Apple is going to make Watches and MacBooks in Vietnam. (More precisely, Apple suppliers will make the products there. “Make” in this context meaning mostly “assemble”, I think.) Apple is also planning to produce the iPhone 14 in India, with only about a 2-month lag from its initial production in China.
Intel will be partnering with Brookfield Infrastructure Partners to help pay for factory expansion projects, with Brookfield contributing up to $30 billion. Most immediately, the money will pay for the expansion of Intel’s Ocotillo manufacturing campus in Chandler, Arizona, with Intel funding 51% and Brookfield funding 49% of the total project cost. (This is pretty different from BIP’s typical investments, which tend to involve such things as railroads, toll roads, pipelines, and electricity transmission)
A useful overview of planned and in-development fabs, worldwide.
Electricity prices, marginal costs, and the last kilowatt.
Texas has banned BlackRock and several other firms from doing business with the state.
Finland may be facing power outages this winter. On the other hand, if their Olkiluoto 3 nuclear power plant goes into production at the end of the year, as planned, this should help a lot. Another plant is planned, taking total nuclear contribution in Finland to 60%.
Also,perhaps a way could be found to harness the power from their PM’s very high-energy dancing. (If other Western leaders could dance like that, would it somehow influence their minds to adopt more rational energy policies?)
Elsewhere in Europe, skyrocketing energy prices are causing a lot of hardship–and will surely create serious economic pressures as much manufacturing in the affected countries becomes cost-prohibitive)
The Euro is not doing very well versus the dollar. More here.
f you think people have scar tissue, you should see organizations. Each time there’s a disaster, they create a process to prevent future disasters of that type. Eventually they accrete a thick layer of these processes that prevents them from moving. Then they die.
I know zero about Finland politics, so I don’t know if she’s a serious person or not. If BoJo gets to be a clown and Fidel Jr gets to be himself, I don’t see why she can’t party. I’m still trying to figure out why Finland stayed out of NATO throughout the Cold War with the mighty Red Army on their border but rushed to join immediately when Russia shambolically invaded Ukraine.
The Belgium PM just said Euros need to prepare for a decade of hard winters. Macron says the age of abundance is over. It will be interesting to see how their societies hold together.
Here’s a video that lays out the state of China’s high speed rail:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NNvAuPDJH7s
Short version is that a high speed train line without passengers is a spectacularly good way to through away money even before you count bribes to individual officials in the hundreds of millions of dollars.
I wish I’d save the link, but some years ago, a Chinese railway expert (a *very brave* Chinese railway expert) said that government officials were giving too much attention to glamorous high-speed passenger rail at the expense of much-more-important freight rail. I believe he actually used the phrase ‘playing with train sets.’
MCS that place is devoted to running China down.
A much more accurate view of Chinese High Speed Rail: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=belm4kDAHgM&ab_channel=TheB1M
Yes China is an economic fraud, always has been.
And our elites of both politics and business have completely sold us out to them.
So who’s the joke on, again?
Shes cute but she mandates lockdowns unlike sweden which took the smartest path they had to dragged kicking and screaming to pony up 2% for their nato contribution
The Finns fought two wars against the Russians between about 1940 and 1945, winning Ukraine 2022 style (i.e. victories according to some folks) both times. They largely fought on the side of the Nazis because they were the only country also fighting against the Russians. If the Western Allies weren’t going to keep Poland or Czechoslovakia from going Soviet in 1945, why would the Finns think the US was going to do anything to keep the Russians from steamrolling over the rest of their country?
Zeihan in his latest set of YouTubes and book makes the point that we are entering almost uncharted territory as the world population flattens and maybe even declines. The Euros gave up on having kids decades ago, and have been coasting on being able to export their production to other countries with a growing population, courtesy of Cold War global order. That’s all ending in the next two decades or so. Natural economic expansion due to population growth, especially consumption driven from young people standing up independent lives and reproducing, is going to drop significantly.
My question wasn’t why didn’t the Finns join NATO in the Cold War, it’s why the rush to do so now? No one honestly believes Russia is going to invade Finland, and no one can look at their shambolic invasion of Ukraine and think they’re remotely capable of doing so. (Actually, I should never say “no one honestly believes” anything anymore, I said that a few weeks and was assured that yes, someone does believe that Ukraine was days or weeks away from launching an offensive that would totally kick Russian forces completely out of the country, so we’re living in an age where people proudly and openly broadcast that they’re completely divorced from reality.)
Supposition–the world is governed by a cabal of commies whose plan is to completely nationalize all economic activity, focusing particularly on education, health care, and energy, and they are now at the point of implementing population elimination–targeting the developed nations where they have control–and economic demolition. You can decide whether you want to speculate whether they’re operating in good faith that this is “better” for the planet or society in general, or whether they’re evil psychopaths. But what exactly is there dissuade someone of this if they’re inclined to believe it? At some point Hanlon’s razor just isn’t enough…
My ignorant expectation, being totally uneducated beyond readings, is that both the gas and electric rates in Germany, and possibly other EU nations, this fall and winter will be a wake-up call that should encourage either total submission to Russia, or absolute determination to ignore and defy all orders to knuckle under.
Either they are equipped with nationality(gonads) or they are not. To be a vassal to Russia the rest of their lives or to be able to stand on two feet will be brought to the fore as a real question when people are possibly(!) finding to stay warm they will have to huddle in public buildings and allow their private dwellings to assume ambient temperature. I have read that electricity rates will go up 1,000%. Gas rates I have not seen lately. Either way, to achieve some semblance of comfort will be an expensive proposition for Europeans dependent upon Russian gas supplies.
It is the massive sanctions applied to Russia that is the immediate cause of many price moves, but Europe had already screwed its self, long before the SMO began.
“Yes China is an economic fraud, always has been.”
An economic fraud that had doubled its GDP every 8 years for a long time.
evergrande proves its a hedgefund with an army,
https://www.wsj.com/articles/saudis-allies-open-door-to-oil-output-cut-to-keep-prices-high-11661268794
‘I said that a few weeks and was assured that yes, someone does believe that Ukraine was days or weeks away from launching an offensive that would totally kick Russian forces completely out of the country, so we’re living in an age where people proudly and openly broadcast that they’re completely divorced from reality.’
This is a tragedy. The hardcore Azov etc are dead. The conscripts being fed into the various areas are killed in droves. In the south its all open terrain, and every time the halfwit Ukrainian command concentrates forces for an attack, they get wiped out.
America is a criminal nation for forcing Ukraine to spend its youth, and so much of its people in a hopeless attempt to fight Russia to the last Ukrainian.
thats as stupid as anything else you’ve said fingal, I read Russian history, more recently Robert Massie’s Peter the Great, what is this plastic Oceania williing for fight for, against Eurasia,
America is a criminal nation for forcing Ukraine to spend its youth, and so much of its people in a hopeless attempt to fight Russia to the last Ukrainian.
I might agree with you if the last election had not been stolen. The security state that is trying to take over is heavily invested in defense contractors. I am 90% certain that if this were Trump’s second term there would be no war in Ukraine. Canada has been taken over and is now offering vets with PTSD euthanasia. Papa Fidel would be so proud.
Brian’s statement (8:17am) that “a few weeks [ago]”, he “was assured that yes, someone does believe that Ukraine was days or weeks away from launching an offensive that would totally kick Russian forces completely out of the country” is utterly false. He is referring to what I wrote in post 68057 (“Supply chain in Ukraine”) four weeks ago, but what I said was that I thought that “the Ukrainians are planning to recapture everything north of the [Dnipro] river” (2:50pm), i.e. Kherson oblast, and that we would know “in a few weeks or months” (5:10pm) whether they would succeed.
Changing “weeks or months” into “days or weeks” and turning Kherson oblast into all Ukrainian territory currently occupied by Russia, an area 10 or 12 times larger, is deeply dishonest. To put it bluntly, it’s a bald-faced lie – one PenGun was only too glad to repeat and amplify.
I have avoided arguing with Brian since that unpleasant experience. It would be good if he would return the favor. Passive-aggressively leaving my name out while lying about me just makes it worse.
“To put it bluntly, it’s a bald-faced lie – one PenGun was only too glad to repeat and amplify.”
What are you talking about?
What am I talking about? I’m talking about the paragraph that you quoted with apparent approval in your 1:28pm comment, and then added your own words to. Do you not have any issues with repeating others’ falsehoods?
she practices some category error,
https://claireberlinski.substack.com/p/the-west-doesnt-realize-how-much?r=1nd8v&s=w&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
misunderstanding the motivation,
Ah. Well it is the narrative the west has been pushing for quite a while. We have had: “The counterattack is coming” The counterattack is proceeding slowly on purpose, and a bunch of other madness.
That narrative is just to keep the poor Ukrainians fighting. It has no basis in reality at all. The entire south is flat and a terrible place to attack across and the Russians have laid out kill zones all over the area. They have assembled a substantial force in the south, and when they are through sucking the poor barely trained conscripts into attacking them, and then wiping them out, they will attack into the Mykolav area then on to Odessa.
There is a new order to take it slow and avoid killing civilians, issued yesterday I believe.
it’s not just a question of numbers but of will, the Western forces have contempt for their best fighters because white fragility or what not, this may prove to be a stupid gambit, like the last Crimean kerfluffle 170 years ago,
Yo Doc, so good to hear from you!
Just one thing is confusing me, though, you quote part of a previous comment you made:
“Some think the Ukrainians are planning to recapture everything north of the river”
But you don’t mention what you said next:
“…which will make an excellent defensive line for them as well as the Russian, then make their big offensive near Zaporizhia.”
I’m a bit confused by that last part…apparently a “big offensive” starting from a city on the river in Eastern Ukraine was actually only intended to capture Kherson, far behind it, and only be launched after Kherson had been liberated? Seems a bit strange of a strategy to me.
Then you say
“We’re likely to find out in the next few weeks.”
That was on July 29. So what have we found out since then?
she practices some category error,
Thank you for the link.
I am completely unsurprised that Claire Berlinski remains an idiot.
I am 90% certain that if this were Trump’s second term there would be no war in Ukraine.
I’ll second this.
My guess is that Trump would have attempted to enforce the Minsk Agreements upon an unwilling Ukraine, eventually cutting off some of their welfare payments if they refused. And Ukrainian NATO membership would have been off the table, period.
Hence, no reason for Russia to invade. Pure speculation, of course.
she understands that there is some motivation, but then chalks it up to marxism, admittedly I don’t spasibo much, I have read of the long standing Russian ambitions in the region, that goes back a long way,
My question wasn’t why didn’t the Finns join NATO in the Cold War, it’s why the rush to do so now?
Because now they think that can outsource their defense to a big far away country that will be happy to send its people to die for them and never ever think of asking anything in return.
No wonder their prime minister is dancing so enthusiastically.
Sweden is no different- their female leader flat out said they joined NATO so they could cut their defense budget from 4% of GDP to 2%, no doubt to give themselves more welfare. I bet it will go lower than 2%, and fast.
More than one thing is confusing you, Brian.
I did write “We’re likely to find out in the next few weeks” whether the Ukrainians were going to try to capture Kherson oblast, and in a later comment that we would find out “in a few weeks or months” whether they would be able to. Don’t confuse the two. And note that you wrote “Oh, please feel free to bookmark and check back in in October.” Why are you gloating as if you’d been proven right when it’s not even September? You’re the one who gave October as the proper time-frame.
It looks to me like we have found out the answer to the first question. The Ukrainians talked about attacking Kherson, the Russians moved in even more troops from Donbas, letting their offensive there peter out; many wondered if the Kherson talk was a bluff and they were going to attack the weakened lines elsewhere, but they have since destroyed 3 1/2 of the 4 bridges across the Dnipro, so the Russians are trying to supply their even larger forces north of the Dnipro with barges. Is it possible to supply that many troops with ammunition, fuel, and food via slow-moving barges crossing a wide river under fire? It doesn’t seem likely. (Note that running out of fuel is as deadly as running out of ammunition in modern warfare: tanks and artillery can only survive if they ‘shoot and scoot’, moving to a new location every time they fire.) Will the Russian lines collapse from lack of ammunition, fuel, or food? If so, there’s no telling exactly when, even if the collapse is inevitable: it’s like a straw-laden camel. Why haven’t the Ukrainians made a frontal assault? Why waste lives if time is on your side?
Of course, you specifically said that I had claimed that the Ukrainians were going to recapture all occupied territories in a matter of weeks, and that is still a bald-faced lie. So please keep your smarmy fake chumminess to yourself.
Why waste lives if time is on your side?
I am mystified as to why you imagine time is on the side of Davos- excuse me, Ukraine.
I’m reading reports that US army units are turning in their own weapons so they can be sent to Ukraine. Europe is bracing for collapse and starvation- maybe the Davosie will get people to eat bugs after all- and certainly the EU can look forward to ugly times ahead, even if they avoid the worst.
Meanwhile, Russia has full supermarket shelves and has found new friends among nations who don’t want to eat bugs and don’t want to be vulnerable to the US regime stealing their foreign currency reserves.
Every time Ukraine- or perhaps American special forces- manage to blow something up in Russian-held territory, it’s front page news. When Russia obliterates thousands of Ukrainian soldiers with artillery- crickets.
I’d bet the EU and US will get tired of this well before Russia, for many reasons.
LOL. They fixed the Kherson bridge. It was not heavily damaged, HIMARS rounds are not terribly effective against massively overbuilt steel bridges, in the heart of steel country. ;)
You didn’t answer the question doc.
“…which will make an excellent defensive line for them as well as the Russian, then make their big offensive near Zaporizhia.”
What does that have to do with Kherson? The fact is you’re lying about what you said. I have the receipts, dude.
“Why haven’t the Ukrainians made a frontal assault? Why waste lives if time is on your side?”
LOL. Totally delusional. Why can’t we be anti-Russia AND pro-reality?
“you specifically said that I had claimed that the Ukrainians were going to recapture all occupied territories in a matter of weeks, ”
Nope. Never said that. Liar. You should be a bit more careful before you resort to persistent name calling.
Dr. Weevil — you seem very defensive. Why?
For myself, I have seen many references in many places to the forthcoming Great Ukrainian Advance — even from that guy Zelensky himself. I had not even noticed your reference to it.
Yes, per Zelensky, the Kiev forces are going to overrun the Donbas & Crimea — areas that Kiev has not controlled for 8 long years; areas that democratically voted to cut their ties with Kiev. Remember that one of the UN’s founding principles is self-determination for peoples. Does that UN principle not apply to places claimed by Zelensky’s rather undemocratic crew?
What is happening in the Ukraine? We have to be honest with ourselves and accept that we don’t know. There is the normal Fog of War, and then there is the extra avalanche of lies (mainly, it has to be admitted, from Kiev — Ghost of Kiev shooting down all those planes; Russians shelling a power plant occupied for months by … Russian troops, etc). Certainly, Russia is not putting all its cards on the table either, but there does not seem to be the same level of intentional deception from Moscow as from Kiev (Send Money! Send More!).
The one thing which is clear is that we in the US have no dog in this fight. The US should not be a belligerent, should not be throwing money we don’t have into a bottomless pit of Biden-related corruption. And Europe should not be cutting its own throat with backfiring sanctions. Just my assessment — your view may differ. Time will tell.
Defensive? More like disgusted. I’ve been carefully avoiding any interaction with ‘Brian’ since our run-in four weeks ago, when I found him deeply dishonest, not worth arguing with. I hoped he would have the basic minimal courtesy to return the favor and leave me out of his arguments, but he couldn’t stop himself from dragging me in passive-aggressively, lying again, and adding the whole smarmy “Yo, Doc!” and pretending to be glad to hear from me. Ugh.
The fact is that those of us who want to know what’s going on in Ukraine can and do know a great deal about it. There’s more information available about this war than maybe any other. For instance, you can see where artillery was fired in the previous 24 hours, mapped by a Twitter guy named @DefMon3. (I believe the data comes from a satellite system designed to track forest fires, which detects all fires of any size, including where farmers are burning fallow fields – have to screen those out – and where artillery is setting fire to things.) From that you can check the official statements of the combatants, and say things like “if they captured the town 3 days ago, why are they still shelling it today?” and readjust the estimated line of control. There are masses of other information, including cell-phone pictures and videos with exact locations encoded. People are still laughing about the fat Russian in a speedo who took a selfie on a beach in Crimea a couple of days ago, proudly standing in front of an S-400 antiaircraft missile launcher, with geolocation turned on. People who have been paying attention know that the Russians have told far more lies, and committed far more atrocities, than the Ukrainians, and are in fact quite hard-pressed. We shall see.
Finally, I do not find referenda held under the guns of Russian troops at all persuasive.
All: Try to keep it civil. This isn’t Twitter.
Speaking of mmiscellaneous business, Zuckerberg just admitted the FBI told Facebook to censor the NY Post and Facebook of course said, yes sir, happy to help sir, and I don’t see a peep about it from the MSM, which is expected, or the GOP, those pathetic worms.
Oh look, the puppet regime we installed in Pakistan a few months ago after Imran Khan was too publicly friendly with Russia has learned from Fidel Jr:
https://twitter.com/Resist_05/status/1562561488434278400
“Lahore, Pakistan… Government has threatened to cut off banking with the use of Digital ID to anyone that protests against the regime… RESIST”
Coming to America by 2024, you can be completely sure of that.
People who have been paying attention know that the Russians have told far more lies, and committed far more atrocities, than the Ukrainians, and are in fact quite hard-pressed.
This is an assertion which may or may not be true, but I would expect to see more evidence of that then what I’ve seen so far, which is none.
I note that what I have seen is claims that (for example) Russia launched a missile at a Ukrainian train station- which turned out to have come from a Ukrainian held area, after the Ukrainian government had told refugees to pack into the station- and after an Italian TV station forgot to blank out the serial number of the missile, it turned out to be from a batch known to have in the hands of the Ukrainian military.
In any case, I’m not interested in closely following the latest developments in another of the Deep State’s endless wars of choice, inspired by some insane vendetta against Russia.
This war never should have happened, period.
Also, I note you have made no mention at all of the horrendous damage being done to the economies of Europe, which quite literally may collapse completely this winter. Certainly the population of Europe aside from the elites will suffer terribly and in many cases they already are.
Why doesn’t this matter to you?
Finally, I do not find referenda held under the guns of Russian troops at all persuasive.
Meanwhile, the government of Ukraine has banned opposition parties, banned opposition media, and the latest I’ve seen they’ve now banned unions and the parliament voted themselves a pay raise with their newly bestowed American money.
I see no reason to identify with these people nor do I believe we are actually on the same side of anything.
Also- in one of these threads I asked a serious question- are the people of Ukraine better off ruled by people who want them to eat bugs, or Russia?
I’ll ask you- which is better?
“Certainly the population of Europe aside from the elites will suffer terribly and in many cases they already are.”
Euros better pray to the god that they’ve rejected that their faith in global warming is redeemed, because without a record-setting warm winter, they’re in deep doo-doo.
I think we have bet poorly on pakistan for 60 years or so, if memory serves it was the u2 base from which gary powers took off,(he may or may not have been targeted by the info oswald gave them) because they were proximate to china, through kashmir and at odds with soviet leaning india, we gave them the whole store, meanwhile deobandi like mawdudi spread his philosophy through the officer corps after the 3rd war with india, general zia ul haq was the promoters of same, the nuclear program was kickstarted by his predecessor, the chinese because of the ties that nixon had provided, provided technical assistance, after the 3rd war, the isi decided they needed a proxy state to balance out india’s military advantage, hence the islamic emirate,
Dr. Weevil
A few points. Some combat for you if that is useful: 4th separate motorized rifle brigade of the LPR army break through the enemy defenses into the territory of the village Novotoshkovskoye. There were significant casualties in this moderate storming operation:
https://colonelcassad.livejournal.com/7628875.html
The entire thing was filmed by a drone. The drone is the most important thing in this conflict! The Russians fly drones everywhere and each gun has its own drone. These drones are very simple DJI drones most of the time. I have one. What is different is all the video of the drone is piped into Russian artillery net. There the images incoming are geolocated both by onboard GPS and the image location provided by the geoloaction software. So a cheap Chinese drone puts its aim point on a feature and the GPS location is piped into the net. A company or whatever of artillery will respond and destroy whatever is upsetting the troops using the drone.
I have watched individual guns chasing and hitting individual tanks in what is probably, off the cuff attacks, when not being used by the net.
The Ukrainian drones mostly can’t fly as E-War is a Russian specialty.
As I have said its slaughter now. When the Ukrainians are gone, who will fight then?
Chechen softening action. They are crazy.
Comedy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WHYhNPIXfCw&ab_channel=Itapirkanmaa2
https://www.zerohedge.com/commodities/iowa-crop-tour-reveals-underwhelming-and-disappointing-cornfields-ahead-harvest
Russia wants Donbas back for the same reason Italy wanted Trentino and Trieste, France wanted Alsace-Lorraine, German wanted Sudetenland, Hungary wants Transylvania, Finland wants Karelia, Japan wants Kuril Isles, etc. etc. etc.
The idea that one side or another has “justice” on its side for irredentist claims is ridiculous. The matter will be settled by time, by forced conversions, by war, or by all three.
Here is loads of Ukrainian drone action Penny:
https://tinyurl.com/mty7kmdu
Scroll down to #747 on Aug.16. Illustrates Russian troop cohesiveness and esprit des corps.
See #749 below that for the impact of drones on a Russian infantryman.
Oh they do fly. Its just they are jammed a lot. I don’t do twitter so that is not open to me.
A great deal of social media warfare is carried out by Ukraine, and they seem to think its important. ;)
Raymondshaw, Pengun — Guys! Get serious.
There is genuine conflict in the Ukraine. Everybody gets some good hits in — and everybody suffers some real kicks to the teeth. Cherry-picking videos does not tell us anything — especially when we know that so many of the videos (especially from Kiev) show something different than what they claim to show.
If we want to know what is going on, we have to look at the bigger picture. Something like 10,000 Allied soldiers died on D-Day. Just think of the number of videos there could have been of Allied soldiers getting shot, trying to run away, getting their landing craft blown up. And yet D-Day ended up as a key success for the Allies.
The bigger picture in eastern Ukraine seems to be slow Donbas forces advances, with major assistance from Russian artillery. Is the advance slow because the Kiev boys are such tough fighters? Or because the Donbas/Russian forces are so incompetent? Or because the Donbas/Russian side are deliberately going slow while they grind up the Kiev forces? We peons will have to wait & see.
Interesting review about strategy from Asia Times on this:
https://asiatimes.com/2022/08/ukraine-the-situation-august-26-2022/
LOL. Its a jungle out there. Two days ago another general order was issued. It basically says, take it slow, do not kill civilians. This order has been issued before, about 40 days ago or so.
Some of us have very detailed knowledge about conditions on the ground. This guy is perhaps the best of the guys who do daily updates in detail,.
Today’s: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RSwmj23jhmg&ab_channel=DefensePoliticsAsia
Its not uncommon now for replacements sent into to reinforce the 1200km front, to be basically wiped out as they concentrate. If the Russian artillery can reach you, concentration is a very bad idea. Remember the 1200km front? Russia is advancing along the entire thing.
Ukraine on a bad day loses 1000 troops. This has been going on for a long time. Ever hear about Azov anymore? They are largely dead.
It is slaughter. Its America driving this conflict, with egregious criminality.
Gavin
PenGun stated that: “The Ukrainian drones mostly can’t fly as E-War is a Russian specialty.”
I merely responded with a relevant link to counter that statement. Said link likely contains hundreds of Ukrainian drone videos. I did highlight 2 short clips that I thought interesting in what they showed about Russian infantry, and were particularly responsive to PenGun’s claims. Watch them or don’t, I couldn’t care less. Your reference to “the Kiev boys” merely reinforces what I already knew about where your sympathies lie. In future, kindly save the lectures for those who care about what you think.
I shouldn’t bother, but the level of argument here is so pathetic I suppose I’d better pick three of the worst bits before leaving:
1. Xennady: How do you know that the the missile that hit the Ukrainian train station “turned out to have come from a Ukrainian held area”? Are you unaware that modern missiles have fins and it would be very easy to launch one from Russian-held territory and fly it in a circle so it comes from the direction of Ukrainian-held territory when it hits? Do you really think it is more likely that Zelenskyy murdered his fellow citizens, or that the Russians did it – as they have murdered so many others – and tried to make it look like he did?
2. PenGun: Your claim that drones only work for the Russians is obviously false. The Russians admitted that a Ukrainian drone hit their naval headquarters in Sevastapol in broad daylight: they had to, lots of people filmed it. It was so far from Ukrainian lines that many suspect Ukrainian special forces are operating inside Crimea and launching drones from there. They also destroyed a dozen or so fighter-jets on the ground in Crimea, and the Russians pulled many of their planes, and many of their ships, out of Crimea, basing them now east of the bridge. Your claims are, as always, one-sided recycled Russian propaganda.
3. And sometimes what you write is worse: you seem to admire the “crazy” Chechens, whom everyone else knows as war criminals who torture prisoners and brutalize civilians. Admiring them makes you a disgusting human being.
I’ll be avoiding future discussion of the Ukraine war on this site, as it seems pointless. I would appreciate not being dragged in again, as I was this time.
This all just feels like whistling past the graveyard. The war in Ukraine is a big deal if you live there, but it’s nowhere near the biggest story going on, which from the very beginning has been, how will Europe make it through the coming winter?
Not with too much more American oil and gas, apparently.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/jennifer-granholms-de-facto-fuel-export-ban-energy-secretary-letter-refiners-oil-europe-11661379613
“America’s allies in Europe are desperate for alternative supplies of fuel amid the Ukraine war, and U.S. producers are happy to provide what they can. So wouldn’t you know the Biden Administration now wants to limit fuel exports.”
Raymndshaw: “Your reference to “the Kiev boys” merely reinforces what I already knew about where your sympathies lie.”
Very astute! My sympathies lie with those Ukrainians who have been persecuted and attacked for 8 long years by … other Ukrainians. Ukrainian citizens were driven out of their homes in the Ukraine for the crime of … having Russian as their first language. Over ten thousand of them were murdered by random shelling, while they just tried to life their life. Absolutely evil!
Then the French and Germans stepped in and tried to bring the carnage to a halt. They forced the Kiev boys to sign the Minsk Accords to stop the violence — but that was all they could do. The Kiev boys were not going to let their signature on a piece of paper stop their attacks — and the Europeans lacked the gonads to enforce the Minsk Accords.
After 8 long years of this debacle (which no-one outside the region cared much about), Russia intervened in the Ukrainian civil war, on the side of Ukrainians. Yes, I have a very low opinion of the Kiev boys, of the feckless Europeans, and of the DC Swamp Creatures who have been abusing all parties to this disaster. My sympathies are with the victims.
How do you know that the the missile that hit the Ukrainian train station “turned out to have come from a Ukrainian held area”?
Here is the original claim that inspired my comment:
https://www.moonofalabama.org/2022/04/more-evidence-that-ukraine-fired-the-missile-which-killed-dozens-in-kramatorsk.html
Are you unaware that modern missiles have fins and it would be very easy to launch one from Russian-held territory and fly it in a circle so it comes from the direction of Ukrainian-held territory when it hits?
It’s not a modern missile, which is why Russia no longer uses it. I recall it as the SS-21 from my time in the military decades ago and it first entered service in 1976. I note also that the first missiles used in war- the V-1 and V-2- also had fins. My search regarding the maneuverability of the SS-21 produced nothing, while the first link I checked for the SS-26 mentioned that missile’s maneuverability. Gosh, that kind of makes me think that the SS-21 fired at Kramatorsk didn’t actually have the ability to turn in flight, as you suggest. Also, I can’t help but notice that you made no mention of the serial number of the missile, which was apparently being hidden until that Italian TV station failed to blur it out, apparently to conceal its Ukrainian pedigree.
Do you really think it is more likely that Zelenskyy murdered his fellow citizens, or that the Russians did it…
I see no particular incentive for the Russians to murder civilians and a very good reason for the Ukrainians to do so. That is, to win support from the West by blaming the Russians for atrocities. I note also that Kramatorsk is in an area that voted pro-Russian before the 2014 coup and I suspect Zelensky et al aren’t that concerned about the fate of those people.
I’ll be avoiding future discussion of the Ukraine war on this site, as it seems pointless. I would appreciate not being dragged in again, as I was this time.
No one dragged you into this. You were apparently butthurt when you imagined that Brian was referring to you, somehow, and came back to complain. Maybe he was, maybe he wasn’t, but I forgot you existed and would never have associated you with his comment if you hadn’t come back here to tell us all about your anguish.
Also, I can’t help but note that you make no mention of the Ukrainian regime’s rather extensive operations to shut down any opposition, which remind me a little too much of how the Davosie seek to treat the mass of people in the West.
So I will ask for a third time: someone please explain to me just why exactly the people of Ukraine would be better off governed by the Davosie- who want to force people to eat bugs- or the Russians- who at least will let them eat people food.
Anyone?
Brian never denied he was referring to me, so your “imagined” is . . . I’ll stop just there.
Brian never denied he was referring to me, so your “imagined” is . . . I’ll stop just there.
Weren’t you going to flounce away because of the poor quality of the arguing here? What changed?
Anyway, you apparently couldn’t grasp the part when I noted that I forgot you existed and wasn’t interested in hearing about your festering anger at Brian for disrespecting you months ago.
Why would you think I would carefully ponder your butthurtedness aimed at someone else in writing a response to your comment that mentioned me by my internet-name?
I don’t have a dog- or even a shrew- in your silly slapfest against Brian.
And, once again, no answer has been made to my question about whether or not the people of Ukraine would be better off being governed by the folks who want to force them to eat bugs or the country that has worked hard to produce its own human food, independent of the Western countries that have attempted to starve it.
I suspect that is because no case can be made.
Prove me wrong, Mr. Weevil. Or anyone else.
“Admiring them makes you a disgusting human being”
Did you even look at the crazy fools? Driving straight into an unconquered village, declaring their presence and demanding surrender.
I thought it was funny.
The sabotage of both the air base and ammo dump in Crimea was inspired. Its unlikely it was drones, as the rather precise explosions especially at the air base, point that way.
I would love to know if these messages about US military equipment shortages are real or not. Unfortunately there is no source that one can believe.
https://twitter.com/terminalcwo/status/1562818637282840577
“A sampling of some of the messages I’ve received. Weapons and ammunition are being stripped from active duty units all over the world and being sent to Ukraine. What I actually found the most interesting was the Governor of New York is sending their Guard’s MREs to Ukraine.”
I would say Ukraine needs to see the writing on the wall and sue for peace, but it’s quite clear that the West wouldn’t let them do that anyway. But the West isn’t going to make it through the winter barring some miraculously warm weather, and it doesn’t sound like anyone with any authority in NATO or Western Europe has any connection to reality. They’re living in some deranged fantasy land where Russia collapses at any moment. The alternative, of course, is probably worse, that they’re just happy to loot their economies as fast as possible, and have no interest at all in anything beyond their next corrupt payoff.
https://www.zerohedge.com/energy/weary-europeans-must-bear-consequences-ukraine-war-putin-will-eventually-blink-eus-borrell
“EU high representative and foreign policy chief Josep Borrell gave a surprisingly blunt assessment of the Ukraine war and Europe’s precarious position in an AFP interview published Tuesday, admitting that Russian President Vladimir Putin is betting on fracturing a united EU response amid the current crisis situation of soaring prices and energy extreme uncertainty headed into a long winter.
Borrell’s words seemed to come close to admitting that Putin’s tactic is working on some level, or at least will indeed chip away at European resolve in the short and long run, given he chose words like EU populations having to “endure” the deep economic pain and severe energy crunch.”
https://www.zerohedge.com/commodities/uk-passed-debt-and-death-sentence-million-increasing-energy-price-cap-80
“The 80% rise in the U.K.’s cap for consumer electricity and natural gas bills this fall will drive millions of households into energy poverty this winter as the worsening cost-of-living crisis stokes fears of recession. ”
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/spd-lawmakers-break-ranks-demanding-scholz-halt-ukraine-weapons-pursue-peace
“A group of Left-SPD lawmakers have had enough of the unprecedented Ukraine arms shipments following on the heels of Berlin boosting its military budget by €100 billion. They’ve sent a letter to German Chancellor Olaf Scholz with the title, “The weapons must be silent!””
This is a very good piece, but it won’t advance the discussion any. Everyone’s completely locked into their positions.
https://claremontreviewofbooks.com/why-are-we-in-ukraine/
Why Are We in Ukraine?
A steep bill comes due for decades of democracy promotion.
by Christopher Caldwell
I think the latter part has some especially important thoughts, none of which are original, but which seem to be completely missed by the “elites” that are leading us all over the cliff:
“What is new and reckless about these American sanctions is the threat they pose not to Russia but to the United States. The Biden Administration has been abusing—and thus undermining—the American position as custodian of the global economy.
Financial weapons, like battlefield weapons, change in nature as they become more technologically advanced. It didn’t used to be possible to impose a watertight financial embargo. But now the weapon exists, and the United States, which has not received proper training in using it, is waving it around like a barroom drunk… ”
“…Yes, the West “swiftly moved” against Russia, but six months in, these moves seemed surprisingly ineffective. The reason is that, no matter where you place the fulcrum and the lever, Russia, China, and India collectively are now too much for the United States to lift. Inducements can be offered to get one country to break solidarity with the other two. But cooperating would be foolish, on any terms. At the end of the day, a country that permits itself to be isolated by the United States this way is increasing the risk that it will itself be subjected to a media-and-boycott campaign of destruction like the one we are now witnessing with Russia.”
Thanks for the link to Caldwell’s article, Brian. It seems fairly even-handed and poses the real questions for us — What is the US interest in the Ukraine? How much are we prepared to lose (because even winners lose in war)?
Favorite quote about the stupidity of the Biden Administration: The Italian writer Marco D’Eramo reported that, after a March 18 phone call between Biden and Xi Jinping, one Chinese anchorman joked that Biden’s message had been: “Can you help me fight your friend so that I can concentrate on fighting you later?”
Winter is coming, and Our Betters are throwing away the US’s moral standing as well as its economy. For what?
Our European “allies” may indeed have a long, dark, cold winter in store. If so, it is only a few years earlier than what they seem hell bent on inflicting on themselves. The upside is that cracks are appearing in the climate change consensus. Six – eight months of well publicized “Green” catastrophe over there will do infinitely more to widen those cracks into chasms than any amount of reasoned discussion has managed to do so far.
Over in China, Xi may propose but reality disposes:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NkZyOZVkN74
As you watch, bear in mind that one of the effects of creating a reservoir behind a dam is increasing the loss of water from evaporation as well as changes in the movement of ground water with the net change almost invariably being less water in the river.
Shades of Vicker’s paying royalties to Krupp for British shell fuses after WWI. The Russian Army has been trained by the best German tech or at least as much as wasn’t stolen.
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1563532848048459782.html
The Russian army gets to train against all kinds of fancy weapons from the west, in a situation they have largely have control of.
They rotate troops in and out of battle, and no one spends more than about 2 weeks in combat. They are going to expose as much of the Russian Forces to combat as they can over the next while. They are using less than 30% of that army in Ukraine.
MCS: “Over in China, Xi may propose but reality disposes”
True in China, true in California. Does the name “Lake Mead” ring a bell.
China, California, even England have had unusual drought conditions. Want to guess which of those 3 places is likely to put together a plan to improve the robustness of their water supplies and invest very large amounts of money in building the required extensive infrastructure? Want to guess which of them is actively knocking down dams and increasing the fragility of their citizens water supplies?
Well, it’s not California, nothing is getting better in California.
I’d lay long odds it’s not China either, their trajectory is long term down and has been for a long time. Wonder how all those high speed trains do without electricity? A few freight railways to haul fuel to the power plants might have been a better idea.
Maybe England?
I would love to know if these messages about US military equipment shortages are real or not.
I don’t doubt they’re real at all. The Western elites are all-in on regime change in Russia- in my opinion- and surely by now they’ve realized that they’re facing a catastrophe if they don’t get access to Russian gas, if nothing else. And the West can’t produce weapons or ammunition quickly enough to keep Ukraine supplied, so of course they’re going to draw down American supplies.
reminds me of Reilly Ace of spies, where the titular character was at odds with Vicker’s principal agent Zaharoff and he was the agent for Blohm and Voss the German ship builder in Russia,
“surely by now they’ve realized that they’re facing a catastrophe if they don’t get access to Russian gas,”
It’s way too late already. The catastrophe is unavoidable. Heck, even if half of Europe falls to street mobs rioting over lack of gas or high prices for food or electricity, as long as the US controls Ukraine nothing can go through anyway, since it’s clear “we” don’t care if Europe freezes or starves.
The Russian Army has been trained by the best German tech or at least as much as wasn’t stolen.
Thanks for the links, and apologies for any repetition in my Ukraine-talk. So let me try to say something definitely new.
I have no doubt that the Russians were stealing that project blind. But the site appears to work well enough to achieve the purpose for which it was built. Enough said.
Compare and contrast various American defense projects. I’ll stick with the US navy, because that’s what I’m most familiar with, and also with what my flawed memory can provide for me, simply to save my time. I apologize for any errors.
At some point in the 1990s, the Clinton administration shut down the organization inside the US navy that designed new naval ships and eventually all naval shipyards were closed. The result was that the US had to rely upon for-profit contractors to design and build new navy ships.
This turned out to be an expensive disaster. Some companies were and are better than others, so we still have some decent designs and a handful of competent shipyards.
But generally, nope. One yard built ships so badly that it was closed. One major American shipyard yard out of six, if I recall. The surface combatant intended to replace a certain class of ships was so expensive that a planned 30 was cut to 3. An 85% scale model of this design was built, for “testing.” I note that during World War II, before the invention of CAD software, the navy built thousands of ships without ever needing an 85% scale model of any one of them. Later, I read that a successful yard that builds submarines is also getting into the modeling business, for ballistic missile submarines. The navy stopped building a successful destroyer design from the 80s because they expected the failed design mentioned above to replace them. Then, when it didn’t, they restarted production of the ship designed by the navy in 80s at significant expense. Another smaller design intended to be cheap enough to produce in quantity turned out to be such an expensive disaster that the navy is scrapping several of the first built and ending production early. The designated replacement is a modified design from Europe.
That’s too many words, but the point is that amount of wealth wasted by the US defense establishment by relying upon this insane system for procuring weapons vastly exceeds any amount that could possibly be stolen in Russia, by an order of magnitude at a minimum.
The catastrophe is unavoidable.
I suspect you’re right, but if Putin is overthrown and the replacement Russian government works hard enough to save Europe, maybe the horse will learn to sing.
I doubt it, but what other option do they have at this point?
are we still pretending that is going to happen, that’s adorable, it’s more like the mad max scenario described in road warrior, where the engines of the West grind to a halt, chaos dogs and cats living together, mass hysteria,
“, but if Putin is overthrown and the replacement Russian government works hard enough to save Europe,”
Yes that did seem to be the West’s “plan” but it’s so insanely moronic that I can’t believe even idiots like Blinken think it’s a possibility now…
“I suspect you’re right, but if Putin is overthrown and the replacement Russian government works hard enough to save Europe”
You are echoing the large amount of anti Russian propaganda spewed forth by so many, really upset, news outlets all across Europe. Times Radio is closest but so many work hard to keep the fantasy going.
He tried. He did hid best to make some kind of deal, but no. America wanted to attack him. So now “all bets are off” a Snatch quote. Ukraine will be a landlocked country when this is over, and much smaller. Then it will get really interesting. ;)
“but if Putin is overthrown”
None of us peons know anything reliable, especially in an environment where any lie from Kiev is broadcast by our media as God’s Honest Truth (eg Russians shelling the nuclear power plant controlled for months by … Russians) and information from the Donbas/Russian side is squashed.
But the little we can learn about the Russian side is that there is a significant group of people who believe President Putin has been pulling his punches, going too slow. If Putin is overthrown, it is likely to be by a hardliner who would not hesitate to launch the kind of very destructive bombing campaign against civilians in Kiev that US/NATO carried out in “our” attack on Serbia.
Be careful what we wish for! We may get it.
That’s too many words, but the point is that amount of wealth wasted by the US defense establishment by relying upon this insane system for procuring weapons vastly exceeds any amount that could possibly be stolen in Russia, by an order of magnitude at a minimum.
That is a large part of the Deep State’s war on Trump. He never got to it but he is a guy who has built huge projects on budget. Conrad Black says that he was suspicious when Trump got the contract to build the Chicago Sun Times project. It came in on time and under budget,
There are lots of rumors about Trump stiffing contractors and bankruptcies. Most of them know nothing about Entrepreneurs. Shipbuilding is a skill that is buried in corruption. They feared having anyone who knew what he was doing. He had to be destroyed.
Wasn’t one of his first observations that presidential airplane grossly overpriced? I had many other reasons that I believed he wouldn’t have left Afghanistan as Biden did (though that is a pretty low bar) but one was that he’d never have thrown all those armaments away – or essentially given them to people who intended to kill our army and us if they could. The real problem with Trump for many was that bourgeois thrift: that belief he represented us and was spending our money (not his – though I’m sure he was pretty careful with his). Actually that care with money was truly characteristic of our tradition, a tradition of enterprise and family businesses, etc. for all the lunch box Joe talk, it is clear that Biden (and Clinton and Obama) all spent money like it was water and had little sense of stewardship. That may be a class divider but I suspect some at all income levels are prudent and mature and some at all are feckless and adolescent.
frankly I think this was a step too far, like Nicholas 1st, but Ukraine, had been an objective as far back as Peter the Great, pieces of it, were conquered in the Turkish Wars, other parts as proxies of the second war with Sweden, the one that was disastrous for the hegemonist hat faction, and ended with the crushing of the Zaporizhian Cossacks,
the fact that the same crew that enabled the disastrous Afghan retreat, not 1841, but 1879 bad, is helming this enterprise is not reassuring in the least, part of the latest element was tim Kennedy’s claim that an (unnamed) colonel in the 82nd airborne stalled the evacuation, the story continues, some of those that beck had exfiltrated out of the country with project dynamo are still in the 3rd countries whereas a cohort of at least 250 known terrorists made ir in there,
Ginny…”for all the lunch box Joe talk, it is clear that Biden (and Clinton and Obama) all spent money like it was water and had little sense of stewardship.”
Very important to note that the presidency is an *executive* job. The president’s job is not to be chief legislator, or chief judge, or even a national symbol like a monarch. (Although some of the latter is perhaps inevitable) The president is supposed to run the government (not run the country) in compliance with laws and judicial decisions.
Biden has no executive experience whatsoever, as far as I can tell. He has never run a small business, never led an infantry squad, never been a factory manager. His career has been dedicated to getting re-elected.
Obama also had no executive experience; what he did have was & is a desire to ‘transform’ the country and perhaps the world. He is sort of like a hedge fund guy who acquire a company he knows nothing about, in an industry he knows nothing about, with the idea of transforming it according to the ideas he heard about in his MBA program.
Such people are not likely to feel much sense of financial stewardship.
Probably too little too late, but in the spirit of the OP, here’s a pretty good exploration of SpinLaunch that intends to use a catapult to launch satellites:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yrc632oilWo
I see an awful lot of moving parts that they have to work out but as long as it’s not my money (meaning tax), more power to them.
Like SpaceX, where they’re spending their own money, they’re getting results for one, two or more orders of magnitude less than government financed projects. This reinforces Ginny’s point. To compare government spending to that of a drunken sailor demeans and insults drunken sailors.
As a counter point, I think they intend to launch Artemis for the first time tomorrow. So far this has taken at least 11 years and cost 20 billion and all tomorrows launch will show is that it didn’t blow up, it will accomplish nothing else. The next launch will probably take another two years at a cost of at least two billion per year. Not least because they will have to keep all the people at the Cape spinning their wheels until they have another rocket to launch. The maximum launch rate is one per year.
The country is being run by the Harvard faculty lounge. That’s my conclusion. Much of this goes back to the origins of Progressivism. “Rule by Experts.” The theory was good as long as the problem of Principle Agents was not considered. At least the “Spoils System” had some logic although the government was much smaller. The most violated clause in the Constitution”
No Money shall be drawn from the Treasury, but in Consequence of Appropriations made by Law; and a regular Statement and Account of the Receipts and Expenditures of all public Money shall be published from time to time.
How many years is it since Congress passed a “Budget?”
“His career has been dedicated to getting re-elected.”
He had a lifetime seat from the time he was first elected. His career was dedicated to making himself filthy rich via his idiot second son while grooming number one son for higher office.
“The country is being run by the Harvard faculty lounge”
It’s the New Class, the Professional Manager Class, whatever you want to call it, the bureaucratic class that’s taken over the world since WWII. The current struggles are because they’ve at the same time become so brazen about the position that only they are allowed to rule, while their incompetence is being revealed, demonstrating how grossly incompetent they are to do so.
Wasn’t one of his first observations that presidential airplane grossly overpriced?
My recollection is that the contract was four billion dollars for two aircraft. Trump objected, and a new contract for two billion dollars was signed.
However, I also recall that the design lacked the capability for inflight refueling, which strikes me as astonishing. I expect that at some point the contract will be re-opened, and Boeing will get back to something close to the original price, and the aircraft get inflight refueling.
That is a large part of the Deep State’s war on Trump.
I agree. I could have written a lot more. To borrow from Calvin Coolidge, it seems the business of America is no longer business, but lobbying for handouts from the government for business.
There are lots of rumors about Trump stiffing contractors and bankruptcies.
I recall hearing some, during the 2016 campaign. I figured sooner or later they’d be used against him, but they never were. I concluded at some point that they either had to be false, or were simply how business was done, by everyone, and hence worthless as attacks.
The weirdest thing to me was the “attack” that Trump was a “former reality TV star”–like do they not know that Trump was a massive celebrity for decades before he hosted The Apprentice? And that if you would ask the average person to say why he was famous, they’d say for building stuff, and/or just for being rich, way before they’d say for hosting some TV show?
Yes that did seem to be the West’s “plan” but it’s so insanely moronic that I can’t believe even idiots like Blinken think it’s a possibility now…
Well, morons come up with moronic plans- and they never did have a plan B.
I think the demonrats in the US were too used to dealing with republicans, who could always be counted on to fold in the face of bad headlines, and the Euros were too used to having the US pay any price, bear any burden, to keep them free from want.
But Russia didn’t crumble as expected and the US hasn’t sent enough gas to keep the lights on.
I’m having trouble seeing how the Davosie can find their way out of this hole- especially since they keep digging it deeper.
You are echoing the large amount of anti Russian propaganda spewed forth by so many, really upset, news outlets all across Europe.
I think my clumsy writing got to you. The point I was trying to make is that the plan the West had to overthrow Putin, somehow, and then dictate terms, has plainly failed. But the Davosie are so thoroughly committed to it that they can’t imagine anything else.
He tried. He did hid best to make some kind of deal, but no.
I agree. I think the war could have been avoided if Ukraine et al had been willing to abide by the Minsk agreements- but they weren’t. And the pro-Russian sources I read claim that Putin ordered the operation stopped early on because he was attempting to get a deal with Zelinsky- but then the West demanded Zelinsky stop negotiating.
Too late now…
I’ve mentioned the sky/RAI series based on this source material
https://www.idiavoli.com/en/topic/tredicesimo-piano
you can see the obvious leftwing twist, but it takes an antiglobalist twist, the antagonist morgan is the head of a london affiliate of a NY bank, the protagonist is largely based on the author, who has worked for various firms like the warburgs and julius baer (one of assanges first hacks) there is even an assange manque in the story,
the first season covers the subprime bubble to the eurocrisis at the beginning of the oughts,
the greek debt default, the fall of qaddafi et al,
None of us peons know anything reliable, especially in an environment where any lie from Kiev is broadcast by our media as God’s Honest Truth (eg Russians shelling the nuclear power plant controlled for months by … Russians) and information from the Donbas/Russian side is squashed.</i.
I think you're correct to say that we don't know what's really going on. I suspect that my sources are too pro-Russian to give me an accurate accounting of the war- but I am absolutely certain that Western sources are lying through their teeth about everything.
You mention the nuke plant. Don Surber had commentary:
https://donsurber.blogspot.com/2022/08/highlights-of-news_01551810174.html#more
"For the 26th time in 26 weeks, Drudge has warned that Putin is about to nuke Ukraine.
Maybe Putin will use those nuclear codes that Drudge said Trump stole."
This sort of thing is why I read pro-Russian sources despite the plain and open bias. I stopped reading the Drudge report years ago when it became rather obvious that the site had changed hands. The operator of a site called the "Citizen Free Press" said he was offered fifty million dollars for it. Myriad conservatives get booted from Youtube, Reddit, you-name-it, if they manage to be become in any way influential. Etc, etc, on and on.
In my opinion, the entirety of the Western mainstream media- in the US and Europe- is nothing more than propaganda outlet for the idiot regime that has been wrecking Western civilization almost as thoroughly as an asteroid impact. They spend vast sums keeping a lid on dissent, as I note above, with the intent of ensuring dissenters never can reach critical mass and threaten the regime.
I suppose I must admit that this has worked reasonably well so far- but I also think that at some point reality will intrude upon the carefully crafted pro-regime headlines. As the cliche goes, reality is that which doesn't go away when you stop believing in it.
Europe is about to get a hearty dose of reality, I think.
My apologies for screwing up an HTML tag again. Mistakes were made, etc.
Anyway, I have one more thought I’d like to get out my head.
I’ve seen it written that when the government fears the people, there is liberty, and when the people fear the government, there is tyranny. I admit this is the sort of cliche that belongs on a T-shirt.
So let’s compare and contrast how the Russian regime treats the people of Russia with how the various Western governments have been treating various Westerners. I will note that I don’t care about Russia and what I do happen know has been from reading Zerohedge over the years and lately from reading about the war in you-know.
As everyone should know, the various Western governments have spent the last couple years locking people into their houses, forcing their citizens to take an experimental medical treatment that is dangerous and doesn’t work, censoring their critics, issuing decrees that will seriously curtail food production apparently so they can force people to eat bugs, and some have lately arranged it such that their people won’t have gas for heating and electricity this upcoming winter. When faced with complaints, the they say things like this is the price you’ll have to pay to destroy Russia and the era of abundance is over.
I will suggest that the various regimes of the Western world have no fear of their people and in fact despise us. That hate us and want us dead, and are working diligently to import foreigners whom they believe will be more subservient to them. This is what tyranny looks like and it may well escalate to genocide, if they can manage.
Now let me talk about Russia. From what I can discern, Putin has worked hard to explain what he’s doing and why. I’ve seen it described as propaganda when Russian television spends time telling the Russian public what Putin says, who he talked to, what the Russian state is going to do, etc. I think this is news and is something that should be told to the public. I note also that the Russian regime has worked hard to ensure that the people of Russia have such things as food available for purchase, despite endless sanctions from the West. I further note that Russia has supposedly an extensive air defense system obviously intended to defend Russia, supposedly hasn’t banned opposition media and dissent, etc.
I’m having a hard time accepting that as tyranny. It looks to me like the Russian regime is very worried about what the Russian public thinks, perhaps only because Putin fears a bullet in the head.
Oh.
In other words, the Russian government is afraid of its people.
I’m done here. No HTML tags to screw up, either.
Two things can be simultaneously true:
1. I would rather live in America than Russia, no ifs and or buts, and America is just plain objectively better. Not just because I’m American, I’m pretty confident I’d feel the same way no matter where I was from.
2. America isn’t the same country it was even 20 years ago, not even close. I want to live in the country we used to be. Today’s America would be considered not even close to free by year 2000 standards. I have no interest in supporting the current regime, and refuse to accept that I have to choose between it and Putin.
Brian: “America isn’t the same country it was even 20 years ago”
If it were only America that had gone downhill over the course of little more than a generation, there might be room for hope. But look at the news today:
– England decided to send its new aircraft carrier (the one for which they have no planes) across the Atlantic in a demonstration of support for the US. Ship managed to get out of the harbor before it broke down.
– England is in the process of confirming a very stupid woman as next Prime Minister. (She is genuinely stupid, not merely senile like Sleepy Joe). Already, she is threatening China — because mighty England apparently can take on Russia & China at the same time. Of course, when (if ever) the Chinese think of England, they think of England’s Opium War against them. Maybe they think about payback.
– Germany is facing an economic and humanitarian disaster because they insist on beating their face against Gazprom’s fist until … who knows what?
– NASA, which once set the standards in technology, can’t launch a rocket to the Moon. But boy are they Diverse!
The Western world is indeed heading for a Great Reset. It just may not be the Great Reset our Political Classes intend.
I’m not even talking about the fact that our society is decaying, and can’t do things right anymore. I’m talking about the fact that censorship is openly advocated and celebrated. Without eliminating that problem, nothing else matters.
they were wrong in pink floyd’s the wall
https://rwmalonemd.substack.com/p/the-psychology-of-totalitarianism
thought control was what they desired after all
“Without eliminating that problem [censorship], nothing else matters.”
There are so many inter-related problems which need to be fixed to get back on track:
– Eliminating the permanent Political Class. No-one should be able to make a rich career out of politics.
– Recognizing that the sustainable basis of any economy is production. Production precedes consumption. Smart economies facilitate production — not block it.
– Eliminating the ability of unelected bureaucrats to put regulations in place which limit citizen’s action. Citizen’s can be constrained only by explicit laws.
– Removing the ability of the Federal government to borrow & print money.
– Restoring the educational system.
But those are all merely bits & pieces of what will have to change. I am optimistic that these kinds of things will happen, but not until after the Collapse. And the process of rebuilding will take generations — at least two, possibly much more.
more unexpected news
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/8/29/al-sadr-withdraws-from-iraqi-politics-after-months-of-tensions
“Eliminating the ability of unelected bureaucrats to put regulations in place which limit citizen’s action. ”
Right, but in the last two years no one on the biggest social media platforms was allowed to tell people masks were worthless and ivermectin might be worth trying and vaccines were trash, and I’d way rather have idiot bureaucrats that I can criticize than great ones that I can’t. Free speech and shattering the government/social media complex is primary, all else is secondary.
I have no interest in supporting the current regime, and refuse to accept that I have to choose between it and Putin.
You don’t get to choose. Your betters will present a choice to you that is essentially heads they win, tails you lose.
Are you not entertained?
Our next sham choice they’re setting up appears to be DeSantis against Trump, in the upcoming Gee Ohhh Peeeee primaries.
The Florida governor has recently won the stunning victory of swinging a few school boards away from open control by pedophiles- wow, that’s America today. It’s a stunning success if you can keep child rapists from openly controlling the public school system in your state. DeSantis has also had the amazing success of not destroying his state’s economy by locking it down for years on end.
Yay. DeSantis is also apparently collecting vast sums from the usual suspects of the gop- rich people who have gotten rich by selling the US economy off for scrap- but I haven’t heard a single word from him about restoring the American economy to anything resembling functionality. That is, restoring an economy that can successfully build ships, make medicine, and teach children how to read.
I’ll hold my breath, though. I know the GOP has all that as one of their highest priorities, right after they make Donald Trump stop talking about making America great again.
They’re looking out for us! Just read their fundraising emails!!
– Eliminating the ability of unelected bureaucrats to put regulations in place which limit citizen’s action. Citizen’s can be constrained only by explicit laws.
I’ve long thought that we need the equivalent of shall-issue for environmental permits. That is, if a company can show it will follow all EPA requirements then it can build whatever it wants, without spending decades demanding bureaucrats who can never be fired and never lose their generous pensions have to give permission.
Who do I vote for to get that?
re: my comment above about whether equipment shortage chatter is real or not, stories in the MSM are starting to mention it, so my guess is things are really bad.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/ukraine-war-depleting-u-s-ammunition-stockpiles-sparking-pentagon-concern-11661792188
“The war in Ukraine has depleted American stocks of some types of ammunition and the Pentagon has been slow to replenish its arsenal, sparking concerns among U.S. officials that American military readiness could be jeopardized by the shortage.”
re: DeSantis, I think he’s great, but I wouldn’t fully trust him, unless he shows some serious daylight between himself and the GOPe on anything that matters. He had an immediate decent reaction to the Mar-A-Lago raid, and then went completely silent, my guess is he was told to shut it. I don’t think it matters, though, as I’m seeing more Trump 2024 flags out now than a few months ago, so as long as DJT is alive, he’s going to be the 2024 GOP nominee…
Brian: “in the last two years no one on the biggest social media platforms was allowed to tell people masks were worthless and ivermectin might be worth trying and vaccines were trash”
That is not the real problem. There were lots of other places on the internet where one could get factual information about the “special flu”. Anyone who took the time to look quickly realized that Covid was not the Black Death, or even the Spanish Flu. Lots of people heard about Ivermectin and arranged for supplies through back channels. There was no shortage of publicly-available information.
The problem is that there are many people who look only to social media or main stream media for their information — and believe what they are told without questioning or engaging brain. That is a problem with mis-education and with universal suffrage.
“That is not the real problem”
No, that is in fact the real problem. Twitter and facebook and youtube are the public square, and they completely clamped down on any dissenting voices. And remember that when parler was getting brief traction in Jan 2021, they were completely crushed. “We” were told we had zero speech rights, and to “make your own platform if you want to talk”, and when someone did so (parler), it was mercilessly destroyed essentially overnight.
And we have documented proof that the White House actively encouraged and worked with them to do all this. We have the receipts.
So don’t blame the “people” for being shut out of the national debate, don’t blame them for only looking to social media, which they had turned to after abandoning the MSM in disgust–the day after the 2016 election all of silicon valley vowed, essentially in public, not to let it happen again. And with the collusion of DC, they made rigged 2020, and have crushed free speech and made America into this absurd parody of itself. Don’t you dare point the finger at anyone else, don’t you dare “victim blame” (to steal the term) the average person, no no no.
…my guess is he was told to shut it.
No person who can be successfully told to “shut it” deserves to be president of the United States.
Remember Scott Walker, briefly the gop front runner in 2016? I barely did, as I had to ponder for a while to remember his name. He went silent when Trump was complaining about illegal immigration, early on. It later turned out his billionaire backers made him “shut it” and he dropped out of the race soon after. No one wanted to vote for a simp.
If DeSantis is another of those sort of politicians I expect it will end badly for him. Sure, he looks good as governor of his state but once he has to face questions his billionaire buddies don’t want to answer he’s done.
They’ll tell him to shut it, he will, and the electorate will move on to someone who will
answer questions- and he’ll end up another footnote in political history.
We’ll see.
he’s only fighting every issue, about woke education, about vaccine mandates, about legitimate voting, even tried to stabilize the supply chain, but other that, he hasn’t done anything of significance, we appreciate the Free State we’re in, and we don’t like Gavin Newsom’s mini me, Charlie Cheetah, and the Castro fellating running mate, trying to change things,
miguel, look what I said:
“re: DeSantis, I think he’s great, but I wouldn’t fully trust him, unless he shows some serious daylight between himself and the GOPe on anything that matters.”
“He’s great”, BUT…we’ve been fooled way too many times. Trust, but verify. I need to see someone who will be committed to ripping the Deep State to pieces. Would he do that? Or would Mitch and Co. roll him?
Brian: “Don’t you dare point the finger at anyone else, don’t you dare “victim blame” (to steal the term) the average person, no no no.”
Brian, with respect, I have to disagree with you on that. We are each responsible for what we choose to listen to. It does not make sense to delegate responsibility to some anonymous functionary who we trust will make sure that all sides of an issue are presented properly.
I do not disagree with you about it being wrong for Twitter, Facebook, et al to censor — on any topic. But when we as individuals realize what Twitter etc are doing, it is our personal responsibility to adjust — quit social media giants and look for information elsewhere, always understanding that the information we get from other sources could also be biased in a range of different ways. Every citizen is responsible for keeping his brain engaged.
I don’t understand what you think people should do that they aren’t doing? Facebook is how most people consume and share news right now. People are still mostly able to share the news there, they just throttle things in certain ways. No one would be allowed to make a new facebook that doesn’t serve as a regime lackey, even if there was a demand for it. Just like how parler was destroyed, they’re not going to allow Truth Social to grow either–this just in from today:
https://twitter.com/disclosetv/status/1564599240659189760
“JUST IN – Google has not approved Trump’s Truth Social app yet — the big tech giant alleges “policy violations” and insufficient content moderation, a spokesperson told Axios.”
What needs to happen is the GOP needs to be hauling google in and threatening to rip them to pieces. The Dems have spent decades threatening media companies, and it’s paying off for them now. But the pitiful GOP has no interest in the filthy deplorables having any power, so they’re not going to stand up for them at all. So go out and vote for the craziest GOPer you can this year, and don’t expect overnight miracles, and hopefully we’ll all live long enough to see us win…
On the topic of energy costs, this is going around twitter today:
https://twitter.com/DolanGeraldine/status/1564392353300889603
“I got this electricity bill today, how in the name of God is this possible, we’re a small coffee shop in westmeath”
Included is a picture of a 10k euro bill for the last two months. The chef’s kiss of course is the Ukraine flag pic in the profile, but let’s just forget about that for a moment. If there was a cabal of commies looking to obliterate the small business kulaks, what would they be doing differently?
I like what DeSantis has done in FL but I don’t trust him.
If DeSantis is another of those sort of politicians I expect it will end badly for him. Sure, he looks good as governor of his state but once he has to face questions his billionaire buddies don’t want to answer he’s done.
Like this, for example.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis backed out of a fundraiser for New York gubernatorial candidate Lee Zeldin to attend a Monday memorial service for a member of his security detail who died in the line of duty, sources told The Post.
After a meeting with a billionaire who had donated $400,000 to the Democrat candidate.
The NY state GOP has basically completely imploded in the past decade. Lee Zeldin doesn’t appear to be running at all. I’m sure DeSantis’s big backers told him to avoid the stink of loserdom that might rub off on him if he is seen with Zeldin.
DeSantis has done really well the past two years in Florida. But on the issues of anti-foreign-adventurism, strong protectionism, and anti-Deep State, where is he? Those are the big national areas where the GOPe hated Trump with a passion, without knowing where he stands on them, I don’t know how to view him.
meanwhile
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/us-stocks-bond-yields-tumble-after-taiwan-fires-china-drone
Would Pres. DeSantis on Day 1 fire Chris Wray and everyone on the top floor of the FBI? Would he clear out the CIA leadership? Wipe out the top several layers of every division at DOJ? Would he fire everyone above two stars at the Pentagon? Because those are all must-haves to be a GOP presidential nominee now.
are you sure trump could do it, after the kerfluffle with comey’s removal, I realized it’s not a swamp but a minefield, with trip wires, you remove one, you have mccabe then strzok then laufman, and mccord, all of these tin soldiers, who of course whisper innuendo to any of their designated dumpsters, (I don’t have to spell out the names) there was a parallel set up with the company, and the doj
Yes, I think at this point that a President Trump would absolutely go nuclear on the FBI, and the DOJ and IC as a whole. Maybe the DoD, but who knows, he probably still has his stupid blind spot when it comes to generals. By all accounts Mitch the Turtle, Barr, etc., all told him he had to tread lightly or he’d be up on obstruction charges, would be impeached, and might be convicted. That would hold no water if he gets back in office. Regardless of who is president, in 2024 the GOP will almost certainly have a very large majority in the Senate, it’s important to elect as many lunatics as possible to salt the earth in DC.
After a meeting with a billionaire who had donated $400,000 to the Democrat candidate.
Well, that’s not a good sign.
If DeSantis is in fact being groomed to run against Trump in 2024 by the oligarchy, does anyone really think they’re doing it because want him to go after their Deep State?
I certainly don’t. I like what he’s done in Florida and I’d surely vote for him there- and to be fair I don’t expect the governor of any state to have their own foreign policy.
But when I see evidence that the GOP establishment is trying to set him up for a presidential run I am quite the opposite of impressed. Check out the site Mike K linked to- there’s more to it than the story about the 400k, going back a while.
I will also note that DeSantis is getting touted as a presidential simply because he’s doing his job. It’s both fascinating and infuriating to see that firing a prosecutor who openly refused to enforce the law, encouraging the replacement of pedophile-controled school boards, and responding effectively to the democrat operatives with bylines who comprise the press is enough to generate national political appeal for anyone. This is just basic competence, in my opinion.
Are other GOP governors not doing the same? If not, why not? Why does DeSantis get so much attention?
Hmmmm…
Maybe the DoD, but who knows, he probably still has his stupid blind spot when it comes to generals.
I suspect not. One of my favorite stories about Trump was the time he had a meeting with various Pentagon luminaries. Instead of the usual tongue-bath of praise that they were used to, Trump went after them, pointing out their failures with enthusiasm, etc. My recollection is that the generals were shocked, never having been spoken to in such a manner.
I bet they won’t like a return to Trump anymore than the present leadership of the FBI would like it.
Guys! Guys! Guys! Trump is only one man — there is a limit to what he can do. Especially as President, he is supposed to be the Executive, the man who implements the laws passed by Congress. And we know that the Institutional GOP in the DC Swamp is not going to pass any laws which make things easier for reforming government.
We have been down this road before. If Trump becomes the Anti-Institutional GOP candidate, he is going to be excoriated for months before the election by the media, the Democrats, and the Institutional GOP. If he wins the election more than 2 years from now, there will immediately be very serious legal challenges to his election. When he tries to do what needs to be done, he will be opposed by the Institutional GOP, the Democrats, the bureaucracy, the media, and probably much of the Judiciary. They will try to tie his hands and render him ineffective. Anyone who joins his Administration will immediately be vilified and accused of Hunter Biden-type behavior.
Even if every GOP Swamp Denizen was primaried and replaced by a real conservative, a future President Trump would still have a real uphill struggle. Short of that turnover in the Institutional GOP, we are not voting our way out of this mess.
Gorby died. Russia rejoices. ;)
He couldn’t have kept the Soviet Union alive but he could have killed so many in the process and didn’t.
Do you mean this Mikhail Gorbachev:
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1564711658429218817.html
Who else?
Maybe I should clarify. He could have killed so many MORE and didn’t. I’m not suggesting beatification.
My opinion is that we will be watching the same phenomenon coming to pass in China soon. There I expect the CCP to hold out to the bitter end and we’ll get to see how the USSR might have ended. They were on their last legs but still had a lot of bullets and an unarmed populace as do the Chinese.
I think we will see massive social upheaval in the immediate future, but not in China. Not in Russia. Europe is going over the cliff. It seemed in the spring they’d have a struggle making it through winter, but right now it doesn’t look like they’re going to even make it to winter. Their electricity market has completely imploded, well before they even have to try to cope with a lack of gas and oil for the cold months. Of course, they have zero options, and it’s not like they’re going to suddenly become free market paradises. I fully expect massive riots and commies coming into power.
See:
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/structural-rapture-german-companies-shutting-down-response-record-energy-prices
“A Structural Rapture” – German Companies Shutting Down In Response To Record Energy Prices”
And also:
https://twitter.com/disclosetv/status/1564911871878205440
“MORE – China plans up to 150 gigawatts of new coal-fired power capacity from 2022 until 2025 to satisfy record demand in the communist country, according to a report by the Chinese State Grid Corp.”
How much you want to bet that all this production actually isn’t for domestic use at all? That they’ll extract tons of cash from Europe in order to keep their economies functioning at all.
You know what it looks to me like? Like Europe is about to be totally dependent on China and Russia for all their electricity and gas. So they will be able to completely destroy European business, and toy with their populations.
Which side am I supposed to bet it about to collapse again?
“MORE – China plans up to 150 gigawatts of new coal-fired power capacity from 2022 until 2025 to satisfy record demand in the communist country, according to a report by the Chinese State Grid Corp.”
Plans are cheap, right now they can’t get coal to the power plants they have. They are heavily dependent on river barge transport and right now all of Southern China is in the middle of an historic drought. The Yangtze is too low in many places for barges. Europe is having the same problem on the Rhine. China is also dependent on coal imports mostly from Australia and Indonesia and struggles in normal times to transport it away from the ports. All those spiffy, empty high speed trains take a lot of electricity but they don’t haul coal.
I don’t believe it’s possible to transmit electricity from China to Europe. If it is, and the Europeans go for it after what they’re going through with Russia, they’ll deserve what they get.
Just my opinion but an awful lot of things in China are going wrong, all at the same time and that some sort of pissing match seems to be taking place in the CCP. They can’t run the country with 1/3 – 1/2 of the productive population locked in their apartments.
I’m just still very confused by the notion that in the immediate term you seem to think the CCP is the one is deep doodoo, compared to the total disaster that is Europe.
There is enough doodoo to go around — to cover the whole planet, actually. The question is whether it is better to face that tidal wave of doodoo with great financial strength (as in Europe) or with actual resources and manufacturing capabilities (as in Russia, China, Saudi Arabia, Brazil)?
What Europe (and to a lesser extent the US) is learning is that they can print money, but they cannot print fuel or food. A Financial Economy stands on the foundation of a Real Economy which actually produces real goods & services. Take away the fuel and the food and even the mighty German productive economy crumbles.
Long ago, Adam Smith explored why (essential) water was cheap and (frivolous) diamonds were expensive. But that relationship depended on an almost unconstrained supply of water. Picking unnecessary fights with one’s principal suppliers (irreplaceable in the short term) is not wise — just makes the doodoo deeper.
I was seeing the last of the matt helm films ‘the wrecking crew’8 very loosely based on donald hamiltons books, which had the late sharon tate in her last film role, the plot was an italian count had waylayed a billion dollars of gold that was being delivered to european gold, and the intelligence agencies had to recover it, before the world discovered, and the worlds bankruptcies would collapse, ah back when a billion dollars was worth something, (1969) before we went off the gold standard, now it’s more like a rogue gang got a hold of the plates and the printing presses, and have gone to town,
China’s going to have trouble making it another couple decades, but we’ve been saying that for a couple decades now.
Europe’s going to have trouble making it to winter, let alone through it.
Brian: “Europe’s going to have trouble making it to winter, let alone through it.”
That is the smart way to bet. But there could be all kinds of surprises. What if the IAEA team sent to the Russian-controlled nuclear power plant in the Donbas reports back that –yes — it is the Kiev forces who have been putting Europe at risk of catastrophe by recklessly shelling the plant? Maybe public disgust would force Germany & France to say “Screw Zelensky” and roll back their sanctions on Russia. Then Europe survives the winter, but NATO does not.
Think about all the old people involved — President Putin, of course, but also Sleepy Joe Biden*, Nancy Pelosi, that Republicrat Senate turkey. Statistically, there must be a non-negligible chance of some key people peeling over from natural causes at any time — and who knows what the next-in-line would do?
Expect the unexpected!
“Maybe public disgust would force Germany & France to say “Screw Zelensky” and roll back their sanctions on Russia”
Seems to me it’s far too late. How fast could enough oil/gas get through to them? Could enough get through the Norstream pipelines, or would it have to go through Ukraine? (Something “we” will absolutely never allow to happen…)
What can you say to this, other than LOL.
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/german-foreign-minister-says-support-ukraine-will-continue-no-matter-what-voters-think
German Foreign Minister Says Support For Ukraine Will Continue “No Matter What Voters Think”
“If I give the promise to people in Ukraine – ‘We stand with you, as long as you need us’ – then I want to deliver. No matter what my German voters think, but I want to deliver to the people of Ukraine,” she said.
“We are facing now wintertime, when we will be challenged as democratic politicians. People will go in the street and say ‘We cannot pay our energy prices’. And I will say ‘Yes I know, so we help you with social measures.’ But I don’t want to say ‘Ok then we stop the sanctions against Russia.’ We will stand with Ukraine, and this means the sanctions will stay also in wintertime, even if it gets really tough for politicians,” said Baerbock.
It appears that the counteroffensive so touted by almost everyone in the Kherson region was planned and wargamed by the Pentagon. This is madness. Attacking into the Russian forces prepared for this attack, and happy to kill Ukrainians wholesale, in laid out kill zones, is just stupid.
They are dying in droves, its hard to watch.
Brian: “How fast could enough oil/gas get through to them [Europeans]?”
Probably fast enough — if the Germans would authorize the immediate start-up of Nordstream 2 (which is undersea, not via the Ukraine). Apparently, Europe has managed to get its gas storage reservoirs mostly full this summer — but that is only the swing supply; they will still need full deliveries all winter long to avoid shortfalls.
At this stage, probably the pressing problem would be contractual rather than physical. If the Euros finally got sensible and requested gas supply from Russia, what would Russia demand before agreeing to supply the gas?
My guess is this clip is going to go down in infamy…
https://twitter.com/Haggis_UK/status/1565298102524846080
“Boris Johnson – Buy a new kettle & save £10 a year on your electricity bill.”
BoJo is such a strange duck. So right on Brexit, and apparently came so so close to being right on covid–I’d love to hear more details on the story that was supposed to be a “scandal” where in the early days he said, wait a minute hold on, the average age of death is 80, what are we doing with these lockdowns–before coming completely unglued on it as well as the green nuttery (apparently his wife is a loony on the topic) and Ukraine (where he’s in the classic old anti-Russia UK establishment), and now he appears to have thrown away the realignment possibility from Brexit, with no successor to pick up the pieces.
They are dying in droves, its hard to watch.
But Davos got the headline about a Ukrainian offensive that they wanted, which is what mattered to them.
…what would Russia demand before agreeing to supply the gas?
The end of NATO.
No matter what my German voters think
This is how all Western politicians seem to believe and act- they have sacred obligations to foreigners, and to blazes with their own people.
We’ll see how long this lasts, this year.
“they have sacred obligations to foreigners, and to blazes with their own people.”
Well, “their own people” are the transnational “elites”, not the filthy masses they happen to live near and have some genetic similarity to. Those quotes from the German FM were at some big NGO meeting. What’s really odd is that these people reveal quite clearly and publicly how completely insane they are and how much they loathe the average person at these meetings, Davos, etc., and yet nothing happens. It’s completely bizarre. They don’t even hide it anymore.
It’s completely bizarre.
True statement- but that’s why the Davosie work so hard to shut down opposition media.
They don’t want the filthy masses to know what they have planned for them.
And too many don’t know, especially in places not the United States.
“BoJo is such a strange duck. So right on Brexit, and apparently came so so close to being right on covid”
Yeah about as right as the US which, along with the UK had among the worst results in the world for Covid deaths.
As well, keeping out the brown people by leaving the EU has crippled the UK, and will probably lead to its break up. They are in worse shape than Europe. Boris is a smart idiot. A tactical thinker, with out a strategic bone in his body. A disaster for the UK.
This is winning?
“Three FSB officers walk into a bar…and get shot by drunk Russian soldiers”
https://hotair.com/john-s-2/2022/08/31/three-fsb-officers-walk-into-a-bar-and-get-shot-by-drunk-russian-soldiers-n493737
I honestly don’t understand what a clip of Russians being Russians is supposed to prove?
(Unless you’re just trolling Penny, in which case go ahead and proceed.)
Moral. If they had “Azov” on the run would they be shooting each other? On the other hand, if the Russian were being seriously pressed, would they be spending time in bars? No way to tell from here. Since there’s no alternative, I’ll just see where they are next month.
For 50 years, anything that discommoded Russia has been good for me and I see no reason to change.
“If they had “Azov” on the run would they be shooting each other? ”
Shrug. Probably. They’re Russians.
“if the Russian were being seriously pressed, would they be spending time in bars?”
Shrug. Definitely. They’re Russians.
(They’re not being seriously pressed, of course. No one seriously believes that. Oops. I’m not supposed to say that.)
With Russians being Russians, it’s especially embarrassing that Europe sold themselves out to Russian oil and gas companies…
Talking about Russians being Russians — try this video. I have to note, though, that I have had some happy evenings in St. Petersburg, but never found a bar as “lively” as this one. :)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=75JjflWKs98
I mean sure this is moronic and has no chance of actually “working”, but it’s something, and the Western reaction has been all about “just do something!”, so why not?
https://twitter.com/disclosetv/status/1565688282532515843
JUST IN – G7 finance ministers agree on a plan to impose a price cap on Russian oil: per statement
When the Ukrainians lose the offensive in the south, then things will change.
The Russian Deputy Foreign Minister says: “The US is treading a very fine line from becoming active party to conflict in Ukraine.”
Interesting times. ;)
“G7 finance ministers agree on a plan to impose a price cap on Russian oil”
We are often told that a seller’s cartel like OPEC is a Bad Thing. But now Our Betters want to impose a buyer’s cartel. Logically, that also ought to be a Bad Thing.
It really is such a dumb idea the only possible conclusion is that Our Betters in the G7 still think they run the world. What happens to the price of oil if Russia decides that its bank accounts are brimming over and they can afford to stop all exports to the G7 for a while? What happens to the price of oil if Saudi decides to reduce exports in support of Russia?
The actual offensive in the south was planned by the Pentagon and Mi6 and reflects NATO doctrine. Its amusing, but one of the best parts is the NATO style very narrow long attack through Andrivka that bounced when it was supposed to turn left, and then turned right. I’m not sure what they think they are doing, but dying is a big part of that right now.
It is the only actual penetration of Russian lines, and and everywhere else the attack has been thrown back. I suspect they let them in, in order to pound them flat. Its a common tactic now.
“It really is such a dumb idea the only possible conclusion is that Our Betters in the G7 still think they run the world.”
Well, yeah, one possible conclusion is that these jokers have complete delusions of grandeur, i.e. they really are that stupid.
There is of course another possibility we can’t rule out, which is that they’re deliberately destroying Europe’s economy, so that can reset everything and build back better. I mean, they have basically told us that’s what they’re doing, so maybe we should listen to them?
(As a related question, does anyone have any books to recommend about Russia in the 90s, especially on Western involvement in their economy? Ideally something objective, not interesting in commie propaganda or Putin hagiography or anything, just interested to read a discussion on what exactly Western NGOs and financial institutions really got up to. Penny, don’t bother responding, I won’t read anything you suggest, because you’re a lunatic.)
The Russians have said they will not sell oil to anyone that puts a price cap on it.
it isn’t about building up anyone but China, did they intend to empower Russia this way, its hard to tell,
“JUST IN – G7 finance ministers agree on a plan to impose a price cap on Russian oil: per statement”
JUST IN – Mice vote to put bell on cat: per statement
the Russians don’t have to sell to Europe, the have about 2 billion other clients, silly monkey,
Tom Luongo has thoughts:
https://tomluongo.me/2022/08/29/now-everyone-afriad-jerome-powell/
My favorite bit:
“The only people who are against a hydrocarbon-fueled future are the ones without any significant reserves of hydrocarbon fuels.”
The greens, explained.
“The only people who are against a hydrocarbon-fueled future are the ones without any significant reserves of hydrocarbon fuels.”
Well there is Canada. We have significant resources, but Alberta where we … acquire these resources, is just a huge climate crime, as well as an environmental catastrophe.
So we are conflicted.
I don’t believe these price caps are intended to “work”. I fully believe they’re intended to exacerbate shortages, ruin small businesses, and grease the skids for the commies to take power and blame wreckers and saboteurs and “the market” for what they’ve done deliberately.
Oh. And Nordstream is broken. The Russians are sorry but leaks have been discovered and they have no idea when they can get this working again. Seimens has signed off on this so its REAL. ;)
Germany’s top steel producer announces it’s shutting down a couple of plants this months due to energy costs:
https://germany.arcelormittal.com/icc/arcelor/broker.jsp?uMen=7a770135-5051-5e71-9945-be470aa06ac3&uCon=b611ba70-782e-2810-a61e-481f0ad3a7b3&uTem=aaaaaaaa-aaaa-aaaa-aaaa-000000000042
“ArcelorMittal is taking action in Germany because not all plants can be operated economically. From the end of September, the Group will shut down one of the two blast furnaces at the Bremen flat steel site until further notice. In the Hamburg long steel works, where ArcelorMittal produces quality wire rod, the direct reduction plant will also be shut down from the fourth quarter due to the current situation and the negative prospects. Short-time work is already in place in both plants, which must be expanded as a result of the upcoming measures. Due to the tense situation, short-time work is already being applied at the production sites in Duisburg and Eisenhüttenstadt.”
Note also that their statement is full of gibberish about CO2 costs.
And of course their proposed “solution” sure sounds like working its way to communism to me…
“A first step must be to adjust the design of the electricity market so that the price of natural gas is not the only decisive factor in determining electricity prices”
Did no one do any cost-benefit analysis of anything to do with this stupid war? Or if they did, did the NATO geniuses really think that Western Europeans can go without heat, electricity, and jobs, longer than Russia can truck conscripts into Ukraine? Looking at the caliber of current US DoD and political leadership, I think I can guess the answer…
Yes, it would be comforting to think that Our Betters had a well-structured (even if evil) plan to take over the world. But all the straws in the wind are pointing in the direction of them merely being dumb self-deluding fools.
Interesting observation is that Zelensky’s long-announced attack to drive the Russians into the sea took place this week — assaults on Kherson, on the Nuclear Power Plant, and maybe on Kharkiv. Neutral and Russian-friendly media says the Kiev assault has been an utter disaster, with great losses of men & materials. Western media says … nothing. Conclusion is that Kiev probably got a real black eye.
Are increasingly chilly Europeans going to buckle down, make up for Kiev’s losses, and send even more scarce resources to Zelensky & his buddies? Or are Euro citizens going to start seeing the benefits of a negotiated end to the conflict? And if Euro citizens start doing that (apparently, 50,000 people in Prague demonstrated calling for an end to the war), will their Euro Betters pay any attention? Looks like we will all have to wait & see.
There is actually some good second effort, from the poor beaten Ukrainian forces, although its not widely reported. They are brave, but doomed anyway. Its very sad.
“the poor beaten Ukrainian forces”
Those would be NOT the ones stuck on the wrong side of a river from their food, ammunition and fuel? Possibly able to walk back to Russia, except for the promise of being shot by their own side. Not the ones without air support with anti-air forces deployed 100 miles to the rear to keep said forces out of harm’s way.
They would be the ones having to exercise thrift by not wasting expensive weapons on targets that aren’t worth it.
We’ll see where they are in a month.
They do not have much ammo for their guns. The Russians never stop shelling, its a 24/7 kind of thing, as that is how they fight.
Do you mean when all the pontoon bridges they attacked across, got wiped out all at once? They actually recovered from that rather well. Well many people died, but quite a few got away.
“ We’ll see where they are in a month.”
70k protesters in Prague today over energy prices. We’ll see how widespread and big they are in a month…
The more I look at this the more I see Putin crushing Ukraine slowly, with one hand, while looking directly at America.
Come on, make my day. ;)
It is reading the last book in the Blowback series that has made a few things clearer. Nemesis by Chalmers Ashby Johnson an ex CIA spook lays out why the CIA is really the most dangerous thing America. It is the reason Biden is in power. It is the reason Trump rolled over about 4 months into his presidency, and attacked Syria. It is the reason Trump will not get to run again and really is the deep state that runs America.
It is also real stupid and very aggressive. So the coup in Ukraine in 2014 was CIA as Victoria Nueland freely admitted. Then the CIA weaponized Ukraine and built the greatest set of defences in Europe, armed and trained the Nazis that make up the best troops in Ukraine and then in February, just before the attack of about 80,000 Azov etc troops into Donbass, Russia struck.
It is using between 20% and 25% of its forces and slowly defeating Ukraine. As it does so the CIA is trying to defeat this slow roll any way it can. As it is not succeeding, it will need to step up its game. American troops in Ukraine is what Putin wants. He would like to defeat America in a conventional war, in Ukraine.
As he will toss tactical nukes if he thinks he needs to, America will avoid pushing him that far. I suspect America will lose. As this unfolds the Chinese will attack Taiwan.
It is the sheer madness the CIA has displayed for so many years, a force with control at all, that is making this necessary. The presidents minders. It will take war to deal with this problem, for the rest of the world. What happens to you, is less clear.
Pussyfooting around the primary issue needs to end, so this clarity is good:
https://www.ft.com/content/2624cc0f-57b9-4142-8bc1-4141833a73dd
“Russia’s gas supplies to Europe via the Nord Stream 1 pipeline will not resume in full until the “collective west” lifts sanctions against Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine, the Kremlin has said.”
Has there ever been a more feckless, idiotic ruling class than the current Western “leadership”? Well, a cynic/realist might say, yeah every couple generations Europe is blessed with a group like this, for the past several centuries…
LMAO, so Europe says, you know that gas you won’t sell us? Well we’re going to dictate the price to you:
https://twitter.com/financialjuice/status/1566797924759228417
EC PRES. VON DER LEYEN: THE PRICE OF RUSSIAN PIPELINE GAS WILL BE CAPPED BY THE EU.
At this point, I think the feckless idiot theory isn’t really viable, these people really are trying to destroy the European economy.
So the Tories have to do this, or else they’ll never get elected again, but no one thinks it’s going to fix anything, right? It’s like handing out bailing buckets to passengers on the Titanic. What can they possibly even start to try to do at this point?
https://twitter.com/JavierBlas/status/1567067323000832004
The size of the UK energy bail-out is off-the charts. According to
@alexwickham, on top of the £130 billion to freeze household energy bills, Liz Truss is mulling another £40 billion for small business.
The ~£170 billion equals to the annual NHS budget, and it’s >5% of GDP
Brian: “The size of the UK energy bail-out is off-the charts.”
A government can maybe borrow enough money for this kind of subsidy, can definitely print enough money (for a while) if no-one wants to lend them the money. But so what?
The underlying issue is not money, it is interrupted supplies of fuel — as a consequence of US/UK/Euro stupid sanctions. Borrowed/printed money does not magically make new fuel supplies appear. What it can do is divert fuel supplies that would otherwise have gone to poor people in other parts of the world to the (temporarily wealthy) Brits.
Oh well! Out of sight, out of mind.
“The underlying issue is not money”
Well, it’s not until it is…5% of GDP is insane, it’s like if Brandon wanted an extra $1T of government spending just to make it through the winter….
If the only tool someone has is a hammer, everything looks like a nail. The Political Class can borrow & print money — but that does not magically make more supplies of gas, oil, coal appear.
We may be touching different parts of the elephant, but we are in agreement that what England’s Truss wants to do is rather stupid.
Well, like I said, she has to say they’re going to do something, or else the Tories will never win another election. But it’s like they’re throwing a drowning person a rubber ducky, from a sinking ship. I honestly don’t know what they can do.
They can’t magically make more electricity and gas appear, plus they’ve let the enviro scorpions poison enough people’s brains that there’s no way to elect a government at this point that can “re-carbonize” their system.
Speaking of disconnected from reality:
https://twitter.com/tomdabassman/status/1567450786312949760
The German Minister of Economics, Robert Habeck:
‘Bakeries, craft businesses, cleaning companies…. they can just stop producing this year, but they don’t go insolvent. They don’t work into the red.’
So Europe’s plan is that within a couple years they’ll be “energy independent” due to renewables and won’t need Russia, and Russia’s plan is they’ll sell that oil and gas to China instead. I know which plan I think is more likely to succeed, but I guess we’ll just have to wait and find out…
https://www.euractiv.com/section/energy/news/russia-says-pipeline-to-china-will-replace-nord-stream-2/
Russia says pipeline to China will replace Nord Stream 2
What politicians focusing on next week’s poll don’t seem to understand is that it takes time to do anything in the real world; years, maybe decades. For example, it has taken a very focused China a quarter of a century (and a lot of pain) to become the Workshop of the World. The US used the same quarter of a century to destroy its manufacturing base and (even more important for the long term) gut its educational & training infrastructure. It is only now that the consequences of decisions taken long ago are becoming obvious.
Germany will find that they cannot run the world’s premier manufacturing economy on solar panels. They can build LNG import terminals (takes a few years) and then they will have to pay several times the price for gas that their competitors in China & elsewhere will be paying. German industry will be unable to compete, and will go the way of the once-proud English industry.
But perhaps the Biden* Administration’s foolish policies will have triggered thermonuclear war before then, and there won’t be any Germans left to regret their mistakes.
habeck is a green idiot,
well thats one way to cool their earth, the sky may turn red, like damnation alley, that was perhaps one of the early post apocalyptic films, based on roger zelazny,
For those that might run into the occasional person convinced that the collapse of China is immanent: (Ahem, no one here I’m sure.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V30VyMMce9s
The title is: No. China Is Not Going To Collapse…Yet
Delivered from somewhere deep in Australia from the accent.
Knowing that some might be in the habit of listening to podcasts while doing less mentally stimulating activities, I’ve gone to the, remarkably small, effort to find a list of ways to download just the audio from YouTube videos for offline perusal.
https://www.wikihow.com/Convert-YouTube-to-MP3
I’ve been assured that the ChiComs are a few years from collapse for a few decades now.
It will be interesting to see how Euro politics is affected by the coming fall and winter. The commies obviously think it will benefit them, and I suspect they’re probably right, if only because they already run everything anyway so should be able to capitalize the best on the disaster. My guess has been that they’re allowing the Italy election just so the “right” can win and get blamed, etc.
it’s interesting about the historical dynamics of certain province, hubei where wuhan is the provincial seat, has long been a rival to beijing going back a millenia or so, so it’s not an accident it was released there, shenzhen where they had some serious turmoil some time ago, also has been a rebellious province,
I thought this was about one thing but it turned out to be about much more. In short, China can have the advantage of using TSMC chips or Taiwan but not both:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TNwnyA_N9ZM
If the Russian debacle in Ukraine wasn’t enough to show that Taiwan’s independence isn’t as precarious as it looks from a glance at a map, there’s the fact that nothing that makes Taiwan valuable would be likely to survive an invasion.
I’ve also been assured for a few decades now that the ChiComs are about to invade Taiwan at any minute…
Not quite sure why anyone would think they’d actually do it now, when it appears that the West is about to fall off an economic cliff.
If you’re Xi, don’t you think it pretty likely now that in about 5-10 years or so you could call up the Taiwanese president and say, so how about we set you up with one these sweet “one country, two systems” deals…
(I will note for the millionth time that I said that Russia would never invade Ukraine because they couldn’t possibly win, so I am completely willing to accept that I may not have a complete grasp on all the cultural strategic motivations at play, it may be that China “needs” to take over Taiwan as soon as possible, the same way that Russia “needs” to prevent Ukraine from being too overtly Western aligned.)
Some students of the Chinese approach to history point to the year 2049 for the re-unification of Taiwan with the Mainland, i.e. the 100th anniversary of the Communist defeat of the Nationalist forces. It is quite likely that the Chinese Communist Party feels it has lots of time to integrate Taiwan. Brian is correct — the most likely CCP approach is the same one that is working so well in bringing down the US, which is simply to buy the local Political Class.
The contrary factor in the possible equation is that the CCP knows the US is even more dependent on Taiwan for high-end chips than China is. Destroying Taiwan’s manufacturing capability would probably be more damaging to the US than to China. And China is working to build its domestic high-end chip manufacturing. So is the US, but recent history tells us which one is more likely to be successful.
well they had partially invaded in 2014, the huntress predicted it back in 2008, to accomplish an objective you need requisite resources, I mention the prague occupation in ’68, that both suvorov (nee razin) and general ivashov were participants in, that involved half a million men when the population was a fraction of what is now,
yes that’s the hundred year mace theory propagated by pillsbury, now they could pulverize taipei, but what that accomplish their objective,
So who actually benefits from 1) shoving Russia into an alliance with China 2) destroying German industry 3) forcing the entire West onto a green energy boondoggle 4) destroying the US dollar as global reserve currency.
Hint- it’s the regime that spends untold sums bribing and no doubt blackmailing Western officials, at in the US. I see no reason to assume Europeans are not involved.
I suspect this Habeck woman is one of the blackmailed/bribed officials, if only because I have trouble believing anyone could honestly be that stupid.
“So who actually benefits from 1) shoving Russia into an alliance with China 2) destroying German industry 3) forcing the entire West onto a green energy boondoggle 4) destroying the US dollar as global reserve currency.”
The answer to all 4: Commies.
“I suspect this Habeck woman is one of the blackmailed/bribed officials, if only because I have trouble believing anyone could honestly be that stupid.”
Let’s not misgender him, Habeck is a he. There have been so many mind-bogglingly stupid comments made by German officials recently it’s hard to keep track of who said what. Maybe he’s not stupid, maybe he’s just a communist?
The Xi, Master of the Universe shtick is getting really, really old. Someplace there is, or maybe was, a Chinese Fauchi that talked Xi into this zero covid disaster. Bet he doesn’t retire on a 300+K pension, or not for long. The interconnected collapse of retail banking, housing real estate development and local government revenue proceeds apace, in no way impeded by the lockdown caused implosion of manufacturing and commerce in general.
For a staunch Russian ally, China seems to be spending a lot of time standing on the sidelines, stubbing its toe in the dust looking slightly embarrassed while Russia gets its clock cleaned. And allied with Russia to what end exactly. The only way China is going to see Russian gas is if they come and take it. Conveniently all the Russian troops and weapons that were stationed along the Chinese border no longer exist. That looks a lot easier than crossing 120 miles of water against a well armed and prepared defense.
To date, China has sunk more than a trillion into the “Belt and Road”. Sunk being the operative expression, none of that money will be coming back. They have managed to convert a few of these “loans” into ownership stakes, most are being written off as we speak. For any of the projects completed, the combination of legendary Chinese workmanship and the certainty that any of the money they do throw off will vanish long before it can be wasted on maintenance and upkeep will insure they return to a state of nature forthwith.
Once again, the U.S. proves that luck is as good as skill in choosing our enemies.
Who said Xi was a genius? He’s the top thug in Beijing and blessed with a Western “elite” full of absolute morons and crooks. They’ve basically given him the world.
“The only way China is going to see Russian gas is if they come and take it. ”
Um, what? You don’t think China and Russia are capable of building a pipeline? Based on what exactly?
“Conveniently all the Russian troops and weapons that were stationed along the Chinese border no longer exist”
Oh for goodness sakes, not this lunacy from last year again. Putin and Xi met before the invasion, they met last week, they are clearly allies. The PLA isn’t going to invade Russia, they’d make as big a shambles of it as the Russians have in Ukraine…
MCS: “in no way impeded by the lockdown caused implosion of manufacturing and commerce in general.”
That is one interpretation of the situation in China. There are others.
One view is that the Chinese Communist Party’s continuation of Fauci-style lockdowns is simply a heavier-handed version of what Fauci did in the US — demonstrate to the people that they are peons, not citizens; and peons have to do what they are told, no matter how stupid. Hey! It worked in the US, where the overwhelming majority complied with dumb and probably dangerous government orders. Maybe Chinese people are just a little more resistant to intrusive government than US (once-upon-a-time) citizens — hence they need to hear the whip cracking a little louder than our fellow peons did.
Another view is that the CCP has found a way to wage economic war on the totally-dependent US without making it too obvious. Those components from China needed for the replacement US weapons thrown away in the Ukraine will be late in arriving — so sorry, we had to lock down Chengdu again. If the situation does not improve, those components might be very, very late in arriving — so sorry. And everyone in the US government is too dumb or too blind to see what is happening.
Gavin Longmuir sez on September 3, 2022 at 11:31 am….
“Interesting observation is that Zelensky’s long-announced attack to drive the Russians into the sea took place this week — assaults on Kherson, on the Nuclear Power Plant, and maybe on Kharkiv. Neutral and Russian-friendly media says the Kiev assault has been an utter disaster, with great losses of men & materials. Western media says … nothing. Conclusion is that Kiev probably got a real black eye.”
I apologize for being so rude, but I thought some folks here might enjoy the followng read by an Ozzie with a different perspective, Mick Ryan, a retired major general in the Australian Army-
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1571563669783474177.html
Here is another by the same fellow, also worthwhile, from the day before-
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1571002851098529793.html
For those folks who don’t appreciate what is going on in Ukraine/Russia these days, there are a large group of engaged commentaters following these events as they unfold. I would not characterize them as Russian-friendly media. Some are even journalists!! We will see what we see, but don’t count your chickens sitting in your basket of eggs.
Mick Ryan is a retired major general in the Australian Army.
Well, only to be fair, I think it appropriate to add this footnote:
Dmitri
@wartranslated
·
7h
Looks like in Donetsk they are ramping up recruitment of volunteers again (lmao they still have people left to actually RECRUIT?!)
Anyway, the commissariat number they are giving is +79493014017 (Russian country code), if anyone here has any inquiries…
Here’s your chance to contribute to the cause PenGun.
Hey PenGun, If you travel to Donestz, this is how you can expect the local draft board to treat your aid application, best of luck:
https://twitter.com/igorsushko/status/1571319796041408512
Let’s not misgender him, Habeck is a he.
My bad. I was thinking of a female German official who declared that Germany would support Ukraine no matter what the voters thought, because democracy or something.
The Xi, Master of the Universe shtick is getting really, really old.
I don’t think anyone here has that evaluation of Xi and China, but of course I can’t speak for anyone else. My own take is that China has problems and has wasted astonishing amounts of wealth but I don’t think collapse is imminent.
But even if I’m wrong and the CCP is about to go tango uniform, bribing Western officials and funding Western fringe groups is such a cheap and easy task that the USSR was able to do it quite successfully, even just before it collapsed.
Speaking of China, Lawrence Person at Battleswarm blog posted these videos Sunday. Chinese construction practices for the win!
https://youtu.be/Uaz6vtAKxVo
https://youtu.be/s-2DtL-Wjkc
yes she was the defense minister, when they trained with wooden rifles
so the fellow who bribed three dozen admirals on chinas behalf, was allowed to slip out of the country, we traded an afghan druglord for an american engineer, venezuela is emptying its prisons and sending them here, but by all means ukraina slava
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2022/09/will-united-states-nato-wake-happened-meeting-shanghai-cooperation-organization/
this fellow
https://twitter.com/TomWrightAsia/status/1571802632452472833
DoD procurement is insanely broken, but the fact that it’s so corrupt, and there appears to be no one who can even call it out, let alone fix it, is disastrous. Someone needs to take a flamethrower to the entire system, but it’s way too big, with no one with clean hands, people would say “oh no, you can’t just fire everyone at the top ten levels of Pentagon procurement, that would get rid of all the experts!”
Systemic rot and corruption is “funny”, until it brings a nation down.
Raymondshaw: ” an Ozzie with a different perspective, Mick Ryan, a retired major general in the Australian Army “
No disrespect intended to Mr. Ryan — but an Australian distant from the action who relies on Kiev (!) for reporting on their advances may or may not have a clue about what is really happening on the ground.
This gets back to an earlier comment by Brian — Where are the front-line reporters? On both sides, since officially the US/NATO is not (yet!) at war with nuclear-armed Russia. Bottom line is — all we know for sure is that Kiev lies big-time (while begging for baksheesh), and Russia is very selective in what it reports.
In the absence of real information, the rest of us are stuck in “Wait & See” mode.
Gosh, where is Ernie Pyle when you really need him. Unfortunately, the news business today has tried and failed at meeting the challenges of present day media economics.
I would like to think not, but maybe if ‘my’ side were getting as badly outclassed as ‘not my side’, I would want to kill the messenger (reporters) too.
There are front-line reporters in Ukraine, but they mostly speak Ukrainian and Russian.
I will speculate that most non-indigenous ‘reporters’ do hang out in Kiev. The food likely beats cold MREs.
As far as being stuck in “Wait and See” mode, when did we know, post Dec.7,2041, that the Germans and Japanese were beaten? I’ll remind that in WWII, we were actually a belligerent, not so in Ukraine.
Who said anything about “sides”? I just want to know facts.
Given how much American cash is being given to Ukraine, it seems like a worthy news story to cover how things are going, no?
Kiev’s got a lively party scene and is only ~250 miles from the front. A quick and easy day trip. You don’t even have to sleep in the trenches.
Plus there’s apparently plenty of English speaking fighters, based on telegram videos, so you don’t even have to have a translator. What a career-making story!
What a career-making story!
You mean career ending, because any reporter who pollutes the Ukrainian narrative with facts is likely to be fired and blackballed immediately.
That’s why there are no frontline Western reporters in Ukraine- they like their phony baloney jobs and want to keep them.
As I can discern the media narrative has always been that Ukraine is winning and Russia is near collapse. Thus, I’m questioning just why these folks have been so enthused at Ukraine’s latest adventure, if they actually believe that Ukraine has been winning.
And about this Major General Ryan, I’ll disrespect him. Anyone who can write that Ukraine is a master at modern warfare is either a lying shill or an idiot. They’ve been slowly losing ground in most areas to a force that they outnumber by something like 5 to 1, and have survived only because of the willingness of the Davosie to empty Western arsenals and risk nuclear war to keep them barely afloat.
That’s not what impending victory looks like.
You two should make your complaints known to the media. I have found a pornucopia of excellent reporting and commentary and likely wouldn’t consume any reporting by CNN and the like. Generally those of us on the right have held mainstream media in contempt for many years. Fake news, as coined by a former president. But now, they are the Gold Standard of ‘factual reporting’
So, an english speaking combatant speaks into a smartphone on video and that is no good. But if he speaks to an english speaking western reporter (middleman) with a video recorder, then you are satisfied?
Good to know that ‘sides’ are irrelevant to the Russian war on Ukraine, and somewhere, only facts can be determined and reported. We can always wait for Wikipedia to clue us in.
Then our lives will be simplified.
Well I was typing when the above post was made, so I was referring to others. I will say though, believe what you like, you won’t hurt my feelings. Besides, I prefer to wait on events and history before I claim to know what will happen. Eggs can become chicken sandwiches for lunch or scrambled with bacon for breakfast. I’ll be patient, I like them either way.
Good grief, you are being 1000% disingenuous in every paragraph of your post.
“But now, they are the Gold Standard of ‘factual reporting’”
Never said that. Perhaps I need to add a sarcasm tag to my post about why there’s no “mainstream” news coverage. We all know why.
“Good to know that ‘sides’ are irrelevant to the Russian war on Ukraine,”
Never said anything like that. You’re the one who said “maybe if ‘my’ side were getting as badly outclassed as ‘not my side’, I would want to kill the messenger (reporters) too.” It’s been pathetic and disgraceful how since the very beginning accusations of being “Putin lovers”, on “Russia’s side”, etc., have been hurled against anyone who even just asks to understand what’s going on, and to find factual sources.
If you have no curiousity what hundreds of billions of dollars of your money are buying, and want to just sit around eating your breakfast, then that’s up to you, I guess. Some of us would like answers.
“As far as being stuck in “Wait and See” mode, when did we know, post Dec.7,2041, that the Germans and Japanese were beaten?”
The end of 1942; Not beaten but Japan was in retreat, we were established in North Africa and starting to squeeze Rommel between us and Montgomery. The Germans were stalled in Russia and being pounded day and night from the air. Easier to see in hindsight than at the time but the tide for the Axis was running out. See this:
https://chicagoboyz.net/archives/67072.html
It’s not in question which side is moving in which direction for now.
Coral Sea in early May and Midway in early June of 1942 were a pretty good indicater of the direction things might go, but of course good luck was a major contributor. So, just 6 months in. But we were in a fully engaged, war time economy with millions already inducted, and the world’s predominant economy. All things considered, the recent events in Ukraine are a remarkable achievement after just 6 months.
Brian, you are being quite creative. I have been faily careful to not say pro-Russian (PenGun excepted, he proudly states it). You are most definitely ‘Not my side’ I assume all sentiments expressed here to be honestly felt and to come from a defensible place. Again, an exception made for PenGun. If others have made the comments about loving Putin or Russia, direct your complaint to them, not to me. As to hundreds of billions of what my dollars are buying, well I am not that wealthy, nor is the tab anywhere near that high. So far I think the US weapons alone are in the range of $10 billion, with other economic assistane I think somewhere in the range of 20-30 $Billion. I could be wrong, but not nearly as wrong as your fictitious numbers. I’ll note that in the last few months, between Democratic legislation that I think might be approaching a total of ~1 $Trillion, and Biden’s Tuition Loan Forgiveness which many think will be another 1 $Trillion, the Administration has just obligated another 2 $Trillion of ‘Not My Money” Have any of you chronic objectors said a peep about it?? Someone may have said something, I don’t rcall, but it has been nowhere like the constant catcalls about Ukraine.
Given the size of the Straw Man army springing from your trenches, I’ll wear your ‘1000% disingenuous’ slur as a badge of honor.
“Have any of you chronic objectors said a peep about it?? Someone may have said something, I don’t rcall”
Lol, then your memory needs serious work, there’s constant talk here about the massive damage being done to the US by swamp overspending. Trying to say it’s not brought up is serious revisionism.
I concede I misspoke about the size of the spending so far. Meh. It happens.
Have a nice life, I’m done with you.
An interesting thread/commentary by Sergej Sumlenny (a journalist!) on on what will come after this war, a brief biography from the Calvert Journal (see below)-
“Sergej Sumlenny
Sergej Sumlenny is a Russian-born journalist, political scientist and writer. He worked in Moscow for leading German TV broadcaster ARD and was a chief editor of a news programme at Russian business broadcaster RBC-TV. He has researched political journalism in post-war Germany and held a German Federal Chancellor’s Fellowship. Since 2005, he has been living in Frankfurt and Berlin, where he writes for leading Russian economics magazine Expert.”
Sergej emigrated to Germany and is a naturalized German citizen.
His relevant thread; I have followed him daily since ~May/June.
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1571873812886753280.html
Bio: https://www.calvertjournal.com/contributors/show/1839/sergej-sumlenny
Brian- Swamp overspending always boils down to Ukraine for some folks. Got maybe 20 references here (ie-constant talk) about the the 2 $Trillion I spoke too?? I’ll bet not.
“Have a nice life, I’m done with you.” Well, isn’t that a nice thought, thanks! I will say though that I can’t promise to ignore future nonsense* posted here, whatever the source.
*I struggled with that word, all other options were likely harsher. Ciao
One point I will add,
Commentaters like Sergej Sumlenny, Kamil Galeev, and our very own contributor, Trent Telenko (all on https://threadreaderapp.com/) discuss what may lay in the future of the Russian Federation, once this war runs its course. There are others too. I can’t recall these potential implications being discussed in our own media, whether front-line or not, at all. This is big, big stuff. Well worth some time to contemplate. Some heartfelt prayer too.
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1571873812886753280.html
This is some of the most delusional nonsense I have ever read- and I used to argue with leftists for fun.
While this guy is fantasizing about destroying Russia, the German economy is shutting down. Maybe he should worry about that a bit more than not at all, because I’d say step one in partitioning Russia is to not freeze to death this winter. Good luck with that.
Swamp overspending always boils down to Ukraine for some folks. Got maybe 20 references here (ie-constant talk) about the the 2 $Trillion I spoke too?? I’ll bet not.
And I’d bet everyone likely to comment here thinks the $2 trillion in spending you mentioned is a bad idea. What’s to discus?
The Ukraine war is rather different.
As Raymondshaw and the others he points to ask, just what do we do as the evidence of Holocaust level atrocities by the Russians come to light? I’m not talking Pegun’s fantasies, which amount to the Ukrainians lobbing shells into Donetsk in reply to shells and attacks on them. Already, we’re seeing real mass graves filled with women and children and there are dozens of groups with far too much practice at examining the occupants and cataloging exactly how they died for anyone to be able to pretend otherwise.
Who is going to be sitting beside Putin at the next big “summit”?
Both World Wars started as land grabs justified in various ways and both ended with millions dead. Those who forget history are condemned to repeat it.
…just what do we do as the evidence of Holocaust level atrocities by the Russians come to light?
What did we do when the Congo war killed millions of people? I still recall being stunned when I read that, because I’d always assumed the American media would keep me informed about such catastrophes. Nope, my bad.
Already, we’re seeing real mass graves filled with women and children…
Please provide links. The pro-Russian sources I read state that such graves are Ukrainians who were abandoned to rot on the battlefield, subsequently buried by the Russians.
Who is going to be sitting beside Putin at the next big “summit”?
That’s easy. Anyone who wants Russian gas. They don’t care about Ukrainian dead any more than the US cared about people killed in the Congo war.
It’s been pathetic and disgraceful how since the very beginning accusations of being “Putin lovers”, on “Russia’s side”, etc., have been hurled against anyone who even just asks to understand what’s going on, and to find factual sources.
Yes. I have suspicions about why we are so committed in Ukraine. I see no national interest that justifies the danger. The Biden family plus a number of Republicans seem very committed and I wonder why.
the difference is we were attacked, in 1941, just as we were in 2001, now one might think that iraq was the North african campaign, campaign but not directly related,
we really want to go with a depleted demoralized army run by zombie commissars like bishop garrison, and the twitter general of the 82nd patrick donahue,
thirty years ago, I might agree with you around the time of the gulf war, then came everything that followed suit,
https://www.frontpagemag.com/he-called-america-racist-now-hes-charge-our-nukes-daniel-greenfield/