“Zelensky's situation can be compared to the humiliation of the King of Prussia, who in 1807 was ordered to stand on the bank and wait for Napoleon and Tsar Alexander to meet on a raft on the river in Tilsit.”
Also, I think Simplicius has a X account. Maybe he posts there before he sends out the substack posting This would allow Cheets time to prepare his post before the substack hit. Or maybe you should just ask Cheets how he does it?
It is a silly contest to feel proud of winning. Cheetos wins for content quality. Actually reading the post gets points. Typos are frowned upon.
Anticipating Simplicius' next article and having some substantive comment or major agreement available to immediately slap down, that would deserve some honor.
Not sure if got first but near once or twice, I obviously have my silly moments.
Separating Great Power relations from the literal war in Ukraine, DJT has moved his team to normalize engagement w/ Russia. As long as the U.S. remains involved in Ukraine, the U.S. remains Zelya’s largest sponsor. The sooner we stop flooding the zone w/ aid—a forever war w/ perpetual funding—the sooner the AFU will lose its combat worthiness. The EU can’t keep this thing going. OTAN, led by Collective Biden, pushed this war on Russia. Crippled & hamstrung by various hoaxes, we’ve lived from one limited hangout to the next, some even segueing seamlessly into each other, a mind-numbing mesmeric sequence of civic bamboozlement: Russiagate, the actual origins of the pandemic, the efficacy of the vaccines, the reasons for the war in Ukraine.
We’ve been steeped in *fakes* for years. The BBC and Politico and Das Bild and Le Monde and the nytimes and The Economist and the WaPo lied to us about this war. And don’t get me started on the FT. At the MSC, Gen Kellogg told Sykorski about a certain kind of settlement, which Sykorski, engaging in a high-level game of Telephone, then told the press “was quite interesting,” without going into any details about the settlement. When Lavrov asked Rubio about it, Rubio told him it was “fake.”
Enter Zelya: “I would like to have more truth with the Trump team,” the Usurper of Kiev said in response to DJT’s assertions that “Ukraine started the conflict.” Zelya accused DJT of “living in a disinformation space” and in a “circle of disinformation.”
Look out, Zelya. Don’t act like you haven’t sat atop a heap of Truth Decay in Ukraine since at least 2019, if not before. While the RF has been mulching the AFU on the LOC, you have rushed your guys into the mayhem: ‘there to die.’
Moreover, on 19 February Kekkius Maximus took to X to blame Zelya for the death of Coach Red Pill, Gonzalo Lira: “Zelensky killed an American journalist!”
Lira moved to Ukraine in 2010 and had been covering the SMO from his apartment in Kharkiv, sometimes stepping out on the balcony w/ his still-recording laptop in order to smoke a cigarette. Lira was Russophilic, funny and insightful. Sirens warning of air raids sometimes went off during his Round Table sessions, and he vlogged on nonetheless.
Ukraine’s secret service arrested him just before Bakhmut fell in 2023, and he was held in a local jail, where he was tortured by fellow inmates, until he was released in July 2023 under house arrest to await a trial. Instead of sticking around, Lira hopped on his motorcycle and headed for Hungary but was apprehended trying to cross the border. Incarcerated once more, he was tortured in custody and died of untreated double pneumonia. His father, Gonzalo Sr., angrily called out Collective Biden for “giving at least tacit approval for Gonzalo’s death.”
On the day of judgement when secrets are revealed & the obscure is made plain, the State Department docs on this will be enlightening, to say the least. DOGE will dredge them up.
Berletic, The Duran gents, Larry Johnson, Garland Nixon, Yves Smith, Mark Sleboda, History Legends, Dima, Weeb Union and others sat around Lira’s Round Table in those unnerving early days of blue & yellow propaganda saturation in the West when we clung fiercely to alternative views. Lira’s Round Table was *the* free speech emporium.
He was something else, was he not? An amazing human, a full blown character, living a life shining the light onto the darkness, while many dare not. 🙏🏼
I am speculating with some ray of hope that we are watching just a small portion of the judgement pour out. It will get worse and worse as they try to hide. Others don't realize there is no where to go.
Jer 23:23 Am I a God who is only in one place and cannot see what they are doing? 24 Can anyone hide from me? Am I not everywhere in all of heaven and earth?
I find the *mysterious irony* that a teenager employed by Musk is taking a wrecking ball to the Western idols just in time to save teenagers in Ukraine. A remnant will remain, let us hope they live to their potential.
My God he loved to smoke, can picture him grinning away in heaven. With a smoke!
One has to admire those who have gone against the narrative. Viktor Orban suddenly goes from shit disturbing nincompoop to top of class.
Those who admire and obey Klaus Schwab and Zelenskyy suddenly emerge as what they have obviously been all along.
Abundantly self evident, where has this now instantly obsolete narrative taken us? Will the Emperor's new clothes suddenly reappear? I don't stink so!
Mattias Desmet must have a lesson on what to do with Billions of people suddenly waking up from Mass Formation. The only menu item dished out gives them cognitive dissonance. TRUTH
Is the European vision the same old paradigm? Give all the most evil Banderites sanctuary in all the obscure corners of the world, for doing such a good job blocking the "brave" Ukrainians, while sending even more Slavs to their inevitable fate. Will they ever really cancel operation paperclip?
One thing is for sure Tattoo removal stock will go up faster than big pharma is going down. Banderites love their body 'art'.
Lira🙏 the mention of his name brings up…so much, good, bad, or yet, middle path. He was a joy, to watch, his energy, the smoke, the coffee…takes me to a time beyond the “far~see; again, condolences to his loved ones. Not one to ever miss his round table gatherings; the bright bulbs, yup. The Love Revolution continues, sigh… thru the “years yet” of undeniable diving deep, shadow work is afoot, perhaps a turn of another few decades, centuries….carry on, my peeps, God Speed. The Sun will rise in the East, and… set in the West. 🌅❤️🐈⬛
I used to watch Gonzalo's round tables. He wasn't saying anything different than most of us who knew what was going on, saying, but he dared to say it from Kharkiv. I hope his family sues Nuland/DoD/StateDept into oblivion for what "happened" to Gonzalo. The Ukrainian prison guards, paid by our American taxes, killed an American! SHAME!
They are already history legends, not to mention Mosgovoy, Motorola, Givi, Zakharchenko, Castillo, Bentley and all the first hour fallen heros of the Donbass. They all died, tragically, for the good fight. Concerning Lira, I kind of agree with S. Ritter. His chutzpa was almost suicidal.
Very well said… I doubt the administration will spend DOGE energy on casting light on the atrocity and complicity of USA in “permitting his death” — if not actually ordering it… remember the black female drug using basketball player the U.S. spent lots of energy to get returned to the U.S.? There was NO effort to get a truth-teller (Lira) returned… soooo sad… RIP Gonzalo.
David Sacks post on X: "Gonzalo Lira was an American citizen arrested in Ukraine for posting YouTube videos critical of the Zelensky regime. He then died in a Ukrainian prison, exactly as he predicted in his last public statement. Dictator is as dictator does."
How to bring free speech back to life? Gonzalo is disposed of, but Gates, with so many others, live on, resplendent in glory, bought with the blood of innocents and the duped.
I stopped watching Scott Ritter after he went berserk on Gonzalo being CIA/whatever plant. It was so ridiculous/vicious trying to tear him apart without any evidence, and at the time when each voice against this war was scarce and mattered.
Who is without sin? Those who got cancelled in the early days have way more credibility. Went looking for this recently and was amazed at all the cancel devices deployed still to stop you from seeing this. Finally found it, not so obvious.
If you have never heard of Building #7 or event 201, where this clip starts, do indulge yourself. You will see what created our hesitancy. These were some of the voices shouting, he's naked!
Some of us found it easy--like second nature--not to be Regime Media sell-outs. We fended off the blue & yellow propaganda, continued to gather information, synthesize details and documents--and we kept a shiny edge on our critical thinking skills.
Some of us might have gone too far. Those sources who never felt the censorship blade are no longer valid to me! Those, many now dead, who felt the sting of injustice will live forever in our minds.
There will be a new industry to erase ones errors and jump on the new bandwagon. Did you get your shots is already a loaded question? One could say, stay the hell away from my daughter, with a certain new conviction.
We have the smallest foot in the door of a return to sanity. The legacy of genetic modification and Wi-Fi interference raise valid concerns.
The eagerness to mandate proven poison and endless wars begs many questions. What else did they slip past the regulators and how many kill switches have yet to be triggered just for starters?
Is Epstein really dead? It is not a moot point. Who actually blew up Nordstream is #1! As Lavrov said on arrival to the 1st of the new talks, "and for your actions, you have to answer".
Did you catch the short (~30 second) video of the street side of Building 7 showing the damage? Only ran across it one time a week or so after, then 'never again'. That video is one of the reasons I tend to discount popular narratives.
We have now seen an irreversible turnaround from the US. Hope it lasts all the way. Feels like forces are now mobilizing to "remove" Trump. Good article, Simplicius!
I agree and share your hopes Mikey. The words: Feathers & Ruffled spring to mind, plus Wailing, Gnashing Teeth and Rending of Hair. Would love to be a fly on Madame Fond of Lyin's wall.
Yes. It is hard to grasp how the European leaders and especially, the unelected, EU leaders are thinking. Didnt they all hear Nuland 2014 say: F’ck Eu?
Merkel confessed that Minsk 2 was just hoax to give Ukraine time to build up its army so we know they have done dirty games for years. But it was Obama/Hillary/Nuland and then Biden who masterminded the provocations which led to Russias invasion 2022. EU stood by looking amazed and shocked. UK was of course instigating turmoil by themselves since 2014 and then the notorius operation ”Derail Peace” from Boris Johnson.
But when War broke out all the EU reacted as a herd of sheeps and now they have been running around for 3 years bleating. All of the sudden a new reality is forming and why dont they just take a deep breath and then say: Ok, we got fooled.
Is frau Leyen even thinking or is she driven by some sort of Russiahate?
there's several layers of EU, its unelected leaders being one of them. 'us plebs' don't want war and might not even see Russia as an enemy. then there are the farmers protestiing plus we're the ones trying to deal w/the consequences of unvetted immigration on a daily basis, not team Von der Leyen. so whatever Frau Ursula c.s. are thinking, it's only the top layer of the curdling.
Useless Ursula has the advantage of wasting 37 nations common taxes on whatever she wishes. I, as a deplorable taxpayer, in one of these countries cant do much other than what I am doing. Protesting without resorting to violence.
Please don't forget why Europe has so many immigrants. There are a majority from the Middle East or thereabouts thrown out of their homes by US bombs and Israeli missiles. American drones killed anyone that moved whether or not you were an enemy. Europe has the US to thank fr being overrun!
Maybe, just maybe, any overt attempt to remove Trump will get the appropriate response, rather than the usual useless "conservative" posturing of "no, I meant I dare you to cross THIS line!".
I think the removal will be another means. Whenever Tulsi cuts CIA in thousand pieces and Musks autistic artists comb through Pentagons dark budgets the Deep State will strike back. 5,56, 7,62 or 9mm. Or probably a false-flag Iran drone attack.
There will be a Great Power detente. If Russia returns to the dollar system they get a release of money, dropped sanctions, desired outcomes in Ukraine, and US business investment. US asks for an end to war, withdraws US troops to Western Europe, and asks for lower global oil prices to satisfy U.S. consumers on inflation. US gets the Americas, China gets Asia, Russia gets referendums in Ukraine and 4 Oblasts, plus the Eurasia Heartland. US gets a freeze on Iran pressure on Israel. Russia gets Western Africa/Sahel. Together they all destroy globalists and return to great power nationalism.
How did the Cold War detente work out in the end for the USSR?
You can never make deals with the Anglo-Saxons, all such deals are temporary ceasefires allowing them time to regroup and attack you again when you are least prepared.
The last four centuries have shown that very clearly.
>If Russia returns to the dollar system they get a release of money, dropped sanctions, desired outcomes in Ukraine, and US business investment
All of these are bad for Russia:
1) Dollar system. Why would they want to return to that? It is a mechanism of neocolonial extraction of real wealth out of other countries. Would any elite that should not be facing a firing squad for grand treason voluntarily participate?
2) Sanctions are good for the Russian economy and society -- it is forced re-shoring and forced re-industrialization, both of those badly needed. No sanctions means a reversal of those positive trends.
3) The "desired outcomes" are desired by the Russian elites. But very bad for Russia. The **necessary** outcome is to take over the whole of Ukraine. The Kremlin has been stalling for three years precisely in order to make yet another shitty for Russia deal with the next administration that will not solve anything and place the country in an even worse situation in the future (as all previous such deals did).
4) "US business investment" is another word for neocolonial subjugation. Russia doesn't need foreign investment, it is the richest country on the planet.
Stop with the negativity. You can't have the whole Ukraine because past kieve , they HATE Russians. you will probably get more than four oblasts plus Odessa. Russia won't abandon BRICS. It offers security. You are already proving to be wrong so far. So maybe instead of mouthing out, listen , watch and learn
Maybe they'll throw a curveball and announce China or North Korea will take full ownership of Ukraine to create a neutral buffer zone. Then just send in a few million single Chinese men to run the place.
Something about Kissinger? My enemies, my friends…or a favorite partial quote from an author I enjoy, Klarissa Pinkola Estes, (spelling); leg trap, foot holds, beware. Women Who Run With Wolves, a great read along the good red road…❤️🐈⬛
Of course a possibility. Trump backing proposed “anti-semitism” legislation is not a good sign.
Reversing the overweening power of the jews in the west (and possibly even in Russia) is impossible now. Their power can only be contained in certain areas.
That’s why the world must bifurcate economically — into the healthy and living world, and the infected and dying west.
Clearing around a blazing forest fire…let it burn itself out while we watch.
G'day Archie, have you seen the polls done in Isreal re slaughter of Palestinians in Gaza. It is very strongly supported also the removal of Palestinians from Gaza is the same. So Isreali Jews seem wedded to Zionism whilst the Jews residing elsewhere less so.
Draw from that what you will. Yet there is a strong correlation between Zionism and Judaism as their scripture are used by Zionists to support their position. Secular Jews are certainly another kettle of fish.
They will not "return to the dollar" per se. They were cut off and they're getting the ability to trade in USD back.
What that basically means is, they will be able to trade post-sanctions with the US using the USD, in the same way they're trading with BRICS nations using their own national currencies. They will continue to do that.
They pretty much said this already.
For some reason I expect Trump to get the US closer to BRICS or even try to join. Because it's good for business and, honestly, could be better for the US than to remain in their collapsing empire pretending the economy is doing well.
Russia has spent the greater part of a decade immunizing itself against the USD. Little did they (or anyone) think that the west would seize Russia’s Central Bank deposits in western banks.
Trump will be gone in four years. I expect the western banking system is planning new dirty tricks.
Imperative to follow two (non-Jewish) thinkers on this: Richard Werner and Kathleen Tyson, who’ve seen and done almost everything in banking (Werner with the Bank of Japan, Tyson with the NY Fed).
If Russia goes back to the US dollar trading system it will immediately create an inflation crisis that could potentially crash the Russian economy. Russia is on a path from which they cannot retreat without very serious consequences. What will happen to the massive amounts of Rubles created to fund the conflict by the Russian Central bank? Creating a demand for dollars in Russia would plumet the value of the Ruble and destroy faith in the currency.
Good point. The Russian economy did so well because of the sanctions. All the products that were imported had to be made in Russia; as the Oligarchs could not spend their money on crazy Western luxury products, there was enough money to build all these new facilities. It would be interesting if the Oligarchs injected the money in the form of loans or in the form of shares (bank loans were not used). It would be interesting too if these new facilities are cost-effective (this should be an easy goal, as Russia does not have the Western countries high taxes). There are numerous questions to be answered!
"All the products that were imported had to be made in Russia;" No. Most products in the world before sanctions were made in China and that continued to be the case after sanctions. The Chinese don't give a hoot about US sanctions.
It turns out that almost all European businesses don't care about US sanctions either. They continued shipping into Russia though third parties like Kazakhstan.
What sanctions did manage to do was convince oligarchs to repatriate over a hundred billion dollars of their wealth back to Russia, to re-invest into Russia. That caused a huge entrepreneurial boom. It also helped that many western firms (about a quarter of the big ones that were here) left Russia and that opened up niches. For example, once German auto makers closed up their official dealerships and gray market dealers importing through Kazakhstan and similar took over, the Chinese moved it.
The Chinese have almost totally wiped out German and other car brands with a wide array of truly spectacular Chinese cars that nobody in the west has ever heard of. But the Chinese have, and there's a brand for every quality and cost niche.
There's also been huge import substitution in things like oil and gas equipment and so on. So no, not everything Russia uses is made in Russia. It continues to buy from friends like China and other friendly countries, but yes, there have been huge import substitution niches opening up, and the flood of venture money from oligarchs repatriating billions to Russia has financed those import substitution businesses.
The new businesses are indeed cost effective, primarily because they understand Russian markets better than foreigners. For example, when McDonalds sold all 800 of their restaurants to a billionaire who was McDonalds largest franchisee in Russia, his new business took off like a skyrocket and makes more money (and profit) than McDonalds did.
The problem with not telling every detail. Everything you write is correct, but the cost of importing is high for some products. There are products that are bulky, or you have to use energy (e.g., cooling) to keep them in good shape. All these products have a nice advantage when produced close to the consumer. The railways and roads from West- to East-Europe are excellent. You can transport this more demanding good easily. Not for the connections between Russia and China (but these connections will be completed, but what happens then to these industries?).
Well, you don't need to tell every detail, but when you make general statements you should make sure they're not generally inaccurate.
For example: "There are products that are bulky, or you have to use energy (e.g., cooling) to keep them in good shape. All these products have a nice advantage when produced close to the consumer. "
As a global statement, that's wrong, in fact wildly wrong for most such products in modern times. That railways and roads from unfree Europe (the West) to free Europe (the European part of Russia) are more or less good doesn't matter. That's primarily because transport has become so inexpensive compared to the past, while cost factors such as energy and destructive government policies have become dominant.
Also, "products" in English is general understood to mean manufactured products, not agricultural commodities or specialty foods that require refrigeration, so those bear discussing as their own cases, not as part of some global statement. But even in those cases the contention that energy is required to keep some manufactured products (such as vaccines or other medicines) cool means they have a nice advantage when produced close to the consumer is also wrong.
The classic example of all the above is how China became "the world's workshop," with so many manufacturing industries moving from the US and Europe to China. It turns out that modern shipping has such extraordinarily low costs of transport that it is far cheaper to build products, even bulky products, in China and ship them to the US than it is to build in the US near to the consumer.
Another example is the ongoing deindustrialization of western Europe in general and Germany specifically. It's far cheaper to build in China and ship to Germany than it is to build in Germany and truck just a hundred kilometers to a local consumer. Why? Because the price of energy in Germany and the cost of the social welfare state is too high to be competitive, a slight advantage in transport costs not being enough to make up the difference.
It's true that utilizing globe-spanning logistics to achieve and retain extremely low transport costs requires skills. Those skills, in fact, played a key role in underpinning the export earnings of many western European economies. A good example of that were the truly superior logistics skills of Dutch companies trading in flowers or Belgian companies trading in fresh fruit. You can see any theoretical example of closeness by rail or road between Amsterdam and Moscow is not a factor in an export business that flies fresh roses from Ecuador to Amsterdam, clears them in a vast flower market, and then exports them by air to Moscow or even farther to Vladivostok.
Another example is the re-export of Conference pears from Belgium to Russia, where Belgian distributors "owned" that market in Russia, even though the pears they exported for the most part weren't grown in Belgium.
What happened when the EU committed suicide on orders from the US, foolishly trying to "cancel" Russia, was that Russia responded by canceling them. For a few weeks the usual astonishingly broad and deep variety of fresh fruits became visibly thinner. Conference pears disappeared entirely for three weeks. And then they and everything else appeared again.
What happened was that when western European superstars of export logistics and distribution were cut off from Russia they were replaced by perfectly competent businesses from other countries. EU businesses were so strong at logistics and distribution they wouldn't allow even a toe hold for other competitors, but the moment those EU businesses paused their work in Russia their competitors rushed in.
It turns out that in modern times logistics and distribution skills are a commodity. They can be purchased with plenty of experts from EU countries willing to teach those skills to businesses in South America, Africa and other centers of agricultural production. Instead of buying Conference pears through a middleman in Belgium, large Russian distribution companies started buying direct from producers in Serbia, South Africa, and South America.
It was the same with almost everything else the EU provided. They were replaced almost overnight with direct relationships with vendors in the majority of the world's countries which said "no thanks" to the US's invitation to commit economic suicide. There also was a huge rise in Russian startups, like vast greenhouses to grow specialty crops (like elite varieties of tomatoes) even in winter. Those take advantage of very low energy costs in Russia and, it is true, faster transportation links. But the issue there is transportation links within Russia, not import links.
So now when asparagus is in season I buy fresh grown asparagus locally, and when it is not in season I buy asparagus grown in Mexico, Peru, or a variety of other countries which grow it. Citrus fruit comes from all over the globe, with a lot of citrus imported from Morrocco, Egypt and other warm climates. African and South American countries are the source for many fresh fruits and veggies when it is winter in the northern hemisphere.
China is a direct neighbor of Russia with superb rail and marine transport links. The lower cost of energy in China means they are even more competitive against western European countries for products like automobiles or appliances. China is also pulling ahead in technology. Look at the new Chinese cars and they are technological marvels that make flagship German brands look outdated. Chinese e-cars are far superior to anything western Europe is producing, and at a fraction of the price.
I'm just saying, the low cost of transport by sea (and air for high value products) has made the world a far more interconnected place. With the high cost of energy and destructive government policies like you see in unfree Europe, one way that not only countries but also private citizens can break free of local idiocy is to buy from more free and more economically productive countries even when they are on the other side of the globe.
"That's primarily because transport has become so inexpensive compared to the past, "
You have obviously never shipped anything internationally. It currently costs ten times more to move a 20-foot container than it did just 5 years ago. You have absolutely no clue what you are talking about.
Remember that sanctions harm the sanctioner by cancelling foreign profit centres. Instead third parties take up where the US stepped down. Nothing like shooting yourself in the foot!
G'day Seeker I feel you have placed domestic currency creation and foreign currency purchases in one boat. Nabiullina is an oligarch plant protected by Putin due to an old agreement and she is not helping the situation with 20% plus interest rates.
The domestic economy is nigh on self sufficient due to the sanctions but exports are restricted so a boost in export sales are beneficial even if paid for in dollars that do not have to be invested in US Treasury bonds as previously was the case but be spent on gold or whatever technology components they might need.
Read about China's actions re its dollar surplus which they repatriate back to China.
Domestic and foreign currency purchases were forced into one boat because of necessity. I know the Ruble is a fiat currency that is money in Russia so it is what is used to pay domestic bills. The Russian government was forced to increase government spending because of military spending thus they had to increase their Ruble supply to cover expenses. In the beginning it was stated that Russia would run out of money which was absurd as the Russian Central bank creates the Ruble. The real issue for Russia was always inflation. So the sale of Russian exports in Rubles created a demand for Rubles outside the Russian economy. This demand outside of Russia allowed the Russian Central bank to export inflation to China and other states needing Russian exports. This is no different from the US exporting its inflation having the world's reserve trading currency and world reserve asset. The 20% increase in interest rates was intended to deter commercial bank lending and encourage loan repayment. As money is generally created through commercial bank debt issuance and destroyed when debts are repaid. The increased reinvestment of money from the Russian wealthy and the increased consumer confidence which continually increase the Russian money supply had to be controlled as eventually the consequences of the good times had to be dealt with before it got out of control. Maybe Nabulina over compensated who knows, but her being proactive was necessary. We can only wait to see how it plays out.
Putin would be an utter fool to trust the US, and betray his BRICS partners - incl Iran and China, where the main non-dollar trade is achieved. In 4 years time the situation could be reversed just as quickly.
Ritter, Johnson and McGovern talk about karkhiv and Odessa. But there are also arguments against it because it would leave Ukraine in an impossible situation where it could not provide for itself. On the other hand, Poland, Czech Republic and Romania are supposed to be in talks with Russia to see what parts of Ukraine they might gobble up. It all depends upon the Banderites Russia is happy to leave those Nazis under the control of Poland but if necessary they’re also willing to completely take them out. The USA funded these criminals even before World War II was over. They were directed to attack Soviet troops. Scandalous.
Sorry, I wasn’t clear. I meant both systems, Russia will continue to operate with BRICs and bi-national trade and currency settlement, but also allowed to use SWIFt, US banks, offshore assets, etc, etc. they can use and access dollars and the US System as well as BRICs. Counterintuitive, but the stronger BRICS is, the less the $usd can be weapon used, and donor becomes more palpable to use in conjunction w BRICS mechanism.
"but also allowed to use SWIFt, US banks, offshore assets, etc, etc. they can use and access dollars and the US System as well as BRICs."
I live in Russia and know many Russian businessmen involved in import/export and I can't think of a single one who's interested in using SWIFT or US banks. They're a pain in the ass and the sense of not having to deal with cretins that has flowed from finding other ways to settle payments that don't involve SWIFT or US banks is so totally wonderful that nobody wants to go back to dealing with cretins.
SWIFT is an ancient, horrible system, like something designed in the last century (it was) to make business inefficient and slow. Nobody in their right minds wants to use it. Will some Russians use SWIFT, and even US banks, for some transactions? Sure, but it's going to play only a very minor role.
As for offshore assets, there are plenty of those in play for Russians, just not having anything to do with the lawless West. The whole unreliability of the West has left a bad taste in the mouths of oligarchs. They have a choice where they can spend their time and salt away their money offshore and they no longer want to do that in London, Paris, Switzerland or the US. They're also not stupid, and they know the old saying, "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me."
Now we know Henry is a troll as well. You can't see the IP addresses of people who post here. He's either just a jerk or, just possibly, Simplicius has achieved a new level of fame, enough to warrant the attention of western "security" organizations and their wannabe groupies.
Fwiw. Some are saying the American oligarchy put Trump into the White House precisely for the complaints you list here. Not the entire oligarchy, of course, but the ones who have been identified as the tech bros. Chris Hedges had an article where he identified the corporatists and the oligarchists. He claimed the first were Democrats the second were Republicans, but we seem to have missed the fact that Maga is actually a third-party formed from the ashes of the Republicans and Democrats a group of oligarchs who are trying to clean up the mess created by the Zionists.
The thesis is fascinating. Sometimes you can see the jiu-jitsu. The Trump is performing. Other times he looks like an idiot.
I look at the compromises Trump is making with Putin and how he is attacking Netanyahu and the way he is treating Zelensky. It’s like this group of tech bros. Understands that the US lost the war the empire is collapsing. They’re doing their best to save it.
Of course this is just putting the best spin on the situation. I’m just keeping an open mind.
I don’t believe Trump sees China as a threat. It is the PNAC crowd made up mostly of Zionists who thought they forge American hegemony over the rest of the world. these are the same people Trump is ousting from office.
Today marks the first month of Trump in office and wow ! It was a frantic one. First, it is now clear that Trump didnt acted his assassination attempts. What was meant to be a public execution, as a terrifying warning for those attempting to challenge the masonic empire, turned into a public act of God, especially for Trump himself. Trump fears nothing now. He knows he has been chosen by God himself to save the USA, just as Putin was. These are providencial individuals, chosen to change history. Those claiming Trump is just another pawn of the cabal are silent now. He was attacked on any angle, both from the outside or the inside, but they could not make it, for the time being.... The work of years of meetings and political presence on the ground proved critical and decisive. History found its way again, big time, through glorious gates, but there is still a long way ahead.
The Trump crew has attacked their enemy with shocking speed and boldness and guts, having them disoriented and lost. Their whole scheme was cimented on lies. Some rays of truth have dissolve the sand castle amazingly fast. Yes, Zelensky is a dictator and a puppet, yes Europe is undemocratic and irrelevant, yes the Usaid was a fake humanitarian money-laundrying monster, yes ilegal inmigration is a major problem, and so on. Now, we see how much of the liberal NGO´s and media are in fact paid operatives. When the money faucet was closed, they were left in dispair, asking for a new master to serve. In my country, the rowdy crowds of the left are changing their speech fast, showing what they always were, a bunch of oportunists, hypocritically mimicking the good narrative, in order to grab money and ressources for their own good.
And this bring us to the increasingly dubious nature of western democracy itself. We can now state that the masses are unable to provide freedom, justice or equality. Small groups of well-teamed individuals, say from 3.000 to 5.000, can effectively rule a whole country, manipulating the people's natural insticts for security and submissiveness. Democracy is the perfect system for the rule of money, where every vote can in fact be bought off. As Jay Gould put it, “I can hire half of the working class to kill the other half”. The globalist cabal knew that they had to bring “the masses” on their side. They knew how easily they could be lied and deceived. They need agressive activism, pleople ready to die for their ideas-identity, people willing to fight for their right. Having the working class and racial communities been almost totally neutralised and assimilated, the only remaining candidates were the homosexuals, being radical feminism a brach of lesbian homosexuality.
For the Trump party, there is something that will remain still un-sorted from an historical point of view. They think they can go back in history to interprete the world in a traditional christian way. This won't be possible. The most terrifying thing about the cabal, the one that made them look invincible, is that they think in marxist terms. They are not marxists, but masonic bankers and billionaires. But they have been clever enough to hire smart marxist scholars and activists to steer their policies. Thus, they are aware of the inevitability of the creation of a unified capitalist world market without tarifs or trade barriers, just the law of the jungle. As Marx follows, this should lead to a global working class revolution which will bring down the capitalist rule for the entire planet. This is the part that they didnt like and worked to avoid, by means of a preemptive mass depopulation, once a unified government in place. The Trump team will sooner or later realize that they can't just grab Greenland, Canada or Venezuela. American businesses need mass migration in order to keep the workers wages down. The liberal homosexual masses won't just go away and disappear. Many NGO's and media which were a part of the globalist system governance, are desperately looking for a new master. And remember who owns the banks and the FED. This has just started... The masonic cabal system will need to be dismantle piece by piece. Otherwise, they will strike back with a vengeance...
I like your comment a lot. There are some strategic points. I would disagree with, but I can’t do this on the phone. The labels you use don’t match the facts you are presenting for me that is. Others might read your words and totally agree. Maybe it’s just semantics.
And Henry is the one who is delusional. Two closed minded to even consider the point. Democracy is a charade with the Zionists hide behind the curtain while they manipulate the Wizard of Oz.
May I recommend Aaron good and his new series about the Jewish mafia? He explains how Meyer Lansky formed the national crime syndicate. . How Lansky was given the presidential medal of freedom by Harry Truman in the White House. This is the same Lansky who formed murder Inc. Folks also need to find goods series called Empire and the deep state on YouTube. He shows America was founded by crooks and has been run by crooks since the very beginning. Some really cool stories.
dream on: there's far too much money to be made from weapon production, oil & gas monopolies and war. T stating that "he totally disagrees with Zelensky about Russia wanting to invade NATO countries—he’s not buying the globalist bait..." only means T's playing out his assigned role and that the globalist powerbrokers need to make us believe there will be 'peace and coöperation' between US, Russia, China.
Russia would be stupid to return to the dollar, it's a vise on ebay scrotum in the world outside of the American imperialists. The US will"lose" the Americas, no one can ever trust this country after Biden/Trump. Trump , if he lasts four years, will create utter chaos in the country and may be removed by a military coup to prevent a civil war. The man is mentally unstable, happily he's destroying the American empire from the inside.
This seems very optimistic. While I applaud Trump's efforts, I think the time for detente was back during the Donbass conflict. With all the escalation, the cementing of BRICS, etc, I think there will be a major clash regardless, but we'll see.
US Defense Security Cooperation Agency has just issued two press releases on arms "sales" to Israel totaling about $7.5 billion. Included are 13,000 guided bombs, more than half of US annual production. These "sales" are covered by loans from the US.
Israel literally never has to pay for these weapons. They borrow the funds to pay for them from us, and those loans are automatically forgiven. We are just sending Israel more than half of our yearly munitions production for free. What a disgusting joke.
Let's see which of the 3 world powers collapse - It is clear that the dollar system is a trap - returning stolen money is a minimum imperative of decency - lifting sanctions that have harmed those who imposed them the most? - Ukraine returns to Russia - Investments in China - Lowering oil prices? - For whose benefit? To the detriment of whom? - have the Americas? like the planned invasion of Mexico? The return to a Westphalian multipolar world based on mutual respect and cooperation instead of wars of destruction and plunder - is inevitable -
"Was it Russia that destroyed Nord Stream? Last I checked, European intel services had all but concluded it was a Ukrainian initiative under command of Zaluzhny himself."
BULLSHIT!!!!@@@%%%####!!!! The USSA ship BRIBEM did it!!! For fucks sake he was on video admitting as much!!!! Quit letting these fuckers off the hook!!!! Chip
I believe it was most likely the USS Jimmy Carter which is a Seawolf Class nuclear attack submarine specifically modified to conduct this type of sabotage. It could just sit on the bottom next to the pipeline and divers could work directly from it. The U.S. spent some $800 million dollars making the modifications some years ago.
I believe the actual ship was the USS Kearsarge, which sat in the immediate neighborhood of the blast for a week until about 48 hours before the blast. It had abruptly sailed off thru the Danish straits, across the North Sea and thru the English Channel out into the open Atlantic by the time the blast timer ran down. The Wikipedia page for the ship helpfully explains it was doing underwater demolitions training and drills in the Baltic in the months preceding.
It’s inappropriate to hold the U.S. government or the American public hostage to the war in Ukraine. Obviously our country has done more than its share, perhaps to the tune of $200bn dollars’ worth, of support to Kiev, though Zelya says he only received $74bn—oh,oh—so it’s not as if there has been a failure to step up. In 3 years’ time Ukraine has had ample opportunities to pursue negotiations or peace but each time opted not to. Regardless, now, it is okay for the U.S. to step aside and let Europe claim ownership of the war going forward, should Europe wish to continue the war, because the murkiness of this lengthy & convoluted involvement, replete w/ accusations of corruption & malfeasance of funds, is complex & thorny enough to render it an extreme liability.
Even more so, if the matter is going to end up in a tit-for-tat social media showdown between the U.S. president & the Usurper of Kiev, who has not permitted an election in Ukraine for 11 months, then it is obvious where alliances & allegiances & commonsense investments lie. Collective Biden committed itself to Project Ukraine; when they left office that commitment ended.
It’s complex, we get it—but Americans handed DJT a mandate to end the war in Ukraine. Which DJT is now doing. Undoubtedly this is disappointing to Ukraine and to the EU—yet nonetheless they knew *months* ago, based on DJT’s own very public statements delivered in numerous campaign events across the U.S. just exactly what his aims were.
Moving Zelya from Hero to Zero at warp-speed, DJT called Zelya “a Dictator without Elections.” Truthing on Truth, DJT said, “Zelensky better move fast or he is not going to have a Country left. I love Ukraine, but Zelensky has done a terrible job, his Country is shattered.” Moreover, he accused the “modestly successful comedian” of conning “the U.S. into spending billions of dollars in order to go into a War that couldn’t be won. So you know what has to happen.”
Better duck, Zelya. And take the hint: “you know what has to happen,” DJT said. Zelya is the only person on earth right now who is never going to get this message again. He thinks he’s got trouble w/ the Banderites—? Throw salt over your left shoulder, Zelya. Better whistle past the graveyard. DJT is the one not even the Deep State could kill: *You know what has to happen.*
Zelya probably should have bent Gen Kellogg’s ear instead of taking to X, bitching & moaning about DJT *in private,* getting it off his chest behind closed doors w/ the Special Envoy and ranting away to his heart’s content, venting his spleen—but not going public with it.
That Nazareth song “Hair of the Dog” comes tunefully to mind.
BTW: when DJT called Zelya a “Dictator,” Senator Blumenthal—Danang Dick, who never was in-country during the Vietnam War but claimed that he was—sputtered indignant outrage, because DJT “has never called President Vladimir Putin a dictator.
Our colleague Gisela Coutis has a commonsensical suggestion (below on this thread.)
Things are going so rapidly south in the U.S./Zelya r'ship that I can see the State Department enacting a 'seize & freeze' in order to claw back some of the billions already poured into Project Ukraine.
“It’s inappropriate to hold the U.S. government or the American public hostage to the war in Ukraine. Obviously our country has done more than its share”….
What a short-sighted and misleading argument! The U.S. has been a key player in this conflict for years—not as a neutral observer, but as an instigator. They have caused, fueled, provoked, sustained, and orchestrated it.
Now claiming they have "done enough" is pure hypocrisy. The U.S. bears immense responsibility for the destruction and human suffering. Instead of turning away, they should acknowledge their guilt and take responsibility.
That Trump seems to be taking a different course could be cautiously seen as a positive shift, but given his stance on Gaza, there’s little reason for optimism. Meanwhile, the weapons there keep flowing—just a few days ago, another shipment of 1,800-2,000-pound bombs was delivered.
In sporadic far-flung accounts, like Talbot's THE DEVIL'S CHESSBOARD, we know of the CIA's most fledgling escapades in the Ukraine SSR (starting in the late 1940s) to invigorate & weaponize that Banderites & ultra-nationalists against the USSR at the time and then later the RF.
But the general population of the U.S. is unaware of this depth of CIA investment in Project Ukraine. Ditto for the politicians.
In the absence of being able to lay such truths on the populace, the war does not begin in 2014, for instance (or before then, if you want to start w/ the Orange Revolution in 2004)--but it begins on a February day in 2022, w/ the "unprovoked brutal, etc. etc."
The U.S. has as you say "caused, fueled, provoked, sustained and orchestrated" the contemporary debacle we find in Project Ukraine today.
The U.S. system disallows any Truth & Reconciliation-style accountability for the decades of prepping this debacle, however.
So the quick & dirty thing to say is that this was Joe's Folly, publicly lay the mess at the feet of Collective Biden--and then walk away.
Sporadic far-flung books will ultimately appear, piecing together the actualities... Nicolai Petro has a new one--THE TRAGEDY OF UKRAINE. Aaron Mate is writing one. But my money is on the U.S. *never* admitting several decades' worth of complicity in Project Ukraine.
No U.S. president can break w/ the basic U.S. policy toward Israel, which is unconditional support. Notice that only one or two elected officials--Rashida Tlaib comes to mind, maybe Ilhan Omar?--have protested this unconditional support.
The U.S.'s enabling of the genocide in Gaza makes obvious the grip the Israel Lobby has on domestic politics.
Even in the midst of this current ceasefire, C-130 cargo planes are touching down on the tarmac of Israel's military base every other day, ready to unload new supplies of Bunker Busters, in preparation for...
"It’s inappropriate to hold the U.S. government or the American public hostage to the war in Ukraine"
The United Snakes of 'Murica is fully responsible.
Ukraine Project was a great big "OWN GOAL".
Trump can wax as prolifically about the Curse that is zElensky, but in the end it is the
UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT that is ultimately responsible to the world at large for their contribution to the Project Ukraine. The Biden admin is only responsible within the U$A for it's malfeasance.
Just want to add that this writeup is incredible. Practically read my mind and I learned a bunch of things.
Since much of what you wrote is obviously is speculation, might I add a possible opportunity in Ukraine. Imagine a world where Elon finds a palatable (human proxy?) way to enter Grok in the Ukrainian election...a grand experiment. So very epic.
>While the US continues to believe Russia will still exchange Kursk or simply freeze the conflict in exchange for only Crimea, etc.—this is not an adequate negotiating common ground for Putin to even bother wasting his time on
As we have endlessly discussed, Putin has control over firepower that would allow him to make Ukrainian defeat certain and irreversible within hours of him deciding to do so, and then have the Russian army at the Polish border within a couple months later (mopping up would take some time).
That hasn't happened in three years, exactly the opposite, he didn't even make any effort to secure his own borders, as a result of which the frontlines have been moving into Russia itself.
So yeah, that assumption on the part of the US looks pretty spot on.
Because they understand the internal weakness of the Russian state, which is the oligarchic model. The oligarchs want things to go back to how they were before 2022, with them and their money being welcome everywhere in the West, and they do not want to win the war for a number of reasons:
1) Proper mobilization means a wartime economy, and a wartime economy is a command economy. Even the US was a command economy during WWII, but that was temporary. Russia, however, has a proper tradition of being a permanent command economy, so any such precedent is extremely dangerous for the oligarchs, because you cannot have a command economy and Russian-type oligarchy in the same time. And they will need a proper mobilization even if tactical nukes are finally used to isolate Ukraine and then there is just the clean up left to do. A couple million will be needed for that.
2) The Russian oligarchy does not want a return to economic autarky, which would have to be done if Russian sovereignty is to be restored and if the kind of military-technical measures needed to defeat Ukraine are applied (which could result in political isolation of the country for some time after that). The whole basis of their power is to be the middlemen that hand over Russian raw resources to the West for pennies on the dollar. But economic autarky means new centers of power associated with domestic technology development and manufacturing emerging, which would automatically erode the relative power of the resource extraction oligarchs. It would also redirect those resources towards internal consumption, and then they would not be middlemen between anything. Can't have that.
3) They don't want to pay for Ukraine's restoration. That country was a wreck even without the war, and will need massive investments into its infrastructure and its reintegration with Russia. Who will pay for that? Well, most Russians don't have much you can tax, it is one of the most unequal societies on the planet, so you would have to tax the rich. Can't do -- building roads in Poltava at the expense of having fewer limousines and private jets for the Russian elite? What sort of a sacrilege is that?
4) The Ukranians are Nazis and they have made this into a rerun of WWII in their minds, but it works for the other side too. If there is a WWII-style total victory, it will inevitably lead to a resurgence of the latent communist sentiments in the Russian population. We in fact already saw that in the first months of the war -- one of the rarely spoken about aspects of those first months was how much of a return communist symbols made. You had hammer and sickle flags and GPW symbolic everywhere. The Kremlin had to work very hard to re-instill total apathy towards what is happening into the population, because things were getting really dangerous.
Remember, the grand imperative of Russian politics since 1991 has been to never allow communism to return, because of how much fertile ground still remains for it to do so, as it was not overturned because the people wanted it in the first place, it was a coup by the elite. The Ukrainians Nazis and American nukes in Europe are seen as much lesser threats by the Russian elites in comparison.
Etc. etc. etc.
So with Putin being the errand boy for the oligarchs, it is no wonder he has been fighting hard NOT to win the not-war for three years now, soon entering a fourth.
Stop with the BS. Even the oligarchy won't trust the USA. They know how the West including Americans see them. Why do you think they have pushed for brics? Plus you have misunderstood the state of the war. Anyway you have been wrong from day one Gurkin errand boy
2) The example of what happened to Assad — they tricked him into thinking everything is good now, then they stuck the knife in his back — is very recent
3) The established facts are that the US gave itself permission to invade, bomb and launch missiles into Russia, then actually did those things, and nobody has paid any price for it. A detente might happen, but it will not overturn that established precedent, and in a few years someone else might be in power in DC and it will all start all over again.
Then what?
The only way the Kremlin establishes detente without coming out of this at a loss is if Trump agrees on a few Russian missile strikes into the continental US. Take out some of those responsible for starting the war and so much death and destruction. Zircons on the Kagan/Nulands mansions? Sounds good to me. Then Putin comes out and says “we are even now and can be friends“, Trump does not retaliate, and we can have genuinely good relationships.
But without that happening, Russia has been diminished as a great power and its security has been permanently compromised.
So later on when the next aggressor emboldened by the refusal on the part of Putin to defend the country tries to start some shit, it will be the same calculus — either extreme force will have to be used to make sure nobody else dares do anything like that again, or a lot more Russians will once again die.
What is the true reason why Trump wants to meet with Russia and China with the intent of cutting military spending by half? Is it, he wanting to create a peaceful world or because the US with it's burgeoning deficits can no longer afford the military budget? Russia has caught the US in the same trap the US caught the USSR in the 1960s. Where they could exaggerate military capabilities and decieve the USSR to bankrupt the state chasing silver bullets.
It appears that the economy is a primary driver in almost all of DT's actions. The US has a $2T annual deficit and $37T in total debt. He needs to cut costs (downsize gov't and end unnecessary foreign engagement) as well pay down the debt (sovereign wealth fund, TikTok, gold revaluation, bitcoin reserve), thereby preserving the dollar as the world reserve currency.
His gamble, IMO, is that he can fix the US economy in 4 years so that overall it's seen as an accomplishment, even if there's some serious pain in the interim. His plan isn't totally baseless - it could work - but it'll take a lot of finesse to succeed, and he's a wee bit short on finesse on most days.
Republicans now control the entire Senate. Finesse is absolutely not the right approach to use. Why would Trump want to cut deals with the DemonRats when he could just bulldoze his way through?
He has to cut deals with his own Republicans as well - the military budget is a real red line for most congressmen, senators, MIC giants and Tech oligarchs - it probably powers most states' economies.
Also, he is going to have a difficult time convincing Russia, China and anyone else to cut their military budgets as the US budget exceeds most others combined.
But the image he creates from this effort will reverberate throughout the world who will see him as a peacemaker who at least tried.
The only thing Trump has now that he did not have in 2016 is majority electoral win and a very bad economy. He had control of the Senate the house and majority conservative judges in the judiciary in 2016. The only legislative win he had with a relatively good economy was cutting taxes for the wealthy. Probably he can again cut taxes for the wealthy even more.
"The only thing Trump has now that he did not have in 2016 is majority electoral win and a very bad economy."
This, and 4 years of additional understanding about how the den of vipers works.
How much of what he seems to be achieving is the "Trump effect", or a general consensus that the left has simply crossed the line from "lets reduce pollution and try not to be too hard on the gays" to "they're trying to weaken and destroy civilisation itself with their crazy policies"?
Time will tell of course whether Trump is any better or worse than anyone else. To me, an outsider, it seems at least at face value that a lucid Trump in the hotseat is far more effective than the doddering meat puppet that was there previously.
Also as an outsider, I do agree with you, he has a better perspective of the legislative bodies that he must encounter. The reality is they left him a minefield to hamstring his administration economically and Geopolitically. These mines have started going off and they will only get worse. The party that was defeated gave up on the last election with the hope of things becoming really bad under the current administration. So they can point to failures to fool the US voter to give them a legislative win in the next two years and hopefully the next general election. I totally lost my faith in democracy as I lived under both system so the system I see work better I support as the ignorant cannot steer the ship.
You got it right, so he’s cutting all the imperial commitments, marking deals for Peace w China and Russia, squeezing the vassals, cutting government by 2T, and then praying that deregulation and capitalism make improvements.
Russia has not even tried to trap the rotting US. The country has become a giant with feet of clay. The deindustrialization and financialization of the US were done according to certain decisions of certain persons. Only compradors and foreign agents would allow the US to become a country with a lowered lifespan, impossibly bad education for children, Pfizer triumph (plus Fauci-Walensky criminal actions), degeneracy, illegal immigration galore, the weeding out the patriotic and intelligent Americans from US government, and the fusion of fascist mega-corporations, banking cabal, and security services together against the interests of US citizenry.
Guess, the amorality of wars of aggression has hit back home. Or perhaps it is the cowardice, opportunism, and hypocrisy of (selected) people in US congress and Supreme Court, which have been plagued the country.
The USSR didn't go bankrupt because of the arms race, in fact there was absolutely no reason for it to ever go bankrupt as it was always either fully self sufficient or perfectly capable of being self-sufficient, unlike the West.
It went bankrupt because of the decisions of Soviet elites after Stalin. Specifically:
1) In the 1960s it was decided not to develop an entirely separate computing industry but to instead copy Western technology. Automatically you fall behind when you make that decision, and the gap kept growing, resulting in the need to import technology.
2) In parallel, Soviet elites developed a taste for imported luxury Western goods
3) And they also voluntarily accepted being part of the neocolonial scheme that is sending real raw natural resources in exchange for green pieces of paper that can be printed in infinite quantities.
None of that was necessary, and would not have been allowed to happen under Stalin.
The moment you accept the dollar as the world's reserve currency you no longer have control over the terms of exchange, and you are in a subservient position. And you can then be bankrupted from the outside at a convenient for your enemies time.
The solution was to cut off all ties with the West, refuse to subsidize them with cheap energy, and invest in your own development.
The opposite was done.
And, of course, has modern Russia done anything to really get out of that trap? Not at all, Putin's main task in his quarter of a century at the top has been to maintain the same system...
I did not state the strategy was successful. It can be debated what caused the USSR to desolve. A strong influence was the allure of capitalism and the happy successful pictures of the Western lifestyle to the people living in the USSR. It's always easy to see the glamour and the glitter and nothing else.
Greener pastures everywhere and you have to admit one thing: the Americans are the absolute champion when it comes to propaganda. They have perfected the work of Edward Bernays.
So the elites in the USSR weren't people, what were they? The wealthy power brokers had more exposure to the Western lifestyle than the everyday Soviet citizens.
A major reason for the collapse of the Soviet empire was the betrayal by Poland. The Poles always hated Russia and the Soviet empire, believing themselves victims of the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact. The Polish diaspora, including John Paul II and Zbigniew Brzezinski, worked tirelessly to subvert Soviet interests. As I recall, Polish opposition politicians in the 80s were the first from among satellite countries to demand a change in government from Soviet-appointed communists to capitalists/liberals, and Gorbachev unwisely obliged.
Any form of communism has failed. The first generation is full of belief and works hard to come closer to Utopia. The second generation sees all the problems of such a system, stops believing, but stays calm. The third generation lost all hope, stopped proper work, and then it was game over.
North Korea and communism? There are some ruling families, a lot of religious (?) propaganda, and then there are the peasants. Sounds more like feudalism. The normal people do not believe that some socialist program will lead them to a better world; they believe that the divine ruling class will solve their problems.
You are missing the point. It is still a command economy with central planning and redistribution, and the third generation did not decide to convert political power into economic ownership as the late Soviet elites did, nor does it look likely to any time soon.
It is stable.
So it can be done. But the price to pay is serious.
national socialism is the answer. the entire west could have been sweeden in its heyday but for the jew and flooding the west with low IQ non-whites. Russia is the future
Read about the "New Economy Policy" from Lenin. It worked great. The Socialist Theory was bended because the USSR was not a full Capitalist economy; it needed to allow free market in the USSR to progress towards socialism. Sadly, Lenin's health was deteriorating, so he could not lead this project for very long, and after his death, this NEP was the major breaking line in the Communist Party. Stalin was neutral, but he used the NEP to remove all his opponents. As the last man standing was pro-NEP, he got into this complete state-steered economy. There are good books about this; obviously, Deng Xiaoping knew all of them.
Well, Lenin’s NEP worked for few years, but I was always wondering why was it stopped? So NEP ran from 1921 till, let’s say 1929. Was it stopped just because Stalin “felt so?” I think with a few poor crops in a row and peasants gouging the prices, the “collectivization” came about. I met in Holland an elderly Ukrainian woman who lived through “holodomor.” She told me that her parents were batraks (lowest form of peasants, who worked for other peasants). Her parents got free land under Lenin’s “the Land reform” in 1917. They never owned land before, so when Stalin in the 1930s, demanded the land be returned into the “collective farm,” they refused. The crops, seeds, foodstuffs were confiscated from them, even if her mom hid a handful of beans in a house plant’s pot, it would be ripped out to remove the beans. She told me that the family of 8 died one by one, on her eyes, and only her step-sister who was 14 yo and herself 9 yo, were left. Once parents were dead, the land was confiscated, and her sister began to work for the collective farm being paid by a plate of a lentil soup, which she was sharing with her 9yo sister.
I always wanted to see the Ukraine’s land registry of the “holodomor” victims, re.: where their land came from. Because if the land was given to them for “free” by the state, the state had the right to take it away, as it did. Not to excuse what happened and how people died as a result, but most of these people died for a free gift of land, they’re okay to receive, but forgot how they got it. “Freely you have received; freely give.” Matthew 10: 5-8
Well, if communism was not always sabotaged, isolated and attacked directly would it have failed? Chinese communism was left alone and has evolved into a society that is set to overtake all economies on the planet. So if communism was ever left alone would it always fail?
Your view of communism sounds like a"three-generation curse," where the first generation builds wealth, the second generation maintains & expands it, and the third generation squanders it all :-)
Not a huge fan of Stalin or Mao for the killing of so many of their own countrymen. I am sure I would not be typing this if Stalin was alive during the Cuban crisis - those ICBMs would have been flying.
I would also add that the USSR was somewhat of a reverse empire. Traditionally, empires (British, Roman) wealth would flow from the periphery of the colonies and newly acquired territory back to the home country/city to enrich the elite. In the case of the USSR it was wealth from the Moscow that would flow out to prop up the economies of eastern Europe.
The end of the USSR was not catastrophic for Russia, it was a godsend that lifted a huge anchor off their back. Look at the mass of investment made in Ukraine alone before 1991 vs. what Ukraine accomplished on its own since 1991. Who wants to prop up the crime economies of Baltic states or Ukraine when in the end they are not grateful and resent you. This is all the past now, no going back.
What I would like is to see more of the new Russian wealth spend on rural Russia to improve those people's lives, but a peace-deal carving up Ukraine would result in all that investment being spent on the next Ukraine war of the near future.
Tricky this, how to engage with the west (they are still part of this planet), but keep yourself at arms length.
Your comment about reverse empire is spot on, but not what follows after that.
The RSFSR did not switch from being a reverse empire to being a traditional one, it swtiched from being a reverse empire to being a colony. Real wealth continues to flow out of it, it is just that where it was previously used to prop up the periphery, now it props up the former enemies and a tiny oligarchy takes a cut of the proceedings, which it converts into megayachsts, private jets, limousines and mansions. It is no different from what Latin America and Africa have been for so long, and the only reason the Brazilization of Russian economy and society did not wreck the place even further is the Soviet legacy. Putin's policies have not done much (or really even seriously tried) to reverse that trend.
In a hypothetical scenario in which we don't get Gorbachev and Yakovlev after the mid-1980s interregnum, but we get another Stalin, most likely Moscow does not look as shiny as it does now, but it is still a clean and impressively looking city but the smaller cities do look a lot better than their current state, and everywhere in the USSR is a much better place to live than in the badly decaying without the injection of Russian resources Europe and North America.
JT - Stalin did not set out to build an empire. Self preservation forced him to take territory, and cause great destruction along the way. The reverse empire you speak of was the reconstruction of eastern Europe.
Here is a reality check re the entirety of the Defense budget (which is over $1.3 T when everything is taken into account, including estimated black budgets, expenditures "hidden"/stashed under other departments (like the VA? aid to israel, half of which is returned to the MICS?): this budget in its entirety comprises over 2/3 of the full Discretionary budget (per my calculations. perhaps I'll share in a post). IOW, it dwarfs anything the US spends on eg, NASA (some items of which are also defense related), NIH, NSF, FAA USDA, FEC, Medicaid, Edu and what not. Not only that but the funds are well spread over the entire 50 states so that every district of every congressman gets a share.
What this also means is that when push comes to shove, over 30-35% of ALL good Middle Class jobs (ie with security and benefits) in the country (this is again per my own estimates using whatever labor resources are available0 The reality is, sad as it is, that the private sector simply cannot fill these jobs, not with the benefits, the salaries, etc. So, we have to accept that this gargantuan defense budget is effectively a welfare for the skilled (at least in part). That while being quite a gravy train for the lobbyists, the marketeers, the hangers on etc.
How many people out there realize what a hole the US has dug for itself with these over-sized budgets? yes, one can hope for a return of some manufacturing jobs to the US but the emphasis is on "some" and it won't happen overnight. In the meantime, China, with a different model, is leaping ahead, spending far more sensible funds on defense (which are proportionate to the threats it faces).
So, what happens when more people in the Trump administration wake up to the fact that our economy is in deep doo-doo? that those stupid wars are just a ruse to keep the gravy train rolling and the illusion of a prosperous middle class alive and well?
I have no answers, of course. Then again, I never saw a way to reverse the decline of the west, other than temporary band-aids. And IMHO that's what trump is - a band-aid to stem the decline for just a little while longer.
As far as I recall, the USSR decided not to build the super expensive aircraft carriers to follow the US, rather thinking that they might turn into expensive bonfires, which, with the current technology, they most likely, will.
Trump is all about China. His warming up to Russia reflects a revised US strategy to split the China/Russia alliance. A peace settlement favourable to Russia and the isolation of the EU are the first steps towards that end.
In the end, however, the US will fail as a new world order is presenting itself and nothing can stop it. Probably the best America can hope for is a peaceful shift from Empire to regional power. I think Trump sees this.
The best thing the Europeans could do is improve relations with China. Blinken boasted is his speech when leaving office, that a major win was stopping a China-EU trade agreement. Europe stupidly started a small trade war with China. Just as Russia and the US have a large sea between them, the EU and China have a massive land mass between them, and given that both are regional powers, neither presents a military threat to the other. Better relations with China would be a small but important lesson in unanticipated consequences for trump as well.
Trump is all about China, Trump sees this? Trump is blind, the eyes of others are seeing: Stargate, AI and of course DNA engineering, the deal to militarise, economise and geopolitical-ise the future America.
I think Trump believes that the real power of the future will lie not in military forces but in technological advances creating a controlled digital world. I think he wants to redirect military spending to technology to dominate that new world.
Again, he will likely fail to do so as the US is being left behind in so many fields by the likes of China and Russia as well as the economic and financial disaster engineered by American elites over the decades.
USA is now irreversibly on its way to being a low IQ 3d world brown shithole.... Make America White Again or watch it become another mexico with jews in gated communities and pajeet middle managers
I don't know. I would not say it is impossible. At this very time Chinese firms are still selling war material, done parts, etc. to Ukraine. It is in China's interest to not have such a strategic victory for Russia.
So, when the shoe is on the other foot and China needs help with a naval blockade or to defeat Taiwan, maybe Russia will drag their feet a little in the help department.
China just wants to make gobs of money - a trait that can be exploited.
British defense sources have accused Zelya and the AFU of wasting expensive weapons & equipment, frittering away the Challenger 2 tanks, burning through Javelins & Strykers, letting HIMARS missile launchers flow through their hands like water. They felt no wherewithal about stewarding these gifts prudently. Abandoning trucks & tanks & howitzers hardly mattered. Another shipment was coming. There was always the next train.
“The Russian army probably has more Javelins than the British Army now,” a British source told The Daily Telegraph, adding that although the Brits enthusiastically support Ukraine’s fight against Russia, the *effort* to support Kiev, to keep it stocked w/ weaponry, “was built around lies.”
Like Trust-Fund Babies who never earn a dollar on their own dime but depend on the ‘rents to set them up handsomely w/ bottomless expense accounts, Project Ukraine was a wide-open beak—mama, feed me—without the incentive ever to use its wings. Of course the Trust-Fund Babies feel no responsibility for the largesse in their possession: they didn’t sweat to amass it. Nothing kept them awake at night, stewing over the modest stockpile of anti-armor weapons, wondering how to increase it. A succession of stockpiled NLAWs, courtesy of the Brits, was already riding the rails from Poland and would be there the next day. And another one the day after that.
For instance, the Next Gen Light Anti-Armor Weapon, or NLAW, is a single-use anti-tank missile that costs about £20,000 per unit, and is designed to be used for precision attacks against enemy armor. The UK has supplied more than 5,000 to the AFU. A defense ministry source said that Ukrainians were required to share videos of the weapon being used correctly, but the footage received showed Kiev’s troops wildly firing five or six NLAWs towards Russian lines at the same time — salvos which cost upwards of £100,000 each.
OTAN has a “nothing gets left behind” attitude towards equipment and weapons due to high cost and doctrinal importance, so the ‘rents, who are keeping the Trust-Fund Babies stocked, frown on the fact that Kiev’s military allegedly retains a Soviet-style, semi-disposable outlook towards its equipment and weapons. The ‘rents tut-tut over the fact that their Trust-Fund Babies have repeatedly abandoned Javelin missile Command Launch Units (CLU) on the battlefield, each of which can be re-used and reportedly cost more than $100,000 (£80,000.) The Brits donated hundreds of highly accurate Brimstone missiles to the AFU. It was alleged that the troops would fire dozens at a time, without regard for the price tag of each unit, often missing their targets. The scene was like a wild fireworks display of helter-skelter lethality.
Such has it been w/ Project Ukraine, the beneficiary of billions of dollars’ worth of the West’s weapons—both gifted to them & grifted *through* them. Trucks carrying supplies sometimes arrive at their destinations having already been stripped of the weapons they were supposed to deliver. When the guys drop the tailgate to unload the stuff, they see that only half the equipment is there. “Welp,” they say, looking around sheepishly. “Must have fallen off the truck.”
Zelensky and his European friends are more than happy to rack up a million more casualties. Some European political leaders refuse to admit they have been wrong and want to continue to fight this war regardless of human costs. The problem with this idea is that there is limited money and weaponry available. Corrupt Trust-Fund Babies have not only frittered equipment away but ultimately sold a lot of Javelins & Strykers to foreign arms dealers, some of which are turning up in the hands of Mexican cartels. Dumb European politicians never ask why—but clever & keen Lady vdL has announced a 16th sanctions package on Moscow, this one “clamping down harder on Russia’s shadow fleet,” which to her mind will increase the pressure on the Kremlin. Standing ever in unity & solidarity, Kaja the Callous announced tighter measures on import & export bans: “The Kremlin won’t break our resolve.”
And an actual NEWSWEEK headline ran on 19 Feb: “There Are Concerns Zelenskyy Could Be Voted Out Of Office If Ukraine Holds Elections”
That is a problem with NATO tactics. All equipment should be regarded as temporary and disposable as per soviet doctrine. Equipment being hoarded and saved looses its practical value.
NATO only knows how to fight one-sided wars, where they have the luxury of picking and choosing which weapon to use. If I was a Ukrainian facing a 10-1 disparity in artillery, FABs, in an undermanned unit, I would use anything I could.
This smacks of "why don't our gooks fight like their gooks? "
"It's not that our weapons are over priced and poor value for money, because of our profit driven MIC, it's because our allies are poor soldiers and can't use them. "
I don't buy it.
The Ukrainians appear to be excellent, brave tough soldiers in my opinion. If they can't get a tune out of the instrument, then it's likely a poor instrument.
“The Ukrainians appear to be excellent, brave tough soldiers, but their training has been consistently inadequate. Their use of advanced weapons has been correspondingly poor, as one would expect.
At the same time, these NATO weapons may be over-engineered for a peer war battlefield. They are built under a bureaucratic philosophy of acquisition planning and testing, rather than a philosophy based on reasonable battlefield imperatives.”
>> "The Ukrainians appear to be excellent, brave tough soldiers. If they can't get a tune out of the instrument, then it's likely a poor instrument." <<
None of which can the British defense sources say. Doing so would indict their own military ethos. Strictly forbidden.
So they've got to trash the guys they're kitting out.
It's the *guys*, not the *kit.*
Proxies, take note: this is your fate when you fight an unwinnable war for the paymaster and end up not winning.
You know that Zelya is in deep shit when even the "British defense sources have accused Zelya and the AFU of wasting expensive weapons." Looks like the Ukrainian honeymoon is over, the rats compete at finger-pointing the scapegoat to hang for this surreal debacle.
Not only did they waste ammo and equipment like it grows on trees, their whole battle plan was stupid and incompetent.
Never pull back, keep feeding men into the death grinder, over and over again. Total lack of layered defense lines, and making it obvious where they would go every time they had an offensive. They treated their soldiers with no regard.
I half wonder if some of these stand and die units are not put there on purpose to help with the 'denazification' requirement from Russia. In this way it keeps those hardcore Nazi fighters from grouping to coup Kiev.
"As I’ve previously posited, it’s possible that Trump has been setting up Ukraine for a fall, but he simply had to prep the ground first, by making reasonable overtures toward peace that he knew all along Zelensky would be incapable of agreeing to or honoring."
Yes, moving the Overton window. This is Trump's "art of war". BUT, don't be duped!!! Let us wait and see. Trump, after the Obama/Nuland led 2014 coup, allowed the provision of lethal arms to Ukraine. The CIA was responsible for the 2014 coup (ALSO UNDER OBAMA). Trump, although he is moving the Overton window, is not admitting to any of that!!!! So is all of this to placate the USSA public? To reinforce that "we are the good guys" again???? Keep your heads on a swivel. I realize that Trump has nothing to loose. BUT, since he could never admit he was wrong about operation warp speed, remember that he will use every opportunity to elevate himself even if he does ultimately want the best for our country. Keep a sharp eye and don't fall for the emotion of the moment... Chip
Trump personally did not order the armaments to Kiev - Trump was in the throes of the Deep State machinations and impeachments and went along out of necessity.
One part was the fact that Trump had to demonstrate the fact that he was not a Kremlin stooge or puppet as they were heavily trying to proof and the other part was just business.
Trump got most of it correct, except he left out the part (or is simply not abreast of the true situation, yet) that it wasn't Zelenski who talked the US into starting the war with Russia, just a quick Google will reveal that Zelenski had even signed Russia's agreement before the war had started. Rather, it was Boris and the West who talked Zelenski into tearing up the agreement and starting the fight with Russia, with the promise that "we'll have your back, Russia will fall in weeks due to simple economic sanctions, and after that, we'll all be rich on cheap Russian energy. The Putin will meet the same fate as Saddam and Gadhafi".
Trump is correct that all of this could have been avoided, but it is not only Zelenski's fault. Zelenski's fault is believing the lies of Boris and the West who convinced him that a war with Russia was winnable. Will he spill the beans? I think he is sworn to secrecy. His silence about what was really said to make him tear up the agreement is probably more valuable to him.
Not to mention that his knowledge about what was really said is also dangerous to him. Being sworn to secrecy might work amongst honorable men in yonder days of old, but he's at the mercy, from start to finish, of a multinational brood of self-serving oligarchic thieves.
I think Zelya's megalomania, cultivated for many years by the West, lulls him into the false sense of security & irreplaceability. He is in for a rude surprise. My bet, he'd be disposed by Ukrainians, who would finally realize, after Trump's words, how they're duped by the West, and that it was never about Ukraine at all.
Yes, exactly. The essentially weak megalomaniac bullies of the west led/bought by the USA have perfected the art of spotting and picking out weak men as their proxies and flattering, goading and blackmailing them into their latent megalomania, destroying their countries and the lives of millions of men, women and children, then stealing their oil and resources and agricultural land and handing their destroyed countries over to the IMF et al in perpetuity, then shaming and blaming and discarding them in one way or another, no matter, it's a "deal" after all, and moving on to the next.
Don't forget after destroying the countries the elites with their wealth move to buy properties in western countries bringing their wealth to build these western nations while leaving their own nations to ugly fates.
Good point. Perhaps like the Nazi's bringing "theirs" (or Jewish) wealth to Brazil and Argentina. Always interesting to know how/where all the wealth absconded with was made.
If you look objectively at what is happening you will see that the US is now shifting the blame for the war. Never mentioned is the Fuck-the-EU Bride of Dracula whose intelligence services manipulated this disaster in the first place. Now it is Zelensky who talked the US into the the war and the EU elite who encouraged him.
The US is perfectly innocent of any guilt over the massacre of a whole generation of Ukrainians, the almost complete destruction of its energy, its economic health, the destruction of many of its cities, the loss of a significant portion of its territory and the spread of nazism in Europe.
But now the US has seen the lies imposed on it and will no longer take it. Fuck the the war Z got them into. Fuck the EU. Poor Russia who has been one of the worst victims of this crime. We need to move on and get to the real challenge to America and the Empire - China.
Trump, like Putin doesn't operate in a vacuum. They have to take many considerations into account. Maybe he is waiting till the dust is settled, maybe there will never be justice (likely). But we have to move on and stop these endless wars. Justice feels good, but doesn't bring back the ones that did not survive. Besides justice will never be enough as if sending HC and the rest of the creatures to jail for the rest of their lives will be enough suffering to compensate for the suffering of the millions of people. These people deserve the worst, but it is not going to happen.
This is an interesting angle that I hadn't considered and it would explain why Trump is saying it was all the z-mans fault when it is perfectly easy for anyone to discover what actually happened in the weeks and months directly before the conflict started.
The z-man is stuck. Will he admit he was a pawn of the western globalists, destroying his country for the promise of personal riches and glory, or will he close his eyes and take it from Trump now like he has from the entire West for the past 3 years?
More spam to be removed. These are regular spam postings, always leading to a Telegram link selling stuff. There is always one 'like'.
Simplicius, please stop this spam being posted ...
Time to cut Zelensky lose, elections solves this.
How did you post faster than that Cheeto guy? Kudos, mate!
You have to prepare your post in advance and hit the 'Reply' button as soon as the post appears. You have to admit, Cheets sets the standard here. 😉
Also, I think Simplicius has a X account. Maybe he posts there before he sends out the substack posting This would allow Cheets time to prepare his post before the substack hit. Or maybe you should just ask Cheets how he does it?
Good idea, Victor, I should just ask him.
His posts are great but yeah, how does he do it???
No GF. ;)
J/king, Cheets. :'D
It is a silly contest to feel proud of winning. Cheetos wins for content quality. Actually reading the post gets points. Typos are frowned upon.
Anticipating Simplicius' next article and having some substantive comment or major agreement available to immediately slap down, that would deserve some honor.
Not sure if got first but near once or twice, I obviously have my silly moments.
BTW, anyone see or hear from Gerrard? He used to pretty much live here, ranting and posting nonsense, but he seems to have disappeared.
He always was an ass to me and to others here, but I do not wish him harm.
USAID something..
That is funny.
Gerald merged with chetos
Nobody wants this solved, other than possibly Trump and Co..
Not in the Collective West...
Didn't solve Romania, or Austria, Ukraine in 2014, France, UK, Germany (we will see).
Separating Great Power relations from the literal war in Ukraine, DJT has moved his team to normalize engagement w/ Russia. As long as the U.S. remains involved in Ukraine, the U.S. remains Zelya’s largest sponsor. The sooner we stop flooding the zone w/ aid—a forever war w/ perpetual funding—the sooner the AFU will lose its combat worthiness. The EU can’t keep this thing going. OTAN, led by Collective Biden, pushed this war on Russia. Crippled & hamstrung by various hoaxes, we’ve lived from one limited hangout to the next, some even segueing seamlessly into each other, a mind-numbing mesmeric sequence of civic bamboozlement: Russiagate, the actual origins of the pandemic, the efficacy of the vaccines, the reasons for the war in Ukraine.
We’ve been steeped in *fakes* for years. The BBC and Politico and Das Bild and Le Monde and the nytimes and The Economist and the WaPo lied to us about this war. And don’t get me started on the FT. At the MSC, Gen Kellogg told Sykorski about a certain kind of settlement, which Sykorski, engaging in a high-level game of Telephone, then told the press “was quite interesting,” without going into any details about the settlement. When Lavrov asked Rubio about it, Rubio told him it was “fake.”
Enter Zelya: “I would like to have more truth with the Trump team,” the Usurper of Kiev said in response to DJT’s assertions that “Ukraine started the conflict.” Zelya accused DJT of “living in a disinformation space” and in a “circle of disinformation.”
Look out, Zelya. Don’t act like you haven’t sat atop a heap of Truth Decay in Ukraine since at least 2019, if not before. While the RF has been mulching the AFU on the LOC, you have rushed your guys into the mayhem: ‘there to die.’
Moreover, on 19 February Kekkius Maximus took to X to blame Zelya for the death of Coach Red Pill, Gonzalo Lira: “Zelensky killed an American journalist!”
Lira moved to Ukraine in 2010 and had been covering the SMO from his apartment in Kharkiv, sometimes stepping out on the balcony w/ his still-recording laptop in order to smoke a cigarette. Lira was Russophilic, funny and insightful. Sirens warning of air raids sometimes went off during his Round Table sessions, and he vlogged on nonetheless.
Ukraine’s secret service arrested him just before Bakhmut fell in 2023, and he was held in a local jail, where he was tortured by fellow inmates, until he was released in July 2023 under house arrest to await a trial. Instead of sticking around, Lira hopped on his motorcycle and headed for Hungary but was apprehended trying to cross the border. Incarcerated once more, he was tortured in custody and died of untreated double pneumonia. His father, Gonzalo Sr., angrily called out Collective Biden for “giving at least tacit approval for Gonzalo’s death.”
On the day of judgement when secrets are revealed & the obscure is made plain, the State Department docs on this will be enlightening, to say the least. DOGE will dredge them up.
Berletic, The Duran gents, Larry Johnson, Garland Nixon, Yves Smith, Mark Sleboda, History Legends, Dima, Weeb Union and others sat around Lira’s Round Table in those unnerving early days of blue & yellow propaganda saturation in the West when we clung fiercely to alternative views. Lira’s Round Table was *the* free speech emporium.
RIP, Gonzalo
He was something else, was he not? An amazing human, a full blown character, living a life shining the light onto the darkness, while many dare not. 🙏🏼
I am speculating with some ray of hope that we are watching just a small portion of the judgement pour out. It will get worse and worse as they try to hide. Others don't realize there is no where to go.
Jer 23:23 Am I a God who is only in one place and cannot see what they are doing? 24 Can anyone hide from me? Am I not everywhere in all of heaven and earth?
I find the *mysterious irony* that a teenager employed by Musk is taking a wrecking ball to the Western idols just in time to save teenagers in Ukraine. A remnant will remain, let us hope they live to their potential.
My God he loved to smoke, can picture him grinning away in heaven. With a smoke!
One has to admire those who have gone against the narrative. Viktor Orban suddenly goes from shit disturbing nincompoop to top of class.
Those who admire and obey Klaus Schwab and Zelenskyy suddenly emerge as what they have obviously been all along.
Abundantly self evident, where has this now instantly obsolete narrative taken us? Will the Emperor's new clothes suddenly reappear? I don't stink so!
Mattias Desmet must have a lesson on what to do with Billions of people suddenly waking up from Mass Formation. The only menu item dished out gives them cognitive dissonance. TRUTH
Is the European vision the same old paradigm? Give all the most evil Banderites sanctuary in all the obscure corners of the world, for doing such a good job blocking the "brave" Ukrainians, while sending even more Slavs to their inevitable fate. Will they ever really cancel operation paperclip?
One thing is for sure Tattoo removal stock will go up faster than big pharma is going down. Banderites love their body 'art'.
Its gonna suck to be a wannabe nazi over there. Pres Putin will insist on all their arrests. Interesting times.
They won't be arrested they will be put up against the wall.
Lira🙏 the mention of his name brings up…so much, good, bad, or yet, middle path. He was a joy, to watch, his energy, the smoke, the coffee…takes me to a time beyond the “far~see; again, condolences to his loved ones. Not one to ever miss his round table gatherings; the bright bulbs, yup. The Love Revolution continues, sigh… thru the “years yet” of undeniable diving deep, shadow work is afoot, perhaps a turn of another few decades, centuries….carry on, my peeps, God Speed. The Sun will rise in the East, and… set in the West. 🌅❤️🐈⬛
🙇🏼♀️
I used to watch Gonzalo's round tables. He wasn't saying anything different than most of us who knew what was going on, saying, but he dared to say it from Kharkiv. I hope his family sues Nuland/DoD/StateDept into oblivion for what "happened" to Gonzalo. The Ukrainian prison guards, paid by our American taxes, killed an American! SHAME!
It infuriates me to think of what they did to Gonzalo. I hope he's up in Heaven smoking a cigarette and enjoying the humiliation of his murderers.
We will never forget you.
Ave Atque Gonzalo!
Your great soul will not be forgotten.
They are already history legends, not to mention Mosgovoy, Motorola, Givi, Zakharchenko, Castillo, Bentley and all the first hour fallen heros of the Donbass. They all died, tragically, for the good fight. Concerning Lira, I kind of agree with S. Ritter. His chutzpa was almost suicidal.
Very well said… I doubt the administration will spend DOGE energy on casting light on the atrocity and complicity of USA in “permitting his death” — if not actually ordering it… remember the black female drug using basketball player the U.S. spent lots of energy to get returned to the U.S.? There was NO effort to get a truth-teller (Lira) returned… soooo sad… RIP Gonzalo.
David Sacks post on X: "Gonzalo Lira was an American citizen arrested in Ukraine for posting YouTube videos critical of the Zelensky regime. He then died in a Ukrainian prison, exactly as he predicted in his last public statement. Dictator is as dictator does."
How to bring free speech back to life? Gonzalo is disposed of, but Gates, with so many others, live on, resplendent in glory, bought with the blood of innocents and the duped.
I stopped watching Scott Ritter after he went berserk on Gonzalo being CIA/whatever plant. It was so ridiculous/vicious trying to tear him apart without any evidence, and at the time when each voice against this war was scarce and mattered.
BINGO! he lost me there too.
Ooh ouch, did not follow religiously, missed that incident. Us humans mess up.
Gonzalo was great! Insightful man in so many ways.
I had the good fortune to meet him for coffee twice in Kharkiv 3 months before the SMO started.
I think he would be quite disappointed in some of those who he used to discuss the Ukraine situation with. I know I am.
It seems since God Emperor Trump returned to the white house, a spell has fallen over many.
Who is without sin? Those who got cancelled in the early days have way more credibility. Went looking for this recently and was amazed at all the cancel devices deployed still to stop you from seeing this. Finally found it, not so obvious.
If you have never heard of Building #7 or event 201, where this clip starts, do indulge yourself. You will see what created our hesitancy. These were some of the voices shouting, he's naked!
https://plandemic.com/plandemic-2-indoctornation/
The one denominator ubiquitous throughout at least the last 30 years, captured media!
A salute to all those who did not sell out!
Some of us found it easy--like second nature--not to be Regime Media sell-outs. We fended off the blue & yellow propaganda, continued to gather information, synthesize details and documents--and we kept a shiny edge on our critical thinking skills.
Some of us might have gone too far. Those sources who never felt the censorship blade are no longer valid to me! Those, many now dead, who felt the sting of injustice will live forever in our minds.
There will be a new industry to erase ones errors and jump on the new bandwagon. Did you get your shots is already a loaded question? One could say, stay the hell away from my daughter, with a certain new conviction.
We have the smallest foot in the door of a return to sanity. The legacy of genetic modification and Wi-Fi interference raise valid concerns.
The eagerness to mandate proven poison and endless wars begs many questions. What else did they slip past the regulators and how many kill switches have yet to be triggered just for starters?
Is Epstein really dead? It is not a moot point. Who actually blew up Nordstream is #1! As Lavrov said on arrival to the 1st of the new talks, "and for your actions, you have to answer".
Did you catch the short (~30 second) video of the street side of Building 7 showing the damage? Only ran across it one time a week or so after, then 'never again'. That video is one of the reasons I tend to discount popular narratives.
https://www.ae911truth.org/
Architects and Engineers for 9/11 truth
"Zelya accused DJT of “living in a disinformation space” and in a “circle of disinformation”
Pot. Kettle. Black.
We have now seen an irreversible turnaround from the US. Hope it lasts all the way. Feels like forces are now mobilizing to "remove" Trump. Good article, Simplicius!
I agree and share your hopes Mikey. The words: Feathers & Ruffled spring to mind, plus Wailing, Gnashing Teeth and Rending of Hair. Would love to be a fly on Madame Fond of Lyin's wall.
Yes. It is hard to grasp how the European leaders and especially, the unelected, EU leaders are thinking. Didnt they all hear Nuland 2014 say: F’ck Eu?
Merkel confessed that Minsk 2 was just hoax to give Ukraine time to build up its army so we know they have done dirty games for years. But it was Obama/Hillary/Nuland and then Biden who masterminded the provocations which led to Russias invasion 2022. EU stood by looking amazed and shocked. UK was of course instigating turmoil by themselves since 2014 and then the notorius operation ”Derail Peace” from Boris Johnson.
But when War broke out all the EU reacted as a herd of sheeps and now they have been running around for 3 years bleating. All of the sudden a new reality is forming and why dont they just take a deep breath and then say: Ok, we got fooled.
Is frau Leyen even thinking or is she driven by some sort of Russiahate?
there's several layers of EU, its unelected leaders being one of them. 'us plebs' don't want war and might not even see Russia as an enemy. then there are the farmers protestiing plus we're the ones trying to deal w/the consequences of unvetted immigration on a daily basis, not team Von der Leyen. so whatever Frau Ursula c.s. are thinking, it's only the top layer of the curdling.
Useless Ursula has the advantage of wasting 37 nations common taxes on whatever she wishes. I, as a deplorable taxpayer, in one of these countries cant do much other than what I am doing. Protesting without resorting to violence.
Nobody of influence and authority cares what the plebes think or want.
definition of plebes.
People who do the real work
You and me?
Who are not the elites, by default, are plebs to them.
Please don't forget why Europe has so many immigrants. There are a majority from the Middle East or thereabouts thrown out of their homes by US bombs and Israeli missiles. American drones killed anyone that moved whether or not you were an enemy. Europe has the US to thank fr being overrun!
Maybe, just maybe, any overt attempt to remove Trump will get the appropriate response, rather than the usual useless "conservative" posturing of "no, I meant I dare you to cross THIS line!".
I think the removal will be another means. Whenever Tulsi cuts CIA in thousand pieces and Musks autistic artists comb through Pentagons dark budgets the Deep State will strike back. 5,56, 7,62 or 9mm. Or probably a false-flag Iran drone attack.
There will be a Great Power detente. If Russia returns to the dollar system they get a release of money, dropped sanctions, desired outcomes in Ukraine, and US business investment. US asks for an end to war, withdraws US troops to Western Europe, and asks for lower global oil prices to satisfy U.S. consumers on inflation. US gets the Americas, China gets Asia, Russia gets referendums in Ukraine and 4 Oblasts, plus the Eurasia Heartland. US gets a freeze on Iran pressure on Israel. Russia gets Western Africa/Sahel. Together they all destroy globalists and return to great power nationalism.
>There will be a Great Power detente
Not good for Russia.
How did the Cold War detente work out in the end for the USSR?
You can never make deals with the Anglo-Saxons, all such deals are temporary ceasefires allowing them time to regroup and attack you again when you are least prepared.
The last four centuries have shown that very clearly.
>If Russia returns to the dollar system they get a release of money, dropped sanctions, desired outcomes in Ukraine, and US business investment
All of these are bad for Russia:
1) Dollar system. Why would they want to return to that? It is a mechanism of neocolonial extraction of real wealth out of other countries. Would any elite that should not be facing a firing squad for grand treason voluntarily participate?
2) Sanctions are good for the Russian economy and society -- it is forced re-shoring and forced re-industrialization, both of those badly needed. No sanctions means a reversal of those positive trends.
3) The "desired outcomes" are desired by the Russian elites. But very bad for Russia. The **necessary** outcome is to take over the whole of Ukraine. The Kremlin has been stalling for three years precisely in order to make yet another shitty for Russia deal with the next administration that will not solve anything and place the country in an even worse situation in the future (as all previous such deals did).
4) "US business investment" is another word for neocolonial subjugation. Russia doesn't need foreign investment, it is the richest country on the planet.
Stop with the negativity. You can't have the whole Ukraine because past kieve , they HATE Russians. you will probably get more than four oblasts plus Odessa. Russia won't abandon BRICS. It offers security. You are already proving to be wrong so far. So maybe instead of mouthing out, listen , watch and learn
Look who is talking!
I'm talking
You wrong!
😂 we will see soon
All their men are fucking dead or fled, russia could just pull a tibet and send tons of its own immigrants into that territory.
Whats Europe gonna do, complain about replacement immigration? Hahahahaha.
Maybe they'll throw a curveball and announce China or North Korea will take full ownership of Ukraine to create a neutral buffer zone. Then just send in a few million single Chinese men to run the place.
That would be an incredible troll from Beijing.
in that case i say norks. entertainment value for sure.
Why would they hate their brethren unless your refer to Jews and don’t care about those chicken swinging sin merchants.
Why do you have the same ip as the great moron? Are your cubicles side by side?
Something about Kissinger? My enemies, my friends…or a favorite partial quote from an author I enjoy, Klarissa Pinkola Estes, (spelling); leg trap, foot holds, beware. Women Who Run With Wolves, a great read along the good red road…❤️🐈⬛
A return to the dollar system is suicidal — and Russia knows it very well.
but what ZION Don is ordered to do by his jew masters....
Of course a possibility. Trump backing proposed “anti-semitism” legislation is not a good sign.
Reversing the overweening power of the jews in the west (and possibly even in Russia) is impossible now. Their power can only be contained in certain areas.
That’s why the world must bifurcate economically — into the healthy and living world, and the infected and dying west.
Clearing around a blazing forest fire…let it burn itself out while we watch.
Russia lit a back fire. Those often go awry. Trump proposals are often bravado to gauge reaction or win the house.
Please cease the "Jew" thing. The Jews are not responsible for the mess the World is in, but I don't say that about Zionists.
G'day Archie, have you seen the polls done in Isreal re slaughter of Palestinians in Gaza. It is very strongly supported also the removal of Palestinians from Gaza is the same. So Isreali Jews seem wedded to Zionism whilst the Jews residing elsewhere less so.
Draw from that what you will. Yet there is a strong correlation between Zionism and Judaism as their scripture are used by Zionists to support their position. Secular Jews are certainly another kettle of fish.
It's a good bargaining chip for Russia.
They will not "return to the dollar" per se. They were cut off and they're getting the ability to trade in USD back.
What that basically means is, they will be able to trade post-sanctions with the US using the USD, in the same way they're trading with BRICS nations using their own national currencies. They will continue to do that.
They pretty much said this already.
For some reason I expect Trump to get the US closer to BRICS or even try to join. Because it's good for business and, honestly, could be better for the US than to remain in their collapsing empire pretending the economy is doing well.
yep, getting T & the US closer to BRICS or even try to join is part of the globalists' trying to gnaw at the independence the BRICS system offers.
Russia has spent the greater part of a decade immunizing itself against the USD. Little did they (or anyone) think that the west would seize Russia’s Central Bank deposits in western banks.
Trump will be gone in four years. I expect the western banking system is planning new dirty tricks.
Imperative to follow two (non-Jewish) thinkers on this: Richard Werner and Kathleen Tyson, who’ve seen and done almost everything in banking (Werner with the Bank of Japan, Tyson with the NY Fed).
The fact that the West stole Russian national assets lodged in Western banks is reason enough never to use the US dollar again!
I think Merkel's admission on the Minsk Accords says it all. Once burned, twice shy!
If Russia goes back to the US dollar trading system it will immediately create an inflation crisis that could potentially crash the Russian economy. Russia is on a path from which they cannot retreat without very serious consequences. What will happen to the massive amounts of Rubles created to fund the conflict by the Russian Central bank? Creating a demand for dollars in Russia would plumet the value of the Ruble and destroy faith in the currency.
Who said that they are returning to dollar system
I merely stated a possible outcome many people may expect and probable consequences of that outcome.
So your from the ifs and buts tribe?
If you are not omnipotent and cannot see all things from all perspectives and all times. What else do you have other than ifs and buts?
I have heard more hints about Trump moving closer to BRICS nothing has been said requiring Russia to go back to the dollar, that’s all conjecture
Good point. The Russian economy did so well because of the sanctions. All the products that were imported had to be made in Russia; as the Oligarchs could not spend their money on crazy Western luxury products, there was enough money to build all these new facilities. It would be interesting if the Oligarchs injected the money in the form of loans or in the form of shares (bank loans were not used). It would be interesting too if these new facilities are cost-effective (this should be an easy goal, as Russia does not have the Western countries high taxes). There are numerous questions to be answered!
"All the products that were imported had to be made in Russia;" No. Most products in the world before sanctions were made in China and that continued to be the case after sanctions. The Chinese don't give a hoot about US sanctions.
It turns out that almost all European businesses don't care about US sanctions either. They continued shipping into Russia though third parties like Kazakhstan.
What sanctions did manage to do was convince oligarchs to repatriate over a hundred billion dollars of their wealth back to Russia, to re-invest into Russia. That caused a huge entrepreneurial boom. It also helped that many western firms (about a quarter of the big ones that were here) left Russia and that opened up niches. For example, once German auto makers closed up their official dealerships and gray market dealers importing through Kazakhstan and similar took over, the Chinese moved it.
The Chinese have almost totally wiped out German and other car brands with a wide array of truly spectacular Chinese cars that nobody in the west has ever heard of. But the Chinese have, and there's a brand for every quality and cost niche.
There's also been huge import substitution in things like oil and gas equipment and so on. So no, not everything Russia uses is made in Russia. It continues to buy from friends like China and other friendly countries, but yes, there have been huge import substitution niches opening up, and the flood of venture money from oligarchs repatriating billions to Russia has financed those import substitution businesses.
The new businesses are indeed cost effective, primarily because they understand Russian markets better than foreigners. For example, when McDonalds sold all 800 of their restaurants to a billionaire who was McDonalds largest franchisee in Russia, his new business took off like a skyrocket and makes more money (and profit) than McDonalds did.
The problem with not telling every detail. Everything you write is correct, but the cost of importing is high for some products. There are products that are bulky, or you have to use energy (e.g., cooling) to keep them in good shape. All these products have a nice advantage when produced close to the consumer. The railways and roads from West- to East-Europe are excellent. You can transport this more demanding good easily. Not for the connections between Russia and China (but these connections will be completed, but what happens then to these industries?).
Well, you don't need to tell every detail, but when you make general statements you should make sure they're not generally inaccurate.
For example: "There are products that are bulky, or you have to use energy (e.g., cooling) to keep them in good shape. All these products have a nice advantage when produced close to the consumer. "
As a global statement, that's wrong, in fact wildly wrong for most such products in modern times. That railways and roads from unfree Europe (the West) to free Europe (the European part of Russia) are more or less good doesn't matter. That's primarily because transport has become so inexpensive compared to the past, while cost factors such as energy and destructive government policies have become dominant.
Also, "products" in English is general understood to mean manufactured products, not agricultural commodities or specialty foods that require refrigeration, so those bear discussing as their own cases, not as part of some global statement. But even in those cases the contention that energy is required to keep some manufactured products (such as vaccines or other medicines) cool means they have a nice advantage when produced close to the consumer is also wrong.
The classic example of all the above is how China became "the world's workshop," with so many manufacturing industries moving from the US and Europe to China. It turns out that modern shipping has such extraordinarily low costs of transport that it is far cheaper to build products, even bulky products, in China and ship them to the US than it is to build in the US near to the consumer.
Another example is the ongoing deindustrialization of western Europe in general and Germany specifically. It's far cheaper to build in China and ship to Germany than it is to build in Germany and truck just a hundred kilometers to a local consumer. Why? Because the price of energy in Germany and the cost of the social welfare state is too high to be competitive, a slight advantage in transport costs not being enough to make up the difference.
It's true that utilizing globe-spanning logistics to achieve and retain extremely low transport costs requires skills. Those skills, in fact, played a key role in underpinning the export earnings of many western European economies. A good example of that were the truly superior logistics skills of Dutch companies trading in flowers or Belgian companies trading in fresh fruit. You can see any theoretical example of closeness by rail or road between Amsterdam and Moscow is not a factor in an export business that flies fresh roses from Ecuador to Amsterdam, clears them in a vast flower market, and then exports them by air to Moscow or even farther to Vladivostok.
Another example is the re-export of Conference pears from Belgium to Russia, where Belgian distributors "owned" that market in Russia, even though the pears they exported for the most part weren't grown in Belgium.
What happened when the EU committed suicide on orders from the US, foolishly trying to "cancel" Russia, was that Russia responded by canceling them. For a few weeks the usual astonishingly broad and deep variety of fresh fruits became visibly thinner. Conference pears disappeared entirely for three weeks. And then they and everything else appeared again.
What happened was that when western European superstars of export logistics and distribution were cut off from Russia they were replaced by perfectly competent businesses from other countries. EU businesses were so strong at logistics and distribution they wouldn't allow even a toe hold for other competitors, but the moment those EU businesses paused their work in Russia their competitors rushed in.
It turns out that in modern times logistics and distribution skills are a commodity. They can be purchased with plenty of experts from EU countries willing to teach those skills to businesses in South America, Africa and other centers of agricultural production. Instead of buying Conference pears through a middleman in Belgium, large Russian distribution companies started buying direct from producers in Serbia, South Africa, and South America.
It was the same with almost everything else the EU provided. They were replaced almost overnight with direct relationships with vendors in the majority of the world's countries which said "no thanks" to the US's invitation to commit economic suicide. There also was a huge rise in Russian startups, like vast greenhouses to grow specialty crops (like elite varieties of tomatoes) even in winter. Those take advantage of very low energy costs in Russia and, it is true, faster transportation links. But the issue there is transportation links within Russia, not import links.
So now when asparagus is in season I buy fresh grown asparagus locally, and when it is not in season I buy asparagus grown in Mexico, Peru, or a variety of other countries which grow it. Citrus fruit comes from all over the globe, with a lot of citrus imported from Morrocco, Egypt and other warm climates. African and South American countries are the source for many fresh fruits and veggies when it is winter in the northern hemisphere.
China is a direct neighbor of Russia with superb rail and marine transport links. The lower cost of energy in China means they are even more competitive against western European countries for products like automobiles or appliances. China is also pulling ahead in technology. Look at the new Chinese cars and they are technological marvels that make flagship German brands look outdated. Chinese e-cars are far superior to anything western Europe is producing, and at a fraction of the price.
I'm just saying, the low cost of transport by sea (and air for high value products) has made the world a far more interconnected place. With the high cost of energy and destructive government policies like you see in unfree Europe, one way that not only countries but also private citizens can break free of local idiocy is to buy from more free and more economically productive countries even when they are on the other side of the globe.
"That's primarily because transport has become so inexpensive compared to the past, "
You have obviously never shipped anything internationally. It currently costs ten times more to move a 20-foot container than it did just 5 years ago. You have absolutely no clue what you are talking about.
Remember that sanctions harm the sanctioner by cancelling foreign profit centres. Instead third parties take up where the US stepped down. Nothing like shooting yourself in the foot!
G'day Seeker I feel you have placed domestic currency creation and foreign currency purchases in one boat. Nabiullina is an oligarch plant protected by Putin due to an old agreement and she is not helping the situation with 20% plus interest rates.
The domestic economy is nigh on self sufficient due to the sanctions but exports are restricted so a boost in export sales are beneficial even if paid for in dollars that do not have to be invested in US Treasury bonds as previously was the case but be spent on gold or whatever technology components they might need.
Read about China's actions re its dollar surplus which they repatriate back to China.
Domestic and foreign currency purchases were forced into one boat because of necessity. I know the Ruble is a fiat currency that is money in Russia so it is what is used to pay domestic bills. The Russian government was forced to increase government spending because of military spending thus they had to increase their Ruble supply to cover expenses. In the beginning it was stated that Russia would run out of money which was absurd as the Russian Central bank creates the Ruble. The real issue for Russia was always inflation. So the sale of Russian exports in Rubles created a demand for Rubles outside the Russian economy. This demand outside of Russia allowed the Russian Central bank to export inflation to China and other states needing Russian exports. This is no different from the US exporting its inflation having the world's reserve trading currency and world reserve asset. The 20% increase in interest rates was intended to deter commercial bank lending and encourage loan repayment. As money is generally created through commercial bank debt issuance and destroyed when debts are repaid. The increased reinvestment of money from the Russian wealthy and the increased consumer confidence which continually increase the Russian money supply had to be controlled as eventually the consequences of the good times had to be dealt with before it got out of control. Maybe Nabulina over compensated who knows, but her being proactive was necessary. We can only wait to see how it plays out.
Putin would be an utter fool to trust the US, and betray his BRICS partners - incl Iran and China, where the main non-dollar trade is achieved. In 4 years time the situation could be reversed just as quickly.
Putin has never struck me as a fool.
Russia already got 4 oblasts, it's a fait accompli. Russia repeatedly said it's not up for debate. What other referenda do you see happening?
Ritter, Johnson and McGovern talk about karkhiv and Odessa. But there are also arguments against it because it would leave Ukraine in an impossible situation where it could not provide for itself. On the other hand, Poland, Czech Republic and Romania are supposed to be in talks with Russia to see what parts of Ukraine they might gobble up. It all depends upon the Banderites Russia is happy to leave those Nazis under the control of Poland but if necessary they’re also willing to completely take them out. The USA funded these criminals even before World War II was over. They were directed to attack Soviet troops. Scandalous.
What is your definition of "a return to the dollar system"?
This would be closing the barn door after the horse already ran away.
or your old girl friend seeing you with a new girl after she repeatedly cheated on you and she now wants you back.
BRICS is way too far along to go back to the sanction prone SWIFT/IMF/World Bank system.
When the USA weaponized the dollar they sabotaged its use as a world reserve currency.
Sorry, I wasn’t clear. I meant both systems, Russia will continue to operate with BRICs and bi-national trade and currency settlement, but also allowed to use SWIFt, US banks, offshore assets, etc, etc. they can use and access dollars and the US System as well as BRICs. Counterintuitive, but the stronger BRICS is, the less the $usd can be weapon used, and donor becomes more palpable to use in conjunction w BRICS mechanism.
"but also allowed to use SWIFt, US banks, offshore assets, etc, etc. they can use and access dollars and the US System as well as BRICs."
I live in Russia and know many Russian businessmen involved in import/export and I can't think of a single one who's interested in using SWIFT or US banks. They're a pain in the ass and the sense of not having to deal with cretins that has flowed from finding other ways to settle payments that don't involve SWIFT or US banks is so totally wonderful that nobody wants to go back to dealing with cretins.
SWIFT is an ancient, horrible system, like something designed in the last century (it was) to make business inefficient and slow. Nobody in their right minds wants to use it. Will some Russians use SWIFT, and even US banks, for some transactions? Sure, but it's going to play only a very minor role.
As for offshore assets, there are plenty of those in play for Russians, just not having anything to do with the lawless West. The whole unreliability of the West has left a bad taste in the mouths of oligarchs. They have a choice where they can spend their time and salt away their money offshore and they no longer want to do that in London, Paris, Switzerland or the US. They're also not stupid, and they know the old saying, "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me."
""Fool me once etc." Tell that to GW Bush, he couldn't remember how it goes.
If you live in Russia why does your ip show you are in California?
VPN
Now we know Henry is a troll as well. You can't see the IP addresses of people who post here. He's either just a jerk or, just possibly, Simplicius has achieved a new level of fame, enough to warrant the attention of western "security" organizations and their wannabe groupies.
Fwiw. Some are saying the American oligarchy put Trump into the White House precisely for the complaints you list here. Not the entire oligarchy, of course, but the ones who have been identified as the tech bros. Chris Hedges had an article where he identified the corporatists and the oligarchists. He claimed the first were Democrats the second were Republicans, but we seem to have missed the fact that Maga is actually a third-party formed from the ashes of the Republicans and Democrats a group of oligarchs who are trying to clean up the mess created by the Zionists.
The thesis is fascinating. Sometimes you can see the jiu-jitsu. The Trump is performing. Other times he looks like an idiot.
I look at the compromises Trump is making with Putin and how he is attacking Netanyahu and the way he is treating Zelensky. It’s like this group of tech bros. Understands that the US lost the war the empire is collapsing. They’re doing their best to save it.
Of course this is just putting the best spin on the situation. I’m just keeping an open mind.
The Russians tend to honour agreements.
Trump is flirting with Russia because he sees China as the bigger threat.
I can't see the Russians abandoning BRICS, China, Iran and de-dollarisation for the favours of the USA that will likely be reversed in 4 years.
Also why do the Russians want West Africa/the Sahel?
Longterm strategic planning. What natural resources are there? What benefits would having control of them provide to Russia?
I don’t believe Trump sees China as a threat. It is the PNAC crowd made up mostly of Zionists who thought they forge American hegemony over the rest of the world. these are the same people Trump is ousting from office.
Today marks the first month of Trump in office and wow ! It was a frantic one. First, it is now clear that Trump didnt acted his assassination attempts. What was meant to be a public execution, as a terrifying warning for those attempting to challenge the masonic empire, turned into a public act of God, especially for Trump himself. Trump fears nothing now. He knows he has been chosen by God himself to save the USA, just as Putin was. These are providencial individuals, chosen to change history. Those claiming Trump is just another pawn of the cabal are silent now. He was attacked on any angle, both from the outside or the inside, but they could not make it, for the time being.... The work of years of meetings and political presence on the ground proved critical and decisive. History found its way again, big time, through glorious gates, but there is still a long way ahead.
The Trump crew has attacked their enemy with shocking speed and boldness and guts, having them disoriented and lost. Their whole scheme was cimented on lies. Some rays of truth have dissolve the sand castle amazingly fast. Yes, Zelensky is a dictator and a puppet, yes Europe is undemocratic and irrelevant, yes the Usaid was a fake humanitarian money-laundrying monster, yes ilegal inmigration is a major problem, and so on. Now, we see how much of the liberal NGO´s and media are in fact paid operatives. When the money faucet was closed, they were left in dispair, asking for a new master to serve. In my country, the rowdy crowds of the left are changing their speech fast, showing what they always were, a bunch of oportunists, hypocritically mimicking the good narrative, in order to grab money and ressources for their own good.
And this bring us to the increasingly dubious nature of western democracy itself. We can now state that the masses are unable to provide freedom, justice or equality. Small groups of well-teamed individuals, say from 3.000 to 5.000, can effectively rule a whole country, manipulating the people's natural insticts for security and submissiveness. Democracy is the perfect system for the rule of money, where every vote can in fact be bought off. As Jay Gould put it, “I can hire half of the working class to kill the other half”. The globalist cabal knew that they had to bring “the masses” on their side. They knew how easily they could be lied and deceived. They need agressive activism, pleople ready to die for their ideas-identity, people willing to fight for their right. Having the working class and racial communities been almost totally neutralised and assimilated, the only remaining candidates were the homosexuals, being radical feminism a brach of lesbian homosexuality.
For the Trump party, there is something that will remain still un-sorted from an historical point of view. They think they can go back in history to interprete the world in a traditional christian way. This won't be possible. The most terrifying thing about the cabal, the one that made them look invincible, is that they think in marxist terms. They are not marxists, but masonic bankers and billionaires. But they have been clever enough to hire smart marxist scholars and activists to steer their policies. Thus, they are aware of the inevitability of the creation of a unified capitalist world market without tarifs or trade barriers, just the law of the jungle. As Marx follows, this should lead to a global working class revolution which will bring down the capitalist rule for the entire planet. This is the part that they didnt like and worked to avoid, by means of a preemptive mass depopulation, once a unified government in place. The Trump team will sooner or later realize that they can't just grab Greenland, Canada or Venezuela. American businesses need mass migration in order to keep the workers wages down. The liberal homosexual masses won't just go away and disappear. Many NGO's and media which were a part of the globalist system governance, are desperately looking for a new master. And remember who owns the banks and the FED. This has just started... The masonic cabal system will need to be dismantle piece by piece. Otherwise, they will strike back with a vengeance...
You watch way too much TV and are completely delusional.
I like your comment a lot. There are some strategic points. I would disagree with, but I can’t do this on the phone. The labels you use don’t match the facts you are presenting for me that is. Others might read your words and totally agree. Maybe it’s just semantics.
And Henry is the one who is delusional. Two closed minded to even consider the point. Democracy is a charade with the Zionists hide behind the curtain while they manipulate the Wizard of Oz.
May I recommend Aaron good and his new series about the Jewish mafia? He explains how Meyer Lansky formed the national crime syndicate. . How Lansky was given the presidential medal of freedom by Harry Truman in the White House. This is the same Lansky who formed murder Inc. Folks also need to find goods series called Empire and the deep state on YouTube. He shows America was founded by crooks and has been run by crooks since the very beginning. Some really cool stories.
dream on: there's far too much money to be made from weapon production, oil & gas monopolies and war. T stating that "he totally disagrees with Zelensky about Russia wanting to invade NATO countries—he’s not buying the globalist bait..." only means T's playing out his assigned role and that the globalist powerbrokers need to make us believe there will be 'peace and coöperation' between US, Russia, China.
Russia would be stupid to return to the dollar, it's a vise on ebay scrotum in the world outside of the American imperialists. The US will"lose" the Americas, no one can ever trust this country after Biden/Trump. Trump , if he lasts four years, will create utter chaos in the country and may be removed by a military coup to prevent a civil war. The man is mentally unstable, happily he's destroying the American empire from the inside.
You are right but always look for the silver lining. In this case the possibility of the Ukraine war ending.
This seems very optimistic. While I applaud Trump's efforts, I think the time for detente was back during the Donbass conflict. With all the escalation, the cementing of BRICS, etc, I think there will be a major clash regardless, but we'll see.
The illegal Jew criminal HQ state is all the jewSA is concerned with -
Show me on this doll where the Jews touched you.
Typical Jew response to make reality about sexuality and that pervert Freud.
You seem to be the resident expert on perversion.
US Defense Security Cooperation Agency has just issued two press releases on arms "sales" to Israel totaling about $7.5 billion. Included are 13,000 guided bombs, more than half of US annual production. These "sales" are covered by loans from the US.
Israel literally never has to pay for these weapons. They borrow the funds to pay for them from us, and those loans are automatically forgiven. We are just sending Israel more than half of our yearly munitions production for free. What a disgusting joke.
The Zionists are takers, not givers and they ridicule the US for being their very own patsy.
That is a complete lie.
You are the only disgusting thing here.
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-state-department-approves-military-sales-worth-74-billion-israel-2025-02-07/
readit and weep
Israel was founded as a secular state!
Great comment. Thank you
They will NEVER go back to the dollar. They're not that stupid.
A thousand times bitten, twice shy.
The chances of Russia returning to the dollar system are as remote as them giving up all of the land they have taken in Ukraine. Not going to happen.
Let's see which of the 3 world powers collapse - It is clear that the dollar system is a trap - returning stolen money is a minimum imperative of decency - lifting sanctions that have harmed those who imposed them the most? - Ukraine returns to Russia - Investments in China - Lowering oil prices? - For whose benefit? To the detriment of whom? - have the Americas? like the planned invasion of Mexico? The return to a Westphalian multipolar world based on mutual respect and cooperation instead of wars of destruction and plunder - is inevitable -
@Oregonian ….Excellent post
"Was it Russia that destroyed Nord Stream? Last I checked, European intel services had all but concluded it was a Ukrainian initiative under command of Zaluzhny himself."
BULLSHIT!!!!@@@%%%####!!!! The USSA ship BRIBEM did it!!! For fucks sake he was on video admitting as much!!!! Quit letting these fuckers off the hook!!!! Chip
"European intel" sources - that should tell you all you need to know.
good job.
They know who did it, and everyone knows they know who did it.
This is how humiliating a position they have put themselves in. Nobody respects them, because they don't even respect themselves.
It was the USS Kearsarge during BALTOPS22
I believe it was most likely the USS Jimmy Carter which is a Seawolf Class nuclear attack submarine specifically modified to conduct this type of sabotage. It could just sit on the bottom next to the pipeline and divers could work directly from it. The U.S. spent some $800 million dollars making the modifications some years ago.
Oh okay European Intelligence if it is even possible worst than our own corrupt United States intelligence services…..
US Navy was at scene of Nord Stream blasts: Danish media
https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/us-navy-was-at-scene-of-nord-stream-blasts--danish-media
I believe the actual ship was the USS Kearsarge, which sat in the immediate neighborhood of the blast for a week until about 48 hours before the blast. It had abruptly sailed off thru the Danish straits, across the North Sea and thru the English Channel out into the open Atlantic by the time the blast timer ran down. The Wikipedia page for the ship helpfully explains it was doing underwater demolitions training and drills in the Baltic in the months preceding.
https://www.vesselmarinefinder.com/vessels/USS-Kearsarge-(LHD-3)/CURRENT-LOCATION/1/368702000
It’s inappropriate to hold the U.S. government or the American public hostage to the war in Ukraine. Obviously our country has done more than its share, perhaps to the tune of $200bn dollars’ worth, of support to Kiev, though Zelya says he only received $74bn—oh,oh—so it’s not as if there has been a failure to step up. In 3 years’ time Ukraine has had ample opportunities to pursue negotiations or peace but each time opted not to. Regardless, now, it is okay for the U.S. to step aside and let Europe claim ownership of the war going forward, should Europe wish to continue the war, because the murkiness of this lengthy & convoluted involvement, replete w/ accusations of corruption & malfeasance of funds, is complex & thorny enough to render it an extreme liability.
Even more so, if the matter is going to end up in a tit-for-tat social media showdown between the U.S. president & the Usurper of Kiev, who has not permitted an election in Ukraine for 11 months, then it is obvious where alliances & allegiances & commonsense investments lie. Collective Biden committed itself to Project Ukraine; when they left office that commitment ended.
It’s complex, we get it—but Americans handed DJT a mandate to end the war in Ukraine. Which DJT is now doing. Undoubtedly this is disappointing to Ukraine and to the EU—yet nonetheless they knew *months* ago, based on DJT’s own very public statements delivered in numerous campaign events across the U.S. just exactly what his aims were.
Moving Zelya from Hero to Zero at warp-speed, DJT called Zelya “a Dictator without Elections.” Truthing on Truth, DJT said, “Zelensky better move fast or he is not going to have a Country left. I love Ukraine, but Zelensky has done a terrible job, his Country is shattered.” Moreover, he accused the “modestly successful comedian” of conning “the U.S. into spending billions of dollars in order to go into a War that couldn’t be won. So you know what has to happen.”
Better duck, Zelya. And take the hint: “you know what has to happen,” DJT said. Zelya is the only person on earth right now who is never going to get this message again. He thinks he’s got trouble w/ the Banderites—? Throw salt over your left shoulder, Zelya. Better whistle past the graveyard. DJT is the one not even the Deep State could kill: *You know what has to happen.*
Zelya probably should have bent Gen Kellogg’s ear instead of taking to X, bitching & moaning about DJT *in private,* getting it off his chest behind closed doors w/ the Special Envoy and ranting away to his heart’s content, venting his spleen—but not going public with it.
That Nazareth song “Hair of the Dog” comes tunefully to mind.
BTW: when DJT called Zelya a “Dictator,” Senator Blumenthal—Danang Dick, who never was in-country during the Vietnam War but claimed that he was—sputtered indignant outrage, because DJT “has never called President Vladimir Putin a dictator.
will Z be able to keep his Florida properties? Zelensky’s $35M mansion in Sunny Isles, FL built by Kolomoisky and Pinchuk. $1.3B in the bank - https://www.onenewspage.com/video/20220305/14457089/let-start-with-Zelensky-35M-mansion.htm
Trump should confiscate all of Zel's US assets as a 'Payback Gesture' for the American taxpayer.
Our colleague Gisela Coutis has a commonsensical suggestion (below on this thread.)
Things are going so rapidly south in the U.S./Zelya r'ship that I can see the State Department enacting a 'seize & freeze' in order to claw back some of the billions already poured into Project Ukraine.
“It’s inappropriate to hold the U.S. government or the American public hostage to the war in Ukraine. Obviously our country has done more than its share”….
What a short-sighted and misleading argument! The U.S. has been a key player in this conflict for years—not as a neutral observer, but as an instigator. They have caused, fueled, provoked, sustained, and orchestrated it.
Now claiming they have "done enough" is pure hypocrisy. The U.S. bears immense responsibility for the destruction and human suffering. Instead of turning away, they should acknowledge their guilt and take responsibility.
That Trump seems to be taking a different course could be cautiously seen as a positive shift, but given his stance on Gaza, there’s little reason for optimism. Meanwhile, the weapons there keep flowing—just a few days ago, another shipment of 1,800-2,000-pound bombs was delivered.
In sporadic far-flung accounts, like Talbot's THE DEVIL'S CHESSBOARD, we know of the CIA's most fledgling escapades in the Ukraine SSR (starting in the late 1940s) to invigorate & weaponize that Banderites & ultra-nationalists against the USSR at the time and then later the RF.
But the general population of the U.S. is unaware of this depth of CIA investment in Project Ukraine. Ditto for the politicians.
In the absence of being able to lay such truths on the populace, the war does not begin in 2014, for instance (or before then, if you want to start w/ the Orange Revolution in 2004)--but it begins on a February day in 2022, w/ the "unprovoked brutal, etc. etc."
The U.S. has as you say "caused, fueled, provoked, sustained and orchestrated" the contemporary debacle we find in Project Ukraine today.
The U.S. system disallows any Truth & Reconciliation-style accountability for the decades of prepping this debacle, however.
So the quick & dirty thing to say is that this was Joe's Folly, publicly lay the mess at the feet of Collective Biden--and then walk away.
Sporadic far-flung books will ultimately appear, piecing together the actualities... Nicolai Petro has a new one--THE TRAGEDY OF UKRAINE. Aaron Mate is writing one. But my money is on the U.S. *never* admitting several decades' worth of complicity in Project Ukraine.
"Wir tun so, als hätten wir es nicht gewusst."
the White US people are held hostage to that illegal jew state and their genocidal plans...
No U.S. president can break w/ the basic U.S. policy toward Israel, which is unconditional support. Notice that only one or two elected officials--Rashida Tlaib comes to mind, maybe Ilhan Omar?--have protested this unconditional support.
The U.S.'s enabling of the genocide in Gaza makes obvious the grip the Israel Lobby has on domestic politics.
Even in the midst of this current ceasefire, C-130 cargo planes are touching down on the tarmac of Israel's military base every other day, ready to unload new supplies of Bunker Busters, in preparation for...
Th. Massie has openly criticised AIPAC's influence - https://mronline.org/2024/06/15/house-republican-claims-every-gop-colleague-has-an-aipac-babysitter-pressuring-them-to-cast-pro-israel-votes/
Professor Mearsheimer did so too in THE ISRAEL LOBBY, published in 2007. He weathered the slings & arrows.
Authors periodically seem able to interrogate the U.S.'s unconditional support of Israel--but politicians who do so see their careers swiftly end.
the realisation has tilted my worldview considerably. thnx for mentining Maersheimer's book!
"It’s inappropriate to hold the U.S. government or the American public hostage to the war in Ukraine"
The United Snakes of 'Murica is fully responsible.
Ukraine Project was a great big "OWN GOAL".
Trump can wax as prolifically about the Curse that is zElensky, but in the end it is the
UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT that is ultimately responsible to the world at large for their contribution to the Project Ukraine. The Biden admin is only responsible within the U$A for it's malfeasance.
Conscript the girls. Women can do everything men can, after all. Let's expand that to include dying in trenches for their country.
Just want to add that this writeup is incredible. Practically read my mind and I learned a bunch of things.
Since much of what you wrote is obviously is speculation, might I add a possible opportunity in Ukraine. Imagine a world where Elon finds a palatable (human proxy?) way to enter Grok in the Ukrainian election...a grand experiment. So very epic.
you do realize that Darth Vader already ran for MP in Ukraine, right? :P
>While the US continues to believe Russia will still exchange Kursk or simply freeze the conflict in exchange for only Crimea, etc.—this is not an adequate negotiating common ground for Putin to even bother wasting his time on
As we have endlessly discussed, Putin has control over firepower that would allow him to make Ukrainian defeat certain and irreversible within hours of him deciding to do so, and then have the Russian army at the Polish border within a couple months later (mopping up would take some time).
That hasn't happened in three years, exactly the opposite, he didn't even make any effort to secure his own borders, as a result of which the frontlines have been moving into Russia itself.
So yeah, that assumption on the part of the US looks pretty spot on.
Because they understand the internal weakness of the Russian state, which is the oligarchic model. The oligarchs want things to go back to how they were before 2022, with them and their money being welcome everywhere in the West, and they do not want to win the war for a number of reasons:
1) Proper mobilization means a wartime economy, and a wartime economy is a command economy. Even the US was a command economy during WWII, but that was temporary. Russia, however, has a proper tradition of being a permanent command economy, so any such precedent is extremely dangerous for the oligarchs, because you cannot have a command economy and Russian-type oligarchy in the same time. And they will need a proper mobilization even if tactical nukes are finally used to isolate Ukraine and then there is just the clean up left to do. A couple million will be needed for that.
2) The Russian oligarchy does not want a return to economic autarky, which would have to be done if Russian sovereignty is to be restored and if the kind of military-technical measures needed to defeat Ukraine are applied (which could result in political isolation of the country for some time after that). The whole basis of their power is to be the middlemen that hand over Russian raw resources to the West for pennies on the dollar. But economic autarky means new centers of power associated with domestic technology development and manufacturing emerging, which would automatically erode the relative power of the resource extraction oligarchs. It would also redirect those resources towards internal consumption, and then they would not be middlemen between anything. Can't have that.
3) They don't want to pay for Ukraine's restoration. That country was a wreck even without the war, and will need massive investments into its infrastructure and its reintegration with Russia. Who will pay for that? Well, most Russians don't have much you can tax, it is one of the most unequal societies on the planet, so you would have to tax the rich. Can't do -- building roads in Poltava at the expense of having fewer limousines and private jets for the Russian elite? What sort of a sacrilege is that?
4) The Ukranians are Nazis and they have made this into a rerun of WWII in their minds, but it works for the other side too. If there is a WWII-style total victory, it will inevitably lead to a resurgence of the latent communist sentiments in the Russian population. We in fact already saw that in the first months of the war -- one of the rarely spoken about aspects of those first months was how much of a return communist symbols made. You had hammer and sickle flags and GPW symbolic everywhere. The Kremlin had to work very hard to re-instill total apathy towards what is happening into the population, because things were getting really dangerous.
Remember, the grand imperative of Russian politics since 1991 has been to never allow communism to return, because of how much fertile ground still remains for it to do so, as it was not overturned because the people wanted it in the first place, it was a coup by the elite. The Ukrainians Nazis and American nukes in Europe are seen as much lesser threats by the Russian elites in comparison.
Etc. etc. etc.
So with Putin being the errand boy for the oligarchs, it is no wonder he has been fighting hard NOT to win the not-war for three years now, soon entering a fourth.
Stop with the BS. Even the oligarchy won't trust the USA. They know how the West including Americans see them. Why do you think they have pushed for brics? Plus you have misunderstood the state of the war. Anyway you have been wrong from day one Gurkin errand boy
the restraint showed by putin made this detente possible, it wouldn`t have been possible after carpet-bombing a populated city, assassinations etc.
you are just a warmonger and the equivalent of azov but in russia.
1) There is no detente yet
2) The example of what happened to Assad — they tricked him into thinking everything is good now, then they stuck the knife in his back — is very recent
3) The established facts are that the US gave itself permission to invade, bomb and launch missiles into Russia, then actually did those things, and nobody has paid any price for it. A detente might happen, but it will not overturn that established precedent, and in a few years someone else might be in power in DC and it will all start all over again.
Then what?
The only way the Kremlin establishes detente without coming out of this at a loss is if Trump agrees on a few Russian missile strikes into the continental US. Take out some of those responsible for starting the war and so much death and destruction. Zircons on the Kagan/Nulands mansions? Sounds good to me. Then Putin comes out and says “we are even now and can be friends“, Trump does not retaliate, and we can have genuinely good relationships.
But without that happening, Russia has been diminished as a great power and its security has been permanently compromised.
So later on when the next aggressor emboldened by the refusal on the part of Putin to defend the country tries to start some shit, it will be the same calculus — either extreme force will have to be used to make sure nobody else dares do anything like that again, or a lot more Russians will once again die.
What is the true reason why Trump wants to meet with Russia and China with the intent of cutting military spending by half? Is it, he wanting to create a peaceful world or because the US with it's burgeoning deficits can no longer afford the military budget? Russia has caught the US in the same trap the US caught the USSR in the 1960s. Where they could exaggerate military capabilities and decieve the USSR to bankrupt the state chasing silver bullets.
It appears that the economy is a primary driver in almost all of DT's actions. The US has a $2T annual deficit and $37T in total debt. He needs to cut costs (downsize gov't and end unnecessary foreign engagement) as well pay down the debt (sovereign wealth fund, TikTok, gold revaluation, bitcoin reserve), thereby preserving the dollar as the world reserve currency.
His gamble, IMO, is that he can fix the US economy in 4 years so that overall it's seen as an accomplishment, even if there's some serious pain in the interim. His plan isn't totally baseless - it could work - but it'll take a lot of finesse to succeed, and he's a wee bit short on finesse on most days.
Republicans now control the entire Senate. Finesse is absolutely not the right approach to use. Why would Trump want to cut deals with the DemonRats when he could just bulldoze his way through?
He has to cut deals with his own Republicans as well - the military budget is a real red line for most congressmen, senators, MIC giants and Tech oligarchs - it probably powers most states' economies.
Also, he is going to have a difficult time convincing Russia, China and anyone else to cut their military budgets as the US budget exceeds most others combined.
But the image he creates from this effort will reverberate throughout the world who will see him as a peacemaker who at least tried.
DJT will definitely find some dirt on these republicans to make them follow the party line.
Like ladybugs Graham who's priority is that illegal jew state?
He need a good Gaddafying.
Trump just need to publish the names of Senators/Congressmen for whose indiscretions $17 million were paid from our taxes.
Victor. I think "Trump the peacemaker" will have traction in the USA, but nowhere else. Everybody else can't get over Gaza.
But equally that might be enough.
The only thing Trump has now that he did not have in 2016 is majority electoral win and a very bad economy. He had control of the Senate the house and majority conservative judges in the judiciary in 2016. The only legislative win he had with a relatively good economy was cutting taxes for the wealthy. Probably he can again cut taxes for the wealthy even more.
"The only thing Trump has now that he did not have in 2016 is majority electoral win and a very bad economy."
This, and 4 years of additional understanding about how the den of vipers works.
How much of what he seems to be achieving is the "Trump effect", or a general consensus that the left has simply crossed the line from "lets reduce pollution and try not to be too hard on the gays" to "they're trying to weaken and destroy civilisation itself with their crazy policies"?
Time will tell of course whether Trump is any better or worse than anyone else. To me, an outsider, it seems at least at face value that a lucid Trump in the hotseat is far more effective than the doddering meat puppet that was there previously.
Also as an outsider, I do agree with you, he has a better perspective of the legislative bodies that he must encounter. The reality is they left him a minefield to hamstring his administration economically and Geopolitically. These mines have started going off and they will only get worse. The party that was defeated gave up on the last election with the hope of things becoming really bad under the current administration. So they can point to failures to fool the US voter to give them a legislative win in the next two years and hopefully the next general election. I totally lost my faith in democracy as I lived under both system so the system I see work better I support as the ignorant cannot steer the ship.
You got it right, so he’s cutting all the imperial commitments, marking deals for Peace w China and Russia, squeezing the vassals, cutting government by 2T, and then praying that deregulation and capitalism make improvements.
Oregonian. It's a Hell of a ballsy move, if you're right.
Are we SURE it's not just to fund tax cuts to the 1% though?
Russia has not even tried to trap the rotting US. The country has become a giant with feet of clay. The deindustrialization and financialization of the US were done according to certain decisions of certain persons. Only compradors and foreign agents would allow the US to become a country with a lowered lifespan, impossibly bad education for children, Pfizer triumph (plus Fauci-Walensky criminal actions), degeneracy, illegal immigration galore, the weeding out the patriotic and intelligent Americans from US government, and the fusion of fascist mega-corporations, banking cabal, and security services together against the interests of US citizenry.
Guess, the amorality of wars of aggression has hit back home. Or perhaps it is the cowardice, opportunism, and hypocrisy of (selected) people in US congress and Supreme Court, which have been plagued the country.
The USSR didn't go bankrupt because of the arms race, in fact there was absolutely no reason for it to ever go bankrupt as it was always either fully self sufficient or perfectly capable of being self-sufficient, unlike the West.
It went bankrupt because of the decisions of Soviet elites after Stalin. Specifically:
1) In the 1960s it was decided not to develop an entirely separate computing industry but to instead copy Western technology. Automatically you fall behind when you make that decision, and the gap kept growing, resulting in the need to import technology.
2) In parallel, Soviet elites developed a taste for imported luxury Western goods
3) And they also voluntarily accepted being part of the neocolonial scheme that is sending real raw natural resources in exchange for green pieces of paper that can be printed in infinite quantities.
None of that was necessary, and would not have been allowed to happen under Stalin.
The moment you accept the dollar as the world's reserve currency you no longer have control over the terms of exchange, and you are in a subservient position. And you can then be bankrupted from the outside at a convenient for your enemies time.
The solution was to cut off all ties with the West, refuse to subsidize them with cheap energy, and invest in your own development.
The opposite was done.
And, of course, has modern Russia done anything to really get out of that trap? Not at all, Putin's main task in his quarter of a century at the top has been to maintain the same system...
I did not state the strategy was successful. It can be debated what caused the USSR to desolve. A strong influence was the allure of capitalism and the happy successful pictures of the Western lifestyle to the people living in the USSR. It's always easy to see the glamour and the glitter and nothing else.
Greener pastures everywhere and you have to admit one thing: the Americans are the absolute champion when it comes to propaganda. They have perfected the work of Edward Bernays.
Again, the people living in the USSR were definitely victims of Western propaganda, but they had no part in the decision to dismantle the USSR.
That was a purely elite project
So the elites in the USSR weren't people, what were they? The wealthy power brokers had more exposure to the Western lifestyle than the everyday Soviet citizens.
A major reason for the collapse of the Soviet empire was the betrayal by Poland. The Poles always hated Russia and the Soviet empire, believing themselves victims of the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact. The Polish diaspora, including John Paul II and Zbigniew Brzezinski, worked tirelessly to subvert Soviet interests. As I recall, Polish opposition politicians in the 80s were the first from among satellite countries to demand a change in government from Soviet-appointed communists to capitalists/liberals, and Gorbachev unwisely obliged.
Any form of communism has failed. The first generation is full of belief and works hard to come closer to Utopia. The second generation sees all the problems of such a system, stops believing, but stays calm. The third generation lost all hope, stopped proper work, and then it was game over.
Which generation are they on in North Korea?
North Korea and communism? There are some ruling families, a lot of religious (?) propaganda, and then there are the peasants. Sounds more like feudalism. The normal people do not believe that some socialist program will lead them to a better world; they believe that the divine ruling class will solve their problems.
sort of like the trumptards....
You are missing the point. It is still a command economy with central planning and redistribution, and the third generation did not decide to convert political power into economic ownership as the late Soviet elites did, nor does it look likely to any time soon.
It is stable.
So it can be done. But the price to pay is serious.
If you allow, I recomend you a book: Igor Rostislawowitsch Schafarewitsch, Socialism in Our Past and Future.
national socialism is the answer. the entire west could have been sweeden in its heyday but for the jew and flooding the west with low IQ non-whites. Russia is the future
Is that what's happening in China, Werner?
Only from the outside it looks to be pretty successful.
Read about the "New Economy Policy" from Lenin. It worked great. The Socialist Theory was bended because the USSR was not a full Capitalist economy; it needed to allow free market in the USSR to progress towards socialism. Sadly, Lenin's health was deteriorating, so he could not lead this project for very long, and after his death, this NEP was the major breaking line in the Communist Party. Stalin was neutral, but he used the NEP to remove all his opponents. As the last man standing was pro-NEP, he got into this complete state-steered economy. There are good books about this; obviously, Deng Xiaoping knew all of them.
Well, Lenin’s NEP worked for few years, but I was always wondering why was it stopped? So NEP ran from 1921 till, let’s say 1929. Was it stopped just because Stalin “felt so?” I think with a few poor crops in a row and peasants gouging the prices, the “collectivization” came about. I met in Holland an elderly Ukrainian woman who lived through “holodomor.” She told me that her parents were batraks (lowest form of peasants, who worked for other peasants). Her parents got free land under Lenin’s “the Land reform” in 1917. They never owned land before, so when Stalin in the 1930s, demanded the land be returned into the “collective farm,” they refused. The crops, seeds, foodstuffs were confiscated from them, even if her mom hid a handful of beans in a house plant’s pot, it would be ripped out to remove the beans. She told me that the family of 8 died one by one, on her eyes, and only her step-sister who was 14 yo and herself 9 yo, were left. Once parents were dead, the land was confiscated, and her sister began to work for the collective farm being paid by a plate of a lentil soup, which she was sharing with her 9yo sister.
I always wanted to see the Ukraine’s land registry of the “holodomor” victims, re.: where their land came from. Because if the land was given to them for “free” by the state, the state had the right to take it away, as it did. Not to excuse what happened and how people died as a result, but most of these people died for a free gift of land, they’re okay to receive, but forgot how they got it. “Freely you have received; freely give.” Matthew 10: 5-8
Well, if communism was not always sabotaged, isolated and attacked directly would it have failed? Chinese communism was left alone and has evolved into a society that is set to overtake all economies on the planet. So if communism was ever left alone would it always fail?
Chinese don't have pure communism.
Thus the word evolved, it was left alone to become what it is today.
I won't take chances on communism in any shape or form. Communism is like an old joke, "wanted as better, happened as always"
Your view of communism sounds like a"three-generation curse," where the first generation builds wealth, the second generation maintains & expands it, and the third generation squanders it all :-)
Not a huge fan of Stalin or Mao for the killing of so many of their own countrymen. I am sure I would not be typing this if Stalin was alive during the Cuban crisis - those ICBMs would have been flying.
I would also add that the USSR was somewhat of a reverse empire. Traditionally, empires (British, Roman) wealth would flow from the periphery of the colonies and newly acquired territory back to the home country/city to enrich the elite. In the case of the USSR it was wealth from the Moscow that would flow out to prop up the economies of eastern Europe.
The end of the USSR was not catastrophic for Russia, it was a godsend that lifted a huge anchor off their back. Look at the mass of investment made in Ukraine alone before 1991 vs. what Ukraine accomplished on its own since 1991. Who wants to prop up the crime economies of Baltic states or Ukraine when in the end they are not grateful and resent you. This is all the past now, no going back.
What I would like is to see more of the new Russian wealth spend on rural Russia to improve those people's lives, but a peace-deal carving up Ukraine would result in all that investment being spent on the next Ukraine war of the near future.
Tricky this, how to engage with the west (they are still part of this planet), but keep yourself at arms length.
Your comment about reverse empire is spot on, but not what follows after that.
The RSFSR did not switch from being a reverse empire to being a traditional one, it swtiched from being a reverse empire to being a colony. Real wealth continues to flow out of it, it is just that where it was previously used to prop up the periphery, now it props up the former enemies and a tiny oligarchy takes a cut of the proceedings, which it converts into megayachsts, private jets, limousines and mansions. It is no different from what Latin America and Africa have been for so long, and the only reason the Brazilization of Russian economy and society did not wreck the place even further is the Soviet legacy. Putin's policies have not done much (or really even seriously tried) to reverse that trend.
In a hypothetical scenario in which we don't get Gorbachev and Yakovlev after the mid-1980s interregnum, but we get another Stalin, most likely Moscow does not look as shiny as it does now, but it is still a clean and impressively looking city but the smaller cities do look a lot better than their current state, and everywhere in the USSR is a much better place to live than in the badly decaying without the injection of Russian resources Europe and North America.
JT - Stalin did not set out to build an empire. Self preservation forced him to take territory, and cause great destruction along the way. The reverse empire you speak of was the reconstruction of eastern Europe.
"The reconstructionEastern Europe" was the buffer, since every 50-70-100 years, the West wakes up with the rabid "Drang nach Osten" in their eyes.
Your view of Putin is more delusional than that of Kamala Harris.
No, you have appointed Putin as the leader of your little cargo cult and refuse to see the reality of what is happening.
Here is a reality check re the entirety of the Defense budget (which is over $1.3 T when everything is taken into account, including estimated black budgets, expenditures "hidden"/stashed under other departments (like the VA? aid to israel, half of which is returned to the MICS?): this budget in its entirety comprises over 2/3 of the full Discretionary budget (per my calculations. perhaps I'll share in a post). IOW, it dwarfs anything the US spends on eg, NASA (some items of which are also defense related), NIH, NSF, FAA USDA, FEC, Medicaid, Edu and what not. Not only that but the funds are well spread over the entire 50 states so that every district of every congressman gets a share.
What this also means is that when push comes to shove, over 30-35% of ALL good Middle Class jobs (ie with security and benefits) in the country (this is again per my own estimates using whatever labor resources are available0 The reality is, sad as it is, that the private sector simply cannot fill these jobs, not with the benefits, the salaries, etc. So, we have to accept that this gargantuan defense budget is effectively a welfare for the skilled (at least in part). That while being quite a gravy train for the lobbyists, the marketeers, the hangers on etc.
How many people out there realize what a hole the US has dug for itself with these over-sized budgets? yes, one can hope for a return of some manufacturing jobs to the US but the emphasis is on "some" and it won't happen overnight. In the meantime, China, with a different model, is leaping ahead, spending far more sensible funds on defense (which are proportionate to the threats it faces).
So, what happens when more people in the Trump administration wake up to the fact that our economy is in deep doo-doo? that those stupid wars are just a ruse to keep the gravy train rolling and the illusion of a prosperous middle class alive and well?
I have no answers, of course. Then again, I never saw a way to reverse the decline of the west, other than temporary band-aids. And IMHO that's what trump is - a band-aid to stem the decline for just a little while longer.
"Reality check" and "the Defense budget" is a contradiction in terms.
As far as I recall, the USSR decided not to build the super expensive aircraft carriers to follow the US, rather thinking that they might turn into expensive bonfires, which, with the current technology, they most likely, will.
Trump is all about China. His warming up to Russia reflects a revised US strategy to split the China/Russia alliance. A peace settlement favourable to Russia and the isolation of the EU are the first steps towards that end.
In the end, however, the US will fail as a new world order is presenting itself and nothing can stop it. Probably the best America can hope for is a peaceful shift from Empire to regional power. I think Trump sees this.
Copy, that❤️🐈⬛
The best thing the Europeans could do is improve relations with China. Blinken boasted is his speech when leaving office, that a major win was stopping a China-EU trade agreement. Europe stupidly started a small trade war with China. Just as Russia and the US have a large sea between them, the EU and China have a massive land mass between them, and given that both are regional powers, neither presents a military threat to the other. Better relations with China would be a small but important lesson in unanticipated consequences for trump as well.
Probably the best America can hope for is a peaceful shift from Empire to regional power. I think Trump sees this.
I don't think he does. Which is irrelevant anyway, it will be forced on the us to except.
Trump is all about China, Trump sees this? Trump is blind, the eyes of others are seeing: Stargate, AI and of course DNA engineering, the deal to militarise, economise and geopolitical-ise the future America.
I think Trump believes that the real power of the future will lie not in military forces but in technological advances creating a controlled digital world. I think he wants to redirect military spending to technology to dominate that new world.
Again, he will likely fail to do so as the US is being left behind in so many fields by the likes of China and Russia as well as the economic and financial disaster engineered by American elites over the decades.
USA is now irreversibly on its way to being a low IQ 3d world brown shithole.... Make America White Again or watch it become another mexico with jews in gated communities and pajeet middle managers
I don't buy that about trying to separate russia from China. But I guess we will see.
Separating Russia from China................no way this will happen.
I don't know. I would not say it is impossible. At this very time Chinese firms are still selling war material, done parts, etc. to Ukraine. It is in China's interest to not have such a strategic victory for Russia.
So, when the shoe is on the other foot and China needs help with a naval blockade or to defeat Taiwan, maybe Russia will drag their feet a little in the help department.
China just wants to make gobs of money - a trait that can be exploited.
Link please. Have not heard this before.
To be fair Americans might well be happier and more prosperous as a regional hegemon.
British defense sources have accused Zelya and the AFU of wasting expensive weapons & equipment, frittering away the Challenger 2 tanks, burning through Javelins & Strykers, letting HIMARS missile launchers flow through their hands like water. They felt no wherewithal about stewarding these gifts prudently. Abandoning trucks & tanks & howitzers hardly mattered. Another shipment was coming. There was always the next train.
“The Russian army probably has more Javelins than the British Army now,” a British source told The Daily Telegraph, adding that although the Brits enthusiastically support Ukraine’s fight against Russia, the *effort* to support Kiev, to keep it stocked w/ weaponry, “was built around lies.”
Like Trust-Fund Babies who never earn a dollar on their own dime but depend on the ‘rents to set them up handsomely w/ bottomless expense accounts, Project Ukraine was a wide-open beak—mama, feed me—without the incentive ever to use its wings. Of course the Trust-Fund Babies feel no responsibility for the largesse in their possession: they didn’t sweat to amass it. Nothing kept them awake at night, stewing over the modest stockpile of anti-armor weapons, wondering how to increase it. A succession of stockpiled NLAWs, courtesy of the Brits, was already riding the rails from Poland and would be there the next day. And another one the day after that.
For instance, the Next Gen Light Anti-Armor Weapon, or NLAW, is a single-use anti-tank missile that costs about £20,000 per unit, and is designed to be used for precision attacks against enemy armor. The UK has supplied more than 5,000 to the AFU. A defense ministry source said that Ukrainians were required to share videos of the weapon being used correctly, but the footage received showed Kiev’s troops wildly firing five or six NLAWs towards Russian lines at the same time — salvos which cost upwards of £100,000 each.
OTAN has a “nothing gets left behind” attitude towards equipment and weapons due to high cost and doctrinal importance, so the ‘rents, who are keeping the Trust-Fund Babies stocked, frown on the fact that Kiev’s military allegedly retains a Soviet-style, semi-disposable outlook towards its equipment and weapons. The ‘rents tut-tut over the fact that their Trust-Fund Babies have repeatedly abandoned Javelin missile Command Launch Units (CLU) on the battlefield, each of which can be re-used and reportedly cost more than $100,000 (£80,000.) The Brits donated hundreds of highly accurate Brimstone missiles to the AFU. It was alleged that the troops would fire dozens at a time, without regard for the price tag of each unit, often missing their targets. The scene was like a wild fireworks display of helter-skelter lethality.
Such has it been w/ Project Ukraine, the beneficiary of billions of dollars’ worth of the West’s weapons—both gifted to them & grifted *through* them. Trucks carrying supplies sometimes arrive at their destinations having already been stripped of the weapons they were supposed to deliver. When the guys drop the tailgate to unload the stuff, they see that only half the equipment is there. “Welp,” they say, looking around sheepishly. “Must have fallen off the truck.”
Zelensky and his European friends are more than happy to rack up a million more casualties. Some European political leaders refuse to admit they have been wrong and want to continue to fight this war regardless of human costs. The problem with this idea is that there is limited money and weaponry available. Corrupt Trust-Fund Babies have not only frittered equipment away but ultimately sold a lot of Javelins & Strykers to foreign arms dealers, some of which are turning up in the hands of Mexican cartels. Dumb European politicians never ask why—but clever & keen Lady vdL has announced a 16th sanctions package on Moscow, this one “clamping down harder on Russia’s shadow fleet,” which to her mind will increase the pressure on the Kremlin. Standing ever in unity & solidarity, Kaja the Callous announced tighter measures on import & export bans: “The Kremlin won’t break our resolve.”
And an actual NEWSWEEK headline ran on 19 Feb: “There Are Concerns Zelenskyy Could Be Voted Out Of Office If Ukraine Holds Elections”
That is a problem with NATO tactics. All equipment should be regarded as temporary and disposable as per soviet doctrine. Equipment being hoarded and saved looses its practical value.
NATO only knows how to fight one-sided wars, where they have the luxury of picking and choosing which weapon to use. If I was a Ukrainian facing a 10-1 disparity in artillery, FABs, in an undermanned unit, I would use anything I could.
nato and US military are just for defending that Illegal jew state... no chance against a real military
imagine being under punishing artillery fire and at the same time face an armor assault and... needing to take pictures for your paymasters.
Hmm. Not convinced myself.
This smacks of "why don't our gooks fight like their gooks? "
"It's not that our weapons are over priced and poor value for money, because of our profit driven MIC, it's because our allies are poor soldiers and can't use them. "
I don't buy it.
The Ukrainians appear to be excellent, brave tough soldiers in my opinion. If they can't get a tune out of the instrument, then it's likely a poor instrument.
How about this:
“The Ukrainians appear to be excellent, brave tough soldiers, but their training has been consistently inadequate. Their use of advanced weapons has been correspondingly poor, as one would expect.
At the same time, these NATO weapons may be over-engineered for a peer war battlefield. They are built under a bureaucratic philosophy of acquisition planning and testing, rather than a philosophy based on reasonable battlefield imperatives.”
Probably closer to the truth than I was Joe. You can't train a civilian in 6 weeks.
>> "The Ukrainians appear to be excellent, brave tough soldiers. If they can't get a tune out of the instrument, then it's likely a poor instrument." <<
None of which can the British defense sources say. Doing so would indict their own military ethos. Strictly forbidden.
So they've got to trash the guys they're kitting out.
It's the *guys*, not the *kit.*
Proxies, take note: this is your fate when you fight an unwinnable war for the paymaster and end up not winning.
You know that Zelya is in deep shit when even the "British defense sources have accused Zelya and the AFU of wasting expensive weapons." Looks like the Ukrainian honeymoon is over, the rats compete at finger-pointing the scapegoat to hang for this surreal debacle.
Not only did they waste ammo and equipment like it grows on trees, their whole battle plan was stupid and incompetent.
Never pull back, keep feeding men into the death grinder, over and over again. Total lack of layered defense lines, and making it obvious where they would go every time they had an offensive. They treated their soldiers with no regard.
Thx for this gut-check moment.
The Brits have the *luxury* of castigating Zelya or Syrski or the AFU for wasting weaponry. What about disposing of the guys--?!!?
I half wonder if some of these stand and die units are not put there on purpose to help with the 'denazification' requirement from Russia. In this way it keeps those hardcore Nazi fighters from grouping to coup Kiev.
If you have poorly trained troops and no concern for casulaties, Ukrainian strategy makes perfect sense.
Play for time until Russian unrest grows or until NATO openly and directly intervenes. It's cynical, but so what?
Maybe the training of the Ukrainian drivers/operators is far from adequate?
Possibly, too, the Brit defense officials are eager to throw some shade on the AFU, as a means of scapegoating.
"As I’ve previously posited, it’s possible that Trump has been setting up Ukraine for a fall, but he simply had to prep the ground first, by making reasonable overtures toward peace that he knew all along Zelensky would be incapable of agreeing to or honoring."
Yes, moving the Overton window. This is Trump's "art of war". BUT, don't be duped!!! Let us wait and see. Trump, after the Obama/Nuland led 2014 coup, allowed the provision of lethal arms to Ukraine. The CIA was responsible for the 2014 coup (ALSO UNDER OBAMA). Trump, although he is moving the Overton window, is not admitting to any of that!!!! So is all of this to placate the USSA public? To reinforce that "we are the good guys" again???? Keep your heads on a swivel. I realize that Trump has nothing to loose. BUT, since he could never admit he was wrong about operation warp speed, remember that he will use every opportunity to elevate himself even if he does ultimately want the best for our country. Keep a sharp eye and don't fall for the emotion of the moment... Chip
yep, always be wary of a man with a Messiah complex
Yes, and thank God we have him.
trumptard. only the jew has zion don.....
Typical dimocrat cockroach
Trump personally did not order the armaments to Kiev - Trump was in the throes of the Deep State machinations and impeachments and went along out of necessity.
Yes. "Keep a sharp and don't fall for the emotion of the moment." That's very good advice.
One part was the fact that Trump had to demonstrate the fact that he was not a Kremlin stooge or puppet as they were heavily trying to proof and the other part was just business.
yeah and he probably resents that very much.
Trump got most of it correct, except he left out the part (or is simply not abreast of the true situation, yet) that it wasn't Zelenski who talked the US into starting the war with Russia, just a quick Google will reveal that Zelenski had even signed Russia's agreement before the war had started. Rather, it was Boris and the West who talked Zelenski into tearing up the agreement and starting the fight with Russia, with the promise that "we'll have your back, Russia will fall in weeks due to simple economic sanctions, and after that, we'll all be rich on cheap Russian energy. The Putin will meet the same fate as Saddam and Gadhafi".
Trump is correct that all of this could have been avoided, but it is not only Zelenski's fault. Zelenski's fault is believing the lies of Boris and the West who convinced him that a war with Russia was winnable. Will he spill the beans? I think he is sworn to secrecy. His silence about what was really said to make him tear up the agreement is probably more valuable to him.
Not to mention that his knowledge about what was really said is also dangerous to him. Being sworn to secrecy might work amongst honorable men in yonder days of old, but he's at the mercy, from start to finish, of a multinational brood of self-serving oligarchic thieves.
I think Zelya's megalomania, cultivated for many years by the West, lulls him into the false sense of security & irreplaceability. He is in for a rude surprise. My bet, he'd be disposed by Ukrainians, who would finally realize, after Trump's words, how they're duped by the West, and that it was never about Ukraine at all.
Yes, exactly. The essentially weak megalomaniac bullies of the west led/bought by the USA have perfected the art of spotting and picking out weak men as their proxies and flattering, goading and blackmailing them into their latent megalomania, destroying their countries and the lives of millions of men, women and children, then stealing their oil and resources and agricultural land and handing their destroyed countries over to the IMF et al in perpetuity, then shaming and blaming and discarding them in one way or another, no matter, it's a "deal" after all, and moving on to the next.
Don't forget after destroying the countries the elites with their wealth move to buy properties in western countries bringing their wealth to build these western nations while leaving their own nations to ugly fates.
Good point. Perhaps like the Nazi's bringing "theirs" (or Jewish) wealth to Brazil and Argentina. Always interesting to know how/where all the wealth absconded with was made.
As long as Zelenskii has the police and army ready to shoot when ordered, he has nothing to fear.
The real question is, does he?
So far, yes.
Doubt it will last much longer.
If you look objectively at what is happening you will see that the US is now shifting the blame for the war. Never mentioned is the Fuck-the-EU Bride of Dracula whose intelligence services manipulated this disaster in the first place. Now it is Zelensky who talked the US into the the war and the EU elite who encouraged him.
The US is perfectly innocent of any guilt over the massacre of a whole generation of Ukrainians, the almost complete destruction of its energy, its economic health, the destruction of many of its cities, the loss of a significant portion of its territory and the spread of nazism in Europe.
But now the US has seen the lies imposed on it and will no longer take it. Fuck the the war Z got them into. Fuck the EU. Poor Russia who has been one of the worst victims of this crime. We need to move on and get to the real challenge to America and the Empire - China.
Yes I noticed that too about cunt face "fuck the EU."
Another thing that strikes me as a little disingenuous of Trump is that they were arming and training the AFU throughout his first term. No?
Trump, like Putin doesn't operate in a vacuum. They have to take many considerations into account. Maybe he is waiting till the dust is settled, maybe there will never be justice (likely). But we have to move on and stop these endless wars. Justice feels good, but doesn't bring back the ones that did not survive. Besides justice will never be enough as if sending HC and the rest of the creatures to jail for the rest of their lives will be enough suffering to compensate for the suffering of the millions of people. These people deserve the worst, but it is not going to happen.
This is an interesting angle that I hadn't considered and it would explain why Trump is saying it was all the z-mans fault when it is perfectly easy for anyone to discover what actually happened in the weeks and months directly before the conflict started.
The z-man is stuck. Will he admit he was a pawn of the western globalists, destroying his country for the promise of personal riches and glory, or will he close his eyes and take it from Trump now like he has from the entire West for the past 3 years?
Zelensky never believed it was winnable for ‘Ukraine’. It was always a grift; it’s what he was created for.