After a period of strange rumors that Russian forces may attempt to storm the Dnieper, last night Russian forces began a massive artillery and MLRS bombardment of the Kherson region with claimed attempts of isolated groups to cross to the other side.
Miracle ear George Washington will fight a war on the woke in his standard fake wrestling way. All sound and fury, signifying nothing. Exactly like all all of his schizophrenic proclamations, both foreign and domestic.
But his deluded believers will always have excuses for his failures to deliver on anything, ever. Some excuses will be new, most will be rehashed from the past 8 years, but they'll have them.
No matter how hard he screws his believers, in 4 years, if given the option, they would vote for him again. Because the teevee said he's on their side. Besides, lesser evil. Even if Kamala Harris were to switch r team 4 years from now, and the teevee presented her as the lesser evil, the r teamers would vote for her. Bank on it. Because we want the r team to win. And because we're patriots. And voting is patriotic. The teevee says so.
Exactly correct George, the point about mollification. I disagree that the voters are morons. They are deluded. Self deceived. Not low IQ. A moron has an IQ problem. A self deceived person has a Truth problem - spiritual in nature. Two very different things.
Regarding mollification - the lesser of two evils democracy psy op works stunningly well. Satan has had many centuries to perfect this particular scheme and bring it to bear. There are literally 10's of millions of well meaning Frantics in the U.S. that live a cyclical pavlovian existence of lesser evil democracy delusion that will keep voting for their own entrapment and enslavement and consider themselves patriots while doing so. Of all the psy ops we are subjected to, the lesser evil democracy one may be the most powerful. Absolutely devastating to the spirit of the nation. One gigantic national humiliation ritual, repeated over and over and over again, until the people and nation are destroyed.
The biggest problem with terrorism is fear and as a consequence anger. But if you look at it clinically, the number of casualties is limited (not saying that it is not terrible for the victims, cause it is) and statistically the chances are small that any of us becomes a victim of terrorism.
If you would compare for instance the victims of terrorism with the people dying in traffic (around 4 million worldwide in the last 3 years), the upset in society is not justified in my opinion as the emotions fear and anger stop logical and rational thinking, resulting in short term actions, making more victims at the end (for instance 3000 killed in 9/11 and as a consequence 4.5 million killed elsewhere likely because 300 million people supported a small group of people that hat malicious intent anyways)
My view is the EU is merely a collection of vassal states, colonies of our country. They make no meaningful decisions on their own. Germanys' silence when we blew up Nordstream proves this view has merit.
Installing a radical government in Ukraine, the poorest and most corrupt country in Europe, and militarizing this ethnically fragmented, recently constructed concept of a nation, was a long planned project.
With Ukraine and its' resources in the bag, the bigger prize of toppling the sovereign and nationalist Russian government to take control of their vast resources was the ultimate plan.
Our congress is simply a collection of whores we call politicians who serve the globalist corporations and oligarchs who purchase them.
It's likely that our intelligence agencies and military leadership really are so incompetent that they thought they could prevail in an economic and military war against Russia.
The desperation from facing the consequences of the US/NATO losing this war is causing insane acts of provocation.
As much as Russia does not need the headache of administering the western oblasts of Ukraine, I'm thinking they need to take all lands to the Dnepr River, Odessa, and incorporate them into the RF, while occupying Kiev. Smoke out the rats from Kiev for a decade or so.
Make sure what remains of Ukraine stays neutral, then consider allowing Kiev to rejoin them.
It is likely a lot of eastern Europe will beg to join Russia in that time, as the EU and the US are devolving into 3rd world countries. I don't think Trump can turn the tide in 4 years, if he is not assassinated before his term is up.
Good points. I just don't see our country and the EU in the driver's seat. Our permanent government is desperate to delay the collapse of the Kiev regime through January 20, 2025. Simply to blame Trump and reinforce the narrative that the disaster was due to a lack of financial and military support, not the reality that our combined militaries had their *ss kicked.
Russia cannot sign a peace deal until Ukraine elects a lawful president and parliament. By that time, they will have taken the entire country. Russia cannot accept a cease fire or "freeze", they have to drive stake in the heart of the beast now.
Europe is disintegrating in any event of its' own accord. It's a tough problem. The war criminals in Kiev must be tried and punished for what they have done to their own people.
I would argue that we also need to try and punish Biden, Blinkin, Nuland and the host of other war criminals for their illegal actions. They have destroyed our national security.
Can we send John Bolton to Nuremberg in chains for trial? Perhaps Janet Yellen could be accommodated in a traditional part of Spandau prison for the rest of her life?
And apparently when Herman Hess finally died in 1987 the Germans tore Spandau prison down to build a parking lot? Maybe just shackle Yellen to a light pole out on the asphalt, give her a pup tent in the winter for good behavior.
I can only speak of the German mentality but I would say it's a LOST generation and I don't know who or what it would take to turn that ship around. The Fourth Estate has won, at least for now.
Germany is an occupied state - a lot of people forget that it is still governed by the statutes of WW2. Its vassalage was never more apparent than when NS2 was blown up. Mainly because Germany has had some outstanding Chancellors.
Schultz govt is a true stain on Germany's rep. But it's
nevertheless sad to see a once great industrial nation brought to it's knees.
Why on earth did Merkel decommission those NP plants???
I hope they are starting them again but I won't hold my breath.
Unfortunately for Germany it needs to crash and burn for it to rediscover itself.
It's amazing to see how the rot that has infected our country mestasizes throughout Europe, Australia. Canada and New Zealand.
Germany was the industrial and fiscal engine of the EU, and it is collapsing rapidly. Literally committing national suicide.
They now have to purchase very expensive LNG from us, and grovel to keep our military bases open for their economy to depend on. Which is an extreme hazard to their national security.
The transparent authoritarian moves made for their government to maintain power are out in the open.
>Given that Russia is winning, VVP & his team have no incentive to *negotiate down* to an unfavorable peace. In truth, VVP has already won. The only question is by how much.
This is completely delusional.
1) Does Russia control most of Ukraine? No. Not even the most sensitive to its own security areas, which are Sumy, Chernigov and Kharkov. As demonstrated by the NATO invasion into Kursk. Worse, there appears to be absolutely no intention to carry out any military operations into those regions any time soon. Massive defeat for Russia as things stand currently
2) Has NATO been pushed back to 1997 borders as very publicly demanded in late 2021? No, it moved in closer. Another huge failure to achieve vital strategic objectives.
3) Has the US removed its forward deployed nukes from Europe, as again very publicly demanded in late 2021? No, it is deploying intermediate range nuclear carriers in Europe very soon, including hypersonic ones. Yet another catastrophic blow for Russian security.
4) Were Russian industry, military objects and civilians subjected to daily barrages of dozens and hundreds of drones before the SMO started? No. Are they now? Yes. Missiles too, and it will only get worse. The security of the country has been totally compromised.
5) Has a single round of ammunition been fired at NATO in return for all the ordinance that NATO has fired at Russia? No. What does that tell us about the relative standing of the two parties in this war?
So where is the win here exactly?
And how delusional does one have to be to say such things?
I’m such a delusionist, cuz France 66 thousand (!) firms broke and no government to be formed in months (?), Germany on its knees economically, the whole EU crumbling and crushing, NATO more than ever begging for gifts and leftovers from daddy Uncle Sam, and Trump….Iran a too big gold mine not to blind his eyes. Happy new year, tsching tsching.
Are NATO drones and missiles hitting Russian civilians, cities, industry and military sites? Yes.
Are Russian drones and missiles hitting NATO civilians, cities, industry and military sites? No. Not a single one.
Then NATO is crushing Russia in the war by definition with the same a lot to zero ratio of fire exchange that it enjoyed in Yugoslavia, Lybia and all the other places it bombed to ruins over the decades.
All it proves really is that NATO is an aggressor attacking Russia, while Russia is not contrary to the mainstream narrative. If you steal from me, but I do not steal from you, it does not mean you are winning and I am losing.
Who cares? Every Drone hit is paid for with your tax paying money, so take a deep (state) dive into your pocket, until it’s empty it already is. Yesterday on a French tv a commentator who lived in Russia for decades, saying NATO has finally won on every field, battle field, economically, strategically, politically, geopolitically…and she never looked back into her own backyard France in going down, the president is dragging the whole of NATO & EU to a third (fourth) marketplace, the black markets popping up everywhere.
Another view is that Russia very cleverly built up their military industrial complex and armed forces while bleeding NATO and the Kiev regimes' military in the process.
Russia has had to keep a large portion of their growing military unengaged and deployed in Belarus and to the north to realistically counter the potential of NATO launching additional northern offensives.
With minimal casualties the RF has disarmed the entire west while annihilating the Ukraine proxy.
They enjoy compact interior supply lines and 100% support from the local population. They forced the Ukraine to extend their logistics and fight in areas the locals report troop movements and weapon system placements to target.
The Ukranian military is crumbling and likely will disintegrate entirely, opening the opportunity to rapidly move to the Dnepr, take Kharkov and Kiev without fighting.
I accept I could be wrong, but this view is plausible. We have been obsessed with ordering the Kiev regime in holding every village, as the Wermacht did 80 years ago, resulting in catastrophic losses of their best units.
Arrow offensives are costly and risky. Russian units are now well trained, commanded and seasoned with an industrial base that can keep them well supplied.
Time will tell, my money is that Russia is pulling off a historic victory against all the initial odds against them.
Pure speculation on my part, but what has [Trump's] US regime got to lose by casting the European lambs to the Russian wolf? Europe will still buy US energy and weapons, and more of them. Russia will not invade Western Europe and will be detached from Europe, making rapprochement difficult if not impossible. The USA can pivot to China, whilst continuing to cause trouble for Russia at the margins. Russia will remain sanctioned and thus BRICS under pressure. The USA has no vital interests in Ukraine, no matter what the neo-cons might think. The USA has already gained much from this conflict in reality, and Europe is the big loser. Russia is not yet a winner but looks like it might be. There would be a messaging problem here, and Mr T's myriad enemies would try to make hay. The USA does not have boots on the ground (ho ho) so there would be no Kabul like fiasco. Continuing to support Ukraine risks another endless war and even MAD, and would be hugely unpopular in the USA. All of which sounds logical. However if we get into a dick waving competition with the Russians all bets are off and all sorts of unpleasant scenarios can be imagined.
It is a popular delusion among atl-media that there is some treasure trove of resources undrneat Ukraine/Syra/Gaza/Afghanistan/whatever. This is simply lazy thinking, going back to the First Gulf War.
I worked in Ukraine, and tried to attract interest in getting western companies to exploit some of those resources. Enough to say there waas no interest, the world was and is awash in cheap commodities.
I see BRICS as the only REAL alternative to the Western hegemony. The more Russia hesitates and waits in Ukraine, the more the West can create havoc in the rest of the world to undermine Russia's and China's pivotal roles.
Well said. But I disagree with the implications of this: "Europe naturally has a moral obligation"
The last thing Europe cares about or has ever cared about is moral obligations. They have based their foul union in Belgium, which has perhaps the most evil record of colonialism in Africa, which is saying something given the brutal records of colonialism for the European "great" powers.
Agree with your comments in general. IMO Bidens' cognitive decline was always very obvious, but irrelevant. Our permanent government has been impervious to oversight by Congress, the office of President or the courts since Reagan.
We've had a series of neutered presidents starting with Bush Sr. who are only figureheads. Administrations come and go, but foreign policy is permanent.
Trumps' 1st term illustrated that he was simply ignored and then impeached over meddling in the foul, putrid and corrupt swamp we call our military/state department/intelligence agency complex. The IC calls all the shots. If a President attempts to reign them in they are ignored or will be assassinated.
I think this time it's going to be a little different. The people are pretty much fed up with the deep state and the unelected bureaucrats and we are letting them know it. This time Trump has the electoral vote, the popular vote, the House and the Senate, is winning in the courts, and is staffing with people that will do as he asks regardless of their past positions, or they will be gone in a hurry. Even the MSM is starting to come around as they realize they are losing viewership and the sponsors who pay the bills.
Trump has the attention span of a gnat - and he is going senile per his ramblings on his campaign.
Trump will do what your Deep State wants because he will be tied up by his own party. Your presidents are to appease the populace. Nothing changes in US foreign policy - no matter red or blue. Also all the oligarchs in the US will be emboldened by Musk. Your govt by billionaires is on the way.
The only way change will come in the US is if you are bombed into submission, and you have to start afresh.
"Trump has the attention span of a gnat " A very memorable turn of phrase, and, sad for the world, accurate.
In today's news, Trump has threatened Panama with war (to seize their canal) if they don't lower their rates. It's like he can't go a single day without threatening somebody.
Bush Sr. WAS the IC. He was no figurehead. He ran circles around Reagan. The IC cemented their power over the government after 1963. It is likely that Bush Sr. was at least read in on that operation. He was CIA back then. And how convenient his son presided over the vast expansion of state power that was 911. Every president since JFK has been contained by the IC. The extreme reaction to an elected outsider tells the story.
"Europe naturally has a moral obligation to do all it can to aid Ukraine’s postwar reconstruction..."
Except there won't be anything left to reconstruct. Russia cannot allow Ukraine to exist or they will be facing terrorist attacks on the homeland forever like those we are seeing now... Chip
"The U.S. is not part of the continent’s ancient quarrels."
If you read Barbara Tuchman's A Distant Mirror, You see that Europeans have NOT learned anything over the centuries. The generational drumbeat of cruelty and stupidity boggles the mind.The thin patina of "civilization" is just cosplay. They are barbarians at heart.
>At some point Gen. Kellogg plans to sit down w/ Lavrov
Is Kellogg going to tell Lavrov "We will cease all support for the Kiev Nazis and we will also dismantle the Aegis Ashore bases as well as remove all forward deployed nukes from Europe"?
What are the chances of that happening? Precisely zero.
Then what is the point of even having such a meeting? Because those are the absolute minimal conditions for Russian SMO success.
Given that there is precisely zero chances of anything coming out of that meeting, why waste time with it instead of getting on with the business of actually winning the war?
Which, in case nobody has noticed, has kind of stalled again.
August to October good things were happening -- towns in the tens of thousands pre-war population were falling every couple weeks, the rate of territorial advance was clearly accelerating.
But in the last month a half there is a clear slowdown. This despite the AFU supposedly collapsing and being on its last legs.
Russia is barely even attacking seriously -- there is some real action only on the South Donetsk front, there rest if not very active at all. One can't help but start getting uneasy July 2022 vibes. What does that tell us? Two possibilities?
1) Russia actually is starting to run out of resources. Material and/or manpower. More likely the latter. But potentially both. Yet the Kremlin firmly refuses to do a mobilization. Which might be because of:
2) The plan is to freeze the conflict, because in the Kremlin they are that stupid and/or such total comprador traitors that their prime objective is indeed yet another shitty deal and not victory. Despite the lessons regarding the wisdom of maintaining frozen conflicts that should have been learned from Ukraine itself over the last decade, what happened in Karabakh in 2022-2023, and most recently the Syrian fiasco.
I don't know which one is more catastrophic. They could all be true too, of course...
'If Trump takes away support for Ukraine, it's game over. If Trump keeps supporting Ukraine, Russia will take the gloves off and finish it'
Do you guys even realize how brainwashed people are with this way of thinking - essentially the US is the grand Master controlling the outcome, where Russia is reacting. The fact that most people have excepted this shows how deranged this entire shit show of an SMO is. I firmly believe Putin needs to be replaced.
That's right. The West itself sculpts an idol from Putin. The situation is repeated with Gorbachev, who was completely unpopular in the USSR, but was wildly popular in the West. Roughly the same thing happens with Putin.
>In the meantime, they are training more troops and making more weapons
1. In the meantime, their cities are being bombed constantly.
2. They don't need more weapons to cut off Ukraine from NATO and to fumigate Kiev from the Banderite cockroaches that have infested. They already have what they need for those purposes.
The old "General Winter" comes to Russia's aid argument!
The temperature right now (midday Moscow time, 22 December) in Kiev is minus 1 °C, in Donetsk it is now plus 3 ° C, in Kharkov — plus 2 °C, in Kherson — plus 5 °C.
And no snow, no freezing to death in trenches at minus 40 °C, as happened to the Wehrmacht in December 1940 in the proximity of Moscow. And at Kursk, 1943, "General Winter" certainly did not help the USSR towards victory. It often gets quite warm in Kursk province in July.
I bet on point 2. There are really a lot of traitor compradors in Russia. The whole environment of Putin, the government, the media consists of them. The patriotic songs they sing today are just a disguise, a tactical move.
“ We will cease all support for the Kiev Nazis and we will also dismantle the Aegis Ashore bases as well as remove all forward deployed nukes from Europe.” Why would that not be in our true interest? Because Russia Russia Russia?
Also, we all eagerly await the 3rd reddit copers brigade counteroffensive led by schweinerchenko himself that will break through to kursk itself. Rumors have it that the 815th gryffindor defense grouping will be supporting the advance
But the matter of why Russian DRGs are on the right bank is a serious question.
There is absolutely no way to supply any substantial force on the other side of the river without one of the major bridges. Not with half of NATO's GMLRS assets being situated in Ukraine -- pontoons are doomed because of that. And the Antonov bridge was blown up by Russia while the Nova Khakhovka dam was blown up by Ukraine/NATO.
The only way to support such a group is to take Zaporozhye city and do it with lightning speed before the Ukronazis blow up the bridges. That is impossible given the current correlation of forces in theater.
So what the hell is the plan here?
I want to believe that there is one, and it is for big things. But that will require some some magician's trick to be pulled...
Question: In WWI and WWII a lot of rivers had to be crossed. Bridges were blown up, dams destroyed, and fords mined. To go back in time, the fight for Southeastern Europe, a lot of river crossings had to be done by the Poles, Ottomans, Russians, and Austrians. And the Napoleonic wars! Only at Aspern was a river crossing the problem; even when the troops were in tatters, they could cross the Beresina! The Allied even crossed the Channel and landed on the other side! Do you know of any example where a river crossing in force was a big problem?
Do you know of any example during WWI and WWII of anyone having satellite coverage with resolution in the centimeters, drones flying everywhere, and missiles flying from 120 km with accuracy of 1-2 meters?
Having a TV Camera watching Russians cross the Dnieper, does not of itself, stop the crossing.
Many Germans were well informed about the English Channel Crossing, with the gargantuan build-up impossible to hide. Only the Russian Front stopped Germany from having sufficient resources to prevent it. And, of course, that one know-it-all who was good at talking but not so good at listening.
Perhaps the end of January to mid February, bridges will be formed across the entire Dnieper.
In a sense I have been following The Way my whole life…. Oh yeah meant ‘the WAR’…right. Well it’s classic GM, front-load the doom and then make petty insults your bread and butter. How do you block people onto is platform again?
My father tells the story of crossing the Rhine in WW2 in small boats, and they all had tons of gear on, so you fall over that's likely the end of you.
Lots of other stories too, like hungry soldiers hunting small deer with Tommy guns.
It depends on the condition of the river bed in winter with the dam blown up. I think it is a wide, overgrown river bed with a smaller river running through it. I expect a lot of ranger work by Russia to clear the other side and make for a landing site.
Every major river in WWII was crossed with pontoon and Bailey Bridges. While such bridges are not suitable for retail traffic, they are more than functional for armies.
While every bridge design still is a target for destruction, it is far easier for an Industrial Powerhouse like Russia to have a surplus of river crossing options than for a bloated overhead, talking out of their anuses Comic book Clown Show, like DC and NATO, to click up Narratives to explain why the Russian crossing of the Dnieper, is the trigger for Nukes.
What is the deal with reports of DPRK in combat? I've yet to see a telegram video that shows their presence. Is there any substantiation to their active deployment in the SMO?
Assuming for a moment the Koreans are fighting, which makes sense to gain current combat experience in real time, what is the big deal? If the RF invited them in to help rid their border land communities from Ukrainian and foreign terrorists, it makes sense, and their business.
But the Wests' propaganda appears to have created this narrative which has no point to it.
If at some point the DPRK deploys troops in what remains of Ukraine, what can the West complain about that? They have sent tens of thousands of active personnel to crew missile systems, aircraft and anti aircraft systems, and their officers command the regime's military.
None of these "successes", such as taking Kurakhovo after three months of bloody battles for it, matters.
The loss ratios don't matter either -- this is Russians killing other Russians (brainwashed as the latter might be), which is a huge success for the West either way.
The very fact this war was allowed to become inevitable is a gigantic strategic failure on the part of the Kremlin.
But it gets much worse after that because now Russian security, both internally and externally is totally destroyed. Terrorist acts on home soil daily, triple digit drones flying everywhere every day, and some hitting things, etc. That is the new reality, with no prospects of it no longer being the daily reality any time soon, if ever.
This is catastrophic.
Even more catastrophic is the Kremlin's refusal to lift a finger to make it stop, even though the Kremlin can indeed make it stop almost literally with just lifting a finger.
There would have been total physical destruction of the enemy's ability to launch such attacks within minutes of them launching the first more significant one in Soviet times. Under Putin? The dear partners are untouchable. Why?
At this point getting the Ukrainian military and political leadership smoked is mandatory even for just internal political reasons. Russian society wants blood. Technically it is a trivial for Russia matter to have those bastards destroyed. But the Kremlin refuses to do it even though now Russian military and political leadership itself is clearly on the menu. Again, why?
Are they so afraid of NATO that they don't dare at all touch Zelensky and his buddies? Or they are so compromised internally by loyalties to oligarch interests that there is a veto by powerful economic faction inside Russia (and you can throw in the whole "special relationship" with Israel into the mix too) on such actions, and the objective here is to make some kind of a shitty deal once again, all in the name of going back to how things were previously, which would be much harder if Zelensky receives his deserved comeuppance?
In any case, Russia has been firmly knocked out of the ranks of the great powers. Because:
>The problem is, recent signals indicate Trump may infact be regressing into the same old warhawk model as reports came today that Trump intends to continue arming Ukraine come late January.
This is one of the most ridiculous aspects of the whole situation. If Russia was a true great power, it would not matter at all what Trump was planning on doing. Russia would be out for victory, because what we have here is a NATO/Nazi invasion and occupation of core historic Russian territory, just as in WWII (most of Ukraine is core historic Russian territory) and it would not be planning its future around what the orange conman would do after January 20th, because it would be irrelevant with respect to what the objectives are here.
But that is exactly what the plan seems to be here -- try to make a deal with Trump. Which will be a strategic defeat. Because anything but going all the way to Western Ukraine would be a gigantic strategic defeat.
And even that might not be enough, because it will come at a great cost, and will not restore deterrence. Only the physical destruction of major NATO assets with the use of extreme force and in such a way that NATO is forced to stand down and not respond will restore deterrence. That is clearly not in the cards at the moment with this Russian leadership. And that is not for lack of military-technical capability. At least based on what we know publicly...
I fear you are correct in that there does not appear to be a peace proposal here that would satidfy Russia's minimum concerns, so either they have to secure a military victory or accept a strategic defeat. Unless the USA can dress up an abandonment of Kiev in terms of some sort of way that satisfies its constituents....
"Unless the USA can dress up an abandonment of Kiev in terms of some sort of way that satisfies its constituents"...
Hey, the US walked away from a Twenty Year War in Afghanistan, where thousands of AMERICANS died and trillions in resources were pissed away... and overnight, it was forgotten down the memory hole and the US was on to the next Forever War in Ukraine without missing a beat.
Nothing is 100%, but he largely lacks that mythic myopia that leads people into symbolic 'victories' that are in reality catastrophes in the Real World.
He's far too selfish, too transactional.
Who would have thought those could be positives in a Leader, lmao.
He could be bum-rushed into stupidity - as he almost was with war with Iran in term1, and the unbelievable assassination of Soleimani. One could hope that he has learned, sadly so has the deep state in how to manipulate him, what are his levers.
It's not just the Russians who will have a dedicated team working on his personality.
But at the end of all of his days, what matters to Trump is "What's in it for ME!?!". And huddled in a nuclear bunker simply will not appeal to him - fortunately.
Trump is not going to touch the real Deep State. At most, he'll discomfit some of the functionaries of it, the Intel Services, the bureaucracies, the 'civilian' three letter agencies like the CFR etc. The TRUE Deep State is the financial services, the banksters, the banking clans.
Those will be far beyond Trump's reach, even if he was so minded - which he definitely won't be.
I'm sure there will be some performative huffing and puffing, and Vivek and Musk will fanfare the closure of some essential services for normal people as a "Black eye for the Deep State bureaucracy".
The DNC-Empire faction may well try to assassinate Trump, but it's not because of a threat to the 'deep state', but their own careers and lives out of jail for the very real crimes they have committed; and their favourite money-laundering scams like Ukraine.
Granted I, along with millions of others, will breathe a sigh of relief when he takes over, as I did back in 2016 too - if anything an even more dangerous period. Not that I have anything in common politically with Trump.
He's just less suicidally insane than the DemonHawks.
Well written, but not entirely accurate. The TRUE Deep State is NOT the financial services, the banksters, the banking clans. They are rentiers &/or creditors - they have ascended to the modern heights for various reasons. Capital given basic civil rights/equal protection under law via much case-law based upon the 14th Amendment of 1868 being one.
There are some aspects of the Deep Shit that are actually institutionalized, for instance a non-appointable, non-fireable layer of top management insulating the federal institutions from whoever is appointed to the top. Read the following and wonder, "how come I never even heard of this?"
Start with the fact that self-preservation is high on his list and Trump has an extended family.
Also, aside from the ploy of hiring some Neo-Cons for window dressing, Trump has some very serious stars on his team.
Therein lies the hope/likelihood of peace.
Interesting the Kellogg (dressed up as a War Monger) commented that killing Russian Generals at home and not on the battlefield, was a mistake.
Oh, and has anyone seen Gorka since his fat mouth barked out undiplomatic descriptions of Putin? Perhaps he is now in his new office- the one without doors.
How about you be specific about his terrible "hiring choices" in his CURRENT nominees. Tell us what's so terrible about RFK, Jr, Tulsi Gabbard, Pam Bondi (for AG), Kash Patel (for FBI), Pete Hegseth (for Defense) who has pointed out that US CBGs can now be easily destroyed by Russian and Chinese hypersonic missiles and who is totally opposed to wokery in the military, Ratcliffe (for CIA). I agree Rubio (for State) is not great, but will be under Trump's thumb.
And Musk and Vivek, outside formal government and thus not subject to any confirmation process, are force-multipliers in pursuing Trump policies and constraining the deep state. In the last few days, before Trump is in office, using the power of X, they were able to block legislation loaded with provisions which, if passed into law, would have actually blocked a lot of Trump's agenda from being enacted.
Pam Bondi wants to shred the First Amendment for anyone criticising the Nazi state of Israhell - she'd literally want to lock me up for what I just wrote there. That's a problem.
Musk will shred the remains of the social safety net for Americans while greatly lining his own pockets further, and supporting technological dictatorship moves such as robot police and Public control. And mass surveillance for "Non-conformity".
It's relative. The people Trump COULD have chosen - Col McGregor; Judge Nap; Professor Wolff for OTOH examples, would have been immeasurably better in every way. On the other hand, he could also have chosen much WORSE in many ways.
We'll just have to see how it all turns out, once his picks hit the entrenched bureaucracy.
Not exactly. Due to AIPAC, MIGA is standard for all US politicians.
Certainly Trump supports it but he is actually more committed to MAGA -- look up his comments on this in an '80s interview with Oprah.
None of us can be sure how he will respond when seriously confronted by the threat that MIGA policies pose to MAGA ones.
Trump has made threats against Iran (which are MIGA policies). Will he follow through? That's unknown but remember how he dissed and threatened "Rocket Man" -- and then went and established a rapproachment with Kim Jong Un, which was overturned by FJB.
What Trump says publicly about others is often part of manipulating the "field of play" to achieve a beneficial outcome.
"Due to AIPAC, MIGA is standard for all US politicians" < while this explains much, 1) it doesn't make it right; 2) it's not public knowledge but more of the nudge,nudge, wink, wink variety.
Gaetz was pressured into stepping down by kompromat; and while the kind of kompromat employed---threat of disclosing evidence of pedophilia---is the favorite trick of the Cabal (remember Epstein, who didn't kill himself?), that doesn't excuse Gaetz. The fact that he caved in immediately is not proof of wrongdoing, but certainly strong circumstantial evidence.
The likelyhood is growing that we all die simultaneously. The other alternative is a huge decline in living standards in many parts of the world. Total chaos.
Keep on wondering what the other countries China, Iran and Nord Korea are doing. They should not that they are next on the table, when there is a next, but they will likely suffer a decline too?
Only really in the 'West", the G7. The rest of the World is already at a catastrophically low level, ANY investment that isn't just a privatisation scam will improve them.
The countries that rely on the cheap primary imports; and the exported profits from said privatised industries, will likely suffer greatly.
Unless they adapt, and learn the treat the global south as equals.
I'm not holding my breath on that either. They don't even regard their own Western populations as equals.
But I agree the Western nuclear nations, primarily US and Israhell, are likely to launch and end the "misery".
Living standards in BRICS countries are rising while declining in much of the West.
Virtually all Western countries are being demolished and impoverished by the unassimilable diversity they have allowed to flood into those countries, increasing crime and destroying living standards for the nationals in those countries. That is not happening to China, Russia, India, North Korea or most of the "global South".
It is inflicted on Western countries by globalists in those countries.
Dropping Western SoL has extremely little to do with migration, and a fuckton to do with "elite" greed, soaking up all the produced wealth for themselves, and deliberately impoverishing the population - no matter where they were born.
"Austerity" is a political choice, not imposed by migration.
Yes, to an extent, but it goes deeper than that---immigration has little economic impact, and is mainly intended to demolish social morals and cohesion. Read
aka zugzwang. As for Trump, I expect he'll cuck out on foreign policy, as part of his compromise with the Regime, but at least he'll make positive changes on the domestic front.
Did he "cuck out" on North Korea in his first term while the deep state had much of America believing he was a Russian asset, when most of his cabinet were aligned with the deep state and he was opposed by Republican leaders in both houses of Congress, and he was under continual fraudulent investigation?
He did fire a couple of token missiles into Syria to limit the criticism of his "patriotism" by the deep state and lyin' media but refused to start any new wars.
He was POLITICALLY in a very weak position throughout the whole of his first term yet still didn't start the wars the establishment wanted. He is now in a far stronger position POLITICALLY than probably any president since Reagan.
Even during the campaign, he did not alter his policy position after being shot in an assassination attempt (and having a 2nd thwarted attempt). Expect him to pursue his policies independent of the wishes of the corrupt deep state, which has waged lawfare on him for the past 4 years and probably had a hand in the assassination attempts.
You make interesting points! Still, he doesn't seem willing to pull the plug on the Ukraine, and with his pillar of Evangelical support, he'll have to shill for Zionism. But, we'll see what happens.
Well written and something I have advocated for months. Those small gains in Donbass dont win any War. Those lists with killed is just wishful thinking that statistics spells the Winner.
It was remarkable to hear Putin say that Crimeaa operation and the ”SMO” was spontaneous actions rather than 5D-chess and with hindsight they should have done it earlier and planned more….
Strange, I could have sworn Russia was winning this war, that NATO was exhausting its resources and Russia was using this time to exponentially expand its vast war machine in preparation for the future war with NATO.
By critical reading of different articles and narratives you can trace the ”mood” from the Bachmut victory (where West described it as a Russian graveyard), through the Avdeevka&Vuledar (where pro-russians cheered prematurely for the Victory). One can talk oneself into bubbles of defeat or victory but reality could be something else.
What matters for a Victory is breaking the will to fight or simply erase the enemy. Russia is heading for the first and plan B is the latter.
To break the will you have to create a mood of chaos and defeat.
That has not happened in the West so they will continue.
I suggest the the Will to fight is concentrated around the Zelensky Banderites. Crush them and you spare a lot of ukrainian&russian lives.
What you write is propably true but if that narrative is not settled in the minds of western leaders and cheepish citizens they will follow their own narrative. And War continues. The longer the War the higher the risk of disgruntled Russians.
Yes. The only existential threats are those from US/NATO. Russia is no threat to the others. And if they (we) in the West keep crying wolf over Russia we soon will be facing the Big Bear clawing its way through our cities.
It beats me how Ukraine is managing to instill so much hate and stamina in those 40-50 years old soldiers that they smile with legs blown of instead of shooting their commander in the back.
The Russians--as opposed to the Soviets--are in this bind because they began to believe the West's bullshit. They actually trusted them. They believed all the happy talk about cooperation, freedom, democracy and markets. Hey, let's all listen to cool rock n roll, eat hamburgers and be buddies!--even as NATO expanded and the Balkan intervention blinked bright red. Hard core commies understood the nature of their enemy--which is why the core of resistance to The Empire is still communist. Seems like only the theocrats in Iran and Yemen and the commies in China and DPRK understand how fundamentally criminal the Bankers and Big Business are.
The excuse that they trusted the West does not pass muster at this point. It might have with respect to the 1980s to 2010s period, though in reality not even then -- what are the SVR and GRU for?
But now it is late 2024, almost 2025. Putin, Lavrov, Zaharova, etc. are whining about how the West cannot be trusted, is "agreement incapable", "always deceives us", etc. pretty much on daily basis.
Get on with the business of winning the war then. Starting with the obvious war winning moves you are still refusing to make even though you are one of only two or three countries in the world with the actual military-technical capacity to carry out. The list is well-known -- decapitation strikes on leadership, disabling logistics, shutting down the grid, etc.
You're right. Because of these complaints, Zakharov, Lavrov, Nebenzya are completely unpopular in Russia. Together with them, Putin is losing his popularity.
In addition, Putin does not understand the economy at all, and Russia is gradually entering an economic crisis. The ruble is falling, YouTube is blocked, idiotic propaganda is growing. This is a sure recipe for losing power.
They send armies of these clowns all over the internets….hat do they really think it’s going to accomplish? I suppose it’s just a well established pattern with little imagination and no alternative….
You are both wrong. "...completely unpopular..." / "...does not understand the economy at all..." / "...entering an economic crisis..."' Are YOU Chicken-Little with your falling sky ? Is your hair-on-fire also ? Maybe a weee bit less hyperbole will help, or does your NGO demand that level ?
Which leads to the question, how to negotiate? The West will always use every loophole to do bad things. This Western Elite will always pose as the moral superpower, but doing the worst things thinkable. They have broken every promise and contract, and there is no sign that this time they will act differently. The Russians want to be the good ones, to be accepted as partners by the Non-Western countries, but by doing so, they cannot answer terror with terror or war crimes with war crimes. And at the end, not having a peace treaty means going all the way to Galicia, for sure Putin's nightmare.
Russia's strategy/circumstances aside, may I suggest an alternative theory.
Reagon, innumerate, but a true believer, forced the American Economy into a Debt load known only to World War conditions.
Yet, the U.S. economy did not die. Transplanting U.S. production to Mexico and China, whilst printing U.S. dollars/manufacturing Debt, created the illusion of prosperity. And Some prospered immensely from the skimming and churning conditions. There is not Wealth/Income base anymore, only inflating "assets" and most of those "assets' are paper. The U.S. stock market rests solely on the U.S. Central Bank money counterfeiting.
Now, Russian (and China) have industrial economies, have the tools and the Real Wealth foundations.
The U.S. has destroyed Price Discovery. This shows up in Government Budgets/Spending. Anecdotal, perhaps a bit random, but I bought a 2 pole toggle switch and some capacitors for a project. Small, somewhat insignificant things. But the switch cost $20 (Retail) and the capacitors were $3/each (wholesale). Up 5 times pre Covid prices. Oh...and all Chinese.
The West used 'diplomacy' to achieve a cease fire in Iraq so they could turn their energies toward Lebanon and Gaza. The West used 'diplomacy' to negotiate a cease fire in Lebanon so that they could turn their attention to the destruction of Syria. The West used agents -, the Suni alliance - to draw Syria away from Russia and Iran only to turn and destroy it.
If I can see it, Lavrov could see it before it happened. USA is agreement incapable. The USA sees 'diplomacy' and agreements as ways to betray and destroy.
Boy would I like to be a fly on the wall when Trump and Putin call or meet.
"If Russia was a true great power, it would not matter at all what Trump was planning on doing."
"But that is exactly what the plan seems to be here -- try to make a deal with Trump."
It doesn't matter to the Russians. They will meet their objectives whatever Trump or any other Western power tries. Naturally, they hope for a quicker end to those objectives, which, they hope, Trump can offer. But if he doesn't, then Russia will continue to maul Ukraine forever if that is what it takes.
"At least based on what we know publicly..."
The only provably factual statement you have made. Well done!
I couldn't put it better myself. Putin and the oligarchs he represents are divorced from the suffering of the ordinary people. The AFU keeps firing western missiles into Russia and the response is underwhelming.
If the West had attacked the USSR in such a way there would have been a massive response.
If you look at the history of Putins tenure as president at every turn he has sought compromise with American imperialism which has been and is still seen as weakness.
Perceived weakness encourages more western aggression. The 1933 to 1939 period when the UK and France appeased Hitler as well as Stalin with the Nazi Soviet pact all have Hitler the message that his aggression was paying off and encouraged his plans to conquer Europe.
Trump believes he win at the negotiating table what the US has failed to achieve on the battlefield.
As I've said before he may copy nixons tactics in 1973 when he tried to win a diplomatic victory to make up for American defeat on the ground. Thankfully, despite a massive escalation of bombing of north Vietnam nixons tactics failed. Hanoi stood its ground despite the huge cost of civilian deaths.
If Putin caputulates to Trumps tactics then it will bring closer the prospect of an all out war between the two.
Only by decisively standing up to American imperialism by totally destroying the AFU and the Kiev regime can Russia secure it's future.
The UK didn't appease Hitler, they instigated him, with the goal of having him and the communists destroy each other.
Stalin was the one appeasing him, trying to first make him see they have common interests (in the mid-1930s) and then, failing to secure an alliance against him in 1939, trying to buy time to fully prepare for war.
The British, and especially the Americans got what they wanted, the real failure of "appeasement" was Stalin's policy. Although he didn't really have much choice - they needed another year to get fully ready. They weren't given that year for reasons beyond their control.
"Are they so afraid of NATO that they don't dare at all touch Zelensky and his buddies?" It has been suggested repeatedly, here and elsewhere, that the Russians have assets in the leading circles of Ukraine. That would explain why they don't bomb them.
Zelensky has been in FPV drone and artillery range many times, Russian soldiers had the red dot on him and were begging for permission to pull the trigger, but were under strict orders not to touch him.
Killing a grossly incompetent (and in this case grossly corrupt) leader is not a good move. As Napoleon remarked, "Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake". Zelensky is just one continuous mistake. Get rid of him, and you would certainly get someone much more dangerous and troublesome.
I think so. Because he will simply be replaced by another one. This whole tragedy doesn't turn around Zelensky. And, at the end of the day, it is the Americans who are in charge in Ukraine.
"The very fact this war was allowed to become inevitable is a gigantic strategic failure on the part of the Kremlin".
I completely agree. But that failure occurred in the 1990s, before the era of Mr Putin. Indeed, the greatest mistake of all was allowing Ukraine to secede. Would the USA permit New Jersey or Iowa to secede?
But when Putin took power in late 1999 Ukraine was not a hostile country. Yes, the seeds were sown -- the Banderite cockroaches that Stalin did not squash and Khruschev then allowed to return from the GULAG were crawling out of their holes and crevices and returning from Canada, Germany and the US, that is also correct -- but they were still marginal.
It was the Orange revolution, the Maidan, and the failure on the Kremlin part to act decisively in either care that really turned the country, and all of this happened under Putin's watch.
In the first place, the Washington coup in Kiev began in 1991. That was the only time when it could have been prevented. Secondly, until 2020 Russia was simply not strong enough to suppress the Kiev regime and reverse the coup militarily.
That was local Soviet elites deciding that they can loot more efficiently without central supervision from Moscow and dissolving the union to get away from it.
Only then does Washington take advantage of the situation, and it still took quite a while.
The situation was eminently salvageable in the early 2000s with some skillful and decisive action, but Putin was busy sucking up to the West instead of taking such action. In fact, he didn’t take any action at all — to this day you will hear pro-Russian people in Ukraine bitterly complaining about how Moscow completely abandoned them and didn’t make any effort at all to exercise soft power, even those people on the ground demanded it. Even after 2014…
The Old Soviet Guard let the country atrophy. Perhaps a "better deal" over Ukraine was possible. Or not.
But it was Outsiders who stole Russia's industries and financed the Oligarchs. Putin kept his cards close, tried the "friend to Europe" card and was slapped enthusiastically by the European Pansies.
The West literally wants WWIII - Martin Armstrong plus the Wolfowitz Doctrine and the Financial Collapse of the West. We are being held hostage by our own government. Putin does what people want him to do, strike back at the head of the snake, and we are in false flag nuclear war as everyone goes nuclear if Russia and NATO go at it. Martin thinks that is where we are going. You are being held hostage to WWIII by your masters. It isn't Russia's fault. An early nuke by Russia would have caused a nuclear war. They think it is survivable, by them.
Are you familiar with the idea of underground gas storage/sequestration? A deep hole is drilled, and gas is pumped into the rock at high pressure, using dedicated compressors of several megawatts power. The gas fills cracks and porosities, and can even expand cracks, much like fracking but using gas, and not liquid.
I believe that using such equipment to pump CO2 into the vicinity of deep survival bunkers would render them unlivable. They can filter toxic or radioactive contaminants from ventilation air, but not tons upon tons of carbon dioxide, and besides the CO2 would be percolating into the structure through tiny cracks in all its walls, not through ventilation ducts. Under 300 bars of pressure or more. No bunker can be made airtight enough to withstand that.
The U.S. has 10 to 30 MILLION Foreigners infiltrated into the US mainland, nearly all on American Welfare, NONE loyal to the U.S., an economy of Financialization, churning and flipping, producing AI, porn, Government Lethargy, Narratives, conflict and bravado.
Russia has withstood a hell of a lot more than this Clown Show of Ukrainians and NATO throwing spitballs against the Castle doors. Self-sufficient, so the Ruble can fall to any number, since the use of the U.S. dollar and Euro are nearly infinitesimally small. Naturally London and New York shorting the Ruble every day might have something to do with the "market".
The Catastrophe will come for Europe and the U.S. if the decision is to continue propping up the Dead Meat running Ukraine.
The Russians may believe that the AFU is about to go the way Assad's Syrian Army... and furthermore, steadily increasing pressure on all fronts will force the Ukies to crack, and crack soon, without a dramatic take-down of Ukrainian war fighting capacity. Large gestures, the Russian believe, such as crashing the power grid and launching decapitation strikes, might allow Western populations to support a NATO war.
Such concerns don't seem realistic. I, for one, believe the Russians run an even greater risk in allowing the Zelensky regime to hang around and not rapidly finish them off.
As for the Americans: John Mearshimer nailed it in a recent comment that "No American President could ever accept Russia's" military demands. Which is why Trump would be smart to keep a low profile, then cut Kiev loose, shrug shoulders and move on to the next Forever War fiaasco Drump is intent on waging.
Well USA policy has successfully detatched Europe from Russia, both politically (for at least a generation) and economically. Trump says that Europe has to buy US energy or face tariffs, which they will, as they few other realistic options to fill the hole that was provided by Russia and need to keep exporting to the USA.
On the war I wondered if Trump was simply blustering or actually playing a good game here. Bearing in mind he has actually personally said very little - though this is not what you may think. He has said Europe needs to spend 5% of gdp on defence, 3.5% straightaway - ie c double current spend. This won't happen and is a precondition for continuing US support for Ukraine. We understand that Z has said he won't negotiate except on terms based on his ludicrous peace plan. He needs to negotiate on Trump's terms, whatever they may be. So Mr T has set both Europe and Ukraine up to be abandoned. Russia has simply said it is prepared to talk, but only to a legitimate power. I cannot follow whether it has set any preconditions but I think not simply to open a dialogue.
The best plan for Mr T is to walk away from this tar baby as soon as possible. There are worrying signals that he won't, and that he may have formed the view that he can coerce Russia to accept some sort of de facto defeat, pulled from the jaws of its victory. Well, we live in interesting times.
"In that DJT has had literally no decision-making input @ any point during the past 3 years, or the solid year that stood as a preamble/warm-up to the conflict, there’s little ‘up’ side for his wading in energetically now."
Really? His administration has pumped money and weapons into Ukraine all of his time in office from 2016-2020 but that was "Joes craziness" also?
Russia knows that we are here in Europe refuse to go to war with Russia, our economic perspective is more than bad and Russia also knows that the West-leadership wants to give it the Balkan-treatment, break it up and own the parts.
The western way of thinking here in the comments in no surprise for me but the eastern way of thinking is fundamental different.
I can destroy you simply because I can but what future is there for me after that?
How will others look at me and deal with me after seeing what I have done?
The populations in the west won't go away and they can't free themself from their historical heritage, so they will go on produce people like Joe Biden and D. Trump.
This is a fundamental thing, a thing for the long run, not to win the war in Ukraine that will bring not much but costs and suffering even after the war, because the war is not over after a "peaceagreement', like WWII has never stopped really.
This will end only after the security-architecture in Europe has changed profoundly and the USA is out of Europe so Europe can be enabled to see that it is nothing without the cooperation with the rest of the eurasian continent.
The USA has to go home and and become a Nation amongst the Nations and not the self declared Number 1.
Xi realises that the whole world will lose if China fights the US.
The US can't keep printing dollars to shore up it's economy. It will collapse because it's built on war, has no reinvestment as is sanctioning itself into oblivion. War is not necessary. Perception will be changed by another depression.
The decision-makers in the US are all narcissists. They will not back down, and when things come to that juncture, will choose armageddon for everyone rather than quiet retirement for the Empire. They are irrational enough to believe they (the elites) will somehow survive, but even if they know they won't, they are still likely to choose the nuclear option. These people are literal crazies.
No one in power is at all scared about nukes, just like they weren't at all scared about 'sars 2'. I don't think the nuclear option exists as billed. However, this doesn't mean we're going to avoid Armageddon due to these narcissists and crazies. The climate crisis that fossil fuels and animal ag spend billions on pretending isn't happening, paying lipservice to or simply adding 'greener' energy to is hurtling towards in the next few decades. Again, they irrationally think that and their offspring will survive it. https://jowaller.substack.com/p/just-like-scary-contagions-and-911?utm_source=publication-search
Remember too the Trump took CREDIT for destroying Nordstream… so, massive funding for buildup of troops in Ukraine under Trump, and admitting the U.S. was stealing Syrian oil (bragging about it really), and taking credit for destroying Germany’s chance to remain relevant industrial nation… don’t look to Trump for solid “peace”….
>Well USA policy has successfully detatched Europe from Russia
Which is a good thing for Russia -- this was a one-sided relationship. Russia was sending raw resources to Europe and receiving finished goods in the other direction, which suppressed its internal production capacity and technological development, even though it is unique in the world in having the material and intellectual capacity to be self sufficient in pretty much everything.
If Russia was run by true patriots and not by comprador traitors, all resource exports would have been gradually halted while investing in internal R&D and industrial build up to achieve that self-sufficiency.
Instead, the main objective of the Russian government appears to be to find a way to return things back to where they were, and to sell off Russia's precious non-renewable resources as fast as possible. This is high treason.
And it is also a big factor kneecapping the war effort. Ukraine can be physically isolated basically in half an hour, and then finished off at Russia's leisure, but that means you need to wipe out Poland and Romania (and probably others too), and it also means Europe will be permanently separated from Russia by a lot more than American dictate. Which is a no-brainer once you understand what I outlined above -- Russia loses big time from that relationship, so this would not be a loss in any way. Except that it would be a loss for Russia's ruling oligarchy, who decide what happens, and they don't decide while defending Russia's interests, but their own narrow selfish ones...
350M people living current middle class existence in suburbia cannot be supported from that territory. And it isn't being supported from it -- the US uses 25% of the world's resources with 4% of the population. In reality it is even more -- that is the direct resource consumption, but does not account for what is embodied in the finished goods the US gets from China and the rest of the "Global South" basically for free, in exchange for meaningless IOUs.
Tear up suburbia, move people into apartment blocks, take away most of their cars, build up public transportation and a proper rail network, and you might be able to live within your means for another 50 years. But good luck with that.
You with the Davos crowd? Because that solution reads like Agenda 2030, with 15-minute cities and other such "you will own nothing and you will be happy" solutions. Take away their cars, indeed. And their homes, don't forget that.
At the population density of the Netherlands (a net food *exporter*), the world could support 100 Billion humans, but will peak at perhaps 10% of that. Overpopulation is up there with climate change emergency as totally made up crap.
We know you post endless bullshit, please stick to your Ukraine dumb shit wheelhouse, no need to diversify...
It takes a certain level of IQ to run a techno/industrial civilization. Anybody know of a site where you can get on when clean safe water disappears? Oh wait, that was Flint. Speaking of IQ . . .
If US gets sanctioned the way Russia is, it will collapse. It cannot exist without the outside world to prop it up, not unless significant standard of living adjustments are made.
GM, I appreciate your commentary. It seems that by your estimation Russia is owned/ operated by entities that don't have the well being of the Russian people and nation at heart. I view the owners/operators of the U.S. in a similar way. But I wouldn't call them traitors, since I don't know that they ever had any allegiance with or even affinity for the U.S. or its citizens. I would simply describe them as enemies of humanity in general, and God specifically. As such, they always seek to entrap, enslave, exploit, defraud and murder whoever is within their sphere at any given point in history. These are the puppeteers that stage manage the national humiliation ritual that comprises federal politics and that administrate the innumerable vile organs of bureaucracy here in the U.S.
I'm curious though. I know who the owners/operators of the U.S. are. But who are the owners/operators of Russia? Are they of Russian heritage? Slavic even? Oligarchs of course. But being an oligarch doesn't necessarily preclude patriotism or nationalistic sentiment. Can you elaborate?
>I'm curious though. I know who the owners/operators of the U.S. are. But who are the owners/operators of Russia?
That is the big problem -- most Russian oligarchs are Zionist Jews. So the same people that are in charge in the US.
Now is it any wonder that they prefer to slaughter millions of Slavs than to strike directly at the enemy, when the "enemy" is actually an in-group for them and the Slavs are an out-group?
This war could have been immediately over with a few tactical nukes at the border crossings with Poland back in May-June 2022 saving countless lives on both sides (most Ukrainians are ethnic Russians, that must always be remembered; especially in the trenches -- the Banderites tend to stay away from real danger). And that is still available as a solution, but instead you see where things are going.
This all works on at least two levels -- class and ethnicity.
First, let's look at class -- the oligarchy is international, and has more affinity for each other than for the lower classes. Never mind that the Western oligarchy has clearly stated its intention is to destroy Russia and everything Russian. The Russian oligarchy does not see itself as Russian in the first place, so that does not apply to them in their minds.
Because indeed, which is the second part, most of the time they are not Russian. Most of them are Jewish, and openly Zionist too.
Now think about what happens when nukes fly at Poland and Romania. Does the US launch a strategic nuclear strike at Russia in retaliation? Of course not, nobody in DC is willing to die for Warsaw and Bucharest. And if they are crazy enough to do it, then they would have guaranteed done it as a first strike sooner or later regardless, so it was unavoidable anyway. But what will then happen is that NATO will automatically dissolve once the pretense of Article 5 that holds it together is exposed for the fiction that it is. Because who will want to be next in line to receive some Russian goodies measured in kilotons and megatons by continuing to be the US's forward deployment base for attacks on Russia in return for getting no protection? Remember, this is not Germany and Hungary in 1944-45, when Hungary was right next door and could be directly occupied once it was no longer a reliable ally, the US can't really hold onto Europe by force, it is logistically quite hard.
But here is the problem -- NATO is Israel's rear. Without that Israel would have likely ceased to exist in the last 15 months. Maybe NATO countries will continue to function as such once there is no more NATO regardless, but maybe not.
And if the people really in charge in Moscow are loyal to Israel first, then what are we talking about...
Also, there is another level -- internal Russian security. Keep in mind that it is the same merged blob of people in charge in Tel Aviv and DC right now, and those in DC are on the warpath against Russia, while you saw what happened to Hezbollah with the pagers and to the previous Iranian president and FM. Now think about how deep Mossad must have penetrated inside Russia given what I said above, and how compromised Russian internal security at the highest level likely is because of that. So I imagine there is real fear and paralysis even among the truly patriotic circles there who would like to fight seriously...
It is as I feared. Russia is zog. Thoroughly parasitized. The Bolsheviks never went away. Just changed their clothes. I grieve for Russia.
I'm inclined to believe what you say is true because it is the only explanation that fits the reality of what I observe. I knew when Russia fully participated in the germ terror psy op that that was a very bad sign.
I know little of Russian politics. It took me a long time to unravel the maze of psy ops, deceptions and subterfuges that obscure U.S. politics. It took a long time to see and accept the reality for what it is. I haven't the time or motivation to deeply study Russian politics. But your words ring true.
The Bolsheviks might have had a lot of Jews in their ranks, but those were not Zionist oligarch Jews, don't make that mistake, please.
Also, those Bolshevik Jews managed to put the country back together after it fell apart in 1917. Through a five-year bloody apocalyptic civil war, then gave everyone jobs, healthcare, education, etc.
And they no longer had lot of Jews in their ranks after the 1930s anyway.
I might be misinterpreting your comment. It seems to imply the Bolsheviks were a force for good, did good by the Russian people. That doesn't ring so true. Zionist oligarch Jews weren't backing the Bolsheviks?
But what do I know? As I say, it's hard enough to sort through all the lies and distortions of the histories I'm more familiar with, even that have occurred in my lifetime. So I won't profess to know the minutia of what happened with the Bolsheviks.
My current understanding of the history is that Jewish revolutionaries were a primary cause of Russia being in the state it was in 1917, and the related bloody apocalyptic war. Not the sole cause, but a major contributor. Probably the major contributor. And zionism was certainly well in play by then, with all its usual nefarious actors and methods.
Haha. No, I have no problem saying what I mean. The questions are sincere. I'm not Russian. Don't know what goes on in Russia. I wanted to hear the commenters opinion.
Trump is a narcissist. The right people will now convince him that it can win Ukraine. But when he loses it, these same people will accuse him of incompetence and impeach him. Everything will be exactly the same as in Trump's first term.
He just gave the neocons a massive victory when he threw gaetz under the bus. He appointed Bondi and Rubio so clearly he is still stupid or this entire maga farce is his greatest grift yet. Take your pick.
What people fail to realize Trump is the enemy of the establishment but not because he does not like the US to be the hegemon, rather he considers quite some parts of the agenda a major failure (open borders, woke policies) while he considers others to be too costly and pointless for the US to do and the best example here is NATO - he does not want to dismantle NATO, he wants NATO countries to pay "fair share" (this being 4% of the GDP I read recently). He wants the power of the CIA etc to be smaller und brought under control in line with what he thinks the power of the executive should be. These are "strong hegemon" and not a "peaceful hegemon" views and while strong may mean also peaceful it does not have. I suppose even if he genuinely were for peace and sovereignty for other countries (why station troops in Iraq if Iraq does not want it etc) he will have a tough fight with the deep state and its representatives in Congress.
It's really bad news if Trump decides to keep fueling the one sided conflict in Ukraine...Ukraine will become demographically dead...and there is no possibility of success..Is this Black Rock's idea?
Of course it is, who do you think all our tax money to Ukraine is helping? It sure isn't to spread "democracy". If Ukraine loses so does all the investment in it by Black Rock and other big corporations.
BlackRock, Bayer/Monsanto, DuPont and Cargill profit, no matter what. They have bought up over one third of Ukraine's prime farmland in the past decade. As Ukraine further crumbles into ruin, more farmland will become available at bargain prices.
"Heavenly Jerusalem (also New Jerusalem, Israel 2.0, New Israel) is a project whose goal is to create a Jewish state within Ukraine on the territories of its five southern regions: Odessa , Dnipropetrovsk , Zaporizhia , Kherson and Nikolaev."
Time to relocate all jewish shrines from Malorossia to the fascist jewish state which lives by the fascist jewish laws and by dishonorable rules like Kol Nidre.
"The phrase Kol Nidre it is not a prayer but a legal formula used for the annulment of vows. Said at the start of the Yom Kippur fast day, Kol Nidre declares all future vows and promises invalid, by declaring that all vows are "absolved, remitted, cancelled, declared null and void, not in force of in effect." Said by the cantor, surrounded by men holding Torah scrolls, it is sung to a traditional tune that has been passed down for generation."
And this is how the tribe created the likes of Milejkowsky, Cardin, Blinken, Wexner and similar crooks and sadists -- by the annual pledge to betray and defraud the "others."
The Ukraine is already demographically dead. The ratio young vs old is so skewed that it will create an unsustainable scenario in the near future. Regardless of the outcome of the fighting.
In fact, I believe the Ukrainians can only keep their identity if they become part of Russia again.
If they 'win' the fighting, they will lose either to the immigration wave, or the economic implosion (or quite likely a combination of the two). This will remove any traces of a Ukrainian people/culture for sure.
Without a doubt Ukraine will be flooded with Indians, Pakistanis and Africans the second this war ends. Who is going to stop them? All the men are dead and the oligarchs running Ukraine are all Jews - no difference to them between a black African or a white Slav - as long as they can dig a ditch and take out a loan it's all the same.
Hell, they may even end up deporting the Palestinians to Ukraine - wouldn't be the craziest scheme they've pulled in the past few years, no, not even close.
None of those you identify are acclimated to the Artic climate. What will be required after this little kerfuffle will be people from hardy climes capable of dealing bad weather and poor supplies. Not a lot of opportunities for anyone who cannot contribute.
Based on past experience the governments of those nations will continue to support the " needy new comers". Although, the plan might be to simultaneously cut off all support across all of Europe to induce the " migrants" to violence. Either way, they're not leaving on their own whether the energy situation deteriorates or not.
The one thing every successful insurgency has in common is a young population. The average age in Yemen is 19. The average in Ukraine from before the war was over 40.
I'll summarize DJT's 2nd presidency in a few points:
1. Every resource in the North and South American continents belongs to the USA (including of course the Panama canal and down to the last drop of oil in Canada's tar sands).
2. Europe must buy US's LNG and US weapons, as well as pay for the war in Ukraine.
3. The USD must continue as the sole international trade currency - or else 100% tariffs and sanctions.
4. Regime change, eternal war, China as the ultimate enemy, Russia as a gas station, US as the global hegemon, all these policies will continue in one way or another.
Russia can make better use of its airforce flattening Kherson defences than in Syria. I don't think the Kremlin expects anything good from Trump's team. They will have to take Odessa, because the US economy only builds weapons as its profit driver.
With tariffs on Chinese imports, and a death spiral on national debt, America could only grow by a MASSIVE swords-plowshares programme in the civilian field, which I suspect the corporates have prevented through various laws enacted over the past few decades to protect their various monopolies.
Therefore only war can spur America's 'growth' (A slower decline).
Trump is simply not the guy to reverse America's decline... tbf, there probably isn't such a person in existence. Perhaps Michael Hudson, as likely to reach Cabinet level as Scott Ritter.
The Anglo Empire designed itself to fall into 1984, to either win or balance; it simply is incapable of changing path.
Russia and China have to be adults, and pull the global South with them, to drain the Empire of resources, until it financially collapses.
At which point all bets are off.
Shame the UN never invaded the USA and took away its stockpiles of WMDs.
"Michael Hudson caliber of leader"... in my many years of observation, deep analytical thinkers like Hudson rarely have the leadership skills to be able get others to implement their ideas or agendas.
What is always essential is for a decisive, motivational leader to take the ideas of the thinkers and run with them. The Kennedy/Sorensen duo was one such example.
Trump is not that leader, he will continue the status quo of sending military gear and intel to Ukraine, after sitting Zelensky on the bench and watching as Russia runs out the clock. As for Hudson, the banking cartel that runs the USA has no use for him.
"Trump is simply not the guy to reverse America's decline... "
Well said. Trump is an opportunist who has run his life through a series of improvisations, trusting to his quick wit to let him take advantage of unpredictable changes in markets and the taste of his clients. He does have a knack for understanding some long term phenomena, such as the eternal desire in most people to show off to others, to appear to be wealthy, hence the vulgar bling that characterizes what he sells, like those appallingly vulgar Trump sneakers or the barbarian-level lack of taste in the overly-gilded decor of Trump-brand properties. But he exploits his understanding of long term phenomena exclusively through short term actions.
Trump never was and never will be a deep thinker, as one of the characteristics of deep thought is to consider matters over very long time scales. While he has shown the patience to take on projects that can take a few years to accomplish, like some of his real estate plays in New York, he seems to have no patience for projects that take decades to bring to fruition. I suppose he would say that shows his pragmatic side, as in his world projects that take decades to accomplish are losers, that you need to make your money fast and you need to make your money young.
I don't think he is stupid and I don't think he is completely unwise. I just think his entire life experience has convinced him that if he cannot accomplish what has to be done with short term actions it is wiser to move on to something else. That's deeply unlucky for the US because only long term thinking can reverse America's decline.
Trump also shows no respect for long term commitments, especially those which arise from long term influences such as morals. He always seems ready to take advantage with a short term play, no matter how immoral that might be. A good example was his happiness to sell the Saudis $100 billion in weaponry to get that cash flow today, no matter that doing so supported genocide in Yemen or a regime that beheads Christians in public for the crime of converting from Islam. He is amoral to the point that he does not recognize America can never be great, again or for the first time, if it so totally abandons as great a part of America's cultural identity as respect for freedom of religion.
All that conspires, in my view, to make it more likely than not that Trump will continue the US's war against Russia, both in Ukraine and in other parts of the world, if for no other reason than that it is too complicated and too long term a project to wind down that war given the opposition of so many short term reasons for continuing it. He can't just walk away from Ukraine because he'd be hanged by his own party for "abandoning" Ukraine. The junta in Kiev knows that, so they'll play hardball with him. Their eager embracement of the Biden team policy of poisoning the well for Trump demonstrates they have no worries about burning their bridges with Trump.
The closer Trump's team gets to Inauguration Day, the more signals are leaking out of their organization that they realize they will be unable to push Russia into any surrender, and that the only thing they can think of doing is to continue the war. I think that is what will happen and that the war will become harsher with Trump, far from being the peacemaker, will end up escalating the war well beyond what Biden did, primarily by expanding the use of American arms and the direct involvement of American forces, for example, possibly bringing American warships into the Black Sea and provocative acts by American forces in the Baltic and on Russia's Pacific and Arctic coasts and on Russia's borders with Central Asia states. I wouldn't be surprised if he moved rapidly to cement US control over the former Syria's oil territories, including strikes even on Turkish positions and threats or strikes on the remnant Russian bases in Syria.
That's the real danger with Trump. When his short term improvisations don't work out, if he can't walk away, he gets violent. I'd say America deserves better, except that the price of even a quasi-democracy like the US is that the people get the government they deserve.
I suspect one of the first things he will do is sell out the Kurds in Syria - he already wanted to pull out in his first term; and now Israel and Turkey have destroyed Syria, along with Russia and Iran's interests there, he's unlikely to face much pushback.
The rest of your analysis of his personality I generally agree with.
He's STILL a better choice than the DNC/Harris warmongering psychopaths, but that line is getting slimmer the closer we come to the inauguration.
Once again, he'll be just another US President, unremarkable apart from "Mean tweets".
You’ve placed your bet based on your read of the table. A lot of guesses and mind reading here fills in the gap of actual knowledge, but then we all do that. What I see in Trump is a man who does in fact look through the lens of what is good for America. (Seems so quaint and old fashioned these days - I imagine many will find this hard to believe.) I doubt Trump will conclude that a world war to preserve the empire is helpful to that project.
Trump will do exactly what the murderous DC money minders tell him to do. Trump, a bit of an outsider to the MENSA class, will listen to those disgusting war mongers closest to him who will blow smoke up his ass. How can you MAGA unless you act the stern father and discipline the funky Euro-crowd and attempt to spank the Russians? President Polk rolled over the Mexicans on the way to stealing their acreage (May, 1846). I don't think the Russians plan on being Mexico now.
The Americans quietly removed nukes on the Russian border in Turkey to comply with the Russian demands to resolve the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962. Are the DC pirates so stunningly ignorant of that historical fact that they imagine the Russians will be any more willing today to allow those same western weapons on their border? FAFO. The colossal stupidity beggars belief.
For me...Trump will have a "successful" presidency if the nukes stay in their silos. That's it. I have no other hopes/expectations for the man.
War is the number one U$ export. It's just what we do! Mo' money...mo' money...mo' money...
I agree with all the points you are making, you are just so much better at writing them down. Seeing Trump, I'm constantly reminded of the movie 'The Devil's Advocate', where in the end, evil wins because of that little sin of VANITY, and if there is one character that is vain, it's Trump. It's a character trait just like his narcissism, you can disguise it but in the end it will always break through.
I'm not so sure of that. Russian wages generally increased ~9% this year, boosting civilian purchasing power. Consumer growth - albeit not so great for the environment - is a WAAAAY better way to grow your economy and GDP. Compare China to the US.
Military spending, unless accompanied with severe penalties for fraud, will inevitably become corrupt, due to the built-in secrecy of such spending.
With the examples of both China and the US in front of them, would the Kremlin make that mistake?
The great danger for Russia is that China is now such a civilian economic powerhouse, could they compete with no tariffs between them, or be swallowed up and ONLY military tech can sell and grow?
"could they compete with no tariffs between them, or be swallowed up"
China doesn't have the resources to power its economy. It cannot win by a strategy of competing against its supplier of key resources, and it's smart enough to know that. Instead, China takes what is a far more durable and enduring approach: it builds cooperation with its allies where both sides win.
China loves being "the world's workshop," but it doesn't like it that too much of its production goes to an insane, evil, and unreliable client, the US. China's strategy for dealing with that is to invest into other countries and regions so they can develop large middle classes and healthy economies, to grow wealthy so that they become large customers of Chinese products and replace the US.
While there is much talk about China's strategy to grow successful economies in Africa to become consumers of Chinese products, China is also doing the same thing with China's neighbor, Russia. China depends on Russia for resources, but it also wants to develop Russia as a big customer of Chinese products. Besides the hope of replacing the US as a customer, China also has a huge balance of trade problem with Russia with all that Chinese money going to pay for Russian resources. Until Russia's economy grows, Russians won't be rich enough to buy as many Chinese products as China would like. So China is investing in Russia.
The most visible aspect of all that are the many, many joint ventures and Chinese factories opened in Russia, as well as huge Chinese investment into Russian enterprises. Highly educated Russian labor is cheaper than highly educated Chinese labor, so China is also developing Russia as a friendly supplier country that is part of the Chinese manufacturing ecosystem. There are no built-in antagonisms or rivalries like China has with Vietnam, so Russia is a very appealing alternative.
With a billion and a half people China isn't worried about a strong and wealthy Russia. On the contrary, it knows that helping Russia's economy grow will result in very strong feelings of friendship. That's what it wants in a neighbor, a close friend and business partner who China can count on in any war with the US.
"There are no built-in antagonisms or rivalries like China has with Vietnam, so Russia is a very appealing alternative."
Over the past summer I had an opportunity to converse with a young Vietnamese woman born a couple years after the American War ended. She'd gotten a graduate degree in the US and her English language skills were tip-top. I don't remember the context but somehow a China mention raised her hackles and she clearly demonstrated her disdain for anything "China" or Chinese. As I learned talking to her too that both parents were college profs and her sister was a doctor in the largest hospital in HMC, The Vietnamese are a vastly talented and capable people and I have nothing but admiration for them. I also know of their uneasy 1000- year relationship with the Chinese with whom they share a border.
If you look from the inside of Russia, i.e. to be its resident, then purchasing power is steadily declining. Small businesses are shrinking. Now problems with gasoline have begun in regions remote from the center.
Rosstat statistics are so.... slippery. Any Russian knows this.
Half of all kids now grow up in poverty, a 1/3rd in absolute not relative poverty. The state-school system is collapsing, and the privatised part of that is used as a cash cow and propaganda mill. Wages are FAAAR below the level of actual inflation, the workers are poorer in real terms now than 2008 - considerably poorer. The country doesn't MAKE anything, except dodgy financial 'instruments' and offshored tax-evasion. And self-privileged useless twats from the 'elite' schools.
The country and economy has been hollowed out by Neoliberal Thatcherism, sold off usually to foreigners like Murdoch, or unaccountable corporate entities.
The ENTIRE political class are complete traitors, and do whatever the USA or Israel tells them too. There is no military, because so much military spending goes straight to purchasing over-priced and useless US weapons. There is no welfare, because there is no real world economy left after Thatcher and Brexshit between them. The health service is now mainly owned by US & German private healthcare - you can imagine the direction THAT is going in.
The media - incl the now shitty BBC - spend all their time blaming refugees for these crises, rather than the ones making the decisions that caused it. The population is dumb, stupid, angry, resentful, and IGNORANT.
Energy costs are through the roof, and the covid measures destroyed much of the SMEs. Retail is dead, and all profits go to Amazon. The young cannot cook, just scroll.
Obesity, needless to say, is following the US pattern.
We are but a colony of the USA, with no sovereignty, and no independent political class even if we were.
There is no HOPE in Britain, and that's just the way the US Empire likes it.
I'm certain Russia has its problems, everywhere has. But Russia still has a future, and tons of potential. Appreciate that.
Britain's sole future path now is to be the US's 'unsinkable aircraft carrier in Europe', the base from which Europe will be destroyed by the USA as it inevitably retreats.
Complicated. The Russian National Bank is keeping interest rates high. Growth is therefore not by credit expansion but profit spending. As the Oligarchs can not spend the money in the West on yachts, football clubs, and a house in London, there is enough profit to be spent. All kinds of products had to be substituted because of sanctions, and the Russians did! Instead of buying Swiss cheese for $10, the consumer buys a Russian-made "Swiss" cheese for $8; your GDP is shrinking! But the economic fundamentals have dramatically changed. A situation last seen in the 19th century.
In fact, GDP is spending. Including weapons costs. The presence of a huge military-industrial complex does not at all strengthen the economy, but rather leads to high inflation.
"and only war can increase the country's GDP. " Respectfully, no, and to "I think both powers will collapse very quickly." also no.
Russia is very different from the US and EU in terms of development options. It has the paradoxical situation of inheriting a highly civilized and exceptionally well educated population from the USSR (plus remnant civilization that persisted from Tsarist times) with genuinely First World professional capability, plus infinite resources of everything you could possibly need to run a continental-sized First World economy, plus infinite demand for darned near everything civilian society wants but does not have thanks to the Soviet talent for making sure everything that civilians wanted was either unavailable or laughably inadequate.
What's powering Russia's booming economy today is the classic capitalist entrepreneurial formula of "find a need and fill it." A country that had nothing under the Soviets has a need for everything, from kitchen gadgets to toilet paper, literally hundreds of millions of things. Absolutely every market niche that's so densely filled in the West, like people who run businesses that service elevators, or people who run companies that do event management, was and largely still is open to new competitors in Russia.
The initial surge of entrepreneurial verve in the booming 90's was a mix of foreign companies entering Russia and local entrepreneurs. Over the last 35 years that's given way to more and more replacement of foreigners by local firms, as the local entrepreneurs know local tastes and needs better, and they often are smarter than the foreigners at running local businesses. That replacement phenomenon got jacked up tremendously as a result of EU and US sanctions, where although only a minority of foreign firms exited the Russian market, the hassles and distaste associated with dealing with "unfriendly nations" gave local businesses a huge boost.
If you look at where the economy has boomed, surprisingly a very big part of it is tremendous growth in Russian industry and Russian business activity, including very many small and medium sized businesses. That phenomenon, of building out a first world county on continental scale, is going to sustain the Russian economy for at least a hundred more years. Developing an immensely resource-rich continental sized country like Russia which is mostly undeveloped will add another two hundred years. It's like the US expansion across the North American continent that powered the US's economy as the vast continent was developed, an economy-powering option not available in a Europe where every last bit of land had been claimed for two thousand years.
Add to that the huge worldwide demand for Russian resources. Russia is the world's largest energy exporter (oil, gas, coal, enriched uranium, electricity), food exporter (wheat and other grains, food oils, fish, dairy products, pork, beef, etc), and resource exporter (mineral fertilizers to grow food, industrial metals, precious metals, industrial plastics, diamonds, timber, etc.). Except for the US there's no country in the world which can be a competitive first world economic power without leveraging Russian resources. If you don't have access to inexpensive Russian energy you can't compete with the Chinese or other Asian economies. Half of the world's countries depend on Russian energy, food, or resources to avoid food insecurity. Russia's economy is based on production of goods needed internally and on the provision of resources and manufactured goods needed by other countries. That's not an economy which will collapse. It's not a Ponzi economy.
As far as the US goes, although the US shows some fake signs of health as a result of Ponzi measures like the dollar being the world's reserve currency (and thus laying off in part to other countries the costs of US's money-printing), for all the legitimate criticism levied at the US's economy and very serious structural problems it still is a huge economy. It has a lot of inertia and isn't going to collapse overnight. It's like the late Roman Empire which continued for hundreds of years despite the obvious failure of the Roman imperial "business model."
This all looks very rosy, and I mostly agree with it, but there is one fat fly in that ointment: low population. You need consumers for all these enterpreneurial businesses; you need settlers and workers to develop the underutilized expanse of land and resources. Russia is running short on people.
You have to start by understanding what's really going on is a phenomenon that has affected every country that has become wealthier: the wealthier the country, the lower its fertility. There are many, many viewpoints on why that happens, ranging from poorer societies supposedly depending on having lots of children as the only safety net for parents in their old age, to increasing wealth making lifestyles possible that distract people in their child-bearing years from settling down and having families. But it's undeniable that fertility drops in richer societies. Russia is now a richer society.
Russia also has the continuing problems caused by catastrophic population declines in the wars of the first half of the 20th century. When you kill 50 million people out of a population of less than 150 million, you put a dent into the demographic curves that persists for a century. As the different cohorts age, the missing cohort from the late 30's and early 40's shows up in profoundly lower births two and three decades later, and then again and again in subsequent generations. Even in ideal conditions it takes a very, very long time for such huge demographic catastrophes to blend back into normal population growth, and there's a risk that the social factors caused by the catastrophe become permanent.
For example, in the USSR the lack of men caused by the wars of the first half of the 20th century propelled women into the workforce and into careers in a way that permanently changed society. The first world war, the civil war, the Terror, and the second world war killed over 50 million people altogether, most of them men. Before those catastrophes there were virtually no women professionals in Tsarist society. After those catastrophes there were virtually no men in many professions. When women are the workforce, that's incompatible with growing large families.
Despite all that there is a net increase in population in Russia, as a result of immigration. The big issue is not that Russia is running short on people, it is running short on ethnic Russians. Other population segments, like the huge central Asian and Islamic ethnic communities in Russia, are doing fine. Likewise, the majority of new citizens immigrating into Russia are central Asian and Islamic people. That's been altered slightly in the last ten years by waves of Ukrainian migrants and by the addition to the Federation of five new provinces, but the long term trend is an increase in the already profound multi-ethnic character that Russia's population has had for centuries.
Russia is working hard to ensure that migrants are welcome, but only if they assimilate. The country has pulled out all the stops to build schools for migrant kids to teach them Russian language from such an early age they feel it is a native language for them. Programs to assist migrants emphasize integration and make no attempt to ease the bureaucratic process by gathering migrants into enclaves that later function as obstacles to integration.
What helps in that is for many centuries Russia has genuinely been a multi-ethnic state, so there is template by which people can feel they are "Russians" and native parts of the Federation while at the same time preserving ethnic traditions that date back over a thousand years. An ethnic Kyrgiz or Uzbek can feel just at home in the Federation while saying "I'm Russian" just as much as a Buryat (who look like Koreans) can say the same, and even point to a large Russian province where he or she is an ethnic majority.
I think what will help in all that is the various ethnic nations surrounding Russia are in general doing a much poorer job of moving up the development ladder so there is a very strong economic stimulus for their people to continue migrating to Russia. Growing population in that way can be very effective, as the US (a nation of immigrants) has shown.
You've taken a lot of effort to explain the reasons for the population shortage. I am not disputing the reasons. I am pointing out the fact, and its crippling implications in the long run.
In the long run, the population shortage of ethnic, European Russians doesn't matter. The population will grow and if it shifts to a different mix that doesn't matter.
The implications aren't "crippling" either, not in the short run or in the long run. Does Russia have enough people to develop as it would like? Yes, it does, already in the short run. 150 million people can do immense development, especially given that Russia doesn't have welfare. It's not like the US where about half the people aren't really productive and coast on the productivity of those who are.
Does Russia have enough people to defeat the US and its vassals in a conventional war? You bet. Russia's army is at 1.2 million and is growing rapidly to 1.5 million. That could be easily increased to 3 million just from the active reserve. But more importantly, even at 1.2 million it's already the most combat capable army in the world at fighting first world peers.
The US army has spent the last 20+ years acquiring lots of bad habits beating up foes who couldn't shoot back, tribesmen in the desert. The Russian army has three years of massive experience at tearing the guts out of US and NATO weapons and doctrine.
By the way, a few paragraphs are not a lot of effort. Writing a book is a lot of effort. Contributing here isn't.
All these factors of potential prosperity of the economy existed in the USSR. However, the elderly partocrats from the CPSU could not realize them and the USSR collapsed. At the same time, the USSR had a much more powerful industry and even more natural resources.
And I repeat my assertion that Russia is following the path of the USSR. The economy is becoming military, small and medium-sized businesses are shrinking, prices are rising, censorship is deepening. This is a recipe for collapse despite rich natural resources or the potential demand of an insolvent population.
"All these factors of potential prosperity of the economy existed in the USSR."
Except the most important factor: free markets. The USSR was doomed by the dead-end foolishness of Marxism. No entrepreneurs. Russia is a capitalistic state that leverages the unstoppable economic truth of free market capitalism. Lots of entrepreneurs.
"The economy is becoming military" Nonsense. The *government* is increasing spending on the military but Russia is not the US or EU where government spending calls the tune. The majority of Russia's economy goes through private hands.
"small and medium-sized businesses are shrinking" Nonsense. The hallmark of Russia's booming economy is that small and medium sized businesses are booming. I live in Russia, and anybody who has lived here for more than a few years can see the tremendous increase in the role of small and medium businesses. There's not only more of them, but more of them are succeeding and are growing larger. There are behemoths like Wildberries, the Internet marketplace that made a multi-billionaire out of Russia's wealthiest woman, that started just a few years ago as small businesses.
"prices are rising" So are wages. Inflation is a risk for overheated, rapidly growing economies.
"censorship is deepening" That's a lie, propaganda for morons, if you mean politically motivated censorship. Sure, Russia has some controls on dangerous and evil communications but so does every society that is not a sewer of complete evil. Even in a sewer of depravity like the US it's not legal to broadcast child pornography. (I was going to use "snuff videos" as an example but the US has become so depraved I'm not sure if those are now legal in the US). Is that "censorship?" There are some people who are so evil they think that banning child pornography is wrong.
So yes, here in Russia we do have "censorship" of such things. For example, by overwhelming margins people agree it is deeply wrong to advance pervert propaganda, especially in schools. It's also unlawful to tell lies about the government and our military and to attempt to harm people and society. The US also has such laws: the crime of sedition is one of the two crimes called out in the US Constitution as meriting a death penalty, if I recall correctly. I haven't looked it up because, of course, nobody in US government gives a hoot what the US Constitution says anymore.
"potential demand of an insolvent population" Nonsense. Russia's population is getting steadily richer. Real incomes are growing steadily, people are living longer and healthier lives, infant mortality is down, the education, health care and pension systems are getting stronger, the world's products are available in stores, shopping malls and Internet markets for nearly instant delivery to your door, and goods and services from Russian companies now have (finally) achieved world-class quality.
That's a lot to have accomplished in a mere 30 years, starting from the ruins of the USSR. There's still a long way to go, with Russia not yet having matched the overall level of affluence you find in, say, wealthier US or European communities. But already the quality of life in mid-sized or larger Russian communities I think is better than the average quality of life in similar US or European communities, and in Russia that quality of life is getting better while in equivalent US or European communities it's getting worse.
Yes John. I heard the same songs 40 years ago from propagandists from the Central Committee of the CPSU. They sang that everything in the country is good, milk yield and meat production are growing, new enterprises, roads, bridges are being built, the well-being of the population is growing, etc.
However, after 10 years, the USSR unexpectedly collapsed...
Do you still live in Russia? 40 years ago the lies they were telling were obvious to anybody who walked the streets. Walk the streets these days and it's obvious the economy is booming and quality of life has dramatically increased.
Today's kids have never lived in anything but a consumer utopia of shopping malls full of goods and darned near infinite choice of anything they want they can have delivered with a few touches of their smart phones. People have candy bars and bags of chips delivered to their apartments for free from TasteVille (ВкусВилл) stores, at https://vkusvill.ru/ Check it out for the Russian analog of Whole Foods.
Russia isn't your USSR of 40 years ago. Free markets and entrepreneurs make all the difference.
Very true. But it's hard to compete with inherited wealth. People don't grasp the epic scale of some fortunes that have been handed down to heirs. Once you loot a billion or two, your heirs can live dramatically more affluent lives than average people who have to earn their keep.
The economies of the West may be having problems, but all the same they benefit from enormous inertia and inherited wealth. The Brits built an empire on slavery and colonial looting. They're rich today largely because their forefathers conquered the staggeringly wealthy Indian subcontinent and then looted the wealth of India for two centuries. That was such astronomical wealth that it gave the Brits a huge lead over other countries, a lead that's been retained despite British loss of their overseas empire. Economic echos of empire like British dominance in insurance and finance continue to breath life into what otherwise would be a dead economy.
Same with the French. They crow about having an economy, but even today it depends on colonial looting such as the below market rates France was paying for the uranium that powers French energy (which is dependent on nuclear power) as a result of colonial-style dominance of France's uranium vassals in Africa. Now that those vassals have thrown the French out, we'll see how well France's economy does when it starts paying market rates for the energy it burns.
Same with all the rest. They clawed their way into a dominant niche during 500 years of colonial looting. Now they have to compete on their own.
In Russia's case, the USSR destroyed much of the built-up civilizational capital of the Tsarist era. The Marxists had to re-invent the wheel to build industry, and what modern Russia inherited was not all that useful, because it was built to the peculiarities of the Soviet system, not built to function as an evolved part of a free market ecosystem. Russian entrepreneurs have had to reinvent the wheel yet again, but without the benefit of windfalls from colonial looting.
That's going to take a very long time to build out on a continent-wide scale. But on the plus side, all that is being built out on the basis of a real economy, finding genuine needs and filling them, not stealing money from others and telling the lie "I'm a genius for creating this wealth".
While I agree with that, I wouldn't put so much emphasis upon the"Stored wealth" of the Aristocracy. They literally frittered vast amounts of it away being complete nincompoops, and the costs of the Empire, and the two World Wars to try to maintain their dominance.
The City of London was about to collapse, Neoliberal Thatcherism was the final nail, cutting real wages and the real world economy to the bone.
And then they found the North Sea black gold.
Nearly all of which went straight into the City, to fund the now infamous 'offshoring' sector. Needless to say, an advanced economy whose main driver is tax-evasion will not remain an advanced industrialised economy for long. Financial thieves will refuse to pay even the minimum required to maintain the infrastructure that allows an economy to flourish - let alone to be civilised.
One bad financial crash later - already clearly seen on the cards - and the UK will enter the 3rd World, but with still the parasitic, vampiric ruling class.
It's hard to see any future for the UK that is not bleak.
Orwell rather put his finger on it nicely, 80 years ago.
It's worth a mention, as follow-up on the Oreshnik strikes, that in fact all damage appears to be old and commercial sources are editing purchased pictures.
Yes, so we're back to square 1 in externally evaluating effects. Putin seems quite pleased, however, which is atypical even beyond the pull of politics. He seems to think something special has been achieved, so it probably has.
There is no way Western media is going to accurately portray that damage, let alone how game changing that new Oreshnik is. That would be too embarrassing and make more people against being involved in project Ukraine.
The main stream media watchers that I know have heard nothing about it.
I have been expecting this move to cross the Dnieper, but i expect the real attack in the Kherson area and across the empty reservoir will be in the combined attack on Zaporizhia from West and East, to establish a strong bridgehead. It is also meant to protect the ZNPP against attacks by the NAZI/Tommy alliance...
MAGA fan boys don't care about foreign affairs as long as Orange Man fights a war on the woke they will be happy.
Miracle ear George Washington will fight a war on the woke in his standard fake wrestling way. All sound and fury, signifying nothing. Exactly like all all of his schizophrenic proclamations, both foreign and domestic.
But his deluded believers will always have excuses for his failures to deliver on anything, ever. Some excuses will be new, most will be rehashed from the past 8 years, but they'll have them.
No matter how hard he screws his believers, in 4 years, if given the option, they would vote for him again. Because the teevee said he's on their side. Besides, lesser evil. Even if Kamala Harris were to switch r team 4 years from now, and the teevee presented her as the lesser evil, the r teamers would vote for her. Bank on it. Because we want the r team to win. And because we're patriots. And voting is patriotic. The teevee says so.
would you have preferred the alternative to Trump ???
Exactly correct George, the point about mollification. I disagree that the voters are morons. They are deluded. Self deceived. Not low IQ. A moron has an IQ problem. A self deceived person has a Truth problem - spiritual in nature. Two very different things.
Regarding mollification - the lesser of two evils democracy psy op works stunningly well. Satan has had many centuries to perfect this particular scheme and bring it to bear. There are literally 10's of millions of well meaning Frantics in the U.S. that live a cyclical pavlovian existence of lesser evil democracy delusion that will keep voting for their own entrapment and enslavement and consider themselves patriots while doing so. Of all the psy ops we are subjected to, the lesser evil democracy one may be the most powerful. Absolutely devastating to the spirit of the nation. One gigantic national humiliation ritual, repeated over and over and over again, until the people and nation are destroyed.
It is truly amazing how little real dirt his desperate enemies were able to dig up. He can’t be clean but he must be clever.
The biggest problem with terrorism is fear and as a consequence anger. But if you look at it clinically, the number of casualties is limited (not saying that it is not terrible for the victims, cause it is) and statistically the chances are small that any of us becomes a victim of terrorism.
If you would compare for instance the victims of terrorism with the people dying in traffic (around 4 million worldwide in the last 3 years), the upset in society is not justified in my opinion as the emotions fear and anger stop logical and rational thinking, resulting in short term actions, making more victims at the end (for instance 3000 killed in 9/11 and as a consequence 4.5 million killed elsewhere likely because 300 million people supported a small group of people that hat malicious intent anyways)
Unit cost of a basic FA/18 hornet is $50 million, the more updated models run to 80 million, FYI.
The Swiss payed some $125million/pcs F18.
The Swiss have FA18s? Aren't they carrier based planes?
https://www.alamy.de/fotos-bilder/swiss-air-force-f18.html?sortBy=relevant
The Swiss are the last to transition from FA-18 to F-35, as Canada and Australia have already done.
The USN operates the FA-18 because they chose not to further upgrade the F-14 as those were retired (a source of great sadness for all us Tomcat fans)
My view is the EU is merely a collection of vassal states, colonies of our country. They make no meaningful decisions on their own. Germanys' silence when we blew up Nordstream proves this view has merit.
Installing a radical government in Ukraine, the poorest and most corrupt country in Europe, and militarizing this ethnically fragmented, recently constructed concept of a nation, was a long planned project.
With Ukraine and its' resources in the bag, the bigger prize of toppling the sovereign and nationalist Russian government to take control of their vast resources was the ultimate plan.
Our congress is simply a collection of whores we call politicians who serve the globalist corporations and oligarchs who purchase them.
It's likely that our intelligence agencies and military leadership really are so incompetent that they thought they could prevail in an economic and military war against Russia.
The desperation from facing the consequences of the US/NATO losing this war is causing insane acts of provocation.
As much as Russia does not need the headache of administering the western oblasts of Ukraine, I'm thinking they need to take all lands to the Dnepr River, Odessa, and incorporate them into the RF, while occupying Kiev. Smoke out the rats from Kiev for a decade or so.
Make sure what remains of Ukraine stays neutral, then consider allowing Kiev to rejoin them.
It is likely a lot of eastern Europe will beg to join Russia in that time, as the EU and the US are devolving into 3rd world countries. I don't think Trump can turn the tide in 4 years, if he is not assassinated before his term is up.
Good points. I just don't see our country and the EU in the driver's seat. Our permanent government is desperate to delay the collapse of the Kiev regime through January 20, 2025. Simply to blame Trump and reinforce the narrative that the disaster was due to a lack of financial and military support, not the reality that our combined militaries had their *ss kicked.
Russia cannot sign a peace deal until Ukraine elects a lawful president and parliament. By that time, they will have taken the entire country. Russia cannot accept a cease fire or "freeze", they have to drive stake in the heart of the beast now.
Europe is disintegrating in any event of its' own accord. It's a tough problem. The war criminals in Kiev must be tried and punished for what they have done to their own people.
I would argue that we also need to try and punish Biden, Blinkin, Nuland and the host of other war criminals for their illegal actions. They have destroyed our national security.
@Brian Simpson
Can we send John Bolton to Nuremberg in chains for trial? Perhaps Janet Yellen could be accommodated in a traditional part of Spandau prison for the rest of her life?
Just send the cunt to Yemen to have his bollocks sewn in his mouth
@Anthony Dunn
And apparently when Herman Hess finally died in 1987 the Germans tore Spandau prison down to build a parking lot? Maybe just shackle Yellen to a light pole out on the asphalt, give her a pup tent in the winter for good behavior.
I can only speak of the German mentality but I would say it's a LOST generation and I don't know who or what it would take to turn that ship around. The Fourth Estate has won, at least for now.
Europeans like being slaves.
Germany is an occupied state - a lot of people forget that it is still governed by the statutes of WW2. Its vassalage was never more apparent than when NS2 was blown up. Mainly because Germany has had some outstanding Chancellors.
Schultz govt is a true stain on Germany's rep. But it's
nevertheless sad to see a once great industrial nation brought to it's knees.
Why on earth did Merkel decommission those NP plants???
I hope they are starting them again but I won't hold my breath.
Unfortunately for Germany it needs to crash and burn for it to rediscover itself.
It's amazing to see how the rot that has infected our country mestasizes throughout Europe, Australia. Canada and New Zealand.
Germany was the industrial and fiscal engine of the EU, and it is collapsing rapidly. Literally committing national suicide.
They now have to purchase very expensive LNG from us, and grovel to keep our military bases open for their economy to depend on. Which is an extreme hazard to their national security.
The transparent authoritarian moves made for their government to maintain power are out in the open.
>Given that Russia is winning, VVP & his team have no incentive to *negotiate down* to an unfavorable peace. In truth, VVP has already won. The only question is by how much.
This is completely delusional.
1) Does Russia control most of Ukraine? No. Not even the most sensitive to its own security areas, which are Sumy, Chernigov and Kharkov. As demonstrated by the NATO invasion into Kursk. Worse, there appears to be absolutely no intention to carry out any military operations into those regions any time soon. Massive defeat for Russia as things stand currently
2) Has NATO been pushed back to 1997 borders as very publicly demanded in late 2021? No, it moved in closer. Another huge failure to achieve vital strategic objectives.
3) Has the US removed its forward deployed nukes from Europe, as again very publicly demanded in late 2021? No, it is deploying intermediate range nuclear carriers in Europe very soon, including hypersonic ones. Yet another catastrophic blow for Russian security.
4) Were Russian industry, military objects and civilians subjected to daily barrages of dozens and hundreds of drones before the SMO started? No. Are they now? Yes. Missiles too, and it will only get worse. The security of the country has been totally compromised.
5) Has a single round of ammunition been fired at NATO in return for all the ordinance that NATO has fired at Russia? No. What does that tell us about the relative standing of the two parties in this war?
So where is the win here exactly?
And how delusional does one have to be to say such things?
I’m such a delusionist, cuz France 66 thousand (!) firms broke and no government to be formed in months (?), Germany on its knees economically, the whole EU crumbling and crushing, NATO more than ever begging for gifts and leftovers from daddy Uncle Sam, and Trump….Iran a too big gold mine not to blind his eyes. Happy new year, tsching tsching.
Who cares?
Are NATO drones and missiles hitting Russian civilians, cities, industry and military sites? Yes.
Are Russian drones and missiles hitting NATO civilians, cities, industry and military sites? No. Not a single one.
Then NATO is crushing Russia in the war by definition with the same a lot to zero ratio of fire exchange that it enjoyed in Yugoslavia, Lybia and all the other places it bombed to ruins over the decades.
All it proves really is that NATO is an aggressor attacking Russia, while Russia is not contrary to the mainstream narrative. If you steal from me, but I do not steal from you, it does not mean you are winning and I am losing.
Don't feed the GM troll, he dooms and glooms regularly here, learns nothing, rinses and repeats.
So? Aggressors never win?
Who cares? Every Drone hit is paid for with your tax paying money, so take a deep (state) dive into your pocket, until it’s empty it already is. Yesterday on a French tv a commentator who lived in Russia for decades, saying NATO has finally won on every field, battle field, economically, strategically, politically, geopolitically…and she never looked back into her own backyard France in going down, the president is dragging the whole of NATO & EU to a third (fourth) marketplace, the black markets popping up everywhere.
Another view is that Russia very cleverly built up their military industrial complex and armed forces while bleeding NATO and the Kiev regimes' military in the process.
Russia has had to keep a large portion of their growing military unengaged and deployed in Belarus and to the north to realistically counter the potential of NATO launching additional northern offensives.
With minimal casualties the RF has disarmed the entire west while annihilating the Ukraine proxy.
They enjoy compact interior supply lines and 100% support from the local population. They forced the Ukraine to extend their logistics and fight in areas the locals report troop movements and weapon system placements to target.
The Ukranian military is crumbling and likely will disintegrate entirely, opening the opportunity to rapidly move to the Dnepr, take Kharkov and Kiev without fighting.
I accept I could be wrong, but this view is plausible. We have been obsessed with ordering the Kiev regime in holding every village, as the Wermacht did 80 years ago, resulting in catastrophic losses of their best units.
Arrow offensives are costly and risky. Russian units are now well trained, commanded and seasoned with an industrial base that can keep them well supplied.
Time will tell, my money is that Russia is pulling off a historic victory against all the initial odds against them.
Sorry, but your assessment is completely delusional... Chip
Your point that this war isn’t over is correct, but the real delusion is that the west will win anything if it continues.
Pure speculation on my part, but what has [Trump's] US regime got to lose by casting the European lambs to the Russian wolf? Europe will still buy US energy and weapons, and more of them. Russia will not invade Western Europe and will be detached from Europe, making rapprochement difficult if not impossible. The USA can pivot to China, whilst continuing to cause trouble for Russia at the margins. Russia will remain sanctioned and thus BRICS under pressure. The USA has no vital interests in Ukraine, no matter what the neo-cons might think. The USA has already gained much from this conflict in reality, and Europe is the big loser. Russia is not yet a winner but looks like it might be. There would be a messaging problem here, and Mr T's myriad enemies would try to make hay. The USA does not have boots on the ground (ho ho) so there would be no Kabul like fiasco. Continuing to support Ukraine risks another endless war and even MAD, and would be hugely unpopular in the USA. All of which sounds logical. However if we get into a dick waving competition with the Russians all bets are off and all sorts of unpleasant scenarios can be imagined.
No vital interest? Not Ukraine’s lithium?
@Bernard Cleyet
Lithium isn't a rare element.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thacker_Pass_lithium_mine#:~:text=The%20Thacker%20Pass%20lithium%20mine,of%20Thacker%20Pass%20since%202007.
It is a popular delusion among atl-media that there is some treasure trove of resources undrneat Ukraine/Syra/Gaza/Afghanistan/whatever. This is simply lazy thinking, going back to the First Gulf War.
I worked in Ukraine, and tried to attract interest in getting western companies to exploit some of those resources. Enough to say there waas no interest, the world was and is awash in cheap commodities.
I see BRICS as the only REAL alternative to the Western hegemony. The more Russia hesitates and waits in Ukraine, the more the West can create havoc in the rest of the world to undermine Russia's and China's pivotal roles.
Well said. But I disagree with the implications of this: "Europe naturally has a moral obligation"
The last thing Europe cares about or has ever cared about is moral obligations. They have based their foul union in Belgium, which has perhaps the most evil record of colonialism in Africa, which is saying something given the brutal records of colonialism for the European "great" powers.
Agree with your comments in general. IMO Bidens' cognitive decline was always very obvious, but irrelevant. Our permanent government has been impervious to oversight by Congress, the office of President or the courts since Reagan.
We've had a series of neutered presidents starting with Bush Sr. who are only figureheads. Administrations come and go, but foreign policy is permanent.
Trumps' 1st term illustrated that he was simply ignored and then impeached over meddling in the foul, putrid and corrupt swamp we call our military/state department/intelligence agency complex. The IC calls all the shots. If a President attempts to reign them in they are ignored or will be assassinated.
I think this time it's going to be a little different. The people are pretty much fed up with the deep state and the unelected bureaucrats and we are letting them know it. This time Trump has the electoral vote, the popular vote, the House and the Senate, is winning in the courts, and is staffing with people that will do as he asks regardless of their past positions, or they will be gone in a hurry. Even the MSM is starting to come around as they realize they are losing viewership and the sponsors who pay the bills.
You are all pinning so much hope on this old man.
Trump has the attention span of a gnat - and he is going senile per his ramblings on his campaign.
Trump will do what your Deep State wants because he will be tied up by his own party. Your presidents are to appease the populace. Nothing changes in US foreign policy - no matter red or blue. Also all the oligarchs in the US will be emboldened by Musk. Your govt by billionaires is on the way.
The only way change will come in the US is if you are bombed into submission, and you have to start afresh.
"Trump has the attention span of a gnat " A very memorable turn of phrase, and, sad for the world, accurate.
In today's news, Trump has threatened Panama with war (to seize their canal) if they don't lower their rates. It's like he can't go a single day without threatening somebody.
Nobody care what the people think or want.
Bush Sr. WAS the IC. He was no figurehead. He ran circles around Reagan. The IC cemented their power over the government after 1963. It is likely that Bush Sr. was at least read in on that operation. He was CIA back then. And how convenient his son presided over the vast expansion of state power that was 911. Every president since JFK has been contained by the IC. The extreme reaction to an elected outsider tells the story.
"They have based their foul union in Belgium, which has perhaps the most evil record of colonialism in Africa..."
A thorough, yet depressing account of this barbarity/crime is here (link)
https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/king-leopolds-ghost_adam-hochschild/253217/item/5487257/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=high_vol_frontlist_standard_shopping_customer_acquisition&utm_adgroup=&utm_term=&utm_content=689361939032&gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAiAjp-7BhBZEiwAmh9rBTvkSlL7IQYsatV7tHFgSHgVWwTNNBQvZz03fL-9xXXw4sxUBzmL1xoC3H4QAvD_BwE#idiq=5487257&edition=2239036
Thanks for the tip. I'll hunt it down. A shorter link to the same page is :
https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/king-leopolds-ghost_adam-hochschild/253217/item/5487257/
"Europe naturally has a moral obligation to do all it can to aid Ukraine’s postwar reconstruction..."
Except there won't be anything left to reconstruct. Russia cannot allow Ukraine to exist or they will be facing terrorist attacks on the homeland forever like those we are seeing now... Chip
I agree. Russia will not lose because it cannot lose.
That is unsettlingly an echo of the Western attitude.
"The U.S. is not part of the continent’s ancient quarrels."
If you read Barbara Tuchman's A Distant Mirror, You see that Europeans have NOT learned anything over the centuries. The generational drumbeat of cruelty and stupidity boggles the mind.The thin patina of "civilization" is just cosplay. They are barbarians at heart.
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/180834/a-distant-mirror-by-barbara-w-tuchman/
Do I care?
>At some point Gen. Kellogg plans to sit down w/ Lavrov
Is Kellogg going to tell Lavrov "We will cease all support for the Kiev Nazis and we will also dismantle the Aegis Ashore bases as well as remove all forward deployed nukes from Europe"?
What are the chances of that happening? Precisely zero.
Then what is the point of even having such a meeting? Because those are the absolute minimal conditions for Russian SMO success.
Given that there is precisely zero chances of anything coming out of that meeting, why waste time with it instead of getting on with the business of actually winning the war?
Which, in case nobody has noticed, has kind of stalled again.
August to October good things were happening -- towns in the tens of thousands pre-war population were falling every couple weeks, the rate of territorial advance was clearly accelerating.
But in the last month a half there is a clear slowdown. This despite the AFU supposedly collapsing and being on its last legs.
Russia is barely even attacking seriously -- there is some real action only on the South Donetsk front, there rest if not very active at all. One can't help but start getting uneasy July 2022 vibes. What does that tell us? Two possibilities?
1) Russia actually is starting to run out of resources. Material and/or manpower. More likely the latter. But potentially both. Yet the Kremlin firmly refuses to do a mobilization. Which might be because of:
2) The plan is to freeze the conflict, because in the Kremlin they are that stupid and/or such total comprador traitors that their prime objective is indeed yet another shitty deal and not victory. Despite the lessons regarding the wisdom of maintaining frozen conflicts that should have been learned from Ukraine itself over the last decade, what happened in Karabakh in 2022-2023, and most recently the Syrian fiasco.
I don't know which one is more catastrophic. They could all be true too, of course...
I'm betting the Russians are going easy to wait out the Biden administration. In the meantime, they are training more troops and making more weapons.
I should add that the West is running out of weapons the longer this takes, and the EU is going down the tubes.
If Trump takes away support for Ukraine, it's game over. If Trump keeps supporting Ukraine, Russia will take the gloves off and finish it.
'If Trump takes away support for Ukraine, it's game over. If Trump keeps supporting Ukraine, Russia will take the gloves off and finish it'
Do you guys even realize how brainwashed people are with this way of thinking - essentially the US is the grand Master controlling the outcome, where Russia is reacting. The fact that most people have excepted this shows how deranged this entire shit show of an SMO is. I firmly believe Putin needs to be replaced.
Exactly.
And Russia has been entirely in reactive mode since the beginning of this mess, decades ago. Still haven't learned their lesson apparently...
That's right. The West itself sculpts an idol from Putin. The situation is repeated with Gorbachev, who was completely unpopular in the USSR, but was wildly popular in the West. Roughly the same thing happens with Putin.
What about Putin? Are we talking about Putler, Hitler reincarnate?
>In the meantime, they are training more troops and making more weapons
1. In the meantime, their cities are being bombed constantly.
2. They don't need more weapons to cut off Ukraine from NATO and to fumigate Kiev from the Banderite cockroaches that have infested. They already have what they need for those purposes.
The weather is also a combatant.
Winter generally favors Russia.
which is why it is still advancing along all lines of contact.
The rate of advance has very noticeably slowed down.
The old "General Winter" comes to Russia's aid argument!
The temperature right now (midday Moscow time, 22 December) in Kiev is minus 1 °C, in Donetsk it is now plus 3 ° C, in Kharkov — plus 2 °C, in Kherson — plus 5 °C.
Not exactly "brass monkeys"!
Indeed, no, mud.
And no snow, no freezing to death in trenches at minus 40 °C, as happened to the Wehrmacht in December 1940 in the proximity of Moscow. And at Kursk, 1943, "General Winter" certainly did not help the USSR towards victory. It often gets quite warm in Kursk province in July.
I bet on point 2. There are really a lot of traitor compradors in Russia. The whole environment of Putin, the government, the media consists of them. The patriotic songs they sing today are just a disguise, a tactical move.
“ We will cease all support for the Kiev Nazis and we will also dismantle the Aegis Ashore bases as well as remove all forward deployed nukes from Europe.” Why would that not be in our true interest? Because Russia Russia Russia?
An actual mobilizaation would be incredibly unpopular.
"But in the last month a half there is a clear slowdown. What does that tell us? Two possibilities?"
3) Rasputitsa.
There is no maneuver warfare anyway, why would that be the reason?
Get a paper bag, place over your yapper, plug your nose & breathe slowly & deeply !
Highly speculative, but a fun read nonetheless.
Also, we all eagerly await the 3rd reddit copers brigade counteroffensive led by schweinerchenko himself that will break through to kursk itself. Rumors have it that the 815th gryffindor defense grouping will be supporting the advance
Highly unlikely.
But the matter of why Russian DRGs are on the right bank is a serious question.
There is absolutely no way to supply any substantial force on the other side of the river without one of the major bridges. Not with half of NATO's GMLRS assets being situated in Ukraine -- pontoons are doomed because of that. And the Antonov bridge was blown up by Russia while the Nova Khakhovka dam was blown up by Ukraine/NATO.
The only way to support such a group is to take Zaporozhye city and do it with lightning speed before the Ukronazis blow up the bridges. That is impossible given the current correlation of forces in theater.
So what the hell is the plan here?
I want to believe that there is one, and it is for big things. But that will require some some magician's trick to be pulled...
Agree.
I think they are waiting for you to come up with a plan.
I think I’ll wait on that…
Question: In WWI and WWII a lot of rivers had to be crossed. Bridges were blown up, dams destroyed, and fords mined. To go back in time, the fight for Southeastern Europe, a lot of river crossings had to be done by the Poles, Ottomans, Russians, and Austrians. And the Napoleonic wars! Only at Aspern was a river crossing the problem; even when the troops were in tatters, they could cross the Beresina! The Allied even crossed the Channel and landed on the other side! Do you know of any example where a river crossing in force was a big problem?
Do you know of any example during WWI and WWII of anyone having satellite coverage with resolution in the centimeters, drones flying everywhere, and missiles flying from 120 km with accuracy of 1-2 meters?
Having a TV Camera watching Russians cross the Dnieper, does not of itself, stop the crossing.
Many Germans were well informed about the English Channel Crossing, with the gargantuan build-up impossible to hide. Only the Russian Front stopped Germany from having sufficient resources to prevent it. And, of course, that one know-it-all who was good at talking but not so good at listening.
Perhaps the end of January to mid February, bridges will be formed across the entire Dnieper.
If those can be brought to bare on the target, then it’s a problem. Of course the smart move would be to disable them….
Did you just start following the war yesterday?
In a sense I have been following The Way my whole life…. Oh yeah meant ‘the WAR’…right. Well it’s classic GM, front-load the doom and then make petty insults your bread and butter. How do you block people onto is platform again?
The aliens had all of that, except missiles.😁😁😁
Dieppe
My father tells the story of crossing the Rhine in WW2 in small boats, and they all had tons of gear on, so you fall over that's likely the end of you.
Lots of other stories too, like hungry soldiers hunting small deer with Tommy guns.
It depends on the condition of the river bed in winter with the dam blown up. I think it is a wide, overgrown river bed with a smaller river running through it. I expect a lot of ranger work by Russia to clear the other side and make for a landing site.
Every major river in WWII was crossed with pontoon and Bailey Bridges. While such bridges are not suitable for retail traffic, they are more than functional for armies.
While every bridge design still is a target for destruction, it is far easier for an Industrial Powerhouse like Russia to have a surplus of river crossing options than for a bloated overhead, talking out of their anuses Comic book Clown Show, like DC and NATO, to click up Narratives to explain why the Russian crossing of the Dnieper, is the trigger for Nukes.
"So what the hell is the plan here?"
It's beyond belief that the Russian high command has not sent you a copy of their plan. Putin needs to be told.
How the hell do they expect to win if they're not getting your input to their plans in advance? Bunch of buffoons!!!
GOLD !! RFLMAO .. sad but true.
Thank you interesting article describing 'interesting' times...
What is the deal with reports of DPRK in combat? I've yet to see a telegram video that shows their presence. Is there any substantiation to their active deployment in the SMO?
There's still zero real evidence for Koreans in combat.
I think they are just going to cheer from the sidelines for now... https://www.youtube.com/shorts/nXkC1018L1A
They have provided images of Buryats and Tuvans
The fact that there have been so many fakes raises the question "why provide fakes if legit evidence is available?"
Exactly.
Assuming for a moment the Koreans are fighting, which makes sense to gain current combat experience in real time, what is the big deal? If the RF invited them in to help rid their border land communities from Ukrainian and foreign terrorists, it makes sense, and their business.
But the Wests' propaganda appears to have created this narrative which has no point to it.
If at some point the DPRK deploys troops in what remains of Ukraine, what can the West complain about that? They have sent tens of thousands of active personnel to crew missile systems, aircraft and anti aircraft systems, and their officers command the regime's military.
"North Koreans are fighting ZOMG!" is useful to boost the narrative that Russia is out of troops, that one hard push and the state will collapse.
None of these "successes", such as taking Kurakhovo after three months of bloody battles for it, matters.
The loss ratios don't matter either -- this is Russians killing other Russians (brainwashed as the latter might be), which is a huge success for the West either way.
The very fact this war was allowed to become inevitable is a gigantic strategic failure on the part of the Kremlin.
But it gets much worse after that because now Russian security, both internally and externally is totally destroyed. Terrorist acts on home soil daily, triple digit drones flying everywhere every day, and some hitting things, etc. That is the new reality, with no prospects of it no longer being the daily reality any time soon, if ever.
This is catastrophic.
Even more catastrophic is the Kremlin's refusal to lift a finger to make it stop, even though the Kremlin can indeed make it stop almost literally with just lifting a finger.
There would have been total physical destruction of the enemy's ability to launch such attacks within minutes of them launching the first more significant one in Soviet times. Under Putin? The dear partners are untouchable. Why?
At this point getting the Ukrainian military and political leadership smoked is mandatory even for just internal political reasons. Russian society wants blood. Technically it is a trivial for Russia matter to have those bastards destroyed. But the Kremlin refuses to do it even though now Russian military and political leadership itself is clearly on the menu. Again, why?
Are they so afraid of NATO that they don't dare at all touch Zelensky and his buddies? Or they are so compromised internally by loyalties to oligarch interests that there is a veto by powerful economic faction inside Russia (and you can throw in the whole "special relationship" with Israel into the mix too) on such actions, and the objective here is to make some kind of a shitty deal once again, all in the name of going back to how things were previously, which would be much harder if Zelensky receives his deserved comeuppance?
In any case, Russia has been firmly knocked out of the ranks of the great powers. Because:
>The problem is, recent signals indicate Trump may infact be regressing into the same old warhawk model as reports came today that Trump intends to continue arming Ukraine come late January.
This is one of the most ridiculous aspects of the whole situation. If Russia was a true great power, it would not matter at all what Trump was planning on doing. Russia would be out for victory, because what we have here is a NATO/Nazi invasion and occupation of core historic Russian territory, just as in WWII (most of Ukraine is core historic Russian territory) and it would not be planning its future around what the orange conman would do after January 20th, because it would be irrelevant with respect to what the objectives are here.
But that is exactly what the plan seems to be here -- try to make a deal with Trump. Which will be a strategic defeat. Because anything but going all the way to Western Ukraine would be a gigantic strategic defeat.
And even that might not be enough, because it will come at a great cost, and will not restore deterrence. Only the physical destruction of major NATO assets with the use of extreme force and in such a way that NATO is forced to stand down and not respond will restore deterrence. That is clearly not in the cards at the moment with this Russian leadership. And that is not for lack of military-technical capability. At least based on what we know publicly...
I fear you are correct in that there does not appear to be a peace proposal here that would satidfy Russia's minimum concerns, so either they have to secure a military victory or accept a strategic defeat. Unless the USA can dress up an abandonment of Kiev in terms of some sort of way that satisfies its constituents....
So, what is Russia waiting for?
The complete embarrassment of the Atlanticists ?
To stop laughing ?
"Unless the USA can dress up an abandonment of Kiev in terms of some sort of way that satisfies its constituents"...
Hey, the US walked away from a Twenty Year War in Afghanistan, where thousands of AMERICANS died and trillions in resources were pissed away... and overnight, it was forgotten down the memory hole and the US was on to the next Forever War in Ukraine without missing a beat.
There are situations in life where you lose either way.
This is one such.
The Kremlin is being cautious because there are ratios of "losing".
Unlike the Demonhawks, Trump WON'T go to nuclear war as a desired outcome. That gives four more years for things to change.
They probably won't, but we'll all be four years older. Except the victims of America's wars, and its proxies. Like Gazans.
Nothing is 100%, but he largely lacks that mythic myopia that leads people into symbolic 'victories' that are in reality catastrophes in the Real World.
He's far too selfish, too transactional.
Who would have thought those could be positives in a Leader, lmao.
He could be bum-rushed into stupidity - as he almost was with war with Iran in term1, and the unbelievable assassination of Soleimani. One could hope that he has learned, sadly so has the deep state in how to manipulate him, what are his levers.
It's not just the Russians who will have a dedicated team working on his personality.
But at the end of all of his days, what matters to Trump is "What's in it for ME!?!". And huddled in a nuclear bunker simply will not appeal to him - fortunately.
The Killary positively salivates at the thought.
And Harris was just a cypher for that rotten POS.
Lol, I suppose its an argument as to whether positives are absolute or relative.
If the only realistic other choice is secular religious mass-suicidal lunatics, then they can be seen as positives.
I suppose similar to have hard-right Imperialist Demonrats get called "Left" because they are supposedly to the left of the Repugs.
May I suggest that Trump, like so many of us, knew there was a Deep State, but the breadth and depth of it requires some serious blowtorching.
The objective right now is to keep Trump and the World alive for the next 27 days.
There are 6 U.S. Senators on the pillow list.
Trump is not going to touch the real Deep State. At most, he'll discomfit some of the functionaries of it, the Intel Services, the bureaucracies, the 'civilian' three letter agencies like the CFR etc. The TRUE Deep State is the financial services, the banksters, the banking clans.
Those will be far beyond Trump's reach, even if he was so minded - which he definitely won't be.
I'm sure there will be some performative huffing and puffing, and Vivek and Musk will fanfare the closure of some essential services for normal people as a "Black eye for the Deep State bureaucracy".
The DNC-Empire faction may well try to assassinate Trump, but it's not because of a threat to the 'deep state', but their own careers and lives out of jail for the very real crimes they have committed; and their favourite money-laundering scams like Ukraine.
Granted I, along with millions of others, will breathe a sigh of relief when he takes over, as I did back in 2016 too - if anything an even more dangerous period. Not that I have anything in common politically with Trump.
He's just less suicidally insane than the DemonHawks.
Small mercies.
Well written, but not entirely accurate. The TRUE Deep State is NOT the financial services, the banksters, the banking clans. They are rentiers &/or creditors - they have ascended to the modern heights for various reasons. Capital given basic civil rights/equal protection under law via much case-law based upon the 14th Amendment of 1868 being one.
There are some aspects of the Deep Shit that are actually institutionalized, for instance a non-appointable, non-fireable layer of top management insulating the federal institutions from whoever is appointed to the top. Read the following and wonder, "how come I never even heard of this?"
https://www.malone.news/p/never-underestimate-the-power-of
"His decision-making "process" is unfathomable."
Start with the fact that self-preservation is high on his list and Trump has an extended family.
Also, aside from the ploy of hiring some Neo-Cons for window dressing, Trump has some very serious stars on his team.
Therein lies the hope/likelihood of peace.
Interesting the Kellogg (dressed up as a War Monger) commented that killing Russian Generals at home and not on the battlefield, was a mistake.
Oh, and has anyone seen Gorka since his fat mouth barked out undiplomatic descriptions of Putin? Perhaps he is now in his new office- the one without doors.
How about you be specific about his terrible "hiring choices" in his CURRENT nominees. Tell us what's so terrible about RFK, Jr, Tulsi Gabbard, Pam Bondi (for AG), Kash Patel (for FBI), Pete Hegseth (for Defense) who has pointed out that US CBGs can now be easily destroyed by Russian and Chinese hypersonic missiles and who is totally opposed to wokery in the military, Ratcliffe (for CIA). I agree Rubio (for State) is not great, but will be under Trump's thumb.
And Musk and Vivek, outside formal government and thus not subject to any confirmation process, are force-multipliers in pursuing Trump policies and constraining the deep state. In the last few days, before Trump is in office, using the power of X, they were able to block legislation loaded with provisions which, if passed into law, would have actually blocked a lot of Trump's agenda from being enacted.
Pam Bondi wants to shred the First Amendment for anyone criticising the Nazi state of Israhell - she'd literally want to lock me up for what I just wrote there. That's a problem.
Musk will shred the remains of the social safety net for Americans while greatly lining his own pockets further, and supporting technological dictatorship moves such as robot police and Public control. And mass surveillance for "Non-conformity".
It's relative. The people Trump COULD have chosen - Col McGregor; Judge Nap; Professor Wolff for OTOH examples, would have been immeasurably better in every way. On the other hand, he could also have chosen much WORSE in many ways.
We'll just have to see how it all turns out, once his picks hit the entrenched bureaucracy.
his decision-making "process".... went from MAGA to MIGA.
Not exactly. Due to AIPAC, MIGA is standard for all US politicians.
Certainly Trump supports it but he is actually more committed to MAGA -- look up his comments on this in an '80s interview with Oprah.
None of us can be sure how he will respond when seriously confronted by the threat that MIGA policies pose to MAGA ones.
Trump has made threats against Iran (which are MIGA policies). Will he follow through? That's unknown but remember how he dissed and threatened "Rocket Man" -- and then went and established a rapproachment with Kim Jong Un, which was overturned by FJB.
What Trump says publicly about others is often part of manipulating the "field of play" to achieve a beneficial outcome.
"Due to AIPAC, MIGA is standard for all US politicians" < while this explains much, 1) it doesn't make it right; 2) it's not public knowledge but more of the nudge,nudge, wink, wink variety.
"all" politicians? (Gaetz).
Gaetz was pressured into stepping down by kompromat; and while the kind of kompromat employed---threat of disclosing evidence of pedophilia---is the favorite trick of the Cabal (remember Epstein, who didn't kill himself?), that doesn't excuse Gaetz. The fact that he caved in immediately is not proof of wrongdoing, but certainly strong circumstantial evidence.
We're all going to die at some point anyway. What matters is that we don't ALL die simultaneously.
The likelyhood is growing that we all die simultaneously. The other alternative is a huge decline in living standards in many parts of the world. Total chaos.
Keep on wondering what the other countries China, Iran and Nord Korea are doing. They should not that they are next on the table, when there is a next, but they will likely suffer a decline too?
Only really in the 'West", the G7. The rest of the World is already at a catastrophically low level, ANY investment that isn't just a privatisation scam will improve them.
The countries that rely on the cheap primary imports; and the exported profits from said privatised industries, will likely suffer greatly.
Unless they adapt, and learn the treat the global south as equals.
I'm not holding my breath on that either. They don't even regard their own Western populations as equals.
But I agree the Western nuclear nations, primarily US and Israhell, are likely to launch and end the "misery".
Sorry, but this is incorrect.
Living standards in BRICS countries are rising while declining in much of the West.
Virtually all Western countries are being demolished and impoverished by the unassimilable diversity they have allowed to flood into those countries, increasing crime and destroying living standards for the nationals in those countries. That is not happening to China, Russia, India, North Korea or most of the "global South".
It is inflicted on Western countries by globalists in those countries.
Sorry, but this is half-incorrect.
Dropping Western SoL has extremely little to do with migration, and a fuckton to do with "elite" greed, soaking up all the produced wealth for themselves, and deliberately impoverishing the population - no matter where they were born.
"Austerity" is a political choice, not imposed by migration.
https://thepolemicist.substack.com/p/youtube-banned-talk-with-garland
Yes, to an extent, but it goes deeper than that---immigration has little economic impact, and is mainly intended to demolish social morals and cohesion. Read
https://gaiusbaltar.substack.com/p/what-is-wrong-with-the-western-political
aka zugzwang. As for Trump, I expect he'll cuck out on foreign policy, as part of his compromise with the Regime, but at least he'll make positive changes on the domestic front.
Did he "cuck out" on North Korea in his first term while the deep state had much of America believing he was a Russian asset, when most of his cabinet were aligned with the deep state and he was opposed by Republican leaders in both houses of Congress, and he was under continual fraudulent investigation?
He did fire a couple of token missiles into Syria to limit the criticism of his "patriotism" by the deep state and lyin' media but refused to start any new wars.
He was POLITICALLY in a very weak position throughout the whole of his first term yet still didn't start the wars the establishment wanted. He is now in a far stronger position POLITICALLY than probably any president since Reagan.
Even during the campaign, he did not alter his policy position after being shot in an assassination attempt (and having a 2nd thwarted attempt). Expect him to pursue his policies independent of the wishes of the corrupt deep state, which has waged lawfare on him for the past 4 years and probably had a hand in the assassination attempts.
You make interesting points! Still, he doesn't seem willing to pull the plug on the Ukraine, and with his pillar of Evangelical support, he'll have to shill for Zionism. But, we'll see what happens.
He dam sure cucked out on the border wall.
J6
Yes, Trump did cuck out on North Korea. He had a good idea, but howls of "Putin puppet!" made sure that nothing concrete came of it.
Trump is weak, stupid and easily manipulated.
Well written and something I have advocated for months. Those small gains in Donbass dont win any War. Those lists with killed is just wishful thinking that statistics spells the Winner.
It was remarkable to hear Putin say that Crimeaa operation and the ”SMO” was spontaneous actions rather than 5D-chess and with hindsight they should have done it earlier and planned more….
"Those small gains in Donbass dont win any War. "
Strange, I could have sworn Russia was winning this war, that NATO was exhausting its resources and Russia was using this time to exponentially expand its vast war machine in preparation for the future war with NATO.
But I could be wrong.
By critical reading of different articles and narratives you can trace the ”mood” from the Bachmut victory (where West described it as a Russian graveyard), through the Avdeevka&Vuledar (where pro-russians cheered prematurely for the Victory). One can talk oneself into bubbles of defeat or victory but reality could be something else.
What matters for a Victory is breaking the will to fight or simply erase the enemy. Russia is heading for the first and plan B is the latter.
To break the will you have to create a mood of chaos and defeat.
That has not happened in the West so they will continue.
I suggest the the Will to fight is concentrated around the Zelensky Banderites. Crush them and you spare a lot of ukrainian&russian lives.
What you write is propably true but if that narrative is not settled in the minds of western leaders and cheepish citizens they will follow their own narrative. And War continues. The longer the War the higher the risk of disgruntled Russians.
Banderites tend to fight to the death - they are fanatics - and have proven so all during this war.
Russians know what is going on. They know the stakes. They know this is existential. They will hang in with their military leaders to the end.
Yes. The only existential threats are those from US/NATO. Russia is no threat to the others. And if they (we) in the West keep crying wolf over Russia we soon will be facing the Big Bear clawing its way through our cities.
It beats me how Ukraine is managing to instill so much hate and stamina in those 40-50 years old soldiers that they smile with legs blown of instead of shooting their commander in the back.
"the Big Bear clawing its way through our cities"
Not practical. Unlike the Movie/Colorado, the only visitors to the U.S. Mainland will be flying at Mach X with U.S. Warmonger Killing payloads.
After that it will be up to the surviving Americans to seek out the inhabitants (who survived) in their bunkers, deprive them of air and food.
Odd...that..."Banderites tend to fight to the death."
Until they get their bowels blown out.
Then they cut and run. Just like everyone else.
If Ukrainians are such fanatics, why is it necesary to press-gange them into the army?
The Russians--as opposed to the Soviets--are in this bind because they began to believe the West's bullshit. They actually trusted them. They believed all the happy talk about cooperation, freedom, democracy and markets. Hey, let's all listen to cool rock n roll, eat hamburgers and be buddies!--even as NATO expanded and the Balkan intervention blinked bright red. Hard core commies understood the nature of their enemy--which is why the core of resistance to The Empire is still communist. Seems like only the theocrats in Iran and Yemen and the commies in China and DPRK understand how fundamentally criminal the Bankers and Big Business are.
The excuse that they trusted the West does not pass muster at this point. It might have with respect to the 1980s to 2010s period, though in reality not even then -- what are the SVR and GRU for?
But now it is late 2024, almost 2025. Putin, Lavrov, Zaharova, etc. are whining about how the West cannot be trusted, is "agreement incapable", "always deceives us", etc. pretty much on daily basis.
Get on with the business of winning the war then. Starting with the obvious war winning moves you are still refusing to make even though you are one of only two or three countries in the world with the actual military-technical capacity to carry out. The list is well-known -- decapitation strikes on leadership, disabling logistics, shutting down the grid, etc.
It's how they got into this mess, not how they get out of it.
You're right. Because of these complaints, Zakharov, Lavrov, Nebenzya are completely unpopular in Russia. Together with them, Putin is losing his popularity.
In addition, Putin does not understand the economy at all, and Russia is gradually entering an economic crisis. The ruble is falling, YouTube is blocked, idiotic propaganda is growing. This is a sure recipe for losing power.
Woe is us! O woe is us!! We are all gonna die! And it's all Putin's fault!
They send armies of these clowns all over the internets….hat do they really think it’s going to accomplish? I suppose it’s just a well established pattern with little imagination and no alternative….
You wouldn't know sarcasm if it shat on your head as it whoooshed over it.
So you think utube is a good metric of a successful society? Did your mom have any kids that aren't retarded?
You are both wrong. "...completely unpopular..." / "...does not understand the economy at all..." / "...entering an economic crisis..."' Are YOU Chicken-Little with your falling sky ? Is your hair-on-fire also ? Maybe a weee bit less hyperbole will help, or does your NGO demand that level ?
& if that was sarcasm, it was a touch too subtle for my blockhead.
The "whining" is a PR game (a tactic you are free to disagree with) for both internal & external consumption.
Which leads to the question, how to negotiate? The West will always use every loophole to do bad things. This Western Elite will always pose as the moral superpower, but doing the worst things thinkable. They have broken every promise and contract, and there is no sign that this time they will act differently. The Russians want to be the good ones, to be accepted as partners by the Non-Western countries, but by doing so, they cannot answer terror with terror or war crimes with war crimes. And at the end, not having a peace treaty means going all the way to Galicia, for sure Putin's nightmare.
Hence the oft used term "agreement incapable" - guess by whom.
Russia's strategy/circumstances aside, may I suggest an alternative theory.
Reagon, innumerate, but a true believer, forced the American Economy into a Debt load known only to World War conditions.
Yet, the U.S. economy did not die. Transplanting U.S. production to Mexico and China, whilst printing U.S. dollars/manufacturing Debt, created the illusion of prosperity. And Some prospered immensely from the skimming and churning conditions. There is not Wealth/Income base anymore, only inflating "assets" and most of those "assets' are paper. The U.S. stock market rests solely on the U.S. Central Bank money counterfeiting.
Now, Russian (and China) have industrial economies, have the tools and the Real Wealth foundations.
The U.S. has destroyed Price Discovery. This shows up in Government Budgets/Spending. Anecdotal, perhaps a bit random, but I bought a 2 pole toggle switch and some capacitors for a project. Small, somewhat insignificant things. But the switch cost $20 (Retail) and the capacitors were $3/each (wholesale). Up 5 times pre Covid prices. Oh...and all Chinese.
Thanks for much in that 1 post !
The West used 'diplomacy' to achieve a cease fire in Iraq so they could turn their energies toward Lebanon and Gaza. The West used 'diplomacy' to negotiate a cease fire in Lebanon so that they could turn their attention to the destruction of Syria. The West used agents -, the Suni alliance - to draw Syria away from Russia and Iran only to turn and destroy it.
If I can see it, Lavrov could see it before it happened. USA is agreement incapable. The USA sees 'diplomacy' and agreements as ways to betray and destroy.
Boy would I like to be a fly on the wall when Trump and Putin call or meet.
Soviet union under Gorbhachev did believe
PRC is trying for peace just like USSR tried.
The biz of the PRC is biz, like Prez Cal Coolidge said in 1925 !
"If Russia was a true great power, it would not matter at all what Trump was planning on doing."
"But that is exactly what the plan seems to be here -- try to make a deal with Trump."
It doesn't matter to the Russians. They will meet their objectives whatever Trump or any other Western power tries. Naturally, they hope for a quicker end to those objectives, which, they hope, Trump can offer. But if he doesn't, then Russia will continue to maul Ukraine forever if that is what it takes.
"At least based on what we know publicly..."
The only provably factual statement you have made. Well done!
I couldn't put it better myself. Putin and the oligarchs he represents are divorced from the suffering of the ordinary people. The AFU keeps firing western missiles into Russia and the response is underwhelming.
If the West had attacked the USSR in such a way there would have been a massive response.
If you look at the history of Putins tenure as president at every turn he has sought compromise with American imperialism which has been and is still seen as weakness.
Perceived weakness encourages more western aggression. The 1933 to 1939 period when the UK and France appeased Hitler as well as Stalin with the Nazi Soviet pact all have Hitler the message that his aggression was paying off and encouraged his plans to conquer Europe.
Trump believes he win at the negotiating table what the US has failed to achieve on the battlefield.
As I've said before he may copy nixons tactics in 1973 when he tried to win a diplomatic victory to make up for American defeat on the ground. Thankfully, despite a massive escalation of bombing of north Vietnam nixons tactics failed. Hanoi stood its ground despite the huge cost of civilian deaths.
If Putin caputulates to Trumps tactics then it will bring closer the prospect of an all out war between the two.
Only by decisively standing up to American imperialism by totally destroying the AFU and the Kiev regime can Russia secure it's future.
The UK didn't appease Hitler, they instigated him, with the goal of having him and the communists destroy each other.
Stalin was the one appeasing him, trying to first make him see they have common interests (in the mid-1930s) and then, failing to secure an alliance against him in 1939, trying to buy time to fully prepare for war.
The British, and especially the Americans got what they wanted, the real failure of "appeasement" was Stalin's policy. Although he didn't really have much choice - they needed another year to get fully ready. They weren't given that year for reasons beyond their control.
You are NEVER given the time to get fully ready. Not ever. That's just the way the world works.
"Are they so afraid of NATO that they don't dare at all touch Zelensky and his buddies?" It has been suggested repeatedly, here and elsewhere, that the Russians have assets in the leading circles of Ukraine. That would explain why they don't bomb them.
???
It doesn't explain it at all.
Zelensky has been in FPV drone and artillery range many times, Russian soldiers had the red dot on him and were begging for permission to pull the trigger, but were under strict orders not to touch him.
Killing a grossly incompetent (and in this case grossly corrupt) leader is not a good move. As Napoleon remarked, "Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake". Zelensky is just one continuous mistake. Get rid of him, and you would certainly get someone much more dangerous and troublesome.
Indeed, taking out Zelensky wouldn't change anything. After all, he is only the governor of the great (vassal) state of Ukraine.
You mean killing this little grifter won’t help?
I think so. Because he will simply be replaced by another one. This whole tragedy doesn't turn around Zelensky. And, at the end of the day, it is the Americans who are in charge in Ukraine.
Whose red-dot isn't he constantly in ?
"The very fact this war was allowed to become inevitable is a gigantic strategic failure on the part of the Kremlin".
I completely agree. But that failure occurred in the 1990s, before the era of Mr Putin. Indeed, the greatest mistake of all was allowing Ukraine to secede. Would the USA permit New Jersey or Iowa to secede?
The USSR self-dissolved in 1991, that is correct.
But when Putin took power in late 1999 Ukraine was not a hostile country. Yes, the seeds were sown -- the Banderite cockroaches that Stalin did not squash and Khruschev then allowed to return from the GULAG were crawling out of their holes and crevices and returning from Canada, Germany and the US, that is also correct -- but they were still marginal.
It was the Orange revolution, the Maidan, and the failure on the Kremlin part to act decisively in either care that really turned the country, and all of this happened under Putin's watch.
In the first place, the Washington coup in Kiev began in 1991. That was the only time when it could have been prevented. Secondly, until 2020 Russia was simply not strong enough to suppress the Kiev regime and reverse the coup militarily.
1991 was not a Washington coup.
That was local Soviet elites deciding that they can loot more efficiently without central supervision from Moscow and dissolving the union to get away from it.
Only then does Washington take advantage of the situation, and it still took quite a while.
The situation was eminently salvageable in the early 2000s with some skillful and decisive action, but Putin was busy sucking up to the West instead of taking such action. In fact, he didn’t take any action at all — to this day you will hear pro-Russian people in Ukraine bitterly complaining about how Moscow completely abandoned them and didn’t make any effort at all to exercise soft power, even those people on the ground demanded it. Even after 2014…
The Old Soviet Guard let the country atrophy. Perhaps a "better deal" over Ukraine was possible. Or not.
But it was Outsiders who stole Russia's industries and financed the Oligarchs. Putin kept his cards close, tried the "friend to Europe" card and was slapped enthusiastically by the European Pansies.
Yes it was extremely hostile Mr moron.
Generalissimo Moron to you !
Most people ignorant of reality also believe such nonsense
The West literally wants WWIII - Martin Armstrong plus the Wolfowitz Doctrine and the Financial Collapse of the West. We are being held hostage by our own government. Putin does what people want him to do, strike back at the head of the snake, and we are in false flag nuclear war as everyone goes nuclear if Russia and NATO go at it. Martin thinks that is where we are going. You are being held hostage to WWIII by your masters. It isn't Russia's fault. An early nuke by Russia would have caused a nuclear war. They think it is survivable, by them.
"They think it is survivable, by them"
Are you familiar with the idea of underground gas storage/sequestration? A deep hole is drilled, and gas is pumped into the rock at high pressure, using dedicated compressors of several megawatts power. The gas fills cracks and porosities, and can even expand cracks, much like fracking but using gas, and not liquid.
I believe that using such equipment to pump CO2 into the vicinity of deep survival bunkers would render them unlivable. They can filter toxic or radioactive contaminants from ventilation air, but not tons upon tons of carbon dioxide, and besides the CO2 would be percolating into the structure through tiny cracks in all its walls, not through ventilation ducts. Under 300 bars of pressure or more. No bunker can be made airtight enough to withstand that.
Cool ! Glad I didn't build a deep survival bunker for myself & kitty.
Cool ! Glad I didn't build a deep survival bunker for myself & kitty.
Such rhetoric. Catastrophic?
The U.S. has 10 to 30 MILLION Foreigners infiltrated into the US mainland, nearly all on American Welfare, NONE loyal to the U.S., an economy of Financialization, churning and flipping, producing AI, porn, Government Lethargy, Narratives, conflict and bravado.
Russia has withstood a hell of a lot more than this Clown Show of Ukrainians and NATO throwing spitballs against the Castle doors. Self-sufficient, so the Ruble can fall to any number, since the use of the U.S. dollar and Euro are nearly infinitesimally small. Naturally London and New York shorting the Ruble every day might have something to do with the "market".
The Catastrophe will come for Europe and the U.S. if the decision is to continue propping up the Dead Meat running Ukraine.
I begin to think you are just here to doom
The Russians may believe that the AFU is about to go the way Assad's Syrian Army... and furthermore, steadily increasing pressure on all fronts will force the Ukies to crack, and crack soon, without a dramatic take-down of Ukrainian war fighting capacity. Large gestures, the Russian believe, such as crashing the power grid and launching decapitation strikes, might allow Western populations to support a NATO war.
Such concerns don't seem realistic. I, for one, believe the Russians run an even greater risk in allowing the Zelensky regime to hang around and not rapidly finish them off.
As for the Americans: John Mearshimer nailed it in a recent comment that "No American President could ever accept Russia's" military demands. Which is why Trump would be smart to keep a low profile, then cut Kiev loose, shrug shoulders and move on to the next Forever War fiaasco Drump is intent on waging.
Well USA policy has successfully detatched Europe from Russia, both politically (for at least a generation) and economically. Trump says that Europe has to buy US energy or face tariffs, which they will, as they few other realistic options to fill the hole that was provided by Russia and need to keep exporting to the USA.
On the war I wondered if Trump was simply blustering or actually playing a good game here. Bearing in mind he has actually personally said very little - though this is not what you may think. He has said Europe needs to spend 5% of gdp on defence, 3.5% straightaway - ie c double current spend. This won't happen and is a precondition for continuing US support for Ukraine. We understand that Z has said he won't negotiate except on terms based on his ludicrous peace plan. He needs to negotiate on Trump's terms, whatever they may be. So Mr T has set both Europe and Ukraine up to be abandoned. Russia has simply said it is prepared to talk, but only to a legitimate power. I cannot follow whether it has set any preconditions but I think not simply to open a dialogue.
The best plan for Mr T is to walk away from this tar baby as soon as possible. There are worrying signals that he won't, and that he may have formed the view that he can coerce Russia to accept some sort of de facto defeat, pulled from the jaws of its victory. Well, we live in interesting times.
"In that DJT has had literally no decision-making input @ any point during the past 3 years, or the solid year that stood as a preamble/warm-up to the conflict, there’s little ‘up’ side for his wading in energetically now."
Really? His administration has pumped money and weapons into Ukraine all of his time in office from 2016-2020 but that was "Joes craziness" also?
Russia knows that we are here in Europe refuse to go to war with Russia, our economic perspective is more than bad and Russia also knows that the West-leadership wants to give it the Balkan-treatment, break it up and own the parts.
The western way of thinking here in the comments in no surprise for me but the eastern way of thinking is fundamental different.
I can destroy you simply because I can but what future is there for me after that?
How will others look at me and deal with me after seeing what I have done?
The populations in the west won't go away and they can't free themself from their historical heritage, so they will go on produce people like Joe Biden and D. Trump.
This is a fundamental thing, a thing for the long run, not to win the war in Ukraine that will bring not much but costs and suffering even after the war, because the war is not over after a "peaceagreement', like WWII has never stopped really.
This will end only after the security-architecture in Europe has changed profoundly and the USA is out of Europe so Europe can be enabled to see that it is nothing without the cooperation with the rest of the eurasian continent.
The USA has to go home and and become a Nation amongst the Nations and not the self declared Number 1.
Completely correct. Unfortunately for both Europe and the US, this way of thinking will only change when change has been forced on the US.
Waiting for the US to collapse economically is not going to happen - not while the printing press is going strong.
War HAS to come to American soil.
This is the ONLY way to change the perception of Americans.
The country to do so will be Russia. There literally is no one else. For the record - China will never fight the US. It has far too much to lose.
Xi realises that the whole world will lose if China fights the US.
The US can't keep printing dollars to shore up it's economy. It will collapse because it's built on war, has no reinvestment as is sanctioning itself into oblivion. War is not necessary. Perception will be changed by another depression.
The decision-makers in the US are all narcissists. They will not back down, and when things come to that juncture, will choose armageddon for everyone rather than quiet retirement for the Empire. They are irrational enough to believe they (the elites) will somehow survive, but even if they know they won't, they are still likely to choose the nuclear option. These people are literal crazies.
https://gaiusbaltar.substack.com/p/what-is-wrong-with-the-western-political
No one in power is at all scared about nukes, just like they weren't at all scared about 'sars 2'. I don't think the nuclear option exists as billed. However, this doesn't mean we're going to avoid Armageddon due to these narcissists and crazies. The climate crisis that fossil fuels and animal ag spend billions on pretending isn't happening, paying lipservice to or simply adding 'greener' energy to is hurtling towards in the next few decades. Again, they irrationally think that and their offspring will survive it. https://jowaller.substack.com/p/just-like-scary-contagions-and-911?utm_source=publication-search
Yep, if only the US would do this. I don't think it will.
Remember too the Trump took CREDIT for destroying Nordstream… so, massive funding for buildup of troops in Ukraine under Trump, and admitting the U.S. was stealing Syrian oil (bragging about it really), and taking credit for destroying Germany’s chance to remain relevant industrial nation… don’t look to Trump for solid “peace”….
Now you're just making up stupid shit.
Nobody will ask europeans what they think or want.
>Well USA policy has successfully detatched Europe from Russia
Which is a good thing for Russia -- this was a one-sided relationship. Russia was sending raw resources to Europe and receiving finished goods in the other direction, which suppressed its internal production capacity and technological development, even though it is unique in the world in having the material and intellectual capacity to be self sufficient in pretty much everything.
If Russia was run by true patriots and not by comprador traitors, all resource exports would have been gradually halted while investing in internal R&D and industrial build up to achieve that self-sufficiency.
Instead, the main objective of the Russian government appears to be to find a way to return things back to where they were, and to sell off Russia's precious non-renewable resources as fast as possible. This is high treason.
And it is also a big factor kneecapping the war effort. Ukraine can be physically isolated basically in half an hour, and then finished off at Russia's leisure, but that means you need to wipe out Poland and Romania (and probably others too), and it also means Europe will be permanently separated from Russia by a lot more than American dictate. Which is a no-brainer once you understand what I outlined above -- Russia loses big time from that relationship, so this would not be a loss in any way. Except that it would be a loss for Russia's ruling oligarchy, who decide what happens, and they don't decide while defending Russia's interests, but their own narrow selfish ones...
"Russia ... unique in the world"
No, it isn't. The USA also has the material and intellectual capacity to be self-sufficient in pretty much everything.
Bollocks.
Only if it curtails consumption significantly.
350M people living current middle class existence in suburbia cannot be supported from that territory. And it isn't being supported from it -- the US uses 25% of the world's resources with 4% of the population. In reality it is even more -- that is the direct resource consumption, but does not account for what is embodied in the finished goods the US gets from China and the rest of the "Global South" basically for free, in exchange for meaningless IOUs.
Tear up suburbia, move people into apartment blocks, take away most of their cars, build up public transportation and a proper rail network, and you might be able to live within your means for another 50 years. But good luck with that.
The current arrangement? Absolutely no way.
You with the Davos crowd? Because that solution reads like Agenda 2030, with 15-minute cities and other such "you will own nothing and you will be happy" solutions. Take away their cars, indeed. And their homes, don't forget that.
No, I am not with the Davos crowd.
Yes, the world is drastically overpopulated and and is on civilizatonal collapse course.
Those are not mutually exclusive things
The world is absolutely NOT overpopulated. This is a fallacy, and also a davos talking point. You have ZERO proof that the world is overpopulated...
At the population density of the Netherlands (a net food *exporter*), the world could support 100 Billion humans, but will peak at perhaps 10% of that. Overpopulation is up there with climate change emergency as totally made up crap.
We know you post endless bullshit, please stick to your Ukraine dumb shit wheelhouse, no need to diversify...
Try to repair shoes in America by an American. Will cost you three times more than buying a new pair of shoes from Walmart.
Did you forget our brilliant CEOs sent all our best ideas overseas? So now the world’s manufacturing floors are no longer in the U.S.
Look at the problems Boeing is having. Is it just DEI workers? Or another form of societal rot?
Soooo much of what we consume cannot be made in America anymore… or if it is; will be at enormous cost.
If every purchase needed to be made in America from American production — you’d have catastrophic inflation…
It takes a certain level of IQ to run a techno/industrial civilization. Anybody know of a site where you can get on when clean safe water disappears? Oh wait, that was Flint. Speaking of IQ . . .
Bet on.
Sorry
If US gets sanctioned the way Russia is, it will collapse. It cannot exist without the outside world to prop it up, not unless significant standard of living adjustments are made.
It lacks the industrial capacity to be self sufficient.
Guys, he is being sarcastic. The "intellectual capacity" is a dead giveaway.
GM, I appreciate your commentary. It seems that by your estimation Russia is owned/ operated by entities that don't have the well being of the Russian people and nation at heart. I view the owners/operators of the U.S. in a similar way. But I wouldn't call them traitors, since I don't know that they ever had any allegiance with or even affinity for the U.S. or its citizens. I would simply describe them as enemies of humanity in general, and God specifically. As such, they always seek to entrap, enslave, exploit, defraud and murder whoever is within their sphere at any given point in history. These are the puppeteers that stage manage the national humiliation ritual that comprises federal politics and that administrate the innumerable vile organs of bureaucracy here in the U.S.
I'm curious though. I know who the owners/operators of the U.S. are. But who are the owners/operators of Russia? Are they of Russian heritage? Slavic even? Oligarchs of course. But being an oligarch doesn't necessarily preclude patriotism or nationalistic sentiment. Can you elaborate?
>I'm curious though. I know who the owners/operators of the U.S. are. But who are the owners/operators of Russia?
That is the big problem -- most Russian oligarchs are Zionist Jews. So the same people that are in charge in the US.
Now is it any wonder that they prefer to slaughter millions of Slavs than to strike directly at the enemy, when the "enemy" is actually an in-group for them and the Slavs are an out-group?
This war could have been immediately over with a few tactical nukes at the border crossings with Poland back in May-June 2022 saving countless lives on both sides (most Ukrainians are ethnic Russians, that must always be remembered; especially in the trenches -- the Banderites tend to stay away from real danger). And that is still available as a solution, but instead you see where things are going.
This all works on at least two levels -- class and ethnicity.
First, let's look at class -- the oligarchy is international, and has more affinity for each other than for the lower classes. Never mind that the Western oligarchy has clearly stated its intention is to destroy Russia and everything Russian. The Russian oligarchy does not see itself as Russian in the first place, so that does not apply to them in their minds.
Because indeed, which is the second part, most of the time they are not Russian. Most of them are Jewish, and openly Zionist too.
Now think about what happens when nukes fly at Poland and Romania. Does the US launch a strategic nuclear strike at Russia in retaliation? Of course not, nobody in DC is willing to die for Warsaw and Bucharest. And if they are crazy enough to do it, then they would have guaranteed done it as a first strike sooner or later regardless, so it was unavoidable anyway. But what will then happen is that NATO will automatically dissolve once the pretense of Article 5 that holds it together is exposed for the fiction that it is. Because who will want to be next in line to receive some Russian goodies measured in kilotons and megatons by continuing to be the US's forward deployment base for attacks on Russia in return for getting no protection? Remember, this is not Germany and Hungary in 1944-45, when Hungary was right next door and could be directly occupied once it was no longer a reliable ally, the US can't really hold onto Europe by force, it is logistically quite hard.
But here is the problem -- NATO is Israel's rear. Without that Israel would have likely ceased to exist in the last 15 months. Maybe NATO countries will continue to function as such once there is no more NATO regardless, but maybe not.
And if the people really in charge in Moscow are loyal to Israel first, then what are we talking about...
Also, there is another level -- internal Russian security. Keep in mind that it is the same merged blob of people in charge in Tel Aviv and DC right now, and those in DC are on the warpath against Russia, while you saw what happened to Hezbollah with the pagers and to the previous Iranian president and FM. Now think about how deep Mossad must have penetrated inside Russia given what I said above, and how compromised Russian internal security at the highest level likely is because of that. So I imagine there is real fear and paralysis even among the truly patriotic circles there who would like to fight seriously...
It is as I feared. Russia is zog. Thoroughly parasitized. The Bolsheviks never went away. Just changed their clothes. I grieve for Russia.
I'm inclined to believe what you say is true because it is the only explanation that fits the reality of what I observe. I knew when Russia fully participated in the germ terror psy op that that was a very bad sign.
I know little of Russian politics. It took me a long time to unravel the maze of psy ops, deceptions and subterfuges that obscure U.S. politics. It took a long time to see and accept the reality for what it is. I haven't the time or motivation to deeply study Russian politics. But your words ring true.
The Bolsheviks might have had a lot of Jews in their ranks, but those were not Zionist oligarch Jews, don't make that mistake, please.
Also, those Bolshevik Jews managed to put the country back together after it fell apart in 1917. Through a five-year bloody apocalyptic civil war, then gave everyone jobs, healthcare, education, etc.
And they no longer had lot of Jews in their ranks after the 1930s anyway.
I might be misinterpreting your comment. It seems to imply the Bolsheviks were a force for good, did good by the Russian people. That doesn't ring so true. Zionist oligarch Jews weren't backing the Bolsheviks?
But what do I know? As I say, it's hard enough to sort through all the lies and distortions of the histories I'm more familiar with, even that have occurred in my lifetime. So I won't profess to know the minutia of what happened with the Bolsheviks.
My current understanding of the history is that Jewish revolutionaries were a primary cause of Russia being in the state it was in 1917, and the related bloody apocalyptic war. Not the sole cause, but a major contributor. Probably the major contributor. And zionism was certainly well in play by then, with all its usual nefarious actors and methods.
Go, say what you mean. Quit the "I'm just asking questions" schtick.
Haha. No, I have no problem saying what I mean. The questions are sincere. I'm not Russian. Don't know what goes on in Russia. I wanted to hear the commenters opinion.
Trump is a narcissist. The right people will now convince him that it can win Ukraine. But when he loses it, these same people will accuse him of incompetence and impeach him. Everything will be exactly the same as in Trump's first term.
Not going to happen. Trump was sand bagged by NeoCons in hisp first Administration won't happen a second ttime.
Dick Minnis removingthecataract.substack.com
🤣😂🤣
Copium 🤣
lol
He just gave the neocons a massive victory when he threw gaetz under the bus. He appointed Bondi and Rubio so clearly he is still stupid or this entire maga farce is his greatest grift yet. Take your pick.
Trump is still weak, stupid and easily manipulated. He is what he is.
I’m afraid I agree. One CANNOT be enslaved to narcissism and be the leader of a country because one has to make unpopular decisions in order to lead.
You completely misunderstand narcissism. It does not involve wanting to be liked at all. Here's a psychologist's detailed analysis:
https://gaiusbaltar.substack.com/p/a-mechanism-for-narcissism-part-1
Bad bet. Won’t happen.
What people fail to realize Trump is the enemy of the establishment but not because he does not like the US to be the hegemon, rather he considers quite some parts of the agenda a major failure (open borders, woke policies) while he considers others to be too costly and pointless for the US to do and the best example here is NATO - he does not want to dismantle NATO, he wants NATO countries to pay "fair share" (this being 4% of the GDP I read recently). He wants the power of the CIA etc to be smaller und brought under control in line with what he thinks the power of the executive should be. These are "strong hegemon" and not a "peaceful hegemon" views and while strong may mean also peaceful it does not have. I suppose even if he genuinely were for peace and sovereignty for other countries (why station troops in Iraq if Iraq does not want it etc) he will have a tough fight with the deep state and its representatives in Congress.
"Well USA policy has successfully detatched Europe from Russia,"
A excised cancer for which Russia should be very grateful.
A burden that the American taxpayer/economy can ill afford.
Let Europe complete her well-earned Suicide.
It's really bad news if Trump decides to keep fueling the one sided conflict in Ukraine...Ukraine will become demographically dead...and there is no possibility of success..Is this Black Rock's idea?
Of course it is, who do you think all our tax money to Ukraine is helping? It sure isn't to spread "democracy". If Ukraine loses so does all the investment in it by Black Rock and other big corporations.
BlackRock, Bayer/Monsanto, DuPont and Cargill profit, no matter what. They have bought up over one third of Ukraine's prime farmland in the past decade. As Ukraine further crumbles into ruin, more farmland will become available at bargain prices.
I don't think so. That farmland will be under the control of the Russian Federation.
Hope your right, and I hope there are more than zero Ukrainians left alive to work it for Russia.
don't be like jews
So a "small tactical" nuke would ruin their investments and could be a way to go for Russia if they keep pushing?
None of the various interested parties make as much money when the conflict ends with a loss to NATO and Ukraine.
Even a korea-style truce provides more graft opportunities for more decades.
ZOG would Ukraine to ethnically die. They could either flood the area with Israeli colonists. Or third world brown hordes
"Heavenly Jerusalem (also New Jerusalem, Israel 2.0, New Israel) is a project whose goal is to create a Jewish state within Ukraine on the territories of its five southern regions: Odessa , Dnipropetrovsk , Zaporizhia , Kherson and Nikolaev."
Time to relocate all jewish shrines from Malorossia to the fascist jewish state which lives by the fascist jewish laws and by dishonorable rules like Kol Nidre.
"The phrase Kol Nidre it is not a prayer but a legal formula used for the annulment of vows. Said at the start of the Yom Kippur fast day, Kol Nidre declares all future vows and promises invalid, by declaring that all vows are "absolved, remitted, cancelled, declared null and void, not in force of in effect." Said by the cantor, surrounded by men holding Torah scrolls, it is sung to a traditional tune that has been passed down for generation."
And this is how the tribe created the likes of Milejkowsky, Cardin, Blinken, Wexner and similar crooks and sadists -- by the annual pledge to betray and defraud the "others."
You can only rape children in the Torah if they are older than 3...though not certain if that applies to goyim...
There are no ethnic Ukrainian's. They are all Slovic.
There are no ethnic Swedes. They are all Scandinavian.
All russians
The Ukraine is already demographically dead. The ratio young vs old is so skewed that it will create an unsustainable scenario in the near future. Regardless of the outcome of the fighting.
In fact, I believe the Ukrainians can only keep their identity if they become part of Russia again.
If they 'win' the fighting, they will lose either to the immigration wave, or the economic implosion (or quite likely a combination of the two). This will remove any traces of a Ukrainian people/culture for sure.
Without a doubt Ukraine will be flooded with Indians, Pakistanis and Africans the second this war ends. Who is going to stop them? All the men are dead and the oligarchs running Ukraine are all Jews - no difference to them between a black African or a white Slav - as long as they can dig a ditch and take out a loan it's all the same.
Hell, they may even end up deporting the Palestinians to Ukraine - wouldn't be the craziest scheme they've pulled in the past few years, no, not even close.
None of those you identify are acclimated to the Artic climate. What will be required after this little kerfuffle will be people from hardy climes capable of dealing bad weather and poor supplies. Not a lot of opportunities for anyone who cannot contribute.
How many "guests" in Sweden are " acclimated to the Artic climate. " ? What about Finland ? Norway ? Iceland ?
That was before energy price rises. And the green lunacy.
Based on past experience the governments of those nations will continue to support the " needy new comers". Although, the plan might be to simultaneously cut off all support across all of Europe to induce the " migrants" to violence. Either way, they're not leaving on their own whether the energy situation deteriorates or not.
Why is it bad news? More dead Ukrainian men means less insurgents Russia has to deal in the future.
Ukrainians are Russian, every death in this war is a tragedy.
When it reaches a million, it becomes a statistic.
Grandiose historical figures claiming such is one thing,
to lean into such statements in agreement is twisted and morbid.
Then again: a sign of the times.
"But insurgents!" is just another cope.
The one thing every successful insurgency has in common is a young population. The average age in Yemen is 19. The average in Ukraine from before the war was over 40.
(off topic) McSnow:"Insurgents - you know so Daddy me snow me I go blame...!
A Licky Boom Boom Down!"
-Based on a true story according to the artist himself.
It's the second Israel plan no inhabitants needed
If it has the outlines of a plan, works like a plan and has the outcomes of a plan,
is it a plan?! Sure AF it's planned.
I'll summarize DJT's 2nd presidency in a few points:
1. Every resource in the North and South American continents belongs to the USA (including of course the Panama canal and down to the last drop of oil in Canada's tar sands).
2. Europe must buy US's LNG and US weapons, as well as pay for the war in Ukraine.
3. The USD must continue as the sole international trade currency - or else 100% tariffs and sanctions.
4. Regime change, eternal war, China as the ultimate enemy, Russia as a gas station, US as the global hegemon, all these policies will continue in one way or another.
'All youre base are belong to us' - Without the funny.
(Joe Biden assisted by White House aides on account of his cognitive impairment
from day 1 - because I am a bad person I cannot help but notice the White House
staff being jewish)
Amazing how people are projecting things when Trump is not even in office yet.
How about waiting and seeing, before panicking?
#MeneMeneTekelUpharsim
Ofcourse. We will see.
Then again there IS writing on them thar wall.
Mad scriblings? Song and poetry?
All these and more.
Nobody cares. This never was about Ukraine or Ukrainians.
True enough. Then again: they will perhaps effect unintended consequences.
We had Vindman in the US, Freeland in Canada for example.
Small fries? Okay but surely not inconsequential fries, like it or not.
Russia can make better use of its airforce flattening Kherson defences than in Syria. I don't think the Kremlin expects anything good from Trump's team. They will have to take Odessa, because the US economy only builds weapons as its profit driver.
With tariffs on Chinese imports, and a death spiral on national debt, America could only grow by a MASSIVE swords-plowshares programme in the civilian field, which I suspect the corporates have prevented through various laws enacted over the past few decades to protect their various monopolies.
Therefore only war can spur America's 'growth' (A slower decline).
Trump is simply not the guy to reverse America's decline... tbf, there probably isn't such a person in existence. Perhaps Michael Hudson, as likely to reach Cabinet level as Scott Ritter.
The Anglo Empire designed itself to fall into 1984, to either win or balance; it simply is incapable of changing path.
Russia and China have to be adults, and pull the global South with them, to drain the Empire of resources, until it financially collapses.
At which point all bets are off.
Shame the UN never invaded the USA and took away its stockpiles of WMDs.
"Michael Hudson caliber of leader"... in my many years of observation, deep analytical thinkers like Hudson rarely have the leadership skills to be able get others to implement their ideas or agendas.
What is always essential is for a decisive, motivational leader to take the ideas of the thinkers and run with them. The Kennedy/Sorensen duo was one such example.
Trump is not that leader, he will continue the status quo of sending military gear and intel to Ukraine, after sitting Zelensky on the bench and watching as Russia runs out the clock. As for Hudson, the banking cartel that runs the USA has no use for him.
"Trump is simply not the guy to reverse America's decline... "
Well said. Trump is an opportunist who has run his life through a series of improvisations, trusting to his quick wit to let him take advantage of unpredictable changes in markets and the taste of his clients. He does have a knack for understanding some long term phenomena, such as the eternal desire in most people to show off to others, to appear to be wealthy, hence the vulgar bling that characterizes what he sells, like those appallingly vulgar Trump sneakers or the barbarian-level lack of taste in the overly-gilded decor of Trump-brand properties. But he exploits his understanding of long term phenomena exclusively through short term actions.
Trump never was and never will be a deep thinker, as one of the characteristics of deep thought is to consider matters over very long time scales. While he has shown the patience to take on projects that can take a few years to accomplish, like some of his real estate plays in New York, he seems to have no patience for projects that take decades to bring to fruition. I suppose he would say that shows his pragmatic side, as in his world projects that take decades to accomplish are losers, that you need to make your money fast and you need to make your money young.
I don't think he is stupid and I don't think he is completely unwise. I just think his entire life experience has convinced him that if he cannot accomplish what has to be done with short term actions it is wiser to move on to something else. That's deeply unlucky for the US because only long term thinking can reverse America's decline.
Trump also shows no respect for long term commitments, especially those which arise from long term influences such as morals. He always seems ready to take advantage with a short term play, no matter how immoral that might be. A good example was his happiness to sell the Saudis $100 billion in weaponry to get that cash flow today, no matter that doing so supported genocide in Yemen or a regime that beheads Christians in public for the crime of converting from Islam. He is amoral to the point that he does not recognize America can never be great, again or for the first time, if it so totally abandons as great a part of America's cultural identity as respect for freedom of religion.
All that conspires, in my view, to make it more likely than not that Trump will continue the US's war against Russia, both in Ukraine and in other parts of the world, if for no other reason than that it is too complicated and too long term a project to wind down that war given the opposition of so many short term reasons for continuing it. He can't just walk away from Ukraine because he'd be hanged by his own party for "abandoning" Ukraine. The junta in Kiev knows that, so they'll play hardball with him. Their eager embracement of the Biden team policy of poisoning the well for Trump demonstrates they have no worries about burning their bridges with Trump.
The closer Trump's team gets to Inauguration Day, the more signals are leaking out of their organization that they realize they will be unable to push Russia into any surrender, and that the only thing they can think of doing is to continue the war. I think that is what will happen and that the war will become harsher with Trump, far from being the peacemaker, will end up escalating the war well beyond what Biden did, primarily by expanding the use of American arms and the direct involvement of American forces, for example, possibly bringing American warships into the Black Sea and provocative acts by American forces in the Baltic and on Russia's Pacific and Arctic coasts and on Russia's borders with Central Asia states. I wouldn't be surprised if he moved rapidly to cement US control over the former Syria's oil territories, including strikes even on Turkish positions and threats or strikes on the remnant Russian bases in Syria.
That's the real danger with Trump. When his short term improvisations don't work out, if he can't walk away, he gets violent. I'd say America deserves better, except that the price of even a quasi-democracy like the US is that the people get the government they deserve.
I suspect one of the first things he will do is sell out the Kurds in Syria - he already wanted to pull out in his first term; and now Israel and Turkey have destroyed Syria, along with Russia and Iran's interests there, he's unlikely to face much pushback.
The rest of your analysis of his personality I generally agree with.
He's STILL a better choice than the DNC/Harris warmongering psychopaths, but that line is getting slimmer the closer we come to the inauguration.
Once again, he'll be just another US President, unremarkable apart from "Mean tweets".
You’ve placed your bet based on your read of the table. A lot of guesses and mind reading here fills in the gap of actual knowledge, but then we all do that. What I see in Trump is a man who does in fact look through the lens of what is good for America. (Seems so quaint and old fashioned these days - I imagine many will find this hard to believe.) I doubt Trump will conclude that a world war to preserve the empire is helpful to that project.
Trump will do exactly what the murderous DC money minders tell him to do. Trump, a bit of an outsider to the MENSA class, will listen to those disgusting war mongers closest to him who will blow smoke up his ass. How can you MAGA unless you act the stern father and discipline the funky Euro-crowd and attempt to spank the Russians? President Polk rolled over the Mexicans on the way to stealing their acreage (May, 1846). I don't think the Russians plan on being Mexico now.
The Americans quietly removed nukes on the Russian border in Turkey to comply with the Russian demands to resolve the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962. Are the DC pirates so stunningly ignorant of that historical fact that they imagine the Russians will be any more willing today to allow those same western weapons on their border? FAFO. The colossal stupidity beggars belief.
For me...Trump will have a "successful" presidency if the nukes stay in their silos. That's it. I have no other hopes/expectations for the man.
War is the number one U$ export. It's just what we do! Mo' money...mo' money...mo' money...
I agree with all the points you are making, you are just so much better at writing them down. Seeing Trump, I'm constantly reminded of the movie 'The Devil's Advocate', where in the end, evil wins because of that little sin of VANITY, and if there is one character that is vain, it's Trump. It's a character trait just like his narcissism, you can disguise it but in the end it will always break through.
But Russia is also following the military path of development and only war can increase the country's GDP. It's very similar to America.
I think both powers will collapse very quickly.
I'm not so sure of that. Russian wages generally increased ~9% this year, boosting civilian purchasing power. Consumer growth - albeit not so great for the environment - is a WAAAAY better way to grow your economy and GDP. Compare China to the US.
Military spending, unless accompanied with severe penalties for fraud, will inevitably become corrupt, due to the built-in secrecy of such spending.
With the examples of both China and the US in front of them, would the Kremlin make that mistake?
The great danger for Russia is that China is now such a civilian economic powerhouse, could they compete with no tariffs between them, or be swallowed up and ONLY military tech can sell and grow?
Only time will tell.
"could they compete with no tariffs between them, or be swallowed up"
China doesn't have the resources to power its economy. It cannot win by a strategy of competing against its supplier of key resources, and it's smart enough to know that. Instead, China takes what is a far more durable and enduring approach: it builds cooperation with its allies where both sides win.
China loves being "the world's workshop," but it doesn't like it that too much of its production goes to an insane, evil, and unreliable client, the US. China's strategy for dealing with that is to invest into other countries and regions so they can develop large middle classes and healthy economies, to grow wealthy so that they become large customers of Chinese products and replace the US.
While there is much talk about China's strategy to grow successful economies in Africa to become consumers of Chinese products, China is also doing the same thing with China's neighbor, Russia. China depends on Russia for resources, but it also wants to develop Russia as a big customer of Chinese products. Besides the hope of replacing the US as a customer, China also has a huge balance of trade problem with Russia with all that Chinese money going to pay for Russian resources. Until Russia's economy grows, Russians won't be rich enough to buy as many Chinese products as China would like. So China is investing in Russia.
The most visible aspect of all that are the many, many joint ventures and Chinese factories opened in Russia, as well as huge Chinese investment into Russian enterprises. Highly educated Russian labor is cheaper than highly educated Chinese labor, so China is also developing Russia as a friendly supplier country that is part of the Chinese manufacturing ecosystem. There are no built-in antagonisms or rivalries like China has with Vietnam, so Russia is a very appealing alternative.
With a billion and a half people China isn't worried about a strong and wealthy Russia. On the contrary, it knows that helping Russia's economy grow will result in very strong feelings of friendship. That's what it wants in a neighbor, a close friend and business partner who China can count on in any war with the US.
I couldn't agree with you more.
If only the Anglo and Euro worlds understood this logic too, this World would not be such a tragedy. :(
They still run on the Roman model of 'Empire' - steal.
"There are no built-in antagonisms or rivalries like China has with Vietnam, so Russia is a very appealing alternative."
Over the past summer I had an opportunity to converse with a young Vietnamese woman born a couple years after the American War ended. She'd gotten a graduate degree in the US and her English language skills were tip-top. I don't remember the context but somehow a China mention raised her hackles and she clearly demonstrated her disdain for anything "China" or Chinese. As I learned talking to her too that both parents were college profs and her sister was a doctor in the largest hospital in HMC, The Vietnamese are a vastly talented and capable people and I have nothing but admiration for them. I also know of their uneasy 1000- year relationship with the Chinese with whom they share a border.
If you look from the inside of Russia, i.e. to be its resident, then purchasing power is steadily declining. Small businesses are shrinking. Now problems with gasoline have begun in regions remote from the center.
Rosstat statistics are so.... slippery. Any Russian knows this.
Let me tell about "The view from inside Britain".
Half of all kids now grow up in poverty, a 1/3rd in absolute not relative poverty. The state-school system is collapsing, and the privatised part of that is used as a cash cow and propaganda mill. Wages are FAAAR below the level of actual inflation, the workers are poorer in real terms now than 2008 - considerably poorer. The country doesn't MAKE anything, except dodgy financial 'instruments' and offshored tax-evasion. And self-privileged useless twats from the 'elite' schools.
The country and economy has been hollowed out by Neoliberal Thatcherism, sold off usually to foreigners like Murdoch, or unaccountable corporate entities.
The ENTIRE political class are complete traitors, and do whatever the USA or Israel tells them too. There is no military, because so much military spending goes straight to purchasing over-priced and useless US weapons. There is no welfare, because there is no real world economy left after Thatcher and Brexshit between them. The health service is now mainly owned by US & German private healthcare - you can imagine the direction THAT is going in.
The media - incl the now shitty BBC - spend all their time blaming refugees for these crises, rather than the ones making the decisions that caused it. The population is dumb, stupid, angry, resentful, and IGNORANT.
Energy costs are through the roof, and the covid measures destroyed much of the SMEs. Retail is dead, and all profits go to Amazon. The young cannot cook, just scroll.
Obesity, needless to say, is following the US pattern.
We are but a colony of the USA, with no sovereignty, and no independent political class even if we were.
There is no HOPE in Britain, and that's just the way the US Empire likes it.
I'm certain Russia has its problems, everywhere has. But Russia still has a future, and tons of potential. Appreciate that.
Britain's sole future path now is to be the US's 'unsinkable aircraft carrier in Europe', the base from which Europe will be destroyed by the USA as it inevitably retreats.
We are a militarily occupied country.
Russia is not.
Complicated. The Russian National Bank is keeping interest rates high. Growth is therefore not by credit expansion but profit spending. As the Oligarchs can not spend the money in the West on yachts, football clubs, and a house in London, there is enough profit to be spent. All kinds of products had to be substituted because of sanctions, and the Russians did! Instead of buying Swiss cheese for $10, the consumer buys a Russian-made "Swiss" cheese for $8; your GDP is shrinking! But the economic fundamentals have dramatically changed. A situation last seen in the 19th century.
In fact, GDP is spending. Including weapons costs. The presence of a huge military-industrial complex does not at all strengthen the economy, but rather leads to high inflation.
"and only war can increase the country's GDP. " Respectfully, no, and to "I think both powers will collapse very quickly." also no.
Russia is very different from the US and EU in terms of development options. It has the paradoxical situation of inheriting a highly civilized and exceptionally well educated population from the USSR (plus remnant civilization that persisted from Tsarist times) with genuinely First World professional capability, plus infinite resources of everything you could possibly need to run a continental-sized First World economy, plus infinite demand for darned near everything civilian society wants but does not have thanks to the Soviet talent for making sure everything that civilians wanted was either unavailable or laughably inadequate.
What's powering Russia's booming economy today is the classic capitalist entrepreneurial formula of "find a need and fill it." A country that had nothing under the Soviets has a need for everything, from kitchen gadgets to toilet paper, literally hundreds of millions of things. Absolutely every market niche that's so densely filled in the West, like people who run businesses that service elevators, or people who run companies that do event management, was and largely still is open to new competitors in Russia.
The initial surge of entrepreneurial verve in the booming 90's was a mix of foreign companies entering Russia and local entrepreneurs. Over the last 35 years that's given way to more and more replacement of foreigners by local firms, as the local entrepreneurs know local tastes and needs better, and they often are smarter than the foreigners at running local businesses. That replacement phenomenon got jacked up tremendously as a result of EU and US sanctions, where although only a minority of foreign firms exited the Russian market, the hassles and distaste associated with dealing with "unfriendly nations" gave local businesses a huge boost.
If you look at where the economy has boomed, surprisingly a very big part of it is tremendous growth in Russian industry and Russian business activity, including very many small and medium sized businesses. That phenomenon, of building out a first world county on continental scale, is going to sustain the Russian economy for at least a hundred more years. Developing an immensely resource-rich continental sized country like Russia which is mostly undeveloped will add another two hundred years. It's like the US expansion across the North American continent that powered the US's economy as the vast continent was developed, an economy-powering option not available in a Europe where every last bit of land had been claimed for two thousand years.
Add to that the huge worldwide demand for Russian resources. Russia is the world's largest energy exporter (oil, gas, coal, enriched uranium, electricity), food exporter (wheat and other grains, food oils, fish, dairy products, pork, beef, etc), and resource exporter (mineral fertilizers to grow food, industrial metals, precious metals, industrial plastics, diamonds, timber, etc.). Except for the US there's no country in the world which can be a competitive first world economic power without leveraging Russian resources. If you don't have access to inexpensive Russian energy you can't compete with the Chinese or other Asian economies. Half of the world's countries depend on Russian energy, food, or resources to avoid food insecurity. Russia's economy is based on production of goods needed internally and on the provision of resources and manufactured goods needed by other countries. That's not an economy which will collapse. It's not a Ponzi economy.
As far as the US goes, although the US shows some fake signs of health as a result of Ponzi measures like the dollar being the world's reserve currency (and thus laying off in part to other countries the costs of US's money-printing), for all the legitimate criticism levied at the US's economy and very serious structural problems it still is a huge economy. It has a lot of inertia and isn't going to collapse overnight. It's like the late Roman Empire which continued for hundreds of years despite the obvious failure of the Roman imperial "business model."
This all looks very rosy, and I mostly agree with it, but there is one fat fly in that ointment: low population. You need consumers for all these enterpreneurial businesses; you need settlers and workers to develop the underutilized expanse of land and resources. Russia is running short on people.
In other words, it has resources to spare for future generations.
"Russia is running short on people." Yes and no.
You have to start by understanding what's really going on is a phenomenon that has affected every country that has become wealthier: the wealthier the country, the lower its fertility. There are many, many viewpoints on why that happens, ranging from poorer societies supposedly depending on having lots of children as the only safety net for parents in their old age, to increasing wealth making lifestyles possible that distract people in their child-bearing years from settling down and having families. But it's undeniable that fertility drops in richer societies. Russia is now a richer society.
Russia also has the continuing problems caused by catastrophic population declines in the wars of the first half of the 20th century. When you kill 50 million people out of a population of less than 150 million, you put a dent into the demographic curves that persists for a century. As the different cohorts age, the missing cohort from the late 30's and early 40's shows up in profoundly lower births two and three decades later, and then again and again in subsequent generations. Even in ideal conditions it takes a very, very long time for such huge demographic catastrophes to blend back into normal population growth, and there's a risk that the social factors caused by the catastrophe become permanent.
For example, in the USSR the lack of men caused by the wars of the first half of the 20th century propelled women into the workforce and into careers in a way that permanently changed society. The first world war, the civil war, the Terror, and the second world war killed over 50 million people altogether, most of them men. Before those catastrophes there were virtually no women professionals in Tsarist society. After those catastrophes there were virtually no men in many professions. When women are the workforce, that's incompatible with growing large families.
Despite all that there is a net increase in population in Russia, as a result of immigration. The big issue is not that Russia is running short on people, it is running short on ethnic Russians. Other population segments, like the huge central Asian and Islamic ethnic communities in Russia, are doing fine. Likewise, the majority of new citizens immigrating into Russia are central Asian and Islamic people. That's been altered slightly in the last ten years by waves of Ukrainian migrants and by the addition to the Federation of five new provinces, but the long term trend is an increase in the already profound multi-ethnic character that Russia's population has had for centuries.
Russia is working hard to ensure that migrants are welcome, but only if they assimilate. The country has pulled out all the stops to build schools for migrant kids to teach them Russian language from such an early age they feel it is a native language for them. Programs to assist migrants emphasize integration and make no attempt to ease the bureaucratic process by gathering migrants into enclaves that later function as obstacles to integration.
What helps in that is for many centuries Russia has genuinely been a multi-ethnic state, so there is template by which people can feel they are "Russians" and native parts of the Federation while at the same time preserving ethnic traditions that date back over a thousand years. An ethnic Kyrgiz or Uzbek can feel just at home in the Federation while saying "I'm Russian" just as much as a Buryat (who look like Koreans) can say the same, and even point to a large Russian province where he or she is an ethnic majority.
I think what will help in all that is the various ethnic nations surrounding Russia are in general doing a much poorer job of moving up the development ladder so there is a very strong economic stimulus for their people to continue migrating to Russia. Growing population in that way can be very effective, as the US (a nation of immigrants) has shown.
You've taken a lot of effort to explain the reasons for the population shortage. I am not disputing the reasons. I am pointing out the fact, and its crippling implications in the long run.
In the long run, the population shortage of ethnic, European Russians doesn't matter. The population will grow and if it shifts to a different mix that doesn't matter.
The implications aren't "crippling" either, not in the short run or in the long run. Does Russia have enough people to develop as it would like? Yes, it does, already in the short run. 150 million people can do immense development, especially given that Russia doesn't have welfare. It's not like the US where about half the people aren't really productive and coast on the productivity of those who are.
Does Russia have enough people to defeat the US and its vassals in a conventional war? You bet. Russia's army is at 1.2 million and is growing rapidly to 1.5 million. That could be easily increased to 3 million just from the active reserve. But more importantly, even at 1.2 million it's already the most combat capable army in the world at fighting first world peers.
The US army has spent the last 20+ years acquiring lots of bad habits beating up foes who couldn't shoot back, tribesmen in the desert. The Russian army has three years of massive experience at tearing the guts out of US and NATO weapons and doctrine.
By the way, a few paragraphs are not a lot of effort. Writing a book is a lot of effort. Contributing here isn't.
All these factors of potential prosperity of the economy existed in the USSR. However, the elderly partocrats from the CPSU could not realize them and the USSR collapsed. At the same time, the USSR had a much more powerful industry and even more natural resources.
And I repeat my assertion that Russia is following the path of the USSR. The economy is becoming military, small and medium-sized businesses are shrinking, prices are rising, censorship is deepening. This is a recipe for collapse despite rich natural resources or the potential demand of an insolvent population.
Problems largely caused by the necessary militarisation to counter the direct threat from NATO.
With any luck at all - from the POV of humanity having a future - these may only be temporary.
Once the West collapses from internal crises, especially financial and neoliberal, they MAY be reversed.
Keep your fingers crossed.
"All these factors of potential prosperity of the economy existed in the USSR."
Except the most important factor: free markets. The USSR was doomed by the dead-end foolishness of Marxism. No entrepreneurs. Russia is a capitalistic state that leverages the unstoppable economic truth of free market capitalism. Lots of entrepreneurs.
"The economy is becoming military" Nonsense. The *government* is increasing spending on the military but Russia is not the US or EU where government spending calls the tune. The majority of Russia's economy goes through private hands.
"small and medium-sized businesses are shrinking" Nonsense. The hallmark of Russia's booming economy is that small and medium sized businesses are booming. I live in Russia, and anybody who has lived here for more than a few years can see the tremendous increase in the role of small and medium businesses. There's not only more of them, but more of them are succeeding and are growing larger. There are behemoths like Wildberries, the Internet marketplace that made a multi-billionaire out of Russia's wealthiest woman, that started just a few years ago as small businesses.
"prices are rising" So are wages. Inflation is a risk for overheated, rapidly growing economies.
"censorship is deepening" That's a lie, propaganda for morons, if you mean politically motivated censorship. Sure, Russia has some controls on dangerous and evil communications but so does every society that is not a sewer of complete evil. Even in a sewer of depravity like the US it's not legal to broadcast child pornography. (I was going to use "snuff videos" as an example but the US has become so depraved I'm not sure if those are now legal in the US). Is that "censorship?" There are some people who are so evil they think that banning child pornography is wrong.
So yes, here in Russia we do have "censorship" of such things. For example, by overwhelming margins people agree it is deeply wrong to advance pervert propaganda, especially in schools. It's also unlawful to tell lies about the government and our military and to attempt to harm people and society. The US also has such laws: the crime of sedition is one of the two crimes called out in the US Constitution as meriting a death penalty, if I recall correctly. I haven't looked it up because, of course, nobody in US government gives a hoot what the US Constitution says anymore.
"potential demand of an insolvent population" Nonsense. Russia's population is getting steadily richer. Real incomes are growing steadily, people are living longer and healthier lives, infant mortality is down, the education, health care and pension systems are getting stronger, the world's products are available in stores, shopping malls and Internet markets for nearly instant delivery to your door, and goods and services from Russian companies now have (finally) achieved world-class quality.
That's a lot to have accomplished in a mere 30 years, starting from the ruins of the USSR. There's still a long way to go, with Russia not yet having matched the overall level of affluence you find in, say, wealthier US or European communities. But already the quality of life in mid-sized or larger Russian communities I think is better than the average quality of life in similar US or European communities, and in Russia that quality of life is getting better while in equivalent US or European communities it's getting worse.
Yes John. I heard the same songs 40 years ago from propagandists from the Central Committee of the CPSU. They sang that everything in the country is good, milk yield and meat production are growing, new enterprises, roads, bridges are being built, the well-being of the population is growing, etc.
However, after 10 years, the USSR unexpectedly collapsed...
Do you still live in Russia? 40 years ago the lies they were telling were obvious to anybody who walked the streets. Walk the streets these days and it's obvious the economy is booming and quality of life has dramatically increased.
Today's kids have never lived in anything but a consumer utopia of shopping malls full of goods and darned near infinite choice of anything they want they can have delivered with a few touches of their smart phones. People have candy bars and bags of chips delivered to their apartments for free from TasteVille (ВкусВилл) stores, at https://vkusvill.ru/ Check it out for the Russian analog of Whole Foods.
Russia isn't your USSR of 40 years ago. Free markets and entrepreneurs make all the difference.
Have you played Victoria 3?
Russia's resources are nearly infinite. With a virtuous circle or two, they could easily have the highest SoL on the planet.
Very true. But it's hard to compete with inherited wealth. People don't grasp the epic scale of some fortunes that have been handed down to heirs. Once you loot a billion or two, your heirs can live dramatically more affluent lives than average people who have to earn their keep.
The economies of the West may be having problems, but all the same they benefit from enormous inertia and inherited wealth. The Brits built an empire on slavery and colonial looting. They're rich today largely because their forefathers conquered the staggeringly wealthy Indian subcontinent and then looted the wealth of India for two centuries. That was such astronomical wealth that it gave the Brits a huge lead over other countries, a lead that's been retained despite British loss of their overseas empire. Economic echos of empire like British dominance in insurance and finance continue to breath life into what otherwise would be a dead economy.
Same with the French. They crow about having an economy, but even today it depends on colonial looting such as the below market rates France was paying for the uranium that powers French energy (which is dependent on nuclear power) as a result of colonial-style dominance of France's uranium vassals in Africa. Now that those vassals have thrown the French out, we'll see how well France's economy does when it starts paying market rates for the energy it burns.
Same with all the rest. They clawed their way into a dominant niche during 500 years of colonial looting. Now they have to compete on their own.
In Russia's case, the USSR destroyed much of the built-up civilizational capital of the Tsarist era. The Marxists had to re-invent the wheel to build industry, and what modern Russia inherited was not all that useful, because it was built to the peculiarities of the Soviet system, not built to function as an evolved part of a free market ecosystem. Russian entrepreneurs have had to reinvent the wheel yet again, but without the benefit of windfalls from colonial looting.
That's going to take a very long time to build out on a continent-wide scale. But on the plus side, all that is being built out on the basis of a real economy, finding genuine needs and filling them, not stealing money from others and telling the lie "I'm a genius for creating this wealth".
While I agree with that, I wouldn't put so much emphasis upon the"Stored wealth" of the Aristocracy. They literally frittered vast amounts of it away being complete nincompoops, and the costs of the Empire, and the two World Wars to try to maintain their dominance.
The City of London was about to collapse, Neoliberal Thatcherism was the final nail, cutting real wages and the real world economy to the bone.
And then they found the North Sea black gold.
Nearly all of which went straight into the City, to fund the now infamous 'offshoring' sector. Needless to say, an advanced economy whose main driver is tax-evasion will not remain an advanced industrialised economy for long. Financial thieves will refuse to pay even the minimum required to maintain the infrastructure that allows an economy to flourish - let alone to be civilised.
One bad financial crash later - already clearly seen on the cards - and the UK will enter the 3rd World, but with still the parasitic, vampiric ruling class.
It's hard to see any future for the UK that is not bleak.
Orwell rather put his finger on it nicely, 80 years ago.
It's worth a mention, as follow-up on the Oreshnik strikes, that in fact all damage appears to be old and commercial sources are editing purchased pictures.
Yes, so we're back to square 1 in externally evaluating effects. Putin seems quite pleased, however, which is atypical even beyond the pull of politics. He seems to think something special has been achieved, so it probably has.
There is no way Western media is going to accurately portray that damage, let alone how game changing that new Oreshnik is. That would be too embarrassing and make more people against being involved in project Ukraine.
The main stream media watchers that I know have heard nothing about it.
Flying submarines are described in the book "A Dweller Two Planets" published in1899. You never know!
When Trump gets in and starts negations, he will speak to Putin. Even if he is gullible to the neocon's propaganda, Putin will set him straight.
I don't think Trump wants to be responsible for WW3. He will know Putin isn't bluffing, and he surely doesn't think much of Zelensky.
We can hope... Chip
Thank you ! I made a Tweet for it.
I have been expecting this move to cross the Dnieper, but i expect the real attack in the Kherson area and across the empty reservoir will be in the combined attack on Zaporizhia from West and East, to establish a strong bridgehead. It is also meant to protect the ZNPP against attacks by the NAZI/Tommy alliance...
Sander