I am a big fan of John LeCarre. I especially enjoyed the TV series put together by the BBC based on LeCarre’s novels–Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and Smiley’s People. The books are better, but anything featuring the droll Alec Guinness is worth watching. LeCarre’s true gift is his ability to reveal through his stories the craven, soul-crushing, inept bureaucracy that rules British intelligence.
The fecklessness of the Brits, especially its intelligence operatives, is nothing new. But it takes on greater importance in light of recent news implicating the Brits in the sabotage of the Nordstream pipelines and the failed air and sea drone attacks on Russia’s Black Sea Fleet in Sevastopol. The Brits are behaving a bit like a sex crazed school boy desperate to experience intercourse but, due to excess enthusiasm and carelessness, is incapable of finding a happy ending.
Let me start with the Nordstream debacle. Why anyone in the United States or the United Kingdom leadership would think destroying Germany’s primary source of natural gas was a terrific idea is prime evidence of the incompetence and shallowness that governs decision-making in the black world of intelligence. Many thought it strange that in the relative immediate aftermath of the Nordstream attack, former Polish Foreign Minister, Radek Sikorski jumped into social media and implicated the United States as the culprit
On his social media page, Sikorski left the controversial message “Thank you USA” and later quoted American leader Joe Biden as talking about destroying the gas pipeline.
https://scooptrade.com/twitter-users-lashed-out-at-sikorsky-after-deleting-thank-you-usa-post/
Why would Sikorski do such a thing? Some argue that he genuinely believed it to be true. But other evidence suggests that Sikorski was playing his part to divert attention from British culpability. Turns out that Sikorski is quite cozy with key British political, mililtary and intelligence figures:
Sikorski arrived in Oxford in 1982 and played the part of the English gent. “He was more English than the English,” says one contemporary, journalist Rachel Johnson. He had excellent English, well-tailored suits and even a penchant for bow-ties. He earned himself the nickname “Radish” and hung out with Gottfried von Bismarck.
The young Pole was swept into the Bullingdon Club — the drinking club that Cameron would also join a few years later — by the future Mayor of London (i.e. Boris Johnson).
https://www.standard.co.uk/lifestyle/london-life/the-sikorski-set-the-polish-foreign-minister-has-locked-horns-with-cameron-but-their-history-goes-back-to-the-bullingdon-club-9564492.html
Bullingdon Club is all male and exclusive. The poor need not apply. The fact that Johnson and Sikorski share this bond is not a mere coincidence. Some, until today, could argue that this connection has nothing to do with managing messaging on the Nordstream attack. Then this news broke courtesy of Hal Turner:
When the Nord Stream Pipelines began to blow up, Russian natural gas firm GAZPROM got alarm bells from sensors in the pipeline, indicating the pressure had dropped massively and suddenly. GAZPROM then knew the pipes were ruptured.
The computers at GAZPROM, which recorded the minutes/seconds the sensor alarms went off, all use Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) for the time stamps.
Exactly one minute after the alarms went off at GAZPROM, iCloud records of Prime Minister Liz Truss iPhone, show that she used her iPhone to send a text message to Antony Blinken, US Secretary of State. The message: “It’s done.”
The iCloud computers also use Coordinated Universal Time for message time stamps. So although Russia and the UK are in different time zones, UTC proves that it was literally ONE MINUTE after the GAZPROM pressure sensor alarms went off, that Liz Truss sent her text message to Blinken.
No one else knew the pipelines had been blown up. GAZPROM knew there was a problem, but didn’t know what or why.
Liz Truss knew.
Because it was the British government that carried out the bombing.
https://halturnerradioshow.com/index.php/en/news-page/world/how-the-russians-found-out-it-was-the-uk-that-bombed-the-nord-stream-pipelines
This news comes less than 48 hours after a failed aerial and maritime drone attack on Russia’s Black Sea Fleet at Sevastopol.
The attack was carried out by UAVs and remotely piloted surface vehicles over the waters of Sevastopol Bay, Sevastopol’s governor has said.
British experts helped Kiev forces prepare ‘terrorist attack’, defense ministry says
“The preparation of this terrorist act and the training of the Ukrainian 73rd Special Maritime Operations Centre was carried out under the supervision of British experts based in the city of Ochakov in the Mykolayiv region of Ukraine,” the ministry said in a statement.
The photo and video shows one of the unmanned boats. A similar one was used in today’s attack.
https://t.me/Slavyangrad/17261
The Brits have been supplying and training the Ukrainians with maritime drones since late August:
And here is some video evidence of the delivery:
The Russians got their hands on one of the surface drones as it tried to attack Russian ships and recovered the following video. You can see the splashes from Russian fires trying to stop the drone. It is not clear how the Russians captured the footage:
Russia is keeping its powder dry in terms of retaliating with force against the Brits outside of Ukraine. However, Russia did bomb the base where they believe that members of the British Navy trained and prepped the drone attack. On the diplomatic front, Russia cancelled all further grain shipments from Ukraine under a deal brokered originally by the United Nations. If the suspension is permanent, the end of grain exports is widely considered a gut punch to the European Community.
Russia will present evidence against the Brits on Monday before the U.N. Security Council. I think the Russians realize this is a fruitless pursuit in terms of getting the Security Council to punish the United Kingdom. But it does allow Russia to demonstrate its commitment to international law, take the high road and expose the hypocrisy of the West to the rest of the world when it comes to terrorism. Vladimir Putin’s eye is on recruiting more countries into his vision of a multi-polar world free of Washington’s dictates.
One final point regarding burgeoning relations between Russia and Turkey courtesy of an old friend who did great service with the Navy SEALS:
Russia can’t declare anyone entering the Black Sea PNG without violating acceptable internationally recognized Admiralty Law. To willfully do so would put the Russian navy at risk everywhere else in the world. As long as the ships or aircraft remain in international waters and/or internationally recognized Sea Lines Of Communication, an attack upon them by Russia would be an act of war. Retaliation would be certain.
The question in my mind is how Turkey (a NATO member), who has provided naval security for the grain corridor shipments, will react to Russia’s navy should Russia now take an offensive posture towards Turkey or the ships they are escorting.
One more point to ponder. Russia doesn’t have the naval capacity to enforce closure of the Black Sea. Think about this angle – there’s only one strait in and out of the Black Sea and that’s largely controlled by Turkey and to a lesser extent, Greece. It passes through a number of fortified islands and the route is circuitous requiring navigation speeds and caution so grounding doesn’t occur. If Russia gets too frisky, all Turkey needs to do is close the gate (strait) and Russia’s navy is caught in a bottle neck shooting gallery, i.e., the Black Sea. And, closing the strait is done easily, at low risk and low cost. Lot’s of very subtle what if’s here, but Russia stands to lose more than anyone else if they play their hand poorly.
I think this gives all you smart people a lot of grist to chew on. Put on your analyst hat and fire away.
Did you catch the story where a Russian SU-35 fired an AA-12 in the direction of a manned British ISR aircraft over the Baltic Sea? The official statement from Russia is that it was an accident; though may be a warning.
https://www.reuters.com/world/uk/uk-defence-minister-wallace-russian-aircraft-fired-missile-near-british-plane-2022-10-20/
BALTOPS and coincidental Nordstream explosion…
https://consortiumnews.com/2022/09/28/diana-johnstone-omerta-in-the-gangster-war/
BALTOPS from the official Navy League. Perfect cover for a later detonation by helicopter
https://seapowermagazine.org/baltops-22-a-perfect-opportunity-for-research-and-resting-new-technology/
Odd re-visit by US helicopter over Nordstream just before explosions…unverified
https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/us-military-aircraft-circled-nord-stream-incident-site-in-se
A “technical malfunction” .
That is the joke part.
Another great analysis. Which underscores Russia’s need to take Odessa and Nikolaev and cut Western Ukraine off from the sea, establishing its own strategic control of most of the northern shore of the Black Sea. Turkey needs Russia more than ever now that Lula has won in Brazil and BRIC is hugely strengthened. He also needs Russia’s forebearance for its efforts to control the Kurds in Eastern Syria. Erdogan can hardly trust the Americans after their attempts at a Turkish coup and their support the Kurds in Syria, Iraq and now Iran–a direct threat to the New Ottoman Empire. This situation is changing fast. With the midterms in the US, you will see the Republicans cutting off funding to Zelensky in the New Year, by which time, the Russians should have a force of 400,000 in Eastern Ukraine (counting the militias), and the advantage of solid ground for tank warfare. You can be sure that Iran will respond to American incitements in its Kurdish areas by supplying more drones. But watch what happens after the American Midterms. https://julianmacfarlane.substack.com/p/midterms-a-bloodletting
What, a long rant about the uni-party and its ownership? It might have been a useful rant, if it had talked about the complex link between voting and the perceived legitimacy of the US government…
In a of the people, for the people, and by the people nation where the consent of the governed is a cardinal point in our democracy, you’d think the fact the American people have no way to just say no and refuse to consent to uni-party governance at the polls might deserve a mention…
The United States is a constitutional republic with some, SOME, democratic privileges that have all been revoked.
Democracy is a fiction. We have been allowing the government and the Military Industrial Complex (MIC) to “save the world for democracy;” something that does not exist.
In democracy the people vote and vote all the time about everything. In a republic the people vote for the people who will decide what happens. Just ask George Soros and all the other rogue billionaires. Thomas Jefferson thought democracy “Rule by the Mob.”
All the US government and PTB PR campaigns and propaganda has always confused me. When was the last time the US government allowed the American People to vote on either going to war, or staying out of one? Answer: Never. These governments just do whatever they want, regardless of what the people want.
Democracy is a fiction. — the blame-e
True… though I quibble and say it’s a myth in the United States. The government and PTB PR campaigns and propaganda are designed to be confusing — divide and rule — it’s a feature, not a bug. Our democracy is an essentially meaningless phrase used to signify whatever the PTB need it to at the moment…
It works because people are conditioned, by education and media, to believe they live in a democracy, that they are masters of their government — and therefore their fate. The myth of democracy is what underpins and sustains the uni-party status quo.
Any credible challenge to the current political status quo, will find it necessary to first prove that point — our democracy is a myth.
So why not put it to the test?
At the Constitutional Convention in 1787, Benjamin Franklin was never asked whether we had a democracy or not.
“A lady asked Dr. Franklin “Well Doctor, what have we got, a republic or a monarchy. “A republic,” replied the Doctor, “if you can keep it.”
Nowhere did the word “democracy” come up.
Democracy in the United States is a fiction. Democracy might have been a myth, if Democracy has been something this country actually aspired to become.
Democracy? A fiction. Democracy. A lie. Democracy today? A damned lie. Propaganda.
No one forces Americans to vote for only 2 parties. They do it themselves.
Are you naive…?
Nobody made them take the shots, they did it to themselves.
Nobody killed you in WW3. You did that to yourselves.
No, “republic” and “democracy” are not categorically different. Democracy is a subset type of republic, i.e. there is no democracy that is not a republic. ‘Republic” is just the Roman appropriation of the original greek notion.
Youre condusing representative democracy with “republic.” Because the USA is a constitutional representative democracy, it is a republic. Not the other way around.
March 2003. Photos of dozens of US cities and world cities, all with tens or hundreds of thousands protesting Ws war with Iraq. The speaking of the people worldwide. Maybe people of other nations believed they were US citizens. What did the US govt/W/Cheney and all their neocon warmongers do (same folks we got in there now, Biden brought them and on Jan 20th, he knew exactly what baggage he was bringing with him)? March 19th, we went to the endless war. So much for the wonders of democracy and the voice of the world’s people.
The “uni-party” is right: I call the US a “bicephalic single-party system”. It’s certainly no democracy. More like a banana republic – ever since JFK was assassinated by the CIA/MIC in 1963. After all, isn’t it only in banana republics that presidents get assassinated and replaced by compliant stooges approved by the CIA?
“Republicans cutting off funding to Zelensky in the New Year” You think the RINOs will stop feeding the MIC?
I agree, midterm will do nothing, we might have a chance after presidential elections. I live in Arkansas, and I questioned our congressman at a recent meeting: will you continue funding Ukraine after midterms. I did not get a straight answer. We have Lockeed Martin and it keeps our politicians in its pockets. Russia will absolve entire Ukraine next 2 years and demoncrats will blame republicans for either funding or not funding. Republicans are just stupid , and demoncrats are too cunning . It is doomed.
Why is Arkansas pronounced Arkansaw?
Why did you ask your congressman a question? This would have caused his mouth to move and you would see that movement and know immediately he was lying.
Americans are learning right now that Dems are evil. Americans will learn, after nothing substantive changes this so-called ‘Red Wave’ of establishment Republicans, that the non-MAGA Republicans are evil, too. It’s good cop/bad cop and both parties are owned by the same transnational corporate oligarchy. Nothing will change until transnational corporations (the basis of the oligarchy’s wealth and the corporate part of the corporate & government duality that defines fascism) are abolished as enemies of the peoples.
Call this what it actually is — populism. Both parties oppose MAGA because its supporters are populists.
If Ukraine were to be partioned, it seems that the ‘natural’ geographic line would run along the Dnieper to Odessa. That would take the surrender/annihilation of the Ukranian forces and a Kiev goververnment willing to negotiate a settlement with Russia. If an objective, something other than a stalemate, then the question becomes what would be the cost to the Russians to achieve and what would be the cost to Ukranians to prevent. It seems, at some point, the Russians will be compelled to go all out’ and succeed (or get out). Otherwise, US/British/Nato will pin prick targets ad infinitum in the Black Sea.
Lula’s victory in Brasil is actually detrimental to Russia. Lula is strongly aligned with the western liberal left; his candidature was backed by all major western banks and international NGOs, including ones sponsored by George Soros.
Lula is THE WEF candidate.
Another damn good analysis, Larry. Something else to consider, though…
Sometimes things that don’t make sense using one filter make sense when you use another. Everybody analyzes the West’s foreign policies with Russia and Ukraine through a foreign policy filter and of course it doesn’t make any sense. So you have to go searching for alternate explanations, like incompetence or poor judgment or something else.
But when you use a different filter, things make sense. A criminal does not mind being called incompetent if it helps him avoid accountability. Writ large, a criminal does not mind death and destruction so long as he profits. Who profits from eliminating Russian energy from the equation? Whomever steps up to fill that role. And the people who invest in that replacement.
Did you ever stop and think WHY Trump was actually impeached? Do you think it might have been because he sent a former United States Attorney to Ukraine to investigate the people who invested in the intended replacement? And tried to get Bill Barr involved as well?
The civilian intelligence services have been political since day one, so it should be no surprise that they can be and are ocassionally used by criminal elements. Because its not criminal if no one is actually prosecuted. If “your people” are the ones in power then no one will be prosecuted. And if European institutions collapse, there will be no ICC to prosectue anyone either, not that this feckless body has any legitimacy. Just a modicum of power.
I suspect when viewing UK intelligence maybe we should use a different filter. It certainly cuts through the confusion when you do…
This is a very insightful response and confirms my belief that corruption runs everything and the facade of control by the people is just ro make the people in control feel better about screwing their own citizens constantly.
Do you give any thought to the ants that are underfoot when you walk? Do you give any thought to the insects that smash against your windshield when you drive? Do you give any thought to the cattle that were killed when you eat beef? This is the filter of the leadership class, and they have have no need to “feel better about screwing their own citizens.” Their only need is for those they rule not to recognize it for what it is, because that might lead to accountability.
Well, in Florida you better damn well pay attention if your are walking over ants, especially if you are barefoot. Fire ants swarm you rapidly and can kill you if enough of them bite.
We pay big dough to make sure the ants don’t bite. Who can walk on St. Augustine blue anyway? It ain’t exactly like a blend of tall fescue and bluegrass after all, heh…
The unloading facilities require power, and are fixed infrastructure, its a little uncertain how much grain is left to be shipped out, perhaps the silos may have an accident grain explosions are a real threat, the ammonia pipeline will also be turned off, there by killing harvests going forward, and remove the need for shipping in general.
From an insurance standpoint, calling it a conflict zone of some sort will invalidate all insurance, most shippers are not interested in that kind of risk with out widely inflated rates.
Ultimately Ukraine will run out of grain to ship by sea, and will run out of shippers willing to take the risk. particularly if they risk there ships getting stuck in port again for another 5 months.
I have not seen Russian/Iranian naval drones, but one suspects that if they exist they will be accelerated, and all navies are going to be facing a prickly prospect of marine time uav’s appearing anywhere and at any time, this takes what would be a relatively peaceful cruise with minimal oversight of entire navies, to the prospect of every ship being on essentially a war footing with enforced watches and all that staying on alert 24/7 entails, this mentality will drive up retirement rates and reduce desire to be in the navy. It will also kill the smaller crew sizes wanted to reduce the overall cost of the navy.
Uncertain if they are trying to goad the Russians into taking Odessa sooner rather than later.
Gonzalo Lira thought that Russia pulling out of the grain supply would result in Zelensky’s demands not let Russia come to G20.
Regarding how Russians got drone’s camera footage, I read in Russian sources that there boom net damage – could this drone entangle in it and preserve? Just a crazy thought:-)
You cant get kicked out of the g20, you have to leave of your own volition. At least that’s how I understand its membership rules to work.
as to the drones I think they recovered the floating wrecks and pulled the memory cards.
I would really like to know where the Russians got the drone footage. From Russian drones? Because that is what the United States and the Brits are going to say: “The Russians are sending out their own drones to sink their own ships.” If I was a Russian sailor and knew that my own country had declared war on me, I would find that a little alarming.
NS1 and NS2 again? “The Russians did it?”
You can’t get kicked out of the G20. The G20 is composed of most of the world’s largest economies. The G20, by definition, includes Russia. The Ukraine, being the biggest loser, deadbeat, parasite out there; led by a drug addicted, cross-dressing, midget with the biggest mouth, should be told to sit back down at the child’s table and STFU.
The Byzantines had a giant chain. The Russians have nukes. Just what resources do the Turks have to actually close the strait?
They have the ability to shoot from the coast at any ship trying to sail trough strait. Good luck trying to “run the gauntlet”.
As far as legality is concerned, there is:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montreux_Convention_Regarding_the_Regime_of_the_Straits
That’s just what I thought., they have a piece of paper and some milssles. How accurate? What caliber? Stationary or movable? To what depth? Not as effective as the Byzantines’ chain, it would seem…
Do you even know what “strait” means? Anyone dumb enough to sail trough long and narrow passage in war could easily be wrecked by run-of-the-mill tanks and artillery lined up on the coast. Modern ships are not made to take hits, and you don’t even need missiles to shoot at ship that is a kilometer away. I have no idea what kind of weapons they have in the area, but I’m sure they have enough to prevent anyone from trying anything stupid.
I’m not sure that NATO could count on Turkey closing the Black Sea access points. Ergodan does what is best for Ergodan and often that is what is in Turkeys best interests.
Presenting anything to the UN Security Council would obviously be a waste of effort if Russia expected anything but a US veto, but the as you point out, the world is watching.
I saw the reports iCloud hack on Truss’s phone, Kim Dot Com has admin access and publicly confirmed it, but guaranteed Russia knew with or without that.
The Security Council will do nothing but the world will know.
The party is over folks. Stick a fork in it, the US/UK is done.
The story certainly helps confirm this:
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/18990716/russia-nuke-london-first-world-war-three-putin-ally/
Public humiliation counts in shaping public opinion.
I think plenty of that on the way, beyond the worldwide humiliation the Dems are inflicting upon the rest of us in the US
The Russians play smart. So long as its an issue with Erdogan they’ll go slow. Eventually there will be an incident involving a ship or two. And ultimately Russia will take Odessa and it will be a moot issue.
The Russians are a patient but unforgiving people when wronged.
If the deal is dead.. or suspended..then its likely that the insurance for the grain carrying ships is voided… and the grain transport from Odessa just stops because of that.
The Russians backing out of the grain treaty will have an effect. The carry costs alone, in terms of cargo and ship insurance for vessels daring to cross the Black Sea, will become prohibitive, and stop the grain shipments.
Is not MI6 the NHS of intelligence services? However, one should never underestimate the Brits capacity for ruthlessness, conniving and skulduggery. The British Empire wasn’t built by wusses. And they do have a long tradition of being successfully aggressive at sea.
As for the NS pipelines, whoever did it got 3 out of 4 pipes, so only 75% for that effort. Like, how could you put explosives on the wrong pipe? Doh!
Keystone Keys look good on comparison
It was built on the backs of the so called “scum of the Earth” – the British working class, but make no mistake, the people running the show have always been weak-chinned inbred degenerate scum.
Excellent update, Larry.
My 2-cents on this, Russia can pick its own time and place for revenge, if it is even needed.
Zooming out, the UK attacked destroyed a major energy conduit to Europe. The attack is more on Germany than on Russia.
How does one think this will land in the “Collective” West, especially as Germans freeze this winter and their energy shuts down? Meanwhile, the rest of the world (aka Joesph Borelli’s “jungle”) looks on aghast!
This is a major psychological and political victory for Russia against the hegemonic forces of darkness. Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord.
Amen.
Yes but these degenerate leaders have made the English the most exceptional race of the last 400 years. And they continue to be exceptional.
With Americans and Russians you can like or hate them and it’s quite simple.
With the British it’s actually very hard to hate them even though they are known evil toads. The reason is that there have always been two kinds of English upper class and the English are familiar to all. Eton, Oxford, manners, education, class and generally good eggs who seek a better world and the elite who are cunning scavengers in ties. When one falters the other steps in.
America left Afghanistan, Libya, Iraq, Vietnam a wreck with poison relations. The British elite had the sense to know when a thing was done. The generally left countries following a nice handover where all shook hands and left nations in good condition. This means to the south they remain much more civilised than the American wrecking ball and French who are hated in their former colonies which now wave Russian flags as they boot the French out.
So the English really are a special lot. But that generation is dying and the new one will be Americanised and woke and will forget the ways of the past. Internally is how the English lose, no more great leaders or cunning wise heads.
I for one. Will miss the English if Poseidon goes. They really are the most civilised of scoundrels.
The British left with a nice handover? You need to revisit 1947 and the partition of India, where a cartographer who never visited India drew the new boundaries creating utter chaos. The British hurriedly lowered their flag and left after 150-yr rule leaving the nation in chaos with estimates of 1-3 million people dying within 6 weeks in an orgy of violence.
Actually, it’s easy to hate the English. Just ask the Irish. As for civilised, Gandhi had the correct response: yes, it would be a very good idea.
Well said sir.
Not only the Irish, but whilst the ordinary English people are on the whole decent; the upper class are an entitled degenerate shower of dregs.
Sadly, the infected the Scots nobility with the same attitudes, leading to the forced depopulation of the Scottish Highlands in the 18th/19th Century.
As a Scot, I would be delighted to see the back of them too.
As a southern Irishman, I actually like the English for many reasons. However, it is their successive Governments I dislike
Beware perfidious Albion
As an English person, Larry’s comments are difficult to read but totally valid. So are yours!
I came across various Bullingdon Club types at Oxford and they tend to be of the Boris Johnson ilk: basically a bunch of posh children who do not grow up.
These violent acts on Russia are in similar vein. A big issue in the British government is that we do not have adults in the room, and have not had for a while. Sunak is no different either. These guys all seem to want to pander to Big Daddy in the US and have zero thought of consequences. It is all about japes. Liz Truss texting Blinken seems so in line with their behaviour. These are people who are over promoted and out of their depth.
Your comment about wise heads reminds me of that now 50+ year old BBC TV series from a smarter era “Dads Army”. Whenever Captain Mainwaring wanted to pursue some stupid, hair brained scheme then Sergeant Jones would inevitably ask: “Is that wise, Sir”. We then learned in the last episode that Jones had actually been a front line WW1 officer unlike the Mainwaring character who had never served. We have lost the wisdom of Sergeant Jones from our national character, and certainly from our government.
My bigger fear is that the US is in precisely the same position.
Yeah, no. Child molestation is rife at these upper class schools. Everything downstream from that is rotten to the core.
ETON has been producing 1st class pedophiles, criminals, cretins & the wierd since 1410…it is what it does.
nothing more than saying “Yes my son is a serial killer but i still love him.”patheticaly apologetic.
Please leave nationality out of it.
Anger: work it out , not on us.
Please reference your information better.
I think he was localizing what seems to be true across the world, regardless of nationality…that is the 1% Elites, their paid sycophant bureaucrats, and all the rest of us dispisable “useless eaters” and “deplorables”.
I think it was Sergent Wilson who used to question Mainwaring. Corporal Jones, the butcher was hot headed and always ready to rush off and stick the cold steel up-em. Or he’d start screaming “don’t panic, don’t panic.
Mainwaring when questioned by Wilson would quickly see the logic and say grudgingly “Yes OK Wilson.”
The Eton elites see their own class as people and the rest of us they call “wastes”
offensiveness, Young divided undergraduates into two categories: ‘socialites’ (by which he meant the upper classes) and ‘stains’, the ‘small, vaguely deformed’ breed, with acne and anoraks, who hadn’t been to posh schools, who
Kuper, Simon. Chums (p. 25). Profile. Kindle Edition.
Russian Black Sea fleet doesn’t depend on sea lanes to the outside of the sea, though, it’s NATO fleets that would (discounting Turkey and Romania). Straits mean nothing to it. If anything, the Black Sea is Russia’s shooting gallery with all it has set up in Crimea ranging all across it, not the other way around.
Nor does Russia depend on shipping through the straits. Nor would Russian command open fire on Turkey’s navy with all the complicated relations Turkey maintains with Russia and the tensions it has with the rest of NATO, Greece above all (anyone remember the attempt to depose/assassinate Erdogan? He sure does). Rather, I’d expect Turkish ships to be mysteriously absent in case there is naval fighting between Russia and NATO there. And there won’t be a dramatic face-off against ships being escorted to or from Odessa, they simply won’t leave port in the first place. Because that’s how Russia actually does its thing, unlike what Hollywood mentality people like to imagine.
Nor is Russia in the habit of just randomly shooting ships anywhere outside of the US gov’t presstitutes’ minds who always portray it as a petulant tantrum-prone movie villain. Else they’d have already shot up all of NATO vessels in range after their connivance against their flagship.
What’s known so far is that at least some of the drones used in the attack have their recorded origin points at one of the “sanctuary” sea lanes covered by the shipping deal (i.e. launched from one of the ships using it), hence the deal being off now. What retaliation will come, will come at a time of Russia’s choosing – they haven’t forgotten the Moskva either. Westie command and leadership may soothe themselves thinking that if Russia doesn’t immediately throw a violent tantrum in response, then it’s weak and cowardly and won’t respond at all. But revenge is a dish best served cold.
The chicken shit always falls from the top down. Always.
If you have a problem, you always go right to the top; none of this taking it out on each other. Fighting each other solves nothing. Civil War solves nothing except the death of millions of civilians. Until you have gone to the top nothing changes. In Russia’s case, until they go directly to the “decision makers” and the “decision making centers” nothing will change.
If you have a problem with a company you go to the president of the company. If you have problem with a government you go to the head of that government (mainly “heads” of government).
Yes.
I believe this is very much going to be the case.
I have grown to believe that in life, Karma will always catch up with you and the bigger the wrong, the bigger the Karma.
Many years ago we used to say – Brits are arrogant and Yanks are brash. Turns out we were right. Who knew….
Here is the thing – nobody really cares about what USA or UK think anymore. They can bark on TV all day long but all of that has kind of lost meaning. Sure, they can still do damage (even if it is done in a cowardly way without admitting responsibility openly) and people have to reckon with them because of that, esp. since the Brits seem to be vicious and underhanded and desperate to still be a factor on the world stage and obviously USA is armed to its teeth and can bring resources to bear. But long term – unless things change in either place – the emperor is naked (and in the case of UK – he/she/it will be freezing soon), has dwindling resources and nobody respects it anymore.
As for USA, sadly, I personally think that it is already on the (unstoppable?) trajectory of becoming a violent 3rd world s*ithole.
Morally, USA/UK are bankrupt, they have problems with everyone, it would seem – nobody is good enough unless they toe the line, and everyone needs to be lectured or brought in line. Well, turns out people don’t like that (who knew?) and now that they have Russia leading the fight (at least that’s what Putin wants the global south to believe anyway), many are not afraid of simply ignoring the bullies at best or openly/publicly telling them off at worst (remember that speech by Mrs. Pandor to Blinken a few months ago or what the Saudis did with the recent oil production decision?). So, Biden got angry in the latter case but what could he do? Nada. The Brits keep talking about Putin’s immediate demise since February and Russia’s economy going down the toilet, yet, they got 3 prime ministers in 3 months. What could they do? Nada. Petty sabotage acts that just expose them as “sad has-beens who haven’t gotten the memo yet”.
The US elites do not differ fundamentally from the British upper class. The US elites in the beginning were British elites in particular those who wanted to murder native Americans and enslave Africans in the pursuit of money and no taxes.
The differences between them are cosmetic only, deep down they are identical in their hatred of anyone outside of their own class.
There is one interesting difference in the case of some British elites, those who went to the first and second world wars as officers. These men had to work with and rely on ordinary lower class men. For many of these elites it was a salutary lesson that resulted in genuine admiration of and affection for ordinary people. And in many cases this was reciprocated by the ordinary men who served under them.
This didn’t happen to the same extent with the US military as the lower ranking officers didn’t hail from the US aristocracy.
This is the first I’ve heard of Russia possibly being aggressive towards Turkey. In fact, it’s the first I’ve heard of Russia being aggressive towards anyone not openly appearing aggressive to her.
And does Russia want to stop the flow of grain?
Vanessa Beeley’s Telegram channel notes a Russian drone attack on the Ukrainian Navy base in Ochakiv, and that the communication center of the British Naval Operations Service was destroyed in the process.
Turkey will suffer economically from the lack of grain to mill, but Russia has just offered to let her be the main gas route into Europe. All is pe-planned.
One of the implications of the loss of Nordstream is there is a very real possibility that BASFs Ludwigshafen may be shut down.
The disaster of this is difficult to put into words.
I worked there. This plant has never been shut down if this happens it may never be able to be restarted. It is literally a city. Every process supports other processes, each supporting a cascade of others.
Without Ludwigshafen, Europe has effectively no fertilizer, no ammonia, no precursors for most medicines.
No fertilizer means no crops.
No ammonia means no industrial refrigeration to keep food fresh, meat cannot be frozen, vegetables cannot be preserves long enough to get to market. Dairy will go bad, milk sounded, cheese molded, eggs rotten. Fruit prematurely ripened.
Europe returns to the 11th century.
Hell, not even because no carbon to make steel!
I hope their swords are already forged, they are going to need them.
The bright side is the governments won’t be able to make condition. Protests might be more effective.
Nord stream 2 was built in part to satisfy the needs of BASF which uses (or used to) more gas in a year than the entire Kingdow of Denmark for all purposes.
The list of products that depend on that plant is longer than the list of Covid Vax side effects.
In my understanding, they have already decided to move to many of their operations to China. What an own goal.
At this point they really have no option but it might not help Germany, the current pResident of the White House and his handler are likely to sanction China once they start taking ( and paying for ) a few billion cu-meters of Russian gas.
If this happens the the Germans are right and truly screwed.
It is not an overnight thing to move an operation of that magnitude. We are talking about 4 square miles of equipment and instrumentation and 40,000 employees. The Verbund will not be re-created anytime soon.
https://www.reuters.com/markets/europe/basf-says-european-operations-need-be-cut-size-permanently-2022-10-26/
Looks like it is moving to China.
You don’t just call College Hunks to move 4 square miles of high tech chemical processing equipment halfway around the world, then where do you get the engineers and technicians to run the systems? Going to transplant 40,000 skilled workers to Wuhan? Pipedream.
It will take a at least a decade to rebuild the Verbund.
If the problem were only at the human level, China today has as many technicians as Germany. Chemical engineers or scientists. I also do not believe that Russia and China will let Europe fall because the main reason for this conflict is precisely to disconnect Europe from Russia and China from transcontinental trade that is worth twice the US GDP per year. Otherwise BASF and other companies could even move to Russia. I don’t know why they always talk only about China today in terms of industrial relocation. Which Russia was very grateful and subsidized with millions!
Larry: Thanks for the reference to LeCarre’s magnificent books. BTW, both the miniseiries you mentioned are available on YouTube.
And now we know why Russia is cosying up to Turkey, and making Turkey more and more dependent on it every day. One thing is certain: unlike the feckless West, Russia has planned down to the last detail. Reminds me of the line from The Hunt for Red October, that Russians don’t take a dump without a plan.
When Erdogan can supply Natural gas to Europe through the planned Gas Hub at the end of Turk stream as floated by Putin and gleefully accepted by Erdogan, why would Erdogan go against Putin and throw away large sums of money and potential weaponization of energy over Europe?
Also Erdogan has been looking to join BRICS+ and SCO for some time.
Closing of Bosporus straight for Russian Navy is not likely as it would not be in the interest of either Russia or China.
Turkey closed the Bosphorus and Dardanelles to naval vessels of all nations back in February.
Not to vessels that have their home port in the Black Sea, as I understand it. I also understand the Turks want additional protection for Turk Stream since Nord Stream was bombed and expect to get it by allowing additional Russian vessels to enter.
Montreux Convention Regarding the Regime of the Straits
As mentioned in its preamble, the Convention replaced the terms of the Lausanne Treaty of 1923 as regards the Straits.[18] This had dictated the demilitarisation of the Greek islands of Lemnos and Samothrace, along with the demilitarisation of the Dardanelles, the Sea of Marmara and the Bosporus, and the Turkish islands of İmroz, Bozcaada and Tavşan.
The Convention consists of 29 Articles, four annexes and one protocol. Articles 2–7 consider the passage of merchant ships. Articles 8–22 consider the passage of war vessels. The key principle of freedom of passage and navigation is laid out in articles 1 and 2. Article 1 provides, “The High Contracting Parties recognise and affirm the principle of freedom of passage and navigation by sea in the Straits”. Article 2 states, “In time of peace, merchant vessels shall enjoy complete freedom of passage and navigation in the Straits, by day and by night, under any flag with any kind of cargo”.
The International Straits Commission was abolished, thereby allowing the full resumption of Turkish military control over the Straits and the refortification of the Dardanelles. Turkey was authorised to close the Straits to all foreign warships during a war or when it was threatened by aggression. Also, Turkey was authorised to refuse transit from merchant ships belonging to countries at war with it.
A number of highly specific restrictions in Article 14 and 18 were imposed on what type of warships are allowed passage. Non-Black Sea powers wishing to send a vessel must notify Turkey 15 days prior to the requested passing, and Black Sea states must notify 8 days prior to passage. Also, no more than nine foreign warships, with a total aggregate tonnage of 15,000 tons, may pass at any one time. Furthermore, no single ship heavier than 10,000 tonnes can pass. An aggregate tonnage of all non-Black Sea warships in the Black Sea must be no more than 45,000 tons, with no one nation exceeding 30,000 tons at any given time, and they are permitted to stay in the Black Sea for at most 21 days. Only Black Sea states may transit capital ships of any tonnage, escorted by no more than two destroyers. Any revision to articles 14 and 18 requires 3/4 majority of signatory countries and must include Turkey.[19][20][21][22]
Under Article 12, Black Sea states are also allowed to send submarines through the Straits with prior notice as long as the vessels have been constructed, purchased or sent for repair outside the Black Sea. The less restrictive rules applicable to Black Sea states were agreed as effectively a concession to the Soviet Union, the only Black Sea state other than Turkey with any significant number of capital ships or submarines.[17][23] The passage of civil aircraft between the Mediterranean and the Black seas is permitted only along routes authorised by the Turkish government.[24]
In time of war, Turkey not being belligerent, warships of belligerent Powers shall not pass, except i.a. to return to their base.
So, to convey the result of a high stakes, ultra secret operation, the prime minister of the UK sent a message from a device that backs up to the Apple cloud.
What we will learn next? That her iCloud password was Liz1975?
Incompetence, OK. THAT incompetent….let me be skeptic.
Or is this leakage intentional, to push Russia to retaliate against a British asset outside Ukraine and invoke article 5? This scenario has many weak points like what role was Playing Liz Truss (useful idiot?) and where do Germans stand on this (toy boys?). But still, it is difficult to believe in that level of incompetence.
That level of incompetence is only hard to believe in if you haven’t actually watched Liz Truss in action. She has an air of childish defiance, like a schoolgirl caught smoking behind the bike sheds.
Yes, except what she was smoking was skunk laced with LSD, and she was still stoned when she made her economic policy. It’s the only way she could imagine that markets would lend her untold billions with no explanation of how, when or even if it would be paid back.
What looks like incompetence is really nothing more than the fact that you are/were not looking at a real Prime MInister any more than you’re looking at a real President when you see Biden, or a Foreign Minister when you see Annalena Baerbock. They’re play-acting in roles they’ve auditioned for. Unscripted, off camera activity is simply outside their understanding of the role. They have no concept of the responsibilities of the office they hold.
As for Article 5, it ain’t at all what people seem to think it is. It does not oblige any signatory to do anything beyond considering doing something.
If the rest of NATO’s members decide that they’re limiting their participation to sending winter diapers so that no British serviceman’s shit freezes to their ass when they first encounter Russian heavy artillery, then that’s all Article 5 obliges them to do. Outside the Balts and the Poles, nobody would lift a finger.
If she were left alone in the middle of Europe, she would be lost. It does not distinguish the Baltic so close to England on the Black Sea.
The old saw about the sun never setting on the British Empire is because even God couldn’t trust the British in the dark.
Full disclosure- I am of British stock. First generation in America
I first read that Liz Truss text message thing via kimdotcom. Seems that’s a guy worth listening to. He’s put out a lot of other truthful stuff before.
The Dardanelles comment is a good one. But it’s supposed to work both ways. Tough call here. Turkey is the wild card because of geography and intersection of different civilizations, as it has always been. Careful diplomacy is a requirement, but so is the right of self defense. In the US world of ROE, a sensor that provides enough targeting information to another hostile will warrant a kinetic response, regardless of the Weapons Control Status or International airspace/seaspace. Russia is forced to weigh between strategy and the tactics of self-defense. The West’s desires for continued grain shipment will be key to Russian diplomacy, and an agreement between Russia and Turkey related to both continued grain shipment and the Russian forces’ right of self-defense will likely be discussed.
Russia’s strategy has to remain slow and methodical… for many reasons… two of which are 1) wait and see the results of US midterms and 2) effects of Brazil’s (fraud-free! sarc!) election relative to BRICS.
It just occured to me that the psychotic foreign policy of the US relies on immediate gratification. And it’s gotten a lot worse. What did the Viet Cong and North Vietnam do? Delay, delay, delay. Delay coming to a diplomatic agreement. They would object to seating positions at the table! Russia’s strategy is the same. They’ll mention diplomatic talks, but nothing will come of it. The $USD strength right now is very temporary. Who will buy US bonds in the future? Only The Fed and a few satrap bankrupt countries. Which countries are selling US bonds? China. Russia has the time to work out the addition of new countries into a massive trade agreement and payment system. They can only lose by violently reacting to the constant prodding.
Small point – for all the crocodile tears from the bien pissant in the western media about the 3rd World poor starving due to lack of Ukraine grain, when shipments were first allowed a couple of months back, most of it went to western Europe for stock feed. Jus’ sayin’ (cont. p94 as they say in the classics.)
Winter is Coming – this exceptionally warm Autumn is not good news for the Continent’s soil biota, long starved of organic material, which need hard frosts to break down natural fertiliser, aka manure which is all they’ll have left soon.
Assuming that anyone remembers how wearying it is to spread by graip (a heavy 4 tined fork).
Access through the Bosphorus is regulated by International Treaty. Russia cannot send a replacement for the Moskva through there at the moment because of that treaty. And the USA cant send ships through it into the Black Sea either, for the same reason.
Yep. Various “experts” can’t even understand basic stuff.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montreux_Convention_Regarding_the_Regime_of_the_Straits
As I understand it, the Montreux Convention allows Turkey to close the passage to warships not belonging to littoral states during wartime. It declared back in March that it has done just that. It cannot, however close inbound passage to Russian ships unless Turkey enters a state of war with Russia, or fears that such a war is imminent.
So, I assume your interlocutor is speaking about Russia attacking Turkish warships. Unless the Turks had something to do with the attack, it’s hard to see why they would.
Turkish shipowners are an important political constituency and they’re making very nice money on the grain trade. I haven’t heard anything about any of them having aided or abetted the attack. If one of them has “gone rogue”, I think Russia could target his ships without raising any hair outside the West.
What I think will happen is that the Russians and Turks will come to a deal whereby Russians will stop and inspect grain carriers for any “side business” in armaments in either international waters as they leave Ukraine, while Turkey inspects inbound ships in the straits.
As for the “shooting gallery”, it’s even harder to see who besides Ukraine could shoot at them. If Russian ships are attacked by Romanian or Bulgarian ships or from their territories/airspace, they’d automatically become belligerents. As aggressors, they’d be doing so without NATO’s Article 5 coverage (as toothless as that Article is) and nobody’s going to go to war to prevent Romania or Bulgaria from taking their lumps.
As for Russia lacking the resources to “close the Black Sea”, it can certainly make hostile entry an unpleasant experience should Turkey open the straits to all and sundry. Installing coastal anti-shipping batteries such as Bastion were amongst the first things Russia did after the Crimean referendum. Capable of firing networked “wolf-packs” of supersonic Onyx cruise missiles, it’s considered quite lethal to any surface vessels within >300km. The rest of Russia’s Black Sea coast isn’t exactly undefended either, and then there’s all the aviation based anti-shipping defence located around the coast and on board the Black Sea fleet as well.
The upshot is that should a hostile vessel enter, it will have to both stay and remain docile in international waters to remain halfway safe. What would be the point?
All good points. The attack on Russian ships also placed profitable Turkish grain shipping deals at risk…and Ergodan is already dealing with dire domestic fiscal issues. Plus the new deal with Russia for Turkish gas hubs is major. Russia is supporting tge re-emergence of Turkey a a premier trans- Eurasia trade route.
The goal was more likely to decouple Russian naval assets from oversight of the sea lanes and enable more weapons smuggling into Ukraine and faciltate troop movements.
If the Brit involvement is true, then as a shipping concern, I would be fearful of any underwriting by Lloyds and equally worried about sabotage if it served their purposes. Let’s face it, the Brits involvement in all these incidents is screwing pretty much every nation in the EU and most of the world. For example:
Equality.Media, [30/10/2022 14:40]
From August to October, 350 out of 455 vessels with 6.1 out of 9.3 million tons (66%) of Ukrainian grain and processed products were sent from unblocked ports of Ukraine to developed countries, Equality calculated according to the UN and MarineTraffic. 65% of exported products are fodder, i.e. livestock feed.
Seriously starving countries, where more than 10% of the population suffers from malnutrition, got only 1.18 million tons (13%) of cereals, including 25% of wheat. In particular, 11 ships with 0.36 million tons of grain (4%) went to the poorest countries of Africa.
Total – 9.3 million tons
🇪🇸 Spain – 1,80 (or 19% of the weight)
🇹🇷 Turkey – 1,29 (14%)
🇮🇹 Italy – 0,86 (9%)
🇨🇳 China – 0,84 (9%)
🇳🇱 The Netherlands – 0,55 (6%)
🇪🇬 Egypt – 0,42 (5%)
🇧🇩 Bangladesh – 0,27 (3%)
🇹🇩 Romania – 0,25 (3%)
🇮🇱 Israel – 0,24 (3%)
🇩🇪 Germany – 0,22 (2%)
Other countries – 2.59 (28%)
––––––
Western and NATO countries – 6.15 (66%)
Starving countries – 1.18 (13%)
Hi folks,
question for all of you – can you suggest why Russia would suspend the grain agreement ?
One poster mentioned that the marine drones were launched from the ships in the safe passage lanes (effectively militarizing the grain-carrying ships).
Can anybody offer any other reasons ?
Thanks
I doubt the Russians are interested in loosing naval assets or men in order to supply Ukrainian grain primarily to the same Europian and NATO aligned idiots who want Russia nuked…and from whom Ukraine profits.
They can supply the Global South with grain through other routes.
Three reasons I have heard regarding suspension of grain agreement:
1. Attack on Kirch Bridge – suicide truck was smuggled out on a grain ship.
2. Most grain is not going to the global south, but to Europe. i.e unfriendly nations
3. Attack on the fleet as Sevastopol.
There are likely more, my guess would be that Odessa is on the hit list and a functioning grain agreement would cause problems. Odessa will be a big fight, Mariupol style, because without access to the Black Sea, Ukraine is borderline useless to US/NATO.
The Russians backing out of the grain treaty will have an effect. The carry costs alone, in terms of cargo and ship insurance for vessels daring to cross the Black Sea, will become prohibitive, and stop the grain shipments.
Unless the countries, these grain vessels were destined to deliver these cargoes to, get their deliveries, the starvation to be massive. Worldwide. In the first world developed countries the famine would be beyond belief, beyond anybody’s experience.
Soy Boys would perish by the millions. Over half of the domestically produced crop of soybeans grown in the Ukraine are usually exported.
Fear not. Somebody will step in that has a navy, and offer protection to these poor grain vessels, most likely the United States or the British Empire (that never dies).
Then expect to see attacks on these vessels. If one is actually sunk, that would be the time to breakout the radioactive popcorn and butter.
Gonzalo Lira thought that Russia pulling out of the grain supply would result in Zelensky’s demands not let Russia come to G20.
Regarding how Russians got drone’s camera footage, I read in Russian sources that there boom net damage – could this drone entangle in it and preserve? Just a crazy thought:-)
Russia, represented by one person or another, will attend the G20. If only to be shown the door.
Whether Russian President Vladimir Putin, will attend the G20, remains a mystery. If Putin does attend the G20 in person I just hope he makes it through the conference alive. The odds are not good. He is a world leader, of a major nuclear power. Just imagine if he went to the conference and was assassinated.
Nothing crazy about asking questions. With the the Fog of War and propaganda like the world has never seen before, questions are all we have left.
Another winner of an article.
Read history, “Dying Empires,” elect midgets and follow then to destruction.
The big picture
https://www.zerohedge.com/personal-finance/teetering-brink-63-americans-are-living-paycheck-paycheck
Power of delusion. The narrative must be maintained.
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/chris-hedges-stop-worrying-love-bomb
Russian losing while Uki lights are out. LOL
LIZ TOSSER: gets her pension for life and a teaching gig + benefits in America.
Londonstan is no longer a joke as Willian becomes the last king of England. Famine, killer winters and desperate summers.
Will America care? I doubt it.
History is about grand strategy, written by the winners. The daily tactical shits and farts are in the bibliography.( sub collection of facts to give depth.)
Watch the dollar disintegrate like an asteroid.
The Salty Bears, “ Disintegration,” is a buy on Apple Books, I’ve got the lot.
Buy Silver Dollars, cut back and survive, it’s got that serious. The herd is unsettled and has begun too move, the stampede will be unstoppable throughout the West. Thunder is coming!
Thats what im telling my kids. Years ago i asked myself “why did the jews not leave germany/ europe ?” They had plenty of warning, if they seriously looked.
Some people did look and got out …why didnt the rest of them?
Yesterday i lreminded my daughter (35) of that….. we were discussing buying farm land 1.5 hours by car out of the nearest city …(she live in ottawa) …
And her comment was …”it takes a lot of effort to do that …”
I imagine the jews of europe, concerned with the rise of nazis, comforted themselves with similar evasion…
Tens of thousands tried to flee but the West closed its doors to them.
Thank you very much, Mr Johnson for another excellent article.
I am amazed by the great lengths you go to produce these marvels of insightful pieces, which help to illuminate the mishmash fog Western media dish out.
It shows that you have deep respect for your readers!
Apologies if I have missed mention above of Sikorsky’s sometime wife, arch Atlanticist Anne Applebaum (proud holder of, at least, 3 passports, USA born, UK due to his then UK citizenship and now Polish) she of the totally unbiased, fair and entirely non partisan reportage on all things Russian.
This is all very exciting. Who needs the cinema anymore in the geopolitical realm? Real life beats all!
Dear Larry,
Russia needs a port in Iran to the Persian Gulf and/or the Indian Ocean.
many greetings, willi
Asuncion, Paraguay
How about this?
https://sea-news.az/2022/07/16/russia-iran-north-south-transport-corridor-launched/
Gigi,
Thank you for this link. It reports on several developments that are of genuine geopolitical consequence. I commend a careful reading to readers of this site, and reflection upon the significance and ramifications of the projects documented therein.
My, my, Halford MacKinder’s Eurasian World Island is taking shape right in front of our eyes, a bit at a time; no wonder that the Outer Islands are in a bit of a panic about this…
Hi Larry, I would like to thank you for your great articles! There are very few military or special services people in the US who have similar point of view as you and for obvious reasons they are all retired. It also takes some courage to go against the grain nowadays, must be the genes. First it was the Revolutionary War and now it is the war for the Truth!
I have been following the North Stream sabotage story fairly close and recently I came across an interesting piece of information which in my opinion could be pretty relevant, but I would like to get your thoughts on it. I do not know if you have seen this information, but I only seen it once even though I have been keeping informed on the topic.
It is my belief that weather the US, or some other country blew up the North Stream pipeline US was definitely involved. I do not believe that anyone would blow up the pipeline without first getting an OK from US. One person who would definitely have to be in the loop and would probably play a significant role in the process would be the US Secretary of State. Keeping the above in mind, let me provide you with the piece of information that I ran across recently and you can comment on it, weather you think it might be relevant to what has happened to North Stream pipeline. I recently came across a book titled “Ally versus Ally America, Europe, and the Siberian Pipeline Crisis” that was published back in 1987 and the author is none other than our current Secretary of State, Antony J. Bliken. Does not appear to be too popular on Amazon. Also, his comments that “This is a Tremendous Opportunity” seem to fit right in.
Anyway, I put in my two cents worth and would love to know what you think about it. Thanks Larry
excellent
Looks like someone goes into the water from the port side stern of the small patrol boat at the end of the video clip.
I’m not convinced it was London that bombed the pipelines. And is it even more surreal to say that Liz Truss left Downing Street because of Nord Stream and ask for money for this “news”?! I never doubted that the British participated with the research vessel so long in the Baltic. How they participated in the attempt to sabotage TurkStream a week earlier. Maybe even a workout? But one thing it’s to do the preparatory work or leave, put, some device next to the gas pipelines even to measure the gas output with the collaboration of Denmark – as in the case of listening to Merkl – to check the damage caused by the bombing, another thing is the ability to bomb the Nord Streams. Which is completely different from the surface sabotage in Sevastopol. For me it was the US Navy who bombed the Nord Streams! By a plane!
A plane would be too easily observed by ISR and other intel assets in a such heavily trafficked and multi-nationally monitored area at such shaloow depths. No one knew what had happened, even Gasprom. Subsurface attack.
Actually, a P8 was observed on a rather unusual mission just before the pipelines blew. The P8’s mission is covered from about the 10:00 mark. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XPUwgaAScp8&list=PLzQ-RknHMY3RrdmOdib5urdyTq9GAhRFl&index=12
He expands on the P8 and the HAAWC’s capabilities here:
https://www.monkeywerxus.com/blog/the-nord-stream-2-pipeline-sabotage
We have no idea what the P8 may have dropped (if anything), but its presence at a critical time and its very unusual flight plan suggests that the Brits didn’t do it on their own. The US was deeply involved.
Swedish Navy visited the site some days before, what a coincident.
https://www.svt.se/nyheter/inrikes/svenska-marinens-fartyg-i-omradet-inte-ett-sammantraffande
The P-8 that did not stop in England as it always does when it goes to northern Europe and operates in anti-submarine warfare roles and is armed with guided torpedoes and other retarded weapons and can launch and monitor sonobuoys and operate with drones. submarines and other assets. What did P8 do to the pipeline area?
Underwater drones at most may have helped guide some torpedoes because no undersea drone can carry the amount of explosives needed to pierce the pipelines.
But just yesterday I also heard an American official operating in Ukraine because of the operation in Sevastopol – and this one with a high media profile like all operations in Ukraine – vehemently denying the British navy’s involvement in the sabotage of the gas pipelines because there was no British ship in the zone?! As far as everyone knows, a British “scientific” ship was in the area for several weeks. Not to mention Wallace having rushed to buy two ships to protect the British submarine infrastructure for fear of retaliation!
One thing I take for granted, Russia is fed up with knowing who it was and will only release the information it finds most convenient. Like Sweden and Germany today! And the other thing I take for granted is that when Biden said that if Russia entered Ukraine it would destroy the Nord Streams, and he was asked how, he already had the necessary equipment.
https://en.protothema.gr/nord-stream-the-first-underwater-drone-footage-shows-the-scale-of-the-damage-videos-photos/
I don’t know explosives, but I would think this looks more like a controlled demolition using directional sheering force blast.
so Liz Truss knew and got on her trusty iphone. Wow British intelligence gets better and better.
Despite attacks , the Ruskie Fleet looks pretty good.
And that evil craft washed ashore , well it looks so …. evil.
Boris being willing to carry the can for the Americans should be a concern.
Though Churchill painted the picture after Yalta.
All those pink bits . The British empire covering most of the globe.
It’s not easy going back to soggy fish and chips after that.
She may as well have put it on Twitter. LOL.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attack_on_Mers-el-K%C3%A9bir
So?
Why would Russia clash with Turkey? Hasn’t she had the Turks on a leash ever since they committed the error of downing that Russian bomber in Syria? And isn’t Russia held to be instrumental in defeating the coup against Erdogan? Or am I misremembering?
Turks and Russians are both in Syria and not always on the same page. Actions there will be telling.
Putin has offered to make Turkey the gas hub to Europe. That will please the Turks immensely.
On the other hand America retains far greater influence over Turkey than people think.
The Turks will hedge their bets. Hearts maybe East, Brains saying until West falls we give them a piece of Turkish delight dusted with sugar we spat on.
Why would Russia be suspending grain shipments? Perhaps this is a way of giving notice without giving notice? Ships currently in and around Odessa have time to load and go, other shipping companies may cancel trips there. It could be a way to clear Odessa of foreign ships that, shall we say, may complicate other plans.
With 200k troops yet to be deployed, it seems to me they’re getting ready for General Winter to arrive and are setting up for a Christmas surprise.
It also seems to me that Western thinking is impetuous; that every provocation requires an immediate response; that our leaders, under media pressure need to be seen to be doing something, so act hastily – this is something, we’ll do this.
Other cultures value patience, take a longer term view and respond in a manner of their choosing at a time of their choosing, unfazed by the bleating of a hysterical media in need of a headline.
You are not an angry Aussie.
Or any kind of Aussie .
Play your pathetic , evil games elsewhere.
Good points!
I think feckless or reckless regarding the British pretty much correctly states the position.
Talking to friends involved in training pilots for Ukraine and to British senior officers the attitude is one that that they genuinely believe Russia to be weak and an adversary and weakening Russia by one soldier or one bullet is seen as a gain.
They are not short sighted. They see this as a long war with the West wearying and eventually beating Russia. They view a Russia and China left unchallenged at this stage as becoming to powerful to control and take on. So of they are going to do it now is the time.
They have extensive confidence in Western ability to do this. For the Brits they see themselves as backed up by the US but technically superior to the US. The US also puts more weight on British intelligence than it should.
Conflicts like Afghanistan and Iraq, Libya that now senor British officers have been in means no one views the ethical dimension as important. They are there to follow orders and that’s what they will do. There is racism and genuine dislike against Russians and Putin with UK officers briefed that he has parkinson’s. For mercenaries and trainers the pay is good. Talk of hoping the war does not end until they get something out of it. It’s business.
This is an extraordinarily difficult moment for Russia. But also at the level where thought occurs if any in the US, the Pentagon.
We are getting to the point where in particular the UK or Poles will risk doing something that escalates this in a manner that a direct confrontation becomes inevitable between US and UK.
The political messaging to the UK by US is to go all out. Push it as far as you can. This is the standard take with proxies. The mistake here is treating the UK and Poland as proxies. Both these countries have chains around Americas necks and they will drag America into whatever retaliation Russia decides.
The US has the ability to call a halt. The midterms may be the opportunity. But now the Europeans are so riled up and economically damaged how much can the US pull back even if they want to. If they pull back then what was all the suffering for?
As time goes on and the UK and Poland continue to provoke Russia, there will come a point when without warning this will all go far beyond the control of the US. We are not far from that point now.
I don’t have much faith in Austin but really he and the Pentagon are the line between sanity and total war. The question for them is when politically and militarily should they try to draw the line and what would that look like and what happens next.
Refer Austin
See the pattern connect the dots!
1.Weapons of mass destruction Black General.
2.Every military defeat or pending dodgy escalation a Black General pops up in front of the cameras. Also police.
When you recognise it , the pattern is everywhere. For TV news, bring on the Hollywood 6 foot 5 muscleman with a sharp crew cut and cheesy pale face…sleeves rolled up above the elbow, ready to fight tonight!
The John Wayne narrative, keep to the script and roll the cameras. I think Larry called it a “photo opportunity.”
It’s getting old, like the Empire.
trash english.
obviously a bot.
Far more significant than the grain transit itself was Shoigu’s commitment not to conduct naval landings on Ukraine’s Black Sea coast while the deal remained in effect. It was this threat which had sparked Ukraine’s original Black Sea mining operation. I doubt that Russia has any intention of disrupting Black Sea grain shipments as such. However Ukraine must now consider new landing threats on its coast and ships arriving in Ukrainian ports suspected of carrying arms shipments now become fair game. Russia has spent far too much time cultivating Turkey as an independent force within NATO to jeopardize that over relatively trivial grain shipments.
I should add that all port facilities of Ukraine are no longer off limits as they were previously. Perhaps this is what they Russia means when it warns that it can no longer insure the safety of grain shipments. As logistic hubs port facilities are easily classified as targets. We will see soon enough.
How does a student from poor communist Warsaw Pact era Poland afford a Saville Road Suite and the Fees for a posh student club ?
Hmmm
Trick Question; He doesn’t . He gets the heck out of town.
The Brits are full of crap.
An Aussie.
Une suggestion : il a de très bons amis… très fortunés… et très généreux…
There has been a significant uptick in events involving security hacks/breaches in last few weeks. I wonder if this could involve assistance from China who we were constantly warned have low level (I.e. hardware) access to communication equipment widely used across the world. Just a thought…
Unfortunately for NATO in their reckoning of any Black Sea Grand Plans, the Russians may lack sea power in terms of numbers, but the PLA Navy– now joined at the hip militarily to Russia– will, I’m sure, make up for any shortfall elsewhere– in particular the NW Pacific, allowing Russia to concentrate naval firepower wherever she likes, surely. And the submarines/aircraft can strike accurately from up to 500 klicks away, too, and probably much farther afield.
The real war is directed gainst Germany, as always and by the same aggressors.
hope so
Strange change in taste:
From Gottfried von Bismarck’s buddy to an “anti-German”…
Wow. How suddenly and swiftly this sharp, unrelenting analysis, to culminate in despair at the end was a shocker.
“Russia will present evidence against the Brits on Monday before the U.N. Security Council. I think the Russians realize this is a fruitless pursuit in terms of getting the Security Council to punish the United Kingdom.”
I would say that the only option left is war. But we are already there.
All that is left, really, is to start bombing capitals of countries and key military targets around the world.
Conventional warfare is no longer affordable. There are just too many people to kill, too many military targets, and too many finite and expensive resources to get the job done.
That leaves something efficient to get the job done, like nuclear or biological warfare.
How come we never hear about the neutron bomb anymore? You know, the one that kills people but leaves the buildings. Look up former Wall Street Business Icon, and legendary (or infamous) General Electric CEO George “Neutron” Welch.
“The Brits are behaving a bit like a sex crazed school boy [sic] . . . .”
I have to disagree. Sex crazed schoolboys are harmless. What is happening today looks to get us all killed and burn up what’s left of the natural resources the world so desperately needs to survive and is about to run out of — even as another World War breaks out.
Sex crazed schoolboys are too busy using their schoolbooks on international law to hide the shame, humiliation and embarrassment caused by their eternal hard-ons, picked up from the Germans after World War 2, about how the prettiest girl in the school named Russia is somehow undeserving of respect, and can be treated beneath contempt, as somehow subhuman by a hard-on that will never go away.
Sex-crazed schoolboys are harmless. They have just let themselves be lured into one stupid misadventure after another, that they will never recover from, like showing their friends how big theirs is, or is not. And will never be able to live it down.
Paul Pelosi looks and behaves like an 82-year-old sex crazed schoolboy. Too bad about the hammer. Maybe the brain surgery will do some good. Doubt it.
No, the Brits (really the United States and what’s left of the west), the empire that will not die, not behaving like a sex crazy schoolboy. They are really behaving like hysterical schoolgirls — irrational, sex-obsessed, drug-addicted, out of their minds, screaming schoolgirls, subject to uncontrolled outbursts of emotion and crying jags.
Us Brits have certainly been behaving quite stupidly for some time.
White Helmets being the most blatant example that clearly is our repsonsibility.
Truss is a perfect idiot to go along with madcap MI6 ideas. More macho than even Boris and you don’t get to be Foriegn or Defence minister in Europe without being pre-approved by US.
I think the motive is to prove ourselves as Robin to the US Batman. I’m not sure we care what the plot is, we just want to be in the game. And I guess the NSA database which gives us access to all kind of blackmail material is too good to resist.
So yes we probably did NS2 though the text 1 min later seems more joke than evidence.
Rachel Johnson journalist quoted on Sikorski must surely be the Rachel Johnson journalist sister of Boris.
And Sikorski has CIA connections I imagine too. His first job as a journalist was to go to Afghanistan and get close to the Mujahidin. He wrote a book on it.
Great insight. However, I think Britts will never do anything without US permission. The question is why did US allow UK to do it ? Putin often talks about Anglo-saxons in his speeches , one can feel his anger with them, mostly directed to UK. In general, Russian history is not kind to UK after all they did not save Nichols and were glad that Imperial Russia lost so much land after WW1: Poland, Finland , Large Northern Persia, Mongolia. Then after Soviet collapse, Russia lost it s territories again. So it is chip chip chip away for past 100 years. Putin knows that and UK wants break Russia again. Does US want Russia to start war with UK and then come to rescue like a good old cousin? The funny thing Putin speaks about US with respect : a great experiment that gave a boot to colonial UK and built the largest economy in the world in short period of time from nothing. Putin understands that US is important in world balance, but he does not understand why US does not understand that Russia is the other side of the balance.
Turkey is completely irrelevant here, the ships aren’t being loaded in Turkey, they’re being loaded in Ukraine. All Ukrainian infrastructure is at the mercy of Russia, that includes port infrastructure. Why cause a confrontation with Turkey when you can blow up a grain elevator in Ukraine and be done with it ?
Thank you Larry:
Light is the best.
All its many shades.
Russian RT issued a very detailed article today about the latest developments in the booming business of building kamikaze drones. The latest drones have an electric motor (has no thermal traceability), are equipped with anti-laser devices, and are able to operate without the satellite navigation (the operator uses a high resolution TV camera with night vision) https://russian.rt.com/russia/article/1067980-lancet-bespilotnik-rosteh [the article features many photos & videos]
“A universal remedy on the battlefield”: what Russian kamikaze drones are capable of
The Russian loitering ammunition “Lancet” has a special protection that protects it even from the latest laser weapons against drones, the Rostec state corporation reported. They also noted that the Lancet is capable of independently conducting reconnaissance and attacking a target without the use of satellite navigation. This kamikaze drone is now actively used in the special operation zone in Ukraine. Earlier, the head of Rostec, Sergey Chemezov, said that the enterprises of the state corporation were ready to produce these and other drones in the required quantities. According to analysts, loitering ammunition in the course of hostilities has proven to be an effective and highly demanded weapon among the troops.
The Russian Lancet kamikaze drone is invulnerable even to the latest laser weapons against drones, the Rostec state corporation said.
“Intercepting, destroying or hiding from the Lancet is almost impossible. Thanks to the built-in anti-laser protection, even the latest laser weapons against drones are not afraid of this drone, ”the message posted on the company’s Telegram channel says.
Earlier, the head of the corporation, Sergei Chemezov, in an interview with Vedomosti, said that Rostec was ready to supply drones to the troops in the required quantities.
“In those segments of unmanned aerial vehicles where we work, there are results. Kalashnikov, for example, makes Lancet and Cube kamikaze drones. There are examples of their successful application on the rollers from the NWO zone. We are ready to supply them in the required volumes if there is an order,” Chemezov said.
According to the “double X” scheme
As reported on the Rostec website, the Lancet was developed by ZALA AERO (part of the Kalashnikov concern). It is an unmanned vehicle with an integrated warhead that is capable of long-duration flight over the battlefield, independently detecting a target and, if necessary, destroying it by diving like a guided missile.
The design of the “Lancet” is made according to an unusual “double X” aerodynamic scheme, the company notes.
“It allows you to dive at very high speeds, while maintaining a large payload, while the weight of the UAV itself is only 12 kg. Such a scheme is used for the first time on such devices, ”Rostec emphasized.
According to the developers, the Lancet can fly tens of kilometers and strike with surgical precision. At the same time, the operator controls the actions of the drone using a television guidance channel. The drone does not lose video contact with the operator until the moment of contact with the target.
The complex includes not only a warhead, but also a reconnaissance, navigation and communications module, which can determine coordinates from various sources and objects and is not strictly tied to satellite navigation.
It is known that there are at least two modifications of this drone: Lancet-1 and Lancet-3.
They differ in flight duration, their own weight and the mass of the warhead. So, according to Rostec, the first Lancet can stay in the air for 30 minutes and carries 1 kg of payload with a total weight of 5 kg. The Lancet-3, in turn, weighs 12 kg and is capable of lifting a payload of 3 kg. The duration of its flight is 40 minutes.
In recent weeks, the Ministry of Defense has posted a series of videos showing the successful operation of the Lancets during a special military operation in Ukraine.
So, on October 13, a video was made public , in which an off-road vehicle of the Armed Forces of Ukraine was destroyed with the help of the Lancet. And on October 29, the defense department showed a video of the destruction of the Ukrainian Buk-M air defense system and two 155-mm M777 howitzers.
The company ZALA AERO has another kamikaze drone – “Cube-UAV”. The Rostec website indicates that the advantages of this complex are a hidden launch, high accuracy of the shot, noiselessness and ease of use.
“The drone, whose dimensions do not exceed 1210 x 950 x 165 mm, can fly for 30 minutes at a speed of 80 to 130 km / h, while the payload mass reaches 3 kg,” the company says.
As Sergei Chemezov noted, the Kub-BLA is “a very accurate and most effective weapon, which is very difficult to fight with traditional air defense systems.”
“Huge Need”
According to military analysts, the Lancet proved to be an extremely effective weapon.
Analysts recall that at the beginning of the NWO, there was a shortage of drones at the front, including small ones, but now the situation is starting to change.
“Those enterprises that promoted their products, including Lancets and Cubas, increased their production volumes,” Vyacheslav Pshikhopov, director of the Research Institute of Robotics and Control Processes of the Southern Federal University, explained in a conversation with RT.
So, on October 24, the Almaz-Antey concern announced that the Obukhov plant began mass production of multifunctional unmanned aerial vehicles for the civilian market.
“The first 400 products will be assembled in November, and about 1,000 drones are planned to be produced by the end of this year. The project was developed as part of a program to diversify production at enterprises of the military-industrial complex.
The device can be operated at a strong wind and negative temperatures. The preliminary cost of a complete set of UAVs will be significantly lower than that of foreign analogues on the market, the company stressed.
As analysts recall, such civilian drones are actively used during the NWO.
“There is a huge need for quadcopters. They need a lot of them both for reconnaissance and for adjusting artillery, ”says Sergei Denisentsev, an expert at the Center for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies.
At the same time, according to him, domestic enterprises are faced with the task of import substitution of a number of components.
“Russia has begun to pay more attention to this industry – there is no doubt about it. But the opposite side also does not stand still. The world’s leading UAV manufacturers continue to develop,” Denisentsev noted.
I suspect that small boat that the sea drone narrowly missed is what snagged the nasty little thing. It is probably not a coincidence that the video cuts out the second after the drone passes that boat.
A net? I don’t see any. Perhaps something as simple as an electrified wire trailing behind the boat that fried the motor. Unlikely to be a shotgun or similar as that would risk blowing up the boat as well as the drone.
But if it was that small boat then that implies the Russians were aware of the possibility of this attack and such boats were on alert and ready to take them down.
Sikorski attended the Bilderberg Conference in Washington on 2-5 June:
https://www.bilderbergmeetings.org/press/press-release/participants
I know the degradation of western ruling classes, but a British P.M. may be so stupid of using an open chanel ?
Hillary Clinton.
Read “Charlie M” by Brian Freemantle to understand the workings of British Intelligence.
Selected targets and then some.
The naval assault on Odessa and Romania is so obvious that even the Woke US military saw it coming. The chances of Russian forces fighting their way out of Kherson are about zero. The drone attack on the naval assets at Sevastopol make perfect sense.
The video from one of the drone ships used at Sevastopol indicate that the defensive helos can’t hit squat. Apparently they were only trained to hit large, slow moving masses of civilians. The videos show lots and lots of nearby splashes from misses. The flashes on the horizon are the inactivation of vessels that would have been part of the strike against Odessa or Bessarabia. Good work, guys. Naval assault pre-empted.
Looks like the Muscovites can’t defend their ships or their bridges. Time to go home.
Hi President Zelensky !
Why was I not surprise to see Liz use an unsecured phone to deliver critical information at the worst possible moment ? Well … it’s not that complicated : just look at her.
The thing is : Liz is gone, the mess continue anyway. Should the peasants close the drinking club(s) with torches and pitchforks ?
It remind me one talk i had with a bri’ish friend , he told me it’s not allowed to be drunk in a pub in England , that surprises me a lot : how come you can drink at the pub without getting drunk at all ? His answer make it clear : “Well , we’re talking about english drunk there , not the regular kind of drunk”.
The more time passes , the more i understand his words…
One could not wait to please ones master.
Larry,
No offense, but I represent dumb people not smart people. And I’ve got some dumb questions:
1. Who are the top ten figures in the “black world of intelligence” who believe in truth?
2. How much agreement is there within the black world of intelligence regarding conspiracy theories, e.g., JFK assassination, 9/11, etc.?
3. I’ve never been a Hal Turner fan and I’m suspicious of anyone who promotes him. Are you an FBI informant?
4. No doubt y’all are a bunch of smart people with some serious experience. What is your game plan?
5. Who is the best host at RT?
6. How do you stay informed, i.e., what websites do you visit daily to know the truth?
7. Do you think the election was stolen from Trump? And if you believe it was stolen, what’s the point in voting?
BTW, I recall early on maybe a tiny few people wondering whether or not I’m a police informant or not. For the record I am not a police informant now nor have I ever been a police informant.
Lastly, how many police informants do you think post here? And how many people are there out there who know more than anyone here and remain silent?
P.S. I include my website not to advertise it for sale but just to let you know who I am. And I track visitation to my website for sales potential purposes. I don’t get many hits at all. MI Spooks wrote the description posted at RebelArmy.com which I’m proud of.
P.P.S. Strict Legality.
P.P.P.S. And I’ve said this many times before, but I don’t understand why we don’t have more genuine leaders in this country rather than a bunch of whore politicians. Leaders who tell the truth and seek to represent the interests of the American people. Do you know of one single good leader in America saying “follow me?”
I commented to MI Spooks, “Larry Johnson from my vantage point is without peer.”
MI Spooks responded:
Larry is not without peer.
He believes two jets caused three WTC towers to collapse into their footprints.
He also believes another jet can nosedive into the ground and leave no trace of its crash except excavated dirt in a farmer’s field.
It’s not hard to see him buffalo”ed by the likes of Hall Turner.
end
Hal Turner as a source, huh?
” Hal Turner’s career as an FBI informant/provocateur code-named “Valhalla,” details about which have been pried from the Bureau by reporters for the Bergen (New Jersey) Record.
Beginning in 2003 (or, as Turner claims, 2002), Turner was a paid informant “who spied on his own controversial followers,” reports the Record, citing “government documents, e-mails, court records, and almost 20 hours of jailhouse interviews” with the snitch. Turner “received thousands of dollars from the FBI to report on such groups as the Aryan Nations and the white supremacist National Alliance, and even a member of the Blue Eyed Devils skinhead punk band.”
“I was not some street snitch,” insists Turner. “I was a deep undercover intelligence operative.” He demands recognition of that distinction with the same desperate desire for dignity displayed by any other whore who seeks to upgrade his or her job description with a more refined title.
The FBI budgeted at least $100,000 to pay for Turner’s performances, both on his radio program and in public speeches. He now insists that he was merely role-playing on behalf of his pimps – both the FBI’s Special Agent Haug and New Jersey State Police Detective Leonard Nerbetski, who also served on the Newark Joint Terrorism Task Force.
As he tells the story, Turner was required to feign passion for various unsavory causes: In interviews with the Record, Turner maintained that “the FBI coached him to make racist, anti-Semitic and other threatening statements and new now feels double-crossed by the Bureau after his arrest.”
“The audience loves the rip-roaring radio psycho,” Turner boasted in an e-mail to the FBI. “They literally throw money at it. Just be confident that the personality you hear (or hear about) on radio is not real life. I have zero intention of doing anything stupid.”
https://www.americanussr.com/american-ussr-hal-turner.html
The bit about 1 min after message from Truss comes from Kim Dot Com’s Twitter feed based on a hack of Truss’s iCloud account.
We should not lose site of the fact that Britain committed an act of War against Germany, hoping to benefit from a now non Competitive German manufacturing base.
Germany has a huge interest in supporting Russia at the UN.
Germans are no better than the Brits. The West has bitchslapped them 3 times and they keep bending over. Plus they don’t give a damn about ethics or Russians either.
Excellent summary Larry. The British have very little capability remaining and they desperately want to be seen as relevant but they aren’t. They are not any more relevant than Canada (where I live). The reason I say this is while Britain has significant military capability for a small nation it has almost nothing else. Canada has no military capacity whatsoever yet it is #4 in the world in oil and natural gas production and is very wealthy in commodities such as food, timber, minerals, etc. And fresh water – more than any country on earth. These commodities make a nation strong in a fundamental sense. The manufacturing capacity is so-so but without the raw materials any country is held hostage. And Britain is pushing its luck with its actions against Russia. Thanks again for a great article.
Perhaps someone can clear up a confusion of mine. The use of “terrorist act” is used in conjunction with the Crimea Bridge attack and now this one against the Russian navy, but are not the bridge and naval warships legitimate military targets? I should add that I am not pro Ukrainian in this war but I think some commentary here is warranted.
L.
The ‘terrorist act’ refers to the abuse of grain ships for military purposes (the naval drones were unloaded from one of these ships), which were explicitly excluded in the deal between Russia, Türkiye and Ukraine. Ukraine (& Britain) have used the grain deal as a cover up for their terrorist act.
The Kerch bridge is a civilian structure just as the electric power grid of Ukraine is. Therefore Ukraine has no reason to complain against military attacks on its power grid.
My understanding is that the drones were launched from the mainland and targeted warships. I understand that the escort of grain ships may have been the ploy to access the warships, but they are military targets. Does it make a difference if the UK did the deed? Perhaps. If so NATO supplying artillery etc to attack Russians is also terrorism? Maybe I am splitting hairs here?
NATO is supplying weaponry to Ukraine which are since 2014 being used to hit civilian targets in the Donbass. Yes, these are terrorist acts and NATO indisputably has knowledge of the fact that civilian targets are being hit with NATO weaponry (HIMARS f.e.). You are using the designation ‘Russians’ without making a difference between military and civilian. If you do honor the distinction, you would also know what are terrorist acts committed against innocent civilians. It seems that NATO has sunk into the same abyss as Ukraine, whose army is daily trying to kill civilians in the Donbass under the pretext that they all are ‘military targets’.
Bridge was attacked by a suicide bomber driving civilian truck filled with explosive. You are confused by that being called terrorism, right?
My understanding was that the driver was innocent. That is from the Russian view. But to use someone like that is that what the confusion is about? My point is that the bridge was a legitimate military target and from my view a suicide attack still means that for Ukraine the bridge was a legitimate target. Now if the Brits did it, does that make a difference if they did it on the Ukraine side. Is that not the same as “sheep dipping” NATO volunteers to fight on the Ukie side. Are they terrorists too?
Thanks for the response.
Yes, the driver was “unconsentual sucide bomber”, which makes it more of a terrorist act, not less. Bridge is a military target. Blowing up civilian trucks is a terrorist act. Shooting a missile at a bridge is not a terrorist act, but an act of war (and a war crime if you shoot civilian train on it, like NATO did in Serbia). There is no clear distiction between war crime and terrorism.
Sheep dipping is not terrorism but an act of war, because they are soldiers dressed as soldiers fighting against soldiers (until they start aiming HIMAS at civilians). NATO is at war with Russia, and even Stoltenberg said that defeat of Ukraine would be defeat of NATO.
I don’t have a dog in this fight; just a lot of popcorn and butter. So, let me be clear.
One could say that keeping a people on an endless war footing, with endless warmongering, and endless war, is a terrorist act. Even terrorist acts. Eventually, you drive the people insane. Another terrorist act? Once you start down this road it only ends one way.
Was 9/11 a terrorist act if it was actually planned and carried out by our own government?
Were phony weapons of mass destruction (WMD), such as those proffered by Colin Powell before the U.N. Security Council on February 5, 2003 (the infamous brown vial), used to justify the War in Iraq — a terrorist act?
Are terrorist acts being committed by our own government against the American People?
Of course they are. Every day. These are the only terrorist acts that matter.
Does it matter? Only once we stop terrorist acts. Only when the troublemakers are taken care of.
My definition of patriotism is this. “My country right kept right. My country wrong made right.” And man, is my country wrong. And man, do they have some ‘splaining to do.
So what do we do? “Kill them all and let God sort them out.”
Oh, peace. Oh, wonderful peace.
Back in Roman times messing with the “keys to the kingdom” was punishable by death.
Now I have to apologize for my confusion but if it was just the target that defined a terrorist act today there is no more legitimate military target for Russia than Biden in Washington. Or the hypocrites of the European leaders who do not stop sending weapons to Ukraine but all swear that they are not at war with Russia for fear of retaliation.
Hitting the Crimeira Bridge does not interrupt any military supplies. Russia has long since established a land bridge. But what definitely makes it a terrorist act is the MO. Ukraine did not hit the bridge with any military assets like a Himars projectile. Because even the US knows that hitting the bridge is a terrorist act! In the same way that the operation in Sevastopol only aimed at media attention. Pure psyop to say they are capable of reaching the Russian naval base in Crimea. They knew very well that they couldn’t do a lot of damage. And what they will get in return is what they already got when they reached the Crimeira bridge. Missiles in Kiev!
“Exactly one minute after the alarms went off at GAZPROM, iCloud records of Prime Minister Liz Truss iPhone, show that she used her iPhone to send a text message to Antony Blinken, US Secretary of State. The message: “It’s done.” ”
How do you know this is true? I find it hard to believe that even someone as stupid as Liz Truss would send an unencrypted message of this extraordinary sensitivity to Blinken. (The Turner post is behind a paywall.)
Are you kidding, Susan? Truss’ sin was idiotic, but nothing compared to Hillary and her people when she was SecState. Hillary Clinton was called up to the Senate and House subcommittees to explain why so many of her underlings passed classified communications on their own unsecured devices, each a felonious, jail-able offense. They signed certificates indicating they understood in order to receive security clearances far beyond Top Secret. Dozens of them, from Hillary, Huma Abiden on down violated their agreements and training for years while she was SecState. Of course, they all got off scot-free, but that’s the Deep State for you. Trey Gowdy, Jeff Sessions, Bill Barr and the entire ‘Justice Department” apparatus and the rest all let Hillary’s people, not to mention Congressman Anthony Weiner’s, (Huma’s teen-trolling pervert husband) laptop which Huma had classified emails on, they all got off the hook. The investigations were all a sham, a diversion to get past statute of limitations. As for Hillary’s “bleached” email server? We’ll let that just hang in the air.
But sure, let’s prosecute and jail the clown show that was January 6, 2021. This country is done. Truss’ violation might have gotten her fired, but the “It’s done” communique should never have passed through Icloud. Larry would be a better judge of that than I, however.
That doesn’t answer my question to Larry: How do you know it’s true?
If Maria Zakharova says it, it must be true! Update from Nov. 1:
https://ria.ru/20221101/trass-1828342912.html
Захарова ждет ответ по поводу сообщения Трасс о ЧП с “Северными потоками”
Захарова призвала Лондон ответить на данные о переписке Трасс и Блинкена по Nord Stream
Mr. Johnson et al.,
Have you or anyone else discussed the Odessa Oblast area and its treaty/trading rights as the mouth of the Danube River system? A natural way to cleave off Eastern European states from the EU…..?
I don’t know why but every so often humanity seems to enter some kind of collective suicide mode. WW 1, WW 2, millions dead from both. There is a thing called Mass psychotic disorder. It began with the covid lockdown and jabs. It has quickly moved to nuclear war with little debate.
Video – Mass psychosis. How an entire population become mentally ill.
https://youtu.be/09maaUaRT4M
Not humanity. Just the West.
Agreed. Just the west.
UK PM and US Sec of State communicating with unencrypted phones? These guys are dumber than I thought.
Maybe just arrogant
Larry Johnson, an FBI informant? Are you nuts? Never mind, I’ll let that question hang in the air. Genuine leaders were assassinated in the 60’s. They didn’t need to say “follow me”. Jack Kennedy said we’re going to the moon and the people said, “let us march”. And we went to the moon. After his murder and five years of LBJ’s foolishness in Vietnam, Bob Kennedy spoke out against it and inspired millions to shriek, “let us march!”. And so they did. I was in DC as a kid, Pop worked at the Pentagon, the protestors surrounded the Pentagon by the hundreds of thousands. They killed him for it, as they did when his brother opposed escalation in 63. Great leaders don’t have to ask us to follow them, we march on their words alone. Now? They select candidates based on sloth and incompetence and willingness to go along with profits, no matter the cost to the rest of us. I would point you to the Z Man at Taki’s who wrote this morning on leaders, his piece titled The Mystery of History. You’ll find it here: https://www.takimag.com/article/the-mystery-of-history/ .
We’re flat out of leaders. The BRICS side has great leaders, educated, accomplished men of substance and education. I don’t know from your website, I lost interest when you suggest our host here is an informant. Police informants? As far as out game plan, it’s to see some way out of the current conundrum. We have kids, grandkids, we don’t want the world finishing in the direction it’s headed.
Lastly, Giles, I don’t wonder your website gets no hits. Your notions are laughable and not worth the bandwidth they’re printed on.
Is Jim Christian your legal name? What is your home address?
Mine was a simple question to Mr. Johnson while yours is an ad hominem probable anonymous attack because I don’t believe your legal name is Jim Christian.
And I apologize if I’m mistaken about your true identity.
If I’m correct, there’s an old term for such people, i.e., keyboard warriors.
The reason my website doesn’t get a lot of hits is because it is not promoted at all and it has zero content. It is intended for someone who has enough money to consider $2 billion chump change and who is looking to change the world we live in. And while they are not large in number those people do exist.
P.S. Have you ever been unlawfully arrested by a piglet?
P.P.S. BTW, I once applied to the FBI for a job and they turned me down.
My real name is Frederico Rondolfo. I had too many nodules in my lungs from asbestos and solvents gathered while working on flight decks to get a job in fire departments and Federal positions. So I took up motorcycles and chicks. Sue me.
Two points.
Maybe others have mentioned but I missed it.
(1) the “cowardly 30” by asking the US to negotiate, to me this is a public admission that the US is an active party to the conflict.
(2) Iran retaliated (albeit symbolically) for Soleimani. Nothing further happened. West militarily is a paper tiger and all their top people know it. It’s become a woke PR shop and a funnel of cash to the MIC.
When does Russia react and make these weak immoral low IQ people shake in their shoes? (including the elites)
And hesitate doing anything even more stupid.
I am vehimently anti-war. But all these people know is how to escalate until they are smacked in the face.
I wouldn’t be the least surprised if at some time in the future turned out that this has been a cooperation between german government and the Brits. The current government in Germany is dominated by the green party and by a green agenda. The green chief ideologist Ulrike Herrmann is touting the deindustrialization meme on a daily basis. Killing the gas supply translates into a major acceleration of their intent. So I’d say that the Greens except the USA probably benefit the most . The tragedy is that the vast majority still believe that our government is a benevolent one and that its members are just a little dumb
Larry,
I’m a bit perplexed as to why your colleague who is a former Navy Seal would think that Russia has any interest in declaring any entity entering the Black Sea, Persona Non Grata. First of all, it is obvious that Turkey is already working with Russia in a non declared manner. I don’t see any non civilian ships entering the Black Sea. Do you? As well, with its ever deepening economic ties with Russia, Turkey has zero interest in closing the entrance to the Black Sea. Second, Greece has zero interest in blocking passage of Russian ships since if you remember, the Greek shipping magnates shut down Mitsotakis (and told him he would be removed from power) when he was considering jumping on the bandwagon of sanctioning Russian oil shipments. Who does your colleague believe has been making money hand over foot by transporting Russian oil to third countries, changing the paperwork to obfuscate the origin of the oil and then transporting it and selling it to European countries at a significant markup?
Your points are valid and I believe you are correct
Exactly! The former Navy Seals analysis misses that Russia has no interest in blocking the Black sea. Neither will Turkey or Russia act against each other. But if it came to a conflict with NATO , Russia can completely shut them out of the Black sea. Russia has more than adequate naval including submarine forces in the area. Add to that air and missile forces.
However, as Russia has already said it will inspect all shipping to and from Ukrainian ports. And it may well seize some ships. But this is no more than the US does to Venezuela and Iran on the high seas.
All this grain from the Ukraine takes me back to my days on the farm in Canada circa 1970’s as a kid. It might not be sexy but from memory here goes. In these times a bumper crop was say 30 bushels to the acre. Boxcars would be loaded at the elevator. Some would be destined eastward to grain elevators in Thunder Bay Ontario some to Churchill Manitoba. The rest westward to ports in Vancouver B.C. When I found out that this East bound grain was destined for the Soviet Union I thought why are we feeding those damn commies? Can’t they grow it? Eventually Thunder Bay grain terminals would be shut down and all grain headed west. Made my life easier as a young hire on a major Canadian RR. No more switching boxcars. Essentially in time I witnessed how Canada evolved into nothing but a country that exported its natural resources to see it return as finished products from well lets just say China. A career on the railway if one paid attention all the economists with paid for degrees made me chuckle. They never seem to point out things like inter model traffic counts or Baltic Dry Index. Now to the point. There are 2 countries in the world identical in what they offer for natural resources. Canada and Russia. Canada is easy to control. Finance a protest. Make the sheep feel bad. Fold like a cheap suit and dumb them down to the point of cowardice. Russia says you are not getting it for free. It just upsets the plan for the elites to sponge and keep the Ponzi going . The irony of the 1970’s and shipping grain to the USSR from Canada is this. The displaced Ukrainian/Canadians from the former Soviet Union were in fact feeding those Ukrainian Soviets that probably chased them off the land. Now I wake up and discover that Canada is going to sell Ukrainian Bonds? Backed by the Government of Canada? One cannot make this shit up. Larry Fink stealing my Russian ETF wasn’t enough I guess. Might as well buy the Bond as a collectors item. Let me be clear on the political landscape in Canada. There is NO Federal political party for peace. The Ukrainian Lobby up here is pretty powerful it seems. The only push back is from a new Provincial leader from Alberta who had to walk back statements of this conflict. But she did cancel WEF contracts in our province. Oh and that same land that used to get 30 bushels to the acre gleans 60 today. Same land double the production. So if Europe is cold and hungry there are solutions. But it is obvious that is not the plan. Hope I did not bore with my walk down farmer memory lane.
Canadians took the transhuman borg shots after all.
It sounds like the Brits were involved and/or monitoring, let me add some things:
B at Moon of Alabama, has a piece showing how the USS Kearsarge was in the are for “exercises”, which includes a trace route map of USN helicopters flight path over the exact area of the blast. It’s well worth a read.
https://www.moonofalabama.org/2022/09/whodunnit-facts-related-to-the-sabotage-attack-on-the-nord-stream-pipelines.html
Antony Blinken wrote ONE book, about the Siberian pipeline in the 1980s, “Ally Versus Ally: America, Europe, and the Siberian Pipeline Crisis” about a very similar scenario.
https://www.amazon.com/Ally-Versus-America-Siberian-Pipeline/dp/0275924106
Threats to end Nordstream by both Victoria Nuland and Joe Biden, both on news videos, I don’t have the links.
Blinken saying after, “Nobody benefits from this”, followed the next day by, “what an excellent opportunity to ween Europe from Russian gas” or words to that effect.
It seems the quoted the Navy Seal has reached the mandated Straussian mass formation psychosis stability plateau therein alternately Waiting for Godot or
running around shouting Rhinoceros!
Thank you, Larry for your always insightful articles.
My understanding, Germany had a soft spot for the Brits in WWII let’s hope this regime has come to their senses. Like a bunch of cowardly schoolboys on a lark. End result the grain goes nowhere. Brilliant, will the 3rd world put the blame on Putin?
I have seen some recent protest from Africa with Russian flags. 3rd world knows who enslaved and colonized them, and who treats them as equal.
No. ‘Third world’ just sighs at yet another Western led war and the war barely registers in South Africa. Everyone in the South just shakes their heads, waits for the dust to settle and wonder how much death and suffering there will be this time. Largely there is a sense of feeling sorry for Russia. There isn’t surprisingly anger at the West for the food sanctions and indifference to others suffering. This is now baked into the definition of the west. It’s just how they are expected to behave.
Africa is actually very capable of feeding itself. Even if a country has drought others are rich in agriculture. The Arabs are not. But they are close to countries that are and rich enough to buy.
So the developing world will actually be fine. The weather is good. There are fruits in the trees and grapes vines and bees in the garden. There is family and community, respect for elders and humour. There is an agreed definition of what a woman is.
The impact of all this is to reinforce that the developing world really needs to trade within itself and de escalate any conflicts. Alongside the EurAsian efforts are increasing regional blocks and renewed focus on self sufficiency and manufacturing.
East and South Africa alone are capable of producing all the food wine tea coffee bread meat eggs milk avocado and beer Africa needs. Chocolate too. If proposed damns and water collection projects continue any droughts will be manageable.
So the war is good for everyone else on the sense the rest of the world has to get it’s act together and look inwards.
Cheers.
Few points.
For centuries, a major (the major sometimes) focus of English/British/UK foreign policy was a balance, at least, of powers on the European continent. The English/Brits/UK has often created alliances to balance the European continent, oversimplified:
1500s against Spain
1600 – early 1800s against France
later 1800 – WWII against Germany
Post WWII against Soviet Union then “Russia”
I differ a bit in most on here in that I don’t think the U.S. controls the UK decision making process, some other group controls both… Remember, the American people don’t even control the U.S. government…
Regarding the UK being the culprit for the pipelines/bridge/fleet, recall that during the Cold War (1) NATO and Warsaw Pact countries militaries would have been full participants of any conflict. The hot war would not have been just U.S. vs. USSR. Each member states military and intel orgs had their own missions. Maybe the Brits were then responsible for maritime shenanigans against the USSR and they kept that mission? Maybe other NATO members here back then, but now it is the Brit mission? Maybe the U.S. is spread too thin and the Brits were as or more capable of ensuring the mission was completed. IMO, absolutely conceivable that the Brits were the primary NATO element in these attacks. Recall the the Brit Special Boat Service is a top tier NATO Naval special operations unit.
Reference the former PM using an Apple… As KimDotCom mentioned, many politicians and other government officials continue to use their own private electronic devices EVEN THOUGH those politicians and government officials are issued government electronic devices that are as secure as the U.S., UK, etc… can make/build/develop. There were/are many ways the former PM could have communicated securely with the U.S. SecState. The question(s) should be why did she not use those secure means? Was she lazy? Did she want to avoid accountability? Ensure no official records were left of the message? Didn’t agree with the attack(s) and wanted to leave a trail? Why didn’t she use the secured means available to her? What was Blinken’s device? Did he receive the message on a USG issued phone or a private phone? Lots of good counterintellligence/counterespionage investigation questions that some organization should be asking…
The Russians will work out a deal with the Turks wherein all ships navigating to/from
Ukrainian ports will be inspected for contraband.
Hi Grant…
I also live in Canada. I agree with your point about the Ukrainian community in Canada being very influential (ie. very Russophobic).
Read somewhere that Canada was the only country that actually seized Russian assets/gold. Not even the US has gone that way. Really bad for our reputation in the long run.
Too much influence from our conflict-of-interest deputy prime minister ? I believe Larry had an article on her…
Cheers
I worked for 34 years with 2nd generation Ukrainian Canadians. I am literally surrounded by them. Where this Russophobia comes from is beyond me. Never witnessed it. As far as the Deputy PMO. She seems to helping in exterminating her own. Holomodor 2.0. Evil vile creature.And don’t get me going on the silence from the Jewish Lobby. Genocide is OK it seems as long it isn’t them. Crazy times
Should the Turks hesitate….
The Russians might suddenly find newly discovered mines littering Ukie near shore waters.
AND…
The Russians might be too busy repairing their ships…
TO….
Mark them….
OR
Remove them….
INDY
There are many…. here…. elsewhere…
Who are frustrated by the way Russia pursues it’s SMO…
They forget…..
Russia is going out of it’s way……
To deny NATO…….
A Pearl Harbour Moment….!
INDY
Do you think perhaps the Russians are going slow because they are secretly mining all the world’s coeans for construction of a coral bomb? Its something I’ve heard but haven’t really looked into…
Short answer, no. Progress for Russians is dictated principally by their troop strength.
And not a bit for General Winter across Europe?
Troop strength and their actions are dictated by global strategy. Global strategy is influenced by many things (only Putin knows how many). General Winter across Europe is just one of them, and so is denying NATO “a Pearl Harbour moment”.
This nick name “general winter” is so ironic to me.
Instead of helping to ease a global food crisis as agreed, much of the grain was diverted to Europe where wheat is the main crop used for bioethanol production. It was incredibly shortsighted to use a humanitarian corridor as cover for launching an attack on the Russian navy. An increasing risk of outright revolt exists along with food and energy riots for those states that continue to support sanctions against Russia.
Rather than cause and effect it is perhaps more useful to reverse things and view western actions – like this attack – as an ANCITIPATION of impending Russian actions and an attempt to DISRUPT those actions.
What is the obvious impending Russian action? How does this attack disrupt that?
It might be that the intended effect of sabotaging any Russian shipments of grain, for free, to poor countries facing starvation, is to have those countries angry enough at Putin, to cause a regime change in Russia. That is their twisted thinking.
Britain had a glorious past, but it is plain to see it has no future as a world power. The British elite and their so called “intelligent” services should realize how frail their island is and how much blood Vendetta they left around the world. If they continue to corrupt the planet, on behalf of the City of London, Karma will hit them hard. I can see the British people pulling an Old Bailey “a la Bastille.”
“The attack was carried out by UAVs and remotely piloted surface vehicles over the waters of Sevastopol Bay, Sevastopol’s governor has said.”
Sounds like something straight out of a 007 movie.
Victories won over the Anglosphere, are victories won in secret.
Even if Turkey does decide the close Bos straight, for whatever wacky reason, and Russia is sea locked, they will blast any foreign UK/US vessels that decides to get frisky. Guess just saying, better for Russia to take risk of Turkey turn collar, than open Black Sea Willy nilly. Besides, if Turkey flips one way one week, they’ll flip again in a couple weeks. Turkey is in a very tough spot. The West could overnight destroy Turkeys Lira as witnessed b4. It’s all gonna take time to sort out, Russia is more “adaptable” than even I would have ever imagined. Russia also understands that they’re are many other nations that are not as adaptable & free to rely on their own nations strength as Russia. It’s all little toe steps.
Hi Larry,
Do you have any info on the supposed destruction of Russian 11th Army Corps? Any information from you is greatly appreciated.
There is an article in forbes which is probably a major propaganda hit piece that is important to understand.
“When the war in Ukraine began to stall on Moscow’s agenda, the Kremlin withdrew the 11th Army Corps from Kaliningrad and sent it into Ukraine, where Kiev’s military forces quickly destroyed it. ….it became cannon fodder for the Ukrainian army which, on paper, was weaker than the Russian one. Now Kaliningrad is almost indefensible and the threat its troops once posed to NATO…has dissipated.”
They were destroyed by Ghost of Kiev, and the Ghost of Warsaw already entered Kaliningrad.
Re: “THE MEDIOCRITY OF BRITISH INTELLIGENCE”
I’m no expert on military/intelligence matters. However, I am a keen observer of politics and power.
To put it simply, America’s leaders are truly stupid people. They live in a bubble world of wealth and power. They are insulated from the consequences of their actions. The MSM is merely their propaganda arm.
Once upon a time, the news media was filled with blue collar types from diverse, gritty backgrounds, who weren’t hanging out socially with those they covered. Now, they’re all graduates of the same elite schools where their heads are filled with utter nonsense and, since everyone gets a trophy, they’ve never really been intellectually challenged.
This is why we see them pushing “January 6” nonsense and scratching their heads as to why it gets no traction. Inflation is crippling normal people – but not them. The same is true with crime, illegal immigration, vaccine mandates, etc. They don’t even understand the reality of the country they live in, much less the rest of the world. They’re accustomed to never being challenged in their insular world. They believe they dictate reality to others. They’ve drunk their own Kool-Aid.
As to whether it was the British, or the Poles, or whoever actually blew up the pipeline, the bridge, or attacked the Russian ships, they most certainly had direction from the U.S.
Now, we can plainly see that our political class is filled with intellectual midgets, and since they are the ones calling the shots, it matters not who sits beneath them in the military/intelligence apparatus (although I have to assume since they’re all chums they, too, are inbred cretins). GIGO – garbage in, garbage out.
Long gone are the days where we had leaders whose life experience had been tempered by the Great Depression and WWII. One would think that 80 year-old Biden would have some of these sensibilities, but of course, he’s always been an idiot and a grifter and now he’s senile, to boot. So the neocon ideologues surrounding him are the ones calling the shots – you know, the same bunch that has been wrong about everything else. But they’re operating on religious fervor – the religion of greed and power. They’re utterly convinced of their cause, which thus allows no negotiating with the Devil du jour.
The political class in GB/EU doesn’t seem to have much on the ball intellectually, either. Since they also are in the position of asking “How high?” when the U.S. says “Jump!”, we have the answer to the question. Couple that with them being a class of people who eschew traditional religions morals and ethics and replaces them with crackpot gender ideology and “inclusion/equity”, and you’ve got a ship of fools steering all of us toward the mother of all icebergs.
We are not prepared for what is coming our way. We are going to be left bewildered by the fundamental shift that is taking place in the world, a world none of our leaders understand except as theirs by divine right.
Where this will lead us is already upon us – runaway inflation, shortages of basic goods, increased poverty and homelessness and crime that is out of control. Europe is sunk, but they don’t even realize it yet. Maybe a winter of starving and freezing to death will jolt them out of their stupor.
The possibility exists that our leaders are so stupid that they take us all down in a nuclear war as their “full spectrum dominance” crumbles. If the Russians were as stupid as our leaders we’d already be circling the globe in a cloud of radioactive dust. But, thankfully, the Russians aren’t stupid.
I’ve listened to Putin, Lavrov, and other world leaders. They seem to be highly intelligent and thoughtful. It pains me that ours are like stupid, spoiled children, accustomed to getting their way. For a real dose of pain, go on YouTube and watch some of JFK’s press conferences. Ouch.
Stupidity and hubris is our downfall. It’s a crying shame.
The British, Great Britain, formerly known as British Empire (that won’t die), did not even have enough of a navy to carry out a military assault on the Falkland Islands, an “undeclared war” fought between Argentina and Great Britain in 1982.
The UK had to commandeer commercial vessels to hobble together something that could be called “a naval taskforce.”
Nothing has changed since then, and should tell you everything needed to know about MI6 and British Intelligence.
I would hesitate to underestimate Russian intelligence services. If Moscow says in the end what Hal Turner says (and I have plenty of doubts about him) I wouldn’t leave out the possibility the Russians fed him the information. Tabloids have far reach and their questionable content gives plausible deniability. Court Jesters can say what others can’t.
The UK is sliding further into irrelevance, and deservedly so. They’re overdue for some hard lessons.
Turkey and Russia have an agreement for Turkey to be the new Russian gas hub, including into Europe. Erdogan is obviously no economist (looking at the Turkish Lira) and that’s a lot of revenue he needs, and if another NATO country blew up Turkstream that would put him in squarely in the SCO camp. His energy supply would be in jeopardy too.
The Russians have shown they can blow Turkish drones out of the sky with ease, so I very much doubt Turkey is in a mood to sabotage the Russians if it doesn’t benefit them. They’ll placate NATO and then do what they want.
Personally I hope Russia takes Odessa soon and makes the entire matter moot. That also puts their forces up against the border with Romania and Transnistria before somebody in DC decides to go on an ‘adventure’.
Larry, Thanks for including your Navy Seal friend’s insights about the applicability of Admiralty Law and how it might complicate Russia’s options- e.g. prevent or limit its ability to interdict ships carrying Ukrainian grain.
At the same time, if the law of war also applies, and the reason for the grain deal in July was due to Ukraine’s mining of the sea lanes which itself may have been a violation of Admiralty law, would this illegitimize collateral damage to ships carrying Ukrainian grain, if Russia were attacking military targets? I think Russia has been scrupulous about respecting international, even to its immediate military disadvantage, so I can’t believe that it hasn’t thought this one out to take steps consistent with the ‘legalities’.
Hi Larry. I found your blog months ago and really enjoy it, because you address data and conclusions not allowed elsewhere.
I have a question that I am sure others wonder. If Western powers are able to control or otherwise co-opt locations in the Causcaus (sp?) mountains, central Asia, etc, then does it really matter if Western powers still lack an industrial war base, as you previously mentioned?
I ask because “exporting democracy” is the type of experience Western powers now have in spades. In just the past year, we have seen rumblings in / around the Caspian Sea and even Kazakstan (sp?).
Wouldn’t such an approach be more efficient for Western powers? Or am I missing something?
What sucks is that there are few if any anti-war candidates to vote for. The Dems have gone full retard but while the Republican are better on most national issues they are just as pro-war in the main as the Democrats. Looks like the US and NATO are going to ride the Ukraine disaster out until the end.
The Black Sea is a key to the whole conflict. The first thing the Ukrainian coup government did was notify Moscow it was ending the treaty that gave basing rights. The USN was already planning a base in Sebastopol. That’s why Putin took it back. Not only that it’s Catherine II’s patrimony but it’s Russia’s warm water port. The Black Sea is why while everyone was freaking out about tanks outside Kiev the Russians were consolidating the land bridge and water supply to Crimea.
And it is why I maintain that if/when Russia takes Odessa, the US/UK will drop Ukraine like it never existed. For the moment there’s still potential for a (non-Turkish) NATO deep water port on the Black Sea. Without Odessa there is not.
As for the Turks, they invoked Montreux in February. Russian ships can still go in but cannot come out. Turkiye will make some noise about the grain deal because it has large milling and transshipment industries involved. But Erdogan is a keen player of the game. He’s constrained and being pressured by DC but also clearly sees a better future in Eurasia than Europe. Now that Lloyds won’t insure ships, he’s got his out in playing both sides.
Deterioration hits the US AirForce…
https://asiatimes.com/2022/10/sayonara-okinawa-us-is-..
“The two squadrons of F-15s based in Okinawa are being retired. These planes arrived at Kadena Air Base on the island in 1979.
Since then they have been upgraded with new radars, but no other major fixes.
These aircraft are F-15 C models. The US originally built 483 of these aircraft but only 43 of them were upgraded with AESA modern radars. These 43 are being retired now. The others were retired earlier.
These, now being retired aircraft, are the only combat-coded F-15s in service in the Air Force. Combat coding means these aircraft can handle the latest weapons such as the AIM-120 AMRAAM medium range air to air missile. Today the AMRAAM is America’s primary beyond-visual-range air-to-air missile.
The average age of the F-15s at Kadena is nearing 38 years. The pilots who fly them were all born after the F-15s rolled off the assembly line.
Age in any aircraft brings a plethora of problems. The airframes deteriorate. Cracks and corrosion infest the body of the plane. The electronics are ancient and no longer produced. The engines are tired and don’t always perform at full power. The wiring becomes brittle and wiring connectors fail.
The US Air Force considered a service life extension program (SLEP) for these aircraft, but they dropped the idea as impractical. The Kadena F-15s are flying well beyond their designed service life. In today’s US Air Force this applies to many different platforms, fighters, bombers, air refuelers, electronic warfare planes and more.
US Air Force has announced it will support Kadena with rotational squadrons of fighter aircraft. The first will be F-22s coming to Kadena from Alaska; they will stay at Kadena for six months.
One solution is to invest in the 32 block 20 F-22s the air force wants to scrap because they are at the end of their design lives, and critical parts are no longer available for them, and base the renewed F22s permanently at Kadena.
An alternative approach would be to commit to the F-15EX for Kadena. But that depends on the success of the F-15 EX effort. Boeing has had its share of difficulties recently in producing satisfactory military aircraft.”
Now, exactly how is the USAF going to war against both China and Russia simultaneously??
INDY
Source: https://www.kp.ru/daily/27464/4670664/
Ministry of Defense: there is no longer a security corridor defined by the Black Sea Initiative
The reason for this is the actions of the Kyiv authorities and the command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, which used it to conduct military operations against Russia
The Russian Defense Ministry issued a statement. Its meaning is that until the situation around the terrorist action committed by Ukraine on October 29 against warships and civilian ships in the bay of Sevastopol is clarified, traffic along the security corridor defined by the Black Sea Initiative has been suspended.
“We emphasize that the Russian Federation, as the main participant in these agreements, does not withdraw from them, but suspends them. In this regard, the movement of ships along the security corridor is unacceptable, since the Ukrainian leadership and the command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine use it to conduct military operations against the Russian Federation.
Under the current conditions, there can be no question of guaranteeing the security of any object in the indicated direction until the Ukrainian side accepts additional obligations not to use this route for military purposes. Taking into account the fact that the signing of the agreement – the Initiative for the Safe Transportation of Grain and Food from the Ports of Ukraine (the “Black Sea Initiative”) and its implementation were carried out through the mediation of the UN Secretary-General A. Guterres, we brought our position to him and the UN Security Council,” they said. in the Russian Ministry of Defense.
The military department emphasized that “they are counting on the assistance of an international organization in obtaining guarantees from Ukraine on the non-use of the humanitarian corridor and Ukrainian ports, identified in the interests of exporting agricultural products, to conduct military operations against the Russian Federation.”
It should be noted that on October 31, Russian Defense Minister General of the Army Sergei Shoigu held telephone talks with Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar.
Colleagues discussed all issues related to the suspension by the Russian side of the implementation of agreements on the export of agricultural products from Ukrainian ports as part of the Black Sea Grain Initiative.
Appreciate the analysis. What I see here is a chess player dealing w govts led by checker players. Surely if Russia wanted to there are pipelines feeding the UK and southern Louisiana or down from Alaska that would equally cripple. But I think Putin knows to play the long game. Neither of these nations public (US as the guarantor) has much patience hence the need for false flag ops. The European nations silly as they act are smart enough to know who did this and nothing like cold icy weather than to make someone think of the possibilities. I cannot see how a nation of engineers and scientists as Germany will not sit and assess all of this any say… hell no, it’s on
Posted today by the Russian MOD: [URL: https://tlgrm.ru/channels/@mod_russia_en/4797 ]
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⚡️ Statement by the Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation
◽️ The traffic across the safety corridor defined by the Black Sea Initiative remains suspended until the situation surrounding the terrorist act, committed by Ukraine on 29 October against the warships and civilian vessels in Sevastopol, is clarified.
◽️ We emphasise that the Russian Federation, as the main participant of the abovementioned agreements, does not withdraw from them, but suspends their effect.
◽️ In this regard, the vessel traffic across the safety corridor is unacceptable as Ukrainian leadership and the command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine use it for conducting operations against the Russian Federation.
◽️ In the developing conditions, there can be no question of ensuring safety to any facility in the abovementioned direction until the Ukrainian side assumes additional obligations not to use this route for military purposes.
◽️ Considering that the signing and implementation of the Initiative on the Safe Transportation of Grain and Foodstuffs from Ukrainian ports (Black Sea Initiative) was brokered by the UN Secretary General A.Guterres, the UN Security Council and he have been informed about our position.
◽️ We count on assistance from the international organisation in obtaining Ukraine’s guarantees not to use the humanitarian corridor and Ukrainian ports, defined in favour of exporting agricultural products, for conducting operations against the Russian Federation.
and:
[URL: https://tlgrm.ru/channels/@mod_russia_en/4799 – Para. 1 of the announcement]
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🗓 Top News Today
📞🇷🇺🇹🇷 The Minister of Defence of Russia and the Minister of National Defence of Türkiye have discussed the suspention of Russia’s participation in the Black Sea Grain Initiative.
Not only will they take Oddessa showing off their amphibious forces, but they will parachute into Western Ukraine displaying their quick deployment forces. This is in addition to moving forward and flanking into a pocket the Ukrainian forces on the border with South Ukraine.
This is going to be a Russian shock and awe for NATO’s benefit.
One more MOD post: URL: https://tlgrm.ru/channels/@mod_russia_en/4777
#MoD #Russia #Ukraine #report
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⚡️ After the repulsion of a terrorist attack on the ships of the Black Sea Fleet and civilian vessels involved in the security of the “grain corridor” on October 29 this year, the wreckage of the sea drones used by the Kiev regime under the leadership of representatives of Great Britain was found and lifted to the surface
◽️ Specialists The Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation, together with representatives of other government agencies, conducted an examination of the Canadian navigation modules installed on the unmanned aerial vehicles. According to the results of reconstruction of the information read from the memory of the navigation receiver, it was established that the sea drones were launched from the coast near Odessa.
◽️ The sea drones moved along the “grain corridor” security zone, after which they changed their route in the direction of the Russian ship base point in Sevastopol. At the same time, the coordinates of movement of one of the sea drones indicate the starting point in the sea area of the “grain corridor” security zone in the Black Sea.
◽️ According to experts, this may indicate a preliminary launch of this vehicle from one of the civilian vessels chartered by Kiev or its Western patrons to export agricultural products from Ukrainian seaports.
@mod_russia_en
Larry, Sorry, I didn’t realize that Oblomovka daydream at 17:52 had already cited the MOD reports.
No need for an apology. Thanks for the initiative.
When will they take seriously Lyndon Larouche, who has been warning of the role of the British for decades, as henchmen of the beast…?
when i heard of the liz trust text its done hack coming from a site called kim.com it reminded me of this show that i watched for 5 yrs. on this show was a master hacker named rich dotcom who along with patterson; a character whose father on the show was real life Bill Nye who played himself could both hack into anything.
https://blindspot.fandom.com/wiki/Rich_DotCom
https://blindspot.fandom.com/wiki/William_Patterson
capturing rich dotcom
https://youtu.be/x1fq9DyRUUE
blindspot
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4474344/
another show i like that is still on the air is the one below. i wonder if there is some reality in it. this is about the only show left on air that i watch
the blacklist
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2741602/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0
cheers, ralph
Another even older writer than Le Carre who exposed the idiocy of British military intelligence was Grahame Greene – particularly hysterical was his book ‘Our Man in Havana’ – set in the late 1950’s. It illustrates that failure actually get’s rewarded as a cover-up for embarrassment. Individuals involved in unsuccessful missions get promoted!
Et .. si un “incident” arrivait à Scapa Flow … la grande base britannique au nord de l’Ecosse … ?
The Brits are so arrogant and stupid. Two can play the clandestine game of mysterious explosions causing havoc. But then Russia doesn’t really need to. The Brits are doing a fine job destroying their own country. Great Britain is neither great, and if trends continue, no longer British.
P.S. Great article! Thanks!
Dear Mr. Johnson,
What I find interesting about Sikorski’s biography is the fact that he was able to leave Poland in the early 80s when nobody was supposed to get a passport from the Communist authority … well, at least that was MSM narrative in Western countries at that time …
… and those well-tailored suits, ties, Oxford, … all this screams money … Was his family so well-off? In Communist Poland?
And was he possibly a “closeted” mujahideen?
https://wiadomosci.dziennik.pl/polityka/artykuly/470194,radoslaw-sikorski-kiedys-mudzahedin-teraz-marszalek-sejmu-sylwetka.html
https://radeksikorski.eu/en/about-me/
Thank you for reading and publishing my comment.
Greetings from Germany!
Russia initially said the Anglo-Saxons did it. Code word for USA and UK. I believe them based on the it’s done message. ie Blinken knew in advance what was going to be done and the USA ASW helicopters were tracked locating the pipeline.
Going forward Turkey’s in NATO but no longer of NATO. There’s reports they let Russian submarines into the black sea to guard Turkstream for example. They’ve chosen sides and will have all the gas pipelines leverage over Europe to prove it. Russia is not going to attack humanitarian grain shipments flying Turkish flags.
So there’s one obvious conclusion on this. Russia is keeping it’s powder dry on the USA’s role in the sabotage for future use. Why? Is there a quid pro quo or just waiting for the right moment? What’s going to happen at the G20? Last chance for diplomacy before the winter offensive.
It is absurd to think that the UK does anything without agreeing it with the USA first.
There might be an arrangement where the UK acts at the bequest of the USA. It is likely that this is useful.
It is absurd to think that the UK does anything without agreeing it with the USA first.
There might be an arrangement where the UK acts at the bequest of the USA. It is likely that this is useful.
After the Suez episode it is very unlikely that the UK would be anything less than a US poodle from then on.
It might be worth mentioning that the time and date stamping of the Gazprom data logging system and phone system is derived from the Global Positioning System or Glonass or BeiDou which typically synchronizes clocks to within 10 nano seconds of the exact time generated by the GPS system atomic clocks. That is 10 billionths of a second. (10 e-9 seconds).
Typically process control systems that Gazprom use would be synchronized to this within a maximum of one second, the phone system similar. Higher resolution time is sometimes used, but for process control such as the systems Gazprom would use would most likely have a resolution of one second.
I know this because I am a Time Nut. The power station I worked at used a GPS synchronised clock for all of its time stamping. UTC is used within the computers, which then correct this time to the local time for humans to read.
Of course content free politicians like Truss, Bojo, Habeck, Biden, The Sulky Liver Sausage et al wouldn’t have a clue about any of this. In fact it would seem they have no clue about anything much at all.
“Why anyone in the United States or the United Kingdom leadership would think destroying Germany’s primary source of natural gas was a terrific idea …”
Larry, when we know that the original aim of NATO was (and still is) ‘to keep Russia out, the US in and the Germans down’, it is clear that for the US/Anglo world domination strategy, cutting off the Germans’ Russian gas supply is a master-stroke (for the US & Brits). If left to natural impulses, Russia and Germany would be perfect partners. One with energy and resources and the other with intellectual capital. The Brits know that and it has been their strategy for 100s of years to prevent Germany allying with Russia. Prior to the Nordstream explosions, there were some murmurs in Germany that perhaps they should work out some arrangement with the Russians to keep the gas flowing. Blowing up the pipeline removes that option completely. It has the added bonus of reducing German economic power so that the Anglos can ride roughshod over the Germans.
A smoking iPhone is not enough evidence, and German-Finnish Kim Schmitz living in NZ, DotCom, writing that iCloud admin access rocks, is also not enough.
Maybe the REAL hack is this :
https://ria.ru/20221101/vzlom-1828420857.html
Hacker told how he hacked the control systems of Ukrainian troops
Hacker Joker said that he managed to hack the control system of Ukrainian troops DELTA
…
Hacker Joker dumped the ENTIRE DELTA NATO database! At least 3 reports there.
“In addition to the interactive map, two open-sources are used: Element and NextCloud. Regular Google authentication was also used. All paths lead to the military subnet Damba.org.ua,” the Joker said.
This dump would be irrefutable, NATO watermarked evidence.