The article is not written by a journalist but by a security and defence industry insider– hence more facts and less propaganda
The first sentence is a good reminder of where to start
‘History shows that when the political class ignore the fortunes of manual workers, it often comes back to bite them’
‘It’s not just the so-called primes — the large defence companies that sell directly to governments — that are facing a worker deficit; it’s their suppliers too. “In the defence industry today everyone needs machines, everyone needs skilled workers,” David Chour, chief executive of the Czechoslovak Group (CSG), told me. “It’s very difficult to find the machinery, and the delivery time is longer and longer.”
CSG, which manufactures the Howitzer 155mm ammunition used by Nato countries and Ukraine, would like to accelerate production. The wait for new machines is almost four years. (CSG already runs three-shift days on its existing machinery). “If we had sufficient capacity, we’d be able to produce three times more ammunition than we are now,” Chour said. ‘
What is true of armaments is true of the rest of industry, the health of a nation, as the RF has lately proven: so one begins to understand why a security consultant is interested/ing
It is possible the USEU ruling class is beginning, just beginning, to realise ‘something’ is wrong with their self destructive version of capitalism
Or perhaps not- see :
« Geurre en Ukraine La France livrera 3,000 obus par mois à L’Ukraine jusqu’en fin 2024’
‘Le ministre indique également qu’à compter de janvier 2024, Paris va livrer une cinquantaine de missiles chaque mois jusqu’à la fin de l’année. «Entre février 2022 et fin 2023, c'était 2000 obus par mois» livrés par la France à l’Ukraine, «à partir de janvier, ce sera 3000 obus par mois», a fait savoir Sébastien Lecornu.’
The French criticise other EU countries for making announcements of deliveries which are neverever followed up, citing the Germans
France has made an offer to the EU to manufacture 78 Ceasars, on the condition that France will pay for 12, Uk will pay for 6, the rest to be financed by other EU countries
Although production takes 15 months, cut from 30, France has promised to deliver them this year….(?)
Crony Capitalism and importing people, mostly low skill/IQ and looking for a handout will be end of the West. Education is already so dumbed down people graduating HS cant read or do math which is not going to compete with Russian or Chinese kids coming out of HS doing calculus and reading a couple languages. Western Nations are hopelessly divided from the streets to the board rooms. Demise of West actually started 40-50 years ago it's just burning through credit, legacy systems, and capital built for hundreds of years before that which is masking effects of third rate power. A slow bleed that's hard to see until an adversary challenges us directly as is the case with weapon production.
I believe the RF has an entire academy devoted to drone studies, with a number of graduates per year I can no long remember but considerable
All westie pols and MSM state let's rearm let's conscript - but there are very few examples or programs given - this is merely to scare the huddled masses
The ruling class fear of the working class and their obsession with low cost labour are guaranteed to prevent any serious to scale re armament or re army if ication
A discussion of Russia's leading developments in drone warfare, a critical combination of citizen volunteer 'commercial' drone innovation, and collaboration with military advances - with especial emphasis on AI
Compared and favourably contrasted with Ukraine, and especially with sluggish slowmo US developments
One may guess that any EU/Nato programs are still at the hail democracy we who are about to die stage
One of the contradictions of capitalism. For it to operate unhindered the mass of people have to be encouraged to disengage and become nearly useless. A double edged sword if there’s ever been one.
We've gone to finance capitalism, rent extraction at its most parasitic level. It's unchecked because all defences (i.e. reform) have been neutered. Every action is counterproductive; a gerontocracy surrounded by a hungry praetorian guard.
This is one of my favorite ironies: the same elites who decry the 'populist onslaught on democracy' can only think of 'green' in terms of Saving the Planet (amen). Wearing fatiques is absolutely, totally and most certainly not for them but for other people:
Percentage of Europeans Who Are Willing To Fight A War For Their Country
I can say this, any effort to reinstitute a draft outside the occurrence of 9/11 on steroids and actual war will ignite the fire that will start our own little war here at home.
I can remember meeting visiting 'American Experts' in the early 1980's that couldn't even spell their own name correctly! It was virtually impossible to decipher anything they wrote as they were from the "It doesn't matter if other people can't understand it as long as you do" school.
When you are trying to deal with idiots who can't read the notes they made the week before you lose contracts.
Over time we became the laziest country in the world, say I. So cozy, our army ruled the world, and we all wanted to work in services, not production. And our industry dwindled to a few basics: tech products and war toys and some autos. And everything was made in China, as once it was made in Japan. And the radicalists and psychos went into the schools and took over the administration and began turning our kids into totally confused freaks without so much as a concept of who they were as humans. And the parents were out there either struggling to keep their heads above water or making money hand over fist and having fun, too. But too little time for those kids who were being reshaped in the schools. And the US had no active visionary minds in DC outside the vision of ruling the world absolutely and so we bullied and threatened and bombed and claimed all the conquered as our friends. Stupid, aren't we? We destroyed ourselves, nobody has to do it for us.
As per my comment above, I’m beginning to see the USA as a gargantuan host who’s about to get a dose of “the next phase”, which is not on the whole good or 90% of the people who live there.
Don’t understand the IQ comment. So far every immigrant I have met surpasses the average local in intelligence and alertness and displays better work ethic. And they often speak and write better English.
Migration is not a random uncorrelated pattern of hodge podge foreigners. There is a very strong self-selection bias. Perhaps the place where you live attracts a certain type of immigrants.
I can attest to this being that case at least as far as I am able to perceive. The past two decades has in part been a case of applying various short term solutions and engineered bubble bursting. It has to end sometime and with the demise of the petro-dollar on the horizon that time cannot be far off. The education system in the USA is is not prioritized in the direction of capable self motivated students, and the ScreenAger culture surrounding us is causing crushing stultification in all strata of society. Over half STEM PhD student are from outside the US. Most other nations seem to have a greater sense of cultural continuity when compared to the US and as such seek to somehow preserve it. Not so much for the US of A, which appears to be a vast host-state for various parasitic forces. Due to Regulatory Capture the MIC has managed to shift the priority of weapons systems from ‘robust useable’ to ‘bloated, complex, unreliable and very expensive’
That reality is being played out as we speak on the plain of Donbas.
You make an excellent argument and you are citing well known facts that those of us who are informed understand. Another reason is hunger and desire. Many of the immigrants, especially Asian students, do better is that they are driven to succeed and know education is the key to obtaining their dreams. In the west our students suffer under indoctrination that does not advance their education, and entitlement. They are led to believe that if they just show up they will get a trophy and this coincides with their life expectations. They believe they will all start out better than their parents who might have actually worked hard to attain the comforts their children have come to expect. What happened to advanced programs for gifted students? cut because they are racist or white supremacy so they dumb it down enough that less gifted students appear to on par.
Just like what happened to Britain. Classic end of empire days. IMHO the difference between what is the US experience and what was the UK experience is based on cultural issues. The UK has an institutionalized class based culture ,whereas the US being the younger -247 yrs.- can hopefully limit that path before getting the same deeply ingrained classism. 🤞
For many decades now the Trades have been looked down upon by U.E.I.s [University Educated Idiots] so much so that now in most Western countries there us a dearth of Tradesmen.
While it is wonderful that so many young guys are entering the Trades and developing new skills and methods with modern technology so much knowledge has been lost and as some fellows have remarked ''these young fellas can program on the fly but don't let them near your manual machines!''. This was one of the reasons so many old retired gents were bought out of retirement to run manual machines for Yankee munition manufacture - The degree waving young ones couldn't figure out how to run the machinery!
I've worked in manufacturing for almost 20 yrs in several European countries and I can assure you that all this talk about lack of skilled workers and equipment is NONSENSE.
As for skilled workers looking for good paying jobs, there are plenty in the EU. Maybe not around Prague, where this CSG company is based, but certainly in other regions that also have lower costs as well.
Re. equipment, machine tools, etc, this is just as fallacious. Europe is on aggregate the second producer of machine tools in the world after China. It would be entirely feasible for European companies to expedite machine tool building for the military industry just with some financial incentives and some political pressure. Also, you don't need any newly designed equipment (something that eats into lead times) in order to produce existing types of weapons, ammunition, etc. The blueprints are already there!
No, folks. What we are seeing here is a mix of galactic sized incompetence on the political side coupled with an equally humongous greed & filthy lucre by the MIC.
Reflection: the military industry is a "walled" industry, it is basically an oligopoly where it is next to impossible for external companies to enter. If military industry is "opened up" by an "almost war economy" policy,
1) other existing companies that do work in a competitive environment would enter the game and would produce better and cheaper than the legacy MIC;
2) the existing MIC will lose control of critical IP
In short in that scenario, the legacy MIC would go the way of the dinosaurs. And they (of course) know it.
It would be useful if you provided some facts and figures to support your assertions
The report quoted did so, and suggested that the shortages were Europe wide
It appears that the European arms industry is producing very very little at very very high prices
Witness the French delivery of 3000 artillery shells per month, enough for 6 hours expenditure, using the generally given 10,000 shells per day
You can blame the ruling class for faking shortages to raise prices and for incompetence, you may not neglect that one of such incompetencies is de industrialising, and the first result is de skilling the labour force
You can not claim ruling class greed and incompetence exist in parallel with the sufficient maintenance of adequate production capacity and the adequate maintenance of sufficient skilled labour both of which are, for some reason, retained on standby but not in production-
The EU armaments industry has been downsized along with all military infrastructures accompanied by shrunken army personnel – witness the German army struggle to man and equip a 4,000 strong brigade to be deployed to Lithuania in 2027, a task of such Herculean proportions
Actually, I'm working on a longer article on this precise topic, but i'm struggling to find the time for it. I'll link to it here at Simpl's once i publish it.
For now some basic arguments:
1) Europe has still on aggregate the 2nd largest industrial sector in the world after China, and competes mostly in advanced sectors, its biggest gap is in consumer electronics.
2) Aggregate industrial jobs in Europe in 2022-23 are ca. 32.000.000 and revenue is ca. 2,5T€.
4) meaning, defence jobs are less than 2% and revenue is about 3% of total.
There is ample room to take skilled people and assets from the rest of the industrial sector and into defence manufacturing.
De-industrialization is definitely here, but it started in earnest during the covid years. This is not like the USA where industry was dismantled starting in the 70s-80s. It cannot be argued that skilled labour in Europe has been lost after 3-5 years of downturn.
It cannot be argued that there is skill loss due to de-industrialization and at the same time that there is a skill shortage.
Re. other bottlenecks like equipment / machine tools / facilities, i guess you should take my word for now. I have worked building new processing lines and refurbishing existing ones and from my experience this shouldn't be a real bottleneck if there would be some political support.
This isn't correct. Deindustrialization started around 2000 in the USA. This is when China's rise really took off. The EU is in the same boat. German mamufacturing was doing OK. Probably better than in the USA per capitabut in both cases energy policy is what makes it all problematic. The end of Nord Stream is the end of German industry. Energy policy and industrialization go hand and hand. The USA hasn't increased energy production in 25 years. It is decreasing in Europe. You can't have an energy policy based on climate change and run heavy industry on wind and solar. US and EU oligarchs colluded with China to turn it into the manufacturing powerhouse of the world. They get their cut and become fabulously wealthy at the expense of the citizens in the West. This is the climate change scam. You can see all of this in these charts. This is actually Klaus Schwab's claim to fame. He was the face of Western capital driving investment and tech transfer to China starting in the late 70s. It is why Xi Jinping personally hung the Chinese reform friendship medal on his neck in the great hall in 2018. It is truly quite remarkable people take him seriously on all his climate change BS when all he accomplished was driving all the coal to China at cheap prices since the West didn't want it anymore.
You are of course correct re. energy policy as one of the foundations of industrial policy!
Re. de-industrialization - this is a complex topic, there can be different metrics to measure the process, and i don't claim to be an über-expert on it. The issue with de-industrialization is that (absent a catastrophic event) it takes a long time to play out. The USA still does a lot of manufacturing now even if it is only a shadow of its former self of the 1950s when it was by very far the only manufacturing power.
My issue is with the people that claim that industrial warfare in the West (especially Europe) has failed mainly because of de-industrialization and/or high energy prices.
The root cause of European industry not being able to ramp up military production is because of political incompetence and the unchecked greed of the MIC.
It is possible to point out that your argument is circular
A better ordering of this vicious circle -
Political incompetence allied to ideological stupidity and fear of the working class - ok one and the same
- produce de industrialisation (remember the famous Thatcher boast of 'post industrial society')
- prioritises/produces financial capitalism resulting in more industrial off shoring, gleeful ignorance and dissolution of the importance of military strength in favour of the excercise of inevitable superiority granted by ideological and financial power
- resulting in ever increasing distancing from any notions of a native productive practical industrial economy, resulting in increased political incompetence re inforced by infighting over political purity
-results in a passive low wage de skilled native working class constantly under threat from lower paid less competent immigrants, without agency or involvement such a working class becomes overobese pharma’d generally incapable
-results in attempts to transition to a misunderstood and mismanaged climate change economy - largely dependent on technology and products from other countries- which dispenses with practical recognition of real world energy resources allies and prices
-Amplified to the current crescendo of corrupt incompetence on display by the EU
Power lust, Greed, incompetence, arrogance, wasted schooling/talent, the financialization of everything... it was around the 2000s too when US engineers, mathematicians, physicists all started moving into finance. Only an idiot took a real job.... but control the food, control the people; control the resources, control the continent; control the money, control the world. The best and brightest think they all had it figured out. The DOD openly stated their policy was full spectrum dominance. That kind of reaching is what is going to cause pushback and the decay of your own civilization.
It would be very interesting to write a comprehensive and complete article comparing EU/NATO/US armaments production with RF
With facts and figures across the board – all figures one sees generally reported are isolated and incidental
You say that the capacity in EU exists, along with the work force – the constantly re iterated intentions of the EU bureaucrats and the various nations’ ruling class is to increase armaments production
In turn this involves a myriad of associated and related industries, and considerations of energy and materiel costs
One may understand that both EU bureaucracies and political governing classes are incompetent, and that both are lying, and that isolated small scale initiatives are all that are being planned, contracted and undertaken
The contrast with the RF production is vivid, not one of degree but one of structure and design – the apparent success of which must imply that any initiatives the EUNATOUS may take within their current methods of production are doomed to failure
As is heated talk of conscription
In the EU, a reversal to expanding large scale industrial production in any domain, let alone armaments, is impossible – or perhaps it would be better to wait for you to present your findings before making such declaration
Everyone lies. As an (anally retentive) student of military stats, I think the Ukraine war's metrics will never be known, but there may be a vague tabulation some years hence - if a little radioactive. And numbers mean different things to different people. Who all have an angle. Trusting in these sort of numbers is the route to madness, especially when the numbers are intended to mislead. My position is to look at what is plausible and extrapolate from there. Assumption based on assumption. What could go wrong? ;-)
Having said that, looks to me that Ukraine and its military are starting to collapse. Not sure at all when that may be, but suggest at the end of May we will be able to predict an end game.
The price of energy to run the factories in the EU zone is crippling them. Many business are going bankrupt & closing down. Just today one of Germanies most well known companies announced it's filed for bankruptcy. There might be plenty of manufacturing workers, plenty of empty factories. But there's no companies can afford to run them. It's well know the arms manufacturers are charging 3 or 4 x times the normal price for each shell. So the purchasing power has gone right down. Everything has to be paid for. Unlike the EU Russia had an abundance of very cheap energy, an abundance of the resources needed for all its weapons & ammunition. Factories all up & running easily expanded. Workers making very good money working 3 shifts & lastly an abundance of money available to pay for everything.
"As for skilled workers looking for good paying jobs, there are plenty in the EU."
There are plenty of jobs because there is no one to fill them. (So say the newspapers and local news shows in europe.)
"Europe is on aggregate the second producer of machine tools in the world after China."
DE was the machine tool powerhouse. DE decided go go out of business and move to CN. Why? cheaper, better trained workforce, younger work force and no Oaf the Oaf Scholz. (So say the newspapers and local news shows in europe.)
Well, the newspapers and news shows have been insisting for close to 2 years that the Ukrainians are very, very close to liberate Ukraine and march into Moscow...
Very different-- please! Pushing a geopolitical narrative is not equivalent to talking to local employers and getting their opinions. The lies and twisted truth levels are 15-30 x higher with the geopolitical narrative
Don’t take it too seriously compa, this here talk is just old Americans talking themselves up as, you know, “the generation that could do eveeeerything and be manly too”. One of their hobbies is to look down on everyone born after 1980 (and outside the US).
It is exactly what I’ve been thinking yesterday listening to the Alexander Mercouris’ daily video. He mentioned lack of skilled labor while people beg for good jobs. Working in a factory is a thing you could learn in a few days or weeks, it’s just about a few repetitive tasks.
It’s a problem of sheer incompetence of the political class and greed of the corporate leaders.
I work in a hardware tech/manufacturing industry in the US (not MIC however), and I have a similar view. The capacity exists to build at scale exists. The management is poor compared to what we know is possible from late 20th century norms, and poor in a way that can affect results. The business structures are made in a way that things take longer and cost more. But if political will is there (i.e. congress okay to write 10 figure checks, which they have been), you can and I think will see large scale manufacturing of weapons (or anything, really) return with something like a 2-5 year lead time. We are now just under two years in, so take that as a reality check. By the end of this year, we will probably start to see more western origin hardware floating around. Unclear if with the right choices made, unclear who receives it, etc.
Do you have any facts and figures for increased armaments production? Say in 155mm shells which seems to be used as a basic standard measure, or drones, or….Patriots…or….
Is the return on investment sufficient to entice corporate to re open or re build 155mm shell factories? Are the ancillary industries functioning- Or been off shored?
The shift to ever more glittery avionics has been marked by failure, as have recent attempts at ship building
The industry has a bad record in existing production –
As I said, I do not work in the field. I am sharing a perspective on the state of industry in the US. What I have seen firsthand is how my own industry responded to Covid. I'm saying potential for industrial mobilization exists (albeit at appallingly un-competitive cost). Can't give you insight on whether it is put to use.
One nugget of public info I found tho as an example that might help put it in more specific terms. There was a discussion about NASAMS in recent days. The nominal lead time for those systems was 2 years (probably that figure subject to capacity of the then-existing supply chains). Per congressional reports, funds were allocated to purchase them mid 2022. Delivery (to the DoD, don't know what they then do with it) would thus be expected this year.
For cases where they *also* have to build out supply chains, which is what we're really talking about wrt/ Ukraine - add an additional couple years (in normal circumstances) to build and staff the factories. But maybe also discount a couple years if they're in true wartime survival mode (I'd say not, but who knows). That's what I'm trying to tell you.
Re: the industry has a bad record, etc .... you don't have to convince me, I agree. One should expect every type of fiasco on the way from here to there. But rearmament is not impossible, it's just expensive.
The discussion may revolve around assessments as to whether the MIC is amenable to any external influences or pressure, especially from the government: it is commonly claimed that the pressure and influence runs the other way round – a daisy chain of blinkered corruption
A minute example may be seen in the expeditionary force against the Ansarallah - $2M missiles facing off against $2,000 drones – the US has no efficient $2,000 drones, and even if they did they would not know what to do with them
Why and how may the Pentagon/MIC be obliged to re think? By whom? By the ruling/governing class that shares interests mind set and cash?
I know of no examples of any re build of any factories – every and any comments merely go over the same we must defend democracy spiel that the EU uses, but fails ever to be specific as to shells on the ground, or ChinaRussia free supplies of crucial metals and minerals, nuts and bolts, and so on
The most one sees is messianic blab about AI and the Pentagon adopting VC techniques of funding ‘promising’ start ups
The truth is – it is too late to re mount an industrial economy in the US, as in the EU, with the appropriate strength knowledge and determination to re structure society politics and commerce, as was possible as recently as WWII, but which has been destroyed, purposefully, ever since
US lack of a "full stack" manufacturing industry is addressed by importing much of the critical tooling. That's not the impediment. Goes back to the OP comment to which you were responding above. Most of the stuff the US lacks, can be had from EU, JP, Korea etc. Production lines can and do start up from scratch as a matter of routine, I see it often enough. The issue is the organizational dysfunction, and to some degree the staffing.
Eventually the big weapons contractors will get Congress to cough up whatever obscene figure they're holding out for, and will do the work - give or take on the timeline.
All this is understood I think. For the neocons etc, part of the "silver lining" of all the simultaneous geopolitical crisis we're having, is that it gives everyone involved in Washington the excuse they need to cut that ginormous check. Some of them whine that the exact investment made is not the particular one they want ... maybe they have a pet weapons system, maybe they're a species of hawk more interested in China or Russia or Israel or whatever, and each situation requires slightly different gear. But I think it's clear where we're going - big $$$ to be spent in the west on weapons capability.
Does the ft article mention how one of the ft's passions - ESG investing Environmental, Social and Governmental - has seen pension funds and asset managers move away from arms manufacturers (because they are bad, just like energy companies), making it extremely hard for them to find investors needed to finance the production expansions western gov's have announced?
No the FT does not - although they have articles about how ESG has slipped off the corporate score board in the US
One can note that the most rabid of warmongers in the EU are the Green, in particular the German, so one must guess that armaments are a Green priority
We're in a moment where many long term historical waves seem to be peaking, among them we seem to be watching an unexpected face off between industrial capitalism and financial capitalism.
Both are doomed, the one in the short run, as now, the other in the long run, unless President Putins Year of the Family and Russian nationalism does not succeed in reversing current demographic trends
Economic and population data across the globe demonstrate this demographic truth: a second-order polynomial regression on five decades of data from forty-three countries yields an R-squared of 0.33 and a p-value of < .00001.3
Constant immigration also seems to rest on a sort of “biological imperialism.” In order for wealthy countries to attract enough immigrants to counteract their demographic decline, poor countries must remain poor so that they can serve as breeding grounds for the developed economies’ labor forces. In an echo of historic systems of colonial resource extraction, it is almost as if poorer countries are not being allowed to develop so that they can continue to export human capital to the developed world—what commentators from these poorer countries mean when they talk about “brain drain.” Eventually, however, these countries will develop and the large pools of labor they make available will dry up.
Even if immigration did work to prevent society from aging (and it does not), it could not work forever unless we forced poorer countries to remain forever poor.
Socialist Sweden, under the tutelage of economist Gunnar Myrdal and his wife Avril, has been pursuing pro-natalist state policies since the 1960s—state child¬care, better maternity leave laws, etc.17 But Sweden’s fertility rates have fallen and its population has aged along with the rest of Europe’s, and the country now faces a political crisis around its lax migration policies.
Yet the Swedish solution was a socialist one, in that it sought to replace the family with the state—a dream which appears already in the Communist Manifesto. More recently, nonsocialist countries have been experimenting with family policies that seek not to replace the family but to support it. The most prominent of these countries is Hungary, which instituted a series of ambitious family policies in 2015, including mortgage support, tax breaks, direct cash payments, and a sophisticated public relations campaign. And Hungary has seen some success as a result of these efforts: since 2015, the Hungarian fertility rate has risen 28 percent and the marriage rate has risen 88 percent.18
Left to its own devices, capitalism’s categorical imperative of work and consumption is, in the end, at odds with its structural needs, as it discourages family formation and thus stymies the capitalist economy’s ability to grow. This is the core contradiction of capitalism—much more profound than anything Marx imagined.
The Americans can do nothing to 'recover' Deterrence:
The Iranians will strike back with their immense arsenal of high-precision ASBMs, SRBMs & IRBMs in the case of American aggression towards any Iranian assets (be they on home soil or not).
The Middle East finally proved to be wiser, as America cannot any more recruit a suitable proxy (ISIS being their best and only bet ATM). Unfortunately, the situation is not as positive with regards to Russia. Idiot Eastern Europeans tow in line for slaughter, which makes the war in Ukraine still exceptionally cheap investment for the US oligarchy. A complete win win. Only stupid Slavs are dying
are we on the same planet? Russia is striking at various bunkers where 'NATO advisors' are deployed in Ukraine, wiping out detachments of 'humanitarian volunteers' (aka NATO assigned contractors) in bases, hotels, even when they set up a meeting in a restaurant. What has Iran done equivalent to that? 'Allow' some Shia militia (over which Iran has fairly limited control anyway) in a third country to launch an attack on a base in a third country? Russia is far more powerful than Iran, in every possible dimension, much more stable, and is playing on many more fields that Iran has to, Russia has significantly more tools too - I do not think comparison is fair to Iran in terms of what each country can do.
Russia is changing world. Literally. This huge implode of the west insanely accelerated in 2022 by Russian actions. And showed that king has no closes. What Iran does right now is uncomparable smaller with what Russia doing.
Western Africa is a place to watch. Niger is putting the pressure on to close Airbase 201. Basically ECOWAS has fallen to pieces. Mali and Burkino Faso have kicked out the French and the 'Blue Lids' [U.N.G.C. troops] and want ALL Yanks gone as well.
When even a Yankee propaganda outlet like 'Task & Pupose' say it is bad it is:
Some commentators are saying that RU and Burkino Faso have become quite chummy. There are other commentators saying that RU is helping train local soldiers so that the old Wagner guys don't have to do all the heavy lifting.
And if they do? Then I assume the conventional wisdom will say the US must escalate even MORE, then Iran will escalate right back. But if the US could deliver such a knockout blow right at the get go, then why don't they?
Iran have told those communist Yanks to go screw themselves. I am pretty sure the spat with Pakistan was mutually beneficial though as both lost PITA internal terrorist groups.
There is a simple way to tell who is master. If you command some people to drink water on a hot day, and they do, you haven't proven anything. But if you command them to drink piss, and they do, then you know who is master and who is servant. The US does not get a damn thing from its relationship with Israel. "Unsinkable aircraft carrier" is nonsense because the US doesn't need such a thing. Control of ME oil ? Washington had that, and Israel only gets in the way. Face the fact: The US drinks Zionist piss.
I loved all the nafo-types twittering about "Iran FAFO." a few days ago.
So Iran fucked around... and now we are finding out that the USA was all like, "Iran, can we please drop one bomb on an empty old chicken coop?" And Iran was all like, "No." And then the USA was all like, "OK, sorry for asking." And then Biden holds his hands up near his face for like 5 minutes for no reason.
What no-one is mentioning is that the bombing of Tower 22 in Jordan was in part retaliation for General Qassim Suleimani four years ago. Iran is a major power player in the Middle East and a logistics nexus for transport furth South as well as a growing distribution poin for the surrounding nations. EVERYBODY wants the Yanks gone, Israel too.
BRICS+ is going from strength to strength and trade is booming. Great stuff alright.
Israel doesn't want them gone. They want the money, weapons, and support whenever they demand and for the USA to never ask questions or make any demands no matter how practical. The US has largely held things together through bribery, corruption, and threats the last 70 years. The US is not the force in the world it used to be though
This came about because of the Iranian revolution that got rid of the Shit of Iran. The US perforce had to rely on the zionazi-Saud pervert axis, hence the Palestinians being sacrificed. The martyrdom of the Palestinians was forecast in the early 80s, when newspapers still printed reportage rather than journalism.
Please someone make a movie in the next 10 years. It will make Stanley Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove look like a wistful better time for the military and political classes that now pollute the West.
Muh, muh....here is a cca 10 years old research showing that USA is oligarchy, and it got much, much worse in the last 10 years. You can download the article.
Each of four theoretical traditions in the study of American politics—which can be characterized as theories of Majoritarian Electoral Democracy, Economic-Elite Domination, and two types of interest-group pluralism, Majoritarian Pluralism and Biased Pluralism—offers different predictions about which sets of actors have how much influence over public policy: average citizens; economic elites; and organized interest groups, mass-based or business-oriented.
A great deal of empirical research speaks to the policy influence of one or another set of actors, but until recently it has not been possible to test these contrasting theoretical predictions against each other within a single statistical model. We report on an effort to do so, using a unique data set that includes measures of the key variables for 1,779 policy issues.
Multivariate analysis indicates that economic elites and organized groups representing business interests have substantial independent impacts on U.S. government policy, while average citizens and mass-based interest groups have little or no independent influence. The results provide substantial support for theories of Economic-Elite Domination and for theories of Biased Pluralism, but not for theories of Majoritarian Electoral Democracy or Majoritarian Pluralism."
My god, stop using the word communism when you’ve run out of anything coherent to say. The great problem US workers have is precisely that, they have zero political understanding, so they can’t find a way. And I’m not saying communism of the classical kind is the future but a proper understanding of concepts is certainly part of the solution. Otherwise you gonna carry on being manipulated out of your country.
Terror of all sorts of fascist head choppers and organ harvesters your govts support, being unleashed upon yourselves. Maybe TX will be the catalyst for this. Lets hope for the best, knock on the wood, God willing....
Ah, the mental meltdown that would be, remember the societal meltdown re "rus bounties on yanks" in Afghanistan.
Alright but I wont accept anyone less than Elon as my democratic emperor president, Vivek Ramaswamy as his VP, and he must appoint Ben Shapiro as secretary of facts and logic.
Queers need to be thrown off tall buildings. Bunch of mentally fucked-up weirdo paedophiles in most part buggering childrens lives and destroying once civilised societies.
Precisely the reason why you became a decadent nation and you’re starting to pay for it: your real national religion is partisan hate. And not matter how fast you pedal now or in which direction, you’re doomed.
Where did I hear today that if iran shuts down the straights of hormuz , must have been garland nixon, We-ll be paying like 17-bucks for. Gallon of gas and. 17- for a loaf a bread and we'd all go broke, no missiles required.
Victoria nuland is looking for the detachable penis she lost in the 2014 coup , last seen in an old song on sale for a bargain
She wins the miss piggy look alike contest, and John Kirby is really a piece of stuffed pantyhose puppettty
Vicky is looking like shit. She was reasonably attractive twenty five years ago. That's what happens when you are dealing in evil. It catches up with you on the outside also...
Looks like the despicable US regime may collapse first, judging by how things are going so far this year. It's the US that's on verge of civil war (e.g. Texas) not Iran.
The Texas v. US Gov. Is ALL theatre 🎭. Check Rense out for a video showing a Texan driving less than a mile from where all the barbed wire and news crews and see wide open gates in the boarder fense. It's a psyop designed to give Biden another J6 for election optics. The deep state has no intention of letting Trump win without pulling out all the stops🚏🛑 first. Trump might still win but he's no saviour. Mr operation warp speed will do as his handlers instruct. That is to set the scene for more destabilizeation. So in the end I probably agree with you that the USA is going down the drain but the civil war will be more likely civil collapse while the patriots polish their gun cabinets and wait for Christ to reappear.
I would put my money with the USA which is the saviour of the west before a brutal Russian Despot and invader like Putin and the brutal Chinese and the despicable theocracy of Iran
those wide open gates are well known locations constantly monitored by the USBP. They allow farmers access to their land that lies between the fence and the Rio Grande. I know because I managed the contracts to build 250 miles of fence and over 50 such gates. It's all about real estate and rights of way...
I don't think we'll come to a Civil War in the USA soon. I've seen videos showing that Eagel Pass is rather a localized bit of theater with open paths as close as 15 km east. It could blow up into something big for a short time.
Wil E. Coyote has a better understanding, it seems, than you and your neocon bullies. You don't seem to get it. Russia, China and Iran are subjecting the US and the Western alliance to death by a thousand cuts. A frog in in boiling water has a better chanced of surviving what is happening now to the West.
> I don’t think pedocratic government by hedonistic perverts being funded by foreign interests and blackmailed by other foreign interests is normally what was historically meant by “democracy”. Nor is there any American national interest to be found in expanding this form of democracy elsewhere around the world.
I think it's like that troll on Zerohedge who used to be called "Million Dollar Bonus". Total method actor, said stupid things that nobody with an IQ over room temperature could say, but never once revealed he was joking. Played it straight the whole time.
I'd been taking him seriously as a deluded American MSM-watcher until now, but he's upped the idiocy just a touch today with the "protection for our LGTBIQ+ people" stuff. So now I think you're right. Maybe he is aiming to achieve MDB's status where everybody knew he must really be joking, so upvoted him for the quality of the satire.
Given the spammy, mindless, provocative nature of John The 1st's posts, this seems to be a shill assigned to disrupt the comments section. I advise our host to take necessary action.
I'm not so sure about that. Simplicius is an important source of red-pilled info, and he's been targeted by the fags recently. Like I said, the comments are of the slide thread/forum disruption variety. While Free Speech is important, small platforms like this are well within their rights to drop the banhammer to defend the space from spam/derailing tactics.
Between 4th and 26th of July 2024 please. Because Murcia has its freedom day the 4th, and the 26th is the glorious Paris olympics. So If they can squeeze those elections there it would be nice
The USA is successfully executing the G7 approved plan to bring democracy to the Middle East - Libya, Syria and Iraq rejoice, you will be joined by democratic Iran soon.
You should add opening the economy to allow US companies to control their oil, dismantle their arms industry, and start buying USA equipment. Return to the petrodollar, and leave BRICS. Convert to Christianity, and make their official language English :)
A forlorn plea to have Europe punch it’s alleged considerable economic weight, full of hymns to EU centralisations, sanctions and….an even more forlorn plea - pathos ridden - to revive the debate on the confiscation of CBR assets, while studiously avoiding making any sort of argument as to why what or how
The author is a would be politician and hanger on financed by Ukraine government factions – why the FT publishes him is hard to say, perhaps he makes their other reporters look better than otherwise they would, perhaps they blackmail secret documents out of the EU by threatening to send him to Brussels
This article was so authoritarian- focused on regulation and rule, rather than order and organisation; so oblivious of the structure and function of the EU that even the FT commenters rejected it en masse as craven pander – the FT audience is not known to be Russia friendly
If there is one aspect of EU policy re RF which everyone is certain was stupid beyond belief, it is the EU ‘economic sanctions’ – to attempt to revive this corpse is Frankenstein – ian
IMF predicts 2.6% economic expansion in Russia this year, and downgraded Germany to .5%
🤣🤣🤣 wow FT delusion. That and the Economist have the best (sic) City of London"economics" and Neo-Con geopolitical cover. Good god-- good to know nothing has changed since my economic study days.
Politics goes on but it's frustrating for the suffering masses. US can have back door deals with Iran but it'll only maintain status quo at best. US troops will not leave the region, Syria will remain a mess while US and Israel will continue with their on and off terrorist activities in the region. Ceasefire in Gaza will come about...again to maintain current status quo, to help Israel against ICJ, there will be some aid and rebuilding in Gaza with slow ethnic cleansing of Palestinians will carry on.
If we really want a change of world system, bloody wars and ww2 style destruction is inevitable. This seems to be the best time with collective West at its weakest economically and militarily. If China really wants to be seen as the primary world power, they need to be more proactive, military too, instead of sitting back and just grabbing benefit out of the chaos all around.
Mali, Algeria, Burkino Faso and Niger are all primed and ready to go at a moments notice.
Yankeeland has insane warmongers like the coward Lindsey Graham and the raving loony Niki Hochul ranting and raving with most of its MSM run by kikes, staffed by idiots and an ignorant delusion population high on drugs that thinks Yankeeland is a superpower. It won't last much longer.
Musk adding payments to X doesn’t guarantee he won’t bend the knee if asked.
The best strategy is diversification.
I would get on telegram if I were you just to have a backup as it seems to me the only safe venue when/if X turns out to be a single point of failure, coupled with multiple payment providers including crypto.
Musk is controlled by other billionaires. Apple and Google can cancel his X app on thier phones/tablets on a whim. His suppliers and bankers in his other businesses are all billionaires. He's obviously resisting best way he can and if bending the knee to Zionism allows him to stay open a little longer I'm for it. I starting paying the $8 as soon as twitter files came out and still have no regrets.
Well, this is news to me that a CWIS can intercept at a mile. When I was around those things--the land based versions, anyway--they auto-detonated at 650 meters.
"Israel is on a scorched earth tear, and the US is running behind it with a fire extinguisher, desperately trying to keep the flames under control."
A fire extinguisher? More like a flame thrower - there is a constant flow of military transport planes filled with weapons and ammo into Israel and the US is providing ISR to help target. They are vetoing every effort of the UNSC to get this under control.
Fire extinguisher or flame thrower? There is a poetic beauty to how these seemingly contradictory metaphors indeed sum up the absurdity of the entire situation. The power of an oxymoron. Good teamwork Victor and Simplicius :)
Yes, somehow the media has convinced many open minded people to repeat the narrative that the Biden admin. is actually trying to deescalate the region. In my unsophisticated opinion, this is exactly the U.S. playbook, while it may be true some Generals "know" they cannot fight a real war. The MIC and the Israeli lobby think "war" is flying over and dropping bombs on defenseless countries. IF you do NOT hold that opinion publicly, you will never be promoted to an actual decision maker. I cannot believe how many people have climbed onboard "fantasy Island" where the U.S. actually does not push for more war
Agreed. If they are quibbling about anything it's the to what degree the US will be directly involved and when. The Garrison state is supposed to supply the blood, the US supplies the weapons. Israel was supposed to play the part Ukraine is playing now. Mad dog slips it's leash and does damage to its neighbors at great cost to itself, if necessary. Fight Russia to the last Ukrainian, fight Iran to the last Israeli. Unfortunately the only thing that will keep the Zionist project from collapse is decisive victory with minimal cost (casualties, economic, etc) and that is definitely impossible without US intervention, and might not be possible with it. And if the US has to defend Israel with its own soldiers, Intelligence, logicistics, etc, where is the ROI for America?
I do not believe the tail wags the dog, so to speak. I think US was paying for an unsinkable US aircraft carrier that can provide its own military intelligence and can conscript it's own effective army. But, it's starting to look like they didn't get what they paid for.
I'm sure there's an app out there that lets you post to multiple social media platforms. Bebo and DD Geopol appear to be using it. They don't interact with users on TG at all other than through a chat mod bot. I think you should consider it.
1 Febuary 2024 For Once- a Fact Filled article from the FT on EU armaments production failures
https://www.ft.com/content/82df3e5a-f899-4ba9-aec7-e33069b06843
The article is not written by a journalist but by a security and defence industry insider– hence more facts and less propaganda
The first sentence is a good reminder of where to start
‘History shows that when the political class ignore the fortunes of manual workers, it often comes back to bite them’
‘It’s not just the so-called primes — the large defence companies that sell directly to governments — that are facing a worker deficit; it’s their suppliers too. “In the defence industry today everyone needs machines, everyone needs skilled workers,” David Chour, chief executive of the Czechoslovak Group (CSG), told me. “It’s very difficult to find the machinery, and the delivery time is longer and longer.”
CSG, which manufactures the Howitzer 155mm ammunition used by Nato countries and Ukraine, would like to accelerate production. The wait for new machines is almost four years. (CSG already runs three-shift days on its existing machinery). “If we had sufficient capacity, we’d be able to produce three times more ammunition than we are now,” Chour said. ‘
What is true of armaments is true of the rest of industry, the health of a nation, as the RF has lately proven: so one begins to understand why a security consultant is interested/ing
It is possible the USEU ruling class is beginning, just beginning, to realise ‘something’ is wrong with their self destructive version of capitalism
Or perhaps not- see :
« Geurre en Ukraine La France livrera 3,000 obus par mois à L’Ukraine jusqu’en fin 2024’
Le Figaro 18 January 2024
https://www.lefigaro.fr/international/guerre-en-ukraine-la-france-livrera-3000-obus-par-mois-a-l-ukraine-jusqu-a-fin-2024-20240118
‘Le ministre indique également qu’à compter de janvier 2024, Paris va livrer une cinquantaine de missiles chaque mois jusqu’à la fin de l’année. «Entre février 2022 et fin 2023, c'était 2000 obus par mois» livrés par la France à l’Ukraine, «à partir de janvier, ce sera 3000 obus par mois», a fait savoir Sébastien Lecornu.’
The French criticise other EU countries for making announcements of deliveries which are neverever followed up, citing the Germans
France has made an offer to the EU to manufacture 78 Ceasars, on the condition that France will pay for 12, Uk will pay for 6, the rest to be financed by other EU countries
Although production takes 15 months, cut from 30, France has promised to deliver them this year….(?)
https://www.euronews.com/2024/01/18/france-to-deliver-more-caesar-artillery-systems-to-ukraine
Backed up by another EU empty head appeal to European Values, ‘democracy is great let’s re arm must be a great idea’ https://www.ft.com/content/0d24aade-7701-4298-89ff-2843a47466c5
Crony Capitalism and importing people, mostly low skill/IQ and looking for a handout will be end of the West. Education is already so dumbed down people graduating HS cant read or do math which is not going to compete with Russian or Chinese kids coming out of HS doing calculus and reading a couple languages. Western Nations are hopelessly divided from the streets to the board rooms. Demise of West actually started 40-50 years ago it's just burning through credit, legacy systems, and capital built for hundreds of years before that which is masking effects of third rate power. A slow bleed that's hard to see until an adversary challenges us directly as is the case with weapon production.
I believe the RF has an entire academy devoted to drone studies, with a number of graduates per year I can no long remember but considerable
All westie pols and MSM state let's rearm let's conscript - but there are very few examples or programs given - this is merely to scare the huddled masses
The ruling class fear of the working class and their obsession with low cost labour are guaranteed to prevent any serious to scale re armament or re army if ication
A citizen's army? help
https://warontherocks.com/2024/01/how-the-west-can-match-russia-in-drone-innovation/
A discussion of Russia's leading developments in drone warfare, a critical combination of citizen volunteer 'commercial' drone innovation, and collaboration with military advances - with especial emphasis on AI
Compared and favourably contrasted with Ukraine, and especially with sluggish slowmo US developments
One may guess that any EU/Nato programs are still at the hail democracy we who are about to die stage
A "drone academy" in NATO-land would mean that the MIC would lose control of drone technology IP and would allow new players to compete in that area.
Something too terrifying to contemplate....
And the students would have to be filtered for diversity.
Quotas would be needed!
Equity!
I was bored when shopping with my wife recently so sat and people watched. As the military aged came in to my sight I scored them yay or nay.
The overwhelming majority were nays.
Good luck with the conscription NATO and lackeys.
One of the contradictions of capitalism. For it to operate unhindered the mass of people have to be encouraged to disengage and become nearly useless. A double edged sword if there’s ever been one.
We've gone to finance capitalism, rent extraction at its most parasitic level. It's unchecked because all defences (i.e. reform) have been neutered. Every action is counterproductive; a gerontocracy surrounded by a hungry praetorian guard.
This is one of my favorite ironies: the same elites who decry the 'populist onslaught on democracy' can only think of 'green' in terms of Saving the Planet (amen). Wearing fatiques is absolutely, totally and most certainly not for them but for other people:
Percentage of Europeans Who Are Willing To Fight A War For Their Country
https://bit.ly/3OfGsXk
Western Europeans dominate the 'we're so post war' clique:
37% – Denmark
29% – France
28% – Portugal
27% – United Kingdom
26% – Iceland
25% – Bulgaria
23% – Czech Republic
21% – Austria
21% – Spain
20% – Italy
19% – Belgium
18% – Germany
15% – The Netherlands
Now guess what political segment most likely dominates the above percentages...I bet they're not that concerned with saving the planet...
I can say this, any effort to reinstitute a draft outside the occurrence of 9/11 on steroids and actual war will ignite the fire that will start our own little war here at home.
A war won't be popular, but nobody will ask. Cooling off in his prison cell, Hermann Goering had some choice words on the subject.
I can remember meeting visiting 'American Experts' in the early 1980's that couldn't even spell their own name correctly! It was virtually impossible to decipher anything they wrote as they were from the "It doesn't matter if other people can't understand it as long as you do" school.
When you are trying to deal with idiots who can't read the notes they made the week before you lose contracts.
From what I have seen things have gotten worse.
Over time we became the laziest country in the world, say I. So cozy, our army ruled the world, and we all wanted to work in services, not production. And our industry dwindled to a few basics: tech products and war toys and some autos. And everything was made in China, as once it was made in Japan. And the radicalists and psychos went into the schools and took over the administration and began turning our kids into totally confused freaks without so much as a concept of who they were as humans. And the parents were out there either struggling to keep their heads above water or making money hand over fist and having fun, too. But too little time for those kids who were being reshaped in the schools. And the US had no active visionary minds in DC outside the vision of ruling the world absolutely and so we bullied and threatened and bombed and claimed all the conquered as our friends. Stupid, aren't we? We destroyed ourselves, nobody has to do it for us.
As per my comment above, I’m beginning to see the USA as a gargantuan host who’s about to get a dose of “the next phase”, which is not on the whole good or 90% of the people who live there.
Don’t understand the IQ comment. So far every immigrant I have met surpasses the average local in intelligence and alertness and displays better work ethic. And they often speak and write better English.
Migration is not a random uncorrelated pattern of hodge podge foreigners. There is a very strong self-selection bias. Perhaps the place where you live attracts a certain type of immigrants.
I can attest to this being that case at least as far as I am able to perceive. The past two decades has in part been a case of applying various short term solutions and engineered bubble bursting. It has to end sometime and with the demise of the petro-dollar on the horizon that time cannot be far off. The education system in the USA is is not prioritized in the direction of capable self motivated students, and the ScreenAger culture surrounding us is causing crushing stultification in all strata of society. Over half STEM PhD student are from outside the US. Most other nations seem to have a greater sense of cultural continuity when compared to the US and as such seek to somehow preserve it. Not so much for the US of A, which appears to be a vast host-state for various parasitic forces. Due to Regulatory Capture the MIC has managed to shift the priority of weapons systems from ‘robust useable’ to ‘bloated, complex, unreliable and very expensive’
That reality is being played out as we speak on the plain of Donbas.
You make an excellent argument and you are citing well known facts that those of us who are informed understand. Another reason is hunger and desire. Many of the immigrants, especially Asian students, do better is that they are driven to succeed and know education is the key to obtaining their dreams. In the west our students suffer under indoctrination that does not advance their education, and entitlement. They are led to believe that if they just show up they will get a trophy and this coincides with their life expectations. They believe they will all start out better than their parents who might have actually worked hard to attain the comforts their children have come to expect. What happened to advanced programs for gifted students? cut because they are racist or white supremacy so they dumb it down enough that less gifted students appear to on par.
Just like what happened to Britain. Classic end of empire days. IMHO the difference between what is the US experience and what was the UK experience is based on cultural issues. The UK has an institutionalized class based culture ,whereas the US being the younger -247 yrs.- can hopefully limit that path before getting the same deeply ingrained classism. 🤞
For many decades now the Trades have been looked down upon by U.E.I.s [University Educated Idiots] so much so that now in most Western countries there us a dearth of Tradesmen.
While it is wonderful that so many young guys are entering the Trades and developing new skills and methods with modern technology so much knowledge has been lost and as some fellows have remarked ''these young fellas can program on the fly but don't let them near your manual machines!''. This was one of the reasons so many old retired gents were bought out of retirement to run manual machines for Yankee munition manufacture - The degree waving young ones couldn't figure out how to run the machinery!
I've worked in manufacturing for almost 20 yrs in several European countries and I can assure you that all this talk about lack of skilled workers and equipment is NONSENSE.
As for skilled workers looking for good paying jobs, there are plenty in the EU. Maybe not around Prague, where this CSG company is based, but certainly in other regions that also have lower costs as well.
Re. equipment, machine tools, etc, this is just as fallacious. Europe is on aggregate the second producer of machine tools in the world after China. It would be entirely feasible for European companies to expedite machine tool building for the military industry just with some financial incentives and some political pressure. Also, you don't need any newly designed equipment (something that eats into lead times) in order to produce existing types of weapons, ammunition, etc. The blueprints are already there!
No, folks. What we are seeing here is a mix of galactic sized incompetence on the political side coupled with an equally humongous greed & filthy lucre by the MIC.
Reflection: the military industry is a "walled" industry, it is basically an oligopoly where it is next to impossible for external companies to enter. If military industry is "opened up" by an "almost war economy" policy,
1) other existing companies that do work in a competitive environment would enter the game and would produce better and cheaper than the legacy MIC;
2) the existing MIC will lose control of critical IP
In short in that scenario, the legacy MIC would go the way of the dinosaurs. And they (of course) know it.
It would be useful if you provided some facts and figures to support your assertions
The report quoted did so, and suggested that the shortages were Europe wide
It appears that the European arms industry is producing very very little at very very high prices
Witness the French delivery of 3000 artillery shells per month, enough for 6 hours expenditure, using the generally given 10,000 shells per day
You can blame the ruling class for faking shortages to raise prices and for incompetence, you may not neglect that one of such incompetencies is de industrialising, and the first result is de skilling the labour force
You can not claim ruling class greed and incompetence exist in parallel with the sufficient maintenance of adequate production capacity and the adequate maintenance of sufficient skilled labour both of which are, for some reason, retained on standby but not in production-
The EU armaments industry has been downsized along with all military infrastructures accompanied by shrunken army personnel – witness the German army struggle to man and equip a 4,000 strong brigade to be deployed to Lithuania in 2027, a task of such Herculean proportions
Actually, I'm working on a longer article on this precise topic, but i'm struggling to find the time for it. I'll link to it here at Simpl's once i publish it.
For now some basic arguments:
1) Europe has still on aggregate the 2nd largest industrial sector in the world after China, and competes mostly in advanced sectors, its biggest gap is in consumer electronics.
2) Aggregate industrial jobs in Europe in 2022-23 are ca. 32.000.000 and revenue is ca. 2,5T€.
3) European defence industry in 2021 had a revenue of ca. 80B€ and 200.000 direct jobs (with another 300.000 indirect jobs). See here: https://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/BRIE/2023/749805/EPRS_BRI(2023)749805_EN.pdf
4) meaning, defence jobs are less than 2% and revenue is about 3% of total.
There is ample room to take skilled people and assets from the rest of the industrial sector and into defence manufacturing.
De-industrialization is definitely here, but it started in earnest during the covid years. This is not like the USA where industry was dismantled starting in the 70s-80s. It cannot be argued that skilled labour in Europe has been lost after 3-5 years of downturn.
It cannot be argued that there is skill loss due to de-industrialization and at the same time that there is a skill shortage.
Re. other bottlenecks like equipment / machine tools / facilities, i guess you should take my word for now. I have worked building new processing lines and refurbishing existing ones and from my experience this shouldn't be a real bottleneck if there would be some political support.
This isn't correct. Deindustrialization started around 2000 in the USA. This is when China's rise really took off. The EU is in the same boat. German mamufacturing was doing OK. Probably better than in the USA per capitabut in both cases energy policy is what makes it all problematic. The end of Nord Stream is the end of German industry. Energy policy and industrialization go hand and hand. The USA hasn't increased energy production in 25 years. It is decreasing in Europe. You can't have an energy policy based on climate change and run heavy industry on wind and solar. US and EU oligarchs colluded with China to turn it into the manufacturing powerhouse of the world. They get their cut and become fabulously wealthy at the expense of the citizens in the West. This is the climate change scam. You can see all of this in these charts. This is actually Klaus Schwab's claim to fame. He was the face of Western capital driving investment and tech transfer to China starting in the late 70s. It is why Xi Jinping personally hung the Chinese reform friendship medal on his neck in the great hall in 2018. It is truly quite remarkable people take him seriously on all his climate change BS when all he accomplished was driving all the coal to China at cheap prices since the West didn't want it anymore.
https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/primary-energy-cons?tab=chart&country=CHN~OWID_EUR~USA
https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/energy-consumption-by-source-and-country?stackMode=absolute&country=~CHN
https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/annual-co2-emissions-per-country?time=1919..latest&country=CHN~OWID_EUR~USA
You are of course correct re. energy policy as one of the foundations of industrial policy!
Re. de-industrialization - this is a complex topic, there can be different metrics to measure the process, and i don't claim to be an über-expert on it. The issue with de-industrialization is that (absent a catastrophic event) it takes a long time to play out. The USA still does a lot of manufacturing now even if it is only a shadow of its former self of the 1950s when it was by very far the only manufacturing power.
My issue is with the people that claim that industrial warfare in the West (especially Europe) has failed mainly because of de-industrialization and/or high energy prices.
The root cause of European industry not being able to ramp up military production is because of political incompetence and the unchecked greed of the MIC.
It is possible to point out that your argument is circular
A better ordering of this vicious circle -
Political incompetence allied to ideological stupidity and fear of the working class - ok one and the same
- produce de industrialisation (remember the famous Thatcher boast of 'post industrial society')
- prioritises/produces financial capitalism resulting in more industrial off shoring, gleeful ignorance and dissolution of the importance of military strength in favour of the excercise of inevitable superiority granted by ideological and financial power
- resulting in ever increasing distancing from any notions of a native productive practical industrial economy, resulting in increased political incompetence re inforced by infighting over political purity
-results in a passive low wage de skilled native working class constantly under threat from lower paid less competent immigrants, without agency or involvement such a working class becomes overobese pharma’d generally incapable
-results in attempts to transition to a misunderstood and mismanaged climate change economy - largely dependent on technology and products from other countries- which dispenses with practical recognition of real world energy resources allies and prices
-Amplified to the current crescendo of corrupt incompetence on display by the EU
Power lust, Greed, incompetence, arrogance, wasted schooling/talent, the financialization of everything... it was around the 2000s too when US engineers, mathematicians, physicists all started moving into finance. Only an idiot took a real job.... but control the food, control the people; control the resources, control the continent; control the money, control the world. The best and brightest think they all had it figured out. The DOD openly stated their policy was full spectrum dominance. That kind of reaching is what is going to cause pushback and the decay of your own civilization.
It would be very interesting to write a comprehensive and complete article comparing EU/NATO/US armaments production with RF
With facts and figures across the board – all figures one sees generally reported are isolated and incidental
You say that the capacity in EU exists, along with the work force – the constantly re iterated intentions of the EU bureaucrats and the various nations’ ruling class is to increase armaments production
In turn this involves a myriad of associated and related industries, and considerations of energy and materiel costs
One may understand that both EU bureaucracies and political governing classes are incompetent, and that both are lying, and that isolated small scale initiatives are all that are being planned, contracted and undertaken
The contrast with the RF production is vivid, not one of degree but one of structure and design – the apparent success of which must imply that any initiatives the EUNATOUS may take within their current methods of production are doomed to failure
As is heated talk of conscription
In the EU, a reversal to expanding large scale industrial production in any domain, let alone armaments, is impossible – or perhaps it would be better to wait for you to present your findings before making such declaration
Everyone lies. As an (anally retentive) student of military stats, I think the Ukraine war's metrics will never be known, but there may be a vague tabulation some years hence - if a little radioactive. And numbers mean different things to different people. Who all have an angle. Trusting in these sort of numbers is the route to madness, especially when the numbers are intended to mislead. My position is to look at what is plausible and extrapolate from there. Assumption based on assumption. What could go wrong? ;-)
Having said that, looks to me that Ukraine and its military are starting to collapse. Not sure at all when that may be, but suggest at the end of May we will be able to predict an end game.
The price of energy to run the factories in the EU zone is crippling them. Many business are going bankrupt & closing down. Just today one of Germanies most well known companies announced it's filed for bankruptcy. There might be plenty of manufacturing workers, plenty of empty factories. But there's no companies can afford to run them. It's well know the arms manufacturers are charging 3 or 4 x times the normal price for each shell. So the purchasing power has gone right down. Everything has to be paid for. Unlike the EU Russia had an abundance of very cheap energy, an abundance of the resources needed for all its weapons & ammunition. Factories all up & running easily expanded. Workers making very good money working 3 shifts & lastly an abundance of money available to pay for everything.
"As for skilled workers looking for good paying jobs, there are plenty in the EU."
There are plenty of jobs because there is no one to fill them. (So say the newspapers and local news shows in europe.)
"Europe is on aggregate the second producer of machine tools in the world after China."
DE was the machine tool powerhouse. DE decided go go out of business and move to CN. Why? cheaper, better trained workforce, younger work force and no Oaf the Oaf Scholz. (So say the newspapers and local news shows in europe.)
Well, the newspapers and news shows have been insisting for close to 2 years that the Ukrainians are very, very close to liberate Ukraine and march into Moscow...
Very different-- please! Pushing a geopolitical narrative is not equivalent to talking to local employers and getting their opinions. The lies and twisted truth levels are 15-30 x higher with the geopolitical narrative
Don’t take it too seriously compa, this here talk is just old Americans talking themselves up as, you know, “the generation that could do eveeeerything and be manly too”. One of their hobbies is to look down on everyone born after 1980 (and outside the US).
It is exactly what I’ve been thinking yesterday listening to the Alexander Mercouris’ daily video. He mentioned lack of skilled labor while people beg for good jobs. Working in a factory is a thing you could learn in a few days or weeks, it’s just about a few repetitive tasks.
It’s a problem of sheer incompetence of the political class and greed of the corporate leaders.
I work in a hardware tech/manufacturing industry in the US (not MIC however), and I have a similar view. The capacity exists to build at scale exists. The management is poor compared to what we know is possible from late 20th century norms, and poor in a way that can affect results. The business structures are made in a way that things take longer and cost more. But if political will is there (i.e. congress okay to write 10 figure checks, which they have been), you can and I think will see large scale manufacturing of weapons (or anything, really) return with something like a 2-5 year lead time. We are now just under two years in, so take that as a reality check. By the end of this year, we will probably start to see more western origin hardware floating around. Unclear if with the right choices made, unclear who receives it, etc.
Do you have any facts and figures for increased armaments production? Say in 155mm shells which seems to be used as a basic standard measure, or drones, or….Patriots…or….
It appears military drone production has stagnated -https://warontherocks.com/2024/01/how-the-west-can-match-russia-in-drone-innovation/
Is the return on investment sufficient to entice corporate to re open or re build 155mm shell factories? Are the ancillary industries functioning- Or been off shored?
The shift to ever more glittery avionics has been marked by failure, as have recent attempts at ship building
The industry has a bad record in existing production –
As I said, I do not work in the field. I am sharing a perspective on the state of industry in the US. What I have seen firsthand is how my own industry responded to Covid. I'm saying potential for industrial mobilization exists (albeit at appallingly un-competitive cost). Can't give you insight on whether it is put to use.
One nugget of public info I found tho as an example that might help put it in more specific terms. There was a discussion about NASAMS in recent days. The nominal lead time for those systems was 2 years (probably that figure subject to capacity of the then-existing supply chains). Per congressional reports, funds were allocated to purchase them mid 2022. Delivery (to the DoD, don't know what they then do with it) would thus be expected this year.
For cases where they *also* have to build out supply chains, which is what we're really talking about wrt/ Ukraine - add an additional couple years (in normal circumstances) to build and staff the factories. But maybe also discount a couple years if they're in true wartime survival mode (I'd say not, but who knows). That's what I'm trying to tell you.
Re: the industry has a bad record, etc .... you don't have to convince me, I agree. One should expect every type of fiasco on the way from here to there. But rearmament is not impossible, it's just expensive.
The discussion may revolve around assessments as to whether the MIC is amenable to any external influences or pressure, especially from the government: it is commonly claimed that the pressure and influence runs the other way round – a daisy chain of blinkered corruption
A minute example may be seen in the expeditionary force against the Ansarallah - $2M missiles facing off against $2,000 drones – the US has no efficient $2,000 drones, and even if they did they would not know what to do with them
Why and how may the Pentagon/MIC be obliged to re think? By whom? By the ruling/governing class that shares interests mind set and cash?
I know of no examples of any re build of any factories – every and any comments merely go over the same we must defend democracy spiel that the EU uses, but fails ever to be specific as to shells on the ground, or ChinaRussia free supplies of crucial metals and minerals, nuts and bolts, and so on
The most one sees is messianic blab about AI and the Pentagon adopting VC techniques of funding ‘promising’ start ups
The truth is – it is too late to re mount an industrial economy in the US, as in the EU, with the appropriate strength knowledge and determination to re structure society politics and commerce, as was possible as recently as WWII, but which has been destroyed, purposefully, ever since
Witness Boeing
US lack of a "full stack" manufacturing industry is addressed by importing much of the critical tooling. That's not the impediment. Goes back to the OP comment to which you were responding above. Most of the stuff the US lacks, can be had from EU, JP, Korea etc. Production lines can and do start up from scratch as a matter of routine, I see it often enough. The issue is the organizational dysfunction, and to some degree the staffing.
Eventually the big weapons contractors will get Congress to cough up whatever obscene figure they're holding out for, and will do the work - give or take on the timeline.
All this is understood I think. For the neocons etc, part of the "silver lining" of all the simultaneous geopolitical crisis we're having, is that it gives everyone involved in Washington the excuse they need to cut that ginormous check. Some of them whine that the exact investment made is not the particular one they want ... maybe they have a pet weapons system, maybe they're a species of hawk more interested in China or Russia or Israel or whatever, and each situation requires slightly different gear. But I think it's clear where we're going - big $$$ to be spent in the west on weapons capability.
ummmm he said he doesnt work in MIC-- hello!
Neither do I - that does not impede informed comment
- besides those who work in US MIC are as unreliable as the weapons they manufacture
- so best he does not if and when he comments
Does the ft article mention how one of the ft's passions - ESG investing Environmental, Social and Governmental - has seen pension funds and asset managers move away from arms manufacturers (because they are bad, just like energy companies), making it extremely hard for them to find investors needed to finance the production expansions western gov's have announced?
No the FT does not - although they have articles about how ESG has slipped off the corporate score board in the US
One can note that the most rabid of warmongers in the EU are the Green, in particular the German, so one must guess that armaments are a Green priority
Yes, the EU is looking at gov subsidies for manufacterers.
<laughs in John Gault>
It's amazing and very unpleasant, as we are living in a fan fiction version of Atlas Shrugged.
We're in a moment where many long term historical waves seem to be peaking, among them we seem to be watching an unexpected face off between industrial capitalism and financial capitalism.
Both are doomed, the one in the short run, as now, the other in the long run, unless President Putins Year of the Family and Russian nationalism does not succeed in reversing current demographic trends
Please read
https://americanaffairsjournal.org/2022/11/capitalisms-overlooked-contradiction-wealth-and-demographic-decline/
Economic and population data across the globe demonstrate this demographic truth: a second-order polynomial regression on five decades of data from forty-three countries yields an R-squared of 0.33 and a p-value of < .00001.3
Constant immigration also seems to rest on a sort of “biological imperialism.” In order for wealthy countries to attract enough immigrants to counteract their demographic decline, poor countries must remain poor so that they can serve as breeding grounds for the developed economies’ labor forces. In an echo of historic systems of colonial resource extraction, it is almost as if poorer countries are not being allowed to develop so that they can continue to export human capital to the developed world—what commentators from these poorer countries mean when they talk about “brain drain.” Eventually, however, these countries will develop and the large pools of labor they make available will dry up.
Even if immigration did work to prevent society from aging (and it does not), it could not work forever unless we forced poorer countries to remain forever poor.
Socialist Sweden, under the tutelage of economist Gunnar Myrdal and his wife Avril, has been pursuing pro-natalist state policies since the 1960s—state child¬care, better maternity leave laws, etc.17 But Sweden’s fertility rates have fallen and its population has aged along with the rest of Europe’s, and the country now faces a political crisis around its lax migration policies.
Yet the Swedish solution was a socialist one, in that it sought to replace the family with the state—a dream which appears already in the Communist Manifesto. More recently, nonsocialist countries have been experimenting with family policies that seek not to replace the family but to support it. The most prominent of these countries is Hungary, which instituted a series of ambitious family policies in 2015, including mortgage support, tax breaks, direct cash payments, and a sophisticated public relations campaign. And Hungary has seen some success as a result of these efforts: since 2015, the Hungarian fertility rate has risen 28 percent and the marriage rate has risen 88 percent.18
Left to its own devices, capitalism’s categorical imperative of work and consumption is, in the end, at odds with its structural needs, as it discourages family formation and thus stymies the capitalist economy’s ability to grow. This is the core contradiction of capitalism—much more profound than anything Marx imagined.
The Americans can do nothing to 'recover' Deterrence:
The Iranians will strike back with their immense arsenal of high-precision ASBMs, SRBMs & IRBMs in the case of American aggression towards any Iranian assets (be they on home soil or not).
Iran will not simply 'sit there & take it!'
(For those interested)
If you wish to read (& listen!) to more of My commentary, here is my Main Stack:
https://thefallofthewest.substack.com
Thank You Kindly to everyone!
I hope so. And I wish Russia would act more aggressively like Iran. But Iran is much more secure geographically while Russia is very vulnerable.
The Middle East finally proved to be wiser, as America cannot any more recruit a suitable proxy (ISIS being their best and only bet ATM). Unfortunately, the situation is not as positive with regards to Russia. Idiot Eastern Europeans tow in line for slaughter, which makes the war in Ukraine still exceptionally cheap investment for the US oligarchy. A complete win win. Only stupid Slavs are dying
What would recommend that RU do other than fight the entire NATO?
How is IR more secure geographically? Irans borders (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borders_of_Iran)
are we on the same planet? Russia is striking at various bunkers where 'NATO advisors' are deployed in Ukraine, wiping out detachments of 'humanitarian volunteers' (aka NATO assigned contractors) in bases, hotels, even when they set up a meeting in a restaurant. What has Iran done equivalent to that? 'Allow' some Shia militia (over which Iran has fairly limited control anyway) in a third country to launch an attack on a base in a third country? Russia is far more powerful than Iran, in every possible dimension, much more stable, and is playing on many more fields that Iran has to, Russia has significantly more tools too - I do not think comparison is fair to Iran in terms of what each country can do.
Russia is changing world. Literally. This huge implode of the west insanely accelerated in 2022 by Russian actions. And showed that king has no closes. What Iran does right now is uncomparable smaller with what Russia doing.
It's amazing how a US base in Syria doesn't register as a concern to the MSM. Thanks for your independent reporting Simplicius!
A Skeptic War Reports
https://askeptic.substack.com/
Western Africa is a place to watch. Niger is putting the pressure on to close Airbase 201. Basically ECOWAS has fallen to pieces. Mali and Burkino Faso have kicked out the French and the 'Blue Lids' [U.N.G.C. troops] and want ALL Yanks gone as well.
When even a Yankee propaganda outlet like 'Task & Pupose' say it is bad it is:
https://taskandpurpose.com/news/us-military-drone-missions-niger-halted/ and another from the NYT : https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/06/world/africa/niger-us-air-base.html
This greatly hampers the Yanks in the Middle East and South.
The new Niger president has a lot of pressure on him.
Some commentators are saying that RU and Burkino Faso have become quite chummy. There are other commentators saying that RU is helping train local soldiers so that the old Wagner guys don't have to do all the heavy lifting.
The reviving sovereignty of west Africa is most gratifying, especially because it's the French who are losing. ;O)
Pretty much given that Iran must allow US to hit some Iranian desert and not retaliate.
And if they do? Then I assume the conventional wisdom will say the US must escalate even MORE, then Iran will escalate right back. But if the US could deliver such a knockout blow right at the get go, then why don't they?
Iran have told those communist Yanks to go screw themselves. I am pretty sure the spat with Pakistan was mutually beneficial though as both lost PITA internal terrorist groups.
the deep state is not communist. it is zionist.
It is fascist (as is zionism) but the zionists are the proxies of the US boss class, not a lobby.
The Talmudic Monsters are 'the US boss class'.
No, it's a myth, they are its lackeys.
There is a simple way to tell who is master. If you command some people to drink water on a hot day, and they do, you haven't proven anything. But if you command them to drink piss, and they do, then you know who is master and who is servant. The US does not get a damn thing from its relationship with Israel. "Unsinkable aircraft carrier" is nonsense because the US doesn't need such a thing. Control of ME oil ? Washington had that, and Israel only gets in the way. Face the fact: The US drinks Zionist piss.
Why must Iran do that?
The US is becoming more and more of a paper tiger each day with a bunch of aircraft carriers waiting to be turned into artificial reefs.
I loved all the nafo-types twittering about "Iran FAFO." a few days ago.
So Iran fucked around... and now we are finding out that the USA was all like, "Iran, can we please drop one bomb on an empty old chicken coop?" And Iran was all like, "No." And then the USA was all like, "OK, sorry for asking." And then Biden holds his hands up near his face for like 5 minutes for no reason.
This stuff is just so hilarious to watch.
Lol.
What no-one is mentioning is that the bombing of Tower 22 in Jordan was in part retaliation for General Qassim Suleimani four years ago. Iran is a major power player in the Middle East and a logistics nexus for transport furth South as well as a growing distribution poin for the surrounding nations. EVERYBODY wants the Yanks gone, Israel too.
BRICS+ is going from strength to strength and trade is booming. Great stuff alright.
Israel doesn't want them gone. They want the money, weapons, and support whenever they demand and for the USA to never ask questions or make any demands no matter how practical. The US has largely held things together through bribery, corruption, and threats the last 70 years. The US is not the force in the world it used to be though
This came about because of the Iranian revolution that got rid of the Shit of Iran. The US perforce had to rely on the zionazi-Saud pervert axis, hence the Palestinians being sacrificed. The martyrdom of the Palestinians was forecast in the early 80s, when newspapers still printed reportage rather than journalism.
Yup. FDR beat Britain to the punch with the Saudis and oil but in return got stuck with Israel. Good to bad.
Please someone make a movie in the next 10 years. It will make Stanley Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove look like a wistful better time for the military and political classes that now pollute the West.
I think it would be something like Woody Allen's "Bananas."
The USA could decimate Iran easily
But chooses not to
Iran should count itself lucky
😂
'Xitter' is filled with these Turbo-MURICA bros. 🤣
😂😂🤣🤣💥❤
Can't quite tell if you are joking or if you are a moron. So one of these emojis is my response: 😂 or 😵💫
The USA is the only democracy here
Down with Russian aggression
Muh, muh....here is a cca 10 years old research showing that USA is oligarchy, and it got much, much worse in the last 10 years. You can download the article.
https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/perspectives-on-politics/article/testing-theories-of-american-politics-elites-interest-groups-and-average-citizens/62327F513959D0A304D4893B382B992B#
"Abstract
Each of four theoretical traditions in the study of American politics—which can be characterized as theories of Majoritarian Electoral Democracy, Economic-Elite Domination, and two types of interest-group pluralism, Majoritarian Pluralism and Biased Pluralism—offers different predictions about which sets of actors have how much influence over public policy: average citizens; economic elites; and organized interest groups, mass-based or business-oriented.
A great deal of empirical research speaks to the policy influence of one or another set of actors, but until recently it has not been possible to test these contrasting theoretical predictions against each other within a single statistical model. We report on an effort to do so, using a unique data set that includes measures of the key variables for 1,779 policy issues.
Multivariate analysis indicates that economic elites and organized groups representing business interests have substantial independent impacts on U.S. government policy, while average citizens and mass-based interest groups have little or no independent influence. The results provide substantial support for theories of Economic-Elite Domination and for theories of Biased Pluralism, but not for theories of Majoritarian Electoral Democracy or Majoritarian Pluralism."
Grow up.
Thanks Batman :)
Interesting link!
Kike owned communist Yankeeland is a fucked-up festering shitpit of queerism,
niggerism, femmicommunism, Marxist communism and antiwhiteism that is broke, broken and irredeemable.
US$34,153,350,000,000 in debt and increasing by US$9,000,000,000+ a day.
Inhabited by a small number of sane people and a whole lot of idiots.
Nobody except the vile unwanted dregs of the world want to go there.
Russia and China have ZERO intention of invading.
My god, stop using the word communism when you’ve run out of anything coherent to say. The great problem US workers have is precisely that, they have zero political understanding, so they can’t find a way. And I’m not saying communism of the classical kind is the future but a proper understanding of concepts is certainly part of the solution. Otherwise you gonna carry on being manipulated out of your country.
He's a 60yr old engineer who can hardly wait for less people in the world. Need we say more? 🤣
GO USA
Down with Russian terror and China terror
I can't wait for the day when you, Empire's core dwellers, get a taste of the terror you have been unleasing on the world for all this time.
Give mummy her laptop back and go to bed Johhny.
What terror ?
The USA brings freedom and democracy and capitalism and liberty and allows protection for our LGTBIQ+ people
Much better than. Iranian terror
Terror of all sorts of fascist head choppers and organ harvesters your govts support, being unleashed upon yourselves. Maybe TX will be the catalyst for this. Lets hope for the best, knock on the wood, God willing....
Ah, the mental meltdown that would be, remember the societal meltdown re "rus bounties on yanks" in Afghanistan.
Lets all stop feeding the troll
Got to be a CIA bot.
pretty sure your 5th booster shot is overdue. Run along now.
Alright but I wont accept anyone less than Elon as my democratic emperor president, Vivek Ramaswamy as his VP, and he must appoint Ben Shapiro as secretary of facts and logic.
Unit 82 are you?
Queers need to be thrown off tall buildings. Bunch of mentally fucked-up weirdo paedophiles in most part buggering childrens lives and destroying once civilised societies.
Poofter bashing was a good night out in the 80ies.
Bash a fag Friday and shag a slut Saturday. Ahhhh..... I remember it well.....
Precisely the reason why you became a decadent nation and you’re starting to pay for it: your real national religion is partisan hate. And not matter how fast you pedal now or in which direction, you’re doomed.
Ah... you are just trolling. Good one. 🤣
Oh no, juvenile troll time
A product of american education, no doubt.
Hey Bunkie, the USA was never a democracy.
We're not a democracy. In any event 2020 was proof positive that we are no longer a representative republic either...
Time to go home troll
Gots to be toying with us. 🤪
John 1: "My daddy can so too beat your daddy"
Us: 😂🤣😂 Go home kiddo, your nose is running.
Say WHAT now? ? ? Where can I get some of whatever you are on? Just asking for a friend.
Sarcasm is great if done properly Johhny.
another comedian.
with all due respect do you also play the piano with your penis.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XkCBhKs4faI
Here's a real comedian.
The US couldn't even decimate sandal wearing Afghan hill folks or barefoot Vietnamese rice farmers.
Let me guess one of the Iranian diaspora?
Where did I hear today that if iran shuts down the straights of hormuz , must have been garland nixon, We-ll be paying like 17-bucks for. Gallon of gas and. 17- for a loaf a bread and we'd all go broke, no missiles required.
Victoria nuland is looking for the detachable penis she lost in the 2014 coup , last seen in an old song on sale for a bargain
She wins the miss piggy look alike contest, and John Kirby is really a piece of stuffed pantyhose puppettty
Vicky is looking like shit. She was reasonably attractive twenty five years ago. That's what happens when you are dealing in evil. It catches up with you on the outside also...
The despicable Iranian regime would soon collapse from internal protests once the US airforce destroys all its oil facilities and ports
The Iranians should now disarm
Beg the USA for mercy and pay compensation to the US for the casualties
Also multi party elections should
Be held in Iran in July 2024
Looks like the despicable US regime may collapse first, judging by how things are going so far this year. It's the US that's on verge of civil war (e.g. Texas) not Iran.
Possibly yes but it would
Be a big step for a US state to take on the Federal
Government
The Texas v. US Gov. Is ALL theatre 🎭. Check Rense out for a video showing a Texan driving less than a mile from where all the barbed wire and news crews and see wide open gates in the boarder fense. It's a psyop designed to give Biden another J6 for election optics. The deep state has no intention of letting Trump win without pulling out all the stops🚏🛑 first. Trump might still win but he's no saviour. Mr operation warp speed will do as his handlers instruct. That is to set the scene for more destabilizeation. So in the end I probably agree with you that the USA is going down the drain but the civil war will be more likely civil collapse while the patriots polish their gun cabinets and wait for Christ to reappear.
I would put my money with the USA which is the saviour of the west before a brutal Russian Despot and invader like Putin and the brutal Chinese and the despicable theocracy of Iran
Good news, we soon wont need to put any money, I've heard some pretty cool stuff about WEF plans for digital currency.
If that is not sarcasm you need to go drink some drano.
Kike owned coimmunist Yankeeland is on its last legs just like kiddy diddler Biden. Yankeeland destroyed ther West.
In 1965 kike owned communist Yankeeland passed the Hart-Celler Act.
In 1970 Yankeeland got the U.N.G.C. to adopt http://www.hist-chron.com/judentum-aktenlage/zionismus/op/Kalergi/ENGL-Kalergi-plan.html as the global plan for the West.
Yankeeland then enforced this by sanctions, tariffs and trade restrictions.
'The Plan' starring Barbara Spectre : https://www.bitchute.com/video/HfyHkUivQZ0Y/
'The Kalergi Plan' (2017) Documentary : https://www.bitchute.com/video/y2RrkiDgFVPU/
Jews say Muslims are Jews allies in Europe : https://www.bitchute.com/video/OinYUCesnxbU/
Jews want niggers and sandfleas to flood Europe but not Israel : https://www.bitchute.com/video/schy7dG9KzcL/?list=subscriptions
Just 53 years and the West is destroyed and the survival of the White races living in the West right on the tipping point of eradication.
Look at who owns Yankeeland 100%
EVERY Western once civilised once White country is now FUCKED!
Not sure it’s worth reply to such sugar addicted grade schooler gibberish. Next !
I’d say the psyop goes in both directions: the reds also want the drama. Civil war my arse. All’s cool.
those wide open gates are well known locations constantly monitored by the USBP. They allow farmers access to their land that lies between the fence and the Rio Grande. I know because I managed the contracts to build 250 miles of fence and over 50 such gates. It's all about real estate and rights of way...
That's as maybe but to be left open and unattended seems like an open invitation, don't you think 🧐🤔
I don't think we'll come to a Civil War in the USA soon. I've seen videos showing that Eagel Pass is rather a localized bit of theater with open paths as close as 15 km east. It could blow up into something big for a short time.
I doubt that it would last.
is there a way of blocking John the jerk?
Don't feed the troll.
Maybe civil war, maybe election year posturing-- ie knowing Biden will limit his reaction
You don't really understand the oil markets, do you.
I understand US power which Putin and Iran and China fear
Wil E. Coyote has a better understanding, it seems, than you and your neocon bullies. You don't seem to get it. Russia, China and Iran are subjecting the US and the Western alliance to death by a thousand cuts. A frog in in boiling water has a better chanced of surviving what is happening now to the West.
The US is a dynamic democracy
All Russia and China and Iran offer is tyranny
Dictatorship and terror
Go USA
Russia is far more democratic -- USA and UK are each ruled by a fascist uni-party
Putin is a brutal dictator who should be on trial in Hague as a war criminal
Once the US army conquers Russia he will be held to account
Russia, Iran and China all over state subsidized medication lmao
Tell me more about how much your Insulin costs Amerifaggot
Here beez "our" demoncracy bro:
https://vid8.poal.co/user/AmericanThinker/2CqEoUB
<a href="https://voxday.net/2024/02/01/sex-parties-on-capitol-hill/">Sex parties for blackmail.</a> As the man say:
> I don’t think pedocratic government by hedonistic perverts being funded by foreign interests and blackmailed by other foreign interests is normally what was historically meant by “democracy”. Nor is there any American national interest to be found in expanding this form of democracy elsewhere around the world.
Of what power? The instant US hits Russian or Chinese soil nukes start flying.
John doesn't understand much of anything...
^ Exhibit A of why we will destroy all porn and video games. Look at what it does to peoples' brains!
I think it's like that troll on Zerohedge who used to be called "Million Dollar Bonus". Total method actor, said stupid things that nobody with an IQ over room temperature could say, but never once revealed he was joking. Played it straight the whole time.
I miss MDB...
I'd been taking him seriously as a deluded American MSM-watcher until now, but he's upped the idiocy just a touch today with the "protection for our LGTBIQ+ people" stuff. So now I think you're right. Maybe he is aiming to achieve MDB's status where everybody knew he must really be joking, so upvoted him for the quality of the satire.
why are we feeding the troll regardless of his motives? 🤔🤔🤔
And don’t forget the immense pressure by sanctions.
The sanctions will story Russia it’s only a matter of time
China faces collapse
Russia is finished
Don’t mess with the USA
John The 1st and hopefully the last
Best advice: Don't forget to take all your boosters for protection, man.
Pleasure is all yours.
Given the spammy, mindless, provocative nature of John The 1st's posts, this seems to be a shill assigned to disrupt the comments section. I advise our host to take necessary action.
Track him down and kill him?
Slowly. Gibbetting in Iron would be good.
John is merely a garden variety troll.
The comments section here is too small and of too little influence to be worth disrupting.
I'm not so sure about that. Simplicius is an important source of red-pilled info, and he's been targeted by the fags recently. Like I said, the comments are of the slide thread/forum disruption variety. While Free Speech is important, small platforms like this are well within their rights to drop the banhammer to defend the space from spam/derailing tactics.
Between 4th and 26th of July 2024 please. Because Murcia has its freedom day the 4th, and the 26th is the glorious Paris olympics. So If they can squeeze those elections there it would be nice
The USA is successfully executing the G7 approved plan to bring democracy to the Middle East - Libya, Syria and Iraq rejoice, you will be joined by democratic Iran soon.
You should add opening the economy to allow US companies to control their oil, dismantle their arms industry, and start buying USA equipment. Return to the petrodollar, and leave BRICS. Convert to Christianity, and make their official language English :)
The FT antifact article on EU ‘security’ and ‘economic power’ by their resident representative of the Ukraine régime
’Europe is to shy about using it’s economic power’
ttps://www.ft.com/content/c228222e-551e-4996-bfed-16235e53fe48
A forlorn plea to have Europe punch it’s alleged considerable economic weight, full of hymns to EU centralisations, sanctions and….an even more forlorn plea - pathos ridden - to revive the debate on the confiscation of CBR assets, while studiously avoiding making any sort of argument as to why what or how
The author is a would be politician and hanger on financed by Ukraine government factions – why the FT publishes him is hard to say, perhaps he makes their other reporters look better than otherwise they would, perhaps they blackmail secret documents out of the EU by threatening to send him to Brussels
This article was so authoritarian- focused on regulation and rule, rather than order and organisation; so oblivious of the structure and function of the EU that even the FT commenters rejected it en masse as craven pander – the FT audience is not known to be Russia friendly
If there is one aspect of EU policy re RF which everyone is certain was stupid beyond belief, it is the EU ‘economic sanctions’ – to attempt to revive this corpse is Frankenstein – ian
IMF predicts 2.6% economic expansion in Russia this year, and downgraded Germany to .5%
https://www.ft.com/content/21a5be9c-afaa-495f-b7af-cf937093144d
🤣🤣🤣 wow FT delusion. That and the Economist have the best (sic) City of London"economics" and Neo-Con geopolitical cover. Good god-- good to know nothing has changed since my economic study days.
Politics goes on but it's frustrating for the suffering masses. US can have back door deals with Iran but it'll only maintain status quo at best. US troops will not leave the region, Syria will remain a mess while US and Israel will continue with their on and off terrorist activities in the region. Ceasefire in Gaza will come about...again to maintain current status quo, to help Israel against ICJ, there will be some aid and rebuilding in Gaza with slow ethnic cleansing of Palestinians will carry on.
If we really want a change of world system, bloody wars and ww2 style destruction is inevitable. This seems to be the best time with collective West at its weakest economically and militarily. If China really wants to be seen as the primary world power, they need to be more proactive, military too, instead of sitting back and just grabbing benefit out of the chaos all around.
As has been stated above by Victor both Russia and China are playing the long game. Iran is there too for support. They are winning.
Hard to see FJB avoiding bombing something in retaliation for the strike on the illegal US base in Syria.
If he avoids Iran and bombs militant groups in Syria and Iraq, they are going to strike more US bases in Syria and Iraq.
When you're riding the tiger (illegal bases in ME and backing Israeli genocide to the hilt), there is no getting off without a savaging.
Mali, Algeria, Burkino Faso and Niger are all primed and ready to go at a moments notice.
Yankeeland has insane warmongers like the coward Lindsey Graham and the raving loony Niki Hochul ranting and raving with most of its MSM run by kikes, staffed by idiots and an ignorant delusion population high on drugs that thinks Yankeeland is a superpower. It won't last much longer.
"much longer" can't come soon enough but I'm pretty sure we won't see it for decades.
Musk adding payments to X doesn’t guarantee he won’t bend the knee if asked.
The best strategy is diversification.
I would get on telegram if I were you just to have a backup as it seems to me the only safe venue when/if X turns out to be a single point of failure, coupled with multiple payment providers including crypto.
I’d hate to lose you Simplicius ..
Recent visit to Auschwitz to pray at the sacred memorial and to Israel where he tried to atone for his sins should send a warning to us all.
Musk is controlled by other billionaires. Apple and Google can cancel his X app on thier phones/tablets on a whim. His suppliers and bankers in his other businesses are all billionaires. He's obviously resisting best way he can and if bending the knee to Zionism allows him to stay open a little longer I'm for it. I starting paying the $8 as soon as twitter files came out and still have no regrets.
Also the battery power E.V. scam is collapsing.
Worse his govt /pentagon contracts. I love Elon in many ways but heh some of his actions look down right Eric Schmidty
Yes Simplicus should use Boosty (Russian), alipay (Chinese), patreon/paypal (US) ensuring maximum antifragility
Using ANYTHING linked to Yankeeland is a mistake.
Well, this is news to me that a CWIS can intercept at a mile. When I was around those things--the land based versions, anyway--they auto-detonated at 650 meters.
Yankee report nary ever true.
"Israel is on a scorched earth tear, and the US is running behind it with a fire extinguisher, desperately trying to keep the flames under control."
A fire extinguisher? More like a flame thrower - there is a constant flow of military transport planes filled with weapons and ammo into Israel and the US is providing ISR to help target. They are vetoing every effort of the UNSC to get this under control.
Fire extinguisher or flame thrower? There is a poetic beauty to how these seemingly contradictory metaphors indeed sum up the absurdity of the entire situation. The power of an oxymoron. Good teamwork Victor and Simplicius :)
Yes, somehow the media has convinced many open minded people to repeat the narrative that the Biden admin. is actually trying to deescalate the region. In my unsophisticated opinion, this is exactly the U.S. playbook, while it may be true some Generals "know" they cannot fight a real war. The MIC and the Israeli lobby think "war" is flying over and dropping bombs on defenseless countries. IF you do NOT hold that opinion publicly, you will never be promoted to an actual decision maker. I cannot believe how many people have climbed onboard "fantasy Island" where the U.S. actually does not push for more war
Agreed. If they are quibbling about anything it's the to what degree the US will be directly involved and when. The Garrison state is supposed to supply the blood, the US supplies the weapons. Israel was supposed to play the part Ukraine is playing now. Mad dog slips it's leash and does damage to its neighbors at great cost to itself, if necessary. Fight Russia to the last Ukrainian, fight Iran to the last Israeli. Unfortunately the only thing that will keep the Zionist project from collapse is decisive victory with minimal cost (casualties, economic, etc) and that is definitely impossible without US intervention, and might not be possible with it. And if the US has to defend Israel with its own soldiers, Intelligence, logicistics, etc, where is the ROI for America?
"where is the ROI for America?"
Israel's undying fake gratitude and their next demands?
I do not believe the tail wags the dog, so to speak. I think US was paying for an unsinkable US aircraft carrier that can provide its own military intelligence and can conscript it's own effective army. But, it's starting to look like they didn't get what they paid for.
Thank you.
There are numerous reports that US tries to build a fully US-controlled colonial government in Ukraine, including from US-educated officials
With all due respect, this is old news. What does anyone propose to do about it?
I'm sure there's an app out there that lets you post to multiple social media platforms. Bebo and DD Geopol appear to be using it. They don't interact with users on TG at all other than through a chat mod bot. I think you should consider it.