Russia continues to pummel Ukrainian positions throughout the country and Ukraine continues to insist that it is shooting down Russian missiles and that the Russian attacks are inconsequential. Well, as Chris Berman of ESPN was fond of saying, “let’s go to the video tape.” The following video provides clear evidence that Ukraine’s air defense system is not working (you can see the launches from Patriot or IRIS batteries) and that Russia is blasting the Ukrainian air defense system into smithereens. Focus on the lower left hand quadrant of the video.
Ukraine launched a few missiles and they disappeared into the night. At the .17 second mark you will see the first massive explosion on a position that had been launching missiles. Given the size of the explosion the Ukrainian units at a minimum suffered significant damage. Take a look at the 1:39 mark on the video. Ukraine apparently tried to launch a missile that failed to intercept and fell back into the city of Kiev and exploded.
Ukraine does not have the weapon systems capable of doing the same thing to Russia. All Ukraine can do is fire artillery rounds at civilian targets along the border. Killing Russian civilians reinforces the Kremlin’s view that Ukraine is no long operating as a conventional military and must be treated as a terrorist threat. That means we can expect Russia to expand its attacks on “decision making” centers in Ukraine, which means targeting Ukrainian leadership responsible for military and intelligence activities. I am sure the West will howl with outrage but there is little it can do to compel a change in Russia’s strategy.
The ability of the West to continue its open ended support for Ukraine is being eroded by a string of negative economic news. The European Union as a whole is slipping into recession. Philip Pilkington reports:
Last week Germany announced that, after the government statistics agency revised its recent GDP figures, it was clear that the country was in recession. In recent history it has tended to hold up well as the global economy softened relative to some of Europe’s weaker economies. But this time it seems that Germany is leading the pack into recession.
This is because the recession that is currently looming over Europe is fundamentally different from previous iterations. The coming recession is no simple turning of the business cycle. Instead, it could be the beginning of the deindustrialisation of the European economy, which no longer has access to cheap Russian energy.
The United States also is showing signs of weakness. The Bureau of Labor Statistics revised previous optimistic reports with a more gloomy assessment:
Nonfarm business sector labor productivity decreased 2.1 percent in the first quarter of 2023, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today, as output increased 0.5 percent and hours worked increased 2.6 percent. (All quarterly percent changes in this release are seasonally adjusted annual rates.) Labor productivity was revised up 0.6 percentage point, the combined effect of a 0.3-percentage point upward revision to output and a 0.4-percentage point downward revision to hours worked. From the same quarter a year ago, nonfarm business sector labor productivity decreased 0.8 percent, reflecting a 1.4-percent increase in output and a 2.2-percent increase in hours worked. (See table A1.) The 0.8-percent productivity decline is the first time the four-quarter change series has remained negative for five consecutive quarters; this series begins in the first quarter of 1948.
A moment of reckoning looms on the horizon. The United States and Europe will not be able to sustain its financial and military support to Ukraine regardless of what Ukraine achieves in its highly anticipated offensive. The United States has made a fatal mistake by assuming it could conduct or encourage military operations as it did in Iraq and Afghanistan without creating a war economy. Washington’s support of terrorist attacks inside Russia is hardening Moscow’s position towards the West and makes it more unlikely that there can or will be a negotiated settlement to the war in Ukraine.
Interesting that the Morgenthau Plan envisioned totally de industrialising post WWII Germany while today it is Germany that is de industrialising itself.
The problem is that the American Empire – including its European slaves – has so overtly and loudly sided with Ukranazistan that the latter’s defeat cannot be seen as anything but an Imperial defeat. I am not at all confident that the Empire won’t resort to open intervention in a desperate attempt to recoup its investments. Remember that Ukranazistan is up to its eyebrows in hock to the west and its defeat means all that investment is gone forever.
In WWI the Wilson regime manufactured consent to enter the war because American bankers were financing the Brutish and French war effort and if they lost the debt would not be repaid.
Germany has been de-industrialising itself for well over a decade – there are lots of empty factories – look at how Linde transferred itself to US by taking over Praxair in 2018 and shifting its quote from DAX to NYSE……..lots of empty Linde factories in Germany especially in Mainz.
There has been ZERO net investment in German industry for decades – the parameters are simply horrific with controls and consents inviting bribery to get permits. It took the crippled Carl Zeiss 7 years to get a permit to be allowed to open a workshop in Jena back in the early 19th Century – not a lot has improved.
In 1988 there were 45,000 employees at Kombinat Carl Zeiss in the GDR – today only 1700 remain in Jena………the former GDR was de-industrialised by the West Germans after Anschluss.
In fact if you date when Deng made his changes in China and the fall of the Berlin Wall you see just how “brilliant” West German management has been in the former Communist GDR – total and complete de-industrialisation with West Germans at every top position in the former GDR whether in Law, Politics, or Business………….yet the still Communist China seems to have garnered 33% global manufacturing capacity in much the same time period.
Habeck and the Greens are as deliberately shredding German manufacturing as Margaret Thatcher did in UK. She wanted rid of unionised labour and a future in Financial Services – after all Money was more important than how you “made” it………
She went Green before any other politician……….she allowed takeovers and monopoly consolidations……….Habeck is doing the same……….Germany always emulates the UK with a 5-7 year lag –it copied Comprehensive (Gesamtschulen) it copied Privatisation, it copied DRGs in Health Care, it emulated Incompetence as the highest form of government
Germany was only well-run when under foreign occupation. Since 1990 it has gone to hell. Germans are like Hong Kong Chinese – they thrive in making money when Anglo-Saxons rule and are destroyed when they get Home Rule and their own deadbeats get into power
Sorry Mr. Greenwood,
you got something quite wrong about Germany.
How can Germany be a sovereign country with foreign military bases on their soil? The Germans even pay for the occupation by 35.000 US troops. And there are also soldiers from UK, France, Canada, Belgium and the Netherlands in Germany.
Germany is the bridgehead for the US and UK in Europe. It is ruled by the US since 1945.
Listen to Wolfgang Schäuble:
Minister for Interior 1989 – 1991, Kohl III
Minister for Interior 2005 – 2009, Merkel I
Minister of Finance 2009 – 2017, Merkel II + Merkel III
President of the Bundestag 2017-2021
Germany has not been sovereign since 1945:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5W5vsGIayI
You simply recite mantras bearing no resemblance to my comment.
Unless you are one of the loonies that do not recognise West Germany because you are still fixated on the Kaiser – and yes your view are in their catalogue – you need to understand how German jurisprudence rests on a Kelsennorm.
Wenn Du glaubst, Deutschland kein souveränes Land ist, dann muss Du erklären wie Deutschland anders ist als Grossbritannien oder Italien mit US-Stützpunkte
After all Italy has 100 US bases and UK has 17,000 US personnel plus RAF Croughton which ” station is home to the 422nd Air Base Group and operates one of Europe’s largest military switchboards and processes approximately a third of all U.S. military communications in Europe.”
So maybe everyone is a US colony……?
Still the economics of Germany are the matter I was addressing and whilst I am relieved you could ejaculate your comment, it was wholly irrelevant to the thread
You have a problem when faced with facts and think you can make them go away by calling them “mantras”
Vassal, colony or adversary. That is the meaning of empire. The imperial core is the Ango-Saxons (Five Eyes). “You are with us or against us.”
europe is a US colony
You simply recite mantras bearing no resemblance to my comment.
Unless you are one of the loonies that do not recognise West Germany because you are still fixated on the Kaiser – and yes your view are in their catalogue – you need to understand how German jurisprudence rests on a Kelsennorm.
Wenn Du glaubst, Deutschland kein souveränes Land ist, dann muss Du erklären wie Deutschland anders ist als Grossbritannien oder Italien mit US-Stützpunkte
After all Italy has 100 US bases and UK has 17,000 US personnel plus RAF Croughton which ” station is home to the 422nd Air Base Group and operates one of Europe’s largest military switchboards and processes approximately a third of all U.S. military communications in Europe.”
So maybe everyone is a US colony……?
Still the economics of Germany are the matter I was addressing and whilst I am relieved you could ejaculate your comment, it was wholly irrelevant to the thread as constituted until your “contribution”
Blowing up NS with not even a single complaint from Germany is the best evidence being a vassal state.
Even the Germans tried to deflect blame away from the US! Yep total vassal state.
Christ, just looking at Scholz’s puss and demeanor is enough to tell you he’s pure vassal material.
100% correct
No one in US has disagreed with Washington view. US voters are fully behind Biden regime
No one in US has disagreed with Washington view. US voters are fully behind Biden regime and its policies
I agree with a lot in general in Paul comment because it is true but Germany is still the great engine of the EU and practically the only industrial power in Europe. All the criticisms Paul makes of Germany could be made of France. The problem is not the countries but the neoliberal economic order and the financial power that is the true power! Otherwise, how can Germany justify that today, with the war in Ukraine, it seems not to know that it depends more on Russia and China than on the US? But I’ll get there.
I completely agree with the first part of the comment about Thatcher and Habeck. The first was an ambitious redneck, the daughter of a grocer who, when she reached the leadership of the Tories, received a briefing from the Chicago boys and dismantled the entire national production with the alibi of the first oil shock.
And it only didn’t privatize the public services it can’t. With a brutal decrease in quality for the British. Habeck is useless like Baerbock! I just don’t understand the genius of Anglo-Saxon management?! Look at their countries. To the UK from Thacher, Bozo, Lettuce and Sunak. Or for the US economy, debt record holder!
Theacher came to power in the Tories after ousting Heath like Merkel ousted Khol in the CDU. Which says a lot about both, about whom the world has a totally wrong idea. Merkel also announced something, such as the autonomy of European defense, after being spy to by the US, and did the opposite.
How German Chancellor Angela Merkel Subjected Germany to the US:
https://strategic-culture.org/news/2023/04/25/how-german-chancellor-angela-merkel-subjected-germany-to-us/
Also worth reading are Werner RÜGEMER’s articles in SC on the ‘NATO founding lie’ and on ‘Our European Values’: 1.21 Euro Minimum Wage in Corrupt Ukraine.
By the way, if anyone is worth reading today about the last 30 years in Germany, it’s Werner RÜGEMER. Namely his last book, ‘The capitalists of the 21st century’, about the rise of new financial players. Because our unipolar world today is totally hostage to the concentration of wealth to the totally unregulated neoliberal financial power that governs the World. Even more so after the crash of 2008, when many fortunes should have been liquidated. With 80% trying to escape this domain in a multipolar world. In a Germany that economically had a tradition much more linked to Friedrich List. Who, unlike Adam Smith, never believed that nations are measured by consumption but by production. The only good news I see today is that the economy also has cycles. And neoliberalism is already experiencing its death throes with and like the unipolar world!
You might be the most schizo fuck I have ever read.
Get help.
I am sorry mein doode, I do not want to b cruel.
…stop hating yourself. Stand up and say no to that collective guilt garbage.
You are fine peeps – under a heavy psych takeover. You need to get out from under. I can not do it for ya.
Be good!
💯
“In WWI the Wilson regime manufactured consent to enter the war because American bankers were financing the Brutish and French war effort and if they lost the debt would not be repaid.”
You are correct as explained in this short video:
https://youtu.be/psXYMiBM1JE?t=28
Actually J. P. Morgan was Buying Agent for British Government in USA procuring munitions. Morgan bought newspaper editors across the East Coast. Morgan also covered up the arms shipments on board the Lusitania
💯👍 many people especially europeans don’t seem to know about old aristocrat & bankster money in Switzerland and City of London plus Vatican and only see NY DC.
Thank you, Carlton, for that video. Also subscribed to the YT channel that published it.
“In WWI the Wilson regime manufactured consent to enter the war because American bankers were financing the Brutish and French war effort and if they lost the debt would not be repaid.”
There is one “small” difference, during WWI the currency was backed by gold and default had real consequences. Maybe the masters in the City of London can best answer that. Now it is backed by the rear-end discharge of the various regimes. Goes back to the gold standard, again.
“In WWI the Wilson regime manufactured consent to enter the war because American bankers were financing the Brutish and French war effort and if they lost the debt would not be repaid.”
A component of the reasons restricted by framing including chosen evaluation time-frames.
By doing so you minimise the significances of “The Treaty of Versailles” in facilitating
the trajectories and methods of “The United States of America” from 1917 to date, thereby precluding rigorous analysis of – What are “The United States of America”, and how are they facilitated ?” to optimise their transcendence, by attempting to further encourage ideologies prepared earlier based upon notions of the primacy of “money” including in assessments of comparatives/denominators, a component in the facilitation of “The United States of America” which leads some to believe that “The United States of America” confiscated the reserves of The Russian Federation, instead of pondering Did The Russian Federation make an investment facilitating increasing returns by not “withdrawing their funds”?
Yep, Wilson was the absolute worst President we ever had. He sold us to the Fed, got us into the war with the destruction of the Luisitania, and assisted the Bolsheviks in the Destruction of Russia.
Wall Street and the Bolshevik Revolution, by Antony Sutton.
And while you’re at it,
Wall Street and the Rise of Hitler, by Antony Sutton.
Too bad Sutton is not around to write about the psychotic heirs of those disasters who are currently festering in office and dragging us all down yet another of their violent projects in Ukraine.
the US was on the side of the white Russians and occupied Vladivostok until 1922 dimwit
One of the few decent interventions it every engaged in.
“He sold us to the Fed….”
“Wall Street and the Rise of Hitler, by Antony Sutton.
Too bad Sutton is not around to write about the psychotic heirs”
As outlined in MirrorGazers says 3 June 2023 at 09:32;
Your framing affording primacy to finance obfuscates other factors and trajectories of the “growth” of “The United States of America” and the significances of Mr. Wilson, his other associates, and “The Treaty of Versailles”.
“Wall Street and the Rise of Hitler, by Antony Sutton.” also adopts such framing with similar consequences including but not restricted to it-wasn’t-me-it-was-my-sisterism in hope of obfuscating complicity, and hence others are thankful for the opportunities afforded by your joint useful foolery predicated on linear thinking mutating into magical thinking, given lateral change is a constant.
By reading the comment section I see that the blame game for this NATO clown show is already in motion.
Europeans blames the Americans for allowing a senile imposter in the WH, and trans in the military.
Americans blames the Europeans for being subservient vassals.
And on it goes.
However, nobody point their finger at the globalist network that has infiltrated and taken control over the entire West via political Agents installed in every NATO aligned Nation.
I wrote a post to this article yesterday, exposing this network controlling our Nations from behind the scene.
But my post was censored.
Reality is that we can’t even pinpoint the problem in public, and thus people starts to blame each other in sheer frustration.
None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe in 1809
Best part of this rapidly failing American proxy war in Ukraine is the end of “western elite” global domination.
Second best part is the extremely shocking wakeup the sheeple of the west are about to face.
Both these groups of delusional “westerners” imagines they are the “world”.
Watching the rapidly growing BRICS alliance prosper while their standard of living drastically declines is going to be extremely painful to live and watch.
Deservedly so.
You are both right, and wrong. All of us in the “west” are to blame. We all see our governments as perpetual parents and providers, instead of realizing two things–WE are responsible for our governments, and everything they do in our names, and they can give us nothing they haven’t first taken from us. I fear we may soon learn just how bad the consequences of our irresponsibility can be.
West can’t do shit to Russia but be embarrassed and lose 10s of thousands in the first day. Then you got logistics and staging halfway around the world which Russia would target just like they preemt Ukraine formations. Took a year to build up in Saudi Arabia to take out Iraq in gulf war. Russia would let USA do that. Nukes is all USA can do and then both lose. IMHO there’s enough in DoD to know this and not let it happen.
England owns the USA, the USA is the proxy of the UK, and through the USA, the UK has been able to reflect the blame, so European nations blame the USA. Just look up the Balfour agreement that was created by the Rothschilds that own England and have since the end of the war against France and Napoleon. The Rothschilds said they would get the USA into the WW1 if the English promised to create a Jewish state in Palestine. The Rothschilds and interchangeable with the UK. All one has to do is look into the Rothschilds and the UK and how they took over the UK during the war with Napoleon. Once the UK agreed to create a Jewish state in Palestine the USA suddenly joined the UK in the war in world war 1 after refusing for quite some time, which shows how powerful the Rothschilds are and how they control england and the USA. This is all easily proven by the Balfour agreement which can easily be accessed online and the original version still exists, which is signed by the Rothschilds, and written to the English prime minister stating what I have already written. The Balfour agreement is fact and so is what the Rothschilds did after Napoleon lost the war by buying up so many British bonds that they literally owned the British government. They tricked the British people by finding out Napoleon lost but sent word Napoleon won the war and British bonds tanked, at which point, the Rothschilds purchased an enormous amount of English bonds for Penny’s on the dollar because everyone freaked out believing the English had lost the war, so they sold all their bonds, while Rothschilds bought them all up. Then, when they found out Napoleon lost, the bonds skyrocketed, and made the Rothschilds the wealthiest family in the world and basically the owners of england by owning so much of the government bonds. And then look up the Balfour agreement document which can be found on wikipedia etc. it will blow you away.
While the Great Reset is underway in the ‘West’ (a.k.a. the USA vassal states), Putin is busy co-building the New World:
https://invidious.projectsegfau.lt/watch?v=0NYzxiBE5nQ
https://invidious.projectsegfau.lt/watch?v=uSQ_3vfiRMs
The Russians have divided Ukraine space in few hundred little squares with one main analyst in charge for each square. If one Ukrainian takes a crap, that’s recorded. For sure they know from which guy he bought the toilet paper.
With this level of visual life intelligence, the change of a sneaking an attack is ZERO.
So, Russia does what she knows best, turkey shot unsuspected Ukrainian grouping. Would be funny if not so sad, for example ( https://t.me/fred33flint/737 )
PER DAY 600 KIA by artillery, which means also 1800 WIA . 2,400 out before any wundervaffe (snipers, drones, heavy flame throwers from hell, mines, smart and no so smart bombs, and of course those nasty missiles that hit within a square meter , and the go deep into the bunkers. )
That’s the thing about fighting a war of attrition, patiently killing off the enemy while conserving your own men. As the article below says, sane people would realize Ukraine is lost and take whatever deal Putin will offer, though it won’t be anywhere near as good as the first one.
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/possible-outcomes-war-ukraine
That Ukraine will lose is not even up for discussion at this point, at least among sensible people. What happens when it is obviously hopeless to all, including everyone in the west who’ve been fed propaganda. They’re trying to pivot to China, and likely will just start ignoring anything going on in Ukraine. The problem is the de-industrialization of Europe that will continue. You can’t hide that, or the unrest it will cause. And, it will become obvious that NATO is not so powerful, which will drive the politicians like Lindsey Graham apoplectic. These morons may just lose it and go nuke, where, as the article indicates, they’ll lose.
The sheer irony is that Western decisionmakers almost seem to honestly believe that conducting terrorist attacks against civilians in Russia is going to scare Russians into submission and make them denounce the war and turn against their leadership.
That’s mostly the same people who used 9/11 as the lynchpin point of galvanizing America in a rally-round-the-flag mobilization.
Trying to play against a nation which they already supported terrorist attacks against in the 1990s-2000s when it was Islamist headchoppers doing that, attacks which did a lot to shake their population out of a stupor and make them rally ’round the flag, which put the kibosh on that iteration of the “let’s break Russia apart!” project.
Whatever they’re smoking or drinking, I hope I never come across any of that.
The “plan” was around using all the international institutions and media and tech co’s to beat Russia. When sanctions and media stories didn’t work, plan B seems to be to hope for a miracle and grab as much dough while the grabbing is good.
The neocon-neoliberal dream of feasting on Russia is ending.
The problem with Neo-Cohens is that for how much they may brag and boast, they are mediocre at best in the cerebral department, deviant but always mediocre. They thrive best in countries where the populace is composed of simpletons. A Byzantine mind, on the other hand, can outwit them at any angle and on any occasion exposing them for the fools they are. That is why Shakespeare’s “Merchant of Venice” has been basically banned everywhere.
War, marriage, love, life or death itself. It all comes down to money.
The USA has not had a functional economy for decades. We printed and handed out 7 Trillion fucking dollars in a few years. And it is circling the drain now.
The deadbeats who are not paying their student loans soon will be. And that will be the coup de grace to consumer spending.
CRE. Commercial real estate. It is a ticking time bomb. Nobody buys that shit. It is all payments with a huge balloon note at the end. And it is rolling over and getting refinanced at 7% per 2%.
And no matter how much you give the show Generals of the Pentagon? They will piss it away on drag queen shows.
Money. They say it won’t make you happy. I suggest you look at Jeff Bezos and Ms. Sanchez.
But Ukraine will go until the next election is done. And then the ballot box stuffer winner will pull the plug and walk away. As the stench of a million dead waft across Europe.
“The deadbeats who are not paying their student loans soon will be.”
They aren’t deadbeats. They are suckers who got conned by their parents & our government. How the fuck is a pt burger flipper/uber driver supposed to pay usurious student loans the size of mortgages that are necessary for professional work.
Everybody likes to point at blue-haired, screaming kids who were raised by failed parents & daycare centers. But they are the minority.
Eg: Universities graduate significantly more med & health care students than there are hospital internships. What do you think becomes of those students who don’t get an internship?
I would agree with you. Except. They had three years to save money. And to pay off their loans. And instead? Studies show all that stimmy money went into discretionary consumer spending.
I will not even go into the vanity degrees. Russia graduates as many STEM degrees as we do.
This comes from rather hard earned experience. I have two daughters. One was a hell raiser that discovered boys and weed early. I love her. But she wore me out. I cut her off financially at about 22. She had a rough go. And then decided to get into the game. Started as a CNA changing old people’s diapers. Got her LPN. And now she is a RN. Doing well.
The second? Easiest child ever. Straight A’s. Full ride thru Oklahoma college. Well indoctrinated by the liberal system. Got a Master’s Degree in England. More indoctrination by the Euro system. And a useless degree by the way. She now lives in Ireland. She works exactly as much as she has to. Then lols around in her boyfriend’s parent’s house. She has a huge amount of student debt off the Master’s. Because she has never paid a dime. Her plan is for the Dims and Biden to make it go away.
I told her Social Security would garnish her wages if nothing else. She laughed. Someone will make it go away. Next step was I told her she had to step it up, or? I would remove her from my will. Because I was not going to give it to a slug. Her response? You won’t do that.
I have done that. 1/2 goes to the daughter that works. The other half is going to working dog shelters. And military dog rescues.
Did their parents and the schools fuck them over? Absolutely. It is still your job to row your own canoe.
Well, here you have some parenting responsibility. So, to dump your parental failure, you’re going to disinherit the daughter you failed at educating while she was growing up, only to have her influenced by the liberal colleges?
The money you will gift to those dog shelters will be pissed away in a single year.
Instead, make a genuine effort to repair your relationship with your daughter and love your children! You have a short time on in this life. Your second generation will forever think of you as a wretched fool.
Hahaha! Bullseye mate! Always amazes me when immature adults blame the kids for their failings. Tossers, the whole lot, we fucked up the planet and they’re blaming the victims.
I don’t reward people for laying on their ass.
This disgraceful and shallow judging a persons worth by how much paid own employment one does, seems to be another peculiar trait of USAsians .
Imagine the brainwashing required to spite one’s own relationship with one’s daughter just because she’s “lazy”.
Old age will be a lonely place for him. He can always take solace in a firearm though.
True. This guy’s gonna regret later in his life for giving up his child for his political ideology.
I don’t know what the stats on STEM in the US look like, but as someone who spends a fair amount of time in and around the University of Florida, the Engineering school is very crowded, but hang around ar class change time and you’d think you were in Hong Kong with all the Asian visages.
The white kids are in business school learning the fine art of maximizing your quarterly bonus by goosing the stock price with the time tested technique of mass layoffs – always guarenteed to please Wall Street. With the bonus of economics class where they learn all the classic Keynesian idiocies like the Paradox of Thrift and the evils of saving.
There are a also a large number of American kids in Med school learning the fine art of Pharma pill pushing for profit and not much else.
Your average Russian 6th grader know more physics and math than your American college grad, – even the engineers.
Right on Curt, harsh but fair. Most of that age group won’t learn until life hits them in the groin with a dose of reality. Thanks for being dog person, the world needs more.
Base, I grew up in a hard world. And it got harder in the military and the police. As to dogs? 4 things have never betrayed me or used me for ill. Dogs, guns, books, and money.
He doesn’t reward people who lay on their arses and yet gives his money to dogs, who spend most of the day doing just that.
Ultimately the US will fail precisely because of this attitude. The Russians fight for their MOTHERland (interesting word that), for each other, for Russians outside their borders. A lot of Americans can’t even have feelings for their own families, it seems.
One Captain, one Ship.
Hate to break this to you Curt but you don’t hold monopoly on having a hard life. I’m certain that many here and in the world have had it much worse, Ukrainian, Iraqis, Libyans, Vietnamese, and many others come to mind.
You keep your attitude toward your kin and you will die a lonely old man. They’ll bury you with your guns and money to be forgotten in no time.
Cheers,
Crazyczar
Hate to break this to you Curt but you don’t hold monopoly on having a hard life. I’m certain that many here and in the world have had it much worse, Ukrainian, Iraqis, Libyans, Vietnamese, and many others come to mind.
You keep your attitude toward your kin and you will die a lonely old man. They’ll bury you with your guns, books, and money to be forgotten in no time.
Cheers,
Crazyczar
My experience is that a lot of the students that took out loans did so under the assumption that they wouldn’t have to pay them back with all the talk about student load jubilees and so on.
It used to be in the 70’s, 80’s and into the 90’s, state university in the US was next to free. Affordable to all. I remember LSU tuition in those days was something less than $10 a credit hour (oil subsidies). Highest I remember was the SUNY system at mid 20’s a credit hour. I finished my masters with $3,000 in total student loan debt.
Unheard of these days.
“We printed and handed out 7 Trillion fucking dollars in a few years. And it is circling the drain now.”
Yepper! You should see the rate at which the money supply has been shrinking. It hasn’t shrunk at this rate since the years leading into the Great Depression. Between the federal funds rate and being a net seller of TSYs and MBSs (quantitative tightening, or QT) as opposed to being a net buyer (quantitative easing, or QE), the Fed is drastically reducing money supply.
Austrian Business Cycle Theory (ABCT) holds that the stock market will not be able to maintain its current price level and attain higher price levels without an ever-expanding money supply althat expands at an increasing rate.
When I saw Larry’s title, the words financial reckoning came to mind. Then Larry uses the same word later in the article.
Get out of debt. Build savings. Hold gold, silver, and Bitcoin. And hold some physical cash outside the banking system. There will likely be some very good deals for people who have cash as people who have lived beyond their means become distressed sellers of the property they didn’t need but bought anyway with money they didn’t have (i.e., borrowed it). Grasshoppers and ants.
Well said brother. It is so easy to live when you have no debt. And zero stress. I have a friend who just sold a 250K house in today’s markets. That he had 200K equity in at 3%. He was coerced by his wife who wants her “dream” house. He is 45. And he will now work until the day he dies. Or when she divorces him. When she has bled him dry.
The only part I do not follow of your advice is Bitcoin. Crypto scares me. I have physical gold and silver.
I hope you have guns, too. Gold and silver are hedges against economic and social collapse. If that happens you will need guns to protect yourself, your family, your friendly neighbors (if any), and your gold and silver.
PS. In a general collapse ammunition is also a great barter resource. The defunct Woodpile Report used to have information on which US coins actually had more value as metal than as coinage. They would also make good barter material.
Education as an industry will be decimated by A.I. brilliant tutors within a decade, anyway, if America and the world survive that long.
I had 200 firearms 4 years ago. I am down to 100 as of last week’s count. I am aggressively selling to get down to 30 or 40. What is interesting is that an asset can turn into a liability. With legislation, theft, fire, etc. But I agree totally with you. No debt. Have guns, ammo, cash, and precious metals. I just went a little overboard during 63 years.
https://www.coinflation.com/coin_calculators.html
About that armament;
You aren’t anywhere close to the Twin Cities, are you?
Unfortunately no. If you happen to come to the big Wannemacher gun show in Tulsa? Drop me a line
Structural instability caused by removing ability of students to bankrupt out of student loans. This causes inequity of forces, leading to ever-rising supply prices with no ability to pushback on demand. Similar to hospital-insurance tornado. If universities and loan agencies were at-risk to do due diligence and only fund worthy students who’ll be able to pay their loans back, instead of fog-a-mirror, prices would adjust to a fair market.
Solution: Bring back student bankruptcies. Must be done by COLLAPSING LOANS, *NOT* printing money to make banks whole. This is existentially critical in order to implode the excess trillions$ currency supply. Excess currency has been wasted on fancy fireworks; ornate scrap-metal sculptures; and friends+family of the MIC. It’s now poisoning the system with killer inflation.
American proxy war in Ukraine will be over before the end of this year.
Hard to predict how much of Ukraine Russia will take, but most likely all of it.
Then trade some western regions to Poland, Hungary and Romania for peace & security agreements.
Another alternative is to turn the area along the Polish border into a DMZ. Useless to all, but providing Russia a nice buffer from the rabid Poles.
Not that it will matter much once America and the EU really enter economic collapse and can no longer fund Poland.
” Killing Russian civilians reinforces the Kremlin’s view that Ukraine is no long operating as a conventional military and must be treated as a terrorist threat. That means we can expect Russia to expand its attacks on “decision making” centers in Ukraine, which means targeting Ukrainian leadership responsible for military and intelligence activities. I am sure the West will howl with outrage but there is little it can do to compel a change in Russia’s strategy. ”
If they define the Ukraine government as a terrorist threat, that will open a new can of worms that will never go back in the container. Legally Putin can make bigger changes.
Again my nightmare, after Russia will have 1-2 Millions of trained by fire soldiers, they’ll do what? We should have never poked the bear.
“Again my nightmare, after Russia will have 1-2 Millions of trained by fire soldiers, they’ll do what?”
Transnistria is already waiting in line, Gagauzia is having thoughts, and Serbs are hoping for establishment of some sort of land corridor. That’s why NATO is trying to “finish up the job” in Moldova and Balkans.
And Hungary would have a border with the soon to be forgotten Ukraine. And would not be a hostage to the EU.
The Transnistria weapons stockpile I’m quite sure is set to blow if it’s ever overrun. 20,000 tons of ammunition make for a serious bang.
I consider myself a brave man. I’ve been shot. I’ve been stabbed. I never ran. I am not sure if I would light the fuse to the kabillion pounds of boom I was standing on top of. So, I do have that question of Transnistria.
You are a brave man but I’m starting to wonder, are you clever? Cause the thing to do 99% of the time is run.
Let none of us forget, as NATO and Ukraine want us to, the defeat in Bakhmut. Big Serge has written an excellent summary at https://bigserge.substack.com/p/the-battle-of-bakhmut-postmortem
Did you see Patrick Lancaster on Redacted denounce a video of him of a Himars attack on a civilian building in Donetsk, play on Australian television – 10 News First – as a Russian attack on civilians in Donetsk? Outrageous and proof of the 5 eyes disinformation campaign, which currently commands the collective West. Patrick almost died filming the video and the dumb motherfuckers in Australia don’t even know that Donetsk today is Russian territory.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PlYmLpJb5_I
Russia should have already taken Avdeevka to end the suffering of almost 10 years in Donetsk!
Just think about it. Then, after the initial shock – think about it again. Rinse and repeat. The conclusion never fades.
Minsk and UNSC Res 2202 torpedoed in lieu of NATO strengthening the AFU, which uses its strengthened position to shell civilian targets in Donbass’ cities and towns for 8 long years and continues doing so to this day.
I.E. With full knowledge, NATO enabling the commitment of war crimes by Ukraine for going on a decade now.
How is that circle squared? It’s not. Never can be.
Everything that has happened in Ukraine since 2014 with the knowledge of Western powers is simply disgusting! But the disinformation campaign today across the “free world” is something I never thought possible! Ukraine is not the first war that starts with lies or even a false flag. But you’ve never seen such an orchestrated disinformation campaign across all Western media like today. With real people, civilians like us footing the biggest bill. It takes an unbelievable degree of inhumanity! Or pure and simple racism that goes far beyond the most common Russophobia. I was truly shocked by the effrontery of Australian television. Because even they know that they are very easily unmasked. I already writed on the 10 News First youtube channel!
Tell me about it! Just yesterday ABC and SBS trotted out latest example of Russian atrocities supposedly committed in areas Ukraine retook control of 11 months back. Just think about it! 10-11 months and now they trot out claims of torture and show evidence of torture chambers, etc. What took them so long? Perhaps they needed some distraction or to re-animate support for Ukraine as it is clearly fading. I am quite sure that this was a setup else they would have had it advertised last August/September or whenever it was they regained control of areas east of Kharkov and Kherson.
They are in the procees of taking Avdeevka and Maryinka – Soldedar and Bakhmut were very difficult liberations due to the massive Ukranian fortifications.
Meanwhile in the collective West it is celebrate mental derangement month, Pride cometh before the fall. Romans 1:26-32 KJB
No Resistance.
Like deranged two-year olds these people never meet resistance – all adults are like their self-indulgent parents – ever retreating, ever-acquiescing.
Remember what Lenin said about “mush” and “bayonets”
Larry,
I think that a great number of people realize that a high percentage of our neocon leadership are truly delusional and really believe their own BS about Russia losing and “Ukraine’s long-term future” as Nuland put it.
What I don’t understand is, given what we have seen over the last fifteen months, how even the most delusional can believe that the USA could stand a chance in a multiple-front, kinetic war against what would likely end up being a Russia/China/Iran/North Korea alliance (and probably several others). The fact that we continue to poke the bear with blatant, downright terrorist actions to me is beyond reason, but the fact that we are simultaneously antagonizing China regarding Taiwan and the South China Sea (and other issues) is beyond words.
Unless you subscribe to the believe that this is all part of a planned take-down/destruction of the USA in order to usher in the New World Order via the WEF (which I don’t think our narcissistic, self-aggrandized, power-mongering, puppet, political leaders would knowingly and willingly be a part of), I don’t see how anyone can think this is going to end well for the USA (or the EU/NATO).
This lunacy, combined with the utter nonsense that is taking place domestically with the blatant, gross, in-your-face, double standard of “justice” and the weaponization of branches of government against the citizenry, has created an environment very reminiscent of “1984”, “Brave New World”, “The Fountainhead” (and a few others along those lines).
I am an Oath Keeper, Lifetime Member Number 5 xx, and am a firm believer that the intent with which the organization was founded in 1999 by Stewart Rhodes was necessary and well-founded. The fact that Stewart has been sentenced to 18 years in prison for the actions that he took on January 6th speaks volumes about the state of our current government.
All that said, what do you (Larry Johnson) personally believe that can be done to change the course that we are currently on? I personally don’t see a domestically peaceful (politically legal) route to fixing this; and I am hoping that I am missing something and that someone has a better answer.
https://www.blueletterbible.org/nkjv/2th/2/9/s_1118001 v. 9-12
Not delusional at all. While the neocons pursue an agenda in Ukraine that smacks of their proto-ideological bent of a 4th Internationale, their Ukrainian diaspora allies in Canada pursue an agenda that smacks of their proto-ideological bent of a 4th Reich.
Two fundamental similarities bind the two together.
1) Fourth time is a charm
2) Totalitarianistic hegemony
They’ll sort out the differences later.
Nothing like a little war, to showcase to world leaders who is who in military weapons development.
Never, in a million years, did Bidenopulos and his minions imagined that, instead of pummeling Russia through the use of Ukinazis, they would in effect, be showing to the world the utter impotence of 30 plus countries against poor little Rooskies.
With Russia bringing to bear some of the most lethal weapons ever developed, including Iskander, Kinzhal missiles, the S400 air defense and the SU 57, the US simply cannot hide its inadequacies and shame of having systems like the Patriot blown to smitherines. Their electronic warfare systems have also shown to stop all kinds of US made anti radar missiles, detecting and destroying them hundreds of miles away.
Soon the S500 will come online and the MIG 41, capable of mach 5 and shooting satellites out of orbit. They are also putting into service their “mini” aircraft carriers, frigates with 400 plus guided missiles, capable of projecting the strength of over 100 fighter aircraft, for thousands of miles of radius.
I cannot wait to see the orders pouring in from every corner of the planet, from countries lining up, ready to scrap their made-in-the-USA for Russian systems, which, by the way, unlike in America, where greedy Lockheed, Northrop, Raytheon, Boeing are always bleeding US taxpayers to the max, with their newest, state-of-the-art weaponry, like the F35, which our military can no longer afford to maintain, Russia possesses dedicated weapons manufacturers that can produce better stuff for a fraction of the cost.
So, good luck to us, as we see our once prosperous military industrial complex cannibalize itself as overseas ( and domestic) orders shrivel up.
Hmm, so if this indeed did pan out that way, what then happens to the West entirely armed by 2nd rate US weapons, and in low numbers due to their exorbitant costs and sickly economies? Does this mean that in due course the countries that we bullied and raped eventually end up with powerful militaries armed by Russia, do any of them hold a grudge?
Actually, the S500 already is deployed, and the S550 is close to deployment.
Interestingly, most (not all) of the Russia leadership in weapons are defensive – they neutralize power projection. Given the imbalance in stocks* (before the west generously offered to have their stocks attrited in Ukraine) of weapons between NATO and Russia, this is understandable strategically, but it also means that more and more countries of the global south will no longer be militarily blackmailed by the west. And financially, China is providing alternatives.
* NATO EU militaries were envisioned to be used in a short burst of a few months to delay a Soviet offensive while the US war economy geared up. Russia identified the weakness as a long slow European war. Frog in the boiling water analogy. It helped that the west’s leadership is delusional.
Agreed.
For Russia this American proxy war in Ukraine is turning into a bonanza of benefits.
The only negative that I can see being the loss of Russian lives.
I can see labor shortages in Russia going forward due to the huge expansion of value added manufacturing & processing.
Their arms production industry will have a hard time meeting global demand for their proven weaponry.
I seriously envision Putin and his leadership group sitting around laughing at the “western leaders”, shocked by the many favors they have done for Russia.
About Labour. There are connection in those policies. Between present and future. The near and medium term future. Some leading policy are very fit with theyr present, and MSM point-of-view included. But it looks a little unfit for the actual future. Except maybe the lemmings mode. Very sad.
Russia slaps the West every day. A new slap was published yesterday by Business Insider under the title: “Putin’s war in Ukraine costs a little”.
Despite successfully waging war against the entire NATO pact, Russia’s direct military spending amounts to about 3% of GDP, which is a low figure by historical standards. By comparison, during World War II, the Soviet Union spent more than 60% of its GDP on the military, the article said, citing a new analysis by The Economist magazine.
https://www.businessinsider.de/politik/bericht-so-wenig-kostet-der-ukraine-krieg-putin-wirklich/
And the day before, the Russians boasted that they had produced 600 T90 tanks since the beginning of this year. It is absolutely clear that NATO and Ukraine do not have many options left. All that remains are the current attacks on civilians in Russia, and soon the supply of nuclear weapons to the Kiev regime. The neocons tried everything else and failed.
By comparison, during World War II, the Soviet Union spent more than 60% of its GDP on the military
1939-45 UK was spending 53% GDP
Listened to Sleepy Old Joe’s speech last night. The United States’ latest debt deal, which is being called a budget, takes all military spending for Ukraine off the books. “Off the books?” Who is kidding who here?
The United States doesn’t keep books on anything anymore. Hasn’t for decades. Everything is rigged, manipulated, and controlled. The United States hasn’t passed a budget since 2000-2001. It’s been one Continuing Resolution (CR) after another, with one objective — to keep the printing presses running at all costs.
Meanwhile, the United States is once again attempting to spend Russia into oblivion. Except Sleepy Old Joe Biden is no Ronald Reagan.
This is delusional thinking at its best.
The value of the USD had fallen 98-percent from 1913 until 2008. The FED and the US government were able to catch the GFC in free fall. However, the knife that was the value of the USD fell right through the fingers of the FED and the government. If you do the math, the last remaining value of the USD fell to zero after the Crash of 2008-09.
The irony is how the government attaches value to something that worth nothing, how it calculates zero and calls it “free money.”
“The value of the USD had fallen 98-percent from 1913 until 2008.”
and yet the average American lives a much more luxurious consumerist lifestyle than in 1913……….makes you wonder if the value of the currency is debased by having Americans live in prosperity exceeding their productive entitlements
Good point. Americans who live a “luxurious consumerist lifestyle” are paying for it the same way the government is — with debt.
Funny how the government refers to Social Security as an entitlement. It’s not. Social Security is a contract, made up for a lifetime of exploitation in the workforce (or what’s left of it). Today, these professional politicians use projection to blame Americans for the government spending money that they don’t have.
The debt deal, by taking the cost of spending all these hundreds of billions on the Ukrainian war, proves that the military industrial complex can’t be run on any amount of money. There’s the hole the government is pouring billions down and then there’s the real hole, the one the government is pouring trillions down. Trouble is we can no longer afford any holes.
The government has even spent Social Security. Social Security is just a bunch of IOUs. Social Security is bankrupt. Forget about the 2036 expiration date.
If debt was taken out of the equation, the real costs for living and breathing would be prohibitive. The population would fall by half.
For all this prosperity (so-called), many Americans are entering retirement age without any savings. And even if they do, there is inflation, which is eating the value of American’s retirements alive.
During the GFC most Americans lost between 40- and 50-percent of the value of their 401Ks because their old age nest eggs were exposed to risk.
If the government would just run their accounts responsibly, we wouldn’t be in this mess. However, that being said, knowing how the government works, we would probably just be in another mess.
You are confusing cause and effect.
The currency is debased through fractional reserve banking. The government and the banks create money through issuance of debt and expand (a.k.a. inflate…this.is the literal.meaning.of inflation) the money supply disproportionately to the goods and services available to exchange for that money.
The natural progression of the free market is for prices to fall over time. This assumes the money maintains a stable value. That hasn’t been the case since the Creature from Jekyll island was birthed into existence through collusion.
Any prosperity you think we enjoy relative to standards of living in1913 is far less relative to where it would be had the money we use functioned as a store of value. Which is what gold will do. That is, the prosperity is in spite of the siphoning off of value by the banks and the government through the insidious process of inflation.
Paul, you probably are already aware of it, but Michael Hudson provides a great summary of that time period, 1913 – Present, from an economic perspective:
Prof Michael HUDSON – De-Dollarization – Toward the End of U.S. Monetary Hegemony? (start @t = 5m50s)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IbWaNPAS39s&t=349s
I think it is a great starting point to begin unravelling your “makes you wonder” question. I don’t have any answers, only glimpses of it.
I hope that helps.
The value of the USD had fallen 98-percent…
by adding another $4 trillion of debt, our fed has basically financed another reckless spending spree for Americans and our govt. That’s how we have been able to live more luxuriously. Problem is interest and inflation are going to push the bottom of the barrel right out from under our feet, because now we do not produce anything to back the enormous influx of money into our economy.
Mr. Johnson – i found what this actor had to say interesting. Am amazed he still has a career in hollyweird. He stated that hollywood war films have created a myth of american omnipitence . Also stated the enormous contribution russia made to the war.
Eric Braeden on playing a Nazi on “Rat Patrol”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1l9B0dz7gjc
just watched these 2 episodes of the old rat patrol back when yu did not have cgi and the actors did allot of the stuntwork . unfortunately that led to dire consequences for the main lead of the show later in life.
THE RAT PATROL S01E10 Moment of Truth Raid 1966
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iW169HGCUU8
rat patrol s1.e27Take Me to Your Leader Raid
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKIlZQk4HME&pp=ygURcmF0IHBhdHJvbCBzMSBlMjc%3D
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0682773/trivia/?ref_=tt_trv_trv
During filming of this episode, an accident happened in which the jeep carrying Christopher George, Gary Raymond, and Justin Tarr overturned, causing multiple injuries. Christopher George suffered a heart contusion, concussion, and hair-line fracture of the vertebra. Gary Raymond, who was at the rear with the mounted machine gun, was able to jump as the jeep started to roll, but suffered a broken ankle. Justin Tarr, who was driving, came out with only a minor injury to his arm.
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0313387/bio/?ref_=nm_ov_bio_sm
Even though he was a heavy drinker and frequent smoker of cigars both on and off camera, his fatal 1983 heart attack stemmed from a 1/4/67 mishap on the set of The Rat Patrol (1966). While filming a chase scene, George’s jeep flipped over, pinning him beneath the vehicle. He sustained a concussion as well as a muscle tear to his neck and chest which included a cardiac contusion. The injury to his heart never properly healed and scar tissue subsequently developed on his heart.
regards,
ralph
Ralph,
Thank you. I greatly enjoyed all of that. I loved Rat Patrol back in the day. And that added so much. Thank you sir!
Curt
Perhaps Mr. Johnson can address this in a future article.
John Mearsheimer is a bold truth teller. Watch his videos as he properly explains this conflict. But recently in response to Trump’s boast that he can end the war in one day, Mearsheimer states that no American president can allow Ukraine’s army to collapse. The results will be too devastating!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e7EOKBF1nbQ
He assumes the conflict will remain frozen, but that is false. It seems he is brilliant, but stuck in the bubble. How will an American President prevent Ukraine’s fall? NATO troops? Nuclear weapons? Air Strikes? Is Mearsheimer hinting these options will be used if needed?
Let me add some spice. Hungary’s President openly stated that he needs good relations with Russia for energy needs.
https://www.bitchute.com/video/lRfSZNwCfcS6/
If Russia takes Ukraine, it can offer adjacent Hungary cheap gas at one fifth the American LNG price, and cheaper oil and other stuff. So Hungary joins a deal whose pipelines connect Russian friendly Serbia. Austria also says it needs Russian gas and joins in this new Russian trade block as German and French industries move to these nations to survive with cheap natgas as Russia finally shuts NATO nations down completely.
Then Moldova joins in, perhaps with offers of a few chunks of Ukraine. And Romania is offered a deal to join, including recovering some territory lost after WWII to include offshore islands with natgas fields. All they have to do is declare neutrality and kick out the Americans from their new air and missile bases. Even Poland would be interested in this Russian, Belarus, Ukraine, Hungary, Serbian, Romanian trade block, along with Bulgaria and other nations in Southern Europe, to include Italy.
Ouch! So is World War III the solution to this “threat”?
as German and French industries move to these nations to survive with cheap natgas
You really think the German Chemical Industry would move to Romania ????? It has already moved to USA and China…….
Net Investment in Germany or France has been negative for years………
The big threat to European Chemicals came from Saudi Arabia decades ago………15% Russian gas imports into Germany went to Chemical Industry as feedstock (ie. raw materials in the gas) which is why BASF was an investor in Nordstream II (Wintershall) and why they depend on the Rhine barges from Rotterdam……..and downstream so do the chemical firms in Basle, Switzerland…….
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liste_der_größten_Chemieunternehmen
EU Regulations are making Chemicals Production impossible in EU which includes Romania
“Mearsheimer states that no American president can allow Ukraine’s army to collapse. The results will be too devastating!”
Good comment.
Mearsheimer is right. However, “devastating” is being too kind.
If Ukraine is defeated, the war just moves to the United States and the Western countries.
This is not a war the United States can just declare victory to and then go home. The United States has picked a war with a European nation. These European wars always degenerate into world wars. And now, today, as Putin has pointed this out, the United States is no longer protected by two oceans.
This war will follow the United States “home.”
This war will follow the United States “home.”
The Russian FM said the same thing a little while back. He being one of the inside decision makers means they are moving in that direction.
ALL these wars come home.
Certainly true for the Romans and the Athenians as well.
A large fraction of the illegal immigrants crossing our borders (north, too) are military age men. How many of them are actual Russian, Chinese or Iranian military? Are the cartels smuggling weapons, too?
Colonel MacGregor believes that some Russians are crossing into the US from the South, including many of the one million Russians who have fled from certain military service. However, the Chinese presence in Mexico is enormous, and correspondingly, the number of agents of influence and those with more exotic missions can cause much destruction should the brain-addled Biden throw down the gauntlet to China.
Moldova will crumble from inside once Russians reach the border.
Being surrounded is what keeps Hungarians and Serbs in check. Any kind of corridor could start dominoes falling.
THIS!!!!!!!
Being a Petunia in an onion patch – so to speak, is it surprising the blind and the dumb baulk when little ol’ me challenge the brainwashed?
British, are the worst pathological propagandists on the planet.
This “Air chief marshall rt” is a prime example, together with the entire cast of Sky News they make CNN look like apologists.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mO1ZrWNAeBk
Lying Bastards all o’ them!
It’s enlightening how these two apparently unrelated events are related about how effectively extracted resources are used.
Uno Reverse ! “It’s the economy, stupid !”
in Afghanistan and in Iraq they do not run warfare economy, hence there was no need to ran the war evconomy in USA. But this changed with the NATO war against Russia, where Russia runs a war economy. Now has NATO a problem.
A couple of months ago, a German manufacturer – that has been in business since 1380 (yes, you read that correctly) – closed its doors and laid off thousands of workers.
The reason: Energy costs.
Not really……….it was a small company owned by the Indian Dynamatic Group………
Die Eisenwerk Erla GmbH was already in protection before it filed for insolvency…….its turnover was €51 million and its customers were in the auto industry
Truth is Germany actually had aluminium producers for the auto industry !!!!! That is totally infeasible without hydroelectric power…….but cheap Russian gas made Germany competitive in a way say British producers were not…………
Germany had a gift from Russia just as GDR had a gift from USSR in form of cheap fossil fuel energy………..
Ukraine also had a gift from Russia for almost 20 years in the form of very cheap, subsidized gas. Granted, it was tit for tat in great part over UA lease commitments on Sevastopol but still. Did they use it to benefit their industries? Hell no. The gas princess Tymoshenko and so many of the like minded took the subsidized gas, resold it to the Brits & EU proper at market rates and cashed out billions.
Good read over @ Postil Magazine About Navalny(Col Baud-Swiss) which points out the Yale Program which is/was funded by AIG Emeritus Mo Greenburg:)
I’m reading it now but while not discounting the obvious western grooming of Navalny, I’ve already soured on the author from this little gem:
Following a common practice in Boris Yeltsin’s Russia between 1990 and 2000, he bought up companies in order to privatize their profits (an illegal practice that led to Vladimir Putin’s fight against certain oligarchs
People do buy up companies to privatize their profits. It’s called capitalism. I know what he speaks of but veksels, shares for loans and other shock therapy repercussions were the ‘law of the land’ such as it existed at the time. If he wants to separate the purely ‘illegal’ practices from these, he needs to articulate the differences.
Anyway, study Kolomoisky’s techniques in pre and post Maidan Ukraine, if you want to understand what transpired in Russia’s roaring 90’s, with not a little help from NY and London trading houses and ‘entrepreneurs’ like Browder.
I to this day remember a call I initiated with a US trade group involved in some mega titanium export deal in the 90’s, (from due diligence work on my part), where he sensed I knew too much about their activities and gave me a chilling warning about how I should best preserve my health by minding my own business.
This was an American, mind you. So, never think it wasn’t a two-way street.
That small criticism aside, the rest of the article is comprehensive.
Gosh, how much that transpired over the years and how much went down the memory hole. Thanks for that comprehensive revisit of what was really, not so long ago.
The west was really stacking the deck for years using such transparent methods that revisiting them really makes your jaw drop in pure astonishment.
Agree these are related, the facts seem to be that no matter what the concrete facts are about anything, they are turned upside down in the West. I’m not certain this “reckoning” will even be acknowledged. It’s like watching those people in the movies that are insisting things happened in a certain way while being led off to the asylum.
It’s like listening to Lloyd Austin recently in Singapore drone on about his great pacific coalition against China, and how important it is that “China maintains the status quo regarding Taiwan”… while China has done nothing other than maintain the status quo while the West is the one that actually decided to interfere & change the status quo and become aggressive.
Ukraine, the economy, Taiwan, and more show the absolute delusional mind set of any reality on the ground.
I’m convinced now, that all these contradictions are no longer some “PR” work at play to propagandize their populations for manipulating them to their will, these people do actually believe all these untruths & unrealities.
They have great power positions and need to be placed in asylums.
Sadly, there is nothing on deck as far as “candidacy” ( if you believe in “elections” of which I don’t) that is any less deranged & delusional.
I honestly think that what drove, and drives the global powers, including Saudi Arabia and the like, to regrouping their alignments, isn’t as much the Ukraine exposure that the Emperor has no clothes, or the “sanctions” , it’s not the military or the money… Ukraine exposed, in the most blatant & public way, the absolute crazies running the West. Not just the US, but the UK & EU as well.
The rest of the world is running away as fast as they can now.
Ukraine has become a training ground for the Russian military, but even more for the Russian MIC
https://www.kp.ru/daily/27511.5/4772717/
Hot “Hello” to the Armed Forces of Ukraine from the Russian army: new drones arrived in the special operation zone
Russian drones “Privet-82” will be used in the special operation zone
An amazing phenomenon: a special military operation (SVO) caused a literally atomic explosion of design innovations. Remember how at the beginning of the NWO the army complained about the lack of combat drones? For this reason, we even had to go with outstretched hands to the Iranians, asking them to sell us attack drones, thanks to which Geranium was born (thank you for not refusing). But a little more than a year has passed, and our design bureaus and enthusiasts offer the military so many types of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) that their eyes run wide. Here you have the Lancet, and the Cube, and a dozen more unique vehicles that can increase the potential of combat units.
One of these developments was created in the Russian design bureau “Oko” and has already begun to arrive at the front. A serious drone received a comic name “Hi-82”. Well, what is this thing? Let’s figure it out.
“Hi-82” is made in the form of a classic glider. The declared flight range is up to 30 kilometers. A drone can overcome this distance with a different warhead under the “belly” – from 3-4 to 5.5 kilograms.
The first 30 drones have already left for the NWO area.
It is assumed that this strike drone will be effective in taking fortified areas, inflicting air strikes on the enemy. In addition, it will allow you to destroy enemy artillery and air defense, as it has an impressive warhead for its class. The maximum flight speed is 140 km / h. A gasoline unit is used as an engine. And they launch a drone from a catapult.
And Hi-120 is already replacing Hi-82. He is able to take off from the ground.
The state has already drawn attention to a promising project, and in case of successful application, it is planned to place an order for the production of 100 such drones per day.
The new drone will be able to carry a load at least several times heavier – 16 kilograms!
According to KB Oko, Privet-82 is estimated at 60 thousand rubles, while Hi-120 will cost up to 100 thousand rubles. If you compare it with Chinese counterparts, it comes out cheaper. Inside are several cameras, including a thermal imager and many other devices. At the same time, the drone is controlled and is able to move towards the target along the given coordinates. Particularly interesting is the radio silence mode with course correction before approaching the target. This will allow you to get past the radar and air defense of the enemy, and at the right time, the operator will take control and be able to more accurately hit the object, focusing on the built-in camera.
“Take a look at the 1:39 mark on the video. Ukraine apparently tried to launch a missile that failed to intercept and fell back into the city of Kiev and exploded.”
Here is a close up, from the opposite angle:
https://youtu.be/k9bUTfFF3_4?t=20
Behind all of this is demographics.
Per the UNPD’s WPP 2022 release, Europe’s population is expected to decline from about 750 million today to less than 600 million by 2100, and that includes immigration.
Europe’s total fertility rate (TFR) is well below replacement at ~1.5, and, although it’s not easy to find statistics that are more detailed, what data/reporting exists suggests that the TFR for White/non-immigrant population is lower than that at least of first-generation immigrants (though it also suggests that TFR of 2nd, 3rd generation immigrant women falls, presumably due to assimilation and lifestyle).
Compare that to Asia – total population in excess of 4.5 billion by 2100
Or Africa – total population of ~4 billion by 2100.
Much of Asia and Africa will remain desperately poor – with low GDP/capita and poor Human Development Indicator (HDI) scores -things like education, infant mortality, maternal mortality, malnutrition, disease, etc.
But at the level of interaction among nation-states, overall size matters more (e.g., military budgets rise with GDP, not GDP/capita). The states of the “Global South” will demand a greater vote in global forums and form their own alliances. Europe will continue to be subservient to the US.
On the issue of de-industrialization, it will be interesting to see what the “old money” of Europe decides. But IMO, the issue will play out slowly, over many generations
Let’s consider the Zwilling J.A. Henckels group, manufacturers of those knives I just love for their quality (Made in Germany – for now…). Zwilling is part of the private (non-listed) Werhahn KG family conglomerate, so ownership is in the hands of some 400+ individuals.
If these individuals do not procreate at at least replacement level (2.1), what happens? presumably ownership gets more concentrated, and/or there is some Trust mechanism, which can last in perpetuity.
More important, where will future generations of this venerable family choose to live (at least the majority of the time). And would they consider moving their factories to the US and/or other locations? (so your knife would not have that “Made in Germany” stamp).
So consider the same questions across hundreds of industries and thousands of companies to help think through the question for yourself – what is the future of Germany and Europe.
Comments: On German de-industrialization. I was so elated Germany united in 1990, it was a dream come true, but it seems all illusory. They seem to have lost it, and I also noted how the “Wessies” came in and wiped out the East German factories “because they produced junk.” I also noted how really Americanized everything seemed to become.
I was stationed in Germany in the seventies, and Germans just seemed different. A little more pride, they built their military up and liked it, they just seemed more responsible.
I don’t recognize Germany today.
Also it was noted just after the Berlin Wall came down, Jews started flooding into Germany. Mostly from Russia. This seems to have been a kind of portent.’
I think the post about Germany going it alone might have some validity. Germans always seemed to do better when they were part of an alliance, like Prussia with Austria and Russia. Now, like everywhere, Germany has completely surrendered to dog-eat-dog corporate capitalism. As well as the horribly dictatorial EU regs and control.
2. On the Rat Patrol: Eric Braedon’s name is Hans Gudegast. He did a good job there, but has always been a good actor, underused. You might remember him from the 1970 film Colussus-The Forbin Project. He said in the series, they wanted him to wear an eyepatch to look more threatening ‘more Nazi,’ but he refused.
The Rat Patrol got some criticism from the British, because the “Rats” were originally British (actually, many Australian), and they were annoyed showing Americans winning the entire war in N. Africa, which was very untrue. Much like there was Garrison’s Gorillas, again showing America singlehandedly leading the underground resistance in Europe…MI6 had some real gripes about that, but US TV is US TV.
3. A good movie about German reunification is Goodbye Lenin, dealing with an East German brother and sister trying to convince their communist mother that the wall never came down. Very human and also funny…yes, Germans do make comedies.
Garland Nixon argues (I believe it was in https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zx58Ta96Nuw) that the term “recession” for Germany’s and the EU’s economic development is incorrect, as the word “recession” entails a recovery afterwards. There won’t be a recovery after deindustrialization.
On all the student debt:
When I went to college in 1970, I was at a local community college (we still called them junior colleges), and it was 3.00 a credit hour. I worked a year to save money to go, then went to a local state college for a semester, signing a student loan for 800.00 a semester..that was for tuition, dorm, everything. A ten year payment, and I paid it off well ahead of schedule. My grandmother signed for me, terrified of “owing all that money,” and I was annoyed she had secretly made payments “because now, I’m in debt.” Very different attitude today, eh?
I went into the army after that, did the GI bill when I returned. I got a BA in English. I never taught. Was it wasted? The college experience was helpful, and as I’m a writer, it was good exposure. I did go to grad school, but that was a waste. No point to it. My brother also went to college on GI bill, flunked out three times. He’s a retired cop and law enforcement instructor, so there.
My point is the college experience and exposure to academics and literature was helpful, but I’m not sure that’s the case today. almost everyone goes to college to make more money and get a job where they don’t have to get their hands dirty. I really wish we could shut a lot of colleges down…do we REALLY need any more lawyers? That’s half the problem with our country. The recent takeover of the left in college has been around for awhile, and it’s just more out in the open. They can swagger now.
but college is a kind a mantra most middle-class kids and parents are infected with.
Maybe a melt-down in the economy would cure this. Like Harold Covington said, if a young man wants to succeed now, get a trade where you wind up fixing rich people’s toys…always a lot of money and work there.
What you fail to understand is that what you study in college/university has direct impact on your career. If you choose basket weaving, over STEM, your income will reflect this.
I’m not belittling traditional subjects. Should you go into academia, we need English, languages, and literature so that new generations can properly learn how to speak, write and comprehend.
Like, you know, like😉
Poor Germans. It’s a shame those damn Russians blew up their own pipeline. Germany may have avoided a recession.
Lots of events on a collision course this month: FBI director Wray has until Thursday to deliver FD-1023 form alleging then-Vice President Biden engaged in a criminal bribery scheme with a foreign national or face contempt of Congress charges. June 14-17, 81 countries meet in St. Petersburg, Russia, to work on a reserve currency other than the U.S. dollar. At the same time, Exercise Air Defender 2023 happening June 12-23, with 25 participant countries. Trouble brewing-coincidence? Some reports say Russia already evacuating personnel to Ural Mountains just in case. Bo Polny, a Bible Scholar, says June 25th ends evil’s reign of 1250 days since the start of Covid. Can the country sense a good change is coming and have a, somewhat, “happier” birthday? “God gave us three things, hope, jokes and dogs.” Mia Wasikowska
Larry, I am happy to see you are following Philip Pilkington. I have been following him for many years. He has one of the keenest minds in the field. He is working in finance now but he is also well-versed in economic theory and practice.
He is a good complement to Michael Hudson, whom I have also followed for many years.
Conversely, conventional economists are out to lunch.
Knowing Neocons have no reverse gear and their psychopathic bent, I posted in an earlier post, that Russia will go all the way to the Polish border. The only thing that will keep the Russians behind the river, will be an annexation agreement with Poland and all the other countries with territorial claims on Western Ukraine. Such an agreement would, in effect, erase the historically political construct called Ukraine and weaken NATO.
If Western Ukraine was allowed to survive as a rump state, the Neocons would use it as a springboard from which to direct terrorism into Russia imposing on Russia a death of a thousand cuts. In addition, Russia has no desire to administer a Western Ukrainian population hostile to ethnic Russians. Hence, the encouragement of annexation of Western Ukraine would be the best Russian outcome and a win-win for all neighbors.
The key indicator to the beginning of the dismantling of Ukraine would be the liberation of Oddesa and the isolation of what presently remains of Ukraine from access to the Black Sea.
Putin justified the escalation of attacks on Ukrainian “command & control” and air deffenses as a response to terrorism. It could also be the first phase to total domination of the battle field and a precursor to a full blitzkrieg towards the river. The Russian troops in Belarus are a checkmate to any move by Poland.
If I were to bet, I think the next offensive will not be from the Ukrainian side but from the Russian.
Is Elenskys’s appearance that of an absentee president, or is it that of a president in exile? Does NATO know the Russians are about to conduct the final offensive? Has the matador, finally, unsheethed his sword?
Yeah, but, Poland is NATO, so, in effect, Russia would be allowing NATO to get even closer to Moscow, after all this.
Martin Armstrong on big pic… quite a bit on UKR situation
https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/armstrong-in-the-media/interview-the-fall-of-western-civilization/
Some OSINT from turner
https://halturnerradioshow.com/index.php/en/news-page/world/red-line-crossed-himars-shell-fired-into-belgorad-russia
https://halturnerradioshow.com/index.php/en/news-page/world/look-at-this-crap-uss-gerald-r-ford-flying-ukrainian-flag
https://halturnerradioshow.com/index.php/en/news-page/world/visual-confirmation-ukrainian-su-24-armed-with-british-storm-shadow-cruise-missiles
A USA defeat just after Afghanistan could be fatal to NATO and the USA military credibility. The Arab gulf countries will be confirmed in their decision to look for other potent military allies instead of buying billions of US weapons and see them reduced to ashes in Ukraine. They had a hint in the Yemen confrontation that turned out to be a military disaster despite the US weapons and military support. The Ukraine war is confirming that the USA military strength is only on paper, thus dispensable…
Larry, what do you think? Mercouris today is painting a pretty grim picture for Ukraine’s current situation. Is he overdoing it or pretty much on track?
https://youtu.be/XfvTDuXqNiI
The sad part is watching the US marginalize itself on the world stage with no clear plan for the future discernable. Russia and China will build up their ‘in the event’ defenses and the US & Europe will slowly disolve themselves into exceptionally useless.
This is nothing, compared to what it will be like when we go to war with China, our manufacturing base, and effectively shut down chip production and exports from Taiwan, where 95% of the world’s advanced chips are made. We had a little taste of that when supply chains were disrupted at the height of Covid, and it wasn’t pretty.
England owns the USA, the USA is the proxy of the UK, and through the USA, the UK has been able to reflect the blame, so European nations blame the USA. Just look up the Balfour agreement that was created by the Rothschilds that own England and have since the end of the war against France and Napoleon. The Rothschilds said they would get the USA into the WW1 if the English promised to create a Jewish state in Palestine. The Rothschilds and interchangeable with the UK. All one has to do is look into the Rothschilds and the UK and how they took over the UK during the war with Napoleon. Once the UK agreed to create a Jewish state in Palestine the USA suddenly joined the UK in the war in world war 1 after refusing for quite some time, which shows how powerful the Rothschilds are and how they control england and the USA. This is all easily proven by the Balfour agreement which can easily be accessed online and the original version still exists, which is signed by the Rothschilds, and written to the English prime minister stating what I have already written. The Balfour agreement is fact and so is what the Rothschilds did after Napoleon lost the war by buying up so many British bonds that they literally owned the British government. They tricked the British people by finding out Napoleon lost but sent word Napoleon won the war and British bonds tanked, at which point, the Rothschilds purchased an enormous amount of English bonds for Penny’s on the dollar because everyone freaked out believing the English had lost the war, so they sold all their bonds, while Rothschilds bought them all up. Then, when they found out Napoleon lost, the bonds skyrocketed, and made the Rothschilds the wealthiest family in the world and basically the owners of england by owning so much of the government bonds. And then look up the Balfour agreement document which can be found on wikipedia etc. it will blow you away.