The Ukrainians are really struggling. Less support from the West, major issues with mobilisation and Trump at the wheel swerving wildly in his Humvee. Getting rid of Zelinsky may lessen the influence of some but unless the plan is to become more open to negotiations then Ukraine in on a path to total ruin.
At this point, where they've already used DU ammo on the fertile black soil of Ukraine... they've actively reduced our food production potential. Evil is evil. Seriously the west is beyond retarded.
After the dissolution of the former USSR, Ukraine has became dominated by the likes of Kolomojsky (an oligarch and president of the jewish community of Ukraine). The country was robbed, mismanaged, and thoroughly corrupted.
"In the early 1990s, Ukraine experienced hyperinflation, reaching a rate of at least 4,735 percent in 1993. The economic performance between 1990 and 2017 was among the worst globally. Ukraine's economy is still smaller than it was in 1992."
At the same time, the Ukrainian banderites' factions in Canada and the US have received an open support from the jewish lobby (see NED & PNAC). Plus the the usual warmongers Graham and McCain were eager supporters of the Ukrainian Nazi Party "svoboda." "The National Endowment for Democracy (NED) has supported groups in Ukraine with ties to far-right or neo-Nazi ideologies. The NED spent millions of dollars promoting an anti-Russia narrative in Ukraine."
In 2014, Nuland-Kagan run her putsch in Kiev in a tight collaboration with the members of the Ukrainian Nazi Party.
"Following the 2014 Euromaidan Revolution, members of the Social-National Party of Ukraine (Svoboda) were appointed to government positions. Some sources note laws passed between 2014 and 2022 that glorified Nazi collaborators." -- Mazel Tov, Kagans, on your stellar pro-nazism performance in Ukraine!
"Some Jewish individuals and groups have supported Ukraine during the ongoing conflict, including its military, which includes units like the Azov Regiment that have been accused of harboring neo-Nazi and far-right ideologies. One instance involves a photo of a representative of the Federation of Jewish Communities of Ukraine (FJCU) posing with soldiers wearing Nazi symbols on their t-shirts, who were part of the Azov Assault Brigade."
Actually, Israeli and American jews celebrated visiting Azov brigade fighters covered with tattoos of swastika: "The ADL (created in memory of a rapist and murderer Leo Frank) has declared banderites “freedom fighters” against Russia. The ADL opinions were supported by David Fishman, “a professor of Jewish History at the Jewish Theological Seminary and member of the academic committee of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.”
Maybe the end goal is a ceasefire agreement with Russia. Putin has said that Zelensky is illegitimate, and can't sign, so getting someone new removes one obstacle. Then destroy Iran, and circle back to Russia when convenient.
I'd say time is against the Empire, that's why they are upping the stakes now even while holding few cards. China is in a very dominant position and seems to have checkmated the US. Wang Yi's comment to Kaja Kallas last week summed it up. China won't stand idly by while Russia is defeated. Even that is a slim possibility. Even defeating Iran now seems extremely unlikely.
A NATO-Russia war will require ground troops only if the Kremlin finally finds it in them (which would be extremely uncharacteristic) to pre-emptively nuke Europe down to zero and then has to occupy the territory before the US can move troops across the Atlantic to deny them that advance.
In the event that the Kremlin does not pre-emptively nuke, it will be Russia that will get nuked first and will have thus lost the war, so those troops won't get a chance to even get out of their bases.
Presumably Moscow would give them a chance to sit this out with just the losses of their bases by not striking at the US mainland unless there are strikes on Russia.
In the Cold War days those were in fact the plans -- the US intended to nuke Western Germany, not Russia in case of a Warsaw Pact breakthrough. This in order to deny the Russians the spoils. But they wouldn't nuke Russia over anything in Europe, because the consequences were clear.
Nothing has changed in that basic calculus, except in the case of a first strike on Russia.
Yes, but the US has enough nukes that are impossible to all neutralize to destroy Russia in a direct war.
The advantage it currently has is forward deployment, which allows it to think it has a real firstr strike capability (and just having the enemy think that is catastrophic from a Russian perspective).
Thus if we can end this at the point when Europe is smoked, but no nukes have hit Russian cities and there is no actual intercontinental exchange of missiles, you take it as a Russian strategic planner every time.
The world has changed. Now Russia-China-NK-IRAN-AFRICA and to a limited amount Venezuela - Cuba and some Pacific Islands have moved away from the Western Hegemony. The game is still on but the capacity has changed quite a lot. If NUKEs are used my bet would be the Israeli followed by the US.
Iirc the last two times the UK tested their sub based Nuke delivery systems (Tridents ?) it didn't go well at all. The first had to be aborted as it started heading towards Miami and not the intended target. The second, even more catastrophic, instead of travelling 3,500 miles into the mid Atlantic, it plopped uselessly, a few hundred metres from the Sub, much to the embarrassment of all, including defence minister Grant Schapps, who was aboard at the time to witness this example of Britain's Maritime prowess ahem ! Btw...I'm given to understand these tests cost £millions.
Watch the Kremlin, in typical fashion, welcome, legitimize and negotiate with Zaluzhny, even though he had two busts and a huge portrait of Bandera in his office, and is as fully committed an ideological Nazi as they come.
And we know this because it has been three and a half years of "denazification", but not a single Nazi has been touched in a missile or drone strike unless they happened to be at the front.
This after recognizing the immediate post-coup government in Ukraine and then Zelensky too. The track record here is impeccable, isn't it?
Meanwhile nobody dares seriously even suggest doing what really should be done, which is to tear up the Belovezha Accords, derecognize Ukraine (for which there are full legal grounds, because Ukraine declared independence on the basis of it being a neutral country, and that has been clearly violated 100% ever since 2014), then once you have done that, declare everyone in power there as guilty of grand treason, sentence them to death as such, and then carry out punishment accordingly.
But no, this is the post-1985 Kremlin, who rule #1 is that Russia is only allowed to at best lose a little bit, but never to go for any real wins. After all, it would be such a cosmic tragedy to hurt the feelings of the dear partners, wouldn't it? No, let's allow them to slaughter some more of our soldiers and civilians without a single shot being fired back, that is right and just, nothing wrong with it, but defending the country against aggression? No, we won't fall for provations, we are not like that.
Tim Weiner describes (a 'war on terrorism') Rakusan’s fury in the aftermath of Trump’s election, and Rakusan’s dangerous actions:
“The Russians manipulated our fucking elections,” he told them. “How do we make sure this never happens again?” He didn’t care if they didn’t speak Russian or had never set foot in Moscow. He ordered them to take their expertise in targeting and recruiting terrorists and turn it against Russian spies, diplomats, and oligarchs."
Its the charge of the light brigade again from General Melschitt:”….declare everyone in power there as guilty of grand treason, sentence them to death as such, and then carry out punishment accordingly….. “blah blah.
Not even clear if it’s the Ukrainians or Russians who are guilty of “grand treason” as opposed to not so grand treason, but it doesn’t matter, just kill someone, anyone that will fix it.
Even if the SMO ends... There will be another to replace it, very tiring and predictable west-driven wars we live in.
If Zelensky is exiled, will Canada except him? Alberta? Poor chap... He actually made the work easier for the Russians -a double agent if one can attribute it.
I'm just glad there's many beautiful Slavic ladies available, ready to choose from.
>I'm just glad there's many beautiful Slavic ladies available, ready to choose from
You don't really want the ones from Ukraine, "toxic" is too weak a word to describe them in terms of their mentality, and they are not exactly beautiful anyway -- they are all still in that phase (which, thankfully, in Russia they are slowly moving away from) where they think that pumping up one's lips so that they look like a baboon's ass in heat and covering themselves in tattoos makes them prettier.
General Melschitt is opening a modeling agency and giving beauty tips it seems, given his gift of the gab , I can imagine them queuing around the block already
the word "Nazi" itself began as a derogatory term coined by the political opponents of the National Socialist German Workers' Party (NSDAP). also, Ashkenazi, literally means. ‘Jews of Germany”, or Jews whose ancestors migrated to Europe.
Yeah - you might know this already - that crazy idiot that's running Argentina now - Milieu - or whatever his name is - is a RELATIVE of Netanyahu. Can you blieve it ? Its a bloodline family
you don't care because the implications haven't yet dawned on you. Its a satanic cult that's running things now. Bloodliners. I mean I don't go along with all the Book of Enoch stuff about aliens - but it blew my mind when I found out they are related. ( Net and Mili ) how coincidental is that ?
Ann, My guess would be London with a cushy job at the BBC, where there's enough Coke heads, Nonce's and Ponces to satisfy his needs. He could bring a few more ahem "male models" with him as a gift for our talentless PM.
‘Russia gave back 1,000 new bodies to Ukraine, and received 19 in return’
In light of this Putin will likely send some extra protection to keep Zelensky in power. It is true that the overwhelming differences in size, population and resources pushing the Ukraine war machine slowly under the water. However, it is also true that the UAF engaged in acts like Kursk for theatrical purposes to impress US/NATO and suffered substantial losses there. If Zelensky was a truly talented military leader like Trotsky, Russia would not be able to perform a steady advance without interruptions and reversals.
The Western military leadership is likely evaluating Zelensky in the same manner. At the same time, there are risks associated with his removal as Ukraine public support for the war is increasingly fragile.
As has been endlessly discussed, nothing that Ukraine does would matter if the Kremlin wanted to win this war. But it wanted, and still wants to make a deal instead of winning.
The result of which was that the war was allowed to become existential for the West too.
Which should never, ever have been allowed, but the only way to not allow it was a quick, decisivle and total win while cutting off any escalation on the part of the West immediately.
Instead we got the shit show of the last 42 months, and here we are...
The western elites hate Russia and they use any argument, including existential threat, to legitimize the destruction of Russia.
And in that process it has become an existential threat, not for the EU, but for these same elites. A group that doesn’t care about the people, but use them to do their bidding
The disastrous strategic and tactical errors made by the UAF are the product of NATO doctrine, politics, maintaining the money laundering scheme and specifically American officers, who are in overall control of the UAF.
Our entire officer corps, Pentagon, everything within the Dept of Defense is utterly inept, incompetent and corrupt.
We created the hyper aggressive, terrorist dictatorship Kiev regime, and we have created several renditions of the UAF. The UAF is the largest NATO army in Europe. As a fighting force the 2nd best on earth after Russia's. The UAF would easily defeat NATO if they were supplied Russian arms and led by Russian General officers.
As an American, besides absolute disgust for what my government is and represents in its' present form, as to the world wide aggression and creating terror groups and regimes, is also concern as we have no coherent national defense.
We are inept, unable to pacify Yemeni warriors, (I disagree that we ever should launch missiles into their country), just this example shows we can't fight out of a paper bag if we ever were attacked by an enemy. And we are making lots of them for no reason.
Ukraine has produced excellent soldiers with famous Slavik stubbornness to fight to the end. But in this case they are being killed off by the US, just as the Germans were killed off by their regime when that war was already past being over strategically.
All those Yemeni warriors likely believe that Allah placed them at a strategic point where they can easily close traffic to the Suez Canal to revenge the constant pressure the Great and Small Satan is pushing the Muslim population around with. If America allows the closure of the straight to the Gulf of Aden the Small Satan and the Western world will both suffer major economic losses. It is an expensive conflict for the rights of the Small Satan to keep butchering various nations there, including Gaza.
Your comment accents the point that Yemeni warriors can "easily" defy both Israel and the government of the US which they purchased.
My country has such a corrupt and degraded military, technolgy and lack of strategic focus that while it might not be "easy" (it takes a lot of courage and dedication to take casualties for a campaign) for Yemen, it is feasible for them to defy the US and make the cost for us too high to pay. We simply have too many countries to invade, and not sufficient resources.
What defeat are you talking about? Washington and London are getting the war with Russia they so desperately wanted, Russians are dying and the European stooges are full on board, ready to up their military spending and send in their soldiers to sacrifice for their geopolitical goals. It’s going exactly as planned. Sure a few million more Ukies will die in the process than they expected but they don’t matter.
The purpose for project Ukraine was never based on the absurd concept that the Kiev regime could defeat Russia in a war. Rather it addressed the need to bog Russia down along the lines of Afghanistan 2.0, to clear the decks for regime changing Iran and ultimately China.
The NATO assessment of Russias' military strength, doctrine, weapon systems, industrial arms replenishment capacity and economic strength were seriously (fatally) underestimated.
The theory of the effects of sanctions and overextension would at best cause regime change or at least mire the RF down. Our leadership is so incompetent they believed their own hype that Russia is a gas station masquerading as a country.
The narrative of massive Russian casualties is part of this hype. If true, the Russian public would lose resolve and cause internal regime change.
Of course they’re not succeeding at winning the war or getting the regime change they hoped for and they’ve driven China and Russia closer together. But in the end, Russia hasn’t liberated the Donbass yet after 3.5 years and storm shadows are flying into mainland Russia, not into London or Moscow. The neocons can just walk away from this tomorrow and all it has cost them is money that isn’t theirs anyway and leave Russia with a rogue neonazi state as a thorn in their side. It’s not as clear cut of a Russian victory as Simp and a lot of the people here make it out to be.
The Russians have not yet liberated the entirety of territory of the 4 new oblasts is true. Because rapid territorial expansion would have led to mass casualties and a remaining intact UAF Army.
It of course is arguable, but it appears the 1st goal is to eliminate the UAF as a coherent army, while eliminating the ability of NATO to effectively intervene on the ground in Ukraine while simultaneously being prepared to defend the entire border from Belarus to Murmansk from NATO aggression.
Both the US and Europe are essentially defanged, the UAF is close to complete collapse and Russia has solidified the home front of public support, built up the industrial capacity to mass produce munitions, drones and missiles while not allowing a potential nuclear exchange. This is a remarkable accomplishment.
Over reacting to missile pin prick attacks or the depraved terror attacks like Crocus City Hall could derail a very well planned strategy for long term victory.
The desperation of an unstable NATO led by narcissist incompetents with tenuous holds on power makes it very dangerous. Once the UAF collapses the RF will need to absorb lands to the Dnepr, Kharkov, Sumy and Odessa rapidly. Maybe even Kiev.
This requires mass manpower and munition reserves to advance, occupy and defend a vast area rapidly. And deal with Banderite terror groups left behind.
I fully understand my own and others frustration at the slow pace of advance, but in the big picture it makes sense. If Russia makes a strategic error of premature advances it could have catastrophic consequences.
There is rapid territorial expansion and there is losing strategic cities like Izyum and Lyman and not recapturing them after 3 years. Yet we are supposed to be excited about Russia reaching the outskirts of insignificant towns of 200 people. Or about Russia closing in on Pokrovsk which they allegedly had conquered in March of last year.
The US and NATO are not defanged, in fact the Euro lemmings will happily cut into their own social welfare programs to increase military spending to ‘defend themselves against Russian aggression’. And the UAF has been on the verge of collapse for over 3 years now. The only thing the Western media is right about is that it will take 70 years to get to Kiev at this rate.
Going in with 150 k troops and pulling out of Kiev after another empty promise in Istanbul (another Minsk) wasn’t a well planned strategy at all. A massive attack on the bridges over the Dnepr and access roads from Poland, followed by 50 Oreshkins on Lviv and Kiev would have been a much better strategy. If you fight literal neo-nazis with the full support of the Empire, you fight a war, not a SMO.
I’m not sure what catastrophic consequences you are talking about. The war is already in full flight.
After Ukraine it will be the Baltics, Poland, the Stans and if all the inferior people have been sacrificed, it will be Brits, French and German troops that will be sent to the front. They will not let up, it is a full-on war and the sooner the Kremlin realizes this, the more lives they actually save in the long run.
The 50 day window was to buy time to pressure Russia's allies to press it to do a western favourable deal. That is all. That is the last throw of the dice here, and any verbiage saying Russia is doing worse than it might appear (on whatever metric) is aimed at said allies.
Will it work? If this was ever going to work it would have worked before Trump turned into an international cartoon, or rather, before his cartoonery went global.
Trump is a huckster who's very good at buying and selling real estate...unfortunately, Xi and Putin are highly intelligent, not suckers, and simply ignore his sales pitches and go about their business....
Had Trump taken the $50M he borrowed from his father in 1974 and invested that in an S&P500 index fund and reinvested the proceeds, he would be richer than he is today.
Trump's possessed. by Israel. Netanyahu in particular. He's not the same guy that was interviewed on 9/11 and said some intelligent things. He's just speaking on cue now like Zelensky. Its all fake.
Trump just needs to drop those golden pagers into the toilet and run as fast as he can... I do not really believe he will do it, especially now when the Epstein case is out to get him.
I actually think he's under some sort of mind control. Remember Britney Spears ? How erratic she was ( is? ) and suddenly doing this and suddenly doing that then changing her mind then attacking a car with a baseball bat. Trump acts like a baby - a real baby sometimes with Net - holding his hand and like almost kissing it. Pulling the chair out for the guy - I know we all think he's just weird- but he is not the same guy as 9/11 - where he was rational and sort of upright. Now he's nuts. or under some sort of strong mind control Someone said Net's been to the WH more times than Melania - well...if Trump's under mind control - then he needs to get ' tuned up ' every so often. It's like he doesn't even seem to have self-reflection and to see how servile he's being. No pride at all. Just erratic egoism that's not even self-conscious sometimes. The way he attacked that reporter for the Epstein Files. Maybe he's in there- but maybe there's alot of information that Israel doesn't want known...I hope its the second and I hope it gets released. Lets see more dirt on Israel - I hope they fall into the pit of fire and never come out
There is no "mind control" at play here, it's just the old standard: "Do as we say or you and your family die. On the other hand if you do exactly as we say, you and your family will get much richer."
As Andrew says above, it is not mind control, and Trump is not going to drain any swamp. He is the swamp. Read Whitney Webb's One Nation under Blackmail. It should get a Pulitzer Prize. Of course, it won't.
Trump pardoned Michael Milikan the junk-bund hustler. He did not pardon Julian Assange, Edward Snowden is still living in exile, and Jeffrey Epstein had no clients and killed himself. What more evidence do you need that the orange man is a con man- not a patriot.
Trump is not possessed, he just "got the memo" when he escaped an assassination attempt by turning his head milliseconds before a bullet would have exploded his skull. He was made to understand what a POTUS really is: just an animated puppet that repeats whatever he is told to say by his puppeteers.
Trump adds his special showman sauce but the dish is exactly what he is told to serve. Plus he is getting rich(er) in the process, so no complaints there.
He is the same guy. It is just he doesn't have to worry as much about conning you anymore, because he is not up for reelection. Notice how quiet J. D. Vance has become recently. As Palantir's hustler, the job of conning the U.S. trailer park crowd will be his next.
I have the sense that Trump's age is very rapidly catching up to him. He turned 79 this month, an age a lot of men still have some years left of sharp wit and energy. But I've seen it a number of times that around this point in their lives, a lot of men quickly decline. I think within months to a year, it's going to be very visible.
The culminative effects of those extreme high tariffs he is throwing around for 50 days later will decimate American imports to the point where all will scream to impeach him. Americans are tough people but when there will be no toilet paper, shoes and cheap goods on the shelves they will revolt.
I disagree. 50 days is a clue as to the time that U.S./Israel expect the pause in the Iran-Israel war to last.
People focus on Netanyahu's criminal charges as the reason that he seems in such a rush to culminate his greater Israel project as soon as possible, but I think it is because the United States of Israel (USI) feels that they cannot tie Russia up for much longer in Ukraine. I think that the entire Ukraine neo-nazi coup fiasco was done in response to Russia stymying the USI from removing Assad from power in Syria. The USI oligarchy realized that Greater Israel could not come into being so long as Russia had a free hand to support alles in the Middle East. Is it a coincidence that Israel allowed Hamas to produce a casus belli a year after Ukraine got going and Russia appeared bogged down there?
What has happened, however, is that while Ukraine may have tied up Russia, it also drained USI stockpiles necessary to defend against Iranian missiles. No one foresaw the rise of the drones and the effectiveness of Iranian long-range weapons. Ukraine now has tied the hands of USI as much as it has tied the hands of Russia. The 50-day "warning" is the expression of a hope: that the USI can get itself out of the Ukraine mess to continue the Iran war.
It is the book that no one has the courage to write. It is a 4-part story. 1) How Wall Street controlled U.S. foreign policy via direct bribes to politicians. 2) How the Dulles Brothers transformed the U.S. State Department and the spies from World War II into a criminal syndicate for Wall-Street crime families. 3) How Jews rose to power on Wall-Street 4) How zionist Jews, as they came into power on Wall Street, took gradual control of the crime syndicate that the Dulles brothers created and turned it from an agent of U.S. multinational corporations into an agent of zionism.
Actually, let me take that back. Whitney Webb has written at least part of this story in her One Nation under Blackmail. You should read it. Deserves a Pulitzer Prize.
in 1956 US President stopped British, French and Israelis attacking Egypt, after Naser, progressive, anti colonial leader nationalised Suez Canal.
It was normal, right thing to do, Brits, French, Israelis, retreated.
in 2024/2025 US President has to support enthusiastically Israel in genocide in Gaza, diplomatically, politically, militarily. He has no choice, Israel is supported in its genocide, by all US political parties, majority in US Congress, US media.
J. P. Morgan and the other U.S. elite WASPs feared that European banker money (read Rothschild money) would come over and dominate U.S. markets and drive out U.S. banks. This was a major reason for the creation of the Federal Reserve... actually.
The flight of Jews from Europe in the 1930s brought a lot of Jewish money (and a lot of socialists) from Europe to the U.S. . Quietly, they began to invest and play on Wall Street.
The major universities were, in the beginning, seminary schools- Yale, Harvard, Princeton, Dartmouth (a missionary school for Indians), etc. They started off as seminaries with versions of the medieval trivium and quadrivium. As such, they were schools for Christians (which is why they did not allow Jewish students). At the same time that immigration from Europe was increasing, these became secular and allowed wealthy Jewish students to enter: creating a sort of Brahmin class of old-European Jewish money and New-England WASP money.
Between 1930 and 1990, Jews took control of more and more of the old WASP institutions. By the 1990s, this included the criminal syndicate that the Dulles Brothers had built in the CIA and State Department to support U.S. multinationals. (The Dulles Brothers had worked at Sullivan and Cromwell: the major law firm that represented U.S. multinationals and Wall-Street companies). Over the past 30 years, they have bent the goals of this crime syndicate from supporting U.S. multinationals to supporting Israel. That is the short history of the matter.
U.S. politicians have always been the pawns of money. Trump is no different. He would not be president without Adelson funding his campaign. His family is the living embodiment of the merger of WASP and Jew among New-England elites. He is not a "populist:" just a very good conman, the P. T. Barnum of the current elites.
Well worth the time. I also highly recommend The Devil's Chessboard by David Talbot. You can skip the last 150 pages or so though when he carries on at great length about the Kennedy assassination. That part is mostly speculation, and the book falls apart. Everything up to that point is very good and well documented, however.
The reason for the panic to remove Z and have elections is to get this going before this gangster regime is actually overthrown.
Western audiences are not being told but western intelligence knows that there is widespread swelling 'sick of this fascist regime and this war' growing ever more ominously in Ukraine. The people are terrified of the gangster regime and its heavies, but all oppressed people have a break point and there is a lot of weaponry swilling around out there. Then it really will all be over. The RF will move in to restore peace and order and then the legal claims against the west including for the return of all Russian assets, will begin, and that is what terrifies the current leaders of western europe whose only hope is to keep the war going in the hope that something will turn up to destroy Russia from within.
I would add that are now resistance groups forming in Ukraine. Scattered and in 2 basic ideologies, the Bandera type of fascist and just normal people sick of the terror regime.
Just look at the recent uproar in their Parliment where a full on Bandera, original 2014 coup leader was flipping out at the corruption and how it is losing their war.
Undoubtedly Russia is going to, or more likely has already, send sabotage and training experts to assist these homegrown cells.
It started with women physically attempting to save loved ones from the press gang goons. Although the UAF is so short of human body meat for the grinder, 50K of the 100K personnel of the press gang units have already been shipped to the Line of Contact. Good place for them, karma sucks.
"Undoubtedly Russia is going to, or more likely has already, send sabotage and training experts to assist these homegrown cells. "
It's announced already that Russian SF and intelligence personnel are already in Ukraine working wit the Ukie resistance, helping with weapons, explosives, and targetting.
I can imagine different kinds of operations,.from sleeping cells, to high rank double agents, to anonimous informers, to spetnaz sabotage and reconnaissance teams... The Russian military intelligence is certainly working.
The breaking Russia scheme is gone, at least for a decade. Any country under heavy siege (call it sanctions), like Cuba, NKorea, Syria or Iran, is necessarily forced to become a centralised autocracy. Otherwise, it will be too easy to bribe civil society, influencing and political actors. So sanctions can effectively determine political changed in the target nation and the subsequent PR demonisation campaign and public mind shaping. Inversely, the target structure dont have the capacity to retaliate to the sieging power, which is a strategic advantage for the aggressor.
The British are the leading factor here. They are all about having Russia (and the Europeans) bogges down in Ukraine for ever, while they remain untouched in London, cutting deals globally through their de facto shadow colonies like Canada, Australia, Singapore and the constellation of tax havens critical for the maritime shadow empire they still rule.
The problem is Russia is not suffocating yet. The Caspian corridor, Chinese interconnexion and African operations have certainly slowed. So the British think it is a question of time and patience,.as for the USSR... There is a rock solid perception of untouchability and invulnerability in London.
The problem is that Russia is much bigger and more critical to world trade than Perfide Albion. They can cut themselves off Russian oil, gás, metais, grains and phosphates. The world literally can't afford to, not enough left to go around. This is not Iran, just the oil market that needs to be falsified to give the impression all is well. It is several major commodity markets plus some industrial markets.
The morons are just making the decades long European recession worse.
Why hasn't Russia or Hungary made 3d printer guns to send to areas where the Ukranians are grabbing men off the streets? A small single shot disposable pistol like the Liberator which was dropped all over France just before D Day. It's purpose was to allow a resistance member to approach a German solder and offer a cigarette, reach into a pocket for a light and shoot said German in the stomach and grab his rifle.
A disposable single shot dispersed thru a crowd would stop the kidnappings after just a few shootings.
The last thing the WEF, EU and NATO desire is an organized political opposition.
I fear when it is all over the West will be plagued by ideological, well armed and trained, extremely violent crime cartels emitting from the Banderan territories.
Pierre-Yves Rougeyron, a top French nationalist commentator, has been beating the drum of extremely well armed and experienced crime syndicates overruning Europe since the first year of the war. Don't know if you are familiar...
Hahaha...I was reading his wiki page. He is of course, a radical right sovereignist, such as De Gaulle, perhaps?. What we used to call in America, a Patriot.
Martin Armstrong predicts 100% war if Zelensky isn't gone in 30 days. But he thinks the Ukrainian people should vote the next one in. https://usawatchdog.com/100-chance-of-nuclear-war-martin-armstrong/ But I think Greg Hunter ( the interviewer ) is hysterical about nukes - although Martin did say very clearly that 100% war - and in other places in the interview he said of course it will go nuclear. Not a fun look going into 2026. He also said that by 2032 the US will not longer be a world power. What a relief that will be. But I wonder if I'll still be around to see it. Might get nuked.
Hi Dave. I highly doubt that if Russia used Oreshnik ( is that its real name ? Sounds Jewish ) - it wouldn't just stay there. Yeah - that is included for sure. I agree with you that Martin Armstrong is not the ultimate prophet, but he's steady. I don't like his stance on Israel and Gaza and Hamas. I stopped watching him when he called Hamas a terrorist organization. And Greg Hunter is like a woman having a hysteria attack. Always. But it reminded me of this bigger picture when I get lasidaisical about it all. Many commentators and youtubers - especailly the more military minded folks are just laughing at Trump's idiocy...not so much the nuclear picture
Wow, Martin's prediction, or at least his computer, is for a direct Russia EU conflict beginning in August and ramping up in 2026. Plausible, and his Socrates program is known to be pretty accurate. We don't have long before we know the the truth of the matter.
Hrrmpf! That’s not how all the ьаьушки see it! Have you ever washed clothes using a scrub board? Soon they will rise up and overthrow the evil российский режим.
Well from western historical writings Russians seem to spawn and are not born and nurtured like actual humans. The numbers don't seem to pan out as 10s of millions of Russians die from every single malady imagined. By normal mathematical thinking from a western point of view Russians should be extinct.
Can confirm. Went on a 4 year long mad vodka bender with the local brown bears in Kamchatka. When I returned to my Saint Petersburg apartment earlier this week my roommates Dima and Vanya were gone. Now I just live with 7 other guys who apparently all share the same name - Kim.
Worst thing about the whole thing though, is the change of food. The hangovers from a 4 year long bender can sometimes be extreme, and I usually cure them with salo, pickles and Olivie salad. These foods are all gone though! Only thing we have now is Kimchi, and it sure as hell doesn´t cure any hangovers.
The positive thing is though, that the Kamchatka brown bears have invited me for another wild vodka trip in the woods. Maybe in 4 years when I come back once again, the Kims will be gone, and replaced by Indians. Then I can cure my hangovers with Tikka Masala and Butter Chicken. That would be great.
Sorry for the long post. Just OSINT from the ground here in Saint Petersburg - or Saint Pyongyang as we call it now.
Dear heavens! I can't believe the Ukrainians have liquidated 1.2 Billion Russians already! Truly, the brilliant, omniscient minds of the West will rule us all, forever and ever!
Hyderabadi biryani, sobriety and a good fire in a cold forest, no high no dip! Tranquility!
“A big part of the enemy’s success is the lies in reports from the field about the real state of affairs,"
Well this dynamic is hardly limited to military affairs. Sending BS up the chain of command will sink us.
The ability to turn these lies into MSM truth is a bottomless sinkhole. WMDs, unprovoked aggression or my favorite, safe and effective, to name a few.
Trump's spiel is part of the process. He is, (perhaps intentionally), discrediting the whole system. He is always saying something that some one wishes was true, soon thereafter it's false. He is the ultimate shit disturber.
The lesson is clear, you can not trust your own eyes or ears. I submit if you cannot smell reality, your best read is skepticism.
The topic is loyalty. Can our heroes visit honesty and then revert to evil, repeatedly? Ray McGovern comes to mind. Contrast him with Elon Musk. All to say my trust is mainly in my immediate friends, but Scott Ritter is hard to dismiss.
I would be remiss to not put in a good word for Simplicius! We are all human, the devils have a lot of tricks and lots of resources. Yeah most of us are human is more accurate.
Had a learning experience just last night. Years ago would have flown into a rage and ended a situation. Losing yet another friend. Let my anger go and kept a friend. Feels like wisdom, finally!
What is it that makes us do these things. There's someone in my head but it's not me?
Those would be my ballparks too. And it's worth bearing in mind those are BEFORE the attrition collapses the Ukr army.
Once the poor conscripts are in full retreat, with no weapons or even full uniforms left... dear god.
And still the "European powers" (Incl USA) will not let them surrender. Zaluzhny will conscript down to 18, and soon enough the women - the ones so far fortunate enough not to be conscripted into the Western sex-trade - will join them.
These are the real "Western values" the Global South remember well. And the plan was to use the same tactics and mentality upon the Russians against China, if Russia had lost.
I agree Gnuneo. We think along the same lines. I believe the total collapse of the UkroNazi army will happen in a few months.
Attrition = destroying the Military Force of the opponent, which is what Russia is doing very successfully. When the Ukr army collapses, it will happen suddenly, and Russia will take EVERYTHING East of the Dniepr, plus Odessa, in a matter of days, with little or no resistance from what will be left of the Ukr Army.
* * *
About Lindsey "Linda" Graham: why is he so obsessed with Ukraine?
I wonder if Zelensky or Budanov have compromat photos/videos of Lindsey Graham having homo-sex with some Ukrainian male prostitute - Linda Graham was in Ukr in Dec. 2016
It certainly would, and so would normal greed of the psychopathic mind. I mean, he's obviously a psychopath. And he'll have enormous amounts of shares in the weapons industries. And possibly even invested heavily in the expectation that Russia would lose (Like the C of London also did).
I wouldn't be surprised if he has mafia contacts, which is why he's never seriously challenged in his state.
Anyone who thinks elections will be held before the war comes to an end is a fool.
First of all, the law would have to be modified to ALLOW them to happen in the first place. And what is the justification for this modification? What circumstances allowed an election to take place in wartime? This would be extremely hard to explain AND it would open the door to a legal attack on why Z's mandate continued way past its normal expiration date (May 2024!).
Secondly, once you open the gates, now the candidates will be able to start attacking one another AND Zelensky's track record. All kinds of suppressed opinions would suddenly be permissible, including online. People will start getting angry at the existing government (or be allowed to express that anger).
Third, election rallies (in-person meetings) would further inflame the country. If Zelensky runs for re-election, what's to stop supporters of another candidate from clashing with them during a rally? Remember, the EU/USA will be watching all this, so sloganeering, pamphlets, billboards, rallies, etc will permit grievances to be aired for the first time (w/o risk of arrest and SBU torture, etc).
Fourth, if circumstances permit a presidential election, why not also parliamentary elections? Even MORE room for chaos, esp with new parties seeking to be registered, previously banned ones applying to be unbanned, etc. Plus oligarchs making new backroom deals, etc. How "democratic" will Ukraine look if a bunch of parties get/remain banned? Can Ukraine really afford the media spotlight on how much of a shambles its "democratic processes" are?
Fifth, elections cost a LOT of money. Who's gonna pay for that? Somebody, somewhere is gonna have to cough up at least 100 million USD, and even if donors can be found, that's 100 million that isn't going to weapons or salaries, etc. And it's much harder to steal election money so no one's pockets are getting lined. Plus, think of all the foreign election observers running around, including journalists, NGOs, etc. No telling what they might see or witness.
Sixth, a whole lot of rigamarole would have to go into maintaining the fiction that the elections are also "taking place" in Crimea, Kherson, LPR, etc., to say nothing of front-line cities and towns. Logically, it's impossible to hold elections in territory you don't control, but they'll be forced to pretend like they're going through with it on some level. Could lead to ballot stuffing, could lead to all kinds of problems.
Seventh, any candidate who says they're in favor of demobilizing soldiers will easily be the most popular. Whether or not it actually ever happens, just mentioning it will shift the Overton window on the topic
Eight, how are they gonna handle the diaspora vote? Remember, there are a lot of Ukrainians abroad who have irregular paperwork due to being denied consular services because of all the military conscription rules, etc. Definitely NOT gonna be easy to organize the diaspora vote and establish rules for eligibility, especially for parliamentary voting.
How many times did the U.S. replace the government of South Vietnam? How many elections were there in South Vietnam? Diem-Vinh-Khanh-Ky, with several failed coups, partial coups, military councils, and other various interim arrangements. There were no elections: just endless coups by military and intelligence officers working with various members and factions of the CIA. Expect something similar as Ukraine collapses.
Yep. The Ukranian regime has reached the all or nothing point, like in Syria, where the only possible development was regime change. None of the existing western looted Blackrock contracts should be respected. In the meantime, Moscow is not reluctant to keep the Ukranian financial black hole swallowing another western trillion dollars...
As far as the diaspora vote, I read somewhere that refugees who fled west can vote through the Ukraine embassy in the respective country. Refugees who fled east are just sh*t outta luck.
Law is meaningless. In Ukraine, the law is whatever the Americans say it is at that moment.
Hell, Zelenskii was talking about holding elections in 2023 in exchange for a small $5B aid package. The law hadn't changed since then. And no, censorship would not be relaxed.
Many ”sources” says Zelensky is an obstacle but no one explain why. What will change when Zelensky is gone??? And if he is an obstacle for both Russia and US/NATO - why is he still alive?
Zelensky, the talking Puppet, is managed by Yermak. Yermak got rid of the Meme Umerov and put in the even worse Shmyhal. The Tribe is consolidating power. With or without Zelensky.
Trump is not ignorant and out of clue why this War started and the root causes. He and Vance lectured EU/NATO the first weeks of the Presidency. It is all on records.
What Trump has experienced is the famous quote (slightly changed):
”You can take the Blob out of the Swamp, but never get the Swamp out of the Blob.
Zaluzhny is the little brits assets for sure. But all these ”rumours” are not naming Zaluzhny…He is a brute military commander with brain damage from the Russian bombing attempt. If Ukraine need a Dictator he will fit.
Yermak is the Brain and Zelensky the Mouth - sort of Mad Max Thunderdome with the little gnome under the helmet…
The rumourings purpose is press Zelensky, nothing more. He just stated that he want to meet Putin….
Instead of speculating about the Clown we should discuss the non-summer-offensive.
Yes. Russia is doing it really slow. Even if they accelerate they will not reach Dnieper until 2029… But then all pro-russians are talking about, ”hey it is not a territorial war”. All I see is territory thinking and acting.
Meanwhile the mean little brits has their plan to insert a 50 000 strong peace-keeping force of LBTQ-approved servicemen whenever a ceasefire is reached. And Merz the new born revanchist is trying to trick Russia to swallow Taurus hitting Frunzenskaya Embankment, 22 and other key buildings in Moscow.
I dont know who are the dumbest on the scene but I am pretty feed up with this shitshow. Money back, please.
" In fact, another round of new body exchanges has shown casualty disparities continuing in the stratospheric range, as Russia gave back 1,000 new bodies to Ukraine, and received 19 in return:
Here we have the insanity, the inhumanity, madness & brutality of war. Described in bodies. Bodies torn asunder, dismembered, crushed & blown into fragments. They are bodies now, scraps of flesh & bone & blood & gore, but were human beings, people, loved ones just a tiny while ago. But we're 'winning'. More bodies. So all good then?
Some say we're only a short way into this Kali Yuga, the Iron Age of no reason, ungodliness, untruth, lies; of selfishness, greed, ignorance & inhumanity.
Can someone point me to the exit? I don't like this place. I want out.
Many insights in your comment, particularly. ."It requires a total wake up and for that to happen Humanity needs to en-masse take on board the full Strongs` meaning of the word "Apocalypse"
As humanity we are close to the abyss, but few realize. Apocalypse is not new, over countless Ages, but hidden by our forgetfulness - and lies & deception by those who do know.
There are no accidents in the Universe; we are here for good reason but can change the future, our future reality, by action in the present moment. It's up to us.. but not looking promising at this late stage of the game..
“Can someone point me to the exit? I don't like this place. I want out.”
There’s only one exit. And it’s not death, which is just the transition to another existence in the rounds of rebirth, with no guarantees that it will be the same as or better that the present one. The Eightfold Noble Path is the method, Nirvana is the exit.
"Some say we're only a short way into this Kali Yuga, the Iron Age of no reason, ungodliness, untruth, lies; of selfishness, greed, ignorance & inhumanity."
I asked Perplexity.ai to elaborate on the Pluto return in the USA's natal chart. The answer here without any editing on my part.
## The Meaning of a Pluto Return in the USA Chart
A **Pluto return** occurs when the planet Pluto comes back to the same position in the sky that it occupied at the time of a nation's founding. For the United States, this return marks a cosmic milestone about 248 years after July 4, 1776, and has major astrological significance for the country.
### What Is a Pluto Return?
- **Frequency:** About every 248 years, a Pluto return can only happen for long-standing entities—countries, rather than individuals, since humans don't live long enough to experience one personally[1][2][3].
- **USA Details:** For the U.S., Pluto returned to 27 degrees Capricorn, the exact spot it held in the Declaration of Independence chart.
- **Timing:** The exact Pluto return periods for the United States took place in 2022, with residual effects spanning several years[1][3][4].
### Symbolic Themes of a Pluto Return
Pluto is widely regarded astrologically as the planet of:
- **Transformation and Rebirth:** Signals deep, foundational change across systems, beliefs, and structures[3][5][4].
- **Endings and New Beginnings:** Indicates the close of major cycles and the emergence of new paradigms, often felt as a "death" of the old to clear space for renewal[1][3].
- **Power and Shadow:** Exposes hidden issues like corruption, inequality, or collective wounds so they may be confronted and healed[1][5][6].
- **Accountability:** Brings up crises or challenges regarding power, money, values, and national identity, especially relevant since Pluto sits in the USA's second house, which governs these themes. Capricorn's influence relates to authority, government, and social structures[5][4].
### How Does This Affect the USA?
During the Pluto return, the United States is thought to experience:
- **A Reckoning of National Values:** Long-standing national issues—related to money, justice, power, and inclusiveness—are exposed, forcing collective reflection and potential reform[7][8].
- **Political and Social Upheaval:** The period is marked by instability, challenges to the status quo, and significant power shifts. Issues such as racial unrest, economic inequality, and political division may intensify under Pluto's influence[4][6].
- **Potential Rebirth:** After the upheaval, there can be regeneration, with opportunities for healing and rebuilding stronger foundations suited for the country's next chapter[1][9][6].
### Astrologers' Perspectives
- Some see the Pluto return as analogous to a nation’s **"midlife crisis" or rebirth event**, a cosmic prompt to address core weaknesses and embrace necessary transformation.
- Historic Pluto returns for other nations have coincided with major governmental or societal changes, including the ascension and fall of empires[3][2].
### In Summary
The USA's Pluto return is an astrological period of **profound transformation**, characterized by the exposure of deep-rooted national issues and the potential for rebirth. It invites the country to reflect on its values, confront and reform its shadow side, and lay the groundwork for a new era era[1][3][4].
For the sake of brevity I excluded the footnotes. OR22
The "Shurangama Sutra," attributed to the Buddha, is a significant text in Mahayana Buddhism. It discusses various aspects of Buddhist philosophy, meditation, and the nature of reality. The term "Saha" refers to the world of endurance or the world of human beings, characterized by suffering and impermanence.
In the context of the "Shurangama Sutra," the Saha world is often depicted as a place where beings experience the consequences of their actions (karma) and where they can cultivate wisdom and compassion. The sutra emphasizes the importance of understanding the nature of this world to attain enlightenment. It discusses the challenges faced by beings in the Saha world, including distractions and attachments, and offers teachings on meditation and the path to liberation.
The sutra also highlights the potential for awakening and realization within this world, encouraging practitioners to engage deeply with their experiences and to seek the truth beyond the illusions of the material world. Overall, the "Shurangama Sutra" presents the Saha world as a crucial arena for spiritual practice and transformation.
Question posed to duck.ai: "What did Charles Luk in his book titled Shurangama Sutra have to say about the Saha world of human beings?
As I understand it - and there are a couple of versions - we're about 5,000 years into the Kali Yuga with, and I stand to be corrected, well over 300,000 years to go. The Yugas are immensely long, the Kali being, I think, the shortest.
It seems you can opt out at any time but have to do the work first - work on yourself. It isn't easy...eye of the needle & all that.. But the option - coming back again & again to an ever worsening situation is not palatable. I see Mankind at this time as a collective Prodigal Son..we're still on the outer and a long way from 'home'.
Hersch is a moron, he's a just a tool of one faction in Washington. Imagine printing that point about 2M Russian casualties without trying to properly corroborate it independently yourself? Or any of the stuff he gets fed.
On top of that, he openly writes from the position of being Team USA... if you're a journalist you shouldn't be on any team, you should be completely neutral in your reporting. That's what made me stop reading him years ago, he has these 'great sources' but absolutely zero perspective outside of his bubble. Reading Sy Hersch is both infuriating and embarrassing.
But Hersh has special secret sources in the CIA don't ya know. The CIA leaks what serves the CIA. Lay down with dogs and get up with fleas. I imagine Hersh has an itch or two to scratch.
Sy Hersh is old, and doesn't have the time/energy to run down corroborations, so he just repeats his sources verbatim.
That said, the important thing here is that he states both US *and* British sources are giving this same number, which means it is the number being fed to *all* NATO politicians and they are the ones still agitating against Russia.
Yes, Hersh was in his prime during Vietnam war - that's 50 years ago. Not so much anymore, he should have retired 3-4 years ago if the wanted to keep his reputation intact, now he seems like a senile idiot or intel stooge.
He has recently embarrassed himself by writing total crap seemingly fed straight to him from US Intel agencies, like the ridiculous 'Ukrainian sailboat team blew up Nord Stream pipeline' yeah, right, everyone knows it was US operation and USS Kearsarge was involved.
Because he is a CIA propagandist. If he were actually providing anyone any information that the CIA did not want released, he would be living in exile in Russia right now, after fleeing the U.S. and having his passport revoked.
I have reached the same conclusion. Even with conflicting intel reports in the NYT and WaPo…he couldn’t quite grasp the reality of the Crocus City attack.
The question that should be asked is, what methodology is used to tabulate Russian losses by western sources? As other than figures pulled from the imagination, narratives or from the derear. No other credible sourcing seem to present any logic to what is presented.
I think Russia might be able to give an answer to the Russian losses, but Ukraine is so corrupt that there is for sure a big number of soldiers already dead, missing, captured, or simply run away still shown as active, and commanders receiving money to pay these soldiers. And the money ends in the pocket of the corrupt officers.
The methodology used by the West is called " Thumbsuck Propaganda", a mechanism under which the Ukraine and West can hide their disastrous failures momentarily.
The problem with ultimatums (Trump) that they're always more dangerous for the issuing than the receiving side. Trump must follow up on his threat or end up looking like a fool.
The Ukrainians are really struggling. Less support from the West, major issues with mobilisation and Trump at the wheel swerving wildly in his Humvee. Getting rid of Zelinsky may lessen the influence of some but unless the plan is to become more open to negotiations then Ukraine in on a path to total ruin.
As it was from 2014 and earlier thanks to Uncle Sam.
True. Such a shame given Ukraine's potential.
At this point, where they've already used DU ammo on the fertile black soil of Ukraine... they've actively reduced our food production potential. Evil is evil. Seriously the west is beyond retarded.
Nobody of influence and authority cares.
After the dissolution of the former USSR, Ukraine has became dominated by the likes of Kolomojsky (an oligarch and president of the jewish community of Ukraine). The country was robbed, mismanaged, and thoroughly corrupted.
"In the early 1990s, Ukraine experienced hyperinflation, reaching a rate of at least 4,735 percent in 1993. The economic performance between 1990 and 2017 was among the worst globally. Ukraine's economy is still smaller than it was in 1992."
At the same time, the Ukrainian banderites' factions in Canada and the US have received an open support from the jewish lobby (see NED & PNAC). Plus the the usual warmongers Graham and McCain were eager supporters of the Ukrainian Nazi Party "svoboda." "The National Endowment for Democracy (NED) has supported groups in Ukraine with ties to far-right or neo-Nazi ideologies. The NED spent millions of dollars promoting an anti-Russia narrative in Ukraine."
In 2014, Nuland-Kagan run her putsch in Kiev in a tight collaboration with the members of the Ukrainian Nazi Party.
"Following the 2014 Euromaidan Revolution, members of the Social-National Party of Ukraine (Svoboda) were appointed to government positions. Some sources note laws passed between 2014 and 2022 that glorified Nazi collaborators." -- Mazel Tov, Kagans, on your stellar pro-nazism performance in Ukraine!
UKR has been on a path to ruin for 20+ years. Being friends with the USA in a corrupt cooperation always leads to destruction.
"Some Jewish individuals and groups have supported Ukraine during the ongoing conflict, including its military, which includes units like the Azov Regiment that have been accused of harboring neo-Nazi and far-right ideologies. One instance involves a photo of a representative of the Federation of Jewish Communities of Ukraine (FJCU) posing with soldiers wearing Nazi symbols on their t-shirts, who were part of the Azov Assault Brigade."
Actually, Israeli and American jews celebrated visiting Azov brigade fighters covered with tattoos of swastika: "The ADL (created in memory of a rapist and murderer Leo Frank) has declared banderites “freedom fighters” against Russia. The ADL opinions were supported by David Fishman, “a professor of Jewish History at the Jewish Theological Seminary and member of the academic committee of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.”
https://electronicintifada.net/content/israel-lobby-group-adl-rehabilitates-hitlers-accomplices-ukraine/35021
The rulers are doing better than ever. Nobody cares about the schmucks at the bottom.
Maybe the end goal is a ceasefire agreement with Russia. Putin has said that Zelensky is illegitimate, and can't sign, so getting someone new removes one obstacle. Then destroy Iran, and circle back to Russia when convenient.
I'd say time is against the Empire, that's why they are upping the stakes now even while holding few cards. China is in a very dominant position and seems to have checkmated the US. Wang Yi's comment to Kaja Kallas last week summed it up. China won't stand idly by while Russia is defeated. Even that is a slim possibility. Even defeating Iran now seems extremely unlikely.
The plan was ever always only for the Americans to intervene.
Trump's big mouth and vanity, combined with The Sunk Cost Fallacy and Russian indecisiveness, are bringing that day closer.
We won’t see the reserves until 2026 the earliest - if ever because they’re not for Ukraine. They’re “reserved” in case NATO gets stupid.
In the meantime, rotations keeps everyone fresh and gives experience to all.
>They’re “reserved” in case NATO gets stupid.
A NATO-Russia war will require ground troops only if the Kremlin finally finds it in them (which would be extremely uncharacteristic) to pre-emptively nuke Europe down to zero and then has to occupy the territory before the US can move troops across the Atlantic to deny them that advance.
In the event that the Kremlin does not pre-emptively nuke, it will be Russia that will get nuked first and will have thus lost the war, so those troops won't get a chance to even get out of their bases.
It depends on how insane the US is.
Presumably Moscow would give them a chance to sit this out with just the losses of their bases by not striking at the US mainland unless there are strikes on Russia.
In the Cold War days those were in fact the plans -- the US intended to nuke Western Germany, not Russia in case of a Warsaw Pact breakthrough. This in order to deny the Russians the spoils. But they wouldn't nuke Russia over anything in Europe, because the consequences were clear.
Nothing has changed in that basic calculus, except in the case of a first strike on Russia.
France has not left NATO.
(maus: GM troll alert).
Yes, but the US has enough nukes that are impossible to all neutralize to destroy Russia in a direct war.
The advantage it currently has is forward deployment, which allows it to think it has a real firstr strike capability (and just having the enemy think that is catastrophic from a Russian perspective).
Thus if we can end this at the point when Europe is smoked, but no nukes have hit Russian cities and there is no actual intercontinental exchange of missiles, you take it as a Russian strategic planner every time.
The world has changed. Now Russia-China-NK-IRAN-AFRICA and to a limited amount Venezuela - Cuba and some Pacific Islands have moved away from the Western Hegemony. The game is still on but the capacity has changed quite a lot. If NUKEs are used my bet would be the Israeli followed by the US.
Iirc the last two times the UK tested their sub based Nuke delivery systems (Tridents ?) it didn't go well at all. The first had to be aborted as it started heading towards Miami and not the intended target. The second, even more catastrophic, instead of travelling 3,500 miles into the mid Atlantic, it plopped uselessly, a few hundred metres from the Sub, much to the embarrassment of all, including defence minister Grant Schapps, who was aboard at the time to witness this example of Britain's Maritime prowess ahem ! Btw...I'm given to understand these tests cost £millions.
A country that can't reliably and consistently use long range missiles accurately should voluntarily give up its nuclear arsenal.
but this is kinetic war already just they limit themselves to Ukraine and Russia and the West is a bit shy as to taking part in it openly.
Watch the Kremlin, in typical fashion, welcome, legitimize and negotiate with Zaluzhny, even though he had two busts and a huge portrait of Bandera in his office, and is as fully committed an ideological Nazi as they come.
And we know this because it has been three and a half years of "denazification", but not a single Nazi has been touched in a missile or drone strike unless they happened to be at the front.
This after recognizing the immediate post-coup government in Ukraine and then Zelensky too. The track record here is impeccable, isn't it?
Meanwhile nobody dares seriously even suggest doing what really should be done, which is to tear up the Belovezha Accords, derecognize Ukraine (for which there are full legal grounds, because Ukraine declared independence on the basis of it being a neutral country, and that has been clearly violated 100% ever since 2014), then once you have done that, declare everyone in power there as guilty of grand treason, sentence them to death as such, and then carry out punishment accordingly.
But no, this is the post-1985 Kremlin, who rule #1 is that Russia is only allowed to at best lose a little bit, but never to go for any real wins. After all, it would be such a cosmic tragedy to hurt the feelings of the dear partners, wouldn't it? No, let's allow them to slaughter some more of our soldiers and civilians without a single shot being fired back, that is right and just, nothing wrong with it, but defending the country against aggression? No, we won't fall for provations, we are not like that.
I generally agree with your comment, but Russia did try to kill Zaluzhny and Budanov, but failed. There have been no attempts since.
However, Russia should be viewing Ukraine as a seperatist state.that needs to be brought back into the fold
Only rumours about that and even if true, why was it never repeated in the two years since then?
Do you have any sources? I do not think the Russian Leadership is moving towards being a rogue state; but I might be wrong.
Tim Weiner describes (a 'war on terrorism') Rakusan’s fury in the aftermath of Trump’s election, and Rakusan’s dangerous actions:
“The Russians manipulated our fucking elections,” he told them. “How do we make sure this never happens again?” He didn’t care if they didn’t speak Russian or had never set foot in Moscow. He ordered them to take their expertise in targeting and recruiting terrorists and turn it against Russian spies, diplomats, and oligarchs."
https://foreignpolicy.com/2025/07/11/cia-trump-us-intelligence-agency-spies-maga-national-security/
That is the opposite of a trustworthy source, so we should think of the opposite of what is said there.
How ironic and deceitful. The US/NATO/Europe fighting a "War on Terrorism" when they themselves are the Terrorists.
Like typical stooges, manipulated and egged on in the background by Israel, these blind mice foment Division.
And Division/Chaos is the standard needed for the survival of Israel.
Its the charge of the light brigade again from General Melschitt:”….declare everyone in power there as guilty of grand treason, sentence them to death as such, and then carry out punishment accordingly….. “blah blah.
Not even clear if it’s the Ukrainians or Russians who are guilty of “grand treason” as opposed to not so grand treason, but it doesn’t matter, just kill someone, anyone that will fix it.
Even more unhinged than usual.
Even if the SMO ends... There will be another to replace it, very tiring and predictable west-driven wars we live in.
If Zelensky is exiled, will Canada except him? Alberta? Poor chap... He actually made the work easier for the Russians -a double agent if one can attribute it.
I'm just glad there's many beautiful Slavic ladies available, ready to choose from.
>I'm just glad there's many beautiful Slavic ladies available, ready to choose from
You don't really want the ones from Ukraine, "toxic" is too weak a word to describe them in terms of their mentality, and they are not exactly beautiful anyway -- they are all still in that phase (which, thankfully, in Russia they are slowly moving away from) where they think that pumping up one's lips so that they look like a baboon's ass in heat and covering themselves in tattoos makes them prettier.
Avoid at all costs.
Wow, this time you make sense.
General Melschitt is opening a modeling agency and giving beauty tips it seems, given his gift of the gab , I can imagine them queuing around the block already
To be fair, I see more Russian women with Mick Jagger lips than Ukrainian. Tattoos are nasty, but AFACT, it's six of one half a dozen of the other.
Thank God I am a cat!
double agent for Canada - hahaha - - nah - Zelensky will go to Israel where all perverts go.
Or Argentina where all Nazis go.
Hey
the word "Nazi" itself began as a derogatory term coined by the political opponents of the National Socialist German Workers' Party (NSDAP). also, Ashkenazi, literally means. ‘Jews of Germany”, or Jews whose ancestors migrated to Europe.
The problem is the jew - always has been..
OK, so why are those two groups always in bed which each other?
Yeah - you might know this already - that crazy idiot that's running Argentina now - Milieu - or whatever his name is - is a RELATIVE of Netanyahu. Can you blieve it ? Its a bloodline family
Personally I don't care what his supposed 'blood-line' is he is another Trump.
Argentina is a country which has always been corrupt.
you don't care because the implications haven't yet dawned on you. Its a satanic cult that's running things now. Bloodliners. I mean I don't go along with all the Book of Enoch stuff about aliens - but it blew my mind when I found out they are related. ( Net and Mili ) how coincidental is that ?
Oh dear. Another Conspiracy theory.
Get a life.
Instead of running off into the realms of ridiculousness.............follow the MONEY!
Every one of you C Theorists are resisting making things better.
Ann, My guess would be London with a cushy job at the BBC, where there's enough Coke heads, Nonce's and Ponces to satisfy his needs. He could bring a few more ahem "male models" with him as a gift for our talentless PM.
‘Russia gave back 1,000 new bodies to Ukraine, and received 19 in return’
In light of this Putin will likely send some extra protection to keep Zelensky in power. It is true that the overwhelming differences in size, population and resources pushing the Ukraine war machine slowly under the water. However, it is also true that the UAF engaged in acts like Kursk for theatrical purposes to impress US/NATO and suffered substantial losses there. If Zelensky was a truly talented military leader like Trotsky, Russia would not be able to perform a steady advance without interruptions and reversals.
The Western military leadership is likely evaluating Zelensky in the same manner. At the same time, there are risks associated with his removal as Ukraine public support for the war is increasingly fragile.
As has been endlessly discussed, nothing that Ukraine does would matter if the Kremlin wanted to win this war. But it wanted, and still wants to make a deal instead of winning.
The result of which was that the war was allowed to become existential for the West too.
Which should never, ever have been allowed, but the only way to not allow it was a quick, decisivle and total win while cutting off any escalation on the part of the West immediately.
Instead we got the shit show of the last 42 months, and here we are...
On this I am in total agreement with you. I disagree with plenty of other things you say, but the result is simply as you say.
The western elites hate Russia and they use any argument, including existential threat, to legitimize the destruction of Russia.
And in that process it has become an existential threat, not for the EU, but for these same elites. A group that doesn’t care about the people, but use them to do their bidding
The western elites = jew
What jews? I know many jews who hate the western elites.
of course jews hate the goyim...
So what? It works.
Can’t understand why Russia just doesn’t hire you to head up the military and end it all before lunchtime
The disastrous strategic and tactical errors made by the UAF are the product of NATO doctrine, politics, maintaining the money laundering scheme and specifically American officers, who are in overall control of the UAF.
Our entire officer corps, Pentagon, everything within the Dept of Defense is utterly inept, incompetent and corrupt.
We created the hyper aggressive, terrorist dictatorship Kiev regime, and we have created several renditions of the UAF. The UAF is the largest NATO army in Europe. As a fighting force the 2nd best on earth after Russia's. The UAF would easily defeat NATO if they were supplied Russian arms and led by Russian General officers.
As an American, besides absolute disgust for what my government is and represents in its' present form, as to the world wide aggression and creating terror groups and regimes, is also concern as we have no coherent national defense.
We are inept, unable to pacify Yemeni warriors, (I disagree that we ever should launch missiles into their country), just this example shows we can't fight out of a paper bag if we ever were attacked by an enemy. And we are making lots of them for no reason.
Ukraine has produced excellent soldiers with famous Slavik stubbornness to fight to the end. But in this case they are being killed off by the US, just as the Germans were killed off by their regime when that war was already past being over strategically.
All those Yemeni warriors likely believe that Allah placed them at a strategic point where they can easily close traffic to the Suez Canal to revenge the constant pressure the Great and Small Satan is pushing the Muslim population around with. If America allows the closure of the straight to the Gulf of Aden the Small Satan and the Western world will both suffer major economic losses. It is an expensive conflict for the rights of the Small Satan to keep butchering various nations there, including Gaza.
Your comment accents the point that Yemeni warriors can "easily" defy both Israel and the government of the US which they purchased.
My country has such a corrupt and degraded military, technolgy and lack of strategic focus that while it might not be "easy" (it takes a lot of courage and dedication to take casualties for a campaign) for Yemen, it is feasible for them to defy the US and make the cost for us too high to pay. We simply have too many countries to invade, and not sufficient resources.
10,000,000,000,000,000 up votes!!!!!!!
the Jew problem. "your" govt is controlled by the jew.
What defeat are you talking about? Washington and London are getting the war with Russia they so desperately wanted, Russians are dying and the European stooges are full on board, ready to up their military spending and send in their soldiers to sacrifice for their geopolitical goals. It’s going exactly as planned. Sure a few million more Ukies will die in the process than they expected but they don’t matter.
The purpose for project Ukraine was never based on the absurd concept that the Kiev regime could defeat Russia in a war. Rather it addressed the need to bog Russia down along the lines of Afghanistan 2.0, to clear the decks for regime changing Iran and ultimately China.
The NATO assessment of Russias' military strength, doctrine, weapon systems, industrial arms replenishment capacity and economic strength were seriously (fatally) underestimated.
The theory of the effects of sanctions and overextension would at best cause regime change or at least mire the RF down. Our leadership is so incompetent they believed their own hype that Russia is a gas station masquerading as a country.
The narrative of massive Russian casualties is part of this hype. If true, the Russian public would lose resolve and cause internal regime change.
Of course they’re not succeeding at winning the war or getting the regime change they hoped for and they’ve driven China and Russia closer together. But in the end, Russia hasn’t liberated the Donbass yet after 3.5 years and storm shadows are flying into mainland Russia, not into London or Moscow. The neocons can just walk away from this tomorrow and all it has cost them is money that isn’t theirs anyway and leave Russia with a rogue neonazi state as a thorn in their side. It’s not as clear cut of a Russian victory as Simp and a lot of the people here make it out to be.
The Russians have not yet liberated the entirety of territory of the 4 new oblasts is true. Because rapid territorial expansion would have led to mass casualties and a remaining intact UAF Army.
It of course is arguable, but it appears the 1st goal is to eliminate the UAF as a coherent army, while eliminating the ability of NATO to effectively intervene on the ground in Ukraine while simultaneously being prepared to defend the entire border from Belarus to Murmansk from NATO aggression.
Both the US and Europe are essentially defanged, the UAF is close to complete collapse and Russia has solidified the home front of public support, built up the industrial capacity to mass produce munitions, drones and missiles while not allowing a potential nuclear exchange. This is a remarkable accomplishment.
Over reacting to missile pin prick attacks or the depraved terror attacks like Crocus City Hall could derail a very well planned strategy for long term victory.
The desperation of an unstable NATO led by narcissist incompetents with tenuous holds on power makes it very dangerous. Once the UAF collapses the RF will need to absorb lands to the Dnepr, Kharkov, Sumy and Odessa rapidly. Maybe even Kiev.
This requires mass manpower and munition reserves to advance, occupy and defend a vast area rapidly. And deal with Banderite terror groups left behind.
I fully understand my own and others frustration at the slow pace of advance, but in the big picture it makes sense. If Russia makes a strategic error of premature advances it could have catastrophic consequences.
There is rapid territorial expansion and there is losing strategic cities like Izyum and Lyman and not recapturing them after 3 years. Yet we are supposed to be excited about Russia reaching the outskirts of insignificant towns of 200 people. Or about Russia closing in on Pokrovsk which they allegedly had conquered in March of last year.
The US and NATO are not defanged, in fact the Euro lemmings will happily cut into their own social welfare programs to increase military spending to ‘defend themselves against Russian aggression’. And the UAF has been on the verge of collapse for over 3 years now. The only thing the Western media is right about is that it will take 70 years to get to Kiev at this rate.
Going in with 150 k troops and pulling out of Kiev after another empty promise in Istanbul (another Minsk) wasn’t a well planned strategy at all. A massive attack on the bridges over the Dnepr and access roads from Poland, followed by 50 Oreshkins on Lviv and Kiev would have been a much better strategy. If you fight literal neo-nazis with the full support of the Empire, you fight a war, not a SMO.
I’m not sure what catastrophic consequences you are talking about. The war is already in full flight.
After Ukraine it will be the Baltics, Poland, the Stans and if all the inferior people have been sacrificed, it will be Brits, French and German troops that will be sent to the front. They will not let up, it is a full-on war and the sooner the Kremlin realizes this, the more lives they actually save in the long run.
I wrote my substack article around the comment I made at MoA to b's article, which prompted a good discourse in the comments, https://karlof1.substack.com/p/an-as-i-see-it-moa-comment-response
The 50 day window was to buy time to pressure Russia's allies to press it to do a western favourable deal. That is all. That is the last throw of the dice here, and any verbiage saying Russia is doing worse than it might appear (on whatever metric) is aimed at said allies.
Will it work? If this was ever going to work it would have worked before Trump turned into an international cartoon, or rather, before his cartoonery went global.
Trump is a huckster who's very good at buying and selling real estate...unfortunately, Xi and Putin are highly intelligent, not suckers, and simply ignore his sales pitches and go about their business....
no - he is just a jew tool...
@Mr. John Furriskey
Trump was a huckster who fronted for large scale money laundering camouflaged as "real estate development".
Had Trump taken the $50M he borrowed from his father in 1974 and invested that in an S&P500 index fund and reinvested the proceeds, he would be richer than he is today.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/danalexander/2021/10/11/its-official-trump-would-be-richer-if-he-had-just-invested-his-inheritance-into-the-sp500/
Point being, Trump is not some spectacular businessman. He's average at best.
Trump's possessed. by Israel. Netanyahu in particular. He's not the same guy that was interviewed on 9/11 and said some intelligent things. He's just speaking on cue now like Zelensky. Its all fake.
Trump just needs to drop those golden pagers into the toilet and run as fast as he can... I do not really believe he will do it, especially now when the Epstein case is out to get him.
I actually think he's under some sort of mind control. Remember Britney Spears ? How erratic she was ( is? ) and suddenly doing this and suddenly doing that then changing her mind then attacking a car with a baseball bat. Trump acts like a baby - a real baby sometimes with Net - holding his hand and like almost kissing it. Pulling the chair out for the guy - I know we all think he's just weird- but he is not the same guy as 9/11 - where he was rational and sort of upright. Now he's nuts. or under some sort of strong mind control Someone said Net's been to the WH more times than Melania - well...if Trump's under mind control - then he needs to get ' tuned up ' every so often. It's like he doesn't even seem to have self-reflection and to see how servile he's being. No pride at all. Just erratic egoism that's not even self-conscious sometimes. The way he attacked that reporter for the Epstein Files. Maybe he's in there- but maybe there's alot of information that Israel doesn't want known...I hope its the second and I hope it gets released. Lets see more dirt on Israel - I hope they fall into the pit of fire and never come out
There is no "mind control" at play here, it's just the old standard: "Do as we say or you and your family die. On the other hand if you do exactly as we say, you and your family will get much richer."
This kind of "generous offer" works everytime.
As Andrew says above, it is not mind control, and Trump is not going to drain any swamp. He is the swamp. Read Whitney Webb's One Nation under Blackmail. It should get a Pulitzer Prize. Of course, it won't.
Trump pardoned Michael Milikan the junk-bund hustler. He did not pardon Julian Assange, Edward Snowden is still living in exile, and Jeffrey Epstein had no clients and killed himself. What more evidence do you need that the orange man is a con man- not a patriot.
I bet there is a bomb inside Trumps golden pager..It was a warning too...
Every golden pager comes with a C4 lining in there....
Trump is not possessed, he just "got the memo" when he escaped an assassination attempt by turning his head milliseconds before a bullet would have exploded his skull. He was made to understand what a POTUS really is: just an animated puppet that repeats whatever he is told to say by his puppeteers.
Trump adds his special showman sauce but the dish is exactly what he is told to serve. Plus he is getting rich(er) in the process, so no complaints there.
He is the same guy. It is just he doesn't have to worry as much about conning you anymore, because he is not up for reelection. Notice how quiet J. D. Vance has become recently. As Palantir's hustler, the job of conning the U.S. trailer park crowd will be his next.
I have the sense that Trump's age is very rapidly catching up to him. He turned 79 this month, an age a lot of men still have some years left of sharp wit and energy. But I've seen it a number of times that around this point in their lives, a lot of men quickly decline. I think within months to a year, it's going to be very visible.
50 days is kicking the can further down the road, hoping for a miracle. And in September, the mainstream will forget about the 50 days.
The culminative effects of those extreme high tariffs he is throwing around for 50 days later will decimate American imports to the point where all will scream to impeach him. Americans are tough people but when there will be no toilet paper, shoes and cheap goods on the shelves they will revolt.
I disagree. 50 days is a clue as to the time that U.S./Israel expect the pause in the Iran-Israel war to last.
People focus on Netanyahu's criminal charges as the reason that he seems in such a rush to culminate his greater Israel project as soon as possible, but I think it is because the United States of Israel (USI) feels that they cannot tie Russia up for much longer in Ukraine. I think that the entire Ukraine neo-nazi coup fiasco was done in response to Russia stymying the USI from removing Assad from power in Syria. The USI oligarchy realized that Greater Israel could not come into being so long as Russia had a free hand to support alles in the Middle East. Is it a coincidence that Israel allowed Hamas to produce a casus belli a year after Ukraine got going and Russia appeared bogged down there?
What has happened, however, is that while Ukraine may have tied up Russia, it also drained USI stockpiles necessary to defend against Iranian missiles. No one foresaw the rise of the drones and the effectiveness of Iranian long-range weapons. Ukraine now has tied the hands of USI as much as it has tied the hands of Russia. The 50-day "warning" is the expression of a hope: that the USI can get itself out of the Ukraine mess to continue the Iran war.
Great analysis.
The sequence that you describe is actually the mechanism of sleepwalking into the World War Three.
Remember, take note, expand your idea, it will be a great history book once WW3 is over.
How did US elites, merged/controlled/amalgamated with Zionists sleepwalked into WW3.
It is the book that no one has the courage to write. It is a 4-part story. 1) How Wall Street controlled U.S. foreign policy via direct bribes to politicians. 2) How the Dulles Brothers transformed the U.S. State Department and the spies from World War II into a criminal syndicate for Wall-Street crime families. 3) How Jews rose to power on Wall-Street 4) How zionist Jews, as they came into power on Wall Street, took gradual control of the crime syndicate that the Dulles brothers created and turned it from an agent of U.S. multinational corporations into an agent of zionism.
Actually, let me take that back. Whitney Webb has written at least part of this story in her One Nation under Blackmail. You should read it. Deserves a Pulitzer Prize.
in 1956 US President stopped British, French and Israelis attacking Egypt, after Naser, progressive, anti colonial leader nationalised Suez Canal.
It was normal, right thing to do, Brits, French, Israelis, retreated.
in 2024/2025 US President has to support enthusiastically Israel in genocide in Gaza, diplomatically, politically, militarily. He has no choice, Israel is supported in its genocide, by all US political parties, majority in US Congress, US media.
What happened?
J. P. Morgan and the other U.S. elite WASPs feared that European banker money (read Rothschild money) would come over and dominate U.S. markets and drive out U.S. banks. This was a major reason for the creation of the Federal Reserve... actually.
The flight of Jews from Europe in the 1930s brought a lot of Jewish money (and a lot of socialists) from Europe to the U.S. . Quietly, they began to invest and play on Wall Street.
The major universities were, in the beginning, seminary schools- Yale, Harvard, Princeton, Dartmouth (a missionary school for Indians), etc. They started off as seminaries with versions of the medieval trivium and quadrivium. As such, they were schools for Christians (which is why they did not allow Jewish students). At the same time that immigration from Europe was increasing, these became secular and allowed wealthy Jewish students to enter: creating a sort of Brahmin class of old-European Jewish money and New-England WASP money.
Between 1930 and 1990, Jews took control of more and more of the old WASP institutions. By the 1990s, this included the criminal syndicate that the Dulles Brothers had built in the CIA and State Department to support U.S. multinationals. (The Dulles Brothers had worked at Sullivan and Cromwell: the major law firm that represented U.S. multinationals and Wall-Street companies). Over the past 30 years, they have bent the goals of this crime syndicate from supporting U.S. multinationals to supporting Israel. That is the short history of the matter.
U.S. politicians have always been the pawns of money. Trump is no different. He would not be president without Adelson funding his campaign. His family is the living embodiment of the merger of WASP and Jew among New-England elites. He is not a "populist:" just a very good conman, the P. T. Barnum of the current elites.
I have book 1 and 2 and just haven't had time to read them.
Thanks for reminding me!
Well worth the time. I also highly recommend The Devil's Chessboard by David Talbot. You can skip the last 150 pages or so though when he carries on at great length about the Kennedy assassination. That part is mostly speculation, and the book falls apart. Everything up to that point is very good and well documented, however.
No, it's simply a ploy before further escalation.
The reason for the panic to remove Z and have elections is to get this going before this gangster regime is actually overthrown.
Western audiences are not being told but western intelligence knows that there is widespread swelling 'sick of this fascist regime and this war' growing ever more ominously in Ukraine. The people are terrified of the gangster regime and its heavies, but all oppressed people have a break point and there is a lot of weaponry swilling around out there. Then it really will all be over. The RF will move in to restore peace and order and then the legal claims against the west including for the return of all Russian assets, will begin, and that is what terrifies the current leaders of western europe whose only hope is to keep the war going in the hope that something will turn up to destroy Russia from within.
This is where we are.
I would add that are now resistance groups forming in Ukraine. Scattered and in 2 basic ideologies, the Bandera type of fascist and just normal people sick of the terror regime.
Just look at the recent uproar in their Parliment where a full on Bandera, original 2014 coup leader was flipping out at the corruption and how it is losing their war.
Undoubtedly Russia is going to, or more likely has already, send sabotage and training experts to assist these homegrown cells.
It started with women physically attempting to save loved ones from the press gang goons. Although the UAF is so short of human body meat for the grinder, 50K of the 100K personnel of the press gang units have already been shipped to the Line of Contact. Good place for them, karma sucks.
"Undoubtedly Russia is going to, or more likely has already, send sabotage and training experts to assist these homegrown cells. "
It's announced already that Russian SF and intelligence personnel are already in Ukraine working wit the Ukie resistance, helping with weapons, explosives, and targetting.
I can imagine different kinds of operations,.from sleeping cells, to high rank double agents, to anonimous informers, to spetnaz sabotage and reconnaissance teams... The Russian military intelligence is certainly working.
The breaking Russia scheme is gone, at least for a decade. Any country under heavy siege (call it sanctions), like Cuba, NKorea, Syria or Iran, is necessarily forced to become a centralised autocracy. Otherwise, it will be too easy to bribe civil society, influencing and political actors. So sanctions can effectively determine political changed in the target nation and the subsequent PR demonisation campaign and public mind shaping. Inversely, the target structure dont have the capacity to retaliate to the sieging power, which is a strategic advantage for the aggressor.
The British are the leading factor here. They are all about having Russia (and the Europeans) bogges down in Ukraine for ever, while they remain untouched in London, cutting deals globally through their de facto shadow colonies like Canada, Australia, Singapore and the constellation of tax havens critical for the maritime shadow empire they still rule.
The problem is Russia is not suffocating yet. The Caspian corridor, Chinese interconnexion and African operations have certainly slowed. So the British think it is a question of time and patience,.as for the USSR... There is a rock solid perception of untouchability and invulnerability in London.
The problem is that Russia is much bigger and more critical to world trade than Perfide Albion. They can cut themselves off Russian oil, gás, metais, grains and phosphates. The world literally can't afford to, not enough left to go around. This is not Iran, just the oil market that needs to be falsified to give the impression all is well. It is several major commodity markets plus some industrial markets.
The morons are just making the decades long European recession worse.
Why hasn't Russia or Hungary made 3d printer guns to send to areas where the Ukranians are grabbing men off the streets? A small single shot disposable pistol like the Liberator which was dropped all over France just before D Day. It's purpose was to allow a resistance member to approach a German solder and offer a cigarette, reach into a pocket for a light and shoot said German in the stomach and grab his rifle.
A disposable single shot dispersed thru a crowd would stop the kidnappings after just a few shootings.
Ukraine does not have a gun shortage.
If anything, it's the opposite. What it lacks is organized opposition and what it surely still has excedent of is government goons and Spies. 🤷
The last thing the WEF, EU and NATO desire is an organized political opposition.
I fear when it is all over the West will be plagued by ideological, well armed and trained, extremely violent crime cartels emitting from the Banderan territories.
Pierre-Yves Rougeyron, a top French nationalist commentator, has been beating the drum of extremely well armed and experienced crime syndicates overruning Europe since the first year of the war. Don't know if you are familiar...
I am not familiar with him. It does seem like the natural occurrence when a society collapses. We have seen it repeatedly in the past.
Looking him up right now. Thanks.
Hahaha...I was reading his wiki page. He is of course, a radical right sovereignist, such as De Gaulle, perhaps?. What we used to call in America, a Patriot.
Martin Armstrong predicts 100% war if Zelensky isn't gone in 30 days. But he thinks the Ukrainian people should vote the next one in. https://usawatchdog.com/100-chance-of-nuclear-war-martin-armstrong/ But I think Greg Hunter ( the interviewer ) is hysterical about nukes - although Martin did say very clearly that 100% war - and in other places in the interview he said of course it will go nuclear. Not a fun look going into 2026. He also said that by 2032 the US will not longer be a world power. What a relief that will be. But I wonder if I'll still be around to see it. Might get nuked.
Hi Dave. I highly doubt that if Russia used Oreshnik ( is that its real name ? Sounds Jewish ) - it wouldn't just stay there. Yeah - that is included for sure. I agree with you that Martin Armstrong is not the ultimate prophet, but he's steady. I don't like his stance on Israel and Gaza and Hamas. I stopped watching him when he called Hamas a terrorist organization. And Greg Hunter is like a woman having a hysteria attack. Always. But it reminded me of this bigger picture when I get lasidaisical about it all. Many commentators and youtubers - especailly the more military minded folks are just laughing at Trump's idiocy...not so much the nuclear picture
Wow, Martin's prediction, or at least his computer, is for a direct Russia EU conflict beginning in August and ramping up in 2026. Plausible, and his Socrates program is known to be pretty accurate. We don't have long before we know the the truth of the matter.
I hear that Russian losses have hit 120 million, and the whole country has been replaced by North Koreans.
They discovered a cache of Soviet washing machines which saved their bacon.
Hrrmpf! That’s not how all the ьаьушки see it! Have you ever washed clothes using a scrub board? Soon they will rise up and overthrow the evil российский режим.
Those aren't missiles hitting Kiev... they ran out of them 3 years ago. It's flaming arrows., yup, flaming arrows. Good long shots.
Flaming shovels
😤
I also heard that he strangled 5 puppies for every human he killed, and had poison fangs!
ROFLMAO!!
Well from western historical writings Russians seem to spawn and are not born and nurtured like actual humans. The numbers don't seem to pan out as 10s of millions of Russians die from every single malady imagined. By normal mathematical thinking from a western point of view Russians should be extinct.
Putin uses his One Ring and his agent Lukasarumen to make more by combining Finnish and captured Americans DNA. Fact.
Your sarcasm is off the charts this morning! ROFLMAO!
Tbh I hadn't expected that original comment to be so popular. Thought I'd be lucky to get 10 likes on it. :)
They are orcs remember
Can confirm. Went on a 4 year long mad vodka bender with the local brown bears in Kamchatka. When I returned to my Saint Petersburg apartment earlier this week my roommates Dima and Vanya were gone. Now I just live with 7 other guys who apparently all share the same name - Kim.
Worst thing about the whole thing though, is the change of food. The hangovers from a 4 year long bender can sometimes be extreme, and I usually cure them with salo, pickles and Olivie salad. These foods are all gone though! Only thing we have now is Kimchi, and it sure as hell doesn´t cure any hangovers.
The positive thing is though, that the Kamchatka brown bears have invited me for another wild vodka trip in the woods. Maybe in 4 years when I come back once again, the Kims will be gone, and replaced by Indians. Then I can cure my hangovers with Tikka Masala and Butter Chicken. That would be great.
Sorry for the long post. Just OSINT from the ground here in Saint Petersburg - or Saint Pyongyang as we call it now.
You are a lier , obviously.
Kimchi indeed cures hangover. American spy you are
At least good for biome and keeping one regular - at least w flatuance.
Mix the Kimchi with eggs... that'll help
Dear heavens! I can't believe the Ukrainians have liquidated 1.2 Billion Russians already! Truly, the brilliant, omniscient minds of the West will rule us all, forever and ever!
Hyderabadi biryani, sobriety and a good fire in a cold forest, no high no dip! Tranquility!
“A big part of the enemy’s success is the lies in reports from the field about the real state of affairs,"
Well this dynamic is hardly limited to military affairs. Sending BS up the chain of command will sink us.
The ability to turn these lies into MSM truth is a bottomless sinkhole. WMDs, unprovoked aggression or my favorite, safe and effective, to name a few.
Trump's spiel is part of the process. He is, (perhaps intentionally), discrediting the whole system. He is always saying something that some one wishes was true, soon thereafter it's false. He is the ultimate shit disturber.
The lesson is clear, you can not trust your own eyes or ears. I submit if you cannot smell reality, your best read is skepticism.
The topic is loyalty. Can our heroes visit honesty and then revert to evil, repeatedly? Ray McGovern comes to mind. Contrast him with Elon Musk. All to say my trust is mainly in my immediate friends, but Scott Ritter is hard to dismiss.
I would be remiss to not put in a good word for Simplicius! We are all human, the devils have a lot of tricks and lots of resources. Yeah most of us are human is more accurate.
Had a learning experience just last night. Years ago would have flown into a rage and ended a situation. Losing yet another friend. Let my anger go and kept a friend. Feels like wisdom, finally!
What is it that makes us do these things. There's someone in my head but it's not me?
The sarcasm is palatable
Did they bring their washing machines with them?
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣... 👍🏽
Excellent sarcasm, ROFL!!
LOLs
🤣🤣🤣😂😂😂🍻
"Trump is still blind, deaf, and dumb" - perfectly said. Trump has NO CLUE. (even though he spoke 5 times with Putin!)
Do any of you have any idea of the TRUE numbers of losses until now?
Ukraine = 1,200,000 losses
Russia = 140,000 losses
or something along these lines?
* * *
I have seen many numbers floating around - from Col. MacGregor, Scott Ritter and others - but still nothing certain.
If the numbers above are about right, this means an 8:1 ratio - nothing like that has ever been seen in any War.
Those would be my ballparks too. And it's worth bearing in mind those are BEFORE the attrition collapses the Ukr army.
Once the poor conscripts are in full retreat, with no weapons or even full uniforms left... dear god.
And still the "European powers" (Incl USA) will not let them surrender. Zaluzhny will conscript down to 18, and soon enough the women - the ones so far fortunate enough not to be conscripted into the Western sex-trade - will join them.
These are the real "Western values" the Global South remember well. And the plan was to use the same tactics and mentality upon the Russians against China, if Russia had lost.
I agree Gnuneo. We think along the same lines. I believe the total collapse of the UkroNazi army will happen in a few months.
Attrition = destroying the Military Force of the opponent, which is what Russia is doing very successfully. When the Ukr army collapses, it will happen suddenly, and Russia will take EVERYTHING East of the Dniepr, plus Odessa, in a matter of days, with little or no resistance from what will be left of the Ukr Army.
* * *
About Lindsey "Linda" Graham: why is he so obsessed with Ukraine?
I wonder if Zelensky or Budanov have compromat photos/videos of Lindsey Graham having homo-sex with some Ukrainian male prostitute - Linda Graham was in Ukr in Dec. 2016
What do you think?
That would explain A LOT -->> wouldn't it?
It certainly would, and so would normal greed of the psychopathic mind. I mean, he's obviously a psychopath. And he'll have enormous amounts of shares in the weapons industries. And possibly even invested heavily in the expectation that Russia would lose (Like the C of London also did).
I wouldn't be surprised if he has mafia contacts, which is why he's never seriously challenged in his state.
Anyone who thinks elections will be held before the war comes to an end is a fool.
First of all, the law would have to be modified to ALLOW them to happen in the first place. And what is the justification for this modification? What circumstances allowed an election to take place in wartime? This would be extremely hard to explain AND it would open the door to a legal attack on why Z's mandate continued way past its normal expiration date (May 2024!).
Secondly, once you open the gates, now the candidates will be able to start attacking one another AND Zelensky's track record. All kinds of suppressed opinions would suddenly be permissible, including online. People will start getting angry at the existing government (or be allowed to express that anger).
Third, election rallies (in-person meetings) would further inflame the country. If Zelensky runs for re-election, what's to stop supporters of another candidate from clashing with them during a rally? Remember, the EU/USA will be watching all this, so sloganeering, pamphlets, billboards, rallies, etc will permit grievances to be aired for the first time (w/o risk of arrest and SBU torture, etc).
Fourth, if circumstances permit a presidential election, why not also parliamentary elections? Even MORE room for chaos, esp with new parties seeking to be registered, previously banned ones applying to be unbanned, etc. Plus oligarchs making new backroom deals, etc. How "democratic" will Ukraine look if a bunch of parties get/remain banned? Can Ukraine really afford the media spotlight on how much of a shambles its "democratic processes" are?
Fifth, elections cost a LOT of money. Who's gonna pay for that? Somebody, somewhere is gonna have to cough up at least 100 million USD, and even if donors can be found, that's 100 million that isn't going to weapons or salaries, etc. And it's much harder to steal election money so no one's pockets are getting lined. Plus, think of all the foreign election observers running around, including journalists, NGOs, etc. No telling what they might see or witness.
Sixth, a whole lot of rigamarole would have to go into maintaining the fiction that the elections are also "taking place" in Crimea, Kherson, LPR, etc., to say nothing of front-line cities and towns. Logically, it's impossible to hold elections in territory you don't control, but they'll be forced to pretend like they're going through with it on some level. Could lead to ballot stuffing, could lead to all kinds of problems.
Seventh, any candidate who says they're in favor of demobilizing soldiers will easily be the most popular. Whether or not it actually ever happens, just mentioning it will shift the Overton window on the topic
Eight, how are they gonna handle the diaspora vote? Remember, there are a lot of Ukrainians abroad who have irregular paperwork due to being denied consular services because of all the military conscription rules, etc. Definitely NOT gonna be easy to organize the diaspora vote and establish rules for eligibility, especially for parliamentary voting.
Nah. Not gonna happen.
How many times did the U.S. replace the government of South Vietnam? How many elections were there in South Vietnam? Diem-Vinh-Khanh-Ky, with several failed coups, partial coups, military councils, and other various interim arrangements. There were no elections: just endless coups by military and intelligence officers working with various members and factions of the CIA. Expect something similar as Ukraine collapses.
Axtually, they had "elections" in South Vietnam.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Elections_in_South_Vietnam
Not that it mattered.
Yep. The Ukranian regime has reached the all or nothing point, like in Syria, where the only possible development was regime change. None of the existing western looted Blackrock contracts should be respected. In the meantime, Moscow is not reluctant to keep the Ukranian financial black hole swallowing another western trillion dollars...
As far as the diaspora vote, I read somewhere that refugees who fled west can vote through the Ukraine embassy in the respective country. Refugees who fled east are just sh*t outta luck.
The cost of the elections is a rounding error for the NED. Also, the NED will be carefully supervising the election to ensure the proper outcome.
Law is meaningless. In Ukraine, the law is whatever the Americans say it is at that moment.
Hell, Zelenskii was talking about holding elections in 2023 in exchange for a small $5B aid package. The law hadn't changed since then. And no, censorship would not be relaxed.
A so-so Sitrep…
Many ”sources” says Zelensky is an obstacle but no one explain why. What will change when Zelensky is gone??? And if he is an obstacle for both Russia and US/NATO - why is he still alive?
Zelensky, the talking Puppet, is managed by Yermak. Yermak got rid of the Meme Umerov and put in the even worse Shmyhal. The Tribe is consolidating power. With or without Zelensky.
Trump is not ignorant and out of clue why this War started and the root causes. He and Vance lectured EU/NATO the first weeks of the Presidency. It is all on records.
What Trump has experienced is the famous quote (slightly changed):
”You can take the Blob out of the Swamp, but never get the Swamp out of the Blob.
>What will change when Zelensky is gone???
Well, let see.
Zelensky is a paid actor playing a role.
Zaluzhny is an actual ideologically committed Banderite.
Hmmm, things will be so much better with Zaluzhny, wouldn't they? What could possibly go wrong here?
Zaluzhny is the little brits assets for sure. But all these ”rumours” are not naming Zaluzhny…He is a brute military commander with brain damage from the Russian bombing attempt. If Ukraine need a Dictator he will fit.
Yermak is the Brain and Zelensky the Mouth - sort of Mad Max Thunderdome with the little gnome under the helmet…
The rumourings purpose is press Zelensky, nothing more. He just stated that he want to meet Putin….
Instead of speculating about the Clown we should discuss the non-summer-offensive.
>the non-summer-offensive
Yes, indeed.
But then people have been waiting for an offensive since December 2022. Remember those days?
Yet the only major offensives have been by NATO. Offensives in plural, let's stress that.
Yes. Russia is doing it really slow. Even if they accelerate they will not reach Dnieper until 2029… But then all pro-russians are talking about, ”hey it is not a territorial war”. All I see is territory thinking and acting.
Meanwhile the mean little brits has their plan to insert a 50 000 strong peace-keeping force of LBTQ-approved servicemen whenever a ceasefire is reached. And Merz the new born revanchist is trying to trick Russia to swallow Taurus hitting Frunzenskaya Embankment, 22 and other key buildings in Moscow.
I dont know who are the dumbest on the scene but I am pretty feed up with this shitshow. Money back, please.
yeah - there aren't alot of choices.. I mean the people actually did vote Zelensky in - btw - is Kolomoisky in prison in Ukraine ?
one jew or another jew. why so many jews in the Ukrainian govt?
" In fact, another round of new body exchanges has shown casualty disparities continuing in the stratospheric range, as Russia gave back 1,000 new bodies to Ukraine, and received 19 in return:
Here we have the insanity, the inhumanity, madness & brutality of war. Described in bodies. Bodies torn asunder, dismembered, crushed & blown into fragments. They are bodies now, scraps of flesh & bone & blood & gore, but were human beings, people, loved ones just a tiny while ago. But we're 'winning'. More bodies. So all good then?
Some say we're only a short way into this Kali Yuga, the Iron Age of no reason, ungodliness, untruth, lies; of selfishness, greed, ignorance & inhumanity.
Can someone point me to the exit? I don't like this place. I want out.
"Last thing I remember
I was running for the door
I had to find the passage back
To the place I was before
"Relax," said the night man
"We are programmed to receive
You can check out any time you like
But you can never leave"
Now I'm gonna have Don Felder and Joe Walsh's guitar outro in my head the rest of the day.
Thanks, LOL.
Many insights in your comment, particularly. ."It requires a total wake up and for that to happen Humanity needs to en-masse take on board the full Strongs` meaning of the word "Apocalypse"
As humanity we are close to the abyss, but few realize. Apocalypse is not new, over countless Ages, but hidden by our forgetfulness - and lies & deception by those who do know.
There are no accidents in the Universe; we are here for good reason but can change the future, our future reality, by action in the present moment. It's up to us.. but not looking promising at this late stage of the game..
All part of the greater test.. in the "Worlds" system built on "sin", or
as I sometimes call it... "hell"
where are you going to go? :)
Answer 1. Sark, Channel Islands is a nice spot, if you don't mind walking
Answer 2. I'm looking for a rope out of the swamp, have you spotted one? Oh wait! the rope is with-in...I'd best focus there..
“Can someone point me to the exit? I don't like this place. I want out.”
There’s only one exit. And it’s not death, which is just the transition to another existence in the rounds of rebirth, with no guarantees that it will be the same as or better that the present one. The Eightfold Noble Path is the method, Nirvana is the exit.
You’re welcome.
"So I say to you -
This is how to contemplate our conditioned existence in this fleeting world:
Like a tiny drop of dew, or a bubble floating in a stream;
Like a flash of lightning in a summer cloud,
Or a flickering lamp,
an illusion,
a phantom,
or a dream.
So is all conditioned existence to be seen."
Thus spoke Buddha. (Diamond Sutra)
"Some say we're only a short way into this Kali Yuga, the Iron Age of no reason, ungodliness, untruth, lies; of selfishness, greed, ignorance & inhumanity."
I asked Perplexity.ai to elaborate on the Pluto return in the USA's natal chart. The answer here without any editing on my part.
## The Meaning of a Pluto Return in the USA Chart
A **Pluto return** occurs when the planet Pluto comes back to the same position in the sky that it occupied at the time of a nation's founding. For the United States, this return marks a cosmic milestone about 248 years after July 4, 1776, and has major astrological significance for the country.
### What Is a Pluto Return?
- **Frequency:** About every 248 years, a Pluto return can only happen for long-standing entities—countries, rather than individuals, since humans don't live long enough to experience one personally[1][2][3].
- **USA Details:** For the U.S., Pluto returned to 27 degrees Capricorn, the exact spot it held in the Declaration of Independence chart.
- **Timing:** The exact Pluto return periods for the United States took place in 2022, with residual effects spanning several years[1][3][4].
### Symbolic Themes of a Pluto Return
Pluto is widely regarded astrologically as the planet of:
- **Transformation and Rebirth:** Signals deep, foundational change across systems, beliefs, and structures[3][5][4].
- **Endings and New Beginnings:** Indicates the close of major cycles and the emergence of new paradigms, often felt as a "death" of the old to clear space for renewal[1][3].
- **Power and Shadow:** Exposes hidden issues like corruption, inequality, or collective wounds so they may be confronted and healed[1][5][6].
- **Accountability:** Brings up crises or challenges regarding power, money, values, and national identity, especially relevant since Pluto sits in the USA's second house, which governs these themes. Capricorn's influence relates to authority, government, and social structures[5][4].
### How Does This Affect the USA?
During the Pluto return, the United States is thought to experience:
- **A Reckoning of National Values:** Long-standing national issues—related to money, justice, power, and inclusiveness—are exposed, forcing collective reflection and potential reform[7][8].
- **Political and Social Upheaval:** The period is marked by instability, challenges to the status quo, and significant power shifts. Issues such as racial unrest, economic inequality, and political division may intensify under Pluto's influence[4][6].
- **Potential Rebirth:** After the upheaval, there can be regeneration, with opportunities for healing and rebuilding stronger foundations suited for the country's next chapter[1][9][6].
### Astrologers' Perspectives
- Some see the Pluto return as analogous to a nation’s **"midlife crisis" or rebirth event**, a cosmic prompt to address core weaknesses and embrace necessary transformation.
- Historic Pluto returns for other nations have coincided with major governmental or societal changes, including the ascension and fall of empires[3][2].
### In Summary
The USA's Pluto return is an astrological period of **profound transformation**, characterized by the exposure of deep-rooted national issues and the potential for rebirth. It invites the country to reflect on its values, confront and reform its shadow side, and lay the groundwork for a new era era[1][3][4].
For the sake of brevity I excluded the footnotes. OR22
"This is not an exit."
You are here for a reason. Seems you have an intuitive understanding, keep building on that...
Most are lost.
For the very few.... Some are healers, maybe a seer. or will be a witness of it all.
Buddhist POV:
The "Shurangama Sutra," attributed to the Buddha, is a significant text in Mahayana Buddhism. It discusses various aspects of Buddhist philosophy, meditation, and the nature of reality. The term "Saha" refers to the world of endurance or the world of human beings, characterized by suffering and impermanence.
In the context of the "Shurangama Sutra," the Saha world is often depicted as a place where beings experience the consequences of their actions (karma) and where they can cultivate wisdom and compassion. The sutra emphasizes the importance of understanding the nature of this world to attain enlightenment. It discusses the challenges faced by beings in the Saha world, including distractions and attachments, and offers teachings on meditation and the path to liberation.
The sutra also highlights the potential for awakening and realization within this world, encouraging practitioners to engage deeply with their experiences and to seek the truth beyond the illusions of the material world. Overall, the "Shurangama Sutra" presents the Saha world as a crucial arena for spiritual practice and transformation.
Question posed to duck.ai: "What did Charles Luk in his book titled Shurangama Sutra have to say about the Saha world of human beings?
According to Hindus, we already are in the Kali Yuga.
As I understand it - and there are a couple of versions - we're about 5,000 years into the Kali Yuga with, and I stand to be corrected, well over 300,000 years to go. The Yugas are immensely long, the Kali being, I think, the shortest.
It seems you can opt out at any time but have to do the work first - work on yourself. It isn't easy...eye of the needle & all that.. But the option - coming back again & again to an ever worsening situation is not palatable. I see Mankind at this time as a collective Prodigal Son..we're still on the outer and a long way from 'home'.
It would help if we stopped killing each other..at least a step in the right direction.
For some reason Krishna's speech to Arjuna comes prominently to mind.
The Russian leadership should have taken it to heart. Do your duty, follow the dharma and without regard to consequence.
Thanks, I think?
Hersch is a moron, he's a just a tool of one faction in Washington. Imagine printing that point about 2M Russian casualties without trying to properly corroborate it independently yourself? Or any of the stuff he gets fed.
On top of that, he openly writes from the position of being Team USA... if you're a journalist you shouldn't be on any team, you should be completely neutral in your reporting. That's what made me stop reading him years ago, he has these 'great sources' but absolutely zero perspective outside of his bubble. Reading Sy Hersch is both infuriating and embarrassing.
But Hersh has special secret sources in the CIA don't ya know. The CIA leaks what serves the CIA. Lay down with dogs and get up with fleas. I imagine Hersh has an itch or two to scratch.
Sy Hersh is old, and doesn't have the time/energy to run down corroborations, so he just repeats his sources verbatim.
That said, the important thing here is that he states both US *and* British sources are giving this same number, which means it is the number being fed to *all* NATO politicians and they are the ones still agitating against Russia.
Yes, Hersh was in his prime during Vietnam war - that's 50 years ago. Not so much anymore, he should have retired 3-4 years ago if the wanted to keep his reputation intact, now he seems like a senile idiot or intel stooge.
He has recently embarrassed himself by writing total crap seemingly fed straight to him from US Intel agencies, like the ridiculous 'Ukrainian sailboat team blew up Nord Stream pipeline' yeah, right, everyone knows it was US operation and USS Kearsarge was involved.
Because he is a CIA propagandist. If he were actually providing anyone any information that the CIA did not want released, he would be living in exile in Russia right now, after fleeing the U.S. and having his passport revoked.
Precisely so.
I have reached the same conclusion. Even with conflicting intel reports in the NYT and WaPo…he couldn’t quite grasp the reality of the Crocus City attack.
Because he doesn't think, and he has no imagination.
He allows no commenting on his substack posts…. Probably couldn’t handle the pushback.
The question that should be asked is, what methodology is used to tabulate Russian losses by western sources? As other than figures pulled from the imagination, narratives or from the derear. No other credible sourcing seem to present any logic to what is presented.
I think Russia might be able to give an answer to the Russian losses, but Ukraine is so corrupt that there is for sure a big number of soldiers already dead, missing, captured, or simply run away still shown as active, and commanders receiving money to pay these soldiers. And the money ends in the pocket of the corrupt officers.
Well Russia holds all the major battle fields since the beginning of the conflict. So logically Russia counts the dead.
The methodology used by the West is called " Thumbsuck Propaganda", a mechanism under which the Ukraine and West can hide their disastrous failures momentarily.
All publicly stated Russian losses have been from data Ukranians have provided. I know of no exceptions.
The problem with ultimatums (Trump) that they're always more dangerous for the issuing than the receiving side. Trump must follow up on his threat or end up looking like a fool.
he is doing the latter on all fronts, it seems.