It used to be the case that Simplicius posts would appear like clockwork, right around 6:30am CET summer time, more or less every other day. I do not know whether this is due to moving to a different time zone or to a different organisation of his work, but the publication schedule has now become a lot more erratic. So, dear Victor, снимаю шляпу (hats off) to the victorious winner of the rat race to the pole position among commentators. I hope this was done through vigilance and fair means rather than some automatic alert or - God forbid - some preprogrammed bot.
It's fairly simple to set up your own substack and use it to express your thoughts and opinions, thus adding to the broader dialogue, which is the real power of substack. It doesn't have to be paid-subscription based, which takes the pressure off the author to publish on a regular basis. Anyone can set up a free substack and publish whenever they feel so inclined.
Whenever I find a substack that's just starting out, I try to contribute what I can to help build its presence. If you look at it that way, instead of as just another social media platform, you help realize its true potential. I act on the premise that change happens at the margin. Good ideas have to start somewhere, so a small audience is not necessarily a disadvantage since dialogue is easier when you're not overrun with kibitzers and trolls. Good ideas thus generated can then spread via the substack network, and from there to the outside world.
Like a fool, I must spend 1/2 an hour just clearing my inbox notifications from my 30 or so substack writing subscribees, though. Reading these, and maybe the occasional commentary, would take 25 hours a day!
Not joking actually. The problem is well known to engineers. It's called the signal to noise ratio, and there's definitely a lot more noise than signal on substack. That's partly the nature of the beast - that many people treat it like just another social media platform. Where it differs, which is the part I'm trying to focus on, is that subjects that require investigative effort, scientific questions in particular, now have a good platform for collaboration. It's not perfect, but it's a good beginning.
As an example, take the question of proton decay. It's predicted in the standard model, but to date has not been observed. This is not something that's likely to attract a lot of attention outside of the theoretical physics field, but using substack as a means of sharing ideas on the subject is much easier and faster than traditional methods of communicating within a particular specialized discipline.
I'm sure that's not what the developers of substack envisioned - they saw it as a publishing platform for writers, but as is often the case with new technology, applications that weren't anticipated are found, and can even become the basis for their advancement. That's basically what I'm aiming for - to make more people aware of the potential so it can be put to more effective use in solving the many problems we face as a species.
And so I beat that drum wherever I think it might strike a chord with people in the hope that we eventually reach a critical mass and take the platform to the next level, which in my view would be open source and involve using AI as part of the management problem you pointed out, and possibly much more. This has been a goal of software developers since the late 70's, and now we finally have the technical means to pull it off, so the next step is a question of raising awareness.
Note: while this message is in response to your post, there are any number of people reading it besides yourself that might be inspired to look into the idea and perhaps add something to it, which illustrates my main point.
It can't happen soon enough. I'm old and probably don't have many years left, but before I go to the Great Beyond, I hope to live to see the end of the EU and the Zionist project in Israel.
Please! With all respect, but it is not "Europe" that is sinking the ship it is steering. It is Europe's elite of moral lightweights - a part of which are agents of the American Deep State. Due to the MSM, common Europeans do not even realize what is going on. It is important, I believe, to use the correct terms, in order to expose the real criminals. Don't allow them to hide behind the back of "Europe".
This is certainly true for a part of the population. But there are many honest people who simply do not have the intellectual capacities and background to figure out for themselves what's going on.
Well, we can't blame them. But it is inexcusable for those who have the capacities but couldn't be bothered.
One of the biggest disappointments for me is that Europeans turned out to be as brainwashed as Americans. I always thought how we were not like that. I know many intelligent people who just cannot process certain info. Cognitive dissonance takes over.
A big problem is that we don't know what we don't know. The uninformed masses do not even realize that there is another -- credible -- point of view. There is the government view and the crazies and they haven't thought the crazies' point of view worth looking into. Besides, they are all running the Red Queen's race just to get by in life.
They are very badly informed, but nevertheless the general population is against what's going on, as they have been for years. The government ignores them, and when candidates promise change, they break the promises, but usually they don't even promise change. So... why should Joe Sixpack, as we sometimes call the average guy here in the US, bother to inform himself?
Additional problem with Americans, or Anglophonis in general, is that you are eternally disconnected from the atrocities caused by your governments. There is no need to be informed, there are no repercussions. You are wrong? Does not matter, memory hole it, switch to Manchester United game or NFL or sth, rinse and repeat. Sing an anthem at the NFL game, honour veterans for few moments. Move on. It is all volunteer army, after all.
"Project Ukraine" failed? Let's shake hands, no hard feelings.
Americans for the most part will never know if the thing fails. We're never told what it's for. I've always thought the Covid scare was the warm-up for Ukraine. It was so easy to scare people into the craziest things that they decided just to do the crazy things without even the scare.
Trust in a hurried mRNA "vaccine" is far different from "the Covid scare". The emergence of a lethal, viral pandemic is almost certain: remember the Spanish (really USofA GI) flu of a century ago. Many 10s or 100s of thousands, with co-morbidities like advanced age or not, fuckin' died due to da Covid.
"Do the journalists who are writing their fingers to the bone about the Russian threat have no historical education, no knowledge of history? They were trained for their profession: Have they not learned that it is their job critically to evaluate the intelligence services’ and NATO strategy experts’ “findings”? Or does Upton Sinclair’s nasty sentence apply: “It is difficult to get a person to understand something when their salary depends on their not understanding it?” In his 2013 study, “Opinion Power,” Uwe Krüger, the prominent German media critic, demonstrated that alpha journalists belonging to almost all major Western media outlets are integrated into NATO–friendly networks."
...
"Truman could never have imagined how many subsequent wars and military coups would be justified by “information gathered by Western intelligence agencies” and how the public would be misled.
The “findings” that the United States would have to fend off communism or some other enemy somewhere in the world and bring freedom and democracy to an oppressed people were always disseminated with extreme effectiveness. At that, freedom and democracy were often saved by being abolished: in 1947 in Greece, 1948 in Venezuela, 1950 in Korea, 1953 in Iran, 1954 in Guatemala, 1955 in Vietnam, 1961 in Cuba, 1965 in Indonesia, 1973 in Chile, 1979 in Nicaragua, 1980 in El Salvador, 1979 in Afghanistan, 1999 in Yugoslavia, 2001 once again in Afghanistan, 2003 in Iraq, 2011 in Libya and subsequently in Syria, to note just a few of the military and intelligence interventions of the West.
The military-industrial complex, which President Eisenhower famously warned of as he left office in January 1961, developed a PR machine during the Cold War, involving tens of thousands of diligent strategy experts, conflict researchers, human rights activists, and journalists to create enemy images. This approach has not changed to this day. In their classic book, "Public Relations for War and Death", Jörg Becker and Mira Beham demonstrate how the manipulation of public opinion worked in the Balkan Wars."
But the average Joe Bloggs does not care about The Truth. So long as they have their "reality TV," their X-Factor and beer at the pub/taverna etc, they are willing to go along with The Establishment........ Convid (sic) is the perfect example.
No, as Ortega said, Europe is the lone cultural identity of all European peoples.
Nations are cultural sub-entities and were born after the birth of the Western culture in the Carolingian Empire, as a successor of the Graeco-Roman world.
Historically, it is a great society, in the sense of Toynbee, that shares a destiny, whether its members want it or not.
The EU is failing, because most European peoples are suffering a cultural and political crisis that threaten to become final.
Trump is not dismantling any such thing. He may be working for a segment of the Oligarchy plotting to destroy another segment, but in the end he remains under control of at least some bankster from the Anglo-American Oligarchy.
Keep dreaming about Trump. His ultimate goal is to split Russia from China and destroy BRICS with all the dirty means at his disposal, while at the same time, enriching himself and his family till kingdom come.
Agree he's not very intelligent, but has enough animal cunning to know which side his bread's buttered. He's a rich kid. He cannot imagine not being rich.
exactly: Von der Leyen's part of the EU consists of unelected, power-hungry talking heads (with some of whom suffering from the effects of a dubious family background as well).
How do you think a Yapping Chihuahua like Kallas achieved her position?
Segments of the Oligarchy promoted her because she spews the narrative they want disseminated to the people lest the people turn on the Oligarchy once they recognize the fraud.
She is from of family of exemplary opportunists prominent in the Soviet security apparatus and Soviet nomenclature. The same kind as the current boss of MI6.
Rutte's family came from a strict christian family background. his parents/older siblings lived in the Dutch East Indies untill 1957, then repatriated to the Netherlands. no nazism AFAICS.
"Europe's elite of moral lightweights". Indeed, we all hear about them, sadly though no one has been able to name names, so as to who they are, or what they want all remains a mystery. Even to the Russian and Chinese security services in a war of national survival it is still a complete enigma. Certain people being jailed or persecuted for thought crimes also offers no clue. Plato's cave?
It's Europe bro. Last time I checked, European people were still voting the same people into power who have been treating them like vermin for at least 20 years. It's irrelevant that 'common Europeans do not even realize what is going on'; they're voting for their own destruction, which is the relevant part that makes the OP's statement true.
Votes are counted on machines manufactured by companies owned by the Anglo-American Oligarchy.
There are no options. Voting is a farce. Unless you recognize that reality, you will always blame others who you should be uniting with against the common enemy -- the Elite. The Banksters. The money-men. who control us by using "Money" -- which isn't REAL.
1st, our western liberal-democracies are barely democratic, and can be called Democracies only with very loose observation for a few reasons. 2nd, ever since Plato observed and noted 2300 years ago, the "citizens" are too dumb and credulous for democracy to be successful.
I don't believe in democracy because most people are too dumb and too ignorant to be allowed to shape a state's policy. Aristocracy plus a King is my preference because it best resembles Christ and his Apostles.
Anyway, Germany had its most recent election in February 2025 (eight months ago). The turnout was at 82.5% - the highest value since 1987. Only 20,6% of those votes were cast for the only 'perceived' alternative - the AfD. Nobody in Germany doubts that this election was valid or in some shape or form corrupted*. Over here, we don't use machines to count votes, we use people, and we document everything, because we are Germans. No clue what third-world-country you're from.
The French people (whatever that means) have confirmed the current state of affairs in their recent elections as well. UK, same stuff. Italy voted for a woman who ran for the 'Brotherhood of Italy'. Similar things can be said about the rest of the so-called Western European nations.
Pushing responsibility away to 'Elites', 'Banksters', or 'the Jews' who lie and deceive all the time is what victims do. You don't have to be deceived, at least not twice, or thrice. ("Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me.") Saying that 'Money isn't REAL' shows your ignorance on the subject and confirms your personal lack of intelligence.
* To be fair: We know that those elections are corrupted and illegal since the 1950s. The German Federal Constitutional Court has ruled so back in 2012. But nobody cares because nobody 'feels' responsible for the well-being of the nation and the state. Hence 'King + Aristocracy'.
OTOH, you can't show me an imaginary number (or a real number for that matter) you can only show me what it represents.
When money can be created out of thin air just by saying "poof", it isn't real.
I have to laugh that you criticize me for blaming the "Elites" yet you want a King to take over. Kind of a shame you mention Christ since I'd never agree to anything that requires Christ to be involved. You just want to replace the "elites" with another form of "elite" which has been shown to be corruptible time and time again and actually at the mercy of the "banksters".
This article describes how the government works in China. I kind of appreciate how it is organized. Xi is not a "King" (nor is Putin), but both appear to be "true patriots" rather than the criminals who currently run Western economies.
EU Politicians achieve high-office through the financing of members of the Anglo-American Oligarchy.
NATO is an extension of the US military force with member states belonging at the permission of the US politicians.
US politicians are chosen and nurtured by segments of the Anglo-American Oligarchy and then elevated to high-office through the "banksters" financing and manipulation of votes on machines manufactured by companies owned by the Anglo-American Oligarchy.
Nothing happens without money.
The Anglo-American Oligarchy creates the money, out of thin air, needed to move corrupt people into positions of power.
The US military is led by Evangelical Christian Zionists who are richly rewarded for their service with directorships on MIC board of directors.
The Anglo-American Oligarchy uses the resources of the "Deep State" and "Organized Crime" to control the political/economic narrative fed to American (and EU) citizens. The Oligarchy realizes it is losing control and thus ICE has been deployed across America to suppress anyone revealing the plot.
The WEF, Project 2025, and other schemes have been revealed for decades. They are run by the same people who founded PNAC, Bill Krystol for example, for the purpose of creating a global American Empire -- which serves Israel.
The Oligarchy is headquartered in the City of London and on Wall Street. They are purposely engineering the collapse of the American Economy.
It is one giant conspiracy. The conspirators despise one another and will destroy each other when given the opportunity, but they share a common goal of world domination. And just like Vito Corleone, they will put aside their differences if it threatens exposure of their ultimate plot.
ICE has been deployed to a) remove illegal aliens from the US and b) make it so uncomfortable for the remaining illegals that they self-deport. Worthy goals. Trump has done a whole lot of things I don't agree with, but I think he got this one right.
The import of illegal aliens is a ruse. The Anglo-American Oligarchy is in on the scam. It wants them for slave labor. In cooperation with organized crime it imports them faster than ICE can export them. The real purpose of ICE is being revealed in cities across the nation as a fascist coup is taking place in front of our eyes.
Exactly. Nothing worthy about ICE at all. Just an excuse to federalize the police and kill the last remaining shred of democracy. And there sure wasn't much left to kill.
Not at all. This has been the plan well before the SMO. The provocations pointed to sever energy dependence on Russia. The decatbonozation effort, climate change, carbon credits, and so on, are part of a global strategy which 1. is meant to assure energetic/economic independence
2. would create a technological superiority on raw material extracting countries.
3. will subsequently be imposed on the rest of the world under monopolistic centralised premises.
Please, stop playing the they are stupid card. Its not serious.
WRONG! Absolutely 100% FAKE science!!! Greenhouses use CO2 generators to pump CO2 in for increased plant growth! Our CO2 ppm in the atmosphere is actually much less than it has been in the history of our planet. I don't know where you get the above "facts" but they are complete fucking nonsense... Chip
Would you happen to know how to use a search browser? Give it a try instead of denailist drivel rejected by the global scientific community. To quote myself from a previous post: The cognitive dissonance on the right has manifested itself as the most retarded instance of mass denial in human history, courtesy of a decades-long multi-billion-dollar PR & think tank denial campaign that worked wonders, creating an entire army of amateur denier warriors. They all can see and feel the consequences, but to admit it’s time to prepare for more and worse would be to admit they were wrong, which is akin to death for true believers. The result is that the populace is unprepared and unprotected. This is how denial destroys lives and, eventually, the world. Pretending it’s not happening and dismissing it as hype is the only way they can protect their messianic beliefs. Denialist cult members become more dug in and will cling to thoughts and beliefs that contradict the evidence as the effects become more pronounced.
My intellect is not limited to a browser. I'm a retired engineer. I studied chemistry, physics, geological formation of the earth, botany, biology, advanced mathematics including geometry, trigonometry, algebra, calculus, and differential equations. If you haven't done so, then whatever info you consume you cannot understand and certainly cannot discern the truth... Chip
The following is just one of many papers addressing the topic that contradicts your claims. BTW, does the "New Phytologist" publish fake science, lol? A recently published paper studying the effects of elevated CO2 on soybean health found that soybeans became more susceptible to biotrophic viral pathogens Bean pod mottle virus (BPMV) and Soybean mosaic virus (SMV). For soil-borne pathogens, the study revealed increased susceptibility to the necrotrophic fungus Fusarium virguliforme, responsible for sudden death syndrome (SDS).
Mr Simplicius, needs to help me out on this. Do I get it right?
OK, NATO pushed war on Russia because a war would ...
Destroy Russia's economy, overwhelm its manufacturing base, destroy its international trade balance, bankrupt the country, evaporate the ruble and cause massive inflation, decimate Russia's military ability, exacerbate internal problems, create disunity among the people and ignite mass protest, leading to overthrow of its leaders, rupture the Russian Federation, and thereby subjugate the broken pieces of Russia to Europe.
OK, I see so far that has not been 100% effective, but ....
Now plan B, EU wants its own war because a war would ...
Revitalize EU economy, jumpstart a manufacturing base, preserve their international trade balance, free up funds for massive spending, prop up the euro and curb inflation, revive their military, distract from internal misrule, unify their people to unquestioning support of the leaders, lock in cooperation among the European Union, and thereby subjugate Russia to the currently broken pieces of Europe.
Hmmm, geopolitics is tough. Glad there's people smarter than me to handle it.
" I see so far that has not been 100% effective..." You get the "Understatement Award" - try "so far it has been 0% effective, apparently a boomerang actually".
Here are again we have a manifestation of the implicit racism against Russians even among the ostensibly pro-Russian parts of the internet.
We have half of the post decrying the blowing of of the refineries in Europe, but not a word about what happened in Chelyabinsk today or in Sterlimatak the other day. Where a lot of people died and critical manufacturing facilities were taken out. But who cares, Russian lives don't matter and Russia can absorb it, no big deal.
P.S. The Chelyabinsk governor is trying to deflect away from the fact that it was drones (or something even heavier potentially) that did it, but there was first a yellow code for drones before the explosions:
But curiously there were no alerts for anything in between Ukraine and Chelyabinsk for several hours prior to that, just a solitary one for Tatarstan.
This means it came either from the ground locally (which in turn means Russian internal security is completely compromised, because there were very large explosions, and even after June 1st sufficient measures to address that crisis have not been implemented), or that, once again, it came from Kazakhstan.
Of course the Kremlin is refusing to acknowledge anything happened at all, just as it did not acknowledge any of the other attacks.
Never mind that we get a yellow alert for drones in Orenburg (!!!) several times a day at this point.
P.P.S. We have seen the cope about Russian strategic depth and how they moved factories back in WWII and then came back with a vengance to annihilate the Nazis. Well, guess what -- the Nazis are starting from a position 1,500 km to the east this time (provided to them by the Putin regime with no resistance) and back in WWII the factories were moved precisely to places like Chelyabinsk. That are getting blown up now...
Indeed. Nothing is (for now) blowing up in the middle of Moscow and information about the daily calamities everywhere else can be suppressed. Out of sight, out of mind.
Probably the best thing that can happen right now is a massive missile attack on Moscow that does get some shots through and blows up stuff in the middle of the city. So that it cannot be concealed.
Though I am not sure even that will force Putin to act, given what has already happened that was not sufficient.
As I noted in my original comment, if you follow the alert tracker, there was nothing for the regions in between for hours prior.
It was a sudden alarm already in Chelyabinsk region.
Which means Kazakhstan, if it flew from outside Russia, or it was launched locally.
BTW, Operation Spiderweb was launched from a sleeper cell in Chelyabinsk. But here we are talking big explosions, not small FPVs. How were the explosives delivered? If it's large drones assembled and launched locally and full of a lot of explosives, that is just catastrophic.
Proper explanations are needed indeed, but it will be just buried, we all know that. And tomorrow something else will blow up somewhere else.
He won't force you to act, since he's also involved in implementing the plan! The oligarchs are making good money as long as the Russians are falling! Remember, war is the harvest of the Jews!
Wasn't "No Kings" only about Trump? I don't recall seeing any anti-war photos. In fact, this is the first time I've heard of any suggestions that there might have been any anti-war expressions.
The protests are empty of anything other than rage. There's no agenda offered, no plan of action, nothing but "Hate Trump" so that Soros can put in a pseudo-Biden who will carry on the same policies that Trump is pursuing.
A number of people insist that Soros is not a Zionist, I dunno about that. It isn't as if the Jewish Billionaires all have the same agenda, but just how different are their goals?
I am not talking about No King Day. I am talking about the tens of thousands of (mostly young women) who demonstrated all over Ukraine against the war and disrespected The Comedian even.
There isn't a lot of information available on the "cardboard revolution". Certainly nothing to suggest that Soros financed it. Nor anything to confirm tens of thousands of participants.
I'm not saying it didn't happen but Zelensky ended up repealing the corruption law, which supposedly stopped the protests.
the more the RUAF approaches to Slaviansk-Kramatorsk, the more the Ukroprop will look like Moscow has been taken. Why are they begging for a cease fire if they are litteraly crushing Russia?
"Here are again we have a manifestation of the implicit racism against Russians even among the ostensibly pro-Russian parts of the internet. We have half of the post decrying the blowing of of the refineries in Europe, but not a word about what happened in Chelyabinsk today..."
This is unfair. Ukrainians are at war with Russia, so they can be expected to sabotage refineries in Russia. In contrast, Ukrainians are not at war with the EU, quite the contrary, so they are NOT supposed to blow up refineries in the EU. That's making the difference, and you know that very well.
The Russian Federation is around 90% White since the 1991 rearrangement. That is matching conditions in the USA in 1950 when the proportion of the White population there was 90.5%. Today it is around 45-46%
All in all, we know the reason for the urgency in this attempt to destabilize the Russian economy: the Russian victories are piling up, and now beginning to accelerate. Multiple Ukrainian cities are set to fall soon, and the news from the front keeps getting worse and worse.
These worms have conspired against us, the inhabitants of the planet! The white man is their enemy in particular. Their "blood" is purest in Russia, that's why they started there. But of course they will cleanse all of Europe and North America!
From RT, Oct. 22,: "At least ten people have been killed after a major explosion rocked a manufacturing plant in the Russian city of Kopeysk on Wednesday, local authorities have said.
The blast was reported by Aleksey Teksler, the governor of Chelyabinsk Region, who initially put the death toll at four. Later, however, he said that five more people died, with five others injured, and that medical teams were doing their best to treat them. Officials are also verifying reports of possible missing persons, Teksler added."
Part of the special significance of this story is the the EU is imploding; that's just a different story altogether than bombing a factory in Russia. This is the Polish court's decision coming back in the form of terrorism against EU members (the horror!) instead of (just) Russians (yawn).
There is something seriously broken in the failure of Russia to build an effective air-defense against cessna 150 style drones. What little I can read of Russian efforts speaks of disorganization, lack of funding for communications, radars and even machine guns, the ineffectiveness of Mobile Fire Groups and the fobbing off of responsibility for defense of critical plant and equipment to the plant managers. There does not appear to be a coherent national effort to secure Russian industry and infrastructure from attack.
It may be that in reality the effects of the attacks thus far are so minimal as to be considered acceptable ? This kind of calculus appeals to the "war is arithmetic" school, but war is more than arithmetic.
It may be that the Russian inability to mostly shut off these attacks is why the West feels emboldened to escalate as they feel that Russian skies would be wide open to a serious Nato effort.
Russia will probably eventually win on the battlefield in some sense, but victory in war is the attainment of political ends. How will Russia obtain those political ends without inflicting some sort of costs on Europe ? Sure there are economic costs in higher energy prices etc....but those are seen by policy makers as costs that can be hidden. How will Russia contemplate inflicting costs on Europe, if their own skies are so regularly penetrated by cessna 150's carrying 250 pound bombs ?
The calculus and the explanation for why Russia is so poorly prepared is very simple.
Since the USSR fell apart, there hasn't been a single new AWACS plane built. Also not a single new MiG-31 interceptor. And no large ISR drones that could watch the sky from above have been developed either.
And the USSR was just starting to roll these things out in serious numbers in the 1980s, it had by no means properly covered the territory.
The result of this is that Russia has no capability to properly keep track of low flying objects over its vast territory, and gaps between radars are easy to find.
What was the trade off here, i.e. where did the resources that should have gone into maintaining the VKS in adequate to defend against modern threats shape go? Well, all you need to know to understand it is how many private jets Russian oligarchs bought. And what kind. It is not even the small business jets, some of the particularly outrageous examples include Alisher Usmanov having a private Airbus that cost 350 million and Abramovich having a B-787 that cost 250 million. But a Bombardier Global 6000 is not cheap either -- 40 million. And there are a lot of Russian oligarchs.
Now how many A-50s and MiG-31s and large ISR drones could have been procured with the money that went towards private jets? And all the other wasteful consumption (mansions, limousines, megayachts) plus the straight up capital outflows. We're talking double digit trillions.
It's not as if it wasn't known with near certainty that there will be a big war. It was known from the moment NATO expansions started.
As I have reminded people here many times, in 1929 Stalin said at one of the major party meetings that the country had a decade to make up for the gap that its enemies had opened up over a century. And he spent the 1930s doing exactly that. At an enormous cost, but he was right -- the country indeed had exactly a decade. And he managed to prepare just enough to prevent total annihilation, but not enough to come out intact.
What did Putin do in contrast?
P.S. The West also has no real defense against such threats, but not because it can't track them. It can, but it doesn't have the AD systems to take them out. Here is the crucial difference though -- they don't have strong air defense because they don't need it as they have deterrence. Russia lost it completely...
If it was Ukraine who blew up Nordstream how is that not an act of war against one of their top suppliers, Germany.
Seems the historical true leaders of our world, (in fact nameless to and certainly not elected by us), are facing an existential threat and it's more than just Russia.
First, it is an act of grand treason for any Russian government to be doing large-scale raw resource exports, because Russia does not need anything from anyone, it is one of the very few countries on this planet that can be fully self-sufficient. And these are non-renewable resources that future Russian generations will need.
Instead since the 1960s they have been sold for pennies on the dollar to the West, propping up the mortal enemy instead of letting it collapse. The West would have collapsed completely back in the 1990s as a result of the energy crisis that started in the 1970s had it not been for the subsidy it received from the former USSR space.
At the direct expense of Russian people -- the reason Russian was such a hellhole in the 1990s is that the resources that used to support a modest middle class lifestyle inside the USSR in Brezhnev's time were redirected towards supporting the opulent lifestyle of Germans and other Westerners.
The West was getting everything it wanted, but there was a catch -- in the 00s, when oil prices rose sharply, the Russian oligarchy found out it was rather nice to be getting a large cut of that loot, while the West nearly collapsed again. So the West decided that it should just take over everything directly.
Thus even though through Nord Stream Germany was getting gas that it should have never been receiving at all had a non-traitorous regime been in power in Moscow, and at scandalously low prices too, that was not sufficient.
So the plan is to destroy Russia economically, and for that purpose they will destroy the very infrastructure that subsidized the West, but that is a temporary measure, they plan to then return and just take it all. Generaplan Ost 2.0.
I tend to agree here… with the USSRs massive industrial base & autarky, it probably was unnecessary from an economic point of view for the USSR to export raw materials to the West in such quantities. It could have throttled the export flows to 1/2 or 1/3 and retain a gigantic stock for future generations while becoming the price setting supplier of those commodities.
Also, the interaction with the West associated with the commodity export deals is how the USSR was set up for demolition.
The people who were making these deals worth billions eventually realized they are sitting on real wealth worth trillions while they themselves lived in regular apartments not much different from those of ordinary Soviet citizens, and while signing these deals in the fancy opulent mansions of their counterparts in the West.
It is not a huge step from there to deciding that life would be much better (for them) if the Soviet system was dismantled and all the real wealth privatized (by them). Which is what eventually happened.
Had the USSR maintained maximum isolation from the West, North Korea-style, that trend would have had a much harder time developing.
Here you are having a point indeed except that you avoid addressing that the situation back then was US$ based. Russia needed US$ desperately to buy technology and other products it was not able to produce at that time in quantities that would have maintained the functions of many parts of the economy.
The construct of non convertible money from the west against the socialist countries was a big stick that beat the USSR to compromise to unfavorable terms.
They really didn't have to, the West was on a collapse course, and in the 1970s the USSR was gaining ground around the world massively.
Had they refused to be a part of the dollar system and just wait out the West, they would have won.
Instead they voluntarily became a part of the neocolonial system of exploitation. That is exactly what happened -- the USSR was handing over real wealth for greenbacks that the US could print with abandon and no limits, just like any African and Latin American banana republic. The road to debt enslavement is straight and short from there.
They really didn't have to, the West was on a collapse course, and in the 1970s the USSR was gaining ground around the world massively.
Had they refused to be a part of the dollar system and just wait out the West, they would have won.
You are great in making bold statements, GM.
It's just not true the way you put it.
I lived through those times and know first hand that on an economical and psychological level the West was playing the 'worthless valuta' of the socialist countries to the next level. Their living standard was broadcasted and seen by real life experience when western people came to visit.
Could have, would have, should have are wisdom of no real value when one tries to reduce complexity to binary simplicity that is historical wrong and even a lesser help to define the future.
Not true. The USSR was not able to keep abreast with the rest of the world in a whole range of technologies and needed to get into the global game or lose ground to other nations.
A good example is the personal computer. Gorbatchev commissioned a study of what it would take to produce domestically personal computers and the report he got back (as I was told a long time ago by the author of that report) was that there was no way on earth the USSR with its resources could match the combined innovation of essentially the rest of the world, working on a division of labour principle (with some countries/companies specializing in chips, others in software, screens etc. etc.). So cooperation was not optional and even widespread economic espionage could not compensate this.
Incidentally a number of European countries also tried and failed in the 80s and 90s to create national champions for the manufacture of personal computers - wasting billions in the process.
Whether, with the rise of AI assisted engineering, having a large workforce of engineers will remain as critical (or whether smaller countries with talented teams assisted by hordes of AI assistants can do the job) remains to be seen.
And why was that with the cheap oil and gas, the construction of the N1?
You have to write that down.
Oil crisis in the West, car-free weekends in the West...yes, that's right, the West was at an end.
Then a president came to power in the Kremlin who wanted to change things, fight hunger like Yeltsin and Gorbachev wanted and HAD to...and that was only possible with foreign currency and, yes, with the help of Western technology, at least at that time. In Russia, that didn't exist, nor did the domestic forces...these were only made possible later by this very president. YOU should think before you type.
Not only was the West at an end back then, but Russia was too, thanks to Yeltsin's drinking and giving away, and Gorbachev, who let the Union fall apart because the Soviet Union was BROKEN like the West. Putin did what he had to do to get his hands on that foreign currency...and, as it turned out, to disempower THESE OLIGARCHS and put them in their place. So don't talk such rubbish from back then, which you probably didn't even experience yourself.
Mention Putin's speech to the German Bundestag at a time when he still believed in the people who led politics in the West. Mention the deceitful Chancellor Merkel and the self-serving German Chancellor Kohl... under whom the construction of the N1 came about, for what reasons, I wonder, on the Western side? And who needs foreign currency to be able to rebuild their own Russia step by step?
Through people like you, subsequent generations forget what is truly true, what is invented by people like you and defined according to their own wishes. And yes, I experienced all of this, not just from the outside, no, on both sides, West and East. I saw Russians queuing in the hundreds at the shops with food vouchers.
I experienced highways in Germany with bicycles instead of cars and trucks. I saw how the small GDR (East Germany) had to transport tons of wheat by freight train to Russia so that Russians under Yeltsin had something to eat. To a country like Russia that was NOT capable of feeding itself... (Look, today there is more wheat than the USA!) THANKS to Putin and the foreign currency he acquired.
.
Ergo: In conclusion, the West has financed Russia to be where it is today. In many ways, it is 25 years ahead of the West technologically, with a digital service that they may yet see in its full glory in Singapore... but definitely not in New York or Boston, let alone in the backwoods of Europe. The West has rested and become comfortable in its delusional idea of "being the better one." Weapons have lagged behind technologically...
A nice thing with Substack is the edit function enabling you to correct mistakes rather than generating unnecessary replies to your initial post... Just click on the 3 dots to the right of your name above the relevant post.
Let's pick on this as an illustration of the fallacies in your thinking:
>today there is more wheat than the USA!) THANKS to Putin
Why is there more wheat? Let's look at the reasons.
First, climate change has made Russian agriculture more productive. Is that thanks to Putin?
Second, meat consumption only caught up with Soviet levels in the late 2010s, and I don't think dairy consumption ever recovered completely. As a result there has been a lot less demand for grain to feed cows and other animals. Is that thanks to Putin? No, it is thanks to Gorbachev and Yeltsin, and it is, of course, not a good thing.
P.S. If you are asking how is it possible that people ate more meat and cheese and drank more milk in the 1980s than in 2010s Russia, given the conventional narrative, the answers are to be found in the following:
1) Diets shifted towards more junk food. So even though people might be feeling like they are eating more and enjoying more abundance, in reality the proportion of stuff that is good for them has changed in a negative direction.
2) It might feel like there is much more ready access to meat and dairy products in stores, and that is correct. However, that is not where they were primarily consumed in Soviet times -- it was in the canteens in factories and schools, which is where most people got two of their three daily meals in the USSR. Since then those have been some combination of eliminated, privatized and transitioned to serving junk food, and the meat and dairy products that went there have been redirected towards the stores.
After my visits to current Russia and shopping groceries there, I can tell you that the people of Russia shit more proteines and digested healthy food than the West is even able to produce at the moment.
<<<<<<First, climate change has made Russian agriculture more productive. Is that thanks to Putin?<<<<<
Climate change??!!?? Give me a break. Even if it wasn't a hoax, it wouldn't show up in agricultural output over a twenty year period. If you mean regularly occurring weather cycles, ..... that has been going on for centuries. It is the ability to respond effectively that matters. Focus on outcomes. Don't look at tea leaves for potential causes.
Climate change is real! After all, we are still coming out of the little Ice Age when they had an ice fair on the Thames. This is a good thing. Also, the CO2 levels were dangerously low for plant life and the increase in CO2 has led to a world-wide greening. As far as the effect of CO2 on temperature, well, maybe, a little. No question that it would have had a significant effect if the CO2 level in the atmosphere had started from zero percent (never did -- it was almost all CO2 at one point and O2 is the latecomer) but the effect is logarithmic and we are pretty much saturated at this point. But the climate will change again -- it always does. Unfortunately for us, since we are in an interglacial, the next big change will be into extreme cold. Someday.... In the meantime, enjoy the climate we have!
Climate change started because of some of Putins machinations. Instead with Stalin the climate was orderly and regular, as it should be in a magnificent socialist State of workers and peasants.
Had occasion to be present at a photo op meeting between then Presidents Clinton and Yeltsin. When he came close to me, it became apparent that Yeltsin was intoxicated but still functionally aware of his surroundings. Except for making us (including Clinton who stayed in another room) wait for an hour. Clinton, when he entered at about the same time as Yeltsin, was clearly bored in an attentive, bemused sort of way. You know....been there, done that, many times...... This was shortly after noon on a week day.
It was interesting to see the Clinton entourage work to ensure they both entered at roughly the same time.
My thoughts at the time were.....if Yeltsin is intoxicated here at a photo session part of a Summit Meeting, what the hell is he like the rest of the time?
No, in contrast that's not the "proper" way to look at it, it is the propaganda for morons way to look at it, assuming that the reader knows nothing at all about the Soviet Union, Russia, history, basic economics, geopolitics, or common sense. In other words, a typical "GM" post.
You comment is confusing so Brezhnev was premier 64 until 82' how could he sold out USSR for " pennies on the dollar to the West" AND gave citizens middle class lifestyle? I agree that Russia is an Autarky though and should use that leverage more but "for the love of money is root of all evil" as Bible says.
Have you ever read the Great Moron criticising in any way the Kievan banderists? Me neither. Why could that be? Look at his comment... First, its Russian treason, then.... Seriously, the funniest banderist in town...
Dude you're omitting the fact that the USSR was entirely dependent on American grain imports since the 1970s. I find it hard to believe you didnt already know that
What's with this continuing BS about Ukraine or for that matter anyone but the USA blowing up Nordstream. That issue was settled LONG ago. Why do people want to believe the propaganda to deflect from the USA?
It's not countries, it's a maniacal political class that follows orders from the class that created and socialized them in 'think tanks', universities, NGO's and political parties over decades.
Since 1990 all civil rights and workers rights are successive stripped away in a salami tactic because they know damn well that they have no chance against pitchforks and torches once the masses start to revolt.
No, although the majority of Germans think the current chancellor is doing a bad job, the majority of them voted for and approved of Germany's support for the nazi regime in Kiev. Same with the French. The French people voted Macron into power. They're not so happy with him now but a majority of them still support Ukraine.
In both Germany and France a majority of the people have a completely supine attitude toward the US, and a substantial majority support their country's membership in the EU. In fact, in both Germany and France by huge margins, truly massive majorities, ordinary citizens raged against the UK for daring to leave the EU.
So sorry, no, it's not just a maniacal political class and a cabal of narcissistic think tanks, universities, NGOs and political parties. It's the god-damned *people* of Europe that are the problem because they are just as self-indulgent, totally self-centered, badly educated, perverted, degenerate and vicious as the organizations and elites that run their countries.
EU/NATO Europe has become Sodom and Gomorrah in a modern incarnation. Like Sodom and Gomorrah they're creating a future for themselves where they are struck down by fire, but that fire won't be the hand of God but annihilation in the war they have started against Russia and seek to expand into a war against China.
In Germany the voters participation is declining constantly. In the end it's not even 25% of the *people* that voted for the current regime.
For the rest I can't argue with you. You have a factual point in describing the majority of EU-citizens. The coming economical disaster will change their attitude but that also will be a slow process, indoctrination / daily propaganda still works here.
Macron was "voted into power" like Biden was in 2020. In the first round of the 2017 presidential elections, Macron was polling at less than 2%, far behind virtually every candidate. Second round, he somehow ended up against Francois Fillon when Mediapart magazine published an article "revealing" that his wife Penny had been paid by his office for "fictitious work" and that he'd been gifted a couple of expensive suits. Within three hours of the article being published, a judge initiated a criminal investigation, thereby leaving the path wide open to Macron's "victory". A coincidence? Perhaps, but it just so happens that the very same judge is behind Sarkozy's imprisonment. Oh, and by the way, Macron changed the law making it impossible to verify the number of votes (sound familiar?).
"[what] you want the europeans to do after we were faced with a fait accompli?"
If you're going to pretend to be a sovereign society that is a factor in geopolitics then you can't always say "the US did it" when your own actions go bad.
The total population of Europe is over 740 million people. That's 60 million more people than *twice* the current US population of about 340 million (340 x 2 = 680; 740 - 680 = 60). "Europe" in the form of the EU keeps pretending to be a world power. If that's the case, you have to take responsibility for your own actions.
When the US decided to start wars in former Soviet states on Russia's borders as way of trying to take apart Russia, Europe could have said, "No, no way. Count us out." Instead, Europe *enthusiastically* dropped to its knees and started sucking Uncle Sam's, ah, war plans. There is no metaphor for self-abasement that overstates the self-abasement of Europe on its knees before the US.
You might say the vicious and duplicitous Brits were never really part of Europe, but they were during the US's first regime change operation in Ukraine in 2004, during the US's proxy war test when Georgia launched a sneak attack on South Ossetia in 2008 on the eve of the Beijing Olympics, and when the US launched hot war in Ukraine in 2014. Europeans and the EU enthusiastically embraced those American war initiatives, and subsequently Europeans played key roles in the diplomatic duplicity (with Germany and France starring in the duplicity department, as they usually do), with total lies about Minsk 1 and 2 that were intended, as the principals have admitted, to support the US's war strategy in Ukraine.
Since then, the Europeans have emerged as the most viciously anti-peace part of the US's vassal circus. That's another foul deed that Europeans have to take responsibility for: Europeans brought vicious nationalists like Poland and the extremist nationalists in the Baltic states into the EU.
Ah, and last but not least it is Europe alone that has populated the clown car full of dishonest scum who currently run European policy, resulting in affronts to decency and democracy like the totally rigged "elections" in Romania and Moldova.
So no, you don't get to pin that history of duplicity and evil onto the US. Europeans knowingly marched in support of evil and deserve whatever happens to them should Russia decide there is no point in democracy with such scum and that the only way to deal with them is through "military-technical" means.
'you don't get to pin that history of duplicity and evil onto the US' you must be insane to say such a thing :)))
or maybe we need to define terms.
when i say europeans i mean the population; nobody voted for this shit and this is exactly why it wasn't done in the open.
and then, after 2019 what the fuck did you expected? civil war for...russias sake? be serious.
i have the utmost respect for the experiment that was ussr but that died with stalin and as an east-european russians are just another empire that tried to subdue us.
from my romanian pov there is no difference between ukrainians and russians and while i understand the roots of this debacle best outcome for me would be attrition of both sides(nato/russia); i have 0 trust in anything that comes from moscow, brussels or washington and the whole multi-polarity shit is just another euphemism for 'spheres of influence' and a dog-eat-dog world.
The only thing wrong with your analysis John is that you blame the powerless.
Unless you understand that elections are a fraud perpetrated on a nation's population you will be unable to change anything. The Oligarchy will just set up another useless and empty "No Kings" protest that will only set the populations against one another.
John, you are missing out on the power of the propaganda the Anglo-American Oligarchy pays for.
Nancy McLean's, Democracy in Chains, shows how the Oligarchy will buy an economist as long as he is saying what they want to hear. And when he deviates from their script, they professionally destroy him.
Charlie Kirk is a more extreme example of how this works.
The "people" have no defense against this mind control. You have to fight against Snowden's Apophenia and crawl out of the rabbit-hole the Oligarchy has dug for you. (Of course, you might then travel down a different hole. <sigh>)
Rather than condemning the people, reach out and understand where they are coming from.
You give the "average American" too much credit to understand what is going on.
The schadenfreude I see over the coming bankruptcy of many American Farmers because supposedly they are MAGA and voted for Trump, is just depressing as hell. The Oligarchy's propagandists are working over time on blaming the Farmers for "their own stupid decision" and insisting that if Harris had been elected "this would not be happening".
Then there's the "blame the boomers" meme that keeps popping up for every ill Gen Z is facing. I swear, there is a campaign to organize a
"boomer-SS" that will attack old people on the streets.
You are one of the few Frank who understands the financial heft of the Anglo-American Oligarchy. That political class was indoctrinated by them and their political campaigns financed by the Oligarchy. They have their positions solely because of the Oligarchy. They will not turn on the Oligarchy, but have no problem betraying their nation. It is treason.
Not at all if the end goal is for the Gringo Empire to plunder any remaining assets & capital in Europe while using it as a kamikaze drone against Russia.
And Germany is being consumed by its bureaucracy, which has become increasingly excessive.
German police shoot at soldiers on maneuvers who were firing blank cartridges. German police fired back. One could laugh if it weren't so serious. Bureaucracy prevented the police from knowing about the maneuver.
VW is ceasing operations because there are no chips for the engine control units from a factory in the Netherlands.
This Chinese-run factory was nationalized and taken over by force by the Dutch government... THAT, in turn, is not being reported in the media. Now, of course, China has interrupted deliveries to the Netherlands... CONSEQUENCE
VW, Porsche, BMW, Citroën, and Renault will have to take a break starting Friday, October 24th...
Oh yes, the Dutch acted under pressure from the USA as part of the sanctions against China...
And now, of course, they're happily watching as everything goes down the drain in Europe.
Actually Nexperia is a Chinese company with 80% manufacturing in China and 48% customers in China. It has disconnected the Dutch business.
When Philips NV pulled out of semiconductors Dutch regime did not bother, nor when it sold it as NXP to Bain Capital and Silver Lake. When they sold off Nexperia to Wingtech both US snd Dutch regimes approved the sale of basic semiconductors like Mosfets
If Philips was critical to national security why did this happen ?
Your question is way too qualified, especially in EU context, where "national security" is a highly flexible matter which can be reinterpreted on a daily basis as seen fit. Consistent in being inconsistent!
Orban is probably going to be blamed for siding with Trump and setting off the infighting. In reality it was an extremely radical act from Ursula and gang to shift the EU from an economic alliance to a war party. I am actually surprised that up to this point there are no more countries turning against the war policies. The EU is distributing tens of billions of Euros to the member states each year and the political classes are simply unable to walk away from all that candy.
Followed up by the The Bologna massacre in 1980. Although the perpetrators are still in dispute, the argument that state resources were used under Operation Gladio is strong:
"Though at first blamed on Italy's legendary urban guerrillas, The Red Brigades, it soon emerged that the attack had, in fact, originated from within the 'deep state' of the Italian government itself."
False flag state terrorism blamed on some particularly unpopular version of 'the left' - whose patsies might be controlled opposition themselves.
I am going to use the C word here also. His name was Charlie, for 13 years he might have been a 'useful idiot', a well paid controlled opposition influencer owned by a hostile state to push their talking points. But in the last 3 months of his life, the scales fell from his eyes and he became a threat to his billionaire former patrons. Cue the deranged leftist tranny lover lone gunman with the magic bullet. The same trick every time.
Somewhere in this video (Neutrality Studies) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rapYsxSwyao& one of the interviewees states that if you follow the money for any terrorist group, it always leads to an intelligence service.
Lately, the pundits I listen to have been crediting MI-6 (and the Brits in general because of the banksters whose lair is in the City of London) with all kinds of nefarious actions.
If you want more on the "Deep State", find anything from Aaron Good. His "Empire and the Deep State" series explains who the Anglo-American Oligarchy is and the criminal actions they use to control the world.
His gray alliance series explains how the CIA and Organized Crime (Meyer Lansky) conspired together to murder JFK.
Yes, it is one giant conspiracy. With hundreds if not thousands of sub-conspiracies that don't necessarily have the same objectives.
The European countries’ political and economic elites & PMC are completely aligned with the EU by many ways: ideologically, economically, by kompromat… The final red flag of this was when the powerful German (and to a lesser degree French and Italian) industrial lobbies didn’t fight back against the sanctions, basically accepting irreversible damage to their interests without even raising a token protest.
In Spain war criminal Borrell is being invited to the best forums and media shows as a succeding character. I think it is the British shadow banking tax haven money laundering City of London empire who owns both NATO and the EU. Their biggest advantage is they are ready to sacrifice their own people without regrets or happily hire the worst yihaddi or banderist cannibals. No moral boundaries. Terrorism and slavery have always been their ticket to success.
There's a lot in this 90 minutes but you mentioned "kompromat" and Edmonds explains that the reason Dennis Hastert became Speaker of the House was because "they" (the nebulous "they") knew that foreign intelligence agencies were supplying Hastert with under-age boys.
Then the short narrative of how the FBI would be tasked with investigating appointees for government offices. The ones that moved up were those who weren't exactly "honest".
As he should. Orban says some things that are true, but he's friends with Trump and sides with Israel. Orban is not in any way, a good person, but at least he does seem to do his job better than most in Europe, where the interests of Hungary are what appears to be his main concern, or at least they're not irrelevant, like they are for people like Macron in regards to France, or for Meloni in regards to italy, etc, Most european "leaders" are more concerned with Ukraine and USA's foreign policy, than with the interests of their countries, to which they were supposedly elected to protect.
I don't think he is, because the EU does nothing without USA approval, and EU is literally trying to destroy Hungary's energy security, which will result in Hungary having higher energy costs, since the EU will force Hungary to buy USA LNG, etc. Being close to Trump and not understanding this, when it's part of "think tank" reports in USA, for many decades now - force Europe to ditch russian erngy and start buying USA energy - makes Orban someone that clearly is out of touch with reality in this regard.
‘force Europe to ditch russian erngy and start buying USA energy - makes Orban someone that clearly is out of touch with reality in this regard.’
You do have a point there. The underlying political structure has degenerated to a point where America creates a conflict and forces its fossil fuel sales on a sovereign nation-state on the other side of the planet. As soon as opposition is detected force is applied in various forms and the The Comedian steps in by blowing up and repeatedly burning related infrastructures. To add insult to injury at least three major fossil fuel producers were forced out of the international market with direct or indirect military acts. Venezuela with the largest oil reserves on the planet could just about cut oil prices into half alone. Iran and Russia could literally float the Chinese economy on cheap fossils, something that would finish off US hegemony on a planetary scale.
The economic suicide of Europe has for a long time been simply “insane”. Russia will just sell its resources to the global south, having no impact on its economy, while the European industries dus to riding costs of production become less competitive and go bankrupt. How insane are European leaders?
The road to peace is dialog and taking all sides “concerns” into account. The Europeans are not talking to the Russians (the hysteria over the proposed meeting in Budalest was insane), snd they’re not interested in Russian concerns. The price of this arrogance - a destroyed country with millions of dead. A destoyed European economy. And for what - the refusal of Ukr to grant simple human rights to its Russian citizens (language and political rights). Yet these same rights are available within Europe for other ethnic groups. Corrupt and evil is all I can say.
I meant violent, murderous, authoritarian, fascistic types with a heavy emphasis on some nationalistic/religious/ethnic identity and a stone willingness to "other"/destroy/murder those who don't share it, object or in any fashion try to get in the way of their thieving murderous pogroms.
If those traits happen to describe a large % of people who live in a small middle Eastern country (and a large % of the political leadership in one of the larger Eastern European countries) who are ALSO nominally Jewish? Or even their nominal co religionists/apocalyptic Xtian believers in affluent enabling countries??? It is mere happenstance.
Europeans especially have to understand that the EU is a fascist dictatorship of the worst kind. Ad like all fascist dictatorships it wants to control everyone and punish whoever dares to oppose it. There's not a single policy in EY that isn't towards this goal and we are in fact already living it. The bigger problem is that the majority of europeans either support this or don't care about it.
"It looks like the UK and the EU started a terrorist war against their own members"
At least they are consistent. They certainly have been waging a terrorist war against their own populations for decades now. Not only by organising an invasion of anti-Christian, anti-European peoples and mandating bioweapons injections. They also have been arresting any indigenous European people who dare to object to any of this, even by posting a meme on the internet.
You are right, Gladio and their actions date back decades and killed many in terror acts who were blamed on 'left action groups' in the media and people believe it until today. It aint over yet.
My thought as well. In the case I know well, the EU and the EEC before that, have been sabotaging the Spanish economy & industrial, monetary, trade, foreign and energy policies since the very beginning in 1986.
Wrong. Spain at the time had the 10th or 11th (depending on the source) largest industrial output in the world and the price for entry into the EEC was the closure or sale of the industries (such as shipbuilding, steel making, machine tool, trains, fishing, etc) that were slowly chipping away at the French and German rivals.
Spain at the time had a much lower cost base and built quality products at a fraction of the cost of its neighbors. The downside was that Spanish consumers lacked purchasing power to buy foreign stuff, e.g. German cars. With the EEC and later most drastically with the €€€, Spain exchanged a large and relatively autarkic industrial base for purchasing power and finances.
Actually, the Spanish economic rise in the 60s-70s was not that different from the Chinese miracle (OK, excepting for its scale).
Right. Before the political change in Spain and successive entry in the EEC, Spain had achieved a per capita rent which was 90% of the average in a EEC of ten members.
Today, after deindustrialisation and privatisation of State property, the per capita rent of Spaniards is lower comparatively that it was in 1974.
those are all frankist myths. Spain has been a US colony since 1953. The desindustrialization begun long before 1986, as for the Barreiros case. Unemployment was/is endemic in Spain due to the industrial autarchic model with no extermal market to sell. Thats the reason why the regime was knocking to the EEC since the 60's, running technocrat regimes to no avail. The 1986 was the perfect outcome for yhe banking trading Spanish oligarchy. Capital flows accesed the country's now liberal market. A whole brand new network of motorways and high speed trains, a price garanteed agriculture market, which has made many farmers rich, a stable powerful currency... This was all good for the upper class but not only. The drawbacks were the end of national sovereignty, intergration in the imperial neocolonial system, proletarization of the middle class and eventually the incoming looting of the country's assets by the international capital funds. Its like the cocaine dealerd. First they invite you. Then they debt you. Finally they stripe you. Ask Zelensky. He knows well.
Your interpretation bears little resemblance to reality. Try to analyze the real numbers instead of of repeating the old and tired tropes about Franco Facha Pantano. Spain’s economic development (as GDP growth) in the 60s and 70s was greater than the economic miracles of Japan or Germany, only surpassed by China. During that era Spaniards emigrated but not because unemployment (look the freaking real numbers, pls!) but to get better pay in France, Germany or Switzerland. The autarky was a very concrete period in the 50s due to sanctions. The EU “Making farmers rich” just shows how little you know about the topic. A great majority of the farmers were and are in a very bad shape, with or without subsidies. Only a small number of vegetable exporters in very concrete areas got rich exporting to Europe. As for the “stable powerful currency”, you can shove the €€€ up vdL’s rectum. My parents paid their house mortgage in pesetas at a 20% interest rate in 5 years, which was an usual case in the 70s. Now? Very rare to see mortgages <30yrs. The € has been the WMD of choice of the EU satraps, and fuck it. And don’t get me started comparing public and private debt of that era with the current numbers!
There are things to criticize in the Franco regime, indeed, but the economic performance of the regime was world-class.
Franco Spain was a poor country full of poor people,, one of the poorest in Europe. This is the reason why it was a net labour exporter, whereas now it is a net labour importer. Little to do with those Franco worshipers.
"Making farmers rich" was a famous EU trap. The effect was that only a small minority (big farmers) got rich. The others had to give up farming and become wage slaves.
But they have an impression that they are a part of the middle class.
"#......Not only by organising an invasion of anti-Christian, anti-European peoples ...."#
That a person is not European does not mean they are "anti European".
Furthermore, anyone with even the most basic grasp of world history should understand that in fact it is Europe that has invaded most of the world and plundered their resources - just like right now it has colonised Ukraine, and stripped it, and is looking to do to Russia too!
Or do you think english or french or spanish language is native to north America, south america, or Australia, or Africa? Did Europeans move there and adopt the native language culture and food and religion of those places?
So why all of a sudden when those people the Europeans colonised, now go to Europe, you now want to paint them as some sort of inhuman figures and a threat? That is ridiculous and clearly hypocritical.
The problem Europe actually has, is that its so-called leaders are corrupt, greedy, and working for bosses in the US and Israel, rather than the ordinary people who voted for them. Now they are enriching the oligarchs who own miltary and tech companies, while increasingly the costs of life basics in Europe, and while cutting social benefits even for children. But what society can survive a long term systematic underinvestment in its own children while instead making the superrich into the ultrarich?
This is the real problem Europe has and it's laughable to blame immigrants for this. Immigrants do not run the government or business or social institution. Its bad local people - fake leaders - who do.
Europe is being now submerged by millions of anti-European inmigrants. You may deny that fact for ideological reasons of your own.
No one denies that there were European empires, and that empires are established thorough the use of force.
However, I do not see the relevance of that fact in the present circumstances.
First, the European empires brought progress to the world, so that no guilt is necessary.
Modern civilization was created in Europe and spread to the world.
Also, I am not inclined to let someone burn my house, because a conqueror belonging to my ethnic group may have burned the house of someone somewhere in the world hundred years ago.
Actually I am speaking facts. You're the one refusing any relationship to facts, while accusing those speakng facts of "ideology". Truth my friend is verifiable. Your unfounded ideas are the "ideology"
In fact it is European empires that raped the planet. The GDP of the Indian subcontinent for example ravaged by them - reduced under colonial rule. In for example Congo, the Beligians killed an estimated 10 million. Then enslaved others and worked them in place or sold them in slavery to the Americas. When you go to Belgium and you see marble halls dripping in gold decorations, THAT is where the money came from.
Progress? For whom? If Belgium today has money, whose wealth is it?
Do you know the value of the stolen labour of enslaved Africans ? Or the value they were measured at in the accounting books on plantations and the ledgers American banks lending money to those businesses? Do you know, in an age with few or no machines, what would have been the real labour cost of cotton being picked by hand if it wasnt done by slaves for no pay? Do you know th real market value of all the minerals taken and shipped off to be refined in Europe?
Do you know? Documents exist showing all this. They tell the truth about wealth creation. Any credible history department of a decent university in Europe would tell you this.
Moreover, the scientific basis of modern civilisation was created in Africa actually. The nile valley civilisation. Not Rome, nor the Greeks. Learn the history.
You dont know the history. We cannot have a " debate" when you actually lack the knowledge to debate.
Forget comment threads and take this computer you are on and go learn history, my friend. The internet has a global library for free. There is no excuse to not know.
Rape is a strong word. This isn't the Mongols invading and shattering already developed societies just because they can. When that happens the population plummets, which wasn't the case for most colonial nations (with the exception of the massive pandemics that occurred in a few places with no immunity to old world diseases). They went up. Africa's population explosion is entirely a result of colonization because these people had to be gifted modern (for those times) technologies like agriculture and sanitation to aid in resource extraction, resources these people would never use and or never knew existed. Most of south Africa's Africans for example aren't native to the region and immigrated there choosing to live under white "oppression" because they valued the increased standard of living
On slavery its important to establish 2 things: 1) every place on earth has had some sort of slavery 2) the blacks were already enslaved by other Africans before they were sold to the Europeans. The whites didn't go running around in the bush looking for them. And depending on where these slaves ended up many would be living in relative luxury compared to if they stayed in Africa or, God forbid, were sold to the Arabs. As it is, its the Europeans who were the first to get the idea of banning the practice and even fought wars over it you might say its a white thing
I do think colonization was a mistake long term. These people should have had a few hundred or thousand years to develop on their own instead of being forcibly thrust into the modern world and into our homes. But was that ever an option, wasn't it inevitable Europeans would start exploring? Its the human spirit, and competition and expansion is fundamental to life itself. If you are White you have just been indoctrinatinated with a self hating version of the noble savage myth, something unque to whites since every other race just puts their own people first. And its just as wrong as before - when the Europeans arrived these people had already been slaughtering and warring with each other for thousands of years. And they themselves were often just the latest group of migrants who displaced or conquered the former
You are one hundred per cent right and I in fact admire your patience in explaining some elemental points of history to people that either complete ignorants or are blinded by ideology and hatred. Most remarkably, in many cases this is self hatred of people that have been thoroughly brainwashed.
I know enough history to know that are talking a lot of nonsense.
1. European empires were ones of many. Conquest and empire began with the city of Ur. A few examples: Babylon, Assiria, Hitittes, Egyptians, Persians, Macedonians, Roma, Moslem Caliphate, Turkish Empire, Mongols, Timurides, Mughals, Portugal, Spain, Great Britain, France, Russia.
2. It is absolutely false that the European empires were more brutal than all others. The evidence shows exactly the opposite. The Europeans and the Islamic Arab conquerors were the most human empires in history.
3. The case of the Congo is a special case, because it was at the beginning a personal colony of the Belgian King. No Belgian regular soldiers or civil servants could be sent there.
Everything was in the hands of contract adventurers that behaved indeed in a miserable manner. Taking into account that malaria killed Europeans easily, because they lacked any immunity, only
desperados went to serve in Leopold's Congo and the results were very bad.
When the land became a Belgian State colony and a regular administration organised, the situation changed completely.
The picture must also take into consideration other points.
Slavery, an institution that began with historic records and practiced by all civilizations, including the Western one.
The difference: it was for the first time in history abolished by the British Empire and, immediately later, by all other Western States.
3. As regards, the origen of civilization, it did not take place in the Nile valley.
One can consider the introduction of agriculture by the neolithic farmers as the first step. It took place in Anatolia. This population forms a large part of the population of Europe today, from 60% in the South to 25% in regions of Northern Europe.
A second step was the domestication of horses and the wheel. It took in the plains to the North of the Black Sea. It spread with the Yamnaya inmigration in Europe and Iran and India.
4. It is remarkably silly to try and compare the information contained in the Egyptian hieroglyphics to the monumental body of written Greek culture. Heraclitus, Parmenides, Plato, Aristoteles, to name a few.
5. 99% of the modern technical sphere, that has changed human life, originated in Europe, or by Europeans in America.
Electricity, telephone, tv, computers, trains, navigation independent of the wind, agricultural tractors, automobiles, persons and goods, all motors (vapour, Otto, Diesel, jets), modern medicine, X rays, vaccines, anaesthesia, etc.
6. This technical development was the reason of the superior economic development in Europe.
Belgium did not get rich because of the Congo.
The extraordinary Belgian and Dutch cities predate the conquest of Congo by four centuries.
In the African country that I know well, the only building more sofisticated than a straw hut, when Europeans first set a foot in it, was a small stone fort, which served as a basis of Yemeni slavers.
Go and study. It takes weeks, months and years, to learn and to piece things together.
Most of the anti migrant crew are this way: the people who dont out in the effort to learn even the real history of their own country, of it's economics, of their culture, of humanity - nothing - but they want to find someone to blame. Preferably a scapegoat, because only brave, determined and knowledgeable people would actually be willing to point at oligarchy, or resist them. The weak seek scapegoats.
The "nile valley civilisation" gave modern civilisation next to nothing in regards to science...As to the slavery angle, well, you must deduct the "cost of living" from your fantastic "value of the stolen labour of enslaved Africans ". After slavery in the US, many (mostly white) went into debt labouring all day in "the Company Town". Africans too were conquered, enslaved and even genocided by other Africans prior to any Euros having any significant presence in Africa.
Those savages were so lucky to have us conquer them. Lucky that we stole, murdered, committed genocide - all in their best interests. Even luckier that they did not descend to the depths of your paranoid fantasies - they are just people like you and me. Global air transport means that mixing of people now cannot be prevented, perhaps you should meet a few and get to know and like them
Humans are human. Did I ever deny this elemental truth? I wonder what is the practical the use of your obvious statement.
They are people like you and me? In a sense yes, in others not at all. What does it means "like". Every person is unique.
As far as I remember, what I have said is that Europe is being submerged my aliens. Something that I oppose.
By the way, no other nations in the world today accept situations that would result, if not reversed, in becoming a minority in its own territory. This is a mental disorder only of modern Westerners.
I cannot imagine Indians accepting the inmigration of 15 million Chinese per year or the same numbers of Indians in China. This is the equivalent of that is happening today in many European countries.
It is just preposterous to imagine the mayor of the capital of an Arab country (or Teheran or Ankara) being a Christian politician of European origin.
The migrants coming to Europe are just tool of the Capital.
They are also enemies of the native population.
Just like Spaniards were enemies of South American native population in 1500. now, people form Africa coming to Europe are enemies of the native population.
I do not understand why there is so little hate against the foreigners in Europe.
They will stop coming only after they become afraid to come to Europe.
A common feature of Western ‘populisms’ is, of course, their rejection of immigration: Reform UK, the Sverigedemokraterna (Sweden Democrats), the AfD, Viktor Orban in Hungary, Law and Justice in Poland, Giorgia Meloni in Italy, like Trump or Le Pen, pass the test of this common denominator. Is this enough to define them as far-right, in the same way that Nazism and fascism were far-right? I don’t think so. There is a crucial difference between today’s populism and the Hitlerian or Mussolinian far right: Nazism and fascism were expansionist, with the aim of projecting the power of the German (Aryan) or Italian (Roman) people outwards. They were aggressive, nationalist and conquering. They relied on mass parties. It is hard to imagine today’s populists organising Nuremberg-style parades.
Hitler simply wanted to reunify Germany, after it had been torn apart following WW1.
He spent much energy not in conquering, but in issuing endless peace offers, especially to the British - all of which were rejected, because his financial system needed to be destroyed, as it challenged jewry's hold on most of the world - and all of the "Allied" world.
And thus, jewish Churchill's acceptance of £40,000 from the jewish "Focus Group" in Britain - all jewish industrialists.
The common feature shared by today's populist factions and the National Socialists is that both wish or wished to eject a foreign group which had entered the homeland, whether that be Pakistanis and now Africans in the case of Europe today, or jews in the case of 1930s Germany.
The parades / demonstrations of course, are becoming more obvious by the month, although the modern ones are far less structured than Hitler's were.
All you are repeating are in fact the diversions spread by those who exploit everyone.
You sit in Europe where your culture is evaporated by KFC, McDonalds, Subway, Starbucks, Hollywood, Disney. Where your money is taken by Shell, BP, Total, BAE, Boeing, Leonardo, RTX...led by US tools like Von der leyen, Rutte, Stoltenberg, Starmer, Merz.....but it's "immigrants" that are destroying Europe?
No excuse for these kinds of falsehoods.
Europe colonized the rest of the world, but now the empire is controlled by Americans and Israeli oligarchy, which are now colonizing Europe. Its that machine that BOTH Europe and Russia and being subjected to.
Only a fool would be getting crushed by that machine...while pointing at poor people cleaning offices and working in hospitals as the villian.
Capitalism is fueled by the ignorant fighting fellow victims, while not daring to reject the actual exloiters.
Russia as prey is the natural action for capitalists - the same capitalists who colonised the rest of the world. But no, keep ranting about "immigrants".
We're not running out of brown people - people who were too stupid, vicious, and untrustworthy to their own to ever get out of the Iron Age we whites created, or the neolithic where we weren't.
You are right that Europen culture is almost annihilated by the corporations. Therefore Europe, in order to survive must remove those corporations from its soil.
Those are two different problems. Corporations are not run by taxi drivers or nurses. But I do not want the streets of my place of birth start resembling the streets of Kinshasa.
I do not need to ask anyone's approval to say it the way I think it.
And the most extraordinary phenomenon. The Europeans were and are terrible! Where to you want to live? In Europe, of course. Legally or illegally, but of course of all places of the world, precisely in Europe.
When European colonists went abroad, it was not as the vanguard of an endless horde of other European peoples - it was mostly just an army, that in most cases had every intention of eventually returning back home.
Whilst there, of course, they gave permanent added value, eg written languages and cultures that involved science and technology - the Africans didn't have any of that, and hadn't even invented the wheel, for heaven's sake.
The "reverse invasion" is completely different - these people have no purpose in going to Europe except as the first blow of what will eventually be the complete elimination of those white people in their own countries.
"...the Africans didn't have any of that, and hadn't even invented the wheel, for heaven's sake....."
Europeans in fact went abroad and destroyed GDP, stole labour, stole resources, stole national treasures. At gunpoint. Theft. Piracy. And crimes against humanity.
And many inventions and knowledge, even before Greek civilization, were first developed in the african Nile valley region, the region scientifically understood and documented to be the first basis of all human civilization, including agriculture, mathematics, medicine/pharmacy, astronomy, metallurgy and so on.
So it's another example - you don't know your history. For which there is no excuse in 2025. You have a phone, a computer, the internet with limitless access to all the written knowledge in the world ever ....but have still no grip on history and facts.
But you want to "debate"international politics ? On the basis of what? Fiction?
"the african Nile valley region, the region scientifically understood and documented to be the first basis of all human civilization, including agriculture, mathematics, medicine/pharmacy, astronomy, metallurgy and so on." - FALSE.
The First Dynasty Pharoahs had white skin and red and blonde hair; Homo Sapiens Sapiens intelligence first exploded into being in Central Europe over 60,000 years ago.
Our people have been building mighty megaliths since long before the catastophic end of the Ice Age, and have more than once left a trail of red and blonde heads circumventing the equator even in the distant past.
We are the far-travellers, the Uplift, there is no upgrade to us.
Their debt-driven system is failing, their populations are ever-more restive, and cannibalization is becoming the fuel that powers their regimes.
It’s a clear set of trends. From burning their core demographics, to burning political legitimacy for tactical gains, to burning physical infrastructure. The last is now being done by weapons, not just laws and captured political kapos.
Each step is an escalation. Each step, and each evolution with these steps, a more open declaration of war.
If the totalitarian Control Grid panopticon fails, the continuation of these trends is the kind of development that doesn’t just change governments - it will threaten the entire liberal-bureaucratic regime. Which is highly, highly vulnerable to the cheap weapons being normalized by the Ukraine conflict.
Yes they injected their own sheep and worker ants with bio weapons so only you RED PILLED patriots that know the real truth after "doing your own research" (reading memes and propaganda other people made for you) will survive..maybe the real virus was the one that broke your brain during those years. I guess it serves as a good IQ filter for people who might share some of your other views. And the conservative parties were super happy during the pandemic because they could stop talking about that annoying immigration issue they had no intention of doing anything about anyway and just feed their supporters stupid normie conspiracy slop about covid and vaccines
It could have been venal ol' Crazy Joe with faux-Dr. Jill holding his hand, or that malignant cocksucker Sikorski with his vicious hag wife Applebaum holding his hand.
How exactly is the loss of Konstantinovka and Pokrovsk and Lyman and Seversk a major thing? Yes the russian army is doing their thing but what is the russian endgame? The other side is clear- force a ceasefire on current lines and all that. The way things are going this war continues for another decade
One part of the endgame is liberation of Donbas. Take a look at the map. What fortifications lie beyond Pokrovsk in Donetsk? Another part of this endgame is Slavyansk - Kramatorsk conurbation. Lyman and Seversk are stepping stones to it.
What fortifications were there in Sumy, around Volchansk and around Kupyansk?
There was nothing there comparable to the Donbass.
Yet each of those was turned into an endless grind and a total fiasco.
It's almost as if fortifications don't really make all that much of a difference in a drone war. Because the problem isn't blowing up the enemy with artillery, which is what fortifications make harder, the problem is that you yourself cannot move at all, and it takes remarkably little from the other side to impose that condition.
Total fiasco if you think that the plan was to move onwards non stop. I dont know what GS planned. Unlike you, I do not dwell in their heads.
Yes, open fields are problematic due to the drones. That is why I do not expect a mad dash to the Dnepr. But, situation in Zaporozhye might show us a new tactic using interceptor drones to accompany assaults. Looks like it is quite successful.
Then we have successful mechanised assault on Mala Tokmachka.
Which, BTW, nobody has ever done since Berlin in 1945.
The closest that comes to it is some situations in Iraq and Syria, but those featured huge mismatches in the relative power of defenders and attackers.
Nobody in history has ever taken a city of a million full of commie blocks against a peer enemy.
The only way that can possibly work is if Putin finally isolates the battlefield, and it shifts from a peer war situation to a major mismatch, but that he cannot do without nukes at this point.
Exactly, nobody in history. So how do I answer that? :D They are writing military history every day.
So, how are they going to take them? Cut the logistics, probably. Make life unbearable for civilians so they flee and then square with the military? Dunno, lets see. I am sure there are Rus cells all over Kharkov, Kiev, Odessa.
Mercouris claims some Azovstali dude was reaching out to him saying they are already preparing for the battle for Kiev.
Forget to answer to GM. He forgot about Budapest in 1956, with badly equipped defenders. Or just a year ago: Omdurman/Khartoum. Consider the ongoing situation in Tripoli. When looking at this, the Russians are doing a fantastic job. No need for nukes, just give them enough time.
I am glad to learn that Russia is ruled by morons and traitors since the revolution in 1917/1918.
What makes your ego that large that only you know the right way to victory over the combined western allies that want to balkanize Russia? Nukes are a weak argument for many reasons.
Mass murdering is for the West as we see in Gaza.
Russia is not acting on such level.
It's sucks when you hold up human principles, I know but I'm for my part happy that even Medwedjev does so.
How to take the big cities? Shut off the water, the heat and the electricity. Surround the city and move on. No resupply, no reinforcement. Let winter do the work.
The 'endgame' is repeated countless times since the mess started: Removing the root causes that lead to the SMO. To break the back of NATO and EU on the way is a byproduct and will lead to a new security order in Europe, where Russia has a saying in.
I have said it before. I don't think convincing many Millennials to get paid to upgrade their World of Warcraft skills to compete in a real world drone war will be difficult at all. So long as it is done from the safety of small dispersed concrete bunkers far from the front lines.
Top performers would be paid more and allowed to decorate in the style of their mom's basement.
Russia is aware of that. If the EU wants to fight Russia directly, Russia is ready for that. The EU isn't.
The real message of Ukraine is that Russia doesn't bluff. When Russia delivered its final ultimatums at the end of 2021 those ultimatums made it clear that if the US refused Russia would fight. Russia did fight.
If the US or the EU doesn't like that Russia will not yield on the demands it made at the end of 2021, as subsequently expanded in 2022, too bad for them.
As General Apti Alaudinov, Hero of the Russian Federation and the head of the mighty Akhbar batallion, put it, "We are used to war. We can do war. We know how to fight."
The only way the US can "stop" Russia from achieving objectives is to start a nuclear war with Russia. That will absolutely annihilate the US (the EU too, in passing, not that anybody gives a shit about the EU...), but there is reason to believe Russia will still remain a country, albeit one cast back into the 19th century with a very shattered infrastructure and a population only one third or half of what it was.
Incorrect. Because the EU is a real paper tiger, that has no ability to wage war and relies heavily on USA to "defend" it. Without USA's support, EU countries can do nothing about it, except bark loudly, for the many hundreds of millions of idiots in Europe, to applaud. Also, with its russophobic / fascist policies, EU has destroyed its industry. It has no ability to do what it claims to want to do, which is to militarize itself. The money being allocated t that, will simply disappear into the pockets of Von der Leyen, Kallas, Costa, Rutte, etc, which is also what happens to a lot of the money going to Ukraine.
In short, EU cannot fight a war, which is why it is constantly trying to keep USA close to it. However, USA is also a paper tiger, although not as much as the EU of course, because it also cannot sustain a long war, as it lacks the industrial capacity to do so. USA has never won a single war it participated in, nor any war it created. The only war it can claim it won, was the Iraq war, which USA created and it didn't even win militarily. It "won" by bribing iraqi generals not to fight. USA stands no chance against a powerful country like Russia, in a conventional war. And if thy want to go nuclear, Russia has the largest nuclear arsenal on the planet, so USA's destruction is guaranteed. Also USA doesn't have an army. it has a bunch of murderers and killers with the same uniform, that only want to kill people. They know nothing about tactics except attack unarmed civilians, which is exactly what the ukrainians do, because they were trained by USA / NATO. And now that ukrainians are low on numbers, the west sees its best proxy yet, dwindling into oblivion.
The point is, the EU can't do anything militarily and USA doesn't want to be removed from existence. Plus most people in the west are more concerned about a post on some social media network, than with reality. There's no chance the EU will start a direct war with Russia. But they do want to keep using their disposable meat wagon known as Ukraine to attack Russia. As for Russia, it definitely doesn't need to nor does it want to attack any european country, unless it is attacked of course. It also knows the limitations of european countries and how their only play, is to keep using Ukraine, so destroying Ukraine is the best way to end this war, because the west will lose its best proxy. Although for sure Russia needs to pay attention to the other countries that EU views as disposable meat, that EU wants to use against Russia, like Georgia, Moldova, etc.
I personally hope that the EU dares to put a "peacekeeping" force in Odessa or in Western Ukraine. It's total destruction by the Russians will spell the end of the EU.
The EU is rushing towards its end by its own actions, with or without a "peacekeeping" force, but for sure that would accelerate it. Although europeans as a whole are so dumb, that I'm not sure if it would happen so suddenly. It's as I usually say in regards to my country, Portugal. The only thing the socialists haven't done to destroy Portugal, is outright kill people on the streets with machine guns. But even if they did, portuguese as a whole would still "vote" for them. I'm afraid this is what most europeans will do as well.
"How exactly is the loss of Konstantinovka and Pokrovsk and Lyman and Seversk a major thing?"
Those are major tactical events. I can see by your questions you have little knowledge of military matters, so let me answer that in greater detail:
In war there are activities that are lumped together under the heading of "strategy" and there are activities called "tactics". If you ask an AI for what are "tactics" you may get an answer somewhat like the following:
In war, tactics are the specific methods, maneuvers, and arrangements of combat forces used to win individual battles and achieve immediate objectives on the battlefield. They are distinct from the broader, long-term goals of strategy, focusing on actions in a specific time and place, and are the "how" of a battle, such as using formations, firepower, and movement to create advantages.
Relation to strategy: Tactics are the tools used to execute a larger strategy. A general's strategy might be to win a war, while a colonel's tactics are used to take a specific airfield as part of that overall strategy.
Key elements: Tactics involve a combination of art and science, requiring both judgment and adaptation to circumstances, and they are often dependent on firepower and maneuver.
Russia's overall strategy, as repeatedly and consistently stated since 2022 includes the demilitarization and denazification of Ukraine. It has other goals to that strategy as well, such as the protection of Russian populations in Ukraine and the assurance that Ukraine cannot be used by Western adversaries for any sort of hostilities against Russia.
The tactics to accomplish the above include the battlefield defeat of US/NATO/Nazi military forces in Ukraine. That's proceeding on many fronts, including the clearing of Russian territory, such as the Donetsk People's Republic, of enemy forces.
Russia is applying sophisticated military tactics in that effort, which, of course, clueless fools on Internet don't understand (I don't mean you, since you had the good sense to look into what didn't seem right to you), sophisticated tactics which are designed to minimize the resources required for the conflict, to allow Russia's economy to continue growing in the superstar way it has been growing (part of the overall strategy that realizes without a strong economy you've lost any conflict), to greatly reduce the number of Russian casualties while greatly increasing the adversary's casualties, and to bleed the US and the EU and the Ukrainian Nazi regime of resources they cannot afford to lose.
While Western commentators often refer to those sophisticated tactics by calling them "attrition" warfare, that's a classic oversimplification that misses the essentials of Russia's complex tactics in an era of diffuse, high tech warfare, an era that Russia predicted starting over 20 years ago as a result of the first US invasion of Iraq.
The obvious, visible part of Russia's tactics to people reviewing maps and such on Internet is the diffuse advances and the way Russia forms pockets to surround and then annihilate the enemy, as well as to seize or block key logistics elements required for the adversary to continue resisting Russian advances.
There's the old saying about war that amateurs talk about tactics while professionals talk about logistics. That's true in a way, but a deeper understanding is that tactics are all ultimately about logistics, anyway. The loss of Konstantinovka and Pokrovsk and Lyman and Seversk are a major thing precisely because they are major disruptions of US / NATO / Nazi logistics that have been brought about by the sophisticated Russian way of war.
Surrounding and collapsing pockets is not so much about creating a raw fence of people around the objective, it is about achieving fire control on the essential logistics the enemy needs to keep fighting in that pocket. It's like killing a cancer tumor: kill the blood supply to the tumor and you kill the tumor. That's a more effective way of killing a tumor than to try to encase the tumor in a sack so it physically cannot grow.
Those losses are also major because they push back by tens of kilometers the enemy out of fortified firing positions that the enemy can use to project fire control onto regions behind the actual front that Russia needs to stage logistics for further advances. They're also major losses because once Russia punches through that particular fortified line it can rapidly gain more territory before coming up against the next fortified line.
But as the US / NATO / Nazi forces get weaker and weaker in Ukraine, each fortified line is weaker than the previous fortified lines. They haven't had eleven years to get the next one ready, and at the pace of Russia's advances they won't have time to do so.
Yes the russian army is doing their thing but what is the russian endgame?"
Those are the repeatedly stated objectives I mentioned above.
BL**DY EU, BL**DY EUROPEAN LEADERS. They don’t care about their own people, the citizens of Europe …… INSTEAD ……. They are pursuing this CRAZY RUSSIO-PHOBIC ideology (planted and nurtured by a foreign govt, USA /Biden/CIA …. ) where they are shooting themselves in the foot, no ….. in the HEAD just to prove a point …… and EVEN THAT , they can’t do properly , and get it wrong ! They did it with the NORDSTREAM pipeline and now this ….. WHAT A BUNCH OF PLONKERS !!!
Why does Russia continue to force the transfer of their energy to EU states that clearly don't want the energy? The Russian energy producers should assist the EU and immediately move to stop energy transfers. In the end Russians need energy and surely the developing Eurasian and Asian nations will be more than happy to accept energy sold in their own currency and making western currencies worthless.
The only money smell Russian industry should be interested in is the smell of the Ruble. They are potentially positioned to lose more than they gain maintaining trade with the west. Let the EU starve for energy and see who breaks first.
It was back in 2023, either at Valdai or the SPIEF.
Putin was finally asked a direct uncomfortable question, in this case why the f*** is Russia helping the very people attacking it with its commodity exports, including the very stuff that then comes back to it in the form of shells and missiles.
Putin's answer was "But we get money for it". He didn't elaborate on who he meant by "we".
Peak Putinism.
Right then and there whatever agency's job in Russia is to do that should have had him dragged off the stage in handcuffs and immediately put on trial for grand treason.
At least back in 1941 the last train to Germany crossed to border in a western direction in the evening of June 21. There were no more trains after that.
I don't know the intricacies of the economic realities that allow the trade to continue so I won't assume. In some ways I agree with you but not on the treason position. The USSR was invaded and was in a general war with Germany in 1941. Russia is still not in a declared war with Europe.
Russia has also been invaded and is being attacked by the West.
Look at the map now -- the line of contact is roughly where it was several months into Operation Barbarossa, and then again in late 1943 when it was moving in the other direction.
There is the Russian federation and the USSR they are two different entities. Ukraine was accepted as an independent state in 1991 after the dissolution of the USSR. So where the contact line is now is internationally recognised as Ukrainian territory. Yes, Russia has constitutionally reabsorbed the 4 regions whose people voted in a referendum to rejoin the Russian federation, that is as far as the Russian federation extends westward today.
Of course, the establishment ot Ukraine as an independent State, occurred much before Putin became President of Russia, but do not let facts disturb your propaganda slogans for a moment.
That is simply not true. But Putin is indeed showing weakness with the Trump debacle. After this new stunt, there is no way Putin could still keep that option open, but I'm afraid Putin won't make any harsh statement about it and blocking any possibility for negotiations, as well as stepping up what needs to be done in Ukraine.
I won't go that far, but for sure for some russians that is the case. And for Putin in particular, it's kind of a disgrace with this situation with Trump. Trump lies, says one thing, does the opposite, he cannot be trusted, in any possible way...yet russians still want to "talk". Russia should halt supplies of uranium to USA immediately and stop "talking" with a country that is literally attacking them and claiming to want peace. It's ridiculous.
As for how the west views others (and I do mean the west as in most of the people in the west), the majority are supremacists. They believe they are superior to everyone. North americans think they are superior to europeans. European think they are superior to north americans. It's a cultural thing and nearly impossible to change.
"“It must be remembered that there is nothing more difficult to plan, more doubtful of success, nor more dangerous to manage than a new system. For the initiator has the enmity of all who would profit by the preservation of the old institution and merely lukewarm defenders in those who gain by the new ones. ”
Trump is fighting for change, his biggest enemies are not the Russians but the Western Globalist financier and the political system they have laid out through the Western Nations. Here in the USA they are known as the Deep State, Neocons and American Democrats.
Watch what he does, not what he says. He is walking a very fine line. But he knows he has the support of the majority of the American People and enough oligarchs and politicians that he can pull it off.
But, it's hard, he is walking very carefully. You know, as much as he is bombastic when he speaks, he is very careful in how he acts.
I'll give you a clue... watch Trump when he gives a speech... if he's speaking out of his heart, he is funny, bombastic, interesting... his voice rises, lowers.. he's funny to watch.
But, when he is giving a prepared speech that reflects actual policy and he has to give because of the procedures of being the president, Trump uses a monotone voice and his body is mostly stiff.
political theatrics might be interesting on a psychological level but Trump is a product of the deep state - the US system is designed to establish a puppet in the white house that can be removed the moment he/she crosses the line.
There is the always the possibility of a maverick in American politics at the Federal level. Change like that normally requires a civil war in the parliamentary systems in Europe.
Proof is everywhere. Even Lincoln was an issue with the Deep State. JFK, RFK, Nixon and Trump are the modern era examples.
The Deep State normally uses assassination as their solution. Nixon saw the writing in the wall and decided to "retire" to his beach state in SoCal.
Thanks for the Machiavelli quote... a really great quote.
But I respectfully disagree with you that Trump can be said to be trying to achieve change. He and his supporters may think that's what they are trying to do but if you really want change you have to be able to say exactly what it is you want to change and what you propose as a replacement. Neither Trump nor his rabid supporters can articulate that.
Saying "I want change" because you're not happy with the current situation is not the same as actually "fighting for change," at least not in the sense of wanting to create something new. Just saying "I want change" while being destructive is simply an anarchist's game: smash everything and hope somebody else actually brings about actual change by inventing and implementing something new that's viable.
Trump just barks nonsense, like "Make America Great Again." What the heck does that actually mean in the highly complex world in which we live? Barking generalities like "I want more stuff manufactured in the US instead of in China" doesn't get you anywhere. Those are simply amorphous desires and not specific elements of change. Does he mean he wants America to be respected by other countries? In that case, attacking countries which disagree with America doesn't make America respected, it makes America feared and hated.
If you look at specific elements of the Trump agenda, they don't make sense as actual elements that will bring about specific goals. For example, getting into a tariff war with the entire world is not going to ensure that more stuff gets manufactured in the US than in China. Why? Because it doesn't actually change the root causes why industry fled the US for China and why Americans now cannot compete with China. All it will do is deny Americans the ability to buy what they need (because they won't be able to afford the prices) to live the lives they want to live or to have a chance at improving their industrial game.
(1) Independence from the European Globalists, mostly based in London. We fought a War Of Independence once. Let's call them the CABAL.
(2) A small federal Government that respects State rights within the Constitutional Rights of the Citizens of our Republic. Remember that part in the Declaration of Independence:
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."
(3) No more inventions of "rights" from Judicial Activism.... "Live Free" should be The Motto. "Leave me alone" should be added.
(4) Fiscal and Social responsibility. A return to the Gold Standard. No more fiat money. No more expensive social experiments mandated by the Government... ANY level of Government.
(5) A non political Judicial Branch. Justice must be apolitical and guided solely by the Constitution and the intent defined in the Bill of Rights and Declaration Of Independence.
(6) No more professional Civil Servant class except in certain professions. Civil Engineers for example.
(7) End of the Forever Wars. No more fighting all over the war, no more fomenting wars that help the business of the CABAL at the expense of American Taxpayers. While we're at it, cut back the CIA and all of those Intelligence Agencies.
(8) Seal the borders, create a strong Defense Force and reintroduce the Monroe Doctrine. Make it worthwhile for the counties in the American Continent to work with us. All of us fought wars of independence from the European Powers. Remember that!
(9) Work at creating absolute resource, security and financial American Independence from the rest of the World. we'll accept and respect them, yes, but we won't need them. We will stop outsourcing jobs to other nations and create paying jobs in this nation. To claim that we will "pay more" for products is a hoax perpetuated by the Media. THINK about it: People with jobs pay taxes and do not require public assistance. Either we pay taxes to keep people in Welfare or we pay somewhat higher prices. I'd rather see my money going to support factories in Oklahoma than paying taxes to support poor people in Oklahoma. For one thing, I believe the market is more efficient at distributing wealth than the Government ever will be through their welfare states.
Heck, I was born in the Old World, my wife in the Far East World... we just spent a month in Kyoto. Loved it, might even buy a house there, but the USA should not need Japan... it's OK if they make excellent Toto Electronic Toilets and some awesome electronic designs.... but that should be optional, not essential for the Continuance of Life in the USA... See item -2- above... the part about "Happiness".
I could go on and on. WE KNOW WHAT WE WANT. If you don't realize this, then you are either not paying attention or live in another country.
Would you care to state some facts instead of opinion?
Where are the contradictions in my statement above?
Would it be, perhaps, in that you do not agree in the Monroe Doctrine and a multi polar World (actually, my proposal is simple, the USA controls the American Continent, the rest, we just don't care). This is for security reasons.
#8 is self contradictory as soon as you bring up the Monroe Doctrine. Those countries down there are not -- and should not be -- vassals of the US. You are espousing the same line that the USSR did with its occupation of foreign countries.
Pretty much the idea is to create spheres of interest to create defensive zones.
They would not be "vassals" economically but incentivized from creating military alliances with other powers in different continents. Some of those nations have great natural resources and they could be quite rich when well managed... think of Venezuela and Argentina. My idea is to create an economic commonwealth to encompass all of the nations in the American Continent.
What you wrote is so fantastically off that to reply with specifics I have to write more than one reply....
Here's part 1 of 3 parts:
Thanks for proving my point. Expressing vague (as in not concrete) desires without form isn't "change." It's just complaining. The list you set forth does have some specific points, but for the most part it contains extremely vague wishes, that in some cases are so disconnected from reality that they're not so much vague wishes as wishful thinking, like wanting everybody to get their own, personal unicorn.
You correctly asked another writer to be specific, so I'll do that.
"Independence from the European Globalists, mostly based in London" - What, specifically, does that mean? What specific actions do you mean by that? Are you saying that Globalists in London have implanted devices in the brains of America's Federal Reserve governors and are controlling them from the other side of the world by radio signals, so you want Federal Reserve governors to wear caps made of aluminum foil? In what way do Globalists in London control, say, the US armed forces or decide who runs for congress in Oklahoma?
"A small federal Government that respects State rights within the Constitutional Rights of the Citizens of our Republic." The people who run the federal government and the Supreme Court say that the current federal government does respect States Rights. There are no States rights within the constitutional rights of citizens, by the way. Those are two different sets of rights, with the rights of citizens set forth in the Constitution in general being something that the individual states or the federal government cannot touch. If you want "change" that is somehow related to your quote, you're going to have to pass an amendment to the constitution and it has to be specific.
"No more inventions of "rights" from Judicial Activism." That's basically saying "you have to agree with me when I say I don't like how our judicial system works and I don't like some of the decisions." Well, OK, that's not remotely concrete enough for there to be "change" except for the implication that the "change" you want is for you to be in charge of everything. The current judicial system is set forth in the Constitution, including support for states' rights in how they decide to name their judges. That judges issue decisions you don't agree with is nothing new. That's a consequence of any judicial system. But in the US system there are checks and balances and ultimately those are up to the Supreme Court to decide if a particular decision by a lower court is either a) supporting a right within the constitution, or b) inventing some new right that isn't in the constitution and thus itself is unconstitutional. If you don't like how the US system works you'll need to amend the constitution. There's little chance of that happening if you can't state specifically what the wording of the amendment is that you want to pass.
"A return to the Gold Standard. No more fiat money. No more expensive social experiments mandated by the Government... ANY level of Government." - A return to the Gold standard and not fiat money is a specific change, for sure. But the rest is just vagueness. What's a "social experiment" for you is to other people just ordinary, lawful, and even *legally required* normal function of the government. Those "experiments" are the result of lawful processes as set forth in the constitution and permitted over the centuries by courts, who are the interpreters of the constitution in the US system. They're also usually the result of elections where the people have chosen their representatives. If you don't like the outcomes that system produces, you have to be able to say what specific changes you want. Saying "I only want people elected who agree with me" isn't going to cut it.
"A non political Judicial Branch. Justice must be apolitical and guided solely by the Constitution and the intent defined in the Bill of Rights and Declaration Of Independence." The existing crop of judges would say they're doing exactly that, except that it would be illegal for them to base their rulings on anything but the law. So if your view of the "intent" of the Declaration of Independence conflicts with what the law actually says, too bad for you. You're out of luck, and, frankly, in a country based on the rule of law you should be out of luck. The Declaration of Independence is not the foundation law for the United States. The Constitution is.
"No more professional Civil Servant class except in certain professions. Civil Engineers for example." OK, well that's wildly unrealistic in a United States with a multitrillion dollar budget. If you eliminate all government employees, who's going to do the work of administering and executing the laws and processes that have been lawfully put in place? For example, who's going to process all those social security checks or answer the telephone when grandma wants to know what her benefits are?
With regards to the judiciary, he is speaking of the current tactic for any low-level judge to be able to hamstring the executive branch. Yes, there should be checks and balances on the executive branch, but not at that level.
"With regards to the judiciary, he is speaking of the current tactic for any low-level judge to be able to hamstring the executive branch. "
Yes, of course. But we are speaking about specific changes, not a general wish that judges who are duly and lawfully appointed won't issue decisions you don't like. Keep in mind there are lots of Americans who *like* the idea that a low-level judge can prevent the executive branch from doing what they are sure are massively illegal by statute, unconstitutional to the core, and deeply evil things.
I, for one, would be happy if some local judge somewhere could stop endless foreign wars by saying, "The constitution clearly says only the legislative branch, specifically Congress and not the Senate, can start wars. A craven Congress can't outsource that to the Executive by saying in a statute 'we hereby abdicate our role as set forth in the Constitution and let you decide if you want to start wars'. So no, you can't start a war with Venezuela by just invading it when you want, and you can't say your objective is to dismember Russia and commit acts of war against Russia to ensure that happens, like seizing $350 billion of their money (yeah, I know it's in Brussels but just making the point...). " There's a better chance of finding a non-craven judge out there in the lower ranks of the judiciary than hoping for any personal fortitude higher up in the judiciary's ranks.
"Yes, there should be checks and balances on the executive branch, but not at that level."
There are checks and balances on the executive branch, and the judiciary is one of those checks and balances. In the US system, where the functions and abilities of the judicial system are very poorly defined in the Constitution, the exact way in which the judiciary is a check and balance on the executive is primarily the result of accepted judicial precedent. One of those core precedents that has been accepted within the US for over 200 years is that the Supreme Court has the final say.
So they're the ones who decide at what level those checks and balances *should* be happening, not me and not you and not tonyE who was brave enough to set forth his views on the matter in an internet setting where many might not agree with him.
Don't think that the US system as it's functioned for over 200 years is the right system? Well, that's what amendments to the constitution are for. How would you write such an amendment to ensure the judiciary can do its job independent of a pushy, perhaps flagrantly criminal Executive (like Jackson or Polk), while correcting the errors of members of the judiciary of the Ketanji Brown Jackson sort?
That's the problem with being an Agent of Change. You can't just wave your arms around with a lot of "shoulds" and demand that somebody else do something when that something is far from clear as to what it should be.
In the case of overreaching lower judges, it looks like the existing system will work the way it has for 200 years, slowly and inconsistently but eventually getting to a Supreme Court decision that says the rulings of local judges may apply to a specific case but do not apply nationwide.
I pretty much agree that the Supreme court has the final say -- though that is not written in the Constitution and was assumed by the Court early on. Even though the latter case of local judges was decided by the Court recently I have read that judges are just rewording their rulings to get around the Court rules, or are just flouting them altogether. Yes, they may eventually get overruled, but you can bring a system to a halt this way.
And with it working this way for 200 years, when in that time was the judiciary used in the way that it is now?
"No more fighting all over the war, no more fomenting wars that help the business of the CABAL at the expense of American Taxpayers. While we're at it, cut back the CIA and all of those Intelligence Agencies." OK. How, exactly are you going to do that? What, specifically do you want? Waving your hands and saying "cut back the CIA" without having the slightest idea of how the CIA is staffed, how it is funded, what it has been tasked by law to do, doesn't cut it. If you don't want a completely lawless society you have to effect the "changes" you claim you know exactly you want within the rule of law, right?
"Seal the borders, create a strong Defense Force and reintroduce the Monroe Doctrine. Make it worthwhile for the counties in the American Continent to work with us. All of us fought wars of independence from the European Powers."
You're saying that spending over a trillion dollars a year on "defense", more than all the other countries on Earth put together spend on defense, has not created a "strong Defense Force?" What, specifically, do you want them to do that they're not already doing?
"Seal the borders?" You're saying nobody ever goes into or out of the United States? Like, you want to make all international travel illegal and immediately ground all international flights? If that sounds like I'm mocking you, I'm not. I'm just playing your words back to you so you can see how absurd they are. There's no "sealing" the borders in country like the US which interacts with 200 other national entities and has a trillion dollars of commerce and travel between it and other countries.
Instead, what you have are borders where millions of interactions happen every day, with movements, postal traffic, communications, shipments and such. Stop that and you kill the US. All that has to be managed with *specifics*, not arm waving.
So maybe you'll say "I didn't mean that. When I wrote 'Seal the borders' I meant something else and you're supposed to have telepathy so you can know what I wanted to say and be able to articulate it better than I did." Well, OK, then, suppose I turn on my telepathy (works like a charm, every time...) and I guess you're against illegal immigrants. Or, are you against *all* immigrants?
How about those thousands of Afghans who served the United States loyally and bravely in the US's war on Afghanistan? Should those people and their families be allowed to enter the US? If so, how, exactly does that work in your new "Seal the Borders" system? Let me guess - you're the dictator who makes the decision on each one, right?
The point is that the US has a very large and complex corpus of immigration law and administrative decisions that sets forth how people can enter the US. If you don't like how the current system works you have to say specifically how you want to change it. If you try to learn enough about the system to be able to describe productive change, you'll discover that's a lot harder to do than just waving your arms.
" assume he meant by seal the borders to mean stop people from crossing illegally." Well fine, then you've got great faith in your telepathy. I don't . After he rants on about American jobs for Americans how do you know he didn't also mean "no more work visas for foreigners?" or "No chain immigration." or "No automatic citizenship for birth in the US?"
"Stop people from crossing illegally" is just another meaningless slogan in the context of America's phenomenally complex regulation of border crossings. It's not "change" but just a slogan that doesn't change anything at all.
Not to put too fine a point on it, but it's already illegal to cross the border illegally. Trying to oversimplify the problem by barking the slogan "seal the border" just dodges the hard work of actually being an agent of change. What, exactly, does he mean by that, and what, exactly do you mean "stop people from crossing illegally."?
Are you going to shoot people you see on the border? Install minefields? Does "stop" mean you shoot on sight people who are already 50 miles inside the US that you suspect have crossed the border illegally? How about 500 miles? What if they're white and they speak good English?
What do you do if such measures conflict with US laws already on the books? Like what, don't care about murder being illegal? Are you going to ignore the thousands of laws and regulations *already on the books* in the US that *regulate* what happens if somebody is thought to have crossed illegally?
To say what you mean by "stop people who cross illegally" you have to say exactly what you mean by "illegally" and you've got to come up with a better system than currently exists for guiding the point of the spear, border patrol agents, from determining exactly which regulations apply to their actions regarding a person who they may think may be a "person of interest."
Thanks to hundreds of thousands of laws and regulations on the books in the US plus a labyrinth of legal precedents it's not so easy to say what is an "illegal" crossing. You can argue with the Democrats and others who have poisoned the process by installing tens of thousands of laws and regulations that complicate matters, but those laws and regulations were passed within the Constitutional framework of the US and they have the force of law.
Part of the problem is precisely that the US has an enormous and complicated system already in place for dealing with people who cross the border. Border patrol agents are *required* to deal with crossings in accordance with the laws and regulations on the books.
And, they're not the only ones. What do you do with all of the millions of people already in the US who may or may not have crossed the border "illegally"?
I personally think it's absurd that a political party that represents about half of the American electorate has done its best to create obstacles to the control of immigration into America. But that's already done, and if you want it to change you have to say exactly what part of it you want rolled back and how.
And you also have to say what you'd do with knotty questions like those Afghan interpreters the US betrayed and left behind. Those people can't come into the US because they don't have visas and, well, entering the US illegally is illegal, so by your formulation they must be "stopped."
Just saying the Trump base is good at talking up general desires that may or may not be based in reality, but very weak at saying specifically, concretely what they want done to bring about real change. They may say they know what they want but when you drill into that with reality-based questions it turns out they really don't know the details of what they want.
They want somebody to see they're mad and unhappy and they want that somebody to tell them what they should want in specific detail. Trump does that. That he does so with general slogans, apparently not really caring if the semi-random actions resulting from such slogans are on point, but caring most about him being praised, seems to go unnoticed by his most rapid supporters.
John, I have a lot of respect for most things you write, but here I think you are ranting out in left field. What should be done about illegal crossers? Pretty much what they are doing now. You don't invite everyone in then release them on their own recognizance which is what the previous administration did. To those who are here illegally? Deport them, much as most countries do. I think the rest of your reply is diving in details which is way beyond the scope of a simple article like this. I will address one point, though -- birthright citizenship was enacted for one reason and one reason alone -- to ensure that freed slaves were citizens. It was discussed at the time. American Indians weren't considered citizens until a law was passed in 1924....
Ah, and this is absurd: "reintroduce the Monroe Doctrine. Make it worthwhile for the counties in the American Continent to work with us" How has it escaped you that the Monroe Doctrine is pure colonialism and that other countries in the American Continent (there are actually two American continents, North and South...) under no circumstances find it worthwhile to "work with" a country that's colonizing them? You can have cooperative relationships with other countries or you can shit on them with colonial BS like the Monroe Doctrine that treats them like subhumans, but you can't have both. (Amazing how Trump seems to always be genuinely surprised when he shits on other countries and then they don't like him for that.)
"Work at creating absolute resource, security and financial American Independence from the rest of the World." Well, that sounds specific but it isn't actually stating what you want changed. It's a vague hope for policy priorities that every American administration since the early 1970's and the great Oil Embargo on the US has made a national priority. Self-sufficiency is something *every* administration has said, often truthfully, they want to "work" on.
But as a practical matter what you suggest is not a possibility, at least not for an America that wants to have an existence as a first world country that has access to the same levels of technology and wealth with the same high quality of life other first rank countries do. For example, without a very big economy that's interwoven with the rest of the world the US isn't going to have the wealth it wants, and it can't have that very big economy without access to rare earths and other elements that are not found in sufficient amounts in the US. The US has to trade for those, and that trade means you're not self-sufficient.
This is pure nuts: "To claim that we will "pay more" for products is a hoax perpetuated by the Media." In point of fact, some goods require very high labor inputs. High tech products like smartphones, for example, require very high labor inputs in their design and in the manufacture of countless components that go into them, and those components in turn often require high tech materials that take huge labor inputs to produce.
There's simply no way to build a smart phone and all of the components that go into it at prices that Americans can afford (not just pay more, but even simply afford) if you have to pay down through the entire cascade of supply American wages to the people who do the work. For example, smart phones are assembled in places where the workers earn less than $50 a week. Try to do the same job with people who get paid $40 per hour and the phone becomes too expensive for Americans to afford. That cascades down the entire supply chain, down to the guy who gets paid $30 a week to dig for the exotic materials in that phone.
Americans right now are living a colonial lifestyle in that poor foreigners making far lower wages than Americans are doing the hard work to create all the goodies that Americans enjoy. If you want Americans to create those goodies, you're going to have to figure out some way for all Americans to become multimillionaires, because that's what they're going to have to be to afford the cost of other Americans to do the work.
And finally, the high tech marvels Americans like to enjoy require designers and engineers with math skills and technical skills no longer found in the US. Americans have become too badly educated and too stupid to sustain modern, high tech design and production. NVIDIA, for example, the company that produces the chips on which modern AI depends, was founded by Chinese. Visit their cafeteria and their technical staff is almost all foreign: Chinese, Russians, Indians and so on, but not Americans. But you're not going to have any of those because you've "Sealed the Border", right?
You could, in theory, somehow reengineer American society so Americans are no longer ignorant cretins at science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). That will take you about 40 years, the first 20 years to get the first generation of trained up trainers/teachers and then another 20 years for those trainers to train up the workforce so they're not all cretins. And then you'll still be decades behind STEM superpowers like Russia and China.
It sounds like what you want is to be able to live in a fantasy world where reality doesn't matter.
On a day to day experience I see lots of very good American engineers and scientists. I also see how stuff like the H1B visa has been used to lower the wages of the technical workers, making it a less favorable career for Americans. I have several nieces and nephews, who are quite smart, and they went into law and medicine because engineering just doesn't pay what it used to.
As far as education.... yes, I sort of addressed that under "social engineering". The elimination of the Federal Education Dept and the control of the national teacher's union is a good step forward.
In any event, the MAGA movement knows what it wants and pretty much ways to achieve it. Some ways may not be clear and the path is line with mine fields laid out by the Leftist opposition, but it moves along to reach its goals and expose the hypocrisy of the political status quo.
But you nonetheless wrote nonsense, like demanding the Monroe Doctrine without having the slightest awareness that treating South Americans like shit would not be making it worthwhile for those South Americans to work with the US.
You're not alone in that. I have no idea if you're a good or a bad physicist, but even so the world has always had many very good physicists who are fools outside of their physics.
Joan Hinton, one of the few female physicists who worked in Los Alamos on the Manhattan project is a great example. She also became a devout Maoist, moving to China and eventually dying there, disappointed China was no longer a socialist country after the reforms of Deng.
Klaus Fuchs is another example of a physicist fool and also from the Manhattan Project. He was actually a very good physicist and made key contributions to the project. But he also was a socialist who believed in Stalin and became a spy for the USSR. Anybody who thinks Stalin was a good guy to be supported is a fool.
"As far as education.... yes, I sort of addressed that under "social engineering"."
Well, no, you didn't "sort of" address that. You didn't write a word about education.
"the H1B visa has been used to lower the wages of the technical workers"
What's lowered the wages of technical workers is the tremendous rise in communications technology, like internet, that allows people in Asia and Africa to become educated and, by working remotely, compete with people in the US. No longer are the Atlantic and Pacific oceans and protectionist immigration policies in the US a barrier to free and fair competition in high tech labor.
That's one of the main factors that have lowered the wages of many (but not all) technical workers in the US. Employers no longer need to pay the salary equivalent of $100 per hour plus punitive, anti-business taxes and other fees to hire somebody to write Python scripts. They can now hire somebody online for $5 per hour to write those scripts. That the $5 per hour programmer lives and works in India, Pakistan, or some other non-US country doesn't matter.
Use of H1B visas is restricted by law to filling only those jobs for which there are no qualified US resident applicants. While there are few apologists for fat, stupid, and lazy Americans who say those visas are being abused to hire sweat shop labor in reality the prime problem employers face is the lack of Americans who are *not* fat, stupid, and lazy. In fact, it's worse than that because in high tech industries even if you scrape the bottom of the barrel and are willing to hire the fat and lazy, you still can't find enough Americans that are not too stupid/uneducated to do the work required.
I've personally experienced that. In the US I worked for a company that could not find enough Americans to do technical work. In order to stay competitive in the world economy the company had no choice but to start opening subsidiaries in foreign lands where the population was not so intensely stupid / badly educated as Americans. Nobody in the company wanted to do that. Almost everybody from the founders and top management on down were Americans and they all wanted to keep jobs and the tech work and manufacturing in the US. But if they had done that the company would have gone bankrupt.
I first came to Russia when my company sent me as part of a scouting trip to see if we could hire some tech people we needed. We needed people who were good at physics, good at math, and were also good programmers. That's really hard to find in the US, but there were tons of people like that in Russia. Although they were willing to work for less than Americans, money wasn't remotely a factor: the real factor was finding people with the skills we needed. The company was willing to pay them top US salary and take on all the expense of moving them to the US so they would have been a lot more expensive than if we could have found people with the necessary skills in the US.
But visas were so hard to get that instead of moving them to the US we opened a subsidiary in Russia. I ended up visiting Russia a few times a year for that project and that's how I came to know the country, to like it, and eventually to move here.
The lack of skilled, sufficiently educated people in the US wasn't just a problem for us at the time. It was a big problem for every company in our industry and not just in our industry, either. You can blame a lot of people and structural problems, like the uphill climb to get good STEM education in the US for most of the population, but the simple fact is that in a country that comes in dead last in math and science skills (the US) year after year compared to the other top forty developed countries, you're going to have a hard time filling math, science, and high tech engineering jobs with Americans. There are a few with great skills and good education, but not remotely enough of them.
Most companies don't use H1B visas to save money. They use them to get the employees they need to stay in business.
Great insight(s)-thanks. The chances of the goose-stepping NAFO-West saving the Azov brahs in Uke-land are about as likely as the French defending against a heist of their royal jewels, executed at double-plus speed, in broad daylight, with a backward facing camera that is "security" vaporware. The "jewels" in street parlance, also refers to the 'stones' or manhood of 'people' (sic) toting testicles. These nominally "priceless" gems, never to be sold, somehow have a concocted value of $102,000,000. Could it be that the queen's purloined tiara et al are nothing more than an inside job to sell on the black market so more weapons can be purchased from the smallish stores of their American sponsors? When the going gets weird...the weird turn pro.
When the going gets tough, the tough goes fishing. To be fair, it is not the first time French crown jewels got stolen under the sun, and it is an open debate about how many family jewels are needed to defend Paris. Traditionally after changing hands, girls'best friends usually land in the Smithsonian Museum and French quietly make a copy of it for prominent display. Museum workers are known to dedicate themselves to the art for the sake of art and a bit of performance art, so they take pictures with ukro pochta any chance they get. Ukro Pochta is known to celebrate occasional terrorist attacks on infrastructure by issuing stamps with pre-sale on eBay the same day a few civilians die (Crimean Bridge attack). Jes' picture it, darling - "Romanian oil refinery done! " limited issue.
" But he knows he has the support of the majority of the American People" 60% DISAPPROVAL rating. 40% is not a majority. In his actions he's lost a good chunk of MAGA supporters... Chip
Throw it out into the forest and let the bugs eat it
😍
Here you go. ;)
Sorry. Sometimes it's a compulsion. I am a victim of my own weak nature.
don't we all :-))
LOL
It used to be the case that Simplicius posts would appear like clockwork, right around 6:30am CET summer time, more or less every other day. I do not know whether this is due to moving to a different time zone or to a different organisation of his work, but the publication schedule has now become a lot more erratic. So, dear Victor, снимаю шляпу (hats off) to the victorious winner of the rat race to the pole position among commentators. I hope this was done through vigilance and fair means rather than some automatic alert or - God forbid - some preprogrammed bot.
Ahh, vanity of vanities.
Simplicius Time...It's a beautiful thing.
"Chapeau!" indeed to Simplicius.
It's fairly simple to set up your own substack and use it to express your thoughts and opinions, thus adding to the broader dialogue, which is the real power of substack. It doesn't have to be paid-subscription based, which takes the pressure off the author to publish on a regular basis. Anyone can set up a free substack and publish whenever they feel so inclined.
Whenever I find a substack that's just starting out, I try to contribute what I can to help build its presence. If you look at it that way, instead of as just another social media platform, you help realize its true potential. I act on the premise that change happens at the margin. Good ideas have to start somewhere, so a small audience is not necessarily a disadvantage since dialogue is easier when you're not overrun with kibitzers and trolls. Good ideas thus generated can then spread via the substack network, and from there to the outside world.
Like a fool, I must spend 1/2 an hour just clearing my inbox notifications from my 30 or so substack writing subscribees, though. Reading these, and maybe the occasional commentary, would take 25 hours a day!
Sounds like a job for AI:)
Not joking actually. The problem is well known to engineers. It's called the signal to noise ratio, and there's definitely a lot more noise than signal on substack. That's partly the nature of the beast - that many people treat it like just another social media platform. Where it differs, which is the part I'm trying to focus on, is that subjects that require investigative effort, scientific questions in particular, now have a good platform for collaboration. It's not perfect, but it's a good beginning.
As an example, take the question of proton decay. It's predicted in the standard model, but to date has not been observed. This is not something that's likely to attract a lot of attention outside of the theoretical physics field, but using substack as a means of sharing ideas on the subject is much easier and faster than traditional methods of communicating within a particular specialized discipline.
I'm sure that's not what the developers of substack envisioned - they saw it as a publishing platform for writers, but as is often the case with new technology, applications that weren't anticipated are found, and can even become the basis for their advancement. That's basically what I'm aiming for - to make more people aware of the potential so it can be put to more effective use in solving the many problems we face as a species.
And so I beat that drum wherever I think it might strike a chord with people in the hope that we eventually reach a critical mass and take the platform to the next level, which in my view would be open source and involve using AI as part of the management problem you pointed out, and possibly much more. This has been a goal of software developers since the late 70's, and now we finally have the technical means to pull it off, so the next step is a question of raising awareness.
Note: while this message is in response to your post, there are any number of people reading it besides yourself that might be inspired to look into the idea and perhaps add something to it, which illustrates my main point.
Huh? I mean Cool!… I was glib and maybe sardonic. Keep up the Good-Fight!
You must be a Simp fave and are getting advanced distribution... (-; Chip
Grow up
I can't. I seem to be stuck in childhood.
Ah, Europe desperately sinking the ship they’re steering.
Beyond foolish.
When a suicidal person refuses to seek help, you know the end is inevitable.
As for the British, a state built on violence will die violently.
It can't happen soon enough. I'm old and probably don't have many years left, but before I go to the Great Beyond, I hope to live to see the end of the EU and the Zionist project in Israel.
The end is inevitable also for the hopeful, but with added misery.
Please! With all respect, but it is not "Europe" that is sinking the ship it is steering. It is Europe's elite of moral lightweights - a part of which are agents of the American Deep State. Due to the MSM, common Europeans do not even realize what is going on. It is important, I believe, to use the correct terms, in order to expose the real criminals. Don't allow them to hide behind the back of "Europe".
Poor lil Europeans, cannot figure things out on their own. It is MSM.
I am European as well and I am tired of twats who couldn't be bothered spending some time getting properly informed.
This is certainly true for a part of the population. But there are many honest people who simply do not have the intellectual capacities and background to figure out for themselves what's going on.
Well, we can't blame them. But it is inexcusable for those who have the capacities but couldn't be bothered.
One of the biggest disappointments for me is that Europeans turned out to be as brainwashed as Americans. I always thought how we were not like that. I know many intelligent people who just cannot process certain info. Cognitive dissonance takes over.
A big problem is that we don't know what we don't know. The uninformed masses do not even realize that there is another -- credible -- point of view. There is the government view and the crazies and they haven't thought the crazies' point of view worth looking into. Besides, they are all running the Red Queen's race just to get by in life.
The recognition of unpleasant realities is always painful.
But it is necessary if we are to start putting things right.
They are very badly informed, but nevertheless the general population is against what's going on, as they have been for years. The government ignores them, and when candidates promise change, they break the promises, but usually they don't even promise change. So... why should Joe Sixpack, as we sometimes call the average guy here in the US, bother to inform himself?
Who cares what the population wants?
Humans are as easily led as sheep, lemmings or dogs...so unlike cats!
Cats & Putin know the score !
Additional problem with Americans, or Anglophonis in general, is that you are eternally disconnected from the atrocities caused by your governments. There is no need to be informed, there are no repercussions. You are wrong? Does not matter, memory hole it, switch to Manchester United game or NFL or sth, rinse and repeat. Sing an anthem at the NFL game, honour veterans for few moments. Move on. It is all volunteer army, after all.
"Project Ukraine" failed? Let's shake hands, no hard feelings.
Americans for the most part will never know if the thing fails. We're never told what it's for. I've always thought the Covid scare was the warm-up for Ukraine. It was so easy to scare people into the craziest things that they decided just to do the crazy things without even the scare.
Trust in a hurried mRNA "vaccine" is far different from "the Covid scare". The emergence of a lethal, viral pandemic is almost certain: remember the Spanish (really USofA GI) flu of a century ago. Many 10s or 100s of thousands, with co-morbidities like advanced age or not, fuckin' died due to da Covid.
Agree! Europe is a geographic term. What we are speaking about is EU + NATO.
"Do the journalists who are writing their fingers to the bone about the Russian threat have no historical education, no knowledge of history? They were trained for their profession: Have they not learned that it is their job critically to evaluate the intelligence services’ and NATO strategy experts’ “findings”? Or does Upton Sinclair’s nasty sentence apply: “It is difficult to get a person to understand something when their salary depends on their not understanding it?” In his 2013 study, “Opinion Power,” Uwe Krüger, the prominent German media critic, demonstrated that alpha journalists belonging to almost all major Western media outlets are integrated into NATO–friendly networks."
...
"Truman could never have imagined how many subsequent wars and military coups would be justified by “information gathered by Western intelligence agencies” and how the public would be misled.
The “findings” that the United States would have to fend off communism or some other enemy somewhere in the world and bring freedom and democracy to an oppressed people were always disseminated with extreme effectiveness. At that, freedom and democracy were often saved by being abolished: in 1947 in Greece, 1948 in Venezuela, 1950 in Korea, 1953 in Iran, 1954 in Guatemala, 1955 in Vietnam, 1961 in Cuba, 1965 in Indonesia, 1973 in Chile, 1979 in Nicaragua, 1980 in El Salvador, 1979 in Afghanistan, 1999 in Yugoslavia, 2001 once again in Afghanistan, 2003 in Iraq, 2011 in Libya and subsequently in Syria, to note just a few of the military and intelligence interventions of the West.
The military-industrial complex, which President Eisenhower famously warned of as he left office in January 1961, developed a PR machine during the Cold War, involving tens of thousands of diligent strategy experts, conflict researchers, human rights activists, and journalists to create enemy images. This approach has not changed to this day. In their classic book, "Public Relations for War and Death", Jörg Becker and Mira Beham demonstrate how the manipulation of public opinion worked in the Balkan Wars."
Helmut Scheben:
https://thefloutist.substack.com/p/europes-latest-intelligence-fakes?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=112164&post_id=176772670&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=1oxuh7&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email
But the average Joe Bloggs does not care about The Truth. So long as they have their "reality TV," their X-Factor and beer at the pub/taverna etc, they are willing to go along with The Establishment........ Convid (sic) is the perfect example.
Give them bread and circuses...or is it beer and Super Bowls?
Or FA Premiership and UEFA
Of course. Journalists must also pay their mortgages and heat their rooms.
No, as Ortega said, Europe is the lone cultural identity of all European peoples.
Nations are cultural sub-entities and were born after the birth of the Western culture in the Carolingian Empire, as a successor of the Graeco-Roman world.
Historically, it is a great society, in the sense of Toynbee, that shares a destiny, whether its members want it or not.
The EU is failing, because most European peoples are suffering a cultural and political crisis that threaten to become final.
Intellectually flabby and ethically opportunistic
And they aren't having kids.
That is a symptom.
That is partially a symptom of and the major threat to Neo-liberal, today mostly financialized, capitalist societies/civilisation.
The US Deep State is at the same level as the Euro politicians.
They have the same bosses... the Western Globalist Financial Aristocracy.
The difference today, is that in the US Trump is dismantling that architecture.
Trump is not dismantling any such thing. He may be working for a segment of the Oligarchy plotting to destroy another segment, but in the end he remains under control of at least some bankster from the Anglo-American Oligarchy.
Exactly. If you want real MAGA, look at Thomas Massie, not Trump.
I see nothing to indicate Trump is dismantling the “deep state”. Would that he were! What actions have you observed to reach such a conclusion?
Keep dreaming about Trump. His ultimate goal is to split Russia from China and destroy BRICS with all the dirty means at his disposal, while at the same time, enriching himself and his family till kingdom come.
I don't think Trump is smart enough to make such plans.
Rather, he is weak, stupid and easily manipulated.
Agree he's not very intelligent, but has enough animal cunning to know which side his bread's buttered. He's a rich kid. He cannot imagine not being rich.
For a man whose entire shtick is how tough he is, he is desperate for flattery. Hence, weak and easily manipulated.
Graham and Rutte will get the war that they so crave.
Like MAGA ?
MAGA is a cult of personality. Nothing more. Watch how the cult went to "release the Epstein Files" to "no big deal!" overnight.
I agree with the objectives you list.
I question whether or not it is "Trump's goal".
The Anglo-American Oligarchy is surely pursuing those goals, but they were doing that years ago. Berletic calls it "continuity of agenda".
Obama was president in 2014 when Nuland orchestrated the Maidan coup. Obama too, was just doing what he was told.
Oh yeah, let me know when he gloats about Wall St. having a bad day.
exactly: Von der Leyen's part of the EU consists of unelected, power-hungry talking heads (with some of whom suffering from the effects of a dubious family background as well).
How do you think a Yapping Chihuahua like Kallas achieved her position?
Segments of the Oligarchy promoted her because she spews the narrative they want disseminated to the people lest the people turn on the Oligarchy once they recognize the fraud.
She is from of family of exemplary opportunists prominent in the Soviet security apparatus and Soviet nomenclature. The same kind as the current boss of MI6.
indeed: current head of MI6, Ukraine diaspora.
More of a Banderist, that one.
I thought she descends from nazi ancestors, like Freeman, Merz, Vanderliar, Rutte, Scholtenberg, etc
Rutte's family came from a strict christian family background. his parents/older siblings lived in the Dutch East Indies untill 1957, then repatriated to the Netherlands. no nazism AFAICS.
Shape-shifters and opportunists like Borish Abramovich and Moishe Berezovsky etc. et al.
What is it with these appallingly mediocre women we keep on (s)electing to power? Can't we do better than them?
Who is it that selects them for higher office before presenting them to you to vote on?
There are many more appropriate adjectives than "mediocre" to describe them. Appallingly mendacious, for 1.
look at her family background.
Yes, all nazi backgrounds
Post-War Occupation collaborators - marranos and opportunists.
Most of them, frankly.
"Europe's elite of moral lightweights". Indeed, we all hear about them, sadly though no one has been able to name names, so as to who they are, or what they want all remains a mystery. Even to the Russian and Chinese security services in a war of national survival it is still a complete enigma. Certain people being jailed or persecuted for thought crimes also offers no clue. Plato's cave?
Banking dynasties and oligarchs
Maybe largely, but it's its own ecosystem with a life of its own, including a major part of the moronic populace.
You're intimate with the Russian and Chinese security services ?
It's Europe bro. Last time I checked, European people were still voting the same people into power who have been treating them like vermin for at least 20 years. It's irrelevant that 'common Europeans do not even realize what is going on'; they're voting for their own destruction, which is the relevant part that makes the OP's statement true.
Another "true believer" that voting matters.
Votes are counted on machines manufactured by companies owned by the Anglo-American Oligarchy.
There are no options. Voting is a farce. Unless you recognize that reality, you will always blame others who you should be uniting with against the common enemy -- the Elite. The Banksters. The money-men. who control us by using "Money" -- which isn't REAL.
I agree, Democracy is now used against the population. Time for something different.
1st, our western liberal-democracies are barely democratic, and can be called Democracies only with very loose observation for a few reasons. 2nd, ever since Plato observed and noted 2300 years ago, the "citizens" are too dumb and credulous for democracy to be successful.
Voting is nothing more than choosing whose hand holds the club with which you are beaten.
I don't believe in democracy because most people are too dumb and too ignorant to be allowed to shape a state's policy. Aristocracy plus a King is my preference because it best resembles Christ and his Apostles.
Anyway, Germany had its most recent election in February 2025 (eight months ago). The turnout was at 82.5% - the highest value since 1987. Only 20,6% of those votes were cast for the only 'perceived' alternative - the AfD. Nobody in Germany doubts that this election was valid or in some shape or form corrupted*. Over here, we don't use machines to count votes, we use people, and we document everything, because we are Germans. No clue what third-world-country you're from.
The French people (whatever that means) have confirmed the current state of affairs in their recent elections as well. UK, same stuff. Italy voted for a woman who ran for the 'Brotherhood of Italy'. Similar things can be said about the rest of the so-called Western European nations.
Pushing responsibility away to 'Elites', 'Banksters', or 'the Jews' who lie and deceive all the time is what victims do. You don't have to be deceived, at least not twice, or thrice. ("Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me.") Saying that 'Money isn't REAL' shows your ignorance on the subject and confirms your personal lack of intelligence.
* To be fair: We know that those elections are corrupted and illegal since the 1950s. The German Federal Constitutional Court has ruled so back in 2012. But nobody cares because nobody 'feels' responsible for the well-being of the nation and the state. Hence 'King + Aristocracy'.
"Money is not Real". Show me money. You can't.
OTOH, you can't show me an imaginary number (or a real number for that matter) you can only show me what it represents.
When money can be created out of thin air just by saying "poof", it isn't real.
I have to laugh that you criticize me for blaming the "Elites" yet you want a King to take over. Kind of a shame you mention Christ since I'd never agree to anything that requires Christ to be involved. You just want to replace the "elites" with another form of "elite" which has been shown to be corruptible time and time again and actually at the mercy of the "banksters".
This article describes how the government works in China. I kind of appreciate how it is organized. Xi is not a "King" (nor is Putin), but both appear to be "true patriots" rather than the criminals who currently run Western economies.
https://www.noemamag.com/what-the-west-misunderstands-about-power-in-china/
"Only Gold is money, everything else is credit" - JP Morgan
You almost had me, but for that silly 2nd sentence !
"If voting changed anything, they'd make it illegal." - Emma Goldman.
So don't be so sure about those "votes"! The "leaders" are elected by the farmers, not by the people! And the people have no role in this!
You think the alternatives will be better? Le Pen is hopeless and I don't have much faith in Farage. Remember how Meloni was going to shake things up?
EU Politicians achieve high-office through the financing of members of the Anglo-American Oligarchy.
NATO is an extension of the US military force with member states belonging at the permission of the US politicians.
US politicians are chosen and nurtured by segments of the Anglo-American Oligarchy and then elevated to high-office through the "banksters" financing and manipulation of votes on machines manufactured by companies owned by the Anglo-American Oligarchy.
Nothing happens without money.
The Anglo-American Oligarchy creates the money, out of thin air, needed to move corrupt people into positions of power.
The US military is led by Evangelical Christian Zionists who are richly rewarded for their service with directorships on MIC board of directors.
The Anglo-American Oligarchy uses the resources of the "Deep State" and "Organized Crime" to control the political/economic narrative fed to American (and EU) citizens. The Oligarchy realizes it is losing control and thus ICE has been deployed across America to suppress anyone revealing the plot.
The WEF, Project 2025, and other schemes have been revealed for decades. They are run by the same people who founded PNAC, Bill Krystol for example, for the purpose of creating a global American Empire -- which serves Israel.
The Oligarchy is headquartered in the City of London and on Wall Street. They are purposely engineering the collapse of the American Economy.
It is one giant conspiracy. The conspirators despise one another and will destroy each other when given the opportunity, but they share a common goal of world domination. And just like Vito Corleone, they will put aside their differences if it threatens exposure of their ultimate plot.
"...Nothing happens without money.
The Anglo-American Oligarchy creates the money, out of thin air, needed to move corrupt people into positions of power...
BINGO!
Created money also causes inflation that keeps the "minions" at work struggle to deal with a "tax" no one in government admits to.
ICE has been deployed to a) remove illegal aliens from the US and b) make it so uncomfortable for the remaining illegals that they self-deport. Worthy goals. Trump has done a whole lot of things I don't agree with, but I think he got this one right.
The import of illegal aliens is a ruse. The Anglo-American Oligarchy is in on the scam. It wants them for slave labor. In cooperation with organized crime it imports them faster than ICE can export them. The real purpose of ICE is being revealed in cities across the nation as a fascist coup is taking place in front of our eyes.
Trump is just the front man.
Exactly. Nothing worthy about ICE at all. Just an excuse to federalize the police and kill the last remaining shred of democracy. And there sure wasn't much left to kill.
Not at all. This has been the plan well before the SMO. The provocations pointed to sever energy dependence on Russia. The decatbonozation effort, climate change, carbon credits, and so on, are part of a global strategy which 1. is meant to assure energetic/economic independence
2. would create a technological superiority on raw material extracting countries.
3. will subsequently be imposed on the rest of the world under monopolistic centralised premises.
Please, stop playing the they are stupid card. Its not serious.
thank you.
They are stupid because the green nonsense math doesn't work. And CO2 is plant food.
REAL SCIENCE…
6CO2 + 6H2O + SUNLIGHT ---> C6H12O6 + 6O2
CO2 is plant food!!! Chip
They are intentionally stupid!
Do you think they dont know that? Why do you assume they are telling you the truth?
They are too stupid to know the truth that's why... Chip
Control CO2, control energy production. Control energy, control the world. Not too complicated.
Yes, up to a point. An overabundance of atmospheric CO2 begins to retard plant growth - too much of a good thing.
1. High levels result in imbalances in water and nutrient uptake.
2. Plants become more susceptible to pests and diseases.
3. Overabundance can lead to stunted growth due to physiological stress.
4. It disrupts the natural balance of ecosystems and biodiversity, resulting in diminished plant health and yield.
WRONG! Absolutely 100% FAKE science!!! Greenhouses use CO2 generators to pump CO2 in for increased plant growth! Our CO2 ppm in the atmosphere is actually much less than it has been in the history of our planet. I don't know where you get the above "facts" but they are complete fucking nonsense... Chip
Would you happen to know how to use a search browser? Give it a try instead of denailist drivel rejected by the global scientific community. To quote myself from a previous post: The cognitive dissonance on the right has manifested itself as the most retarded instance of mass denial in human history, courtesy of a decades-long multi-billion-dollar PR & think tank denial campaign that worked wonders, creating an entire army of amateur denier warriors. They all can see and feel the consequences, but to admit it’s time to prepare for more and worse would be to admit they were wrong, which is akin to death for true believers. The result is that the populace is unprepared and unprotected. This is how denial destroys lives and, eventually, the world. Pretending it’s not happening and dismissing it as hype is the only way they can protect their messianic beliefs. Denialist cult members become more dug in and will cling to thoughts and beliefs that contradict the evidence as the effects become more pronounced.
My intellect is not limited to a browser. I'm a retired engineer. I studied chemistry, physics, geological formation of the earth, botany, biology, advanced mathematics including geometry, trigonometry, algebra, calculus, and differential equations. If you haven't done so, then whatever info you consume you cannot understand and certainly cannot discern the truth... Chip
The following is just one of many papers addressing the topic that contradicts your claims. BTW, does the "New Phytologist" publish fake science, lol? A recently published paper studying the effects of elevated CO2 on soybean health found that soybeans became more susceptible to biotrophic viral pathogens Bean pod mottle virus (BPMV) and Soybean mosaic virus (SMV). For soil-borne pathogens, the study revealed increased susceptibility to the necrotrophic fungus Fusarium virguliforme, responsible for sudden death syndrome (SDS).
1500ppm would do the plants good.
A desperate set-up for anticipating the war bride chance.
The winter of '26: Predict chilly with a 95% chance of Ukrainian girl friends
for German and Polish lads who can provide the fleeing ladies
heading west from "Azov-land" with "three hots and a cot"...the new Euro bartering
system. Apply at the bedroom door please. Well done Washington...just first rate!
Classic!
The Ship of Fools meme updated - The Ship of Psychopaths.
Mr Simplicius, needs to help me out on this. Do I get it right?
OK, NATO pushed war on Russia because a war would ...
Destroy Russia's economy, overwhelm its manufacturing base, destroy its international trade balance, bankrupt the country, evaporate the ruble and cause massive inflation, decimate Russia's military ability, exacerbate internal problems, create disunity among the people and ignite mass protest, leading to overthrow of its leaders, rupture the Russian Federation, and thereby subjugate the broken pieces of Russia to Europe.
OK, I see so far that has not been 100% effective, but ....
Now plan B, EU wants its own war because a war would ...
Revitalize EU economy, jumpstart a manufacturing base, preserve their international trade balance, free up funds for massive spending, prop up the euro and curb inflation, revive their military, distract from internal misrule, unify their people to unquestioning support of the leaders, lock in cooperation among the European Union, and thereby subjugate Russia to the currently broken pieces of Europe.
Hmmm, geopolitics is tough. Glad there's people smarter than me to handle it.
" I see so far that has not been 100% effective..." You get the "Understatement Award" - try "so far it has been 0% effective, apparently a boomerang actually".
The most pathetic part of the European's 'steering', is that they (population) think they are on the RIGHT course.
Maybe so but I get the impression that the entities holding the levers of power don't care what the citizens of the member countries think....
All part of steering towards globalist, totalitarian government.
Here are again we have a manifestation of the implicit racism against Russians even among the ostensibly pro-Russian parts of the internet.
We have half of the post decrying the blowing of of the refineries in Europe, but not a word about what happened in Chelyabinsk today or in Sterlimatak the other day. Where a lot of people died and critical manufacturing facilities were taken out. But who cares, Russian lives don't matter and Russia can absorb it, no big deal.
P.S. The Chelyabinsk governor is trying to deflect away from the fact that it was drones (or something even heavier potentially) that did it, but there was first a yellow code for drones before the explosions:
https://t.me/kupolrussia/29269
Then a red alert:
https://t.me/kupolrussia/29272
Then the explosions.
But curiously there were no alerts for anything in between Ukraine and Chelyabinsk for several hours prior to that, just a solitary one for Tatarstan.
This means it came either from the ground locally (which in turn means Russian internal security is completely compromised, because there were very large explosions, and even after June 1st sufficient measures to address that crisis have not been implemented), or that, once again, it came from Kazakhstan.
Of course the Kremlin is refusing to acknowledge anything happened at all, just as it did not acknowledge any of the other attacks.
Never mind that we get a yellow alert for drones in Orenburg (!!!) several times a day at this point.
P.P.S. We have seen the cope about Russian strategic depth and how they moved factories back in WWII and then came back with a vengance to annihilate the Nazis. Well, guess what -- the Nazis are starting from a position 1,500 km to the east this time (provided to them by the Putin regime with no resistance) and back in WWII the factories were moved precisely to places like Chelyabinsk. That are getting blown up now...
Let us know when the gas lines start forming. You know, real ones, not imaginary.
What do gas lines have to do with ammunition plants?
P.S. You don't even know what events I was referring to, do you?
Indeed. Nothing is (for now) blowing up in the middle of Moscow and information about the daily calamities everywhere else can be suppressed. Out of sight, out of mind.
Probably the best thing that can happen right now is a massive missile attack on Moscow that does get some shots through and blows up stuff in the middle of the city. So that it cannot be concealed.
Though I am not sure even that will force Putin to act, given what has already happened that was not sufficient.
As I noted in my original comment, if you follow the alert tracker, there was nothing for the regions in between for hours prior.
It was a sudden alarm already in Chelyabinsk region.
Which means Kazakhstan, if it flew from outside Russia, or it was launched locally.
BTW, Operation Spiderweb was launched from a sleeper cell in Chelyabinsk. But here we are talking big explosions, not small FPVs. How were the explosives delivered? If it's large drones assembled and launched locally and full of a lot of explosives, that is just catastrophic.
Proper explanations are needed indeed, but it will be just buried, we all know that. And tomorrow something else will blow up somewhere else.
He won't force you to act, since he's also involved in implementing the plan! The oligarchs are making good money as long as the Russians are falling! Remember, war is the harvest of the Jews!
The oligarchs are making $, but the RU isn't anywhere near falling.
Quite a lot … should you want to process brass, steel, lead & the explosive fillers required to mass produce ammunition.
You fuckwitt.
You were likely writing about how soros and gang organized tens of thosands of young women to demonstrate against the war and Zelensky.
Wasn't "No Kings" only about Trump? I don't recall seeing any anti-war photos. In fact, this is the first time I've heard of any suggestions that there might have been any anti-war expressions.
The protests are empty of anything other than rage. There's no agenda offered, no plan of action, nothing but "Hate Trump" so that Soros can put in a pseudo-Biden who will carry on the same policies that Trump is pursuing.
A number of people insist that Soros is not a Zionist, I dunno about that. It isn't as if the Jewish Billionaires all have the same agenda, but just how different are their goals?
I am not talking about No King Day. I am talking about the tens of thousands of (mostly young women) who demonstrated all over Ukraine against the war and disrespected The Comedian even.
There isn't a lot of information available on the "cardboard revolution". Certainly nothing to suggest that Soros financed it. Nor anything to confirm tens of thousands of participants.
I'm not saying it didn't happen but Zelensky ended up repealing the corruption law, which supposedly stopped the protests.
are you from Russia ? I mean - are you living there now ?
I'd say in some basement in Patagonia, thinking he would be spared nuclear holocaust unleashed by proper Rus "patriots". ;)
so funny - hoping to get some Argentinian beef. sold
No, but this guy is.
https://edwardslavsquat.substack.com/p/fuel-shortages-in-russia-is-the-price
Nor do you , in between brain farts and doses of Bali belly induced verbal diarrhoea
the more the RUAF approaches to Slaviansk-Kramatorsk, the more the Ukroprop will look like Moscow has been taken. Why are they begging for a cease fire if they are litteraly crushing Russia?
Because a ceasefire would be a trap for Putin.
"Here are again we have a manifestation of the implicit racism against Russians even among the ostensibly pro-Russian parts of the internet. We have half of the post decrying the blowing of of the refineries in Europe, but not a word about what happened in Chelyabinsk today..."
This is unfair. Ukrainians are at war with Russia, so they can be expected to sabotage refineries in Russia. In contrast, Ukrainians are not at war with the EU, quite the contrary, so they are NOT supposed to blow up refineries in the EU. That's making the difference, and you know that very well.
You are absolutely right.
On the other hand it would be advisable to avoid the silly term "racism", used when no genetic
elements are at play on a given problem.
The Russians are not a race.
The Russian Federation is around 90% White since the 1991 rearrangement. That is matching conditions in the USA in 1950 when the proportion of the White population there was 90.5%. Today it is around 45-46%
" The Russians are not a race. "
Fair enough, define what an ethnic Russian is ?
Uhhh, an ethnic Russian ?
Not just a "Russia" citizen.
Huh? So?
Fine, an ethnic Russian. That doesn't mean you are a citizen or currently in RU.
The Russia is Titanic sinking line... Ukroprop
All in all, we know the reason for the urgency in this attempt to destabilize the Russian economy: the Russian victories are piling up, and now beginning to accelerate. Multiple Ukrainian cities are set to fall soon, and the news from the front keeps getting worse and worse.
https://archive.org/download/albert-pike-letter-to-mazzini
These worms have conspired against us, the inhabitants of the planet! The white man is their enemy in particular. Their "blood" is purest in Russia, that's why they started there. But of course they will cleanse all of Europe and North America!
The Protocols of the Elders of Zion You need to know this! https://www.scribd.com/document/226968302/Cion-Bolcseinek-Jegyz%C5%91konyve This is in Hungarian, but you can definitely find it in Russian or English. Without "fact checking"!
From RT, Oct. 22,: "At least ten people have been killed after a major explosion rocked a manufacturing plant in the Russian city of Kopeysk on Wednesday, local authorities have said.
The blast was reported by Aleksey Teksler, the governor of Chelyabinsk Region, who initially put the death toll at four. Later, however, he said that five more people died, with five others injured, and that medical teams were doing their best to treat them. Officials are also verifying reports of possible missing persons, Teksler added."
Show the actual videos. Not AI either. Otherwise STFU.
Part of the special significance of this story is the the EU is imploding; that's just a different story altogether than bombing a factory in Russia. This is the Polish court's decision coming back in the form of terrorism against EU members (the horror!) instead of (just) Russians (yawn).
There is something seriously broken in the failure of Russia to build an effective air-defense against cessna 150 style drones. What little I can read of Russian efforts speaks of disorganization, lack of funding for communications, radars and even machine guns, the ineffectiveness of Mobile Fire Groups and the fobbing off of responsibility for defense of critical plant and equipment to the plant managers. There does not appear to be a coherent national effort to secure Russian industry and infrastructure from attack.
It may be that in reality the effects of the attacks thus far are so minimal as to be considered acceptable ? This kind of calculus appeals to the "war is arithmetic" school, but war is more than arithmetic.
It may be that the Russian inability to mostly shut off these attacks is why the West feels emboldened to escalate as they feel that Russian skies would be wide open to a serious Nato effort.
Russia will probably eventually win on the battlefield in some sense, but victory in war is the attainment of political ends. How will Russia obtain those political ends without inflicting some sort of costs on Europe ? Sure there are economic costs in higher energy prices etc....but those are seen by policy makers as costs that can be hidden. How will Russia contemplate inflicting costs on Europe, if their own skies are so regularly penetrated by cessna 150's carrying 250 pound bombs ?
>calculus
The calculus and the explanation for why Russia is so poorly prepared is very simple.
Since the USSR fell apart, there hasn't been a single new AWACS plane built. Also not a single new MiG-31 interceptor. And no large ISR drones that could watch the sky from above have been developed either.
And the USSR was just starting to roll these things out in serious numbers in the 1980s, it had by no means properly covered the territory.
The result of this is that Russia has no capability to properly keep track of low flying objects over its vast territory, and gaps between radars are easy to find.
What was the trade off here, i.e. where did the resources that should have gone into maintaining the VKS in adequate to defend against modern threats shape go? Well, all you need to know to understand it is how many private jets Russian oligarchs bought. And what kind. It is not even the small business jets, some of the particularly outrageous examples include Alisher Usmanov having a private Airbus that cost 350 million and Abramovich having a B-787 that cost 250 million. But a Bombardier Global 6000 is not cheap either -- 40 million. And there are a lot of Russian oligarchs.
Now how many A-50s and MiG-31s and large ISR drones could have been procured with the money that went towards private jets? And all the other wasteful consumption (mansions, limousines, megayachts) plus the straight up capital outflows. We're talking double digit trillions.
It's not as if it wasn't known with near certainty that there will be a big war. It was known from the moment NATO expansions started.
As I have reminded people here many times, in 1929 Stalin said at one of the major party meetings that the country had a decade to make up for the gap that its enemies had opened up over a century. And he spent the 1930s doing exactly that. At an enormous cost, but he was right -- the country indeed had exactly a decade. And he managed to prepare just enough to prevent total annihilation, but not enough to come out intact.
What did Putin do in contrast?
P.S. The West also has no real defense against such threats, but not because it can't track them. It can, but it doesn't have the AD systems to take them out. Here is the crucial difference though -- they don't have strong air defense because they don't need it as they have deterrence. Russia lost it completely...
RU has deterrence 2nd to none in human history.
What "so regularly"?
OK off the chart desperation is setting in.
If it was Ukraine who blew up Nordstream how is that not an act of war against one of their top suppliers, Germany.
Seems the historical true leaders of our world, (in fact nameless to and certainly not elected by us), are facing an existential threat and it's more than just Russia.
The proper way to look at it is the following:
First, it is an act of grand treason for any Russian government to be doing large-scale raw resource exports, because Russia does not need anything from anyone, it is one of the very few countries on this planet that can be fully self-sufficient. And these are non-renewable resources that future Russian generations will need.
Instead since the 1960s they have been sold for pennies on the dollar to the West, propping up the mortal enemy instead of letting it collapse. The West would have collapsed completely back in the 1990s as a result of the energy crisis that started in the 1970s had it not been for the subsidy it received from the former USSR space.
At the direct expense of Russian people -- the reason Russian was such a hellhole in the 1990s is that the resources that used to support a modest middle class lifestyle inside the USSR in Brezhnev's time were redirected towards supporting the opulent lifestyle of Germans and other Westerners.
The West was getting everything it wanted, but there was a catch -- in the 00s, when oil prices rose sharply, the Russian oligarchy found out it was rather nice to be getting a large cut of that loot, while the West nearly collapsed again. So the West decided that it should just take over everything directly.
Thus even though through Nord Stream Germany was getting gas that it should have never been receiving at all had a non-traitorous regime been in power in Moscow, and at scandalously low prices too, that was not sufficient.
So the plan is to destroy Russia economically, and for that purpose they will destroy the very infrastructure that subsidized the West, but that is a temporary measure, they plan to then return and just take it all. Generaplan Ost 2.0.
Your usual flimsy creation of what wasn't, (but in your mind, should have been), to justify what won't be.
Also redundantly, you ignore the point made to quibble. How can Germany see Ukraine as an ally or the US? The actual saboteurs.
The Russians and Germans decided together to cooperate.
I tend to agree here… with the USSRs massive industrial base & autarky, it probably was unnecessary from an economic point of view for the USSR to export raw materials to the West in such quantities. It could have throttled the export flows to 1/2 or 1/3 and retain a gigantic stock for future generations while becoming the price setting supplier of those commodities.
Also, the interaction with the West associated with the commodity export deals is how the USSR was set up for demolition.
The people who were making these deals worth billions eventually realized they are sitting on real wealth worth trillions while they themselves lived in regular apartments not much different from those of ordinary Soviet citizens, and while signing these deals in the fancy opulent mansions of their counterparts in the West.
It is not a huge step from there to deciding that life would be much better (for them) if the Soviet system was dismantled and all the real wealth privatized (by them). Which is what eventually happened.
Had the USSR maintained maximum isolation from the West, North Korea-style, that trend would have had a much harder time developing.
Here you are having a point indeed except that you avoid addressing that the situation back then was US$ based. Russia needed US$ desperately to buy technology and other products it was not able to produce at that time in quantities that would have maintained the functions of many parts of the economy.
The construct of non convertible money from the west against the socialist countries was a big stick that beat the USSR to compromise to unfavorable terms.
They really didn't have to, the West was on a collapse course, and in the 1970s the USSR was gaining ground around the world massively.
Had they refused to be a part of the dollar system and just wait out the West, they would have won.
Instead they voluntarily became a part of the neocolonial system of exploitation. That is exactly what happened -- the USSR was handing over real wealth for greenbacks that the US could print with abandon and no limits, just like any African and Latin American banana republic. The road to debt enslavement is straight and short from there.
They really didn't have to, the West was on a collapse course, and in the 1970s the USSR was gaining ground around the world massively.
Had they refused to be a part of the dollar system and just wait out the West, they would have won.
You are great in making bold statements, GM.
It's just not true the way you put it.
I lived through those times and know first hand that on an economical and psychological level the West was playing the 'worthless valuta' of the socialist countries to the next level. Their living standard was broadcasted and seen by real life experience when western people came to visit.
Could have, would have, should have are wisdom of no real value when one tries to reduce complexity to binary simplicity that is historical wrong and even a lesser help to define the future.
Not true. The USSR was not able to keep abreast with the rest of the world in a whole range of technologies and needed to get into the global game or lose ground to other nations.
A good example is the personal computer. Gorbatchev commissioned a study of what it would take to produce domestically personal computers and the report he got back (as I was told a long time ago by the author of that report) was that there was no way on earth the USSR with its resources could match the combined innovation of essentially the rest of the world, working on a division of labour principle (with some countries/companies specializing in chips, others in software, screens etc. etc.). So cooperation was not optional and even widespread economic espionage could not compensate this.
Incidentally a number of European countries also tried and failed in the 80s and 90s to create national champions for the manufacture of personal computers - wasting billions in the process.
Whether, with the rise of AI assisted engineering, having a large workforce of engineers will remain as critical (or whether smaller countries with talented teams assisted by hordes of AI assistants can do the job) remains to be seen.
And why was that with the cheap oil and gas, the construction of the N1?
You have to write that down.
Oil crisis in the West, car-free weekends in the West...yes, that's right, the West was at an end.
Then a president came to power in the Kremlin who wanted to change things, fight hunger like Yeltsin and Gorbachev wanted and HAD to...and that was only possible with foreign currency and, yes, with the help of Western technology, at least at that time. In Russia, that didn't exist, nor did the domestic forces...these were only made possible later by this very president. YOU should think before you type.
Not only was the West at an end back then, but Russia was too, thanks to Yeltsin's drinking and giving away, and Gorbachev, who let the Union fall apart because the Soviet Union was BROKEN like the West. Putin did what he had to do to get his hands on that foreign currency...and, as it turned out, to disempower THESE OLIGARCHS and put them in their place. So don't talk such rubbish from back then, which you probably didn't even experience yourself.
Mention Putin's speech to the German Bundestag at a time when he still believed in the people who led politics in the West. Mention the deceitful Chancellor Merkel and the self-serving German Chancellor Kohl... under whom the construction of the N1 came about, for what reasons, I wonder, on the Western side? And who needs foreign currency to be able to rebuild their own Russia step by step?
Through people like you, subsequent generations forget what is truly true, what is invented by people like you and defined according to their own wishes. And yes, I experienced all of this, not just from the outside, no, on both sides, West and East. I saw Russians queuing in the hundreds at the shops with food vouchers.
I experienced highways in Germany with bicycles instead of cars and trucks. I saw how the small GDR (East Germany) had to transport tons of wheat by freight train to Russia so that Russians under Yeltsin had something to eat. To a country like Russia that was NOT capable of feeding itself... (Look, today there is more wheat than the USA!) THANKS to Putin and the foreign currency he acquired.
.
Ergo: In conclusion, the West has financed Russia to be where it is today. In many ways, it is 25 years ahead of the West technologically, with a digital service that they may yet see in its full glory in Singapore... but definitely not in New York or Boston, let alone in the backwoods of Europe. The West has rested and become comfortable in its delusional idea of "being the better one." Weapons have lagged behind technologically...
Who did it... Putin?
You have ruines the Putin is a traitor line again 👍
ruined
A nice thing with Substack is the edit function enabling you to correct mistakes rather than generating unnecessary replies to your initial post... Just click on the 3 dots to the right of your name above the relevant post.
doesnt work in my phone, only desktop
Let's pick on this as an illustration of the fallacies in your thinking:
>today there is more wheat than the USA!) THANKS to Putin
Why is there more wheat? Let's look at the reasons.
First, climate change has made Russian agriculture more productive. Is that thanks to Putin?
Second, meat consumption only caught up with Soviet levels in the late 2010s, and I don't think dairy consumption ever recovered completely. As a result there has been a lot less demand for grain to feed cows and other animals. Is that thanks to Putin? No, it is thanks to Gorbachev and Yeltsin, and it is, of course, not a good thing.
P.S. If you are asking how is it possible that people ate more meat and cheese and drank more milk in the 1980s than in 2010s Russia, given the conventional narrative, the answers are to be found in the following:
1) Diets shifted towards more junk food. So even though people might be feeling like they are eating more and enjoying more abundance, in reality the proportion of stuff that is good for them has changed in a negative direction.
2) It might feel like there is much more ready access to meat and dairy products in stores, and that is correct. However, that is not where they were primarily consumed in Soviet times -- it was in the canteens in factories and schools, which is where most people got two of their three daily meals in the USSR. Since then those have been some combination of eliminated, privatized and transitioned to serving junk food, and the meat and dairy products that went there have been redirected towards the stores.
After my visits to current Russia and shopping groceries there, I can tell you that the people of Russia shit more proteines and digested healthy food than the West is even able to produce at the moment.
These are truly weird explanations of an even weirder theory - the amazing achievements of Soviet agriculture. Khrushchev dreamt it, GM proved it!
GM
<<<<<<First, climate change has made Russian agriculture more productive. Is that thanks to Putin?<<<<<
Climate change??!!?? Give me a break. Even if it wasn't a hoax, it wouldn't show up in agricultural output over a twenty year period. If you mean regularly occurring weather cycles, ..... that has been going on for centuries. It is the ability to respond effectively that matters. Focus on outcomes. Don't look at tea leaves for potential causes.
He is a climatechanger too... !!!
Climate change is real! After all, we are still coming out of the little Ice Age when they had an ice fair on the Thames. This is a good thing. Also, the CO2 levels were dangerously low for plant life and the increase in CO2 has led to a world-wide greening. As far as the effect of CO2 on temperature, well, maybe, a little. No question that it would have had a significant effect if the CO2 level in the atmosphere had started from zero percent (never did -- it was almost all CO2 at one point and O2 is the latecomer) but the effect is logarithmic and we are pretty much saturated at this point. But the climate will change again -- it always does. Unfortunately for us, since we are in an interglacial, the next big change will be into extreme cold. Someday.... In the meantime, enjoy the climate we have!
Climate change started because of some of Putins machinations. Instead with Stalin the climate was orderly and regular, as it should be in a magnificent socialist State of workers and peasants.
We now need a new 5-Year Weather Plan, comrade !
Jürgen Räche
Had occasion to be present at a photo op meeting between then Presidents Clinton and Yeltsin. When he came close to me, it became apparent that Yeltsin was intoxicated but still functionally aware of his surroundings. Except for making us (including Clinton who stayed in another room) wait for an hour. Clinton, when he entered at about the same time as Yeltsin, was clearly bored in an attentive, bemused sort of way. You know....been there, done that, many times...... This was shortly after noon on a week day.
It was interesting to see the Clinton entourage work to ensure they both entered at roughly the same time.
My thoughts at the time were.....if Yeltsin is intoxicated here at a photo session part of a Summit Meeting, what the hell is he like the rest of the time?
Sorry to get off your topic.
Wouldn't you want a few drinks to help a boring photo op go faster too?
Ya shoulda offered him a few lines to help him extend his bender.
<<<<<<Ya shoulda offered him a few lines to help him extend his bender.<<<<<<<<<
Three or four years earlier at at different stage in my life and I would have.
My dream matchup is a hammered Yeltsin vs. demented Joey Robinette.
"The proper way to look at it is the following:"
No, in contrast that's not the "proper" way to look at it, it is the propaganda for morons way to look at it, assuming that the reader knows nothing at all about the Soviet Union, Russia, history, basic economics, geopolitics, or common sense. In other words, a typical "GM" post.
why does ge never criticise the Kievan bamderists? Its always Putins fault. Wouldnt he be a Kievan banderist?
Yoni,
try discussing how Kievan green goblin destroyed Ukraine with GM and watch the result
You comment is confusing so Brezhnev was premier 64 until 82' how could he sold out USSR for " pennies on the dollar to the West" AND gave citizens middle class lifestyle? I agree that Russia is an Autarky though and should use that leverage more but "for the love of money is root of all evil" as Bible says.
Middle class lifestyle!
I remember well that even expats from Northafricans countries and Latinamericans made jokes about the conditions of life in the URSS.
One tomatoe was considered a suitable present for the birthday of a relative, bought at a horrendous price on the rinok, the free market in Moscow.
My Moskovite cook did not know that the colour "orange" came from the colour of the fruit, as she had never seen one on that colour.
Last years of the Brezsnev regime!
>One tomatoe was considered a suitable present for the birthday of a relative, bought at a horrendous price on the rinok, the free market in Moscow.
Absolute BS
Have you ever read the Great Moron criticising in any way the Kievan banderists? Me neither. Why could that be? Look at his comment... First, its Russian treason, then.... Seriously, the funniest banderist in town...
Treason, Treason ,squark , squark from the fat Freddy Kagan parrot , hiding in Bali (not at all treasonous)
Dude you're omitting the fact that the USSR was entirely dependent on American grain imports since the 1970s. I find it hard to believe you didnt already know that
The threat is large and getting larger. They must be planning for the worst. Time to buy more gold.
Why is the gold price higher than ever?
Maybe because governments are buying up gold for fear of the dollar going bankrupt?
But every week, tons of gold are being added from the earth, just NOT to the market.
Is the gold price perhaps so high because the dollar is worth so little anymore?
Compare the stability of the gold price in Swiss francs, which means the price fluctuations are there.
It was the USSA period, full stop. Uncle Bribem told us so in advance, "believe me, we can stop Nordstream, we know how to do it"... Chip
What's with this continuing BS about Ukraine or for that matter anyone but the USA blowing up Nordstream. That issue was settled LONG ago. Why do people want to believe the propaganda to deflect from the USA?
Since Germany will not do anything about it, who cares?
EU loosing the war against Russia by defeating its own member states? This is the weirdest strategy ever seen in history.
yeah- not just there either. Chaos rules. Trump is the king of Chaos. There's even a Marina ABromavich video saying as much. She's a Satanist in case you haven't heard of her. And Angelo Giuliani has an article about Taiwan and its recognition by guess who https://angelogiuliano.substack.com/p/ustrump-just-one-step-away-from-recognizing?publication_id=4394782&post_id=176890042&isFreemail=true&r=dg5y1&triedRedirect=true
Abramović
Countries willing to commit suicide on behalf of a central power deserve what they get,, the foolish Germans and French above all.
It's not countries, it's a maniacal political class that follows orders from the class that created and socialized them in 'think tanks', universities, NGO's and political parties over decades.
Since 1990 all civil rights and workers rights are successive stripped away in a salami tactic because they know damn well that they have no chance against pitchforks and torches once the masses start to revolt.
No, although the majority of Germans think the current chancellor is doing a bad job, the majority of them voted for and approved of Germany's support for the nazi regime in Kiev. Same with the French. The French people voted Macron into power. They're not so happy with him now but a majority of them still support Ukraine.
In both Germany and France a majority of the people have a completely supine attitude toward the US, and a substantial majority support their country's membership in the EU. In fact, in both Germany and France by huge margins, truly massive majorities, ordinary citizens raged against the UK for daring to leave the EU.
So sorry, no, it's not just a maniacal political class and a cabal of narcissistic think tanks, universities, NGOs and political parties. It's the god-damned *people* of Europe that are the problem because they are just as self-indulgent, totally self-centered, badly educated, perverted, degenerate and vicious as the organizations and elites that run their countries.
EU/NATO Europe has become Sodom and Gomorrah in a modern incarnation. Like Sodom and Gomorrah they're creating a future for themselves where they are struck down by fire, but that fire won't be the hand of God but annihilation in the war they have started against Russia and seek to expand into a war against China.
In Germany the voters participation is declining constantly. In the end it's not even 25% of the *people* that voted for the current regime.
For the rest I can't argue with you. You have a factual point in describing the majority of EU-citizens. The coming economical disaster will change their attitude but that also will be a slow process, indoctrination / daily propaganda still works here.
only 17% of the French voted for Macron
Macron’s election was rigged both in 2017 and 22.
When votes are counted on machines manufactured by companies owned by the Anglo-American Oligarchy, do you really expect any election to be "honest"?
Macron was "voted into power" like Biden was in 2020. In the first round of the 2017 presidential elections, Macron was polling at less than 2%, far behind virtually every candidate. Second round, he somehow ended up against Francois Fillon when Mediapart magazine published an article "revealing" that his wife Penny had been paid by his office for "fictitious work" and that he'd been gifted a couple of expensive suits. Within three hours of the article being published, a judge initiated a criminal investigation, thereby leaving the path wide open to Macron's "victory". A coincidence? Perhaps, but it just so happens that the very same judge is behind Sarkozy's imprisonment. Oh, and by the way, Macron changed the law making it impossible to verify the number of votes (sound familiar?).
not a coincidence. Western democracy is a bad joke
this totally ignores the fact that the us started this shit in 2014.
the fuck you want the europeans to do after we were faced with a fait accompli?
even fucking zelenski was elected on a peace platform.
"[what] you want the europeans to do after we were faced with a fait accompli?"
If you're going to pretend to be a sovereign society that is a factor in geopolitics then you can't always say "the US did it" when your own actions go bad.
The total population of Europe is over 740 million people. That's 60 million more people than *twice* the current US population of about 340 million (340 x 2 = 680; 740 - 680 = 60). "Europe" in the form of the EU keeps pretending to be a world power. If that's the case, you have to take responsibility for your own actions.
When the US decided to start wars in former Soviet states on Russia's borders as way of trying to take apart Russia, Europe could have said, "No, no way. Count us out." Instead, Europe *enthusiastically* dropped to its knees and started sucking Uncle Sam's, ah, war plans. There is no metaphor for self-abasement that overstates the self-abasement of Europe on its knees before the US.
You might say the vicious and duplicitous Brits were never really part of Europe, but they were during the US's first regime change operation in Ukraine in 2004, during the US's proxy war test when Georgia launched a sneak attack on South Ossetia in 2008 on the eve of the Beijing Olympics, and when the US launched hot war in Ukraine in 2014. Europeans and the EU enthusiastically embraced those American war initiatives, and subsequently Europeans played key roles in the diplomatic duplicity (with Germany and France starring in the duplicity department, as they usually do), with total lies about Minsk 1 and 2 that were intended, as the principals have admitted, to support the US's war strategy in Ukraine.
Since then, the Europeans have emerged as the most viciously anti-peace part of the US's vassal circus. That's another foul deed that Europeans have to take responsibility for: Europeans brought vicious nationalists like Poland and the extremist nationalists in the Baltic states into the EU.
Ah, and last but not least it is Europe alone that has populated the clown car full of dishonest scum who currently run European policy, resulting in affronts to decency and democracy like the totally rigged "elections" in Romania and Moldova.
So no, you don't get to pin that history of duplicity and evil onto the US. Europeans knowingly marched in support of evil and deserve whatever happens to them should Russia decide there is no point in democracy with such scum and that the only way to deal with them is through "military-technical" means.
'you don't get to pin that history of duplicity and evil onto the US' you must be insane to say such a thing :)))
or maybe we need to define terms.
when i say europeans i mean the population; nobody voted for this shit and this is exactly why it wasn't done in the open.
and then, after 2019 what the fuck did you expected? civil war for...russias sake? be serious.
i have the utmost respect for the experiment that was ussr but that died with stalin and as an east-european russians are just another empire that tried to subdue us.
from my romanian pov there is no difference between ukrainians and russians and while i understand the roots of this debacle best outcome for me would be attrition of both sides(nato/russia); i have 0 trust in anything that comes from moscow, brussels or washington and the whole multi-polarity shit is just another euphemism for 'spheres of influence' and a dog-eat-dog world.
The only thing wrong with your analysis John is that you blame the powerless.
Unless you understand that elections are a fraud perpetrated on a nation's population you will be unable to change anything. The Oligarchy will just set up another useless and empty "No Kings" protest that will only set the populations against one another.
In the Chaos, the Oligarchy thrives.
John, you are missing out on the power of the propaganda the Anglo-American Oligarchy pays for.
Nancy McLean's, Democracy in Chains, shows how the Oligarchy will buy an economist as long as he is saying what they want to hear. And when he deviates from their script, they professionally destroy him.
Charlie Kirk is a more extreme example of how this works.
The "people" have no defense against this mind control. You have to fight against Snowden's Apophenia and crawl out of the rabbit-hole the Oligarchy has dug for you. (Of course, you might then travel down a different hole. <sigh>)
Rather than condemning the people, reach out and understand where they are coming from.
"reach out and understand where they are coming from."
So, you're saying I should reach out and understand why so many millions of Americans are praising Trump for committing genocide in Gaza?
Or that so many millions of Americans think it's a great idea to finance guys with swastika tattoos in Ukraine who gun down old people?
No thanks. If they're smart enough to ooh and ahh over the latest iPhone details they're smart enough to take responsibility for the evil they enable.
You give the "average American" too much credit to understand what is going on.
The schadenfreude I see over the coming bankruptcy of many American Farmers because supposedly they are MAGA and voted for Trump, is just depressing as hell. The Oligarchy's propagandists are working over time on blaming the Farmers for "their own stupid decision" and insisting that if Harris had been elected "this would not be happening".
Then there's the "blame the boomers" meme that keeps popping up for every ill Gen Z is facing. I swear, there is a campaign to organize a
"boomer-SS" that will attack old people on the streets.
You are one of the few Frank who understands the financial heft of the Anglo-American Oligarchy. That political class was indoctrinated by them and their political campaigns financed by the Oligarchy. They have their positions solely because of the Oligarchy. They will not turn on the Oligarchy, but have no problem betraying their nation. It is treason.
Not at all if the end goal is for the Gringo Empire to plunder any remaining assets & capital in Europe while using it as a kamikaze drone against Russia.
The Gringo Empire will be too occupied with defeating the domestic enemy, as will any allied state the enemy is among us.
And Germany is being consumed by its bureaucracy, which has become increasingly excessive.
German police shoot at soldiers on maneuvers who were firing blank cartridges. German police fired back. One could laugh if it weren't so serious. Bureaucracy prevented the police from knowing about the maneuver.
VW is ceasing operations because there are no chips for the engine control units from a factory in the Netherlands.
This Chinese-run factory was nationalized and taken over by force by the Dutch government... THAT, in turn, is not being reported in the media. Now, of course, China has interrupted deliveries to the Netherlands... CONSEQUENCE
VW, Porsche, BMW, Citroën, and Renault will have to take a break starting Friday, October 24th...
Oh yes, the Dutch acted under pressure from the USA as part of the sanctions against China...
And now, of course, they're happily watching as everything goes down the drain in Europe.
Actually Nexperia is a Chinese company with 80% manufacturing in China and 48% customers in China. It has disconnected the Dutch business.
When Philips NV pulled out of semiconductors Dutch regime did not bother, nor when it sold it as NXP to Bain Capital and Silver Lake. When they sold off Nexperia to Wingtech both US snd Dutch regimes approved the sale of basic semiconductors like Mosfets
If Philips was critical to national security why did this happen ?
Your question is way too qualified, especially in EU context, where "national security" is a highly flexible matter which can be reinterpreted on a daily basis as seen fit. Consistent in being inconsistent!
They used to call it the rules based international order. It suckered a lot of people.
Winken, Blinken, and Nod's outright ignorance and stupidity ended with the demented one leaving office.
How long before European TCC in vans will start mobilizing our fridges and washingmachines now that we are running out of chips in Europe?
They won't be mobilizing fridges. They will be mobilizing the dumb europeans to die for the euro elite's pockets full of blood money.
"Losing" ;o)
Orban is probably going to be blamed for siding with Trump and setting off the infighting. In reality it was an extremely radical act from Ursula and gang to shift the EU from an economic alliance to a war party. I am actually surprised that up to this point there are no more countries turning against the war policies. The EU is distributing tens of billions of Euros to the member states each year and the political classes are simply unable to walk away from all that candy.
She has a pedigree, her father was involved in the so called "Celle Hole" scandal in 1978. False flag bombing ;)
Followed up by the The Bologna massacre in 1980. Although the perpetrators are still in dispute, the argument that state resources were used under Operation Gladio is strong:
"Though at first blamed on Italy's legendary urban guerrillas, The Red Brigades, it soon emerged that the attack had, in fact, originated from within the 'deep state' of the Italian government itself."
https://www.sott.net/article/410683-Operation-Gladio-The-unholy-alliance-between-the-Vatican-the-CIA-and-the-Mafia
I am going to use the C word here., Celle Hole and the Bologna massacre were two interlocking Conspiracies.
False flag state terrorism blamed on some particularly unpopular version of 'the left' - whose patsies might be controlled opposition themselves.
I am going to use the C word here also. His name was Charlie, for 13 years he might have been a 'useful idiot', a well paid controlled opposition influencer owned by a hostile state to push their talking points. But in the last 3 months of his life, the scales fell from his eyes and he became a threat to his billionaire former patrons. Cue the deranged leftist tranny lover lone gunman with the magic bullet. The same trick every time.
An American tragedy.
Somewhere in this video (Neutrality Studies) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rapYsxSwyao& one of the interviewees states that if you follow the money for any terrorist group, it always leads to an intelligence service.
Lately, the pundits I listen to have been crediting MI-6 (and the Brits in general because of the banksters whose lair is in the City of London) with all kinds of nefarious actions.
If you want more on the "Deep State", find anything from Aaron Good. His "Empire and the Deep State" series explains who the Anglo-American Oligarchy is and the criminal actions they use to control the world.
His gray alliance series explains how the CIA and Organized Crime (Meyer Lansky) conspired together to murder JFK.
Yes, it is one giant conspiracy. With hundreds if not thousands of sub-conspiracies that don't necessarily have the same objectives.
The European countries’ political and economic elites & PMC are completely aligned with the EU by many ways: ideologically, economically, by kompromat… The final red flag of this was when the powerful German (and to a lesser degree French and Italian) industrial lobbies didn’t fight back against the sanctions, basically accepting irreversible damage to their interests without even raising a token protest.
In Spain war criminal Borrell is being invited to the best forums and media shows as a succeding character. I think it is the British shadow banking tax haven money laundering City of London empire who owns both NATO and the EU. Their biggest advantage is they are ready to sacrifice their own people without regrets or happily hire the worst yihaddi or banderist cannibals. No moral boundaries. Terrorism and slavery have always been their ticket to success.
I think you’re spot on .
Let me interject here the Sibel Edmonds interview by Aaron Good.
https://www.patreon.com/posts/tucker-carlsons-140112814
There's a lot in this 90 minutes but you mentioned "kompromat" and Edmonds explains that the reason Dennis Hastert became Speaker of the House was because "they" (the nebulous "they") knew that foreign intelligence agencies were supplying Hastert with under-age boys.
Then the short narrative of how the FBI would be tasked with investigating appointees for government offices. The ones that moved up were those who weren't exactly "honest".
As he should. Orban says some things that are true, but he's friends with Trump and sides with Israel. Orban is not in any way, a good person, but at least he does seem to do his job better than most in Europe, where the interests of Hungary are what appears to be his main concern, or at least they're not irrelevant, like they are for people like Macron in regards to France, or for Meloni in regards to italy, etc, Most european "leaders" are more concerned with Ukraine and USA's foreign policy, than with the interests of their countries, to which they were supposedly elected to protect.
Orban is playing the populist cards well for now but he can possibly turn into a major problem in the future for Hungary.
I don't think he is, because the EU does nothing without USA approval, and EU is literally trying to destroy Hungary's energy security, which will result in Hungary having higher energy costs, since the EU will force Hungary to buy USA LNG, etc. Being close to Trump and not understanding this, when it's part of "think tank" reports in USA, for many decades now - force Europe to ditch russian erngy and start buying USA energy - makes Orban someone that clearly is out of touch with reality in this regard.
‘force Europe to ditch russian erngy and start buying USA energy - makes Orban someone that clearly is out of touch with reality in this regard.’
You do have a point there. The underlying political structure has degenerated to a point where America creates a conflict and forces its fossil fuel sales on a sovereign nation-state on the other side of the planet. As soon as opposition is detected force is applied in various forms and the The Comedian steps in by blowing up and repeatedly burning related infrastructures. To add insult to injury at least three major fossil fuel producers were forced out of the international market with direct or indirect military acts. Venezuela with the largest oil reserves on the planet could just about cut oil prices into half alone. Iran and Russia could literally float the Chinese economy on cheap fossils, something that would finish off US hegemony on a planetary scale.
The economic suicide of Europe has for a long time been simply “insane”. Russia will just sell its resources to the global south, having no impact on its economy, while the European industries dus to riding costs of production become less competitive and go bankrupt. How insane are European leaders?
The road to peace is dialog and taking all sides “concerns” into account. The Europeans are not talking to the Russians (the hysteria over the proposed meeting in Budalest was insane), snd they’re not interested in Russian concerns. The price of this arrogance - a destroyed country with millions of dead. A destoyed European economy. And for what - the refusal of Ukr to grant simple human rights to its Russian citizens (language and political rights). Yet these same rights are available within Europe for other ethnic groups. Corrupt and evil is all I can say.
You lie down with Nazis, you get up with suicidal ideation.
"You lie down with Nazis, you get up with suicidal ideation." Actually, you lie down with Nazis, you get up with murderous ideation.
I think you mean Jews
I absolutely did not.
I meant violent, murderous, authoritarian, fascistic types with a heavy emphasis on some nationalistic/religious/ethnic identity and a stone willingness to "other"/destroy/murder those who don't share it, object or in any fashion try to get in the way of their thieving murderous pogroms.
If those traits happen to describe a large % of people who live in a small middle Eastern country (and a large % of the political leadership in one of the larger Eastern European countries) who are ALSO nominally Jewish? Or even their nominal co religionists/apocalyptic Xtian believers in affluent enabling countries??? It is mere happenstance.
Pretty much, yeah.
Europeans especially have to understand that the EU is a fascist dictatorship of the worst kind. Ad like all fascist dictatorships it wants to control everyone and punish whoever dares to oppose it. There's not a single policy in EY that isn't towards this goal and we are in fact already living it. The bigger problem is that the majority of europeans either support this or don't care about it.
"It looks like the UK and the EU started a terrorist war against their own members"
At least they are consistent. They certainly have been waging a terrorist war against their own populations for decades now. Not only by organising an invasion of anti-Christian, anti-European peoples and mandating bioweapons injections. They also have been arresting any indigenous European people who dare to object to any of this, even by posting a meme on the internet.
You are right, Gladio and their actions date back decades and killed many in terror acts who were blamed on 'left action groups' in the media and people believe it until today. It aint over yet.
My thought as well. In the case I know well, the EU and the EEC before that, have been sabotaging the Spanish economy & industrial, monetary, trade, foreign and energy policies since the very beginning in 1986.
Besides all other points you mentioned.
on the contrary. The EU turned Spain a first world country for many reasons. But the point is not that but soverignty and class struggle.
Wrong. Spain at the time had the 10th or 11th (depending on the source) largest industrial output in the world and the price for entry into the EEC was the closure or sale of the industries (such as shipbuilding, steel making, machine tool, trains, fishing, etc) that were slowly chipping away at the French and German rivals.
Spain at the time had a much lower cost base and built quality products at a fraction of the cost of its neighbors. The downside was that Spanish consumers lacked purchasing power to buy foreign stuff, e.g. German cars. With the EEC and later most drastically with the €€€, Spain exchanged a large and relatively autarkic industrial base for purchasing power and finances.
Actually, the Spanish economic rise in the 60s-70s was not that different from the Chinese miracle (OK, excepting for its scale).
Right. Before the political change in Spain and successive entry in the EEC, Spain had achieved a per capita rent which was 90% of the average in a EEC of ten members.
Today, after deindustrialisation and privatisation of State property, the per capita rent of Spaniards is lower comparatively that it was in 1974.
What is per capita rent?
My mistake for writing to quickly in a mobile phone.
I meant income per capita.
sure, like in any other EU bantusthan.
those are all frankist myths. Spain has been a US colony since 1953. The desindustrialization begun long before 1986, as for the Barreiros case. Unemployment was/is endemic in Spain due to the industrial autarchic model with no extermal market to sell. Thats the reason why the regime was knocking to the EEC since the 60's, running technocrat regimes to no avail. The 1986 was the perfect outcome for yhe banking trading Spanish oligarchy. Capital flows accesed the country's now liberal market. A whole brand new network of motorways and high speed trains, a price garanteed agriculture market, which has made many farmers rich, a stable powerful currency... This was all good for the upper class but not only. The drawbacks were the end of national sovereignty, intergration in the imperial neocolonial system, proletarization of the middle class and eventually the incoming looting of the country's assets by the international capital funds. Its like the cocaine dealerd. First they invite you. Then they debt you. Finally they stripe you. Ask Zelensky. He knows well.
Your interpretation bears little resemblance to reality. Try to analyze the real numbers instead of of repeating the old and tired tropes about Franco Facha Pantano. Spain’s economic development (as GDP growth) in the 60s and 70s was greater than the economic miracles of Japan or Germany, only surpassed by China. During that era Spaniards emigrated but not because unemployment (look the freaking real numbers, pls!) but to get better pay in France, Germany or Switzerland. The autarky was a very concrete period in the 50s due to sanctions. The EU “Making farmers rich” just shows how little you know about the topic. A great majority of the farmers were and are in a very bad shape, with or without subsidies. Only a small number of vegetable exporters in very concrete areas got rich exporting to Europe. As for the “stable powerful currency”, you can shove the €€€ up vdL’s rectum. My parents paid their house mortgage in pesetas at a 20% interest rate in 5 years, which was an usual case in the 70s. Now? Very rare to see mortgages <30yrs. The € has been the WMD of choice of the EU satraps, and fuck it. And don’t get me started comparing public and private debt of that era with the current numbers!
There are things to criticize in the Franco regime, indeed, but the economic performance of the regime was world-class.
Franco Spain was a poor country full of poor people,, one of the poorest in Europe. This is the reason why it was a net labour exporter, whereas now it is a net labour importer. Little to do with those Franco worshipers.
"Making farmers rich" was a famous EU trap. The effect was that only a small minority (big farmers) got rich. The others had to give up farming and become wage slaves.
But they have an impression that they are a part of the middle class.
You have said it: "eventually". All events and decisions are to be judged "eventually".
"#......Not only by organising an invasion of anti-Christian, anti-European peoples ...."#
That a person is not European does not mean they are "anti European".
Furthermore, anyone with even the most basic grasp of world history should understand that in fact it is Europe that has invaded most of the world and plundered their resources - just like right now it has colonised Ukraine, and stripped it, and is looking to do to Russia too!
Or do you think english or french or spanish language is native to north America, south america, or Australia, or Africa? Did Europeans move there and adopt the native language culture and food and religion of those places?
So why all of a sudden when those people the Europeans colonised, now go to Europe, you now want to paint them as some sort of inhuman figures and a threat? That is ridiculous and clearly hypocritical.
The problem Europe actually has, is that its so-called leaders are corrupt, greedy, and working for bosses in the US and Israel, rather than the ordinary people who voted for them. Now they are enriching the oligarchs who own miltary and tech companies, while increasingly the costs of life basics in Europe, and while cutting social benefits even for children. But what society can survive a long term systematic underinvestment in its own children while instead making the superrich into the ultrarich?
This is the real problem Europe has and it's laughable to blame immigrants for this. Immigrants do not run the government or business or social institution. Its bad local people - fake leaders - who do.
Europe is being now submerged by millions of anti-European inmigrants. You may deny that fact for ideological reasons of your own.
No one denies that there were European empires, and that empires are established thorough the use of force.
However, I do not see the relevance of that fact in the present circumstances.
First, the European empires brought progress to the world, so that no guilt is necessary.
Modern civilization was created in Europe and spread to the world.
Also, I am not inclined to let someone burn my house, because a conqueror belonging to my ethnic group may have burned the house of someone somewhere in the world hundred years ago.
Actually I am speaking facts. You're the one refusing any relationship to facts, while accusing those speakng facts of "ideology". Truth my friend is verifiable. Your unfounded ideas are the "ideology"
In fact it is European empires that raped the planet. The GDP of the Indian subcontinent for example ravaged by them - reduced under colonial rule. In for example Congo, the Beligians killed an estimated 10 million. Then enslaved others and worked them in place or sold them in slavery to the Americas. When you go to Belgium and you see marble halls dripping in gold decorations, THAT is where the money came from.
Progress? For whom? If Belgium today has money, whose wealth is it?
Do you know the value of the stolen labour of enslaved Africans ? Or the value they were measured at in the accounting books on plantations and the ledgers American banks lending money to those businesses? Do you know, in an age with few or no machines, what would have been the real labour cost of cotton being picked by hand if it wasnt done by slaves for no pay? Do you know th real market value of all the minerals taken and shipped off to be refined in Europe?
Do you know? Documents exist showing all this. They tell the truth about wealth creation. Any credible history department of a decent university in Europe would tell you this.
Moreover, the scientific basis of modern civilisation was created in Africa actually. The nile valley civilisation. Not Rome, nor the Greeks. Learn the history.
You dont know the history. We cannot have a " debate" when you actually lack the knowledge to debate.
Forget comment threads and take this computer you are on and go learn history, my friend. The internet has a global library for free. There is no excuse to not know.
Rape is a strong word. This isn't the Mongols invading and shattering already developed societies just because they can. When that happens the population plummets, which wasn't the case for most colonial nations (with the exception of the massive pandemics that occurred in a few places with no immunity to old world diseases). They went up. Africa's population explosion is entirely a result of colonization because these people had to be gifted modern (for those times) technologies like agriculture and sanitation to aid in resource extraction, resources these people would never use and or never knew existed. Most of south Africa's Africans for example aren't native to the region and immigrated there choosing to live under white "oppression" because they valued the increased standard of living
On slavery its important to establish 2 things: 1) every place on earth has had some sort of slavery 2) the blacks were already enslaved by other Africans before they were sold to the Europeans. The whites didn't go running around in the bush looking for them. And depending on where these slaves ended up many would be living in relative luxury compared to if they stayed in Africa or, God forbid, were sold to the Arabs. As it is, its the Europeans who were the first to get the idea of banning the practice and even fought wars over it you might say its a white thing
I do think colonization was a mistake long term. These people should have had a few hundred or thousand years to develop on their own instead of being forcibly thrust into the modern world and into our homes. But was that ever an option, wasn't it inevitable Europeans would start exploring? Its the human spirit, and competition and expansion is fundamental to life itself. If you are White you have just been indoctrinatinated with a self hating version of the noble savage myth, something unque to whites since every other race just puts their own people first. And its just as wrong as before - when the Europeans arrived these people had already been slaughtering and warring with each other for thousands of years. And they themselves were often just the latest group of migrants who displaced or conquered the former
You are one hundred per cent right and I in fact admire your patience in explaining some elemental points of history to people that either complete ignorants or are blinded by ideology and hatred. Most remarkably, in many cases this is self hatred of people that have been thoroughly brainwashed.
Mongols left peoples and societies in peace & security IF they accepted basically just taxation.
ye, but who likes taxes?
I know enough history to know that are talking a lot of nonsense.
1. European empires were ones of many. Conquest and empire began with the city of Ur. A few examples: Babylon, Assiria, Hitittes, Egyptians, Persians, Macedonians, Roma, Moslem Caliphate, Turkish Empire, Mongols, Timurides, Mughals, Portugal, Spain, Great Britain, France, Russia.
2. It is absolutely false that the European empires were more brutal than all others. The evidence shows exactly the opposite. The Europeans and the Islamic Arab conquerors were the most human empires in history.
3. The case of the Congo is a special case, because it was at the beginning a personal colony of the Belgian King. No Belgian regular soldiers or civil servants could be sent there.
Everything was in the hands of contract adventurers that behaved indeed in a miserable manner. Taking into account that malaria killed Europeans easily, because they lacked any immunity, only
desperados went to serve in Leopold's Congo and the results were very bad.
When the land became a Belgian State colony and a regular administration organised, the situation changed completely.
The picture must also take into consideration other points.
Slavery, an institution that began with historic records and practiced by all civilizations, including the Western one.
The difference: it was for the first time in history abolished by the British Empire and, immediately later, by all other Western States.
3. As regards, the origen of civilization, it did not take place in the Nile valley.
One can consider the introduction of agriculture by the neolithic farmers as the first step. It took place in Anatolia. This population forms a large part of the population of Europe today, from 60% in the South to 25% in regions of Northern Europe.
A second step was the domestication of horses and the wheel. It took in the plains to the North of the Black Sea. It spread with the Yamnaya inmigration in Europe and Iran and India.
4. It is remarkably silly to try and compare the information contained in the Egyptian hieroglyphics to the monumental body of written Greek culture. Heraclitus, Parmenides, Plato, Aristoteles, to name a few.
5. 99% of the modern technical sphere, that has changed human life, originated in Europe, or by Europeans in America.
Electricity, telephone, tv, computers, trains, navigation independent of the wind, agricultural tractors, automobiles, persons and goods, all motors (vapour, Otto, Diesel, jets), modern medicine, X rays, vaccines, anaesthesia, etc.
6. This technical development was the reason of the superior economic development in Europe.
Belgium did not get rich because of the Congo.
The extraordinary Belgian and Dutch cities predate the conquest of Congo by four centuries.
In the African country that I know well, the only building more sofisticated than a straw hut, when Europeans first set a foot in it, was a small stone fort, which served as a basis of Yemeni slavers.
Hey it's clear you don't understand the history.
Go and study. It takes weeks, months and years, to learn and to piece things together.
Most of the anti migrant crew are this way: the people who dont out in the effort to learn even the real history of their own country, of it's economics, of their culture, of humanity - nothing - but they want to find someone to blame. Preferably a scapegoat, because only brave, determined and knowledgeable people would actually be willing to point at oligarchy, or resist them. The weak seek scapegoats.
Migrants are the tools of the oligarchy, to the detriment of the populace.
Most of the pro-migrant crew are oligarchs, sociopathic lunatics or migrants.
Small note that "Leopold's Ghost" was an utter fraud by the usual ethnic thieves who were after Belgium's treasury, which they successfully stole.
As I have alreadyù answered to someone of your party, who made a miserable show of his anti Western bias. I will not answer to you.
I am not here to educate ignorants.
The "nile valley civilisation" gave modern civilisation next to nothing in regards to science...As to the slavery angle, well, you must deduct the "cost of living" from your fantastic "value of the stolen labour of enslaved Africans ". After slavery in the US, many (mostly white) went into debt labouring all day in "the Company Town". Africans too were conquered, enslaved and even genocided by other Africans prior to any Euros having any significant presence in Africa.
In a word - bullshit!
Those savages were so lucky to have us conquer them. Lucky that we stole, murdered, committed genocide - all in their best interests. Even luckier that they did not descend to the depths of your paranoid fantasies - they are just people like you and me. Global air transport means that mixing of people now cannot be prevented, perhaps you should meet a few and get to know and like them
Humans are human. Did I ever deny this elemental truth? I wonder what is the practical the use of your obvious statement.
They are people like you and me? In a sense yes, in others not at all. What does it means "like". Every person is unique.
As far as I remember, what I have said is that Europe is being submerged my aliens. Something that I oppose.
By the way, no other nations in the world today accept situations that would result, if not reversed, in becoming a minority in its own territory. This is a mental disorder only of modern Westerners.
I cannot imagine Indians accepting the inmigration of 15 million Chinese per year or the same numbers of Indians in China. This is the equivalent of that is happening today in many European countries.
It is just preposterous to imagine the mayor of the capital of an Arab country (or Teheran or Ankara) being a Christian politician of European origin.
Ridiculous.
The migrants coming to Europe are just tool of the Capital.
They are also enemies of the native population.
Just like Spaniards were enemies of South American native population in 1500. now, people form Africa coming to Europe are enemies of the native population.
I do not understand why there is so little hate against the foreigners in Europe.
They will stop coming only after they become afraid to come to Europe.
Thus, I completely understand xenophobia.
And Emanuel Todt also does:
https://emmanueltodd.substack.com/p/hitlerism-trumpism-netanyahuism-le
A common feature of Western ‘populisms’ is, of course, their rejection of immigration: Reform UK, the Sverigedemokraterna (Sweden Democrats), the AfD, Viktor Orban in Hungary, Law and Justice in Poland, Giorgia Meloni in Italy, like Trump or Le Pen, pass the test of this common denominator. Is this enough to define them as far-right, in the same way that Nazism and fascism were far-right? I don’t think so. There is a crucial difference between today’s populism and the Hitlerian or Mussolinian far right: Nazism and fascism were expansionist, with the aim of projecting the power of the German (Aryan) or Italian (Roman) people outwards. They were aggressive, nationalist and conquering. They relied on mass parties. It is hard to imagine today’s populists organising Nuremberg-style parades.
Hitler simply wanted to reunify Germany, after it had been torn apart following WW1.
He spent much energy not in conquering, but in issuing endless peace offers, especially to the British - all of which were rejected, because his financial system needed to be destroyed, as it challenged jewry's hold on most of the world - and all of the "Allied" world.
And thus, jewish Churchill's acceptance of £40,000 from the jewish "Focus Group" in Britain - all jewish industrialists.
The common feature shared by today's populist factions and the National Socialists is that both wish or wished to eject a foreign group which had entered the homeland, whether that be Pakistanis and now Africans in the case of Europe today, or jews in the case of 1930s Germany.
The parades / demonstrations of course, are becoming more obvious by the month, although the modern ones are far less structured than Hitler's were.
In the Emanuel Todt's substack it is very good explained that today's populist act in self defense, unlike Hitler .
Nope.
All you are repeating are in fact the diversions spread by those who exploit everyone.
You sit in Europe where your culture is evaporated by KFC, McDonalds, Subway, Starbucks, Hollywood, Disney. Where your money is taken by Shell, BP, Total, BAE, Boeing, Leonardo, RTX...led by US tools like Von der leyen, Rutte, Stoltenberg, Starmer, Merz.....but it's "immigrants" that are destroying Europe?
No excuse for these kinds of falsehoods.
Europe colonized the rest of the world, but now the empire is controlled by Americans and Israeli oligarchy, which are now colonizing Europe. Its that machine that BOTH Europe and Russia and being subjected to.
Only a fool would be getting crushed by that machine...while pointing at poor people cleaning offices and working in hospitals as the villian.
The immigrants are used in destruction of Europe. They were "invited" by euro atlantist elites (e.g. Angela Merkel).
They are our enemies, they fuel the capitalistic economy, they oil the system.
Who is "we"? They are not my enemies.
Capitalism is fueled by the ignorant fighting fellow victims, while not daring to reject the actual exloiters.
Russia as prey is the natural action for capitalists - the same capitalists who colonised the rest of the world. But no, keep ranting about "immigrants".
We. natives of Europe.
Immigrants are our enemies, just like the capital owners.
It is not only the lowering of wages.
For example:
72% Of Danish Gang-Crime Convicts Have Non-Western Background, Justice Ministry Data Shows
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/72-danish-gang-crime-convicts-have-non-western-background-justice-ministry-data-shows
We're not running out of brown people - people who were too stupid, vicious, and untrustworthy to their own to ever get out of the Iron Age we whites created, or the neolithic where we weren't.
You are right that Europen culture is almost annihilated by the corporations. Therefore Europe, in order to survive must remove those corporations from its soil.
What - these corporations are run by nurses from Congo and taxi drivers from Brazil?
Those are two different problems. Corporations are not run by taxi drivers or nurses. But I do not want the streets of my place of birth start resembling the streets of Kinshasa.
I do not need to ask anyone's approval to say it the way I think it.
And the most extraordinary phenomenon. The Europeans were and are terrible! Where to you want to live? In Europe, of course. Legally or illegally, but of course of all places of the world, precisely in Europe.
Rathitht !
🙏🤞👍👏
Well put.
Do not argue with fools. It is a waste of your time.
You are completely missing the point.
When European colonists went abroad, it was not as the vanguard of an endless horde of other European peoples - it was mostly just an army, that in most cases had every intention of eventually returning back home.
Whilst there, of course, they gave permanent added value, eg written languages and cultures that involved science and technology - the Africans didn't have any of that, and hadn't even invented the wheel, for heaven's sake.
The "reverse invasion" is completely different - these people have no purpose in going to Europe except as the first blow of what will eventually be the complete elimination of those white people in their own countries.
"...the Africans didn't have any of that, and hadn't even invented the wheel, for heaven's sake....."
Europeans in fact went abroad and destroyed GDP, stole labour, stole resources, stole national treasures. At gunpoint. Theft. Piracy. And crimes against humanity.
And many inventions and knowledge, even before Greek civilization, were first developed in the african Nile valley region, the region scientifically understood and documented to be the first basis of all human civilization, including agriculture, mathematics, medicine/pharmacy, astronomy, metallurgy and so on.
So it's another example - you don't know your history. For which there is no excuse in 2025. You have a phone, a computer, the internet with limitless access to all the written knowledge in the world ever ....but have still no grip on history and facts.
But you want to "debate"international politics ? On the basis of what? Fiction?
"the african Nile valley region, the region scientifically understood and documented to be the first basis of all human civilization, including agriculture, mathematics, medicine/pharmacy, astronomy, metallurgy and so on." - FALSE.
The First Dynasty Pharoahs had white skin and red and blonde hair; Homo Sapiens Sapiens intelligence first exploded into being in Central Europe over 60,000 years ago.
Our people have been building mighty megaliths since long before the catastophic end of the Ice Age, and have more than once left a trail of red and blonde heads circumventing the equator even in the distant past.
We are the far-travellers, the Uplift, there is no upgrade to us.
Their debt-driven system is failing, their populations are ever-more restive, and cannibalization is becoming the fuel that powers their regimes.
It’s a clear set of trends. From burning their core demographics, to burning political legitimacy for tactical gains, to burning physical infrastructure. The last is now being done by weapons, not just laws and captured political kapos.
Each step is an escalation. Each step, and each evolution with these steps, a more open declaration of war.
If the totalitarian Control Grid panopticon fails, the continuation of these trends is the kind of development that doesn’t just change governments - it will threaten the entire liberal-bureaucratic regime. Which is highly, highly vulnerable to the cheap weapons being normalized by the Ukraine conflict.
Obama started this, he is a just kike China Joe traitor.
It was already well underway 40 years before anyone had heard of Obama. Read the The 1968 "RIVERS OF BLOOD" Speech by British MP Enoch Powell.
https://riversofblood.co.uk/
Yes they injected their own sheep and worker ants with bio weapons so only you RED PILLED patriots that know the real truth after "doing your own research" (reading memes and propaganda other people made for you) will survive..maybe the real virus was the one that broke your brain during those years. I guess it serves as a good IQ filter for people who might share some of your other views. And the conservative parties were super happy during the pandemic because they could stop talking about that annoying immigration issue they had no intention of doing anything about anyway and just feed their supporters stupid normie conspiracy slop about covid and vaccines
It could have been venal ol' Crazy Joe with faux-Dr. Jill holding his hand, or that malignant cocksucker Sikorski with his vicious hag wife Applebaum holding his hand.
The EU cannibalising its own. It will only get worse.
Indeed it shall.
Prepare for the sound of hollow laughter. ;O)
Donald Trump wants to close the Ukraine file — not to resolve it, but to get rid of it
https://open.substack.com/pub/francoisvadrot/p/getting-out-of-ukraine-but-at-what
Whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad.
How exactly is the loss of Konstantinovka and Pokrovsk and Lyman and Seversk a major thing? Yes the russian army is doing their thing but what is the russian endgame? The other side is clear- force a ceasefire on current lines and all that. The way things are going this war continues for another decade
One part of the endgame is liberation of Donbas. Take a look at the map. What fortifications lie beyond Pokrovsk in Donetsk? Another part of this endgame is Slavyansk - Kramatorsk conurbation. Lyman and Seversk are stepping stones to it.
If you think the russian army will suddenly sweep to the river because "no fortifications" i have a Dnieper crossing to sell you
Not really, I had Donetsk in mind. It is one of the initial SMO goals.
However, we see how Zaporohye campaign is rolling fast.
However, you cannot figure out the Konstantinovka, Lyman, Seversk connections, but know what will happen on the way to Dnepr?
I know for sure that when I look at a map this time in 2026 I will need to concentrate hard to see the difference to this year
How about you take a look at the expansions of ukie cemeteries?
Ethnic Russians are getting killed in industrial quantities.
A huge success for Putinism.
What fortifications were there in Sumy, around Volchansk and around Kupyansk?
There was nothing there comparable to the Donbass.
Yet each of those was turned into an endless grind and a total fiasco.
It's almost as if fortifications don't really make all that much of a difference in a drone war. Because the problem isn't blowing up the enemy with artillery, which is what fortifications make harder, the problem is that you yourself cannot move at all, and it takes remarkably little from the other side to impose that condition.
Total fiasco if you think that the plan was to move onwards non stop. I dont know what GS planned. Unlike you, I do not dwell in their heads.
Yes, open fields are problematic due to the drones. That is why I do not expect a mad dash to the Dnepr. But, situation in Zaporozhye might show us a new tactic using interceptor drones to accompany assaults. Looks like it is quite successful.
Then we have successful mechanised assault on Mala Tokmachka.
Small tactical gains.
How are they going to take the big cities?
Which, BTW, nobody has ever done since Berlin in 1945.
The closest that comes to it is some situations in Iraq and Syria, but those featured huge mismatches in the relative power of defenders and attackers.
Nobody in history has ever taken a city of a million full of commie blocks against a peer enemy.
The only way that can possibly work is if Putin finally isolates the battlefield, and it shifts from a peer war situation to a major mismatch, but that he cannot do without nukes at this point.
Exactly, nobody in history. So how do I answer that? :D They are writing military history every day.
So, how are they going to take them? Cut the logistics, probably. Make life unbearable for civilians so they flee and then square with the military? Dunno, lets see. I am sure there are Rus cells all over Kharkov, Kiev, Odessa.
Mercouris claims some Azovstali dude was reaching out to him saying they are already preparing for the battle for Kiev.
Forget to answer to GM. He forgot about Budapest in 1956, with badly equipped defenders. Or just a year ago: Omdurman/Khartoum. Consider the ongoing situation in Tripoli. When looking at this, the Russians are doing a fantastic job. No need for nukes, just give them enough time.
I am glad to learn that Russia is ruled by morons and traitors since the revolution in 1917/1918.
What makes your ego that large that only you know the right way to victory over the combined western allies that want to balkanize Russia? Nukes are a weak argument for many reasons.
Mass murdering is for the West as we see in Gaza.
Russia is not acting on such level.
It's sucks when you hold up human principles, I know but I'm for my part happy that even Medwedjev does so.
How to take the big cities? Shut off the water, the heat and the electricity. Surround the city and move on. No resupply, no reinforcement. Let winter do the work.
Russian fiasco? You should be happy...
The 'endgame' is repeated countless times since the mess started: Removing the root causes that lead to the SMO. To break the back of NATO and EU on the way is a byproduct and will lead to a new security order in Europe, where Russia has a saying in.
That endgame coming without a direct conflict with most of the EU is impossible.
Conflicts with people who at large are unwilling to fight because they 'feel' they have been told all the wrong reasons to fight are solvable.
I have said it before. I don't think convincing many Millennials to get paid to upgrade their World of Warcraft skills to compete in a real world drone war will be difficult at all. So long as it is done from the safety of small dispersed concrete bunkers far from the front lines.
Top performers would be paid more and allowed to decorate in the style of their mom's basement.
Russia is aware of that. If the EU wants to fight Russia directly, Russia is ready for that. The EU isn't.
The real message of Ukraine is that Russia doesn't bluff. When Russia delivered its final ultimatums at the end of 2021 those ultimatums made it clear that if the US refused Russia would fight. Russia did fight.
If the US or the EU doesn't like that Russia will not yield on the demands it made at the end of 2021, as subsequently expanded in 2022, too bad for them.
As General Apti Alaudinov, Hero of the Russian Federation and the head of the mighty Akhbar batallion, put it, "We are used to war. We can do war. We know how to fight."
The only way the US can "stop" Russia from achieving objectives is to start a nuclear war with Russia. That will absolutely annihilate the US (the EU too, in passing, not that anybody gives a shit about the EU...), but there is reason to believe Russia will still remain a country, albeit one cast back into the 19th century with a very shattered infrastructure and a population only one third or half of what it was.
Incorrect. Because the EU is a real paper tiger, that has no ability to wage war and relies heavily on USA to "defend" it. Without USA's support, EU countries can do nothing about it, except bark loudly, for the many hundreds of millions of idiots in Europe, to applaud. Also, with its russophobic / fascist policies, EU has destroyed its industry. It has no ability to do what it claims to want to do, which is to militarize itself. The money being allocated t that, will simply disappear into the pockets of Von der Leyen, Kallas, Costa, Rutte, etc, which is also what happens to a lot of the money going to Ukraine.
In short, EU cannot fight a war, which is why it is constantly trying to keep USA close to it. However, USA is also a paper tiger, although not as much as the EU of course, because it also cannot sustain a long war, as it lacks the industrial capacity to do so. USA has never won a single war it participated in, nor any war it created. The only war it can claim it won, was the Iraq war, which USA created and it didn't even win militarily. It "won" by bribing iraqi generals not to fight. USA stands no chance against a powerful country like Russia, in a conventional war. And if thy want to go nuclear, Russia has the largest nuclear arsenal on the planet, so USA's destruction is guaranteed. Also USA doesn't have an army. it has a bunch of murderers and killers with the same uniform, that only want to kill people. They know nothing about tactics except attack unarmed civilians, which is exactly what the ukrainians do, because they were trained by USA / NATO. And now that ukrainians are low on numbers, the west sees its best proxy yet, dwindling into oblivion.
The point is, the EU can't do anything militarily and USA doesn't want to be removed from existence. Plus most people in the west are more concerned about a post on some social media network, than with reality. There's no chance the EU will start a direct war with Russia. But they do want to keep using their disposable meat wagon known as Ukraine to attack Russia. As for Russia, it definitely doesn't need to nor does it want to attack any european country, unless it is attacked of course. It also knows the limitations of european countries and how their only play, is to keep using Ukraine, so destroying Ukraine is the best way to end this war, because the west will lose its best proxy. Although for sure Russia needs to pay attention to the other countries that EU views as disposable meat, that EU wants to use against Russia, like Georgia, Moldova, etc.
I personally hope that the EU dares to put a "peacekeeping" force in Odessa or in Western Ukraine. It's total destruction by the Russians will spell the end of the EU.
The EU is rushing towards its end by its own actions, with or without a "peacekeeping" force, but for sure that would accelerate it. Although europeans as a whole are so dumb, that I'm not sure if it would happen so suddenly. It's as I usually say in regards to my country, Portugal. The only thing the socialists haven't done to destroy Portugal, is outright kill people on the streets with machine guns. But even if they did, portuguese as a whole would still "vote" for them. I'm afraid this is what most europeans will do as well.
They don't know the meaning of the"root causes." The favorite refrain in the US is, "let it go, let it go!"
Agree. Wake me up when we see the UKR army and government dissolving.
Windows of opprtunity, etc.
"How exactly is the loss of Konstantinovka and Pokrovsk and Lyman and Seversk a major thing?"
Those are major tactical events. I can see by your questions you have little knowledge of military matters, so let me answer that in greater detail:
In war there are activities that are lumped together under the heading of "strategy" and there are activities called "tactics". If you ask an AI for what are "tactics" you may get an answer somewhat like the following:
In war, tactics are the specific methods, maneuvers, and arrangements of combat forces used to win individual battles and achieve immediate objectives on the battlefield. They are distinct from the broader, long-term goals of strategy, focusing on actions in a specific time and place, and are the "how" of a battle, such as using formations, firepower, and movement to create advantages.
Relation to strategy: Tactics are the tools used to execute a larger strategy. A general's strategy might be to win a war, while a colonel's tactics are used to take a specific airfield as part of that overall strategy.
Key elements: Tactics involve a combination of art and science, requiring both judgment and adaptation to circumstances, and they are often dependent on firepower and maneuver.
Russia's overall strategy, as repeatedly and consistently stated since 2022 includes the demilitarization and denazification of Ukraine. It has other goals to that strategy as well, such as the protection of Russian populations in Ukraine and the assurance that Ukraine cannot be used by Western adversaries for any sort of hostilities against Russia.
The tactics to accomplish the above include the battlefield defeat of US/NATO/Nazi military forces in Ukraine. That's proceeding on many fronts, including the clearing of Russian territory, such as the Donetsk People's Republic, of enemy forces.
Russia is applying sophisticated military tactics in that effort, which, of course, clueless fools on Internet don't understand (I don't mean you, since you had the good sense to look into what didn't seem right to you), sophisticated tactics which are designed to minimize the resources required for the conflict, to allow Russia's economy to continue growing in the superstar way it has been growing (part of the overall strategy that realizes without a strong economy you've lost any conflict), to greatly reduce the number of Russian casualties while greatly increasing the adversary's casualties, and to bleed the US and the EU and the Ukrainian Nazi regime of resources they cannot afford to lose.
While Western commentators often refer to those sophisticated tactics by calling them "attrition" warfare, that's a classic oversimplification that misses the essentials of Russia's complex tactics in an era of diffuse, high tech warfare, an era that Russia predicted starting over 20 years ago as a result of the first US invasion of Iraq.
The obvious, visible part of Russia's tactics to people reviewing maps and such on Internet is the diffuse advances and the way Russia forms pockets to surround and then annihilate the enemy, as well as to seize or block key logistics elements required for the adversary to continue resisting Russian advances.
There's the old saying about war that amateurs talk about tactics while professionals talk about logistics. That's true in a way, but a deeper understanding is that tactics are all ultimately about logistics, anyway. The loss of Konstantinovka and Pokrovsk and Lyman and Seversk are a major thing precisely because they are major disruptions of US / NATO / Nazi logistics that have been brought about by the sophisticated Russian way of war.
Surrounding and collapsing pockets is not so much about creating a raw fence of people around the objective, it is about achieving fire control on the essential logistics the enemy needs to keep fighting in that pocket. It's like killing a cancer tumor: kill the blood supply to the tumor and you kill the tumor. That's a more effective way of killing a tumor than to try to encase the tumor in a sack so it physically cannot grow.
Those losses are also major because they push back by tens of kilometers the enemy out of fortified firing positions that the enemy can use to project fire control onto regions behind the actual front that Russia needs to stage logistics for further advances. They're also major losses because once Russia punches through that particular fortified line it can rapidly gain more territory before coming up against the next fortified line.
But as the US / NATO / Nazi forces get weaker and weaker in Ukraine, each fortified line is weaker than the previous fortified lines. They haven't had eleven years to get the next one ready, and at the pace of Russia's advances they won't have time to do so.
Yes the russian army is doing their thing but what is the russian endgame?"
Those are the repeatedly stated objectives I mentioned above.
That's a sound reasoning and description on the matter, compliment, well done!
It is a 'major thing's because it is so for the Ukrainians. For Russia it is just a aggregation of Nazi troops to kill. Then, on to the next.
BL**DY EU, BL**DY EUROPEAN LEADERS. They don’t care about their own people, the citizens of Europe …… INSTEAD ……. They are pursuing this CRAZY RUSSIO-PHOBIC ideology (planted and nurtured by a foreign govt, USA /Biden/CIA …. ) where they are shooting themselves in the foot, no ….. in the HEAD just to prove a point …… and EVEN THAT , they can’t do properly , and get it wrong ! They did it with the NORDSTREAM pipeline and now this ….. WHAT A BUNCH OF PLONKERS !!!
Why does Russia continue to force the transfer of their energy to EU states that clearly don't want the energy? The Russian energy producers should assist the EU and immediately move to stop energy transfers. In the end Russians need energy and surely the developing Eurasian and Asian nations will be more than happy to accept energy sold in their own currency and making western currencies worthless.
Ever heard an old Russian saying, "money doesn't smell?"
Vespasian: (Holding a coin) "Pecunia non olet." ("Money does not stink.") Was it not Vespasian to Titus? ;-)
Won't bet my life on who exactly, but definitely someone very, very wise:-)
The only money smell Russian industry should be interested in is the smell of the Ruble. They are potentially positioned to lose more than they gain maintaining trade with the west. Let the EU starve for energy and see who breaks first.
It was back in 2023, either at Valdai or the SPIEF.
Putin was finally asked a direct uncomfortable question, in this case why the f*** is Russia helping the very people attacking it with its commodity exports, including the very stuff that then comes back to it in the form of shells and missiles.
Putin's answer was "But we get money for it". He didn't elaborate on who he meant by "we".
Peak Putinism.
Right then and there whatever agency's job in Russia is to do that should have had him dragged off the stage in handcuffs and immediately put on trial for grand treason.
At least back in 1941 the last train to Germany crossed to border in a western direction in the evening of June 21. There were no more trains after that.
Today it's different...
I don't know the intricacies of the economic realities that allow the trade to continue so I won't assume. In some ways I agree with you but not on the treason position. The USSR was invaded and was in a general war with Germany in 1941. Russia is still not in a declared war with Europe.
Russia has also been invaded and is being attacked by the West.
Look at the map now -- the line of contact is roughly where it was several months into Operation Barbarossa, and then again in late 1943 when it was moving in the other direction.
There is the Russian federation and the USSR they are two different entities. Ukraine was accepted as an independent state in 1991 after the dissolution of the USSR. So where the contact line is now is internationally recognised as Ukrainian territory. Yes, Russia has constitutionally reabsorbed the 4 regions whose people voted in a referendum to rejoin the Russian federation, that is as far as the Russian federation extends westward today.
Of course, the establishment ot Ukraine as an independent State, occurred much before Putin became President of Russia, but do not let facts disturb your propaganda slogans for a moment.
Putin is a traitor because Stalin...
You are right. The Russian ruling class today is in fact trading with enemy.
But nobody is going to arrest Putin.
The common Russians are now fascinated only with money, there is no patriotism there any more.
That is why Russia is begging for peace on weekly base.
That is simply not true. But Putin is indeed showing weakness with the Trump debacle. After this new stunt, there is no way Putin could still keep that option open, but I'm afraid Putin won't make any harsh statement about it and blocking any possibility for negotiations, as well as stepping up what needs to be done in Ukraine.
The Russian society, after 300 years of trying to be like the west, to be accepted a bit, cannot accept the failure.
In western mind, Russians are just snow niggers.
And all other Slavs are close to that.
I won't go that far, but for sure for some russians that is the case. And for Putin in particular, it's kind of a disgrace with this situation with Trump. Trump lies, says one thing, does the opposite, he cannot be trusted, in any possible way...yet russians still want to "talk". Russia should halt supplies of uranium to USA immediately and stop "talking" with a country that is literally attacking them and claiming to want peace. It's ridiculous.
As for how the west views others (and I do mean the west as in most of the people in the west), the majority are supremacists. They believe they are superior to everyone. North americans think they are superior to europeans. European think they are superior to north americans. It's a cultural thing and nearly impossible to change.
In that case, it would be evident that the Western ruling class is also trading
with the enemy. Isn't it?
Two to tango.
Remember what Machiavelli wrote in The Prince:
"“It must be remembered that there is nothing more difficult to plan, more doubtful of success, nor more dangerous to manage than a new system. For the initiator has the enmity of all who would profit by the preservation of the old institution and merely lukewarm defenders in those who gain by the new ones. ”
Trump is fighting for change, his biggest enemies are not the Russians but the Western Globalist financier and the political system they have laid out through the Western Nations. Here in the USA they are known as the Deep State, Neocons and American Democrats.
Watch what he does, not what he says. He is walking a very fine line. But he knows he has the support of the majority of the American People and enough oligarchs and politicians that he can pull it off.
But, it's hard, he is walking very carefully. You know, as much as he is bombastic when he speaks, he is very careful in how he acts.
I'll give you a clue... watch Trump when he gives a speech... if he's speaking out of his heart, he is funny, bombastic, interesting... his voice rises, lowers.. he's funny to watch.
But, when he is giving a prepared speech that reflects actual policy and he has to give because of the procedures of being the president, Trump uses a monotone voice and his body is mostly stiff.
Words against actions.
political theatrics might be interesting on a psychological level but Trump is a product of the deep state - the US system is designed to establish a puppet in the white house that can be removed the moment he/she crosses the line.
I disagree.
There is the always the possibility of a maverick in American politics at the Federal level. Change like that normally requires a civil war in the parliamentary systems in Europe.
Proof is everywhere. Even Lincoln was an issue with the Deep State. JFK, RFK, Nixon and Trump are the modern era examples.
The Deep State normally uses assassination as their solution. Nixon saw the writing in the wall and decided to "retire" to his beach state in SoCal.
Thanks for the Machiavelli quote... a really great quote.
But I respectfully disagree with you that Trump can be said to be trying to achieve change. He and his supporters may think that's what they are trying to do but if you really want change you have to be able to say exactly what it is you want to change and what you propose as a replacement. Neither Trump nor his rabid supporters can articulate that.
Saying "I want change" because you're not happy with the current situation is not the same as actually "fighting for change," at least not in the sense of wanting to create something new. Just saying "I want change" while being destructive is simply an anarchist's game: smash everything and hope somebody else actually brings about actual change by inventing and implementing something new that's viable.
Trump just barks nonsense, like "Make America Great Again." What the heck does that actually mean in the highly complex world in which we live? Barking generalities like "I want more stuff manufactured in the US instead of in China" doesn't get you anywhere. Those are simply amorphous desires and not specific elements of change. Does he mean he wants America to be respected by other countries? In that case, attacking countries which disagree with America doesn't make America respected, it makes America feared and hated.
If you look at specific elements of the Trump agenda, they don't make sense as actual elements that will bring about specific goals. For example, getting into a tariff war with the entire world is not going to ensure that more stuff gets manufactured in the US than in China. Why? Because it doesn't actually change the root causes why industry fled the US for China and why Americans now cannot compete with China. All it will do is deny Americans the ability to buy what they need (because they won't be able to afford the prices) to live the lives they want to live or to have a chance at improving their industrial game.
We know what kind of change we want.
(1) Independence from the European Globalists, mostly based in London. We fought a War Of Independence once. Let's call them the CABAL.
(2) A small federal Government that respects State rights within the Constitutional Rights of the Citizens of our Republic. Remember that part in the Declaration of Independence:
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."
(3) No more inventions of "rights" from Judicial Activism.... "Live Free" should be The Motto. "Leave me alone" should be added.
(4) Fiscal and Social responsibility. A return to the Gold Standard. No more fiat money. No more expensive social experiments mandated by the Government... ANY level of Government.
(5) A non political Judicial Branch. Justice must be apolitical and guided solely by the Constitution and the intent defined in the Bill of Rights and Declaration Of Independence.
(6) No more professional Civil Servant class except in certain professions. Civil Engineers for example.
(7) End of the Forever Wars. No more fighting all over the war, no more fomenting wars that help the business of the CABAL at the expense of American Taxpayers. While we're at it, cut back the CIA and all of those Intelligence Agencies.
(8) Seal the borders, create a strong Defense Force and reintroduce the Monroe Doctrine. Make it worthwhile for the counties in the American Continent to work with us. All of us fought wars of independence from the European Powers. Remember that!
(9) Work at creating absolute resource, security and financial American Independence from the rest of the World. we'll accept and respect them, yes, but we won't need them. We will stop outsourcing jobs to other nations and create paying jobs in this nation. To claim that we will "pay more" for products is a hoax perpetuated by the Media. THINK about it: People with jobs pay taxes and do not require public assistance. Either we pay taxes to keep people in Welfare or we pay somewhat higher prices. I'd rather see my money going to support factories in Oklahoma than paying taxes to support poor people in Oklahoma. For one thing, I believe the market is more efficient at distributing wealth than the Government ever will be through their welfare states.
Heck, I was born in the Old World, my wife in the Far East World... we just spent a month in Kyoto. Loved it, might even buy a house there, but the USA should not need Japan... it's OK if they make excellent Toto Electronic Toilets and some awesome electronic designs.... but that should be optional, not essential for the Continuance of Life in the USA... See item -2- above... the part about "Happiness".
I could go on and on. WE KNOW WHAT WE WANT. If you don't realize this, then you are either not paying attention or live in another country.
This is so contradictionary in itself, you might want to read it again.
I would call it: wash me but don't get me wet.
Would you care to state some facts instead of opinion?
Where are the contradictions in my statement above?
Would it be, perhaps, in that you do not agree in the Monroe Doctrine and a multi polar World (actually, my proposal is simple, the USA controls the American Continent, the rest, we just don't care). This is for security reasons.
#8 is self contradictory as soon as you bring up the Monroe Doctrine. Those countries down there are not -- and should not be -- vassals of the US. You are espousing the same line that the USSR did with its occupation of foreign countries.
Pretty much the idea is to create spheres of interest to create defensive zones.
They would not be "vassals" economically but incentivized from creating military alliances with other powers in different continents. Some of those nations have great natural resources and they could be quite rich when well managed... think of Venezuela and Argentina. My idea is to create an economic commonwealth to encompass all of the nations in the American Continent.
What you wrote is so fantastically off that to reply with specifics I have to write more than one reply....
Here's part 1 of 3 parts:
Thanks for proving my point. Expressing vague (as in not concrete) desires without form isn't "change." It's just complaining. The list you set forth does have some specific points, but for the most part it contains extremely vague wishes, that in some cases are so disconnected from reality that they're not so much vague wishes as wishful thinking, like wanting everybody to get their own, personal unicorn.
You correctly asked another writer to be specific, so I'll do that.
"Independence from the European Globalists, mostly based in London" - What, specifically, does that mean? What specific actions do you mean by that? Are you saying that Globalists in London have implanted devices in the brains of America's Federal Reserve governors and are controlling them from the other side of the world by radio signals, so you want Federal Reserve governors to wear caps made of aluminum foil? In what way do Globalists in London control, say, the US armed forces or decide who runs for congress in Oklahoma?
"A small federal Government that respects State rights within the Constitutional Rights of the Citizens of our Republic." The people who run the federal government and the Supreme Court say that the current federal government does respect States Rights. There are no States rights within the constitutional rights of citizens, by the way. Those are two different sets of rights, with the rights of citizens set forth in the Constitution in general being something that the individual states or the federal government cannot touch. If you want "change" that is somehow related to your quote, you're going to have to pass an amendment to the constitution and it has to be specific.
"No more inventions of "rights" from Judicial Activism." That's basically saying "you have to agree with me when I say I don't like how our judicial system works and I don't like some of the decisions." Well, OK, that's not remotely concrete enough for there to be "change" except for the implication that the "change" you want is for you to be in charge of everything. The current judicial system is set forth in the Constitution, including support for states' rights in how they decide to name their judges. That judges issue decisions you don't agree with is nothing new. That's a consequence of any judicial system. But in the US system there are checks and balances and ultimately those are up to the Supreme Court to decide if a particular decision by a lower court is either a) supporting a right within the constitution, or b) inventing some new right that isn't in the constitution and thus itself is unconstitutional. If you don't like how the US system works you'll need to amend the constitution. There's little chance of that happening if you can't state specifically what the wording of the amendment is that you want to pass.
"A return to the Gold Standard. No more fiat money. No more expensive social experiments mandated by the Government... ANY level of Government." - A return to the Gold standard and not fiat money is a specific change, for sure. But the rest is just vagueness. What's a "social experiment" for you is to other people just ordinary, lawful, and even *legally required* normal function of the government. Those "experiments" are the result of lawful processes as set forth in the constitution and permitted over the centuries by courts, who are the interpreters of the constitution in the US system. They're also usually the result of elections where the people have chosen their representatives. If you don't like the outcomes that system produces, you have to be able to say what specific changes you want. Saying "I only want people elected who agree with me" isn't going to cut it.
"A non political Judicial Branch. Justice must be apolitical and guided solely by the Constitution and the intent defined in the Bill of Rights and Declaration Of Independence." The existing crop of judges would say they're doing exactly that, except that it would be illegal for them to base their rulings on anything but the law. So if your view of the "intent" of the Declaration of Independence conflicts with what the law actually says, too bad for you. You're out of luck, and, frankly, in a country based on the rule of law you should be out of luck. The Declaration of Independence is not the foundation law for the United States. The Constitution is.
"No more professional Civil Servant class except in certain professions. Civil Engineers for example." OK, well that's wildly unrealistic in a United States with a multitrillion dollar budget. If you eliminate all government employees, who's going to do the work of administering and executing the laws and processes that have been lawfully put in place? For example, who's going to process all those social security checks or answer the telephone when grandma wants to know what her benefits are?
With regards to the judiciary, he is speaking of the current tactic for any low-level judge to be able to hamstring the executive branch. Yes, there should be checks and balances on the executive branch, but not at that level.
"With regards to the judiciary, he is speaking of the current tactic for any low-level judge to be able to hamstring the executive branch. "
Yes, of course. But we are speaking about specific changes, not a general wish that judges who are duly and lawfully appointed won't issue decisions you don't like. Keep in mind there are lots of Americans who *like* the idea that a low-level judge can prevent the executive branch from doing what they are sure are massively illegal by statute, unconstitutional to the core, and deeply evil things.
I, for one, would be happy if some local judge somewhere could stop endless foreign wars by saying, "The constitution clearly says only the legislative branch, specifically Congress and not the Senate, can start wars. A craven Congress can't outsource that to the Executive by saying in a statute 'we hereby abdicate our role as set forth in the Constitution and let you decide if you want to start wars'. So no, you can't start a war with Venezuela by just invading it when you want, and you can't say your objective is to dismember Russia and commit acts of war against Russia to ensure that happens, like seizing $350 billion of their money (yeah, I know it's in Brussels but just making the point...). " There's a better chance of finding a non-craven judge out there in the lower ranks of the judiciary than hoping for any personal fortitude higher up in the judiciary's ranks.
"Yes, there should be checks and balances on the executive branch, but not at that level."
There are checks and balances on the executive branch, and the judiciary is one of those checks and balances. In the US system, where the functions and abilities of the judicial system are very poorly defined in the Constitution, the exact way in which the judiciary is a check and balance on the executive is primarily the result of accepted judicial precedent. One of those core precedents that has been accepted within the US for over 200 years is that the Supreme Court has the final say.
So they're the ones who decide at what level those checks and balances *should* be happening, not me and not you and not tonyE who was brave enough to set forth his views on the matter in an internet setting where many might not agree with him.
Don't think that the US system as it's functioned for over 200 years is the right system? Well, that's what amendments to the constitution are for. How would you write such an amendment to ensure the judiciary can do its job independent of a pushy, perhaps flagrantly criminal Executive (like Jackson or Polk), while correcting the errors of members of the judiciary of the Ketanji Brown Jackson sort?
That's the problem with being an Agent of Change. You can't just wave your arms around with a lot of "shoulds" and demand that somebody else do something when that something is far from clear as to what it should be.
In the case of overreaching lower judges, it looks like the existing system will work the way it has for 200 years, slowly and inconsistently but eventually getting to a Supreme Court decision that says the rulings of local judges may apply to a specific case but do not apply nationwide.
I pretty much agree that the Supreme court has the final say -- though that is not written in the Constitution and was assumed by the Court early on. Even though the latter case of local judges was decided by the Court recently I have read that judges are just rewording their rulings to get around the Court rules, or are just flouting them altogether. Yes, they may eventually get overruled, but you can bring a system to a halt this way.
And with it working this way for 200 years, when in that time was the judiciary used in the way that it is now?
Part 2 of 3
"No more fighting all over the war, no more fomenting wars that help the business of the CABAL at the expense of American Taxpayers. While we're at it, cut back the CIA and all of those Intelligence Agencies." OK. How, exactly are you going to do that? What, specifically do you want? Waving your hands and saying "cut back the CIA" without having the slightest idea of how the CIA is staffed, how it is funded, what it has been tasked by law to do, doesn't cut it. If you don't want a completely lawless society you have to effect the "changes" you claim you know exactly you want within the rule of law, right?
"Seal the borders, create a strong Defense Force and reintroduce the Monroe Doctrine. Make it worthwhile for the counties in the American Continent to work with us. All of us fought wars of independence from the European Powers."
You're saying that spending over a trillion dollars a year on "defense", more than all the other countries on Earth put together spend on defense, has not created a "strong Defense Force?" What, specifically, do you want them to do that they're not already doing?
"Seal the borders?" You're saying nobody ever goes into or out of the United States? Like, you want to make all international travel illegal and immediately ground all international flights? If that sounds like I'm mocking you, I'm not. I'm just playing your words back to you so you can see how absurd they are. There's no "sealing" the borders in country like the US which interacts with 200 other national entities and has a trillion dollars of commerce and travel between it and other countries.
Instead, what you have are borders where millions of interactions happen every day, with movements, postal traffic, communications, shipments and such. Stop that and you kill the US. All that has to be managed with *specifics*, not arm waving.
So maybe you'll say "I didn't mean that. When I wrote 'Seal the borders' I meant something else and you're supposed to have telepathy so you can know what I wanted to say and be able to articulate it better than I did." Well, OK, then, suppose I turn on my telepathy (works like a charm, every time...) and I guess you're against illegal immigrants. Or, are you against *all* immigrants?
How about those thousands of Afghans who served the United States loyally and bravely in the US's war on Afghanistan? Should those people and their families be allowed to enter the US? If so, how, exactly does that work in your new "Seal the Borders" system? Let me guess - you're the dictator who makes the decision on each one, right?
The point is that the US has a very large and complex corpus of immigration law and administrative decisions that sets forth how people can enter the US. If you don't like how the current system works you have to say specifically how you want to change it. If you try to learn enough about the system to be able to describe productive change, you'll discover that's a lot harder to do than just waving your arms.
I assume he meant by seal the borders to mean stop people from crossing illegally. That is what most people mean by that.
" assume he meant by seal the borders to mean stop people from crossing illegally." Well fine, then you've got great faith in your telepathy. I don't . After he rants on about American jobs for Americans how do you know he didn't also mean "no more work visas for foreigners?" or "No chain immigration." or "No automatic citizenship for birth in the US?"
"Stop people from crossing illegally" is just another meaningless slogan in the context of America's phenomenally complex regulation of border crossings. It's not "change" but just a slogan that doesn't change anything at all.
Not to put too fine a point on it, but it's already illegal to cross the border illegally. Trying to oversimplify the problem by barking the slogan "seal the border" just dodges the hard work of actually being an agent of change. What, exactly, does he mean by that, and what, exactly do you mean "stop people from crossing illegally."?
Are you going to shoot people you see on the border? Install minefields? Does "stop" mean you shoot on sight people who are already 50 miles inside the US that you suspect have crossed the border illegally? How about 500 miles? What if they're white and they speak good English?
What do you do if such measures conflict with US laws already on the books? Like what, don't care about murder being illegal? Are you going to ignore the thousands of laws and regulations *already on the books* in the US that *regulate* what happens if somebody is thought to have crossed illegally?
To say what you mean by "stop people who cross illegally" you have to say exactly what you mean by "illegally" and you've got to come up with a better system than currently exists for guiding the point of the spear, border patrol agents, from determining exactly which regulations apply to their actions regarding a person who they may think may be a "person of interest."
Thanks to hundreds of thousands of laws and regulations on the books in the US plus a labyrinth of legal precedents it's not so easy to say what is an "illegal" crossing. You can argue with the Democrats and others who have poisoned the process by installing tens of thousands of laws and regulations that complicate matters, but those laws and regulations were passed within the Constitutional framework of the US and they have the force of law.
Part of the problem is precisely that the US has an enormous and complicated system already in place for dealing with people who cross the border. Border patrol agents are *required* to deal with crossings in accordance with the laws and regulations on the books.
And, they're not the only ones. What do you do with all of the millions of people already in the US who may or may not have crossed the border "illegally"?
I personally think it's absurd that a political party that represents about half of the American electorate has done its best to create obstacles to the control of immigration into America. But that's already done, and if you want it to change you have to say exactly what part of it you want rolled back and how.
And you also have to say what you'd do with knotty questions like those Afghan interpreters the US betrayed and left behind. Those people can't come into the US because they don't have visas and, well, entering the US illegally is illegal, so by your formulation they must be "stopped."
Just saying the Trump base is good at talking up general desires that may or may not be based in reality, but very weak at saying specifically, concretely what they want done to bring about real change. They may say they know what they want but when you drill into that with reality-based questions it turns out they really don't know the details of what they want.
They want somebody to see they're mad and unhappy and they want that somebody to tell them what they should want in specific detail. Trump does that. That he does so with general slogans, apparently not really caring if the semi-random actions resulting from such slogans are on point, but caring most about him being praised, seems to go unnoticed by his most rapid supporters.
John, I have a lot of respect for most things you write, but here I think you are ranting out in left field. What should be done about illegal crossers? Pretty much what they are doing now. You don't invite everyone in then release them on their own recognizance which is what the previous administration did. To those who are here illegally? Deport them, much as most countries do. I think the rest of your reply is diving in details which is way beyond the scope of a simple article like this. I will address one point, though -- birthright citizenship was enacted for one reason and one reason alone -- to ensure that freed slaves were citizens. It was discussed at the time. American Indians weren't considered citizens until a law was passed in 1924....
Part 3 of 3:
Ah, and this is absurd: "reintroduce the Monroe Doctrine. Make it worthwhile for the counties in the American Continent to work with us" How has it escaped you that the Monroe Doctrine is pure colonialism and that other countries in the American Continent (there are actually two American continents, North and South...) under no circumstances find it worthwhile to "work with" a country that's colonizing them? You can have cooperative relationships with other countries or you can shit on them with colonial BS like the Monroe Doctrine that treats them like subhumans, but you can't have both. (Amazing how Trump seems to always be genuinely surprised when he shits on other countries and then they don't like him for that.)
"Work at creating absolute resource, security and financial American Independence from the rest of the World." Well, that sounds specific but it isn't actually stating what you want changed. It's a vague hope for policy priorities that every American administration since the early 1970's and the great Oil Embargo on the US has made a national priority. Self-sufficiency is something *every* administration has said, often truthfully, they want to "work" on.
But as a practical matter what you suggest is not a possibility, at least not for an America that wants to have an existence as a first world country that has access to the same levels of technology and wealth with the same high quality of life other first rank countries do. For example, without a very big economy that's interwoven with the rest of the world the US isn't going to have the wealth it wants, and it can't have that very big economy without access to rare earths and other elements that are not found in sufficient amounts in the US. The US has to trade for those, and that trade means you're not self-sufficient.
This is pure nuts: "To claim that we will "pay more" for products is a hoax perpetuated by the Media." In point of fact, some goods require very high labor inputs. High tech products like smartphones, for example, require very high labor inputs in their design and in the manufacture of countless components that go into them, and those components in turn often require high tech materials that take huge labor inputs to produce.
There's simply no way to build a smart phone and all of the components that go into it at prices that Americans can afford (not just pay more, but even simply afford) if you have to pay down through the entire cascade of supply American wages to the people who do the work. For example, smart phones are assembled in places where the workers earn less than $50 a week. Try to do the same job with people who get paid $40 per hour and the phone becomes too expensive for Americans to afford. That cascades down the entire supply chain, down to the guy who gets paid $30 a week to dig for the exotic materials in that phone.
Americans right now are living a colonial lifestyle in that poor foreigners making far lower wages than Americans are doing the hard work to create all the goodies that Americans enjoy. If you want Americans to create those goodies, you're going to have to figure out some way for all Americans to become multimillionaires, because that's what they're going to have to be to afford the cost of other Americans to do the work.
And finally, the high tech marvels Americans like to enjoy require designers and engineers with math skills and technical skills no longer found in the US. Americans have become too badly educated and too stupid to sustain modern, high tech design and production. NVIDIA, for example, the company that produces the chips on which modern AI depends, was founded by Chinese. Visit their cafeteria and their technical staff is almost all foreign: Chinese, Russians, Indians and so on, but not Americans. But you're not going to have any of those because you've "Sealed the Border", right?
You could, in theory, somehow reengineer American society so Americans are no longer ignorant cretins at science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). That will take you about 40 years, the first 20 years to get the first generation of trained up trainers/teachers and then another 20 years for those trainers to train up the workforce so they're not all cretins. And then you'll still be decades behind STEM superpowers like Russia and China.
It sounds like what you want is to be able to live in a fantasy world where reality doesn't matter.
I'm a physicist you see..... not a cretin.
On a day to day experience I see lots of very good American engineers and scientists. I also see how stuff like the H1B visa has been used to lower the wages of the technical workers, making it a less favorable career for Americans. I have several nieces and nephews, who are quite smart, and they went into law and medicine because engineering just doesn't pay what it used to.
As far as education.... yes, I sort of addressed that under "social engineering". The elimination of the Federal Education Dept and the control of the national teacher's union is a good step forward.
In any event, the MAGA movement knows what it wants and pretty much ways to achieve it. Some ways may not be clear and the path is line with mine fields laid out by the Leftist opposition, but it moves along to reach its goals and expose the hypocrisy of the political status quo.
"I'm a physicist you see..... not a cretin."
But you nonetheless wrote nonsense, like demanding the Monroe Doctrine without having the slightest awareness that treating South Americans like shit would not be making it worthwhile for those South Americans to work with the US.
You're not alone in that. I have no idea if you're a good or a bad physicist, but even so the world has always had many very good physicists who are fools outside of their physics.
Joan Hinton, one of the few female physicists who worked in Los Alamos on the Manhattan project is a great example. She also became a devout Maoist, moving to China and eventually dying there, disappointed China was no longer a socialist country after the reforms of Deng.
Klaus Fuchs is another example of a physicist fool and also from the Manhattan Project. He was actually a very good physicist and made key contributions to the project. But he also was a socialist who believed in Stalin and became a spy for the USSR. Anybody who thinks Stalin was a good guy to be supported is a fool.
"As far as education.... yes, I sort of addressed that under "social engineering"."
Well, no, you didn't "sort of" address that. You didn't write a word about education.
"the H1B visa has been used to lower the wages of the technical workers"
What's lowered the wages of technical workers is the tremendous rise in communications technology, like internet, that allows people in Asia and Africa to become educated and, by working remotely, compete with people in the US. No longer are the Atlantic and Pacific oceans and protectionist immigration policies in the US a barrier to free and fair competition in high tech labor.
That's one of the main factors that have lowered the wages of many (but not all) technical workers in the US. Employers no longer need to pay the salary equivalent of $100 per hour plus punitive, anti-business taxes and other fees to hire somebody to write Python scripts. They can now hire somebody online for $5 per hour to write those scripts. That the $5 per hour programmer lives and works in India, Pakistan, or some other non-US country doesn't matter.
Use of H1B visas is restricted by law to filling only those jobs for which there are no qualified US resident applicants. While there are few apologists for fat, stupid, and lazy Americans who say those visas are being abused to hire sweat shop labor in reality the prime problem employers face is the lack of Americans who are *not* fat, stupid, and lazy. In fact, it's worse than that because in high tech industries even if you scrape the bottom of the barrel and are willing to hire the fat and lazy, you still can't find enough Americans that are not too stupid/uneducated to do the work required.
I've personally experienced that. In the US I worked for a company that could not find enough Americans to do technical work. In order to stay competitive in the world economy the company had no choice but to start opening subsidiaries in foreign lands where the population was not so intensely stupid / badly educated as Americans. Nobody in the company wanted to do that. Almost everybody from the founders and top management on down were Americans and they all wanted to keep jobs and the tech work and manufacturing in the US. But if they had done that the company would have gone bankrupt.
I first came to Russia when my company sent me as part of a scouting trip to see if we could hire some tech people we needed. We needed people who were good at physics, good at math, and were also good programmers. That's really hard to find in the US, but there were tons of people like that in Russia. Although they were willing to work for less than Americans, money wasn't remotely a factor: the real factor was finding people with the skills we needed. The company was willing to pay them top US salary and take on all the expense of moving them to the US so they would have been a lot more expensive than if we could have found people with the necessary skills in the US.
But visas were so hard to get that instead of moving them to the US we opened a subsidiary in Russia. I ended up visiting Russia a few times a year for that project and that's how I came to know the country, to like it, and eventually to move here.
The lack of skilled, sufficiently educated people in the US wasn't just a problem for us at the time. It was a big problem for every company in our industry and not just in our industry, either. You can blame a lot of people and structural problems, like the uphill climb to get good STEM education in the US for most of the population, but the simple fact is that in a country that comes in dead last in math and science skills (the US) year after year compared to the other top forty developed countries, you're going to have a hard time filling math, science, and high tech engineering jobs with Americans. There are a few with great skills and good education, but not remotely enough of them.
Most companies don't use H1B visas to save money. They use them to get the employees they need to stay in business.
Well said! Thank you.
Great insight(s)-thanks. The chances of the goose-stepping NAFO-West saving the Azov brahs in Uke-land are about as likely as the French defending against a heist of their royal jewels, executed at double-plus speed, in broad daylight, with a backward facing camera that is "security" vaporware. The "jewels" in street parlance, also refers to the 'stones' or manhood of 'people' (sic) toting testicles. These nominally "priceless" gems, never to be sold, somehow have a concocted value of $102,000,000. Could it be that the queen's purloined tiara et al are nothing more than an inside job to sell on the black market so more weapons can be purchased from the smallish stores of their American sponsors? When the going gets weird...the weird turn pro.
When the going gets tough, the tough goes fishing. To be fair, it is not the first time French crown jewels got stolen under the sun, and it is an open debate about how many family jewels are needed to defend Paris. Traditionally after changing hands, girls'best friends usually land in the Smithsonian Museum and French quietly make a copy of it for prominent display. Museum workers are known to dedicate themselves to the art for the sake of art and a bit of performance art, so they take pictures with ukro pochta any chance they get. Ukro Pochta is known to celebrate occasional terrorist attacks on infrastructure by issuing stamps with pre-sale on eBay the same day a few civilians die (Crimean Bridge attack). Jes' picture it, darling - "Romanian oil refinery done! " limited issue.
" But he knows he has the support of the majority of the American People" 60% DISAPPROVAL rating. 40% is not a majority. In his actions he's lost a good chunk of MAGA supporters... Chip