, production facilities, command and control, etc. As currently prosecuted NATO has everything to lose and Russia to gain. While NATO scrambles to manufacture and supply munitions they’re squandering them on a pitched battle when these resources were intended to prosecute and win a WAR. This finite supply of said resources and the plans to use them have now been thrown to the wind. Instead of fighting the Russian bear, they are now preoccupied with fighting one of it’s paws. Russia on the other hand apparently has all the personnel, resources, raw materials, and manufacturing capacity they need to stay engaged as long as necessary. What were the U.S. and NATO thinking? Or….were they thinking at all?
Speaking of Press statements, 2 very revealing statements made recently.
1. Kremlin press release Feb 1 – “We see how NATO’s entire military infrastructure is working against Russia, and we see how NATO’s entire intelligence infrastructure, including reconnaissance aviation, and satellite groupings are working in the interests of Ukraine in a 24/7 mode.”
2. President Putin at the Stalingrad event – “Those seeking to defeat Russia on the battlefield apparently do not realize that a modern war with Russia would be entirely different for them. We’re not sending our tanks to their borders. Yet we have something to respond with, and it would not be limited to armor use only, everyone must realize that.”
The reason for bringing this up is because of Iran’s 2019 shooting down of the RQ-4 Global Hawk as a precedence for non-escalatory action.
Cue song clip from (ironically, Swedish band “Europe”) “Final Countdown”.
I have a bespoke Russian spec ops camo suit from the mid-90’s, and being from that era, the trousers and jacket are naturally of a different tone! The material is glossy, as they were coated in a thermal reduction process which made them trap body heat. It even had Velcro and a lanyard in the internal holster.
The digi-camo suit shown looks interesting and I’m wondering if it’s IR signature is similar to the the Cold-War Czech design. The load-bearing rig looks a bit basic and flimsy though the tasset-like arrangement is interesting.
US intelligence are admitting AFU losses are now 200,000, of course they claimed they were Russian losses, but that’s projection and the number closely tallies tallies with Col Macgregor’s figure of approximately 170,000 including those listed as missing. It also suggests they have lost 20-30 thousand men in the last month, which tallies with the triple figure daily losses in Bakhmut, reported by German intel.
What a fool
‘dumb’ bomb or ‘dumb’ artilery will still devastate anything on the battlefield especially since they are cheap and numerous
‘smart’ bombs are expensive and limited in number and they are useless if their launch platform got destroyed.
a fool who think western airpower oriented combat tactic will be successfull against peer enemy.