Zelensky is a Clown. Never been anything than a produced scam to ”entertain” the masses. It cost Ukraine 1 000 000 dead and maimed and chrushed the whole country.
Simplcius nailed all the good parts of this ”Peace plan”. One can delve a bit more on it.
1. The plan is so pompous that ordinary people should suspect it as a scam.
2. It is so unlikely to realize that Zelenskys gang can say they were betrayed by West, although I find it unlikely this is their endgame. They only want the ”movement of war to Russian soil” It is the most i,portant for them - to continue the war but be able to smash even more bases inside Russia.
3. The 5 point about stationing psychotic veterans from the War in Europe instead of American DEI-personell seems to be a tid-bits for Trump (who has declared some uninterest in NATO)
4. Zelensky also said that some calculation for Ukraines economy would be added after the War suggesting a enormous war reparations extracted from Russia. Fantasies of course.
5. The mineral resources is on Russian territory and most of it east of Dnieper. It could be they think of selling out resources in occupied territories to ensnare the Politicians in West (dominantly US and City of London) to commit for a deeper involvement with troops on the ground. It is interesting to think of a scenario where Trump makes a Friedrich the Fuhrer Merz speech and give Russia 24 hours to comply to the demands of ”peace” or ”ceasefire”. Otherwise US&NATO will deploy long-range missiles, aircraft and AD staffed by US forces/NATO on Ukrainian soil from the next morning. How will Kreml respond to such lunatics? They will of course repeat their standpoint but will they start destroy US troops mid-air or on the ground?
One can clearly see what Stefanchuk implied by Ukraine is already NATO-army.
6. Rada was assembled, part of, and some of the gang (Budanov, Stafanchuk). Where was Kinzhal?
I can see staff at Stavka grinding their teeths…
The other part with Helmer was interesting but to simple. Russia is not Tom Clancy with 4-5 characters doing the plot. It is even not Tolstoy with 120 characters intriguing, scheming and feverishly striving for power. It is way more complicated. For me it is clear that Putin has showed restraint, which is good, but also showed doubtfulness that someone could call weakness. I think a successor will come into place before 2030.
Yes. He is striving, perhaps to much. He has been President but was also fooled by the Americans. A bitter lesson that can explain his hawkish mood now. When he supress his outermost rabidness he is extremely clear about issues. We will see…
One of the other things Medvedev is wrong about is the root cause of all these difficulties.
His belief, as indeed is that of most other Russians, seems to be that it is an Anglo Saxon phenomenon - indeed, he called for the island to be submerged beneath the waves recently.
However, it is evident that Britain is not, and has not for centuries, been ruled by Anglo Saxons, but by a group of people operating out of the independent jurisdiction called The City of London.
Heaven forfend that anyone should ever name the jew.
Another haSSbara pseudo-antisemite? Britain is run from Washington, like every other neo-colony. Zionists (who can't be Jewish) are amongst American Caesar's vilest proxies are competing with the British boss class to be Caesar's chief jackal but they've a long way to go.
As you will recall, the British remained in North America for seven years after they were expelled as a result of the "revolution" there.
The time was spent in most amicably setting up the US franchise, ie a contracted-out phenomenon far easier to control without ever having to leave the safety and security of London.
The rulership is delegated to the Middle Temple in the City of London.
Remember of course George Bush Senior kneeling before the Queen of England when he visited to pay his respects, and to receive a knighthood for services rendered.
Is that why the new US went to war in with its boss in 1812? Zionism was invented as a replacement for Judaism, you can't get more antisemitic than that. Simples.
The British remained in N. America for a lot longer than seven years given their continuing control of Canada, which lasted at least until the 1931 Statute of Westminster (giving the various dominions control of defense and foreign policy) and arguably until Canada patriated their constitution from the UK in 1982.
It is power centered in a nation's money and credit machinery for the benefit of a Tribe who have no allegiance whatsoever to their temporary residence.
Greater Israel would encompass the entire World give the elastic morality of the grand interpreters of their self-written, self-serving books claiming their mediocrity as superiority.
The vast majority of British and American capitalists have been British and American and somewhat detached from all forms of superstitious mumbo-jumbo.
Russians also have personal interactions over several hundred years with the Tribe for whom Self-Interest supersedes any commitment whatsoever to their country of residence.
Stalin didn't interrupt Trotsky's Mexican Adventure solely for personal pleasure.
At least Medvedev knew to listen to his General Staff when it came to war and wrapped up Georgia in 5 days. Georgia war would probably still be going on if Putin was in charge.
"He has been President but was also fooled by the Americans. A bitter lesson that can explain his hawkish mood now." No, I don't think that's it. Medvedev is playing his role in a "good cop, bad cop" presentation. He's the "bad cop," reminding the US and its vassals that if they want to mouth off Russia is plenty capable of tearing their jaw off.
That preserves for players like Lavrov and Putin greater flexibility of action. It also acknowledges how most Russians feel. That's a very important effect, that Russians know there are people in the leadership who feel the way they do.
It's not play acting, either, because many in the leadership feel it is long past time to take a far harder line against the US and other countries that have committed acts of war against Russia. It's useful for both sides to have those opinions aired.
Within Russia that's part of achieving sufficient consensus to steer policy in a rapidly evolving situation, to pick the balance Russia desires between softer responses and harsher responses. Within the US and its vassals, hearing such opinions within Russia reminds those few Western players who are not completely delusional that Putin is a moderate, and just might be the only person between them and annihilation.
Agree on description of Putin. Moderate. I will call him logic and pragmatic. Your description of Medvedev is inconsistent. He cant be playing god cop - bad cop in the same time as he is not playing…
Medvedev has matured and got more delusional about West. It is not playing. It is for real. I have followed his ”mad dog” rants and his more restrained comments. Beneath you have the same anger. Period.
After Putin, we can expect it within 2-3 years, someone like Medvedev will appear.
"It is not playing. It is for real. " There's nothing inconsistent in him playing the "bad cop" role if he personally agrees with that role. For that matter, if he didn't agree with that role, he wouldn't be doing a very good job in the "bad cop" role if you or anyone else could see he obviously didn't mean it.
That he's angry and ready to fry the West is not inconsistent with whatever his assigned role. All of the leadership and pretty much every Russian I know who is an alert adult feels that way. It's just that for practical, professional reasons, such as doing diplomacy or dealing with delusional Western leaders it is in Russia's interest that some of them do not show that anger. But on rare occasion it comes out, even in someone as famously self-controlled as Putin.
>As a final note, amidst all the swirling debate around how the conflict will end, given that things feel like they’re reaching an apogee of sorts, veteran rapporteur John Helmer has written an interesting new article which puts forth his opinion on an ideological clash between the Kremlin and General Staff on this account:
Slowly the truth about Putin being the problem is starting to creep into people's consciouscness. Too slowly though...
While Putin's cautiousness in trying to prevent a catastrophic world war are commendable in theory, in practice it has caused this thing to slowly spiral and given the Ukulele's (with the US & NATO's help) the time to engage in desperate tactics, such as the stupid Kursk invasion, launching missiles at nuclear power plants, and killing Russian civilians inside Russia. It also gave the US the time and opportunity to blow up Nordstream.
Russia should've applied much more force to subdue Ukulele. The "slow grind" has taken too damn long.
I personally thank Putin For his amazing restraint. A lesser man might have shit himself and blown up the planet. In fact, I'm so impressed with Putin that I'm "writing him in" on the Nov 5 "election" canard. No Biden in a skirt or Don, the raging/aging narcissist, for me.
Do use much more force than they have would have cause depletion, backlash and reduced chances of success. Working with the tools one has is a subtle art…
He’s “draining and weakening” them to the point where they do something stupid, like launch a missile barrage into Moscow, which will force his hand and put him on the spot to actually make good on his “red line” and revised nuclear posture. Can’t you people get this through your thick heads?
Agreed, if only the war itself is considered. A benefit of the slow grind to Russia has been the effect on NATO, the member countries, and the general world political situation. They're doing 'pretty well' for the blood and treasure they're investing.
Putin promised Xi a minimum of five years of war; this to degrade the US and give China time to become overwhelmingly strong. Ukraine is just one piece of the chessboard, and any good chess master is willing to sacrifice pieces to win the larger game. In this case the larger game is the Global American Empire vs. the New Asia_ Russia, Iran, India, China. Ukraine and 1 million people dying don't matter to those fighting of total global domination.
Hardly. Putin has managed this narrative from the first. It is how he keeps his allies on board. If they push him too hard for a settlement he tells them he will be replaced by someone not at all interested in their concerns and only too delighted to get a finger on the nuclear button. Meanwhile with his other hand Putin runs the narrative viz his western adversaries that if they seriously push into Russia, he will be replaced by someone who really will hit them back everywhere it will really hurt. For real.
And it is all absolutely true. You just missed the bit that Putin knows it, and has control of the narrative. It is why he is who and where he is, and no western leaders are a patch on him.
Yes I am inclined to agree with this perspective. All too often desk jockeys spout off as if it were a cheap spy novel with a limited number of 2-D characters. Furthermore, how the heck would one even know?! We all carry within us running simulations of varying dynamics and complexity. Declaring them to be some sort of deep truth or profound insight is hubris. Clearly Russia has been playing this conflict in a relatively delicate manner, and from what I can tell for good reason. Given that we do appear to be in WW3, going into full on bar brawl mode might not be the best strategy. Russia has the support at least ideologically of the ROW, and this is not an accident.
I keep referring to WW1, but in that war peace would have been almost trivially easy to secure in say 1914 or 1915, but by 1916 the hard liners had taken over. And so the war was fought to the bitter end. We might well be seeing the same dynamic here.
But WW1 was not fought to the bitter end. It ended when it became clear Germany was being successfully attritioned in a war of attrition. Frontlines were still in Belgium and German territory was barely touched.
We're long, long way past the equivalent of WW1's end.
Depends on your interpretation of both phrases and historical events, but by 1918 Germany was ruined - militarily, politically, socially and economically - prostrate before its enemies and really incapable of further effective resistance, its army was melting and mutinies we're breaking out, and its allies had collapsed and abandoned it. That is the sort of end I envisage for Ukraine.
The German general staff in 1918 were not Jewish, neither was their political boss. The face saving "stab in the back" claims surfaced long after, it was (and still is) very popular with the followers of your fallen god. Much as certain post WWII Wehrmacht top brass wrote self serving autobiographies to blames their loss on that same fallen god- Fact is, both those wars were lost by gentile German military AND political leaders, both were self deluded into taking a far larger bite than they could chew, then ran the project on long after that was apparent, extreme victims of the sunk costs fallacy- Ukrainians and NATO are now walking in Kaiser Wilhelm and Adolf Schickelgruber's footsteps.
Not that I disagree about the stab in the back being not truthful, but the logical stream of the argument was that the German home front collapsed and the people were demanding peace. Mostly due to starvation due to blockade, casualties, whatever. The argument by Ludendorff and company was that communist agitation caused this instead, and one step further it was presumed all/most communists were also Jewish. It was a political lie along the lines of calling J6 an insurrection intending to overthrow the government.
Most of the WWII types blamed their failures on Hitler himself, it was convenient as he was now dead. A good sampling of Manstein, Guderian, even von Mellenthin will turn this up as the primary excuse. I don't think writing anti-Jewish screeds was very popular by those types, at least in print. Probably not convenient at the time.
Why they were able to paint the Soviets as incompetent but yet also claim that they swamped the Germans...it was what those in the West wanted to believe.
Putin had both the military-technical means and the absolute obligation to finish the war ASAP in a few weeks.
That meant going in hard with 3-4X the forces he went in with, first severing, and then immediately directly taking control over the transport links between Ukraine and Europe, and finishing off the NATO proxy while keeping NATO from intervening.
He did the exact opposite, trying as usual to balance the military-technical and geostrategic imperative with "the economy", the interests of Russian oligarchs, and the "what will the rest of the world think about us, we are not like that" sentiments, instead of using the abundant military-technical means at his disposal to solve the problem decisively.
The only valid analogy between WWI and the current situation might be between Nicholas II and Putin, i.e. weak indecisive rulers in times when their country needed drastic action to resolve the accumulated internal contradictions while fighting off external aggression. Hopefully that is not the case and Putin will prove that comparison wrong in the coming months. But right now it is looking very, very ugly.
Because while Nicholas II's imbecility was destroying imperial Russia, the Bolsheviks were waiting in the wings and General Staff of the time bet on them to put it all back together, largely correctly. Right now we are in a situation where Putin has spent the last quarter century making sure there is no viable alternative...
Putin and his fellow nationalists have done very well in restoring Russian sovereignty, reviving the economy and preparing for the inevitable war with American Caesar. The intervention in Syria was a straw in the wind and the intervention in Ukraine is the proxy war par excellence, where the Septics are allowing themselves to be defeated in detail. Nicely done Vlad.
You know absolutely nothing about Russia, which is clearly revealed by this statement.
Putin has ruled as a typical neoliberal for a quarter of a century, in the interests of Russian oligarchs and the system in which Russia is a resource appendage to the West, with real wealth being extracted out of the country and some shiny trinkets being sent in return, but mostly for the benefit of the oligarchy and the small upper middle class.
He was dragged into this war kicking and screaming and only because the West wanted to dramatically decrease the share of the loot that the Russian oligarchy was getting. This is the whole reason for the "resistance".
He's a nationalist who has saved Russia from the Septic neo-liberals (fascists) and has restrained the neos in Russia to an extent not seen in Britain (my gaff) since the early 1970s.
Putin said on March 3, 2022: “I am a Lak, I am a Dagestani, I am a Chechen, an Ingush, a Russian, a Tatar, a Jew, a Mordvin, an Ossetian.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wAgC7V14a90
1. Russians are not jews. Russians have souls and mercy and would better not fight a war
2. This is a fratricidal war that Russians hoped to avoid
3. The time of "inaction" and the atrocities of Judea War on Russia (by using the Nazified Ukrainians as NATO army) strengthened the unity of Russian people, along with the strengthening the Russian economy and army.
4. Let the judaized collective west ruin itself while exposing its cannibals -- the City of London/Federal Reserve/the Company (CIA) + BlackRock and Vanguard and other Nasib Hasanovs.
5. Putin has a dangerous task of containing global jewry that has neither conscience nor mercy. See the incineration of the living people by Israeli jews -- with the total approval of all 400 major jewish organizations in US (including the shoah-business museums) and jews in the US congress.
>2. This is a fratricidal war that Russians hoped to avoid
Yes, so why didn't Putin avoid it?
1) Who allowed Ukraine be Banderized in the first place while not lifting a finger to stop it?
2) Who didn't roll in with the tanks in 2014 when the AFU was barely existent and it would have been an easy military victory, plus the popualtion had not yet been brainwashed to the same extent?
3) Who didn't do his job to prepare a proper offensive and instead bluffed trying to secure yet another unfavorable to Russia deal?
4) Who didn't mobilize immediately when it became clear to everyone there will be a serious war, thus allowing Ukraine to score its victories in 2022?
5) Who has not lifted a finger to this day to stop the flow of weapons from Poland and Romania even though he has the largest nuclear arsenal in the world and can ensure no weapons will reach the AFU again within 15 minutes of deciding to do so, thus avoiding all the hundreds of thousands, soon to be millions of unnecessary frastricidal deaths and amputations?
>He was dragged into this war kicking and screaming and only because the West wanted to dramatically decrease the share of the loot that the Russian oligarchy was getting. This is the whole reason for the "resistance".
I disagree here. He was dragged into this war because he wanted to be seen as an "equal" with the West and treated as an equal when negotiating with his "partners" and yet was not. He was very hesitant to conduct the war and didn't take the war to its conclusion in 2014 for the very same reason - he thought taking Crimea was "enough" to show "Western partners" that he was serious in his intent. But "Western partners" didn't care much and didn't see him as a partner.
He was forced into the war - albeit the General Staff now wants to see it through.
The intervention in Syria put a complete stop to the Greater Israel Project. Just enough resources so it wouldn't spark a greater conflict between Russia and the Western Oligarchy.
I admit to being impressed with the Syria intervention. Not just the RF forces themselves but the “power assist” they provided the SAA. It seemed like a gauntlet being tossed down at the time.
One difference being that in this case a long slow stalemate condition is less likely due to RF increasing their forces and capability and UKR nearing collapse.
If you read the article linked, it seems the problem is much deeper. The Army is pissed at Putin because they know the correct course of action and want to follow it, but Putin/Shoigu are not letting them and blaming them....
"Pimping economic treasures," as S coins it, has always been what Project Ukraine is about.
When Crimea held its March 2014 referendum & voted overwhelmingly to *return* to Russia, the r’ship between the U.S. Treasury, Congress & the International Monetary Fund intensified. Jack Lew, Obama’s Treasury Secretary, said, “The Ukraine crisis captures the importance of the IMF as an economic tool for American foreign policy when military options are not really viable."
Note that last description: an economic tool for American foreign policy *when military options are not really viable*
Moreover, the IMF is “the first responder,” Lew said, “It is the foundation of the Ukraine aid package.” As early as 2010’s G-20 in Seoul, IMF cheerleaders Bigged Up the prospects of allying more tightly w/ the U.S. Treasury, but Obama’s White House @ the time balked.
“In a very important sense, linking the two is quite logical,” said a former Treasury official and senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics. “The fact that the United States wants to use the IMF to help Ukraine is linked to helping the IMF help itself.”
The selling point before Congress back in 2014 was the fact that “the cost to U.S. taxpayers will be relatively small when compared to the larger defense and foreign aid budgets.”
During a livestream this week w// the Duran gents, Alex Krainer [Naked Hedgie] reported that Christine Lagarde, then-IMF chief, and Jack Lew agreed @ the Fed’s Jackson Hole summit to green-light & support the militias that were seeking to liquidate the LPR & DPR in Donbas & the Russian-ethnic populations in Odessa.
Per Krainer: “Jack Lew spoke to Christine Lagarde & Lagarde gave the orders to the Ukrainian junta to take control of the Odessa area & the Donbas region, by force, in May 2014 or the IMF would no longer fund the government in Kiev.”
When Yemen rejected IMF funding in 2015, a coup ensued. Ditto in Bolivia in 2017. Next up was Bangladesh last August, who also spurned the IMF in favor of a NDB loan from the BRICS+ funding entity.
The IMF is the global banking cartel’s tip-of-the-spear—and the pact between Lew & Lagarde in 2014 cemented this. The foundational architecture of Project Ukraine was as much financial as it was militaristic. It is hard to say where Jack Lew is today, but we know where Christine Lagarde is: the former synchronized swimmer heads the European Commission’s Bank.
John Maynard Keynes et al hashed out the IMF @ the Bretton-Woods conference in 1944. Yes, *that* John Maynard Keynes: the Keynesian John Maynard Keynes.
And, yes, *that* conference in New Hampshire. The IMF quite naturally found its permanent home in the Beltway.
Ever since the IMF has been many things--and the Nixon Shock in 1971 slowed its roll considerably--but it never married war to capital so consummately until Project Ukraine came along.
Lithium and Titanium are the two big "economic treasures" in Western Ukraine. Ukraine's natural gas was snapped up by the US in the first months of that US/UK "war." Unconscionable what the West has done to the people of that Country, the suffering!!!
Since these mines are now in the hands of the western corporate interests, can't the Russians bomb these mines so that they become worthless to them and also knock out a competitor to Russian corporate interests that have holding in Russian titanium?
It's not "financial." It's really about access to resources. A financial value can be placed on these resources so they can be portrayed as a financial figure but the reality of all wars and of all power is the use of brute force to maintain control of resources or force compliance (or eliminate accomplices after a revolution, etc.). Metals, hydrocarbons, land and people have real value, not money. Money can be printed but you can't eat it and it can't magically bring into existence that with is scarce.
Simon Michaux has created a graph overlaying volatility in commodity prices over the number of people killed in wars over the same time period. There's a near perfect correlation. This explains the blatant willingness of governments to risk nuclear armageddon over an apparent trifling. It's only going to get worse.
Let's stop blaming it on Jew bankers or central banks or the Bank of International Settlements or oligarchs.
This might seem like a mere technicality to some except we're running up against a severe shortage in minerals and hydrocarbons. Michaux predicts that in 30 years copper with be the new gold because of its scarcity. The ores won't have enough copper in it to be worth mining.
Anyone who claims all wars are banker's wars hasn't read enough and is probably a gambler with his own "investments." Just because 99.999% of the population believe this and are like this doesn't make it true. The fact that most people have a screw loose over anything to do with money is likely the reason the powers that be have had all the books and articles written pumping these ideas into people's heads. But the same powers that be are responsible for other sorts of nonsense such as economic theory, medical science, investment theory, Covid, global warming, Trump's first assassination attempt...it goes on to no end. Take that as a hint. We live in a society where most truth, even scientific truth, is manufactured bullshit created to control people. Why would anyone believe "all wars are bankers wars" just because the idea is so prevalent? That ought to be a clue that it's manufactured.
I realize you didn't say "all wars are bankers wars." It's just that one of the underlying assumptions in these comment threads is that it true. It ruins the comments because it throws off the reasoning of everyone who buys into it. We're searching for a boogeyman when the truth is we're on the verge of destruction because of scarcity of essential commodities. My view of reality is actually much more depressing.
As a devout cynic I'm always interested in a much more depressing view of reality. Especially regarding politics. Thanks.
I'd only say that "resources" are a poorly-comprehended topic by most people, certainly the vast majority of academics and economists, and that political factions covet control over them for reasons that are (mostly) reducible to "money" and are tactical and temporary.
The destructive wannabe world-rulers who are running amok in the highest levels of our civilisation are not trying to preserve it. They prioritise their personal survival, yes (see, e.g. the nuclear bunkers in Queenstown, New Zealand) but they're inarguably not prioritising "our" surivival, neither "the people" generally in the abstract nor our civilisation specifically.
My tactic is to copy and paste it to an associate who can appreciate it, give credit and a link to the original author. I figure it’s a way of sharing and simultaneously “remembering”…
Thank you. Yours is an outstanding post. “Jack Lew spoke to Christine Lagarde & Lagarde gave the orders to the Ukrainian junta to take control of the Odessa area & the Donbas region, by force, in May 2014 or the IMF would no longer fund the government in Kiev.” I wish Ukrainian mothers find ways to give Lagarde a lesson.
Energy resources NEVER go out of style as a reason for multinationals to invest in a regime change. Control of agricultural commodities is going to be more important shortly as certain areas get warmer and everyone's weather more extreme as well. No single bit of loot or individual interest's power play was responsible for this many disparate actors sticking their dicks into Ukraine at once, it is way more complex than all of that- "It takes a village to murder a child"?
Even if what you said were true (it isn't- if Hell wwere shown to have untapped exploitable petroleum reserves, oil companies would not demand an invasion of Hell. Instead, they'd buy Old Scratch a really expensive lunch and flatter him with talk about how he is the kind of guy that they can really work together with), Ukraine is not particularly energy abundant, other than coal, which is cheap and plentiful. This is somethilng I worked on when I lived in Ukraine.
Take a look at this map. Note the continental shelf oil/gas leases shown in black sea, just off Crimean peninsula and the swath of developed gas plays largely coinciding with the zone of contact- Things may have changed since you were working in Ukraine.
Global warming is nonsense. The climate is getting better. Less cold in the winter and less hot in the summer and fewer extreme weather events all around.
You're correct that these commodities are cheap right now but that's because of a complex set of reasons that have nothing to do with pending scarcity.
The only thing we have plenty of is iron ore. Even with uranium we only have a 200 year supply at current rates of consumption. If reactors get built to power electric vehicles and AI server centers we could run out of uranium in 20 years. Fusion is a pipe dream. Maybe thorium will work out but it makes you wonder why they've left it this late in the game.
Because cheap energy = freedom for people they're trying very hard to (re)enslave, i.e. us.
Artificial scarcity is tactically profitable, strategically advantageous, and can be produced by warfar which is also tactically profitable and strategically advantageous (sets precedents, increases central power, enables censorship and repression, etc).
Well, if Dmytro was in attendance at this idiotic "victory plan" speech, Russia could've killed two morons with one Iskander (or several). Like I've said already, it's time to end this ridiculousness.
You really think so? Have you seen that the rest of the world is chained to the runaway semi and it's going to take us all with it? Please, PLEASE wake up.
Interesting character this Razumkov, a bit of a chameleon perhaps? Came up through "Regions" (a more or less pro Russian party, back in the day?). Went on to help start the synthetic "Servant of the People", then they turned him out, now started yet ANOTHER party, "Smart Politics"?!
Clearly this boy means to be a "mover", I wonder which international financial groups and NGOs support/pay him. SOMEONE must have his back, he dissed Z, says speaking Russian on the radio & TV is fine but hasn't fallen out a window, run into a bullet or played with a live hand grenade yet?
Well it’s a thought but what happens after their entire political class is wiped out in the strikes you’re stating should have happened? Someone needs to be able to capitulate.
Who exactly among their current political leadership do you think is going to capitulate? These people are mental cases, psychopaths, and crooks. They need to be dispatched in toto.
Yep. Or who ever survive the onslaught, dont hang themselves or flees, with some rank in the military or in politics that can be seen as Ukraine state. Ukraine will perish for a while and then be re-instituted in some part of former Ukraine, with a new constitution and propably a russian puppet, but hopefully some genuin, non-nazi, ukrainian leader.
Never give up hope. I'm sure once Russia's General Staff reads your comments that they will immediately recognise that they have been caught out by a superior military strategist and will likely make the necessary corrections.
I understand your reluctance but not your irony. Meantime Israel is wiping out every commander there is in Hamas and Hizbollah. Sometimes even striking IRGC. Israel wont win but they sure as hell is weakening their enemy. Have you ever thought that Zelensky is a hindrance of capitulation as so much has been invested in West in his Churchillian aura of good against evil? With him and Yermak gone there could be a ”fresh” start.
I disagree, Mikey. If you understand the command and control structure of Hezbollah, you will know they are not weakened at all. This is just Israeli pipe dreams
Putin is the real president of Ukraine. Like Yeltsin before him with his legendary phrase: "I woke up in the morning and started thinking - what did you do for Ukraine first of all!" Therefore, the fate of Ukraine is completely in Putin's hands. And he wants to preserve it as an independent state. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6pD-atjdO0U
The sad failing Ukrainian elite, w/ their champagne aspirations & filet mignon tastes, opted to be the proxy of a hegemon-on-the-cheap: no infinite supplies, no carte blanche missiles, no endless waves of weaponry.
Expecting steak, Ukraine's elite sat down to a meal of Hamburger Helper fortified w/ cricket-flour protein.
Unfortunately, it's just 1% of the country which acts like this. Aside from the people in the bigger cities, most Ukrainians are as meek as mice and live very simple, humble lives. Sadly, it's this entrenched poverty and passivity which let them be ruled by those elitist devils. Prior to the war, I spent a lot of time in rural Ukraine and it really is sad how they've been mistreated by their so-called leaders since 1991.
It seems that it is a global phenomenon that 10% of any society is responsible for nearly all criminal activity and that a psychopathic 1% rises to leadership.
Leadership is probably overstating it. They are managerial technocrats that do as they are told. The idea of these 'leaders' making decisions is really a joke. If they did they would be out by the seat of their pants.
It seems in that we the vast majority of humankind in the US (and Europe for that matter) are kindred spirits with the Ukrainians. When it comes to government, regardless of style, it’s pathocracy all the way down.
In Ukraine, the "so-called leaders since 1991" have been predominantly jewish. Ukraine is a case study in jewish mismanagement of a country and in disregard to the non-jews lives.
Rural Ukrainians have been "taking it" since at least the days of the Ottoman/Russian empire clashes, culturally the survivors must know better than to bite when forced to give a blow job.
The fate of flat landers dwelling at the crossroads of empires where the horse soldiers can most easily go, plus the usual "a nail that stands up, gets hammered down".
No group is monolithic, so of course the "meek, simple & humble" populate Ukraine as they do everywhere on earth.
But I note how Quick-To-Pogrom the ordinary people of Ukraine have been historically. It's not just the Odessa Massacre of 1941 or the ethnic cleansing @ Baba Yar in 1941--but the Volynia Massacre of 1943 stands out as an especially protracted & appalling example of mass murder done at the hands of the local Ukrainian population against the ethnic Polish population. So inspired to go on a two-month-long slaughter, the villagers saw no problem in hacking women & children to death, quite literally, w/ hoes & axes.
Are there places on earth where people are quicker to kill--?!!?
For two months in 1943 the "meek, simple & humble" went from Peace to Pogrom in under 60 seconds.
Fast forward to the ethnic cleansing of Donbas, circa 2014-2022. It is reasonable to comprehend that the "meek, simple & humble" knew what was happening but were not moved to act.
Peace to pogrom in 60 seconds can (and has been) done in many places. Burundi (twice!), Darfur, Bangladesh, Rwanda. And possibly coming to a neighborhood near any of us soon.
I think that this abuse of the population is what could have happened in Rus without Putin taking over in 1999. It was heading towards the same direction.
Thank you for this comprehensive summary of the "victory plan."
As for Rogozin, I'll put it bluntly: the man is the fucking devil himself. That evil snake claims he was here in Tiraspol in '92, and while it's impossible to prove a negative, let me just say that I'd wager my hat that he was never here. The guy is a slimeball of the worst kind, and I don't give a shit how many fancy words he's written. I'd rather chew my own ear off than live in a country where he's the leader. Just looking at his face makes me want to puke.
Thanks for the feedback on Rogozin! I don't know much about the internal machinations inside the Kreml (who does really know??), but IMO Helmer usually "sounds" right. And Helmer's article looks like an endorsement for Rogozin, The Hawk. So your contrarian point of view is interesting...
Does it mean that there is no serious mainstream political "hawkish" faction inside Russia? Are the hawks confined to the military and minority parties?
I am not sure Rogozin is the best guy for office - since he has done nothing to reinvigorate RosCosmos but rather just made cool films rather than developing the agency to any significant extent.
Rogozin was born into the family of a Soviet general, graduated from a nomenklatura French special school, then from the privileged international department of the journalism department of Moscow State University. He is a Soviet man to the core, and that is his essence. He has Polish and Jewish ancestors. Immediately after the collapse of the USSR, Rogozin came forward as a "specialist on the Russian question", headed the "Congress of Russian Communities" and built his entire subsequent political career as a defender of Russian interests. At the same time, he completely failed in his job. There are zero Russian parties abroad, national self-awareness is in its infancy, the return of Russians to their historical homeland is happening spontaneously, in the most barbaric conditions.
Once upon a time the west understood the nutty Baltics et al, and their relentless vicious hatred of Russia and craving for a war- a war prosecuted by the all powerful west, natch. They retain this quaint belief in western invincibility that is a hang-over from cold war propaganda. The rest of us, of course, know differently.
Then came an empty cupboard moment for the west and the realisation that the bulk of the valuable resources going forward, especially those required to actually run a 21st century economy including making top notch weapons and shed loads of bog standard ones, resided in territories the west did not control. There was also the small problem of vast, escalating debt that was floating free of any underpinning in real resources value, and the fear of what would happen when the resource rich rest of the world finally twigged to just what was not behind the emerald curtain. Time for urgent action.
So we got a grand push for all that resource rich territory in the nutty east of europe ideally extending this grab all the way to the Chinese border. All the immediate problems swept away in one fell swoop! What not to like?
It seems that the smaller the minds in control in the west, the bigger the potty ambitions. I used to find this phenomenon with students. It was the brighter ones who questioned their reality, doubted their own abilities and foresaw a richer problematic reality to interfere with their goals. The dimmer bulbs were as gung ho as can be, wrapped up in their 'passion'. They lacked the imagination (a disciplined projection of ideas as distinct from fantasy that anyone can do), and this was their superpower.
It is a superpower that could easy propel us into armageddon except that those who are merrily exercising it are no more than a bacterial film on an underlying hard nosed push for a new money tree by people who for their many failings, are not so intellectually impoverished. Nor are their timelines determined by media hype which they manage. The current push east has failed. Time to asset strip the disputed territories of whatever value can be hauled out, and go back to the drawing board. It has been a learning curve, right? Always of value.
As long as the west can crow about Russia's *strategic defeat,* they will care not @ all if Ukraine lies “in a coffin and its citizens in graves," to quote Zakharova
The Dunning-Kreuger effect is a real thing, but the more important takeaway is the findings by Dunning in his studies.
Basically Dunning has found that the amount of knowledge/skill you need to have, to understand how well you do (or do not) understand a knowledge set/perform a skill is the ENTIRETY of that knowledge/skill set....
The obvious flip side of that is that people are INCAPABLE of understanding, not just that they don't know/can't do/can't understand a thing, but also just how fractional their knowledge/skill is..
I leave applying this concept to the comments that abound hereabouts to the reader.
The humility effect in finding out that there are big pie slices of fields of endeavor that you know next to nothing about and probably will never know is the opposite of Dunning-Kruger. For me, it was college. Virtually the only useful thing I attribute to it.
I suspect you and I are both decades past our college years, but that aside, a recent study showed that the average college IQ has *fallen* from 112 to 102. Firmly in the realm of "Midwits", sadly.
I was well aware, in my time, that I was just an average student *then*, nothing special (but Lord, did I spend WAY too much time in the Library [No internet, it existed, but not the distraction it is today] learning that I had more to learn).
These days, without that experience, I'd probably consider myself almost smart!
I got an early leg up on understanding that the raw problem-solving intelligence measured by IQ tests isn't the sum total of the skills of a specialist. Some people with very questionable opinions about life in general (and whose thought process I can't really divine) have very desirable skills that I only wish I had in conjunction with what I already have. I guess i'm saying that everyone you run into who has useful experience and knowledge isn't going to be 'bright' in the traditional sense.
Taking your correct assertion and drawing conclusions, these people with average intelligence sent through the college hopper would probably benefit from apprenticeship. My daughter is graduating with her DVM next year, and it wouldn't have happened if it hadn't been for a veterinarian who took her under her wing and had her do grunt work for years while she was doing undergrad work. She's 30, and you can tell she messed around on the way or it would have happened about 5 years sooner. You can also tell my age from that.
I've been getting a sneaking suspicion about this in recent years. I've had several experiences where the quality/fitness of my knowledge about a particular matter has progressed in weird fits and starts. Sometimes my understanding shoots off at tangents. Sometimes I just have to admit that I'm doing a volte-face in my opinions because of new information. This is all no doubt because of the effect you speak of (the fact that I don't know enough about a matter and don't realise that I don't). When it's said that 'a little bit of knowledge is a dangerous thing' it's quite true. And yet we are compelled to form conclusions and act upon them; there be no alternative.
The Dunning-Kreuger effect is a specific subset of Dunnings work.
In a nutshell, smart people think they have an ordinary/normal understanding of the world and "dumb" people think they know more than they do.
Put another way, smart people think themselves as average, dumb people think themselves to be smart. Both will then behave in line with this thinking...
Again, I leave it as an exercise for the reader to apply this insight to commentary on this substack...
As to your understanding progressing in fits and starts, this is "chunking". In the adult learning/training world, (good) courses of instruction are divided into appropriate "chunks" of discrete knowledge/skill. As you grasp/understand a "chunk" of information, that enables you/prepares you to grasp and understand the next "chunk". Sometimes you have to trust in the process, as at times it's not until a certain amount of processing of chunks has taken place that all of a sudden you have an "Oh, THAT'S what they meant" moment...
Upvoted because you're right overall, but I'd respectfully disagree on this bit: "on an underlying hard nosed push for a new money tree by people who for their many failings, are not so intellectually impoverished."
The sad truth I think is that populations in the west really are intellectually impoverished, especially in the US. Not only are they intellectually impoverished, they've become delusional, slaves to various deranged ideologies, and that includes their "intellectuals" and supposedly educated people.
I think both phenomena are one of the toxic consequences of the US achieving sole empire status in the world. That's one of the things that happened to Romans, as well: after they seized and ruled the known world the great mass of them no longer needed to think. They could enjoy good times being fat, happy, and stupid, living off the resources, labor, intelligence and productivity of their vassals.
Farming almost ceased in Italy while Romans depended on great grain ships bringing their food from Egypt and northern Africa. The tutors, mathematicians and savants (and even chefs) were mostly Greeks from the annexed Greek territories around the Med. Slaves were everywhere doing all the labor in Rome, brought in from all the many territories conquered by Rome. Many Romans in Rome itself had no employment at all but lived on the dole. To enforce its primacy in economic or political matters Rome didn't hesitate to overturn regimes or to invade countries, killing millions in foreign wars. At the same time, average Romans became so badly educated many had no idea where Gaul was when Julius Caesar set out to enslave its peaceful tribes who had never engaged in any hostility to Rome, just so he could pay off his personal debts. The Roman intelligentsia became such deluded ideologues that when the Visigoths appeared before the gates of Rome in 410 AD and gave the senators, who turned out in their threadbare robes to parlay, the choice of surrendering to a sack or being killed to the last Roman, there were still many who thought Rome ruled the world.
There are many echoes of that in the US today. Industry has moved to China, with most US consumer and industrial products being made in China, not the US. Grad students in math and science and the staff of tech companies are mostly foreigners. Migrants, both illegal and legal, do menial work and grow food. Many Americans have no employment and live on the dole. To enforce its primacy in economic or political matters the US doesn't hesitate to overturn regimes or to invade countries, killing millions in foreign wars. Americans have been so ignorant that not one in a hundred can point out on a globe where the US's many foreign wars are happening and a surprisingly large percentage don't even know which countries were allied with the US in WW2 and which were enemies. The US's intelligentsia have become such deluded ideologues they think there are no nazis in Ukraine, that the US can defeat Russia either economically or with conventional military, and that when they turn out in their clothing made in China to parlay with the Chinese, that they can order China about like a vassal.
That's the real problem here. The Americans and their vassals have become badly educated cretins, a bunch of delusional dopes armed with nukes.
Bread and circuses, John, the uplands of intellectual psychopathy or the lowlands of a rubbish emotional bog. The only comfort is that it really is a level playing field. The west isn't losing from a lack of intellectual backbone but from a lack of real resources, those with current exceptional value, that it has failed to secure. And now it is too late.
Plenty of talk about negotiation, but, who will Russia negotiate with? The Minsk accords were negotiated and what happened? Ukraine was further militarized and they disregarded the accords completely, with Germany and France not raising a finger about this. So, I ask you folks who read Simplicius, what do you think will be the end game. I personally see no other option other than complete unconditional surrender with Russia revising the power structure completely in what if anything is left of the previous country of Ukraine. Remember Yugoslavia? Ukraine is the next Yugoslavia
to disappear into the haze of the past, just in a more bloody and really unfortunately for them, what was wholly preventable but that ship sailed back in 2022.
First you need workers. The one part has left the country and due to good jobs or high social security benefits will not come back. The other part is dead or at least wounded, I think the losses per capita of Ukraine are much higher than that of the Soviet Union or Germany in WWII.
Thank you for a sane rational reply in a sea of emotional delusion
Workers yes, but very many skilled workers, engineers, welders - on a scale few can imagine, and none possess, apart perhaps from China (together with India, and Malaysia and..)
Organisational and management skills which, on this level and scale, only China has practiced
Which is not to belittle the work the RF has done in the new republics
And a lot of cash, a great deal much more than RF has - at least €1T, perhaps more
All of which point to a peace only to be achieved, or to be instituted and given form, by an alliance
This alliance alone is capable of giving benefit to, and of finding benefit from, the material and productive reconstruction of the wasteland
The we'll do this and they'll do that chest beating is short sighted - but if simply to end up like the westerners cooing with victory but dereft of the knowledge will and power to make something of victory, this will play into the westie plans and merely reproduce the 20th C
Multipolarity means something, can start with meaning this
I expect a fair number of single Chinese men will find employment in Ukraine interesting (for several reasons) shortly after the shooting stops. And a number will stay on.
You understand most of Ukraine has not been destroyed?
Primary destruction is at the line of contact which is primarily small urban areas and rural.
Roads in newly Russian areas are being improved & paved, bridges built- never happened in 30 years of Ukraine control.
Given the resources & economic potential of the territory already under Russian control- and territory that will end up under Russian control- great ROI.
China also benefits from these improvements due to the agricultural potential.
Russian & China can/will cooperate on rebuilding & modernizing this soon to be former Ukraine territory.
In 2 to 5 years Europe will be begging Russia for oil, gas, fertilizer & other commodities.
There is already a major high speed rail project under way between China & Moscow. They can extend this into Europe. No more or reduced need for ships to move containers.
Russia has debt to GDP of about 17%- paying it down every year. This year reduced to in the $200 billion range.
You really think Russia can't fund or arrange funding to rebuild Ukraine?
There will be ZERO western involvement or influence in or on soon to be former Ukrainian territory.
Every single printed, borrowed, stolen or extorted $ "invested" in Ukraine by the "west" will be 100% lost.
In reality this SMO will turn out to be fantastic for Russia.
Likely economic & societal collapse of America. Forcing them to abandon many of their foreign bases. Seriously degrading them as a threat to Russia & all around the world.
One can only imagine the demand from international buyers for Russian military equipment & supplies now that it has been shown to be so much more cost effective & better than over priced western high tech crap.
This AmeriNATO proxy war against Russia has been a massive win for Russia and a massive L for the "west".
Thank you - but no.... I had to do a job of work and travel for a month
But I have no intention of investing as much in a situation which has not improved, a lot of people, most commenters, crying for revenge or instant this or that, ethnic trivia to the fore, cursing any no true believer
Nudelman will help destroy the country and native people even FURTHER. Maybe to create some hellhole that the Zionists would like to inhabit. Everything Nudelman does is reckless and hideous in its implementation. She should be Ukraine’s symbol for Halloween — the worst witch that destroyed their peaceful relations with their best neighbor!
And then the Russians have to take care about Western Ukraine! The Russian leadership is much to much educated to even touch this place. But for unconditional surrender you have to conquer all.
But since they are just statements of imaginary circumstances that try and put the Russian Genie back in the bottle, as negotiation positions they are a failure.
As you say, there is no-one who can make ANY believable guarantee about the future vis Russian security from NATO threats, so this will end on Russian terms, or not at all.
"...complete unconditional surrender with Russia revising the power structure completely in what if anything is left of the previous country of Ukraine...
Yes, this. There is nothing to negotiate and no one trustworthy enough to negotiate with. The west has proven itself to be non-stop liars. The rest of the world is paying attention and jumping on the BRICS train. The west is about to collapse in its mountainous pile of debt. That's why they NEED WW3... Chip
The truly remarkable thing is that that need not happen.
The judaics have set up a system whereby all they "lend" you is fiat currency, which is essentially worthless.
Pay them back with a similarly worthless piece of paper, and proceed boldly from there.
Hitler did it, on the ancient Athenian model, by issuing one Reichsmark for every hour a German worked, and 6 million were immediately back at work building autobahns, canals, and new housing - Germany's prosperity exploded overnight.
I am continually stunned by the insanity of the whole western political class. That dumb ass calling for Taurus strikes was basically calling to start WW3.
He wasn't primarily calling for Taurus strikes, he was calling for an ultimatum to Russia f/b Taurus strikes - the latter of which in the grand scheme of things, could never do much damage to a Russia already fully cognizant with Storm Shadow mechanics.
Ultimata are far more dangerous than Taurus could ever be.
Fortunately, your blanket condemnation of the western political class is not entirely accurate, as Sahra W showed by her speech.
The man doing this, Mr. Merz, was the former CEO of Blackrock Germany. He is embedded in the Western Elites. He is the leader of the Christ Democratic Party, the very party, that was introducing the market based order after WWII (Mr. Erhard), the party that tells the Germans about family, about property, about balanced budget, about low taxes, about reducing rules, and national identity. The same party where UvdL is part of, and she brings new rules and rules, more Gender - less family, takes property rights away and destroys the nations. And as a latest clown show Mr. Merz had the great idea, to "mobilize" the savings of the German population - in other words to confiscate the savings. This are the leaders of a Christ Democratic Party, not the Communist one! Good night Europe.
What is it with Catholicism that it inspires such war criminals as Tony Blair (the Pious) and Friedrich Merz? He is a leader of Christian Democratic Union and staunch supporter of self-proclaimed Ukrainian Nazis. Does he have a portrait of Stepan Bandera in the main office?
He may become the next chancellor for all I know. There won't be WWIII of course, but Germany as it has been known leading the EU is pretty much over, I'd say
Russia needs the total surrender to eliminate any gray area in its dispute with Ukraine and as a deterrence to NATO. NATO taking a very public loss to Russia means they can't risk taking a second major Loss anytime soon. Also, whatever is left of Ukraine will probably be added to NATO so this is Russia's only/last/best chance to define the borders in their best interest. They effectively hold all the cards and can't predict how the next hand will be dealt.
How long can one play cat and mouse, as I was seeing from a certain point Put has no more the strings in his hands, those perspiring and pulling their hairs behind his back, can hardly wait to take over and done this cat and mouse game, time to close the accounts
Russia has real Nukes? Very assuring good to know that. However the problem with Isreal is that they do really have Nukes too? Isn't that's the reason why Iran is doing limited strike so far?
Iran is trying to avoid being dragged into a war unless it is unambiguous to the whole world that the zionists are the instigators. The moral high ground still counts for something, especially amongst the global South who see Jewish provocations for what they are.
The moral high ground in the sense that this war isn't likely to end through military conquest but will be decided ultimately by condemnation in the UN and blockade and sanction against Israel similar to how the South African apartheid government was made a pariah state.
It is necessary to take a step back and look at Iran's dilemna to understand why they are being extremely tepid and limited in responding to Israeli provocations.
Iran is Shia and Persian in a region where almost every other country is Sunni and Arab. Regionally they are feared and distrusted, because of their powerful military and support of Shia proxies, especially by the Saudis. Realistically their options to effectively target Israel militarily are limited to cruise and ballistic missile strikes since they don't have land borders and intervening nations aren't likely to give them overflight rights to attack Israel with their airforce or allow their army passage. And their biggest economic weapon is shutting down oil traffic in the Persian Gulf, which would harm the economies of the Western nations supporting Israel but would probably harm the Saudis even more who would have no way to sell their oil.
Already the intervening countries have banned the Israelis from over-flying their territory to attack Iran, which forces them to fly a more circuitous route, and by allowing the Israeli government to do the horrible things in Gaza and now Lebanon it is serving to unite the usually fractious Arab countries with one another and with their Shia minorities, and also galvanizing world opinion against the Jews. Even in western countries the jews have become so unpopular and disliked that the censorship dial has to be turned up to 11 to try and tamp down the now exploding criticism of Israel and all things Jewish. In case you haven't noticed, there's a whole lot of noticing going on, and even with the overwhelming censorship the jews are not going to be able to stuff that genie back in its bottle.
Iranian restraint has led to military support from Russia and military alliance which means that Israeli air attacks will likely be facing the newest Russian air defence systems and modern SU-35 fighter aircraft. And, the Russians and likely the Chinese will block any UN security council actions against Iran. Since direct fighting between the Iranian and Israeli armies isn't possible excluding some deus ex machina event, the best thing the Iranians can do is continue to show restraint and force the Israelis to continue their provocations and escalations, all while bleeding them economically and militarily through militia proxies in Lebanon and economic blockade in the Red Sea via the Houthis. As is the case in Ukraine, the west doesn't have the capacity or the military manufacturing capability to supply Israel indefinitely with weapons, and Israeli slaughter of noncombatants is hurting them economically and ultimately politically as western nations are forced to abandon support due to their increasingly pissed off voters.
If I had to guess, the whole Iranian response has been very skillfully played so far and indicates that it has been thought out in advance and very likely coordinated with other regional players like the Saudis who have their own tightrope to walk with the US, and also with Russia and China who are giving political cover and in the case of the Russians, advanced weapons and the training to use them.
There is a reasont hat the UN and its members have doen nothing concrete. As I said, they crave American carrot and fear American stick.
Expecting moral condemnation to affect Israel or its American thug is as pointless as quoting Bible verses to an armed robber. The robber already knows that "thou shalt not kill!" and "thou shalt not steal!" and he does not care. Israel and America already know what they are doing, but as long as they have force on their side, they do not care.
Similarly, put a loaded .357 to the head of that armed robber and he will be the one to quote Scripture. And will not care whether you have the legal or moral right to do so.
I think the fear of US stick is far less than it used to be and is one sunken aircraft carrier away from being nonexistent. Uncle Sam's carrot is still effective in that many countries elites are captured by it and get used to special privileges like their childrens education in American universities or junkets to the US, etc along with the usual sinecures, and garden variety bribery. Again, that is one Greatest Depression away from ending, and it will likely end even faster once BRICS+ creates an alternate financial transaction infrastructure and alternative payment system to the USD.
"I think it highly unlikely that Israel has nuclear weapons."
----------
Why did the Israelis divert all those weapons grade material (U235 & Pu239) from NUMEC and Kerr-McGee, starting back in the early 1960s & continuing at least until the mid 70s when Israel built its own plutonium extraction and uranium enrichment facilities? How did Mordecai Vanunu take actual PHOTOS of Israeli plutonium cores in his glove box at Dimona? And who made the weapon fired in the Southern Ocean back on 22 September 1979, the fallout detected on Australia was a analyzed as resulting from a Pu239 implosion device while South Africa never developed anything but gun assembly U235 weapons.
Mossad did NOT invent that rumor as a psyop, it was a very real and effective operation, created from the ground up to do one thing- Give Israel access to USA produced weapons grade materials. After this diversion was detected (and later, at the Kerr-McGee fuel plant), Israel did what they could to hush it up, twisting the arms of Carter administration, suborning and in at least one case, killing witnesses.
Olaf the Clown. The original cessation of Russian gas to Germany was caused by West sanctions. Gas turbines needed servicing. Siemens had parceled it out to Siemens Canada. Castreau Jr. refused to have them sent back to Russia because of the sanctions. After that we know why the gas was cut off when Gilligan, the Skipper, the Professor, the Millionaire and his wife, Ginger and Maryanne rented the Andromeda and blew up the Nordstream pipelines.
It seems like Germany is angling for a swift resumption of Russian gas exports. It might not be easy as Russia has pivoted towards Asia and BRICS economically. As the war continues, these ties will strengthen. Also, it is in Russia's interest to have NATO countries with weak economies and political chaos.
The Germans would love cheap Russian energy, but unfortunately for them, Russia has new friends and doesn't need them. China is providing everything that Germany did, and more.
I expect Russia to pursue its own interests, but it owes Germany nothing.
It's like him again playing the piano.
... but with drops :P...
https://open.substack.com/pub/jaikobaayaan/p/36d?r=4mimn6&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
He's playing it with other people's body parts.
Between 400,000 to 600,000 other people's "body parts."
With his you know what.
Zelensky is a Clown. Never been anything than a produced scam to ”entertain” the masses. It cost Ukraine 1 000 000 dead and maimed and chrushed the whole country.
Simplcius nailed all the good parts of this ”Peace plan”. One can delve a bit more on it.
1. The plan is so pompous that ordinary people should suspect it as a scam.
2. It is so unlikely to realize that Zelenskys gang can say they were betrayed by West, although I find it unlikely this is their endgame. They only want the ”movement of war to Russian soil” It is the most i,portant for them - to continue the war but be able to smash even more bases inside Russia.
3. The 5 point about stationing psychotic veterans from the War in Europe instead of American DEI-personell seems to be a tid-bits for Trump (who has declared some uninterest in NATO)
4. Zelensky also said that some calculation for Ukraines economy would be added after the War suggesting a enormous war reparations extracted from Russia. Fantasies of course.
5. The mineral resources is on Russian territory and most of it east of Dnieper. It could be they think of selling out resources in occupied territories to ensnare the Politicians in West (dominantly US and City of London) to commit for a deeper involvement with troops on the ground. It is interesting to think of a scenario where Trump makes a Friedrich the Fuhrer Merz speech and give Russia 24 hours to comply to the demands of ”peace” or ”ceasefire”. Otherwise US&NATO will deploy long-range missiles, aircraft and AD staffed by US forces/NATO on Ukrainian soil from the next morning. How will Kreml respond to such lunatics? They will of course repeat their standpoint but will they start destroy US troops mid-air or on the ground?
One can clearly see what Stefanchuk implied by Ukraine is already NATO-army.
6. Rada was assembled, part of, and some of the gang (Budanov, Stafanchuk). Where was Kinzhal?
I can see staff at Stavka grinding their teeths…
The other part with Helmer was interesting but to simple. Russia is not Tom Clancy with 4-5 characters doing the plot. It is even not Tolstoy with 120 characters intriguing, scheming and feverishly striving for power. It is way more complicated. For me it is clear that Putin has showed restraint, which is good, but also showed doubtfulness that someone could call weakness. I think a successor will come into place before 2030.
Medvedev, "The Bear", is awaiting the call.
Yes. He is striving, perhaps to much. He has been President but was also fooled by the Americans. A bitter lesson that can explain his hawkish mood now. When he supress his outermost rabidness he is extremely clear about issues. We will see…
One of the other things Medvedev is wrong about is the root cause of all these difficulties.
His belief, as indeed is that of most other Russians, seems to be that it is an Anglo Saxon phenomenon - indeed, he called for the island to be submerged beneath the waves recently.
However, it is evident that Britain is not, and has not for centuries, been ruled by Anglo Saxons, but by a group of people operating out of the independent jurisdiction called The City of London.
Heaven forfend that anyone should ever name the jew.
He may be forgiving for naming the Puppets.
Another haSSbara pseudo-antisemite? Britain is run from Washington, like every other neo-colony. Zionists (who can't be Jewish) are amongst American Caesar's vilest proxies are competing with the British boss class to be Caesar's chief jackal but they've a long way to go.
As you will recall, the British remained in North America for seven years after they were expelled as a result of the "revolution" there.
The time was spent in most amicably setting up the US franchise, ie a contracted-out phenomenon far easier to control without ever having to leave the safety and security of London.
The rulership is delegated to the Middle Temple in the City of London.
Remember of course George Bush Senior kneeling before the Queen of England when he visited to pay his respects, and to receive a knighthood for services rendered.
"Zionists who can't be jewish"?
What does that even mean.
squeeth likes to spout bullshit that regularly. Nuttyahoo, Blinken, Smotrich, etc prove him wrong.
Is that why the new US went to war in with its boss in 1812? Zionism was invented as a replacement for Judaism, you can't get more antisemitic than that. Simples.
The British remained in N. America for a lot longer than seven years given their continuing control of Canada, which lasted at least until the 1931 Statute of Westminster (giving the various dominions control of defense and foreign policy) and arguably until Canada patriated their constitution from the UK in 1982.
lol Squeeth the Jew running cover for his sin merchant chicken swinging tribe again....
I'm not Jewish or zionist, I'm an anarchist you pretend-antisemite popinjay.
"Zionists (who can't be Jewish) " ??? explain that hilarity (((squeeth)))
Work it out yourself, ignoramus.
US: New York University adopts measures declaring 'Zionists' a protected class
https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/nyu-adopts-measures-declaring-zionists-protected-class
@Squeeth
The British are our BUTLER. And we all know who did it-
Strange, then, that GHW Bush, when President of the Corporation, knelt before his butler to receive a knighthood from her.
Some would call that treason.
This is not either/or in a geography lesson.
It is power centered in a nation's money and credit machinery for the benefit of a Tribe who have no allegiance whatsoever to their temporary residence.
Greater Israel would encompass the entire World give the elastic morality of the grand interpreters of their self-written, self-serving books claiming their mediocrity as superiority.
The vast majority of British and American capitalists have been British and American and somewhat detached from all forms of superstitious mumbo-jumbo.
"Britain is run from Washington, like every other neo-colony..........." And Washington is run from Tel Aviv.
Russians also have personal interactions over several hundred years with the Tribe for whom Self-Interest supersedes any commitment whatsoever to their country of residence.
Stalin didn't interrupt Trotsky's Mexican Adventure solely for personal pleasure.
Detailed, of course, in Solzhenitsyn's "200 years together."
English translation available in 2025?
My Russian and German skills are pretty stunted.
At least Medvedev knew to listen to his General Staff when it came to war and wrapped up Georgia in 5 days. Georgia war would probably still be going on if Putin was in charge.
So the Empire of Deceit pinky-swears that this time, absolutely, you can trust us.
Reminds me of Israeli Av's question to me, "How do you say Fook You in Yiddish?"
Thrusting his hand forward to shake mine, "Trust me."
"He has been President but was also fooled by the Americans. A bitter lesson that can explain his hawkish mood now." No, I don't think that's it. Medvedev is playing his role in a "good cop, bad cop" presentation. He's the "bad cop," reminding the US and its vassals that if they want to mouth off Russia is plenty capable of tearing their jaw off.
That preserves for players like Lavrov and Putin greater flexibility of action. It also acknowledges how most Russians feel. That's a very important effect, that Russians know there are people in the leadership who feel the way they do.
It's not play acting, either, because many in the leadership feel it is long past time to take a far harder line against the US and other countries that have committed acts of war against Russia. It's useful for both sides to have those opinions aired.
Within Russia that's part of achieving sufficient consensus to steer policy in a rapidly evolving situation, to pick the balance Russia desires between softer responses and harsher responses. Within the US and its vassals, hearing such opinions within Russia reminds those few Western players who are not completely delusional that Putin is a moderate, and just might be the only person between them and annihilation.
Agree on description of Putin. Moderate. I will call him logic and pragmatic. Your description of Medvedev is inconsistent. He cant be playing god cop - bad cop in the same time as he is not playing…
Medvedev has matured and got more delusional about West. It is not playing. It is for real. I have followed his ”mad dog” rants and his more restrained comments. Beneath you have the same anger. Period.
After Putin, we can expect it within 2-3 years, someone like Medvedev will appear.
"It is not playing. It is for real. " There's nothing inconsistent in him playing the "bad cop" role if he personally agrees with that role. For that matter, if he didn't agree with that role, he wouldn't be doing a very good job in the "bad cop" role if you or anyone else could see he obviously didn't mean it.
That he's angry and ready to fry the West is not inconsistent with whatever his assigned role. All of the leadership and pretty much every Russian I know who is an alert adult feels that way. It's just that for practical, professional reasons, such as doing diplomacy or dealing with delusional Western leaders it is in Russia's interest that some of them do not show that anger. But on rare occasion it comes out, even in someone as famously self-controlled as Putin.
I also thought the point 5 was for Trump.
>As a final note, amidst all the swirling debate around how the conflict will end, given that things feel like they’re reaching an apogee of sorts, veteran rapporteur John Helmer has written an interesting new article which puts forth his opinion on an ideological clash between the Kremlin and General Staff on this account:
Slowly the truth about Putin being the problem is starting to creep into people's consciouscness. Too slowly though...
While Putin's cautiousness in trying to prevent a catastrophic world war are commendable in theory, in practice it has caused this thing to slowly spiral and given the Ukulele's (with the US & NATO's help) the time to engage in desperate tactics, such as the stupid Kursk invasion, launching missiles at nuclear power plants, and killing Russian civilians inside Russia. It also gave the US the time and opportunity to blow up Nordstream.
Russia should've applied much more force to subdue Ukulele. The "slow grind" has taken too damn long.
Somehow true but the alternative could have been worse. We will never know and I think Putin did the lesser evil of choices.
agree
I personally thank Putin For his amazing restraint. A lesser man might have shit himself and blown up the planet. In fact, I'm so impressed with Putin that I'm "writing him in" on the Nov 5 "election" canard. No Biden in a skirt or Don, the raging/aging narcissist, for me.
Re the penis playing piano man:
If wishes were horses...beggars would ride.
Never use the Pimp Hand on a Ukulele !!
Do use much more force than they have would have cause depletion, backlash and reduced chances of success. Working with the tools one has is a subtle art…
8 thumbs down.
Quack-Quack
Too long for us, but I think there’s a method to Putins madness: drain and weaken the United States and NATO
He’s “draining and weakening” them to the point where they do something stupid, like launch a missile barrage into Moscow, which will force his hand and put him on the spot to actually make good on his “red line” and revised nuclear posture. Can’t you people get this through your thick heads?
What's worse is that Putin revised the nuclear posture so that he can delay as much as possible before using nukes...sigh
Agreed, if only the war itself is considered. A benefit of the slow grind to Russia has been the effect on NATO, the member countries, and the general world political situation. They're doing 'pretty well' for the blood and treasure they're investing.
Putin promised Xi a minimum of five years of war; this to degrade the US and give China time to become overwhelmingly strong. Ukraine is just one piece of the chessboard, and any good chess master is willing to sacrifice pieces to win the larger game. In this case the larger game is the Global American Empire vs. the New Asia_ Russia, Iran, India, China. Ukraine and 1 million people dying don't matter to those fighting of total global domination.
Hardly. Putin has managed this narrative from the first. It is how he keeps his allies on board. If they push him too hard for a settlement he tells them he will be replaced by someone not at all interested in their concerns and only too delighted to get a finger on the nuclear button. Meanwhile with his other hand Putin runs the narrative viz his western adversaries that if they seriously push into Russia, he will be replaced by someone who really will hit them back everywhere it will really hurt. For real.
And it is all absolutely true. You just missed the bit that Putin knows it, and has control of the narrative. It is why he is who and where he is, and no western leaders are a patch on him.
excellent comment
Yes I am inclined to agree with this perspective. All too often desk jockeys spout off as if it were a cheap spy novel with a limited number of 2-D characters. Furthermore, how the heck would one even know?! We all carry within us running simulations of varying dynamics and complexity. Declaring them to be some sort of deep truth or profound insight is hubris. Clearly Russia has been playing this conflict in a relatively delicate manner, and from what I can tell for good reason. Given that we do appear to be in WW3, going into full on bar brawl mode might not be the best strategy. Russia has the support at least ideologically of the ROW, and this is not an accident.
Yes, this ^^^^^. Russia is allowing the collective west to defeat itself. "Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake."... Chip
I mean, here in the USA I am watching it in real time so armchair interwebz guru-ing aside. It’s about to get (more) real.
Read the linked article. It seems that Putin/Shoigu are engaged in Politicking and are obstructing the Army from fighting properly.
I keep referring to WW1, but in that war peace would have been almost trivially easy to secure in say 1914 or 1915, but by 1916 the hard liners had taken over. And so the war was fought to the bitter end. We might well be seeing the same dynamic here.
But WW1 was not fought to the bitter end. It ended when it became clear Germany was being successfully attritioned in a war of attrition. Frontlines were still in Belgium and German territory was barely touched.
We're long, long way past the equivalent of WW1's end.
Depends on your interpretation of both phrases and historical events, but by 1918 Germany was ruined - militarily, politically, socially and economically - prostrate before its enemies and really incapable of further effective resistance, its army was melting and mutinies we're breaking out, and its allies had collapsed and abandoned it. That is the sort of end I envisage for Ukraine.
except the jew is running ukraine rather than stabbing germany in the back
🐂💩
(((John Osman))) back to defend his chicken swinging sin merchant tribe...
@Dhdh
The German general staff in 1918 were not Jewish, neither was their political boss. The face saving "stab in the back" claims surfaced long after, it was (and still is) very popular with the followers of your fallen god. Much as certain post WWII Wehrmacht top brass wrote self serving autobiographies to blames their loss on that same fallen god- Fact is, both those wars were lost by gentile German military AND political leaders, both were self deluded into taking a far larger bite than they could chew, then ran the project on long after that was apparent, extreme victims of the sunk costs fallacy- Ukrainians and NATO are now walking in Kaiser Wilhelm and Adolf Schickelgruber's footsteps.
Not that I disagree about the stab in the back being not truthful, but the logical stream of the argument was that the German home front collapsed and the people were demanding peace. Mostly due to starvation due to blockade, casualties, whatever. The argument by Ludendorff and company was that communist agitation caused this instead, and one step further it was presumed all/most communists were also Jewish. It was a political lie along the lines of calling J6 an insurrection intending to overthrow the government.
Most of the WWII types blamed their failures on Hitler himself, it was convenient as he was now dead. A good sampling of Manstein, Guderian, even von Mellenthin will turn this up as the primary excuse. I don't think writing anti-Jewish screeds was very popular by those types, at least in print. Probably not convenient at the time.
Why they were able to paint the Soviets as incompetent but yet also claim that they swamped the Germans...it was what those in the West wanted to believe.
It's nothing like WWI.
Putin had both the military-technical means and the absolute obligation to finish the war ASAP in a few weeks.
That meant going in hard with 3-4X the forces he went in with, first severing, and then immediately directly taking control over the transport links between Ukraine and Europe, and finishing off the NATO proxy while keeping NATO from intervening.
He did the exact opposite, trying as usual to balance the military-technical and geostrategic imperative with "the economy", the interests of Russian oligarchs, and the "what will the rest of the world think about us, we are not like that" sentiments, instead of using the abundant military-technical means at his disposal to solve the problem decisively.
The only valid analogy between WWI and the current situation might be between Nicholas II and Putin, i.e. weak indecisive rulers in times when their country needed drastic action to resolve the accumulated internal contradictions while fighting off external aggression. Hopefully that is not the case and Putin will prove that comparison wrong in the coming months. But right now it is looking very, very ugly.
Because while Nicholas II's imbecility was destroying imperial Russia, the Bolsheviks were waiting in the wings and General Staff of the time bet on them to put it all back together, largely correctly. Right now we are in a situation where Putin has spent the last quarter century making sure there is no viable alternative...
Putin and his fellow nationalists have done very well in restoring Russian sovereignty, reviving the economy and preparing for the inevitable war with American Caesar. The intervention in Syria was a straw in the wind and the intervention in Ukraine is the proxy war par excellence, where the Septics are allowing themselves to be defeated in detail. Nicely done Vlad.
>Putin and his fellow nationalists
You know absolutely nothing about Russia, which is clearly revealed by this statement.
Putin has ruled as a typical neoliberal for a quarter of a century, in the interests of Russian oligarchs and the system in which Russia is a resource appendage to the West, with real wealth being extracted out of the country and some shiny trinkets being sent in return, but mostly for the benefit of the oligarchy and the small upper middle class.
He was dragged into this war kicking and screaming and only because the West wanted to dramatically decrease the share of the loot that the Russian oligarchy was getting. This is the whole reason for the "resistance".
A "nationalist" Putin very much is not.
He's a nationalist who has saved Russia from the Septic neo-liberals (fascists) and has restrained the neos in Russia to an extent not seen in Britain (my gaff) since the early 1970s.
Putin said on March 3, 2022: “I am a Lak, I am a Dagestani, I am a Chechen, an Ingush, a Russian, a Tatar, a Jew, a Mordvin, an Ossetian.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wAgC7V14a90
" Putin Called to Counter the Rise of Nationalism and Neo-Nazism "
https://pacsto.org/events/putin-prizval-protivodeystvovat-aktivizatsii-natsionalizma-i-neonatsizma
1. Russians are not jews. Russians have souls and mercy and would better not fight a war
2. This is a fratricidal war that Russians hoped to avoid
3. The time of "inaction" and the atrocities of Judea War on Russia (by using the Nazified Ukrainians as NATO army) strengthened the unity of Russian people, along with the strengthening the Russian economy and army.
4. Let the judaized collective west ruin itself while exposing its cannibals -- the City of London/Federal Reserve/the Company (CIA) + BlackRock and Vanguard and other Nasib Hasanovs.
5. Putin has a dangerous task of containing global jewry that has neither conscience nor mercy. See the incineration of the living people by Israeli jews -- with the total approval of all 400 major jewish organizations in US (including the shoah-business museums) and jews in the US congress.
>2. This is a fratricidal war that Russians hoped to avoid
Yes, so why didn't Putin avoid it?
1) Who allowed Ukraine be Banderized in the first place while not lifting a finger to stop it?
2) Who didn't roll in with the tanks in 2014 when the AFU was barely existent and it would have been an easy military victory, plus the popualtion had not yet been brainwashed to the same extent?
3) Who didn't do his job to prepare a proper offensive and instead bluffed trying to secure yet another unfavorable to Russia deal?
4) Who didn't mobilize immediately when it became clear to everyone there will be a serious war, thus allowing Ukraine to score its victories in 2022?
5) Who has not lifted a finger to this day to stop the flow of weapons from Poland and Romania even though he has the largest nuclear arsenal in the world and can ensure no weapons will reach the AFU again within 15 minutes of deciding to do so, thus avoiding all the hundreds of thousands, soon to be millions of unnecessary frastricidal deaths and amputations?
>He was dragged into this war kicking and screaming and only because the West wanted to dramatically decrease the share of the loot that the Russian oligarchy was getting. This is the whole reason for the "resistance".
I disagree here. He was dragged into this war because he wanted to be seen as an "equal" with the West and treated as an equal when negotiating with his "partners" and yet was not. He was very hesitant to conduct the war and didn't take the war to its conclusion in 2014 for the very same reason - he thought taking Crimea was "enough" to show "Western partners" that he was serious in his intent. But "Western partners" didn't care much and didn't see him as a partner.
He was forced into the war - albeit the General Staff now wants to see it through.
The intervention in Syria put a complete stop to the Greater Israel Project. Just enough resources so it wouldn't spark a greater conflict between Russia and the Western Oligarchy.
I admit to being impressed with the Syria intervention. Not just the RF forces themselves but the “power assist” they provided the SAA. It seemed like a gauntlet being tossed down at the time.
We could watch it on RT too, you have to look for swentr now.
- Putin Warns Of Rising 'Nationalism' -
https://www.rferl.org/a/russia-nationalism-putin-/24687439.html
He had no such obligation; why not draw out the SMO when it’s hurting your enemy?
What does 'dynamic' mean?
One difference being that in this case a long slow stalemate condition is less likely due to RF increasing their forces and capability and UKR nearing collapse.
If you read the article linked, it seems the problem is much deeper. The Army is pissed at Putin because they know the correct course of action and want to follow it, but Putin/Shoigu are not letting them and blaming them....
"Pimping economic treasures," as S coins it, has always been what Project Ukraine is about.
When Crimea held its March 2014 referendum & voted overwhelmingly to *return* to Russia, the r’ship between the U.S. Treasury, Congress & the International Monetary Fund intensified. Jack Lew, Obama’s Treasury Secretary, said, “The Ukraine crisis captures the importance of the IMF as an economic tool for American foreign policy when military options are not really viable."
Note that last description: an economic tool for American foreign policy *when military options are not really viable*
Moreover, the IMF is “the first responder,” Lew said, “It is the foundation of the Ukraine aid package.” As early as 2010’s G-20 in Seoul, IMF cheerleaders Bigged Up the prospects of allying more tightly w/ the U.S. Treasury, but Obama’s White House @ the time balked.
“In a very important sense, linking the two is quite logical,” said a former Treasury official and senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics. “The fact that the United States wants to use the IMF to help Ukraine is linked to helping the IMF help itself.”
The selling point before Congress back in 2014 was the fact that “the cost to U.S. taxpayers will be relatively small when compared to the larger defense and foreign aid budgets.”
During a livestream this week w// the Duran gents, Alex Krainer [Naked Hedgie] reported that Christine Lagarde, then-IMF chief, and Jack Lew agreed @ the Fed’s Jackson Hole summit to green-light & support the militias that were seeking to liquidate the LPR & DPR in Donbas & the Russian-ethnic populations in Odessa.
Per Krainer: “Jack Lew spoke to Christine Lagarde & Lagarde gave the orders to the Ukrainian junta to take control of the Odessa area & the Donbas region, by force, in May 2014 or the IMF would no longer fund the government in Kiev.”
When Yemen rejected IMF funding in 2015, a coup ensued. Ditto in Bolivia in 2017. Next up was Bangladesh last August, who also spurned the IMF in favor of a NDB loan from the BRICS+ funding entity.
The IMF is the global banking cartel’s tip-of-the-spear—and the pact between Lew & Lagarde in 2014 cemented this. The foundational architecture of Project Ukraine was as much financial as it was militaristic. It is hard to say where Jack Lew is today, but we know where Christine Lagarde is: the former synchronized swimmer heads the European Commission’s Bank.
“as much financial as militaristic”
The US military, and the militaries of her vassals, are merely the enforcement arms of the bankers.
All of these corrupt schemes are financial first, and militaristic only to the degree required to keep the money flowing.
John Maynard Keynes et al hashed out the IMF @ the Bretton-Woods conference in 1944. Yes, *that* John Maynard Keynes: the Keynesian John Maynard Keynes.
And, yes, *that* conference in New Hampshire. The IMF quite naturally found its permanent home in the Beltway.
Ever since the IMF has been many things--and the Nixon Shock in 1971 slowed its roll considerably--but it never married war to capital so consummately until Project Ukraine came along.
Lithium and Titanium are the two big "economic treasures" in Western Ukraine. Ukraine's natural gas was snapped up by the US in the first months of that US/UK "war." Unconscionable what the West has done to the people of that Country, the suffering!!!
Since these mines are now in the hands of the western corporate interests, can't the Russians bomb these mines so that they become worthless to them and also knock out a competitor to Russian corporate interests that have holding in Russian titanium?
It's not "financial." It's really about access to resources. A financial value can be placed on these resources so they can be portrayed as a financial figure but the reality of all wars and of all power is the use of brute force to maintain control of resources or force compliance (or eliminate accomplices after a revolution, etc.). Metals, hydrocarbons, land and people have real value, not money. Money can be printed but you can't eat it and it can't magically bring into existence that with is scarce.
Simon Michaux has created a graph overlaying volatility in commodity prices over the number of people killed in wars over the same time period. There's a near perfect correlation. This explains the blatant willingness of governments to risk nuclear armageddon over an apparent trifling. It's only going to get worse.
Let's stop blaming it on Jew bankers or central banks or the Bank of International Settlements or oligarchs.
This might seem like a mere technicality to some except we're running up against a severe shortage in minerals and hydrocarbons. Michaux predicts that in 30 years copper with be the new gold because of its scarcity. The ores won't have enough copper in it to be worth mining.
Anyone who claims all wars are banker's wars hasn't read enough and is probably a gambler with his own "investments." Just because 99.999% of the population believe this and are like this doesn't make it true. The fact that most people have a screw loose over anything to do with money is likely the reason the powers that be have had all the books and articles written pumping these ideas into people's heads. But the same powers that be are responsible for other sorts of nonsense such as economic theory, medical science, investment theory, Covid, global warming, Trump's first assassination attempt...it goes on to no end. Take that as a hint. We live in a society where most truth, even scientific truth, is manufactured bullshit created to control people. Why would anyone believe "all wars are bankers wars" just because the idea is so prevalent? That ought to be a clue that it's manufactured.
I realize you didn't say "all wars are bankers wars." It's just that one of the underlying assumptions in these comment threads is that it true. It ruins the comments because it throws off the reasoning of everyone who buys into it. We're searching for a boogeyman when the truth is we're on the verge of destruction because of scarcity of essential commodities. My view of reality is actually much more depressing.
As a devout cynic I'm always interested in a much more depressing view of reality. Especially regarding politics. Thanks.
I'd only say that "resources" are a poorly-comprehended topic by most people, certainly the vast majority of academics and economists, and that political factions covet control over them for reasons that are (mostly) reducible to "money" and are tactical and temporary.
The destructive wannabe world-rulers who are running amok in the highest levels of our civilisation are not trying to preserve it. They prioritise their personal survival, yes (see, e.g. the nuclear bunkers in Queenstown, New Zealand) but they're inarguably not prioritising "our" surivival, neither "the people" generally in the abstract nor our civilisation specifically.
I may have to quote you on that.
@Chevrus
Hell, I am outright STEALING that (and his previous comment).
My tactic is to copy and paste it to an associate who can appreciate it, give credit and a link to the original author. I figure it’s a way of sharing and simultaneously “remembering”…
Oh yes, I will attribute. Though "CheetosSpring" looks a bit odd in the bibliography!
Right?! Someone might think it’s a luxury retreat for junk food addicts….
My gift to you. Have @ it
Thank you. Yours is an outstanding post. “Jack Lew spoke to Christine Lagarde & Lagarde gave the orders to the Ukrainian junta to take control of the Odessa area & the Donbas region, by force, in May 2014 or the IMF would no longer fund the government in Kiev.” I wish Ukrainian mothers find ways to give Lagarde a lesson.
@cheetosSpring
Nicely written, I intend to plagiarize this. Sincerest form of flattery, you know?
Use it in good health--!
The world is awash in cheap minerals, cheap ag commodities, etc..
Ukraine's sole value to the West is as a spear pointed at Russia.
@Feral Finster
Energy resources NEVER go out of style as a reason for multinationals to invest in a regime change. Control of agricultural commodities is going to be more important shortly as certain areas get warmer and everyone's weather more extreme as well. No single bit of loot or individual interest's power play was responsible for this many disparate actors sticking their dicks into Ukraine at once, it is way more complex than all of that- "It takes a village to murder a child"?
Even if what you said were true (it isn't- if Hell wwere shown to have untapped exploitable petroleum reserves, oil companies would not demand an invasion of Hell. Instead, they'd buy Old Scratch a really expensive lunch and flatter him with talk about how he is the kind of guy that they can really work together with), Ukraine is not particularly energy abundant, other than coal, which is cheap and plentiful. This is somethilng I worked on when I lived in Ukraine.
@Feral Finster
Take a look at this map. Note the continental shelf oil/gas leases shown in black sea, just off Crimean peninsula and the swath of developed gas plays largely coinciding with the zone of contact- Things may have changed since you were working in Ukraine.
https://www.reddit.com/r/MapPorn/comments/t22zkc/map_detailing_the_largely_untapped_gas_and_oil/
The map doesn't really tell us much, but there are lots of untapped oil and gas field out there. These were known since Soviet times.
The question is whether they can be exploited in an economic fashion.
Global warming is nonsense. The climate is getting better. Less cold in the winter and less hot in the summer and fewer extreme weather events all around.
You're correct that these commodities are cheap right now but that's because of a complex set of reasons that have nothing to do with pending scarcity.
The only thing we have plenty of is iron ore. Even with uranium we only have a 200 year supply at current rates of consumption. If reactors get built to power electric vehicles and AI server centers we could run out of uranium in 20 years. Fusion is a pipe dream. Maybe thorium will work out but it makes you wonder why they've left it this late in the game.
If anyone of importance were anticipating pending scarcity, commodity prices would reflect this.
Because cheap energy = freedom for people they're trying very hard to (re)enslave, i.e. us.
Artificial scarcity is tactically profitable, strategically advantageous, and can be produced by warfar which is also tactically profitable and strategically advantageous (sets precedents, increases central power, enables censorship and repression, etc).
Our would-be world rulers call this a win/win.
For them, the only people who matter TO them.
Major, not sole.
"What fools these mortals be." -- WS
Russia didn't bomb the Rada while this little bastard was speaking? SMDH...
Kill Zeleboba and someone more competent will take his place. You would have to kill the collective West, which is a bigger project.
There IS no one more competent to take his place.
Fair enough. Though competence is largely irrelevant now that I think about it, only being a slave to US interests
Yes there is: Dmytro Razumkov, who was arguably 2nd or 3rd most powerful politician and being groomed to take power after Zelensky (still possible).
Well, if Dmytro was in attendance at this idiotic "victory plan" speech, Russia could've killed two morons with one Iskander (or several). Like I've said already, it's time to end this ridiculousness.
Ukraine is like a runaway semi heading over the hill towards a cliff.
No need to do anything to disturb its progress.
Things are proceeding nicely for Russia without any extra heroics.
You really think so? Have you seen that the rest of the world is chained to the runaway semi and it's going to take us all with it? Please, PLEASE wake up.
To be fair, I am not sure killing Zelensky is in Russia's best interest.
@Simplicius
Interesting character this Razumkov, a bit of a chameleon perhaps? Came up through "Regions" (a more or less pro Russian party, back in the day?). Went on to help start the synthetic "Servant of the People", then they turned him out, now started yet ANOTHER party, "Smart Politics"?!
Clearly this boy means to be a "mover", I wonder which international financial groups and NGOs support/pay him. SOMEONE must have his back, he dissed Z, says speaking Russian on the radio & TV is fine but hasn't fallen out a window, run into a bullet or played with a live hand grenade yet?
Chucky. I find that hard to believe mate!
Zelensky is a disaster.
They could of course, but why? Better to leave it be and let all the corrupt people sitting in that building stew over their own soon to be fate.
Nope. Russia should've served them all their fate yesterday with a barrage of Iskander missiles. This shit show has gone on long enough.
Let me guess... you have zero experience in military strategy.
You should keep quiet and listen to the adults speak.
Well shut up Chucky and we will be able to listen to the adults.
Go back to the kids' table and eat your chicken nuggets, mental midget.
Well it’s a thought but what happens after their entire political class is wiped out in the strikes you’re stating should have happened? Someone needs to be able to capitulate.
Who exactly among their current political leadership do you think is going to capitulate? These people are mental cases, psychopaths, and crooks. They need to be dispatched in toto.
Come on. Keitel in Berlin and Jodl in Reims.
Syrsky?
Yep. Or who ever survive the onslaught, dont hang themselves or flees, with some rank in the military or in politics that can be seen as Ukraine state. Ukraine will perish for a while and then be re-instituted in some part of former Ukraine, with a new constitution and propably a russian puppet, but hopefully some genuin, non-nazi, ukrainian leader.
Never give up hope. I'm sure once Russia's General Staff reads your comments that they will immediately recognise that they have been caught out by a superior military strategist and will likely make the necessary corrections.
Same old boring, tired "military strategist" comment. Go wipe your ass.
I understand your reluctance but not your irony. Meantime Israel is wiping out every commander there is in Hamas and Hizbollah. Sometimes even striking IRGC. Israel wont win but they sure as hell is weakening their enemy. Have you ever thought that Zelensky is a hindrance of capitulation as so much has been invested in West in his Churchillian aura of good against evil? With him and Yermak gone there could be a ”fresh” start.
I disagree, Mikey. If you understand the command and control structure of Hezbollah, you will know they are not weakened at all. This is just Israeli pipe dreams
Noticed Hezbollah's commanders are all middle aged. Seasoned survivors. Israelis would rather be on a beach smoking hash.
both zelensky and churchill are the same - jew tools
Shalom friend.
Wrong. The jewish fascists have been exposing their terrorist while at teh same time destroying the profitable shoah-business schema.
Meanwhile, the resistance brings forth new commanders, and the outrage and disgust with zionists grows locally and worldwide.
That's how the US behaves.........not Russia!
OK, Karen.
@CHUCKY
Sorry, did you already have your popcorn in the microwave?
Putin is the real president of Ukraine. Like Yeltsin before him with his legendary phrase: "I woke up in the morning and started thinking - what did you do for Ukraine first of all!" Therefore, the fate of Ukraine is completely in Putin's hands. And he wants to preserve it as an independent state. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6pD-atjdO0U
The sad failing Ukrainian elite, w/ their champagne aspirations & filet mignon tastes, opted to be the proxy of a hegemon-on-the-cheap: no infinite supplies, no carte blanche missiles, no endless waves of weaponry.
Expecting steak, Ukraine's elite sat down to a meal of Hamburger Helper fortified w/ cricket-flour protein.
Unfortunately, it's just 1% of the country which acts like this. Aside from the people in the bigger cities, most Ukrainians are as meek as mice and live very simple, humble lives. Sadly, it's this entrenched poverty and passivity which let them be ruled by those elitist devils. Prior to the war, I spent a lot of time in rural Ukraine and it really is sad how they've been mistreated by their so-called leaders since 1991.
It seems that it is a global phenomenon that 10% of any society is responsible for nearly all criminal activity and that a psychopathic 1% rises to leadership.
Leadership is probably overstating it. They are managerial technocrats that do as they are told. The idea of these 'leaders' making decisions is really a joke. If they did they would be out by the seat of their pants.
@Victor
"The turds always float to the top of the punch bowl" (I think that was a German saying?).
Yes, intelligent sociopaths are everywhere.
It appears to be a prominent feature of our species.
It seems in that we the vast majority of humankind in the US (and Europe for that matter) are kindred spirits with the Ukrainians. When it comes to government, regardless of style, it’s pathocracy all the way down.
Same experience. A people hijacked by criminals.
They’ve had a rough road for sure
In Ukraine, the "so-called leaders since 1991" have been predominantly jewish. Ukraine is a case study in jewish mismanagement of a country and in disregard to the non-jews lives.
@Sam Ursu
Rural Ukrainians have been "taking it" since at least the days of the Ottoman/Russian empire clashes, culturally the survivors must know better than to bite when forced to give a blow job.
The fate of flat landers dwelling at the crossroads of empires where the horse soldiers can most easily go, plus the usual "a nail that stands up, gets hammered down".
No group is monolithic, so of course the "meek, simple & humble" populate Ukraine as they do everywhere on earth.
But I note how Quick-To-Pogrom the ordinary people of Ukraine have been historically. It's not just the Odessa Massacre of 1941 or the ethnic cleansing @ Baba Yar in 1941--but the Volynia Massacre of 1943 stands out as an especially protracted & appalling example of mass murder done at the hands of the local Ukrainian population against the ethnic Polish population. So inspired to go on a two-month-long slaughter, the villagers saw no problem in hacking women & children to death, quite literally, w/ hoes & axes.
Are there places on earth where people are quicker to kill--?!!?
For two months in 1943 the "meek, simple & humble" went from Peace to Pogrom in under 60 seconds.
Fast forward to the ethnic cleansing of Donbas, circa 2014-2022. It is reasonable to comprehend that the "meek, simple & humble" knew what was happening but were not moved to act.
@cheetosSpring
Peace to pogrom in 60 seconds can (and has been) done in many places. Burundi (twice!), Darfur, Bangladesh, Rwanda. And possibly coming to a neighborhood near any of us soon.
My recommendation:
Chug Ursula K. Leguin's short story "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas" followed by a Solzhenistyn chaser, neat: "Live Not by Lies."
I think that this abuse of the population is what could have happened in Rus without Putin taking over in 1999. It was heading towards the same direction.
Thank you for this comprehensive summary of the "victory plan."
As for Rogozin, I'll put it bluntly: the man is the fucking devil himself. That evil snake claims he was here in Tiraspol in '92, and while it's impossible to prove a negative, let me just say that I'd wager my hat that he was never here. The guy is a slimeball of the worst kind, and I don't give a shit how many fancy words he's written. I'd rather chew my own ear off than live in a country where he's the leader. Just looking at his face makes me want to puke.
OK. That's it. I think you just lost your chance at becoming Rogozin's campaign manager. However, Camela Harris might have an opening.
Don't beat around the bush, spit it out, tell us what you really think.😉
Thanks for the feedback on Rogozin! I don't know much about the internal machinations inside the Kreml (who does really know??), but IMO Helmer usually "sounds" right. And Helmer's article looks like an endorsement for Rogozin, The Hawk. So your contrarian point of view is interesting...
Does it mean that there is no serious mainstream political "hawkish" faction inside Russia? Are the hawks confined to the military and minority parties?
I am not sure Rogozin is the best guy for office - since he has done nothing to reinvigorate RosCosmos but rather just made cool films rather than developing the agency to any significant extent.
Rogozin was born into the family of a Soviet general, graduated from a nomenklatura French special school, then from the privileged international department of the journalism department of Moscow State University. He is a Soviet man to the core, and that is his essence. He has Polish and Jewish ancestors. Immediately after the collapse of the USSR, Rogozin came forward as a "specialist on the Russian question", headed the "Congress of Russian Communities" and built his entire subsequent political career as a defender of Russian interests. At the same time, he completely failed in his job. There are zero Russian parties abroad, national self-awareness is in its infancy, the return of Russians to their historical homeland is happening spontaneously, in the most barbaric conditions.
Once upon a time the west understood the nutty Baltics et al, and their relentless vicious hatred of Russia and craving for a war- a war prosecuted by the all powerful west, natch. They retain this quaint belief in western invincibility that is a hang-over from cold war propaganda. The rest of us, of course, know differently.
Then came an empty cupboard moment for the west and the realisation that the bulk of the valuable resources going forward, especially those required to actually run a 21st century economy including making top notch weapons and shed loads of bog standard ones, resided in territories the west did not control. There was also the small problem of vast, escalating debt that was floating free of any underpinning in real resources value, and the fear of what would happen when the resource rich rest of the world finally twigged to just what was not behind the emerald curtain. Time for urgent action.
So we got a grand push for all that resource rich territory in the nutty east of europe ideally extending this grab all the way to the Chinese border. All the immediate problems swept away in one fell swoop! What not to like?
It seems that the smaller the minds in control in the west, the bigger the potty ambitions. I used to find this phenomenon with students. It was the brighter ones who questioned their reality, doubted their own abilities and foresaw a richer problematic reality to interfere with their goals. The dimmer bulbs were as gung ho as can be, wrapped up in their 'passion'. They lacked the imagination (a disciplined projection of ideas as distinct from fantasy that anyone can do), and this was their superpower.
It is a superpower that could easy propel us into armageddon except that those who are merrily exercising it are no more than a bacterial film on an underlying hard nosed push for a new money tree by people who for their many failings, are not so intellectually impoverished. Nor are their timelines determined by media hype which they manage. The current push east has failed. Time to asset strip the disputed territories of whatever value can be hauled out, and go back to the drawing board. It has been a learning curve, right? Always of value.
As long as the west can crow about Russia's *strategic defeat,* they will care not @ all if Ukraine lies “in a coffin and its citizens in graves," to quote Zakharova
The Dunning-Kreuger effect is a real thing, but the more important takeaway is the findings by Dunning in his studies.
Basically Dunning has found that the amount of knowledge/skill you need to have, to understand how well you do (or do not) understand a knowledge set/perform a skill is the ENTIRETY of that knowledge/skill set....
The obvious flip side of that is that people are INCAPABLE of understanding, not just that they don't know/can't do/can't understand a thing, but also just how fractional their knowledge/skill is..
I leave applying this concept to the comments that abound hereabouts to the reader.
The humility effect in finding out that there are big pie slices of fields of endeavor that you know next to nothing about and probably will never know is the opposite of Dunning-Kruger. For me, it was college. Virtually the only useful thing I attribute to it.
I suspect you and I are both decades past our college years, but that aside, a recent study showed that the average college IQ has *fallen* from 112 to 102. Firmly in the realm of "Midwits", sadly.
I was well aware, in my time, that I was just an average student *then*, nothing special (but Lord, did I spend WAY too much time in the Library [No internet, it existed, but not the distraction it is today] learning that I had more to learn).
These days, without that experience, I'd probably consider myself almost smart!
I got an early leg up on understanding that the raw problem-solving intelligence measured by IQ tests isn't the sum total of the skills of a specialist. Some people with very questionable opinions about life in general (and whose thought process I can't really divine) have very desirable skills that I only wish I had in conjunction with what I already have. I guess i'm saying that everyone you run into who has useful experience and knowledge isn't going to be 'bright' in the traditional sense.
Taking your correct assertion and drawing conclusions, these people with average intelligence sent through the college hopper would probably benefit from apprenticeship. My daughter is graduating with her DVM next year, and it wouldn't have happened if it hadn't been for a veterinarian who took her under her wing and had her do grunt work for years while she was doing undergrad work. She's 30, and you can tell she messed around on the way or it would have happened about 5 years sooner. You can also tell my age from that.
I've been getting a sneaking suspicion about this in recent years. I've had several experiences where the quality/fitness of my knowledge about a particular matter has progressed in weird fits and starts. Sometimes my understanding shoots off at tangents. Sometimes I just have to admit that I'm doing a volte-face in my opinions because of new information. This is all no doubt because of the effect you speak of (the fact that I don't know enough about a matter and don't realise that I don't). When it's said that 'a little bit of knowledge is a dangerous thing' it's quite true. And yet we are compelled to form conclusions and act upon them; there be no alternative.
The Dunning-Kreuger effect is a specific subset of Dunnings work.
In a nutshell, smart people think they have an ordinary/normal understanding of the world and "dumb" people think they know more than they do.
Put another way, smart people think themselves as average, dumb people think themselves to be smart. Both will then behave in line with this thinking...
Again, I leave it as an exercise for the reader to apply this insight to commentary on this substack...
As to your understanding progressing in fits and starts, this is "chunking". In the adult learning/training world, (good) courses of instruction are divided into appropriate "chunks" of discrete knowledge/skill. As you grasp/understand a "chunk" of information, that enables you/prepares you to grasp and understand the next "chunk". Sometimes you have to trust in the process, as at times it's not until a certain amount of processing of chunks has taken place that all of a sudden you have an "Oh, THAT'S what they meant" moment...
Upvoted because you're right overall, but I'd respectfully disagree on this bit: "on an underlying hard nosed push for a new money tree by people who for their many failings, are not so intellectually impoverished."
The sad truth I think is that populations in the west really are intellectually impoverished, especially in the US. Not only are they intellectually impoverished, they've become delusional, slaves to various deranged ideologies, and that includes their "intellectuals" and supposedly educated people.
I think both phenomena are one of the toxic consequences of the US achieving sole empire status in the world. That's one of the things that happened to Romans, as well: after they seized and ruled the known world the great mass of them no longer needed to think. They could enjoy good times being fat, happy, and stupid, living off the resources, labor, intelligence and productivity of their vassals.
Farming almost ceased in Italy while Romans depended on great grain ships bringing their food from Egypt and northern Africa. The tutors, mathematicians and savants (and even chefs) were mostly Greeks from the annexed Greek territories around the Med. Slaves were everywhere doing all the labor in Rome, brought in from all the many territories conquered by Rome. Many Romans in Rome itself had no employment at all but lived on the dole. To enforce its primacy in economic or political matters Rome didn't hesitate to overturn regimes or to invade countries, killing millions in foreign wars. At the same time, average Romans became so badly educated many had no idea where Gaul was when Julius Caesar set out to enslave its peaceful tribes who had never engaged in any hostility to Rome, just so he could pay off his personal debts. The Roman intelligentsia became such deluded ideologues that when the Visigoths appeared before the gates of Rome in 410 AD and gave the senators, who turned out in their threadbare robes to parlay, the choice of surrendering to a sack or being killed to the last Roman, there were still many who thought Rome ruled the world.
There are many echoes of that in the US today. Industry has moved to China, with most US consumer and industrial products being made in China, not the US. Grad students in math and science and the staff of tech companies are mostly foreigners. Migrants, both illegal and legal, do menial work and grow food. Many Americans have no employment and live on the dole. To enforce its primacy in economic or political matters the US doesn't hesitate to overturn regimes or to invade countries, killing millions in foreign wars. Americans have been so ignorant that not one in a hundred can point out on a globe where the US's many foreign wars are happening and a surprisingly large percentage don't even know which countries were allied with the US in WW2 and which were enemies. The US's intelligentsia have become such deluded ideologues they think there are no nazis in Ukraine, that the US can defeat Russia either economically or with conventional military, and that when they turn out in their clothing made in China to parlay with the Chinese, that they can order China about like a vassal.
That's the real problem here. The Americans and their vassals have become badly educated cretins, a bunch of delusional dopes armed with nukes.
But was ancient Rome a cockroach that had had its mind taken over by the Jewel Wasp? I'm referring to the presence of a traitorous deep state....
Bread and circuses, John, the uplands of intellectual psychopathy or the lowlands of a rubbish emotional bog. The only comfort is that it really is a level playing field. The west isn't losing from a lack of intellectual backbone but from a lack of real resources, those with current exceptional value, that it has failed to secure. And now it is too late.
Plenty of talk about negotiation, but, who will Russia negotiate with? The Minsk accords were negotiated and what happened? Ukraine was further militarized and they disregarded the accords completely, with Germany and France not raising a finger about this. So, I ask you folks who read Simplicius, what do you think will be the end game. I personally see no other option other than complete unconditional surrender with Russia revising the power structure completely in what if anything is left of the previous country of Ukraine. Remember Yugoslavia? Ukraine is the next Yugoslavia
to disappear into the haze of the past, just in a more bloody and really unfortunately for them, what was wholly preventable but that ship sailed back in 2022.
New Dark Ages for EU and the US I hope.
Who is going to pay for your plan? A minimum or rather more than a minimum of reconstruction of the Ukraine will be necessary, and very very expensive
Not more expensive than money.
With what is a given it is the who and the how which is not
First you need workers. The one part has left the country and due to good jobs or high social security benefits will not come back. The other part is dead or at least wounded, I think the losses per capita of Ukraine are much higher than that of the Soviet Union or Germany in WWII.
Thank you for a sane rational reply in a sea of emotional delusion
Workers yes, but very many skilled workers, engineers, welders - on a scale few can imagine, and none possess, apart perhaps from China (together with India, and Malaysia and..)
Organisational and management skills which, on this level and scale, only China has practiced
Which is not to belittle the work the RF has done in the new republics
And a lot of cash, a great deal much more than RF has - at least €1T, perhaps more
All of which point to a peace only to be achieved, or to be instituted and given form, by an alliance
This alliance alone is capable of giving benefit to, and of finding benefit from, the material and productive reconstruction of the wasteland
The we'll do this and they'll do that chest beating is short sighted - but if simply to end up like the westerners cooing with victory but dereft of the knowledge will and power to make something of victory, this will play into the westie plans and merely reproduce the 20th C
Multipolarity means something, can start with meaning this
@Gerrard White
I expect a fair number of single Chinese men will find employment in Ukraine interesting (for several reasons) shortly after the shooting stops. And a number will stay on.
You don't have a clue what you are talking about.
You cling to that talking point you came up with like your favourite teddy.
@Nick
But you follow me well enough to know I've proposed the idea before? That means I LIVE IN YOUR HEAD RENT FREE!
BWAHAHAHA!!!
https://youtu.be/rfVbscfwMgk?si=QGRQOCWladJnvCO0
https://youtu.be/rOrDCpAv-sM?si=944Ez47N7U4lDeV6
One of the consequences of defeat is not to chose
The victor does - whether there are more Chinese or more Indians will be of little matter
The defeated is not only the Ukraine, the victor not only the RF
The countries surrounding the Ukraine will have a number of new choices as well as consequences
You understand most of Ukraine has not been destroyed?
Primary destruction is at the line of contact which is primarily small urban areas and rural.
Roads in newly Russian areas are being improved & paved, bridges built- never happened in 30 years of Ukraine control.
Given the resources & economic potential of the territory already under Russian control- and territory that will end up under Russian control- great ROI.
China also benefits from these improvements due to the agricultural potential.
Russian & China can/will cooperate on rebuilding & modernizing this soon to be former Ukraine territory.
In 2 to 5 years Europe will be begging Russia for oil, gas, fertilizer & other commodities.
There is already a major high speed rail project under way between China & Moscow. They can extend this into Europe. No more or reduced need for ships to move containers.
Russia has debt to GDP of about 17%- paying it down every year. This year reduced to in the $200 billion range.
You really think Russia can't fund or arrange funding to rebuild Ukraine?
There will be ZERO western involvement or influence in or on soon to be former Ukrainian territory.
Every single printed, borrowed, stolen or extorted $ "invested" in Ukraine by the "west" will be 100% lost.
In reality this SMO will turn out to be fantastic for Russia.
Demilitarized the "west".
Drove NATO back & likely out of business.
EU/Europe/UK economic collapse & deindustrialization.
Western financial system hegemony destroyed.
USD hegemony destroyed.
End of the American empire.
End of the western era.
Likely economic & societal collapse of America. Forcing them to abandon many of their foreign bases. Seriously degrading them as a threat to Russia & all around the world.
One can only imagine the demand from international buyers for Russian military equipment & supplies now that it has been shown to be so much more cost effective & better than over priced western high tech crap.
This AmeriNATO proxy war against Russia has been a massive win for Russia and a massive L for the "west".
I started to miss your comments and wondered if something was wrong with your health?
Thank you - but no.... I had to do a job of work and travel for a month
But I have no intention of investing as much in a situation which has not improved, a lot of people, most commenters, crying for revenge or instant this or that, ethnic trivia to the fore, cursing any no true believer
The Ukraine will be a part of Russia, a district or an autonomous region
Let's hope Victoria Nudelman has somebody in mind to lead the new and improved Ukraine - she usually has all the answers.
Nudelman will help destroy the country and native people even FURTHER. Maybe to create some hellhole that the Zionists would like to inhabit. Everything Nudelman does is reckless and hideous in its implementation. She should be Ukraine’s symbol for Halloween — the worst witch that destroyed their peaceful relations with their best neighbor!
Perhaps you reside in North America, in which case you will be entirely oblivious to the deeply ironical nature of my comment.
the piggish war criminal has children...
@Anna
Do you know their names? Google does not...
indeed, who can Russia negotiate with, who can ensure all parties negotiate in good faith, and who will enforce an agreement?
Agree. Negotiations demands trust and a firm believe in written words. Russia could not trust anyone in Ukraine and not so many in the West either.
Hard push for Dnieper. Decaptaring attack on Ukrainian leadership and then unconditional surrender.
And then the Russians have to take care about Western Ukraine! The Russian leadership is much to much educated to even touch this place. But for unconditional surrender you have to conquer all.
Let Polaks, Romanians, and Hungarians decide how to split the "place" and how many its inhabitants to take.
It is ONLY the West talking about negotiations.
But since they are just statements of imaginary circumstances that try and put the Russian Genie back in the bottle, as negotiation positions they are a failure.
As you say, there is no-one who can make ANY believable guarantee about the future vis Russian security from NATO threats, so this will end on Russian terms, or not at all.
Russia will negotiate with BRICS SCO etc - but essentially with China
China or/and BRICS etc can talk to the westies - RF can not and will not
One day soon - ish not tomorrow and not untill the RF Army has had it's way
"...complete unconditional surrender with Russia revising the power structure completely in what if anything is left of the previous country of Ukraine...
Yes, this. There is nothing to negotiate and no one trustworthy enough to negotiate with. The west has proven itself to be non-stop liars. The rest of the world is paying attention and jumping on the BRICS train. The west is about to collapse in its mountainous pile of debt. That's why they NEED WW3... Chip
The truly remarkable thing is that that need not happen.
The judaics have set up a system whereby all they "lend" you is fiat currency, which is essentially worthless.
Pay them back with a similarly worthless piece of paper, and proceed boldly from there.
Hitler did it, on the ancient Athenian model, by issuing one Reichsmark for every hour a German worked, and 6 million were immediately back at work building autobahns, canals, and new housing - Germany's prosperity exploded overnight.
And thus why WW2 had to happen.
I am continually stunned by the insanity of the whole western political class. That dumb ass calling for Taurus strikes was basically calling to start WW3.
WW3 must be limited to US & European soil. The rest of Global East, Africa and Latin Amerika does not need it.
There must not be a WW3!
Unfortunately it started with the CoronaPrank.
The simple division between "Believers" and "Non-believers".
He wasn't primarily calling for Taurus strikes, he was calling for an ultimatum to Russia f/b Taurus strikes - the latter of which in the grand scheme of things, could never do much damage to a Russia already fully cognizant with Storm Shadow mechanics.
Ultimata are far more dangerous than Taurus could ever be.
Fortunately, your blanket condemnation of the western political class is not entirely accurate, as Sahra W showed by her speech.
The man doing this, Mr. Merz, was the former CEO of Blackrock Germany. He is embedded in the Western Elites. He is the leader of the Christ Democratic Party, the very party, that was introducing the market based order after WWII (Mr. Erhard), the party that tells the Germans about family, about property, about balanced budget, about low taxes, about reducing rules, and national identity. The same party where UvdL is part of, and she brings new rules and rules, more Gender - less family, takes property rights away and destroys the nations. And as a latest clown show Mr. Merz had the great idea, to "mobilize" the savings of the German population - in other words to confiscate the savings. This are the leaders of a Christ Democratic Party, not the Communist one! Good night Europe.
Friedrich Merz is Roman Catholic.
What is it with Catholicism that it inspires such war criminals as Tony Blair (the Pious) and Friedrich Merz? He is a leader of Christian Democratic Union and staunch supporter of self-proclaimed Ukrainian Nazis. Does he have a portrait of Stepan Bandera in the main office?
He was just bloviating for the cameras.
Even he knows his proposals were nonsense.
He may become the next chancellor for all I know. There won't be WWIII of course, but Germany as it has been known leading the EU is pretty much over, I'd say
Ukraine will get its wish.
Russia needs the total surrender to eliminate any gray area in its dispute with Ukraine and as a deterrence to NATO. NATO taking a very public loss to Russia means they can't risk taking a second major Loss anytime soon. Also, whatever is left of Ukraine will probably be added to NATO so this is Russia's only/last/best chance to define the borders in their best interest. They effectively hold all the cards and can't predict how the next hand will be dealt.
Exactly. Now or never.
How long can one play cat and mouse, as I was seeing from a certain point Put has no more the strings in his hands, those perspiring and pulling their hairs behind his back, can hardly wait to take over and done this cat and mouse game, time to close the accounts
Mike "We Lied, We Cheated, We Stole" Pompeo wasn't just talking about his time as the head honcho of the CIA when he famously uttered this boast.
Ex-CIA director Pompeo: 'We lied, we cheated, we stole'
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DPt-zXn05ac
Pompeo was describing his entire life and indeed the American Empire's malignant behavior in general.
He even looks like a Hollywood villain.
Pompeo is just a jew bootlicker - Pompeo says US wrong to seek cease-fire, Israel should ‘finish the job’
Pompeo has a business in Ukraine; he owns a bank that acquires Ukrainian businesses. Pompeo is a newly-minted Shylock.
Russia has real Nukes? Very assuring good to know that. However the problem with Isreal is that they do really have Nukes too? Isn't that's the reason why Iran is doing limited strike so far?
Iran is trying to avoid being dragged into a war unless it is unambiguous to the whole world that the zionists are the instigators. The moral high ground still counts for something, especially amongst the global South who see Jewish provocations for what they are.
If the moral high ground counted for anything, Yemen would not be the only cointry to do anything concrete for the people of Gaza.
The world craves American carrot and fears American stick.
Guess where the 'Murican carrot gets shoved in the world?
The moral high ground in the sense that this war isn't likely to end through military conquest but will be decided ultimately by condemnation in the UN and blockade and sanction against Israel similar to how the South African apartheid government was made a pariah state.
It is necessary to take a step back and look at Iran's dilemna to understand why they are being extremely tepid and limited in responding to Israeli provocations.
Iran is Shia and Persian in a region where almost every other country is Sunni and Arab. Regionally they are feared and distrusted, because of their powerful military and support of Shia proxies, especially by the Saudis. Realistically their options to effectively target Israel militarily are limited to cruise and ballistic missile strikes since they don't have land borders and intervening nations aren't likely to give them overflight rights to attack Israel with their airforce or allow their army passage. And their biggest economic weapon is shutting down oil traffic in the Persian Gulf, which would harm the economies of the Western nations supporting Israel but would probably harm the Saudis even more who would have no way to sell their oil.
Already the intervening countries have banned the Israelis from over-flying their territory to attack Iran, which forces them to fly a more circuitous route, and by allowing the Israeli government to do the horrible things in Gaza and now Lebanon it is serving to unite the usually fractious Arab countries with one another and with their Shia minorities, and also galvanizing world opinion against the Jews. Even in western countries the jews have become so unpopular and disliked that the censorship dial has to be turned up to 11 to try and tamp down the now exploding criticism of Israel and all things Jewish. In case you haven't noticed, there's a whole lot of noticing going on, and even with the overwhelming censorship the jews are not going to be able to stuff that genie back in its bottle.
Iranian restraint has led to military support from Russia and military alliance which means that Israeli air attacks will likely be facing the newest Russian air defence systems and modern SU-35 fighter aircraft. And, the Russians and likely the Chinese will block any UN security council actions against Iran. Since direct fighting between the Iranian and Israeli armies isn't possible excluding some deus ex machina event, the best thing the Iranians can do is continue to show restraint and force the Israelis to continue their provocations and escalations, all while bleeding them economically and militarily through militia proxies in Lebanon and economic blockade in the Red Sea via the Houthis. As is the case in Ukraine, the west doesn't have the capacity or the military manufacturing capability to supply Israel indefinitely with weapons, and Israeli slaughter of noncombatants is hurting them economically and ultimately politically as western nations are forced to abandon support due to their increasingly pissed off voters.
If I had to guess, the whole Iranian response has been very skillfully played so far and indicates that it has been thought out in advance and very likely coordinated with other regional players like the Saudis who have their own tightrope to walk with the US, and also with Russia and China who are giving political cover and in the case of the Russians, advanced weapons and the training to use them.
There is a reasont hat the UN and its members have doen nothing concrete. As I said, they crave American carrot and fear American stick.
Expecting moral condemnation to affect Israel or its American thug is as pointless as quoting Bible verses to an armed robber. The robber already knows that "thou shalt not kill!" and "thou shalt not steal!" and he does not care. Israel and America already know what they are doing, but as long as they have force on their side, they do not care.
Similarly, put a loaded .357 to the head of that armed robber and he will be the one to quote Scripture. And will not care whether you have the legal or moral right to do so.
Perhaps.
I think the fear of US stick is far less than it used to be and is one sunken aircraft carrier away from being nonexistent. Uncle Sam's carrot is still effective in that many countries elites are captured by it and get used to special privileges like their childrens education in American universities or junkets to the US, etc along with the usual sinecures, and garden variety bribery. Again, that is one Greatest Depression away from ending, and it will likely end even faster once BRICS+ creates an alternate financial transaction infrastructure and alternative payment system to the USD.
There is a reason that nobody other than Yemen has done anything concrete, even as Israel blatantly commits genocide.
The leadership of those other countries obviously don't share your financial prognosis, either.
I think it highly unlikely that Israel has nuclear weapons.
Sometimes believing something is as good as if the belief were true.
I would guarantee though that if they don't have them, they will be straining every sinew to get them.
@Tim Webb
"I think it highly unlikely that Israel has nuclear weapons."
----------
Why did the Israelis divert all those weapons grade material (U235 & Pu239) from NUMEC and Kerr-McGee, starting back in the early 1960s & continuing at least until the mid 70s when Israel built its own plutonium extraction and uranium enrichment facilities? How did Mordecai Vanunu take actual PHOTOS of Israeli plutonium cores in his glove box at Dimona? And who made the weapon fired in the Southern Ocean back on 22 September 1979, the fallout detected on Australia was a analyzed as resulting from a Pu239 implosion device while South Africa never developed anything but gun assembly U235 weapons.
Gah. Israel has their bombs.
Mr Vanunu could easily be a Mossad agent.
Who knows where he spent the supposed period of his incarceration.
jews specialize in deception, as Mossad makes clear, and there seems to be no good reason why you haven't fallen for it.
Please do look at and comment on the NUMEC affair?
https://www.israellobby.org/nukes/numec/default.asp
Mossad did NOT invent that rumor as a psyop, it was a very real and effective operation, created from the ground up to do one thing- Give Israel access to USA produced weapons grade materials. After this diversion was detected (and later, at the Kerr-McGee fuel plant), Israel did what they could to hush it up, twisting the arms of Carter administration, suborning and in at least one case, killing witnesses.
If a jew says something, ie anything, I automatically disbelieve any of it.
They cannot tell the truth.
@Tim Webb
I note you did not comment on NUMEC. Why?
It was the Germans who helped Israel get the bomb actually, with much help from the Argentinians:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E1yBJl2wI4M
Why would the Israelis bother to produce their own nuclear weapons? I'm sure the USA gave them their nuclear bombs long ago.
@Yefarov
You have just told me you have no knowledge base suitable for offering any opinion on this matter.
Olaf the Clown. The original cessation of Russian gas to Germany was caused by West sanctions. Gas turbines needed servicing. Siemens had parceled it out to Siemens Canada. Castreau Jr. refused to have them sent back to Russia because of the sanctions. After that we know why the gas was cut off when Gilligan, the Skipper, the Professor, the Millionaire and his wife, Ginger and Maryanne rented the Andromeda and blew up the Nordstream pipelines.
It seems like Germany is angling for a swift resumption of Russian gas exports. It might not be easy as Russia has pivoted towards Asia and BRICS economically. As the war continues, these ties will strengthen. Also, it is in Russia's interest to have NATO countries with weak economies and political chaos.
The Germans would love cheap Russian energy, but unfortunately for them, Russia has new friends and doesn't need them. China is providing everything that Germany did, and more.
I expect Russia to pursue its own interests, but it owes Germany nothing.
The Russians would love to sell it to them. Especially against the howling protests of “the Anglo-Saxons.”
If they are, the Chinese ought to buy as many futures contracts (or however they do it) in Russian energy production as they can.