I know it's crude, what I mean is seem to warn and warn and talk, they don't take real power steps, look at the Taiwan thing all ways just warning, there is power steps they can take,I don't even need to explain Russia you know it . Have a great day.
China and the Taiwanese leading opposition party consider them both one country. China would only use military force if Taiwan unilaterally declares independence. Peaceful unification is their goal. They'll happily sink any amount of Filipino ships as they are foreigners.
Do you think there is a possibility that someday you will have to admit that Putin played it as perfectly as circumstances allowed? Or is Putins failures and incompetence past the point of no return, in your view.
I can't help but assess that Putin is forecasting every move 7 in advance and calculating the best all around action, all things considered. And that it's working. I mean, the guy's winning it in so many objective ways and the blows Russia IS taking for it's geopolitical heresy of confronting NATO are all absorbable. The giant run on gold is an example: Russia has probably made more on gold than its lost in sanctions lol.
>I think Putin is making several fundamental mistakes that are so obvious I find myself coming around to GM’s point of view that they are deliberate.
We don't have to speculate on this -- one just needs to carefully read Medvedev's posts and the fact that Putin knows very well what mistakes he is making (because it has been pointed out to him directly behind closed doors) is 100% confirmed.
About 40 years ago, an acquaintance pointed out to me that since around the 16th century in Europe (and then in North America), an ounce of gold had always been equivalent in value to the retail price of a top quality gentleman's carry pistol or a best quality "bespoke" pair of men's boots.
Perhaps the biggest move Putin has made is NOT to move. He may simply be combining Napoleon's maxim - never interrupt your enemy when he's making a mistake - with JFK's - never humiliate a nuclear power. At the same time, he's managed to retain the initiative.
Respectfully, my friend, let us agree to disagree on the facts; and therefore avoid unevidenced personal remarks. Because: whereof one cannot know, thereof one must be silent.
Vinny, Alex Christoferou mentioned yesterday that Russia made $200 billion+ on the increase on the Gold price, so yes, they have made more and more than covered the monies held at Euroclear. A big question imo is whether the US still has any physical Gold of their own considering the troubles faced by some Countries in trying to repatriate their yellow bricks sent there for safekeeping. Iirc didn't Trump/Musk/ Doge promise or propose an Audit of Fort Knox ? If correct, it appears to have evaporated.
I think Putin was trying to form a separate peace with the US. The US could never end the war in Ukraine, but it could stop providing funding and intelligence. Trump cut funding - did Putin's negotiations help sell this policy to the US public, or would have Trump pivoted to China anyway? I think the big fight between Trump and Zelensky when Zelensky constantly pushed for weapons a turning point in US policy.
No, because there is no need for such debasement and public humiliation.
On too may occasions to even list.
You can still try to have diplomatic discussions while not publicly kowtowing (including actually physically doing that, as he did to Witkoff on at least one occasion) in such a degrading way.
And if you are going to engage in a diplomatic process, you let the diplomats do that. You don't have Kiril fucking Dmitriev as the main negotiator while completely ignoring the FM.
We don't know what the internal situation and constraints are. I have no answer to the extremely important question regarding what the Russian oligarchy has on Putin to control him in such a way, or if he is just sincerely ideologically aligned with them to begin with. But the fact is that he has not purged them, they still clearly drive policy, and he is either powerless or unwilling to change that.
So it might not be incompetence. Incompetence is when you have a certain set of goals and fail to achieve them because of mistakes you make. But if people think you have a certain set of goals that are not being achieved while you are actually pursuing something very different, then is that incompetence?
For example Gorbachev likely was a mix of the two, i.e. he was a buffoon installed there in order to destroy everything without fully understanding and controlling what was happening, but the people behind him were not like that.
>After the XXth Congress, in an ultra-narrow circle of our closest friends and associates, we often discussed the problems of democratization of the country and society. We chose a simple - like a sledgehammer - method of propagating the "ideas" of late Lenin. A group of true, not imaginary reformers developed (of course, orally) the following plan: to strike with the authority of Lenin at Stalin, at Stalinism. And then, if successful, - to strike with Plekhanov and Social Democracy - at Lenin, and then – with liberalism and "moral socialism" - at revolutionarism in general... The Soviet totalitarian regime could be destroyed only through glasnost and totalitarian party discipline, while hiding behind the interests of improving socialism. [...] Looking back, I can proudly say that a clever, but very simple tactic - the mechanisms of totalitarianism against the system of totalitarianism – has worked.[19]
>— Yakovlev, in the introduction to "Black Book of Communism"
Very openly stated -- they set out to destroy everything, deliberately. And they did it. Was that incompetence or very competently carried out treason?
And this is the most worrying part. Because read that quote again and think about the current situation. How do you terminally destroy the rump Russia left from the Perestroika? Well, it is a difficult task because the people remember the Perestroika and the hell of the 1990s and won't have any of it again. But they didn't really want it back then either, they were lulled into it, as Yakovlev clearly explains. So you need to again lull them into the next disaster.
And what better for that purpose than a figure on top with such authority and popularity that nobody will make a move against him no matter how much he betrays and humiliates the country, until it's again too late?
Almost no American forces were around on the ground or in the air above Vietnam in 1975. If you think so, you are mistaken. The NVA were defeated in the 1972 Easter offensive because American air power stopped what the ARVN couldn't. American air power was gone in 1975 so the six weeks from mid March to April 30, the NVA rolled up ARVN or what was left of ARVN after the Central Highlands were lost.
>I'm still worried it will be Putin doing the begging
Something to consider -- Russia has many thousands of highly trained drone operators right now. They are not all at the front lines, they rotate for rest and recovery, training, etc.
How is it that none of those people has both reached the needed level of understanding of the situation and found the courage to apply his skills to something useful internally, such as, for example, taking out Kiril Dmitriev while he is driving around Moscow and ending this charade?
The military is internally absolutely seething about what is happening -- they try to keep a lid on internal dissatisfaction, but it cannot be always concealed, and it is bubbling over increasingly more often when you read and listen to people. And yet nobody has come to the point of taking real action, even at the lowest levels.
As long as there is no serious internal pressure, and that means credible threats to the well-being of the people about to sell the country out again, well, it will be sold out again.
Russia's inaction in the tanker war confuses me as well. I hope they are evaluating potential Western retaliation and preparing. Similar to how China realized they were dependent on the US for 95% of their Helium imports, and diversified before imposing rare earth sanctions, leaving the US with no cards. Maybe Russia is improving the North-South corridor for South Asia/Africa trade, and the Arctic route and BRI for trade with North Asia. When they are no longer dependent on trade through the Baltic Sea, and Mediterranean, they could start sinking EU ships.
And now look at it from the other side. Europe is close to collaps, the longer the war drags on, the more trouble. Trump wanted to end the war quickly, and it could have easily been done: just walk away. But with all this talks and plans, he got stuck in the Ukrainian mud, while Europe went down. European gas storage is at dangerous low levels, but the mad politicians exclude Russia from the deliverers list, which puts the EU into a terrible dependency from the US. The Europeans are bancrupt, but social welfare systems must be generously funded so that migrants do not become a nuisance, but corrupt Ukraine is bleeding them dry. Or the Baltic racists. Too small to even speak quietly, but with the US in the background, they dare to shoot their mouths off while harassing the Russian minority incredibly. All these negotiations have distanced the US further from NATO than I ever would have believed possible. The Russian military could pay a visit sooner than the Balts think—all it takes is for the rift between NATO and the US to be deep enough. Russians are brilliant mathematicians; we in the West always see Ukraine, but they see a global situation where everything is connected to everything else.
Now that the Soviet Union is gone, and People Of Influence And Authority no longer have to toss the masses a bone or two, they would much prefer that we dissipate our energy on dreary arguments about cultural appropriation and how many LGTBQXYZPDQ+ can dance on the head of a pin, endless and endlessly performative struggle sessions, rather than raise questions about how the economic pie is sliced.
Put another way - to paraphrase Chris Hedges - elites will gladly discuss race, they will decry gender inequality most piteously, they will demonstrate a touching sensitivity to the rights of sexual and gender minorities so oppressed that they have not been discovered yet. Those same elites will not readily discuss economic class.
Or, in the negative formulation - if businesses were to stop opposing unionization of their workers, the result would be a transfer of wealth, of concrete material benefits, to brown and black and tabby and yellow and white working class cats and people greater than all the allyship statements ever penned, all the diversity committees ever instituted, all the preferred pronoun tags ever attached to a corporate email.
huge industrial base? where? and now the Eu deindustrialize Germany. US is getting a lot of foreign investment, mostly in new production plants. The only foreing "investment" here in Europe is the buying of companies, uninstall the machines and ship them to China. Without Bulgaria, you know this very stable country, our production of artillery shells would be at a third, because we are in search for green steel not real steel.
I do not only live in Europe; I am CEO of a company (in move-out mode). So I can read a balance sheet, and if I see BASF's balance sheet (and comments) where there is close to no investment in Europe, a big loss in Germany, but profit in all other world regions, I know these plants, which are not so easy to be moved, will work until something big breaks, and it's game over. The Indians bought some of the German steel mills, but now they give up, even though the German government promised them huge sums of money, as they did to Intel, which stepped back. Volkswagen is closing down plants in Germany—this has never ever happened before. And we could go on and on. But to make it easy for you, look for the "Gewerbesteuer" in Germany; who should pay for it and where this tax goes, this one will answer all your questions. And of course some positive signs: Hungary is attracting a lot of investment, Italy is at least stable, and Slovakia is good.
Look at Eisensteins film monument about the revolution. I mean the scene of horrible death on the front line, and comrades stick together, and then the well dressed stock traders collapse because the market looses a few points. And by the way, Dragis "whatever it takes" is still active, bond prices are useless, any minor developement in the wrong direction and the EZB will open the flood doors. You can trade stocks and bonds, earn money with them, or lose money, but you should never draw conclusions about the real economy, politics, or the social structure. And making money is easy right now—just follow the central banks. But never ever prepare for the coming bad events, while looking at the finance numbers.
That you are relying on a film as history is a sign that you are looking hard for evidence to support your theory.
Take a look at, for example, CDS spreads on Argentinian sovereign debt (or Argentinian bond yields) before a default if you want to see what an impending collapse actually looks like.
The film was actually a joke, where the punchline should be self-explanatory! All those beautiful stock market figures were worthless when those very same dirty comrades brought about the revolution. At one point in my life, I restructured a company for a German banking consortium. I was still far from knowing whether it would work out or not, but the Frankfurt stock market newsletter got a tip from ??? that a massive cost reduction was imminent, which of course was simply a lie at that point, but after this report, the stock prices rose and I had to appear before the stock exchange chamber (they impose really heavy penalties!), but I couldn't make any statements because of the obvious gaps in communication; if the customers/suppliers know that a restructuring expert is there, you've already lost. All because people believe some numbers that someone made up, which causes some people to invest money, that belongs to some companies that manage this money for some other people.
Hint: government bond markets are very different from stock markets. "Insider trading" isn't really a concept in government bond markets.
Anyway, if you're so sure that europe is collapsing and bond markets are clueless, buy long-dat4ed deep out of the money put options or short CDS on bunds.
Is there anyone who can stop drones? Me not shooting at you is MY virtue, not yours. We are talking about civilizational differences where one side thinks that snything that can be stolen should br stolen and anything that can be killed should be killed. Not everyone has the same mindset
Not one single drone landed on US or EU soil because Russia is not an aggressor, not because they are well defended. You totally missed my point. US government and oligarchy abuses its own population much worse that Russia could ever do, and ordering strikes deep within Russian territory is one of those things (as Russian retaliation is desired outcome by so-called "elites"). US and EU citizens are safe not thanks to their governments, but by grace of the self-restraint of the Russian government.
Not afraid. They know this is the desired outcome and victims of "putin regime" on US or EU soil is acceptable and desired outcome, so why give your enemy what it wants? That said, this restraint is widely perceived as weakness by many, and I do not stop being amazed by the stupidity by some of the people I know who, like a spoiled child, want to test their parent's patience until the bullied side does something horrific to restore deterrence. It just seems bullying is such a convenient tactics as it puts the victim into "damned if you, damned if you don't" situation.
"There are a lot of miserable Ukrainians who will hate Russia for all their lives but don't have a say in the outcome of the war." sore losers should hate nobody but themselves.
That clip of Musk and Fink says it all. They aren't interested in deals or art, they are interested in power and money. If the Trump MAGA boat sinks they'll be the first in the lifeboats rowing to China.
Seems like he'll "secure" the status quo ante while looking like a total asshole and unnecessarily alienating countries that have no reason to dislike the US.
But hey, kept Epstein out of the headlines and the massive tax cut to already rich boomers got passed.
I hate to break it to you, but as someone who has worked overseas since the early 2000's, alienating countries and having their citizens dislike the US has been a constant everywhere I have worked.
For a week in Akumal I watched an American family's rudeness towards the waiters, not a single thank you. We'd talk to the lad and he was a medical student working thru college. They'd give us dirty looks but when they realised we were English - big smiles "Deeevid Beeekham!"
Snob. You're going to find that attitude to people in other countries a real problem. You might chuff each other at home but most people elsewhere find your behaviour disgusting.
You seem to be totally oblivious to the fact that somebody who cannot even pronounce a simple English name properly is not going to be a real American.
You sit in the USA and swear every thing against your own country, why don't you move to your lovely China, and Russia the best thing is you implying I'm a pedophile, because I love to ridiculoue your China and Russia. Complete Lost case. It seems it's the same as the US when the Russian gas pipe was blown they blame it on Russia, so this little shit talk of you calling me pedophile seems it really hints at back to you.
Come big mouth if you are so right to say I'm a pedophile give me your address and info so that I can get things going, you in public comparing me to a pedophile, come let's have the info.
Your Mom would not be proud of you after such a comment, that's far below your usual level. Emotions are fine but counting to ten before acting is a smart rule, I think.
While on a corporate trip to Japan in 2002 I became friendly with one of the reps of the company hosting the event. The youngish Japanese guy showed me some photos of his time in Malaysia, while working for a car company. In one of the photos my guy is wearing a Osama bin Laden T-shirt. He said his family lived in the Hiroshima area. I suggested that if he transferred to the Chicago office, he might leave the shirt in his suitcase when passing through passport control at ORD.
My only experience in Africa was in Nigeria (Lagos and Port Harcourt). The sentiment was about 50/50. I have read that in South Africa and Rhodesia that many of the population want the whites to come back. The reasons seem to be that everything was much better run with whites in charge, particularly with respect to infrastructure. Don't know if that is true or not.
I think you'll find when the whites left Zimbabwe they destroyed a lot of infrastructure on their way out. Pouring concrete in the elevator shafts comes to mind.
They built the whole of Europe, as well as the Pyramids, without even having access to the wheel or a written language, so they should be able to rebuild their nations, right?
Maybe you could look at the Gentleman after Rhodesia was named and what he's done with his fellow whites.
Nothing was stolen from whites. You can't get rights on something what you or your parents have stolen before.
Besides the atrocities done to the Africans are not punished or paid reparations for in any significant way so far. To do that would bankrupt every former colonial power, iclusive the USA.
I asked the Grok (for what it's worth) about that cement in elevator shafts , as I had never heard of it before, and it said there were rumours of it but no evidence and:
"Infrastructure decay in Zimbabwe is more commonly attributed to post-independence mismanagement, lack of maintenance, and economic policies rather than deliberate destruction by departing whites."
It goes on to say :
"However, this specific anecdote closely matches well-documented stories from Mozambique's independence in 1975. There, fleeing Portuguese settlers are reported (and rumored) to have engaged in acts of vandalism, including pouring concrete down elevator shafts, wells, plumbing systems, and lift shafts in buildings—particularly in Maputo—to spite the incoming Frelimo government."
"That said, certain accounts label these stories as urban myths or exaggerations used to explain later infrastructure failures due to civil war and neglect, rather than confirmed widespread sabotage."
"It's possible the Zimbabwe reference stems from a mix-up with Mozambique's history, as both countries experienced colonial transitions in southern Africa around the same era, but with different dynamics and outcomes."
That being said, or read, I do believe you that a bit of that kind of thing happened. Certainly I don't believe most of what Grok reports.
"The reasons seem to be that everything was run much better with whites in charge". Yes, whites were the masters, blacks the slaves. With only blacks, the distinction between masters and slaves becomes indistinguishable.
David, are you familiar with the books of Alexandra Fuller? Daughter of an English family that moved to (then) Rhodesia. A lengthy interview here remembering growing up there. Her books are great.
Much appreciated.. I am seeing her for the first time.. I am half way through the interview which I am hoping to finish off tomorrow.. She comes across as one excellent writer and a caring person.. It'd be great to read her books once I've sorted out my eyes problem..
You're welcome David. See link here for the book I would start with. Her childhood recollections are so over-the-top that one can only conclude that they must be true since no one could construct fiction on this level.
It's easier to understand the persistence in the developing world. It's true that I couldn't explain it to myself. Thank you for the explanation, it gives me hope...
This is because the US is a jewish tool, pure and simple.
And everybody likes jews, right?
Pammy was introduced to a US - Israel friendship group the other day by Miriam, and stated that she is working tirelessly to prevent what she described as antisepticism in the US - the non release of a certain set of files being a big part of that.
I have been having fun reading reports that Juu (Israeli) tourists are being thrown out of various countries and are being banned. Couldn't happen to a nicer ethnic/religious group. Who in Trumpstein's cabinet doesn't work for the Juuz?
"Putin epically trolled the US by deflecting his invitation to this unprecedented ‘board’ with the suggestion that Russia’s one billion dollar entry fee could be paid by the Russian assets ‘frozen’ in the West."
The whole world is getting on board, stealing is the clothing psychopaths wear, ENOUGH!
That's how you treat vassals, slaves. That's what europeans are, grovling slaves that will do whatever for their master and won't actually do anything to stop whatever USA wants to do. Despite the Greenland threats from USA, europeans continue talking about "threats" from Russia and China....How can anyone respect such loathsome people (europeans) ? There is no respect for those that don't respect themselves.
If you listen to all the noises, you will know the end of the universe harboring a planet that the media have talked about being the objective of the emperor god.
We have been virally infected since at least the mid 17th century, when Cromwell allowed the jews back into Britain, and they set about setting up the BoE at the end of the century, f/b the Fed in 1913.
It's all about narrative control - if you resist anything they do, you are disappeared from the public space.
Slaves, I don't know, but maids, certainly. When you look at their faces, their gestures, you think you're in the cabaret from the famous French film "La Cage aux Folles".
"These people are not mourning the loss of the ‘rules-based order’ here, they're bemoaning the fact that the actual rules might apply to them. That they might be invaded because they're weak, despite their White skin."
Well, a good chunk of what passes for leadership in Europe will continue cycling cash through the Banderan laundromat as long as they can. The laundry chute for much of the cash begins in the US. Gotta play nice.
The US of the mental handicapped Jon & Karen or Juanita and Pablo who do the shitty jobs and face ICE now? Or the freak Elon Musk and Larry Fink that would nuke the US tomorrow if it promises a profit?
It's a great idea. NATO has been around since 1949 and somehow our European "allies" are weaker today than when the alliance began.
The EU is the alpha test for Global Fascism. So far the pansies have managed to wreck a good part of their home. In globalist speak this is called "progress".
Considering that sandpit is the 85% of the world outside the collapsing in real time west I'd say those 2 little girls rule. With silent but BIG buckets and spades. But whatever helps you cope.
The US, despite its undeniable power, has to date been unable to have any meaningful effect on the Ukraine war and Russia's prosecution of it. Trump has no leverage. There you go. Real power.
Look people think I'm pro US I'm not I just can't stand the way China and Russia act's, now you seem to think the USA can't do anything in Ukraine, how many Russian people are dieing how many US people.
How are Russia and China acting? Neither has a history of aggression. Russia is currently fighting in Ukraine both to protect Russian-speaking people against nazis supported by the US and its allies and to force a new European security architecture on Europe and NATO. China is trying to resolve the Taiwan issue with peaceful means whilst the US and its allies are seriously interfering in the internal affairs of China by arming Taiwan and supporting the separatist movement there. How would you like China to offer weapons and political/economic support to Texas in order to separate it from the USA?
Russians are dying to protect Russian-speaking people. The US is promoting the deaths of a Ukrainian proxy army. So yes, Russians are dying and the US is fighting hard to the last Ukrainian - how evil is that? At least Russia is honourable enough to sacrifice its own.
China acts like an absolute coward who will never defend any supposed allies or principles which is because all it cares about is doing business, not allies or principles. This despite it offically being a Marxist state governed by a communist party (!!!).
Russia acts like a country run by comprador traitors who don't care at all about even their own population, let alone allies and principles, and who care only about their personal wealth and comfort. They have been a bit more willing to use kinetic force than China, but on the other hand they are showing themselves to be much more compromised by their enemies (the Chinese might be cowards that only care about money, but don't seem to be infested by outright enemy agents at the very highest level to the same extent).
>Russians are dying to protect Russian-speaking people
Yes, while leadership treats the people killing those Russian-speaking people as sacred cows not to be touched, and even invites some of them to Moscow to talk as highly value guests and partners.
What part of proxy don't you understand? The US is doing and has done everything it can in Ukraine short of boots on the ground. As for can't stand how China and Russia acts it says more about you than them. They're steadfast determined diplomatic self assured successful and have a whole toolbox unlike the west which is none of the above and only have a hammer. Russia is fighting the US UK EU and NATO in Ukraine. And winning. Over them and the sanctions. But yeah that's not REAL power the US desperately looking for away out of the quagmire it made(again) is the powerful one. In your wet dreams.
Why are the things they made and built not real power?
Food, medicine, cities with factories, universities, hospitals, motorways, railways and so on and so on, are all real concrete creative power. They've certainly built a lot of powerful weapons too, and that is real destructive power.
It's the stories told about how powerful you are that are the false illusionary power, that can evaporate as soon as the people stop believing in them.
What do you want, a sandwich and a gun, or a story about how you have a sandwich and a gun?
And they didn't just build them for themselves but all over Africa Asia and S America. It may be soft but it's real power. Making friends and influencing people globally is a real power.
Yes, but it’s more than soft power. Having a huge pile of money, factories and technologies to make things, including massively powerful weapons is much harder power than just having a good reputation.
George is just pushing peoples buttons. He knows the Chinese have total control of most rare earths and are major players in many strategic resources. They would have the US dancing to their music if they wanted to be nasty. Lucky for us they have always been decent hegemons over the millennium. Sorry George, the days of the shining city on the hill turned into a stinking ghetto in the bog.
Soft power isn't just a good reputation. Far from it. It's all those things you mention. Including supply chains resource and energy security for themselves and their trading partners. It's improving the economies of those partners thereby growing their markets and ensuring cooperative actions on both parts. Without firing a bullet. But that doesn't mean they have no bullets to fire. They just choose not to. That's soft power.
For Russia at least one can point to the 20% debt to GDP ratio and evening 4th largest in PPP as l managed with a positive outlook, despite the sanctions etc
For Russia at least one can point to the 20% debt to GDP ratio and economy 4th largest in PPP well-managed with a positive outlook, despite the sanctions etc
Putler restricts the power of technocrats and limits science outside what he deems as "useful". But science doesn't work that way - you can't develop only a single field (or even a few) without developing others. Which is why Russia will eventually fall behind if this doesn't change
Sure. Look at the fields that Russia mainly publishes in - mainly nuclear physics, mathematics and that's it. Compare that to the breadth of things that the Soviets researched and published in. And compare that to the Chinese or Americans publishing
China outproduces the US in just everything. She is the first commercial partner for most countries and is is now the biggest economy of the world.
It has happened on a very short period of time. I do not remember any precedent of such a quick ascend to economic primacy.
Russia was able to come out of the chaotic situation produced by the
dissolution of the URSS and is now perfectly able to deny the USA the launch pad that they hoped to have in Ukraine.
I am not interested in basketball, but when I occasionally watched a match on tv, it was always the losing team asking for timeouts. This is what Washington is doing now in Ukraine.
Real power, ultimately comes from industrial/ economic strength, a decent international reputation and a network of loyal allies. Athens will always defeat Sparta in the end. Just look at Britain vs Napoleonic France in 1793-1815, vs Prussia-Germany in 1914-18 and vs Germany again, 1939-45. This US militarism is akin to that of Japan in 1933-45: a lot of noise and aggression, concealing a second rate economy; a mass of death and temporary conquest, burning up massive resources, undermining longer-term economic development, mobilising an international coalition against it and sealing the nation’s humiliating defeat and occupation.
Yep. All day long. Pee. On the west. While the west only having a hammer goes around looking for nails. That they can ill afford produce or even hammer straight anymore.
there's nothing girly about Russia and China, JUSSA and EU have looked and behaved like a bunch of high school, popularity obsessed imbecile girls for a while
Very little that's seen as popular by the people in either location.
But the references to sex and gender underlie quite a lot of the narrative.
The US and the EU are extremely female in everything they do - spiteful, narcissistic, utterly obsessed with appearance rather than reality - Nietszche himself could have written the script.
it is the light of a dying star, still there some time after it has burned out- until it fades away.
If you mean how come Russia and China don't come along with a snuffer, why would they bother? They are not run by stomping self aggrandising maniacs. Trump has this podium all to himself. He has not figured out why.
Nobody benefits from mega (or is that maga? :-)-collapse into a chaotic mess except the small minded vengeful- the likes of Zelensky angling for WWIII as Ukraine's very own bailout.. The grand financial networks favour controlled explosions.
Putin has disciplined his SMO, which is why it is taking as long as it is. He will end up having to take all Ukraine, or rather have it fold into the RF of its own volition, because he is confronted with dummies blowing up their own exits. it took him awhile to realise the entire western edifice is as infected with the 'stupid sickness' as it really is. Some people on the board are still trying to discern some grand plan.
There's also the fundamental principle: never allow a nuclear power to think it's been humiliated. Otherwise when it collapses it might just take the rest of the world with it. It's worked twice now; this is the third time. So it's all about managing the gradual change in narrative.
Which is why Israel - which looks likely to be the fourth instance - is the trickiest case of all.
The entire West is only 13% of the world's population. China is concentrating on 87% of the world - Africa, Asia, South America - areas the self centered West considers irrelevant, even as they lose influence in their former colonies. China does not have to confront the West to build up a trade empire - all the growth is in BRICS+. Russia is less fortunate as the EU considers them their eternal nemesis, and will always to war with them.
My point is the West believes they are the center and rulers of the world. They can't conceive that the rest of the world would start ignoring them - make the West irrelevant by creating new power centers. BRICS+ is weakening the West not by confrontation but by making strong alternatives.
I agree we are stuck with our governments. If anti-government protests, similar to Iran, happened in Australia, they would have been crushed within days. The new hate speech legislation will be used against protestors. Apparently criticism of Netanyahu is now illegal.
I was just thinking how Musk and the other freak look like a couple of very insecure little awkward girls (as far as body language, died hair, being overweight, using Ozempic, plastic surgery etc) despite all the ill gotten shekels they've accumulated.
The fact that Putin is meeting with Kushner and Witkoff three weeks after they tried to assassinate him and that he is open to joining the "Board of Peace" tells you all you need to know about who is the boss and who is the bootlicker.
Kushner and Witkoff should have been imprisoned and exchanged for Maduro, diplomatic relationships should have been severed (a very long time ago in fact) and the Kremlin should have declared its comittment to *victory*, total and unconditional, not negotiations.
If Russia was run in the interests of the Russian people that is.
But that is not happening, instead we have the current shitshow.
Because Russia is run as a private fiefdom of a small circle of oligarchs in the interests of those oligarch scumbgas, interests that dramatically diverge from those of the Russian people as a whole.
And that is the US's superpower -- the corruption of everyone else that it thrives on.
You don't see comrade Kim having any relationships with the US after they tried to backstab him too in the first Trump administration, do you?
Ah, yes, I am going to break and enter into your property, kick you out of it, then hand it back to you in exchange for getting something else I have no right to.
Brilliant.
And it's not as if that is the first time Putin has made such a great for Russia deal. He handed Syria over without a fight, and what did he get? The war on Russia only escalated.
P.S. Did Stalin negotiate with Hitler in early 1943 over whether Hitler was going to keep all or just most of Belarus, Ukraine and the Baltics? I don't think so. Well, why is Putin doing that now?
1) When Putin came to power Ukraine was not a militantly anti-Russian platform for attack against Russia.
It became that during his rule and thanks to his incompetence and suspect loyalties allowing it to happen
2) Putin doesn't really rule in Russia, the oligarchy that was formed as a result of the USSR collapse does. That oligarchy gave up Ukraine (and Kazakhstan, and the other less important republics) without a fight in order to establish itself in the position to loot the commons and rule over the territory of the former RSFSR. And that oligarchy is about to sell out once again.
Nothing really contradicts what I said... how much power did he have over processes in a neighbor country? But I agree that it should have been dealt with much sooner (but then most Ukrainians would be unhappy that Russia prevented them from joining EU paradise)
Keep in mind there's been a rumor that FINALLY, maybe they will list Chubais as a "foreign agent", but thats not confirmed yet 100%, meanwhile he is in Israel and started a new "consulting" company selling Russian state secrets and pushing for harsher sanctions on Russia. This was the man allowed to be the head of Rosnano until 2022...
What message is the "trolling" sending and how do we know it is trolling? You are saying that. But Lukashenko actually joined the BOP.
How do people in Gaza and Lebanon, and how do the supposed allies in Iran see that "trolling"?
Wouldn't they have preferred an answer more likey "Get the fuck out of here with this BS, Netanyahu and Trump should be hanged for war crimes, Israel demilitarized, and Palestine returned to its 1948 borders?"
Depends on which country you are in. During the recent border clashes between Cambodia and Thailand, both countries were assuring their populations that China backed them.
They "rule" over their vassals only. Which is USA's usual tactic. Bully weak countries, than claim to be the best in the world. When against powerful countries, they need to get proxies to do their dirty work and still lose. USA in a nutshell. Bunch of cowards, liars, fraudsters, criminals, mobsters that think they are better than everyone, but are just the most disgusting people on planet Earth. USA is a mafia organization masquerading as a country.
You are right. Nobody is afraid of Russia and China. Everybody knows the USA would gladly use their nuclear weapons, in fact they are eager to do that.
Hmmm... considering how tough Georgians were fighting not to have a Zelensky clone installed in their country because they do not want to be another Ukraine not so sure. And South Korea considering death sentence for its prime minister who plotted to turn the country into a war zone against Russia... I have more examples. The world looks at Ukraine and says "that will be us if we turn against Russia" and the more western propaganda amplifies the horrors, the louder the message
Well, the Ukrainian state still functions. their internet still works. You can see that meteorological stations for pollution still work (https://waqi.info/#/c/50.743/29.72/6.3z)
I think that reports about destruction of energy sector are fake, shallow Russian and Ukrainian propaganda. They both have their reasons to lie. Where are those refugees? We see them not arriving in EU while we see all those migrants coming from Africa on daily base.
Russia is powerless and weak. Nobody is afraid of Russia.
We see how Putin i humiliated by begging to negotiate and when that moment comes he finds himself negotiating with Kushner who is not US official an even have no credentials to negotiate.
The more the transatlantic mafia can be hobbled and undermined, the more powerful the hold of the trans-mediterranean mafia over its nominally American lackeys, aka 'deep state' becomes.
I note that the artwork showing the architecture of the new Gaza depicts an endless series of towers of Babel.
What I find stunning is that the USA seems to be capitulating on losing Diego Garcia to Mauritius without a scam or a fight. That was said to be their second most important base.
PS: DG is indeed in 5500 km range of an Oreshnik launcher - if one were placed on the deck of a Russian ship (cargo ships included) in the Caspian Sea. Only a little maskirovka would be required.
Yes, all air and naval bases are sitting ducks in the new normal, and they are all easy targets. No one (other than possibly Russia with the S-500) has any defence against hypersonic missiles. And hypersonic missile launch tubes (for Zircon) are increasingly being deployed on surface ships and submarines. No place left to hide except deep underground. Iran figured that out years ago.
Possible reasons: first, the USA never owned Diego Garcia. In law it belonged to Mauritius and the UK was squatting on it, leasing to the USA after deporting 100% of the native population. It was a political hot potato as for decades the UK has been losing cases in its own courts - who kept ordering the government to let the Chagos Islanders come home.
Secondly, Diego Garcia is in range of the newer Iranian missiles. It's reasonable to expect a missile or three to be lobbed at it in the forthcoming conflict. Especially as there are zero civilians there: for religious reasons the Iranians are squeamish about civilian casualties, as evidenced in the 12-day war.
You clearly have never got over that picture of a mullah holding up a charred arm off of some poor soldier/airman after Carter's military screwed the pooch.
Why does Diego Garcia belong to Mauritius? It was an empty island when discovered by Portuguese expeditions. Then Portugal claimed it. Then France, the island was so small that there was no formal governor; therefore, the one in Mauritius was in charge. When France lost the war against Britain, this island was given to the UK as defined in the peace treaty. This is international law. More problematic is the population, but even this is more complicated. Remove the "I hate the Western culture" from the equation, and things get into uncharted territory—but this is another story.
Indeed, but it became legally very messy in the second half of the 20th century, i.e. following decolonization. An analog is the Cyprus so-called "sovereign bases", except that iirc unlike Cyprus nobody actually signed DG over to the UK after Mauritius was adjudged sovereign.
Its strategic significance became apparent in WW2 when Somerville picked it as the secret anchorage for the British Eastern fleet after Pearl Harbor. Exactly as he anticipated, the Imperial Japanese Navy came looking for it with five carriers (before Midway). Nagumo searched every known UK fleet base and hung around for a month or so until fuel considerations forced retirement, but never found the main fleet: iirc it found and sank a few non-capital ships, but never managed to connect the dots as to where the fleet was hanging out. ;)
Because of that, and with US toleration and later encouragement, the UK simply refused to accept the change of sovereignty to Mauritius, and nobody was strong enough to kick them out - especially after the US occupied it in force.
I see it the opposite way around. If a state decides to allow a part of his territory to become independent, then it is not up to the new state to decide which territory should be handed over. Whatever the old state wants to keep, he can do without problems with international law.
Fair enough! Perhaps a stronger position, as with most legal submissions (whether international or domestic law!), is to replace "can do" with "ought to be able to do"? I sympathize with such a reformulation.
That said, in the end judges, not states, make legal determinations over territorial claims post-independence depending on factual basis, just as states (on both sides) make decisions whether to oppose judicial determinations with force. ;)
It's just struck me it's a net US gain: because that actually puts them in a better position to squeeze the UK in other fields (which Trump really, really wants to do, especially given Starmer's interference in his election)! :)
If the UK has put them in a better position, then it would seem to be illogical for them to want to squeeze it.
What they should do, if anything, is to squeeze Starmer personally, although of course he is a sycophantic supporter of Trump by definition, as they all are.
"Now word is that Zelensky is again offering Russia a desperate energy ceasefire: he will cease hitting Russian oil tankers if Russia shows mercy to the terminally exhausted Ukrainian power grid." Especially if the Europeans are ramping up the seizur of shadow fleet tankers, eh?!
That all countries, or even all large countries, could (and would become) be self-sufficient in everything and thereby eliminate interdependence, is so unrealistic as to be ridiculous. If all nations were forced to pursue being self-sufficient, most nations would not be able to afford it, standard of living would collapse, and other nations seeking labor or raw materials would take over those that had them. It would lead to the return of Colonialism as a substitute for trade, but actually Trade by another name.
If anyone says I'm talking shit, just look what Grand Sir Simply highlights about the 20 trillion, who's pockets is all that money in , not China's or Russia's.
This is the real thing that's happening, and people don't seem to understand what I'm implying, China and Russia could do much more yet they don't, like exactly what happened at the UN they abstained.
You can't fight other peoples fight, as President Putin rightly put it. You can support and advise but neither China or Russia intend to copy the USA and think of themself being the worlds police.
From memory, a US official mocked Russia, saying it was no longer a world power, but a regional power. Lavrov, agreed, saying that being a regional power is sustainable. Russia, China and India have peace and cooperation instead of being aspiring hegemons. The US is hastening it's decline by burning through their military budgets playing world police. I can't think of any US military action that hasn't been a net financial and reputational loss. Maduro tried to negotiate oil deals with the US, but the US chose the hard and expensive way.
In the short term, massive military budgets create huge profits for the completely corrupt MIC, but long-term, they bring complete disaster, as the whole thing is sustained by the petrodollar, which is dying ( sp. ) the death atm.
Maduro's "deal" would have been more expensive for US oil companies, so they chose the easy way, ie regime change.
My understanding is that US oil companies are not keen on Venezuelan oil, unwilling to finance the infrastructure needed, which will be exposed to a hostile populace. They might regret not taking the deal Maduro offered.
I do not think that anyone is saying that the US will not last a long time.
What is already finished is the US primacy in the world which lasted a short period of time.
Do not confuse loud boasting with real strength.
China is showing the signs of a mature power quietly gathering immense material strength and moral authority.
After the pitiful US shows in Venezuela and Greenland, China, and to a lesser extent Russia, appear to the rest of the world as the neccessary bastions to control US adventurism and lack of respect for any rules and other peoples.
If one compares JF Kennedy to Biden or Trump or even James Baker to his successors, it becomes very clear that the US is developing in a very bad way.
When an Empire really starts declining it takes a lot down with it. Mostly internal though close allies are affected as well. Sometimes the really obnoxious ones try to take as much down with them as they go.
The US is transforming itself from a rules-based order ( rule for thee but not me) into a power-based order. Trump acts a lot like a Mafia boss, threatening and intimidating his opposition.
Trump is projecting power when Maduro was escorted back to the US.
He is projecting power in Greenland, Canada, Mexico, South America, Europe, and Iran.
It makes for great optics, but it's also self-defeating.
Canada and Mexico were already closely connected economic partners with the US.
The US also has legal rights to maintain bases in Greenland, and it can buy the resources there at 1 tenth the cost of occupying or owning the country.
It's all about Power Projection.
And like a mafia boss, Trump wants all political leaders (soldiers) to bow to his authority or else.
Trump is clearly using the wrong strategy long-term by alienating every country on the planet.
Any short-term gain he makes will not hold up long-term.
Trump is F---ing up big time.
I can't help but think about what if JFK or Ross Perot were the current president, and how things would be so much better and truly make the US all it could have been.
What would JFK have done had he been President today?
Instead of the broken dreams of a nation gone rogue from the inside.
That is what Spraytan Orangeman is all about. Short term optics. Toughest kid on the block for a week. All his bluster about Venezuela, Greenland and now Kanuckistan is a distraction away from the Epstein files.
It's always been about power projection, not just for America but for every tribe since the stone age.
Calling Trump a mafia boss isn't the insult you think it is. Mafia boss is just one point on the curve of human leadership positions that starts somewhere around "Big man" and runs through "Chieftain" "President" "King" and ends up somewhere around "Emperor".
Each one of them has had rules and those rules are always subject to change. The job of "The Boss" is to make up the new rules when the old ones have failed. The "Rules Based International Order" isn't being killed by Trump, it's been dying for a long time.
Yes, but my point is that EVERYONE uses Mafia tactics, or at least should be able to use them when needed.
Killing enemies and traitors, lying, bribing, threatening, double crossing, deploying spies have been the tactics of power since time immemorial. Could we even begin to compile an approximate list of the times American presidents have done those things?
Try this one on for size,
Trump can't gain Greenland by threatening military force because it's illegal and against the will of the local government and people. BUT Guantanamo Bay in Cuba can be, and has been, held by America, against the will of the government and people for 65 years, but that's legal because of a 120 year old lease signed by a totally different regime.
America holds that piece of Cuba because of the strength of its navy, that's the implicit threat of violence. That's the actual reality, and the legally unenforceable lease is just the fig leaf of legality and legitimacy hiding the ugly cock & balls of threatened violence.
The real question here is legitimacy or rather the perception of legitimacy. The Mafia boss is only different from any other boss in that he is boss of an illegal, and often but not always, seen as illegitimate sub-culture.
As an interesting aside, Dr. Sun Yat Sen, was BOTH a Mafia boss (Triad) AND the first president of China, and he is still a great hero for both the Red and Blue Chinese today.
President Trump isn't any more dishonest than the vast majority of powerful leaders, but he is more honest ABOUT his dishonesty, if that makes sense.
One of his great powers is to burst the illusions and rip off the masks that many others would prefer to just continue pretending are real.
Do you remember the bit that Trump did in one of the first Republican primary debates, when he said something to the effect of,
"I've given money to everyone on this stage. I contribute to all their campaigns and so when I pick up the phone, they take the call." ?
That was a brilliant piece of political theater, and it was true. We all knew it was true and that's the way the political machine works and has pretty much always worked.
Everyone DID it, but Trump was the only one bold enough to SAY it.
Is this being directed at me or those I'm talking about?
These comments aren't real sentences, they're just exclamations.
Are you trying to make the point that violence and deception are always immoral? because that's a point I can respond to, but I don't want to respond to an argument you're not making.
>Trump acts a lot like a Mafia boss, threatening and intimidating his opposition.
The very language he is using is directly out of a mob movie. Just listen to it without looking at him. It doesn't have the silent dignity of a Vito Corleone, but Trump is from the subsequent generations, which had very little of it.
Who exactly might have the silent dignity of a fictional movie character?
If I had to guess - I would suggest President Putin has more than President Trump. But then again most folks would probably have more silent dignity than President Trump.
Well, there will always have to be some sort of pretenses, dancing around playing games and talking in funny ways. That is just how we humans operate, we're never going to get to the true nature of reality.
But today the old silly dances no longer work and just look stupid so new dances and games are required
It is increasingly obvious that Trump plays international relations like a mobster, with hits, threats, offers one can't refuse, racketeering, turf wars, the works. The mobbing and kidnapping of Maduro; the menacing hit on Putin's residence; the alternate coddling and threatening of China; the disdainful treatment of EU weaklings; the Greenland turf takeover; the beating up of pro-Gaza demonstrators; the harassment of Russian tankers; all these are a gangster's moves. That is his entire repertoire.
Trump's background is in fact the NYC Jewish mafia, and his mentors are all from that circle. He is also controlled from these quarters; he has been allowed into power to temporarily stave off the economic collapse of the Golem---that is, the USA---by any means available, and the international law be damned, the Constitution be damned, morality be damned.
And now he is trying to stain as many as he can with the satanic evil that is the treatment of Gaza. So that no one can claim high ground, everyone will be compromised, "investing" in the riviera built on the graves of sniper-murdered children. And guess what, the Goyim are thronging through the doors, like shoppers on a sale. Including Putin, who is oh-so-principled when it is not called for, but compromises readily when he thinks it will make him look Western. Greed and vanity will damn this world to Hell.
Well, gold touched ~ 250 US$ at the turn of the century, next stop 5,000 US$. So for someone aged over 45, they have seen, as adults, the international currency reserve value of the US$ decline 95% in the last 25 years. Maybe it will take a Zimbabwe equivalent collapse for people to notice, but that could still be coming.
You may have the US$, just you need people to believe in it.
India as chair of the BRICS this year has nice plans regarding the financial framework of the club. I assume it's going to be interesting and the US$, you know what you can buy for it in the US better than I do.
From abroad it looks more and more like a curse instead of an asset.
My savings definitely go in Yuan and Rubles, no US$ anymore, thank you.
They've been doing it for some time, as have China, and these aren't the only countries. Why do you think the price of gold has gone skywards, there is a huge demand as countries are stockpiling and getting rid of the dollar. They cannot do it all at once, as that would crash the dollar and make their reserves worthless - no country is that silly.
What is meant by economic collapse? Two variants: industry moves away or closes down, leaving behind NGOs, government officials, accountants of madness in companies, lawyers, tax advisors, and, of course, fund managers and bankers—not good. Or! Schumpeter. Necessity reduces consultants, bureaucrats, and bankers to the bare minimum, and after a transition phase, companies once again have enough skilled workers and are free of bureaucracy, leading to good growth and prosperity. I expect the latter for the US.
The US dollar was still 40% backed by gold in 1929. The gold price was $20.67 a troy oz. Dgue to WW1 we had plenty of gold to back printing more dollars.
The result of a war economy. They founded the FED. Then they started delivering weapons to the Entente. The moment Paris and London were strapped for cash, Germany should have won, but the US delivered on a loan basis. Super! Full employment, good profits. A little bit down the road, the US had to enter the war to secure the loans, or in other terms, US soldiers were killed for the US banksters. At the end of the war, endless amounts of money, without any connection to real values, were searching for a new investment, but only bubbles were created, and then neither Germany nor Britain could pay (which was nothing special). The banking elites got rich; the normal families had to give their sons and later their savings. In WWII Morgenthau was much more intelligent than the Wilson administration/FED.
Calm down buddy. We call each other all kinds of things here, it’s of no consequence. Just avoid the urination metaphors on the next post and soon we’ll all forget it.
Not sure what’s more entertaining reading the article or the comments. But as the masses are polarized by either side TDS or non he’s got you right where he got the entire cabal of WEF this week 😆.
Geopolitical strategy isn’t hourly, daily or weekly nor click bait, it’s months and if not years ahead but people can’t seem to grasp that and grind and gridlock themselves in the latter.
Same. It used to be that the time stamp was listed as <#>hr. I could just search for hr and skip all the older posts (listed as day(s)) and replies. Doesn't work well searching for h!
It seems we are the only ones that See's the realty of Russia.
I know it's crude, what I mean is seem to warn and warn and talk, they don't take real power steps, look at the Taiwan thing all ways just warning, there is power steps they can take,I don't even need to explain Russia you know it . Have a great day.
China and the Taiwanese leading opposition party consider them both one country. China would only use military force if Taiwan unilaterally declares independence. Peaceful unification is their goal. They'll happily sink any amount of Filipino ships as they are foreigners.
Do you think there is a possibility that someday you will have to admit that Putin played it as perfectly as circumstances allowed? Or is Putins failures and incompetence past the point of no return, in your view.
I can't help but assess that Putin is forecasting every move 7 in advance and calculating the best all around action, all things considered. And that it's working. I mean, the guy's winning it in so many objective ways and the blows Russia IS taking for it's geopolitical heresy of confronting NATO are all absorbable. The giant run on gold is an example: Russia has probably made more on gold than its lost in sanctions lol.
>I think Putin is making several fundamental mistakes that are so obvious I find myself coming around to GM’s point of view that they are deliberate.
We don't have to speculate on this -- one just needs to carefully read Medvedev's posts and the fact that Putin knows very well what mistakes he is making (because it has been pointed out to him directly behind closed doors) is 100% confirmed.
I don't think they are deliberate. Rather, they are the mistakes of someone who does not want to admit the ugly truth to himself.
@Elena
About 40 years ago, an acquaintance pointed out to me that since around the 16th century in Europe (and then in North America), an ounce of gold had always been equivalent in value to the retail price of a top quality gentleman's carry pistol or a best quality "bespoke" pair of men's boots.
He's still right about that, AFAICT.
Perhaps the biggest move Putin has made is NOT to move. He may simply be combining Napoleon's maxim - never interrupt your enemy when he's making a mistake - with JFK's - never humiliate a nuclear power. At the same time, he's managed to retain the initiative.
You are completely delusional
Russia has suffered multiple catastrophic strategic defeats in the last four years and is being rapidlu squeezed everywhere else too
Respectfully, my friend, let us agree to disagree on the facts; and therefore avoid unevidenced personal remarks. Because: whereof one cannot know, thereof one must be silent.
Vinny, Alex Christoferou mentioned yesterday that Russia made $200 billion+ on the increase on the Gold price, so yes, they have made more and more than covered the monies held at Euroclear. A big question imo is whether the US still has any physical Gold of their own considering the troubles faced by some Countries in trying to repatriate their yellow bricks sent there for safekeeping. Iirc didn't Trump/Musk/ Doge promise or propose an Audit of Fort Knox ? If correct, it appears to have evaporated.
Hope is not a strategy.
I think Putin was trying to form a separate peace with the US. The US could never end the war in Ukraine, but it could stop providing funding and intelligence. Trump cut funding - did Putin's negotiations help sell this policy to the US public, or would have Trump pivoted to China anyway? I think the big fight between Trump and Zelensky when Zelensky constantly pushed for weapons a turning point in US policy.
This.
No, because there is no need for such debasement and public humiliation.
On too may occasions to even list.
You can still try to have diplomatic discussions while not publicly kowtowing (including actually physically doing that, as he did to Witkoff on at least one occasion) in such a degrading way.
And if you are going to engage in a diplomatic process, you let the diplomats do that. You don't have Kiril fucking Dmitriev as the main negotiator while completely ignoring the FM.
We don't know what the internal situation and constraints are. I have no answer to the extremely important question regarding what the Russian oligarchy has on Putin to control him in such a way, or if he is just sincerely ideologically aligned with them to begin with. But the fact is that he has not purged them, they still clearly drive policy, and he is either powerless or unwilling to change that.
So it might not be incompetence. Incompetence is when you have a certain set of goals and fail to achieve them because of mistakes you make. But if people think you have a certain set of goals that are not being achieved while you are actually pursuing something very different, then is that incompetence?
For example Gorbachev likely was a mix of the two, i.e. he was a buffoon installed there in order to destroy everything without fully understanding and controlling what was happening, but the people behind him were not like that.
Famous quote:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Yakovlev#Perestroika
>After the XXth Congress, in an ultra-narrow circle of our closest friends and associates, we often discussed the problems of democratization of the country and society. We chose a simple - like a sledgehammer - method of propagating the "ideas" of late Lenin. A group of true, not imaginary reformers developed (of course, orally) the following plan: to strike with the authority of Lenin at Stalin, at Stalinism. And then, if successful, - to strike with Plekhanov and Social Democracy - at Lenin, and then – with liberalism and "moral socialism" - at revolutionarism in general... The Soviet totalitarian regime could be destroyed only through glasnost and totalitarian party discipline, while hiding behind the interests of improving socialism. [...] Looking back, I can proudly say that a clever, but very simple tactic - the mechanisms of totalitarianism against the system of totalitarianism – has worked.[19]
>— Yakovlev, in the introduction to "Black Book of Communism"
Very openly stated -- they set out to destroy everything, deliberately. And they did it. Was that incompetence or very competently carried out treason?
And this is the most worrying part. Because read that quote again and think about the current situation. How do you terminally destroy the rump Russia left from the Perestroika? Well, it is a difficult task because the people remember the Perestroika and the hell of the 1990s and won't have any of it again. But they didn't really want it back then either, they were lulled into it, as Yakovlev clearly explains. So you need to again lull them into the next disaster.
And what better for that purpose than a figure on top with such authority and popularity that nobody will make a move against him no matter how much he betrays and humiliates the country, until it's again too late?
Someone like Putin...
Le Duc Tho spent 7 years talking with Kissinger outside Paris snd the war continued. In 1975 US forces fled Vietnam
Almost no American forces were around on the ground or in the air above Vietnam in 1975. If you think so, you are mistaken. The NVA were defeated in the 1972 Easter offensive because American air power stopped what the ARVN couldn't. American air power was gone in 1975 so the six weeks from mid March to April 30, the NVA rolled up ARVN or what was left of ARVN after the Central Highlands were lost.
Good! The imperialists got smashed!
>I'm still worried it will be Putin doing the begging
Something to consider -- Russia has many thousands of highly trained drone operators right now. They are not all at the front lines, they rotate for rest and recovery, training, etc.
How is it that none of those people has both reached the needed level of understanding of the situation and found the courage to apply his skills to something useful internally, such as, for example, taking out Kiril Dmitriev while he is driving around Moscow and ending this charade?
The military is internally absolutely seething about what is happening -- they try to keep a lid on internal dissatisfaction, but it cannot be always concealed, and it is bubbling over increasingly more often when you read and listen to people. And yet nobody has come to the point of taking real action, even at the lowest levels.
As long as there is no serious internal pressure, and that means credible threats to the well-being of the people about to sell the country out again, well, it will be sold out again.
Russia's inaction in the tanker war confuses me as well. I hope they are evaluating potential Western retaliation and preparing. Similar to how China realized they were dependent on the US for 95% of their Helium imports, and diversified before imposing rare earth sanctions, leaving the US with no cards. Maybe Russia is improving the North-South corridor for South Asia/Africa trade, and the Arctic route and BRI for trade with North Asia. When they are no longer dependent on trade through the Baltic Sea, and Mediterranean, they could start sinking EU ships.
And now look at it from the other side. Europe is close to collaps, the longer the war drags on, the more trouble. Trump wanted to end the war quickly, and it could have easily been done: just walk away. But with all this talks and plans, he got stuck in the Ukrainian mud, while Europe went down. European gas storage is at dangerous low levels, but the mad politicians exclude Russia from the deliverers list, which puts the EU into a terrible dependency from the US. The Europeans are bancrupt, but social welfare systems must be generously funded so that migrants do not become a nuisance, but corrupt Ukraine is bleeding them dry. Or the Baltic racists. Too small to even speak quietly, but with the US in the background, they dare to shoot their mouths off while harassing the Russian minority incredibly. All these negotiations have distanced the US further from NATO than I ever would have believed possible. The Russian military could pay a visit sooner than the Balts think—all it takes is for the rift between NATO and the US to be deep enough. Russians are brilliant mathematicians; we in the West always see Ukraine, but they see a global situation where everything is connected to everything else.
Now that the Soviet Union is gone, and People Of Influence And Authority no longer have to toss the masses a bone or two, they would much prefer that we dissipate our energy on dreary arguments about cultural appropriation and how many LGTBQXYZPDQ+ can dance on the head of a pin, endless and endlessly performative struggle sessions, rather than raise questions about how the economic pie is sliced.
Put another way - to paraphrase Chris Hedges - elites will gladly discuss race, they will decry gender inequality most piteously, they will demonstrate a touching sensitivity to the rights of sexual and gender minorities so oppressed that they have not been discovered yet. Those same elites will not readily discuss economic class.
Or, in the negative formulation - if businesses were to stop opposing unionization of their workers, the result would be a transfer of wealth, of concrete material benefits, to brown and black and tabby and yellow and white working class cats and people greater than all the allyship statements ever penned, all the diversity committees ever instituted, all the preferred pronoun tags ever attached to a corporate email.
Which is precisely why they will not do this.
The Finster aims to please.
huge industrial base? where? and now the Eu deindustrialize Germany. US is getting a lot of foreign investment, mostly in new production plants. The only foreing "investment" here in Europe is the buying of companies, uninstall the machines and ship them to China. Without Bulgaria, you know this very stable country, our production of artillery shells would be at a third, because we are in search for green steel not real steel.
I do not only live in Europe; I am CEO of a company (in move-out mode). So I can read a balance sheet, and if I see BASF's balance sheet (and comments) where there is close to no investment in Europe, a big loss in Germany, but profit in all other world regions, I know these plants, which are not so easy to be moved, will work until something big breaks, and it's game over. The Indians bought some of the German steel mills, but now they give up, even though the German government promised them huge sums of money, as they did to Intel, which stepped back. Volkswagen is closing down plants in Germany—this has never ever happened before. And we could go on and on. But to make it easy for you, look for the "Gewerbesteuer" in Germany; who should pay for it and where this tax goes, this one will answer all your questions. And of course some positive signs: Hungary is attracting a lot of investment, Italy is at least stable, and Slovakia is good.
Fascist.
Look at european bond prices. They give no indication of collapse.
Look at Eisensteins film monument about the revolution. I mean the scene of horrible death on the front line, and comrades stick together, and then the well dressed stock traders collapse because the market looses a few points. And by the way, Dragis "whatever it takes" is still active, bond prices are useless, any minor developement in the wrong direction and the EZB will open the flood doors. You can trade stocks and bonds, earn money with them, or lose money, but you should never draw conclusions about the real economy, politics, or the social structure. And making money is easy right now—just follow the central banks. But never ever prepare for the coming bad events, while looking at the finance numbers.
That you are relying on a film as history is a sign that you are looking hard for evidence to support your theory.
Take a look at, for example, CDS spreads on Argentinian sovereign debt (or Argentinian bond yields) before a default if you want to see what an impending collapse actually looks like.
The film was actually a joke, where the punchline should be self-explanatory! All those beautiful stock market figures were worthless when those very same dirty comrades brought about the revolution. At one point in my life, I restructured a company for a German banking consortium. I was still far from knowing whether it would work out or not, but the Frankfurt stock market newsletter got a tip from ??? that a massive cost reduction was imminent, which of course was simply a lie at that point, but after this report, the stock prices rose and I had to appear before the stock exchange chamber (they impose really heavy penalties!), but I couldn't make any statements because of the obvious gaps in communication; if the customers/suppliers know that a restructuring expert is there, you've already lost. All because people believe some numbers that someone made up, which causes some people to invest money, that belongs to some companies that manage this money for some other people.
Hint: government bond markets are very different from stock markets. "Insider trading" isn't really a concept in government bond markets.
Anyway, if you're so sure that europe is collapsing and bond markets are clueless, buy long-dat4ed deep out of the money put options or short CDS on bunds.
Is there anyone who can stop drones? Me not shooting at you is MY virtue, not yours. We are talking about civilizational differences where one side thinks that snything that can be stolen should br stolen and anything that can be killed should be killed. Not everyone has the same mindset
Not one single drone landed on US or EU soil because Russia is not an aggressor, not because they are well defended. You totally missed my point. US government and oligarchy abuses its own population much worse that Russia could ever do, and ordering strikes deep within Russian territory is one of those things (as Russian retaliation is desired outcome by so-called "elites"). US and EU citizens are safe not thanks to their governments, but by grace of the self-restraint of the Russian government.
Not afraid. They know this is the desired outcome and victims of "putin regime" on US or EU soil is acceptable and desired outcome, so why give your enemy what it wants? That said, this restraint is widely perceived as weakness by many, and I do not stop being amazed by the stupidity by some of the people I know who, like a spoiled child, want to test their parent's patience until the bullied side does something horrific to restore deterrence. It just seems bullying is such a convenient tactics as it puts the victim into "damned if you, damned if you don't" situation.
"There are a lot of miserable Ukrainians who will hate Russia for all their lives but don't have a say in the outcome of the war." sore losers should hate nobody but themselves.
The art of deal:)
That clip of Musk and Fink says it all. They aren't interested in deals or art, they are interested in power and money. If the Trump MAGA boat sinks they'll be the first in the lifeboats rowing to China.
Or to the Democrats, at any rate.
No, they own both parties already. It's the same club - other logo for the plebs/deplorable.
That’s exactly my point: two interchangeable skin suits, to be donned and discarded as expediency in the game of world domination requires.
It’s just the same here in UKania.
That's my method, 2 slaps on 8-year-old toddlers, not the threat of slapping them.
Yes, you get it. Most have no clue what is really going on.
Seems like he'll "secure" the status quo ante while looking like a total asshole and unnecessarily alienating countries that have no reason to dislike the US.
But hey, kept Epstein out of the headlines and the massive tax cut to already rich boomers got passed.
I hate to break it to you, but as someone who has worked overseas since the early 2000's, alienating countries and having their citizens dislike the US has been a constant everywhere I have worked.
Yep. 2001 the day the Twin Towers were brought down by MOSSAD and US traitors I was very happy to see the amounts of thumbs up.
Media and prostiticains may pretend to forget the centuries of US crimes but the people in the street do not.
For a week in Akumal I watched an American family's rudeness towards the waiters, not a single thank you. We'd talk to the lad and he was a medical student working thru college. They'd give us dirty looks but when they realised we were English - big smiles "Deeevid Beeekham!"
Probably a "dual citizen" family.
Real Americans are amazingly friendly and kind and thoughtful.
The very fact they couldn't even pronounce a simple name properly speaks volumes.
Snob. You're going to find that attitude to people in other countries a real problem. You might chuff each other at home but most people elsewhere find your behaviour disgusting.
You seem to be totally oblivious to the fact that somebody who cannot even pronounce a simple English name properly is not going to be a real American.
The people you encountered were jews.
English? He must have been laughing cynically, not smiling.
You sit in the USA and swear every thing against your own country, why don't you move to your lovely China, and Russia the best thing is you implying I'm a pedophile, because I love to ridiculoue your China and Russia. Complete Lost case. It seems it's the same as the US when the Russian gas pipe was blown they blame it on Russia, so this little shit talk of you calling me pedophile seems it really hints at back to you.
Are you a pedophile? Knowing that would help us understand your post.
Come big mouth if you are so right to say I'm a pedophile give me your address and info so that I can get things going, you in public comparing me to a pedophile, come let's have the info.
At the moment I'm not home. I'm at your mum's house watching her urinate.
Holy shit, I just blew coffee out my nose! 😂
Your Mom would not be proud of you after such a comment, that's far below your usual level. Emotions are fine but counting to ten before acting is a smart rule, I think.
He usually sees Jews everywhere in his posts.
i think his mom had a failed abortion.
Are you employed by him as a restroom attendant?
Are you asking for the addresses of people with children or even without?
>"I'm a pedophile"
Including that particular phrase in all three of your replies seems a little counterproductive.
Come big mouth if you saying and standing by I'm a pedophile give your info, so that we can sort this out, be the big man you are.
While on a corporate trip to Japan in 2002 I became friendly with one of the reps of the company hosting the event. The youngish Japanese guy showed me some photos of his time in Malaysia, while working for a car company. In one of the photos my guy is wearing a Osama bin Laden T-shirt. He said his family lived in the Hiroshima area. I suggested that if he transferred to the Chicago office, he might leave the shirt in his suitcase when passing through passport control at ORD.
Yeah grr, kinda confirms your point.
I had an OBL T-shirt too when I lived in S/E Asia at the same time. Rec many thumbs up from locals and tourists.
The filthy looks it would cause used to tell me their citizenship LOL
Not here in Africa though.. We have always looked to the US and Europe as the places of hope and success.. (from Johannesburg)
I hope this Is this satire?
We didn't know much, in my opinion..
I hope so too.
My only experience in Africa was in Nigeria (Lagos and Port Harcourt). The sentiment was about 50/50. I have read that in South Africa and Rhodesia that many of the population want the whites to come back. The reasons seem to be that everything was much better run with whites in charge, particularly with respect to infrastructure. Don't know if that is true or not.
I think you'll find when the whites left Zimbabwe they destroyed a lot of infrastructure on their way out. Pouring concrete in the elevator shafts comes to mind.
Is that because they were being murdered and the land and farms that had been theirs for generations was stolen or out of spite?
Rhodesia was once the bread basket of Africa. Not anymore. Wonder why???
They built the whole of Europe, as well as the Pyramids, without even having access to the wheel or a written language, so they should be able to rebuild their nations, right?
Maybe you could look at the Gentleman after Rhodesia was named and what he's done with his fellow whites.
Nothing was stolen from whites. You can't get rights on something what you or your parents have stolen before.
Besides the atrocities done to the Africans are not punished or paid reparations for in any significant way so far. To do that would bankrupt every former colonial power, iclusive the USA.
I asked the Grok (for what it's worth) about that cement in elevator shafts , as I had never heard of it before, and it said there were rumours of it but no evidence and:
"Infrastructure decay in Zimbabwe is more commonly attributed to post-independence mismanagement, lack of maintenance, and economic policies rather than deliberate destruction by departing whites."
It goes on to say :
"However, this specific anecdote closely matches well-documented stories from Mozambique's independence in 1975. There, fleeing Portuguese settlers are reported (and rumored) to have engaged in acts of vandalism, including pouring concrete down elevator shafts, wells, plumbing systems, and lift shafts in buildings—particularly in Maputo—to spite the incoming Frelimo government."
"That said, certain accounts label these stories as urban myths or exaggerations used to explain later infrastructure failures due to civil war and neglect, rather than confirmed widespread sabotage."
"It's possible the Zimbabwe reference stems from a mix-up with Mozambique's history, as both countries experienced colonial transitions in southern Africa around the same era, but with different dynamics and outcomes."
That being said, or read, I do believe you that a bit of that kind of thing happened. Certainly I don't believe most of what Grok reports.
Must be a myth then. Perhaps it was Mozambique? Thanks
What nonsense.
As if anybody would take huge amounts of concrete to the top of a building in order to pour it down the shaft so as to block it up.
Even if they wanted to do that, the obvious thing would be to disable the motor or the wiring.
But females never think logically.
Females are devoid of intellect and logic. Everything is emotional for them.
You would never take it to the top. You just open the lowest level and fill the elevator pit. Easy peasy.
LOL
Of course it's true.
"The reasons seem to be that everything was run much better with whites in charge". Yes, whites were the masters, blacks the slaves. With only blacks, the distinction between masters and slaves becomes indistinguishable.
LOL.....ok
That's why you kicked wypeepl out, I suppose.
Cough, cough, the Boer War...cough...
David, are you familiar with the books of Alexandra Fuller? Daughter of an English family that moved to (then) Rhodesia. A lengthy interview here remembering growing up there. Her books are great.
https://youtu.be/HfwzKHfwr88?si=fd3ROveEDr0_L0LA
Much appreciated.. I am seeing her for the first time.. I am half way through the interview which I am hoping to finish off tomorrow.. She comes across as one excellent writer and a caring person.. It'd be great to read her books once I've sorted out my eyes problem..
You're welcome David. See link here for the book I would start with. Her childhood recollections are so over-the-top that one can only conclude that they must be true since no one could construct fiction on this level.
https://www.amazon.com/Dont-Lets-Dogs-Tonight-Childhood/dp/0375758992/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1NDNO9R57VYNE&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.eYmDAbIhOqIHY0WGEvfyXit-6VYGK_sK9IThdLrt549whv9S-2mtr1yzz8gkP2zfTm8IA0liJxOLnRn1k-IVvpmUfWVFKruGS9OtnkQ498RWCkWaf5cNJvUPkuPU5zhS9jfBnufJBf4FLQ81_y-iZgbBm4C-h82MdzCMvZuFVuebhrbkRzn5PqGd-er0U6WMHpDbsjQ6LRFsKSkIo5tFWojONW36_bMbS1UpPDOn0605-DpBT1u3YglhJwM1qroGwpIIGYjRWMuxa1wR20y3Rw11qzgQhjL5XH07ZwK6whs.yIPByk1ceNb8GOD-Y-br1gvbhAF7iqMDv1S3HCrlDVc&dib_tag=se&keywords=alexandra+fuller&qid=1769184512&sprefix=alexandra+fuller%2Caps%2C147&sr=8-1
It's easier to understand the persistence in the developing world. It's true that I couldn't explain it to myself. Thank you for the explanation, it gives me hope...
I care more about the opinions of Africans than I do about spoiled western Europeans.
This is because the US is a jewish tool, pure and simple.
And everybody likes jews, right?
Pammy was introduced to a US - Israel friendship group the other day by Miriam, and stated that she is working tirelessly to prevent what she described as antisepticism in the US - the non release of a certain set of files being a big part of that.
https://www.renegadetribune.com/attorney-general-pam-bondi-tells-the-israeli-american-council-she-works-for-them/?doing_wp_cron=1769159138.6396110057830810546875
I have been having fun reading reports that Juu (Israeli) tourists are being thrown out of various countries and are being banned. Couldn't happen to a nicer ethnic/religious group. Who in Trumpstein's cabinet doesn't work for the Juuz?
You don't get anywhere near it if you don't love the jews more than anybody else.
Look at Pammy for example.
I already posted the link.
scepticism...?
No, antisepticism as in antiseptic. :-D
hehehe, wicked
"Putin epically trolled the US by deflecting his invitation to this unprecedented ‘board’ with the suggestion that Russia’s one billion dollar entry fee could be paid by the Russian assets ‘frozen’ in the West."
The whole world is getting on board, stealing is the clothing psychopaths wear, ENOUGH!
the more the US is controlled by the jew the more it is rightly hated.... by americans too...
The Jews aren't as smart as they think they are. A huge backlash is coming and they will be dragged out into the street and unalived.
Good! They don’t hate us enough! They need to hate us far more.
That's how you treat vassals, slaves. That's what europeans are, grovling slaves that will do whatever for their master and won't actually do anything to stop whatever USA wants to do. Despite the Greenland threats from USA, europeans continue talking about "threats" from Russia and China....How can anyone respect such loathsome people (europeans) ? There is no respect for those that don't respect themselves.
It will be Iceland next.
Probably and europeans will deliver it on a silver platter to USA, while claiming to defend it against attacks of Russia and China.
A new word should be invented to define europeans...since pathetic no longer conveys the level of vassalage europeans have towards USA.
Yes of course.
No vision with pathetic.
I live here in France and I can tell you the propaganda machine is 100% up and working well.
They’ve already occupied it once.
If you listen to all the noises, you will know the end of the universe harboring a planet that the media have talked about being the objective of the emperor god.
We have been virally infected since at least the mid 17th century, when Cromwell allowed the jews back into Britain, and they set about setting up the BoE at the end of the century, f/b the Fed in 1913.
It's all about narrative control - if you resist anything they do, you are disappeared from the public space.
Slaves, I don't know, but maids, certainly. When you look at their faces, their gestures, you think you're in the cabaret from the famous French film "La Cage aux Folles".
https://indi.ca/wolves-crying-wolf-canada-denmark-etc/
"These people are not mourning the loss of the ‘rules-based order’ here, they're bemoaning the fact that the actual rules might apply to them. That they might be invaded because they're weak, despite their White skin."
Great domain name lol
Well, a good chunk of what passes for leadership in Europe will continue cycling cash through the Banderan laundromat as long as they can. The laundry chute for much of the cash begins in the US. Gotta play nice.
Zion Don and his secret banks accounts from his Jew masters.
https://thehill.com/homenews/house/5697347-thomas-massie-donald-trump-venezuela-oil-sales/amp/
Dislike the US? What USA you are talking about?
The US of the mental handicapped Jon & Karen or Juanita and Pablo who do the shitty jobs and face ICE now? Or the freak Elon Musk and Larry Fink that would nuke the US tomorrow if it promises a profit?
There is no USA anymore.
Your hatred of the west has really warped your sense of reality.
What are you suggesting, that there is something else left in between?
Death to the West!
Fascist.
The Jew problem.
We should never give two shits for what NATO Europe or the EU thinks of the US.
Bad idea fascist.
It's a great idea. NATO has been around since 1949 and somehow our European "allies" are weaker today than when the alliance began.
The EU is the alpha test for Global Fascism. So far the pansies have managed to wreck a good part of their home. In globalist speak this is called "progress".
The U.S. nato and eu are all just evil jew run organizations. There is no difference.
People can talk and talk yet the USA still Rules. China and Russia not so much, maybe like two little girls, that just pee's in sandpit.
Considering that sandpit is the 85% of the world outside the collapsing in real time west I'd say those 2 little girls rule. With silent but BIG buckets and spades. But whatever helps you cope.
Show me anything that those two little girls achieved don't bring up nonsense of things they made or built, bring up real power.
You seem to have a weird urine fetish.
Little girls urine to be exact. Shades of paedophilia.
Get brain
unit 8200?
China forced trump to run away with his tail between his legs when he tried to start a trade war. There you go. Real power.
The US, despite its undeniable power, has to date been unable to have any meaningful effect on the Ukraine war and Russia's prosecution of it. Trump has no leverage. There you go. Real power.
Russia is fighting NATO and the rest of the Western alliance. They just happen to be doing it on Ukrainian soil.
They're not different wars. It's just the one war in which one side is using a proxy.
So what? It works.
You can edit.
Click the three dots to the right of your handle over the comment. There is an Edit option.
thanks guys, its edited now!
Look people think I'm pro US I'm not I just can't stand the way China and Russia act's, now you seem to think the USA can't do anything in Ukraine, how many Russian people are dieing how many US people.
How are Russia and China acting? Neither has a history of aggression. Russia is currently fighting in Ukraine both to protect Russian-speaking people against nazis supported by the US and its allies and to force a new European security architecture on Europe and NATO. China is trying to resolve the Taiwan issue with peaceful means whilst the US and its allies are seriously interfering in the internal affairs of China by arming Taiwan and supporting the separatist movement there. How would you like China to offer weapons and political/economic support to Texas in order to separate it from the USA?
Russians are dying to protect Russian-speaking people. The US is promoting the deaths of a Ukrainian proxy army. So yes, Russians are dying and the US is fighting hard to the last Ukrainian - how evil is that? At least Russia is honourable enough to sacrifice its own.
There you go,in your comments you are saying how the USA is hounding Russia and China and yes Russians are dieing and no USA people don't you get that
>How are Russia and China acting?
China acts like an absolute coward who will never defend any supposed allies or principles which is because all it cares about is doing business, not allies or principles. This despite it offically being a Marxist state governed by a communist party (!!!).
Russia acts like a country run by comprador traitors who don't care at all about even their own population, let alone allies and principles, and who care only about their personal wealth and comfort. They have been a bit more willing to use kinetic force than China, but on the other hand they are showing themselves to be much more compromised by their enemies (the Chinese might be cowards that only care about money, but don't seem to be infested by outright enemy agents at the very highest level to the same extent).
>Russians are dying to protect Russian-speaking people
Yes, while leadership treats the people killing those Russian-speaking people as sacred cows not to be touched, and even invites some of them to Moscow to talk as highly value guests and partners.
>How are Russia and China acting? Neither has a history of aggression.
So the Red Army operations on the Eastern Front of WWII were aggression against the innocent Germans?
Because that is the claim you are making with that statement, even if indirectly.
Even if what you wrote were true, so what?
What matters is winning, and Russia is not winning.
It's because of what the US did - and does - in Ukraine, that is the cause of all those deaths.
Wow! I agree with Tim, for once.
What part of proxy don't you understand? The US is doing and has done everything it can in Ukraine short of boots on the ground. As for can't stand how China and Russia acts it says more about you than them. They're steadfast determined diplomatic self assured successful and have a whole toolbox unlike the west which is none of the above and only have a hammer. Russia is fighting the US UK EU and NATO in Ukraine. And winning. Over them and the sanctions. But yeah that's not REAL power the US desperately looking for away out of the quagmire it made(again) is the powerful one. In your wet dreams.
Why are the things they made and built not real power?
Food, medicine, cities with factories, universities, hospitals, motorways, railways and so on and so on, are all real concrete creative power. They've certainly built a lot of powerful weapons too, and that is real destructive power.
It's the stories told about how powerful you are that are the false illusionary power, that can evaporate as soon as the people stop believing in them.
What do you want, a sandwich and a gun, or a story about how you have a sandwich and a gun?
And they didn't just build them for themselves but all over Africa Asia and S America. It may be soft but it's real power. Making friends and influencing people globally is a real power.
Yes, but it’s more than soft power. Having a huge pile of money, factories and technologies to make things, including massively powerful weapons is much harder power than just having a good reputation.
George is just pushing peoples buttons. He knows the Chinese have total control of most rare earths and are major players in many strategic resources. They would have the US dancing to their music if they wanted to be nasty. Lucky for us they have always been decent hegemons over the millennium. Sorry George, the days of the shining city on the hill turned into a stinking ghetto in the bog.
Soft power isn't just a good reputation. Far from it. It's all those things you mention. Including supply chains resource and energy security for themselves and their trading partners. It's improving the economies of those partners thereby growing their markets and ensuring cooperative actions on both parts. Without firing a bullet. But that doesn't mean they have no bullets to fire. They just choose not to. That's soft power.
For Russia at least one can point to the 20% debt to GDP ratio and evening 4th largest in PPP as l managed with a positive outlook, despite the sanctions etc
Oops, spellcheck mangled, original was:
For Russia at least one can point to the 20% debt to GDP ratio and economy 4th largest in PPP well-managed with a positive outlook, despite the sanctions etc
Clicking on the three dots lets you edit your post.
Putler restricts the power of technocrats and limits science outside what he deems as "useful". But science doesn't work that way - you can't develop only a single field (or even a few) without developing others. Which is why Russia will eventually fall behind if this doesn't change
I suppose you have some evidence to back up this claim?
Sure. Look at the fields that Russia mainly publishes in - mainly nuclear physics, mathematics and that's it. Compare that to the breadth of things that the Soviets researched and published in. And compare that to the Chinese or Americans publishing
China outproduces the US in just everything. She is the first commercial partner for most countries and is is now the biggest economy of the world.
It has happened on a very short period of time. I do not remember any precedent of such a quick ascend to economic primacy.
Russia was able to come out of the chaotic situation produced by the
dissolution of the URSS and is now perfectly able to deny the USA the launch pad that they hoped to have in Ukraine.
I am not interested in basketball, but when I occasionally watched a match on tv, it was always the losing team asking for timeouts. This is what Washington is doing now in Ukraine.
China posted a $1.2 trillion trade surplus last year. What was the US trade surplus George? Have you forgotten money talks?
Er, like hypersonic missiles that work?
Aircraft that can fly in the rain?
More nuclear-powered subs?
Nuclear torpedoes?
Nuclear cruise missiles that can attack from any direction?
Cities that aren't shitholes?
The world's fastest-strengthening currency?
Rulers with actual support from the people?
If Russia is so strong, why does it act so wimpy?
That only makes it worse: having all those weapons at your disposal and not using them against your actual enemy.
Real power, ultimately comes from industrial/ economic strength, a decent international reputation and a network of loyal allies. Athens will always defeat Sparta in the end. Just look at Britain vs Napoleonic France in 1793-1815, vs Prussia-Germany in 1914-18 and vs Germany again, 1939-45. This US militarism is akin to that of Japan in 1933-45: a lot of noise and aggression, concealing a second rate economy; a mass of death and temporary conquest, burning up massive resources, undermining longer-term economic development, mobilising an international coalition against it and sealing the nation’s humiliating defeat and occupation.
All they can do is pee all day long.
George, you're in the wrong site, man.
It's not the fetish room.
You have reality completely.
He must have missed his meds.
Yep. All day long. Pee. On the west. While the west only having a hammer goes around looking for nails. That they can ill afford produce or even hammer straight anymore.
All this talk of yours means China and Russia can stop the Gaza death's. Get a brain, the USA still Rules.
Depends on what you mean by "USA". A John from Ohio rules anything no more than a Ivan from Saratov
there's nothing girly about Russia and China, JUSSA and EU have looked and behaved like a bunch of high school, popularity obsessed imbecile girls for a while
Very little that's seen as popular by the people in either location.
But the references to sex and gender underlie quite a lot of the narrative.
The US and the EU are extremely female in everything they do - spiteful, narcissistic, utterly obsessed with appearance rather than reality - Nietszche himself could have written the script.
it is the light of a dying star, still there some time after it has burned out- until it fades away.
If you mean how come Russia and China don't come along with a snuffer, why would they bother? They are not run by stomping self aggrandising maniacs. Trump has this podium all to himself. He has not figured out why.
We all know the West is dieing, but the way China and Russia works is making the West last longer.
Nobody benefits from mega (or is that maga? :-)-collapse into a chaotic mess except the small minded vengeful- the likes of Zelensky angling for WWIII as Ukraine's very own bailout.. The grand financial networks favour controlled explosions.
Putin has disciplined his SMO, which is why it is taking as long as it is. He will end up having to take all Ukraine, or rather have it fold into the RF of its own volition, because he is confronted with dummies blowing up their own exits. it took him awhile to realise the entire western edifice is as infected with the 'stupid sickness' as it really is. Some people on the board are still trying to discern some grand plan.
There's also the fundamental principle: never allow a nuclear power to think it's been humiliated. Otherwise when it collapses it might just take the rest of the world with it. It's worked twice now; this is the third time. So it's all about managing the gradual change in narrative.
Which is why Israel - which looks likely to be the fourth instance - is the trickiest case of all.
Neither MEGA nor MAGA - MIGA rules the affairs of the west.
All three of the creeps speaking to Putin atm are chosenites.
In their own depraved imaginations, that is.
Witkoff stated to Putin that the Gaza situation and its "resolution" was envisaged back in 2023 - well before the legendary date of October 7 2023.
Kush looked completely horrified that he'd given the game away.
You need help, George. Not only from a psychiatrist, but in your spelling ('dying').
Go buy a brain at favorite Walmart
Can you read and write Eskimo
What does that even mean? Can you?
Is it a valuable skill to have?
The entire West is only 13% of the world's population. China is concentrating on 87% of the world - Africa, Asia, South America - areas the self centered West considers irrelevant, even as they lose influence in their former colonies. China does not have to confront the West to build up a trade empire - all the growth is in BRICS+. Russia is less fortunate as the EU considers them their eternal nemesis, and will always to war with them.
Population has nothing to do with anything, look how the people of the West can't get rid of their governments
My point is the West believes they are the center and rulers of the world. They can't conceive that the rest of the world would start ignoring them - make the West irrelevant by creating new power centers. BRICS+ is weakening the West not by confrontation but by making strong alternatives.
I agree we are stuck with our governments. If anti-government protests, similar to Iran, happened in Australia, they would have been crushed within days. The new hate speech legislation will be used against protestors. Apparently criticism of Netanyahu is now illegal.
There is help for TDS. Get some
Sorry my dude but the man is cooked
That's two in a row. Yea us!
Fascist.
Tell us exactly what you have experienced first hand about little girls peeing George.
Yawn
You may yawn, but you have us all wide awake now. Whenever a sick mutt talks about little girls as you did, right minded people become alert.
Right minded people doesn't exist.
Yeah, they do. They are the people that don't fantasise about little girls.
Then there are people such as you...and Trump.
Seems you have the fixation, how many times have you brought it up, not me , I used a normal comparison.
US is a collapsing sewer. The only thing it rules is the few remaining rats in the sewer. Dream on yankee. Is it the crack or prescription variety?
😆 👌
Rules what?
I was just thinking how Musk and the other freak look like a couple of very insecure little awkward girls (as far as body language, died hair, being overweight, using Ozempic, plastic surgery etc) despite all the ill gotten shekels they've accumulated.
Just so long as you don't think they look like two small girls peeing, you should be able to ride that one out.
😂😂😂
The fact that Putin is meeting with Kushner and Witkoff three weeks after they tried to assassinate him and that he is open to joining the "Board of Peace" tells you all you need to know about who is the boss and who is the bootlicker.
Kushner and Witkoff should have been imprisoned and exchanged for Maduro, diplomatic relationships should have been severed (a very long time ago in fact) and the Kremlin should have declared its comittment to *victory*, total and unconditional, not negotiations.
If Russia was run in the interests of the Russian people that is.
But that is not happening, instead we have the current shitshow.
Because Russia is run as a private fiefdom of a small circle of oligarchs in the interests of those oligarch scumbgas, interests that dramatically diverge from those of the Russian people as a whole.
And that is the US's superpower -- the corruption of everyone else that it thrives on.
You don't see comrade Kim having any relationships with the US after they tried to backstab him too in the first Trump administration, do you?
HELMER: HITTING THE THREE-WAY SWITCH — WITKOFF, KUSHNER AND GRUENBAUM ASK PUTIN TO SWAP GAZA AND GREENLAND FOR NOVOROSSIYA
https://johnhelmer.net/hitting-the-three-way-switch-witkoff-kushner-and-gruenbaum-ask-putin-to-swap-gaza-and-greenland-for-novorossiya/
THIS IS HOW THE HISTORY OF NOW IS WRITTEN WITH A HAMMER
https://johnhelmer.net/this-is-how-the-history-of-now-is-written-with-a-hammer/
Ah, yes, I am going to break and enter into your property, kick you out of it, then hand it back to you in exchange for getting something else I have no right to.
Brilliant.
And it's not as if that is the first time Putin has made such a great for Russia deal. He handed Syria over without a fight, and what did he get? The war on Russia only escalated.
P.S. Did Stalin negotiate with Hitler in early 1943 over whether Hitler was going to keep all or just most of Belarus, Ukraine and the Baltics? I don't think so. Well, why is Putin doing that now?
Because when Putin came to power Ukraine did not belong to him. That's the reality on the ground
1) When Putin came to power Ukraine was not a militantly anti-Russian platform for attack against Russia.
It became that during his rule and thanks to his incompetence and suspect loyalties allowing it to happen
2) Putin doesn't really rule in Russia, the oligarchy that was formed as a result of the USSR collapse does. That oligarchy gave up Ukraine (and Kazakhstan, and the other less important republics) without a fight in order to establish itself in the position to loot the commons and rule over the territory of the former RSFSR. And that oligarchy is about to sell out once again.
Nothing really contradicts what I said... how much power did he have over processes in a neighbor country? But I agree that it should have been dealt with much sooner (but then most Ukrainians would be unhappy that Russia prevented them from joining EU paradise)
Keep in mind there's been a rumor that FINALLY, maybe they will list Chubais as a "foreign agent", but thats not confirmed yet 100%, meanwhile he is in Israel and started a new "consulting" company selling Russian state secrets and pushing for harsher sanctions on Russia. This was the man allowed to be the head of Rosnano until 2022...
Also, Putler is having a tripartite talk in Abu-Dhabi with Ukraine and US. That tells me he's gonna sell things out
Putin made a highly effective trolling reaction - he agreed to join the BOP on condition that the $1B was paid from frozen Russian assets!!
What message is the "trolling" sending and how do we know it is trolling? You are saying that. But Lukashenko actually joined the BOP.
How do people in Gaza and Lebanon, and how do the supposed allies in Iran see that "trolling"?
Wouldn't they have preferred an answer more likey "Get the fuck out of here with this BS, Netanyahu and Trump should be hanged for war crimes, Israel demilitarized, and Palestine returned to its 1948 borders?"
We don't really know any of the answers at this stage.
But we do know that the wrong message is being sent
The message I got is that mega trolling is occurring.
It's like that meme:
>Trump gets elected
>Keeps doing everything Biden's been doing but worse
>keeps sending weapons to Ukraine
>Putin: finally a reasonable man to negotiate with
Depends on which country you are in. During the recent border clashes between Cambodia and Thailand, both countries were assuring their populations that China backed them.
They "rule" over their vassals only. Which is USA's usual tactic. Bully weak countries, than claim to be the best in the world. When against powerful countries, they need to get proxies to do their dirty work and still lose. USA in a nutshell. Bunch of cowards, liars, fraudsters, criminals, mobsters that think they are better than everyone, but are just the most disgusting people on planet Earth. USA is a mafia organization masquerading as a country.
You are right. Nobody is afraid of Russia and China. Everybody knows the USA would gladly use their nuclear weapons, in fact they are eager to do that.
Hmmm... considering how tough Georgians were fighting not to have a Zelensky clone installed in their country because they do not want to be another Ukraine not so sure. And South Korea considering death sentence for its prime minister who plotted to turn the country into a war zone against Russia... I have more examples. The world looks at Ukraine and says "that will be us if we turn against Russia" and the more western propaganda amplifies the horrors, the louder the message
Well, the Ukrainian state still functions. their internet still works. You can see that meteorological stations for pollution still work (https://waqi.info/#/c/50.743/29.72/6.3z)
I think that reports about destruction of energy sector are fake, shallow Russian and Ukrainian propaganda. They both have their reasons to lie. Where are those refugees? We see them not arriving in EU while we see all those migrants coming from Africa on daily base.
Russia is powerless and weak. Nobody is afraid of Russia.
We see how Putin i humiliated by begging to negotiate and when that moment comes he finds himself negotiating with Kushner who is not US official an even have no credentials to negotiate.
Fascist.
The more the transatlantic mafia can be hobbled and undermined, the more powerful the hold of the trans-mediterranean mafia over its nominally American lackeys, aka 'deep state' becomes.
I note that the artwork showing the architecture of the new Gaza depicts an endless series of towers of Babel.
With bones, instead of concrete for foundations.
According to a recent report by UN's Francesca Albenese the bones of approx 500,000 souls.
If there is a more haunted place in the world name it!
This is the guy saying I'm pedophile.
It is pretty clear, George🤷🏻♂️
What I find stunning is that the USA seems to be capitulating on losing Diego Garcia to Mauritius without a scam or a fight. That was said to be their second most important base.
Oreshnik has made Diego Garcia a paper tiger.
PS: DG is indeed in 5500 km range of an Oreshnik launcher - if one were placed on the deck of a Russian ship (cargo ships included) in the Caspian Sea. Only a little maskirovka would be required.
You could say that about any base and there are many that are far easier targets.
Yes, all air and naval bases are sitting ducks in the new normal, and they are all easy targets. No one (other than possibly Russia with the S-500) has any defence against hypersonic missiles. And hypersonic missile launch tubes (for Zircon) are increasingly being deployed on surface ships and submarines. No place left to hide except deep underground. Iran figured that out years ago.
Or deep under water. Subs remain IMHO the deadliest military asset in the world.
See my reply to Charlie M: the immediate concern might more likely be Iran's missiles?
Solid point! And both equally important
Possible reasons: first, the USA never owned Diego Garcia. In law it belonged to Mauritius and the UK was squatting on it, leasing to the USA after deporting 100% of the native population. It was a political hot potato as for decades the UK has been losing cases in its own courts - who kept ordering the government to let the Chagos Islanders come home.
Secondly, Diego Garcia is in range of the newer Iranian missiles. It's reasonable to expect a missile or three to be lobbed at it in the forthcoming conflict. Especially as there are zero civilians there: for religious reasons the Iranians are squeamish about civilian casualties, as evidenced in the 12-day war.
More propaganda
@Vade Retro
You clearly have never got over that picture of a mullah holding up a charred arm off of some poor soldier/airman after Carter's military screwed the pooch.
There is no more whipping of women or hanging men from cranes.
Why does Diego Garcia belong to Mauritius? It was an empty island when discovered by Portuguese expeditions. Then Portugal claimed it. Then France, the island was so small that there was no formal governor; therefore, the one in Mauritius was in charge. When France lost the war against Britain, this island was given to the UK as defined in the peace treaty. This is international law. More problematic is the population, but even this is more complicated. Remove the "I hate the Western culture" from the equation, and things get into uncharted territory—but this is another story.
Exactly the same considerations apply to the Falkland Islands.
Indeed, but it became legally very messy in the second half of the 20th century, i.e. following decolonization. An analog is the Cyprus so-called "sovereign bases", except that iirc unlike Cyprus nobody actually signed DG over to the UK after Mauritius was adjudged sovereign.
Its strategic significance became apparent in WW2 when Somerville picked it as the secret anchorage for the British Eastern fleet after Pearl Harbor. Exactly as he anticipated, the Imperial Japanese Navy came looking for it with five carriers (before Midway). Nagumo searched every known UK fleet base and hung around for a month or so until fuel considerations forced retirement, but never found the main fleet: iirc it found and sank a few non-capital ships, but never managed to connect the dots as to where the fleet was hanging out. ;)
Because of that, and with US toleration and later encouragement, the UK simply refused to accept the change of sovereignty to Mauritius, and nobody was strong enough to kick them out - especially after the US occupied it in force.
I see it the opposite way around. If a state decides to allow a part of his territory to become independent, then it is not up to the new state to decide which territory should be handed over. Whatever the old state wants to keep, he can do without problems with international law.
Fair enough! Perhaps a stronger position, as with most legal submissions (whether international or domestic law!), is to replace "can do" with "ought to be able to do"? I sympathize with such a reformulation.
That said, in the end judges, not states, make legal determinations over territorial claims post-independence depending on factual basis, just as states (on both sides) make decisions whether to oppose judicial determinations with force. ;)
Shut up fascist.
AFAIK, they don't lose the base - they just start paying to lease it.
It's just struck me it's a net US gain: because that actually puts them in a better position to squeeze the UK in other fields (which Trump really, really wants to do, especially given Starmer's interference in his election)! :)
If the UK has put them in a better position, then it would seem to be illogical for them to want to squeeze it.
What they should do, if anything, is to squeeze Starmer personally, although of course he is a sycophantic supporter of Trump by definition, as they all are.
"Now word is that Zelensky is again offering Russia a desperate energy ceasefire: he will cease hitting Russian oil tankers if Russia shows mercy to the terminally exhausted Ukrainian power grid." Especially if the Europeans are ramping up the seizur of shadow fleet tankers, eh?!
Which Russia should and will reject
Sundance of The Conservative Treehouse is very aligned with Simplicius and provides insights into what Trump is doing that explains quire a bit. Here's one: https://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2026/01/22/wef-finance-banking-panel-if-independent-national-economies-continue-rising-global-trade-drops-and-we-lose-control/
That all countries, or even all large countries, could (and would become) be self-sufficient in everything and thereby eliminate interdependence, is so unrealistic as to be ridiculous. If all nations were forced to pursue being self-sufficient, most nations would not be able to afford it, standard of living would collapse, and other nations seeking labor or raw materials would take over those that had them. It would lead to the return of Colonialism as a substitute for trade, but actually Trade by another name.
great article - I fell for the Putin joining the board of piece. But I thought I read somewhere that Trump okayed that Putin idea.
If anyone says I'm talking shit, just look what Grand Sir Simply highlights about the 20 trillion, who's pockets is all that money in , not China's or Russia's.
Trump's "Board of Peace" should be renamed Satan’s Playground/War Room - it would be a more appropriate name, as I explain here: https://geopolitiq.substack.com/p/iran-issues-new-warnings-to-its-enemies (plus updates from Iran and Yemen)
This is the real thing that's happening, and people don't seem to understand what I'm implying, China and Russia could do much more yet they don't, like exactly what happened at the UN they abstained.
You can't fight other peoples fight, as President Putin rightly put it. You can support and advise but neither China or Russia intend to copy the USA and think of themself being the worlds police.
There you go, that's exactly why the USA will still last a long time.
Like Ukraine? US cannot protect its own country, let alone others
Sure they will, just not with the power that they make the world believe they still have.
The only question remaining is how will they go down, with a bang or rotting away in a controlled manner with little damage to others.
That's the key JFK point that China and Russia have grasped: never EVER allow a nuclear power to think it's been humiliated!
From memory, a US official mocked Russia, saying it was no longer a world power, but a regional power. Lavrov, agreed, saying that being a regional power is sustainable. Russia, China and India have peace and cooperation instead of being aspiring hegemons. The US is hastening it's decline by burning through their military budgets playing world police. I can't think of any US military action that hasn't been a net financial and reputational loss. Maduro tried to negotiate oil deals with the US, but the US chose the hard and expensive way.
Probably referring to John McCain.
In the short term, massive military budgets create huge profits for the completely corrupt MIC, but long-term, they bring complete disaster, as the whole thing is sustained by the petrodollar, which is dying ( sp. ) the death atm.
Maduro's "deal" would have been more expensive for US oil companies, so they chose the easy way, ie regime change.
My understanding is that US oil companies are not keen on Venezuelan oil, unwilling to finance the infrastructure needed, which will be exposed to a hostile populace. They might regret not taking the deal Maduro offered.
I do not think that anyone is saying that the US will not last a long time.
What is already finished is the US primacy in the world which lasted a short period of time.
Do not confuse loud boasting with real strength.
China is showing the signs of a mature power quietly gathering immense material strength and moral authority.
After the pitiful US shows in Venezuela and Greenland, China, and to a lesser extent Russia, appear to the rest of the world as the neccessary bastions to control US adventurism and lack of respect for any rules and other peoples.
If one compares JF Kennedy to Biden or Trump or even James Baker to his successors, it becomes very clear that the US is developing in a very bad way.
When an Empire really starts declining it takes a lot down with it. Mostly internal though close allies are affected as well. Sometimes the really obnoxious ones try to take as much down with them as they go.
This is the jewish way.
See "Sampson Option."
Was Thucydides Jewish?
The US is transforming itself from a rules-based order ( rule for thee but not me) into a power-based order. Trump acts a lot like a Mafia boss, threatening and intimidating his opposition.
Trump is projecting power when Maduro was escorted back to the US.
He is projecting power in Greenland, Canada, Mexico, South America, Europe, and Iran.
It makes for great optics, but it's also self-defeating.
Canada and Mexico were already closely connected economic partners with the US.
The US also has legal rights to maintain bases in Greenland, and it can buy the resources there at 1 tenth the cost of occupying or owning the country.
It's all about Power Projection.
And like a mafia boss, Trump wants all political leaders (soldiers) to bow to his authority or else.
Trump is clearly using the wrong strategy long-term by alienating every country on the planet.
Any short-term gain he makes will not hold up long-term.
Trump is F---ing up big time.
I can't help but think about what if JFK or Ross Perot were the current president, and how things would be so much better and truly make the US all it could have been.
What would JFK have done had he been President today?
Instead of the broken dreams of a nation gone rogue from the inside.
Let's see him threaten and intimidate his terrible approval ratings.
That is what Spraytan Orangeman is all about. Short term optics. Toughest kid on the block for a week. All his bluster about Venezuela, Greenland and now Kanuckistan is a distraction away from the Epstein files.
It's always been about power projection, not just for America but for every tribe since the stone age.
Calling Trump a mafia boss isn't the insult you think it is. Mafia boss is just one point on the curve of human leadership positions that starts somewhere around "Big man" and runs through "Chieftain" "President" "King" and ends up somewhere around "Emperor".
Each one of them has had rules and those rules are always subject to change. The job of "The Boss" is to make up the new rules when the old ones have failed. The "Rules Based International Order" isn't being killed by Trump, it's been dying for a long time.
I never said it was an insult, Jack, just is what it is, you know?
"Mafia boss" is not commonly considered a good thing.
True, but who can deny he employs mafia tactics? Nice frozen wasteland. Pity if something happened to it.
Like it melted and New York drowned? Or it melts and becomes tectonically unstable. Better build those AI geothermal energy plants well.
Yes, but my point is that EVERYONE uses Mafia tactics, or at least should be able to use them when needed.
Killing enemies and traitors, lying, bribing, threatening, double crossing, deploying spies have been the tactics of power since time immemorial. Could we even begin to compile an approximate list of the times American presidents have done those things?
Try this one on for size,
Trump can't gain Greenland by threatening military force because it's illegal and against the will of the local government and people. BUT Guantanamo Bay in Cuba can be, and has been, held by America, against the will of the government and people for 65 years, but that's legal because of a 120 year old lease signed by a totally different regime.
America holds that piece of Cuba because of the strength of its navy, that's the implicit threat of violence. That's the actual reality, and the legally unenforceable lease is just the fig leaf of legality and legitimacy hiding the ugly cock & balls of threatened violence.
The real question here is legitimacy or rather the perception of legitimacy. The Mafia boss is only different from any other boss in that he is boss of an illegal, and often but not always, seen as illegitimate sub-culture.
As an interesting aside, Dr. Sun Yat Sen, was BOTH a Mafia boss (Triad) AND the first president of China, and he is still a great hero for both the Red and Blue Chinese today.
President Trump isn't any more dishonest than the vast majority of powerful leaders, but he is more honest ABOUT his dishonesty, if that makes sense.
One of his great powers is to burst the illusions and rip off the masks that many others would prefer to just continue pretending are real.
Do you remember the bit that Trump did in one of the first Republican primary debates, when he said something to the effect of,
"I've given money to everyone on this stage. I contribute to all their campaigns and so when I pick up the phone, they take the call." ?
That was a brilliant piece of political theater, and it was true. We all knew it was true and that's the way the political machine works and has pretty much always worked.
Everyone DID it, but Trump was the only one bold enough to SAY it.
Unless you're the boss.
Fascist.
Is this being directed at me or those I'm talking about?
These comments aren't real sentences, they're just exclamations.
Are you trying to make the point that violence and deception are always immoral? because that's a point I can respond to, but I don't want to respond to an argument you're not making.
Not you of course not. You’re ok.
Yes you are a fascist dog, Jack, correct, along with all the MAGA Nazis in the thread.
They would have done nothing and could have done nothing.
All you named are part of the ruling club, the same club that creates all the contradictions that bring them down in the end.
People have real examples of how it can be done now in China and Russia.
Some will want to adapt this way of living and the rest will - as usual - accept what's coming.
>Trump acts a lot like a Mafia boss, threatening and intimidating his opposition.
The very language he is using is directly out of a mob movie. Just listen to it without looking at him. It doesn't have the silent dignity of a Vito Corleone, but Trump is from the subsequent generations, which had very little of it.
Good morning GM.
Who exactly might have the silent dignity of a fictional movie character?
If I had to guess - I would suggest President Putin has more than President Trump. But then again most folks would probably have more silent dignity than President Trump.
Cheers
Trump is the perfect expression of a woman given power.
Check those tiny hands, and the jawline and eyes of "His wife."
Big Mike has been well exposed; next in line will be Big Mel.
I would say that the United States is now strong enough that it need not keep up the pretenses any more.
Well, there will always have to be some sort of pretenses, dancing around playing games and talking in funny ways. That is just how we humans operate, we're never going to get to the true nature of reality.
But today the old silly dances no longer work and just look stupid so new dances and games are required
WE? Speak for yourself, human.
It is increasingly obvious that Trump plays international relations like a mobster, with hits, threats, offers one can't refuse, racketeering, turf wars, the works. The mobbing and kidnapping of Maduro; the menacing hit on Putin's residence; the alternate coddling and threatening of China; the disdainful treatment of EU weaklings; the Greenland turf takeover; the beating up of pro-Gaza demonstrators; the harassment of Russian tankers; all these are a gangster's moves. That is his entire repertoire.
Trump's background is in fact the NYC Jewish mafia, and his mentors are all from that circle. He is also controlled from these quarters; he has been allowed into power to temporarily stave off the economic collapse of the Golem---that is, the USA---by any means available, and the international law be damned, the Constitution be damned, morality be damned.
And now he is trying to stain as many as he can with the satanic evil that is the treatment of Gaza. So that no one can claim high ground, everyone will be compromised, "investing" in the riviera built on the graves of sniper-murdered children. And guess what, the Goyim are thronging through the doors, like shoppers on a sale. Including Putin, who is oh-so-principled when it is not called for, but compromises readily when he thinks it will make him look Western. Greed and vanity will damn this world to Hell.
I'm just waiting for the economic collapse here in the US. It's coming.
Well, gold touched ~ 250 US$ at the turn of the century, next stop 5,000 US$. So for someone aged over 45, they have seen, as adults, the international currency reserve value of the US$ decline 95% in the last 25 years. Maybe it will take a Zimbabwe equivalent collapse for people to notice, but that could still be coming.
You may have the US$, just you need people to believe in it.
India as chair of the BRICS this year has nice plans regarding the financial framework of the club. I assume it's going to be interesting and the US$, you know what you can buy for it in the US better than I do.
From abroad it looks more and more like a curse instead of an asset.
My savings definitely go in Yuan and Rubles, no US$ anymore, thank you.
India is ditching the US$, and buying gold instead.
They've been doing it for some time, as have China, and these aren't the only countries. Why do you think the price of gold has gone skywards, there is a huge demand as countries are stockpiling and getting rid of the dollar. They cannot do it all at once, as that would crash the dollar and make their reserves worthless - no country is that silly.
They should have started buying way earlier then instead at over $4,000 an ounce.
They've been buying ever since the US$ was weaponized.
Saint Jimmy is correct. It is coming. Will probably start in Japan.
What is meant by economic collapse? Two variants: industry moves away or closes down, leaving behind NGOs, government officials, accountants of madness in companies, lawyers, tax advisors, and, of course, fund managers and bankers—not good. Or! Schumpeter. Necessity reduces consultants, bureaucrats, and bankers to the bare minimum, and after a transition phase, companies once again have enough skilled workers and are free of bureaucracy, leading to good growth and prosperity. I expect the latter for the US.
see 1929…. massive unemployment and poverty
The US dollar was still 40% backed by gold in 1929. The gold price was $20.67 a troy oz. Dgue to WW1 we had plenty of gold to back printing more dollars.
None of that magic money is getting to the people. Fuck your fiat money.
here is reality…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJjUe3vsXZM
The result of a war economy. They founded the FED. Then they started delivering weapons to the Entente. The moment Paris and London were strapped for cash, Germany should have won, but the US delivered on a loan basis. Super! Full employment, good profits. A little bit down the road, the US had to enter the war to secure the loans, or in other terms, US soldiers were killed for the US banksters. At the end of the war, endless amounts of money, without any connection to real values, were searching for a new investment, but only bubbles were created, and then neither Germany nor Britain could pay (which was nothing special). The banking elites got rich; the normal families had to give their sons and later their savings. In WWII Morgenthau was much more intelligent than the Wilson administration/FED.
Thanks for your great work Simplicius!
We've restacked and shared this link on 'The Stacks'
https://askeptic.substack.com/p/the-stacks
Davos or the White House press conferences? Which one is the biggest clown show?
Just different sets and stages of the same Show.
Yes this is the guy saying I'm a pedophile.
Calm down buddy. We call each other all kinds of things here, it’s of no consequence. Just avoid the urination metaphors on the next post and soon we’ll all forget it.
Don't worry I'm just teasing him back my way. You call me a pedophile or Jesus I couldn't care.
👍
The people here argue by stupid insult.
Ignore them.
Not sure what’s more entertaining reading the article or the comments. But as the masses are polarized by either side TDS or non he’s got you right where he got the entire cabal of WEF this week 😆.
Geopolitical strategy isn’t hourly, daily or weekly nor click bait, it’s months and if not years ahead but people can’t seem to grasp that and grind and gridlock themselves in the latter.
Shhhhh! They'll make us pay for the comments too!
You can't?
Or are you just joking?
You can read the paid posts but not the comments? I thought one had to be a paid subscriber to even read the paid posts.
I also like reading all the comments.
And then I scroll up and down looking for new comments!
I change the filter to ‘newest’ after the first round.
I do also, but have to scroll around to find new replies to older comments.
Can always learn something from the replies. Both wise and unwise but it is still interesting.
Same. It used to be that the time stamp was listed as <#>hr. I could just search for hr and skip all the older posts (listed as day(s)) and replies. Doesn't work well searching for h!