Two interesting thinktank policy papers were released over the past two weeks, which somewhat flew under the radar. I wanted to examine them in light of not only Ukraine’s now-announced major battlefield reorientation, but the general pivotal inflection point on which the conflict stands at the cusp of 2024, to see what projections for the future can be gleaned.
If the Russians could see U.S. stealth aircraft like a flashing red light, there is too much money to be made from fleecing the American Taxpayer, for the MIC to admit the truth.
The reason why is that it challenges too many baked-in beliefs. This is what war was made for, to take unreasonable belief structures and by the application of concentrated death and destruction, convert them to realistic appraisals.
We have become what we are because the Democrats stole an election. I don't need to catalog all the ways they did it but the evidence the courts refused to see is overwhelming. We didn't deserve the corrupt senile pedophile who became president but that's what an utterly corrupt system delivered. I doubt it can be fixed since the Democrats control all the levers of power. The GOP is part of the problem; not the solution.
If we were younger and wanted to escape the fallen state of America, we'd go to Russia
I must say, inspired by Simpiclius tireless work I worked tirelessly on my "As America Crumbles...: A Grim Chronicle Exploring the Evil Source of America’s Catastrophic Decline " book, diving deep into the labyrinth of corruption and legalized theft by the US government. 325 bibliographical entries :)
I am aware of Martyanov's book. Mine differs with its laser-like focus on the 'source of all evil'—sheer criminality, systemic corruption, and brazen theft. In my opinion, everything he writes about stems from these issues. Furthermore, what I term the Sovietization of America breeds incompetence as one of the crucial factors in America's 'crumbling'.
What do I mean by “Sovietization of America”? I quote from my book, which is nicely formatted, something I can't do here, sorry:
Joseph Stalin (b. December 18, 1878, d. March 5, 1953) was the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1922 until his death in 1953. His rule was marked by ruthless totalitarianism, rampant repression, and the implementation of policies that resulted in immense suffering and loss of life. Lies were crucial in the Communist totalitarian system under Joseph Stalin. Let us take a look at Stalin’s censorship and propaganda tools from the Soviet industry of lies and ask ourselves if we can find any similarities with what's going on in the United States.
o Manipulation of Truth: the Stalin's Communist regime relied on a deliberate manipulation of truth to control and shape public perception by using propaganda, censorship, and misinformation to distort reality.
o Creation of a False Narrative: Lies were employed to create a false narrative that justified the actions and policies of the Communist Party and fostered a sense of obedience among the population.
o Suppression of Dissent: Lies were used as a tool to suppress dissent and silence opposition. Those who dared to question or challenge the official narrative were often labeled as enemies of the state.
o Deception of the Masses: The Communist system relied on a network of lies to deceive and control the masses. False promises of equality, justice, and prosperity were propagated even though the reality often fell far short of these ideals.
o Fear and Intimidation: Lies were also used to instill fear and maintain a climate of intimidation. The regime spread rumors, false accusations, and fabricated stories, making individuals hesitant to express their true thoughts and opinions.
If we closely examine our own homeland through the lens of the Soviet Union, the 'Evil Empire' that we defeated at the conclusion of the Cold War, and its array of nefarious instruments, we might discover that we bear a striking resemblance to them, in each bullet point I outlined above. Rachel Maddow, for one, the purveyor of MSNBC's altered reality, has been preaching from her media pulpit about RussiaGate for years. The amount of lies she peddled with orgiastic, if not orgasmic, hatred toward former President Donald J. Trump, produced more lies than all the Pravdas put together. If you've been fortunate enough to evade her grasp, consider yourself blessed, for you've been spared from the clutches of one more malevolent force. So, really, what if our beloved Fourth Estate were to resemble the propaganda machinery of the Soviet Union? Let us take a look:
o The New York Times: The esteemed publication serving as the official mouthpiece of the Democratic Party under the glorious reign of the Biden regime, tirelessly disseminating party ideology and extolling the wisdom of Biden's leadership. “Stop Worrying About Biden’s Age. We Need His Wisdom Right Now,” is a masterpiece of ass-kissing sycophancy.
o The Washington Post: Yet another esteemed publication, faithfully presenting news and information in perfect alignment with the noble agenda of the Biden regime and, before him, Obama’s regime. While in the Soviet era, the KGB had certain connections with prominent Soviet newspapers like Izvestia and Pravda, The Washington Post $600 million business deal—back in 2017; since then they’ve been silent about their cooperation—with the CIA are purely business transactions, devoid of any hint of political influence.
Or they tell us so.
o Public Television: broadcasts are used to disseminate propaganda and shape public opinion in line with the state's ideology. There’s a famous "This is Extremely Dangerous to Our Democracy" video montage showing 50, if not 100 of “pundits” mindlessly parroting the very same slogan: ”This is extremely dangerous to our democracy" in one voice. Word by word.
I don't know how much money the Kremlin Crime Syndicate Inc. pays "Simplicius the sThinker" and empty shells of information like himself, but it isn't much because all the known quasi-Western agents of.influence on behalf of the KCS Inc. barely hide the sloppy and makeshift character of their global influencer operation conducted in the service of the crude and corrupt mega-oligarchs of the Russian State Global Crime Syndicate.
Yes, it's a pretty myopically American, ahistorical and inaccurate use of the term "Soviet", given that "Soviet" means "Council"/"Assembly".
Trygve, you are a victim of boomer Americanisms. Not everything is "Hitler", "Stalin", "Nazi", "Soviet", and things certainly aren't their lazy Americanised colloquial meaning of those terms. Perhaps a better categorisation is Totalitarian Oligarchic Kleptocracy. Sadly, this is the normal standard for human organisation, it's just the technological capacity of the modern world that makes it so much more enforceable in the mind of so many and at such scale.
That’s quite the one sided view of Stalinism (and going out of fashion quite rapidly). You needn’t quote from your own book, the Wikipedia page amounts to the same tropes.
As a black South African., I understand fully when I hear about "apartheid" Israel.. The same with the concept of "Sovietization" of America. I hope your reader gets the point...What's left for the US is for the president to wear a brigadier uniform...
"Black" is not very descriptive of Africans though, is it? Africans are not some amorphous blob of human material with dark skin. Are you Khosian? Sotho?
Communism is not the originator or sole possessor of those aspects of wicked rule that you describe, and it's a giant fallacy to persist in the lazy conflation-association game that is the propaganda legacy of the Cold War. Before anything else you need to free your mind from this crap. (Fwiw I am a turbo right winger, so this is not a subtle tankie defence of Stalinism)
Yet he was loved and supported by the people. He drew Russia out from tsarist agrarianism to become a powerful industrial state with the most powerful army in the world (No, the US was not the most powerful military: Russia has war in their dna: the US has Hollywood in theirs). He provided free housing, top-shelf public education and free medical care. He engineered a society that went from farmers to astronauts within about 30 years.
All those points you make were actually designed by Americans and copied by both Hitler and Stalin who suited them for their own countries. America was always at the the vanguard for image and information war.
so why then 50-60% of russians consider Stalin as greates leader of ALL TIME? OF ALL TIME
that nonsense you just wrote is completely BS and twist of real history
2) if you want to compare modern america its gona be british colonial tyrany + beginning of 3rd reich
not ussr. there is nothing of ussr in modern USA
no social policies no worker protections or institutes no patriotism no respect to history of country no education no culture no families oriented policies
USSR was to good to compare it with USA.
(obviously there were flaws and overstretches but speaking about totalitarism, usa also was(is) a totalitarian regime. lets start with this. but totalitarism is in a different way.)
only fool will portrating USSR as smth utterly bad and nothing good. and bashing Stalin but not Trotsky. which is typical western propaganda.
I prefer an America with no Big Gubmint social policies, worker protections and family oriented policies. It's called limited government and it is quickly eroding to appear more like a socialist/fascist state.
I would think every American could tell you what it is -- it is the systematic "theft" of our rights and our authority as the source of the government's power and its replacement by edicts dreamt up and issued by USG drones, unelected but powerful. It is a justice system that serves not the people, not justice, but the State and the One-Party State at that. It is a system that invites people (and I don't mean those agitators at the front from the FBI) into a place and then jails them for going in. It is a system that sics its spooks and Feds on dangerous people like "concerned parents" and "religious kooks" (that would be anybody who goes to church or believes in God), it is a place that takes a little child's muddled learning process and distorts it to mean it is time to feed hormones and chemicals before castration or mastectomies and parents just SHUT UP. I lived for about two and a half years in the USSR -- as a diplomat in Leningrad. I recognize the similarities first-hand. When they listen to your conversations and you're a nobody, you know we're up the creek without a paddle.
Spot on! Americans have never lived through a system that so closely resembles the Soviet Union and have no way of comparing. Those of us who have lived through the communist hell—I am one of those—can see it as transparent as the day is long. The 'Sovietization of America' CCG asked about is, to me, best seen in the political suitability of political and, then, business, academic, and governmental people in power. Again, quoting myself:
Woke Political Suitability:
Once the ideology takes over, meritocracy dies and ‘political suitability’ and dull, vapid, mindless, utterly incompetent, but subservient bureaucrats come into play. “Over time, this led to a stagnation of ideas, rampant corruption, and inefficiency within the party and the government. One can recognize America's stale political waters in this communist-forged term—"political suitability"—but when political conformity and loyalty within the party lead to a system where party officials are chosen based solely on their adherence to the ruling ideology rather than their competence or effectiveness in governance, this stifles innovation, discourages critical thinking, and limits the diversity of perspectives necessary for sound decision-making. Suitability also breeds hypocrisy and weakness.
You must be quite old if you lived when Stalin was alive. If not, then I assume you lived in the decaying monstrosity that was the post-Stalin Soviet Union. Scholarship with access to the Soviet archives (opened from the 1990s) are destroying the Cold War and Khrushchev-serving parody narrative of the man who industrialized the huge nation in a decade and defeated the Nazis with little help from the West. All while raising the living standard and opportunities of the populace. Also while being actively plotted against by the West, Trotsky and other traitors. Losurdo has an excellent book on this subject debunking the lies and ridiculous characterizations. It is obvious that you do not understand the history of Soviet communism, nor the meaning of the word communism, when what you describe as communism in the US is really an inverted capitalist monopoly totalitarianism. Go read Sheldon Wolin's book and you might start to understand what is really happening in the US.
Years ago, I used to attend JW's Bible study gatherings here in South Africa.. I remember hearing one elder telling us that a member of the group in the USSR was once stopped by the secret police and asked where he was going? He responded, referring to Jesus, saying , " one of our family members has died. We are meeting to discuss his death"...
When I read the summary of your book I saw the difference with Martyanov's Disintegration. I'm going to buy your book as a companion book.
I see the references to "Sovietation". I believe it's more like Nazification. I see my nation as Nazified. Our government is controlled by Neocon Nazis, Neolib Nazis, Femi-Nazis and Zio-Nazis. AIPAC, made up of Neocons and Zionists is the most powerful and influential lobby in DC and controls Congress. They have a Nazi mindset and have turned my nation into the world's foremost terrorist state.
The American populace is afflicted with the manufactured mental disorders Russophobia, Sinophobia and Islamophobia. The empire's Propaganda Machine has a budget dwarfing the entire budget for WW2
I replied on the topic of the classification of what's going on in America's descent into hell a bit above (below?) as a reply to Ravishing Rudey's Totalitarian Oligarchic Kleptocracy comment. With this, I will refrain from further comments here because I do not want to further hijack Simplicius' comments thread.
Sadly, I am 100% certain we'll have ample time in the upcoming year to witness or classify Nazification, Sovietization, you name it, or a total breakdown of civilization that seems to be unavoidable. No matter how we'd call it, it would still stink to high heaven.
I wonder to what extent we are afflicted with this. I myself am in the northeast and obviously surrounded by that mindset in the sense of propaganda yet myself and my immediate family/half of my extended family exist outside of it. I know there’s more of us that feel similarly about all of this to some extent. Just feel like the perception outside of the states is that we’re all lost and I know that’s not true based on my my own understanding of my location. But I don’t know
The citizens of the US are living in a Nazi styled multiverse that demands the citizen kneel to a variety of "self diagnosed victims" who suddenly all need to be recognized, given jobs (possibly yours), funded, fed, housed, and definitely need to be put ahead of you in everyway possible. And if you dissent, YOU are a Nazi. It is exhausting.
But the nice thing about excess is it always leads to the pendulum swinging back, way back in this case. Enter Trump and with him the pendulum swings back, bringing a 1950s REDUX. This time in terms of seeing America as once a swell place and with the possibility of being a swell place yet again.
No wonder the Neocons are unhappy. Their plan to roll the US up under the UN as the mindless military arm of a UN world hegemon, with disease reduced and controlled minions is looking less likely with each passing day. What to do? Well they may opt to go with the alien scare but it might be a hard sell at this point.
Or instead, they could use the illegials to bring on civil war, end elections and institute a police state. That is UK's O'Looney's take on what happens next based on what he has been told by Black Watch troops. If you don't know of John, he was one of the first and bravest voices raised warning about the vax.
I like the term. I’ve been using it for several years myself.
In 1985, the defecit in the USSR was 2% of GDP. By 1990, it had climbed to 10%, but Soviet bonds were still rated as strongly as Canadian or Italian bonds.
In 1991, despite super majorities in nine of the 15 Republics voting to keep the USSR together under the auspices of the New Union Treaty, the deficit increased to 30% of GDP and the Union collapsed under the weight of mass inflation.
For those wondering where the #UnitedStates currently is, it’s at about 8% of #GDP and that’s without the widely expected #Recession hitting yet.
Shame on you for being so stupid and callous. Headlines like "As America Crumbles.." excite you because they serve the Russian liars who are paid to cover up the habitual Russian crimes all in order to destroy the West and erect the Evil Spectre of Mongol Russia on its ruins. Meanwhile, Russia is stalled on the battlefield.
You have a certain point, the headline, "As America Crumbles" is a bit dark.
True, the US has been strip mined of heavy industry, health and educational standards by its corrupt political class. But it still has a massive population the majority of whom would like to see the ship back on course, the sails hoisted once again and all barnacles stripped away.
It can happen, and it may happen, which is why the Neocons are so very sad and very dangerous. Their big beef supposedly about "Russia" is really about inconvenient facts getting in the way of their fiction.
Evidence that facts can be evoked but not presented in order to write an article, which covers capital outflows (anecdotal, no figures) the weakened rouble, tight labour market (reasons : mobilisition, flight, MIC expansion, but no figures) remaining problems in export and import logistics (no details) which seems the most convincing
‘“External trade and financial constraints . . . complicate logistical chains and financial settlements and weaken demand for Russian exports,” it said.
That has fuelled inflation via the exchange rate: fewer exports mean Russia receives less foreign currency to pay for imports used in food production and other industries.
With a misinterpretation of Russia ceasing approvals for sales of western company subsidiaries – attributed to a desire to restrict capital outflows, it is more likely that this decision is to enact a polite equivalent of freezing western assets, given western chatter about confiscation of Russian State assets, together with active measures to take control over western company participation in vital activity, as per Artic gas extraction projects
Russia controls on western assets were made inevitable by sanctions, by which western governments obliged western companies to withdraw from Russia, by the freezing of CBR foreign currency reserves by the REPO TF in June 2022, and by significant confiscations enacted by Germany over Rosneft and Gazprom assets, let alone the ongoing threats to confiscate the frozen Russia state assets
The value of western assets in Russia effectively confiscated, frozen or taken under control is sometimes given as $100B plus, and it is often said that ‘most’ western companies have retained their operations in Russia, but with no figures or valuations given
No detailed & overall studies have been made- the following US ‘Deep State’ company published a survey-
His writing is distinguished by the habit of making statements backed up by links only to him self, philosphers call this a circle jerk
The FT spends a lot of paper on the case of the eggs, made notorious by Putin’s man of the people like pun at his recent TV show
But – no mention of worker wage increases, variously given (from other sources) as between 7% and 15% in 2023 - which cancels out even the maximal figures for inflation here given
The FT is no more immune to anti-Russian propaganda garbage disguised as news than any other Western MSM outfit.
The reality is that inflation in Russia now is high by Western standards, but is low compared to any point in Russia, for more than a decade, pre-SMO. There was a reason why Russia has enormously high interest rates during that period, and there is a reason why Russia has recently raised inflation enormously - but the 2 reasons are not the same.
Russia? 13.7 billion/13.67%, so Russia has a $100 billion GDP?
You also are NOT isolating Foreign Debt Obligations, you are stating total Government Debt, with the possible exception of Japan. Japan's Government Debt is 3 ? times GDP, mostly held by Japan.
Russian gov debt is 50 billions (internally and externally)
Russian TOTAL external debt (including private companies) 400 b
but its not government its total.
russian government external debt - i dunno i couldnt find these numbers. but in general such kind of debt usually less than half of total debt. so its 20-25 b approx of external gov debt. its nothing basically
Thanks Ken I'm summoning up the courage to get to grips with Russian statistics, all comments and figures from Western sources are guaranteed to be nonsense
But it's easier to critique the fools at the FT Economist and so on
So far, the stats from the IMF and World Bank have not surprised me. They just repeat what the Russian Central Bank publishes. Their analyses suck, but all of them suck. So, just pay no attention to them.
I believe you can get the quarterly tax collections paid by western companies still operating in Russia from the World Bank. I remember seeing the numbers. I am suffering the Post-Christmas Too Lazy To Take Two Minutes To Find It syndrome or I would do it, you know I would.
Most of the companies just changed their names and removed western directors names.
Jews control the US and not the opposite. The biggest ennemy of Russia since 1917 were, are and always will be the zionists includind the 5th column zio present in Russia eventhough many left.
Jewish Bolshevism - driven by Jewish intellectuals of the day - a fact denied by the ADL etc. Denied but not debunked. I want to distinguish between Zionists and other Jews.
I'd say political Zionism which is nothing short of apartheid by another name.. I am a third generation black South African Zionist. The people called Jews are not the first to come up with the concept of Zionism.. It was the Jebusites, A Canaanite race, whose hillside enclave, king David stormed and established his kingdoms HQ's from that time... Zionism proper goes back long before the nomadic Israelites came to Canaan...
Exactly. An excellent documentary to truly understand the world mess that we have been in for almost 100 years is Europa The Last Battle mirrored here https://www.bitchute.com/video/xNv0rXZKaFaH/
Oh yes, lets throw around that old antisemitic trope from the McCarthy era. The Zionists are good ol' ethnic cleansers, just like so many generations of American settlers (and Canadian, Australian, New Zealander ...). They fit in perfectly with the Anglo-Saxon elite worldview. Lenin was an atheist Marxist, as was Stalin. Zionism has nothing to do with Bolshevism, in the same way that anti-Zionism has nothing to do with antisemitism.
true. im from russia. left liberal jew cabal is insane here. its not that big as in US its much smaller but still those big noses on every tv channel and in banking financial systems too
To complement the ISW Report, this from the FT, much lazier and less well focused than the ISW, but just as convincing evidence of how the west is lost
23 December 2023 FT Another Russia has lost Russia has won lament
Another very lazy we’ve won article – all we have to do is not much and…it’s easy, Russia is decrepit on it’s last legs, ‘a small low tech economy’ : But yet is a deadly threat to Europe and to all mankind – et puis voilà! pulling his rabbit from his hat
But but ‘we’ve given up already – the ‘we’ in the article is all over the place, this time the ‘we’ perhaps referring to the US + western members only of the EU, + UK, while lauding the plucky courageous and realistic eastern members into a pre emptive attack on Russia
‘The Europeans [note not NATO rump] could help Ukraine withstand Putin even if Trump pulled out [of NATO, which the author presumes dissolved, not to say so many words, and to forget Congress has just passed a motion to prevent this]. We’d have to build up our arms industries fast, but the effort required of us would be tiny compared with Russia’s. ‘
A strange argument since he writes that Russia has already re built it’s MIC, it maybe he says that Russia is winning this war, and will any future, although he’s not very clear, alternating between very upbeat and very depressed about the ‘we’ …..
….‘If he [President Putin] attacked the Baltics, Nato would probably send troops. But for how long? Once a few hundred western soldiers came back dead, far-right parties would demand “peace”, meaning unenforceable peace treaties with Putin. Western countries could retreat’
Sometimes the ‘we’ is plainly just ‘me’ the football coach shouting from the sidelines
AI’s raison d’être – it can not be supposed that the FT can bother to find real people to re write the same three articles forever – especially these lazy give me twenty minutes ones
The European and UK journo class are split in two- manic depressive vaguely white collar broadsheet writers, and manic vaguely white collar tabloid writers
PS The FT readership lapped this up – starred as the most read article of the day -
When I was younger, I subscribed to both the Time and Newsweek magazines and read them voraciously.. Back then, I had no clue who owned them or what their principles were , but the content was more adult stuff, well thought out and sensible .. They displayed intellectual depth and understanding of what the world was all about. Today I understand, it was all deep state propaganda and US/Western imperialist agenda that were being spouted. Times have changed ,and what's coming out of the West as scholarly analysis is nothing but kindergarten stuff. The West, with the US in the lead have lost sense and the ability to think and write...
The West has also lost the war over the seizure of Russia Central Bank assets
23 December 2023 Breaking News -FT’s unconditional surrender, FT withdraws from NATO G7 sanctions alliance
‘Russia has won’ : The FT Editorial Board has come out against confiscation of CBR assets, after a valiant fight, including the fundaments of diversity and inclusion, despite giving deprived journos and think tankers a vibrant platform for democracy
‘The pitfalls of seizing Russian assets to fund Ukraine’
‘Of course’ no mention of Western corporate assets in Russia – by some measures worth $100/150B
But an inkling that this US pressure to confiscate is another NS2
"Russia must of course pay towards the vast costs of rebuilding Ukraine. The G7 has pledged to keep Moscow’s assets frozen until Russia compensates Kyiv for the damage — which could be potent leverage in a future settlement. But it is no coincidence that the idea of Russian asset seizures has gained momentum just as US and EU support for Kyiv’s war effort is hitting political roadblocks. It risks becoming a mechanism for western democracies to shirk their own responsibilities. Having stayed out of direct military engagement, they have a profound duty to keep funding Ukraine’s defence of European security and values.
Proponents of using Russian assets argue that “western taxpayers won’t pay”. But the world’s wealthiest economies, and their financial institutions, ought together to be up to this task — and to making the case to their electorates for why this must happen. With careful preparation, and by building the broadest possible coalition in support, there may be ways to lessen the risks of confiscating Moscow’s reserves. As 2023 moves into 2024, however, it is on unblocking and locking in their own financial support for Kyiv that western leaders should focus their efforts.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2023. All rights reserved.
Secondly, even the supposed $300 billion seized (it is actually lower) - a significant fraction is not Central Bank of Russia, but that of various Russian individuals not even restricted to Russian oligarchs.
But most importantly: while $300 billion is not nothing - it is actually not a lot given that this is offset by the removal of any dollar holding requirement by the CBR. For various reasons, principally the petrodollar and the dollar as reserve trade currency, the CBR has historically held very large dollar reserves. How much? I'm too lazy to dig deeper as the Bing search isn't returning the CBR,ru links that document this, but Russia CBR reserves in 2019 were $541B of which 20% were gold. I'd guess 20% to 25% were dollars meaning maybe around $135BB. The CBR's reserves furthermore hold less than half of overall Russian "reserves" - the Russian sovereign wealth fund is actually bigger, if I remember correctly, and does not have any requirement for dollar reserves.
Between sanctions and the freeze - the CBR no longer needs to hold much dollars as reserve. So what the West has really done is "steal" money that was already working for it - and in the process, destroyed another pillar of American dominance over world trade. While I don't believe China's Treasury holding reduction in the past year is entirely due to the CBR seizure or even inflation of Taiwan tensions - yet - the fact is that China's Treasury holdings have fallen about $100B just in the last 12 months: https://ticdata.treasury.gov/resource-center/data-chart-center/tic/Documents/slt_table5.html
and is down around $500B from peak. Furthermore, foreign Treasury holdings are flat for the last 12 months despite an annual $1.4T or greater US deficit i.e. more Treasury bonds available for sale. Of course, foreign holdings of US Treasuries is largely flat since 2012 despite basically a doubled US national debt.
Net net: the FT article is type of moronic analysis that is emblematic of Western mainstream media.
Perhaps Russia should seize America's Colony, Germany. $300 billion ought to suffice. And since Israel/Biden have confirmed Might is Right, Russia could bomb Germany into oblivion.
I like this idea of an Altered America. I also think it will be immeasurably better for Americans as a whole, and the world. A little bit of humility, a little bit of vulnerability - good for people, good for countries. They will never be weak, America will always be a superpower. Just enough of this hegemonic bs
There is absolutely zero evidence that Russia has even the slightest desire to attack or invade or even defeat NATO proper. It has acted and will continue to act purely defensively. And no one really wants to spend 4 or 5% of GDP indefinitely on armies and weapons. Nor does anyone want to suck valuable manpower into the parasitic military--in fact the West can't, even if it wanted to. So we wind up back to where we started in December of 2021. When the war is over Russia makes an offer they can't refuse--a new comprehensive security arrangement for Europe. Negotiate and cap everything, provide de-militarized security zones for all borders and provide for mutual inspections. Trust but verify, in the immortal words of Ronnie boy. As for the US husbanding its forces to take on China-- completely insane, absolutely impossible. And everyone with any military sense knows it. In spite of all the elaborate calculations in these two reports, the West simply cannot compete with Russia and China militarily. This whole tragic escapade winds up being an undertaking by the Russians to get back to that magic moment in 2021 when they offered a comprehensive security deal. Unlike the West, neither Russia or China are interested in expansion or destabilizing anybody. Their resources and industrious populations are sufficient thank you very much. And in the case of China, they have a stable system under the Communist Party that works wonders. A comprehensive security deal is the real endgame, the real goal of the Russians. And this time it will be impossible to ignore them. Sounds impossibly sane doesn't it? Well circumstances, not sanity, may yet bring it about--and that old tried and true Soviet concept, the correlation of forces.
I agree wholeheartedly Richard. There has never been anything else stated by the Russian state than seeing the goals of the SMO to the end. The Chinese have also time and again emphasized their commitment to diplomacy in regards to Taiwan, and all other matters regarding foreign policy. This has been a huge miscalculation in power projection and hopefully will bring the warmongers to their senses once and for all.
I agree but I don’t think the US acted out of ‘misunderstanding Russia’s intentions’. The more I read the more I learn that US foreign policy is 100% driven by the Zionist agenda. They own our media, Hollywood, Wall Street and politicians. If the powerful couldn’t be bribed, they were Epsteined. The US is clearly Israel’s bitch. To me US refusal to knock heads together for peace/permanent ceasefire in Palestine makes it clear. It’s waking up the world to the myth Simplicius writes of.
They're stirring the pot in Serbia now. Can't believe a portion of the serbians fall for that. Just look at how Djokovic was treated in the western media.
Antisemitism alert. The people who own everything are the huge corporations, such as Blackrock, and they own almost all of the West's politicians. Few of them are Jews and none of them are Zionists. Despite the horrors of the unprovoked Hamas attack on Israel, and I guess you wouldn't have wanted to be one of the peace festival victims raped and shot up the vagina by a Hamas terrorist, US support is flaky and waning.
Remember how Obama supported the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt? The Egyptian people removed Obama's pick, and President Sisi took over. Pissed Obama off big time. Hamas is part of the Muslim Brotherhood. Many in the current administration, since it is really Obama's 3rd term, really support Hamas. They just have to hide it from all the American's who support the Jewish state.
America didn't call for a ceasefire after Pearl Harbor. It utterly destroyed Japan with nuclear weapons. WRT Hamas, Israel has no choice but to utterly destroy Hamas. It won't take nukes but it will take time, since, unlike the US, in its destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Israel tries to preserve civilian lives. It's hard when Hamas hides behind civilians and builds its bases under hospitals, but there it is.
Richard, I think we need to be just a tad more skeptical. We can't state absolute "fair intentions" from anyone. Reasonable, understandable goals, yes. Who knows what will change in time. I'm sure there are plenty of people in SE Asia who are far more skeptical of China, and any presence of "persuasion", destabilisation, or not. As for whether the strangling tentacles of the Global Homosexual American Empire need to be cut or burned off away from the world, that's beyond any doubt.
It's natural to want to impart virtue to and have hope in those you see expelling a tyrant, but it's a seductive and dangerous delusion; just look at what a disaster that has been for Europe and post-Soviet Europe particularly.
It's not about attack, that's the same propaganda bs that is used on the stupids ever since the time of Napoleon at least. It is about dominance. Scare the people about war when the real concern is something else entirely.
George Orwell: “Political language is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.”
I.F. Stone (In a Time of Torment, 1961-1967): “All governments lie, but disaster lies in wait for countries whose officials smoke the same hashish they give out.”
Any state that believes its "myths" is doomed.
Reality counts most of all, while "myths" count only when they serve reality.
"Manifest Destiny" is a myth, a lie told to excuse the reality of genocidal crimes but resulting in powerful control of a continent.
"Shining city on a hill" is a lie told to hide the cruel greed of slavery, Jim Crow, and racism, that built US wealth.
Karl Rove speaking for George Walker Bush 43 (Republican politics, 2002): “We’re an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you’re studying that reality—judiciously, as you will—we’ll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that’s how things will sort out. We’re history’s actors … and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do.”
It was belief in these myths that crippled racism, human rights abuses, and the Vietnam War during the 60s.
These myths highlight just how contemptibly AmeriKKKa has behaved, according to its own beliefs.
These myths ultimately changed the reality of America for the better during the US Civil War.
Slavery's economic power is a myth that Lincoln destroyed with the reality of northern industrial power.
Abraham Lincoln (1809 - 1865): “Whenever I hear anyone arguing for slavery, I feel a strong impulse to see it tried on him personally.”
Soviet myths were destroyed by the realities of poverty, and the stupidity of the Gulag.
US myths surrounding WWII led successive US governments to over estimate the reality of their power.
Winston Churchill (1944): ”I have left the obvious, essential fact to this point, namely, that it is the Russian Armies who have done the main work in tearing the guts out of the [Nazi] army."
American myths will continue to destroy the White West until we confront the reality of our crimes.
George Walker Bush (May 18 2022): "The result is an absence of checks and balances … and the decision of one man to launch a wholly unjustified and brutal invasion of Iraq… I mean of Ukraine.”
Harold Pinter: “The crimes of the United States have been systematic, constant, vicious, remorseless, but very few people have actually talked about them.”
Superb analysis, and the commentary at the end was especially insightful.
Separate to all this, I read an interesting article on a philosophy website last week talking about how the Age of Enlightenment (use rationality to understand reality) has since transmogrified into what is, essentially, a wide-scale adoption of the tenets of "The Secret" (the book), i.e. "You can manifest any reality you want with your intentions" aka "human beings can become gods."
Don't want to get too deep into the weeds on that, but it reminded me of Karl Rove's 2004 statements, particularly the one to Ron Suskind about how his (i.e. the republican Bush) administration was now "manufacturing reality" on a continuous basis.
Well, as the OP showed, I think we're finally getting to the point where the "rubber" of that mentality is meeting the "road," i.e. a final showdown between what one might accurately call the battle between the "we manufacture our own reality" crowd in the West (including most definitely Israel) and the "you can print shells but not money" pro-Russian sphere. And 2024 looks like that's when all the cards are gonna be shown and we'll see which side is right.
In other words, this is even bigger than NATO or America's idea of itself or even the "West" because it is a fundamental shift in philosophical outlook for the entire human race. Is reality a separate, tangible thing that you can interact with and learn from but not alter? Or are human beings (demi)gods who can manufacture/shape reality purely with the power of their intention(s)?
Sounds kinda bananas, but I think that's where we're at.
Actually, it's both. There's no need to see a zero-sum trade-off.
However, the 'magical-thinking' crowd forget one thing - it's not just their wills at play, and there are limits. Its even harder to will shells into existence than print them.
But the material-reality crowd also ignore the potential of will - and Russians/Chinese are about to show them what a fired up, motivated national willpower CAN achieve, we are barely seeing the foothills of it in the West.
The West had it all - and we threw it away in the 80s and onwards by the neolib reFeudalisation. The willpower of the plebs was deemed insignificant, and not worthy of attention. I wonder when THAT will be turned around?
The main difference here is that the hyperliberal and super-individualist "West", devoid of any remaining significant national bonds or unity, "manifests reality" on purely egoistic and individual bases, while old civilizations like China and Russia are able to "manifest reality" on a national level.
The "West" actually dug its own grave by willfully undermining and eradicating traditional societal values (in a domestic divide-et-impera great-power-and-wealth-snatch move, which at that time they hoped would spread worldwide under the wings of "globalization"), and now, 40 years down the road, the law of unintended consequences once again rears its ugly head...
What is meant by "manifest reality" is a new religious movement spreading across the West, and not just west. The idea is that through afirming to youself things, "the Universe" will hear and make it happen. This is not philosophical, this is 100% a spiritual practice. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gVAeLUVAvao
So it's from a mythical character named after a mythical notion created by Zoroaster in 700BCE?
Rotflmao.
Roman Catholicism's blood-soaked history is hardly something to point to as admirable itself, is it?
Yes, it is philosophical, and yes, it is spiritual, and yes, it has some level of reality to it, and yes, the awareness of it is thousands of years old, and not limited to various types of Monotheists.
It can also be tied into QM theories and experimental data.
Why are people raised on Christianity so fucking STUPID, can you explain that me?
We have listened to WEF mouthpieces like Yuval Noah Harari yammer on for almost a decade about the end of Free Will. We have seen psyops like the recent plandemic try to extinguish it in real time, with far more success than I anticipated.
The phrase "Everything pursued to excess turns into its opposite." is hybrid of Greek philosophy and and Jungian psychology. Perhaps if the WEF pushes a little harder, things will reverse.
Canada's vaccination rate is down to 15%. That represents a huge reversal supporting the notion that everything pursued to excess turns into the opposite.
BTW let's just follow through on the ramifications of what living in a "reality can be manifested through intentions" world looks like:
* You can create "scientific" tests to discover that people with no symptoms are actually sick
* Chemicals injected or swallowed are never harmful if you label them "medicine"
* The public can ALWAYS be persuaded to believe you if you censor free speech enough
* Virtual reality is more satisfying and sustaining than flesh-and-blood reality
* People can live forever, whether that's virtually/online or by transferring their consciousness into a computer
* Sex sucks but masturbation is awesome
* People can be any gender they want and change that gender minute to minute
* People can also become animals or aliens or hybrids or any other creature, if they want
* Debt that is literally impossible to pay back is the smartest way to formulate an economy
* Magic credits on a computer or silly pictures on paper are the best form of money
* You can be any race or ethnicity you want to just by declaring it to be so
* One country's government has the legitimate right to tell another country's government what to do
* Democracy means a government that represents the will of the people
* A military in possession of more magical computer credits automatically wins a war/battle against a military with fewer magical computer credits
* It's perfectly fine to sexualize (and have sex WITH) children because children are just little adults
* Children likewise have the capability to choose to undergo life-changing surgeries
* Immigrants and migrants always magically integrate harmoniously in their new country, so the more the better
* The weather (excuse me, CLIMATE) changes on a massive scale every year because of what people say and do
* Plastic saves lives and makes the world a better place
* Doctors are really good at healing people and any deaths they cause are just innocent mistakes
* There are no negative consequences to murdering billions of animals in the name of science (not talking about consuming meat here) every year
* It's also perfectly fine to conduct painful experiments on animals. In fact, it's actually a good thing! Furthermore, animals and plants and other living creatures are immune to suffering.
* The best way to grow healthy food is with chemicals
* The best source of vitamins is in the form of a pill, ESPECIALLY Vitamin D
* Trees don't talk and neither do animals or insects. They're all just background forms of carbon-based artwork.
* "Public health expert" is a legitimate title
* Religion is a comical old-fashioned joke and God doesn't exist
* Satanism is hilarious, good fun for everyone
* The best story ideas for TV and movies always include people possessing supernatural powers. Even better if it's children with magic powers!
* Human beings have the capability to build artificial forms of intelligence, aka create LIFE
* Suicide isn't a leading cause of death anymore if it's an officially sanctioned government policy
* Mental illness is due to personal shortcomings, not the result of living in a toxic environment
* Obesity is purely caused by laziness and/or greed, not the result of poison masquerading as "food"
* A totalitarian dictatorship is great if the dictator agrees with you and a horrible monstrosity if he doesn't
* Social media is GREAT and so are all "tech moguls". In fact, they're visionaries and heroes.
* Nothing wrong with implanting mind-control wires into the brain of a monkey! No sirree.
* It's perfectly fine that less than 1% of all humans control half the resources because those at the top earned it through their superior reality manifestation abilities
* Russians always run away from a fight, both historically and nowadays. Everyone knows that!
Actually, most of those are caused by the all-too-grounded 'Material-reality' folk. The PTB merely knowingly lie about the effects.
It's usually best not to take one 'side' in such fabricated culture wars, like Nature v Nurture etc, as both arguments often have merit in parts, and demerit in others.
Reality is not actually a football game, where you pick a team and cheer it on regardless.
Magic may well exist, but that too has its laws and limitations. We are both matter and spirit, which applies to Cold War II/WWIII; Simplicius' eloquent conclusion delves into this. As the Greeks tell us, hubris is punished by the gods, and GAE is about to learn that the hard way.
Response to Simplicius' "Breaking Down Thinktank-land's Latest: Estonian MoD & ISW Analysis"
"They’re saying Russia can fully train and equip a massive 130k troops every 6 months into coherent units."
That's 260K troops per year. What happened to the other 200K troops Russia raised this year so far? LOL Did the Estonians drop a digit while typing this? How many divisions is that?
And that's only the Russian ground forces. Russia is on track to have 2.3-2.5 million men in all branches of their armed forces within the next year.
"Russian brigades too have many deficiencies, otherwise the war would have been over by now"
Uhm, no. The three reasons why Russia has not overrun them is as I've said from the beginning:
1) A way too long line of contact.
2) Fortifications built up over eight years which can't be overrun without taking UNNECESSARY casualties.
3) Why take UNNECESSARY casualties when the enemy is willing to take RIDICULOUS casualties?
And there's a 4th reason: managing the NATO reaction to a sudden defeat of Ukraine. Bleed NATO first, then defeat Ukraine seems to be have been an implicit Russian objective.
"not quite superior enough where they have the coordination and technology necessary to fully exploit those losses by way of maneuvers into the rear, through the breakthrough gap."
Bullshit. You'll trot out any nonsense just to keep supporting your "the war will drag on until 2025" nonsense. There is absolutely ZERO evidence for your assertion other than the simple fact that Russia hasn't bothered to try such an approach, which as I and everyone else has repeatedly said, is simply because Russia doesn't need to to win this war.
"Further, they claim Russian AD networks had large gaps for southern Poland, Slovakia, Romania, Hungary, etc., because Russia could not place AD systems in Ukraine:"
And why the fuck do these ISW morons think the SMO was conducted? Just to kick out Zelensky? Hardly. It was precisely to be able to place an entire new army on Poland's and Romania's borders,. to match the Military Districts being formed opposite Finland, and the integration of Belarus military into the Russian military.
Putting three field armies - or at least solid Military Districts - on NATO's borders is EXACTLY what Russia intends to do. As I am on record saying since April, 2022, this is the real goal of the SMO, the "military-technical measures" Russia promised it would take if the December, 2021, treaty proposals about the expansion of NATO were rejected, aimed at the Aegis Ashore installations in Poland and Romania that Ray McGovern pointedly discussed because Putin himself mentioned them repeatedly in speeches.
Once again for the retarded: Russia has been invaded four times in the last couple hundred years from the West. It's not going to allow that anymore. It's going to build an "Iron Curtain 2.0" from the Black Sea to the Arctic. If the West wants to fight, they will have to go nuclear - and with Russia's AD and hypersonic missiles carried on its aircraft, subs and naval fleet, they're ready for that, too, whereas the US and NATO most definitely are not.
I'm just surprised the ISW is willing to confirm my predictions, if only for their own propaganda reasons.
Russia does not NEED military forces upon that scale, unless the US begins a HUGE equipment build-up in Eastern Europe - which frankly is considerably unlikely, as in the next few months they are about to have financial collapse. Such forces would be very expensive for Russia to maintain, if they are not required. So at some point the new potential recruits will be redirected into the labour-shortage markets, where they will begin producing Russian wealth and taxes, rather than absorbing them.
It would take many months for the US to begin such a mobilisation, and to built the maintenance/repair facilities alone. Russia would have more than enough time, and there is no possibility of the kind of maskirovka that President Putin used before the SMO.
While I tend to agree with you that the war will end sooner rather than later, Simpli's POV was informed by continued US support, financial and military to Ukraine. That has now been definitively ruled out, but only recently by Congress. The EU has been hamstrung by Biden's choice to blow Nordstream, and simply cannot take up the slack. Their slaved currencies to the dollah will also soon be under immense pressure.
Militarily speaking, if Russia wishes to avoid mass casualties - and it does, rightfully - then a well-funded Ukrainian defence could POSSIBLY hold out until after the US election, as women meat bags can take bullets just as well male, and also fire their 5 rounds given off.
Any country with any sense would have surrendered LONG before to a non-genicidal foe (I say that with respect to events in Gaza), but 'Any sense' does not include anywhere under the control of 'Merican media/regime.
But a collapse may happen sooner, and let us all have our fingers crossed that is before another million Ukrainian casualties, men or women.
You could have made your valid points with less ad homs and personal back-pattings.
Russia obviously disagrees because they are doing it. I suspect Russia will not demobilize until such time as both the US and the EU have essentially demilitarized due to economic problems. That could occur in the short term or it might not happen for several years to a decade. Predicting "economic collapse" in the US has been an ongoing game since the 1970's. Russia would be foolish to bet on it in the short term.
Yes, but if you mean attack first, bear in mind that would be an absolutely neclear scenario, from which no-one would survive. I don't think the Russians - certainly not Putin - would begin such a suicide move.
I generally agree, but don't discount the possibility that the U.S. would make a side deal with Russia if it was only Europe that suffered a few "wake up" calls.
Perhaps you have had no personal experience with the Yankee Trader.
Well, the USA developed Atomics to drop them on Germany's Berlin, as a Message to Europe who was the new Global Terror Chief. Except those pesky Russkies kicked Wehrmacht butt so hard THEY defeated Germany before it was ready.
So the Japanese pleas for surrender were ignored, until the new Terror Weapon was tested TWICE - Science! always requires at least two data points, in case Hiroshima's civilians were unusually resistant to radioactivity's effects. <_<
From which summary I guess you can see that I quite specifically agree with you, - except the part about a "side deal".
The original US plan would have been to drop the nuke on Berlin just as the Russian crack forces entered to take it, thereby 'killing two birds with one stone', as the saying goes. "Oops, we hadn't noticed your forces, we wuz killing Germans, so sorry!".
As Russia would, in such a scenario of liberating Europe from the malign American Nazi control, be quite flush with victory, and not wishing to 'throw it all away on a gesture', it's possible such a plan would once gain be dusted off, Americans are such traditionalists.
Kagan psychopaths + senile russophobe Biden will not hesitate to use nukes even more seing their defeat coming in next potus election. Biden is at his lowest ever for a dem potus 10 months ahead of decisive election (38 %) as Israhell gaza is playing against him..they will JFKize Trump also if necessary. Now the all EU + UK + CA are in recession, housing value in Germany is collapsing, industries closing on an almost daily basis, people are switching to the right or extreme right waiting for revenge for standards of living lost, jobs lost, inflation, energy prices etc...regime changes started with Slovakia, other will follow in 2024.
Macron just said today 'no Ukraine, Moldova or Georgia in EU, before they match all criteria(impossible) and no money as the agri lobby is still very powerfull in countries like France, Spain, Italy and even Germany they can block the country for weeks and collapse the eco and the govt and can become quiet violent as they have nothing to lose now.
Yes, many commentators here present their scenarios as if they will come to pass in an orderly fashion. My biggest worry are the unpredictable death throes of a collapsing empire, which may cause a lot of unintended consequences.
Do any of the NeoLibCons think they will survive a Nuclear War? What the Russians fail to kill, will be hunted down by cancer inflicted Americans with nothing left to lose.
If the Russians could see U.S. stealth aircraft like a flashing red light, there is too much money to be made from fleecing the American Taxpayer, for the MIC to admit the truth.
Short answer: "no".
The reason why is that it challenges too many baked-in beliefs. This is what war was made for, to take unreasonable belief structures and by the application of concentrated death and destruction, convert them to realistic appraisals.
Hardly a comforting thought for US planners however, who keep one eye on China at all times . . .
As an American, I agree. Alas, it started long before Biden.
We have become what we are because the Democrats stole an election. I don't need to catalog all the ways they did it but the evidence the courts refused to see is overwhelming. We didn't deserve the corrupt senile pedophile who became president but that's what an utterly corrupt system delivered. I doubt it can be fixed since the Democrats control all the levers of power. The GOP is part of the problem; not the solution.
If we were younger and wanted to escape the fallen state of America, we'd go to Russia
I must say, inspired by Simpiclius tireless work I worked tirelessly on my "As America Crumbles...: A Grim Chronicle Exploring the Evil Source of America’s Catastrophic Decline " book, diving deep into the labyrinth of corruption and legalized theft by the US government. 325 bibliographical entries :)
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CQR71WN3
Hmmm, seems similar to Andrei Martyanov's book Disintegration also on Amazon.
I am aware of Martyanov's book. Mine differs with its laser-like focus on the 'source of all evil'—sheer criminality, systemic corruption, and brazen theft. In my opinion, everything he writes about stems from these issues. Furthermore, what I term the Sovietization of America breeds incompetence as one of the crucial factors in America's 'crumbling'.
What is the Sovietisation of America? Could you elaborate?
What do I mean by “Sovietization of America”? I quote from my book, which is nicely formatted, something I can't do here, sorry:
Joseph Stalin (b. December 18, 1878, d. March 5, 1953) was the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1922 until his death in 1953. His rule was marked by ruthless totalitarianism, rampant repression, and the implementation of policies that resulted in immense suffering and loss of life. Lies were crucial in the Communist totalitarian system under Joseph Stalin. Let us take a look at Stalin’s censorship and propaganda tools from the Soviet industry of lies and ask ourselves if we can find any similarities with what's going on in the United States.
o Manipulation of Truth: the Stalin's Communist regime relied on a deliberate manipulation of truth to control and shape public perception by using propaganda, censorship, and misinformation to distort reality.
o Creation of a False Narrative: Lies were employed to create a false narrative that justified the actions and policies of the Communist Party and fostered a sense of obedience among the population.
o Suppression of Dissent: Lies were used as a tool to suppress dissent and silence opposition. Those who dared to question or challenge the official narrative were often labeled as enemies of the state.
o Deception of the Masses: The Communist system relied on a network of lies to deceive and control the masses. False promises of equality, justice, and prosperity were propagated even though the reality often fell far short of these ideals.
o Fear and Intimidation: Lies were also used to instill fear and maintain a climate of intimidation. The regime spread rumors, false accusations, and fabricated stories, making individuals hesitant to express their true thoughts and opinions.
If we closely examine our own homeland through the lens of the Soviet Union, the 'Evil Empire' that we defeated at the conclusion of the Cold War, and its array of nefarious instruments, we might discover that we bear a striking resemblance to them, in each bullet point I outlined above. Rachel Maddow, for one, the purveyor of MSNBC's altered reality, has been preaching from her media pulpit about RussiaGate for years. The amount of lies she peddled with orgiastic, if not orgasmic, hatred toward former President Donald J. Trump, produced more lies than all the Pravdas put together. If you've been fortunate enough to evade her grasp, consider yourself blessed, for you've been spared from the clutches of one more malevolent force. So, really, what if our beloved Fourth Estate were to resemble the propaganda machinery of the Soviet Union? Let us take a look:
o The New York Times: The esteemed publication serving as the official mouthpiece of the Democratic Party under the glorious reign of the Biden regime, tirelessly disseminating party ideology and extolling the wisdom of Biden's leadership. “Stop Worrying About Biden’s Age. We Need His Wisdom Right Now,” is a masterpiece of ass-kissing sycophancy.
o The Washington Post: Yet another esteemed publication, faithfully presenting news and information in perfect alignment with the noble agenda of the Biden regime and, before him, Obama’s regime. While in the Soviet era, the KGB had certain connections with prominent Soviet newspapers like Izvestia and Pravda, The Washington Post $600 million business deal—back in 2017; since then they’ve been silent about their cooperation—with the CIA are purely business transactions, devoid of any hint of political influence.
Or they tell us so.
o Public Television: broadcasts are used to disseminate propaganda and shape public opinion in line with the state's ideology. There’s a famous "This is Extremely Dangerous to Our Democracy" video montage showing 50, if not 100 of “pundits” mindlessly parroting the very same slogan: ”This is extremely dangerous to our democracy" in one voice. Word by word.
Etc., etc. etc.
I deal with Sovietization of America (soon to be Stalinization of America) in depth in my book. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CQR71WN3
I don't know how much money the Kremlin Crime Syndicate Inc. pays "Simplicius the sThinker" and empty shells of information like himself, but it isn't much because all the known quasi-Western agents of.influence on behalf of the KCS Inc. barely hide the sloppy and makeshift character of their global influencer operation conducted in the service of the crude and corrupt mega-oligarchs of the Russian State Global Crime Syndicate.
Just bend over and admit you are a faggot.
You offer zero evidence as expected. Way to go. You prove everything that is being said without even realizing it.
Do you get paid to post your garbage here?
Aloushe...
Welfare checks drying up east of the Dnieper?
I think Simplicius can shred your infantile drivel on his own, but you getting your snout pulled out of the trough must really, really hurt.
Louche, Putin doesn't allow oligarchs to reside in Russia and voice opinions publicly or pay others to voice their oligarch opinions.
Oh, I see. You’re using the word Soviet meaning “political authoritarianism”, nothing to do with workers councils or government by them. Got it.
Yes, it's a pretty myopically American, ahistorical and inaccurate use of the term "Soviet", given that "Soviet" means "Council"/"Assembly".
Trygve, you are a victim of boomer Americanisms. Not everything is "Hitler", "Stalin", "Nazi", "Soviet", and things certainly aren't their lazy Americanised colloquial meaning of those terms. Perhaps a better categorisation is Totalitarian Oligarchic Kleptocracy. Sadly, this is the normal standard for human organisation, it's just the technological capacity of the modern world that makes it so much more enforceable in the mind of so many and at such scale.
That’s quite the one sided view of Stalinism (and going out of fashion quite rapidly). You needn’t quote from your own book, the Wikipedia page amounts to the same tropes.
As a black South African., I understand fully when I hear about "apartheid" Israel.. The same with the concept of "Sovietization" of America. I hope your reader gets the point...What's left for the US is for the president to wear a brigadier uniform...
"Black" is not very descriptive of Africans though, is it? Africans are not some amorphous blob of human material with dark skin. Are you Khosian? Sotho?
Communism is not the originator or sole possessor of those aspects of wicked rule that you describe, and it's a giant fallacy to persist in the lazy conflation-association game that is the propaganda legacy of the Cold War. Before anything else you need to free your mind from this crap. (Fwiw I am a turbo right winger, so this is not a subtle tankie defence of Stalinism)
Yet he was loved and supported by the people. He drew Russia out from tsarist agrarianism to become a powerful industrial state with the most powerful army in the world (No, the US was not the most powerful military: Russia has war in their dna: the US has Hollywood in theirs). He provided free housing, top-shelf public education and free medical care. He engineered a society that went from farmers to astronauts within about 30 years.
All those points you make were actually designed by Americans and copied by both Hitler and Stalin who suited them for their own countries. America was always at the the vanguard for image and information war.
It looks like you really don't have the slightest clue about Stalin and socialism/communism in general. Sorry.
so why then 50-60% of russians consider Stalin as greates leader of ALL TIME? OF ALL TIME
that nonsense you just wrote is completely BS and twist of real history
2) if you want to compare modern america its gona be british colonial tyrany + beginning of 3rd reich
not ussr. there is nothing of ussr in modern USA
no social policies no worker protections or institutes no patriotism no respect to history of country no education no culture no families oriented policies
USSR was to good to compare it with USA.
(obviously there were flaws and overstretches but speaking about totalitarism, usa also was(is) a totalitarian regime. lets start with this. but totalitarism is in a different way.)
only fool will portrating USSR as smth utterly bad and nothing good. and bashing Stalin but not Trotsky. which is typical western propaganda.
I prefer an America with no Big Gubmint social policies, worker protections and family oriented policies. It's called limited government and it is quickly eroding to appear more like a socialist/fascist state.
So "1984 Redux" ?
I would think every American could tell you what it is -- it is the systematic "theft" of our rights and our authority as the source of the government's power and its replacement by edicts dreamt up and issued by USG drones, unelected but powerful. It is a justice system that serves not the people, not justice, but the State and the One-Party State at that. It is a system that invites people (and I don't mean those agitators at the front from the FBI) into a place and then jails them for going in. It is a system that sics its spooks and Feds on dangerous people like "concerned parents" and "religious kooks" (that would be anybody who goes to church or believes in God), it is a place that takes a little child's muddled learning process and distorts it to mean it is time to feed hormones and chemicals before castration or mastectomies and parents just SHUT UP. I lived for about two and a half years in the USSR -- as a diplomat in Leningrad. I recognize the similarities first-hand. When they listen to your conversations and you're a nobody, you know we're up the creek without a paddle.
Spot on! Americans have never lived through a system that so closely resembles the Soviet Union and have no way of comparing. Those of us who have lived through the communist hell—I am one of those—can see it as transparent as the day is long. The 'Sovietization of America' CCG asked about is, to me, best seen in the political suitability of political and, then, business, academic, and governmental people in power. Again, quoting myself:
Woke Political Suitability:
Once the ideology takes over, meritocracy dies and ‘political suitability’ and dull, vapid, mindless, utterly incompetent, but subservient bureaucrats come into play. “Over time, this led to a stagnation of ideas, rampant corruption, and inefficiency within the party and the government. One can recognize America's stale political waters in this communist-forged term—"political suitability"—but when political conformity and loyalty within the party lead to a system where party officials are chosen based solely on their adherence to the ruling ideology rather than their competence or effectiveness in governance, this stifles innovation, discourages critical thinking, and limits the diversity of perspectives necessary for sound decision-making. Suitability also breeds hypocrisy and weakness.
"Meritocracy"? Hmmm, what's that? ;O)
Meow, loudly. Old lady with a virtual cat.❤️🐈⬛
You must be quite old if you lived when Stalin was alive. If not, then I assume you lived in the decaying monstrosity that was the post-Stalin Soviet Union. Scholarship with access to the Soviet archives (opened from the 1990s) are destroying the Cold War and Khrushchev-serving parody narrative of the man who industrialized the huge nation in a decade and defeated the Nazis with little help from the West. All while raising the living standard and opportunities of the populace. Also while being actively plotted against by the West, Trotsky and other traitors. Losurdo has an excellent book on this subject debunking the lies and ridiculous characterizations. It is obvious that you do not understand the history of Soviet communism, nor the meaning of the word communism, when what you describe as communism in the US is really an inverted capitalist monopoly totalitarianism. Go read Sheldon Wolin's book and you might start to understand what is really happening in the US.
Years ago, I used to attend JW's Bible study gatherings here in South Africa.. I remember hearing one elder telling us that a member of the group in the USSR was once stopped by the secret police and asked where he was going? He responded, referring to Jesus, saying , " one of our family members has died. We are meeting to discuss his death"...
Here, hear. Old lady with a virtual cat❤️🐈⬛
Good day and happy holidays.
When I read the summary of your book I saw the difference with Martyanov's Disintegration. I'm going to buy your book as a companion book.
I see the references to "Sovietation". I believe it's more like Nazification. I see my nation as Nazified. Our government is controlled by Neocon Nazis, Neolib Nazis, Femi-Nazis and Zio-Nazis. AIPAC, made up of Neocons and Zionists is the most powerful and influential lobby in DC and controls Congress. They have a Nazi mindset and have turned my nation into the world's foremost terrorist state.
The American populace is afflicted with the manufactured mental disorders Russophobia, Sinophobia and Islamophobia. The empire's Propaganda Machine has a budget dwarfing the entire budget for WW2
This
I replied on the topic of the classification of what's going on in America's descent into hell a bit above (below?) as a reply to Ravishing Rudey's Totalitarian Oligarchic Kleptocracy comment. With this, I will refrain from further comments here because I do not want to further hijack Simplicius' comments thread.
Sadly, I am 100% certain we'll have ample time in the upcoming year to witness or classify Nazification, Sovietization, you name it, or a total breakdown of civilization that seems to be unavoidable. No matter how we'd call it, it would still stink to high heaven.
Merry Christmas, everyone.
Well said.
I wonder to what extent we are afflicted with this. I myself am in the northeast and obviously surrounded by that mindset in the sense of propaganda yet myself and my immediate family/half of my extended family exist outside of it. I know there’s more of us that feel similarly about all of this to some extent. Just feel like the perception outside of the states is that we’re all lost and I know that’s not true based on my my own understanding of my location. But I don’t know
There was a time I was afflicted. In my family and extended family it's on both extremes. Most are hardcore democrats and the minority is MAGA.
I agree, 100%.
The citizens of the US are living in a Nazi styled multiverse that demands the citizen kneel to a variety of "self diagnosed victims" who suddenly all need to be recognized, given jobs (possibly yours), funded, fed, housed, and definitely need to be put ahead of you in everyway possible. And if you dissent, YOU are a Nazi. It is exhausting.
But the nice thing about excess is it always leads to the pendulum swinging back, way back in this case. Enter Trump and with him the pendulum swings back, bringing a 1950s REDUX. This time in terms of seeing America as once a swell place and with the possibility of being a swell place yet again.
No wonder the Neocons are unhappy. Their plan to roll the US up under the UN as the mindless military arm of a UN world hegemon, with disease reduced and controlled minions is looking less likely with each passing day. What to do? Well they may opt to go with the alien scare but it might be a hard sell at this point.
Or instead, they could use the illegials to bring on civil war, end elections and institute a police state. That is UK's O'Looney's take on what happens next based on what he has been told by Black Watch troops. If you don't know of John, he was one of the first and bravest voices raised warning about the vax.
https://rumble.com/v25epjh-john-olooney-black-watch-troops-have-told-me-this-is-the-plan-....html
I like the term. I’ve been using it for several years myself.
In 1985, the defecit in the USSR was 2% of GDP. By 1990, it had climbed to 10%, but Soviet bonds were still rated as strongly as Canadian or Italian bonds.
In 1991, despite super majorities in nine of the 15 Republics voting to keep the USSR together under the auspices of the New Union Treaty, the deficit increased to 30% of GDP and the Union collapsed under the weight of mass inflation.
For those wondering where the #UnitedStates currently is, it’s at about 8% of #GDP and that’s without the widely expected #Recession hitting yet.
Shame on you for being so stupid and callous. Headlines like "As America Crumbles.." excite you because they serve the Russian liars who are paid to cover up the habitual Russian crimes all in order to destroy the West and erect the Evil Spectre of Mongol Russia on its ruins. Meanwhile, Russia is stalled on the battlefield.
Um, sure. 🙄
Bring your tent and sleep on the streets of San Fransisco.
Tough times on the cubicle farm huh?
And 3 destroyed NATO armies later Russia is accomplishing nothing.
You have a certain point, the headline, "As America Crumbles" is a bit dark.
True, the US has been strip mined of heavy industry, health and educational standards by its corrupt political class. But it still has a massive population the majority of whom would like to see the ship back on course, the sails hoisted once again and all barnacles stripped away.
It can happen, and it may happen, which is why the Neocons are so very sad and very dangerous. Their big beef supposedly about "Russia" is really about inconvenient facts getting in the way of their fiction.
23 December 2023 FT Russia inflation
‘Russia battles to curb inflation ahead of Putin re election’
https://www.ft.com/content/b3206a9f-e667-4e53-8a16-a8096188d4ae
Evidence that facts can be evoked but not presented in order to write an article, which covers capital outflows (anecdotal, no figures) the weakened rouble, tight labour market (reasons : mobilisition, flight, MIC expansion, but no figures) remaining problems in export and import logistics (no details) which seems the most convincing
‘“External trade and financial constraints . . . complicate logistical chains and financial settlements and weaken demand for Russian exports,” it said.
That has fuelled inflation via the exchange rate: fewer exports mean Russia receives less foreign currency to pay for imports used in food production and other industries.
With a misinterpretation of Russia ceasing approvals for sales of western company subsidiaries – attributed to a desire to restrict capital outflows, it is more likely that this decision is to enact a polite equivalent of freezing western assets, given western chatter about confiscation of Russian State assets, together with active measures to take control over western company participation in vital activity, as per Artic gas extraction projects
Russia controls on western assets were made inevitable by sanctions, by which western governments obliged western companies to withdraw from Russia, by the freezing of CBR foreign currency reserves by the REPO TF in June 2022, and by significant confiscations enacted by Germany over Rosneft and Gazprom assets, let alone the ongoing threats to confiscate the frozen Russia state assets
The value of western assets in Russia effectively confiscated, frozen or taken under control is sometimes given as $100B plus, and it is often said that ‘most’ western companies have retained their operations in Russia, but with no figures or valuations given
No detailed & overall studies have been made- the following US ‘Deep State’ company published a survey-
https://go.recordedfuture.com/hubfs/reports/ta-2023-1019.pdf
In it’s favour- the FT article is not as magic world as this by Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, which manages to be even deeper stater than the NYT
https://fortune.com/2023/12/20/parroting-putin-propaganda-business-exodus-ukraine-russia-bonanza-sanctions-economy-international-politics/
His writing is distinguished by the habit of making statements backed up by links only to him self, philosphers call this a circle jerk
The FT spends a lot of paper on the case of the eggs, made notorious by Putin’s man of the people like pun at his recent TV show
But – no mention of worker wage increases, variously given (from other sources) as between 7% and 15% in 2023 - which cancels out even the maximal figures for inflation here given
The FT is no more immune to anti-Russian propaganda garbage disguised as news than any other Western MSM outfit.
The reality is that inflation in Russia now is high by Western standards, but is low compared to any point in Russia, for more than a decade, pre-SMO. There was a reason why Russia has enormously high interest rates during that period, and there is a reason why Russia has recently raised inflation enormously - but the 2 reasons are not the same.
Real inflation in the West is even higher simply go to the supermarket and check, official inflation nrs are faked.
exactly
Furthermore, compare foreign debt obligations:
#1. USA 32.9 trillion (122.56% of GDP)
#2 UK 8.7 trillion (287.08 % of GDP)
#3 Japan 4.4 trillion (98.44% of GDP)
#5 France 3.3 trillion (112.06% of GDP)
#9 Canada 2.7 trillion (126.94% of GDP)
#29 Russia 13.7 billion with a 'B' (13.67% of GDP)
Russia? 13.7 billion/13.67%, so Russia has a $100 billion GDP?
You also are NOT isolating Foreign Debt Obligations, you are stating total Government Debt, with the possible exception of Japan. Japan's Government Debt is 3 ? times GDP, mostly held by Japan.
Russian gov debt is 50 billions (internally and externally)
Russian TOTAL external debt (including private companies) 400 b
but its not government its total.
russian government external debt - i dunno i couldnt find these numbers. but in general such kind of debt usually less than half of total debt. so its 20-25 b approx of external gov debt. its nothing basically
Most of the US debt is held by the Fed or various federal Ponzi schemes.
All of it is dwarfed by the amount of global derivative obligations relying on the dollar. No one knows how much they are.
Thanks Ken I'm summoning up the courage to get to grips with Russian statistics, all comments and figures from Western sources are guaranteed to be nonsense
But it's easier to critique the fools at the FT Economist and so on
You are welcome.
So far, the stats from the IMF and World Bank have not surprised me. They just repeat what the Russian Central Bank publishes. Their analyses suck, but all of them suck. So, just pay no attention to them.
Food prices are up about 50% since 2020?
Philips O'Brien is bugging out because I have challenged his false narratives. Get your popcorn ready and keep receipts: https://open.substack.com/pub/phillipspobrien/p/weekend-update-60-ukraine-shows-what?r=12n5dp&utm_campaign=comment-list-share-cta&utm_medium=web&comments=true&commentId=45927709
I believe you can get the quarterly tax collections paid by western companies still operating in Russia from the World Bank. I remember seeing the numbers. I am suffering the Post-Christmas Too Lazy To Take Two Minutes To Find It syndrome or I would do it, you know I would.
Most of the companies just changed their names and removed western directors names.
The country has been hyjacked by a Nazi and Zio-Nazi cabal.
Jews control the US and not the opposite. The biggest ennemy of Russia since 1917 were, are and always will be the zionists includind the 5th column zio present in Russia eventhough many left.
Jewish Bolshevism - driven by Jewish intellectuals of the day - a fact denied by the ADL etc. Denied but not debunked. I want to distinguish between Zionists and other Jews.
The Bolshies were Marxists ergo atheists ergo not followers of any form of superstitious mumbo-jumbo.
I'd say political Zionism which is nothing short of apartheid by another name.. I am a third generation black South African Zionist. The people called Jews are not the first to come up with the concept of Zionism.. It was the Jebusites, A Canaanite race, whose hillside enclave, king David stormed and established his kingdoms HQ's from that time... Zionism proper goes back long before the nomadic Israelites came to Canaan...
Exactly. An excellent documentary to truly understand the world mess that we have been in for almost 100 years is Europa The Last Battle mirrored here https://www.bitchute.com/video/xNv0rXZKaFaH/
Oh yes, lets throw around that old antisemitic trope from the McCarthy era. The Zionists are good ol' ethnic cleansers, just like so many generations of American settlers (and Canadian, Australian, New Zealander ...). They fit in perfectly with the Anglo-Saxon elite worldview. Lenin was an atheist Marxist, as was Stalin. Zionism has nothing to do with Bolshevism, in the same way that anti-Zionism has nothing to do with antisemitism.
Lenin and Stalin werent cabal jews. Bronstein (trotsky) was. as well as majority of communists jews.
they were murderers of russian cristians and russian nobility
dunno how involved faith or whatever they had in this.
There was a joke in the Soviet Union back then (before the Second World War ) :
"- Do you know why there is only one Russian of Orthodox Christian origin among the People's Commissars ?
- Because he is the one who can sign death sentences even on Saturdays !"
Bollocks, the US State uses zionists as a Brownshirt militia to discipline the fools who think that the First Amendment exists.
true. im from russia. left liberal jew cabal is insane here. its not that big as in US its much smaller but still those big noses on every tv channel and in banking financial systems too
annoying as hell
To complement the ISW Report, this from the FT, much lazier and less well focused than the ISW, but just as convincing evidence of how the west is lost
23 December 2023 FT Another Russia has lost Russia has won lament
‘What if Russia wins’
https://www.ft.com/content/a788b749-c94c-4d9e-99e4-47300b0c6ea8
Another very lazy we’ve won article – all we have to do is not much and…it’s easy, Russia is decrepit on it’s last legs, ‘a small low tech economy’ : But yet is a deadly threat to Europe and to all mankind – et puis voilà! pulling his rabbit from his hat
But but ‘we’ve given up already – the ‘we’ in the article is all over the place, this time the ‘we’ perhaps referring to the US + western members only of the EU, + UK, while lauding the plucky courageous and realistic eastern members into a pre emptive attack on Russia
‘The Europeans [note not NATO rump] could help Ukraine withstand Putin even if Trump pulled out [of NATO, which the author presumes dissolved, not to say so many words, and to forget Congress has just passed a motion to prevent this]. We’d have to build up our arms industries fast, but the effort required of us would be tiny compared with Russia’s. ‘
A strange argument since he writes that Russia has already re built it’s MIC, it maybe he says that Russia is winning this war, and will any future, although he’s not very clear, alternating between very upbeat and very depressed about the ‘we’ …..
….‘If he [President Putin] attacked the Baltics, Nato would probably send troops. But for how long? Once a few hundred western soldiers came back dead, far-right parties would demand “peace”, meaning unenforceable peace treaties with Putin. Western countries could retreat’
Sometimes the ‘we’ is plainly just ‘me’ the football coach shouting from the sidelines
AI’s raison d’être – it can not be supposed that the FT can bother to find real people to re write the same three articles forever – especially these lazy give me twenty minutes ones
The European and UK journo class are split in two- manic depressive vaguely white collar broadsheet writers, and manic vaguely white collar tabloid writers
PS The FT readership lapped this up – starred as the most read article of the day -
When I was younger, I subscribed to both the Time and Newsweek magazines and read them voraciously.. Back then, I had no clue who owned them or what their principles were , but the content was more adult stuff, well thought out and sensible .. They displayed intellectual depth and understanding of what the world was all about. Today I understand, it was all deep state propaganda and US/Western imperialist agenda that were being spouted. Times have changed ,and what's coming out of the West as scholarly analysis is nothing but kindergarten stuff. The West, with the US in the lead have lost sense and the ability to think and write...
Yes – I used to respect and admire and find interesting some of the same press – but over the last twenty/thirty years not so much: today not at all
Your story about the bible study group in the USSR; if only more people could talk with such immediacy
The West has also lost the war over the seizure of Russia Central Bank assets
23 December 2023 Breaking News -FT’s unconditional surrender, FT withdraws from NATO G7 sanctions alliance
‘Russia has won’ : The FT Editorial Board has come out against confiscation of CBR assets, after a valiant fight, including the fundaments of diversity and inclusion, despite giving deprived journos and think tankers a vibrant platform for democracy
‘The pitfalls of seizing Russian assets to fund Ukraine’
https://www.ft.com/content/b46a3308-b048-44fd-b619-0b92c404c379
‘Of course’ no mention of Western corporate assets in Russia – by some measures worth $100/150B
But an inkling that this US pressure to confiscate is another NS2
"Russia must of course pay towards the vast costs of rebuilding Ukraine. The G7 has pledged to keep Moscow’s assets frozen until Russia compensates Kyiv for the damage — which could be potent leverage in a future settlement. But it is no coincidence that the idea of Russian asset seizures has gained momentum just as US and EU support for Kyiv’s war effort is hitting political roadblocks. It risks becoming a mechanism for western democracies to shirk their own responsibilities. Having stayed out of direct military engagement, they have a profound duty to keep funding Ukraine’s defence of European security and values.
Proponents of using Russian assets argue that “western taxpayers won’t pay”. But the world’s wealthiest economies, and their financial institutions, ought together to be up to this task — and to making the case to their electorates for why this must happen. With careful preparation, and by building the broadest possible coalition in support, there may be ways to lessen the risks of confiscating Moscow’s reserves. As 2023 moves into 2024, however, it is on unblocking and locking in their own financial support for Kyiv that western leaders should focus their efforts.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2023. All rights reserved.
Yes, more FT idiocy.
First of all, those of us with some memory recall that the "frozen" amount was originally supposed to be $600 billion: https://www.piie.com/blogs/realtime-economic-issues-watch/united-states-should-seize-russian-assets-ukraines
Secondly, even the supposed $300 billion seized (it is actually lower) - a significant fraction is not Central Bank of Russia, but that of various Russian individuals not even restricted to Russian oligarchs.
But most importantly: while $300 billion is not nothing - it is actually not a lot given that this is offset by the removal of any dollar holding requirement by the CBR. For various reasons, principally the petrodollar and the dollar as reserve trade currency, the CBR has historically held very large dollar reserves. How much? I'm too lazy to dig deeper as the Bing search isn't returning the CBR,ru links that document this, but Russia CBR reserves in 2019 were $541B of which 20% were gold. I'd guess 20% to 25% were dollars meaning maybe around $135BB. The CBR's reserves furthermore hold less than half of overall Russian "reserves" - the Russian sovereign wealth fund is actually bigger, if I remember correctly, and does not have any requirement for dollar reserves.
Between sanctions and the freeze - the CBR no longer needs to hold much dollars as reserve. So what the West has really done is "steal" money that was already working for it - and in the process, destroyed another pillar of American dominance over world trade. While I don't believe China's Treasury holding reduction in the past year is entirely due to the CBR seizure or even inflation of Taiwan tensions - yet - the fact is that China's Treasury holdings have fallen about $100B just in the last 12 months: https://ticdata.treasury.gov/resource-center/data-chart-center/tic/Documents/slt_table5.html
and is down around $500B from peak. Furthermore, foreign Treasury holdings are flat for the last 12 months despite an annual $1.4T or greater US deficit i.e. more Treasury bonds available for sale. Of course, foreign holdings of US Treasuries is largely flat since 2012 despite basically a doubled US national debt.
Net net: the FT article is type of moronic analysis that is emblematic of Western mainstream media.
Perhaps Russia should seize America's Colony, Germany. $300 billion ought to suffice. And since Israel/Biden have confirmed Might is Right, Russia could bomb Germany into oblivion.
I like this idea of an Altered America. I also think it will be immeasurably better for Americans as a whole, and the world. A little bit of humility, a little bit of vulnerability - good for people, good for countries. They will never be weak, America will always be a superpower. Just enough of this hegemonic bs
Good work, as usual .
Go Russia, proud to be Russian, hoping Russia can restore some sanity to scAmerica...
There is absolutely zero evidence that Russia has even the slightest desire to attack or invade or even defeat NATO proper. It has acted and will continue to act purely defensively. And no one really wants to spend 4 or 5% of GDP indefinitely on armies and weapons. Nor does anyone want to suck valuable manpower into the parasitic military--in fact the West can't, even if it wanted to. So we wind up back to where we started in December of 2021. When the war is over Russia makes an offer they can't refuse--a new comprehensive security arrangement for Europe. Negotiate and cap everything, provide de-militarized security zones for all borders and provide for mutual inspections. Trust but verify, in the immortal words of Ronnie boy. As for the US husbanding its forces to take on China-- completely insane, absolutely impossible. And everyone with any military sense knows it. In spite of all the elaborate calculations in these two reports, the West simply cannot compete with Russia and China militarily. This whole tragic escapade winds up being an undertaking by the Russians to get back to that magic moment in 2021 when they offered a comprehensive security deal. Unlike the West, neither Russia or China are interested in expansion or destabilizing anybody. Their resources and industrious populations are sufficient thank you very much. And in the case of China, they have a stable system under the Communist Party that works wonders. A comprehensive security deal is the real endgame, the real goal of the Russians. And this time it will be impossible to ignore them. Sounds impossibly sane doesn't it? Well circumstances, not sanity, may yet bring it about--and that old tried and true Soviet concept, the correlation of forces.
I agree wholeheartedly Richard. There has never been anything else stated by the Russian state than seeing the goals of the SMO to the end. The Chinese have also time and again emphasized their commitment to diplomacy in regards to Taiwan, and all other matters regarding foreign policy. This has been a huge miscalculation in power projection and hopefully will bring the warmongers to their senses once and for all.
I agree but I don’t think the US acted out of ‘misunderstanding Russia’s intentions’. The more I read the more I learn that US foreign policy is 100% driven by the Zionist agenda. They own our media, Hollywood, Wall Street and politicians. If the powerful couldn’t be bribed, they were Epsteined. The US is clearly Israel’s bitch. To me US refusal to knock heads together for peace/permanent ceasefire in Palestine makes it clear. It’s waking up the world to the myth Simplicius writes of.
Thank you!
🎯
They're stirring the pot in Serbia now. Can't believe a portion of the serbians fall for that. Just look at how Djokovic was treated in the western media.
Antisemitism alert. The people who own everything are the huge corporations, such as Blackrock, and they own almost all of the West's politicians. Few of them are Jews and none of them are Zionists. Despite the horrors of the unprovoked Hamas attack on Israel, and I guess you wouldn't have wanted to be one of the peace festival victims raped and shot up the vagina by a Hamas terrorist, US support is flaky and waning.
Remember how Obama supported the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt? The Egyptian people removed Obama's pick, and President Sisi took over. Pissed Obama off big time. Hamas is part of the Muslim Brotherhood. Many in the current administration, since it is really Obama's 3rd term, really support Hamas. They just have to hide it from all the American's who support the Jewish state.
America didn't call for a ceasefire after Pearl Harbor. It utterly destroyed Japan with nuclear weapons. WRT Hamas, Israel has no choice but to utterly destroy Hamas. It won't take nukes but it will take time, since, unlike the US, in its destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Israel tries to preserve civilian lives. It's hard when Hamas hides behind civilians and builds its bases under hospitals, but there it is.
You forgot crucifying nuns, catching babies on bayonets and making soap and lampshades out of their victims' bodies.
Bringing the war mongers to their knees would be better
Richard, I think we need to be just a tad more skeptical. We can't state absolute "fair intentions" from anyone. Reasonable, understandable goals, yes. Who knows what will change in time. I'm sure there are plenty of people in SE Asia who are far more skeptical of China, and any presence of "persuasion", destabilisation, or not. As for whether the strangling tentacles of the Global Homosexual American Empire need to be cut or burned off away from the world, that's beyond any doubt.
It's natural to want to impart virtue to and have hope in those you see expelling a tyrant, but it's a seductive and dangerous delusion; just look at what a disaster that has been for Europe and post-Soviet Europe particularly.
I should state, by the way, that I am guilty of such psychological fallacies myself, so I am saying this to myself as much as to anyone else.
It's not about attack, that's the same propaganda bs that is used on the stupids ever since the time of Napoleon at least. It is about dominance. Scare the people about war when the real concern is something else entirely.
George Orwell: “Political language is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.”
I.F. Stone (In a Time of Torment, 1961-1967): “All governments lie, but disaster lies in wait for countries whose officials smoke the same hashish they give out.”
Any state that believes its "myths" is doomed.
Reality counts most of all, while "myths" count only when they serve reality.
"Manifest Destiny" is a myth, a lie told to excuse the reality of genocidal crimes but resulting in powerful control of a continent.
"Shining city on a hill" is a lie told to hide the cruel greed of slavery, Jim Crow, and racism, that built US wealth.
Karl Rove speaking for George Walker Bush 43 (Republican politics, 2002): “We’re an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you’re studying that reality—judiciously, as you will—we’ll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that’s how things will sort out. We’re history’s actors … and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do.”
It was belief in these myths that crippled racism, human rights abuses, and the Vietnam War during the 60s.
These myths highlight just how contemptibly AmeriKKKa has behaved, according to its own beliefs.
These myths ultimately changed the reality of America for the better during the US Civil War.
Slavery's economic power is a myth that Lincoln destroyed with the reality of northern industrial power.
Abraham Lincoln (1809 - 1865): “Whenever I hear anyone arguing for slavery, I feel a strong impulse to see it tried on him personally.”
Soviet myths were destroyed by the realities of poverty, and the stupidity of the Gulag.
US myths surrounding WWII led successive US governments to over estimate the reality of their power.
Winston Churchill (1944): ”I have left the obvious, essential fact to this point, namely, that it is the Russian Armies who have done the main work in tearing the guts out of the [Nazi] army."
American myths will continue to destroy the White West until we confront the reality of our crimes.
George Walker Bush (May 18 2022): "The result is an absence of checks and balances … and the decision of one man to launch a wholly unjustified and brutal invasion of Iraq… I mean of Ukraine.”
Harold Pinter: “The crimes of the United States have been systematic, constant, vicious, remorseless, but very few people have actually talked about them.”
Superb analysis, and the commentary at the end was especially insightful.
Separate to all this, I read an interesting article on a philosophy website last week talking about how the Age of Enlightenment (use rationality to understand reality) has since transmogrified into what is, essentially, a wide-scale adoption of the tenets of "The Secret" (the book), i.e. "You can manifest any reality you want with your intentions" aka "human beings can become gods."
Don't want to get too deep into the weeds on that, but it reminded me of Karl Rove's 2004 statements, particularly the one to Ron Suskind about how his (i.e. the republican Bush) administration was now "manufacturing reality" on a continuous basis.
Well, as the OP showed, I think we're finally getting to the point where the "rubber" of that mentality is meeting the "road," i.e. a final showdown between what one might accurately call the battle between the "we manufacture our own reality" crowd in the West (including most definitely Israel) and the "you can print shells but not money" pro-Russian sphere. And 2024 looks like that's when all the cards are gonna be shown and we'll see which side is right.
In other words, this is even bigger than NATO or America's idea of itself or even the "West" because it is a fundamental shift in philosophical outlook for the entire human race. Is reality a separate, tangible thing that you can interact with and learn from but not alter? Or are human beings (demi)gods who can manufacture/shape reality purely with the power of their intention(s)?
Sounds kinda bananas, but I think that's where we're at.
Actually, it's both. There's no need to see a zero-sum trade-off.
However, the 'magical-thinking' crowd forget one thing - it's not just their wills at play, and there are limits. Its even harder to will shells into existence than print them.
But the material-reality crowd also ignore the potential of will - and Russians/Chinese are about to show them what a fired up, motivated national willpower CAN achieve, we are barely seeing the foothills of it in the West.
The West had it all - and we threw it away in the 80s and onwards by the neolib reFeudalisation. The willpower of the plebs was deemed insignificant, and not worthy of attention. I wonder when THAT will be turned around?
Well said.
The main difference here is that the hyperliberal and super-individualist "West", devoid of any remaining significant national bonds or unity, "manifests reality" on purely egoistic and individual bases, while old civilizations like China and Russia are able to "manifest reality" on a national level.
The "West" actually dug its own grave by willfully undermining and eradicating traditional societal values (in a domestic divide-et-impera great-power-and-wealth-snatch move, which at that time they hoped would spread worldwide under the wings of "globalization"), and now, 40 years down the road, the law of unintended consequences once again rears its ugly head...
What is meant by "manifest reality" is a new religious movement spreading across the West, and not just west. The idea is that through afirming to youself things, "the Universe" will hear and make it happen. This is not philosophical, this is 100% a spiritual practice. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gVAeLUVAvao
And yes, it's probably from the Devil. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qqJaRr9O2ag
So it's from a mythical character named after a mythical notion created by Zoroaster in 700BCE?
Rotflmao.
Roman Catholicism's blood-soaked history is hardly something to point to as admirable itself, is it?
Yes, it is philosophical, and yes, it is spiritual, and yes, it has some level of reality to it, and yes, the awareness of it is thousands of years old, and not limited to various types of Monotheists.
It can also be tied into QM theories and experimental data.
Why are people raised on Christianity so fucking STUPID, can you explain that me?
Well, to explain a natural phenomenon, I'd need to first observe it. :) I haven't really observed anything. You did? Can you share your findings? :)
Am I going to post personal information in a site overwatched by Ukrianian and Hasbara fanatics? No.
But read this book, and do the experiments at the end of the chapters.
https://www.amazon.com/Prometheus-Rising-Robert-Anton-Wilson/dp/0692710604
I've bookmarked it. If I ever decide to spare the coin, I'll be sure to pay attention while reading.
Good one!
"When will that be turned around?"
We have listened to WEF mouthpieces like Yuval Noah Harari yammer on for almost a decade about the end of Free Will. We have seen psyops like the recent plandemic try to extinguish it in real time, with far more success than I anticipated.
The phrase "Everything pursued to excess turns into its opposite." is hybrid of Greek philosophy and and Jungian psychology. Perhaps if the WEF pushes a little harder, things will reverse.
There's definitely a backlash growing.
Canada's vaccination rate is down to 15%. That represents a huge reversal supporting the notion that everything pursued to excess turns into the opposite.
BTW let's just follow through on the ramifications of what living in a "reality can be manifested through intentions" world looks like:
* You can create "scientific" tests to discover that people with no symptoms are actually sick
* Chemicals injected or swallowed are never harmful if you label them "medicine"
* The public can ALWAYS be persuaded to believe you if you censor free speech enough
* Virtual reality is more satisfying and sustaining than flesh-and-blood reality
* People can live forever, whether that's virtually/online or by transferring their consciousness into a computer
* Sex sucks but masturbation is awesome
* People can be any gender they want and change that gender minute to minute
* People can also become animals or aliens or hybrids or any other creature, if they want
* Debt that is literally impossible to pay back is the smartest way to formulate an economy
* Magic credits on a computer or silly pictures on paper are the best form of money
* You can be any race or ethnicity you want to just by declaring it to be so
* One country's government has the legitimate right to tell another country's government what to do
* Democracy means a government that represents the will of the people
* A military in possession of more magical computer credits automatically wins a war/battle against a military with fewer magical computer credits
* It's perfectly fine to sexualize (and have sex WITH) children because children are just little adults
* Children likewise have the capability to choose to undergo life-changing surgeries
* Immigrants and migrants always magically integrate harmoniously in their new country, so the more the better
* The weather (excuse me, CLIMATE) changes on a massive scale every year because of what people say and do
* Plastic saves lives and makes the world a better place
* Doctors are really good at healing people and any deaths they cause are just innocent mistakes
* There are no negative consequences to murdering billions of animals in the name of science (not talking about consuming meat here) every year
* It's also perfectly fine to conduct painful experiments on animals. In fact, it's actually a good thing! Furthermore, animals and plants and other living creatures are immune to suffering.
* The best way to grow healthy food is with chemicals
* The best source of vitamins is in the form of a pill, ESPECIALLY Vitamin D
* Trees don't talk and neither do animals or insects. They're all just background forms of carbon-based artwork.
* "Public health expert" is a legitimate title
* Religion is a comical old-fashioned joke and God doesn't exist
* Satanism is hilarious, good fun for everyone
* The best story ideas for TV and movies always include people possessing supernatural powers. Even better if it's children with magic powers!
* Human beings have the capability to build artificial forms of intelligence, aka create LIFE
* Suicide isn't a leading cause of death anymore if it's an officially sanctioned government policy
* Mental illness is due to personal shortcomings, not the result of living in a toxic environment
* Obesity is purely caused by laziness and/or greed, not the result of poison masquerading as "food"
* A totalitarian dictatorship is great if the dictator agrees with you and a horrible monstrosity if he doesn't
* Social media is GREAT and so are all "tech moguls". In fact, they're visionaries and heroes.
* Nothing wrong with implanting mind-control wires into the brain of a monkey! No sirree.
* It's perfectly fine that less than 1% of all humans control half the resources because those at the top earned it through their superior reality manifestation abilities
* Russians always run away from a fight, both historically and nowadays. Everyone knows that!
I could go on...
Actually, most of those are caused by the all-too-grounded 'Material-reality' folk. The PTB merely knowingly lie about the effects.
It's usually best not to take one 'side' in such fabricated culture wars, like Nature v Nurture etc, as both arguments often have merit in parts, and demerit in others.
Reality is not actually a football game, where you pick a team and cheer it on regardless.
china, india and brazil have entered the chat.... middle east & africa waiting to join....
Magic may well exist, but that too has its laws and limitations. We are both matter and spirit, which applies to Cold War II/WWIII; Simplicius' eloquent conclusion delves into this. As the Greeks tell us, hubris is punished by the gods, and GAE is about to learn that the hard way.
Just wanted to say how much I appreciate your work on this I've learned a lot reading these. Cheers.
Response to Simplicius' "Breaking Down Thinktank-land's Latest: Estonian MoD & ISW Analysis"
"They’re saying Russia can fully train and equip a massive 130k troops every 6 months into coherent units."
That's 260K troops per year. What happened to the other 200K troops Russia raised this year so far? LOL Did the Estonians drop a digit while typing this? How many divisions is that?
And that's only the Russian ground forces. Russia is on track to have 2.3-2.5 million men in all branches of their armed forces within the next year.
"Russian brigades too have many deficiencies, otherwise the war would have been over by now"
Uhm, no. The three reasons why Russia has not overrun them is as I've said from the beginning:
1) A way too long line of contact.
2) Fortifications built up over eight years which can't be overrun without taking UNNECESSARY casualties.
3) Why take UNNECESSARY casualties when the enemy is willing to take RIDICULOUS casualties?
And there's a 4th reason: managing the NATO reaction to a sudden defeat of Ukraine. Bleed NATO first, then defeat Ukraine seems to be have been an implicit Russian objective.
"not quite superior enough where they have the coordination and technology necessary to fully exploit those losses by way of maneuvers into the rear, through the breakthrough gap."
Bullshit. You'll trot out any nonsense just to keep supporting your "the war will drag on until 2025" nonsense. There is absolutely ZERO evidence for your assertion other than the simple fact that Russia hasn't bothered to try such an approach, which as I and everyone else has repeatedly said, is simply because Russia doesn't need to to win this war.
"Further, they claim Russian AD networks had large gaps for southern Poland, Slovakia, Romania, Hungary, etc., because Russia could not place AD systems in Ukraine:"
And why the fuck do these ISW morons think the SMO was conducted? Just to kick out Zelensky? Hardly. It was precisely to be able to place an entire new army on Poland's and Romania's borders,. to match the Military Districts being formed opposite Finland, and the integration of Belarus military into the Russian military.
Putting three field armies - or at least solid Military Districts - on NATO's borders is EXACTLY what Russia intends to do. As I am on record saying since April, 2022, this is the real goal of the SMO, the "military-technical measures" Russia promised it would take if the December, 2021, treaty proposals about the expansion of NATO were rejected, aimed at the Aegis Ashore installations in Poland and Romania that Ray McGovern pointedly discussed because Putin himself mentioned them repeatedly in speeches.
Once again for the retarded: Russia has been invaded four times in the last couple hundred years from the West. It's not going to allow that anymore. It's going to build an "Iron Curtain 2.0" from the Black Sea to the Arctic. If the West wants to fight, they will have to go nuclear - and with Russia's AD and hypersonic missiles carried on its aircraft, subs and naval fleet, they're ready for that, too, whereas the US and NATO most definitely are not.
I'm just surprised the ISW is willing to confirm my predictions, if only for their own propaganda reasons.
Russia does not NEED military forces upon that scale, unless the US begins a HUGE equipment build-up in Eastern Europe - which frankly is considerably unlikely, as in the next few months they are about to have financial collapse. Such forces would be very expensive for Russia to maintain, if they are not required. So at some point the new potential recruits will be redirected into the labour-shortage markets, where they will begin producing Russian wealth and taxes, rather than absorbing them.
It would take many months for the US to begin such a mobilisation, and to built the maintenance/repair facilities alone. Russia would have more than enough time, and there is no possibility of the kind of maskirovka that President Putin used before the SMO.
While I tend to agree with you that the war will end sooner rather than later, Simpli's POV was informed by continued US support, financial and military to Ukraine. That has now been definitively ruled out, but only recently by Congress. The EU has been hamstrung by Biden's choice to blow Nordstream, and simply cannot take up the slack. Their slaved currencies to the dollah will also soon be under immense pressure.
Militarily speaking, if Russia wishes to avoid mass casualties - and it does, rightfully - then a well-funded Ukrainian defence could POSSIBLY hold out until after the US election, as women meat bags can take bullets just as well male, and also fire their 5 rounds given off.
Any country with any sense would have surrendered LONG before to a non-genicidal foe (I say that with respect to events in Gaza), but 'Any sense' does not include anywhere under the control of 'Merican media/regime.
But a collapse may happen sooner, and let us all have our fingers crossed that is before another million Ukrainian casualties, men or women.
You could have made your valid points with less ad homs and personal back-pattings.
Russia obviously disagrees because they are doing it. I suspect Russia will not demobilize until such time as both the US and the EU have essentially demilitarized due to economic problems. That could occur in the short term or it might not happen for several years to a decade. Predicting "economic collapse" in the US has been an ongoing game since the 1970's. Russia would be foolish to bet on it in the short term.
If the U.S./Europe started building up forces, then it is decision time for Russia to pre-empt.
Yes, but if you mean attack first, bear in mind that would be an absolutely neclear scenario, from which no-one would survive. I don't think the Russians - certainly not Putin - would begin such a suicide move.
But they would certainly prepare for it.
I generally agree, but don't discount the possibility that the U.S. would make a side deal with Russia if it was only Europe that suffered a few "wake up" calls.
Perhaps you have had no personal experience with the Yankee Trader.
Well, the USA developed Atomics to drop them on Germany's Berlin, as a Message to Europe who was the new Global Terror Chief. Except those pesky Russkies kicked Wehrmacht butt so hard THEY defeated Germany before it was ready.
So the Japanese pleas for surrender were ignored, until the new Terror Weapon was tested TWICE - Science! always requires at least two data points, in case Hiroshima's civilians were unusually resistant to radioactivity's effects. <_<
From which summary I guess you can see that I quite specifically agree with you, - except the part about a "side deal".
The original US plan would have been to drop the nuke on Berlin just as the Russian crack forces entered to take it, thereby 'killing two birds with one stone', as the saying goes. "Oops, we hadn't noticed your forces, we wuz killing Germans, so sorry!".
As Russia would, in such a scenario of liberating Europe from the malign American Nazi control, be quite flush with victory, and not wishing to 'throw it all away on a gesture', it's possible such a plan would once gain be dusted off, Americans are such traditionalists.
And psychopaths at the leadership level.
Thank you for this perspective, which rings true. It will, of course, fall on deaf ears/eyes in the West at least until it's a fait accompli.
Kagan psychopaths + senile russophobe Biden will not hesitate to use nukes even more seing their defeat coming in next potus election. Biden is at his lowest ever for a dem potus 10 months ahead of decisive election (38 %) as Israhell gaza is playing against him..they will JFKize Trump also if necessary. Now the all EU + UK + CA are in recession, housing value in Germany is collapsing, industries closing on an almost daily basis, people are switching to the right or extreme right waiting for revenge for standards of living lost, jobs lost, inflation, energy prices etc...regime changes started with Slovakia, other will follow in 2024.
Macron just said today 'no Ukraine, Moldova or Georgia in EU, before they match all criteria(impossible) and no money as the agri lobby is still very powerfull in countries like France, Spain, Italy and even Germany they can block the country for weeks and collapse the eco and the govt and can become quiet violent as they have nothing to lose now.
The CIA has been developing Western far-right for decades, the chumps will be lead by the nose into NATO's war mchine, no matter what they say now.
But we get Albania for sure and thats some kind of a Xmas gift
But we get Albania for sure and thats some kind of a Xmas gift
Yes, many commentators here present their scenarios as if they will come to pass in an orderly fashion. My biggest worry are the unpredictable death throes of a collapsing empire, which may cause a lot of unintended consequences.
Do any of the NeoLibCons think they will survive a Nuclear War? What the Russians fail to kill, will be hunted down by cancer inflicted Americans with nothing left to lose.