423 Comments

“I can’t think right off the top of my head of anyone,” Col Macgregor said, “who might be less informed about Eastern Europe than Keith Kellogg.” Ouch. He elaborated, saying, “There’s no win for us in Ukraine. We lost the day we involved ourselves there. The systemic corruption is entrenched. It’s an abyss. The U.S. has no leverage in this war. We can’t fix it. It’s beyond our capabilities.”

Lavrov called a truce, a freeze or a ceasefire “a road to nowhere.” Russia is winning and has no incentive to pause the momentum. “There will be no serious conversation,” Lavrov said, “until colleagues in the West comprehend the abnormality of language repressions in Ukraine and the persecution of everything Russian there.” He indicated that Russia is committed to protecting its people in Ukraine.

Commonsensical Lavrov indicated Russia would wait until DJT’s admin actually came into office and began proffering valid proposals in Real Time before getting down to brass tacks. "As Trump himself said during one of his interviews, he will actively work to 'end this bloody mess' as he put it, but he needs to formally take office first. So, he will be inaugurated in three days. After that, we’ll examine proposals that will be on the table," Lavrov said.

Project Ukraine has been the wholesale embrace of a mountain of lies designed to justify perpetual conflict against Russia. Those for whom the outcome of a war w/ Russia means the most are not Americans—they are descended of those who have nurtured Russophobia for more than a hundred years. Europeans are resurrecting old agendas and fighting old grievances. France & the UK, who have boutique limited-action armies, are hankering to station their troops in Ukraine as a purported peace-keeping force, ahem. The leaders of France & the UK don’t want to lose so publicly to Russia, but it’s unavoidable now. They pitched in w/ stupidity: reap what you sow.

Expand full comment

Yep, and to be blunt, fuck them.

Expand full comment

Better jet, Oresnyk all of them!

Expand full comment

Trust me; this would gain thunderous applause in Scotland.

Expand full comment

Running on empty on Ukrainians, game over. France cannot swallow Napoleons disgraceful defeat in Russia, and Britain will never accept it lost it’s Colonies, they will keep on poking their frustrations no matter what the outcome of any peace treaty.

Expand full comment

Proponents of Forever Wars equate victory w/ never permitting the conflict to end.

Expand full comment

It's never about 'winning' in the usual sense, but about continuing profitable weapons flow and draining the other side of economic strength.

Expand full comment

These war-mongers, these people who know only destruction for profit surround us. They are not the people who actually suffer from the loss of their beloved humans and homes who are left to rebuild their lives emotionally, spiritually and physically accepting and multiplying the generational hate handed down to them by the people with the checkbooks. If only the people would say 'no'. 🙏🏼

Expand full comment

Our permanent government here is owned by "war mongers", they call it "national security". It has been 150 years since the people in America experienced what war is. Both WWI and WWII were expeditionary, the men sent to fight did not come home to burned out homes, raped and killed relatives and an utterly destroyed society.

Makes me sick to hear people mumbling about the need to fight for "democracy" like zombies. Accepting the continual obsession of a very few powerful interests to dominate, destroy and profit from continuous aggression, without ever winning anything.

You realize your country is literally run by war criminals, looting wealth and resources, in a wake of destruction.

Expand full comment

If my comment led you to consider that I don't know this, forgive me, that was not my intent. I'm a US citizen and I am well aware of the war criminals that run this country. I think of them like the mafia that used to collect 'security payments' from the owners of local bars, restaurants and shops in the NYC neighborhood I grew up in.

Most recently I noticed the war criminals gathered to pay respects to another war criminal at the national 'cathedral'.

There is no 'democracy' (or Constitutional Republic) to save, it is all a delusion. It is, however a powerful, criminal business, led by governments and powerful corporations. It is not new. It goes much further back than 150 years ago...beyond our Western brainwashed minds, long before the Dutch East India Company, further back than the Vatican of Medici fame. (banking cartel/money laundering) further back than the 'enlightened' West.

Expand full comment

I agree with your mafia analogy, the fact that we lost a Constitutional Republic governing a union of Sovereign States 150+ years ago, and the continuous money laundering by connected/dominant corporations.

It is eye opening to read comments on various other sites as to how brainwashed so many are.

Expand full comment

Britain recreates The Charge of the Light Brigade with Ukrainians as tin soldiers.

Expand full comment

Macron and Starmer seem to have out-sized egos regarding how important they are within the WEF framework. Or perhaps they don't want to appear as complete servants to whoever occupies the White House.

The SMO is not quite three years old and Cool Britainia has gone through four Prime Ministers. All due to the stresses from wrecking it's economy for a poorly planned and executed attempt to destabilize Russia until we run out of Ukrainians.

Why Ukrainians support being the blood sacrifices is beyond my meager reasoning.

Moral of the story;

Don't pick a fight with an Autarky.

Expand full comment

Britain, being a Corporation rather than a country will cease to exist soon enough, the island reverting to the constituent countries that actually exist there. The structure there is so superannuated, corrupt and rotten that the truth of its formation is now visible.

Expand full comment

The worst outcome is a freeze or ceasefire. This needs to end with a lasting security/peace arrangement.

Russia needs a buffer zone and stand clear of the debris of an imploding Europe. The more weapons they destroy and the more utterly defeated NATO is, the better.

It's sickening how the government of my country, which started this debacle, downplays what it actually means that their running out of Ukrainians to die.

The split of 400,000 Ukrainian frontline and 400,000 interior/border guards proves it's a police state.

The Russians take no casualties in their rear areas in the Donbass, as the population is 100% on board with being liberated.

As they move west, there will come a time when they cannot trust all the local people. On the other hand, leaving a large remaining Ukraine that festers with terrorists and malcontents, like a European Somalia, is a poor option.

Perhaps they need to take the entire place, and then negotiate a settlement before withdrawing from the region west of the Dnepr to the western borders. Keep Odessa and Kharkov and Trasnistrya.

Expand full comment

Solid.

I hail your emphasizing the fact that "400,000 interior/border guards proves it's a police state." The Ukrainian population is held hostage in what amounts to a detention camp the size of Texas.

S referenced the Rada member, Begula, who keeps poking around in this matter.

Expand full comment

These western Ukies are willing hostages, hating Russia and Russians to the core, but at the same time they see this as a losing cause now and do not want to send their sons and daughters to be annihilated by Russian forces. I have no sympathy for these assholes being on the same genetic order as israeli fascists.

Expand full comment

It's hard to see the Ukrainians are being "held hostage" when over a fourth of the population still supports continuing the war, and Zelensky.

Expand full comment

Like many who have been deceived.

Expand full comment

It's easy to support if you don't have to go.

Expand full comment

A young Ukrainian man has miraculously appeared at the church where I worship. He is far from the destruction that befalls the many he left behind. I encourage him to allow the sadness but to not allow the sorrow to engulf him, it is a bitter poison I tell him. I remind him to be grateful for the beauty of life and look forward to watching him bloom into his intended purpose.

As I've said before, if you can help...if it within your power to help with any resources, do it! Combat the evil with good!

cheetos, I always appreciate you comments.

Expand full comment

Wise words.

Expand full comment

Thank you. It has been a lifelong lesson for me and each day I get a tad closer.

Expand full comment

Fully agree!

Expand full comment

Ukraine is already a world-wide sponsor of terror.

Expand full comment

Exactly like its strategic partner, Israel.

Expand full comment

Well said.

It is my oft' repeated opinion here and on Newsweek war porn that Russia should liberate all lands in the Banderan territories that Lenin forced them to cede. Romania, Hungary, Slovakia and Poland will, with a wink-and-a-nod from Putin, send their "peace-keeping" forces into the lands that Stalin forced them to cede to the Banderan territories.

It is my opinion that Romania will absorb Moldova. Transnystria will no doubt be negotiated. Strategically, the place is unimportant to Russia and is not recognized by Russia to be independent of Moldova. It's probably better to not maintain a large ammo dump there.

Expand full comment

Well said.

Expand full comment

The Paris Peace Accords of 1973 resulted in a "freeze", for a couple of years at least. That's what most of those in DC think of as a "win".

Expand full comment

Excellent.

Expand full comment

One can almost disbelieve the current European suicide-can this be REAL!?

If you doubt that the Euro-morons are capable of generational stupidity,

open up Barbara Tuchman's depressing account of the Euro-lads at war. <<link>

The book was so effing depressing I had to put it down and walk away.

Enough already.

As I told my "liberal" friends who would listen at the outset of this debacle...

There's NO fucking way Russia will lose this war. Luckily (/s) Americans

don't do history so there are no lessons to be gleaned.

https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/a-distant-mirror-the-calamitous-14th-century-by-barbara-w-tuchman/246602/item/3407413/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=pmax_high_vol_frontlist_under_%2410_17392035982&utm_adgroup=&utm_term=&utm_content=&gad_source=1&gclid=Cj0KCQiAv628BhC2ARIsAIJIiK9NQZGuZ5EHPIgUQ0qbGSCdrzouXWvsPcJ-X0MjXgBdElnpU9osjUcaAk_-EALw_wcB#idiq=3407413&edition=2360248

Expand full comment

Read it a couple of times. Is one of my favorite medieval history books.

Expand full comment

don't you mean UK/EU suicide?

Expand full comment

First picture:

1. Victoria Nuland before she could even spell "Russia".

Second picture:

2. Victoria Nuland once she discovered the "Russian Monster" under her bed.

https://th.bing.com/th/id/OIP.1oYXT1BGL3s0pkLqEdZbeAHaHa?rs=1&pid=ImgDetMain

Expand full comment

Hahaha...we know where all the cookies went.

Expand full comment

The corruption in the Ukraine is not a bug. It is a feature. We need a corrupt Ukraine to launder money, drugs, children, women, weapons, it's great mineral wealth, bio labs...whatever.

Expand full comment

The UK and it's imperial delusions, are all about optics. We were never anything but a 'how to' in state branding. It appears the façade is no longer 'doing the business' as it once did. We can now see up the back side of our own state, and we're all feeling a bit nauseous because of the view.

Expand full comment

So what role did McGregor get in the upcoming administration?

Expand full comment

Good point. The mere fact that Trump put Kellogg in a position of power tells us a lot.

From the OP:

>I can’t think right off the top of my head of anyone,” Col Macgregor said, “who >might be less informed about Eastern Europe than Keith Kellogg.”

We can only conclude that this is a deliberately bad hire. They don't want someone who understands, because such a person might make wise decisions that would require some actual thinking and acceptance of reality.

Delusional retards have the advantage of allowing the non-acceptance of reality to go on for a while longer. Kind of like celebrating your ex-spouse's birthday after they've already left you and run off with a younger model.

Expand full comment

McGregor speaks truth and about reality. Trump never has concerned himself with reality. Ego is all that matters to Trump, and so he surrounds himself with a bunch of raw-raw, pomp-and-circumstance people.

I don't know why the DC swamp hates him so. Actually he fits right in there.

Expand full comment

so sad your TDS

Expand full comment

Is that you Col MadGregor?

Expand full comment

LOL, no I can only say I was once a boy scout troop adult leader, other than that I have zero military experience.

Expand full comment

Zelya said it, Ukrainians are not civilized, what else can be said?

Expand full comment

What? Ukraine has been a massive success in finalizing the desired rift between Russia and Europe. Now Europe can be shackled into a forever-war driven EU superstate with Ukraine as a massive prison and drone-launching facility. This war is pure profit for the NATO/EU parasites who don't mind bilking the taxpayers and genociding Slavs in the slightest.

Also notice how the UK is suddenly so interested in the EU project now that Germany is cut-off from energy sources and can no long threaten to lead the bloc (France is a joke).

Expand full comment

Project Ukraine is designed to change the regime in Russia to one subservient to the US Empire.

Expand full comment

And once again VVP enters the room like the boss. Supremely confident in himself, his country, his government and it's policies, and it's future.

Expand full comment

Once again Russia has ordered its forces to win in order to give the impression that they are not losing. We must pearl-clutch and equivocate over this illegal and environmentally unfriendly practice.

Expand full comment

"British troops can lead Ukraine..." to pardon, where LOL? The same British troops that were fixing their submarine with superglue and shopped for the Admiral on LinkedIn?

Expand full comment

How did that search on LinkedIn go? I haven't heard.

Expand full comment
Jan 18Edited

I meant have they found anyone through that ad? I just can't imagine potential candidates in the military looking on LinkedIn for promotions. Maybe they will hire a non naval person if they are the 'right' colour, gender, sexual bent. As NZ did with the dyke that crashed a warship in to Samoa and converted it in to a submarine.

Expand full comment

After being ridiculed, they removed this ad. But to even imagine for the ROYAL NAVY to stoop as low as advertising on LinkedIn, meaning there were no internal candidates to fit the bill, whatever it was. For a maritime ex-power, it's as bad as it gets.

Trump should sell the UK our own Admiral Rachel (former Richard), and a pediatrician to boot.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rachel_Levine#/media/File:Admiral_Rachel_L._Levine.jpg

Expand full comment

Yep it’s as pathetic as Super Glue repairs on a nuclear submarine. A clown show of epic proportions.

That Levine man belongs in a 19th century travelling freak show.

Expand full comment

pediatrician? Or 'pedo'?

Expand full comment

Pediatrician like in MD, proclivities - who knows...

Expand full comment

The post was filled by an ex Captain/Commodore who rejoined for the job.

Expand full comment

Glad to hear. As a military brat, I'm pissed on behalf of the cadre military who are lead now by woke donkeys. There are always decent military cadre officers in any army and being lead by Admiral "Rachels" doesn't make our world safer, no matter what country we live in.

Expand full comment

The arrogance is amazing. Why would anyone accept their “leadership”? Ukrainian officers are likely far more competent than British. After all, they have experienced three years of war. But the British press just trots out this outdated line that the woke UK military is awesome. I am English by the way, but am shocked by the attitudes of so much of my country.

Expand full comment

The Ukrainian officers are constantly going on about the inadequacy of NATO strategy and tactics, esp those who have a Soviet background.

Expand full comment

I think the Banderan General Staff has dumped the NATO training playbook. Really don't know what they are doing now. Made so many operational errors, maybe it's political, certainly isn't strategic.

The original "reyd" (a Russian tactical term) into Kursk was right out of Russian and Soviet doctrine and successful, it didn't really have a reason behind it unless the BGS thought it might create an opportunity to grab the KNPP or the airbase. Staying in Kursk was just stupid.

Expand full comment

Englishman here also, the hubris of the British ruling class (from which the majority of military officers are drawn) knows no bounds. Totally divorced from reality.

Expand full comment

Many people in the U.S. do not want to admit it, but look at our politicians who claim a "military" background such as the esteemed Lindsey "sugarboots" Graham. We have a ruling class in the U.S. but we lack the courage to name it correctly.

Expand full comment

A Scot here. And we resent British colonial rule and forcing us to host leaky ruskbucket nuclear subs

Expand full comment

The Scots were at the very epicentre of the colonial empire.

Expand full comment

Only because they were Ukrainised.by their colonisers. Scotland was sold into colonisation by a corrupt elite who had lost money in the I'll fared Darien Scheme, itself a product of decades of economic warfare and naval blockade by the Colonial Entity. Those "nobles" in no way reflected the desire of the Scottish people who rioted after the enabling of the act of "Union".

This is why the Colonial Entity placed a large army just south of the border in Northumberland when the treaty was presented. Just in case the "nobles" didn't take the bribe.

Expand full comment

«the hubris of the British ruling class (from which the majority of military officers are drawn) knows no bounds. Totally divorced from reality.»

https://twitter.com/RichardBridger/status/926052048579301376

“About 7 years ago, I toyed with going into politics. Maybe I could make a difference, I thought (I was young & naïve, okay?) So I took some advice, joined a few things, went to a few Tory party events. It was… fucking awful. …

I cannot stress how many weirdos and oddballs I met in the Tory party. North of 80% (though that might not be representative). Proper rah-rah crews. Totally in their own world, apart from reality and real people across the country. I knew they weren’t like real people because I was a state school kid and had some solid experience of non-elite, real people

And I was doing focus groups for years across the country, so met a good range of other ordinary people These ordinary people were a mix of amazing and god-awful, but at least they were pretty *normal* human beings – unlike many party folk So I pretty soon gave up on politics due to the oddballs.”

https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2017/09/brexit-talks-stall-making-hard-brexit-even-more-likely.html

“I have the tiniest smidge of sympathy for May because the party her leadership is supposed to corral in to some semblance of coherent, logical thinking (a necessary precursor to a strategy which isn’t a dingbat delusional) is in a world of its own.

I spent the holiday weekend at my mother-in-law’s and went to a garden party hosted by her neighbour who is a bit of a leading light, as so often haughty well-heeled women are, in the local constituency Conservative Party Association. The Constituency itself is hard line swivel-eyed Brexit-land.

I attempted to engage some of the other guests (a lot of party members) in conversation about what compromises they were willing to make for Brexit, what the trade-offs should be, what the electoral implications were and so on. [ … ] In the end, I got told to stop making conversation awkward as people were beginning to stare. I listened in on their conversations, they were merely talking the Brexit book with self-reinforcing beliefs that we just need to tell the EU to sod off. Little chance, then, of May being able to get anywhere with that lot. Daily Mail land isn’t a handy cheap-laugh metaphor; I just spent the weekend there.”

Expand full comment

I watched an interview with the French Colonel in charge of the training of the 155th Brigade. He pretty much said the same thing.

Reminds me of the Vietnam War. The Vietcong had company and battalion commanders in the 1960s that had been fighting the French, Japanese, British, the French again and then the Americans since the 1920s. Yeah, they knew a thing or two more than the service academics.

Expand full comment

Nothing like a lifetime of practical experience to help you deal with all comers

Expand full comment

«Ukrainian officers are likely far more competent than British. After all, they have experienced three years of war.»

PS: Actually 10 years since the unprovoked ukrainian government invasion of the independent Donbas republics in 2014. However probably many of the veterans died so I guess many have 3 or les years of direct experience.

«But the British press just trots out this outdated line that the woke UK military is awesome.»

This is from 2019 about the previous 5 years:

http://www.unz.com/tsaker/the-saker-interviews-dmitry-orlov/

«After some amount of effort by NATO instructors to train the Ukrainians, the instructors gave up. The Ukrainians simply laughed in their faces because it was clear to them that the instructors did not know how to fight at all. It was then decided that the “road map” for Ukraine’s inclusion in NATO should be set aside because the Ukrainians are just too crazy for sedate and sedentary NATO.

The trainers were then replaced with CIA types who simply collected intelligence on how to fight a high-intensity ground war without air support — something that no NATO force would ever consider doing. Under such conditions NATO forces would automatically retreat or, failing that, surrender.»

Expand full comment
Jan 18Edited

Delusion includes regression into some "good old times". Where will they lead to? The answer is found in music. Road to Mandalay (with Robbie Williams wearing "sharp" sunglasses).

Expand full comment

A reminder: not that long ago, the UK, with help from Germany, lost several wars over fish.

With Iceland.

Expand full comment

Iceland does have a large fleet of trawlers.

Expand full comment

And lots of freezers.🤣

Expand full comment

It's fair to say they got "battered"...

Expand full comment

The point is that the United States will not leave europeans hanging out to dry.

Expand full comment

Likely not. The US invested in the EU leaders' spines broken & lackeys installed.

Expand full comment

Obviously this interregnum, as Joe off-ramps & DJT on-ramps, has lasted w-a-a-a-a-y too long...

>>

We've got more retread fiction incoming from Bloomberg: Moscow and Kiev hold “limited talks” in Qatar on shielding nuclear power plants from attack. The purported negotiations are focused on preventing threats to nuclear facilities amid the ongoing conflict between the two neighbors, Bloomberg has claimed. This, a repeat of a short story Bloomberg first fashioned in August 2024, cites anonymous sources on the Russian side. Recall last August that the Kursk Incursion preempted the alleged talks. Neither Russia nor Ukraine ever verified that the talks had taken place.

According to Zakharova, however, Moscow and Kiev have not engaged in any talks since spring 2022 when peace talks collapsed, which Russia blamed on Western interference. Vaguely, noncommittally, Qatar’s foreign ministry spokesman, Majed bin Mohammed al-Ansari said that Qatar has always pursued a policy aimed at “reaching peace.” The spokesman also stated, hazily, perhaps glancing down quickly at the notes before him, that Doha supports all the efforts aimed at achieving a peaceful resolution to the crisis.

Like the purported *prior* talks in Qatar, all sources are unnamed—and it is not possible to verify Bloomberg’s claims. The media propagandists *plant* the lie, then other propagandists follow-up on the lie, embellishing it w/ odd ‘peculiar’ details which stick in the mind. After that, pundits weight in, speculating. It’s like a game of hack-sack. Last August, the media propagandists may have expected to get a bit more traction from the lie, but the Kursk Incursion occurred, sucking all the oxygen from the room. Cheated last August in exploiting the ruse fully, they’ve brought the it back for 2025.

Expand full comment

I was just explaining to a "main stream media" consumer today that any article citing only anonymous sources was nothing but propaganda.

Some time back I explained to this same person that any article using the phrase "Unprovoked invasion" of Ukraine was propaganda.

So many sheeple!

Expand full comment

That person has no capacity to hear you - it's true that it is easy to fool someone but almost impossible to convince them that they have been fooled.

Expand full comment

Mark Twain

Expand full comment

I have tried, unsuccessfully, to kindly explain to consumers of any media, corporate OR 'independent' that each story is rooted in one of two things: 1) hate and 2) fear. Each and every story must be looked at from that lens: who do they want me to hate or fear? Yes, there are tidbits of information and every so often they will leave behind a clue, but the point is to sell information. You are a consumer and they are hawking their wares. It's just business.

Expand full comment

Cheetos! Who ya gonna believe, Bloomberg or your lying eyes?

Expand full comment

Probably a growing argument building for the termination of the coke boy and his terrorist entourage.

Expand full comment

That was a very sparse welcoming committee for Kier Starmer at the Kiev train station..

Also, I think diplomatic protocol requires that when two leaders of the same rank meet (President - Prime Minister) the host should receive the visitor at the airport or train station. Only if they are of lower status (President - Ambassador) do they have to travel to the official residence to be met there.

But that's life during wartime I suppose.

I don't think Moscow would Kinzhal / Iskander the Prime Minister of the U.K., but for Zylensky's presidential motorcade they just might.

Expand full comment

They could do Zylensky anytime they wanted - but why interrupt your enemy when he's making mistakes?

Expand full comment

Once again, the theatrical air-raid sirens sounded in Kiev during the visit by a foreign dignitary, this time Keir Starmer. It used to make great PR but now it's just getting old.

Dignitaries visiting Kiev when air-raid sirens sounded (failed de-capitation strikes!):

• Anthony Blinken

• Josep Borrell

• Frank-Walter Steinmeier

• Keir Starmer

Expand full comment

That clunker of a car he arrived in says it all.

Expand full comment

That would be such a shame 👏

Expand full comment

Dignitaries from any nation visiting Ukraine are cleared by Russia and must travel by train from Poland to Kiev. From there they can take automobiles.

Remember when the Greek PM visited Zelenski? They went to visit the Sea Drone factory in Odessa. As soon as the visit was over and the pair were clear Russia demolished the factory.

So leave Zelenski's incompetence alone!

Expand full comment

The pace of both wars—in Gaza, in Ukraine—depended on the run-up to the U.S. presidential election, w/ Collective Biden finessing the rhythm of both conflicts in order to ensure that Joe would win a 2nd term. For example, the ceasefire deal DJT and Collective Biden just swung w/ Bibi was identical to the deal on the table back in May, but Collective Biden had to gentle the negotiations forward, not pressing too hard or making demands, always conscious of the fact that the Israel Lobby viewed a ceasefire as capitulation, an unforgivable outcome after the shock of 7 October.

Once DJT thumpingly crushed Collective Biden’s candidate for the presidency, and a chance to remain Major Players was gone for good, Collective Biden was freer to Move Fast & Break Things. So they could press harder on the ceasefire, knowing they would not pay a political cost. Leveraging the Orange Heifer, as if in a china shop, helped. The soon-to-be 47th president knew how to Get Stuff Done—besides which he could lean on Bibi because DJT doesn’t have to care about the *next* election cycle: he’s not running again. Unleashing The Witkoff was a no-brainer.

The “run-up” to the U.S. election does not encompass the 5 months or so prior to the actual vote—it starts two years before, if not sooner. Project Ukraine was already ‘in harness’ by November 2022, tightly held & led & nurtured along by Collective Biden, who would continue to parcel the weaponry out in tantalizing bits over the next 2 years—cluster munitions here, an ATACMS snack over there—always careful to pace the warfare in such a way as to seal the deal for Joe’s 2nd term. Peaking too soon might kill the buzz. Lagging so much that Russia made a big splash might harsh everybody’s mellow.

Right. I know.

But you have to understand that *they* believed if they made the appropriate moves @ the appropriate times they would indeed stay in power. Military strategies took a backseat to their ambitions. Battlefield doings were only nominally a priority. Flooding Ukraine w/ weapons was important only in so far as doing so would nail a 2nd term for Joe. So the trajectory of the war was throttled & managed. *Winning* meant reelection. Disposable Ukrainian meat was subordinate to that.

Expand full comment

BTW: While being forcibly removed from Tony B’s final press conference @ the State Department, Max Blumenthal hurled invective @ Bloodstained Lincoln, excoriating him for a legacy of genocide and for “destroying our religion, Judaism.”

Before being shoved out of the room, Max asked Tony B “Why did you keep the bombs dropping when we had a deal in May?”

Expand full comment

And since we're on the topic of the State Department: DJT's team overseeing State's transition to the new admin has requested that Dereck Hogan, Marcia Bernicat and Alaina Teplitz leave their posts.

A certain eau de blob has wafted about all three: "These officials have worked in both Democratic and Republican admins throughout the years, including as ambassadors."

Expand full comment

Are these people political appointees? Trump should demand resignations of virtually all such people. And I understand that he has figured out a way to rid the government of professional civil servants as well - it will be interesting if he can follow through on that.

Expand full comment

They're part of Permanent Washington, forming a backdrop for the agitating anti-DJT bureaucrats, sort of like the painted frieze of a stage play creates the illusion that the action happening before it is real or credible.

Marcia Bernicat, for instance, was our U.S. ambassador to Bangladesh during its recent coup. Now she's gone. Buh-bye, Felicia

Expand full comment

Blumenthal is a rear guard action for the jew which is not a religion but a race. their stupid books are just dietarya nd breeding laws with holidays that celebrate genocide.

Expand full comment

read the book of esther

Expand full comment

He also said something about why do you let them mock our faith?

I think highly of Max and Sam Husseini. I learned of Sam in that piece in Salon in early 2020 about covid. He sees through the veils placed on the eyes of Americans.

Expand full comment

Disposable Ukrainians was the least of concerns. Actually, not a concern in the least.

Expand full comment

The key point I guess is that none of Americas wars really matter to America. They are not existential threats to the Homeland. They generate a huge money go round and justify well heeled careers but have no real impact on the homeland. So internal US politics drive the whole thing. Ultimately, the regime will want to move on to the next war as if nothing ever happened. As they did with Afghanistan, which is pretty much forgotten about now. It’s an evil system driven by lots of high status people maximising their own careers.

Expand full comment

Hegemon doing hegemon things. Gotta refresh the narrative.

Expand full comment

"american wars" are just jew wars to protect the jew financial system and that illegal jew state HQ.

Expand full comment

quite a few wasps profit.

Expand full comment

Short-term profits for a few that affect the long-term viability of the many, not to mention killing for fun-and-profit is immoral.

Expand full comment

The ceasefire in Israel has nothing to do with Biden "pressing harder". He has no ability to press when he is about to leave.

All the coercive power (cut off the munitions, weapons, money, ISR info, block UN resolutions unfavorable to Israel and keep the ICC from getting hold of Netanyahu) now rest with Trump.

FJB cutting them off for a few days would not have bothered Israel in the least -- IF they had expected Trump to reverse the decision.

FJB could have done this a year ago. He didn't. He was under Zionist control.

Trump has done it before taking office, using a blunt, non-diplomatic, Jewish NY developer as the instrument to hit Netanyahu and his evil crew over the head until they understood what was really going to happen if they do not follow what Trump wants.

Expand full comment

Israel's American backers need to realize that denying the Palestinians their legitimate political rights & their autonomy has not made Israel safe, and those who have lobbied hardest for "unwavering" U.S. backing have ultimately nurtured Israeli and Palestinian extremism, inflicting immeasurable hardships on the country that they purport to support.

Expand full comment

Is everyone clear now that Israel doesn't and never did rule America but that it's typically convenient for American politicians to foster that appearance?

Expand full comment

A partial truth. Not a lie, neither wrong, but not the complete truth.

Here and now, it is clear to all that war cannot go on, as it has been going for the last 6 months.

But Israeli government needed a push to be able to change tactical direction.

Expand full comment

stop covering for your tribe (((ScuzzaMan))).. The only reason for the usa is as a golem to defend the jew and its illegal jew state HQ

Expand full comment

If everyone who doesn't have exactly your opinions is Jewish then both your parents are Jewish. Stop being retarded.

Expand full comment

Are you a Jew ?

Expand full comment

the jew state is an illegal nuclear armed terrorist state and if the USA was not jew controlled the jew state would be treated as the violation of civilization that it is.

Expand full comment

Can anyone explain why Russia is still selling oil to America after its put all the sanctions on them?

“ Trump's team is developing a massive sanctions strategy to force a deal between Russia and Ukraine in the coming months.”

And Trump is going to put even more sanctions on them. This gentleman’s war is very befuddling to me.

Or is it because the sanctions raise the price of oil and Russia still comes out ahead in the end?

It just seems an easy way to end the war is to crash the American economy.

Little help is appreciated

Expand full comment

Exactly my thoughts. I would cut out all the oil, gas and anything else that mean energy or something else to my enemy. The west provided weapons, men, sanctions, blocked money from Russia's accounts, now they're stealing etc, but Russia does almost nothing. Also they allowed the Ukrainian government to exist, to kill their civilians (journalists etc), army generals, and to send more troops to the front lines.

I'm in doubt of this is an real war or just an WEF agenda in which our attention is distracted by these wars while they're doing things behind our backs to enslave humanity. Let's not forget that Putin was named as one of the WEF young leaders at some point

Expand full comment
Jan 18Edited

FFS VVP as a WEF gronk has been debunked more times than I have had hot lunches. He is too old to have been in that program.

Simple research would have told you this. And saved you some embarrassment.

And Russia has done almost nothing? It seems embarrassment isn't a concern of yours.

Expand full comment

'that program'- a two week jolly and some Zoom meetings!

Expand full comment

The WEF agenda war has crossed my mind numerous times. People were saying that the next thing the PTB would bring us would be war and right on Q it happened.

Biden has crossed Putin’s red lines countless times and killed many Russians and yet Putin is still selling him oil?

Plus Europe is buying even more oil and gas from Russia since the start of the war.

Plus Russia went along with the covid scam.

No wonder I’m so befuddled.

Expand full comment

The WEF program of young leaders consisted of a 2 week jolly and some Zoom meetings- it was not a James Bond style mind altering induction program- whether Putin attended one or not.

The covid scam wasn't orchestrated by Klaus Schwab Square pants and his little club of hypocrites and rich greenwashers- it was a coup by Pfizer and AZ, organised gangs of criminals at the WHO and blackmailed or bribed politicians.

You are befuddled because you are trying to make the facts fit your theory, which they don't. Drop the theory. There is no globalist plot. It was invented by Imperialism and big oil to protect their profits.

Expand full comment

"Klaus Schwab Squarepants" 🤣🤣🤣

Expand full comment

"coup by Pfizer and AZ" ?? why dont you name the jew that runs these corporations? why do you distract and blame amorphous corpoprations?

Expand full comment

Bourla, a veterinarian by training, has been the CEO of Pfizer during scumdemic.

"The Genesis Prize, known as "Jewish Nobel” awarded to Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla January 19, 2022. The Committee commended Dr. Bourla for his leadership, determination, and especially for his willingness to assume great risks [for whose expense, committee? https://www.unz.com/runz/five-years-and-thirty-million-deaths/].

The Committee also noted Dr. Bourla’s pride in his Jewish identity and heritage, commitment to Jewish values and support for the State of Israel [the committee must be proud of the greatest ever numbers of pediatric amputees in Gaza, courtesy of israeli fascists, and similar "jewish values" in action].

He follows filmmaker and philanthropist Steven Spielberg [the slanderer and member of Wexner's Mega Group of 'ethnic philanthropists' connected to Mossad/Epstein enterprise and more], and the legendary human rights activist Natan Sharansky [a vicious jewish supremacist celebrated by George bush the lesser and traitor to all those fighting for human rights]."

https://mintpressnews.cn/mega-group-maxwells-mossad-spy-story-jeffrey-epstein-scandal/261172/

Expand full comment

I don’t have a theory. I asked a question.

And you left out the DOD involvement in the Covid scam.

Expand full comment

Here's my answer. Yes, we’re all brought up under the White, western patriarchy. The patriarchy rewards dominance (or submission) over women, non-Whites, other animals and the environment. Uk politicians are disproportionately represented by the most successful in the patriarchy ie men who have attended Eton and the Bullingdon Club at Oxford. Here they cement networks and also destroy parts of their souls in order to succeed. The transnationals are also made up of people driven to succeed at any cost, though not always through the same route, a lot of the time they are part of organised crime.

The WEF is not part of this grooming. It’s a virtue signalling and greenwashing front. It is a hoax to make you think that either a) transnationals are addressing environmental issues so we needn’t worry or b) there is a left-wing oligarchy with a green agenda wanting to depopulate and control us so that we support the rights of transnationals to avoid any regulation that hinders their profits.

Expand full comment

While they are distracting us with wars, they pursue 2030 UN Sustainability Goals. The technological noose, digital ID, is proceeding with little resistance, and, if you recall, the 'people' begged for the mrna shot to get out of their homes and forced it on others. That was a test run. A damned successful one.

Silicon Valley is not hiding. Tim Cook is very clear with the objective. Watch it and weep as you enter the technological gulag.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=78qjQOMfu9c

Expand full comment

Russia has only three red lines I believe and two of them have been crossed; no NATO equipment to be used to attack inside pre-SMO Russia, no NATO troops to be involved targeting Russia. The third, no NATO troops in Ukraine has not been openly flaunted.

Russia will target a place if it believes there are enough mercs or "advisors" congregated to make it worth while.

The other "red lines" are western manufactured BS.

Putin went along with the plague scam. Many of the people didn't. Businesses refused to close and the jack booted thugs refused to be thugs and didn't enforce the misanthropic rules.

Expand full comment

Sam,

The oil is being sent to third party countries who are processing it . India and China are major customers . If Russian oil was removed from the market prices would rise sharply and the west would suffer economic hardship and approval for the war would take a hit . Russia went along with the Covid scam because they got fooled like almost everyone else . Israel was one of the most vaccinated countries in the world and will reap the reward for that...

Expand full comment

Alex,

what you suggest would help the enemy.

Expand full comment

The dead Ukrainians and Russians are 'real' enough. As are the profits of Lockheed Martin.

I am amused by our being distracted by watching the meat grinder in action while evil villains do something 'really' dastardly behind our backs. 'He's behind you!" That's exactly what the WEF agenda is- a pantomine villain to distract us from the cartels ruling the West.

Expand full comment

Uncle Sam's money is just as good, if not better than anyone else's.

You're looking at it the wrong way round, if the *U.S.* was actually serious about sanctions, *they* wouldn't be buying Russian oil....

Expand full comment

The sanctions are not meant just for Russians but as a means to further subjugate those countries under the economic control of the USA.

Expand full comment

In other words, fuck the EU.

Expand full comment

Something like that.... ;-)

Expand full comment

The purpose of the sanctions is not to "harm Russia" or "Russian industry." The sanctions target the wealth elite of Russia, and the purpose of the sanctions is to turn the wealthy elite in Russia against Putin. The assumption is that these "oligarchs" have the power in Russia, like they do in the West, to install whatever government pleases them. The whole "sanctions regime" nonsense derives from a fundamental misunderstanding of how power works in Russia and the assumption that it works the same as in the West, where oligarchs simply purchase politicians and get whatever they want.

Expand full comment

Then there is this:

US admits it still buys nuclear fuel from Russia

https://www.bignewsnetwork.com/news/274949363/us-admits-it-still-buys-nuclear-fuel-from-russia

Expand full comment

Because C.R.E.A.M.

Don't worry, though, surely sanctions will work THIS time!

For the first time ever.

Expand full comment

Russia did considerable trade with Europe, but far far less with the USA.

US sanctions are largely performative, and don't really impact either country.

EU sanctions OTOH, are more material, but very much a double edged sword.

Expand full comment

Dear God, please make the Vampire Squid/MICC sanction European countries (except the perfidious island of usurers). The sanctions will give the Europeans a chance to recover economically and morally.

Expand full comment

You've forgotten about the fall of Syria pretty quickly. Iraq also likely fell through a sanctions campaign. I'm sure there are lots more...

Expand full comment

Iraq? Syria? WTF you talking about!?! Both of those "fell" by having the shit blasted out of them.

I haven't forgotten anything: there aren't "lots more" more, there are NONE.

Expand full comment

Syria didn't have 'the shit blasted out of them' till the Israelis launched there bombing campaign after the Syrian government fell. The SAA basically stood down due to 2 factors. 1) Being paid a pittance compared with the HTS/SNA. A Syrian general was getting $40 a month. The rebels were paying grunt fighters $2000 per month. 2) Assad gave up the fight almost as soon as it starts, having ignored warnings and offers of assistance for years.

Expand full comment

"Syria didn't have 'the shit blasted out of them' till the Israelis launched there bombing campaign after the Syrian government fell"

You clearly have not a singular fucking clue.

I swear, the commenters here are some of the most delusional on the interwebs.

Expand full comment

Mirror, mirror on the wall. Take a look.

Expand full comment

how so (((Ensign Dilligaf)))? Syria was sanctioned and their oil was stolen by the illegal occupation in the west...

Expand full comment

The sanctions are filled with exceptions and we buy a bunch of stuff not covered by the sanctions such as the RD 180/190 rocket engines.

So we don't want to buy Russian oil, except when we need it and the price cap on the oil is also ignored. Or just pay more through a third party.

Expand full comment

I still don't understand why Russia doesn't wipe out the Ukrainian government. They would give people a chance to stop this war. By letting the juice being in charge in Kiev, the war will continue and more lives will be lost.

The west always attack the head of the state, while Russia is fighting in trenches with average Ivan, kidnapped from the streets, while his bosses laugh on their millions.

If this is not all just an WEF agenda to destroy economies and liberties all over the world, I don't know what is.

Expand full comment

If they really want the head of the snake, they need to go after Lviv. That's where the real enemies are operating, mostly Westerners. Zelensky is a nobody puppet.

Expand full comment

target the jew state - watch the rats scurry to defend....

Expand full comment

you mean, the City of London?

Expand full comment

You really think the West wages "war" in a more moral or egalitarian manner than Russia?

They may go after "the head of state", but that doesn't mean they won't ass-blast the entire country to do so, then rape the smoldering remains.

As for "fighting in trenches with average Ivan, kidnapped from the streets, while his bosses laugh on their millions", the West is no different, except their gear is also shit.

Expand full comment

Because if you kill all the incompetents you end up facing someone competent?

Expand full comment

Ukraine is a hot bed of Nazism. They could have a lot worse than a puppet like Zelensky.

Expand full comment

Possibly, although that's no guarantee they would.

But note that I said if you kill ALL the incompetents, not just the incumbent incompetent. I was responding to the suggestion that Russia adopts a policy of killing the head of the snake, when the head is monstrously incompetent.

Never interrupt your enemy while he's making a mistake.

Expand full comment

that is stupid. do you even know what NS is? zelensky is a JEW who works for the jew. how do you explain that?

Expand full comment

its hard to differentiate jew from a regular nazi. The Gaza slaughter and the Knesset' admiration for Azov battalion's "freedom fighters" (named so by the ADL) basically fuze nazism and zionism into an indelible one.

Expand full comment

Stop denigrating the German NS by comparison to the Jew. Listen to Leon degrelle speech about the SS.

Expand full comment

Head is in London

Expand full comment

Alex,

please read what Simplicius has written, Ukrainian state apparatus has half of the armed forces, 400 000 as a state police. State apparatus is under CIA MI6 control. You would create a new Bandera out of Zelensky. And CIA MI6 would produce a new government.

Keeping the same people who provoked war, refused negotiations in 2022, at the helm is the only way to make them face the consequences.

Do not worry, if at any moment CIA calculates that Zelensky is more valuable as a dead hero, he will be eliminated by his own bodyguards.

Expand full comment

The Banderan Kapo Zelenski's body guards are SAS for a reason. The CIA pobably won't kill him, just send him into retirement. Gonna take a whole lot of MSM propaganda to turn him into a Dead Hero in Ukraine even for a day. Not that they won't try. Just hold a sham election, put Zaluzhne in and send Z on a farewell tour.

Expand full comment

I think Russia is about liberating the Russian territories from their Ukrainian oppressors. That and Russian security are their primary objectives, not shock and awe... Chip

Expand full comment

Pot calling the kettle: Joe lamented the sad, terribly sad, no good, awful influence of oligarchs in our American politics, but peculiarly he gave the Medal of Freedom to two oligarchs—George Soros and David Rubenstein—and let’s face it: the Big Guy was never shy about speaking @ those $100,000-a-head dinners strictly to gain donations from high rollers, many of whom were oligarchs. Indeed, Joe so believed in oligarchs he set his son up w/ some in Ukraine @ the energy company Burisma. Joe’s son returned the favor by including Joe in numerous lucrative business deals w/ oligarchs from China and Kazakhstan. Although Joe is not an oligarch, he, a humble public servant from Scranton, Pennsylvania, enriched himself shamelessly for a decade @ the hand of obsequious oligarchs, who were eager to make it rain for Joe.

Billionaires run the state-sponsored media. Billionaires direct the Israel Lobby. Billionaires steer the Ukraine Lobby. Billionaires guide our governmental policy. Billionaires like Larry Fink invest in our wars. Billionaire WEF-ers gather @ Davos and in Aspen each summer for The Atlantic Council summit. If you sneeze in Washington, a billionaire gets a cold.

Expand full comment

" If you sneeze in Washington, a billionaire gets a cold."

Great to know, I'll go there and will sneeze and cough all over and maybe they'll get worse than a cold.

Expand full comment

The good thing about Biden being a lying grifter all his life is that it took longer for some to catch on that he now has dementia.

Expand full comment

Corruption makes for effective camouflage.

Expand full comment

The guy never had a properly functioning brain, so the onset of dementia was indeed harder to detect than usual in him.

Expand full comment

The next thing you are going to propose is that billionaires run the West and that democracy is a sham (or 'scam', if you are truly cynical). Surely you are not positing such a thing!

Expand full comment

Suffering from Shameless Blushing Syndrome. Maybe a once-a-month injection of Skyrizi can help w/ that--?!!?

Expand full comment

Oh! The very thought!... 😉

Expand full comment

Davos starts Monday. Just some really rich guys with expansive world views who really care about us, the global collective.

I will be disappointed if the riots protesting Trump don't begin Monday evening.

Expand full comment

CS,

There is the old saying "When you want to know what's really going on follow the money". You are on the money....

Expand full comment

Totally fascinating report - thank you for posting.

Expand full comment

To my mind the most interesting thing is the approaching point where the allied forces can cross the border from Donbas into Dnipro. From 'Donbas States' to 'Kiev States'. Until now with the exception of Kupyanks in Kharkiv, I think, there has been absolutely no 'invasion' of Kiev Ukraine, meaning American Ukraine, meaning nazi ethnic cleansing Ukraine by the allies.

And Kharkiv is a bit of a special case. The Russians promised to return, I remember. But now it does not seem to figure in the proposed oblasts they will 'settle for'. So I don't know.

But apart from that little exception it has been and is wholly an exercise in repelling Kiev Ukraine invaders, not an exercise in invasion.

Despite the msm narrative which altmedia adopts the language, lexicon, style of.

If this thing ever gets human face in the media sphere then this human fact will be of great importance. To humans who is invading whom and why and how is very important.

Of course I expect this 'human face' is the norm on the ground amongst the poor bloody people suffering from all this.

I have seen interviews - such as patrick lancaster's - where Donbas soldiers tell of being in the trenches continually for the past 10 years. One can easily imagine the struggle for one's own land and the driving out of invaders is as much a bred in mindset to them as, say, catholism is to catholics - or any religion taught to the very young.

So that is one thing and a very big thing, I think, despite being ignored by all the media, msm or alt or whatever.

Should this 'human face' of the conflict ever break out onto the scene, onto the 'world stage' in all our media we'd instantly get very large numbers of suddenly enlightened people wholly on the side of the humans in Donbas.

All to the good. Very powerful. To date Russia and Donbas itself, in English at least makes no or very minimal effort to pursue that line: that truth, that PR exercise. None at all that I can see.

They don't try to help themselves at all. Not at all. I find it very surprising considering the wit and literary flair and traditions of the Russians and I suppose the Ukrainians, too, then, being really the same people.

I do see how incredibly skilful at PR Zelensky is. You must, you should, concede he is the most plausible, effective public liar we have ever seen. He's promoted a backyard civil war to almost global catastrophe. He has hijacked the narrative so that words totally lose their meaning or have their meanings reversed: or even mean two things at once.

Russia is 'an invader' where actually it is invited into Donbas land by Donbas people.

The armed forces opposing the (american/nato) Kiev forces are 'Russians', wholly. Everything they do is 'Russians did it'. Yet at the same time all the Donbas people are 'Ukrainian' and will be held to account by the law of the land once Kiev reconquers the place.

Kiev Ukraine is a 'democracy'' with no free speech, no freedom of religion, press ganging into the military, absolute rule by one man etc and Russia with none of that is a 'dictatorship' .

Fighting 'for' the people will be to the very last of the people. This is a 'win' for the people. This is a 'path of glory'. That they all die for.. what? The right to torment their fellow Ukrainians in the Donbas. The regime tells them they either get this right of they can all die trying. That's what 'the right' means in the lexicon of those lunatics. And all the west swallows it without demur at all.

It is a nonsense but a nonsense, never ending stream of vicious lying dribble that is faithfully echoed with total belief by the whole of the msm, the whole of the western govts and even by the alt media very nearly wholly.

Yes. You have to hand it to Zelensky. He's even better at it than Biden and he was special.

In the face of all that Russia and Donbas do not fight back on that ground, in that sphere, at all. Not at all.

BUT: it could happen. It could happen overnight. That's the media world we live in now. Overnight could come a wave of understanding of human truths and a wave of expression of these human truths. A wave moving as quickly and as persuasively as news of the new 'best movie' or best pair of shoes, for god's sake or any other of the trivia that periodically sweeps across the world and occupies all heads.

And at that time the current position, as I say, is a great asset, displaying hard fact truth: Donbas Ukraine occupied for 10 years, fighting to free itself. Could win world wide sympathy, understanding and support overnight.

BUT let the allied armies bypass Pokrovsk and reach the border and plunge ahead with a Kursk like invasion of Dnipro and it could go entirely the opposite way. This being seen as total proof positive that Putin intends to conquer the whole of Europe or some similar lunatic fear.

Yep. That's all people talk. Not much sign of people being of any importance anywhere as yet is there. But maybe, some time in the future. So just saying...

Expand full comment

The West doesn't want people to hear what Putin, Lavrov, or other Russians say, so they don't report on it. If they report at all, it's the media's version of what they said, not a transcript.

It's pathetic when you have to completely block out what the other side is saying, because you know it takes away all credibility of what you are doing. You have to lie to make yourself look good.

More people are realizing that the old media is full of lies. It's a slow process, but Russia has been as patient as possible, refusing to be being manipulated into reacting, and speaking of things once common in America, such as patriotism, respect for family and the innocence of children, and most of all expressing love God and the belief that He is on their side.

I see the day coming soon, especially if Trump truly listens to what Russia has to say, when Russia will be greatly admired, as it should be.

Expand full comment

!—the Post is toast—!

WaPo had 114mn readers in the entire month of November 2020. That number dwindled to 53mn digital visitors by November 2024.

The paper has lost around $100mn in subscription & ad revenue in 2024. That’s a $100mn financial plummet in 11 months. As a result, the WaPo plans to lay off 4% of its workforce by early February 2025.

Meanwhile, a WaPo cartoonist, Darrin Bel, was arrested in Sacramento, California on child pornography charges for uploading and sharing AI-generated videos depicting illicit acts w/ minors. It’s the first case in Sacramento County for possession of AI-generated child pornography under a new law which came into force on 1 January.

With the resignation of another WaPo cartoonist out of protest against Jeff Bezos’s cozying up to DJT (Bezos owns the WaPo) one wonders who will provide the outlet w/ humor & snark.

The legacy media has been sawing the branch it’s sitting on for years.

Expand full comment

And everyday I get an ad from WaPo to buy a digital subscription for only .99 a day, week or month. Whatever it is. Not going to happen.

Expand full comment

Yes. That's all true.

My point is that Putin etc. simply do not mount a campaign aimed at the hoi polloi, written in 'demotiki' so to speak.

Expand full comment

same like the jew is trying to block english language conversions of uncle A's speeches... when their reality is heard no one can support the jew

Expand full comment

Arthur. I'm not sure public opinion matters in a Plutocracy.

As long as the Russians support Putin he's fine.

Ukraine isn't existential for the West, we'll lose interest and wander off in due course.

Expand full comment

Yes, I'm not sure either.

But I am sure I would like to be immersed in a sea of my peers that do know the truth and I would like an MSM and an alt media and a clerisy that helped bring that about.

So that's a bit selfish. All about what I want.

But I'd also much like the suffering of the Donbas people who've been at war for 10 years to be recognised for the martyrdom it is. That's maybe not so selfish.

And perhaps objectively speaking I'd like to see the Russian 'side', Russia and Donbas, manifest that kind of expertise, acumen and do it well. It doesn't seem at all right that they don't: like something missing in the equation.

Expand full comment

Arthur,

Zelenski is an actor and the mob who write his lines are good scriptwriters . The show must go on...

Expand full comment

my point is that he is clearly more than a 'dumb' actor. he gives unscripted interview performances that are master classes in disinformation and propagandising. he's breathtaking with what he gets away with. 'ukraine' is fighting for the whole world against evil threatening to overtake it ! Yep. Stuff like that. He sincerely and convincingly sells the story that Kiev is fighting our fight for us to preserve our own safety.

sure he may have scriptwriters and a programme to follow. the point his he does it superbly. throws himself right into the 'role' if you like. becomes the character.

Expand full comment

Agreed. He is good at improvisation and knows that he won't be fact checked by the adoring media. This role is to a certain extent a continuation of "servant of the people" his previous role .The world has quite a few politicians who are just as capable and ruthless as him .

Expand full comment

Expect a rash of lurid commentary about Ukraine's successes, europe's intentions to put boots on the ground- AGAIN- all in the wake of the midnight Trumpian change phenomenon- and designed to create a 'narrative'- here we go again- that by sheer pressure of words Russia will be forced into concessions, even retreat. Hell, the UK is in this right next to its ally FOR THE NEXT 100 YEARS, shades of the thousand year Reich.

The west tried telling Russia how it was going to mow it down in Ukraine with that counter offensive that so dramatically face planted, and since then has struggled with the power of the 'word'- but if you lack the will and-or the manpower to actually fight on the ground and are running out of any remote weaponry that either works or that you can realistically use, what else is there than another story?

Meanwhile, in the real world Russia continues its advance.

As for sanctions, we have a new word-salad sanction promulgated through the mouth of the UK ex defence secretary, Ben Wallace, that should Russia (heaven, forfend) not actually, errh... (dare he even say it!) ... be .defeated on the ground, the world must throw a big sulk and send Russia to Coventry as we say in the UK, meaning refuse to say the word Russia in public anywhere except in derogatory language, burn all Russian books, refuse to play any Russian music and excise its legacies from all western accounts... blah blah. What do you do with this stuff? This is how an Order built on words collapses- into a big word-heap.

Expand full comment

Your mentioning Ben Wallace's odious stance puts me in mind of Lithuania's December embargo of "The Nutcracker Suite."

To deny kids the joy of Tchaikovsky during their most formative years is a shameful negligence: hiding cultural underpinnings from them is mendacious. This is not just Russia Abuse. It is the abuse of a fledgling generation.

For winter holidays away from school, kids need to delight in Tchaikovsky’s “Nutcracker” and enjoy a chocolate truffle during the Intermezzo while fellow revelers circulate in the grand hall under glittering chandeliers, everybody anticipating Act 2 and zinging w/ the lively sort of spirit which ballet uniquely instills in its audiences—and Tchaikovsky did not shirk when it came to spirit.

Forbidding Russian literature will create a deficit in one's understanding of human nature, for those who comply--but also create a backlash Black Market among those who rebel.

The one who’s trying to silence others is the liar.

Spend some time w/ Chekhov, Ben.

Expand full comment

The UK stance is worthy of the nuttiest, inept, tinpot totalitarian regimes, and this is what the UK has become.

Expand full comment

Signing a one hundred year pact sums it up. Pure PR. Not the work of serious diplomats.

Expand full comment

Exactly Stephen.

It's all pretend.

Expand full comment

I believe it always has been since the Norman Conquest. They have just been very good at hiding it.

Expand full comment

A nasty power mad little nation built on the slave trade, and then on plundered Soviet wealth that went to rebuild the City of London.

I am not sure if it was better after the Romans left and before the Normans came. Someone else has always been sitting on our face. In place of the EU fat blob we now have the US. Still we mange to make a right old racket from beneath the big bum.

Expand full comment

Well said .... again

Expand full comment

Child Abuse is a cornerstone of the Modern West so it stands to reason. It's the very bedrock of the British Establishment as close scrutiny of the English Public School System will show.

Expand full comment

«Forbidding Russian literature will create a deficit in one's understanding of human nature, for those who comply»

According to some opinions russian literature is intrinsically evil: :-(

https://interfax.com.ua/news/interview/834181.html

“Obviously, the first colophony to be eliminated is the literature of anti-Ukrainian content and propaganda of violence, pro-Russian, chauvinistic politics. [...] As for Pushkin and Dostoevsky, beloved by our librarians and some readers, it should be said that these two authors laid the foundation of the "Russian world" and mestizoism. From childhood, inspired by these narratives, people believe that the mission of the Russian people is not to deal with their lives and their country, but to "write" the world according to their will. This is really very scandalous literature, which can really influence people's attitudes. [...]

Therefore, my personal opinion is that these books should also be removed from public and school libraries. They will probably remain in university and research libraries for scholars to study the roots of evil and totalitarianism. I think that there will be written a lot of scientific research on how the Russian classics influenced the mentality of the Russians and how it indirectly led to this aggressive position and attempted dehumanization of other peoples of the world, including the Ukrainian people.”

Expand full comment

Well said Jullianne.

Expand full comment

"Before becoming involved in politics, Wallace was a captain in the Scots Guards."

My condolences to Scotland for producing this servant to the banking cartel / war profiteers.

Expand full comment

Fun fact; the Scots Guards despite being manned mostly by Scots Soldiers, always had English Officers. Just to make sure us uppity bloody Jocks knew who the Boss is ... 😉

Expand full comment

Don't forget you must write "Russia" with a small cap "r". Virtue signalling through poor spelling.

Expand full comment

"I said before, Russia has done this also to an extent—but, it was clarified by at least one person in the know that Russia only sent what was essentially “surplus” or redundant units which were not needed in their air wings—since the Russian airforce is vastly larger than the Ukrainian one, and thus logically has far more ‘idle’ and ‘extraneous’ units."

I have to wonder, if the Russian forces are so dominant, why would they have to do this in the first place? These troops, in excess or not, are specialty trained - thus it is a major thing when they are required to be reapportioned to the infantry, is it not? Why would this be?

Expand full comment
Jan 18Edited

Good question. Maybe the redundant units aren't of a highly technical speciality, low skill types; armament loaders for example?

Expand full comment

Good questions! Simplicius owes you an answer.

It has always been a sign of dire situations whenever dedicated forces are diverted to entirely different tasks. You dont see that much Ka-52 creating havoc anymore. And I think the Ukrainian writing about the taking of Pokrovsk, with ” it would take a combined arms army ” to just accomplish the left wing hook around Pokrovsk/Mirnograd, revealed the real problems for Russia.

Expand full comment

A series of similar problems has been overcome recently by RF forces. Whatever’s needed, be it combined army, seems to be there. Bakhmut holds. Avdiivka holds. Pokrovsk holds. Until it doesn’t.

Expand full comment

My question is were they sent to the infantry or ground support units? A diesel mechanic in the Air Force can do the same for the army. medics, supply and what not.

Haven't found anything reliable to support either.

Expand full comment

My completely unwarranted predictions: 1)Trump will pull the plug on Ukraine ASAP and blame it on Biden, Zelensky and the Europeans. No super sanctions. 2) There will be no war with Iran. Iran, Russia and China do not want war and Iran's power has already has been sufficiently demonstrated. The Pentagon knows Iran's capabilities and will brief Trump. Trump will restrain Israel vis-a-vis Iran. 3) Trump will throw Europe under the bus and negotiate a security architecture with Russia to focus on China and the Western hemisphere.

Expand full comment

I can see it.

Trump understands the weakness of the US position in Ukraine - he is ambitious & wants to achieve goals elsewhere. It's an unwanted diversion.

The same with Iran.

'America First' is compatible with a redoubled enforcement of the Monroe Doctrine, Manifest Destiny & free navigation of the seas - most of our endeavors on continental Europe, Asia & Africa are a strategic waste of time.

We shall see

Expand full comment

Sounds probable enough. Especially with British leadership what it is today. They are practically ready to declare war on England what with that utter penis Starmer and his cronies. And the US see Scholz, Von der Leyen the sane way. I do see a Trump/Austria/Slovakia/Hungary thing forming though. That would be cool. A kind of Austro Hungarian empire but with grilled brisket and juicy half pound ground beef cheeseburgers instead of gulash.

Expand full comment

Briskets are smoked not grilled 😉 But other than that HELL YEAH!

Expand full comment

And subsidies on 6 litre V8s!

Expand full comment

As long as the beef and cheese are organic and traditionally produced, I'll take it. Keep Goulash though, it's good!

Expand full comment

If Trump intends to cut Ukraine off then there would certainly be some selling in the stocks of those who are creaming the most from this conflict. Who's selling Lockheed and Raytheon?

Expand full comment

Nancy?

Expand full comment

I hope you are correct with every one of them.

Expand full comment

It's possible that the UK will be the "crappy little country" that gets "thrown against the wall" to emphasise that the game has changed.

Please take back the nukes and get them kicked off the UNSC, Trump! 🤣

Expand full comment