Well deserved Simplicius. 10 overall is an amazing result given the extraordinary quality of Substack content. And top of the rising stars. Onward and upward.
Congratulations! Reaching the #1 Substack ranking in World Politics is truly well deserved and has been earned through a mix of thoroughness, inventive writing, hard work, and a bit of humour.
I still remember with fondness your earlier post (in March 2023) on reaching the 5k subscribers milestone:
"Greetings all, I wanted to mark the milestone of reaching 5,000+ subscribers and give a big thanks to all of my supporters who made it happen, and a few blog updates.
So firstly:
Thank you!"
This was March 2023, then up to 50k in December 2025, and 63k now. I sincerely rejoice in your success.
Thank you. I think the 63k is counting the total subs from the 2nd blog as well. This one is currently at ~57,350 and slowly creeping up toward 60k at which point another milestone post shall be in order.
Me too. I used to so enjoy his lengthy comments that were unlike any other. So wonderfully granular, complete with little TG tid-bits - -
But not to worry, we now have Simplicius, who has stretched his wings to cover ever broader horizons. The world needs good analysts more than ever, and not just in one area. After all civilizational collapse as we are seeing is a process of death by a thousand means and places.
That said, as I never fail to mention, I miss Dark Futura, if only because the future has only been darkening further. I can name only 3 blogs that approached the intellectual heights of honest - if dark - forebodings served by DF with its many valuable references, but all appear to need a break likely for similar reasons: those depths of the abyss they reveal can get too damn painful to stare at..
I’ve tried connecting recently but no luck. I was subscribed (paid) but the posts stopped arriving. No response from Substack either. Likely have to cancel the payments if I can’t reach anyone.
Did you go to Settings by clicking your icon on top right, then settings.
Then scroll down a bit to see "Subscriptions" and click on mine. There you can see "Receive emails for new posts." See if you have it "unchecked" by accident?
Also below that see it says "If you have delivery issues"--click on it and it can send you a test email to troubleshoot it.
Copied a couple of insightful paragraphs to Youtube, gave Sim attribution of course, hopefully helped to bring more subscribers hereto the Truth, the whole Truth and nothing but the Truth. 😀
Well Simplicius, the umpteenth congratulations to you, for the umpteenth triumph against fellow Substack competition!
However I cannot help to notice that by pinning this message, you have overshadowed my very own first post here. In that first comment, I am vociferously demanding why the intriguing latest anti-drone laser-weapon developments in Russia - as documented by themselves in an official video - were left out of the news here.
I can postulate this was done in order to centre the message on the latest anti-Starlink Electronic Warfare tool described in this article. Besides this, Simplicius might be actually planning to make the anti-drone laser the focus of a future incoming post. Perhaps behind the paywall.
Laser systems have severe limitations as developed so far. Best not to spend too much time on as yet undemonstrated claims of a particular system having broken what seem like fairly rigid laws of physics.
The t.v. demo won't show you in detail the huge power plant necessary to deliver the power laser beam required, the exotic materials necessary for the construction of it which likely are only manufactured in China, the huge problem of the system components being subject to overheating, the need for gyro monitored stabilization systems needed to maintain the absolutely required stability when moving to track the trajectory of the target, and likely a host of other problems I haven't thought of.
But the biggest problem is that a laser system is supposed to be the long sought answer to hitting a hypersonic missile in terminal phase. Said missiles are traveling through the atmosphere at such a high speed they generate a plasma sheath of flaming gases along their outside. Those plasma sheaths can reach five thousand degrees.
That means the Laser beam has to generate well in excess of five thousand degrees temperature after it punches through the sheath to have any impact on the already white hot target. Since the missile is expected to be in an excess of critically high temperature it is necessary for hypersonic missile systems to function by having a coating that melts away in a controlled fashion. So that means the laser has to melt away cladding that is designed to melt away. It has to accelerate the melting process to a single point failure in the coating that causes eventual destruction. And it has to be done in seconds at the most.
There are a lot of physics that impose huge costs that have to be assessed in relation to the benefits. The Pac 3 Patriot missile system is a beauty on t.v. but my advice is don't buy one unless you get a hefty discount. Ditto for a laser system.
Here though the laser will have to hit slow-moving drones made of cheap plastics and lightweight bamboo or balsawood. Gyroscopes and a basic 2-plane rotating turret for adjusting fire direction are 19th century technologies.
Energy generation remains the main problem. The laser beam loses energy quadratically with distance iirc. Perhaps seen that targets are soft and fire distances limited, energy production and cooling issues are not as big as we imagined.
Yes if you limit your expectations to pretty soft targets then is it doable. Expensive but doable. Maybe worth while on a ship where weight and cooling methods aren't such a problem.
Excellent news on all counts. Not only for the ascension (may it continue) but for providing evidence that we are not alone out there, each in a personal fox hole, yearning for truth and competent analysis.
Stole the words right out of my mouth. The CIA is the largest, most deadly, militarised drugs cartel in the world. Almost no competition - indeed, I suspect that the other cartels maintain a level of fear of the CIA.
If you look with deeper Machiavellian cynicism, you can conclude the CIA is highly effective. : “Judge an organization by its revealed function, not its stated mission.” The CIA akin to the Hells Angels. It persists and creates revenue streams for its members.
Yes. The CIA is regarded as the international intelligence agency for the American government. But it's not. It represents the long arm of American multinational corporations across the globe.
The role and almost limitless powers of the CIA have been documented in the insightful book "The Secret Team" by L. Fletcher Prouty. It was originally published in 1974, but immediately became unavailable for two decades. The internet made such burning of books futile and it is available again.
"Like it or not, we now live in a new age of 'One World.' This is the age of global companies, of global communications and transport, of global food supply and finance and . . . just around the corner . . . global accommodation of political systems. In this sense, there are no home markets, no isolated markets and no markets outside the global network. It is time to face the fact that true national sovereignty no longer exists. We live in a world of big business, big lawyers, big bankers, even bigger moneymen and big politicians. It is the world of The Secret Team."
That's the point. As any war, this propaganda is aiming on the own population, and in particular on those of the vasalls. Its content is not the basis for the hegemon's strategy. Every war aims at braking the opponent's will power, and every war's tool is primarily terror against the civilian population aka war crimes. This is a standard procedure for the empire, and this propaganda prepares the ground for acceptance of open war crimes in the own population. This is already well progressed (see for example the comment of Friedrich Merz regarding Gaza - "we are glad that Israel is doing the dirty work for us"). And the trick is that re war crimes and terror against the civilian population, there is no upper limit (remember Hiroshima and Nagasaki). This is the strategy, and they don't care whether it works or not, killing is always the solution.
If you consider that Trump offered the IRGC billions of dollars as a bribe, it is plausible—and to be expected—that millions or tens of millions sufficed in Syria or Venezuela... True, Ukraine was more expensive—5 billion—and I assume that was just the official figure.
I have followed him from the start and guessed before, he was under 50 and above 40. But during these years I have also noted his lack of humbleness, his desire to prove he is right and sometimes the absence of giving credits to others. Typical trace of younger people.
What has convinced me that he is much, much younger is his lack of knowledge of geopolitical matters. He can dissect and renounce what others write and even make fun of them with his eloquent writings. He takes what OTHER writes but selldom comes up with novel thinking himself.
Its not bad to be young. Look at AMK Mapping I wrote about in one comment a week ago.
And I hope Simplicius will learn something from old blokes as me.
What an ignorant thing to say. America has brought us much of what we have in the West – and much of what the world uses today. How can you say "Americans never have had and never will have any statecraft" when the whole world speaks their language, dresses like them, uses their technology, and enjoys their entertainment?
The war between Ukraine and Russia has been brought to you by them. They've closed the Strait of Hormuz and made almost every product more expensive for people around the world. They've seized one of the biggest oil producers by abducting their leader. And that's just the last couple of years.
Agree with the gist of this, if not every detail. Too many get carried away with knee-jerk cheerleading for one side and knee-jerk denigration of the other side. On any subject that comes up. The MSM caters to this low instinct, and so do many in the "alt media".
Thoughtful and interesting piece. Why I subscribe. One does not read it elsewhere. Warfare has not only changed but war industry as well. Also depressing to consider the possibility that the head of our intelligence agency travelled all that way, with all that drama to deliver a message taken apparently out of a comic book.
The whole US government doesn't pass the credibility test. It's an insane circus. The lunatics have taken over the asylum. There is no more America, moving forward and evolving into greatness. Our Founding Father's creation and their intentions have been totally decimated. We have zero leaders, and there isn't anyone who cares about "we the people" or the future of this country. We are on a runaway train.
Seriously, the top western elites are just inbred imbeciles by this point, and each day we see more evidence from their pronounced policies. So why is it difficult to believe that Ratcliffe wouldn't go to Moscow thinking his fake-sourced 'info' was valid?
But then again, quite plausible, as throughout this conflict they have believed their own propaganda. Their constant projections about what Russia is experiencing are actually occurring on their side of the fence. Russia is running out of shells and missiles, and Russians have a million casualties, or the Russian economy is nose-diving. Trump & this CIA stooge are the ones who are unaware of the facts, not Putin.
For all we know he showed up for brunch at the Kremlin and they humoured him while the narrative op spun into overdrive. Nearly all of what figures in the West do is about themselves and keeping their own populations in line a little longer. It renders them incapable of real diplomacy.
I think the quote from Putin, regarding Macron was along the lines of: he shows up and tells me what I should do.
There is only one response to such behaviour and it is not printable in a higher-thought substack such as this.
It's possible at this point, this entire administration is the equivalent of a clowncar from Hell.
but I think his real reason was to pick up CIA/NATO dead. It would explain the size plane used. It's also possible he tried to get a truce, but those days are gone.
Was it the CIA that tried to murder Putin a while back when he was on the phone with Trump? Is so I am surprised he returned alive.
Pick up the dead? Maybe, but it seems to me that if that were true, someone in Moscow would have recorded a video or given witness to seeing thos bodies being loaded onto the plane. And on the other end in America, someone must have seen the bodies being unloaded.
Yes that theory has a lot of holes. In person suggests a deal was on the table. And if there were bodies picked up there would.have been a price to pay. It would require a C-17 to transport. Gold? But like you say, there would.have been some leak surely.
Could have taken some high ranking NATO pow's home, the type that would embarrass NATO if word of their capture was known. Putin is too humane imo with regards to NATO and Merc pows.
They usually keep them in cold storage near the Ukraine border and hand them over during a body exchange with Ukraine where they are then transported to Germany. Maybe exceptions are made.
You think the dead guys get to choose the route back to the USA?
Com'on Victor you aren't this dumb.
Tim, finally, gets it below. "It really depends on who finds them."
This debate is one of the most ridiculous I've seen here. I'm almost ashamed for participating. It says "something" about the participants. Not a very flattering observation.
The discussion has nothing whatsoever to do with what the dead guys wanted.
It's almost embarrassing to have to point that out.
Debates enable the participants to compare notes as to the most likely reason for an event, and to discuss why the outcomes of them were as they were, so there' is no call to denigrate any of the participants.
Lecturers frequently say "There is no such thing as a stupid question," because any question always produces an opportunity to illuminate the audience in some way - and guaranteed, if one person comes out with a stupid question, many more will have thought it too, but not said it.
The idea that individuals should only ever say anything if they can first guarantee that it will be flattering to them seems to miss the point of discussion sections altogether.
Normal procedure when finding dead US or Euro personnel; depending - once again - on who finds them; would be simply to put them into bags and await the next cadaver exchange in the local area; so if these bodies ended up in Moscow, it would indicate that a specific instruction from on high had been given so as to facilitate that.
Actually, rather than making any sort of case either way, my own initial remark was to ask for an explanation for the presence of those bodies in Moscow - and nobody responded, so presumably it wasn’t obvious.
John, do you have some kind of reading disability? No one said anything about dead guys choosing their way home. I said the bodies travel a certain route - that in no way implies the bodies are choosing that route. When someone says a river flows around a mountain, do you think they are saying the river chooses its path? Of course not, rivers don't think. Neither do dead bodies. They go where they are taken.
Possibly then, the US denials that there are US forces deployed on the front line in Ukraine had to be countered; so the Kremlin gave instructions to collect any that were found, and send them to Moscow as proof of involvement - and so JR was dispatched to collect them.
"It is not in a position to pick up dead American bodies."
Not true at all. There are dead American and other bodies left after Russian attacks on Command Centres and training bases located in parts of Ukraine controlled by Ukraine. Russians might find American bodies in areas they take over, and when they do, they ask the bodies what route they want to take home (just kidding, John!).
I recall one of the bodies discovered in Bucha after the Russians left the town behind, did just that.
He was in a black plastic bag smoking a cigarette, and so when he was asked where he wanted to go thereafter, he obliged with the requested information.
In fact, the bodies appeared on the streets three days after the Russians left.
Many had white ribbons on their arms, signifying that they supported Russia - and so they had to be "processed" by the Banderites once they re entered the town.
The white ribbons were the carry straps from the rations the RUF was handing out. Still waiting on the international investigation that the Banderan Kapo Zelenski demanded nearly four and a half years ago.
No. But one must reflect on even the penumbral appearances allowed to be drawn by the people we have allowed to be in charge. Do Lavrov or Putin for instance leave even a hint of an impression that they are making decisions based on something they saw on the internet? The impression I get from those men is that they are deeply steeped in history and the craft of power and are guiding their nation as best they can based on that accumulation of knowledge and experience. Our guy looks like he fell off a golf cart somewhere.
I'm sure 6 more immediately jumped in to continue the supply of fresh blood, organs, and other associated materials belonging to small children at various stages of their life cycles.
Imho: Far too many Umms, Errrs and Arrs in his delivery to suggest that he is in any way a competent or confident public speaker. He's certainly not in Putin's nor Lavrov's nor saintly Maria Z's league that's for sure.
No idea, but one theory I have not heard yet is he went to Moscow to admit the USA have lost and cut a deal on the end game, but talked big so that Trump could claim a win and was being tough. A cover story to allow Trump to walk. The Russians would be motivated to say little if this was the case. But as I said, no idea.
The National Security Plan intends to remove the US so we can concentrate on losing a war against Iran and finish encircling China while not being encumbered with losing a war against Russia as well. That's NATO Europe's function which it really doesn't want.
Ratcliffe is just a clueless moron, and a puppet. He isn't in control of anything of significance either. Leave things up to the USA MIC, of which the CIA is a huge part, and we will all eventually perish and disappear.
let's look at who Ratbag is, and infer onwards from that.
" ... John Ratcliffe is widely characterized as an "Israel-first" advocate due to his strong pro-Israel stance and close alignment with Israeli intelligence interests.
Critics, including a Trump official speaking to The Grayzone, allege that Ratcliffe acts as a "Mossad stenographer" on Iran, using cooked intelligence to influence Donald Trump in favor of Israeli positions. In April 2025, Ratcliffe met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Mossad Director David Barnea in Jerusalem, a relationship that AIPAC director Tommy Pigott boasted about regarding his influence over Ratcliffe. Additionally, the Jewish Daily Forward listed Ratcliffe in 2024 among "Trump’s Jewish advisors and pro-Israel cabinet," noting his history as a Texas Republican congressman and former Director of National Intelligence .... "
So it would seem probable that what he went to Moscow to do was for the terrorist state No1; not the terrorist state No.2.
Most likely scenario - asking Moscow to lean on its Iranian colleague to keep off the jews; as they are all out of missiles, and so wide open for extermination at the moment.
Some Venezuelan gold may have been shipped in the Globemaster to sweeten the deal.
Excellent piece as always. One thing though, I find it hard to believe that 90% of retail warehousing space in Ukraine could have been destroyed. It simply does not make sense even if this stratospheric number comes from the horse's mouth.
The new commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, Mikhail Drapaty, has been tasked with holding the Slaviansk-Kramatorsk agglomeration, the last stronghold of the AFU in Donbass, at any cost. Two new army groups are being created for this purpose, and the Ukrainian army’s assault units are (once again) being consolidated into the ‘commander-in-chief’s reserve’.
However, rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic won’t solve the AFU’s main problems: a shortage of personnel and the near absence of aviation and artillery. Shifting the main efforts to Donbass could lead to the crumbling of the AFU’s southern front, which is what happened last year.
The front is already unstable. As of late August, Russia’s Dnepr and East Group of Forces are advancing in seven sectors – something that Syrsky’s assault troops could only dream of. Street battles continue in Orekhovo, the AFU’s main defensive hub in the south.
In previous years, the Russian army achieved its greatest success in October-December, since towards the end of the year the quantity of assault operations finally translated into quality.
We’ll see what happens this time.
By Sergey Poletaev, information analyst and publicist, co-founder and editor of the Vatfor project.
So, the odds of Russia losing are near nonexistent.
Ukraine cannot defeat Russia,
but it can hold the line as it has done for nearly 5 years.
And the SMO turned into a war is not over yet.
Ukraine still has at least 600,000 soldiers.
The country is in ruin.
There won't be much left by the time the terms of peace are established.
The bigger questions open for debate ahead are
What are the terms of peace?
Ukraine will still stand, so would that enable NATO reinforcements to merge with existing AFU forces at some time in the future?
If that becomes the case, why didn't Russia neutralize Ukraine when it had the chance, allowing a link-up, hence the continuation of a greater war at some time in the future?
Let's face it, Ukraine has fought beyond anyone's expectations considering its much smaller size.
Russia winning was the expectation, but Ukraine put up exceptional resistance.
It won't be a great Russian victory but a very costly one, which lasted far longer than anyone expected.
A word of caution:
Russia better make sure to make stipulations clear when the peace comes, not to set itself up to face another war in the following years. There are a lot of questions left unanswered, and we won't know until a ceasefire and peace resolution are drafted.
And there it is, the mask has slipped. The ignorant little troll finally shows it's real face. It finally snapped when it's ignorance reaches peak stupidity.
LOL touched a nerve did I you little twat?
And you obviously don't know the definition of ad hominem too.
Are you sure your comments are appropriate in a discussion? Grr only pointed out that this war is not a war between Russia and Ukraine but a war between Russia and the USA and allies. One can agree or not, but
recurring to insults is not a way to defend your position. In fact you are right that Ukraine has fought remarkably well, although it is also true that she has received an immense amount of military and economic help from the West.
Last, ad hominem means something completely different.
his mask is too evident, with all that faked LOLs. A declared retired Canadian army officer but who knows. Spectacular melt down though. Proof of Ukraine REALLY losing this time? Next will be GM
The ad hominem may be distasteful, but his larger point is correct. This has never been Ukraine vs. Russia. Ukraine is clearly a proxy for NATO/CIA aggression. Over a trillion in western dollars and loads of mercenaries.
Actually, Ukraine’s western backers seriously believed that Russia’s military was decrepit and would fall quickly to NATO’s superior weapons and genius-level combat planning. That is why they were so keen to instigate the proxy war. Even now, they are confused about Russia’s refusal to believe that it is losing the war. Ratcliffe’s visit to Moscow is a perfect demonstration of that fact. He is genuinely an embarrassment to the spycraft trade.
The US MIC would be in big trouble if their buyers in the US and western vassal states actually understand that they peddle POS crap. Hence I would bet that a lot of the funding for the propaganda about how great the western wonder weapons are are funded by the MIC.
No doubt. The arms industry and their interchangeable proxies in the Defense Department are behind the constant push for more wars. And then there are the political class (e.g. Lindsay Graham) who, for reasons that are not entirely clear, are in league with them.
Why didn’t Russia neutralise while it had the chance? It’s because Putin offered going 20-25 years back, if I recall and my old mind doesn’t betray me, he invited the west at least a dozen times to talk, to work together, to negotiate, to come to an agreement concerning some sort of a security architecture in both interests, but EU and i.e, GB and the US with its many CIA’s Ratcliffe-s turned it down. There comes an end to any tolerance, although Putin has still a tiny door open, but the whole of Russia and certainly his proxy’s are firm an no more patience, all must go down and rot in hell, where they probably will live longer than 35 min.
The Russian elites fear communists more than they fear NATO missiles.
That's what it all boils down to.
Because communists already did some elite throat cutting once in the past, and may do so again, while NATO bombs and missiles have never harmed the Russian elites. None of the 27 million who died in WWII belonged to that group, and none of the now hundreds of thousands dead as a result of the SMO did either.
Why were Eastern European countries so eager to join NATO? It makes absolutely no fucking sense after all -- Russia was no threat whatsoever, while joining NATO only makes you a target for nukes. There is nothing to gain for those countries. So why the rush to join?
They did so because while there is nothing to gain for the countries, there is a lot to gain for the elites, as in the 1990s in a number of countries in the post-Soviet space communists either won or would have won had the elections been fair, and that tells us what the people actually wanted.
Russia itself would have had a communist president in 1996 had the Americans not helped Yeltsin fake the elections.
In Ukraine the communists won both parlamentary elections in the 1990s.
Etc.
But NATO's main function isn't even external aggression, it is to make sure no country within NATO ever falls to communists. To which purpose a number of mechanisms have been put into place.
So elites in the post-Soviet space immediately rushed their countries to NATO to foreclose on the possibility that communists would take power back.
Now here is the dirty little secret -- all of the post-Soviet space was gifted to the West by Russian elites. There were no real revolutions in 1989, it was all engineered under direct orders from Moscow.
But then one would expect the same motivations to exist in Moscow itself. And that is precisely the case.
The connection with the West is the mechanism that keeps the current Russian elites in power and prevents communists from taking over, which is what would happen if the connection is severed and Russia was forced to develop on its own.
Moreover, the fear of communists today is stronger in Moscow than anywhere else, because Russia is the only country that still has a strong communist party left. Sure, it's controlled opposition, but it represents a real and powerful popular sentiment within the population.
This is why Ukraine was not neutralized when that was easy, why there have been no attacks on Europe to shut down military production and supplies to Ukraine, why Ukrainian elites have not been touched, why Russia is allowed to be bombed 24/7 with no response whatsoever, etc. etc.
Just adding my conviction, there’s more much more Nazism in ex or Neo Nazis and neocons that there’s communism in the hardest of communists and also in Russia.
Twenty years ago trade and development with the West was the only game in town. We couldn't be ignored. Our control of the fiscal and commercial environment was absolute.
But now with the economic rise of China and the decadence, venality and corruption of late stage capitalism in the West, it is viable to pursue a development path that either excludes the West of reduced them to a subsidiary role.
It's a paradigm shift and many older people, like Putin and me, have been slow to see it. Hence his reluctance to close the door on Europe.
>There won't be much left by the time the terms of peace are established.
Kremlin genius at work -- let's destroy what we ourselves built and belongs to us instead of destroying the actual enemies and depriving them of the means to wage war on us.
It's fine... the stress is making the paid trolls show their true colors... liking each others' posts etc.. they are pretty worried (rightly so) about whether their paychecks will keep coming.. plus the tsunami of karma cycling their way.
I know your stance but I think it is the spirit of thousand drones at the front doing personal killing. Even if one thinks that the advances are not spread out to the 1000km front but just to 1/10 of it or 1/20, we are talking about a few kilometers each month. If people do the math they realize that this is a mere standstill.
Once again, the peak Russian tempo was in late 2024.
That temproary advantage should have been pressed to the fullest.
It wasn't. What happened was that Putin thought Trump would give him a chance to extract himself of the Ukrainian mess instead of solving the problem (perhaps thinking that their shared Chabadist bond will both trump cold hard geopolitical reality and has nothing to do with US policy towards Russia; both catastrophically incorrect delusions), and the tempo instead slowed down. So the next 18 months were not only completely wasted but time was given to the enemy to prepare, and the results are seen in the 250 km2 a month taken in 2026.
I just want you to know that the like feature doesn’t work on my nearly obsolete iPhone al it if it did your comments would have an extra one pretty much always.
I also advocate for ”Russia better make sure to make stipulations clear when the peace comes, not to set itself up to face another war in the following years.”
Here Putin should be more clear. To the West and to his own people.
Wonder if he is dubious to make room for peoples own fantasies (which can be a good motivator) or that he has no clues himself.
I always find your analysis as ”rock” in the middle of an echochamber that is growing each year. A rock more people should cling on instead of getting caught in the ruse of echoes.
It has been the same game for untold thousands of years .......... if one faces an enemy that is constantly adapting and improving, if you do not stop them, they will take you out.
It must finally be understood and accepted that the whole baroque and expensive edifice of "western" special services contains no Intelligence capacity worth mentioning.
They have degenerated into mere departments of dirty tricks, able only of doing propaganda, terrorism and surveilance in service of the financial oligarchies. The Intelligence and analysis skills were permited to atrophy to nothing. To the point that the CIA director cannot encounter his Russian counterparts as a peer.
As years go on, expect the deterioration to proceed.
Given what we know of Israeli penetration of US services, expect to discover that counter Intelligence has deteriorated significantly also...
The CIA has been a Wall Street instrument since its founding and the Establishment was still ostensibly WASP back then, but Yeah, as the neocon/zionist influence increased, things deteriorated fast.
This whole information drop based on the machinations of the MSM's propaganda machine appears to me as some kind of bleating apology for the fact that Nato are intent on paving the way for some kind of nuclear confrontation, so to speak... and if so, who will deliver the blow, or the first blow, i wonder, as Putin will of course be cognizant of the fact.
In order to deliver a nuclear attack, certain unique actions have to be taken in preparation. I'm certain Russia tracks every nuclear power for signs of such preparations and is prepared to preemptively attack if necessary.
They have to handle them with care as 60 odd year old floppys are somewhat delicate, I would think. Do they really rely on their drug-addicted caretakers to clean them? Or must they hire people from outside?
Floppy disks were still being made until very recently, stupid.
It's ironic seeing how things have changed from the days when The West laffed at the Russians for the "obsolete" vacuum tubes and seemingly-crude construction methods on the MiG-25 (all with a purpose). Now it's the Americans being mocked for sticking with "obsolete," yet bulletproof and unhackable computer technology in their nuclear deterrent.
These disks couldn't be hacked through the network as they were not connected to it, but they certainly ran the risk physically from anyone who might gain access to the site via physical presence or through a usb device being plugged into the computer. But good news - the US replaced these floppy disks with SSDs years back (I think around 2019 or 2020). Their susceptibility to be compromised was one of the reasons they were replaced.
Why call people stupid? It's rather childish, don't you think? Like an upset teen. Just correct them and move on.
Although he called me stupid, he in fact reinforced the idea I somewhat humorously adduced; ie that these discs exist in updated form, and so implicitly, continue to be used.
But as you say, a somewhat ill-tempered and unnecessary response; especially as I never actually stated that the discs are what the US relies on today to control its missile arsenal.
I worked in Russian military plant in late 90s. You don't need floppy disks to be secure. You rip off all usb ports, physically disable all buses for outside I/O and you don't connect your LAN to outside network. Couple hours job for technician per PC. That's it. You as secure as is gets. I howled when I learned that Snowden leak was USB stick.
Stop trying to pretend that floppy disks are there for being unhackable - it's merely because US MIC is greedy and incompetent to update things that really matter
I just asked my friend Mr A.I. about this. This is what he said:
"No, the U.S. military no longer uses floppy disks to control its nuclear forces. In June 2019, the Air Force completed a modernization effort for the Strategic Automated Command and Control System (SACCS), replacing the legacy 8-inch floppy disks with a "highly secure solid-state digital storage solution."
While the system still runs on older IBM Series/1 computers from the 1970s, the storage medium has been upgraded to improve message storage capacity and operator response times for critical nuclear command and control operations. This change was part of a broader overhaul of the U.S. nuclear arsenal initiated under President Barack Obama and continued under President Donald Trump"
" In June 2019, the Air Force completed a modernization effort for the Strategic Automated Command and Control System (SACCS), replacing the legacy 8-inch floppy disks with a "highly secure solid-state digital storage solution."
While the system still runs on older IBM Series/1 computers from the 1970s, the storage medium has been upgraded to improve message storage capacity and operator response times for critical nuclear command and control operations."
Is this supposed to be reassuring, that the nukes are still controlled by a fifty-year old computer?
Russia is obviously compromised, and that could indicate president Putin himself.
The west really should have taken heed of the the maxim of not poking the bear, but rather whisper sweet nothings in its ears and feed it honey daily > effing idiots
Considering the ratings I guess the author may wish to watch his back, but what do I know.
Ephesians 5:11-13 "Have no fellowship with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. For it is shameful even to speak of the things that are done by them in secret. But everything exposed by the light becomes visible, for everything that is illuminated becomes a light itself."
Because Russia in the past has always displayed an indomitable spirit, and Putin, despite his prior cordial and relaxed relation to both Hungary and Germany (whose voices have now been silenced), has in my opinion been forced into corner by the Kazars, and the Rothschild ubr rich international multi corporations who wield enormous power. China also of course, in their silent world of stealth and uber wealth. They hardly know what to do with it all...
Is there solid support for this information Simplicius, any chance it is a fabrication. I find it hard to believe anyone is that stupid, well maybe not.
I think it is a cover story for the public. Nothing new about that. Not sure why people suddenly think the CIA director's public words are the honest truth, rather than misdirection.
The lack of competent Intelligence and of information higiene dooms any effort to bridge the gap in capability with Russia and China. A data set polluted with proganda bovine excrement will yeld nothing.
I commented on the last article of my suspicion that Ratcloth's trip to Russia was more to do with Iran than Ukraine. The proceeding days has only strengthened my suspicion.
The offer was stop supporting Iran and we'll stop supporting Ukraine.
Which is why Lavrov came out with a statement that the West's modus operandi is deception.
Then a day later Iran out of the blue thanks Russia for their continued support.
The Russian leadership continues to bleat about "The Spirit of Anchorage" and act surprised to find that it was a sham, just like Minsk, Minsk-2, Istanbul, the Azov Prisoner Release Fiasco, the Odessa Grain Deal Joke, etc..
What makes you think they are going to tell the likes of us about what they really think? It's amazing how many people think that the people who run the various states in this world have some duty to broadcast their innermost thoughts to all and sundry. The Russian leadership will say whatever plays best with the Russian people and not give a shit what anyone else thinks, why should they?
I confess my ignorance of what the Laowai are or were to China, but the expression "Globesheviks" is a fantastic contribution to the understanding of the world today.
Thank you to all supporters for this temporary ascension in the "rising" column due to the recent spurt of subscribers:
https://substack.com/leaderboard/world-politics/rising
https://i.imgur.com/L1N0Zno.png
Congratulations. Your work is excellent, and that's what this recognition is based on.
Well deserved Simplicius. 10 overall is an amazing result given the extraordinary quality of Substack content. And top of the rising stars. Onward and upward.
Cheap mofos like me do support you even if we don't monetarily support you for various reasons. And even if we sometimes do criticize a little bit.
Congratulations, well deserved!
Congratulations! Reaching the #1 Substack ranking in World Politics is truly well deserved and has been earned through a mix of thoroughness, inventive writing, hard work, and a bit of humour.
I still remember with fondness your earlier post (in March 2023) on reaching the 5k subscribers milestone:
"Greetings all, I wanted to mark the milestone of reaching 5,000+ subscribers and give a big thanks to all of my supporters who made it happen, and a few blog updates.
So firstly:
Thank you!"
This was March 2023, then up to 50k in December 2025, and 63k now. I sincerely rejoice in your success.
Thank you. I think the 63k is counting the total subs from the 2nd blog as well. This one is currently at ~57,350 and slowly creeping up toward 60k at which point another milestone post shall be in order.
I miss Nightvision....
Saker retired
Anyway, how is Saker doing?
Who cares? Uber vaxtard may have "died suddenly".
Saker took that shit? Really?
Me too. I used to so enjoy his lengthy comments that were unlike any other. So wonderfully granular, complete with little TG tid-bits - -
But not to worry, we now have Simplicius, who has stretched his wings to cover ever broader horizons. The world needs good analysts more than ever, and not just in one area. After all civilizational collapse as we are seeing is a process of death by a thousand means and places.
That said, as I never fail to mention, I miss Dark Futura, if only because the future has only been darkening further. I can name only 3 blogs that approached the intellectual heights of honest - if dark - forebodings served by DF with its many valuable references, but all appear to need a break likely for similar reasons: those depths of the abyss they reveal can get too damn painful to stare at..
Simp was Nightvision :)
Oh, I know.....but still, Iike to treat everyone on the internet with the decorum they deserve...
You have a second blog?
It is currently on pause, but may return in the future. You can click my name here to see it listed.
let's go
Thx
and number 10 in overall sells. Congratulations.
Congratulations!
With fame and rise comes responsibility. Dont forget.
I’ve tried connecting recently but no luck. I was subscribed (paid) but the posts stopped arriving. No response from Substack either. Likely have to cancel the payments if I can’t reach anyone.
Did you go to Settings by clicking your icon on top right, then settings.
Then scroll down a bit to see "Subscriptions" and click on mine. There you can see "Receive emails for new posts." See if you have it "unchecked" by accident?
Also below that see it says "If you have delivery issues"--click on it and it can send you a test email to troubleshoot it.
Let me know if you try this.
Copied a couple of insightful paragraphs to Youtube, gave Sim attribution of course, hopefully helped to bring more subscribers hereto the Truth, the whole Truth and nothing but the Truth. 😀
Congratulations! Very well deserved!!!
Well Simplicius, the umpteenth congratulations to you, for the umpteenth triumph against fellow Substack competition!
However I cannot help to notice that by pinning this message, you have overshadowed my very own first post here. In that first comment, I am vociferously demanding why the intriguing latest anti-drone laser-weapon developments in Russia - as documented by themselves in an official video - were left out of the news here.
I can postulate this was done in order to centre the message on the latest anti-Starlink Electronic Warfare tool described in this article. Besides this, Simplicius might be actually planning to make the anti-drone laser the focus of a future incoming post. Perhaps behind the paywall.
Alas Simplicius, always the shrewd marketer!
Laser systems have severe limitations as developed so far. Best not to spend too much time on as yet undemonstrated claims of a particular system having broken what seem like fairly rigid laws of physics.
Precisely why I am eager to learn more about this.
If television airs a report about the laser and actually shows it in action against a drone, it means they are confident with their new gizmo.
Cannot just be a psy-op to scare the enemy, don't you think?
Frantic
The t.v. demo won't show you in detail the huge power plant necessary to deliver the power laser beam required, the exotic materials necessary for the construction of it which likely are only manufactured in China, the huge problem of the system components being subject to overheating, the need for gyro monitored stabilization systems needed to maintain the absolutely required stability when moving to track the trajectory of the target, and likely a host of other problems I haven't thought of.
But the biggest problem is that a laser system is supposed to be the long sought answer to hitting a hypersonic missile in terminal phase. Said missiles are traveling through the atmosphere at such a high speed they generate a plasma sheath of flaming gases along their outside. Those plasma sheaths can reach five thousand degrees.
That means the Laser beam has to generate well in excess of five thousand degrees temperature after it punches through the sheath to have any impact on the already white hot target. Since the missile is expected to be in an excess of critically high temperature it is necessary for hypersonic missile systems to function by having a coating that melts away in a controlled fashion. So that means the laser has to melt away cladding that is designed to melt away. It has to accelerate the melting process to a single point failure in the coating that causes eventual destruction. And it has to be done in seconds at the most.
There are a lot of physics that impose huge costs that have to be assessed in relation to the benefits. The Pac 3 Patriot missile system is a beauty on t.v. but my advice is don't buy one unless you get a hefty discount. Ditto for a laser system.
We can agree laser technology is still very far from piercing the missiles' ablative protection surfaces in milliseconds. I know the technicalities of it https://substack.com/@frantic105130/note/c-308012930?r=1lnpx8&utm_source=notes-share-action&utm_medium=web
Here though the laser will have to hit slow-moving drones made of cheap plastics and lightweight bamboo or balsawood. Gyroscopes and a basic 2-plane rotating turret for adjusting fire direction are 19th century technologies.
Energy generation remains the main problem. The laser beam loses energy quadratically with distance iirc. Perhaps seen that targets are soft and fire distances limited, energy production and cooling issues are not as big as we imagined.
Yes if you limit your expectations to pretty soft targets then is it doable. Expensive but doable. Maybe worth while on a ship where weight and cooling methods aren't such a problem.
Special smart boi alert.
I would become one of the new subscribers, if I weren't already an old one.
Gratz!
Congratulations! Here's hoping you knock Timothy Snyder off his spot!
Simps gonna steamroll him
Exceptional!!!
Simply put: you are the best. The most thorough, detailed, and linguistically capable. Bravo!
Excellent news on all counts. Not only for the ascension (may it continue) but for providing evidence that we are not alone out there, each in a personal fox hole, yearning for truth and competent analysis.
Thir pretty good at crime from what I understand...drugs, human trafficing, arms sales.
Cocaine Import Agency.
Yep.
Stole the words right out of my mouth. The CIA is the largest, most deadly, militarised drugs cartel in the world. Almost no competition - indeed, I suspect that the other cartels maintain a level of fear of the CIA.
I think the cartels work for them
I think you might be largely right.
Gary Webb enters the chat….
The CIA has armed at least one Mexican cartel that is on the public record.
Sherriff Hathaway has a lot to say about that. He was DEA, living in Mexico for many years.
When the DEA's agent Kikimara (?) was tortured and murdered there was a CIA agent in the room.
They also armed the gangs in Sth Central LA a few decades ago.
Yes, they are depressingly unprincipled :(
The murdered guy was Quique Camarena.
If you look with deeper Machiavellian cynicism, you can conclude the CIA is highly effective. : “Judge an organization by its revealed function, not its stated mission.” The CIA akin to the Hells Angels. It persists and creates revenue streams for its members.
Yes. The CIA is regarded as the international intelligence agency for the American government. But it's not. It represents the long arm of American multinational corporations across the globe.
The role and almost limitless powers of the CIA have been documented in the insightful book "The Secret Team" by L. Fletcher Prouty. It was originally published in 1974, but immediately became unavailable for two decades. The internet made such burning of books futile and it is available again.
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-secret-team-l-fletcher-prouty/1100071435?ean=9781616082840
"Like it or not, we now live in a new age of 'One World.' This is the age of global companies, of global communications and transport, of global food supply and finance and . . . just around the corner . . . global accommodation of political systems. In this sense, there are no home markets, no isolated markets and no markets outside the global network. It is time to face the fact that true national sovereignty no longer exists. We live in a world of big business, big lawyers, big bankers, even bigger moneymen and big politicians. It is the world of The Secret Team."
Thet CIA activity that historically gets little to no attention is their massive industrial spying and sabotage.
Most only focus on the political/miltary operations.
That's the point. As any war, this propaganda is aiming on the own population, and in particular on those of the vasalls. Its content is not the basis for the hegemon's strategy. Every war aims at braking the opponent's will power, and every war's tool is primarily terror against the civilian population aka war crimes. This is a standard procedure for the empire, and this propaganda prepares the ground for acceptance of open war crimes in the own population. This is already well progressed (see for example the comment of Friedrich Merz regarding Gaza - "we are glad that Israel is doing the dirty work for us"). And the trick is that re war crimes and terror against the civilian population, there is no upper limit (remember Hiroshima and Nagasaki). This is the strategy, and they don't care whether it works or not, killing is always the solution.
>When was the CIA "formidable"? The Bay of Pigs was very amateurish, and that was in 1961.
And the Maidan, the Caracas operation in January, the events in Syria in December 2024, etc., were what?
Any coups, or other destabilisation operations against thoroughly corrupt and/or broken countries is not difficult.
If you consider that Trump offered the IRGC billions of dollars as a bribe, it is plausible—and to be expected—that millions or tens of millions sufficed in Syria or Venezuela... True, Ukraine was more expensive—5 billion—and I assume that was just the official figure.
Its a self-contradiction grand style.
And its because Simplicius is to young to have experienced the CIA of the 60ties, the 70ties and probably also during the 90ties.
How old is Simplicius?
So speaks a 'father figure' to a younger one, Mikey Johnson?
Also about responsibilities of fame...
I have followed him from the start and guessed before, he was under 50 and above 40. But during these years I have also noted his lack of humbleness, his desire to prove he is right and sometimes the absence of giving credits to others. Typical trace of younger people.
What has convinced me that he is much, much younger is his lack of knowledge of geopolitical matters. He can dissect and renounce what others write and even make fun of them with his eloquent writings. He takes what OTHER writes but selldom comes up with novel thinking himself.
Its not bad to be young. Look at AMK Mapping I wrote about in one comment a week ago.
And I hope Simplicius will learn something from old blokes as me.
What an ignorant thing to say. America has brought us much of what we have in the West – and much of what the world uses today. How can you say "Americans never have had and never will have any statecraft" when the whole world speaks their language, dresses like them, uses their technology, and enjoys their entertainment?
The war between Ukraine and Russia has been brought to you by them. They've closed the Strait of Hormuz and made almost every product more expensive for people around the world. They've seized one of the biggest oil producers by abducting their leader. And that's just the last couple of years.
Agree with the gist of this, if not every detail. Too many get carried away with knee-jerk cheerleading for one side and knee-jerk denigration of the other side. On any subject that comes up. The MSM caters to this low instinct, and so do many in the "alt media".
"when the whole world speaks their language"
Amazing. Now the US supremacist, exceptional fanbois lay claim to the English language? (even in it's simplified and dumbed down form).
"dresses like them"
WTF?
"uses their technology"
Along with technology from literally anywhere and everywhere, including long gone civilisations.
"and enjoys their entertainment"
LOL, no. The only entertaining entertainment is the political shit show/clown show.
Where is the video with the Russian anti-drone pinkish laser in this report that seems also covering other new weapons (Starlink jammer), Simplicius?
Here, for all to see and judge for yourselves https://old.bitchute.com/video/1AtGr9heqfSR/
From 1991?
don't you know who December1991 is? One of the greatest Bitchuters. Similar to how Simplicius is one hell of a Substacker.
Thank you, I thought it was the date of the video!
Same person what operates both accounts.
That's a combat laser for shooting down drones. Completely different system and task.
I wrote
> "Where is the video with the Russian anti-drone pinkish laser in this report that seems also covering other new weapons (Starlink jammer)"
"that" refers to report.
Obviously the anti-drone pinkish laser is a weapon itself, and cannot 'cover other new weapons'. Simplicius' report does that
first.. from youngstown ohio
:)
Thoughtful and interesting piece. Why I subscribe. One does not read it elsewhere. Warfare has not only changed but war industry as well. Also depressing to consider the possibility that the head of our intelligence agency travelled all that way, with all that drama to deliver a message taken apparently out of a comic book.
Do you really believe that is what Ratcliffe went to Moscow to say?
Nope. It doesn't pass the credibility test.
The whole US government doesn't pass the credibility test. It's an insane circus. The lunatics have taken over the asylum. There is no more America, moving forward and evolving into greatness. Our Founding Father's creation and their intentions have been totally decimated. We have zero leaders, and there isn't anyone who cares about "we the people" or the future of this country. We are on a runaway train.
Aelwed makes a good point.
Looking for logical, rational explanations is so last century!
Nice summary 👍
Seriously, the top western elites are just inbred imbeciles by this point, and each day we see more evidence from their pronounced policies. So why is it difficult to believe that Ratcliffe wouldn't go to Moscow thinking his fake-sourced 'info' was valid?
Well it is hard to believe anyone in that level of govt. could be so stupid...not impossible to believe, just difficult.
But then again, quite plausible, as throughout this conflict they have believed their own propaganda. Their constant projections about what Russia is experiencing are actually occurring on their side of the fence. Russia is running out of shells and missiles, and Russians have a million casualties, or the Russian economy is nose-diving. Trump & this CIA stooge are the ones who are unaware of the facts, not Putin.
Why is that hard to believe? What evidence of competency is there from any Western leaders?
For all we know he showed up for brunch at the Kremlin and they humoured him while the narrative op spun into overdrive. Nearly all of what figures in the West do is about themselves and keeping their own populations in line a little longer. It renders them incapable of real diplomacy.
I think the quote from Putin, regarding Macron was along the lines of: he shows up and tells me what I should do.
There is only one response to such behaviour and it is not printable in a higher-thought substack such as this.
Monkey see, monkey do.
Macron behaves like that because it is what his "wife" does to him - although she emphasizes her demands of him with a sharp slap to the gills.
Hence his predilection to wear his sunglasses at all times when out and about.
It's possible at this point, this entire administration is the equivalent of a clowncar from Hell.
but I think his real reason was to pick up CIA/NATO dead. It would explain the size plane used. It's also possible he tried to get a truce, but those days are gone.
Was it the CIA that tried to murder Putin a while back when he was on the phone with Trump? Is so I am surprised he returned alive.
The Madministration.
Got a certain kind of Satanic charm all its own.
Pick up the dead? Maybe, but it seems to me that if that were true, someone in Moscow would have recorded a video or given witness to seeing thos bodies being loaded onto the plane. And on the other end in America, someone must have seen the bodies being unloaded.
Not a peep on either end about that.
Yes that theory has a lot of holes. In person suggests a deal was on the table. And if there were bodies picked up there would.have been a price to pay. It would require a C-17 to transport. Gold? But like you say, there would.have been some leak surely.
He took a c 17 not his own jet.
Besides, it's not the CIA director's job to fly to Moscow to pick up dead bodies. He will gladly leave this unpleasant task to others, I would think.
He may have been dropping off bodies as well as collecting? Not ordinary soldiers, this would have to be people of rank, or prestige.
Could have taken some high ranking NATO pow's home, the type that would embarrass NATO if word of their capture was known. Putin is too humane imo with regards to NATO and Merc pows.
Somebody can maybe explain why the dead from Ukraine would be sent east to Moscow for onward movement to the US.
Would make no sense whatsoever.
Dead will be sent to Poland, and possibly on to Ramstein for repatriation.
Commodore Jermy is the originator of this silly idea.
Exactly. Although I'm not sure about the route secretive CIA dead would take, but certainly not through Moscow I would think.
My own guess would be Azerbaijan - Khazakstan - Tehran - tel Aviv - Qom - Chipping Sodbury - NYC - Arlington.
That's a humorously cynical route to take, but sure.
🤣
It really depends on who finds them.
If the Russians, then they might well send them to Moscow instead of keeping them in fridges and exchanging them for Russian dead at some point.
For example, Russian troops might overrun an underground base which an Iskander had visited earlier, and buried everybody alive in the rubble.
If the Ukrainians, then presumably to Europe and thence to the US.
They usually keep them in cold storage near the Ukraine border and hand them over during a body exchange with Ukraine where they are then transported to Germany. Maybe exceptions are made.
JEEZZUS...
You think the dead guys get to choose the route back to the USA?
Com'on Victor you aren't this dumb.
Tim, finally, gets it below. "It really depends on who finds them."
This debate is one of the most ridiculous I've seen here. I'm almost ashamed for participating. It says "something" about the participants. Not a very flattering observation.
The discussion has nothing whatsoever to do with what the dead guys wanted.
It's almost embarrassing to have to point that out.
Debates enable the participants to compare notes as to the most likely reason for an event, and to discuss why the outcomes of them were as they were, so there' is no call to denigrate any of the participants.
Lecturers frequently say "There is no such thing as a stupid question," because any question always produces an opportunity to illuminate the audience in some way - and guaranteed, if one person comes out with a stupid question, many more will have thought it too, but not said it.
The idea that individuals should only ever say anything if they can first guarantee that it will be flattering to them seems to miss the point of discussion sections altogether.
Normal procedure when finding dead US or Euro personnel; depending - once again - on who finds them; would be simply to put them into bags and await the next cadaver exchange in the local area; so if these bodies ended up in Moscow, it would indicate that a specific instruction from on high had been given so as to facilitate that.
Actually, rather than making any sort of case either way, my own initial remark was to ask for an explanation for the presence of those bodies in Moscow - and nobody responded, so presumably it wasn’t obvious.
John, do you have some kind of reading disability? No one said anything about dead guys choosing their way home. I said the bodies travel a certain route - that in no way implies the bodies are choosing that route. When someone says a river flows around a mountain, do you think they are saying the river chooses its path? Of course not, rivers don't think. Neither do dead bodies. They go where they are taken.
It's not a dumb conversation.
Because the Russians picked them up. Ukraine is losing. It is not in a position to pick up dead American bodies.
Add to that, the USA does not acknowledge that there are Americans deployed to help the Ukrainian forces.
Maybe that missing US general from Mariopol was in the mix.
Possibly then, the US denials that there are US forces deployed on the front line in Ukraine had to be countered; so the Kremlin gave instructions to collect any that were found, and send them to Moscow as proof of involvement - and so JR was dispatched to collect them.
"It is not in a position to pick up dead American bodies."
Not true at all. There are dead American and other bodies left after Russian attacks on Command Centres and training bases located in parts of Ukraine controlled by Ukraine. Russians might find American bodies in areas they take over, and when they do, they ask the bodies what route they want to take home (just kidding, John!).
I recall one of the bodies discovered in Bucha after the Russians left the town behind, did just that.
He was in a black plastic bag smoking a cigarette, and so when he was asked where he wanted to go thereafter, he obliged with the requested information.
Because Russia recovered the bodies, not the Banderans.
In fact, the bodies appeared on the streets three days after the Russians left.
Many had white ribbons on their arms, signifying that they supported Russia - and so they had to be "processed" by the Banderites once they re entered the town.
The white ribbons were the carry straps from the rations the RUF was handing out. Still waiting on the international investigation that the Banderan Kapo Zelenski demanded nearly four and a half years ago.
No. But one must reflect on even the penumbral appearances allowed to be drawn by the people we have allowed to be in charge. Do Lavrov or Putin for instance leave even a hint of an impression that they are making decisions based on something they saw on the internet? The impression I get from those men is that they are deeply steeped in history and the craft of power and are guiding their nation as best they can based on that accumulation of knowledge and experience. Our guy looks like he fell off a golf cart somewhere.
There is a massive fall-off in western strategic thinking now Epstein is no longer amongst us.
I'm sure 6 more immediately jumped in to continue the supply of fresh blood, organs, and other associated materials belonging to small children at various stages of their life cycles.
BrainDrain by any other name would be just as stoopid
Imho: Far too many Umms, Errrs and Arrs in his delivery to suggest that he is in any way a competent or confident public speaker. He's certainly not in Putin's nor Lavrov's nor saintly Maria Z's league that's for sure.
Ahh .... Maria ....
No idea, but one theory I have not heard yet is he went to Moscow to admit the USA have lost and cut a deal on the end game, but talked big so that Trump could claim a win and was being tough. A cover story to allow Trump to walk. The Russians would be motivated to say little if this was the case. But as I said, no idea.
That's what I said!
:-) Great minds think alike!! Apologies, for not giving you credit, but in my defence I had not read your comment!!
The National Security Plan intends to remove the US so we can concentrate on losing a war against Iran and finish encircling China while not being encumbered with losing a war against Russia as well. That's NATO Europe's function which it really doesn't want.
To inform the Russian officials about Russian loses in the war?
este Simplicio me alucina con su inocencia, fingida o real. Que todavia cite a fuentes como el NYT o el WSP como creíbles lo baja de categoría.
Ratcliffe is just a clueless moron, and a puppet. He isn't in control of anything of significance either. Leave things up to the USA MIC, of which the CIA is a huge part, and we will all eventually perish and disappear.
let's look at who Ratbag is, and infer onwards from that.
" ... John Ratcliffe is widely characterized as an "Israel-first" advocate due to his strong pro-Israel stance and close alignment with Israeli intelligence interests.
Critics, including a Trump official speaking to The Grayzone, allege that Ratcliffe acts as a "Mossad stenographer" on Iran, using cooked intelligence to influence Donald Trump in favor of Israeli positions. In April 2025, Ratcliffe met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Mossad Director David Barnea in Jerusalem, a relationship that AIPAC director Tommy Pigott boasted about regarding his influence over Ratcliffe. Additionally, the Jewish Daily Forward listed Ratcliffe in 2024 among "Trump’s Jewish advisors and pro-Israel cabinet," noting his history as a Texas Republican congressman and former Director of National Intelligence .... "
So it would seem probable that what he went to Moscow to do was for the terrorist state No1; not the terrorist state No.2.
Most likely scenario - asking Moscow to lean on its Iranian colleague to keep off the jews; as they are all out of missiles, and so wide open for extermination at the moment.
Some Venezuelan gold may have been shipped in the Globemaster to sweeten the deal.
Exactly. Its not rational and effective to use rumours in an article.
First rule of war - know your enemy and know yourself.
The West masters neither.
Excellent piece as always. One thing though, I find it hard to believe that 90% of retail warehousing space in Ukraine could have been destroyed. It simply does not make sense even if this stratospheric number comes from the horse's mouth.
Think the 90%0number is for Kiev and Lviv.
The new commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, Mikhail Drapaty, has been tasked with holding the Slaviansk-Kramatorsk agglomeration, the last stronghold of the AFU in Donbass, at any cost. Two new army groups are being created for this purpose, and the Ukrainian army’s assault units are (once again) being consolidated into the ‘commander-in-chief’s reserve’.
However, rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic won’t solve the AFU’s main problems: a shortage of personnel and the near absence of aviation and artillery. Shifting the main efforts to Donbass could lead to the crumbling of the AFU’s southern front, which is what happened last year.
The front is already unstable. As of late August, Russia’s Dnepr and East Group of Forces are advancing in seven sectors – something that Syrsky’s assault troops could only dream of. Street battles continue in Orekhovo, the AFU’s main defensive hub in the south.
In previous years, the Russian army achieved its greatest success in October-December, since towards the end of the year the quantity of assault operations finally translated into quality.
We’ll see what happens this time.
By Sergey Poletaev, information analyst and publicist, co-founder and editor of the Vatfor project.
The comic book is an American invention. A media born from the Depression years of the 1930s.
Exactly. But it is yet another small sign of the times we are living in. A reset is much needed. Probably a violent one.
Russia is at least six times bigger than Ukraine.
So, the odds of Russia losing are near nonexistent.
Ukraine cannot defeat Russia,
but it can hold the line as it has done for nearly 5 years.
And the SMO turned into a war is not over yet.
Ukraine still has at least 600,000 soldiers.
The country is in ruin.
There won't be much left by the time the terms of peace are established.
The bigger questions open for debate ahead are
What are the terms of peace?
Ukraine will still stand, so would that enable NATO reinforcements to merge with existing AFU forces at some time in the future?
If that becomes the case, why didn't Russia neutralize Ukraine when it had the chance, allowing a link-up, hence the continuation of a greater war at some time in the future?
Let's face it, Ukraine has fought beyond anyone's expectations considering its much smaller size.
Russia winning was the expectation, but Ukraine put up exceptional resistance.
It won't be a great Russian victory but a very costly one, which lasted far longer than anyone expected.
A word of caution:
Russia better make sure to make stipulations clear when the peace comes, not to set itself up to face another war in the following years. There are a lot of questions left unanswered, and we won't know until a ceasefire and peace resolution are drafted.
When?
Who knows.
FFS it is NATO and other quisling countries, 53 in total IIRC. Ukraine is just the staging ground.
Ukraine on it's own would not have even been able to start.
You have learned nothing.
Listen, you fucking idiot weasel, stay the fuck away from me with your endless ad hominems. Fuck off, idiot.
And there it is, the mask has slipped. The ignorant little troll finally shows it's real face. It finally snapped when it's ignorance reaches peak stupidity.
LOL touched a nerve did I you little twat?
And you obviously don't know the definition of ad hominem too.
Get lost, Simpleton.
You've been allowed to ad hominem people and get away with it.
Get the fuck out of my face, bitch.
LOL Make me, you simple minded little pussy.
Triggered bitch is annoyed it's ignorance and lack of knowledge is questioned.
Children do that. Retards do that.
And so does Denis the menace. Bwah, sook, sob, my uneducated opinions are challenged so I'll throw my shit out of the pram.
Well, one way to make you disappear is to block you.
Abracadabra, make the bitch vanish.
Uno, dei, trei, poof.
...and she's gone. 😂
Are you sure your comments are appropriate in a discussion? Grr only pointed out that this war is not a war between Russia and Ukraine but a war between Russia and the USA and allies. One can agree or not, but
recurring to insults is not a way to defend your position. In fact you are right that Ukraine has fought remarkably well, although it is also true that she has received an immense amount of military and economic help from the West.
Last, ad hominem means something completely different.
Luis. Blessed are the peace-makers, sir. 👍👍
That's pretty hard core Denis.
He threw his toys out of the pram. Couldn't handle being corrected.
What a nightmare he must have been for his parents.
I always thought that his "nice guy" persona would one day fall apart.
Yeah, I even commented on once having a friend like him (until the ignorance became intolerable), thick as a brick but pleasant enough.
If you look at my OP it was a mild rebuttal of his silly statements. And he went ballistic LOL. Andthen accused me of ad hominems.
Poor me, I'm blocked. Allegedly.
his mask is too evident, with all that faked LOLs. A declared retired Canadian army officer but who knows. Spectacular melt down though. Proof of Ukraine REALLY losing this time? Next will be GM
Denis, you're a rude fishwife. Gossip magazines are your thing.
The ad hominem may be distasteful, but his larger point is correct. This has never been Ukraine vs. Russia. Ukraine is clearly a proxy for NATO/CIA aggression. Over a trillion in western dollars and loads of mercenaries.
Ahem, there were no ad hominems from me in my post. See above, they came after Denis hurled his,
You are correct. That was pretty mild.
You seem like a very stable and well functioning individual
Wow, what an explosive butthurt! Massive detonation!
The secondaries are going to be legendary!
Try sitting on a bag of frozen vegetables it will bring the swelling down
"... won't be a great Russian victory but a very costly one, which lasted far longer than anyone expected."
Denis is a one trick pony. Anyone who expects the battle for a new world order to be less than a couple of decades hasn't been watching.
Actually, Ukraine’s western backers seriously believed that Russia’s military was decrepit and would fall quickly to NATO’s superior weapons and genius-level combat planning. That is why they were so keen to instigate the proxy war. Even now, they are confused about Russia’s refusal to believe that it is losing the war. Ratcliffe’s visit to Moscow is a perfect demonstration of that fact. He is genuinely an embarrassment to the spycraft trade.
The US MIC would be in big trouble if their buyers in the US and western vassal states actually understand that they peddle POS crap. Hence I would bet that a lot of the funding for the propaganda about how great the western wonder weapons are are funded by the MIC.
No doubt. The arms industry and their interchangeable proxies in the Defense Department are behind the constant push for more wars. And then there are the political class (e.g. Lindsay Graham) who, for reasons that are not entirely clear, are in league with them.
Why didn’t Russia neutralise while it had the chance? It’s because Putin offered going 20-25 years back, if I recall and my old mind doesn’t betray me, he invited the west at least a dozen times to talk, to work together, to negotiate, to come to an agreement concerning some sort of a security architecture in both interests, but EU and i.e, GB and the US with its many CIA’s Ratcliffe-s turned it down. There comes an end to any tolerance, although Putin has still a tiny door open, but the whole of Russia and certainly his proxy’s are firm an no more patience, all must go down and rot in hell, where they probably will live longer than 35 min.
but in eternity.
The Russian elites fear communists more than they fear NATO missiles.
That's what it all boils down to.
Because communists already did some elite throat cutting once in the past, and may do so again, while NATO bombs and missiles have never harmed the Russian elites. None of the 27 million who died in WWII belonged to that group, and none of the now hundreds of thousands dead as a result of the SMO did either.
Why were Eastern European countries so eager to join NATO? It makes absolutely no fucking sense after all -- Russia was no threat whatsoever, while joining NATO only makes you a target for nukes. There is nothing to gain for those countries. So why the rush to join?
They did so because while there is nothing to gain for the countries, there is a lot to gain for the elites, as in the 1990s in a number of countries in the post-Soviet space communists either won or would have won had the elections been fair, and that tells us what the people actually wanted.
Russia itself would have had a communist president in 1996 had the Americans not helped Yeltsin fake the elections.
In Ukraine the communists won both parlamentary elections in the 1990s.
Etc.
But NATO's main function isn't even external aggression, it is to make sure no country within NATO ever falls to communists. To which purpose a number of mechanisms have been put into place.
So elites in the post-Soviet space immediately rushed their countries to NATO to foreclose on the possibility that communists would take power back.
Now here is the dirty little secret -- all of the post-Soviet space was gifted to the West by Russian elites. There were no real revolutions in 1989, it was all engineered under direct orders from Moscow.
But then one would expect the same motivations to exist in Moscow itself. And that is precisely the case.
The connection with the West is the mechanism that keeps the current Russian elites in power and prevents communists from taking over, which is what would happen if the connection is severed and Russia was forced to develop on its own.
Moreover, the fear of communists today is stronger in Moscow than anywhere else, because Russia is the only country that still has a strong communist party left. Sure, it's controlled opposition, but it represents a real and powerful popular sentiment within the population.
This is why Ukraine was not neutralized when that was easy, why there have been no attacks on Europe to shut down military production and supplies to Ukraine, why Ukrainian elites have not been touched, why Russia is allowed to be bombed 24/7 with no response whatsoever, etc. etc.
For that simple and most despicable of reasons.
You should know even better than me that the Russian elite is bribed, if not they would all have been killed and that’s what the CIA is so good in.
Just adding my conviction, there’s more much more Nazism in ex or Neo Nazis and neocons that there’s communism in the hardest of communists and also in Russia.
Twenty years ago trade and development with the West was the only game in town. We couldn't be ignored. Our control of the fiscal and commercial environment was absolute.
But now with the economic rise of China and the decadence, venality and corruption of late stage capitalism in the West, it is viable to pursue a development path that either excludes the West of reduced them to a subsidiary role.
It's a paradigm shift and many older people, like Putin and me, have been slow to see it. Hence his reluctance to close the door on Europe.
Denis, you're a rude fishwife. Gossip magazines are your thing.
" ... What are the terms of peace? ... "
Denazification, demilitarization, neutrality.
Why do you need to ask.
Because the horse isn't quite dead?
>The country is in ruin.
>There won't be much left by the time the terms of peace are established.
Kremlin genius at work -- let's destroy what we ourselves built and belongs to us instead of destroying the actual enemies and depriving them of the means to wage war on us.
That's a good point, GM.
Retard.
Personal Bias, full of cant.
Russia fighting the whole of the Zionist-controlled Collective Waste, using Ukrainians as meat.
Are you mearly a creative rhetoric troll?
It's fine... the stress is making the paid trolls show their true colors... liking each others' posts etc.. they are pretty worried (rightly so) about whether their paychecks will keep coming.. plus the tsunami of karma cycling their way.
"liking each others' posts " LOL cute isn't it? They are in an echo chamber of delusion and ignorance.
Yes. Makes you wonder. Is it ”liberating” they are doing in every village/city or ”debilitating”?
They're not even doing much liberating these days.
The numbers from DIVGEN came out for August, and it's even worse than I thought. Here are their numbers for the last year and a half:
March 2025 -- 635 km2
April 2025 -- 370 km2
May 2025 -- 609 km2
June 2025 -- 610 km2
July 2025 -- 487 km2
August 2025 -- 532 km2
September 2025 -- 521 km2
October 2025 -- 546 km2
November 2025 -- 750 km2
December 2025 -- 542 km2
January 2026 -- 470 km2
February 2026 -- 363 km2
March 2026 -- 211 km2
April 2026 -- 212 km2
May 2026 -- 232 km2
June 2026 -- 373 km2
July 2026 -- 574 km2
August 2026 -- 274 km2
Notice what happened in 2026?
And 2025 was already a decrease relative to the second half of 2024.
July gave some hope that the trend would soon reverse back to positive for Russia, but no. Even the advance in northeastern Kharkov stalled.
That is the result of the Spirit of Anchorage...
I know your stance but I think it is the spirit of thousand drones at the front doing personal killing. Even if one thinks that the advances are not spread out to the 1000km front but just to 1/10 of it or 1/20, we are talking about a few kilometers each month. If people do the math they realize that this is a mere standstill.
Once again, the peak Russian tempo was in late 2024.
That temproary advantage should have been pressed to the fullest.
It wasn't. What happened was that Putin thought Trump would give him a chance to extract himself of the Ukrainian mess instead of solving the problem (perhaps thinking that their shared Chabadist bond will both trump cold hard geopolitical reality and has nothing to do with US policy towards Russia; both catastrophically incorrect delusions), and the tempo instead slowed down. So the next 18 months were not only completely wasted but time was given to the enemy to prepare, and the results are seen in the 250 km2 a month taken in 2026.
Agree, they should have put in 6th gear BEFORE Trumpie came to power.
Now they have to wait until his gone…
I just want you to know that the like feature doesn’t work on my nearly obsolete iPhone al it if it did your comments would have an extra one pretty much always.
Thanks :)
I really like your writing Denis!
Like a wise man from the past.
I also advocate for ”Russia better make sure to make stipulations clear when the peace comes, not to set itself up to face another war in the following years.”
Here Putin should be more clear. To the West and to his own people.
Wonder if he is dubious to make room for peoples own fantasies (which can be a good motivator) or that he has no clues himself.
I always find your analysis as ”rock” in the middle of an echochamber that is growing each year. A rock more people should cling on instead of getting caught in the ruse of echoes.
Denis mate, if Russia was only fighting Ukraine there would have been a peace treaty five years ago.
Russia is fighting NATO. And frankly NATO has under-performed.
Don't you agree?
600,000 soldiers still? Seriously?
The most likely includes the age 18-24 cohort what haven't been kidna...err... conscripted yet.
A very good perspective Simplicius, thank you.
It has been the same game for untold thousands of years .......... if one faces an enemy that is constantly adapting and improving, if you do not stop them, they will take you out.
I wish a good week to all.
I would like to add that underestimating Russia is in the European DNA. Even after Russia visiting Paris or Berlin in the past.
If you look at the development of this country from 1990 to now, it is a unparalleled achievement.
In the same period every country west of the Elbe river experience massive declines in literally all fields.
Spot on EI.
It must finally be understood and accepted that the whole baroque and expensive edifice of "western" special services contains no Intelligence capacity worth mentioning.
They have degenerated into mere departments of dirty tricks, able only of doing propaganda, terrorism and surveilance in service of the financial oligarchies. The Intelligence and analysis skills were permited to atrophy to nothing. To the point that the CIA director cannot encounter his Russian counterparts as a peer.
As years go on, expect the deterioration to proceed.
Given what we know of Israeli penetration of US services, expect to discover that counter Intelligence has deteriorated significantly also...
It genuinely is the baleful influence of the Zionists that has destroyed Western Intelligence Agencies.
The CIA has been a Wall Street instrument since its founding and the Establishment was still ostensibly WASP back then, but Yeah, as the neocon/zionist influence increased, things deteriorated fast.
This whole information drop based on the machinations of the MSM's propaganda machine appears to me as some kind of bleating apology for the fact that Nato are intent on paving the way for some kind of nuclear confrontation, so to speak... and if so, who will deliver the blow, or the first blow, i wonder, as Putin will of course be cognizant of the fact.
In order to deliver a nuclear attack, certain unique actions have to be taken in preparation. I'm certain Russia tracks every nuclear power for signs of such preparations and is prepared to preemptively attack if necessary.
The US is polishing its floppy discs as we speak.
They have to handle them with care as 60 odd year old floppys are somewhat delicate, I would think. Do they really rely on their drug-addicted caretakers to clean them? Or must they hire people from outside?
A lot of new DEI staff have been hired, so we can assume a huge increase in competence.
Floppy disks were still being made until very recently, stupid.
It's ironic seeing how things have changed from the days when The West laffed at the Russians for the "obsolete" vacuum tubes and seemingly-crude construction methods on the MiG-25 (all with a purpose). Now it's the Americans being mocked for sticking with "obsolete," yet bulletproof and unhackable computer technology in their nuclear deterrent.
Who was mocking the US, stupid?
Certainly not I.
These disks couldn't be hacked through the network as they were not connected to it, but they certainly ran the risk physically from anyone who might gain access to the site via physical presence or through a usb device being plugged into the computer. But good news - the US replaced these floppy disks with SSDs years back (I think around 2019 or 2020). Their susceptibility to be compromised was one of the reasons they were replaced.
Why call people stupid? It's rather childish, don't you think? Like an upset teen. Just correct them and move on.
Although he called me stupid, he in fact reinforced the idea I somewhat humorously adduced; ie that these discs exist in updated form, and so implicitly, continue to be used.
But as you say, a somewhat ill-tempered and unnecessary response; especially as I never actually stated that the discs are what the US relies on today to control its missile arsenal.
I worked in Russian military plant in late 90s. You don't need floppy disks to be secure. You rip off all usb ports, physically disable all buses for outside I/O and you don't connect your LAN to outside network. Couple hours job for technician per PC. That's it. You as secure as is gets. I howled when I learned that Snowden leak was USB stick.
Stop trying to pretend that floppy disks are there for being unhackable - it's merely because US MIC is greedy and incompetent to update things that really matter
Can't remember where I read it.. but the Pentagram maintains a factory so that they can continue to have floppy discs.
Yep.
It's in Bangladesh.
I just asked my friend Mr A.I. about this. This is what he said:
"No, the U.S. military no longer uses floppy disks to control its nuclear forces. In June 2019, the Air Force completed a modernization effort for the Strategic Automated Command and Control System (SACCS), replacing the legacy 8-inch floppy disks with a "highly secure solid-state digital storage solution."
While the system still runs on older IBM Series/1 computers from the 1970s, the storage medium has been upgraded to improve message storage capacity and operator response times for critical nuclear command and control operations. This change was part of a broader overhaul of the U.S. nuclear arsenal initiated under President Barack Obama and continued under President Donald Trump"
It's heartbreaking to witness in real time the deliberate deception that is being foisted on innocent children by these AI assistants, isn't it?
I wish the government could just introduce legislation to keep us all safe.
" In June 2019, the Air Force completed a modernization effort for the Strategic Automated Command and Control System (SACCS), replacing the legacy 8-inch floppy disks with a "highly secure solid-state digital storage solution."
While the system still runs on older IBM Series/1 computers from the 1970s, the storage medium has been upgraded to improve message storage capacity and operator response times for critical nuclear command and control operations."
Is this supposed to be reassuring, that the nukes are still controlled by a fifty-year old computer?
Both Russia and the West are understandably horrified at the prospect of a nuclear confrontation.
Russia is obviously compromised, and that could indicate president Putin himself.
The west really should have taken heed of the the maxim of not poking the bear, but rather whisper sweet nothings in its ears and feed it honey daily > effing idiots
Considering the ratings I guess the author may wish to watch his back, but what do I know.
Ephesians 5:11-13 "Have no fellowship with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. For it is shameful even to speak of the things that are done by them in secret. But everything exposed by the light becomes visible, for everything that is illuminated becomes a light itself."
"Russia is obviously compromised, and that could indicate president Putin himself."
Do tell.
Because Russia in the past has always displayed an indomitable spirit, and Putin, despite his prior cordial and relaxed relation to both Hungary and Germany (whose voices have now been silenced), has in my opinion been forced into corner by the Kazars, and the Rothschild ubr rich international multi corporations who wield enormous power. China also of course, in their silent world of stealth and uber wealth. They hardly know what to do with it all...
https://edition.cnn.com/2026/02/18/china/china-humanoid-robots-new-year-gala-intl-hnk
They'w no exactly wrestling here, but you get the idea, the best links are on Instagram, I'll find a vid later.
Dude is fighting coalition of 50+ coubtries. That is some spirit to me.
Dude also kicked Rotschilds out of Rus if I am not mistaken.
One of the Rotschilds was in Epstein emails talking about benefits Maidan would bring.
Forgot her name.
IIRC Ariane de Rothschild, theCEO of Swiss private bank Edmond de Rothschild
Everyone is, except GM who believes it has already happened.
Great work! Thanks!
Is there solid support for this information Simplicius, any chance it is a fabrication. I find it hard to believe anyone is that stupid, well maybe not.
I think it is a cover story for the public. Nothing new about that. Not sure why people suddenly think the CIA director's public words are the honest truth, rather than misdirection.
The lack of competent Intelligence and of information higiene dooms any effort to bridge the gap in capability with Russia and China. A data set polluted with proganda bovine excrement will yeld nothing.
I commented on the last article of my suspicion that Ratcloth's trip to Russia was more to do with Iran than Ukraine. The proceeding days has only strengthened my suspicion.
The offer was stop supporting Iran and we'll stop supporting Ukraine.
Which is why Lavrov came out with a statement that the West's modus operandi is deception.
Then a day later Iran out of the blue thanks Russia for their continued support.
So the answer was No.
I'm not convinced that anybody inside Russia believes a word of any US utterance.
They know that "We'll stop supporting Ukraine" means "Until it's safe to start again," ie, once we've destroyed Iran.
Cope harder, Ratty.
A credible supposition.
Most probably the idea was to evaluate the possibility of a comprehensive trade off, Ukraine, Iran, economic relations, etc.
The Russians remembered the failure of the Alaska process and refused to be drawn into a new edition of the same.
The Russian leadership continues to bleat about "The Spirit of Anchorage" and act surprised to find that it was a sham, just like Minsk, Minsk-2, Istanbul, the Azov Prisoner Release Fiasco, the Odessa Grain Deal Joke, etc..
What makes you think they are going to tell the likes of us about what they really think? It's amazing how many people think that the people who run the various states in this world have some duty to broadcast their innermost thoughts to all and sundry. The Russian leadership will say whatever plays best with the Russian people and not give a shit what anyone else thinks, why should they?
Fine, watch what the Russian leadership does, which is - getting suckerpunched over and over while looking for a way out.
Please give a link to someone getting punched.
You've never heard of Operation Spiderweb? The sinking of the Moskva? Etc.?
Superb.
As were the Bolsheviks to Russia,
Are the Laowai still to China,
And the Globesheviks to us All.
I confess my ignorance of what the Laowai are or were to China, but the expression "Globesheviks" is a fantastic contribution to the understanding of the world today.
Congratulations.
😁
Merci!
Globalists is far too non-specific and non-threatening, n'est-ce pas?
Laowai is the Chinese term for Foreigners.
They had a certain cadre come initiate Communism there,
They haven't quite left yet, in fact,
They've actually had a presence there for a thousand years.