Last week retired General David Petraeus was interviewed by three reporters from the Telegraph and asserted that Russian forces could “crumble” in the face of the Ukrainian counteroffensive. My initial reaction was that this was just David’s crazy musing, but I have since learned that there are a number of senior active duty U.S. military personnel banking on the same impossible dream. The general spin is that Russian morale is falling through the floorboards and the Ukrainians are making very slow gains (one small town at a time) and the front will eventually collapse. It’s just a matter of time. I can understand a retired guy like Petraeus indulging such nonsense, but it is alarming that there are senior U.S. military leaders spouting the same nonsense.
It is not just the Generals praying for signs that Russia is crumbling. Business Insider contributes its two cents about the alleged economic problems buffeting Russia — There are 5 things the West could do to put even more pressure on Russia’s struggling economy, think tank says. The neo-cons at the Atlantic Council are behaving like drowning passengers on the Titanic, frantically grasping for life jackets:
Western nations need to do more to further weaken Russia’s economy, according to researchers from the Atlantic Council.
The US-based think tank pointed to the impact sanctions have had over the past year, with the ruble plunging in value and demand deteriorating in key sectors. . . .
Experts say that Russia’s economy is struggling more than officials have suggested, and the Kremlin has avoided publishing key statistics while under-the-radar data show a far grimmer future for Russia than Putin has let on.
I guess the scribes at the Atlantic Council are too busy conjuring fantasies to read the New York Times latest — Russia Overcomes Sanctions to Expand Missile Production, Officials Say – NY Times
Moscow’s missile production now exceeds prewar levels, officials say, leaving Ukraine especially vulnerable this coming winter. . . .
Before the war, one senior Western defense official said, Russia could make 100 tanks a year; now they are producing 200.
Western officials also believe Russia is on track to manufacture two million artillery shells a year — double the amount Western intelligence services had initially estimated Russia could manufacture before the war.
As a result of the push, Russia is now producing more ammunition than the United States and Europe. Overall, Kusti Salm, a senior Estonian defense ministry official, estimated that Russia’s current ammunition production is seven times greater than that of the West.
Russia’s production costs are also far lower than the West’s, in part because Moscow is sacrificing safety and quality in its effort to build weapons more cheaply, Mr. Salm said. For instance, it costs a Western country $5,000 to $6,000 to make a 155-millimeter artillery round, whereas it costs Russia about $600 to produce a comparable 152-millimeter artillery shell, he said.
Ukraine, by contrast, no longer has enough forces to sustain a breakthrough and is totally dependent on Western aid. One of the advantages of doing analysis without relying on classified information is that regular media and social media posts provide a pretty reliable indicator of the status of the battle. For example, there are several video clips of Ukrainian troops complaining about lack of weapons and terrible leadership. I have yet to see anything comparable from the Russian side.
Social media is a two-edged sword. It is a dandy platform for information warfare and spreading false information. We saw that in abundance in the first month of the Special Military Operation when Ukrainian sources posted the video of an intrepid Ukrainian pilot downing several Russian combat aircraft. Only one little problem — the video was lifted from a video game. The exploits of the Ghost of Kiev were phantasmagorical. I am sure many of you remember the constant predictions during 2022 that Russia was running out of missiles and ammunition. I guess the New York Times latest piece has driven a stake through the heart of that tired meme.
But social media is so ubiquitous that it can still overwhelm the efforts of any government to squelch bad information. The cemeteries of Ukraine appear frequently with grieving relatives standing amid a field of hundreds of flags flapping over newly dug graves. We are not seeing any posts like that from the Russian side.
Another data point is the coverage of the main stream media. I make it a habit to check in on Sky News to see what the Brits are saying. Six months ago you could count on at least one segment in an hour broadcast at noon London time extolling the success of Ukrainian troops and dishing dire news about Russia’s flagging efforts on the battle field. That is no longer the case. Sky News barely mentions the war in Ukraine these days. If Ukraine was steam rolling to victory you can be sure that the British correspondents would be ebullient about the Ukrainian counter offensive. In this case, the proverb — silence is golden — does not apply. The silence about a purported Ukraine victory (or a Russian army in chaos) is telling. There is no good news to report if you’ve bet your house on Ukraine winning.
I recommend you watch the Petraeus interview in order to gain appreciation for the mind set of the pro-Ukraine lot and their detachment from reality.
Ray McGovern and I did our weekly round up with Judge Napolitano today and touched on these issues.
It is such a tired saw. But if your paycheck depends on saying something? You say it.
But Ukraine is only a symptom. America is Hollywood. We make movies where 90-pound Ninja women whip 200-pound men’s asses. We believe if someone “thinks” he is a woman, he is a woman. I could go on, but you get my drift.
And that is why America takes most of the SSRI (crazy pills) in the world. And of those huge amount of crazy pills, 2/3’s are taken by women. The cognitive dissonance of saying and believing shit that is in actual 180% conflict with observed and actual world? Makes people crazy. But yet they persist.
The UAW going on strike. They want a 40% pay raise. In addition to only working 32 hours instead of 40. Full pension instead of 401k. And basically, guaranteed employment for life regardless of the company survival. This is really simple. If the Big 3 accepts this? They sign their death warrant. American cars are already unaffordable. The average car is now 12.2 years old in America. People will not be able to afford a UAW product. And they will have more money for a few years. And then the companies die, and they will be on the streets. Driving in a car made in Mexico.
But they will not accept reality. They live in an odd world of wanna, shoulda, someone will take care of me. So why should we look at these odd ramblings from US officials about Ukraine in horror. These US officials ARE America. They are not an outlier.
Russia just got access to the huge stockpiles of North Korean ordnance. Huawei just brought out a phone with all Chinese chips that has satellite phone capability. The Ukrainians are drafting women, cripples, and begging Europe to chain gang Ukes back to send to the slaughterhouse. What the fuck of that makes you think Ukraine has a chance?
We are back to the 90 pound woman and the 200 pound man. Forget Ukrainian fraud, waste, abuse, aide stealing, clinical Nazi insanity. Russia is 10 times their size.
I am a large man. I was 6 foot 1, and when I was in the Army, I fought a constant battle with the fat patrol about weight. I was 235. And it was muscle. That carried over to the police. I cannot describe the number of times I looked at some little fuck and basically was damn near begging him to just turn around for the cuffs. Because do you know what happens when a 235 pound Polack finally loses his patience with a 150 pound methhead? It ain’t pretty. But it is reality.
And my country has a problem with reality. It prefers Hollywood. Top Gun. Biggest movie in years. Main star is a 5 foot 4 Scientologist cultist who is deathly afraid of Covid and screams at people about masks. And the moviegoers literally think Top Gun is real.
a really excellent comment
Agreed good comments, but:-
‘The average car is now 12.2 years old in America’.
And the average US engine design is 40 plus years old.
Since before that fixed rear axels, have been replaced by independent rear wheels. Trucks still use a 1950s’ design vehicle.
12.2 years – so why update? Industry, what have you been doing all this time, apart from living a dream?
12.2 years – so why update?
I concur. Great down-to-earth comment.
Such a typical shoot-us-working-folk-in-the-foot comment from someone who is likely working class—or perhaps managerial class, who all are quickly being relegated to the same dire fate as the working class of old.
The UAW is fighting for a certain quality of life which, in truth, everyone deserves. Ample food on the table, leisure time with one’s family, parents at home to teach and raise the kids, proper health care to minister any sad illnesses that might befall your loved ones.
But you neglect to acknowledge any of this because it might cut into the salaries of the top management or the return on stock payouts of the world’s top 1%.
Mighty white of, Jimbob.
Right. When you sell $80,000 pickup trucks, what’s another $10,000 on top of that?
According to the Polish newspaper Mysl Polska,
The Ukrainian forces advancing toward Orekhova and Rabotyne have been lured into cauldron (a ring of fire).
The Ukrainian force saw the Russian forces retreating in front of them and kept advancing without covering their flanks, until they meet a wall of Russian forces.
The Ukrainian forces are now in a death trap, being attacked by the Russian´s from 3 sides.
They are under constant fire by Russian artillery, Airforce, loitering ammunition and drones.
This military tactics has been used again and again by the Donbass militia and Russian forces since the war began in Donbass in 2014, and has led to the destruction of 2 previous assembled Ukrainian Armies.
One would think that NATO planners would have learned from their mistakes during this 10 year long war. However they continue to use Blitz Krieg, to be able to claim some form of advance on the Battlefield via Western media.
And the losses of Ukrainian soldiers are staggering. Since the war began in 2014, Ukraine has lost at least 400.000 men killed in battels, and at least 300.000 men have been wounded.
People following the daily update from Weeb Union on YouTube have been able to see the danger of a Cauldron forming for the Ukrainian Soldiers fighting toward Rabotyne, for more than 2 weeks.
So why can’t NATO Planers see this danger?
The fact is they don’t care for the lives of the Ukrainian soldiers.
This slaughter of Ukrainian soldiers by NATO leaders has to stop NOW.
Since President Bush I, NAZIs have taken over NATO and transformed the former North Atlantic defense alliance to become a military aggressor attacking Nation after Nation all around the Globe. The only solution is to end NATO.
The god of war feeds on blood. My only question is Putin a satanist? No question the demons running nato will not stop until every available meatbag they can run through the hopper is exhausted. No, Russia has to take Kiev for this shitshow to end.
Ever wonder if the plan is actually to depopulate Ukraine?
Excellent summing up. By appearing to be inactive the Russians have created the perfect trap with a constant supply of fresh meat. While the Western media keeps cheerfully chirping away, feeding them right in with their ‘the Russians are losing’ narrative and with the Western politicians and civilians thinking the situation is under control and no further action is required. The Russians keep their supply lines short and can rotate their troops regularly so they can get enough sleep. When the Ukies stop coming what’s next? Odesa? Methinks we aint seen nothing yet.
Why can’t NATO planners, and strategists see and comprehend?
After fighting goatherders with muskets for 30 years, NATO believes its own exceptionalist bullshit that all adversaries are limited to muskets.
In as few words as possible: Ignorance, arrogance, and the misunderstanding of history.
A realistic person running the Ukrainian army would understand that Russia has constitutionally accepted the Donbass oblasts as part of Russia. They therefore have a legal imperative to remove hostile forces. If the objective was to cause a collapse of the Putin regime, Ukrainians should have found good high ground defensive positions, dug in, built barriers and set minefields to make a Russian advance cost prohibitive in casualties. Instead they reversed the reasonable roles and did the exact opposite, because the west demanded optics in return for material support and ignoring corruption.
Umm, I agree, but I am guessin’ you might have noticed the prices of everything are out of control. I would like to solely blame the fed, but supply chains are whacked, and 10% of the US force is on disability due to covid/the vaxx.
The US masters (after George Carlin) have decided to follow the USSR pathway to oblivion and internal civil war (while bailing to New Zealand).
Items I buy direct from China cost the same as several years ago, but the same item bought from a US distributor is now 25% more. Makes me ask WTF?
Bottom line – that pickup truck bought with toilet paper (aka dollars) is gonna hit 100k before you can blink. Bet they come out with 30 year car loans soon.
An acquaintance of mine who’s now in St. Petersburg tells me the shopping malls are overflowing with anything you want, not just China made – you name it.
Blinken better up his game with threatening those middlemen countries if he wants to get anywhere. Cut ’em off from SWIFT, 200% levy on their imports, that’ll do it.
Capitalist lovers/money grubs never consider the needs of the working class.
Im free he said
Im no slave
he held the proof
in the payment
of his wage
and the right to work
to a ripe old age
for a roof overhead
free to work til yer dead
you got your watch
and thanks were said
its fun for a while
but way too soon
yer layin here
in gods waiting room
now off you go
but dont live too long
boomers are the reason
everything went wrong
yer beggaring the nation
with the cost of your meds
you’ve become an aberration
you’d be better off dead
yer just sucking up money
laying there in that bed
next cog in the wheel
you had better get a move
it’s time to step up
and get into that groove
are you ready
for your life of servitude?
the gristmill grinds with exactitude
and the bones of the eaters
are its favourite food
your’e a cog in the wheel
grease the wheel
grease the wheel
grinding cogs like dogs
under heel
under heal
Screw you and your “working class” pity comments. WTF is working class? I’m a physician. I worked very hard coming from nothing to become a physician. Working in critical care I will often pull 60-75 hour workweeks. I do very well financially and I work my ass off under extreme stress and constant threat of lawsuits if I make a bad call. I guess I’m not working class to you but rather the “evil rich”. Right? Pull a 75 hour work week with me where lives are on the line. Better yet, just STF up already.
I agree with you Doc. Class warfare is as stupid as Racism.
Yea, poor people are guilty for all your life trouble. They are way too greedy. Trickle down econonomy is not good enough for those ungrateful bastards. Based on the level of frustration displayed, it seems like BIgPharma is not trickling enough dough to you too.
Of course you are a worker, Doc; therefore a member of the working class.
Concerning class war, we have to ask, “Who started it?” Definitely not the workers.
Doc being one of the workers is what’s the problem. Rich people don’t “pull 60-75 hour workweeks” and “work their ass off under extreme stress and constant threat of lawsuits if they make a bad call”. Rich people snort coke off the asses of Ukrainian prostitutes, Hunter Biden style. Rich people can repeatedly make bad calls, and not care about lawsuits.
Doc wants to be in the rich club, but he is not invited. He is trying hard not to be one of the plebs, but it is just not happening. It’s almost like the game is rigged. He blames other poor people, because he can’t blame members of the club he wants to get in. That would mean that he wants to be one of the bad guys.
What BS! You just said it!!! You are paid very well for what you do!!! Which is exactly what? I was an RN for 12 years 8 of them on nights. I saved as many lives and we were the backbone of healthcare. You wouldn’t have a job or make the money you do without nurses. I was a middle class kid that paid every f’ing $1 of school because I was taught no matter what you earn your way in life and I stayed out of debt. I could of been a physician easily. Nowadays medicine is such a racket. Except for emergency care and highly advanced surgery care the US healthcare system is the worst in the world. Hearing you doctors whine about how hard you work, how hard school was and hard many student loans you have is a joke!! Medicine is the most highly protected profession in the economy. If medicine had to compete in a free market the system would graduate millions of highly competent doctors, costs would go down, and so would pay. Doctors would be graduating with zero student loans. The drug laws are all a joke. I can go to Columbia, Thailand, India, and get meds/crowns/etc. 100x cheaper than the US and just as quality of care if you know what to look for and who to see. Look at all the people you “doctors” killed and still are killing with the covid/remdesevir/anti-ivermectin crap. I could give 2 shyts about unions. Both white collar and blue collar. But medicine in the US is a joke. Doctors only push overpriced meds and protocol based medicine. Nursing was a joke and got out and never looked back.
As Curtis says- you live in the world you dream of, not reality.
You perfectly made his point.
It’s a sad story to hear, that UAW members can’t afford sufficient food–do they even have a table to put it on? Parents at home to teach the kids? Neither parent need bother to go to work, apparently. Healthcare? Who knew that the UAW doesn’t have, in the vernacular, Cadillac healthcare benefits–the most lavish in the USA?
It’s a ridiculous and pathetic tale of woe. But keep it up, someone is sure to believe it.
“The UAW is fighting for a certain quality of life which, in truth, everyone deserves.”
Huh? The only thing we “deserve” as Americans is Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness. If the UAW workers are not happy, then leave and pursue perceived happiness at another employer. Union membership is down into the low teens in the U.S. with most of the remaining union members being government employees. When was the last time you saw anything out of government being efficient, well run, and competitive to private industry.
Give me a break.
Well said. The US ruling class (the one impervious to elections) has transcended reality and entered the future- a virtual world of wish fulfilment . No one else can fathom what they are on. From the outside it looks like the lunatics have taken over the asylum, but what do we know? We know where it ends though…. on a street in down town San Francisco.
Hollywood also uses biggest magazine clips and gives each soldier more of them than any infantryman could carry
Americans kill with each shot but adversaries only wound because US soldiers carry medicine bags around necks
Professionals talk Logistic/medical support/ISR, Amateurs talk tactical engagement. Strike (Air power and Artillery) is the God of war supposedly, (personally I would say that Intelligence/ISR is but thats just me), back to strike, without logistics they are Gods for about 2 hours/1 engagement. Hollywood would be bankrupt if all they did was make boring films about boring logistics. Meaningless minor tactical victories/fantasies is where the money is. You cant blame Hollywood for chasing cash, blame Americans for their inability to distinguish reality from fantasy, eg. Biden beat Trump honestly/ Jan 6 was a real Insurrection lol
Nice comment, but from the military to the police you were always a government employee……
I’m tired of supporting you guys.
Taxpayers don’t pay for anything. If we didn’t pay taxes prices would rise accordingly and everyone would still be in the same boat, sinking because the government would no longer be spending which is what drives a monetary economy. We’d be living like the Amish…
What’s wrong with living like the Amish? They’re a wholesome bunch & Greta would approve.
Great comment, Curt. Just as – in the real world – 90 pound women can’t take down 200+ pound men, women shouldn’t be cops. Maybe detectives or meter maids, but not beat cops. They don’t have the strength to man handle criminals without resorting to weapons. In MN, tiny Duante Wright was shot to death by a woman cop who thought she was reaching for her stun gun. Since she was a 25 year experienced trainer, she pushed aside a big bruiser of a rookie cop (who’d been holding Wright by the arm) before she shot Wright. Cops should be 235 pound Polacks. Or Irish or whatever. Big beefy cops can handle hoodlums without needing to deploy weapons.
In the US it’s shoot first & ask questions later. It’s out of control and so is society. Guess I’ll just shrug & assume they naturally go together.
what an amazing person you must be. please consider if as you suggest domestic cars are over priced, do they really deserve to enjoy blind support from consumers? also consider, the UAW is not striving to deep six the car industry, they are seeking a fairer distribution at all levels of the money pot.
Good analysis.
So your ideal America is basically the working class working for slave labor wages and trickle down economics.
The big 3 have more then enough money to offer a fair deal but they won’t because of greed.
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/column-why-auto-workers-strike-211222480.html
The real problem is Americans like you and the get what’s mine, FCK the rest attitude. And then you rant on this blog about the state of our country.
Same as it ever was.
base salary of Ford CEO is $1.7 million. he receives another $10-15 million if stock price performs. what is stock price? it merely reflects the total speculative gambles made on–literally–the *future* stock price….NOT on some mythical “productivity” or “sales performance” or on “profits.” cost cutting (including labor) contributes to this nonsensical calculus, as well as the idea that you must have endless “growth” whatever that means. meanwhile, actual producers of the products are rented for ever declining wages and decreasing benefits. When the CEOs and main shareholders who reap the reward$ of ponzi shareprices start cutting their remuneration to match the floor workers, you’ll have a point. until then dont pretend your view has anything to do with “viability” of the corporation. for now: it’s theft.
It was also Cruise who openly condemned the overuse psychiatric drugs (while jumping up and down on Oprah!).
Harvard Medical School professor of psychiatry , Dr. John Ratey, M.D., says that the best thing for most common mental/emotional issues is simply hardcore exercise (cardio w/ some weights). He says only hard cardio (75-90% of max heart rate) can release BDNF (“Miracle Gro” for brain cells) which boosts cortical neurons, cognitive functioning, etc. It also levels out neurotransmitter levels in the brain better than any psychiatric meds can.
https://www.amazon.com/Spark-Revolutionary-Science-Exercise-Brain/dp/0316113514
Very well said, indeed.
Never been up against a 90 lb ninja who was a real ninja-type? Get your first blow in and you win. After that who knows?
What is actually wrong with workers getting decent pay? Especially when car company profits are bigger than ever – yes, even the American ones.
It is also a bit much to be lectured on working hard by someone who (it sounds like) spent their whole career working for the biggest government feather bedded institution in the world – the US army, then the cops. Such well known hard working underpaid people in those organisations!
Profits are never big enough. Decent pay is communism.
The beat cop in the Godfather novel #1 is what you want. He roughs up scum. The UAW is dying. It has 150k auto workers. Kia Honda Toyota Mercedes Volvo VW BMW Tesla are not unionized they have 110k employees. They don’t want the UAW they don’t want their workers who have 10% absenteeism and since you cannot fire them the UAW is full of lazy bad workers. They don’t want their absurd restrictive rules. If you see a loose bolt you have call a mechanic to tighten it. The UAW tries to sell it’s social equity. The workers vote 2 to 1 to not unionize.
Here is a good article that sums it all up.
https://www.wardsauto.com/industry-news/if-uaw-doesn-t-change-it-s-toast
Remember ‘Saving private Ryan’. If I remember well, the end goes like this : the American officer aims his revolver at a German Tiger tank, fires, and the tank vaporizes. I suggest Biden equips Zelenski with a weapon of the same sort. Or maybe a couple of those Tolkien rings…
They need to keep saying “Ukraine is winning” to justify all the billions that get sent via Ukraine to the right people back in the States (without ever leaving the States, mind you).
Masses swallow this story with more docility than “We keep sending your money to a fake country that never existed and is about to stop even looking like it ever did”.
When is the last time the American people were told the truth about anything important?
WW 1? WW 2? Korea? JFK, RFK, MLK, Jr., Malcolm X assassinations? 9/11? (That there is a biggun). Afghanistan? Iraq? Syria? Libya? The USS Liberty murders? Israel’s nukes? 2008 economic crises? Covid 19 “pandemic”?
Lies, lies, lies.
The American people have been systematically lied to for decades about everything! The MSM has no freakin’ shame! Our members of Congress have no shame, save a few like Rand Paul, Ron Johnson, Comer etc.
And to add insult to injury, the American people have become hypnotized by the media hype of jabs being good for you, look at all the pretty people, buy this and buy that even if you have to go into severe debt to do so, numb yourselves with all manner of pharmaceuticals and booze and other drugs. Trust us…trust us….trust us….you are getting very sleepy….
I think Mattias Desmet is on to something with his mass formation thinking, especially related to Covid. Watching how quickly so many Americans jumped into lockstep with the medical edicts from on high: Socially distance, six feet apart, get jabbed or lose your job, “safe and effective”. Those who bought the edicts immediately became part of that 60% cult. The 40% who were standing up for our human rights were quickly labeled as “domestic terrorists” or “vax deniers”. To this day many families are not on speaking terms depending on who is or isn’t part of the “Covid Cult”.
Americans are split on the war in Ukraine, “wokeness”, racial and sexual identity, climate change and on and on.
I am an older American, and I have never felt this discouraged and depressed about where this country is headed. I truly fear the current administration is toying with nuclear war. They disgust me.
But what to do? Go to a board or a commission meeting? Call them out. OK. Then you get thrown out like that guy in Indian River County, FL who just read from one of the sexually explicit books the school board insisted be placed in its Middle School libraries.
But more of us have to be like that guy from Indian River Cty. Willing to pay the price. We have to get over our fear.
> But what to do?
The answer is literally “nothing”. Stop contributing, even for a week. If you are playing to lose, as we all are, stop playing. Look up “secessio plebis” before it’s edited to its own parody.
We’ll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false — Former CIA Director William Casey (Allegedly)
As for the (Allegedly):
Her name is Barbara Honegger, and readers can decide for themselves who is lying.
https://truthstreammedia.com/2015/01/13/cia-flashback-well-know-our-disinformation-program-is-complete-when-everything-the-american-public-believes-is-false/
It depends on whether you believe a real person, or the Deep State/DC Swamp LYING LIARS.
And whether Casey said it exactly as presented, it is clearly apparent that the CIA/FBI/NSA/Pentagon have lied so often and continue to do so egregiously, the reality is the same as the quote.
Euphemisms hide reality on purpose… all the handy labels they create to avoid that reality, like mis/disinformation, economic with the truth, misspoke… the list is endless.
When we should all just substitute the word LIE for them all.
THEY LIE. THEN THEY LIE THAT THEY DIDN’T/DON’T LIE.
I, too, am disgusted. However, once I came to understand the cyclical nature of all things, I realized that the American Empire was doomed from the start, just as I was born dying. We all, empires included, have a limited shelf-life. So, call it a Fourth Turning, Kali Yuga, Ragnarock, or Great Tribulation it’s all going to burn. Marcus Aurelius wrote about change in his Meditations. The only surety in life is just that. Change. So what to do? Easy. If you see the giant is falling, get out of the way. Then, do the next right and honorable thing, regardless of the personal consequences.
Thank you for the Article . Totally agree. Americans have lost reason, common sense , and the ability to think. Example ; what in National Interest do we have in Ukraine or Taiwan? It is about Control and Dominance .
Those US policy & military experts have a lot at stake if the weak Russia narrative collapses. Their choice is to play for time. Putin might be playing for time too in case there is a new occupants in the White House. US experts are all in on the narrative that Putin must be punished for the invasion and war crimes. Regime change is required. If a Republican wins the WH and ends the war they can try to push the mess & fault on the R President.
Biden cannot take the Ukrainian disaster until the elections. Democrats have to close the war this year.
I respectfully disagree. The American sheep electorate does not know or care about Ukraine.
I believe you Curt but elections are polarizing times and Republicans will not continue to behave as they have done so far. They have to differentiate their candidacy and they have already started. Congress no longer approves the money Biden wants for Ukraine. And worse than the Republicans is another defeat after Afghanistan. Do you know many Presidents who lost two wars? Obama won the Nobel Prize just because his name wasn’t Bush. Nobody likes losers in politics.
Supporting the Ukrainian war was only a good political deal in case of Russia’s defeat. But not even the MSM can continue to hide the Ukrainian disaster ad eternum. 100 billion US dollars and half a million ukrainians KIAs after the biggest disinformation campaign ever? And the rise of China and BRICS and the defeat of US dollar? In Europe, the tone on televisions has already changed a lot, as Larry says on the Judge show.
Regardless of not even believing in another Biden candidacy. The Democrats will find another candidate. But the Democrats disaster in Ukraine is not going away.
True, but outside Western Europe no one cares about US any longer. South Korea and Japan now know the facts of life as Kim Jong-Un has the support for his manufacturing and South Korea needs access to the rail system through N Korea to Europe and Middle East as does Japan
Logistics without water is the basis of a New Economic order and U S Navy is irrelevant
I agree with you. My parents told me that anyone can be like German citizens during WW2, follow a Hitler into war, and not resist the holocaust. Money for bling, Netflix, NFL take deep thinking and morals away.
No truer words were spoken. Everyone who wasn’t a German citizen in WW2, wonders to this day, how they allowed it to happen.
You can get nearly anyone to do anything, if the crowd that’s doing it is large enough, & persuasive enough. It’s a scary situation.
Agreed.
I am paraphrasing: ” The masses of the people do not reason. Like animals they are driven by fanaticism and hysteria”…..
Democrats proved in ’20 that voting is irrelevant. Same dominion systems are in place & ready to “fix” the count.
Good thing for them too because if Australia is a sign, VAIDS is starting to reap the great cull.
Russia has written off USA and is expecting Europe to see the light
Russia is tilting towards Asia and cutting off Europe
I doubt Putin has any hope for Europe within the next two or three decades.
Ask yourself this simple question. If you were in his shoes, would you ? What signs could you point to as evidence ? None, right ?
I believe he has hope for some parts of Eastern Europe.
“Putin might be playing for time too in case there is a new occupants in the White House.”
Nope. Putin have repeatedly said that it does not matter who is the president of the USA. He is playing for time, in order to allow The West to collapse on itself, and BRICS countries to build alternative institutions.
“He (Putin) is playing for time, in order to allow The West to collapse on itself, and BRICS countries to build alternative institutions”.
Bravo. Another one who has got it absolutely spot on!
It’s called controlled demolition.
One would think that over the centuries this “West” would have learned the hard lesson that Russia can NEVER be defeated but, no, they forget another severe ass whipping and every 100 years or so, decide to “march on Russia” once again, but this time they have at last exhausted Russia’s great patience and signed their own death warrant. Russia has had enough..
They haven’t exhausted Russia’s great patience and signed their own death warrant, because Orthodox Slavs don’t exterminate their enemies.
The West will live, and will learn no lessons. How it will live, and for how long, is another question. All those migrants are bound to take control. It’s just a question of time.
Who is talking about extermination? “Death warrant” is meant ceasing to exist – for NATO, EU and USA, which are all controlled by one evil, greed driven, satanic worshipping little tribe. Those will cease to exist as entities – NATO will be dismantled, EU will break apart and US of A will be confined to it’s borders, in whatever shape -that is up to american people, but it will never again be a global hegemon and will never again be allowed to bring death and destruction to the rest of the world.
That is correct. Putin is waiting for Ukraine to be utterly rid of its military, NATO to fail, Europe to come to grips and push America away, at least some EU countries and most of all…to watch the EU fall apart.
With some of the EU countries begining to confiscate Russian cars and personal goods…Putin will have zero incentive to work with those buffoons.
However, Putin has sat on his duff long enough and if he does not start punishing central and western Ukraine, taking Odessa and Transnistria…he will have screwed up. When Russia does that we will probably see Poland, Hungary, and Romania wanting their old territory back. That would be a big plus for Russia.
Lou, Russia does not need to go ahead with guns blazing to take over what’s left of the place used to be called Ukraine.
Russia will take back Odessa and the rest of Black Sea coast without a shot. These places will simply surrender. Western part, which Stalin took after the War, as reparations, will be offered back to Poland, Hungary and Romania, as these were lands belonging to them before the war. The reparation cost they had paid was for joining German Nazi invasion of Russia. Now they can have it back, and as far as Russia is concerned, they are welcome to it. Western “Ukraine” has always been a breeding ground for Nazi garbage. What will be left of former “Ukraine” will be a little rump in the middle – de-nazified, de-militarized and agricultural, with leadership that will be approved by Russia. All the rest will, once again, become part of Russia proper, same as Crimea and the other four regions that went “back home”. Clear now how Russian President and his Team think, plan and act? He absolutely does not “screw up” things – you must be an american. : )
Katerina-
Many Americans agree with you… MANY.
It’s the Western Oligarchs and London based globalist bankers that are the problem. And, of course, the US MIC. It’s all an inbred CABAL.
Putin is in no hurry because time is on his side. Indeed the World will be better when the Western Hegemonists and globalist oligarchs/bankers are driven of power. To do so, we must remove the vestiges of colonialism, which BRICS is doing nicely.
Being an American I see the positive side to this to my nation and my fellow citizens. We are blessed as a nation in natural resources, so if the political Deep States that are running the Western Nations collapse, we in the US will still have resources to grow back. It is very highly unlikely that we need the rest of the World, we could become insular and we’d still be quite well off.
Europe… ay!
Let’s just hope my retirement accounts hold up!
For me it’s been a matter of applying the same litmus test since day one ; that being, noting the complete absence of ’embedded reporters’ on the Ukrainian side, upfront with the cameras to capture for posterity the backsides of demoralised Russian troops staggering drunkenly back to Moscow, devoid of footwear, ammunition and rations.
All we get is constant illogical assurances that Putin is humiliated or cowering or reeling or seething with frustration and the Russians are on their last legs and about to crumble. What vestiges of trust I may once have held for the Western MSM is long gone now.
There were not so many lies and propaganda in any war conflict, nor was it related to any global event. Fewer lies were told during the coronavirus pandemic, although with the Covid-19 pandemic it was much more difficult to recognize propaganda because few people understand medicine. Now it’s simpler, all those lies about Ukrainian victories and Russian defeats can be denied with two mouse clicks on a Telegram channel.
The empire of lies set new standards in propaganda with the conflict in Ukraine. Some time ago, Redacted (Clayton and Natalie Morris) discovered that there is a kind of Ukrainian service for foreign journalists that publishes propaganda reports, emotional war stories, full of pathos, written in the best tradition of Anglo-Saxon journalism. Then CNN, BBC, WSJ take over those reports, sign it as their author’s work and publish it. Then small news houses and portals around the world take from CNN the original work of Ukrainian propagandists, but sign it “CNN reports”.
Petraeus, Hodges & Co. are not mistaken, they are just doing their job as MIC employees! Like they did in Afghanistan and Iraq! As much as they hate Putin and Russia and would like to prolong the war, they know better than us the beating that the AFU is getting! And they despise the humanitarian catastrophe in Ukraine as they did in Afghanistan and Iraq. They are racist monsters! All AFU gains reported in the media are PR operations to divert attention from the bogged counteroffensive since the very first day! And Russia will continue to grind the AFU!
Like the use of drones in Black Sea without any strategic gain. Where Ukraine lost the grain deal and most of the ports exploded! And will win a rump state landlock. What the media doesn’t report is how NATO failed in its attempt to unblock the Danube ports this week – operation Sea Breeze! And the war will not continue for much longer because the US does not have the weapons and the economy to prolong the war! And Europe is sold out too! Zelensky has already admitted defeat – no happy end – to CNN and Biden have already appointed the new vulture to guarantee the ROI to the major investors such as the IMF, MIC and Blackrock. Penny Pritzker, former Board of Superior Bank! Soon Ukraine will be forced to negotiate a peace agreement and Biden will say the same thing that said when fled Afghanistan. We did everything possible but Ukraine is very corrupt.
If you thought Petraeus was “bonkers”, listen to this:
Secretary Blinken’s Speech at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies ~ Sept 14, 2023
“The Post-Cold-War Era is Over”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXd_KDsOpSQ
The most contradictory, hypocritical, non-introspective, clueless gobbledygook I have ever listened to. If the speech was not written, on-the-fly, by ChatGPT, the West and the world is in a lot of trouble. I can’t imagine who was in the audience to listen to this. Elite, Advanced International Studies majors: “mushrooms”, that have been kept well manured and in the dark all of their lives. I can only imagine what Sergey Lavrov and Wang Yi must have been thinking after listening to this. (sigh)
Trouble with Cold War analogy is what do you get when it warms up !
Well, the title is right anyway.
Why do they do that?
Why do these people have such stupid thinking?
I don’t understand.
Maybe someone can explain to all of us why they think so stupidly. Is a couple of every reason.
Will they ever come to their senses?
The people in charge of the narrative, the present and the future of what “the west” should look like and why are the the same people, that brought “da west” into the present age of the woke, blm, covid-loving, globo-homo-schlomo tranny lgbtq gay disco pushing for the surgical removal of organs of reproduction.
To understand the aims and the identity of these people I recommend two documents.
One is an old, short, but incredibly well done docu on the weimar school:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EjaBpVzOohs
One thing it fails to mention is – that 99% of the participants in this process are jews.
And that is the primary reason for our present predicament. You can not solve a problem, when you can not, you must not, you may not identify it. We(?) even invented the term – neocon – so as to not have to say jew all the time.
The second doc you should read is a short text called “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion”. Read it. Do not listen to anyone as to where it came from, what they think about it – simply – read it. Make up your own mind. I did.
https://archive.org/details/fulltheprotocolsofthelearnedeldersofzion
Third – consider this quote:
“I’ll confess it, at least: like thousands of other typical Jewish kids of my generation, I was reared as a Jewish nationalist, even a quasi-separatist. Every summer for two months for 10 formative years during my childhood and adolescence I attended Jewish summer camp. There, each morning, I saluted a foreign flag, dressed in a uniform reflecting its colors, sang a foreign national anthem, learned a foreign language, learned foreign folk songs and dances, and was taught that Israel was the true homeland. Emigration to Israel was considered the highest virtue, and, like many other Jewish teens of my generation, I spent two summers working in Israel on a collective farm while I contemplated that possibility. More tacitly and subconsciously, I was taught the superiority of my people to the gentiles who had oppressed us. We were taught to view non-Jews as untrustworthy outsiders, people from whom sudden gusts of hatred might be anticipated, people less sensitive, intelligent, and moral than ourselves. We were also taught that the lesson of our dark history is that we could rely on no one.”
It comes form The Center for Immigration Studies. Full text:
https://cis.org/Report/Jewish-Stake-Americas-Changing-Demography
For something anectotal: “Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to fly to the heart of Silicon Valley on Monday to meet with X owner Elon…” WaPo.
This is where we are at.
Oh that is so easy to explain !
When you sell perfume you need continual advertising as an entry barrier for competitors, but also to keep the image fresh and alive so people pay a premium for what is mainly profit. Same with ‘celebrities’ – if they are not constantly exposed through media or paparazzi their value declines……..
In Politics you need to repeat the message to avoid people straying off the pitch…….it is sheepdog messaging……..
At the end of the day it is all Wizard of Oz……..exposed when Toto rips back the curtain
Hi! My name is Toto…😉
Hi, my name is the unwitting strawman.
Care to add anything of substance?
I did……..think.
Who is JB? Joe Bxdxn? What is a strawman? Who was the Scarecrow and what was he seeking? What does unwitting mean?
C’mon Toto. You can do it.
Heyoka,
It can be explained in one word – psychopaths, but lets make it three, for clarity – clinical certifiable psychopaths.
Leading medical MDs and Epidemiologists and the criminals at CDC, FDA and NIH/NIAID all made grandiose claims about the death shots, as if they represent the Second Coming; & this same NATO/USA government public health and medical establishment made all the WRONG noises viz. the scamdemic response.
Isn’t their Ukraine Jive Talk just more of the same?
Remember: both the COVID and UKRAINE files are both military operations.
Please call the men in White Coats on me: when I begin to take anything whatever our military leaders claim and say at face value.
As Pompeo told Trump on a hot mic, circa 2020 at start of Operation Covid: “this is a live exercise,” and Trump responded: you should have told me.
Who or what is actually in charge? Laurel and Hardy? Beavis and Butthead? Joe and Jill? Nobody really knows who is in charge of our government. . . . besides, their goal — whoever the hell is in charge–: was to destroy Ukraine, and if Europe is destroyed in process, oh well. . . .& apparently similar attitude to us, US.
-30-
“Who or what is actually in charge? Laurel and Hardy? Beavis and Butthead? Joe and Jill? Nobody really knows who is in charge of our government. . .”.
Some of us. How about George Soros and Klaus Schwab as the front men for … ??? the Top of the Pyramidians whose names no one knows.
No one in authority (or in the MSM over here (UK) now) believes this drivel, but it is being pushed out alongside Ukraine’s new recruitment drive. It is vital to tell the tale of imminent victory, to avoid the very real danger of an imminent Ukrainian fold. The Ukrainians have to hang in for long enough to push through to a freeze in the fighting either by force of a deal or force of the weather. Then we can rearm them if there is really any appetite for prolonging this. The money is on trying to coerce Russia into doing a deal by hitting on Crimea. What that might actually achieve is a decision by Russia to take the entire Black Sea outlet, land-locking Ukraine (and then maybe take the rest of Ukraine. What NATO will have got out of this will be ‘more Russia’, balancing its ‘more NATO’ chest thumping- assuming NATO survives this at all, which is highly unlikely- another reason the US is hanging in here for grim death- or Biden is. Trump does not have the same Atlanticist inclinations.
Maybe more Russia is what the backroom boys would be content with now- to give the Ukrainian headache back to Russia- lock, stock and barrel.
Of course, the long standing project of somehow talking Russia into an internal collapse by telling the Russians it is happening, rumbles on, transcending the facts on the ground, as it has always done. Meanwhile, it is highly unlikely europe will stay on board through a grim inflationary fuel crunched winter. I suspect Biden has already been apprised of that- if he remembers the conversation.
So you are in UK ! Has Starmer pledged to boost Defence Spending ? Has Labour stated it will replenish weapons stocks given/sold to Ukraine via the Foreign Aid Budget ?
Has Starmer said Labour will not use the Foreign Aid Budget to house “Small Boat Immigrants” in 4-star hotels ?
Has Starmer stated there will be Austerity for coming decades to pay for increases in Defence Spending ?
Have the Sunak Party said anything similar ?
So there it is – you can see just how unlikely it is they have thought out the mess they have created – and when BoE raises Base Rates next week to a smaller Negative Real Interest Rate they will howl……….
Truth is – Britain thought it could make itself indispensable after BreXit by making NATO superior to EU Commission – and Borrell and vdL helped them do it
Spot on. Tiny Blighty wanted to make itself indispensable after Brexit as you said.
It is insignificant and not even a 3rd rate power. It’s army can fill Wembley with 18,000 seats to spare. It doesn’t manufacture much anymore only relying on the City and financial engineering. It’s debt is unmanageable and might need an IMF bale out as it once did. The midlands to the north is just a latrine. The whole country will be going down the crapper in my life time.
I do not understand why the media drools after this guy’s analysis of anything. Some people claim he is a brilliant strategist.? I guess his Iraqi surge was considered brilliant but is nothing new since that was what the brits did earlier in the previous century. What sticks in my craw is that i believe he is the only CIA director to have been caught passing secrets to his girlfriend, fired for it, but now everyone ignores that serious lack of judgment and eagerly listen to his opines or want his judgment on everything spy/military.
Nobody gives attention to anything this big chief says anymore except people including himself on payment list of the bankers. The more nonsense he says the more money he makes. Well that’s a good job, better than working in other jobs requiring hard physical/mental work but not enough pay.
Petraeus missed a major factor common to Afghanistan and Ukraine, and Iraq and South Vietnam: corruption. I read an article in Foreign Affairs that claims the Afghan corruption was mostly grown due to US policy and I seems the same is true in Ukraine.
I read 50% GDP in Afghanistan came from US military plus U.S. paid off Pashtun warlords in cash not to attack US forces
Each convoy from Pakistan needed payoffs
Tajiks were the officer class in Afghan military and they had ghost soldiers on payroll to get US funds paid to them for „distribution“ plus USAF flew opium to Camp Bondsteel in Kosovo for Kosovo regime to sell into Europe
US writes the script, hires the director and tells the cast what to do…….it cannot conceive of Pirandello giving actors autonomy
Russia must be weak and incompetent to attain US objectives after all that is what Yeltsin was put in place for
Just as Germans have to be labelled efficient to excuse Anglo-American incompetence in taking so long to defeat them- news – Germans are incompetent and inefficient – but do not advertise the fact just like the Japanese
On the thought line about diferences between the approach on technology development in Russia/China and the general financialized, profit oriented “western” economies, Andrei Martyanov references an interesting essay by Jean-François Genest, ex-scientific director on EADS/Airbus, on hypersonic weapons development:
What could be the reasons for the western delay in hypersonic weapons?
https://cf2r.org/rta/quelles-peuvent-etre-les-raisons-du-retard-occidental-en-matiere-darmements-hypersoniques/
The numbers on STEAM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) students, between these “alliance blocs”, as Martyanov never get tired to highlight, talk by themselves.
Cynthia Chung wrote a good text on the tax haven City of London:
“… such banks are not interested in putting their money into industry and manufacturing, they put their money into real estate speculation, financial speculation and foreign currency trade. And thus the financialization of British and American economies resulted, and the real jobs coming from the real economy decreased or disappeared.”
https://cynthiachung.substack.com/p/sugar-and-spice-and-everything-vice
Cynthia Chung is somewhat underpowered. The City NEVER funded British industry even during the Industrial Revolution.
Banking dynasties were in the South of England.
Industrial wealth was in the North of England.
Banks in The city were near The Port of London – you know why it is called “The Docklands” ????? You know what Tilbury was until Thatcher ?
Banks in The City were for financing TRADE and COMMERCE not Industry.
Post-WW2 the Government forced banks to create a company called “Investors in Industry” owned by all the Clearing Banks to make loans to SMEs – it worked very very well……..then Thatcher let the banks spin it off and it became “3i” and started turning into a Vulture Fund and Buyout Fund rather than long-term investments in unquoted companies.
When the Coal Board was privatised its Pension Fund became CinVen – another Vulture Fund and LBO operation instead of Miners’ Pensions.
As for Tax Havens – the World’s NO1 ONSHORE Tax Haven is United States of America – especially Delaware and Nevada – and Canada runs a close second …….for foreigners…….
London is the admin centre for OFFSHORE Tax havens located in islands offshore – NONE of that oney can be invested in UK or it is no longer “OFFSHORE”
How long will it take until zelenski gives up?
How long does the world have to fear a nuclear escalation?
Will the western population really change their mind once the war is lost?
How I wish we could discuss about other things, about real problems, not neocon made problems.
Roland: your post inspired the following idea into my head.
If Zelenski gives up and is not assassinated by dark forces, he might justifiably be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for ending a war. If Obama can be awarded one for starting wars, how much more would Zelenski deserve it for ending one?
You are right: We live in a world where absurd things happen so frequently that they will loose their absurdity. It is normal to have a dement president, it is normal to have an actor as president, it is normal that politicians who never had been in uniform send people to die in war.
Well, to be honest, that country/world was started by slaveowners preaching about freedom and equality. Can’t say much has changed since. Do as I say, don’t do as I do.
This has been one of the most informative round tables that have put all the dots in place.
I believe that Russia has brilliantly out-maneuvered the USA yet again by arming North Korea with Topol M-type nukes. Apart from turning Japan and Korea into two nervous breakdown states by ensuring doubt if the USA will protect them against North Korea (Tokyo or NY? The USA won’t). Another ace is that Yes, the USA may (past tense) have turned North Korea into a parking space at the cost of Seoul, but not now. But now If the USA attacks North Korea with Nukes it will also be badly damaged leading to the end of US society. An armed US society being controlled in the event of a nuclear strike? Good luck with that Mad Max.
The coup de grâce could well be administered to the USA by Russia or China. So in other words attacking North Korea with nukes means you might as well go for broke by attacking China and Russia thrown in the mix. No one wins, but who survives? Not the USA or North Korea that’s for sure. Finally, if as the round tables say the USA may get hypersonic nukes in 2 or 3 years only means one thing? Nuclear war within that time frame, as correctly put, Russia will never allow that nuke placement to happen on Russian border states. Well, at least I know how to live my life in those few years…..Maybe? But you get my point.
I have been wondering occasionally what the symptoms were as the late roman empire came crashing down. Must have looked similar
When Victorian England built in classical style even into the Lutyens Era they built for perpetuity as successors to Roman Empire – even Wilhelmine Germany tried through architecture of stations and government buildings to suggest permanence and history
But both nations destroyed themselves in Flanders Fields hoping to use nationalism to bind populations increasingly restless with poverty and the ruling class
It was not an outcome either side expected but they destroyed all the empires in Europe
While the New York Times have the odd article, ‘Ukraine could lose if US/NATO do not provide more advanced weapons,’ today’s NYT say that the sanctions mean Russia are dragging young boys and old men into the Ukraine to be slaughtered since Russia have no weapons and no ammunition, and that is why Putin is desperately begging the DPRK (and Iran) for weapons and ammunition, so the US must make it clear to the DPRK and Iran that they will not allow them to give any weapons or ammunition to Russia.
Once upon a time, the US news had a smidgen of truth, but those unenlightened days are behind us: now all news must reiterate the official government line. Or else.
It’s as old as Greek Comedy: Russian women will only put up for so long without having Ferragamos and Louis Vuittons; then they’ll stop putting out. Faced with following the NATO example of going gay/anal or going home, Russian Forces will choose the latter. US Generals know that their RA1 force elements would do the same, and can therefore confidently predict that Russian defence lines will crumble.
Wow ! So those are the kind of Russian women Khordokovsky introduced them to !
They are used to meeting high class call girls and Russian analogues of LA „models“
That does reveal so much about who these journalists interface with
One comment from Petraeus in the video struck me as particularly moronic.
Petraeus commented that it took Russia 10 years to realize that Afghanistan was unwinnable. Yet, he failed to mention that it took the US 20 years to learn the same thing.
40 years! The US fought in Afghanistan alongside the Mujahidin against Russia. Who didn’t flee Afghanistan in a hurry.
Leave it to Petraeus. Glass half full with a hole in the bottom.
I’ll request a possible deep dive about the grain deal, the wonderful soil known as CHERNOZEM, is what produces all this abundance. The land of the KULAKS(small farmers dispossessed of their land by collectivazation) is what produces the mammoth sunflower, could not be sold ?? only leased, BIG AG has all that grain that can’t reach markets. Is someone familiar w/ futures contracts to speak about this hidden truth? Thank you. Semper gumbie, ALWAYS Flexible:)
Sure. I`m your huckleberry…😁
AFAIK. Chernozomlj is simply the topsoil, that is saturated with carbon. Unlike dry dirt and sand. It is a geographic feature to most these lands due to the local climate and the way of cultivating it – the amount of of organic material, that makes it fertile – has been stabilized for the time being(again-AFAIK)
Observe the terrain, that the fighting is taking place on. Observe, that it is divided and broken up into parcells, bordered by farm roads, and forest belts. Those are the forrested areas, some 5-10 meters wide, that keep the soil from being carried away by wind, rain – the weather.
You will see all kind of claims, even from military experts, that it – the chernozomlj – is something special, extremely deep and such.
It is not true. It is not. It is COMPARETIVELY true – to the soils, that have been over-cultivated and over-worked.
If you observe the fortifications, the construction of them, the trenches, look out for the coloration of the earth. In general, we have about a 10-30 centimeter of topsoil – then it is – dirt…or whatever you want to call it.
That used to exist the world over – till the endless fields of industrial monoculture took over. There is a balance to this shit we do. That one or two kilometer parcel size divided and rotated MAY be sustainable. I do not know. I am not an expert.
When you look back in the history of the US, the dustbowl, droughts and industrial agro, that can not abide by even meagre limits(forest belts) to it`s percentages, that is what you get.
https://cdn.britannica.com/81/188381-050-416B3A54/Dust-storm-Stratford-Texas-April-1935.jpg
Aside from my people, that grow out of that soil, I am militantly against the corporations, that are the likely to take over the management of the topsoil, once my people are eradicated from it and bunched into their 15 minute cities…
I do not know – if I have even scratched the surface – of the chernozomlj…
It gets muddy…😉
Well, there’s this Oakland Institute, an USA based Academic and Research Institution, publishing a summary on the “liberalization” of Ukrainian economy, highlighting the internal political struggle on privatization intent of agricultural land, where there was a moratorium of not being possible to sell land, since 2001:
«A key condition of Western aid has been to lift the moratorium on the sale of agricultural land and the creation of a land market, …
Before the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991, all land was the property of the state, with farmers working on state and collective farms. In the 1990s, guided and supported by the IMF and other international institutions, the government privatized much of Ukraine’s farmland, which resulted in the growing concentration of land in the hands of a new oligarchic class. To stop this process, the government instituted a moratorium in 2001, which halted further privatization and prevented almost all transfers of private land.»
Here the text:
https://reliefweb.int/report/ukraine/war-and-theft-takeover-ukraines-agricultural-land
https://www.oaklandinstitute.org/war-theft-takeover-ukraine-agricultural-land
Even the “liberal” party of Yulia Timoshenko was voting against restart privatization of agricultural land, which goes along the thinking of Adam Smith where the rent of land can be considered a monopoly because the supply of land is fixed being a scarce resource (it cannot be increased), and landlords have a natural advantage in restrict the supply of land, thereby increasing the price of rent or selling.
These are pretty turved waters, were even the newly appointed Ukrainian Defence, Rustem Umierov (an ethnic Tatar), was the Director of State Property Fund of Ukraine, incumbent on privatization of state property, including the lease of agricultural land. The interesting detail is that two former directors of the State Property Fund “committed suicide” after 2014 (Mykhailo Chechetov and Valentyna Semenyuk-Samsonenko).
About the corruption in Ukraine, there’s the story of the anti-corruption “agency”, NABU, created to control the names “they want in places”.
https://nabu.gov.ua/en/tags/us-embassy/
The Constitutional Court judge opposed that puppet agency and had to run way.
https://news.yahoo.com/court-approves-arrest-former-constitutional-160300590.html?
https://huri.harvard.edu/ukraine-constitutional-court-crisis-explained?
https://archive.kyivpost.com/ukraine-politics/supreme-court-to-consider-zelenskys-appeal-on-tupytsky-appointment.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020%E2%80%932022_Ukrainian_constitutional_crisis?
Thanx!
Independence…heh…
Now, that the contracts are sealed, all what remains is to “relocate” the inhabitants…or plant them.
Makes the soil even more fertile by the blood sacrifice…
“I recommend you watch the Petraeus interview in order to gain appreciation for the mind set of the pro-Ukraine lot and their detachment from reality.”
I did not watch the video, but had to check out the comments. Would recommend.
Re: Topolcats – “Finally, if as the round tables say the USA may get hypersonic nukes in 2 or 3 years only means one thing? Nuclear war within that time frame, as correctly put, Russia will never allow that nuke placement to happen on Russian border states. Well, at least I know how to live my life in those few years…..Maybe? But you get my point.”
Topolcats went right to crux of the matter. The rest of the discussion, while being spot-on, is rehashing what is old news and analysis, venting, important but a dead-end at this point.
Watch or re-watch the judge’s interview from @22:19. Link below queued to that point:
https://youtu.be/do9AoOggsZk?t=1339
Pay attention to the continuing discussion with Larry and Ray from that point on new RF weapons and hypersonics thru @24:50 and consider the implications.
Now what are, might be some of these new RF weapon/defense systems? Some hints:
https://sputnikglobe.com/20230916/krasukha-russias-new-unrivalled-electronic-warfare-system-1113415601.html
https://sputnikglobe.com/20230912/what-does-putin-mean-by-weapons-based-on-new-physical-principles-1113316548.html
(Note: if you can’t access the links in your location, simplest answer is to get a good VPN. Proton VPN has a free version that you can try. Select a server in a different region, country and keep trying until you get access.)
Back to Topolcats observation. What do you think will be the response of OTAN gets nuclear capable hypersonics? How many years really may be left?
There is hope at the end of the judge’s interview, see the exchange beginning @26:03. Link queued to that point:
https://youtu.be/do9AoOggsZk?t=1563
For the fate of the planet and all inhabitants, hope Ray is right.
Interesting timez …
So where do the military “luminaries” get their information? The State Dept and think tanks like NED, not the CIA. Stop bleating CIA, CIA, advises Giraldi:
https://www.unz.com/pgiraldi/a-personal-journey-through-the-national-security-state/
So.
I have listened to the roundtable – the first five minutes.
If they create a legal precedent to round up ukies and send them back – it will apply to ALL other “refugees” presently sucking Europe dry.
I am all for it.
Sorry my ukie bros – for throwing ya under the bus.
You were a goner to begin with. Let us get something out of this after all…
“For example, there are several video clips of Ukrainian troops complaining about lack of weapons and terrible leadership. I have yet to see anything comparable from the Russian side.”
There are videos of complaining Russian troops. They have been shown on the pro-Ukrainian YouTube channels like Jake Broe or Denys Davydov.
Hey, folks, I ve failed to get reliable news on Crimea last few days.
What s going on, what happened in Sevastopol?
Thought I’d share this comment from MOA. It’s hilarious and exactly describes my own experience (slightly modified to take the edge off)
“I spent decades being conditioned by western MSM. Just hearing a reference, any reference, has the same reaction that seeing a plate of mussels has to someone that once ate a bad mussel.”
Larry, guess that’s why I skip over your Petraeus links and just read your summary. 😉
PS: I grew up reading the NYT but began avoiding it like the plague years ago. Now I pull up the NY Post, something we considered only good for sports & checking movie listings. As a tabloid, it takes the sting off current events by reminding me that compared to their claptrap people, most of whom I never heard of, I’m doing pretty well.
Power has a highly distortive effect upon perception. Power in essence warps the perception of reality by skewing the flow of information. The inhabitants of systems of power do their best to conceal information that displeases their superiors while doing their best to forward and reinforce information that will please them. This is how you get ahead and advance in closed systems of power.
Traditionally good leadership balance this natural skewing effect by weighting information that counters their own preferences. This no longer works becouse in our degrading social environments non conforming or dissenting perspectives are seen as antagonistic and emblematic of disloyalty.. In today environment those who voice potentially balancing correcting perspectives are being thrown out of decision making bunkers thus compounding delusions of the besieged/losing mindset.
Yes and no – naturally.
There used to be a conversation about this shit.
There were opinions expressed on both sides of the issue – available to the public.
The public be damned. Damn da hoi poloi…and the sharade we orchestrate to keep them pacified…
Damn them – and their interests – we`ll tell them which way is up and mainly why they are WRONG. About EVERYTHING.
And if they don`t like it – we shall replace them. There is an unlimited supply:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPjzfGChGlE
After all – we all believe in the in “da hollycost” don`t we?
…and “democracy”…for the minority only…
…in freedom of speech…for any perverted sexual vice, but political expression
…and “science”…except for studies of intelligence…of jews`n negroes
…and diversity…for European commanded lands exlusively…not israhell…or China, Japan or Saudi…or India…
…and a WALL, what a wall – to keep jews protected…from democracy…and diversity…
…from buying ocean-shore property…in order to avoid the effects of “climax change”
…and to fuck up Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, Libya – to save me from terrorism – while inviting the natives of said lands no questions axed…
Are we insane? Are you watching?
Are You?
any reason this hasn’t posted?:
Re: Topolcats – “Finally, if as the round tables say the USA may get hypersonic nukes in 2 or 3 years only means one thing? Nuclear war within that time frame, as correctly put, Russia will never allow that nuke placement to happen on Russian border states. Well, at least I know how to live my life in those few years…..Maybe? But you get my point.”
Topolcats went right to crux of the matter. The rest of the discussion, while being spot-on, is rehashing what is old news and analysis, venting, important but a dead-end at this point.
Watch or re-watch the judge’s interview from @22:19. Link below queued to that point:
https://youtu.be/do9AoOggsZk?t=1339
Pay attention to the continuing discussion with Larry and Ray from that point on new RF weapons and hypersonics thru @24:50 and consider the implications.
Now what are, might be some of these new RF weapon/defense systems? Some hints:
https://sputnikglobe.com/20230916/krasukha-russias-new-unrivalled-electronic-warfare-system-1113415601.html
https://sputnikglobe.com/20230912/what-does-putin-mean-by-weapons-based-on-new-physical-principles-1113316548.html
(Note: if you can’t access the links in your location, simplest answer is to get a good VPN. Proton VPN has a free version that you can try. Select a server in a different region, country and keep trying until you get access.)
Back to Topolcats observation. What do you think will be the response of OTAN gets nuclear capable hypersonics? How many years really may be left?
There is hope at the end of the judge’s interview, see the exchange beginning @26:03. Link queued to that point:
https://youtu.be/do9AoOggsZk?t=1563
For the fate of the planet and all inhabitants, hope Ray is right.
Interesting timez …
It was one summer day back in 1966. I had my American made Zenith transistor radio on listening to a Top 40 AM band station. The news came on & it was encouraging. LBJ had just announced that we were winning the war in Vietnam & victory was in the bag. Perhaps as early as mid 1967. Well, anyone here who was alive back then knows where that all ended. FU$A’s current proxy war with Russia is just a repeat of what transpired back in ’64-73. The only differences, no body bag aftertaste, no draft.
There are now a significant number of alternative-news sites that provide much more accurate descriptions of reality than the fairy tales and delusions provided by politicians, military and economic “experts” and their mainstream media stenographers and propagandists. But what I would be most interested to read on these alternative sites would be just exactly WHAT their creators expect their visitors to actually DO as a result of visiting their sites. In other words, after their enlightenment, exactly how should their behavior have changed versus before they were enlightened? For example, if they so desire, exactly how should they remove the 535 elected politicians in the federal government from their positions of power and replace them with better people? AFAIK, the one and only legal way to do that is by voting the bad people out of office and better people into office. Vote out the bad. Vote in the good. So simple! (If you know of another way, please spell it out right here, right now.)
The integrity of the system of election in the US is, as of right now anyway, irrelevant. I say this because even if every aspect of that system had been conducted absolutely perfectly and above-board in 2020, its outcome would still have been either a D, Joe Biden, or an R, Donald Trump, that would be POTUS for the next four years. The fact is that roughly 153 million voters voted for one or the other. Roughly 10 million voters did not vote for an R or a D. Therefore, More Of The Same (MOTS) it would be until November, 2024. We’re experiencing MOTS right now. Do we want MOTS after November, 2024? If we do not, just exactly WHAT are we going to do to stop it – vote for yet ANOTHER R or D? Proposed answers to this question are what I want to read on alternative-news and political-analysis sites.
Here’s something else that you won’t read on the majority of alternative media web sites. Only one “mission” matters to the Western Oligarchic Transnational Elite Collective (WOTEC) that “manages” the western empire — that voters continue to choose only Rs or Ds to occupy elected positions of political power in the US federal government. It does not matter one iota to the WOTEC which Rs and Ds voters vote for, even if one of those two happens to be Donald Trump. (The true irony in this particular election cycle is that hard-done-by Trump’s orchestrated, fake legal troubles are making him more attractive to more voters; and Biden’s mental deterioration is making him less attractive to his perhaps-now-former supporters. I believe the result of this near-civil-war will be that even fewer voters will vote for non-R or Ds than in the 2020 election, which is exactly what the WOTEC wants.)
As has occurred in every election throughout my lifetime, the WOTEC once again accomplished their mission in the election of 2020. Only one fifteenth of the people that voted did not vote for an R or a D. The REAL result of that election was that the WOTEC won a landslide victory in which they were certain to remain the WOTEC for another four years. Since at least the Gore vs. Bush contest in 2000, the only topic of discussion in the WOTEC’s MSM and among the members of the WOTEC’s Bewildered Herd, even within some alternative web sites, is the integrity of the election apparatus and which of the two R or D clones will get to play the role of, for example, POTUS in the White House for the next four years, even though either will be equally disastrous for the herd and all the people of all the other nations of the world that are suffering under US oppression.
Again, even if the system of election of candidates for positions of political power in the US had been conducted absolutely perfectly in every way during the 2020 election, roughly 153 million people still voted for an R or a D, which means they would still have voted for MOTS — voters “willingly” voting for the WOTEC to continue ruling over them; voting for a group of billionaires that is only interested in becoming increasingly wealthy, increasingly powerful, and increasingly world-crushing.
(Which reminds me, WTF “led” Noam Chomsky, of all people, to recommend to voters that they vote for Killery or Mr. Potato-Head for POTUS rather than a Tangerine Jackass? Did/does he not realize that in order for better politicians to be elected people have to actually vote for them?! If he remains alive until Nov. 2024, will he once again be making the same who’s-less-terrible recommendation?! Regardless, whatever Holy Water it was that “worked” on Chomsky in 2020, the WOTEC is going to bottle it and sprinkle it on voters every day from today to election day, when voters will waddle into a voting booth, and their apparently irresistible conditioning will do the rest: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qTXGAd1kpXY )
What’s really interesting to me is to consider the possibility that if the members of the Bewildered Herd quarrel enough among themselves to the point of “coming to blows”, the WOTEC just might propose a constitutional amendment to completely get rid of this “divisive” right to vote and elections………. because they really can’t be fixed. It’s beyond human capability. Human beings have to conduct them and human beings are innately flawed and, therefore, the results will always be flawed and bitterly contested. You can believe that, can’t you? So just get rid of them and then life will be far less divisive and more “peaceful”. This is the way much of the Bewildered Herd apparently thinks nowadays — that voting and elections don’t really matter; that they are an obvious waste of time as the last election proved (even though the WOTEC knew/know that they were important enough to spend billions on ads, “news reports”, focus groups, “debates” and polls published almost every day that tells us which R or D horse is ahead at this moment in the “race” to the WH or legislative branch), to be virtually certain that the herd voted for an R or D when they waddled into the voting booth. I think that there is a better than even chance that the “ban the vote” amendment would be enacted …….. which, again, would be great, right? For each elected office, just flip a coin with an R on one side and D on the other. Whatever side faces upward after the flip is the “winner”.
It is obvious to me, and to far too few others, that the future behavior that has to be changed in US citizen-voters is for whom they vote — both party and persons – when they waddle into (Skinner’s) “voting” booths. Specifically, what somehow, some miraculous way, has to happen is that at least 80 million US voters have to ignore all the WOTEC’s 24/7 ads, polls, etc. and vote for NON R or D candidates in all elections from here to eternity. This would constitute a very small change in behavior (making a mark or pushing button in a slightly different location), yet that might be practically impossible to make happen, even though there are plenty of NON R or D political parties (such as the Socialist Equality Party) whose candidates promise to stop the US’s wars, enact Medicare for All and a variety of other things that average US citizens claim they want but will never get simply because they vote (peck or turn) only for Rs or Ds, time and time and time again.
I highly recommend to any party running candidates for federal public offices that they promise to MAINTAIN the DoD contract system, but the contracts awarded by that revised system will henceforth be to produce products for peaceful purposes rather than for perpetual war. This promise will be attractive to the millions of voters who are either directly or indirectly employed by the MIC in practically every state in the US. The fact is that if NON R or D candidates promise to, say, cut the make-war-on-the-world budget by 75% without maintaining the DoD contract system to produce peaceful products (and by so doing threaten to end the jobs of those millions), those candidates will not be elected and MOTS it will be for the next 4 years.
There you have it. It’s either resisting WOTEC’s 24/7 propaganda and voting to peacefully remove 535 elected R or D politicians, or being part of a violent revolution to chop off DC heads without having a cucking flue what happens the day after. I strongly suggest the former, and that right soon, because some other, now militarily powerful, nations have had just about all the MOTS they’re going to swallow from the purportedly-intelligent voters of The Greatest Nation On Planet Earth.
By hook or by crook, by bombs landing on Main Street, USA, or by divine intervention, US voters must somehow be made to vote for peaceniks rather than warmongers even though their doing so might cost them their jobs. And investors, from Wall Street to Central Banks and Main Streets around the world, must somehow stop buying/investing in US Treasury War Bonds, even though their doing so might deprive them of a great deal of money-profit.
Which is the more powerful human instinct – ancient animal greed or the evolved intelligence to recognize that unfettered greed is the number 1 threat to human survival? We will find out in November, 2024.
Perfect specimen. That is whatz me talkin`bout.
He just can`t say jew…🤣. Well, Germans – they is sure evil. Hungarians – ditto. Everyone a nazi.
But we love yu. See? We shall release all the funds confiscated from you in our banking sys. as soon as you sing meetoo…and after all, what else is there to this meat-life of ours?
wotec, botec, whatnut…
He`ll conjure up a whole litany about obscure shit.
…walking into a thorn of bushes with his eyes wide shut…
…or is he?
Mr. Salm said: For instance, it costs a Western country $5,000 to $6,000 to make a 155-millimeter shell
Whaaaaaat!!! Switzerland pays CHF 900 ($1000) for a nativly produced 155-millimeter shell of the highest quality known to mankind and Switzerland is a one heck of expensive country.
Yea right, highest quality known to mankind. That’s what Brits say about Challenger 2, and Germans about Leopard 2, and Muricans about F-35 Lightning II aka. Ballon Shooter 2. Everyone brags about their shit being of highest quality known to mankind, and shit of others being, well, shit.
The gambler analogy is tops.
To quote Stalin (or perhaps it was Lenin), on tanks, “Quantity has a quality all of its own.”
The same might be said of artillery shells, even if the NY Times is right about the Russian shells being less safe and of lower quality than those produced in the West.
The NT Times? Total B S and lies. Russian artillery shells have devastated the Ukraine military. It must be the lower quality built into them………
This applies to their ISR component that has defeated every
western supplied weapons system that the Ukraininas have been supplied with and trained on. This includes HIMARS, Patriot anti-missile systems, and EVERY other armament supplied to Ukraine. I’ll even throw in mercenaries who went to Ukraine only to come back home after a dose of reality. Those that survived…..
NY Times must be right. Ukrainian soldiers are constantly complaining about Russian shelling. They are not happy customers. Notable exceptions from that are propaganda shells (filled with leaflets calling for surrender), and incendiary Grad rockets that look beautiful at night (as long as they are not raining directly on one’s head).
Larry, you mean the “Ghost of Kiev” was a myth? I can still hear the American keyboard warriors extolling this superior Ukrainian pilot and his super human exploits! I think he did it all in a Piper Cub! The war was going to be over in a week with Russia crying ‘uncle’. Worse yet, millions of these fools actually believed the media and administration bullshit. And even worse yet, most still do. Americans are in an alternate universe from reality………… nothing but defeat will change that. This coming debacle is going to make the Afghanistan defeat look like a successful military operation. When will we ever learn?
Idiocracy – we are – I am sad to say. With a side dish of cowardice.
As to “a son of the new American revolution”
Thank You Mr. Johnson for letting me participate in this conversation. There are no venues of this sort out there anymore much…
Your site seems to hold up to the standard.
Respect!
“The above opinion is not supported, represented or appalled by any of my recent musings – unless my future legal representatives desire to disconnect from my present stance based upon undiscovered information. Withheld with prejudice in the State of Delaware.”
Hey!
Da rest of ya?
Well…run along…
“Russian production costs are also much lower than Western ones, in part because Moscow sacrifices safety and quality in its efforts to produce cheaper weapons,” Mr. Salm said. ”
I laughed out loud reading this ! Could someone tell me that an exploding Russian 155 mm cannon shell explodes differently than a Western one ? Or does the Western play the tune of Yankee Doodle during the explosion ? Yes, those production costs 🙂 everyone remembers the case of the Made in USA hammer overpriced by the gun lobby, right ? How much was the obscene bill, maybe 10,000 USD ? While with the Russkis, if the bill from the state company was more than five dollars, that company CEO would be dragged to the stake in the beautiful square of Krasnaja Plosagy ! Because the Russian state has its hands on the arms industry, while in the USA, the arms industry has its hands on the string by which the politicians hang !
“Could someone tell me that an exploding Russian 155 mm cannon shell explodes differently than a Western one?”
Russian 155mm shells don’t explode at all, because they don’t make ’em. 🙂 Jokes aside, I have seen multiple videos of shells (of various calibers) exploding in a barrel, and videos of aftermath of such occurance. All of them on Ukrainian side. Either Russians don’t film themselves that much, or their shells do explode differently (i.e. exclusively outside of a gun).
History shows… Russia on the Eastern Front against Hitler. Russia on the western front against Japan through Manchuria. Japan chose to capitulate with the USA…. using the nukes as the excuse…but really… a deal with Russia would of cost Japan more strategic lands.
Russia.
The US paper tiger: https://www.usdebtclock.org/ continues as we can …none of us…conceptualize a trillion dollars. The figure is abstract. All the social programs, all the military… it’s all the world tax from dollar hedgemony.
I very much enjoy the insights of our retired CIA people. No offense to Larry…or any other person that served the country in the clandestine community.
The federal govt has a culture that put’s it behind the curve of reality. It’s a requirement of holding a federal job.
If your out front of federal management..if your knowledge is out front of federal agency budgets…you will be discounted…or silenced.
This is the fatal flaw of the USA clandestine services…the NSA…that…and of course.. bribes and kick backs.
Just the human condition. There are shining examples of free speech govt retired employees.
“In the absence of orders, go find something and kill it.”
– Field Marshal Erwin Rommel
It is the human condition.
Petraeus has more stars on his shoulders than neurons in his brain.
Petraeus is a fop.
“Russia’s production costs are also far lower than the West’s, in part because Moscow is sacrificing safety and quality in its effort to build weapons more cheaply, Mr. Salm said. For instance, it costs a Western country $5,000 to $6,000 to make a 155-millimeter artillery round, whereas it costs Russia about $600 to produce a comparable 152-millimeter artillery shell, he said.”
I would say Russia’s production costs are lower as a consequence of much lower profits for the manufacturers and much lower personnel costs as they don’t have to pay marketing executives huge sums and they don’t have to pay legal bribes to the Duma.
How can Russia spend less than a tenth of the cost of US shells because of quality. This is bullshit.